From Prison to Purpose with Nick Jones

In this episode of The Successful Life Podcast, Corey Berrier sits down with longtime friend and entrepreneur Nick Jones for a direct conversation about addiction recovery, entrepreneurship, personal responsibility, faith, leadership, and building a life after prison.

Nick shares his journey from addiction, drug dealing, and multiple prison sentences to long-term sobriety, business ownership, and service-based leadership. He discusses the role of the 12 steps, the Big Book, spiritual principles, mentorship, and helping others as core parts of lasting recovery.

The conversation also covers Nick’s entrepreneurial path through wireless sales, Sandler Sales training, financial education, med spas, hormone replacement therapy, peptide importation, nutraceutical manufacturing, and building Cell Tech MD in Atlanta. Corey and Nick also talk about second chances, hiring people in recovery, workforce challenges, and why personal accountability matters in both business and life.

Listeners will hear practical lessons on recovery, leadership, sales, business failure, rebuilding after setbacks, faith-based decision making, and creating opportunities for people who are serious about changing their lives.

Key Topics Covered

Addiction recovery, alcoholism, cocaine addiction, 12-step recovery, AA Big Book, spiritual awakening, prison reform, entrepreneurship after prison, personal responsibility, sober living, faith and recovery, sales leadership, Sandler Sales, business ownership, med spa business, hormone replacement therapy, peptide therapy, Cell Tech MD, hiring people in recovery, second chances, mentorship, service work, overcoming adversity, Atlanta entrepreneur, Corey Berrier, Nick Jones.

Subscribe to The Successful Life Podcast for more conversations on recovery, business, leadership, and personal growth. Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify to help more listeners find the show.

https:newpathemployment.com

 https://www.audible.com/pd/9-Simple-Steps-to-Sell-More-ht-Audiobook/B0D4SJYD4Q?source_code=ASSORAP0511160006&share_location=library_overflow

https://www.amazon.com/Simple-Steps-Sell-More-Stereotypes-ebook/dp/B0BRNSFYG6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1OSB7HX6FQMHS&keywords=corey+berrier&qid=1674232549&sprefix=%2Caps%2C93&sr=8-1

 https://www.linkedin.com/in/coreysalescoach/

Transcript

Corey Berrier 0:30

Welcome to the Successful Life Podcast. I'm your host, Corey Berrier, and I'm here with my man Nick Jones. What's up, brother? What's up, Corey? Not much, my man. So Nick's been one of my buddies for, I don't know, going on close to 25 years. One would have thought we would have done this much quicker than now, but we talk all the time and it just never really dawned on me. I don't know why. Honestly, I didn't think about having you on in the previously, but I think the timing is everything as in most things in life. And so Nick, I I don't want to I'll let you kind of give everybody a overview of who you are, what you do. Talk about Cell Tech, obviously, and all those good things. By the way, Nick is Nick's company's where I get all my peptides from. So when he mentioned Cell Tech, that's where they come from. Go ahead, brother.

Speaker 1:24

Uh so I I I don't want it to be a Cell Tech commercial, obviously. So, you know, cliff notes of who I am and how we got here. I mean, what I do for a living now uh for four major businesses, the my passion is the med spies, but I have a peptide importation company. I'm part owner of a nutraceutical manufacturing company with another friend of mine. My wife and I always have a limiting company. I've been an entrepreneur for about I guess of the 25 years you've known me, I guess about 18 of those, I guess or more, 18 or 20 of those, because I have had some employer jobs in that 25-year time period. So Cliff Notes, born right here in Atlanta, Georgia. My mom and dad had me in high school, which back then was very taboo. I was raised between two sets of grandparents, not to be the victim. I had two of the best sets of grandparents that you could ask for. But my mom's parents were very old, and that's who I lived with first, and I really had no discipline, got in a lot of trouble. Moved in with my dad's dad, who was the colonel, which gave me the discipline to at least graduate high school and get off to college, which I eventually graduated as well. But in my college years, when I stopped playing football and uh bodybuilding, my drug use and alcohol use really took off, and uh was really easy to sell drugs and make money in college. So I was either at the right place at the right time or the wrong place at the wrong time, or the wrong place at the right time, however you want to work. And those scenarios where escalated up the uh the drug dealing food chain, so to speak. And that coupled with the escalation of my addiction, I uh quit the family business, which was industrial chemicals, which broke my granddad's heart. And there were a lot of reasons that I did that. I certainly wasn't passionate about it, and uh don't regret it now, but regretted the way I did it and regretted it for a long time. And then I just lived the drug dealing life for about 15 years, and it wasn't the several trips to jails and prisons that that uh that got me out of that life. It was the fact that my cocaine addiction had progressed to the point that I tried everything to do to limit use California recovery, blah, blah, blah, and I couldn't stop. So I knew that I wasn't gonna be able to get out of the drug game unless I quit using cocaine, and I wasn't gonna be able to quit using cocaine unless I got out of the drug game. So it was a package deal. And I voluntarily checked myself into a rehab in 1999, stayed there for a year, stayed there for almost a year, stayed there for inpatient seven months, outpatient for the next five, and had a year sober basically just on five five hundred-seven meetings in a year, getting those sheets signed. And ironically enough, at the end of that first year, I really didn't know the first thing about what I understand true recovery to be now. So the thought crossed my mind with a big bonus check that I could go out and party on Friday and I'd make it back to work by Tuesday of that holiday weekend. And we all know how that story ends. I said I couldn't make it back to work, but then I thought I was fucked, truly. I I because I thought I had tried everything, and I just resigned myself to the fact, well, okay, I'm gonna be a drunk and a junkie until they put me in the grave. I would go pick up white chips, this the surrender chip. I'd go pick up a white chip and go home and drink. Pick up a white chip and go home and drink.

Corey Berrier 4:55

Now that was in that 12-step recovery program, that was it was that more along the the drug recovery program, or is that more of an alcohol program?

