Trading Secrets - 13: Zac Clark’s Reset, from Rock Bottom & Rehab, to Founding the Release Recovery Ground

Episode Date: August 9, 2021

We know Zac Clark from his beautiful love story on The Bachelorette with his fiancé Tayshia Adams, who now co-hosts The Bachelorette with Jason’s fiancé Kaitlyn Bristowe. But on this episode, Zac discusses his days before the beautiful love story, specifically the dark chapters of his history which lead him down the road of excessive drinking, drugs and addiction. Zac talks about what he did as an addict to hide his addiction, how he paid for the drugs, and the scary things he learned about the illegal business of drug dealing. His life story takes a dark turn to a truly inspiring, Restart moment Zac will never forget and will always appreciate. Zac trades all of his personal and professional secrets he’s learned along the way, from hitting rock bottom to founding “Release Recovery,” which assists people in the same shoes in which he once was. This is an episode that we will remember forever.  Host: Jason Tartick For All Access Content - join our networking group for less than 30 cents a day! Voice of Viewer: David Arduin Executive Producer: Evan Sahr Produced by Dear Media.

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Welcome back to another episode of Trading Secrets. It is the Bachelor finale here on Monday. So today we got to talk. I mean, you got two co-hosts up there, Tach Adams and Caleb Bristow. So why not bring on Tatea? Alicia's fiancee, the man, the myth, the legend. He is the founder of release in recovery and 501C3

Release Recovery Foundation. He's an absolute beauty. And in Bachelorette season 16, he navigated his way towards the final rose, which ended in an engagement with Tasha Adams, who is now co-hosting the show with Caitlin. Now, I want to warn here, because this podcast, every podcast we go into, you guys, you got to know that our idea is to do two things. Get industry secrets, get tips and tricks to life, and break down the dollars and cents. But you just never know where the conversation will go. And so with Zach, we really got into the specifics of his struggle, his struggle with addiction, and how his struggle actually led to him recovering, coming out of recovery, and now owning is a business owner, addiction centers that help people that undergo the same issues that he nearly

died from. And so this episode gets in the weeds about self-help, learning, understanding like how and when you need to hit your restart. What emotionally charged him to make the changes in his life. We even do get into a little bit of dollars and cents, but not much, but we do get into some dollars and cents where we're talking about, you know, I ask them, how much did you spend on drugs? Did you ever think about being a drug dealer? What's that whole industry like? So this is definitely a different type of episode. But it's an episode that was so powerful and a little bit different than just money talk that hopefully can help you, someone you know or someone you love that is battling with some sort of necessity to change. It could be as small as just wanting

to have a conversation with your boss, as big is wanting to leave your job or industry, or even as magnifying, is maybe having an addiction. And this is one of the most powerful conversations I've had in quite some time. So without further ado, let's ring in the bell

to another episode of Trading Secrets with the one, the only, the stud of all studs, Zach Clark. living that dream making that money money rain on me Before we get into where you are today,

I want to take a few steps back because I don't think you'd be where you are today unless you actually did hit rock bottom. And I want to kind of talk through that and get through the details of what that was like for you. But before I do that, I want to go to what Zach was like before you became addicted to drugs.

And so you go to York College and you're studying sports management, you're a collegiate athlete. So when you enter college, tell me what your thoughts and dreams were professionally and what that vision looked like during your time at York. Yeah, I mean, that was probably part of the problem to begin with, right? Like, I showed up, I kind of picked the easiest major

that I thought existed. I was a total jock, right? So I figured, like, I'm going to play baseball for four years. I'm going to try and play baseball after college. And, you know, eventually, like, the dream is that I'm going to work in sports. And so there was no creative thinking. It was kind of just like this was the next step and the progression of my life. And like, you know, I had seen my old man in business and knew that there would probably be some opportunities there for me if I needed to fall back on

that. But I was always kind of like the black sheep, if you will. So I was going to go left when everyone was going right. I get that. And so then at what point was it kind of like the partying in college, at what point did the dreams of maybe playing pro baseball or the aspiration of taking it? I love that. The easiest major at school sports management. Hey, you know what? There's a lot to that world. But at what point did like those worlds start colliding where your outlook post college kind of started to take a backseat to the priority of maybe it was the drinking, the drugs? What was that like? Well, a couple things happened in college. So I met a girl my sophomore year that I actually ended up marrying right which is a part of my story that we

may or may not get into so I was very focused on that um I was very focused on on baseball but I was well aware that I was not performing to the level that I should be just based on the amount I was drinking and so like as early as my sophomore year you know I probably started blacking out like two three times a week right and and so naturally my performance in all areas my life started to suffer and any desire to look into the future kind of slipped away and to my credit like I made it look good or I made it look fun right so no one was really like talking to me about the what the consequences of kind of phoning in college might be yeah no I think that makes sense now did you have any I think in general like all of us put like protective mechanisms in place right

to sometimes avoid from like facing the real issue and or even showing up others that there might be a real issue. Did you have any kind of like protective strategies that you would put in place so that the people that do care most about you are like, ah, he's a college kid, he's just having fun. This is, this is fine. Yeah, I met the girl. She was protective strategy one. I played baseball. So I was on a competitive team playing at a high level. And I did well in school. So those three things were my armor. And if anyone ever tried to question my partying, I would just say, well, I'm doing this. And with all that, I ended up graduating four years. So no one could really say shit about what I was doing because I was kind of checking the

boxes. So on paper, everything looked and was good, but it was kind of the things that were happening underneath. At what point did you kind of realize, or did someone in the layer outside of just yourself realize, like, wait, this isn't just fun in games. There might be an onset of something more serious here that could impact all your things right family financially professionally yeah i think if anyone knew it was probably a couple of my teammates right because i would just you know we would have a big game the next day and i'd be out at the bar until 3 am and like they'd be carrying me home i remember you know i was so sick that i was like i need to be a starting pitcher because the starting pitcher only plays once every five days which means i get the you know party you know more than the like if i'm

in the pen and they need to call me every every game so like i literally was setting my life up so that, you know, I could drink the way that I wanted to. But look, man, I would say, like high school, it was kind of like a day used to confuse experience, smoking some weed, drink some beers in the woods. And then I got into college, and that's when the drinking really ramped up because there was obviously no parenting.

I was living on my own. You know, I felt like I had a better, like, education when it came to drinking than many of my classmates, my freshman year. So I kind of like brought this right of passage with me, based on my high school experience. And then I would say probably like my sophomore year, I was introduced to some drugs that allowed me to party, you know, harder and stay up a little later.

And once that kind of got in the mix, it was game over. Okay. So you go, and I think like a lot of those things, too, you say you resonate with like I smoked a little weed in high school too and drank a little bit and then started probably drinking more in college. What do you think like that the turning point was, was it when you started taking some of these? like stimulants and were those gateways to like the next drug like when did what was the breaking point

that you were like I'm kind of relying on this stuff and what specifically was it it definitely wasn't in college it definitely wasn't in college I mean I think for me whether whether it be like now in my life today or back then I've always been kind of fearless right so I'll try anything once literally so you put it in front of me I'm going to try it and if I like it I'm going to do it again I don't care of that's a slice of pizza or a line of Coke, right? Like, it's just, if it feels good to me, I'm going to do it, and I'm going to do it over and over again. So, you know, definitely love drinking. And for me, like, I must say, like, it starts and it ends with a drink. Like, most of my, like, drinking gave me the moxie to go out and, like, do the blow or, like, take the Adderall

or, like, you know, end up, you know, at a late night somewhere or whatever it was. And so, I mean, college was somewhat like normal as I was to find it. It really started to set in after, after school for me. And then like I, I realized I wasn't going to play baseball anymore. And I kind of moved home. And then I moved, you know, my ex-wife back home with me. And I started to set up, right? Like this suburban, suburbia existence that I thought every man was supposed to set up, right?

