Locked In with Ian Bick - Ex-Heroin Addict on How He Became a Self-Made Millionaire | Craig Gallagher

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Craig Gallagher opens up about his years addicted to heroin, the lowest moments he faced, and how he turned his life around against the odds. #HeroinAddiction #RecoveryJourney #SelfMadeSuccess #RedemptionStory #TrueCrime #OvercomingStruggles #SuccessAgainstOdds #lifechange Connect with Craig Gallagher: Website: http://www.lightningmechanicalservice.com/ Hosted, Executive Produced & Edited By Ian Bick: https://www.instagram.com/ian_bick/?hl=en https://ianbick.com/ Presented by Tyson 2.0 & Wooooo Energy: https://tyson20.com/ https://woooooenergy.com/ Buy Merch: https://convictclothing.net/collections/convict-clothing-x-ian-bick Timestamps: 00:00:00 Craig's Journey: From Recovery to Success 00:10:06 A Life of Transformation: From Past Decisions to Present Fulfillment 00:12:37 Early Experiences with Alcohol 00:19:06 From Addiction Despair to Seeking Rehab 00:25:52 From Courtroom to Family: Meeting My First Wife 00:32:49 Reflecting on Influential People in My Life 00:38:42 Navigating Co-Parenting with an Ex 00:45:48 Embracing Second Chances and Paying It Forward 00:51:59 Reflecting Through the "Mirror Project" 00:58:42 Reflections on Fatherhood and Life Goals 01:06:05 The Path to Trade School and Finding Passion 01:11:11 Breaking Stigma in Professional Roles 01:19:16 Rock Bottom: Overcoming Addiction 01:23:43 The Power of Positive Associations for Personal Growth 01:30:06 Transformation from Addiction to Family Life 01:36:01 The Dangers of Heroin: A Personal Perspective 01:42:13 Unique Elements of Every Episode Powered by: Just Media House : https://www.justmediahouse.com/ Creative direction, design, assets, support by FWRD: https://www.fwrd.co Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. Craig, welcome to Lockton, man. Thanks for coming. and looking forward to this interview. We got connected through Olivia. Yeah, through Olivia and her husband, Mike, who works for me. Yeah, I got to meet them both when she came on the show early last year.

It's been over a year now, too. Yeah. What's her last name's Hope, I think? Well, now it's Reich. Okay. I'm sorry, Rich. Yeah, it's Olivia Rich. He's going to kill me because he said his last name wrong.

I was thinking about somebody else that I work with Jack Reich, but that's fun. You can edit his name out. He's a great financial advisor, though. He's honestly a really great guy. He'll sell you a kick-ass policy. You'll save a bunch of money, but never mind. Shameless plug for my financial guy. But yeah, I know Olivia and Mike, Mike's worked for me for a number of years.

I met his wife through some mutual friends in, you know, in the recovery circuit. And, you know, he's been an absolutely amazing employee. And, you know, I felt honestly. I was, it was truly an honor to, to get asked to perform their wedding, their wedding ceremony. And, you know, Michael end up watching this. And we, you know, the newest news is I was on an auction site and like their wedding venue just declared bankruptcy. And it's like, I'm like, oh, should I, wait a minute. I know where this building is.

Maybe I shouldn't buy this building. But, you know, it, you know, I was an honor and privilege to do their wedding. They're a great couple. And just, I had a lot of fun. It's a fun wedding. Yeah, it's crazy here in an ordained ministerate. Yeah, amongst many hats that I wear, you know. But yeah, so that's how we ended up, you know, I think I forget where it was.

She was, she's telling me, she's like, you got to do Ian's podcast. I said, I'm a pretty private person, you know. She's like, really, Craig, I know your story, and I only know bits and pieces of it. Because, you know, like little talks that we've had or whatever over the years. She's like, I don't know. You know, there's only bits and pieces. pieces of it and Mike kind of told her things and other people that we mutual friends have said stuff and you know it's funny a like I said I'm a pretty private person so but have people have

always told me like you have a story to tell it's pretty wild people think I'm funny I mean I guess I'm funny people think I'm funny um and uh you know I said you know what I'm gonna wait I'm gonna wait I'm going to wait. And then, you know, November, November 11th of this year, I, I celebrated 20 years straight. And I was like, you know what? I do have a story. And I have just as much as, I have just as much of a life experience story as I do my pre-getting sober story. You know what I'm saying? It's, I've been at that place for a little while that I've been, I've been sober longer than I got banged up for. And anybody who's, anybody who's in recovery kind of knows what that weird feeling is to be straight longer than you actually got messed up for. And, you know, so I decided to do it.

I said, you know what? What the hell? You know, yeah, I guess I got a story to say. And it's pretty wild. I mean, it is, people sit back and they're like, that's some pretty crazy shit, you know, because for the most, part, like professionally, right? I meet with high net worth individuals. I have clients that are celebrities.

I have clients that are, that are, you know, in the, in the billionaire range and people that are major investors and, you know, and then I have just regular old people that, like, own a bagel shop and, like, want their heating and air conditioning fixed, you know. And there's nothing really glorious about it. It's just heating and air conditioning. But for some reason, I love it. I love doing what I do.

And it goes back to you all saying, if you do what you love, it doesn't really feel like work. You never work a day in your life. Yeah, yeah. And for me, I love fixing broken things because I was broken. And somebody came

and showed me a new way to live. You know, and I told him on the way here because he was my sponsor for years, and I told him I'd give Vern a shameless plug on the show because for 23 years, this man has been through absolute craziness with me. Two ex-wives just navigated a bunch of madness, and hands down is my best friend, probably the most influential person in my life. He's like, I have a, I, I lost my father last year.

And I had my dad and then I had Vern. My dad was always my dad all the way through to the end. But Vern was my, the person that showed me a new way to life, dad. You know, and he made me, to this day, even still makes me feel like his adopted son. Like I went to his oldest son's wedding. It was like a year, year and a half, two years. years ago. I flew out to California to his oldest son's wedding just because they were like, no, you got to be here. Like, it's just this, it's this thing. It's, it's, you know, and, um, but yeah,

I mean. Do you think some of your clients will be surprised to hear this story today? I think I'd be annoyed at my cell phone for ringing because I put it on, I put it on stunner vibrate. Oh, it's my oldest son. Donovan, I'm sorry, bud. Does he know you're right now? You can watch the podcast. You know, I think some of them are. Again, over the years, I think a lot of my clients know that there's got to be a backstory. I mean, I'm covered in tattoos, but I dress well. You know, like, they know that there's a backstory. Some of those clients do know some of my backstory of how I was, but there was no reason for detail.

You know what I'm saying? There was no reason for the details. It was, that's who I was. that's not who I am anymore, and I haven't been that person for a long time. However, given a series of horrible, poor decisions, I could go back to that place fairly easily. But the life I have today, I wouldn't trade it for the life that I was living. I wouldn't trade it for the party. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

You know, like I have an absolutely amazing life. even going through mountains of bullshit and divorces and relationships and three kids and, you know, my new fiancé Amanda, like I've been present and accounted for through all that, you know, but my clients, maybe, I don't know. But hey, guys, listen, if you're watching this, here's the backstory. I'm going to lay out the backstory so you can kind of understand the wacky tattooed guy

that fixes your air conditioning because everybody, I guess, wants to know or maybe you don't want to know, maybe you don't care, I really don't care. Yeah, you definitely have that look to you, you know? Unapologetically me and I've never really given two shits

what anybody thought about me. You know, like it doesn't... But again, like the life that I lived 20 plus years ago was not the life that I lived today. Where did you grow up? So I grew up in a little town called New Providence.

New Jersey. It's right outside of Summit. It's a North Jersey town, Union County. And it's funny, you know, I remember growing up, I guess we moved there. I think I was, I want to say, I think it was four, maybe five, I think it was maybe four. We moved there.

And my mom had taken a job, my mom had taken a job as a, as the school librarian. Right. And my father was a CPA. And he worked for some big name, big name companies in New York. He commuted in and out in New York. Remember as a kid, him walking up to the train station,

walking back. And upper middle class town, but still very middle class town. And, you know, I spent most of my formative years all the way through high school in that town. you know I've gotten past I've gone through the town a couple years ago it's funny because I drive past the exit for that town like three times a week to go to my office and part of me's like I should pull off and drive and see what it looks like and it looks different like it built they built it up the lot of stuff changed some of the stuff the high school didn't change some of the stuff did and like I got into a lot of trouble in high school

I got a lot of trouble in a middle school like in an ironic twist I ended up actually doing some work on my own high school's air conditioning, like, you know, 18 years later or 20, actually, no, like 20 years later after I graduated high school, I found myself on the roof of the high school that I used to sneak on, mind you, to go up there and smoke weed during the day. And I used to sneak out the little door that was by the, see, I'm going to blow up the spot now, but it's, it was behind the sound booth in the, in the auditorium. They had a door that went out to the roof. and if you could sneak into the auditorium, you could sneak up the stairs and sneak out on the roof. So now everybody's spot's blown up.

But like that was the spot. Like you could do that. And then I found myself just kind of like a few years ago just looking at that door because that's the door I used to get out there to actually look at it from a professional standpoint to like, you know, to look at fixing their air conditioning.

