We're Out of Time - Relapse After 19 Years: Mike Bayer on What Recovery Taught Him

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

On this episode of We’re Out Of Time, host Richard Taite sits down with Mike Bayer for an unfiltered conversation about addiction, long-term sobriety, relapse, and redemption. Mike opens up about growing up in Orange County, excelling in high school basketball, and how early struggles with mental health led to substance use. After heading to New York to play basketball at Fordham University, his partying escalated and ultimately landed him in treatment at just 22 years old.Richard shares how his own sobriety journey led him to open a treatment center, setting the stage for Mike to walk through his path to recovery and purpose. Mike details his rise in the recovery space, including becoming a New York Times bestselling author with the help of Dr. Phil, who later mentored him for four years and helped launch his media career.The conversation takes a powerful turn as Mike reveals relapsing after 19 years of sobriety due to a medication prescribed by a doctor—an experience that deeply reshaped his understanding of recovery. He reflects on what relapse after long-term sobriety taught him, the emotional toll it took, and why humility and honesty remain essential to sustained recovery.The episode closes with raw discussions on freedom, identity, and compassion, including Mike’s belief that he is no better than anyone else and his decision to help an assistant who is now serving four years in prison—highlighting the complexities of service, boundaries, and humanity in the recovery world.

I have a bit of a dysfunctional relationship with my family and my parents and such. And after Friday, I fly to Portland to see my mom. I need wisdom of how to navigate this relationship. I want to show up as the best version of myself. All these things, my head just starts going on it. And so having a sponsor that I can be like, tell me how to be, like, I meet with them Thursday. If someone has a problem with substance use disorder, please call one call placement. That's 888-8-8-3-3-3-3.

1181. And if we can't help you, we'll make a referral to someone who can. One Call Placement is affiliated with Carrera Treatment, Wellness, and Spa and One Method Treatment Centers. So you own cast treatment centers, but tell me, tell the viewers about yourself. Well, I mean, I grew up in Laguna Hills, California. I'm tall, as you know. You are. But I'm the shortest male in the family. So I grew up playing basketball. Went to this high school called Modena Hills, day. Wow, you went to modern day. I did. Yeah. Football, basketball, captain the basketball team, drove 30 minutes just to get to high school. Right. Um, but was, um, if you're an athlete, you'll drive any amount of time to get to that school. Yeah. It's like playing in college,

basically. Exactly. Uh, so they've got the red helmets with the W on it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, monarchs. Um, is that an M or W? It's one of those. But I, um, Yeah, I grew up in Orange County, youngest of three. And then, like, as I was in high school, started using drugs and struggling with my mental health. And then I ended up going to New York to play basketball Fordham in the Bronx. But then I ended up just in nightclubs and partying and in treatment at 22, you know. So, yeah, what brought you into treatment, by the way? What brought you into working in treatment?

That's a great. question. You know, when I was getting loaded, everybody said I needed treatment. And so I called promises. And I was telling them about my cocaine use and then I had a cocaine problem. And she said, well, it's going to be 20 grand. Patricia? Whoever it was. And I said, but I called the poor one. I called the West. Yeah, yeah, the West. The West. I wasn't greedy on a private room on the ocean. da-da-da-da-da-da and I have $50. Right. Okay, it wasn't one of those.

I was grateful to go anywhere. Yeah. But I called her and I said, you know, this is my problem. And when she asked me for $20,000, I said to her, lady, if I had $20,000, I wouldn't have a cocaine problem. Mm. And she said, excuse me? And I said, you don't understand what I just said to you?