Speaker 5:10

Great question. So but now there's an A for everything. But back then there were really just three or four. It was Alcoholics Anonymous, the original that all the others are variations of, and there was Narcotics Anonymous, which in my humble opinion was a simplified version of the AA big book, the NA, and then there was CA, and cocaine certainly was my drug of choice, and CA used the AA big book, and then there was, of course, the Al Anine, or the people around the people that life that we destroy. So it's a long story, but I went to this meeting. Yeah, I'd gone by home group, I picked up so many white chips that not only did they stop clapping that uh that they asked me the house man at St. James actually called and said, Hey man, we're out of white chips. We're coming tonight. Could you bring a handful back? And so I driven out to this meeting way out this Friday night CA meeting, so that I could get a little applause and some sympathy for picking up another white ship. And uh everybody in the meeting was talking about the book, and uh and uh so I it was curious enough to go back the next week. And the next week this guy walked up to me after the meeting, said, What's your name? I said, My name's Nick, and says, I've been looking for you, and I'm like, shit, do I do this guy money? Like, where do I know this guy from? And uh he's like, My name's Dante, and you need to bring your big book and be at my house next Monday night. And uh I gave him every excuse in the world, well, I don't drive now, you know, you live way out, and he's like, Take the mart out and we'll pick you up. But I do remember distinctly sitting down with him and talking to him for a little bit before we started going through the book. And I remember like yesterday, I absolutely did not believe that those 164 pages in the A big book would work for me. However, I did absolutely believe that he was like me and they had worked for him. And that was enough for me to come back in next week. And then also, starting from that first blank page, all the treatment centers and meetings that I've been to, and even book studies where someone talks about a step, and you get 15 different opinions of what they think that step means to them. The information was never being presented to me in such a detailed manner of literally going by the book word by word, not step by step, but word by word. And he was pretty clear about we said, Hey, all I've got to tell you is what's in this book. I'm not gonna tell you about your romances or your finances or what you should do and anything in your life. If you ask me a question, I'm gonna give you the answer that comes out of the book. And if the answer ain't in the book, then I ain't got an answer for you. And it turned out, of course, the solution to all my problems was God, and so that was the tools that led me to the relationship with God, which I say a lot. I used to feel for a long time I was cursed with alcoholism and addiction, but really it's been my biggest blessing. I wouldn't have the life that I have now, and have the relationship with my wife, that my friends like you, and and just the first I guess the perspective. Chuck C calls it a new pair of glasses. The pair of glasses that I view the world with, I really like these pair of glasses. And there's a lot of people that go through life that have a best friend that's it's he's not one of us, you know what I'm saying? And uh he can go out and party hard on a vacation or a special occasion and then not think about it or it crossed his mind until next year on his birthday. You know what I'm saying? Mind blowing. Well, what uh it is mind blowing. What blew my mind the most for me is I didn't have any genetic alcoholics or addicts on my father's side. My mom was an alcoholic and an addict, a junkie, straight junkie. But my grandfather that raised me, he would come home and have a drink of bourbon every single night. And if dinner was running late, grandma would make him a second one, and I never saw him finish the second drink ever. You know, it just sat there and turned into ice water. And we go out to ball games or stuff, he'd have a beer, and after yard work, he'd have a bloody marry. And like the book talks about the difference between a moderate drinker and a heavy drinker, and then crossing the line becoming a real alcoholic. And once I had crossed that line, there was no going back. And again, I learned in the doctor's opinion about the allergy and the obsession, the why I was different than my granddad, why I was different than my best friend. Like their body doesn't react to alcohol like my body does, and that made perfect sense to me. Now it made sense that I had this allergy that was not perceived by my mind. And if it was just the allergy, then it's like, well, you eat strawberries and your throat swells up, your brain tells your body tells your brain, don't eat strawberries, you know what I'm saying, or almonds or whatever it is. But with alcohol, when you drink alcohol and your body's training more alcohol, your brain, body never tells your brain, hey man, don't drink more alcohol. You don't, you're not aware of the allergic reaction. So but but if it was just as simple as the allergy, then Nancy Reagan's just say no would work, right? It would just I just don't drink and go to meetings, would be great, right? You know what I'm saying? That would and that will work for the non-alcoholic. There are people that come into the program that are not real alcoholics, says the only requirement for membership is higher to stop drinking. There's lots of people that want to stop drinking that just had some mild consequences or some health issues, and they were able to just stop on self-knowledge or self-will or go into a bunch of meetings that they deemed as therapy. But the the other part of that disease is the mental obsession, where even when I've gone a period of time without drinking, I'm thinking go out and fucking drink. You know what I'm saying? And so, what a miserable way to live. To be white knuckling it, you know what I'm saying, all the time. And because I'll spell you my recovery story, I just secretly remember the first time that I was under the influence. I I stole a joint out of my mom's drawer when I was she was babysitting me for the weekend, and and the neighbors up the street, when they smoked, they drank beer. So we stole some of these little Miller ponies out of the refrigerator and went into the woods and we smoked, we drank the beer, and we smoked the joint, and and uh that was a spiritual experience for me because all of a sudden I felt like I fit in. I always felt like I was different, I always felt like I was left in. I always felt like because my parents were around, I weren't like other people, and I didn't fit in with the jocks as an athlete, and I didn't fit in with the creative band members or the techie nerd guys, like I just didn't feel like I belonged anywhere, like I was terminally unique, and uh and that lubricant made me the social butterfly, you know what I'm saying, for years, and it worked. Like the book says we drink because we like the effect. Well, that's why I drank because I like the effect until I had crossed the line. We talked about in becoming a real alcoholic, where you know, once you cross the line, there's no going back. So the great analogy that I use is you can take a cucumber and dump it in vinegar a thousand times, but once that cucumber is a pickle, it will never ever be a cucumber again. And so that's something that they say the first step's the only one you have to practice perfectly. That's another topic. Even at 25 years sober, I do not believe the lie that I could successfully go out and have a drink. Right. And I don't know what the consequences would be that day, but I know that there would be some consequences. It's not a matter of ifs, it's just a matter of when. My guess is they'd be pretty fast.

Corey Berrier 12:59

Yeah, that's right. And that's the difference in the non-alcohol or the the guy that has a problem drinking that can quit in the quit on whatever, whether it's knowledge or whether it's self-will or both. And then practicing the principles in all our affairs and following what the 12 steps are and why they're laid out. Because without the 12 steps, you don't have a for me anyway, I don't have a design for living because left up to me, I'm gonna fuck that up.

Speaker 13:30

Me too. I tell people all the time if I play God, if I think that I can drive the bus still, I'll still crash the bus. I'll crash it totally slower. The uh the only thing that the book talks about more than working with others, which I think is mentioned 120 times, is the fact that if you're a real alcoholic, what is absolutely necessary is a psychic change, a spiritual experience, a spiritual awakening, a transformation, a change of thinking. And that can only come from God. Now, the book says we have no monopoly on recovery. I don't want this to be a big book, whole podcast, but there are other ways that people have got sober, both heavy drinkers, and there are other ways that alcoholics have got sober. There are alcoholics that in other situations have had a burning bush experience, and God relieves that alcoholism. In fact, Bill Wilson, the one of A's founders, his really only original idea was one alcoholic working with another, right? And he did that for six months, and nobody got sober, but he stayed sober and he had never been able to stay sober for six months. So one thing that's really only recently pointed out to me, and anything I learned something new as long as I've been around for expensive, is when the book says we have no monopoly, well, we don't have monopoly, but what we do have is the only thing that's transferable. All those other ways that people have gotten sober are not transferable from one person to another. The way that I got sober can not only can be transferred, but part of the process is for me to transfer it. I've got a dear friend who I would let remain nameless that moved from Charlotte to Miami, and he's put together some multiple years at a time, but he can't find long-term permanent res, he's not permanently recovered, like the book promises I will be, because he refuses to work with others. And I try to challenge him out like, man, I don't know who your sponsor is, but I don't even use that book. But I don't know who's walking you through the book. But when you get to chapter seven, your instructions are really clear. But certainly, if you get to 12, you know exactly what you're supposed to be doing. And if you're not doing that, then chances are that you're not going to be able to stay sober. And that's been the experience that I've seen, and that was just within with everybody. So catching back up to the life story, uh, once I got sober this time, which March 10th, 2001, it wasn't like I got sober and all of a sudden the rest of my life is rainbows and butterflies. I felt guilty at first that my life got so good so fast that I felt like I was undeserving.