But, you know, I grew up in a good family, man. Like my mom was a high school librarian. My dad was my dad was a CPS. and a minister, and he traveled. He spoke in a number of places. It wasn't, it was a branch called the Plymouth Brethren. Kind of very old school. They spoke in old English.

They talked in thee and thou and thine and used, like read the King James Bible and didn't have instruments and sang acapella, and some of the churches didn't have windows, because people could see in. Like, it was borderline kind of sketch, but I mean, as a kid, like, that's all you know. And I remember that as a kid, my, we would go, we would end up at a church.

And for whatever reason, my dad would have disagreements with the way people were managing the money of the church, being a CPA, you know, managing the money of an organization. And then we would have to go to a different church. So being able to put down roots with, you know, with my peers in that, I wouldn't call it supportive environment, but environment. It is. I mean, religion can be a supportive environment.

But, you know, the reality is, is, you know, I grew up in the church twice a week, three times a week, like polyester suits, blah, blah, blah, everybody smiles, everybody this. And then I hate to say it, I go home and I'd watch my parents fight. You know, and the life that we, the life that we lived externally was not the life that I observed. when I was home. So transversely, when you grow up in that, it's always drugs are bad, premarital sex is bad. All this stuff is bad, bad, bad, bad, bad. There's a list of all these bad things. And when you have a kid like me who is like, why is it so bad, I want to know why it's bad,

it's only a catalyst for, I like to say that I have a chemical imbalance and it was put in the wrong place at the wrong time and became a drug addict. if that makes sense. And being in an environment that said that everything was bad, and a kid like me, I was like, I want to know what's bad. I don't want to know what's good. Why do I want to know what's good? I'm going to go down this path.

And, you know, I can remember the first time that I remember the first time I drank. I was five years old. I got drunk at my uncle's wedding on wine coolers. I was five. It took like three wine coolers. I was like, these taste great. I feel great. Okay.

And then nothing happened. nothing happened for many many many years so i can't say that that was the catalysts that set everything off um did your parents have any addiction issues so no that's the thing they didn't they they they didn't have addiction issues um again everybody around them their entire supportive environment really didn't have that i mean there were some family members that were if it did occur it wasn't talked about it wasn't talked about it was shoved under the the rug. Similar to that town, the way the town dealt with situations as my

drug use progressed into my teenage years and formative years and running, wreaking absolute havoc on that town in the surrounding neighborhoods. I'm sorry to all the police departments. I did though keep you guys busy chasing me around. So, I mean, there's that. It's funny. I have a bunch of, a few friends from high school that actually became

cops and this and that. So, but, you know, in any event, like, the environment was such in that town that it was like, this is our town. We have a historic church. The streets are clean. We don't lit riffraff in the town.

And my mom being a public school employee and the librarian, it was like, well, this is the perfect cover because I would get in trouble in high school. And rather than call home, they would just call an extension. You know, and so like, here we go. My mom would, and I feel horrible for my mom because you could just, like I remember even at this time, even now, I remember just the look on her face and, like, disappointment.

And, like, you know as well as I have, you know as well as I do. The look that a mother gives you of disappointment, you might as well have just shot me in the heart, right? No matter how stubborn I was, that look at disappointment is just like, you know. But again, I have no idea why I got the bug. I have no clue. And after a number of years, I just, I stopped looking for the reason why. because I didn't have the energy to look for the reason why me. Why not me?

You know, why not me? My drug use progressed and the crimes associated with my drug use progressed. To the point that, and I won't get into a lot of detail about it, but. Ready or not, summer is coming, and Wayfair's Memorial Day clearance is on now. Right now through May 25th, get up to six. 70% off everything home at Wayfair. Plus, score amazing Doorbuster deals all sale long and surprise

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Wayfair, every style, every home. Towards the end of my road, not the actual end of the road, but towards the end of my road. I robbed an individual. I took his wallet. I took his stuff. I got on a bus after robbing said individual. And I opened up this individual's item, his wallet, and his stuff. And he turned out to be a superior court judge. And I remember this clear his day that I'm sitting on that bus and I am strung out on heroin and cocaine. Like I am beyond strung out. Like I am my liver and kidneys are shutting down. I am in a bad way. Like I, the doctors are telling me, Craig, you don't have long to live. I was homeless at the point,

at that point. I'm panhandling on the streets to buy drugs, not food, drugs. I'm panhandling on the streets. I hadn't showered in weeks. My parents had locked all the doors and any time I was, I'd even come near. They'd call the cops, so I'd have to run from the cops and hide in the woods. And I was not welcome anywhere. And I found myself in a position, a desperation where I made a decision that there are two points in my life where I made decisions that I could, that I knew that I, that these were, there were multiple points in my life where I knew I was making decisions that I was going to regret. But in these two moments, these two specific times, what I had. opened that judge's wallet and I realized that I had really just fucked up and I had screwed the

pooch and like this was going to end up really bad and not in my favor. And the time that I tried to snatch an old lady's purse. Like I was a complete and utter scumbag and a degenerate of a human being. I was not trustworthy. I was not employable. I was not. My life was reduced to living to an animalistic level of servitude to the drugs of my choice. And that's what it was reduced to. And I say that because I need to remember where I came from. Because my life is incredibly blessed. I have three beautiful kids.

I have a wonderful loving fiance. I have my brother in my life. My brother was my, sorry Paul, but my brother was my number one victim when I was using. So again, we talk about it. about living in an amendable fashion and part of my amends is to never to myself is to never live that way again. And I love my brother to death. I love my nieces, my nephews, my three kids, Hendricks, Harper, Donovan, I love my kids to death. They are my absolute world. And my life is truly blessed. But to understand how I ended up in this place of utter deprable. I ended up in this place of

utter depravity. And I remember the last day, I remember the last day that I decided to, the last day that I was, I was trying to get high. And again, if my clients are out there, you know, this is me. This is me in a nutshell. I'm going to be raw. I'm going to be unfiltered. I've been raw and unfiltered when your systems were completely broken. I'm going to be raw and unfiltered with my life story. And, and this is what it is. And you know what? If you choose not to do business with me, at the end of the day, I'm sorry, but it's your loss. Because I'm good at what I do. I love what I do and you'll never find a more dedicated person to fixing your problem.

And that's my reality. Because I have a debt that I can never repay, right? I have this life I have today because some people showed me a different way to live. And I remember the last day that I was getting, that I was using. And I was living in someone's house. They were a purveyor of narcotics. call them a narcotics purveyor, a purveyor of street pharmaceuticals. A subcontractor.

Yes, a subcontractor of the pharmaceutical nature. They sent you a 1099. I got set a 1099 at the end of the year for all the products I took. And whatever I moved in that moment. But I had found myself and I was in a shower. Not because I needed to shower. I mean, I desperately needed to shower because at that point, I think I smelled like cabbage and sour milk.

It just smelled like a horrible combination of human and an animal almost. And I was in that shower. Not because I needed to shower or I desperately needed to have a relationship with a bar soap, but because I couldn't find a vein to get one more. And when I finally did find where I needed to be to get off, the drugs stopped working. They stopped working. They stopped doing what they would do.

They stopped doing what it was. And it wasn't some giant epiphany. It wasn't like I saw a cloud or God jumped out of the sky and said, no, you don't do this anymore. I am, no. The drugs stopped working. The life stopped working. Everything that Craig had done,

up into that point had just stopped working. And I was left in a position of, I was left with a choice. I would pray that I would die or something would happen and I could turn my life around. But death, at that point, death was a reprieve from the way that I was living.

and for some reason the next morning I went to the individual's house I was living in and I said I need to go back to detox and I need to go to rehab and that wasn't me talking

I have no idea who it was but that was definitely not me I have a pretty good understanding that was Gus the guy upstairs you could say God I don't know I used to have a thing because my dad was a preacher God was like my dad

I hated my dad because he made me wear apologester suits and reeled at me and whatever it is, whatever that was, it was something bigger than me that wasn't me told me that made my mouth move and said to somebody who I was a good customer, by the way, maybe not the greatest because I stole a lot. But at the end of the day, I said, you know what, I need to go to treatment. And they brought me. And I found out later it was because they were worried it was going to die in their house and kind of blow up their spot and it would have caused a big problem. But needless to say, I went and for the first time, for the first time I was willing to do whatever it took.

Because obviously, like at that point in my life, I didn't have any answers. I didn't know. I had no answers. I just knew how to get fucked up, destroy relationships, hurt people and be a degenerate. Like, that's all I knew how to do. So I needed a whole new way of life. Now, I was given tools and the right way and morals and values, obviously, from my upbringing. So I did have that from my parents.

But all of that had gotten pushed so far to the side that I had forgotten even basic things with living, like bathing, like basic normal things I had forgotten how to do. And so I became willing to do. Whatever it took, whatever people told me to do, I did. And I remember I was discharged out of facility and I was I was still detoxing. I had a McGillagherlla gorilla of a habit. I mean, it was bad. And, you know, insurance ran out. I was lucky because my parents actually continued to pay for my insurance because it was 24 and I had some cobra options from jobs that I work.