you and she said no and I said then you can't help me and so you know I was getting sober and at the log cabin yeah right and so every day there would be guys raising their hands the newcomer and I'd always take them to breakfast and then right next door was a little place to get your nails done and I'd go man I need my nails done come on hell's done yeah come on let's live like elegant people come on and so we the nails done and then right next door to that's a haircut so I'd get my hair cut when I had hair and they'd get their haircut and then I'd say hey man before I take you back to the car I need to run and grab a couple things here at the gap you don't mind right no no no no no and I'd buy him all sorts of shit five pairs of jeans five shirts you know whatever right all the stuff

and then he thinks I'm taking them home and I'd take them right to Genesis house where I went to sober living right and I always had someone even when I couldn't stay sober. I always had someone in sober living because I've always, I've always cared more about your sobriety than mine. Okay. I knew, I knew right from wrong. And when I finally got sober, I had no intention of doing a treatment center because I'd never been to a treatment center. Right. I'd been to sober living. So I went ahead and I opened up a men sober living. And the state came down and they said, you're operating illegally. I said, what are you talking about?

You're giving treatment. No, I'm not. Well, there's a therapist here. I said, of course there's a therapist here. People need therapy. Well, therapy's treatment. And I'm like, shut up. And they're like, oh, it is.

Because I didn't know. So then I just had my lawyer get my license. and that place was born. That's how I did it. Wow. It was a mistake. And then I was, because you sold Cliffside and then what made you get back into treatment?

Because you could have just. Yeah. Was it out of like boredom? No. I wasn't really bored. But I didn't have the purpose that I should have, right? Well, first of all, I missed my friends. I missed all of my friends.

And I left them all behind. Okay, because that's what you do when somebody buys your business. Right. They're not buying your business. They're buying the people in all the relationships, everything. That's right. If you're one of the best in the world of giving people back their loved ones and you don't do it, you're a dick. You're just a dick.

So I had to do it. People are dying a f***ing all over the place. That's what this thing's for. I've never seen a podcast. I've never listened to a podcast. I don't even know if I'm any good at it. I have no clue. all I'm doing is creating awareness around the final issue and letting people know that we're out of time

and at the slightest hint now of an issue, kids got to go to treatment. That's it. Yeah. Otherwise, you're burying your kid. So that's why I'm doing this, but that's also why I came back. But I really missed my friends. You know, I really missed my friends. Yeah, I took off a few years and just was like traveling and thinking that that was going to set me up.

to like have this. And at first it's amazing because you're like, wow, I mean all these strangers and spiritually like, oh, this is this is life. And then after a while you're like, where's my purpose? Like what am I doing? That's right. I'm not fulfilled.

I'm a little running on empty. And so I'm with you that it's always good to kind of dig into a project or something to like, you know, get back and feel connected. Especially if you're good at this. Because so many people aren't. aren't and there are so many bad actors in our business, right? So if you're one of the good ones

and you can actually like help people and you don't do it. At the at the peak, how many treatment centers were there in Malibu, do you think? At the peak of 26. 26. 26 treatment yeah. And we were the last one. So we were when I got into it there were 26 24 26 and I remember do you remember Renaissance? Of course that house like what the hell was that? That was that. That was Well, it was impressive. It was an impressive house. It was an impressive house. But nobody knew who they were and they were mismanaged and they went away.

But when I got here, there were 24 of them. And it was promises and then all the way down. But promises was number one. Yeah. And then I think Summit had just opened. Seasons. It was opening at the same time I was. Right.

and I would just, you know, I was at the bottom. And I would just take my marker every time I pass somebody up. And I would just cross people off the list until, all right, let me ask you some questions. All right. How'd you get sober? I, uh, give me the, give me the, give me the, um, drunk a log first. Oh, Lord. Give me the greatest hits.

The greatest hits. Now I was living in New York and I was barting a place called the Roxy, which is a big nightclub, dropped out of school. And up until that point, I'd never done crystal meth. So the thing is, if you drink, if you just drink, usually it takes 20 to 25 years before you really, unless you're just so severe. So when you do harder drugs, as you know, it's like it expedites your bottom. And so, especially meth. Especially meth. And so the thing for me is I always had this desire, like, be better, do better.

And I couldn't stop using it. So, like, I'd throw it away. I would buy it a week later. I'd throw it away again. I'd go to a harm reduction group. I'd, like, have a therapist coming to my house in my apartment that my dad sent me. Like, I didn't even know. The thing is until, like, you get good treatment, you don't even understand sobriety.

