Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories - After losing his father in a drunk driving accident, Gregg felt different. Alcohol and drugs covered up the pain.

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

In this episode, we have Gregg who opens up about his tragic childhood marked by his father's death in a drunk driving accident and being raised by a single mother.  He talks about his struggle with substance abuse, including dealing drugs, and numerous arrests. Eventually, Gregg relays the turning point in his life – an encounter with a priest who introduced him to a different way of living, which became the foundation of his recovery journey. Gregg highlights the importance of sobriety, recovery, and wellness in his life, discussing how he started the recovery program, Startup Recovery, as well as his realization about the need to work on himself and 'grow up' to be a good father and husband. With 29 years of sobriety, this is Gregg Champion’s story on the Sober Motivation podcast. ------------------ Follow Gregg on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greggchampion/ Donate the support the podcast: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/sobermotivation Follow SoberMotivation on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sobermotivation/ 30-Day Free Trail to SoberBuddy: https://community.yoursoberbuddy.com/plans/368200?bundle_token=8d76ca38d63813200c6c1f46cb3bdbed&utm_source=manual 00:31 Guest Introduction: Greg's Early Life and Struggles 02:05 Greg's Journey Through High School 03:45 Greg's College Life and Early Adulthood 10:40 Gregg's Downward Spiral into Drug Dealing 13:02 Gregg's Arrests and Consequences 19:27 Gregg's Path to Recovery 21:59 A Life-Changing Encounter 22:34 First Steps Towards Sobriety 23:09 The Power of Belief and Positive Energy 23:21 The Role of Sponsorship in Recovery 23:32 The Impact of Removing the Middle Part 24:23 The Importance of Physical Fitness in Recovery 24:58 The Journey to the First Meeting 25:08 The Struggle of Trying to Get Sober Alone 26:10 The Turning Point: Fear of Going to Prison 28:37 The Power of Mentorship and Taking Suggestions 34:04 The Importance of Being Willing to Be Willing 34:36 The Journey to Wellness 37:06 The Challenges and Rewards of Working in Recovery 41:52 The Joy of Being a Sober Dad 42:16 Final Thoughts: The Importance of Doing the Inner Wo

Welcome back to Season 3 of the Suburmotivation podcast. Join me, Brad, each week as my guests and I share incredible and powerful sobriety stories. We are here to show sobriety as possible, one story at a time. Let's go. In this episode, we have Greg, who opens up about his tragic childhood marked by his father's death in a drunk driving accident and being raised by a single mother. He talks about his struggle with substance abuse, including dealing drugs and numerous arrests. Eventually, Greg relays the turning point in his life, an encounter with a priest who introduced him to a different way of living, which became the foundation of his recovery journey.

Greg highlights the importance of sobriety, recovery, and wellness in his life, discussing how he started the recovery program startup recovery, as well as his realization about the need to work on himself and grow up in order to be a good father and husband. With 29 years of sobriety, this is Greg Champion's story. on the sober motivation podcast. What's going on, everyone? Welcome back to another episode. Very exciting, hitting 1 million total downloads, if you saw that on Instagram. Started the show back in November of last year,

and what an incredible run it has been, over 130 stories, I believe. My buddy Noel will correct me. He knows the exact amount. But I just want to give another huge thank you to everybody who's been checking out this show. sharing it with your friends, sharing it with the people maybe at your meetings or people that you know that it can be helpful for. I get so many messages and emails and I'm just so grateful

that the people are willing to share their stories and that them sharing their stories is helping you either get sober or stay sober because that's ultimately what it's all about. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I also want to mention, too, if you guys are enjoying the show and it's been helpful in any way, your support would be incredible. You can donate to support the podcast at buy mea coffee.com slash sober motivation. It would mean the world helps me cover some of the costs of keeping this podcast going. I'll also drop that link in the show notes below. And also, if you're not following sober motivation over on Instagram, do that because we're going to do an eight hour live with guests and fans of the show. My goal is to do it on March 7th next Thursday.

If you can pop in and say hello, that would be incredible. I would love to see a few of you there. Now let's get to the show. Welcome back to another episode of the Sober Motivation podcast. Today we've got my buddy Greg with us. Greg, how are you? Hello, Brad. Good to see you finally.

And thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to speak to you today on your podcast. Yeah, 100%. Thanks for being willing to share your story with us all. So what was it like for you growing up? you know, I got into drama right away. My father was killed in a drunk-undrunk car crash when I was four and a half years old. And Brad, when I woke up the next morning and I thought my mom was going to wake me up for school, and she says, you know, she tells me that the news that happened, I immediately felt different.

I immediately felt different. And I felt different in three ways. One, and I do believe this is part of what I was addicted to. First of all, I was angry because you had a dad, Tim had a dad. Tim had a dad, Stephanie had a dad, everybody else had a dad, and I no longer had a dad. Two, I love fantasy. And so as I was being raised by a single mother, as an only child, I had to create my own old world.

