We're Out of Time - Rock Bottom to HGTV: Izzy Battres' Journey of Faith and Redemption

Episode Date: May 13, 2025

🎙️ In this inspiring episode of We're Out of Time, Richard Taite sits down with Izzy Battres—renowned contractor, TV personality from HGTV’s Flip or Flop, and now the star of his own show, Izzy Does It. As the founder and CEO of Battres Construction (est. 2008), Izzy brings a wealth of experience, resilience, and heart to everything he does. In this candid conversation, Izzy shares his journey from a troubled past to becoming a successful entrepreneur and beloved TV figure. He opens up about the power of faith, the importance of community, and why he's passionate about using his platform to inspire hope in others facing tough times. 🔔 Don’t miss this heartfelt episode that will move you, challenge your thinking, and motivate you to take action. 👇 Tap below for resources, links, and more: 🔗 All things Richard Taite, We're Out of Time, and Carrara Treatment Wellness & Spa:https://linktr.ee/richardtaite For more on Izzy Battres: https://www.instagram.com/izzybattres

Izzy Batra's star of HGTV's Izzy Does It joins the We're Out of Time podcast. I don't think I'm famous. HGTV is a great channel. When I think of fame, I think of Calci's old lady. Taylor Swift? Yeah. The way that you're going to get ahead is you work. You don't complain.

You don't do any of that. You just work. And if you work hard enough, then you're going to be able to build something. Do you get arrested when you were a kid? I was. Go to jail? I did. Everyone's shocked right now.

But it's a redemption story, and that's why I'm here. because there's a lot of people out there that find themselves in that place, and they think they're never going to get out. There's no hope, and I'm just here to tell you guys that there is hope. And there was men with my background that could relate to me. And they started telling me, this is your new walk now. You're not going to go back to the neighborhood. You're not going to go back to the streets.

We're going to start this walk together. I see you. You matter. You have purpose. I think that's everybody's desire is to be seen. We're overwhelmed with gratitude. where out of time has reached number three on the Apple Podcast's mental health chart. Thank you for listening, supporting, and sharing this journey with us.

Izzy. Yes, sir. Thank you for coming today. This is a big deal. And I'm very grateful to you. Well, thank you for inviting me out here. And I was looking forward to this. Yeah.

All right. So I want to go through a little story for the people that may or may not know who you are. Tell me about your child's health. All right. Raised by my mom and dad, migrated from Mexico, Durango, Mexico and Oaxaca, Mexico, to the city of San Ana, Orange County, California, back in the 60s. They met in the 60s, and their life, you know, just like anybody's life trying to seek a better place. It was pretty rough, you know, murder, chaos. In Mexico.

In Mexico, you got to come over here, support the family, all that story that you hear. Now, people are just trying to find refuge, right? Right. So they found refuge here in San Ana, California. They met and grew up poor. I wouldn't say dirt poor. My wife grew up dirt poor. But my parents, they made it work, got married.

They had kids, and they raised three boys, one girl. and it was my life was something of um you got them easy because you were born here right you know you don't know what it is to struggle you don't know what it is to suffer and the way that you're going to get ahead is you work you don't complain you you don't do any of that you just work yeah and if you work hard enough then you're going to be able to build something that is part of Mexican culture for sure. Yeah. That is the one thing.

I was doing workers comp law back in the day. And I was representing 16,000 Hispanics. Okay. It was rare where we did an MRI on somebody and didn't see discs that were bulging or. Wow. It was rare. And they never said anything. And the reason they never said anything is because the feeling is if I'm not hurt, then I'm not really working.

That's the mindset. That's the mindset. Yeah. Now, if you disrespect them in any way, shape, or form, now you got a problem. Okay. But physically, they're working with busted backs and everything. So, yeah, that's their, that's their MO. That's the thing.

Yeah. So you had that example of the father who did that, so you knew how to work. So I had the example on my mom's side as she worked. My dad was a hustler. My dad hustled. And, you know, when you think of the word hustler in this day and age, you know, it could be described as many things, right? Right. But my dad, you know, at seven years old, was, you know, sell, just like what you see,

the little kids selling cheeklets and all that. He was selling newspapers. He was selling everything. And so that hustle never left them. That entrepreneurship never left them. So he dabbled in a lot of different, I'm going to say, markets. Your dad was drug dealing? Your dad was drug dealing?

His dad was drug dealing. He can't say it. Is he can't say it. It hasn't been proven 100%, but he dabbled at a lot of different areas. Right. And he hustled. He worked nine to five jobs. He did construction.

He worked for the labor's union. He was in the labor union. He poured concrete. He did all of that. We built our home, you know, ADUs before they were called ADU. That's how you learned construction. Oh, yeah. I remember my mother calling somebody to come fix a house.

Most disrespectful thing you could do to a Mexican fall. call a white contractor over to fix the house. You call a white contractor. My mom called up. Like, hey, I know somebody. And then once my dad's seen the bid, he's like, no, we're not doing this. Right. So we fixed up the whole house.