Corey Berrier 16:06

Hang on, what year did you just say you did 2001?

Speaker 16:09

March 10th, 2001 is my clean day.

Corey Berrier 16:11

Yeah, yeah. So I must have met you about I think.

Speaker 16:15

With about a year, a year, a year and some change sober.

Corey Berrier 16:18

Right. And life was getting pretty good at that point. And so yeah.

Speaker 16:22

Already, like I was I was the leader of one of the fastest growing cell phone companies in in the country, and I was making stupid money, and I was traveling throughout the southeast and making getting really good, but doing something I love. Cell phones were fun back then. We make a lot of money in it. That's how I met you. One of the things that alcoholics have in common, a very common trait, is the gift of gab and being able to sell them because they're so used to selling themselves and manipulating people. And although I don't think good professional sales is manipulation at all, but that's another story. But anyway, they have the traits the self-will, the drive, the ambition, the eat the grandiose ego, all the positive and the negative traits that come with uh that most people associate with a positive salesperson. So, yeah, so we got into wireless, wireless changed. One of the first business lessons I had to learn uh when I had my own wireless company and wireless changed, and the the carriers were changing, and you know, especially the ATT singular story, but the market was changing, it was becoming commoditized, and the money was gonna become in the equipment, not in the rate plans. And uh I had a bunch of employees that were high school educated that were making fifty, sixty thousand dollars a year 20 years ago, you know what I'm saying? Which was pretty goddamn good money. Yeah, and and so I literally wiped out my life savings trying to save a sinking ship. The market had changed, it was unsalvageable, it wasn't going to ever be like it was, and uh it was a hard lesson to learn. I learned it though, and I've had many businesses that have been successful, I've had several that fail. But now, with if one's losing me money and I don't know exactly why or see the light at the end of the tunnel, I'll pull the plug on that baby, and I certainly won't start pouring good money after bad. So, anyway, I was in the wireless business, money went out of wireless. I was I worked for Sandler sales, which is, in my humble opinion, the best sales methodology in the world. I was the number one salesperson with every single company I ever worked for since the time I was 19. It's kind of a genetic gift. My father was the same way, my grandfather was the same way. I think part of its nature, part of its nurture, think a little of both. But I thought I knew everything about sales because I taught everybody else how to do it. Then I went to Sandler, and there was all this stuff that I'd never heard of that was really cool and it made selling fun again. So I was part of the Sandler Sales Institute in Charlotte, and I landed the biggest account at the time with Sandler, which was Coca-Cola North America, through my contacts in Atlanta. And then somebody else out of corporate in Baltimore landed IBM Lenovo globally, and so they literally recruited me out of my own franchise to head up that program globally because no one else had ever managed an account that size. And that was a really cool gig. Traveling the world as a C-level executive coach and sales trainer. I was gone for much of the time, and I I had taken uh legal custody of my little brother, but my mom, who was an addict, had a child 24 years younger than me. Uh and she was a junkie, so we rescued him out of a crackhouse. But I raised him, but I was gone a lot, and uh and then that market changed with the kind when the economy hit and tanked, and I was a subcontractor, and they started laying off subcontractors first. So had a chance to come back to Atlanta, which I for a period of my life I would have said, which in retrospect was the a curse. But anyway, I had a chance to come back to Atlanta and open up a franchise called Online Trading Academy, and these people found me and gave me uh one-third ownership of a franchise. It's a brick and mortar school that teaches people how to trade stocks. I didn't know the first thing about stocks. They said you don't have to, you're not teaching the class. So I went and taught the class and learned the product and hired and trained some really good salespeople, made a lot of really good money. And again, it was another business where I was truly helping people. I wasn't selling anything that was a scam. You know what I'm saying? I wasn't just five and I we were brick and mortar schools with Goldman Sachs trainers off Wall Street that came to teach the class that were treating a legitimate skill, changing people's financial lives. I'd been in the gym business, changing health lives and cell phones respond. And then the kind of even as the C-level executive coach at Sandler, most of the executives that I did one-on-one coaching with, the problems that I helped them with were not problems that they had from nine to five. They were problems that I had from five to nine. So the joke back then used to be I was the most overpaid, undereducated therapist in the world because that's really what I was as their coach. And uh and the majority of what I coached them wasn't Sandler, although some of it was, the majority of it was the spiritual principles that I've learned that I learned to help change my life. And uh and so uh came back to Atlanta out of 32 franchises by number two. We were the number one franchise in the world, and I bought into Boston, and things were going really good until by this time my life I skipped. I'd already been to prison twice. The first time for eluding, running from the police. I was known for that. And I was on probation in three counties for doing that because I always had drugs on me and I was always gonna run and get away. And and eventually, just the running and getting away, they said, especially this cop crashed a car chasing me one time, and that was pretty serious. And I endangered people's lives. I'm not romanticizing or nor minimizing it. So the first time I went to prison just for driving, habitual violator, driving violations, habitual violator from eluding, right? Uh the second time was a uh possession with intent that I'd fled down from distribution, and I'd had a big manufacturing case of ecstasy that they took to the grand jury three times. They never could indict me. It was just a bunch of people writing statements on me. Uh so I'd already been to prison twice uh before I'd got sober. And the last time, because I was out of the life, I had a really weak case that I could have beat, but I'd missed a court date while I was in treatment. So To fight the case, I was gonna have to sit in court. They weren't gonna give me another bond. And they well, I had to sit there for six or eight months or a year. I knew I had this other job opportunity. So I took a 20-year probation sentence and a quarter of a million dollar fine because I was out of the life. It wasn't gonna be anything. I'm not gonna violate probation. I don't drink, I don't drug, unless you unless they can violate me for a speeding ticket, which I still get. And I won't say in hindsight it's 2020, but when I moved back to Georgia and the district attorney found out that uh I lived here, I was exhibiting some behavior that allowed them to violate that probation. And with 10 years sober, I had to go back for uh six years sober, and uh that wasn't any fun. Uh being in a maximum security uh prison as a white boy, not in a gang that has money is not exactly the dream scenario, so to speak. Not rainbows and butterflies, like I said. Uh but yeah, I was angry at God for a couple of years. I've been sober 10 years, I've helped all these people. How can you do this to me? And I've never really played the victim, but I was angry. I don't think God lost any sleep over it. But how I stayed sober and got through that was uh well, two things. I was finding people in prison to help get sober, you know what I'm saying? That was uh I think even you and I had some conversations pretty in-depth back then, before you started your journey or were just starting it. And then also was teaching people how to trade stocks from their contraband cell phones, and it was working, and so I was really popular in prison in prison. Popularity can't always be a good thing, but anyway, came back and uh lost everything. This time when I got out, I was living in my sister's basement, and I started a little supplement company with you that made a little bit of money for me to buy a car, but it never really took off. It's hard to do internet when you're competing with the big boys.

