Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories - For Jordan, a life without alcohol felt so far out of reach.

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

In this episode of the Sober Motivation Podcast, host Brad celebrates his 38th birthday by sharing a powerful conversation with Jordan.. Despite growing up in a supportive, alcohol-free household, Jordan encountered alcohol in her late teens and faced a tumultuous journey through her twenties. She found herself struggling with alcoholism but ultimately discovered the courage to seek sobriety after experiencing a series of transformative moments, including the birth of her children and guidance from a sober coach. Jordan, now nearly two years sober, shares how sobriety has revitalized her life, strengthened her marriage, and enhanced her business ventures. Tune in to hear Jordan's inspiring story of finding peace, purpose, and personal growth through sobriety.   Support the show here: https://buymeacoffee.com/sobermotivation Jordan on IG: https://www.instagram.com/iamjordanpruitt/

Welcome back to season four of the Super Motivation Podcast. Join me, Brad, each week is 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. Welcome back, everyone, to another episode. Brad here. August 13th is my birthday, 38 years. Young or old.

Depends which way you look at it, I guess. On your birthday, you're supposed to get stuff. Hopefully I will a little bit later after dropping this episode, but I think it's important, too, to give. You know, I mean, that's a big whole part of this sobriety journey is about helping others and giving back. And for me, anyway, it's living completely the opposite way of when I was struggling of being selfish and just worried about my own needs. I mean, part of this life for me over the years has been, how can I help others? which in turn really helps me. So here's an episode for today, really incredible conversation.

And I was just thinking of that one person out there. You know who you are. You back and forth with drinking substances, not drinking substances, that whole cycle, very relatable to me anyway. And I know a lot of the listeners too, and I think very relatable to them as well. what's really interesting is that a lot of people, even a week before they got sober, they had no idea that they were going to get sober.

And maybe even the day before, they didn't know, like, that that last drink would be their last drink. And I can't say forever because I don't have a crystal ball that tells me what's going to happen down the road. But now they've put ears together. And I say that because I think it's encouraging in the sense that you might be, fighting the biggest struggle of your life right now and you don't see any way out i've been there i've i lived there for years i mean i had just fully accepted that this was my life in addiction and that's how i would die probably sooner rather than later i wouldn't have had a long stretch into my 50s or 40s or 60s or whatever it was everybody i talked to said 25 you'll be the love you'll be the love

lucky, extremely lucky to make it past 25. But people didn't even know a week ahead of time or a day before that they were going to make this big change. And I say that and I feel it's encouraging because you're in that battle right now where you just can't see a way out. You can't feel a way out. It just feels so impossible. There's no vision forward.

But the reality is, is that it can happen just like that. a snap of a finger. Something changes in your life, a perspective, a connection, a conversation with somebody, stepping outside of your comfort zone, do something a little bit different than what you've always done before. And that could be your first day and you'll look back on it and maybe share that same story. A week before I got sober, I had no idea that that's what it was going to be.

And now I look, you know, at 38 years old and with a family, you know, all this stuff. my life's not perfect. I wouldn't sell you guys that dream, that I'm some sort of guru and have everything figured out. Far from it. Far from it. I learn more and more each day that I know less and less. Now I put myself in those situations on purpose because I want to grow. I want to learn. I want to further the development. So if you're down and out right now and feel like it's impossible, trust me, that's so relatable. I mean, that impossible feeling I lived there. A lot of our guests here on the show have. A lot of them are blown away by the progress that they've made with sobriety and with life.

So just stay in the fight because it will happen for you too. I don't see, I've worked with thousands of people over the years. And I just don't see it as something that some people can't get. Like I think if you put in the work and you show up and you're willing to do something differently and surround yourself with good people that can pick you up. support you and maybe love you until you can learn to love yourself you can make this happen for your life and for those that are around you that are important to you whether it be your families or kids or siblings or partners or whoever it is so just stick with it believe in yourself

I always have maybe by default a natural ability to believe in others before they can believe in themselves. And sometimes you need that. Maybe find somebody in your life who can offer you that encouragement. But let's get right into Jordan's story. Incredible to connect with her on the podcast. If you guys have any interest in supporting the podcast, I mean yours truly, I booked a guest, I record it, I edit it, I publish it, social media content, everything. Often late into the night, it's kind of my after the family goes to bed thing. I don't watch TV or anything.

Hockey season, I watch hockey, but relatively no TV. Sometimes I do. I edit the podcast. I enjoy it. I have a ton of fun doing it. Get to meet all the guests. So if you want to contribute and support the podcast in any way with some donations, I'll drop the link down to the show notes.

Buy Mea Coffee.com slash sober motivation. everything is appreciated. And if you're not in a spot, I still love having you. Either way, keep listening. Now let's get to this episode. Welcome back to another episode of the sober motivation podcast. Today we've got Jordan with us. Jordan, how are you?

How are you? I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. I'm glad we could connect and share your story with everyone. Yes, I'm excited. I joined sober motivation group community about a year ago. So, and been listening. Oh, wow.

Of course, you're a podcast for over two years. Wow. So cool. So what were things like for you growing up? I had a pretty normal childhood. Actually, both of my parents do not drink. They're sober. My dad being, I think, over 35 years sober and my mom being about 30 years sober.