Mind you, I also did work during some of this. I worked as an electrician and I was in the trades. you know, stable employment wasn't great because nobody really wants to keep you on if you only show up maybe two days a week, three on a good day. You know. So, you know, I was given, you know, I was so just ready for something else to happen. And I remember I went back to Vern, who's, who's, mind you know, mind you, I've known Vern for almost 24 years, and I have 20 years. So there was a lapse at some point in there.

And so I remember I called Vern up, and I'm like, I'm coming back down. I need to come home. And I remember his, he owns a nutritional company. Very holistic. He's an applied psycho-neurobiologist. That's his official title. It's a holistic doctor. And I remember I went down there and he started giving me herbs and started an IV.

And basically I had an IV bag hanging off of his chandelier in his living room as I laid on his couch because my body and my kidneys were just such a mess. And the man literally sat there and nursed me back to a shell of a human at that point and said, okay listen I remember this to say he goes he goes he goes all right you're feeling better you got to get out and sweat this shit out of your poor so listen we're gonna go out and split firewood and I'm like I can't even see straight I might lose a finger and he goes nope

it'll be good for you just get out there and I'm out there and I'm out there and I'm out there and I'm achy and everything hurting but I'm out there and I'm doing it I'm feeling better I'm feeling better and I was I was given just a little bit of evidence along the way you know and he he has been an integral part in my life my I've been through some stuff since I've been straight

I've been through a lot of bumpy roads since I was straight I uh so I I was my my my my first X I uh I was I was on trial for a DUI and and an assault on a police officer and I uh I was like all right well I'm on parole so I'm gonna I'm getting violated. I'm going away. And so I'm in court and I was like, oh, that's a pretty girl. Well, if I get off, then, all right, I'm going to go, you know, whatever. I'm going to go talk to

this girl, whatever, whatever, but it doesn't really matter, right? I'm like, all right, maybe I'm going away. Maybe I'm not. Maybe I'll get a delay. But, you know, hey, why not? We'll see what happens. So I sit next to the pretty girl in traffic court. And I always say this, right? I went, I went to get sentenced in that case. I was acquitted, but sentenced to life because that girl became my first wife and I now have a 19-year-old son with her. So I could honestly say that I met my first ex-wife in traffic court. Like, that's the way it played out.

However, the interesting thing about the whole story is her family owned a heating and air conditioning company. I had just, I maybe had 60, I think, I didn't even think I had 29 days, 29 days straight. I was at Verns going back and forth, I had 29 days straight. So like I couldn't even, I shouldn't even be making any adult decisions. Like I did basically just learn how to rewipe my ass in life. I should not, but all of a sudden, you know, you get to this place and all of a sudden the little head does a little head. little more thinking than the big had and you're like ooh wow you started working again you didn't work for a while hey and then you go off on this tangent and chase something that smells good

most men are like dogs we chase things that smell good i mean that's just the way it works i hate to say it ladies but we're really simple creatures honestly predictable our actions are very predictable it's it's there's not unfortunately there's not a lot of depth to men it's very out in the open we're We're very black and white here. So I, her family owned a heating and air conditioning company and, and Serge, my ex-father-in-law, he gave me a shot, right? And he was like, you electrician? I said, yeah, I'm actually, I've actually been doing a while.

I know what I'm doing. I'm actually really good at it. This is the first day this man met me. She goes to introduce me to her father. And he goes, he goes, so. He's Russian. So. You have no job.

You have no place to live. You are bum. And I'm like, I guess that's one way to put it. I guess I kind of am a bum. He goes, you are with my daughter. You are bum. I'm like, and I'm looking at her and she's like, oh, God, help me. No, this is going south really quick.

And I got, I got like, I think it's 29, maybe 30 days clean. Oh, my God. And all of a sudden, her brother. walks in the room and he goes, hey, Nikki, I found this and throws a bag of weed on the counter. I'm like, oh, Jesus, this has gotten weirder and weirder. Now, mind you, Russian family, the whole place smells like pickled fish. There's this giant German shepherd running around. I've never met any of these people really before, except her mom once.

But I never really met any of these people before. I've just been called a bum. And basically just like, okay, well, now I feel like garbage. And he goes, and he looks at me, he goes. I give you job. And I'm like, okay. He goes, you come work for my company. We will see.

I said, okay. And I got to tell you this, man. That company that, that company that I went to work for, my brother-in-law ended up passing away unexpectedly. I ended up owning half of that company that I was the bum that they gave a shot to. I went through a divorce and I continued to run that company from almost another two years. I negotiated the sale of that company, which I had now had equity in because I had also had started my own company at the same time when her brother-in-law, that's a long story. But anyhow, I left and came back after the funeral because I was doing my own thing.

My ex-brother-in-law didn't see eye to eye. Things were messed up financially. I left, started the company I have now, Lightning Mechanical. I then came back because he passed away unexpectedly. and my ex-finalist, Craig, I need you with company. And I'm like, okay, I've got my own gig's going pretty good, Pop. And he's like, I need you a company. I need your help.

And I'm like, well, I guess that's an automatic yes, because you gave me a shot. So like, okay, I'll bring my stuff over back to there and we'll straighten it out. Try and write the ship, so to speak. And I negotiated the sale. I had equity. I made sure at the end of that, because I always say I have a debt that I can never repay, all of that equity that would have been owed to me

or what was part of his deal to me that we had at the end of it, I told him keep it, keep it. Because he had spent 30 years building that business. Who the hell am I to come and say, okay, well, I get 50% of the equity of the sale of your company after being around for five, seven years, maybe. Who the hell am I? That's your retirement.

That's your life's work. I was just put here to help. So, and I sat there and I thought about it. I thought about Longheart. When I left, I negotiated with the new buyer. I said, okay, I need five years of medical insurance because I got to figure out my own company stuff. So give me that.

I'll figure out what's going on with surge, my ex-filing law. Mind you, I've been divorced when we sold the company. And he passed away five years ago, four years ago. He passed away. And I was asked by multiple people that I speak at his funeral. And, you know, I talk about these influential people in my life. I talk about Vern. I talk about, I talk about Serge, my ex-father-in-law.

I talk about my dad, who was an influential person. And the guy that I told I was going to start a business and he was like, you're going to fail and get ordered it. This is horrible. Oh, my God. You know nothing about running a business. And I'm like, yeah, but I think I can do it. And he's like, this is a terrible idea. I want nothing to do with this horrible decision to a man that was legitimately my biggest advocate would stand on the sidelines with his metaphorical stupid pom-poms and cheer me on as my business continued to be successful. And I lost my dad. I lost my dad. I lost my dad. October or last year.

And I miss him dearly. He drove me nuts. Him and I fought like no other. And it was funny because I came into the interview. Your dad's sitting in there. He's eating his sandwich. And I'm like, I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, you know what?

I missed the days when my dad would sit and bother me at work. And I'd sit there and be like, it's not a bother, but like I got, pop, I got a million things going on. And you're asking me about like, what should you do with your oil change or what What do you think about this? And I'm like, okay, or, you know, hey. And sometimes I sit back and I wish I had those moments back. You know, it's like, and my father and I,

we were the two most stubborn Irish sons of bishops on the planet. Like, we fought and we argued. And we mother-effed each other up and down certain times. We had a fist fight in the front lawn growing up. Then the cops showed up. Like, I mean, we, he tried to hit me with a tennis racket. He chased me out of that house with a tennis racket. Him and I got into a fist fight growing up.

Like, you can't make this shit up in a nice little perfect, you know, cookie cutter town. Here's my dad running around with a tennis racket. I mean, the poor neighbors. Any of that. But, you know, I sit back, you know, and I look at everything. I look at my life and I look at everything that's transpired. I mean, I built a business from $300 in a dream. Like I had, like most people that start a business, I had done some sidework and I had 300 bucks.

and I could pay for my LLC and kind of saved another couple bucks, got some insurance, put it together. And then I just, and I sat back and I was like, okay, now what? I have no customers. And one by one, I started, my friends were like, hey, I got this. Hey, I got that. Hey, this and that. And it grew. It grew at the same time that I was growing, you know.

And I went through my first of all. and made it out the other side. I went through a second divorce with two other kids, my youngest Harper and Hendricks, and I made it out the other side. And I've gone through multiple deaths in the family. I've gone through incredibly joyful times and incredibly sad times,

but I've been present and accounted for. And when my father passed away, passed away, mind you, my father was also a victim on part of my arrest record. and when my dad passed away, I was executor to his will and I had power of attorney. The man that I fought with that told me that he would never allow me around anyone ever again. The guy who banished me, I was his power of attorney. And I sat there with my dad.

I sat there in the hospital. And mind you, part of the story is my parents got a divorce three days after my first divorce. My parents decided. My parents come. My mom and my dad comes. My dad comes to me and he goes, so we got to talk to you. We have a family meeting.

I'm like, okay, well, both your kids are in their 30. So, okay, what's going on? We're getting a divorce. I'm like, why? He hasn't been married for like 36 years. Why? Oh, we're not happy. Why did you wait so long if you're not happy?