Corey Berrier 24:43

And you don't know anything, and you don't know anything about the internet.

Speaker 24:46

Well, two of us even today, the credit card processing restrictions on supplements are just insane. And they're going through they you gotta find a credit card processor that's gonna let you do whatever because most of them, the FDA issues a warning on one product, and if you don't have that product off your web page, they're gonna stop your credit card processing.

Speaker 1 25:04

Yeah.

Speaker 25:05

But I uh my passion uh was always to start a what was called at the time a testosterone clinic, which kind of evolved into a medical weight loss and anti-aging clinic, which has now evolved into a hormone replacement overall wellness clinic using a lot of peptides, and that's my passion. That isn't it, isn't my primary source of income. I still I don't trade much, I still invest from what the tools I learned from trading. I did trade a lot when I got home. In fact, the money I got to start my first med spa was I traded an account. I traded my account and I got traded some other people's account that they gave me spiffs on for growing their account. And I did my mom is deceased, I did her ex-boyfriend for free and grew the hell out of his accounts, and his kids would always get really upset that I had access to his account, but I never moved a dime or took a dime, he never paid me a dime. They could have gone at any time, like I I was making him a bunch of money, and none of the money ever moved out of the account, and so how upset could they be? So, anyway, through my contacts, I started this little nutraceutical manufacturing company up and coming. And then when the previous administration, the FDA made it illegal to manufacture peptides in the United States. The FDA can't make a law, they can only make a rule. And you can't get arrested for doing it, but they can come and confiscate all your stuff and sue you, which they will do. Um, I started a peptide importation company and it uh took off real fast. And then the tariff war about put me out of business. I was having to buy at retail and sell at wholesale, which is ass backwards, just so I wouldn't lose the customer base. And I took a big L, but I knew that was temporary. That was one of those things where I knew that it was temporary, so I was gonna take the L to keep the business going. It's just part of being an entrepreneur. And you would know this, Corey. Most people think, well, I want to be self-employed and work for myself and do what I want to do. And yeah, I have that life now, but there were many many years where I worked 24-7, 365. There are no off days. Still to this day in my businesses, if I have enough of a few people out, I'm the one that has to do that job. And it's usually more than one and more than one business that comes away. Hell, this winter I had five people out out of four employees in three different businesses, and I was working 70 hours a week for like three months, and that's rare. I'm not complaining, but most people like I saw this funny thing on the internet this morning. I wish I could quote it, but the difference between guts and balls, right? Then Alg was a guy comes home and he's been out with the boys all night, and he comes home and his wife's got the broom, like she's gonna beat him with it. And he says, Hey honey, what you doing? Cleaning this late, and those are guts, right? And then balls is the same guy comes home, but now he's smelling like perfume and got girls' makeup on his shirt. And she said, and she's got the broom in her hand, and he says, Lube up, baby, you're next. That's pause. But anyway, catching you up to modern day, that's the very cliff-nosed version of a very I've lived more than you know, more than I use definitely more than a cat's nine lines. I like to say I'm on definitely my probably my third cat by now. But the life that I used to lead, and then the life I had, and then I had to go back to prison, and the life I have now, they're like three different lifetimes. And I've got a bunch of crazy stories from running from the cops and getting away from the DEA and the Coast Guard in Miami, and and uh overdosing and to the I overdosed one time. It I passed out at two in the morning into my girlfriend's car. I've been up for three or four days drinking, and the cocaine wore off. I think I'd taken some GHB and I passed out of her car back and into her apartment complex at two in the morning, and they found me at five in the afternoon the next afternoon in 97 degree heat with the windows up. There's no reason that I should have lived through that. And uh, the second that I came to, I had somebody bring me a pint and some cocaine to intensive care. Well, I'm in intensive care, I'm not even in a room. I there's a curtain between me and the nurse, and uh that's the level that my addiction had planted. So, yeah, so I've got a really good life. Waited really late in life, although I had some really quality relationships and sobriety, some long-term really quality relationships. Never felt like I'd met my soulmate, but got married a couple years ago and have never ever been happier than and that was gone beyond my wildest dreams. Business comes and goes. I've had I've still had some business fails. I opened up a clinic in a bad area and didn't have the right staff in there and had to shut it down about a year ago. That one lost me about a quarter mil. But I opened it for the right reasons and the wrong reasons. The only reason I opened that clinic, and family, if you're listening, you already know this, you know, because you're feeling sure. The only reason I opened that clinic is because my sister hated her job, and I wanted her to have a better job, and I wanted something for my sister and my brother to have as their own. It was I was doing it for them, but I always look and never playing the victim in any, and it's a part of what I've learned literally in the A Big Book. Any single problem that I have in life with a person in any relationship in business with a spouse, with a friend, with an employee, with a business partner, I can only look at the part that I play in it, right? And it does two things it stops me from being a victim because I'm looking on the part that's about me, not what they did. And also it's so liberating because it's the only thing that I can work on, and it's the part I can only work at the part I played on it. What could I have done different? What can I have done better? What's the lesson for me? I coach and mentor a lot of young people, both in and out of recovery programs, and then and and one of the first things I teach them is find your passion. Because in this country, if you love doing something, it's not work, so it's not tumultuous on your daily uh mindset. And if you love something, you'll do it enough to get good at it, sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly, right? And in this country, once you're good at something, someone will pay you top dollar to do it. It doesn't matter if it's cutting grass, it could be painting houses, it could be the most menial labor task, and if you're really good at it, you can become a billionaire in this country doing it. And then the other thing that I like teaching them is um it's how to just look at your own personal responsibility for any of the situations that you're in, and it stops you from ever being a victim. I've never ever met anybody with the victim mentality that's successful. I've excommunicated people out of my life, girls that I've dated, because they had the victim mentality and the for me, and you manifest that stuff. If you believe that the world's out to get you and everything's bad's gonna happen, that's what's gonna happen. You literally, it sounds so overly simplistic, but you really get back in life exactly what you put out. And if you put out hope and love and fear and charity and money, all right, that's what you get back when I coach people in finances. First book I tell them to read is Napoleon Hill Think and Grow Rich, written in the 1920s. A hundred years later, it's still on the bestseller list, and you can find it in every airport. Probably the only book like that besides the Bible, all right. But one of my second favorites is much less known, called The Richest Man in Babylon. And it talked about all these, it teaches lessons about business and money and parables, just like the Bible. And the one of the ones that stuck with me is it says, hold money, all your money very loosely in your hand and shake it around everywhere you go, so money spills out everywhere you go. Because if you hold on to it, your fist is closed and no more money can come in. And I know for a fact that like I'm the overgenerous tipper, and depend on the scenario, part of it is still ego. I'm human. I want to tip you good at twin peaks because I want to be able to host my fight parties here and you book me over the person that wants to watch the football game, right? And it works, and it does work, yeah. Yeah, but of course, you people take care of the people that take care of them, right? I'm breaking them off, yeah. They're making more money as a result of doing business with me than they are somebody else. Of course, they want to do business with me, but it's not because they love Nick and makes just something super nice, altruistic guy. This they're gonna make more money, they're selfish. Most of the time, like I overtip at all the restaurants, Uber drivers, Uber Eats, you know, the ballet, the concierge at the hotel. I always overtip them because you get back, even when I didn't have the kind of money that I have now, and I always give the disclaimer just for the audience's sake, I'm not rich. I'm well off. I've been rich before, and everybody's definition of that is right now. I'm just talking about financially. I am more rich and wealthy, and all the more important things the quality of friendships, the quality of my relationship with my wife, the way that I'm able to elevate employees, which I've always loved doing, just the joy that that I have, my health went to a couple of heart surgeries, we'll skip through those. And uh my wife and I used to argue this debate on whether I was rich or not. And the litmus test at the time was, which we joke about, she says, You're rich, and I'm like, I'm not rich. And she says, You've got multiple homes and multiple sports cars, and you can vacation and you fly first class. I said, Well, two things. One, my friends that are really wealthy, they fly private. Number one, right? Number two, if I was really rich, I wouldn't have had to finance that Lambeau, I would have just paid cash for it, which isn't really true because smart people make use money with other money, but she got the point. But anyway, financial blessings, I know that they come for me because I really do. Anybody that's ever worked for me, even more now so than when you worked for me before we worked with me, it's very rewarding to help other people elevate their lives. But I guarantee you, every one of my employees now knows that their advancement in life is more important than my financial gain. And that I've had businesses where I didn't even write myself a check and gave them a raise, or more importantly, that I've paid for their continuing education, knowing that once they completed it, I would lose them, that they would go on somewhere else to make more money doing whatever their passion was. I had an office manager that started as a $15 an hour phlebotomist, right? And within three years was a $100,000 a year office manager. And she earned that, she worked her way up to that position. It wasn't just a gift, but helping people's lives. It's we spend more time with our co-workers, however you want to work them. I don't even use the word employees, right? We spend more awaking hours with the people that we work with in our family, you know what I'm saying? Unless you're retired, which I'll never do that. I will get to a position where I work when I want to. I'm certainly not there yet. My two grandfathers that raised me, the one I talk about all the time, the colonel, worked his ass off, retired at 65, was dead at 72, right? My other grandfather, right, who never retired, who worked as a consultant of the environmental firm that he worked for when he felt like it, stayed mentally sharp as attack and lived to be 96 years old. You know what I'm saying? So an object at rest stays at rest, right? And an object in motion stays in motion. So basic laws of physics control everything. It's by design. That's how come I know there's a God. Everything fix a mathematical formula, right? So I I'll work, I'll always want to have something to do when I get up other than play golf, or you know what I'm saying, or just not have an agenda. That would kill me.