So I was never raised in a house with alcohol, which was really great. My dad is very musical. I ended up being an artist. and getting a record deal, but coming from a town with one stoplight. So it was kind of a culture shock for my upbringing. Yeah. Thanks for sharing that, too, 35 years, 30 years. I mean, that's incredible too.

Back to the record deal thing. When did that start? When did you know you had a thing as being an artist? My dad, I started writing songs when I was like eight or nine. And my dad was the one that really noticed that he thought I was actually very talented. I just thought, wow, I love doing this. I didn't think anybody would hear the songs that I was writing or hear my music. And so my dad paid this producer $100 to record this one song that I had written called Outside Looking In.

And after I recorded it, he sent it to like everybody and their second cousin, just everybody for a year. And nothing happened. You know, I didn't think anything was going to happen. And then after a year, somebody heard it and sent it to Hollywood Records. And I was on the next flight to Los Angeles when I was 15. Actually, no, sorry, when I was 14, about to be 15. Wow. That's awesome.

So go back a little bit here. Growing up, I mean, you shared there a little bit too. Things were good for you. I mean, it's always kind of an interesting thing. You've listened to the show you mentioned there. Yes. And we always kind of have like, there's kind of two sides to this story, maybe three, right? Maybe some people that fall in the middle.

There were good years. There were tough years. Then there's some people who, you know, have a tough rate from the beginning and you shared, you know, things were well. I think a lot of people from the outside, you know, just my conversations over the years, how could things turn out to somebody struggling with this? And I'm sure we'll get to all that part. Yeah. What do you think as far as growing up? I mean, was there anything that you noticed? Yeah, you know, I always tell, I always tell everybody, like, I had the most perfect childhood.

And when I say that, like, I really did. My parents didn't come from a lot of money, but they gave me everything, everything that me and my brother needed. And even though my dad didn't have a lot of money, he still bought every single musical piece, instrument, recording gear, microphones, speakers. I mean, just everything that he thought that I needed. So from that perspective, I mean, like I said, I didn't grow up around alcohol. My parents, I don't remember alcohol. in any aspect of my childhood at all. Their friends never drank. I was never around any of that. It only started to be a part of my life, obviously in my early high school years. Yeah. What was that like?

So, I mean, this kind of 14 high school and you have this opportunity to go. I mean, is that where? Yeah. Well, it's interesting. I didn't go off the rails. Of course, the first time I drank when I was 17, I did blackout, which was horrible. But to back up a little bit, 14 to 17, I'm on tour.

You know, I didn't go to, I dropped out of school in seventh grade. And so from seventh to all throughout high school, I was on a tour bus. And ironically, I didn't drink that whole time. But when I got off tour, when I was 17, I had this. you know, new person that I was interested in and then had one drink and then blacked out. Don't remember anything. Wow. What was the whole story of the tour?

Like, were you on tour by yourself or with someone else? Or how did that? So I got a record deal with Hollywood Records and my first tour was opening up for the Cheetah Girls. And then directly after that, I went to open for the high school musical tour. I don't know if you remember, but high school musical was really big. It was a really big deal with Disney Channel. And I was actually the biggest fan at the time. So the fact that I was even asked to do this as a fan, I was freaking out.

Yeah. Wow. Did your parents go with you then? My mom did. And then my brother came out during the summer. Obviously, he was in school. And my dad would come periodically. But I spent, you know, 300 days out of every year on a tour bus.

Wow. And then so that, and then you wrap that up there and then you, you know, get that you go back to high school then? Or do you start high school? I did high school. I did high school for about a week. And then I got another call for another tour. So my mom was just like, she's actually a teacher. So she was my homeschool teacher on my tour bus.

And yeah, she came with me on the road. And I was pretty much, I was on the road until I was about 21. Yeah. Wow. on various years. Yeah, that sounds cool. I mean, especially like you shared there earlier in the story of like, you just started out at eight or nine or seven or eight,

just kind of getting into it. I don't know if this is going to be a thing and then it turns into this big thing. Yeah. And I still feel like that. I feel like I've done a lot of stuff and I don't really think of myself as that. I just love music. I know who I am. And like, and I still get messages all the time.

Hundreds of people like, your music has changed my life. and I just, I'm so grateful for that. I don't think of myself as that at all. Yeah, I can relate with you on that. So, I mean, 17, you have that experience of drinking coming to your life. I mean, did you feel any way about it? We're not growing up around it. I was the same way.

I never really grew up around it. And I tried it. I pulled, you know, people at school were talking about it. So I pulled the vodka bottle and my parents were out. And I didn't know what I was doing, though. So I had a swig of that is disgusting. But I really didn't have any idea of, like, alcohol and all that stuff. What was it like for you there?

It's so interesting. Like, you know, if you read about any kind of like Disney childhood star, like most of them fall off the wagon and do drugs and drinking, I on tour, ironically, I never drank, never did drugs. So it was really funny. It was more like an escape not working. Like I felt like I needed to just like take a breather. But that first party that I went to, the parents were actually serving as alcohol. And I remember it was taco vodka that I drank, which was in like a plastic bottle, disgusting. And yeah, I just felt like this was everything that I had been missing in my life when I had that first drink.