And like I just bluntly asked these questions. Like there were other things. There were there were other questions that I had with my dad. And then my mom and there were some stuff with just some painful stuff. My dad had a temper, bad stuff. But at the end of all of it, you know, listen, I have to say this, having been married twice and about to get married for a third time to a woman I absolutely adore. I have made zero concessions. I've always had this habit where I'll fit into your box.

Like if you want me to be this way, I'll be this way. If you want this, I'll do this. If you want this, I'll do that. And I was always the person in relationships. And I can't speak badly of my children's mothers. They're good moms. But for me, I was always the guy that because I had gained responsibility, I was given responsibility, that I became the person that was the caretaker and the person

that was leaned on. So when success started coming and money started coming and everything else like that, it was like, okay, well, you know, they leaned on me a lot and they, it wasn't perfect. But I have to say this, that like the best decision, and I even talked to my ex-wife, my last ex-Colene, I said, we were talking a few weeks ago and I told her, I said, you know what the, you know what I learned? Because I have great relationships with my exes. That's the crazy thing. We have kids together. I have a great relationship with them.

We are horrible married. But we have to co-parent. We have to act like adults because there are offspring and little people involved that need guidance. And I was talking to Colleen a couple weeks ago. And I said, and she'll end up watching this podcast and it's fine. It's like a week ago where I dropped the kids off, you know, back at her house and stuff. And I said, you know, you know what the relationship, our relationship taught me? And she's like, what?

I'm like, it taught me what I didn't want. And she was like, that is probably the most true statement I have ever heard. And I'm like, I don't hate you. And you know that. And she's like, oh, I don't hate you either. But I learned a whole lot about what I didn't want. She's like, absolutely. I learned a whole lot about what I didn't want.

And I said, you know what? I'm happy because for the first time in my life now, I haven't made any concessions. that I didn't want to make. You know what I'm saying? I haven't done anything I didn't want to do. I've been me through and through. And I found somebody who works just as hard as I do, who grinds just as hard as I do,

and who loves just as hard as I do. And she is who she is, and I am who I am, and we are who we are. And it's, I'm actually really excited. For the first time, in a long time of my life, I'm really excited. Now, if we roll back, What happened a year and a half ago, I knew the divorce was coming.

I knew it was going to end up there, right? I got service divorce papers. We were still living in the same house, arguing, just horrible environment. My dad gets sick. Mind you, this is in a 30-day period, maybe, 30-ish day period of time. The divorce papers finally come. We're negotiating.

We're finally getting to the place where, okay, we're finalizing what we want in divorce and settlement agreements, all those stuff. My dad gets sick. He passes away. I go for a motorcycle ride to clear my head and figure out what I'm going to say at my dad's eulogy. And I hit a deer doing 60 miles an hour and end up in the ICU. you. I lost two and a half pints of blood. I have a titanium plate holding my shoulder together.

I have a bunch of rods and screws to hold my foot on. And I'm laying there in the trauma bay awake because I never went unconscious and I'm washing them sew my leg back on and try and sew my poor foot back together because there's a hole about that big in the side of my foot.

So here I am. My motorcycles. My motorcycle's done. And I'm laying in this hospital room. And I'm like, my dad's dead. The marriage is fucked. And now I'm laying in this stupid hospital bed because I hit a damn deer. And I sat back and I said, you know what?

I think it's time that I sit back and kind of just reflect on a bunch of shit. Because like, you know what they say to trouble comes in threes? Those threes really sucked in that moment, man. Like, that was bad. and, you know, it's actually a picture on my phone. I texted my now fiancé Amanda. You know, they were going for a ride, clear my head, my, you know, this and that. I think it was because I was planning for my dad's funeral or something.

And I sent a message to her, and it was me laying on the side of the road. I took a selfie with the tire of my bike behind my head. And I'm just like, I texted her. I'm like, I got into a motorcycle accident. I can't move my, like, I couldn't move my right arm. I'll text you in a little bit. Like, here I am, just like, you know, bleeding out. But like, I should text her and let her know that I did not arrive at my destination at work peace.

So, you know. But, you know, I sit back and I look at my life, man. And it was like 20 years, man. 20 years and I'm 46 years old. You know, I sit back and I look at it. And I'm like, it's pretty wild. It's it's it's it's it's it's pretty wild man like you know I'm on this whole new like path and direction where like my company is successful like

there's a saying that to those who much is given much is required right it's just an old saying to those who much is given much is required I've been given so much so when and that's not saying that everybody that comes across my doorstep in in recovery or you're in in any program I'm going to hire. But that man, Serge, he gave me a shot. When no one else would give me a shot, he gave me one shot to make something out of nothing. And I never forgot that.

And so I employ people that have checkered pasts. I employ people that have, might have a state number behind their names. name. I employ people that have a backstory, much like me. Because who the hell am I not to give someone a shot? Like, who am I? Who am I to say to judge someone? Like, I'm not that powerful. I can't judge anyone. I'm not that powerful. You know, and I get to sit back and I'm at this place in my life where the business is exploding. We're closing multiple contracts and multiple places.

We are a trusted service provider to multiple different large companies. And all I did was show up and do what I do and mean what I say and say what I mean and be an honest person. And that's it. And the work just kept coming in. I didn't need to underhand anybody. I didn't need to be grimy. I didn't need to do any of that stuff.

I just meant what I said, said what I meant, and was a man of my word and a stand-up guy. And like, at the end of the day, like, I've always said, if I can go to the grave and one person can say, Craig, you're a stand-up guy, I've done my job. I've paid my penance. I've paid the debt back to society that I stole

for all those years of being a degenerate. But I get to sit back and I, I, I, I kind of bounce all over a place because I got ADD amongst probably half an alphabet in the back of my brain. I really like science and math. We'll just leave it at that. I get along with, I can understand where Elon comes from some days. I really, really can. You know, I get to sit back and I get to watch guys that had a checkered pass and all of a sudden they're getting married.

They're having kids. They're buying houses. they're helping other people. They're paying it forward. And I'm not going to sit here with a bunch of hippie-dippy shit and say everybody needs to pay forward, pay it forward like the Starbucks line and all this other crap. Like I'm just simply saying that if, for me,

I was given such a gift that I was given a complete second chance at life, who the hell am I not to pay it forward? And if somebody out there, if they've been giving it, given that opportunity and given that chance, who the hell are you? Who the hell are you not to pay it forward? You know? Because a lot of people aren't that lucky.

How many times, how many times? You think about it. How many people you know that die? A lot. A lot. There's a lot of people that die. This disease doesn't pick and choose. Well, maybe it does.

Somehow I got to beat a lucky one. But, like, I sit back and I think, I think of all the funerals that I've been to in this process. I think of all the people that I've loved, people that were, I mean, people that were fucking family to me. Talking about I had my best friend who was a tenant in one of my properties and I found him overdosed and dead on the floor. And I was the first person who found him. And my oldest son is 19. He's apprenticing for my company. Hi, Donovan. Yes, I saw you call. I'll call you when I get done with this. He's absolutely amazing kid because he's grew up.

Like none of my kids. My kids are, my kids are probably going to watch this. one day and be like, what? That is that, what? How is that possible? You're just an annoying dad who makes horrible dad jokes. Where's new balances and merrials around the house and mose lawn and his shorts, right? Hey, you got some nice shoes on today. I do.

I got the cowboy boots on today, though. I did. I wanted to, you know, I got some nice stuff. You know, but Donovan, Donovan's been interesting in this whole process because, like, the, when he was nine years old, nine or ten, the school asked him to do a report through the DARE program on drugs, right?

This is actually a pretty funny story. So they asked him to do a report on drugs, right? And my kids grown up around people in recovery the whole time. And so what does he do? He writes an entire report on what it's like being around people in recovery, not what actual drugs are about, I'm like this, this, this, and this, and this. He turns it in.

I know nothing about this. I didn't know this was happening. I get a phone call from the school and it's his teacher and I'm like, okay, what's going on? So your son turned in a report? And I said, okay, what's it about? Well, yeah, I seem to do a report on drugs. And I'm like, oh, God, here we go. It's going in that direction.

Now, maybe there'll be a parent teacher conference or who the hell knows what's going to happen. Because, again, I was very careful about what business I put out there, especially with my kids, especially with, you know, in certain situations. But I remember the teacher said, she goes, that is the most refreshing report I've ever read. I've ever, I've ever read. And I said, okay, I mean, I still had to do it what this thing said. So he comes home.

He's got a little report and I read it. His perception on it was completely different than what anyone would have ever expected. Because he saw both sides of it. he saw the people that were struggling, but then he also saw people that were successful, getting their lives together, that he could never picture being in that position. You know, and it's, it's interesting because, like,

I guess it was like a year, year and a half ago. I'm out sitting on my, sitting on my patio, my outdoor kitchen, I know my luxury problems. I had these, I was a, you know, I was a homeless living in an abandoned truck with a tree growing out of the engine compartment panhandling to like I was sitting outside on my patio next to my outdoor kitchen, you know, talking with my oldest son. And we were just having a hard to heart conversation about, we were having this hard to hard conversation about everything that it transpired. And it is, you know, again, he had lost his grandfather that I, you know, pre-motor cycle accident in between those two points. Maybe it was after that.