Corey Berrier 37:50

That would yeah, people literally.

Speaker 37:54

No, literally, literally, it would literally it would literally kill me. Yeah, you know, when I found out I tore my micro valve lifting heavy in the gym, and and it was a very serious tear, and I was in really bad shape. And I was on doctors-ordered bed rest while I waited on a waiting list for this one surgeon that knew how to go in robotically and sew that that valve back up. And I was convinced that he could do it and it would do a good job, and that was the best solution. And but there was no rushing his schedule, you know what I'm saying? And I would call every other week and say, Hey man, can you move me up? Because I did not stay in, I was supposed to, I was supposed to sleep on the ground floor, so I didn't walk upstairs to the bedroom, you know what I'm saying? I wasn't supposed to go anywhere, much less drive anywhere. And I would go into work every day, and uh, and I would work until I would start to feel like I was gonna lose my vision because I wasn't getting enough blood in my head. I start to get flurried. I'm like, I better drive home now. And so I just don't sit down well. Everybody heat, everybody read me an asshole. And I'm just not wired that way. I just I have to be active. I've gotten better with work-life balance as I've gotten old. I mean, I had to bring this pad home because I don't even have a computer in my house because I would use it.

Speaker 1 39:15

Right, of course.

Speaker 39:17

It was there, and I'm sitting around watching some chick flick that my wife wants to work on at Netflix, so we don't we watch a lot of premium movies, but we don't just watch TV per se very often. It's on, but we're doing other shit, and I would be working, right? And uh and that was growth because she would argue, she's not here now, but she would argue that fact because she's never knew what I was like before.

Speaker 1 39:45

Right.