Yeah. A lot of people relate to that too. Like all the insecurity, for me anyway, all the insecurity is everything. I was worried about all the time. The anxiety of everything just kind of slid away. Absolutely. Yeah, I felt like I could conquer the world, even though, you know, that night I ended up, you know, making out with somebody else's boyfriend. And this is a group of people that I had just met trying to be friends with. I didn't really have a whole lot of friends other than my tour artist friends who didn't live in Nashville. So it was a whirlwind that night. And I should have known, you know, you would have could have should have, but, you know, I knew from that night that things were going to change. Yeah. And so where do things go for you from there?

Like in my life or just in my drinking journey. Yeah. You know, it's weird. Like I didn't, at that point of my life, I would only drink like at parties. You know, obviously I was still living with my parents, kind of wanting to move out. You know, I was very independent. I was a very independent kid. But yeah, I would only drink at parties. But most of the time, I would black out. You know, it was great.

those times that it was like that perfect like buzz, I'd be like, wow, this, I felt like euphoric, right? Like you can do anything and be anybody. And I felt like, you know, alcohol was like the missing piece to something that I'd been looking for to make me better, to make me more fun. And, you know, the party girl. It really didn't start to like escalate until I'd say like probably a few years after I got married, you know, like my mid-20s is when my, drinking really like escalated. And I knew, I even knew back then that, you know, 10 years ago that I had a problem. Yeah, which is interesting. You bring that up 10 years. I mean, I don't want to discourage, I don't want to discourage anybody, obviously, from the journey. But that thing of a

decade of when we notice it's a problem to when we get sober or like, you know, a range. It seems to be a common trend for a lot of people. Yeah, it's like this, I always post on my Instagram, but like this inner voice, that little teeny voice that you hear in the back of your head, like, oh, wow, this could be a problem or maybe this is a problem. And, you know, you booze it up so much to, like, drown out that voice. And for me, that voice just got so loud two years ago that I felt like I, I couldn't live. I couldn't live anymore in the way that I was doing my life. The way things were going. Yeah, it becomes really heavy. To fast forward, a little bit, though, can you walk us through sort of the progression? Because I think that's another

thing with alcohol, too, is it's culturally acceptable. It's everywhere. Come on, you had a rough day or everything, right? So how does it, because a lot of people, too, it's not, I think for the majority, I would feel safe saying, it doesn't have all the consequences and destroy our life right away. It's kind of like this thing that slowly creeps in. What was that like for you? Yeah, so like I said, 10 years ago, you know, I'm 34. So when I was 24, I would have a lot of instances where I'd have a great time partying. I would literally be the person like buying a round of shots for the bar, closing the bar down with my husband. You know, I had a lot of really fun times. I mean, and I'm sure a lot of people that listen to this feel the same way because alcoholism is a progressive disease. So even though I knew I had a problem 10 years ago, I wasn't ready to feel. like all my demons, you know, all the internal things that, you know, because alcohol is just a symptom of alcoholism. Like, it's all the internal stuff that you don't want to deal with that makes you keep drinking. So for me, it was, you know, all the times I blacked out,

I'd have fun times. Then I would black out and have this horrible fight with my husband for two hours. And we'd both be drunk, you know, and then we'd not remember what we fought about, but things were weird and getting blackout drunk at a bar and getting into the wrong taxi cab by myself. Getting drunk and passing out in my guest bathroom and sleeping in the tub because I couldn't stop vomiting. I mean, there were a lot of like, it was like trickled. It was like fun times and then all those really bad times

kind of in between. And my husband actually, I can't remember what he used to say. I think he called it like my dark passenger. Like whenever I would drink, this like dark version of me would come out in those little pockets, you know, over the course of 10 years. And especially when I was younger, I didn't really care. I was like, I don't give a shit. You're married to me. You need to love me.

And you need to accept this because I'm never going to stop drinking. You know, drinking was, I felt like I could get through life as long as I had alcohol. I mean, truly, that's what I thought. And I used to put champagne in my water bottles at a job that I used to work. Yeah. Just to make it through the day when I'd be going through really, really, I was actually going through a really hard time not to, like, justify it. But, you know, it really helped me get through that.

Yeah. And I think that's one of the interesting things about it is there is that there is that element to where, you know, I think whether we want to admit it or not, there is a part of it that is helping us. And it's like you have those other times too, where you're having good times and then you also have these other times that, you know, maybe are not good, right?

I think we've all had them. But I think I was so confused in sort of that middle, middle ground of 82% of the times are pretty good. This is not disastrous. And then, you know, maybe 18% if my math is right there, I'm having these other problems, right?

I'm noticing that my drinking and the way I drink and the way I go about it was a lot different than my peers around me. But majority of the time was good. So I kind of think when I reflect back, I found myself in this confusing space of justifying the drinking to continue because, yeah, I couldn't imagine a life without it. Oh, my goodness, my identity, my friendships, what I did, my social life, everything. And I was just like, oh, my goodness, I didn't know anybody who didn't really drink, you know, maybe one person, but they had a really outgoing. personality so they were able and I was like I could never be that so I'll lose all of this stuff of who I am and everything I've built up and become and you know this wild party guy that everybody seems to love I mean looking back it was just entertaining for them at my expense but yeah and then you

cover up all that other stuff that maybe we don't want to look through and yeah I mean I knew from the beginning my first time I was like this is going to be a serious problem but I thought I It's the same thing. It's so interesting. And I've connected, obviously, with so many women and men over the course of the last years of my life that all kind of have that same story. Like even down to their first drink or even 10 years ago or 15 years ago, they knew it was a problem or was going to be a problem. Yeah. I mean, I'm not what kept you. Oh, sorry. I'm just wondering, too. I mean, with that, what kept you around? What keeps us around with it? I mean, I think for me, like you said, like it wasn't, the problems weren't outweighing the good. Like I wasn't really other than like the really bad hangovers or like the guilt and shame. Maybe I just didn't have enough self-awareness as I do now. But it just wasn't as big of a deal as it is now.