And what I did is I lived off a television, happy days, $6 million man, Charlie's Angels. When I grew up, I wanted to be Luke Skywalker. And then last but not least, I loved attention. I loved attention. And I had blonde curly hair, blue eyes. And so I got a lot of attention from babysitters and, you know, my mom's friends and that female energy coming at me, it filled the hole. And so for me, you know, raised by a single mother, no dad. And then really another thing to throw in there.

And I wasn't always able to talk about this when I was eight years old. There was a male neighbor who was inappropriate with me. And I just threw gasoline on the fire. And so that's childhood right there. That's my childhood. but from age four and a half to 10. Yeah, I mean, a lot of stuff, right? Definitely.

How did you move in the world after that? Did you get in any trouble? Did any of that stuff come into your life? You know, so my mom tried really hard. I was a hyperactive kid, and my mom put me in sports, and I was fairly good in sports. You know, you played soccer, you played football, you played baseball, and you're just going through the rotation.

But I definitely, I'm not proud of it, but I end up being, you know, grooming myself into being a bully. I had I ride around on our BMX bikes and we'd knock down mailboxes and set things on fire and pick on kids and all that and all I was doing is as they say hurt people hurt people well hurt kids hurt kids and so I found myself in detention all the time and the only thing that kept me in school was I was pretty smart I got straight A's and people couldn't figure out why this guy was such a tyrant out of the classroom but so good in the classroom until it is they I still don't know you know but that's how I was made up. And luckily, I had a really good mom, loving mom. She was a school teacher herself. But a single mom can't keep an eye on the kid 24-7. So I definitely took advantage of the holes that were presented to me. Yeah.

I mean, I can relate with you to. I found myself in detention off and alone early on in life too. I was wondering how they had this in school suspension that you would go to in like grade six, seven, and eight. And rarely was there ever anyone else in there. It was just kind of me breaking the rules. And you feel that, right? But at the time, I thought, oh, it was cool, it was slick because I'm acting out in this way. But then when I look back, like my real feelings were that I really started at that point in my life to really feel different than my peers and sort of move away in that direction.

Where do things go for you after, say, 10 years older? So my mom remarried. And she married a guy who was there on D-Day Brad. He's a World War II vet. He used a GI Bill to get an engineering degree from Northwestern. He loved my mother. They met at a New Year's Eve, AA Allen-on, New Year's Eve party. And struck up a relationship.

And before you know it, this guy became my dad. And one of the great things he did was he taught me at a tie, a tie, shave my face, open doors for women, all that greatest generational stuff that the generation had values in. And then we moved to San Diego. And I'm like, oh my God, I'm so happy I got a dad. He's my little league coach, right? He's my Pop Warner manager. He goes to my games.

But guess what? The isom was already set in. The ism was already set in. I still had the bubbling anger. Love the attention. Because certainly ride out in fantasy. And then last but not least is that I was starting to get closer to 13th, puberty.

And for me, when I hit puberty, Brad, it was like, whoa, I love girls. Oh, by the way, I'm going into high school as a freshman. I was the youngest in my grade. My mom, as a mechanism of protection, she put me in kindergarten as a four and a half year versus a five year old. So I was always the youngest. So entering my freshman year, here's the pretty girls. Here's pot, cocaine, and booze. And oh, by the way, I love shortcuts. And one of my shortcuts was I wanted to be an adult. And one of the ways to become an adult was to go across the border to Tijuana. And so as a very young kid, 14, 15 years old, I would tell my mom, going over to Brad's house. Brad would say, hey, I'm going over to Greg's house, right? And we'd beeline to Chihuahua. And we, you know, strict clubs and tequila shots and discothex, right? And all it was just feeding the secret, that shame. And that's how I medicated myself in my teenage years. Now, what kept me alive is I played sports. And I knew in order to stay on the teams, I had to get grades and I had to show up. Had to get grades, had to show up.

So I would say I was probably a, what do they call it, Brad, a person who just uses on the weekends? Maybe a recreational? Yeah, like a reg. Great. So as soon as I'm out of school on Friday, I'm drinking Friday night, drinking Saturday night, and I'm hung over all day Sunday. And that's throughout high school. And you went to Tijuana, yep, because, yeah, you're in California there. So you're, you know, relatively close.

I heard that before. I never knew that was a thing. I never knew. But, I mean, over there, and I'm sure, you know, a couple of months. moons ago that you could, it was a lot more laxed, right? So you would go over there. When I was growing up, you didn't even need an ID. You just walked across the border. Wow. So you drive your own car down, park on the American side, walk across, hop in a taxi. The name of the main strip is called Revolution. And it was a paradise for addicts and

alcoholics, you know? Yeah. How were other things going in high school and stuff for you? mentioned you were doing sports. Grades were going well, but there was always this thing. You know, a lot of people, too, they talk about this feeling of being home or something when they use a substance or drinking or drugs for the first time, like things. It offers that release, that escape. Did you have any sort of experience like that? So a couple.

So let me just, so one of the things was there wasn't too many consequences when I was a kid from age 13 to 18. But I do remember my first drink. It was in eighth grade, and I was at a parent's Christmas party. And all of a sudden, like, we snuck downstairs to the basement. We found the wet bar, and I found a bottle of schnops, peach schnops. And I smelled it. Oh, my God, it smells so good.

