Sober Motivation: Sharing Sobriety Stories - Sober Motivation Podcast: A Year in Review

Episode Date: December 31, 2023

This episode marks a year-end review of the Sober Motivation Podcast. I reflect on the journey of the podcast throughout the year, having shared many motivational stories from various individuals overcoming alcohol addiction. Major highlights include heart-touching narratives of former WWE superstar, Jake 'The Snake', former NHL player Nate Thompson, and Renee, a mother who lost her daughter to an overdose. The host expresses gratitude to the people he met on Instagram, his friends including Laura, Megan, Stephanie, Ash, Hillary, and Jen for their contributions. He also acknowledges the incredible fan base of the podcast and appreciates the widespread positive response received, with over 800,000 downloads in the year, being streamed in over 100 countries. Lastly, he encourages listeners to remember their progress, appreciate their sobriety, and continue pushing forward despite the challenges.

How's it going, everyone? Welcome back to this episode, a year in review for the Sober Motivation podcast. Wow. What a year it has been. Over a hundred story episodes have been published, and the impact has been incredible, not only for me, but also for you. I know this because a day rarely goes by that I don't hear from someone whom the podcast has touched. Over the year, we shared so many inspirational stories, and some really hit home. One of those being Jake the Snake, the life he had growing up, and then the rise to the W.W.E. A wrestling superstar. And then his downfall due to addiction. His ability to come back from that is incredible. We kicked off February with the story of Nate Thompson,

and former NHL player who struggled with addiction for many of those years. We were also joined by Manny. Manny went from an EMT to a cop to the biker life, to being told there was nothing that could be done to save his life, and he was being sent home for a hospice, and that alcohol consumption was the root cause. We had some powerful women share their stories on the podcast as well, and some of my friends from Instagram.

Laura, AKA your sober pal, Megan from Sober Sistas, Stephanie Noble, Ash Butters, Hillary Phelps, and Jen from Sobisys, and so many more. Incredibly powerful stories, all a little bit different, all a little bit the same. But all deciding that life might look better and could be better without alcohol and they moved on it. Also, we had Joe, Mike, and Ricky. three people I met through Instagram and had a privilege to get to know more and more throughout our interactions in the sober buddy community.

Three people who showed me day in and day out that we can do hard things. Thanks a lot, guys. Maybe one of the most powerful shares on the podcast was that of Renee. She lost her daughter, Sabrina, to an overdose and joined the podcast to share not only her story, but Sabrina's story as well and to deliver a message to anyone struggling with addiction. Thank you so much for that, Renee. We learned that addiction and alcohol intake lives on a spectrum, and we can exit to ride at any time.

Rock Bottom is not a requirement for a better life. We had guests that identified with gray area drinking, being an alcoholic, or neither, and I appreciated all of their personal stories. A lot of people reach out saying that they are true fans and hopes to get on the show. With several hundred requests over the year, it's difficult to pick the stories that we can include in the show. With time, we'll get to all of them, but it just takes a little bit of time.

I know for sure that Liz, Dan, Mike Kenon, Brew, Derek, Jason, Scottie, and Allison were huge fans of the show. And all of their stories blew me away. Their stories of resilience and a burning desire to show up differently in the world. With 43-plus years of sobriety and a massive fan of the show, we had less join us to share how he had been able to do it and what got him to a place to ask for help. I have to be honest,

I wasn't even fully aware of alcohol's effects on so many people's health and was the main cause for several hospital visits for so many guests. Over the year, I have received a lot of thank yous, and it means the world. Honestly, here is me saying thank you to you. because we do this one story at a time. Without stories and without support, we have no show. So thank you for sharing the podcast, listening in, leaving your reviews and being a massive part of my life in 2023.

I've been creating sober content on social media for nearly six years. It has had its ups and downs. But with podcasting, I feel I found my voice and something that truly brings me joy. I personally don't have all the answers to getting and staying sober, but with 115 episodes published on the podcast, I think you can find something in every episode that can help you. As always, I have a tremendous amount of love and empathy for those still struggling, and I know you can figure this out. We wrapped up the year with some powerful stories of life, sobriety, and change.

Thank you to every guest. Thank you to every listener. Thank you to everyone who left the review. Thank you to everyone who has supported this vision that started so small, but has grown so big. With over 800,000 downloads in this year, streamed in over 100 countries, the reach and impact has been incredible.

If there was a conversation or story that really hit home for you, I would love to hear about it. As we turn the page on 2023 and head into 2024, be sure to take some time to reflect back on the big wins the small wins the things you want to improve but just don't lose sight of how tough it can be if this is your first year sober never forget about the first six months or the first three months or the first 30 days or the first day if you've been able to put a day together 30 days together three months six months anything that's progress and this is all about

progress, not perfection. So be proud of yourself is very, very tough to do. Some people will live out their entire life avoiding getting sober. And if you've done it, be proud of yourself. And things might not look perfect. And as people go into the new year and the end of 2023 and they share their highlight reels of everything they've done and you feel like you haven't done that much, but you spent this year getting your life together, that's what it's all about. You'll get there. I'm with you.

I spent a lot of this year getting things in order, building a foundation for what's next. Wasn't always posting on a sunny beach on Instagram. Life's not always like that. And if it wasn't like that for you either, I'm with you. But let's find something to be proud of. Let's be proud of ourselves and the things that we did that maybe people didn't notice accomplishments we made that maybe people didn't notice.

That's what matters. It matters when we start to show up for ourselves. We start to show up a little bit differently. And we start to show up and build relationships that actually have substance and that means something and build that relationship with ourselves where we can trust ourselves again. We can rely on ourselves. An incredibly powerful thing. So no matter where you're at in your journey, I've got nothing but love and respect for you.

And like I said before, I appreciate your support with the podcast with bringing this thing to life. I'll never forget recording the intro and I'll never forget trying to record the first episode with my buddy Luke. And we jumped on there and I couldn't get my mic working. I had no idea what was wrong. And when I look back, oh my goodness, it was so simple. But we kept with it. We didn't give up. It's so easy to give up.

But when things get hard this year in 2024, I want you just to keep going. And I want you to ask yourself, what is in this that I can learn? What can I learn from this? And learn something from it. Pick yourself back up. That's what it's all about. So I'll see you guys in 2024. Let's go.