I think for me it became more of a problem becoming a parent. I always say that my daughter, like, literally saved my life. I don't think if I didn't have kids, I'd probably, I would probably be dead. Yeah, from drinking. Yeah. Yeah. Walk me through your thoughts behind that. Well, I just think as a woman, you know, your hormones change.

Obviously, I just have my second baby who's six months old. He's amazing. His name's Jack. Yeah. The stakes become really high. Obviously, you have kids, you know, like, as my daughter started getting older, things just started coming to the surface that for my entire life, I shoved down. And you can only do that for so long. And I didn't want to wake up one day and be 65 years old and, you know, be, I guess, I don't even know if I really didn't think I was going to make it to 65 if I kept drinking.

But I just felt like I didn't want to be that person and have my daughter see me, her whole entire childhood see me in that state that I was in. Yeah. So that's so powerful too. My wife and I, we talk about it all the time just to doubt the generational stuff. And I'm not saying you had this. It was a different story for you with your parents growing up. But there's a lot of stuff. I saw something that's always two things that always stuck with me when it comes. to be an apparent. One thing was the parts of yourself that you don't heal, your kids are going to have to. That one always kind of, you know, stuck out to me when it comes to this whole addiction thing, especially. And the other one was, is your kids are going to figure out who you really are someday. You know, when I was like, when I saw that, I was like, wow, that hits, you know, when they grow up and they're going to say like, hey, you, you know, you told us one thing, but you did a completely different thing. That terrifies me to ever have them think I'm somebody I'm not. So it's like I have

to not be perfect, but also, you know, be real. Yeah, like I got to the point where I didn't like myself. I didn't know who I was. I didn't want to be sober, but I knew I couldn't continue living the life that I was living. Yeah. And I couldn't get out of bed. I wasn't eating. I was having severe anxiety. I was having panic attacks every single day. This is at the very, very end of my drinking. And I went to my therapist who I had been to for six months prior to that. She was a newer therapist. She also saved my life.

And at the time, I didn't know she was a sober coach. You know, she never told me about her sobriety or anything like that. But I was kind of like telling her about some problems I was having, kind of sharing a little bit more than I normally would. And she's like, I think you need to take. like 14 days off of alcohol because this is giving you anxiety. This is giving you panic. Like, just see how your life is going to be. And so I actually didn't make it 14 days. I made it 12 days. And I can totally say that those 12 days changed my entire outlook on life in such a positive way that I knew that I could not go back to the way that I had been living really for the last

like two and a half years of my life like binge drinking hardcore every day it completely changed the trajectory of my life wow just getting just putting together those 12 days having that conversation opening the door letting somebody in is that something you did regularly like sharing with someone vulnerably honest honestly no like so I was going to my therapist I had had um five miscarriages. And so I was dealing with a lot of just hormonal shifts and anxiety surrounding that. And that's really why I saw her to begin with. And I just feel like it was a God thing that she was put into my life, not only for that,

but for a bigger calling, which is my sobriety. Yeah. Wow. It's always wild looking back and seeing how the dots connect. in strange ways, right? For a reason. It's really cool. And then after that, I, of course, fell off, felt horrible about myself.

I was like, this is the worst I've ever felt about myself. And so I was like, okay, I got to try 90 days. Like, I'm not committed to being sober, but I need to do like 90 days. And then like all is going to be fixed, right? Because at this point, I wasn't really thinking I was an alcoholic. I just thought I need a change. Like personally, physically, mentally, spiritually, like I didn't know who I was. It was honestly an out-of-body experience. I made it 52 days. And that's when I hit rock

bottom. Like that was like that the 50. At the 52 days, I couldn't understand why I couldn't. My whole life was like dedicated to singing and this not like chase of perfection, but, you know, having discipline. You know, that was my whole childhood is having discipline, and waking up and working out and, you know, singing the best that you can, writing the best songs. And so I'm failing time and time again with the sobriety thing. And I'm like, what the fuck? You know, why can't I do this? And, you know, I hit rock bottom. I couldn't leave my house because my anxiety was so bad. I've never felt like that in my entire life. I thought maybe I need to be in a mental institution because I couldn't I could not function normally.

And I guess two weeks after that, September 1st, 20, 23 is my sobriety date. That's when my life changed forever. Wow. So you do this, so you do the 12 days the first time. And then who's, is anybody giving you the idea to go at this again? Like, okay, so your therapist mentioned to you 90 days. Yeah. What are you doing?

What are you doing just that? Is it the old fashioned just don't drink or? Yeah. So like I'm not doing. Yeah, that's a great point. I'm not doing any meetings or anything like that. I don't have any support during the 12 days or the 52 days. I'm just white knuckling it.