And so Shops is just supposed to be a shot glass, right? I poured myself a nice half a glass, began to drink it, began to drink it. And before you know it, this is where they found me an hour later. They found me in the canyon on the backyard of the house rolling around in the ice plant, you know. and what happened for me was I felt the fun and the buzz, right? But at the same time, I go, let's do it again. Let's do it again. And I kept trying to recapture that.

And so if I went to a high school party as a freshman, first of all, I was one of the littlest guys in the school. I was very awkward. I had acne. I had buck teeth, you know. And I was not a vision for you, Brad. And all that stuff was coiled by me drinking and using. Yeah, that's that searching for that acceptance to belong. I had a long stretch of that too where I was willing to do whatever for some acceptance despite the consequences to fit in somewhere.

So what did you mean? So what was your first drink like? Well, I mean, I'd always felt different than people. So my first drink would have been but a college party. And all of a sudden, you're that outsider. You're just the person that has to work so hard at developing. relationships and having people be interested in what you've got going on. And my connection with that first drink was that euphoric experience of, hey, you know,

what, after all, you're not such a loser. Look, everybody loves you. And the next day, you get all the text messages, hey, Brad, we can't wait to do it again. And it's a big sloppy mess. But that feeling of, hey, people really enjoy having you around. I experienced that in small doses growing up. But that was just a heavy hit of dopamine that I just couldn't avoid. It was like all of a sudden, you know, you belong.

plus all the anxiety and all the nervousness. And I mean, I struggled with ADHD too. And I took Adderall and in griddling and everything for years. And that, I mean, that really just reduced my ability to connect with my peers. And when the alcohol was just a social lubricant that, you know, just kicked everything off. Yeah. I love, like, alcohol was the gateway to be included, you know. It really was because if you were the best drinker,

Or you could do the beerbong the fastest, right? You were suddenly thrown up on a pedestal, right? You know? Yeah, 100%. And when I reflect back, too, for me, it didn't start out bad, you know? Like, it really served a decent purpose at first. For me, it wasn't, I didn't experience consequences right away other than maybe your average person in college, right, hangovers.

And it really did. And I think that was, you know, jumping way forward in the story. That was one of the toughest parts about getting sober is because when I reflected back, I was looking for that same feeling and that same experience. And I don't think I ever found it again, but I was searching for it for years to get back to how it was that first time or the first month. Brad, so I'll go right to a college story. I went to Arizona State, which is a big party school in the United States, and I chose

it for that reason. You know, I'm going to go to a party school. That's where my people are. But I told my mother I was going to go there because it was the Walter Cronkite School of Broadcast Journalism. You know, that was my veil, right? And I remember this is the early 90s and this is when ecstasy was just coming around. And I remember my first hit of ecstasy. It worked.

It worked. I was dressed up as one of the sex pistols. And my date for the night was dressed up as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. And we went down the yellow brick road that night. And it was a fantastic experience. Woke up the next day and I go, let's do that again. And what happened was I tried ecstasy another seven times. I ended up in the ER twice.

I ended up in jail once. You know, like it was a disaster because I would overshoot the mark each and every time. And so I get that we're chasing the high. But one of the points you bring up is the inclusion part. And what I feel is that one of the things I have bound in my recovery community, my 12-step groups is I found my tribe. I found my tribe. And it feels so good to be surrounded by people who are like-minded,

have good souls, have similar stories. And I think that's the greatest bridge from addiction to recovery is promising people who are willing to walk that bridge is you will find your tribe. I promise you. Yeah, 110%. Those are all things so important. So where do you go from there? You go to college.

What's that experience like for you? Because a lot of people, in my experience, a lot of people, things really can ramp up in this. Well, they certainly did ramp up, but most colleges are protected spaces. And if you think about, most colleges are four streets. And the campus resides inside those four streets. And I remember, I was doing knucklehead stuff all the time, doing knucklehead stuff. But as long as I remained in those four streets, nothing happened. You know, I woke up with hangovers.

I'd be sick. I got a few bar fights, you know, broken hearts, all that kind of stuff. But here's what happened. God had a plan. He says, okay, you got out of college. And now it's time for you to go out in the adult world. And so on my graduation night, I got a DUI. And what happened was I got arrested eight or seven more times over the next two years.

And so what happened was the universe was saying to me, okay, great, you're a knucklehead. You're 22 years old. You can't take this college lifestyle out into the real world and try to exist. And I would be like, oh, yeah, let me show you. you know and there be so many times Brad that I would you know get drunk going to a bar get in a fight get an assault charge get another DUI there's a time that I went to New Orleans for Montegro because I wanted to experience Montegro I walk up to this big Irish cop and I go hey what are the rules of this place I want to know the rules and he goes young man don't piss in my streets and don't

fight in my streets so I ask you Brad what two things I got arrested for in the next 24 hours pissing in the streets and fighting in the streets. Because when someone gives me rules, I break them, especially under the influence of drugs and alcohol. And, you know, my life, first of my high school friends left me, my college friends left me because I was like a Tasmanian devil. I would drink, and by the time it's 9.30 at night, I would already be gone.