Like, this is what you do. You go to college. You leave the town. Then you move back to your hometown. You have four kids. You ride off from the sunset. So right. Yeah. And I think that's kind of some of the challenges that that we're hearing a lot of now is that there are these, anyone that's here listening live, there are these societal pressures that steer us in a direction as it relates to school or a career or what we're doing Monday to Friday. But then we kind of look back and we're like, shit, we might be living our whole identity, our whole professional life through the eyes of what people are kind of asking us to do rather than taking control of it ourselves. Do you, so right after school, you move everything back home from a career perspective, what were you doing? And do you think that the

stresses of that career and this life you were supposed to live may have led to more consumption of the alcohol, the drugs, the cocaine, et cetera? I mean, absolutely, right? So as a 22, 23 year old kid, a salary or 40, 50 grand a year feels like I'm rich, right? So I get this job and, you know, classic kind of first job out of school. I'm a recruiter. And they kind of hand me this phone and a stack of requirements and a stack of resumes. And they say, you know, make this work. And I soon figured out, like, as long as I keep this number next to my name where it's

supposed to be, like, no one's going to be on my shit. And like, it was this boiler room, cube farm environment. And I thrived because I just like, I was competitive, right? So like I just like I nailed the phones all day. And then at five o'clock, like I found my crew that I would go out to the happy hours with. And it was all very comfortable for me. Like it was this competitive kind of like ego driven environment that felt like a locker room. And now I have a paycheck. So it was it was just like this perfect storm of like false success, if you will, you know. Yeah, totally. And yeah, I mean, you got the career. You got your, you feel good about what you're doing. You're starting to make the dials. You're achieving those. You're achieving those. results, but then that's such an easy, like, again, mechanism to avoid the reality of the situation. And so from the reality of your situation, before you undergo some of the crazy stories that you shared with us on The Bachelorette, but those stories are made you who you are and the impact you're having now, you know, what were you on a, let's say like a daily, weekly basis,

how much were you spending and how much were you consuming from a booze and drugs perspective? So the finances around being a drug addict are very fascinating, right? So then I got like I had this brain surgery and I eventually got hooked on pills, right? And so when I was- What age was that, Zach? So the brain, that was 2007. So that was like the year after college. So I was like 20, 23, 24 years old.

And so coming out of that, I started, you know, doing the pain killers. And it starts like any habit starts, right? Like one a day and that's like 30 bucks, right? one pill is 30 bucks all of a sudden i'm doing five a day right so you're up to like 150 bucks not to mention like any beers you might be having and you know if i could take you back in time i'm a diehard philly sports fan so like the phillies are at the height of their like you know the mid the mid 2000s like they win the world series in 2008 so like i'm down at citizen's bank park every night you know like just turning it on um and by the end you know like so so what

happens in the progression of like a drug addictor for myself it gets too expensive right like if i'm doing 150 250 milligrams a day of of oxy cotton that's going to cost me about a dollar a milligram so then that's why a lot of times we see people graduate to heroin which eventually was my you know my path right because a bag of heroin is 10 bucks and you can get high for an entire day for 100 bucks so that kind of restarts the process. So my, my habit was probably like two, three hundred bucks a day for a while there, which you can, you can do the math, not a cheap, cheap habit. And then, you know, that kind of like reset. And then at the end, the very end, my habit was probably like four or five hundred bucks a day because I was, I was smoking crack cocaine, too. And that stuff's just like, it's nuts. So

the finances were definitely intense. Do you think, I mean, those numbers are, those are numbers I wasn't at all aware of, but that's crazy. Do you think the economics behind it is why so many people actually end up down a path of maybe drugs that cost less but have a harsher impact and or are more addictive and things like that? 100%. 100%. So like, so for me, the best way to describe it is I kind of graduated from if you could

picture it in your mind, right? Like college, whatever. like if you had the weed man right you send a text you get you get the gram and you know like you roll a joint you smoke a slip whatever sure i graduated from the drug dealer which was like hey man you got pills to eventually the street life which was you know going to canada new jersey where there are drug sets as you can picture because we've all watched tv and like it's exactly like you see in the shows and you know you pull up to these drug sets and you start to learn the street life and it's a whole world and business within itself.

Now, is there a point in your life? Because, I mean, I'm just running my little weird number brains, running the number of 500 bucks a day times five days. If there's only five days a week, and I'm looking at the math, and that's just one consumer. Is there ever a point in your life where you're starting to see these numbers? You're starting to see what you're spending, and you're thinking, maybe I could afford this addiction

and make some damn good money while illegal, but still do it by selling drugs. I you know it's hilarious people ask me this all the time I think I would have been the worst drug dealer I just I just like drugs too much I would have used all the product you know you can laugh about it now it's it's fucking hilarious to use my language but like you know it's like I never crossed my mind because I don't think I would have been able to do it and like I had the means you know when I was in the height of my addiction there was a lot of doctor shopping taking place which basically meant people were you know getting diagnosed with injuries and they were going to doctors and

have them write script for painkillers and then shop around to all the local doctors. So you had like 10 doctors writing you use scripts. And for me, I had a legit, like I had a scar on the back of my head. I could have, you know, used that to my advantage and dealt drugs and made money. But I chose to go, you know, to the pawn shops and do some other grimy stuff to get my cash. To get the cash to do it. That is another crazy side of the business. I've heard people that will pay exorbitant amounts to get a doctor.

appointment knowing that the doctor will take that cash and then write scripts. That's something you saw in your days of addiction and using. Yeah. And I mean, we've gotten better with it. I mean, there's some technology and some systems that have been put into place over the years. But back then, it was like the Wild Wild West. I mean, like, I mean, people would, I knew people that would drive down to Florida because it was like crazy down there and they bring all the drugs up. I mean, it was, it was gnarling for sure. That's wild. And then most of the drug deals, you made the comment, Like, yeah, but I would use it all. So I would be a bad drug dealer.

When you were interacting with these people, would you say that their business acumen was pretty tight in the fact that they would know what they were selling, they wouldn't use, like, what was that like? So there was two guys that I was running around with at the end of my, you know, little run there, dog and bro, dog and bro, they were my two guys. And they didn't do drugs. it was strictly and like they they was strictly a business and an occupation and a job for them and like i genuinely would tell you today like they were nice guys they were good guys i just

they needed to to make money and this is how they did it wow it's it's crazy they hear that and when you're dealing with these guys are there tactics that you now give people you work with i just think i think about like a casino right they have so many strategies to keep you in the door they don't have lighting. There's no clocks. They increase the oxygen in there so that you spend more time in the casino and then you gamble more. Now knowing like kind of like what you went through and making such an impact, positive impact on so many families in people's lives, do you give certain strategies to like avoid the like the temptation and the strategies drug dealers use on addicts to like stay the hell away? I wish I had like the magic bullet there. You know,

I really do. I just unfortunately in my line of work, it's a lot of trial and error. It's a lot of like staying in the ring with these people. It's a lot of, you know, allowing them to make some mistakes and being there to lift them up afterwards. You know, like I just look at my own personal story. Like I went to rehab the first time. My wife ended up leaving me. You know, that boundary was put in place, which I needed in order to like really truly go out and hit my bottom.