You know, I'm going on vacations. People are drinking around me. I'm like, holy shit, I can't do this. It was very. chaotic and also beautiful. Like I looked at myself in the mirror. I was like, wow, I see myself again. I was like, I want to, I don't know how to hold onto this, but like I need this. You know, it's like, it's almost like a drug, you know, feeling good about yourself. You're like, wow, this is amazing. So yeah, that September 1st, my sobriety date, five days in to my now, almost two years

I joined a sober class and I did a meeting every single day, sometimes twice a day for my first year of sobriety. Yeah. And I'm curious too. Did your husband know that you were committed to this? Like in the other 52 days told me? Yeah. So he, I think it's at first it freaked him out.

He was like, actually, let me back up here. So when I wanted to do the 12 and the 52 days, he noticed a complete shift to me. He's like, this is amazing. You're like going to be the best version of yourself. And then when I started using the term sobriety and sober and I'm never drinking again, our marriage took a really bad turn. Because when one person changes in a marriage, you know, just by default, like the other person has to change, whether they want to change or not. So we ended up actually separating for about a month and a half.

I think when I was like six or seven months sober. And it was really, really hard, but it's what we needed to now be the best version of our marriage, now 12 years in, that we've ever been. Yeah. Yeah, that's a really good point you bring up there, too. And I think, too, and I don't know if this was the scenario for yourself and your husband, but I hear it a lot. that's kind of how people meet and connect and that becomes like something to do right and then if you're not drinking anymore it's like okay how do we fill all this time how do we connect and it really takes a lot of effort i think i mean it's beautiful process yeah but it takes a lot of effort

to connect without it maybe i don't know i was so like i was so angry in the beginning too like even though i was so excited to be this new version of myself i was still angry and wanting to hold on to that person that I had been for so long, even though I hated that person. Alcohol had become like my best friend. You know, taking that out of our marriage was a huge, like almost slap in the face to him. He's like, oh my gosh, like I don't have like my buddy anymore. Like we can't have wine or like he's like nothing. And I'm like, no, seriously, nothing.

And in that time of my life, especially in that first, I'd say six, seven, eight months. I really wasn't focused on my marriage at all. It had to be about me. It had to be about staying sober. That was my only goal. And obviously, it's paid off. Like, I'm so proud of myself. I never thought in a million years that this would be my life.

Yeah. That's awesome. And I mean, I think that is a big part of the first year, right? It's just kind of buckling down and don't drink. And don't try to change everything overnight type deal. On the first, though, was there a plan in place? Like, how did that come to life September 1st?

I remember walking. We do these like family walks, you know, around our neighborhood. We've got like a cute little community. We're located in East Nashville. We're actually moving, but we live in East Nashville right now. We do family walks every night with our kids. And at this point, I remember walking that day and I hadn't drank. You know, I was like, I told them, I said, I have to do it.

I have to do one year. I got to do one year. And he's like, holy shit. Like, I think it really, like, scared him. He was freaking out. And, like, I was freaking out, too. But I was more committed to having a better life than I had ever felt like that before. You know, the 12 days and the 52 days, I was like, that's bullshit.

Like, I'm doing this. Like, I want this for myself, mainly. Secondly, for my kids. and overall it's just obviously made my whole life. I feel like I came back to life. And I've started this new life now that I've been sober. Yeah. So it was just out on the walk and just like I have to admit.

You know, that's one other thing I find, I don't know, fascinating is the right word for it or whatever it is. But a lot of people share they never knew really their last day drinking would be their last day drinking. And I think that's so monumental because I think there's people that are thinking the way we once did, right? I'll never, my life will never not include alcohol. There's no way. I can't see it. It's impossible.

I'm going to miss out on so much, like all the stuff that we were thinking. And then something changes. And then you go from a day where it's like you're drinking and then the next day you're not drinking and then a couple of years has gone by. So I always see that as like encouraging for somebody else. If you're at a spot right now where you're just like, I can't imagine a life without alcohol. Stay in the game. It might be closer than you think. For sure.

I am embarrassed to say, like, I used to make fun of people that didn't drink or that I never tried to do like dry January. I never wanted to take any kind of time off. Like I just was so addicted to it. I didn't think I could live without it. I'd be, you know, shaky. My face would be all. bloated and red every morning and still like it was just the addiction that got the best of me. I do remember my last drink and I fucking hated it. I had a glass of wine in bed and every

single sip I was like, fuck you, fuck you. Like I did not want to live that way anymore and I hated it and I'm so glad I did. Yeah. Yeah, you know what I mean? It takes what it takes, right? Looking back before we kind of jump into, you know, what the last couple years have been like for you, Growing up as, you know, like in Disney and doing all these tours and having a good childhood and a lot of support to kind of go after your dream and all that stuff. What are the thoughts that come to your mind when you look back at that and then where things ended up for you, you know, really leaning heavily on alcohol and in everything too? Yeah, I mean, obviously I went through a lot of stuff in my childhood, some which I can't talk about. but, you know, whether any of that stuff happened or not, just getting a record deal and having to leave school and going on a tour bus, that's pretty traumatic. You know, not having a quote unquote normal life for however long eight, nine, ten years of my life.

You know, just that is traumatic. And I feel like I used alcohol as obviously a way to cope. And then it became a crutch. And then it literally was like something that I would carry in my purse. you know, just in case of emergencies. It was like it was like my freaking epipen. Yeah. Yeah.