Like, we roofed it, I think, three times. And the time we were there, we converted the garage before they were called ADUs, right? We built in a dish. And we did all of that. That's how we learned construction. That's awesome. Yeah. That's awesome.

And I hated every minute working with my dad. Because, you know, they're impatient. And there, they train you to, you know, you're just, they talk to you the way men talk to you. I'm scared of how I'm doing it with my kid. I like the way your dad did it with you, you know. You figure too soft with your kid? Yeah. I mean, but he's a good kid, right?

So it's like what am I'm just scared about. Grit and resilience. Mm-hmm. Right? Like, we have it because we had to. Right. It scares me. You know, there's this guy who came on here.

His name is, what's his name, Shin? What's his first name? Jimmy Shin. Okay. He's a world-renowned comedian. And he said, tough times make strong people. strong people make good times good times make weak people right weak people create hard times and on and on and so it scares me

sometimes i don't know if i'm getting it right or not yeah i think as a society we start realizing how you see like the greatest generation that was before us and you see our grandparents our grandparents right and you see how they built this country and you know 1819 going to war fighting and then coming back and building things and then that's slowly making it making it easier for their kids like hey i don't want them to go through that what they went through and then us now doing it to our kids. And so you think of as a nation, as a, as a country, we're young, 200 plus years. And you see these empires that they've been around for generations, like generations,

hundreds, hundreds of years. And you kind of see it like what you just said right now, or your boy, the comedian. Jimmy. Yeah. How things become a little bit more diluted. and it becomes a little bit more softer. I don't like using the word soft, but that's the word that keeps getting thrown at me.

Yeah. And are they going to be resilient? I'm sure they're resilient in their own way. So that's one of the balances in running a business. Yeah. Especially with my daughter is having that balance in my son, having that balance of, you know, when to use the tau, right?

and when to use the rod, having that balance, because the ways... Is that like the carrot and the stick? Yeah, there you go. Because I don't know if I want to get hit with a rod or a towel. Like, is the towel wet? Is it heavy? Well, the towel after you're on a fight, you know, you're in a fight in the boxing ring, you do the towel.

You know, take care of them, you throw, you know, take care of them, stuff like that, you know, so it's a balance that I don't think I've, you know, mastered, you know, so. especially running a family business. Well, you're farther along than I am and you're working with your daughter. And so that's a good sign. Like when your kids want to work with you, you raised them right. But you got along good with your parents, right? Oh, yeah.

Okay. My pops was in the picture lot. He was there, but not there. Well, he was working every day. He was working every day. Sometimes, you know, his work would take him out of the house. for a few months. Right.

You know, but when he came home, like a good Mexican wife, she'd have the food ready, the tortillas ready. Dad has seen him in weeks sometimes, and he'd come home and he was dad and you respect your dad. That's the way you were raised. That's awesome. So you mentioned facing addiction early on. What was that chapter like in your life? Well, in the very beginning, it was great, right?

because you're just, I mean, you're having fun. I just stop. I love that you said that. I love that you said that because it is fun. It starts off all fun. Then you graduate to fun with problems and then you graduate to all problems. Sorry, I interrupted you. I just love the honest.

No, I like that you know that. Uh-huh. You know, because usually you hear all the like madness and crazy stuff, but it was like, you know, at the very beginning, like a Budweiser commercial. or Bud Light commercial. They show all the pretty women. Everybody's having a good time, six-packs, all of that stuff. But it kind of feels that way.

In the very beginning, you know, you get all the sense of what the drugs do to you. I started off with drinking, then smoking weed, then, you know, dropping mushrooms, dropping acids, smoking PCP. You were smoking PCP? Yeah. You got to check her past, my man. Yeah. Smoking PCP is the real thing. Back in the hood, it was so inexpensive.

And that's what you did. You know, you drop PCP, put joints and PCPs. They call them lovelies. And that's what we did. Do you get arrested when you were a kid? I was. To go to jail? I did.

Tell me about it. It was, um, dude, everybody loves you. Everyone is shocked right now. Right? Yeah. The next thing you know, listen, it's not like he has a ice cream truck parked in front of his house, okay? It's, come on, this isn't the worst thing in the world. No, it's not the worst thing, but it's a redemption story. And that's why I'm here. That's why we're hearing it. That's what we're

here, you know, because there's a lot of people out there that find themselves in that place and they think they're never going to get out. There's no hope. And I'm just here to tell you guys that there is hope. So give it to me. So I've always wanted to get out of the neighborhood, right? Because they say you're a product of your environment. So I wanted to get out. I joined the Navy at 17. Navy recruiter had to meet his quota. He says, you want to get out of here? I said, yeah, I need to get out of here because I'll end up dead before I'm 18.

So he goes, okay, do you want to join the Navy? I said, will you buy me a 40-ounceer of Old English? And he said, yes. Wow. That is a good man. He was willing to go to any length. Do you know his name? I don't know his name.