I don't remember. It's kind of blur. but we're talking and we're just talking about life and everything. And I asked him and, you know, again, being in a somewhat fragile emotional state after everything that it transpired. I said, bud, let me ask you a question. He says, what? I said, what's the one thing that you have taken away being my son for at the time, 18 years? what's the one thing that you have learned the the pinnacle of what you have learned from me not the

stuff that i taught you not the stuff that i told you to do or how to do things or anything else like what's the one thing you it's the one thing you learn and he looked at me dead serious and he goes you know what i learned to expect the unexpected and i was like i still get chills I'm getting chills just thinking about it. Like, I was like, that is the most profound statement I have ever heard. He's like, with you, I learned to expect the unexpected. I was like, that's pretty freaking wild. Like, because like I decided to do this thing in this tumultuous time in my life where I went to everybody that knew me for 15 or more years, right?

If you're under 15, sorry, I didn't ask you to do this. I wanted. And I kind of called it this project. And maybe I'll do something with it in the future or a book or I don't know what I'm going to do with it. But I called it the mirror, right? Because us as humans, right? You, me. We can look at ourselves and see a physical reflection in a mirror.

But we can't do an assessment of ourselves in that mirror. We need other people to give us that assessment. We need other people to tell us what they see. see in us. And so I came up with this idea. I sent a text message out to a majority, a bunch of people that I knew that had known me, not a bunch, but a handful of people that had known me for 15 plus years. My brother included, and he was the most stubborn one, but I asked them to write me a letter, like a pen and a paper and an envelope and a stamp utilizing the post office, not an email, write me a handwritten letter of what they actually thought about me and who I was as a person.

No holds barred, no resentments, you could say whatever you wanted. But in the moment, I needed to know, I needed, I needed a true, honest assessment from the people that knew me the best of who they actually saw as Craig as a person. And so I sent this and I started getting letters back in and letters back in. And like there were some, there were some painful letters. There were some people that had known me a long time that I had hurt. There were some, there were some very, very, very painful letters.

But the common theme that I got in those letters is I got nothing but love. And nothing but gratitude for the person that I am today. and so I have all these letters they're in a manila envelope in my safe at my house and maybe I'll publish them maybe I won't I don't know what I'm going to do with them but in that moment I could not be my own sounding board I could not be my own mirror I needed someone I needed other people to tell me what they thought of me raw unfiltered what do you think of me in business in personal life am I an asshole

which I can be I mean it's I'm still an Irish kid from Jersey I have the very innate ability to become a dick pretty quick here especially in traffic not perfect especially traffic

we'll see what the GW looks like going home from here because I'm not taking the hutch that's going to be horrible I'll take the bridge but you know I needed some I needed people to be that mirror because I could

I couldn't see it for what it was. You know, and so, like, I am eternally grateful for the life that I have. Like, the, it's so funny. I was thinking on the way up here, I should really go down and check on my shorehouse to make sure that the pipes haven't frozen. Like, how dare I sit here and complain about my luxury problems? Like, like, the problems that I have, you know, like, how dare I complain about this? Like I was a homeless degenerate. And now my biggest concern is,

I wonder if my pipes are going to freeze at my shorehouse. You know, like, I'm blessed. Yeah, it took a lot of hard work. Yeah, it took a lot of time away from the family. Yeah, it took a lot of dedication and a lot of grind to get to where I'm at. And it strained a lot of relationships. And I can definitely honestly say that it put a big strain on my preview. relationships. So much so that if you're really thinking about starting a business, you need to have a

conversation with a significant other to make sure that they have enough fortitude so that fortitude to cover you while you go on your journey and follow your dream. Because if they don't, it probably ain't going to work. I hate to say it. Probably ain't going to work. Transversely, if you're married and you're miserable, don't stay married until the kids get old enough. You're going to do nothing but more damage. Just if you're unhappy, you will do more damage sitting in unhappiness because all you will do is teach your kids that it's okay to be unhappy. And those are my words of advice when it comes to that. I refuse to, my kids get to sit back and they get to see their funny, silly dad, happy, laughing, acting like a goofball, screaming, I love you from the top of my lungs, you know, across the house,

like screaming their names in obnoxious ways, screaming, I love you, you know, and running around, driving my riding lawnmore like a maniac, you know, across my lawn. And like my kids, my kids get to see their dad happy. Not like they didn't see me happy, but they finally get to see me happy. And like, if this is as good right now as my life gets,

if this is the pinnacle of my life, and this is as good as it gets, Well, I'm okay with that. I can't complain. I'm okay with that. I'm blessed. If at the end of the day, if all I did was get off drugs and that was the pinnacle in my life, I'd still be blessed. All of the stuff I have, the cars, the houses, all the flashy shit, some of which I bought out of emotional misery and other areas of my life.

I will admit that I replaced one thing with another and I did buy some, made some dump. purchases here and there. We all do. We all do. Anybody won a 1997 Hummer H1 that's armor-plated? You hit me up. I got one for sale. It's down at Predator Motorsports.

It's sitting in Tampa. I kind of need to sell this thing. It's been our consignment now for a while. It's got a gun vault and it's armor-plated. It's really cool. It has night vision. That's all I'm going to say. Shameless plug for me.

I'm on your podcast trying to sell a horrible decision in a vehicle that I bought. But needless to say, like, if this is as good as my life gets, man, I'm okay. If my kids are okay and my kids are happy, that's all I need. That's all I need is my kids to be happy. And if I can sit back and my only job as a father is to raise well-rounded individuals able to navigate life that are not going to cause harm to themselves and other people, that's my only job, is to raise well-rounded, stable individuals that are going to be able to navigate life.

And if they fall, and if they stumble, and if, God forbid, they get the same bug, God forbid they get the same bug that their dad get, to be there for them and realize that, like, there's another way of life, and there's another option. And I love all, I love all three of my kids. My kids, it goes without saying. I love my kids.

But, you know, I get to, it's funny, I get to sit back and I get to see the world through their eyes. And I get to see this crazy world that they're growing up in now. I'm like, you know, I was born in 1979. So I'm in that weird generation that didn't have the internet and then got the internet. That didn't have cell phones and then they started showing up in giant bags. Like, that weird transitional generation where I can navigate technology and yet still appreciate this. Hey you. What's you doing?

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And what was the drug you tried? So the first time I tried drugs, like, well, aside from drinking at the wedding, I guess I started, I started drinking when I was at 12 and then started smoking pot like around 13. And by the time I was 16, I was a full-blown heroin addict. How did you get into heroin? older individual who's one of my buddies older uncles was into cars and I've always been into cars and he had a drug problem and I like to party and I will remember this day as long as I live it was the first day that I ever used heroin and it was the first day I ever used heroin and every other time after that it was never the same that's basically the easiest way to describe

what happened with that. As a teenager, did you know you were going to trade school or did you have other plans? I was already going to trade school. I knew I was going to, at 16, I was also going to, I was also going to a trade school. Again, I also felt the need that I had to maintain this cover because of my mom and my dad in the community with being the preacher and my mom with being the librarian that I had, I had become very, very, very good at hiding. things during my teenage years when I was on drugs.

Now, they knew that something was up because most normal 16-year-olds don't fall asleep on a plate of spaghetti. Randomly at 6 o'clock at night, but here we go. But, yeah, I mean, I, you know, my life lost my chance. What was the question? About if you knew you were going to trade school or if you had other plans, but you said you were in trade school and high school, too. So, yeah, so like I knew that I grew up in a town where 90% of the kids in that town went to college, right?

Again, upper middle class, 90% of them went to a college, named college, not county college, but like they were going to, I'll put it to you this way. There were certain points that Rutgers was looked down upon in that town. Like, no, you're not going, oh, no, you mean you're not going to Princeton. What do you mean you're not going to Rowan? What do you mean you're not going to NYU or anything else like that? I was blessed because my dad really came to the realization that my parents wanted college for me, but they realized that I wasn't cut out for it. Which also brings me off to another point because college isn't for anybody.

College isn't for everybody. There are amazing opportunities within the trades. amazing, high-paying opportunities within the trades. And within the trades, I bought my first house when I was 26 years old because I was in the trades. There's not a lot of 26-year-olds that can go out and just buy a house, buy a condo, do this, do that. A lot of people are leaving, and I'm not bashing colleges.

Listen, we need lawyers and doctors. Please do not send my cardiologist to a freaking trade school. not want my cardiologist to be like, I used to be a diesel mechanic and now I'm a cardiologist. No, like, there's reasons. There are necessary things. I trust my lawyer with my, with my legal stuff, my doctor with my medical stuff. All those people, my accountant with my accounting stuff, right? All those people.