Speaker 39:46

Right before you met me, right? When I first got in virus, I worked six days a week at a cell phone store, right? Monday through Saturday. I worked Monday through Friday at a brick and mortar store, their biggest brick and mortar store that had the highest traffic. And on Saturday, they put me in the center of the kiosk at the mall where I blew everybody's doors off, right? And then when I first when we first line did the Costco account where we sold the ATT phones inside of Costco, I would sell phones all day in Costco, and I would lay on my sofa on Sunday and activate all of those phones. So really I worked seven days a week. Yeah, I'd be laying on my phone with a stack of fucking and I'd tell people, because back then it was different, hey, take this thing home, plug it in, charge it up in the morning, turn it off, turn it back on, and it'll work. So I had a whole day, and I would go through so many activations that the activation people would say, Hey, I've got to take a break, or I'm off, I'm off work, you're gonna have I'm gonna have to transfer you to somebody else. And I just lay there reading them IMBI serial numbers and activating phones, but I'd be so tired, man, that that uh I couldn't even hold my eyes open to watch NFL football on Sundays, and I'm a huge NFL football man, and I would just be exhausted. But I felt like I was so far behind in life because I had that 15-year gap of being a drug dealer in my resume, that I felt like I had to play catch up, and really I did. But again, I all I I always I probably should have given this disclaimer before then. Every single one of my blessings have come from God. There is not one single original idea that Nick Jones invented, right? Every single thing that I know how to do and I've made money on, somebody else taught me how to do. I've never invented an app, I didn't invent a computer program, some kind of software, I didn't invent the coolest new widget or hair tonic formula or thick pill. So although I did try to invent one of those. And so I'm so grateful because I do think it's a combination of the guy who walked me through the big book says all the time, he just says two things. You can call him bitching about how horrible life is, or you can call him how telling him how great life is, and he'll say, Well, keep doing what you're doing, and you'll keep getting what you get, you know what I'm saying? Either way, either, either way, you know what I'm saying, and so it is God, but I'm a big believer, and again, you get back what you put out, and I truly do try to help people. I do spend a lot of time not just helping other people get sober, because that's one of the things that keeps me sober, but I do other, and we've part of this Hope Through Soap downtown, where we bathe the homeless the third Saturday of every month, which is very humbling. And I could do, I'm friends with the guy that started it, and I could go down there and do hand out the clothes or the bottle water or the food, which is the the easy fun stuff. But boy, I have the most humbling job. I'm the guy that cleans the shower after every homeless person gets in that shower. And it's a trailer with a bunch of showers that aren't well ventilated. These people haven't bathed for at least a week and sometimes longer, and they're getting a new set of clothes, new condiments, fresh brand new towels, washcloths, and they get 10 minutes in that shower, which is a pretty goddamn long shower. Yeah, right. Yeah, they get 10 minutes in that shower, and sometimes you have to drag them out, right? But let me tell you, you're going in that shower after every person, it does not smell good, and you have to completely clean the whole thing before the next person can get in it, and uh so and again, I'm not complaining, and most of those people with a big misconception, the vast majority have a mental or illness or drug addiction or both, yeah, but there's 49 percent that are temporarily homeless, that got that life dealt them some bad cards, and they're gonna rebound and they're gonna be bad. But right now, they don't have a parent or an uncle or a friend that they can call and they'll let them sleep on their sofa or take but give them a little money to eat, you know what I'm saying? So so my point is that I I always stay humble and not only acknowledge but tell everybody. What when I first got home from prison this last time, and I had a plan, right? And uh I this sounds insane, but I really thought when I came home that within 90 days I would have the life where I made 1.7 million dollars a year before I went to Prison. I thought I'd have that life back in three months. And that just wasn't the case. The world had changed, and I was a pariah in financials because everybody knew I just got home from prison. But I wouldn't have anybody in my life that told me I couldn't do something. I had two good friends, one ironically enough, from the A program, and a one female friend that was a police officer at the time, she's a lawyer now, and she would tell me, she says, Man, you're a nine-time convicted felon with some pretty horrific charges. And you're probably just gonna have to work at Home Depot or get you a job, start your little landscaping business. And I said, I'm gonna have a my own clinic. And if you tell me that there's anything that I can't do again, I'm not gonna be able to talk to you anymore. And I had to tell my buddy the same thing. Like, the world's changed, man. You can't expect to ever make that kind of money. And it wasn't even about the money. Because you just can't expect to have that kind of life again. I just refuse to believe that. And and life got so good so fast, because again, it took me, I think, from the time I got home, I went to work at a clinic right away. Like the week after I got out of house arrest, I was working at a clinic. And I told him he wasn't hardly paying me shit. He wasn't paying me shit, dude. And I said, the only reason I'm taking this job is because a year from now I want to have my own clinic. And it took me about a year and a half, but a year and a half later I had my own clinic. You know what I'm saying? And again, it's a God thing. My clinic, that clinic had been open for five years before I started to work there. And my clinic outperforms that clinic by leaps and bounds now, by leaps and bounds. It's not even it's not even close. But again, it wasn't anything genius on my part, it wasn't some great leadership skills. And again, it's I try to help people, and I do have some experiences, the difference between being a boss and being a leader. But the the blessings all come from God, and my experience has been they come from, as you just said, when you're practicing spiritual principles and all of your affairs, then life is pretty good. It doesn't mean that bad shit doesn't happen to good people. It does, right? Both uh and victims, you can get robbed, and God I I live close to downtown Atlanta. It's turning into Detroit and Chicago. It's it's it's the wild west out there. Somebody will come up and try to carjack you at the gas station. So it's not that it's not that bad things don't happen to good people, but as a general rule, you get back what you put out, and I feel like God protects me and watches over me. I know he did before I even sought him with all the lives that I used up. God was with me then. What makes me think that he's not gonna be with me now?

Speaker 1 47:44

Right.