He's a star. I don't remember his name. So he takes me out. I do the whole weekend up here in L.A. There's hundreds of kids, minorities, black, Hispanics, a few white guys. And we're all joining the armed forces, you know, Air Force, Marines, Army, Navy. I joined the Navy, made my allegiance to the flag, came back home, was leaving. I said, where's my 40-ounce, sir?

No kidding. He stopped off a liquor store here in L.A. bought me a 40 ounce of old English, drank it in the back of his car on the way to my house, told my mama, hey, I'm going to be gone. I joined the Navy. And she said, like, you did what? I was like, yeah, I just got to get out of here.

My departure date was 1990 July 5th. I said, I got to party one more time before I go off and become an outstanding citizen in four years. Well, that party got me into strong-arm robbery and got me into, you know, into jail. And I never said. The day before going? The day before going out. Yeah.

Wow. And I was already 18, so I had to go to the big boys, you know, no juvenile. And how long were you in jail for? They gave me, they gave me three years with the five-year joint suspension. And I ended up doing six months in the counting. Oh, that sucks. Yeah, six months in the county. And instead of going to four years in the Navy, I ended up going down that route.

And the judge said, you will never serve our country. Did you? No. Even after I got out of my recovery, I tried joining again. They wouldn't let you. They didn't want to let me. I said, what about the National Guard? They're like, nah.

Really? Yeah. They wouldn't let somebody who was convicted, right? Convicted, yeah. Of armed robbery. Was that what it was? Strong arm. Strong arm robbery.

Well, you would think that's kind of like what we want in our soldiers, no? There's a little bit of violence. Yeah, we want our soldiers violent, but we don't take violent people into the military. Yeah. Can we get back to common sense now? I mean, it only sounds. stupid when you say it out loud, right? It does. It does.

Okay. All right. This is, this is, okay. So you spent time in a recovery home. Mm-hmm. How did that come about? And what was that experience like for you? After I got out, you know, you go down the straight and narrow for a few days. And then you go back to your old ways.

and I went back to my old ways all the way down to I was 26. I graduated into meth and the meth was my choice of dope for 10 years. You smoking it or shooting it? I was smoking it off the foil paper, the heavy-duty Reynolds foil paper with a big pin. Yeah, so, you know, I did that and I couldn't get that. monkey off me. And it got pretty bad. How long were you doing that for 10 years? Yeah. You're unusually clear. Yeah. Normally when people do meth for that long, they never make it back. They don't have that clarity and the presence and the connection that you have. They're all over the place. So with,

at my latter part of my run using meth, I couldn't speak a clear sentence. No. My, brain was gone. Yeah. I'm seeing things. Everybody's after me. I couldn't even, I would mumble to people and I would, you know, you'd talk to me and I'd look at you and I'd want to say something, but the brain wasn't processing the words and I couldn't say that's right. That was at the end of my run. And I was like, you know, you do a lot of dirt when you're running the streets and stuff like that you do dirt people do dirt with you what's dirt um you know causing pain pain being caused by you're causing other people pain okay you're just in that environment right you're just like um the walking dead right people are just eating people that's the way it is yeah right and so um

i just felt like my days were numbered i just felt my days were just i have maybe one more week to go. And in that process, my brother got better. He went into a victory outreach home, not by choice, but he was court committed. Right. And the victory outreach home in Santa Ana went and petitioned the judge and saying, look, this man has a family. You're just populating the prison. He's going to come out worse. Why don't you give him a shot in our recovery home? and the home director named Pastor Joe Carrillo petitioned him. And he offered Rudy, hey, you could go into our home one year or go three years into prison. Right.

Right. So mama didn't raise no fool. So my brother said, okay, let's go into the recovery home. Now, I heard that, but wait a minute, let's go back. You were in jail from 18 to 19. Yeah. Right? And then you immediately.

started to continue to do drugs until what age did you go into the sober living home until i was 28 okay so you lost nine years yeah just lost them they're gone yeah nothing positive during that period of time um not moving up in your career not nothing no just layling working off and on jobs you know okay um but yeah you're stuck you're just stuck you're just stuck I heard that you now have treatment centers. I don't have treatment centers. I work still with Victory Outreach Ministries. I thought you had one.

No, we don't have a treatment. I don't, my wife and I don't have treatment centers. So the way that the ministry works of Victory Outreach, it's a nonprofit. Sure. You know, like the lowest of the lowest, you're walking in. When I ran a treatment, I ran a treatment center. I was a home director. So after I got better, my second year, I was a home director for five years.

They put you to work in exchange for free living? Yeah, an exchange for free living. So I ran a Victor Outreach Recovery Home for several years, and there you have people coming out of the joint, off the streets. I'm going to Skid Row and getting guys, hey, you want to change your life? I got a home for you. God did this in my life. He changed my life.