And they're still trying to get to 1 o'clock. And so I really was on a race to get obliterated, to black out, to, you know, probably in a way, probably fall off a balcony, get hit by a car, take me away from this pain. And here's the best part. I didn't know what the pain was. I did not know what the pain was. You know, I knew something was uneasy inside me, but I, A, wasn't going to counseling. My parents weren't wearing up. No teacher, counselor, coach could say to me to get to me, this.

say, what's going on inside you? Yeah. You went to the Mardi Gras. The two rules, Greg. You broke the two, the golden rules. It's interesting, though. I mean, you mentioned seven arrests. I mean, did you ever take a look when you get these DUIs?

Do you ever take a look at anything? Does anybody having a conversation with you about this? You know, my stepfather in high school would have conversations with him. Because he went to AA meetings. The big book was in our house. I had to go with him on his birthdays and hold the plastic cake, right? And I would say, what are these funny coins you're passing on? Why are we holding hands at the end?

What is this weird thing? So my whole opinion of AA was just like, ugh. And then he said, listen, you're hung over. You drove last night drunk. He would give me these things. But again, there was no true consequences. And what I think happened in an adult world was, A, my mom and stepdad were semi-retired. They figured I got through college and I was going to find my way.

And to be honest, I think they both were working a pretty good Al-Anon program and let me be. But what got scary when I was able to look at the formula, because the formula, Brad, was this, Greg plus drugs and alcohol equal jail. You know? And each time I went to jail, it was for a longer sentence. And it all came to an end because, remember, I like shortcuts. and my first job out of college was working at a TV station overnight. I had the overnight shift. So I worked from 6 p.m. to 3 a.m.

Well, Red, let me ask you, who's out there at 3 a.m. when you get off of work? Lower companions, drug dealers, and those became my tribe. I found those people. And I began hanging out with those people. And I look back, I go, if I think about it, I would never hang out with someone like that. But under the influence of drugs and alcohol, these are my people. And so what happened is one of these gentlemen says, hey, college boy, I assume you have a lot of friends all over the country. Well, of course, I'm a people pleaser.

Yeah, I got friends all over. He's, hey, why don't we start shipping some marijuana to the East Coast? Well, tell me why. He goes, well, you could probably make as much money as you make in a month in a week here. And so what happened was we began shipping two pounds, four pounds, eight pounds. And eventually we got a little business going and we were shipping 50 pounds a pot back to the East Coast. And I had three cars in the driveway. I was living in La Jolla, California.

I certainly was living that sort of rock star life. And for a 23, 24 year old kid, it was good living. But here's what happened. Each time I had to fly these large amounts back east, I remember that I'm a good kid from San Diego with good parents with a college degree. And so that version of Greg Champion felt a lot of shame. I'm a drug dealer, Brad. And so for me to cover

the mask of the drug dealer, I had to get loaded. I had to drink six vodka and cranberries. I had to do a bunch of cocaine. And also my alcohol is went to the fucking roof. And what ended up happening is I got sloppy. I got sloppy and eventually I got arrested with 50 pounds of pot.

And that was arrest number seven. And the judge says to me, Greg, I'm looking at your record here. You went to private school. You got a college degree. What happened? And I utter these three words, which I know a lot of us addicts,

alcoholics utter them. I utter, I don't know. Because here's why I was standing in front of him as a sober guy. And I don't know because what happens is, there's an old movie called American Werewolf of London. And the guy would turn in a Werewolf, that was me.

You give me enough cocaine, enough pot, enough booze. I'm the Werewolf in London. And so when I was standing up by the judge and I said, I don't know, here's what he says to me. He goes, Greg, here's what I know. If I see you in my courtroom in the next six months, I'm going to give you the five years of prison hanging over your head. Now, Brad, I told you earlier, blonde curly hair, blue eyes. You think about where five years of prison is going to take you, right?

Which I know you, you and I have a similar story, right? And so all of a sudden, I was scared. But it was only scared for about two weeks. and then I got arrested again for an undercover cop for trying to distribute cocaine in a party and there I was in front of the judge again

and I was in the cell and I eventually got bailed out but then and I just want to round out the story with this because I'm a big believer in a higher power I'm a big believer in the universe I'm a big believer in God I'm a big believer in some power greater than myself so whatever on I just wants to buy into, I believe there's a power greater than myself.

And when I was in this jail cell facing five years of prison now, a voice from the corner room goes, Grant, that's a better way. Craig, that's a better way. I look around. There's nobody up. It's five in the morning. And now the voice, it goes, call your mother. Brad, I don't want to call my mother.

Because my mother's 60-something years old. She's semi-retired. She doesn't hear about his son going away for five years. But I call my mother. My mother says this. Gregory. I'm sure your mother calls you Bradley or does she use your middle name? Right?

That's what, right? Rad. What's your mom calling you? What's your mom calling me? Bradley, yeah. Yeah, right? So mom's calling my phone up. Gregory, I want you to go to church.

You want me to go to church? I want you to go to church. I said, okay. And so I went to church. That's all I did. It's six o'clock mass. And after the mass, the priest says, hey, we're going to have confession tonight.