Do you ever feel that it happened so quick? Like even though it's like years went by like went fast or no? You know, I don't want to get emotional. I feel like I wasted so much of like my adult years, even though it's all of it has brought me to here, right? If I hadn't hit rock bottom, I don't know if I would actually be. like completely sober. I'd probably just like have cut back, you know, but I just feel like I wasted a lot of time

and now all I have is time. And that's what I'm so grateful for, especially having two kids and being a business owner and being a mom and a great wife. Like I just, the time thing is, is something that you can't get back. And I'm just really grateful for that now. Yeah. No, beautifully put there too. I know that is something that,

on people too. You know, I think even like, I mean, I would say it's safe to say we're relatively young. I'm turning 38 tomorrow. I think you said you were 34, 35. Everything before, everything before 40 is practiced, they say. You know, but I think it's, you know, I settle into the gratitude of, you know,

getting to where I did when I did. I see a lot of people around me. And I mean, you know, no judgment towards them. But, I mean, they're kind of riding the wheels off this skateboard, you know, all the way. into their 50s and 60s and sometimes 70s, you know, so I look at where I'm at and I'm like, grateful. I know.

Yeah. I mean, I'm faced with people who are still binge drinking or, you know, I'm close with people who are in their 60s and 70s. Yeah, that are still binge drinking and it blows me away and it just seems so empty. Like, why do it or why are you doing that? It's making you sick. It's making you unhealthy. it's making you depressed.

I mean, all these things that I can look back and say now. Yeah. Yeah. And I think, too, the longer that we lean on it, you know, I think that's the sneaky part with alcohol, right? It's because the longer we lean on it, the less we lean on stuff that's healthy for us, right? The more I have a hard day or something comes up in my life that emotions, right, that are hard for me to deal with.

And I'm just like, okay, let's drink. Instead of yoga's not really my thing, but an example, right? Maybe I'll go for yoga. Maybe I'll go to the gym. Maybe I'll go for a walk. Yeah. Maybe I'll write in my journal. Maybe I'll see a therapist.

Yeah. The more we just lean into alcohol, it's like, then decades go by. And it's like, well, what's my tool bag is quite empty. Yeah. And like to give me an example, like my marriage, even though we were okay, you know, we weren't really, we were drinking. We weren't really talking. We weren't communicating, you know, because you don't really connect when you're

drinking. You think you do, but it's not a genuine connection. And so like my marriage is better than it's ever been. And there's no alcohol in my fridge. You know, it's just like my whole life has changed for just the good. And I'm just, I don't take any second for granted. Yeah. I mean, if I, if we're at a baseball game, you would have just hit a home run.

Because that's the thing. Alcohol convinces us that we need it to connect. But then when we get sober and you kind of look. look back at it through with a clear vision, it doesn't do that at all. It turns us into people that we're not authentic. We're not genuinely ourselves. And we're just trying to get by and do what we can and lower our guard a little bit. But it's authentic connection and sobriety that I think brings us closer to people. In my experience, it's been less people. I grew up with the idea of like being trying to be popular and having a bunch of friends. And like that was what

brought value to my life, my life in sobriety is the four quarters rather than a hundred pennies. I would much rather have that. And that is what I do have instead of all of the people and all the chaos and everything else that comes with. It is terrifying. For sure. I mean, I can attest, like, I've lost a ton of friendships. There's people that I used to hang out with every single weekend that I haven't seen since I told I was going sober and never drinking again. You know, at first, that kind of stings. And then when you get so far, you're like, oh, yeah, like we didn't really have a genuine connection because we weren't connecting. We were just drinking. We were just drinking friends. You know, and that was that was done by design.

We hung out with people who fit our lifestyle needs. And now, you know, I really, same with you, like, I don't really have that many close friends. But the friends that I do have, like, I cultivate those relationships and they're so sacred to me. And the people that, people that genuinely love me, love this version of me way better than they ever did 10 years ago. Yeah, and that's beautiful. So catch us up the speed here. So September 1st, you join a virtual community. You plug in, I mean, being consistent.

Yeah. Which I think is really important. Whatever people choose to do, I mean, whether it's fellowship, you know, going to church. Because the reality is, I mean, we drank for your thing, you're drinking a lot, you're being consistent in that. So I think when we're trying to turn this thing around, we've got to be consistent in the other direction. So that helps you. I mean, what else is going on is you.

to go through this first year of sobriety. Oh, gosh. I mean, honestly, I genuinely didn't really leave my house for the first, like, six months. Like, I rarely left my house other than to, like, take my daughter to school. Like, I just, or go, I went to therapy every single week, sometimes twice a week. You know, and my therapist obviously is a sober coach. So that really, really helped me. Other than that, I didn't do anything.

I ate a lot of ice cream. I watched a lot of movies. I listened to a lot of podcasts, your podcast being one of them. And just did my meetings every single day at 8 o'clock. And what did all of that and that new routine for you? Like how did that keep you grounded and help you stay on course? Well, and I forgot to mention one thing. So I love this quote that I just pulled it up on my phone.