I ended up going through Hazelden and became an alcohol and drug abuse counselor. And then I did interventions for this company called AIR. It was a big intervention company back in the day. And they needed someone to open their West Coast office. So I moved in with my mom in Orange County. I borrowed my suits from my dad. And then after about a year and a half, I had a lot of clients. I've always been like hungry.

It's similar to you. Hold on second. That's the greatest thing. You moved back home with your mother and you wore your dad's seats. How old were you? 24. Wow. Yeah.

And then I positioned myself as like the guy you want to intervene on your son or daughter who's in their 20s. So you have these guys, Earl High Tower, you had John Southworth, you had these interventionists. And I was like, yeah, you could go with them or you can go with me. I'm a little more relatable. That's right. And I'm going to be half the price. I have a bit of a dysfunctional relationship with my family and my parents and such. And after Friday, I fly to Portland to see.

my mom who I haven't seen in several years. So I'm going to see my sponsor who lives in LA on Thursday. I need wisdom from someone who knows me of how to navigate this relationship because I'm going to be with my mother for two days who's, and there's a very long history with her. So I want to show up as the best version of myself. And sometimes in situations, we don't know, like, am I supposed to show up? just being other centered. Am I supposed to spend all my time with her? Am I supposed to like all these things my head just starts going on it and so having a sponsor that I can be like tell me how to be like how I should show up. Did he tell you to show up with the heart of a servant and that there was nothing to get only to give? I meet with them Thursday. Such a dramatic just just just just just just be just just just just just be a

service to this woman. It's going to be two days. You can do anything for two days. Yeah, yeah. And I'm intentionally going there to see her. And then I fly to see my dad. I'm doing kind of a family joy with the heart of a servant. Yeah. Joyfully. I wrote a few books, right? Right. Which I, which, which by the way, I'm going to order right after this because in doing my research on you beforehand, look at this. Uh, right? You're a big shot. Okay. No, you are. And look, if you weren't, I tell you. Okay. You're a big shot in this industry. You've been in it for 20 years. You've helped a lot of people. I know who the fuck you are. Okay. So my third book is so thank you. So the first two they made New York Times bestsellers,

which is like the best one in every 10,000 books. That's right. That's what chat GPT told me. So it's and I feel like I mean, it all is timing and and I was on a TV show for four years. But what TV show? Dr. Phil every other week for four years. So I want to talk to you about that. Yeah. Yeah. I was on a change. He shared a dressing room. He was my mentor for a few years. Writing a book is a very tedious thing. It's like, have you written a book?

Yeah, I wrote a book with my addiction research fellow called Ending Addiction for Good, and I've got a new one now called Transcendence. Hmm. Yeah. It's about, you know, thriving. If I had to put a caption to it, it would be sobriety isn't its own gift.

Sobriety isn't its own gift. That's right. It isn't. thriving is is a gift of sobriety okay living a life that you can be proud of is a gift of sobriety but being sober is not a gift I didn't let you get through the monologue oh so then I went through treatments live with my mom I did interventions and then I started cast in my apartment in Venice with like free groups And then I met this guy who did this sober companion gig for me.

His name was Jose Hernandez. Uh-huh. Do you know Jose? Everybody knows Jose Hernandez. So Jose, he was my first sober companion. Uh-huh. And then crazy case, crazy Russian. The guy was a...

He didn't drink vodka, did he? No, but there was a gay Russian who had a hooker who was straight. And they were in a relationship. And the hooker was... It was on heroin. Male, both. Okay. And so it was the craziest dynamic and Jose was incredible.

And then I mean, I'm now in my third office. I've been here for 12 years, the one before that had no windows. The one before that was just so ghetto. But somehow I managed to do this thing, you know? It's like, and then, you know, I started working. My thing is I ended up in the entertainment space. So it went from doing intervention. with like people in crises to then doing crises work.