I used to be where you're at. Come here and I'll help you. And I brought them into my house. And that's what we did. And so my wife and I still do that. One of our properties had a women's recovery home. So we're still very well involved with. I work with cats coming out of our recovery home, training them to run business,

and still mentoring them in how to run their business. Kids, you're going straight to heaven. straight to heaven all right how'd you get to the recovery center yeah so 1998

April 27 I was already on my last run I felt like the sentence of death on my neck like I'm not going to make it another week

they're just going to find me dead at some point and I just I was raised Catholic and so I had heard of a purgatory and I was like I

just need to get into, I know I'm not going to get into heaven. I don't want to go to hell. I just need to get into purgatory. And I called the most religious individual that I knew growing up, and that was my aunt. You know, she didn't shave her legs. She didn't, you know, she was hardcore. I figured, okay, she's the nearest person that I know that's to God. And I didn't know she was Christian, and she was a janitor at a church. I called her up. I said, I just need to make peace with God. That's what I told her. I said, I don't think I'm going to be able to live another week out here. I just need to make peace with God.

Can you help me? And she said, meet me at this place in an hour. I walked over there. It was a converted church. It was a movie theater converted to church. No church servers, no nothing. And I thought I was just going to go confess. Like, hey, you know, and then have another few days getting high and then die.

That was it. and then hopefully I make it into purgatory. And when I got there, I just, she just, I just felt something there. And she, you know, what I know now was the altar, I just started walking toward, they had a big cross. I just started walking towards the cross. It was dark, no church service.

It was just her and I. And the minute I got to the front of the altar, I just broke. Like, I just like, you know, I never felt bad about doing people wrong and I didn't feel guilt about stuff. But that moment, I just felt all the heaviness of all the madness and dirt that I did.

And I felt remorseful. And I felt like I just needed to get forgiveness. And I asked them to just forgive me for all the dirt that I did and all the people that I've wronged. And I felt it. From that point on, I just, like, an immediate transformation happened. I got up. I felt lighter.

I felt delivered. And from that day on, no more meth, no more madness. And it was just a miracle. And then from there on, that's where I started. I knew my brother went to the outreach, Victor Outreach. and he was getting better and I seen him being transformed. I said, I got to get to where he's at.

And I started connecting there with the men there at church. And there was men with my background that could relate to me. And they started telling me, this is your new walk now. You're not going to go back to the neighborhood. You're not going to go back to the streets. We're going to start this walk together. And then you had this internal compass. to where you knew intuitively, I feel the pulse, so I'm going that way.

I go against what feels not good to me anymore. That's what I'm hearing. I'm just not going to go in the direction any longer that doesn't feel clean to me. Yeah, it's what I know now, repentance. Repentance is you're going one direction, and you're talking. turn around and you go the opposite direction. So you were genuinely remorseful. You genuinely had a spiritual experience in that.

Nobody's going to believe it. I believe it a thousand percent because it's happened to me on many occasions. But go ahead and try to tell that to the average guy on the street. They look at us like we're insane, right? That's a beautiful story. Tell me about where you met your wife, because I see that you, you always say, well, my wife and I, right? It's not you. It's, you know, you've referred to this as family business.

It's clear you're in love with your wife. How did you meet your wife? At church. I met her at church. Okay, I did. I swear I saw that coming. Yeah, I met her at church. And what attracted me to her is that. The Jesus glow.

What's that? The Jesus glowed. The Jesus glowed. No, that wasn't it. That wasn't it. I don't think she had to gloat to her. Honey, I didn't see a glow on you. And what attracted me to her was her love for the streets.

Her love for the streets. Her love for the streets. And this is what I mean for her love for the streets. Not like, you know, what we used to do because she comes from that background, too. But her love to go out there and tell the hurting people that are living on the streets that there's a way out. And so we would have what's called evangelism. And those times would be like we would go into neighborhoods like 10, 12 o'clock at night. And we'd go into neighborhoods and try to pull people out of the neighborhood and get them back to the light.

Where would you get them? Where would you put them? We'd take them into the recovery homes. So you'd go pull people right off the street and put them in recovery homes. How could you pay for it? How did you guys, how were you able to afford to give these people the care that they needed? It was funded through the church. So there was no red tape. There was just like, the church was just like, go bring these souls to us and let's care for them.

That's exactly right. And you had other people. Dude, you're going to make me start crying. I don't even know what world I'm living in anymore. Go on. Tell me, what's up? What's going on? Dude, I do that.

I do that all the time. And I just beat the hell out of myself all the time because I can't do more. We can afford three people for free at a time to take care of. Right? but it just, it never feels good, man. Anytime you leave someone behind, it never feels good. You know, that's why I love this church thing. I want to tell you a story real quick about the woman that raised me,

and her name was Lydia. And I loved Lydia more than anything in the world. And when she was passing, I put her in this place. And I went to see her that day and she says, Richie, I don't want to be here. I want to be at home with my family. I said, of course, I didn't know better.

And I went in to the woman who owned the place and I'm like, look, I need all this stuff at her house. Oh, well, you've already paid for this and it costs more to be here. And I'm like, hey, I didn't ask you for anything back. We're freeing you up a room. Good for you. Just get her back home. And we're going to have all this stuff there, okay? she's like no problem.