Please, go to college. Please, do your internship. Please, for the love of God. Don't leave it up to the guy that likes to fix diesel trucks on the weekend. Like, you know, like, oh, I'm going to do your taxes. No, there's a reason. There's a time and place. But I need to make this very clear

and I need to, that there are massive opportunities in the trades. There is a huge deficit in the trades, in the skilled labor workforce. My biggest problem is I can't find enough guys. I can't find good guys. And what a lot of people don't understand is the trades are on a trajectory now that a top-level HVAC technician

is going to top, top, top level, 20 years in, without overtime or any other benefits, their take home is 150 a year. I had a sheet metal vendor, a sheet metal vendor. He's got a plane. I don't have a plane. He got a damn plane, bending sheet metal. Like, I just, I feel the need to say that

because a lot of parents push and push and push their kids because they want them to go to a college or they want them to follow a dream that maybe their parents have. My parents had aspirations to me going to college. They had hopes. They tried. I had opportunities. I graduated with a very high GPA because, again, I had to be a very good functioning addict. I had to maintain this illusion.

So I had opportunities. I had people that were willing to pay for scholarships to go to notable schools. Like, I had opportunities. Drugs got in the way of those opportunities. decisions got in the way of those opportunities. So to sit back and we were talking, we were talking outside about how I told my 19 year old to the world, the world does your canvas go paint your picture?

I decided to paint my picture just a little bit differently. And it paid off in dividends. It paid off well. Like I can't complain. The biggest thing is, listen, I could, it's not even the money. I legitimately love what I do. I love fixing broken stuff. I love solving major problems, major building-wide problems,

but problems that other people can't solve, can't figure out why these systems aren't working right and what's going on. I love doing that. It's great. It makes that part of my brain tangle, you know. But, yeah, I mean, did I know eventually I was going to end up in a trade school? Yeah, I had a pretty good chance that I was going to a trade school.

Was there ever any other career option for you or you just knew it? Well, I started out as an electrician. So you always wanted to be an electrician. I was, I actually, I wanted to be a veterinarian. I actually, I actually wanted to be a veterinarian. And there was a lot of things I wanted to do. I wanted to be a veterinarian because I did 4H and I was like, oh, I'm going to, yeah, I'm going to be a veterinarian.

Opportunity at Cornell and touring and things like that. And I had somebody that was, you know, that was willing. to say, okay, that's what you want to do. Okay, you know, blah, blah, blah. I went to, I went and toured Culinary Institute of America. I was like, I'm going to go be a chef. You know, I love food. You know, I had a lot of ideas.

I had a lot of ideas in very little path and very little direction, other than the fact that I liked working with my hands. That was the one common thing. So I guess to say that I would end up in a trade school makes sense because I always loved working with my hands, whether I was to be a veterinarian. or a chef or an electrician or an HVAC technician. I love working with my hands.

When was the first time your addiction got you into legal trouble? You had mentioned earlier that you were on parole for something. Was that related to your addiction? Yeah. So everything I had, it's funny because I actually finally reached the tail end of a complete expungement. Like if you look me up, it's actually really funny. I look like a choir boy on paper. It's like, you know, and we'll get into that in a little bit because like that brings me to a whole,

whole point of like people getting an opportunity to like get their lives back and like you can live a completely separate life you know um but the um what was the question uh legal troubled so yeah so um they started to present themselves kind of when i was 17-ish um hey got arrested for i got arrested for some pot got arrested for some other narcotics and um You know, juvenile charges, but nothing came, nothing came of it. Again, lawyers, stuff was made to go away. Influential people made to go away. My parents were my parents, I always say this, my parents were my greatest,

my parents were always my greatest support system, but in certain cases they were also kind of my greatest enabler, which didn't really help in certain areas, but, you know, but yeah, I started to get into legal. So once I turned into a, once I turned of adult age, it was just like a steady decline. Like I ended up with 17 arrests and 14 convictions by the time I was 20. Like by the time I was 22. And what kind of charges were those?

Everything from, everything from petty larceny to theft by deception to a mountain of drug charges to a simple assaults. And just the whole gamut of the whole gamut of stuff that kind of just gets bundled together whenever you're just ripping and running it in that drug addict and in that addicted state. Did you ever serve prison time for any of those drugs? So I did. I ended up serving a little bit of time and got ended up transferring through a drug program and then ended up coming out of a drug program through an alternative to incarceration and stuff like that. And this was in New Jersey?

This was in New Jersey. Do you ever think about what would have happened if your family didn't have, you know, money for attorneys and connections and everything like that? Well, eventually the college fund ran out paying for the attorney, so I found out what happened and I kept getting in trouble. And now it was just like, don't do this bad, don't do this bad. We were out of money. You're screwed. You know, things like that. It's interesting because my brother, my brother, he would be a good one for your podcast because his is a whole, his story was on Howard Stern.

Really? Oh, this is years ago. Maybe you'll do it. Maybe you won't. I'm not going to put all of his business out there, but he's a middle school principal now. You know. So he's probably not going to want to.

He may not want to do it, but this is a funny story. Paul, I'm sorry, but you do have a pretty funny story. And you and I can laugh about it later. I just want to get to the point in the world where people with those kind of jobs are comfortable sharing it and there's no backlash for them in their field. Yeah, it's. Because everyone has a past, you know. Everybody's got a past.

everybody's got a back story, you know. I get a lot of guys that want to share their story and they reach out and then they go and consult with their boss and they're like, I think it'll look bad on the company or I don't think you should do that. Who are they to say that to them, you know? Exactly. Who are they to say that? But I mean, you know, I get it. There's a fine line.

I mean, we're sitting here doing this podcast and a lot of people have wanted to know what my story was. And again, I kept things very quiet. But in the same token, like, if I could help. one person and save one person from making the decisions that I made and they can go on and live a happy life, I can tell you right now that anybody can get clean, anybody can get sober, anybody can get straight, anybody can do it. I did it, anybody can do it. But if I can go to my grave and I can say that I help one person, that I've done my job, I'm good, I'm good. Because I sit back and I think about all those other people that I buried along the way.

You know, I sit back and I think about all those other people that lost everything along the way, you know? Where did the tattoos come into all of us with you? When did you start kind of transforming yourself into that? I am heavily tattooed. I can tell you, you see it on your hands, everything. No, but it's, it's, there's a lot. You look like a biker.

I do. I do, and I am. So I'm a refined, I'm a refined motorcycle enthusiast. We'll leave it at that. Even after the accident, you still ride? Oh, hell, yeah. I rebuilt that bike and bought another bike. And then it was like eight months, seven months later, I got back on a bike.

Still limping. And, you know, but, you know, the tattoos are kind of, the tattoos are weird. It's when I was using, I felt, I never felt comfortable my own skin, right? I was either better than you or I was less than you, but I was never the same as you. most of the time I would act like I was better than you while feeling less than you and the tattoos were meant to be an outward expression of inward pain, so to speak. And I, listen, I still enjoy getting tattooed, although it's for an entirely different reason. Most of the tattoos that I have now are cover-ups of other stuff that I got when I was using.

I've covered up 95% of the stuff that was done when I was using. There's still a few just gentle reminders. like, hey, you used to live this life, but I've covered most of it up. But yeah, I've always been like, okay, well, I don't say. It changed the outsides to match the insides, you know, and now I'm at this place where I think it's been, I think it's been three years since last time I'm actually sat and got tattooed. I mean, it used to be like a monthly thing where I was going for four, five hours at a clip and I just sit and get freaking tattooed.

And I may say, I may go back. And I'll probably end up getting my back finish and stuff like that. like five hours left on my back three years ago. Again, my tattoo artist also got into a horrible motorcycle accident and his hand looks like a damn near up mangled claw. Greg, I hope you get your hand fixed. You've been through so many surgeries. Can you get your hand fixed so you can tattoo me?

I know he'll ultimately watch this. When did you and your parents' relationship start having a falling out? You mentioned that you rekindled it with your dad later on when you became successful. I have a great relationship with my mom. I love my mom to death. My mom's, my mom's actually getting back surgery on Friday. I'm taking the day off to make sure that she's going to be okay for her back surgery. But when did my relationship start going bad?

Yeah. I would say it was strained within the house when I was ripping and running. We were, we were asked to leave a number of churches. The first church we were asked to leave was from my act, at my action, my dad's actions. The second church was actually because I went to the church and I said that I had a drug problem and rather than help, they asked us to leave the church. And I harbored that of resentment for many years against organized religion and I don't go to church. I don't go to church because of those specific instances where I was like, you just ripped my friends away from me.

I went and asked for help and now you've created this. But I also feel like that also had an effect on my relationship with my parents because that was, you know, that was also their entire social network. You know, so now they're being asked to leave because of my behavior. And I would say around 16, 17 is when the strain really started getting put on on the relationships. And it didn't get better until you're in your 30s? I had gotten multiple stints of getting clean and then using again and relapsing, getting clean, relapsing, getting clean relapsing. And I think at some point my parents had given up the hope that I would maintain extended sobriety. I didn't get a key to my parents' house until I had three years straight.

And by then I forget what it was for to check on something while they were away on vacation. But it was like, it was three years and finally, I remember my mom was like, oh, can you stop by? And I'm like, yeah, I'll definitely help out. I don't have a key. she's like, oh, you don't have a key? And I'm like, no. And she's like, huh, I was like, she's like, we never asked for one. And I was like, I didn't know when was the right time to ask for one.