So public affairs, bands breaking up. So I ended up going much more into the crisis management. Crisis coaching world, which I liked because it got me out of working with treatment centers. And then I threw a charity event. And that's when I met Dr. Phil. And then Dr. Phil said, do you want to go on a show tomorrow? This is a crazy story. So he says to me, do you want to go to show tomorrow?

I said, sure, I went on the show. Like, no freaking idea what I was doing. Like, never had on my vision board to do television or anything. And then he was like, you were pretty good. And then they put me on another episode two days later. And then he sat me in his office and he goes, you know what you need? I said, well, he goes, you need a New York Times bestseller. I said, okay, he goes, what are you doing today?

I'm like, I'm at home. He's like, hop on my jet. Let's go meet your agent. Flew me to Dallas. This is all true. Met my agent. I didn't even really have Instagram or anything at the time. Got me a huge deal, book advance.

And then the book just crushed it in 23 languages. He went ahead and pumped it on a show. Pumped. Not just sold. Pumped it. Pumped it. I'm talking. and had the book out saying turn to page 36

where you talk about such and such. Shut. He promoted the book so heavy that it just kept selling. I mean, I've sold half a million copies. Right. Of a book. Books are impulse buys. I think I sold 50 copies.

It's hard. I don't know how. No, but it's really hard to sell books because you got to figure out how to get through the market. And so, and then it was like, he was, you know, He wrote the forward and then Jennifer Lopez gave me the endorsement on the back of the book. And so it just kind of, and then I had other entertainers support it. That's amazing.

Yeah, it was good. That's amazing. But what was interesting is the more I did television, so I was on, I did probably 40 episodes. And like, it was interesting because the less treatment centers like, fuck with me. Like it was like I was, you would have thought they would want someone out in media who does interventions or addiction, who's like, and I found that like, people were like not that loving and accepting of me in the industry when I started going and doing television.

That's just, they're jealous. But it was so weird. It's not because they didn't have the stones to show up. See, you lucked into it, but you showed up 40 times. And then you hit it out. Then you hit a rope, okay? And, you know, you made it. Yeah.

Okay. You know, nobody does that. Nobody shows up and then executes. Yeah, every time I showed up on an episode, it was like a job interview. I knew that if I didn't deliver, you're gone. I remember one time I sat down with him because they sent you a hundred page document before about the guest who's on the show. And I was in his dressing room. He's getting his hair done, which is literally, he's bald. So it's not much hair to do. And I remember he said to me, he goes, there was a guy. guy on the show who hadn't left his house in a long time. He had long shaggy hair. And he asked me what we should do. I'm like, well, I think we should do such and such. She's like, that's all you got. Who said that?

Dr. Phil. Uh-huh. That's all you got. And you said, it's the number one television show on daytime TV. That's all you got. And so I said, well, what if we cut his hair on stage? He's like, that's it. The barber comes out on stage and like to help him with a reinvention.

But like, that's how it felt every time. I mean, it was good because it forced me to keep raising my bar. You know, you can't coast with him. He's, he's gnarly. Like, he's, he's got like, I mean, I don't even know who or who doesn't have photographic memories, but he does not forget anything. Right. And he just kind of like looks over at you and you just, you know, so now I'm, I send you the sizzle for my next show that I'm working on. So that, that show hopefully will happen. It'll be like my own, which would be really exciting for me. Good. If it hits. So why'd you get sober?

pain, self-esteem issues. I had a very difficult time being gay. You're gay? Yeah. Oh, you got to leave. Yeah, I know. That's upsetting. I know.

That's not why I did drugs, but it was definitely, when you go out in the gay world, there's so many drugs. What's the hardest truth about yourself that you've had to face? The hardest truth about myself that I've had to face, Oh, God. There's a few. No filter. This is all real.

No, I get it. The hardest truth about me that I've had to face. I would say it was, I relapsed after 19 years. Wow. On a medication. Right. Writing my second book. Uh-huh.

doctor who kept pushing me to take a drug called Focolin. It's Adderall and Ritalin. And basically I abused it. So I had my time. Well, of course you did. It's your drug of choice. I know. I know.