And I'm very like grateful for her doing that. But like my family didn't give up. me and my friends didn't give up on me like they hung in there with me and I ended up back in rehab and you know I ultimately like got the got the help that I needed and uh you know it's the best thing that ever happened to me I can say that you know without a bail that's I mean it's such an incredible story for you I think at all levels people hit different types of rock bottom and it obviously the magnitude of it changes but then there's something there's a catalyst with all of us. I mean, it could be as simple as just, you know, seeing what an old friend is achieving

and it wakes you up. Or it could be, you know, as is concerning, is almost losing your life or, you know, like you did, like actually going through gallbladder surgery to get pain pills prescribed. Like, it's wild. But there's all, I think there always is like a cat catalyst, right? There's a driver that, like, something creates this total chemical change in your body and you're like, I'm going to do it. For you when you pull the on your back, like, what was that moment that really created the new Zach, the one that said, I'm going to do this, I'm going to make it through it all. I always believed in myself, you know, even in my darkest moments. I mean, that's how I was able to cop drugs on a daily basis because I would figure it out.

I mean, there were days there where I need to have, you know, like I had to do some creative thinking. But there was, there's a day, I mean, my last day, you know, and it's a good story. So I'll tell in about two minutes here but my dad is like my hero my mentor he's he's my guy in business and life and relationships so he hung in there with me like he was the last guy to kind of like all right either this whole ship is going down we're going to lose Zach or like I'm going to save his life kind of thing and so we had done a family vacation at the jersey shore and and hurricane arena was hitting I remember and it was crazy weather and I drove from the shore back up to to Camden to get drugs. I end up getting a DUI. I spent a night in the jail. They take my car. I

walk back into Camden and I'm kind of like running around on the streets for, you know, three, four, five days. I lose track of time. Missing reperson ports are filed. And I'm deep into it. You know, like I'm, I'm deep into it. And it was a Saturday morning I had broken into my dad's office the night before and stole one of his checks on Friday night. And I was with my two guys, dog and bro. We were going to, you know, cash my old man's check and get to work. And so I went into the bank at this point, I'm 250 pounds. I had this like horrible fro. 250 pounds?

I can't even picture that. How much do you wait now? I'm like 180. Yeah, I was the only drug addict to put on wakes. I think I would do drugs all day and then eat Papa Johns at night. Like that was my thing. By walking in and this bank tell her, Rhonda Jackson, I know her name because I recently visited her.

She knew something was up. And she kind of like, she said, I'll be back in a minute. and she left and she called my dad. Now, I'm going to paint the picture here. My dad runs a pretty successful business. He didn't know what the hell was going on. He decided to go into work Saturday morning. So he's sitting at his desk on a Saturday morning, which doesn't happen.

He gets a phone call on his work phone, which he doesn't pick up from an unknown number, doesn't pick up and just says, what can I lose? And he picks up the phone. Like the chances of him being there are one in a million. And is he thinking, Zach, right now at this moment, his son's missing? because those missing files are still on the office? Yeah, he's at the office. He doesn't know what to do.

He's just like he's scrambling. He gets his call on his work phone, not his cell, his work. And it's an unknown number. He picks it. And it's Rhonda Jackson. Sir, I think you should get down here. So I'm like, twilling my thumbs in this bank, like, waiting for my money to come because I'm like, I'm some kind of genius.

The next thing I know, my dad walks through the doors. And he puts his arm on my arm and he's like, son, we're going home. And in that moment, like, you know, I don't care of you believe in God, what religion. Like, whatever it is. Like, that was my moment of clarity. spiritual experience where like everything kind of left me and I knew at that moment like I was going to start this journey and the next day I was in rehab for four and a half months and from there like my life my life just kind of took off and this was August of 2011 so here we are

wow that is a remarkable story and you think about what could have happened if ronda didn't go through that process right for your dad to come in and find you and have you kind of just restart your whole entire life. So that moment happens and then you go into rehab and how long of a recovery process was it? And one of the things, I have a very close friend here in Nashville who also was an addict and has recovered and works for a non-for-profit. And he says, there is nothing. There is nothing in the world like withdrawal. Like I have had hangovers. I have had terrible flus. Nothing even touches it. So do you agree with this? Sounds like my kind of guy.

I mean, he's a great dude, awesome guy. But do you think, is that true? Like, was that how your recovery process was too? I mean, the withdrawal from opiates and benzos, which is like your Xanax, your clonopin, like, I wouldn't wish it on my worst out of me. And I can say that. Like, it is, it is gnarly. I mean, you're talking about the sweats, the cold sweats, the shivers, your bowels are all

jacked up. I mean, like, and then the mental just torture because, you know, when you're getting high, it's just the dopamine in your brain. It's like, you know, everyone remembers the first time they got drunk, right? And like what we don't know is that that feeling like that elation, we will never get back to that point again. Like it's almost impossible. And that's what we're doing.

When we go out and drink, we're chasing that like that and that first high that we felt and that dopamine like spike that we felt. So, you know, when you remember. remove the drugs or the alcohol, now your brain is just like the dopamine is just flatlined and you're not working out. You're not eating good. I mean, you're doing nothing. So you're on top of everything else. You're depressed. You know, so it's gnarly. And so you get through that experience, which sounds like, man, that had to be hell and back. It makes sense to what you're saying about how you're always chasing. Like, that's your, you know, why do we drink? It's a stress reliever. It's a relaxation. It's always trying

to get back to that pinnacle of maybe what we felt at one point. For you, you hit. like a full freaking reset, like you get out of rehab. You're going through this hell. You have a lot of relationships to try and cure. And then professionally, I mean, I got to assume that must feel like rock bottom. But inevitably, you go from being the person that is being intervened to the person that is intervening others. How when you got out of rehab, did you start to put the pieces of the puzzle together to figure out your life professionally. Yeah, I mean, look, I grew up playing team sports. I, you know, I always loved people. I always viewed myself real or fancied as a leader, right, like in the locker room, team captain kind of stuff. And I loved business. I just loved

the deal. I loved the, you know, like that, you know, which... Just the art of the deal. Yeah, if you know it, you love it. And so, like, I came out of rehab and I had this clear mind. and I move up to New York City and I'm up there kind of like running around getting sober and I'm still like my job was super cool they were letting me kind of like continue to work remotely and I just knew that I had this calling right to like that I was going to work with people like myself

and you know I ended up being introduced to my now co-founder Justin Gerland who we've been doing this thing shoulder to shoulder now for about nine and a half years you know And we worked for another organization in New York. And then about four and a half years ago, we went out on our own. And I'm very open about the fact that, like, I don't have the Harvard, you know, degree. You know, I don't have the formal clinical training. But what I do have is the experience of going on to a drug set, you know, and like being

in some pretty, like, intense situations and working myself through that and being able to share that with other humans and being able to share some of that experience is really my greatest gift today. So, you know, I just started doing it. I just started practicing helping people. I started seeing what worked, just like anything else. You know, like, and like, you know, Michael Jordan, like had Phil Jackson. So like I had a guy that was kind of like showing me the ropes and like I was just practicing my jumper. And eventually like I got really comfortable doing this work. And, and like I feel like I had some business acumen and like one thing just kind of led to another. And I got to tell you like today, I don't feel like I work. I mean, I do.

do obviously and there's like the operational bullshit and the things that you know the budgets and all the stuff that you got to do but at the end of the day like this is I'm doing exactly what I'm supposed to be doing it so like I say that because like I was stuck and I had this kind of like spiritual experience but I feel like too often in life people get complacent and I don't bet on themselves and that's something I've learned to do honestly yeah I think obviously you bet on yourself. But I love, if you dissect that process, right, there's unique experiences you have that differentiate Zach for Zach. And everyone has those unique experience, whatever it may be. And then you utilize those to leverage forward, but you don't know exactly what to do.