Alcoholism lives in your head. Sobrity lives in your feet. Somebody told me that when I was newly sober and I'm like, you're an idiot. It's so true. I started running on the treadmill. I've always been a runner. I love running. I love working out. And just moving, getting physical and getting my heart rate up is so important to my sobriety journey. Yeah. To help you out too, I mean with I think mental health too, right? Oh, 100%. I mean, it helps. Yeah. I mean, I really work out for my mental health. But I mean, yeah, having the benefit of, you know, having a healthy body is also great. But yeah, it's really more

for mental health. Great point. Yeah. Yeah. And then if there's a few side effects of being in shape, you know, I'll take it. Exactly. What does your husband think about? I'm curious to see anybody's perspective from the outside. And did you let other people know, too? Like, hey, I'm going for one year. Oh my gosh. No, not really. I was very secretive. I think I maybe told my neighbor, Carissa, who's still like one of my best friends. And maybe like two other people, obviously having sober parents. My mom really instilled in me, you know, one day at a time. And that's been huge. So every morning that I wake up, I say the same prayer to God. I just say, Lord, give me everything I need to get through my day to day. Amen. And like for a long time, I was disconnected with God because, like,

I was disconnected from everything and everybody, you know, because I was just drinking and drunk all the time. And so that kind of turned into a stronger personal relationship with God where, you know, in the beginning of my sobriety, I'm talking to God like every second saying, Lord, I really need help. Please help me get through these next 15 minutes. I mean, sometimes it was 15 minutes. Sometimes it was minute by minute when I was newly sober. That's how bad my addiction got.

Yeah. Was that your relationship with God there you share? Was that something that you had grown up with? Yeah. I had always gone to church. I'd always been a Christian. and, you know, I had a personal relationship with God, but I think, you know, as you grow up, you know, I kind of not fell away from it, but I just wasn't actively pursuing it in my heart.

And I think, you know, when I first got sober, those, it was in between those 12 and 52 days, God was like, I heard his voice so clearly say, like, you can't live like this or I can't give you anything that I want to give you. And I'm like, I know Lord, you know, and that really was powerful to me. Yeah, wow. I've heard something before. I don't know if the person was relating it to sobriety, but blocking our blessings. Yes, 100%. Like, I was blocking out.

I mean, when you drink, you block out everything. Yeah. And I love somebody said this to me, like, the reason why they call it spirits. Like, it cancels out your own spirit, your own soul. You can't cultivate anything. in there because you're just dead in the eyes all the time. Yeah. I mean,

this is a massive tangent that I'm sure we could go down, but I'm always kind of interested to like how all of this all started. You know, I mean, you get everybody introduced to this and then you're selling it and making it look like so much fun and sort of a right of passage for a lot of people, right, you turn 21 or, you know, here in Canada, 19, someplace is 18.

And it's like what everybody wants to do when they, you know what I mean? When they turn 19, you have everybody gassed up for like their first legal drink at 21 or whatever. And it's like, man, I think we're going to look back at this time in our lives. I think we'll really look back at this time and say, you know what? I don't know if it's that we were fooled or it'll be something. There'll be something to say like, okay, you know, like that was reckless. How that will be. I agree. I think maybe in 10 years from now,

we'll look at alcohol the same way we look at cigarettes, hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. I think I've definitely heard some chatter with that, I think for sure. I mean, that's great. I can't remember who came out with it. It was maybe the, what was it, the something general. Anyway.

General surgeon? Yeah. He said like no amount of alcohol is safe. And I felt so good. I was like, yes. Yeah. Being sober is awesome. And I was so glad that that didn't come out when I was like still drinking because I'd be

like, fuck you. Yeah, I mean, even, but even when we're still drinking, I mean, I think it's like probably a mix of denial and maybe delusion of like we see sort of the effects of it. But I think as humans, our brain is constantly working to protect us. So even though I knew the destruction of everything, like I would just say, oh, I mean, of course for them, but never me. I would never, no, it never happened to me. I'll never have any problems with. I do remember who he's a client of ours. he got sober and in my company.

He got sober and I just remember thinking, I'm like him. I'm going to have a problem and I'm going to have to get sober someday. But today is not that day. And I ended up at the liquor store. You know, but I just remember dealing that. I think it was like five years ago. I was like, oh, wow.

Like that sucks for him. You know, that's going to be me someday. But today is not that day. Today is not it. Yeah, no, I hear you on that. Well, thank you so much for sharing all that. I wanted to talk really quick before we wrap up, too, about your business venture and everything and what that experience is like. Because I know a lot of people are nervous when they get sober.

Like, am I going to be able to ever be around alcohol again? Yeah. How is that going to look? Like, you want to share on that a little bit? Yeah. You know, my husband and I created a company called the Aero Bar. We've been in business eight years. And then he also has a sister company named Arrow Build where he manufactures mobile trailers.

When we first started our company, we just thought I was going to be like a side hustle. I mean, our mobile trailer that we built lived in our backyard. We never thought it would be like our business like full time. And so anyways, yeah, I mean, being around alcohol, obviously, I guess when I first got sober, I was really nervous about that aspect of it. I guess now I think of it like maybe I compartmentalize really well almost to a detriment, which is great. But, you know, we're in the service industry.

My job is to make my customers happy. It doesn't, I don't really correlate the two of like the alcohol drinking portion. I'm thinking of it as like a full service thing, like making sure my staff look great and make great drinks. And obviously we serve coffee as well, coffee and espresso. you know, just delivering a great service is kind of where I think about it. But yes, initially I was very nervous about being around alcohol and what that looked like for my sobriety. Maybe it would hurt my company if I shared my sobriety journey.