This is kind of weird. You didn't want me in your house. Like, put a restraining order on me. And now you're like, oh, can you take care of this? Well, we're away or it is or that. And check out. I don't know how to put it. Okay.

I guess it was a key. And I remember, I remember she gave me this, this key. And I'm like, I don't know what to do with this, you know. But yeah, I mean, my parents really started trusting me with a key to their property with maybe three years. At around two years, they started to realize, like, hey, some serious changes are occurring and like, okay, this is this. And at that point, I already had a kid. I had their grandson.

You know, I had their grandson. But it was funny. Like, yeah, my oldest was like two. I think my oldest was like a year and a half. And then they finally gave me a key to their house. And like it was like, you know, because then at the same time, like, you can imagine this? I had like 30 days.

I had 30 days straight. I meet a girl in traffic court. At 70 days, I'm like, mom, dad, guess what? I made a kid. They're like, oh, Christ. You can't even stay clean for 10 minutes. And now he made another life. What are we going to do now?

Like, and I was like, meanwhile, I'm all excited because I'm like, I'm going to be a dad. And they're like, my mom's like. like, well, this is a you situation. Like, I was expecting a different response, you know. What would you say is the rock bottom moment for you in the height of your addiction? I would say in that when I talked about in the, when I was in that shower and just really just, there were, there were physical events that were large catalysts that still were not rock bottom. but in that moment of not wanting, not caring whether I lived or died,

not caring whether or not that bag was going to take me out, I was going to overdose and die, not caring if I got hit by a train, not caring if I was around or not. And that was the low point of, that was the low point of, of my addiction. It was just, I had given up on absolutely everything and I didn't care if I was a lot.

alive or dead, so much so that I thought that I was a burden on the court system and I was a burden on my parents and I was a burden on everyone and I wished I was dead. Death would have been a reprieve. That was my low point in my life. And I can, I can, I can tell you that that was November 8th, 2004. You even tell you the date. And that was when you were talking about your friend saving you and yeah, basically November, November 8th, the morning of the 9th, I went away. the morning of the 11th, I told them that I wanted to stop detox meds and that I needed to power through this on my own. And they advised against it. And it was the one time where I didn't follow the suggestion because I didn't want to end up just sitting in a treatment facility on meds the whole time and just also knowing the fact that my insurance was at its wits in.

And so if they were giving me this, the next thing you know, they were going to make a phone call and say, all right, time to go and cut everything off. Like, what am I going to, you know, then I'm going to be in the same position. Ultimately, I was in that position, you know, when I had gone back down to Verns, but. When you became successful and you have money and everything and the lifestyle, how do you avoid, you know, succumbing to drug use again or alcohol or anything like that? How do you stay sober? How do you stay clean? You know, the reality is, is. There is nothing that you could give me to trade in the life I have for that life again.

Like, I've been given the ability to play the tape out all the way through. The other thing is, is if you act as if long enough, it just becomes as if, you know, like, you know, I, um, I ride motorcycles. I ride motorcycles and I'm in a motorcycle club. I can have a buffet of anything I want. However, on the flip side, what a lot of people don't know, and I really won't go into too much on the motorcycle, Club, but I will put this out there. What a lot of society doesn't understand, and I've seen some of your previous interviews, I know who you've interviewed, but a lot of people don't understand is that in that scene,

there's a level of accountability that is much higher. So if you stand for nothing, you'll fall for anything. But in that world, if you stand for something, you will be held accountable for that something that you stand for. I'm given a choice every day. I can choose every single day of, you know, do I want to live like that again or do I not? And I don't. My life's amazing.

Like, even on the crappiest days, even on the worst days, like, even on days where I'm losing my dad, marriage is falling apart, almost dying on a motorcycle. Like, that didn't cross my mind. not once because I'm so far removed for that life like you're you're asking me you're asking me questions about my past and about this and that but I'm so far removed from that insanity and so far removed from that that that craziness that like when we when we when we started this you asked about my clients and this and that and you know the surprises and everything else like that it's because the person they see they would never understand it it doesn't make sense to them

The person that you see today when you meet with me is a completely different person. Like, I'm a trustworthy individual. And like I said, the only thing I can hope is that someone were to say I'm a stand-up guy. I start getting high and start getting banged up and all that other shit. And I stop being a stand-up guy. For me, I don't want to see my, I don't want to see my mom cry again unless it's tears of joy for another grandkid, which there's no more grandkids. coming, Ma. Don't worry. Went to the doctor. We sorted that out. The doctor said you're not having any more kids. We're good and golden with that. I don't freak anybody out here.

But that's it. Like, so why would I trade my freedom? And I get it. I get it. I get it that it is so hard for people to get off and stay off for extended periods of time. But you are who you associate with, and you are who you surround yourself with. And if you're going to surround yourself, it goes back to the stuff that we were taught as kids, right? If you surround yourself with degenerates, there's a good chance you're going to become a degenerate. Hang around a barbershop long enough

if you're going to get a haircut. You hang around this, eventually you're going to become that. So it's who you surround yourself with on a day-to-day basis. For me, I surround, somebody told me a long time ago, we emulate who we most love, right? That's who we emulate who we most love. We emulate who we want to be like. And listen, I hang around businessmen.

I hang around successful people. I hang around like-minded individual people in my professional life. In my recovery life, I hang around like-minded people. I hang around successful people. I hang around people that think like me. In my motorcycle life, yeah, I can find as much crazy as I want. It's a motorcycle club It's a diamond motorcycle club

I can find as much crazy as I want But I get to choose the environment I get to choose my level of chaos And I get to choose when I want to leave And that's a beautiful thing See The biggest thing that you don't have When you're using drugs

Is you don't have a power of choice When you get your power of choice back You cling to that power of choice How do you use your success to help maybe addicts current that are presently addicts or, you know, previous addicts, because you came from that lifestyle. You might have, you know, some sympathy towards that or some wanting to help them in that demographic. So I think the biggest thing is I'm not a big person in handouts.

I'm a big person in opportunities. And I'm a big person in giving someone a chance and giving people. opportunities. As far as people that are, you know, in the trenches, in the thick of it, trying to get out of it, if somebody calls me because they've gotten my number from somebody, I will absolutely talk to them. But again, at the end of the day, I've also learned that when I get on those, and mind you, I man, I man, I man a hotline for up until five years ago. I man, I man the, I man the, I man the hotline for like 12 years. So I would get calls at two o'clock in the morning of like, I can't stop shooting cocaine and I can't sleep. And I'm like, bro, it's 2 a.m.

man. Like, I love you. I'll tell you. I love you. But like, you need to go to treatment and it's 2 a.m. Like, and of course you're in a state of psychosis. You've been shooting cocaine for six fucking days. What did you expect? You know, but if somebody calls me and they ask for help, I have a large network of people that I can direct them for help. I have a large network of people that I know that work in the treatment field in the treatment field in the treatment industry. But I can't carry, I can only carry, I can only share people what happened with me.

I can't take somebody and get them straight. I can't take somebody and get them living a different life. I can't. I'm, I'm not that powerful. You know, I can, the biggest, the biggest power is, the biggest power that I have is, just for me, is to live by the power of example. So I wanted what people had, so I did what they did.

If people want what I have, then do what I do. It's not an arrogant comment. It's a very simple, simple answer. And I can't sit here and guarantee you that you're going to become a millionaire. I can't sit here and guarantee you're going to have all these luxury problems. But I can guarantee you if you get off of drugs and you stop freaking drinking, your life's not going to get any worse. and the chances you get locked up are exponentially reduced.

Maybe not gone forever because we're not exempt for our own actions and, you know, violence can be a drug too and all kinds of other things that occur. Stupidity can also get you locked up. But I can tell you this, your bank account will be favorable. And it's not about money. Listen, it has nothing to do about money. I stopped getting messed up and my life got back. I wanted to see how good my life could get.

So I stayed straight. I then share this with other people and share the hope with other people that anybody, anybody can get straight. Anybody can live a life of freedom. Anybody can live a life of not waking up and saying that, oh, I got to put my boots on and go out and get one more. Or who am I going to hurt today? Or who am I going to harm today so that I can go get off E or gate?

Like, if I can do it, anybody can do it. And like, I thought I couldn't do it. I thought I wanted to be dead. Now I'm actually really looking forward to it. I'm really looking forward to my afternoon. I get to go home, get to play with my kids. My fiance is going to come home. You know, we'll play with the kids.

Hell, I went over to the mall, right? Like, this is what's so funny. Like, I sit here and share my story. But I got to, I laugh. I laugh because I love to laugh because, like, I had forgotten how to smile and my active addiction. So like I sit here and I talk about all this craziness. So, so, so what did I do? I stopped over at the mall, right? The Danbury Mall. I stopped the Danbury Mall because I had taken care of whatever on. I was sending emails.

I stopped Danbury Mall. Like, I mind how much my life has changed. And what do I do? I walk into Williams and Sonoma because I needed a new waffle maker because my last waffle maker broke, right? Whatever you do, don't get the green pan. It sucked. The whole lid fell off. And I was like, this, speaking things, a piece of crap. I threw it out the front. door, but I didn't have a waffle maker for like three months. My kids love waffles. So I was like, you know what? I'm going to go get a waffle maker.