So you get experience for four years with someone else that does and then find your way to just blow it out the door and build your recovery centers and your foundation. So tell me about doing it for nine and a half years. Work doesn't feel like work other than administrative bullshit. And there's administrative and operation bullshit with every single thing any human does. I mean, just administration. I'm enjoying every second of this and just freaking out all these freaking cords today. There's an administrative nightmare, right? That shit happens everywhere. But for you, nine and a half years, tell us a little bit for anybody that doesn't know about what you have built from your recovery centers, your foundation. And then once you tell us that,

I'd love to hear a success story of someone that full circle. Now, you're on the opposite end of helping them push through same thing or similar thing you've undergone. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate that. So with a focus on on release recovery, which is my baby today and, you know, my pride and joy, like I said, Justin, I made the decision to kind of, you know, leave our offensive and defensive coordinator roles and go become head coaches, right? So we went out and, you know, for those you don't know, like my line of work is highly stigmatized, you know, drug addicts and alcoholics, no one wants them in their neighborhood. We had built a career in New York City helping people here and like all of our,

you know, colleagues were in the city, but we made a decision to look up in Westchester County, which is just north of New York City. And we found a property in Westchester County sitting on about three acres. And there were some operators there before that had had some issues in terms of just making the business work. And so we came in and we were able to acquire the property. And, you know, we hung that first shingle. And, you know, at the time, I can tell you that I was in a relationship living in New York City.

I came home one day. I said, hey, I think we're going to buy this house and I think I'm going to move into the house, you know? So, like, I had to go all in. That relationship obviously fell apart, a three-year relationship for a variety of reasons. But I moved in to the house that we bought. to start this program. Like, you know, like, I rolled out my sleeves again

after wearing a suit to work for five days and, like, put the, put the t-shirt on. And for the first year, we fought that town, tooth and nail. I learned more about, like, small town politics and town boards. And, you know, that was the first obstacle, really being welcomed into that town and fighting for our community. And eventually, there was a change in the town supervisor. And a more liberal man became the town supervisor.

and he said, you know, operate as you will. And we haven't looked back. And so that property is now a 17-bed, highly structured transitional living for men. That's like the O.G. And, you know, I was up there today. I love it. And then we have two properties here in New York City, one for men down in the West Village, which is nine beds, and then a 13-bed property for women on the Upper East Side. So we have 40 beds in total. And then in addition to that, we have a pretty large kind of like consultation practice where me and Justin will work with families on the front end and help them get into rehab and really build out these recovery plans over the course of a year, six months to help people recover. So it's been, it's just been an amazing, amazing journey. And we have about, I would

say, I think, last like 45 employees now. And, you know, we're doing it. Yeah, it's great. And so you have a i've researched this four-tier program if you could summarize kind of like what that four-tier program is and then if you could think of uh someone special that's come through your group that the the story start to finish is just like one that will always live in you yeah i mean look i think for me my experience in getting sober was i had to believe that this life i was about to live was not a punishment, you know what I mean? Like I had to. So someone had to instill in me that like you were still going to go to the Eagles games. You were still going to go to the concerts. You were going to still play the rounds of golf. Like, and so, you know, we've built this kind of like

four tier program to give our clients, you know, an understanding that yes, initially for the first 30 days, like you're going to be on a close watch. You know, we're going to kind of like take your phone at night. You're not going to be able to go anywhere by yourself. And, you know, we're going to, we're going to but as you progress and as you show us that you're able to you know operate in the real world we want nothing more than you to like spread your wings and and and then like fly so you know by the time you're in the fourth tier you're like hopefully working you know you're you're like taking overnight passes to go see like girlfriend or family or whatever it is and you're starting to really like you know reintegrate back into into life because that's at the

the end of the day man that's what it's all about we just got to learn how to live again so and so you just do that by by breaking old patterns right is that essentially it right like you're you're finding different tactics to break old patterns to reinvent yourself back into the life you live just doing it completely different yeah i mean look it starts with just getting honest it just starts i mean like there's one thing like it's just and at the end of the day the only person i was lying to is myself you know like that's it so when I see people start to and you asked about an example of someone that you know kind of sticks out to me and there's this guy by the name of keith that is still in our circle today and I got the call on him probably like five six years ago he was living out

in Jersey mom called me I wrote out there we planned kind of this intervention I walked into something that I didn't know I was walking into the kids upstairs puking in the toilet mom's you know on her hands and he's crying there's like I mean, it was just a mess. You know, it's like chaos, like the darkest day for this family. And I kind of walked in and I, there wasn't even really an intervention. I was just kind of like, dude, you're coming with me. And like, we got in the car and we wrote out the treatment and I got him into rehab.

And then he came and lived in one of our, you know, houses. And he was such a pain in the ass. I mean, I got to tell you, like, this kid at every, like, he was on some scholarship to and like just not grateful. And I, like, I wanted to kick this kid out 17 times. But like today, man, that kid is married. he's got a beautiful child at home I went to his wedding he's a good friend

I call him for advice like you know just like the craziest shit it's so wild I mean what a wild story and to know that like that's kind of like the impact your program had

and it's totally turned his life around do you think looking back so obviously you guys have 40 beds now and I'm sure a number of people have come through and stuff is it pretty unanimous what ends up bringing

these people into your recovery beds and group and foundation, or would you say everyone's story is just so wildly different, but the common denominator is like, you're going to die or you need to do something about it? Yeah, I mean, it's definitely not a one-size-fits-all. Absolutely not. And like, one of the things that we've really done a good job at is treating every case differently. Because there are people that show up in my doorstep or show up under my care that I'm not sure they're a drug addict or an alcoholic. I'm not. And it's not my job to kind of label them as that. Right? Like they need to kind of do some of their own work. That's not to say that like engaging with us can't improve their life, right? Like everyone needs a coach, right? Everyone needs someone to guide them. So what we're seeing today, like the trends, I would tell you that like three, four years ago, we were really in the height of this opioid epidemic and people who were dying left and right. We were seeing a lot of that. And it's still rampant. But my biggest concern now is the phone calls I'm getting. And I'm not going to get political with it because I don't really.

give a shit but the legalization of marijuana right has has made that drug more socially accepted and i don't care you know i have friends that would rather smoke than drink and their brains are fully developed so for them to sit at home with their wife or whatever and smoke a smoke a joint that's fine but what's happening is these 12 13 14 year old kids are getting their hands on this shit and it's so strong that they're taking one or two hits and they're smoking themselves psychotic, like literally, because their brains are not developed and they're ending up in treatment centers

at a very young age, and the trajectory of their life is completely altered. So, you know, we're seeing a lot of that, like the marijuana-induced psychosis, which is really scary. And then you always have, you know, you're kind of like garden variety alcoholics who just, you know, love a Budweiser and a Marlboro Red, you know, and everything in between.

so um and and like there's some simple things we do and we know to work like give them community you know encourage them to lie a little less and be a little bit less of an asshole encourage them to like do a little service work and volunteer and see what that feels like and um you know ultimately you know we get pretty good outcomes with what we do that's pretty that's awesome the work you guys are doing now i think too the thing is like this is like the ultimate kind of refresh, restart, and resetting yourself. But I do think that process at different levels is kind of similar regardless if you're just trying resetting yourself, even financially or professionally. Like step one, it's the same thing. It's like, when are you going to get honest with yourself?