I got three rooms over here. I got three rooms over here. And I thought to myself, my very first time, this is how sick I am. Boy, if I go to confession, I can go out tonight. If I go to confession, I can go out tonight. I go into confessional door number two. And there's this beautiful older man

of white hair, laser blue eyes, and an Irish accent. And Brad, in all the years of me telling this story, I cannot do an Irish accent. So I won't. But here's what he says. son sit down and tell me your sense and i sit down and i go father when i drink a lot i go into bars and hurt people when i smoke a lot of pot i show up on christmas on december 27th when i do a lot of cocaine i date three women at the same time and when i do all three of those right i fly large amounts

of marijuana to the east coast now this priest is probably used to having grandmas come in and give confession so i've just given him a whole bunch of stuff to chew on and he says stop. He says, do you think you have a problem with drugs and alcohol? I ponder and I said, no. And then he gives me that look, Brad, that you would give me as a friend, that your sponsor would give you, that your mentor would give you that says, hey, you're full of shit. And he gave me that full of shit look. And I said, you know what, father, you're the second man in my life ever to ask me that. And he goes, well, who was the first? I said, my stepfather. He goes, what was your stepfather's name? I said, Walt Janicki.

He reaches across, grabs my hand firmly, looks me in the eyebrad, and goes, I was Walt Janicki's first sponsor. And so as I connected with this man who knew my stepfather, who I highly respected, I knew there was a man there who was, whatever he was going to tell me next, I need to listen to. And here's what he said. He says, Greg, your sins don't belong here. They belong four blocks up at the Alano Club. but it happens to be at a meeting starting at 7.30 and I think you should go. And so, Brad, I walked my sorry ass up to that meeting. I went to my first meeting and that date is 11-7-194.

And that's my sobriety date. And I'm so grateful that God came into that rule through this man. He knew that maybe religion wasn't going to save me, but he knew that the 12 steps or that program that's up the road was going to save me. And what's great about the overall circle is AAA has brought me back to understand God in a much more wider, broader way, forgiving way. I'm a big believer in the universe. I'm a big believer in the ripple effect that, hey, if I put good stuff out in the world, guess what's going to come back to me? And I just love that this man came into my life and he ended up being my sponsor. And here's what he said to me.

He says, Greg plus drugs and alcohol equals jail. Okay? I go, yeah, eight times in the last two years. He goes, why don't you take that middle part out and see how many times you go to jail? So, Brad, in now nearly 29 years of sobriety, I've got to jail zero times. And I always encourage anybody in your audience, I encourage you that if you have some sort of jail going on, a bankruptcy, a bad marriage, you know, jail hanging over your head, take the middle part out. I'll make you the same fucking promise that you will not hit the jail. Drugs and alcohol are the filter to fuck up your life.

They just are. By the way, alcoholism is undefeated, Brad. It's like getting in the gym with Sugar Ray Leonard, Mike Tyson, and Muhammad Ali. You're not going to win. And so I went forth. And what I did was I went to 90 meetings and 90 days. I didn't drink or use. And then my sponsor says, you need to take boxing.

lessons. And so for the next year, I took boxing lessons. And what that did was it got me in shape, it got my head straight, I got in physical, you know, it got me to sweat stuff out. And I think a big part of where I help people is you got to sweat stuff out, you know. And so I'm a big believer in exercise in terms of people's recovery. So that's my Godshot moment. And that is the foundation of all my recovery. Yeah. Well, thanks for sharing that with us. You know, that whole story there. It's so incredible. What I'm interested in, Greg, is, had you tried anything prior to this? You had that experience with your stepdad right about me?

Had you ever been to a meeting before? Was this your first meeting? This was my first meeting for myself. This is my first meeting for myself. But what I will say, I did try to get sober. A year before, I went, we're right in the middle of Lent. I said, I'm not going to drink for Lent, right? And instead of giving up alcohol, I just gave up Lent.

Because it was the easier choice. So I don't know, I probably like 27 days into it or 37 days into it. I said, fuck this. I'm out. I'm going to go back. So on my own, I stopped, but with no support, no spiritual program, no mentors. But that was the only one time that I tried before to get sober. So when that all came about, though, because, you know, I mean, I have a little bit of a

different story and everything, but I went to a lot of meetings before I actually completely plugged in. Like, what happened then and there? And I mean, you just shared that story. And that might be the exact answer to. this. But what happened there, you know, once you got involved that you were able to make these changes? You know what I mean? You get suggestions to follow them, but a lot of people get suggestions and don't necessarily follow them. What do you feel like you really put into play there?

So what I did, and I mean, should be real raw with you, I was scared to go to prison. I was scared to go to prison. And what happened was the sponsor who was a priest says, look, you keep going to meetings. You keep working with me. And I'll go to the judge, I'll keep going to your judge hearings. And so I just believe what this guy said, because I'm like, okay, I'll go do it. And so Olson here went 90 days, 180. I didn't want to go. I hated those early days. When I got sober at 25 years old, right, there was nobody my age in those rooms. It was all grandpas and grandmas. And these people love me up. And I just think it was a fear thing. And I think it was a, and what happened was, is that I saw my life was getting.

better. I saw I wasn't getting in jail. I saw that my high school friends and my college friends were returning, you know, and my family was returning. I'm like, oh, wow, something's happening out there. And so I think that slowly but surely, as they say, one day at a time, I gathered time. And I certainly have a workaholism in me. And I took on three jobs. I was teaching tennis. I was going back to school. And I also was bartending. Now, I don't recommend bartending, but it was the only job available to me my first year sobriety. This guy offered me a job in a sports bar, and I took it because I know a whole much about sports. He goes, look, I just want you to serve drinks and talk trivia with everybody.