So I go in and I get a waffle maker. Originally my ADD kicked in and I went there to get it to get like somebody put over this shirt because like I came for this, you know, the podcast and I was like, oh, this and that. And in typical Craig fashion, I got coffee on my nice shirt. So I was like, well, maybe I'll go buy a sweater at LLBine. You know, like, oh, that's, you know, pretty normal thing to do. Go to LLBine and buy a sweater. And I was like, oh, I need a new wallet.

alpha maker. I walk in there. Then I'm walking around and like my future mother-in-law Linda. Hi, Linda. Hi, Tony. Here's your shout out. Like, I saw this like little scrapey thing, like, that's had a letter L on and it was gold. And she had just gotten her kitchen done. So it was a gold handle. So I was like, I'm going to buy that for Linda. So like, like, the life that I live today is vastly different. I think of other people. I go out chopping and I'm like, oh, they would like this. Here, I'm going to buy this for them because I think they would like this. Like, it's not, It has nothing to do with any accolades or anything like that. I'm just, I'm, I'm, I'm thoughtful of other people.

I put other people before I put myself. You know, I, you know, and then I walked around. I think I got a new, what I got? I got a new mill, a salt mill, like for my kitchen, like, because I like kitchen gadgets. Like, that's the funny thing. Like, what a lot of people don't know is I love to cook. I love to cook. I, at one point I thought about going to culinary school, but I love to cook.

So, like, you know, who would have a. thought. Who would have thought this crazy 1% or biker guy, successful Wackadoo minister, successful business owner is ditty-bopping around Danbury Mall buying a waffle iron. I'm like, oh, I wonder what pottery barn has today, you know? And I even called Linda and I was like, Linda, I cannot believe that Williams and Sonoma has put out lemons. It's, you can't have lemons because it's not spring yet. Like I, my life is so funny. Like I, you know, my fiancee kind of got me into more decorating.

So now I see things with a different set of lenses. And like, I like decorating. I like having my house decorated. I like the change of the decorations for the seasons. Like I've, I found out all these new unique things kind of about myself that I like. And like, why would I trade that? Why would I trade all this new unique stuff I found out about myself? Like, what a freaking thought.

I like decorating and coordinating colors and, like, oh, you know, um, my holiday table needs to be of these colors and, like, the life that I, it's funny, the life that I lived is like, okay, well, what do we do? Oh, we're going to home goods and we're going to, you know, we're going to look for a tablecloth or we're going to, we're going to look for, you know, for, for, for silver, whatever. And it's like, okay, that's a Saturday afternoon. Oh, let's pile the kids and let's go to home goods. Let's go to five below, you know.

My daughter's obsessed with squishies, you know. My son got a, my son got, my youngest son got an electric scooter and loves doing burnouts with this freaking crazy scooter, you know. Trying to send his quad into the moon and, you know, he's, he's absolutely feral, you know. And little do they all know that you were an ex-heroine addict. And little do they know. Like my kids have no idea. Like all these people have no idea that like, they, like I said when we started this, like, they know there's a backstory. story.

And sometimes I think people are a little scared to ask. And I think a lot of times it was me that just didn't really want to answer into it because I didn't want to get into it. Like, you know, we sit here and it's important for me. Like for me, this is doing a lot. This is doing a lot more for me than, you know, than anything else because people need to know this story. People need to know what this is and who the real me is.

Because I'm in business, right? I can obviously sit here. I can sound very eloquent. I can walk around. I can use advanced engineering terms and talk about how to do crazy things and laws of thermodynamics and all this other good stuff, right? I can do that. But the reality is, is I'm just an Irish kid from Jersey, man. Just an Irish kid from Jersey that, like, turned his life around and made something out of nothing.

Because somebody gave me a shot. so you know like the life that I live today is much more muted than the life that I used to live you know what advice would you give your teenage self if you could stand next to him today I give him the same advice that my son gave me to expect the unexpected don't take yourself too seriously do what you love and you'll never and it will never feel like work. And for the love of God, just don't do heroin. Just don't do heroin. Like, it's funny, I have a bunch of, you know, friends that I ride with and, and, um, we all have kids kind of around the same age, and shout out to Brett. Yeah, like, you know, uh, he's got, he's got his oldest,

couple years older than mine. Like, we were sitting down, we were talking one day. We were at an event and we were like, we were just talking. And I was like, It's like, it all comes down to one rule, right? Please, for the love of God, just don't do heroin. Everything else we can fix. We can sort that out fairly easily. We can sort a whole bunch of things out. Everything's fine, blah, blah, blah.

You knock a girl up. We can figure it out of anything. Just don't do heroin, right? It's unfortunate, but like that's the reality of today's generation is like, okay, you can figure out your life, you can play. Just please, for the love of God, don't do heroin. Everything else, we can start. swore through, you know, but just don't do heroin because it will legitimately destroy everything

about your freaking life. Drugs will destroy everything about your life. I'm not going to sit here and say that all drugs are bad. I'm not going to sit, I'm not that powerful enough. I'm not going to sit here and say that all drug addicts are scumbags and all drugs are bad because I'm not that powerful enough. But I will, I will say that drugs exponentially changed their trajectory of my life and put me into a very different position than I anticipated when I was my five-year-old self and wanted to be a firefighter or, ironically enough, a police officer. Well, it was the best thing that could ever happen to you. I know.

It's like, I sit back in people like, oh, don't you regret having gone through all that and all that pain and everything else like that? I can sit here and honestly say no, no. Because just like in my previous marriages, I learned what I didn't want. In my life, I've learned to appreciate the path that my life took because it shaped the person that I am today. If I had never gone through all of those trials, if I had never gone through all of the craziness, I would never have the gratitude for what I have today. I had to have everything taken away to appreciate everything I have now.

So, you know. All sad. Why would I change my path? It's shaped who I am today. I, it isn't, here's the funny thing, right? Drug addicts will, when they're clean, are incredibly brilliant, will work their absolute ever-loving ass off, will do everything they possibly can and they are some of the most dedicated,

loyal people on the planet. So if you're in business and you got an applicant or you got somebody coming through and maybe that their background check doesn't look as crystal clean as you want it to for the position that you're hiring in, just remember that when you give an ex-con a shot, nine times out of ten,

you're going to end up with one of the most loyal, diehard employees that no matter what happens, we'll have your back. Because the level of gratitude that comes from somebody that was given a shot, if they are truly grateful, you'll know. You know, I'm a big proponent,

and I've said it before, I'm a big proponent of giving people opportunities, giving people chances. Exema is unpredictable, but you can flare less with ebbglis, A once-monthly treatment for moderate to severe eczema. After an initial four-month-month- or longer dosing phase, about four in ten people taking ebbglis, achieved itch relief and clear or almost clear skin at 16 weeks. And most of those people maintain skin that's still more clear at one year with monthly dosing.

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Because somebody gave me a chance. Somebody gave me a shot. ultimately my father believed in ultimately my my family believed that i could do my family believe that i could do my family believe that i could do great things all i had to do was just show up and put the footwork in that's it i just had to show up and put the footwork in do the next right thing and and my life my life gets exponentially better doesn't mean every single day it's going to be sunshine rainbows and unicorn farts or whatever like stupid stupid crazy analogies that are out there It doesn't mean any of that.

But it means my life gets exponentially better, you know. Craig, thank you so much for coming, man. It's been a pleasure chatting with you today. Absolutely. You ever watch the movie Conair? I did. You know who you look like. Who?

Cyrus. I look like Cyrus from Conair. Yeah. You ever get that? If you were bald, you'd look like Cyrus. You know? You have like his face. You literally have us.

You got to go watch. I'm going to have to go check that out. Yeah. Because the only one I got was Dennis Quaid. Someone was like, you look like, I'm like Dennis Quay. You look like Cyrus the virus. Cyrus the virus.

No offense. You know I went on Conair too. Did you? Yeah, that's awesome. That is awesome. Yeah, thanks again for an incredible conversation, man. This was a super inspiring episode. And you're definitely going to inspire some people today.

Shout out to my partner, Mike, who called me four times because you knew I was doing this podcast. You want to make sure you didn't say anything bad. I wanted to make sure I'm saying anything bad. I will call you back in a minute, dude. I'm down. Awesome. But yeah, no, thank you. Thank you, Ian.

This was actually really good, man. I really enjoyed it. Good. Yeah. Liberating. It is. It's therapeutic and liberating. That's the format of it.

I just shut up and let the guests talk. You know, they go and they do it. My ADD brain can ramble sometimes, but it's all good. It's my job to keep you on track. You know, I bring it in and pack it up together. Let's play with the editing. No, I don't need to edit it. But we did a reverse this time.

We found out how you became successful. and then, you know, you hear about some of the addiction stuff. It works. That's the thing. Like, I've been straight long enough that, like, sometimes it's hard to remember the craziness. Sometimes people want to hear it to get straight to the success, too, you know? Yeah.

Every episode's different. They all have their unique spin on it. Yeah. So I appreciate you. But you don't got to eat ramen and hookups no more. You'll be all right. I love how you know what the word hookups mean.