When are you going to realize you have to open up that credit card bill? Or when are you going to realize you are miserable at work or that you don't, you are chasing money or whatever it may be. So it's interesting to see those commonalities, obviously, at different degrees. So this is what I have for is that, you know, if I have Mr. Wonderful on here, we'll talk about all his industry and what benchmark success for him, right? Or if I have, like I said earlier, we have Doug the Pugs parents, they have business endeavors that they look at. For you, like, within your industry, and you look at what you've done and where you are, how do you define success as you continue to build what you're building? Like, what are the, is it the amount of people that are positively impacted? Is it

total number of houses opened? Is it patients treated? Like, what's your plan for success five, 10, 20 years from now with what you're doing? That's a great question. And it's one that I would tell you that in my line of work is one of the hardest to measure. You know, you go three for 10 in the major leagues. You might end up in the hall of fame if you play long enough, right? Like three for 10 for me doesn't fly. You know, like that's seven people that would be lost. But I would tell you that we try to track outcomes and we do a pretty good job of it and we try to track our alumni and we try to track all those things. And I would tell you that our numbers against the industry standard are pretty damn good when it comes to that. But there's some like more, you know,

like you look at kind of like some of our alumni groups and you look at like the parents that are still involved and you look at the people that are still hanging around. And you just look at the overall growth of the business from, you know, this one house to this like full service recovery organization that's just helping so many people i mean that's i would say successful you know and like what i've been talking about for the past 20 minutes for leased recovery is is a for profit right like this is we are treating people who don't have insurance we are treating people who can afford our services for whatever reason i fell into this line of work where like really we're working with like the top five percent right the people that can really afford to come out of pocket to to get a high level of

service and so that that presents its challenges in itself right with entitlement and just you know go fix my son go fix my daughter and we've done a good job in that world but the that has motivated us to open the 501 which we are now doing a really good job and I think that's where I will end up truly like just pouring my heart and soul into that because I want to I want to give it to the people that can't afford it I mean for me that's really that's the success story so if you were to ask me what success looks like for me, five, 10, 15 years from now, yeah, that, you know, the business has grown and we're, you know, my livelihood is intact. And I think you can, you know, do well by doing good. You know, I don't, I think that's a, that's the thing that people get uncomfortable

with. I don't because I know that I work my ass off, but that the nonprofit has really taken off and that we are helping more people than we could have ever imagined. So, yeah, I mean, that's, that's, how many people can positive? impact demographic A to Z and then find different tactics to do it. I mean, just for anyone listening, the process of actually, Zach, you can attest to this, to opening a 501c3 is like an absolute nightmare, the administrative burden, the operations associated with that. But to see the impact A to Z, I mean, there has to be nothing more rewarding than that. And to do it and also be able to live your life and drive a successful business and a profit. And I got to assume the

real estate that you guys have, you own it. So obviously you're building big assets there. So to do something strategically from a business perspective that has such great social impact that doesn't feel like work, I mean, that's got to be the dream. Yeah. The craziest shit about it all is that it pertains to the nonprofit piece. So that treatment center that I went to almost 10 years ago is the Karen Foundation. They've been around 60 years or one of the biggest in the country. And so when I got to New York, I showed up in that office. I was like, hi, I'm Zach. volunteer right and they're like okay like wicks some envelopes nine and a half years later i'm on their board of trustees you know it's like i've been on the board for for like i'm the youngest guy in the

room by 20 years i've been serving on that board for like three four years now and it's it's mind bending because like it starts with that first action it started with me showing up with that opposite and i think that's what cripples a lot of people they they don't they don't go get the cup of coffee like my old man taught me he said take every meeting you know just take every meeting And I live my life like that because I never I never know what's going to come out of that like one interaction. That's so true. And like the thing with the interaction is then you got to trust your intuition, right? Because you just got to know what's going to lead you in the right direction.

But you'll never, that door never opens if you don't show up. And I think actually showing up can do the wonders it could do. It's crazy how one email, one message, one something could be the driver that like changes your entire life. and I don't think that's by accident. But, Zach, this has been such a privilege learning more about what you're doing on the for-profit side, also the non-for-profit side, and literally from rock bottom to restart to where you are today. It's just so badass.

I am, it is like there's so many damn people that come through this franchise, and I'm referring to the Bachelor franchise, as everyone probably can be well aware, that I'm like, oh, it's a shame they got their platform. It is a damn good thing you got a platform, and you need to keep growing it. it's really good stuff. But that being said, guys, what we're going to do here is I'm going to every episode we crack open the vault. I'm going to ask you five, six rapid fire questions. You've got to trade one secret with us, although you've already traded a ton of secrets so far. But anything about life navigation, career navigation, maybe the ins and finance is something

that you've done differently, something we can't find in a textbook, but we can learn from Zach Clark. We'll do that at the end. But before we do that, we will crack into the vault. And after the trading secret, guys, if you have some questions, we have some time to answer those or Zach does, so we'll open that up. So if you're ready, let's get into this vault for rapid fire questions. You ready to go? Cheers, let's do it. Let's do it.

I give you a million bucks right now, and you're not putting it on any of your Philly sports teams. Million bucks to invest in cash, where are you put? Back on myself. I like that. So you're investing in, like, your businesses and everything that you're running and you have control of. Yeah, we're about to launch an app.

We can use a million bucks to keep growing what we're doing. It helps more people, so. I like that. Usually every answer we get is either a company. company or crypto or real estate, but I like that. You get a million bucks you're putting it back in yourself. You control the return and no one else. You know, what I appreciate about you at the Bachelorette, the first time I saw you, you were rocking a suit and you had the kicks going. I feel like you're just a massive sneaker head and tell me if I'm wrong. But I'm

curious, what is the most you've ever spent on a pair of sneakers and have you ever used your sneakers as like an actual investment collection? I have buddies who have like this inventory of their sneaker collection, like they're trading stocks. Is that, Zach Clark? I'm looking at my, at my sneakers, aligning my apartment ceiling here. I've probably been like $1,500, $2,000 into a pair of kicks. Damn. And so are you, like, do you wear, how often you wear in those? All the time. I buy them to wear them. I mean, like, I don't get the people that buy the kicks and then leave them in the box. I mean, the pair I wore on the show was a, was a pair of Travis Scott, Jordan ones. They were probably like $1,300. And,

they're probably going for like 1,800. I mean, there is a, there is value to having something like, dude, the value does go up. Yeah, but it's a problem. I love it. Yeah. I love it. One of my business partners is a massive sneaker guy. I need help in the sneaker game. But for Tasha's perspective, did she recognize, like, when you had those Travis Scott's on, was she like, oh, damn, those are like $2,000 sneakers? Or do you think she's, she's not in the sneaker game and couldn't appreciate the value on your feet? We've argued over this one. She claims that she had sneaker game before she met me, which, I am going to plead the fifth on.

I think I think I had a little bit. You look, she's had a major influence on me, but I think this was the one area where I kind of, you know, influenced her a little bit. Gotcha. I like that. Jason's going to need your help and advice on some of his sneaker collection because we got to up his game a little bit.