You know those people in your life that you like them, they show up. And then you feel like you may be overshared and you're like, I shouldn't have said. Maybe you don't have that because you have no filter. None. But sometimes there's people in our lives that I feel like they don't deserve to get certain knowledge. Right. And when we share it.

it can become gossip or they can twist it. And afterwards, you're like, fuck, I shouldn't have said that. That's one of those types of people. So it's exceedingly difficult because I had, and then my next book is going to be about relapse. Now, three and a half years. But it was really difficult because. How much time you got now?

Three and a half. Let me ask you a question. How long were you abusing that? Meth. No. Oh. The medication that the doctor gave you. Probably about eight months.

Did you create any wreckage? A little bit. Not horrible. As a result of the drugs. Like you can be... No, psychologically, I was twacked for like the first... Don't care about that. I care about the wreckage.

Did you create any wreckage that you have had to... In that eight months that you have, that you've had to deal with... Still? For the next three and a half years or any part of it because you were loaded and you fucked up. No. Okay.

No, it's more a, like people say time doesn't matter and it's one day at a time and it sounds good on theory. But we celebrate birthdays. We hug at one day at a time. Some bitches are saying their sobriety date when it's, I've been sober, 1,300, you know. Yeah, I hate that. And it's. And so I was going to meetings here and like in these meetings, they would go around the room and everyone would say their clean time. I don't believe that's actually about the newcomer.

I believe that's about some of these people with long-term sobriety to say like I have this way. Well, of course it is because the newcomer can't even imagine a week. I know. So, so then I had my company. He was trying to give, Cass was trying to give me a 20 year cake. I didn't have 20 years. I was like, I had clients with more time than me because I abused it. So it's all fine now, but that was a fucking horrible psychological. How'd you stop? I was so I had an ex-boyfriend who lived in Brazil I think that was part of the wreckage is I had the grand idea that I should be with a guy who lives in Hesifi Brazil which is about 30 hours

from L.A. And so we so my judgment was a little lacking. Okay that's the only mistake he made. I now like I sponsor a lot of guys who had long-term sobriety like I love working with people at long-term and went out because there is something else. And you told them all that you relapse. Oh yeah. My next book is going to be about relapse and or reinvention or something along those lines. And yeah, it's a crazy thing that I didn't understand before when you relapse after a long-term recovery. I didn't, I did not get why you can't just like get back on it and everything's okay. But you did. You did get back on it.

It was a messy, messy road. Fine. Yeah, yeah. But it was tough. than I would have ever. Sure. How much time do you have? But hold on a second.

But the fact that you had 19 years, you know, I always tell people the best medically assisted treatment is top-notch care, top-notch treatment, right? Because you can't unring a bell. And you had, you know, you were locked in for 19 years. Yeah, 19. Okay. So you're, you're always. run, it's shocking to me

that your run lasted that long. But it's still only eight months. And you created no wreckage. None. And now you have even a deeper understanding holistically of what this thing is. Because we forget.

With 19 years, you forget. Totally. I wrote books about it. I own a treatment center. I'm like, I'm like, and I had such brain fog in my advance was well over seven figures for my second book. So I wanted to give the money back.

And then this doctor's like, well, you have ADD. I'm like, yeah, I know. I've been told, no, no, you really need to be on something. Well, with me at the pharmacy. I mean, it's kind of creepy. I don't know if there's the devil on earth or not. But the whole experience, I knew better. I should have called somebody and talk to them.

And instead, I was looking for a quick way out. Oh, the reason is because we drink our own Kool-A. Yeah. Right? We're the best. We're the man. We've done this. You know, and I had this therapist. I remember I had this therapist at one time who was like 25 years sober and she was on I remember

she said she takes riddalen to help her with her and I remember seeing okay she's shown up for work for me for a few years I know she's taking that way well yeah maybe maybe it's not such a big deal you know sobriety sucks if you're not if you're not thriving if you're not if you're not happy forget thriving if you're not happy look But if you don't, if you're not as happy or as contented or if your life isn't as good, sober as it is on drugs, you're going back to drugs. Yeah, for sure. For sure. Okay.