And I just kept telling myself, the drinks are going this way. The drinks are going this way. The drinks are going this way. And if you're working three jobs, you're exhausted. You don't have time to go out. And that's how I really protected my sobriety in the first year. As I went to meetings, I had three jobs, I got rid of the lower companions and really did a lot of boxing, body surfing, skateboarding, and read books.

The first book I read was Man Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel. And then I read The Artist Way by Julia Cameron. And then I read Conversations with God. These are all books my mom sent me. Once she knew I was on the recovery path, she started sending me books. And this is a kid who hated the read. I hated to read. And suddenly, I was starting to see some soul.

I started to see who the real Greg champion was. But yet I still had not told anybody that secret of my child. Yeah, it sounds like too, especially taking the bar, I mean, humility, right? That was a big part for me. Just being willing to do things and not just looking at it one day at a time and do the best I could every single day and just keep showing up. And then listening to other people around me, you mentioned mentors a lot, sponsorship a lot. It's about listening to other people that have been down the path that things will get better. Because for me, honestly, for the first six months, and I've heard this a few other times as things got a lot worse before they got better, not in the jail areas.

I'm with you. Once I removed that middle part, Greg, I have not been back. I've gotten one speeding ticket. I've gotten one speeding ticket and I think 15 years. And it's just, it's the truth. I mean, day in and day out, but taking suggestions from other people that had been there before, you know, mentorship and really connecting with that aspect of things. But I'm with you too as well on when I first started going to my first meetings. I was probably 17 when I went to my first meeting. And it was a lot of older. I remember my first sponsor I had and I did my fifth step. I mean, to talk about the most uncomfortable. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? I'm sitting in this rehab.

He comes to the rehab and we're sitting out on this porch, the Knoxville, Tennessee, this screened in porch and this rehab. And I'm just like, I couldn't help but think what has my life come to, you know, but I follow through, right? Because I got to that point, you know, a little bit there that, like, my way just really wasn't working. Like, my way just ended me up. in those tough situations.

It's so true. And you know, you brought up the fourth and fifth step, right? Boy, I ran from that for a while. I would get a sponsor. I'd get through step one, two, and three. And then I'd get to step four and five. And I look at it and I go, oh, I can't go there. I can't tell anybody.

And so then I would go, okay. And I would just, and this is alcohol. I pull out of the meeting, go to another meeting, drop the sponsor, right? Go one, two, and three with another guy. get scared again. And I did that for the first three years of my sobriety, would not go there. Until one day this guy is speaking from the podium,

and he literally tells my story, only child, single mother, sexual abuse, all of this. And I'm like, I got to go have copy with this guy. And lo and behold, once I realized I had someone who had just told my story, I could open up and tell everything to. And what he did for me was this.

He did the four columns, right? but he added a fifth column, Brad. He added the shame column. And he goes, I need you to put down all the things you have shame around. And boy, that was the thing that just busted open. I was able to uncover, discover, and discard all that stuff from my childhood, whatever was around sex, money, shame, abuse, whatever. And really, that I've never felt lighter.

I always felt heavy until I did that. And once I did that, now I feel light. And I feel like that's how I was able to now tell you today on your podcast about my childhood trauma because for the first 10 years, I was not able to. Yeah. Yeah. It's really a powerful experience sharing it with somebody else. Did you have any other type of interventions in your life, therapy or any other things that you found helpful?

Well, so later in my recovery, like in the last 10 years, and I don't just say this, Brad, this is something for your audience that you want. I think that for me, my path, and again, I'm almost 30 years. or sober. Sobriety was the first thing I needed, the first chunk. Then the next middle part was recovery. I need to read the right books. I needed to go to a silent retreat. I need to learn how to meditate. And along the way, some people from AA would be like, hey, listen, you seem to have a little anger problem still. Why don't you try breathwork? And boom, I went to try breathwork. That was 10 years ago. I love breathwork. It's a lifesaver for me. Okay? Then I had some shoulder issues and

and back issues and Western medicine wasn't helping. Someone's going to say, why don't you try acupuncture? Try to acupuncture. I still do it today. And then my marriage has been on the rocks twice in 15 years. The first time, somebody goes, hey, you should go to couples counseling. I'm not going to couples counseling. That's where weak men go.

Weak men go there just to get blown out of the water by their wives, because that's what I saw in movies and television shows. And lo and behold, my wife said, hey, you need to go to couples counseling. I said, I'm not going. It's where weak men go. And guess what God did? God gave her the strength to write divorce papers, send them to them to. And she says, you're either going to divorce or you're going to go to counseling.