Yeah, Zach, when we go shopping in New York, next time I see in New York, you're going to take me and we're going to go get a pair of sneakers and you're going to give me some swag because God knows I need it. all right so the other thing other than sneakers what would you say is one thing you spend too much money on that you're saying i'll never stop that golf you're a big golfer yeah all right what's your handicap i'm an 11-8 right now but that shit's going down this year i just i just got

refitted i'm i'm investing in myself for this season so there you go you're ready to go all right we're going to get on the golf course too all right last question so i've seen uh you're on the record saying how you always wanted to have a career in sports. So growing up, what was your absolute dream job? And do you have any desire to pursue any career in sports at this point? I mean, I would love to, I mean, I think I have a dream of, yeah, making enough money and settling down at an age where I can coach athletics. I mean, that's been a goal of mine forever.

And that's part of, you know, my motivation to work my ass off today is to be able to be in a position where I can just do that coach high school football, whatever it is growing up my dream I mean like you know I wanted to be a starting pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies and that was it you know like it's I didn't have to look much further than that that's awesome coach Clark I could see it already I think you got it going you get the storytelling the hype get the boys all fired up with your $2,000 Travis Scotts without respect for your swag you got it all all right before we wrap up sack and open it up to questions I need one trading secret from you One thing someone can't find on Google or something that they just couldn't find in a textbook,

they could potentially apply to your life based on the journey and road you've had. I have learned from reacting and overreacting way too many times in my life that people do not know how to deal with silence and they do not know how to deal with an email they send that sits two, three, four days. So that's something that I've used a lot in my professional career that has done wonders for me because it forces the other person's hand. And they start talking and they get desperate and you're like, okay, come on back. I think that's really an unreal secret. Do you use that for like leverage and negotiation? Do you use that for personal? Like educate me. Like you get in a fight with Tasha. Is that something you use to like settle everything down? Give me the trading

secret. I can maybe use this. In romance, it is hard. It is hard. So I won't try it. But no, no, I mean, I mean, it works. But yeah, in a lot of my relationships and a lot of my dealings and, you know, and like even like in this crazy world with this platform I've been given, I mean, obviously I've seen all the comments that like, and there hasn't been a lot. But like once a crackhead, always a crackhead. Like, you know, people coming at me and like swipe delete.

You know, like, because it's just, it's not responding to that is not going to do me any good. So just really, you know, pausing and just being silent for me. has been, yes, a great negotiation tool. It's been a great tool in like in interventions, you know, like when we get to a point in the intervention, we coach the family up and say like, once you feel that pause in the room, five seconds is going to feel like five minutes. Do not break that silence until I start talking. That nine times out of ten is when the person eventually says, all right, fine, I'll go.

Because they get so uncomfortable with the, with the silence that they feel like they need to say something. Wow. That's awesome. When I hear the pause, all I think about is the freaking the rose ceremonies. It would literally take like an hour, all because of the pause. And the pause was to get our reactions. And we would all crack.

People pass out. People fall down. People are just shitting themselves sweating. All right. That's one hell of a trading secret. One we have not had on the show today. And one, I think I'm going to try in my relationship and my business endeavor. So, Zach, this has been awesome.

but we do have a ton of Zach Clark fans here. Many of them are here to support your foundation as well. And like we said, all the ticket sales to this live podcast are going to go to your release foundation, the 501c3 you talked about. So that being said, we are going to open it up to some questions for Zach. I ask that you keep it professional and aligned with kind of this discussion. So if you have some time here, I'd love to get into it, Zach, if that's all right. Let it rip.

Let it. All right. Katie, if you could please let us know who the first question will be from. You have a question from Amanda. Okay, Amanda, come on in. Hi, so I work in public health, so I was wondering what you think the best way is to educate the public about addiction and what misconceptions that you deal with a lot are. That's a great question. I mean, again, I feel like for me, my experience tells me that the only and best way that we're we're going to educate people about this thing is really going to be a grassroots effort.

You know, so like you taking what you know and educating the person next to you. And for me, I take a great deal of pride and like explaining to people that, like I said earlier, like no two cases are the same, you know. And labeling someone as a drug addict or an alcoholic is not, you know, my responsibility. It's the responsibility of the person themselves. And it doesn't make them a bad person. It's an illness. And if it was cancer or if it was heart disease, you know, they would go to the doctor

and the doctor would tell them, you know, go get radiation, take this medication, do these things. And the patient would say, gotcha, good, I'm going to go do that. And they would follow it to a tea. If you have addiction or alcoholism, you go into a psychiatrist officer and do a rehab and they say, okay, I want you to see this therapist. I want you to work out. I want you to go to these support groups.

The patient oftentimes would be like, well, I'm too busy for the therapist. I don't want to do that. I'm not going to do this. And they begin to negotiate with the treatment plan with what other illness do we see that? You know, so just grace and patience and time. And I think we're getting there. I mean, like the example I gave this weekend with the hotel where we had this fundraiser. I don't know if you heard me talk about it, but we had this fundraiser this weekend.

And the Equinox Hotel, which is a bougie, high-end, New York City Hotel. They had the Pittsburgh Penguins staying there. They had all these, you know, they allowed my organization to set up a table out front, an organization that is representative of drug addiction, alcoholism, which is highly stigmatized. And they said, stay out there for 48 hours, have your people come through. We're not going to bother you. And they welcomed us with open arms. Five years ago, two years ago, they are pushing us in the other direction.

So the change is happening. It's just we got to hang in there for it. Great question, Amanda. Change is happening. And it's good to see this stuff as being normalized. All right, Katie, let's go back to the queue. Elizabeth, from Elizabeth. Come on in.

Hey, Zach. I'm Elizabeth from Alabama. And my question is, when you first started release, what did you look for in potential employees? Can your employees relate to the people in the program? Or are they just, like, gifted in empathy? Yeah. So hiring is a beast. We employ a lot of people who are in recovery.

And with that, you always run the risk of, you know, someone falling off their program. and relapsing, quite frankly. And, you know, my experience is that the best employees we've been able to hire are our alumni, people that have come through the program and really understand what we're doing, you know, and then in addition to that, like, for you, you know, licensed clinical social workers, people that have, you know, gone to school and gotten educated. So it's either like the personal experience or the professional experience or both is the best case scenario.

Everyone here, thank you for your thoughtful questions and time. Zach, while we have you, anybody that's hearing about your 501C3 or your recovery group or anything else that's going on, new events that are coming up, where can they find you, how can they donate, how can they become a greater part of what you're doing? Yeah, I mean, as far as a nonprofit's concerned, that's just release recovery foundation.org. And that's the website you can get involved there, however you would. Like, I really believe when it comes to nonprofit, there's time, talent, and treasure. So it's not just about the money. We need you.

We need your minds. We need your ideas. You know, we need that stuff. Release is releaserecovery.com. And then they both are on Instagram, release recovery, and then Released Recovery Foundation. My personal handle is Z.W. Clark. You can certainly DM me. I will probably respond if you're asking for some form of help.

I've been pretty diligent about that. I won't respond if you want to. ask questions about my dating life or anything like that. But, you know, people in need we try to get back to. And, you know, at the end of the day, we're just, we're here to kind of chop wood and carry water and try to help people out. Yeah, man, that's awesome. I think, thank you so much for coming on. If I didn't have to end this, because we got everyone here, I'd continue to stay on. But being so open about your story and the struggles that you overcame, I think inspires, educates and just gives people so much hope for your story and for people that they've seen,

friends that they have, loved ones that they have going through similar stuff. So keep doing what you're doing, man. It is awesome. I can't wait for us to finally get to hang out in person here sooner than later, given the fact we're stuck in the New Mexico bubble, but it's really good chatting with you. And I know you spent some time extra over the hour. So everyone here and myself really appreciates it. Yeah, I'm just catching up on this chat here.