So she's going to go the next day. And this chaplain comes in. And she's talking and he's talking to this woman. And Lydia just looks at me while he's in mid-sentence and she says, I don't know this man. And I'm like, come on, please, please. She listens to him for another 10 seconds and she looks at me And she goes, I don't know this man.

And he looks at me and he says, what does that mean? And I said, that means thanks for coming. So I showed the guy out. And I'm like, what do you want from me? And she looks at me and she says, there's this father. He's in a church in the valley. I don't know where it is. And I do not know his name.

But that's the man I want to see. So I'm like, no problem. I'll figure it out, honey. And I walk out of the room and I go right into the stairwell. And I just start crying. Like, where am I going to find this guy? And her sweet nephew comes, puts his arms around me, he goes, I can find him. So I go, go get that man on the phone from me, please.

So I'm talking to this man and he says to me, I said, I need you here. And he says, I'm sorry, Mr. Tate. But today's Ash Wednesday. It's kind of the biggest day of the year for us. And I couldn't breathe. My throat closed. I couldn't speak. And this is what came out of my mouth.

I don't care. God wants you here today. And he heard the desperation. And he said, okay. What's the address? And he came. I wrote this guy. she died the next day.

I wrote this guy a letter and I sent him a letter and a thousand dollars. Now, this is in 2019, 2020. So it's been five years already. Every year this man gets the same letter and a thousand dollars. And he will get that until I'm in the ground. Because one day he's going to share that talk amongst his congregation. And the talk is going to be about, when they call you, you just go. When they call you go, that's what being a servant of God is.

You just go. It reminds me of leaving the 99 to go after that one. and I feel that's what Tell me about that I don't know about that Well you leave the 99 sheep He left 99 sheep that were fine But he felt the desperation in your voice

And he felt that that was his main mandate To go after that one sheep That is not doing well And so you leave the 99 And you go after that one And that's what he did and he served you and Lydia you said right? Oh, yeah.

And he served Lydia. And that's what a minister is. He was a godly man. And that's the difference. He would have said something to me like, I'm sorry, man, I can't do it because I got to prepare for this talk or that. Dude, you don't have to prepare for anything.

Okay, what comes out of your mouth is what God wants out of your mouth. Get over here. And he did it. He was, that's a, that is that, God is proud. Well, it also shows the amount of faith that you had. And you had enough faith to go and step out and say, this is what I'm going to do for her. I'm going to go get what she needs now. And I'm going to have enough faith to go speak to this, man.

That's faith. Dude, I would have gone and grabbed. down. That guy was coming. He had no choice. He just didn't. He didn't. He didn't know. He had no choice. That guy was coming. That guy. Halftire. I'm throwing him in the van. For sure. That's what I'm tired about. No, no. I would have duct taped him to a coffee table and just lifted the coffee table, put it right in the van. Yeah, he's, that, that was a good man. All right. I appreciate you coming on the show and telling me about your story. Why? Why? I mean, I'm grateful. Don't get me wrong, because it's what we do here. We're the redemption show and you're the,

you're a great story, fantastic story. But why here? Why do you decide to do this for us today? I believe in timing. I don't believe in coincidence. I believe in God-ordained moments. That's how my life has worked out. And I checked you out. And you still came? it wouldn't have been my first choice right hey but you've probably heard that before right dude every day from from every woman I've ever been

not my first choice but hey we'll make it work but I've shared this story amongst other venues you know and I've shared it in in the prisons in Costa Rica in the prisons in Tijuana

and Venezuela on the streets. I've shared my story to that group of people. And you have helped different people in a different socioeconomic bracket. Is that what you think? That's what I've read, right? Cliffside, right? And he just opened up, is it Carrera?

Yeah. Yeah, so... That's not I'm most proud of. I know, but you just... You're still helping. I've read you helped over 10,000 families. Yeah. And those people I've never been able to reach because I, you know, but you've been able to reach.

Right. And so I felt like this is a good way to tell my story and to just share it. Now, you're asking me questions that I didn't think I was going to share, like the jail and all that. And I think it's good. I didn't ask you if you were someone's girlfriend in jail. It's like I asked you if you went. to jail. Drugs in jail usually go together. Yeah, yeah.

Methanphetamine, man. That's, you are a miracle that you want, that you, how long did it must have taken you at least a year to two years to clear your head? Two years. Yeah. Two years. And I think I still see things. Yeah, a little bit, a little, once in a while. Yeah. And I'm still paranoid. Are you really? I still, I don't, I close the windows when I'm sitting in front of my living room. I still check the door when I'm at a restaurant. I don't, you know, I just. That's from the hood.

That's, that's, that's not from the drugs. That's from, that's from, that's environmental. Okay. Yeah. That's, that's growing up with your head on a swivel. You know, you ain't parking next to a van. Right. Right.