Well, I went to counseling. And look, I get so many God shots dropped in my lap from him. The therapist was a 25 years in Al-Anon 19 years sober. And she had the therapy credential on the wall. So she certainly was capable of understanding our story. And what I can tell your audience was my wife sensed there was some secret that she knew. She thought I was cheating on her. She thought I was doing some sort of underhanded thing.

And what I had, I never told her about my childhood trauma. And after eight sessions, I told her that story. And she broke down and she started crying. The therapist started crying. And she said, me too. Me too. And here was a marriage on the rocks with two small children. And what I can tell you is that couples therapy works, acupuncture works.

And so, Brad, if you were to ask me, hey, Greg, how have you been sober for 29 years? And here's the secret. Here's the effing secret. Remain willing to be willing. Remain willing to be willing. That when someone gives you a direction or suggestion or idea, you take it. okay and especially if you get that same idea or suggestion from two people who don't know each other say an old high school friend calls you up today and says hey brother what you know brad i think

you should be willing to be willing well guess what me and the high school friend don't know each other but that's the universe telling you hey two of people in your universe in your ecosystem brad are telling you you probably should go do that and so the third part of my trilogy is wellness And that's where I reside today. Brett, I want to live to 90, but I don't want to be one of these 90-year-olds that lives at Walker. Right? I want to make sure that I don't get Alzheimer's. I don't want to make sure that I get cancer.

So I eat right. I exercise. I make time for my family. I have a balanced life. And so all of a sudden, you know, it's really, that's my trilogy. I want to give you and your audience is sobriety. You got to get that. You have to get that.

Then recovery. And then wellness. And that's where I'm at after almost nearly 30 years of being in it. Yeah. And even at almost 30 years, too, it's always so interesting, right? Because we reflect back to when it all first started. And, you know, 99.9% of people have the same thing. We just never really thought at the beginning we would end up where we landed.

You know, it's so interesting to see what one day at a time adds up. It really does. Yeah. And I can remember, like, when I got my one year, I didn't realize it was one year, you know, and then all of a sudden there's three years, there's five years. And what I will tell everybody is there's definitely the five year, you get stuck at five years, you get stuck at seven, you get stuck at 11, you're going to get stuck.

But here you're at a Y in the road. All the universe is telling you is just take your game up a level, take it up a level. That's all it's doing. It's testing you because my mother died of Alzheimer's. I stayed sober. My sister committed suicide. I stayed sober. My 10-month-old baby had to have open heart surgery.

I stayed sober. I've been fired. I've stayed sober. And so there's some old-timers. And again, I would consider myself an old-tember. I'm talking about the real old-timers. We'll say to you, we don't drink or use no matter what. We don't drink or use no matter what.

Because I guarantee you, if I had drank or used in any of those situations, the whole house gets burned out. And, you know, there's just a few things that I adhere to that I just don't change. And one of them is I go to a lot of meetings. Two, is I always say yes to an AA request. Three, I love sponsoring and mentoring people. And then four, I remain willing to be willing. You know? Yeah. That's all beautiful. Giving back and being a service. I mean, it's so incredible. And you do so many things out there in the world with the programs and everything that you are a part of. What's that experience been like? Well, you know, what I, I brought up a few,

times the Y in the road, Brad, the Y in the Road. And for me, eight years ago, I was speaking at an AA meeting and I gave my 20-minute share. And part of my share was, hey, what you heard, which was the childhood stuff, the college stuff, their rest stuff. But then it's like, hey, I went and built this nice little career in entertainment. I opened up my own company. I started having a lot of interns work for me. I helped over 100 kids get their first and second jobs. I had done a couple successful startups. I was asked to teach at USC. I'm a father of three daughters. I'm a business owner. And so all this was in that package. And this little woman comes up to me after and she goes, you would make a great group facilitator. It's like a female Yoda. You would make a great group

facilitator. I look down here. I go, ma'am, I don't know what a group facilitator is. And she goes, well, let's go to coffee. You went to coffee. And she goes, hey, it's someone who goes in the rehabs and Sovere Living's, it gives their version of recovery. I said, what's my version? She goes, what you just said in 20 minutes, that's your version. That's eight years ago, Brad. And so all of a sudden, here I was at a Y in the road. I wasn't really happy in my career because I was working in television commercials.

And what was happening, the budgets were shrinking and the client's problems were getting bigger. And those are two headaches I didn't want to have anymore. And all of a sudden, here I was using my version of recovery, the great champion version of recovery, right? to go into sober livings and treatment centers. And out of those first year or so, I began garnering this reputation. And then my dear friend Jeffrey Van and I connected.

And he says, look, you've got this great curriculum around going in there. It's called the Recovery Playbook. It has to do with mentorship and entrepreneurship. And all of a sudden and getting sober young, right? Those are three big parts of it. He's, look, I'm good in business. I'm a good operator. I know the real estate market, why don't you take it into a house and start running a program?

And the whole sudden, we had the name startup recovery. We had the tagline shifting addiction to passion. And six and a half years ago, we opened up. And now we have three houses. We have apartments. We have a wellness center. We have a coaching curriculum. And I'm in it every day.