And it hasn't. I actually think I'm a better boss, better business owner. I'm overall just a better human being being 100% sober. Yeah. Any, yeah, thanks for sharing that too. Yeah. I mean, I think that we level up in so many ways. And there's levels to it. I think you can probably agree that, you know, where you were one year ago, you've made a lot of progress since. I think the other thing with drinking is I can only speak for myself, obviously, but I didn't really make a whole heck of a lot of progress for maybe a couple of years, you know. And in sobriety, I can always see sort of milestones in growth. I've done more in the last two years of my life that I ever did in the last 10 years of my drinking. life. Yeah, which is incredible. Yeah. And there's anything. Oh, sorry, I wanted to read one quote. Yeah. I wrote this down. So the thing I thought I couldn't live without was actually preventing me from

living at all. Wow. And I just, that really was powerful to me. I was like, yeah, like I didn't feel like I was living. I was just kind of existing. And now I feel like I'm living this like new life. I'm living again. Yeah, which is a beautiful thing to wake up to every day. Oh, like I know the person that I'm going to wake up to every day. Yeah. I was talking with somebody else the other day and somebody wanted to go and explore moderation, which like it's not for me to tell anybody obviously what they got to do. But I just, I just was thinking life is too short and there's too much to check out to wake up and feel like crap.

You know, that's sort of like at the surface level. I mean, alcohol, I drink again. My life has impacted in many different ways for me drinking. It's not just waking up feeling like crap in the morning will probably be like one of the easier consequences that I would have to deal with. But I just think that life today and the way I see it is I don't have one day to spare. I don't have one day. Totally. There is nothing more priceless to me than a regulated nervous system.

Like through chaos, through my. kids, you know, throwing food and, you know, we're missing flights and obviously I'm running a company. Maybe people are calling out of shifts last minute, which happens all the time. Lovely. I'm still just, my baseline is so low that I'm able to handle everything. I don't live with anxiety anymore. I don't have depression. I haven't had a panic attack since I stopped drinking. So for over two years, it's just like that to me is completely priceless. It's, It's so worth it. Yeah, all of those other changes, too.

And, you know, it comes with time too, right? I mean, you step away and then you can look back and start to see, like, the true impact alcohol was, was having on our lives. For sure. For sure. Yeah, the nervous system, regulated nervous system is just, you know, it's just peaceful. It's just peaceful. It's, I know.

I think I always post on my Instagram, like, this is peace. Like, yeah, when I, to this day, see, you know, I went to a. a brewery on Friday with my husband for his company. And I had a couple of Topo Chicos and, you know, just seeing people like sloshing drinks around. It like, it's so chaotic. No judgment, but still for me, I'm like, wow, like for what? For what? Nothing. It's very unpredictable. Unpredictability, maybe getting arrested. Not for me. Yeah, exactly. Just thinking about anybody who's listening and thinking about getting started with sobriety or just needs a little bit of support to keep going. What would you mention to them?

Oh my gosh. I'm the last person that I would ever think that would be sober. And I would encourage people, you know, if you're having a hard time, but you're not ready for like full blown sobriety, do what I did. Take a month off. Take two months off. Give your yourself small goals because in that newer phase of not drinking, it can be really isolating. It can be very scary. Actually, my anxiety worsened in the beginning because I didn't know how to, I didn't know how to life without alcohol. So it's definitely scary.

But I would just encourage you to do like, just like small little goals in the beginning. And really just one day of time. Yeah, that's beautiful too. Yeah, just to start somewhere. For sure. I mean, start. And then I think even you mentioned too in the 12 days and the 52 days, you started to realize things could be different, kind of get a taste of what it's like. I honestly, I didn't know that I could feel this good in those days.

I was like, okay, so this is how normal people operate. Like I've been operating like 10% of, you know, what God has given me. What would happen if I operated at 100%? Like, who would that person be? and that's been really cool to like find out like I can do stuff I can sing again if I want to I can you know I'm working on a book like writing a book I'm doing all these things that when I was drinking I wasn't even confident enough to think that I could do anything wow a book yeah maybe a sober track yeah it's yeah it's definitely based on sobriety my first chapter

is called it's five o'clock somewhere so oh wow I love it Yeah. Cool. It's got humor in the kind of like, you know, dark, you know, spaces that are in new sobriety. Yeah. Well, that's cool. I'm excited for that. Anything else you want to mention before we scoot?

No, I mean, I love your classes as well. You know, if you guys are listening and wanting to be sober or you're sober curious, Brad, his community is amazing. I highly recommend the sober motivation community. you don't even have to turn on your camera. You don't have to share. You can just listen. A lot of times I just listen with my kids in the background

and I'm in my pajamas. And just hearing people's stories, really, it gets, like, pulls on your heartstrings and gives you motivation for the rest of the day or the rest of the week or the rest of the month. Yeah, yeah, beautiful. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you coming on.

Yes, thank you so much for having me. I'm really grateful. Well, there it is. another episode here on the podcast. It was great to have Jordan share. Very relatable, I think, for so many people out there about sort of the journey and, you know, the rock bottom and rock bottomish and then turning things around and just how grateful Jordan is, and I think a lot of us are, to be sober and to just remove so much chaos from our life. I mean, almost naturally. by removing alcohol, making better choices, moving in that direction.

A lot of things change. Everything changes. Everything's changed in my life over the years. And as always, thank you for tuning in. If you have not left a review, jump over to Apple or Spotify, drop a five-star. And I'll see you on the next one.