Speaker 47:45

And uh and that has been my experience, and I can't stress enough, people don't understand it. Young people they don't buy it, it doesn't sound hokey or gimmicky, but I tell, you know, a lot of people think, we'll take giving the money thing again. Most people think, well, I'm gonna get rich, and once I get rich, I'll be able to help a lot of people. That's not how it works. You're gonna get rich by helping other people. You give away, and I don't care what whether you're religious or and use the tithing as an example of tithing your 10%, whether it means you're eating Raymond noodles instead of going to Chipotle for dinner, TJ Applebee's one of these real exclusive restaurants. But it you get back tenfold. Again, to me, at this stage, and it's not like recent, for the last entire length of my sobriety, my most valuable asset is not money, it's time. Time is the only single thing that I can't make more of. I don't even know how much I have, right? Yeah, so if I can't make more of it and I don't even know how much I have of it, that makes it pretty damn valuable because life is short and it could be a heart attack or getting run over by a bus, right? It could end tomorrow. Just like that. Just like that, the blink of an eye. So giving up time, writing the check to donate, it's the easy part. I'm not even gonna notice that. You know what I'm saying? Oh, yeah, you want some money? Here, I'm a good person. Here, see my check here. Let me go volunteer with the homeless and put it on my social media. Look at me with the bum that stinks. Right. I'm hugging him. All right, you will never ever see any of that on my social media. Very rarely will you even see material stuff unless it's pertaining to something. I got caught hell, true story, because while I'm sitting, it snowed in my backyard, and I've got a really nice backyard. It's almost like I live in a tree house, right? And it's really pretty. And uh, and I posted a video of just how pretty the snow was. I wasn't trying to show my house, you know what I'm saying? I wasn't like, oh, look at me, look at this. I was just showing how pretty the snow was outside, and you can see that yeah, we've got a property and there's a pool in the jacuzzi. And man, I had some person that hasn't been able to stay sober, right? Just light into my social my Facebook and say, Oh, you're just Bup Raggard in a show off, and where's your humility? And that was not my intent, and I didn't even respond. I'm not gonna justify to to that kind of thing, but I've got a really, really good life. And uh one of the things we haven't really talked about, Corey, is if you're in our relationship, I'd like to hear from your side, not my life story, but hear from you, like your memory, because I'm writing a book right now that's going really well with all these crazy stories in it from my other life. And my hesitation to write the book at first was twofold. One is I don't want to put any names in it, we're gonna get anybody indicted. You know what I'm saying? But most of those people are dead now, and the ones that aren't are not in that life anymore. And uh, and then the other reason that I was very reluctant was if I were to write the book is the very truth as I remember it, without embellishing anything, because I've got enough crazy stories where I don't have to try to make any stuff up. In fact, most people's wildest stories from that period of their life that involved me don't even rank my memory. Like you're if that doesn't make my top 100 list, and that's the wildest thing that ever happened to you. I had a guy telling me, Oh my god, you remember this? The wildest thing that's ever happened. I'm like, Yeah, I vaguely remember that, but that's nothing there. Right. So, anyway, if I wrote the book and I didn't embellish it and I wrote it exactly as I remember it, because I was around a lot of things that are very influential to my culture of my generation, and I handed the book to me and I didn't know me, I would think the book was bullshit, dude. I'm like, come on, bro. Yeah, this is worse than a bad Hollywood movie. Not that no one could have experienced all of this. You couldn't have been here and there and seen this and done this and that all in one lifetime. I just don't believe it. And so that was really my bigger hesitation because I wanted people, if I write the book, I want people to believe it. It's not a it's my story. It's not, I'm not writing a fiction novel. God, look, God gave me a lot of really cool gifts, right? And he gives everybody a lot of cool gifts. We're I'm not unique, right? God gives everybody really cool gifts, but they're different gifts. I have no creative talent whatsoever. I can't sing, I can't play a musical instrument, I'm tone deaf in one ear, I can't write poetry, I can't paint, I'm not good with my hands mechanically. My dad, my father and my father's son, they can take apart an engine and put it back together because they like doing it. My wife has to assemble the fucking furniture when it comes to a box here. Like it's her pink toolkit over there in the garage. Like it's embarrassing to me because I get frustrated. I'm not into it, I don't enjoy it. I get I hate it. Yeah, right. I hate even the most minimal mechanical tasks. I'm like, I'll pay somebody to do this shit. Sure. But anyway, he gave me a lot of really cool gifts. Creative creativity is not one of my I couldn't make up the kind of life that I've had. So to get around the lack of believability, right? I've got a couple of really good friends that are still alive, that are reformed. That some of the more incredible stories, they're gonna write excerpts and tell their version of that story. It'll be very different than my version, right? Because it's from their memory and the eyes that they viewed that story in, but at least it'll add validity to the fact that it actually did happen. You know what I'm saying? So I've talked way too much, Corey. I know it's your show, but talk to me. Tell me just you your memory of meeting of my of meeting me and our relationship and how it developed. I don't want to uh make any assumptions. I have certain memories and opinions about how the relationship started, evolved, grew, changed, all that stuff, but I'll let you roll with it.

Corey Berrier 54:23

Yeah, so I remember, you know, the first conversation. Well, I don't know if it's the first conversation, first time we met in in person was when we were opening the uh BJ's here. You asked me what I like to do, and I was in the middle of dealing drugs and drinking and driving, like, and so I just I was honest and just said my what I do in my off time is I drink. I didn't tell you I was doing drugs, but I told you I drank. You just said, okay, yeah. And uh remember that conversation distinctly because I didn't know anything about you at that point. And uh as our as I continued to progress in that business, and I I don't even know when or what happened. I don't even know why I left that business. It could be because I got a DUI. Who knows? It's hard to say, or maybe that's when I got caught with drugs. It's hard to say. I don't I no, it wasn't when I got caught with drugs, it was a DUI for sure. I think that's what it was when I left that business. But then Well, I got I stopped drinking in 2009, so this was let's call it seven, eight years later. It's when you never mentioned anything about I don't believe you ever mentioned anything about getting sober or being sober during that that time. I just don't think because of the relationship business relationship, it just it may not have been appropriate. And I could be wrong wrong about that, but I don't remember if that was the case. And so I had stopped drinking in 2009. Now remind me when you remind me when you went to prison the last time. What year?

Speaker 56:09

Okay, so you know that of course I love it how because we all remember things from what we remember, right? Right. My memory of you not working wasn't the DUI, wireless had just changed because you had worked your way up from a salesperson to like a district manager.

Speaker 1 56:26

Oh, yeah, yeah. That's right.

Speaker 56:29

You stopped working for me, not because of your drinking or drugging, but because I didn't have that position available anymore because the market had changed and I didn't have losing the account. Yeah, yeah.

Corey Berrier 56:42

Right, right, right. That's right. And that's when you went on to start your own stuff. That's right.

Speaker 56:46

That's when I went to Sandler at that point in time, right?

Corey Berrier 56:50

Yep.

Speaker 56:51

So I definitely remember because I was always very open with everybody, more so then than I even now, because I was Captain Recovery and I wore my recovery on my sleeve, which isn't the most advisable thing to do, is what I've learned. But it's common and it's not, I never I get it, so I don't really judge people that do what I did. Like I was I don't drink. Everybody put put it this way. Everybody knew that I didn't. Certainly Carrie and Carrie knew. Right. Everybody else that I work with here knew. Hell, half of them showed up for court for that court case that I took all that probation on.

Speaker 1 57:29

Right.

Speaker 57:29

And not only that, I saw the signs with you, so I know that I I know that I at least said that, oh, by the way, I've been sober for a long time.

Corey Berrier 57:39

Yeah, but guess what? I didn't hear any of that.

Speaker 57:42

Of course you didn't even ready, but when you first got sober, you somehow knew to talk to me about it.

Corey Berrier 57:48

Yeah, oh, for sure.

Speaker 57:51

For sure. So anyway, I didn't mean to interrupt. Go ahead.

Corey Berrier 57:53

So so if let's fast forward from August 12th, 2009, which is the last drink I had was August the 11th, 2009. When did you go back to two, three years, four years?

Speaker 58:08

It was 2010. 2017.

Corey Berrier 58:12

Okay. All right.

Speaker 58:13

So what I do just I do remember in prison, I remember in prison having my big book and us having discussions about the big book while I was in prison.