You were on a show called Flip or Flop. That's where I started. Yes, flip or flop. Okay. And there were two other. main characters on this as well, a guy named Terek and somebody else. Christina. Christina and Tarek.

Yes. And they were married. They were the talent. Yes. They were married. Okay. And then they got divorced. Yes.

But they still stayed on the show. They still continued to make flip or flop. Okay. And now they're no longer fighting. No. And they're like best friends. Co-parenting. Best friend co-parenting.

co-parenting. Yeah. Right. So they love each other, their family. Like they got to the other side of it. Remarkably, yes. Now, I hear that people are having a problem with that. Like they're not in this stuck in this Jerry Springer-esque white trash nonsense, right?

That they're actually created this evolvement, this environment that is beneficial. show to the children. Right? Mm-hmm. Who's having a problem with this? Apparently, I didn't know people were, well, people are always, you know, people are people, right? People are people and people are always going to want to see the bad in other people. You know, hurt people, you've heard it said, right?

Right. So usually it's the hurt people that are having a problem. They're hurt. They want to hurt others. That's the way it usually goes. And with Targ and Christina, when I first worked with them on Flip or Flores, on HGTV, I knew they were always good. You know, they wanted to do things, but they're young.

Money comes, fame comes. You make bad decisions. You learn from those decisions, and you find out what's the true meaning of it all. And at the end, it's family. They made a whole TV show about it, too. What TV show? The flip-off, the new one. Tell me.

So they got so, they got good at what they're doing, and they designed them, you know, flip homes. They made the TV show the flip off. And there you could actually see some of the true rawness of what their relationships are and running a business and co-parenting. Really? Yeah.

Season one came out. And so this was about, but this was already when they got to the other side. Once they got to the other side. But the ratings must have been through the roof when they were arguing. Right? Because everybody. Don't people love that? People love the train wreck, don't they?

Yeah, they love the train wreck, man. And so the ratings were through the roof, and now they're loving each other, and how are the ratings? Rays are great. Really? Yeah. They don't need, they don't need, like, an antagonist to walk in and stir up some nonsense. Well, you'll still have a little bit of that in this show, right? You'll still have a little bit.

Who's that guy? Who's the shit disturber? Who's that guy and the show? So you remind me a lot about a lot of Tarek. I do. Yeah. Some of your manner is. He's handsome.

So handsome. Right? He's just like fast. Okay. Right? Fast makes decisions and thinks about the decisions later if they were good or not. Right. Well, they're his decisions.

Yeah. They're his mistakes to make. Yeah. Yeah. So I would say Tarek's always going to be that guy. Uh-huh. Yeah. He's, you don't know what you're going to get from him.

Okay. So that, that's it. Yeah. And his ex-wife, she's great. Christina's great. Yeah, I was out at her house last week and, you know, she's, people are always evolving. And she's got a better man. She's got a better man.

She's got another man. She has another guy. And he's got another woman? He has another woman? I'm asking. Oh, I wouldn't know that. I wouldn't. Well, they're on the show.

Oh, you're saying Tarek. I'm saying, yeah, Tarr. Okay, yeah, he's already married. He has already got another. Yeah, Heather, yeah, he's already got kids. These guys just don't miss a beat. It's like, next up, who's on deck, who's in the hole, right? You know, people have a hard time being alone sometimes.

Right. You know, I mean, people have a hard time being alone sometimes. I am very grateful for their friendship, you know, when HGTV gave me my own show, Izzy does it. A lot has the best name of a show ever, by the way. Tell me where it came from. Tell me where it came from. It came from your name.

Izzy does it. But where did that originate from? Izzy. The name, Izzy? Eric Wright, EZE. Does it really? Yeah, NWA. 1980s gangster rap.

So how old are you? I'm 52. Okay, so we're kind of in the same thing. Yeah. He made a song called Easy Does It? Really? easy does it. Yeah.

Nice. Go hit that track later on. Make sure there's no kids around. I don't think we can, I don't think you can play that on the outro, right? We get hammered for that. Yeah. Yeah.

What do you call that? Copyrights, yeah. Copyrights. Weak. Okay, can't even play that. What I really want to know is, yeah, flip and flop was the first show that made famous.

Zipp or flop, yeah. What's called? Flip or flop. What did I? say flip and flop okay flip or flop worst

thank God for editing I'm so bad at this I'm so bad at this I suck so bad he's thank God for him he was this is so horrible so

when you did flip or flop that that your first show it made you famous dude what's it like to be famous from not being famous. I mean, I just like that when it, when it, when the light hits and you're like, oh, shit,

I'm, I'm a thing. Like, what does that feel like? I don't think I'm famous. See, I, you know, HGTV is a great channel. Like, when I think of fame, I think of, uh, uh, Kelsey's old lady, um, Travis Kelsey. Oh, Taylor Swift? Yeah.

Yeah. I think. Yeah, she's famous. That's what I think, right? Okay, but the Pope's famous, right? No, no, no, no. The Pope's nowhere near as famous as Taylor Swift. That's what I think famous, right?