I mean, we got people chime in about, like, people that we've held. I mean, like, this is the shit I'm talking about. Like, you know, this is, this is the stuff. This is why we do what we're doing. So, you know, peace and love to everyone and keep going. I appreciate it, Jason. Ding, ding, ding. We are ringing in the closing bell on the Zach Clark episode with David and Jason.

You know how we do here. We break down and recap our guest. David is the voice of the viewer, the curious Canadian, and who will get my take on what was what I will call the absolute definition of a 180, the full restart. And that's what we talk about here, right? So we talk about dollars and cents. We are breaking stigmas.

We are trying to break this stigma of money. And this conversation just went to a different direction. We went into, you know, Zach's whole life and how he's got to where he is today, but what it was like getting out of rock bottom. And so while this episode isn't like every other episode where we're drilling down on dollars and money and cents, we drill down on someone who literally turn their life around. It's unbelievable. It was a great

episode. So, David, in just a minute, I'm going to bring you on. Before we do, though, if you're listening to this podcast or any of the podcasts that we have, if you're interested in brushing up on your finances, you can join our business networking group. We have a day trader who's in our private group who gives us information every day, the full daily roundup. You can be live on these podcasts, the one you just heard. You could be there live and ask our guest questions for just nine bucks a month to join just go to jason tardick.com backslash restart all access.com. That's jasontardick.com backslash restart all access for nine bucks a month. That being said, talk about a restart, David, Zach Clark episode and recap. What do you got for me? What do you think? I think it was super

inspiring. I think it's so different from anything that we've done, but it's just so inspiring to see how someone can kind of laugh at those experiences that he's had and had the pure reflection and clarification of where he's at in his life because of what he's been through, I just couldn't believe, you know, how open and raw and honest he was. I thought it was an incredible episode. And like you said, look, it's trading secrets about a realm in our life, even though that happens around us that sometimes we don't even know. That was just so incredible. And yeah, it might not have been dollars and sense of something that we're used to. But my God, Was that just like an eye-opening raw podcast?

Yeah, raw interview and obviously someone that has just endured a lot, but saw the light at the end of the tunnel, found a way to kind of get through just all the crazy bullshit. When I say crazy bullshit, I just like couldn't, some of the stuff I couldn't even understand. But it was kind of like fascinating when we did get into the dollars and cents. Like when we did talk about how much a drug dealer is paying for this. Think about the things that he, you know, it's an industry untapped that that Zach gave us trading secrets too. And that's why it's so relevant. Because it is a world. It's a world that's

a black market world, right? It's, it's ones that people are doing money laundering to evade taxes. But think about the extent to which he talked about going, like faking the gallbladder surgery so he could get pills. It's just, I'm mind-blown, but the fact that he could use that experience is a launch pad to what he's doing now. And you talk about business, full circle. This was the guy that was buying the drugs. This is a guy who said I couldn't even be a drug dealer because I would have consumed too many. And now Zach has come, done such a 180, restarted his whole life professionally and personally,

that he now owns addiction centers. And every single day he's working to help people that are in the same position as him. And it's just blown away. We've had some really impressive business people. We've had some really impressive influencers. We've had some people who've done some really impressive things as guests in our podcast. nobody has done anything more impressive than what Zach Clark is doing. He has 40 beds in his program, in his business that are saving 40 lives.

Nobody who has been on our podcast, no matter how fancy their resumes or how many amazing things that they've done or how much life advice they've given has done what he's doing which is saving lives. It's truly incredible. Let's not forget the real. This is going through my head. I might even have to have a part two with Zach. Because what do you think the real estate of these places cost in new? York City and Westchester.

Dude, this has got to be, I mean, the cost of a space like that? It's incredible. I mean, the fact that he moved into that first facility is just a sign of like, A, maybe it had a financial thing to it, but also him like just diving and going full in and helping himself and helping those people is, it's just incredible. So I also don't think we'll ever get a drug dealer on trading secrets to give us the secrets of that world. So, I mean, the fact that he kind of two-folded that for us, but I have a

question when it comes to that. He was talking about obviously spending four or $500 a day on drugs, which is just an insane, insane amount to think about. Someone's collecting that money. And if the drug dealer collecting that money is doing it from multiple clients, how do drug, and you might not know the answer, but I'm just curious, curious Canadian, how do drug dealers like fake it? How do they buy the fancy cars, have the fancy houses, and then fake it in terms of not having the IRS or like, or do they? I don't know How does that work? I think that honestly, that question reminds me of the movie American Gangster,

when Frank Lucas beats the hell out of his, like, I think it's his cousin, because he says the loudest guy in the room is the weakest. And his whole entire thing is like, you can't put on this show, you can't put on this facade because if you do, it draws attention, then attention creates drill down, and that's how you get caught. And if you remember in that movie, he actually doesn't take the advice that he's continuing to give and he wears that crazy jacket to that boxing match, and that's where the FBI finds him.

That's when he gets home and burns that jacket. I think that's one of the biggest concerns, if I'm guessing in this world, like it's only money operated. So if you're doing anything to flex or to show, you're going to draw attention to yourself. And the second you draw attention to yourself, then that's when auditors come.

That's when the question marks come. How are you doing it? And what I find just like absolutely fascinating is I used to play in an underground poker game. and in all cash business is a wild business because security has to be next level because the liability of getting robbed becomes so much higher right because if I have credit card fraud what happens I call my credit card company David right put in a complaint I'm reimbursed in the cash business your cash is gone it's gone and who you're going to call you're going to call

the cops because you were just robbed 10 grand oh so the security's next level I remember playing this poker game you'd walk in you're in the basement you get in one door you close the next door there's cameras there, there's a guy there, then you get in the next door. That door's got to close. Three doors later, you're there, and it's all cash. And so the way a lot of these people, from my understanding, the research I've done, is they have to wash money. It's money laundering. It's just like Ozark. The Moot, like the Ozark show is a good example of how you can launder money. Like the Breaking Bad. Breaking Bad. That's how they launder money. It's crazy. It's a world that I would never even want to get close to because it is insane.

and the likelihood of you getting sniped is pretty damn good, hi. Yeah, yeah, I agree. We need to get, okay, now I want to get a money laundering. Like, who's actually, you know what would be good, David? And you guys tell us in the reviews, if this would make sense, put five stars, what if we got a criminal who was convicted of money laundering, who has now obviously not, doesn't money laundering anymore, but has done it. I would love to hear their take on how they did it in the ends and outs of that,

what that was. Yeah, I mean, that would be absolutely wild. It's happening. You guys tell us some of reviews. You want it. We'll make it happen. All right. I'm going to switch tones a little bit here. Just hearing that story, being on The Bachelor and meeting his fiancé, Tasha, you know, the Bachelor gets a wrap of like, how can these people really fall in love in nine weeks? How can you really get to know about someone? How much do you think Tasha knew about all this past

before asking him and choosing him to be her fiancé? So, great question. So I watched that season. And so he does talk about it openly. he talks about it a lot and he did the story he told if i remember correctly is the one that he told us was when he his dad kind of hit him on the shoulder because he was writing a check off his dad's account and what i thought was cool was right after the show he went back to go see that teller he posted a picture and said like she saved my life and it's just it's touching it's wild and i think it brings up a good point david i want to kick it to you for a minute here while we're recapping is i do think everyone listening out there if you do feel stuck if you are confused

Literally, I've just finished my manuscript for a book like this because it takes that moment, right? There was a lot of things that happened in that moment. There was a teller that could have called the police and didn't. There was his father who could have snapped and gone nuts. And there were just a lot of moments, right? And him just tapping his son on the shoulder and said, come with me, we're going to get you help. And that emotional hit is what made him change. And look where he is today.