I love showing up because here's the gift when the light goes on. when I get a young man or a young woman or a middle age person who's at a Y in the road and suddenly the leg goes on and you see that they're going down the path, right? That's everything for me. There is really nothing out there like experiencing that, you know, or witnessing that for somebody to have the light bulb go on. How? I mean, just interesting for me anyway is how are you able to work through the situations

where that doesn't happen? You ever experienced that or have you? Oh, for sure. When we first started the business, I wanted to bat a thousand. And I would get real angry when someone would go out, you know, when someone wouldn't behave, when someone would not succeed. And my business partner wrangled me up and he said, hey, I need you to go talk to these three people. And he had me go talk to three people who had long-term sobriety and long-term success in the recovery business. And they all gave me the same advice.

You ready? Working in recovery is not your recovery. Working in recovery is not your recovery. And so I really had to take time to make sure I was going to my meetings. I was reading the big book, right? And I was doing all that to better myself. And what I can tell you is I get real sad when I hear about an alumni going out and dying, going out and getting divorced, going on.

I can't help but feel that. And I used to feel it was my fault, but now I just get sad. I would just tell you that I will never get over some of the people that have died in my life. It really, it hurts. More recently, I've had two people back to back who were in my life in December and January, and they both passed. And I honestly had this thought. I thought, do I want to continue doing this work?

Do I want to continue this work? And what happens with that? I would share it with someone like you and I know what you would tell me. You have to keep doing this work because if you don't, there's going to be more people dying. And so I just realized that I can't save everybody, especially when you're not on my radar. And I just, yeah, I try to keep the people close. You know, I will say this, that one thing that my sobriety and my work has done for me, Brad, and I know you're a father of small children.

There's nothing like being a sober dad, right? There's nothing like being a sober dad. They are so proud of what I do and how I do it. You know, they just are. Yeah, thanks for sharing that. Anything Greg, you'd like to leave us with before we sign off? I just want to say that I watch you from afar, Brad, and you're the real deal, and you are a program of attraction.

And I just want to say to your audience that because of technology, you and I get to do this podcast. We get to communicate via social media. And the both of us share this, that if anybody's in trouble, I just need you to do one thing. Put your hand in the air. Put your hand in the air and ask for help. Or if you're in a meeting or therapy, share your pain. Because I know in a meeting, when I share my pain, I cut my pain in half.

And so my thing is that we get sober, but you got to go do the work on the inside so you can grow up. We got to grow the fuck up, you know. And I never could be the father, the husband, the business owner today that I am today if I had not done the work. And so I would just encourage everybody. And it doesn't have to be 12 steps. It can be therapy. It can be, there's so many ways to recovery. But you've got to go do the work.

Have that little kid, that little boy, that little girl grow up. And you watch. Your whole world will change. Yeah. Beautiful. Thank you so much, Greg, for joining and sharing your story today. I enjoyed it. Thank you, Brad, for having me.

And I look forward to seeing this out there soon. And like I said, when you can get the okay to come down, please come down and get some sunshine in Los Angeles with me, okay? Yeah, we'll see what we can do, buddy. Well, there it is, everyone, another episode. Huge shout out to Greg. I'll drop his contact information down in the show notes below if you want to reach out to him and send him a personal note and say thank you for jumping on the Sover Motivation podcast.

You guys must do this a lot, which is extremely appreciated because a lot of the guests will message me that they got so many messages from people and they really appreciate it. It really makes them feel good about sharing their story and being able to help other people and just give back in any way they can. And with Greg, it's no different. Greg brings a ton of experience to this episode, 29 years in sobriety. He also works with people with startup recovery. and it's just incredible, you know, really stood out to me too about the thing where you get to see that light bulb go off, but also the other side of that is when you don't get to see it go off because I can relate to that back when I used to work at Treatment Center here in Ontario that that was such a good feeling.

It just felt like you were just part of changing somebody's life. And ultimately, we have to change our own lives. But other people can definitely, I think, influence which direction we're going to go. but it was so difficult when you saw that light bulb go on and then, I don't know, maybe weeks or months later, you'd get a call and kind of the flame was put out. You know, and people were back at it and they were back out there and the consequences pile up quick. I don't know if any of you guys can relate to this, but after a relapse, it seems like we either get right back to where we were or oftentimes you hear that it gets a lot worse. And that was the case for a lot of people. And for a lot of people, the light bulb didn't come on in the moment.

But you got to always remember. And I always tell myself, you know, we're in the business of planting seeds. It's planting seeds and hoping that it'll get watered a little bit here and a little bit there. And that was my experience, too. I had tons of interventions over the years. Rehab, meetings, therapy, doctors, counseling, hospital, you name it. But it was all planting seeds. then they got watered a little bit here and a little bit there, and then, you know, kind of

out of the blue. It all made sense and forward and onward. But thank you guys for hanging out for another episode. It's so exciting. I mean, one million downloads. We've got a lot of work left ahead of us. We're just getting started. You know, maybe that's the most exciting part about it.

It's not always about the destination, but it's about the journey, right? So let's go out there and let's get another day and I'll see you on the next one.