Right. You know, people that, like, that's what I consider fame, like, A-list kind of cats. Right. Yeah. Right. So if you're not, so if you're not Taylor Swift, you're nobody. Yeah, that's what, what, I think of fame. That's what I think of. Right. I think of big personalities and you go anywhere in the

world and people will know who you are. Right. You know, Izzy Batchers are like, who are you, did you do my last gate? Where do I know you from? Did you do my, do my what? Do you do my lawn? Where do I know my lawn? Where do I know. That's so good. Do you know if I would have said that, I would have been canceled. Okay. But, you know, actually, I can't be canceled. Tell me about the new show and your family. And it's called what, the Kardashians? The Kardashians. Yeah, that's exactly what it is it. What's the show called? It's Izzy does it. Is he does it? Is it does it? Is he does it? Is it does it? Is he does it? Yeah, it's a family. Like Sanford and Sons? It has a little bit of hood in it, yeah. Does it really? Yeah, yeah, it tells about it. The pilot talks a little bit about my background.

Uh-huh. Yeah. And then HGTV shares a little bit about my back. Do they start it off with you and a hammer, making big rocks into little rocks? No, they started off with introducing my dad and how he raised his boys and built a family business. And then now I'm continuing that legacy. And you're teaching the kids how to do it. And now we're teaching the kids how to do it. And we're designing and building homes.

That's so cool, man. It is cool. There's nothing cooler than that. Because you teach your kids how to fish, man, and then they don't ever have to worry about anything. See, that goes back to what we were talking about at the beginning, about the grit, and you know,

you're actually showing them how to do this. That is so cool. You know, tell me about what your daughter's doing, because I'm so fascinated by it. I love the fact that you're working with your daughter and she's doing the social media stuff because you could have gotten anybody to do that.

Right. But nobody's ever going to do it for you like your baby girl. You're exactly dead on on that because I had four other people before her. And they could not, they just didn't have the heart and the culture of the company. And when she came on, she blew it up. Yeah. You know, she just blew it up. And then she's in love with her daddy. So nobody's going to be the cheerleader.

for you the way your daughter will be. It's just, it's just perfect. And, and she is not just going to, she's not just a yes person. You know, you hire other people sometimes they're just yes people. Right. But she knows how to, you know,

put me in line as well. Right. And I'm going to receive it from her. She'll say, that's not a good idea because. Right. Or she's, in all fairness, we don't know. We don't know. How would we know?

Yeah. I mean, you get a like and you're supposed to be like this. really what would be the one piece of advice you would give somebody who is struggling with drugs and alcohol that advice that I would give somebody that's struggling with drugs and alcohol with drugs and alcohol or any kind of abusive you know behavior is um is you have to be tired you have to be tired of wanting to get help and change that advice i would say then usually i say this when i'm out on the streets talking to people is are you tired yet because if you're not tired you got one more run in you one more hit in you then you know you're not going to fully surrender

i'm scared about that though man because you know 10 years ago i'd say yeah absolutely you're a thousand percent correct. Now I'm scared. I'm on the fence because, you know, all the street drugs have fentanyl in it. Yeah. Now, 70% of them, right? So people are dying. These accidental overdoses. So I get scared. I try to talk them out of that last run. So you tell them that, right? You say, if you're not tired, you don't know what's coming next. And sad to say, you know, some of our guys that went into our recovery home, they go out, they think they got one last run in them, gone after that fentanyl hit.

That's right. Gone. And it's not the same dope like it was before. This fentanyl thing takes you out. You're done. And you think you got one last hit in you, boom. And we're burying people still for coming out of our recovery home. It's the street drugs are killing everybody.

Mm-hmm. If you're not getting prescription drugs from a pharmacy or weed from a dispensary, you're dead. It's not if it's went. Yeah. And that's the part. That's why I'm so grateful that you're here, man, because people love you. People just love you, you know. And this is powerful, especially in your community, because you know how it is in your community.

very proud okay never want to look bad right okay embarrassed that you have a child like this right you're struggling and you can't save your ass and your face at the same time that that's impossible you have to choose you know yeah i think you become you have to become vulnerable right For sure. And that takes humility. And when you're humble, doors open up. God, you know, is a friend to the humble. He opposes the proud, but gives more grace to the humble.

And, you know, that grace comes when you're humble. And sometimes, you know, you said, you're not, you know, saving face and protecting yourself and all that. That's, that's, you got to drop your guard sometimes. Yeah. Well, the good news is, is that if you're not humble, you get beaten into a state of reasonableness. Oh, you've been there. Yeah. So you get there whether you're that humble guy or you're not.

What keeps you grounded these days? I know the answer. It's going to be perfect. But what keeps you grounded these days? What keeps to be grounded is just the people that I'm around with. my wife keeps me grounded my wife it keeps me grounded you know he who finds a wife finds favor with the lord and um man she she's amazing you know she she keeps me grounded and um just being around her it's just real and it everything is all the noise is gone you love her kids just like they're you are oh yeah

every day I'm praying for them. Every day I'm looking out for their success. Every day I'm trying to build them up and getting ready for their next phase of their life. And how old are those kids? Who's that? How old are your wife's kids? Oh, so Joseph is 24 and Brianna's 22. Oh, so these are both the kids she brought into the marriage.