So I wanted people to know, sober isn't enough. Sober gets you all the gifts you want. That's the baseline. But then it's about what are you going to be? What are you going to do? Right? How you want to get there. Right?

So that's that. Yeah. What do you think? I think everyone's different. I haven't been a big believer in disease model, even though that's like such a thing. I think it was a good pitch for insurance companies to pay because you had to make it some sort of illness in order to get an insurance company to do it. But I think, I mean, I think mental health in general, whether there's substances like, I can. cast were like majority, I'd say about 60% primary mental health.

Right. And you got a mental health, IOP license? Yeah. Good. And that's really helpful. People call for that all the time. We can send those people right to you. Great.

Because we don't take them. Right. Right. Talk to Michelle about this. Yeah, I'm going to meet with her after this. I wanted to connect with you because I'm going, because I'm going up there and I'd heard your name for so many years and we'd never connected. Years too.

It's kind of one of those things like where I was like, oh, I should meet him. Maybe I can learn from him, you know? Stop it. Yeah, really. It's nice. It's nice that you're here. I've heard about you for years. I've heard about you for years, man.

You're one of the good ones. And we're not in competition. We're not. That's why I'm here. You are not. I know. I'm well aware. You know anybody who's died of, I mean, I know that's a crazy question to ask somebody in our business, but anybody, anybody, like,

that when you think about it, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, it's such a blur working in treatment. It's like, it's like, because I'm trying to think if any friends have died from. Because a ton of clients have. Yeah. Okay. I mean, we have, we've had two instances where someone has made an appointment to come to treatment. I hate that. I'll be there in two weeks. Here's your deposit. Save a bed. Listen to me.

It's best that you come now. You're using drugs on the street. 70% of that stuff's laced with fash, okay? You're not a fannol user. Listen to me. Come in now. Everything's okay. I promise.

Hey man, let me think about it. Two weeks goes by. Okay? You don't show up. We check. parents he died last week that's happened to us twice wow already who believed in you before you believed in yourself oh boy who believes in me before i believe himself well with the tv stuff dr phil definitely he like saw it he would like rocket ship me that's great is he still is he still

on he has his own network now he does yeah the dr phil network no it's called uh he had a network called Merit, then he phased out of that and it's called Envoy, I think. But yeah, they just, I don't understand how to do you have a show? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Does he have a podcast? He does. He's got a podcast too. Yeah, it does really well.

A ton. Dude, he's such a beast. It's crazy. Yeah, he's got a lot. I mean, when, when I. Especially when it was just TV was the only thing. TV was the only thing. 19 million people watching.

Yeah, that's crazy. But I would see the other person who believes me. I do jihitsu four days a week. Good. My professor saw him yesterday. That's another person in my life. Good. Compete.

Good. Yeah. That's important. Yeah, yeah. Gives you discipline. I told my kids to do that. They should. They didn't.

They didn't. They didn't do that. They played the instruments and they speak Spanish. Okay. But I didn't get the one. I got two out of three. Yeah, yeah. Those are the only three I asked for, by the way.

How do you stay humble when everyone around you calls you coach? Well, I didn't go by coach Mike until I went on Dr. Phil. And then they labeled me coach Mike. I still cringe a little bit if people utilize that. I don't know. I feel like we all have like gifts in life. This is my belief. We're all artists of some sort.

And some people can't. seemed to tap into their art. Maybe they grew up in a family where their dad pressured them to go be an attorney, and they really would have been an amazing teacher or something. I like their father. So I think that we all have these gifts in life and that when we lean into them, and one of those things that I find that I'm able to help people do is to free themselves to be authentic.