And I think everyone, whether you're stuck in your career or your finances, maybe not to that level, needs that moment because that's what's going to perpetuate the next you, the best version of you. And so I'm wondering for you, David, have you ever had a moment like that, whether it's finances, personally, it's your professional career that, like, something hits you, the way that it hits Zach, and maybe not to that level, but like you kind of shifted your career in your professional world. yeah i i definitely do it's a story that i don't tell often i guess this would be telling a lot more people um but honestly a couple things that he said really hit home now i don't i was never on the verge of like like having an addiction or drug addiction or anything like that but you know he talked about being a college athlete and i was a division one college athlete and i definitely didn't have the ability to say no for a lot of the things that he alluded to and for me me it was just alcohol but yeah i had i was on a full ride scholarship to play division one hockey

as a 21 year old freshman from canada and thinking and like he said making excuses and being able to well i had a 3.9 out of four gp like i don't have a drinking problem like i'm on a full ride scholarship at division one school like our team's doing really well i don't have a problem it got to a point or it was so bad i just couldn't keep up like the quality of play that was expected to me and i remember just like blaming everybody making excuses and i remember one time i showed up to one of our games that I was healthy scratch for that I should have been playing in and I was drinking in the parking lot while the game was going on. And I just like had a moment in my life where being like like it just kind of hit me, right? It just kind of like,

it just kind of hit me where I'm staring. Like I go in the rank and I'm like, what am I doing? Like what, how do I get to this point where, you know, you're just incapable of making the right decisions and needing that moment and, you know, I got to change. scenery. I had really honest conversations with those, my loved ones and my families and those who cared about me. And they kind of put me on this path to kind of take ownership for every decision I made. And it was the best thing that ever happened to me was getting out of that environment and having those realizations. And, you know, I try to tell the kids that I coach now, like, thank God that happened to me when I was 21 and not when I was 25 or when I was 30 or later

in life. And now it's my job and my responsibility just as Zach does with his business to try to tell my kids that I coach at 15, 16, 17, so they don't make the same mistakes that I did at that age. But yeah, that was my rock bottom for sure. It was just like, I'll never forget being in that parking lot, like, while the guys that I train with every day and what I was brought to that school to do was like perform on the ice and just being like, holy shit. So, but anyways, what about what about yours? I think that's, I mean, that's such a good, like having that realization moment will, you know, it's just huge. It's just huge that you're sitting there. These are guys that bleed, sleep with, you know, it's a sweat with, like, I'm training with every day. And here we go, literally just

leaving them out to dry because I'm being selfish sitting there in the parking a lot. A huge part too is like what a self-aware moment. I lost the school and like lost a scholarship and all that stuff too like that I had choice that I made

on my own but like I was so even after it happened I was like making excuses like embarrassed like finding ways to make excuses why I didn't work out and then like 34 year old David was like I didn't work out because you were an immature like selfish like incapable to perform human

like and it's just serving so much better having that realization now but yeah thank you for sharing that and it's it's it's just wild how everyone kind of has that moment and it's either a defining moment for you or it's one that you know just keeps you where you're going and i think everyone needs one to kind of really ring your bell in the book that the manuscript i just wrote i go into very severe detail into this so i'll i'll keep it higher level just because it is a main portion of the book that's coming out here soon but i was dealing with like a lot of panic disorder. Like, I was having insane situational anxiety

that was creating me to have these, like, panic attacks. And the crazy thing is that I couldn't control it. And it was a situation that was so controllable. It didn't make sense. And so for me, that was when I said to myself, like, I can't, this isn't sustainable. Like, I can't continue to keep having this front of hiding these panic attacks or doing anything to avoid them.

I need to address why the hell is it happening and cope with that situation and change it. And so it was a lot of some of my, the career pressures that I was undergoing, spreading myself too thin with work and my MBA and some of the bureaucracy at the company I did work for. And I need to take ownership too. Can't just point the finger. But I was literally just having, I was in a terrible, terrible mental state. And so got to a point I had to go, I wanted to see a therapist. I saw a therapist, and that was extremely helpful.

But also, it was just this eye-opening moment, like, what am I doing? What am I doing? Because this, I will die. I'm going to have a heart attack by 40 if I continue this, based on the situation I'm in and the things I'm surrounding myself with in the work environment, et cetera. So it's kind of a tease. I hate teasing, but it is because I just submitted my manuscript. I can't give away the whole book before it comes out.

But I think that everyone kind of has to have that moment of when they realize what is happening that like the uncontrollable and the controllable have come to a point that both of them have manifested to just take over a certain aspect of your life that you're not you. What is it that's me sitting there, you know, having a full out panic attack in the bathroom of an office building on the floor? What is David in his, you know, in his parking lot? sitting there drinking, getting hammered, while his teammates that he's usually there for every day of the week are out there grinding their ass off. It's something like that that clicks

that you're like, it's all come together and it's taken over the person you've become. And then boom, it's like, this can't happen because it'll completely swallow you. It's a blissful moment too, though, because when you really like, as you know, like we've talked about like reflection and like meditation and stuff a lot, like when you really close your eyes, when you really close your eyes and try and pinpoint moments in your life. Like, how many memories do you really have? Yeah. Like, how many memories do you really have?

Sure. When I can pinpoint those moments and know exactly what I was feeling and the fact that it sparked like where I am today, I wouldn't have traded anything for that. But I have loved to have a good division one career and play professional hockey. Yes. Am I, do I know for a fact that going through that has made me a better man, a better husband, a better friend, a better teammate, a better coach? Yes.

Like, I wouldn't have traded that moment. for anything. When I hear him say, like, his dream is to be a coach. It's like, I'll hire you in a second. You probably never played hockey in your life. I would hire Zach in a second. He would be an amazing coach. So this whole episode kind of hit home for me, especially. And I thought it was great. You know, David, this is a super, super deep episode, right? I mean, this is like hitting at the core. It's different than what we've done on most episodes of Trading Secrets. But it's a detour that for this episode, I don't know about you, but I'm so glad we took. Do you feel the same way? I'm so glad we took. And at the end of the day, his trading secret was also like such a valuable

piece of business and life advice too. I mean, him just saying like take every meeting and went from looking envelopes to being on the board of the Karen Foundation that got him his help nine and a half years later. Like pretty inspiring story. And, you know, hopefully everyone there has some takeaways from it. No doubt about it. So from career advice, personal advice, financial advice, he hit everything that you can imagine as it relates to self-help. This was a deep, deep episode. We appreciate you listening to it. And next episode, we are going back to the dollars in Cents talk. We have Lewis Howes coming in hot. He was a professional football player that went from injured to broke, living on his family's couch for a year and a half, making hundreds of dollars a week

to becoming a multi-multimillionaire, a New York Times bestseller, and one of the biggest speakers and educators within what he calls the School of Greatness. So we're getting back to business. We're getting back to dollars and cents. This was an episode. We so desperately meeting and I hope you took something away from it. David, thank you so much for sharing your story. And I hope everyone listening felt as though this was another episode of trading secrets that they couldn't afford to miss. Make sure you tune in next Monday as we got Lewis Howes coming in hot for another episode of Trading Secrets. Making that money, money, pay on me.

Making that money, living that dream.