Yeah. You're like Kenny. You're exactly like Kenny. My ex's boyfriend loves me. my children every bit as much as he loves his own. So your kids that you had at 45 and 47, they're not with you. No, there are eight houses up the street with my ex-wife, who is my best friend, okay, in the world, okay, I'm like her 67th best friend.

But I don't care. She's my best friend. and her man is the closest thing I have to a brother. I mean, he's like, I love him more than anything. Wow. Because I've never met a man ever this good. And that's a man. Kenny.

Yeah. All right. Dr. Kenneth Spielvogel. He's Jewish. I got a Jew baby doctor, but it doesn't get better than that. Okay. And he's sitting there right with my kids. My kids got a sniffle.

I'm good. Wow. Uh-huh. A house is down. Up. Up. Yep. Uh-huh.

Yeah. So you guys are making it work. Making it work. Everywhere I'm weak, he's strong. Everywhere I'm strong, he's weak. We're like the perfect man together. You see, I wanted that from Joseph and Brianna's dad. But he was so caught up in his, in his own madness.

We didn't have that. I'm sorry. Yeah. And doing the TV show was very therapeutic for us because, you know, I was the stepdad. You know, just you said something powerful. You're wired to automatically love your dad. You are. And so I was always, you know, I was the guy, the other guy.

That's right. And so, but doing the TV show together really made us close to each other. We dropped our guard and we worked together on TV, doing projects on TV. And it provided a forum where we had to be amongst each other and even talk things through. And there were times where he would be able to talk it through with the production company. And he would just talk about it. And I'd be surprised about him talking about it. and the people would listen.

And so he's just being able to talk about it and being able to, you know, communicate that, I think is a powerful thing. Absolutely, man. Absolutely. You know how people say it's good to be gotten? Mm-hmm. Right? That's part of the attraction when you meet somebody.

You guys get each other. Yeah. Okay. There's a quality of that in therapy. I agree. I agree. I went through my series of therapy. when not being able to have a child.

I had to go through that part. And you're right. They provide certain tools and conversations that brings healing. And yeah, I agree 100%. Prayer doesn't take care of it. They say, just pray about it, you know? You just need other tools. Sometimes even your relationship with the Lord,

God made therapists, you know, and they have a certain, you know, intuition and gift to be able to help other people out of being stuck. All right. Are we ready to make news? Yeah, let's do it. All right. Give me something newsworthy that nobody knows. Well, in the realm of we're hoping to get season two, right? We did season one. We'll see what season two looks like. I heard that it was rated in the top 10 of all HGTV shows.

Not of all HGTV, but in this season, we ranked in the top 10. And for it to premiere as a new show, it did fairly well. So, of course, they're picking it up. Yeah, so we're happy about that. We're happy that we're one of the very first Latino families on HGTV. Predominantly, it's a different demographic. Last one. Yeah. If you can go back and talk to your younger self, what would you say?

I would say like, I see you. You matter. You have purpose. Why does that make you emotional? Because I think that that's everybody's innate design. is to be seen. Who didn't see you as a child? You know, growing up in a household where it's chaos, you know, you go find it somewhere else. And that's where I found it. I found it on the streets. I found it wanting to belong.

I found purpose in other things. And you get caught up that way. And that's what I would say. to any young man, you know, making that connection and really making them feel like there's purpose in their life. If they could find that purpose, then they don't have to go through all the madness and all the chaos and try to belong somewhere where that belonging is going to take them down a bad, you know, evil street. Can you do me a favor? Sure. So I've got a friend in the other room who is a huge fan of yours.

My name's Karen. Do you mind if I ask her to come in and ask you one question? Is that cool? I'm cool with it. All right. I do have one question. As a contractor, and you also have some recovery houses, when you design and build houses, is there anything that you think about to make it more?

comforting and comfortable for people with addiction problems? The colors. You know, design is an antidote to people to chaos. And if you can make it warm, if you can make it inviting and welcoming by using colors, that's a big thing. What's the happiest color? What's the happiest color? For me, it's going to be green.

That's my favorite color. Hey, man, nobody's got more patience than you. You are a patient, kind, soul. Thank you for coming. I appreciate that. Thank you. How can people find you? Instagram at Izzy Batteris, Google Bachelors Construction.

If you guys need some design, build services. Izzy does it. You can still stream it on Discovery and on Max and look out for potentially, prayerfully, season two. Working on a book as well. What book? We've yet to hit the title yet, but we're working on some of the publishing companies that put out, you know, nice books for people coming out from my background.

So working on that as well. Cool. I appreciate you having me on here, Mr. Tate. Yeah, man. The pleasure's all mine. See you next Tuesday. There it is. We're out of time.

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