I feel like I have a gift. that when I'm really sitting down with someone and we have chemistry and the dynamic, I can really get someone out of their mental chaos and get them into their truth. And that's when I feel like I'm like a coach. But at the same time, I have plenty of issues in my life. And I don't think, I think it's because I don't think I'm better than people. So I don't. You don't?

Truthfully. No, truthfully. You don't think you're better than it. No. No, no. I think, I think, um, me neither. No, but I, because, because like, okay, better than, I'm not that organized. There's someone who's better than me at being organized or someone better at me than

showing up on time. There's someone better at me at planning this. There's someone better than me at cooking. There's someone better than me at understanding medication. Like, what is better even fucking mean? Like, like, I, I think that. Well, for me, better is better. I came up with this term when I started doing TV that people have selective kindness

that people will say, oh my God, they're such an amazing person because you interact with so many people. But I found that a lot of these people just select where they put their kindness. But they're really not. They're really not kind. They're kind in spurts. In spurts when it happens to be a dynamic. Because you know in TV. So you're only kind to people when you have something to gain.

Or if you, yeah, whether you want. want to be liked more, respected more, or whatever. And it's just, that was kind of hard for me in the TV world of it all, because it was, it's very much that in TV. Okay, what does freedom mean to you today? Mm. Mm.

Being in the moment. Freedom means being in the moment. Freedom is connecting with who I wanna connect with, when I wanna connect with. Freedom is a good night's sleep. Freedom is, um, love that's a much better answer than I would have given it's the truth though right like

not for me love isn't not for me well of course love is the baseline for everything yeah it's basic it's basic you know that's my my whole place is all is the baseline of love I call right I mean that's what we do that's what I hang my hat on that's my brand for treatment but for me freedom is the ability to do whatever you want with your time. That is my definition of freedom. And I've been so poor that I couldn't pay attention. I mean, I've been homeless, right? That ain't freedom, right?

Freedom isn't going to the market and not being able to write a check for, eggs or bread because you've got 800 bad checks and check systems. Freedom isn't walking into the market and buying six fake top ramen for a dollar rather than five real top ramen for a dollar because you get another top ramen. Okay, that ain't freedom. Right. Okay. Now during my days, I can literally sit and think. I can have a friend come to the house. who just wanted to shoot the shit and talk and hold them hostage for two hours in a in a podcast right right yeah i mean my days are mine what do you want to be remembered for the business

or the lives changed that's kind of stupid that's easy yeah okay what do you want to be remembered for well i'm not a big guy on legacies you're not no like it like it I think like once I'm dead, I'm dead and like, I don't know, you see someone's brick at a hospital and you're like, oh, who is this person? Is that because you don't have kids? No, I mean, I would rather be known just as being a good person who help people. That's it. Like, oh, Mike, Mike help people and does good. Like, I'm similar to you. I help a lot of people in my free time. My assistant right now is in prison for four years because I tried to help me. I got him out of, he was facing 10. But I met this guy to meet me. You have an, you had an assistant that.

It's doing time and job. Yeah, in South Carolina right now. For what? He got caught with three pounds of meth. So I met him at a meeting. And then I tried to help him. And then I like gave him a job. You know, like I did everything.

It was like this most lovable guy. I made a decision too. Like I don't raise my hand to sponsor at all anymore. I choose my sponsors. Yeah. Like I did not like sponsoring people when I used to raise my hand. I just didn't have that like experience. But then when I see someone that I kind of am like,

oh, he's in the corner with a court card. And I know I can help him turn his life around. And like, so I love doing stuff like that, right? Like unexpected, surprised generosity in my personal life. In business, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe one day cast on ourselves. I don't know.

You know, it's like someone else picks it up, you know. Thanks for coming by. Richard, thanks for having me. No, I really appreciate it. See you next Tuesday. He said it. We're out of time. Please subscribe on YouTube.

Click the thumbs up and leave a comment. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast and Spotify and leave a rating and a review and share the We're out of time podcast with others you know who will get value out of it. See you next Tuesday