Corey Berrier 58:23

Yes. Yeah, so for sure, but I'll yeah, I'll solidify the fact that we were definitely talking recovery because you stopped talking to everybody. You just went missing. And I thought, son of a I thought we must be smoking like of all the dudes, I wouldn't think we got smoking crack. I mean, must have, because you just you vanished off the face of the earth for like two years. I didn't hear from you until I finally heard from you. And then I remember us talking about so let's just call I was th maybe three years into the program. And you were just you were so angry, you were so angry with God, and the roles reversed at that point. And I we had a lot of conversations around because you were pissed, like you just weren't, yeah, of course. And as we continued to talk that the you became less pissed because you started helping other people in prison. And then getting out, of course, we've already covered that. We started that business and tried our best to get it off the ground, it just didn't work. And so we've remained the closest of friends ever since that time.

Speaker 59:44

Yeah, we actually started that business when I was in on 24-7 house arrest with electronic monitoring.

Speaker 1 59:51

That's right.

Speaker 59:52

I was working from the halfway house when I wasn't even supposed to be on a computer, and there I did start in an internet company because hell, the worst thing could happen is send me back, and I was gonna max out in a matter of months anyway. So it really didn't matter uh that I broke that rule. Plus, they were telling me you have to pay for this monitoring. Oh, by the way, you can't leave the house. Oh, your sister said she would pay for it. No, my sister said she would pay to get it set up and pay the first month. She didn't have the financial means to pay for all that shit every month. So I had to do what I had to do. And not that by anyway, sewing on your bus, because it's I think relevant now to where we both are in your recovery in recovery, but especially you. I can really remember multiple conversations, even with our friend Tony, that weren't that many years ago. Since I've been home, you know what I'm saying? Where you're saying, Yeah, I don't really need that anymore. And I and first of all, just for I never really said it directly to you. Like, I'm I'm a big book bumper, you know what I'm saying? Like almost everywhere I am, anywhere, there's one within reach, you know what I'm saying? Like, and so I never really judge you because the hey, big book mean alcoholic, doesn't say anything about some not smoking weed, and there's lots of people with medical marijuana cards and that smoke weed, and I consider them 100% sober. I do not think that they need to go pick up a white chip, right? And there are other people that I think that need to go to rehab for marijuana. So I never really said anything, but it bothered me, and I told you it like yo, sure, it really bothered me to hear you say, Yeah, I don't need that anymore. And that was just scary as fuck to me because I knew that you were like me, and I knew if I was saying that, because I've been in that place. Yeah, I've been in that place, you know, I share all the time. I thought that other forms of service work were service work, right? Which it is doing God's work, right? But it's not the substitute for one alcoholic working with another alcoholic. That's right. And I thought that the other forms of service work, so volunteering at the youth detention center, which I still do, volunteering at the homeless shelter and bathing the homeless, is those are all really good things. Mentoring young kids that are just met off the street. I had one of my big success stories. I had a kid come up to me at the gas station just based on one of the cars that I drive and says, Hey, I get asked this all the time, hey man, what do you do for a living? Normally I say as little as possible. I started talking to the kid. You could tell he was from the inner city, and judging from the vehicle that was probably on its last leg, you know, I told him I'd start mentoring him, and I had some, I'd give him some homework and we'd be much once a week, and as long as he wasn't wasting my time and doing what I asked him to do, and he's a great success story. He was working his way through college and he worked as a maintenance guy at a little apartment complex, and now he's got his own concierge repair service that's just the for everything from mounting the TV on the wall to a clog toilet to a to everything. It's kind of like the the general maintenance man. He's just he's the tool kid. I forget his little catchy name that he has on his little van, but whatever you need repaired, because he knows how a little bit about everything doing apartments. He's repaired dishwashers and washing machines and HVAC units and uh broken window pane. But anyway, that my memory of that, because I was super, super excited to see you go in the direction that you're in the path that you're on now.

Corey Berrier 1:03:37

Not that there was anything wrong with the path that you were on, except for I was burning my whole goddamn life down.

Speaker 1:03:46

Well, uh over and over.

Corey Berrier 1:03:48

Yeah, well, the seven years before I went came back in was Yeah. Yeah, because I had everything. I didn't need a yeah, of course.

Speaker 1:03:58

No, no, more importantly for me, I can't speak for you. I didn't need God, right? Because now I can play God.

unknown 1:04:08

Right.

Speaker 1:04:08

Now I can I can do what I want to do and I can manipulate the job situation, the relationship situation. And just like I said earlier in the podcast, like if I drive the bus, if I think I'm the director, if I think I'm in control of anything, I'm delusional. I'm delusional. If I think I can control my even my employees, right? My relationship, my finances, I can't control any of that. All I can do is try to be of maximum service to God and my fellow man, and He takes care of all that stuff. And the beauty of it is A, that when I focus on doing his work, he takes care of all that other stuff. But B, focusing on doing that work keeps me out of my head because I'll stay up at night worrying about the next proposal or the next bid or the next business project or how I've got to have a plan A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. And I do still use strategic thinking and planning, don't get me wrong, but it does nothing keeps me up at night, man. It just, I sleep like a baby. I can turn myself off. I don't worry about things that there's too many contingencies. Look, one thing's for sure, even in the businesses I have now, because I've made this mistake multiple times, both before and after I got sober. I've had businesses that made so much money that I thought, oh my gosh, this is it. I'm gonna be this is I'm gonna be a millionaire, and this is the last bus I'll ever need to get on. And nothing lasts forever, bro. Life is about change and more so now than ever with the ever-changing world of technology and I'm I feel a little helpless sometimes when like my wife asks me to help me with some of her businesses that are based on social media influencers. She's got a lip gloss line and she got that does okay, but she's got a really popular organic feminine hygiene line that she built using other influencers. And I don't know the first thing about that business. And when I've even tried to pay for social media ads for some of my other businesses, it hasn't worked. Like it by just that clinic that I closed, like I did testosterone ads, and then I did growth hormone ads, and then I did GLP one ads, and I used two different companies. And the second company I used had great references from other clinics that had they had built their business on. And these guys were so baffled even by it that they were doing it for free for months because I was saying I'm not. Paying you anymore, you haven't gotten any results. Like, well, let's do this, let's change this. We're not gonna charge you because they wanted it to work so they could start charging me again, right?

Speaker 1 1:06:52

Of course.

Speaker 1:06:53

So, but it's uh tell me a little bit about this thing you got going on with um getting the people in recovery jobs.

Corey Berrier 1:07:04

Well, so I use my background in sales and business development and my my my network in the rooms and just decided that 17 years ago I was a convicted felon. 17 years ago I was trying to get sober, and I couldn't find a job. And so there's countless people in the program that are experiencing that same exact thing, and I've got a I've got a pretty good niche of entrepreneurs and business owners, especially in the trades, that I can reach out to and talk with, and um the trades need help. And so if you take a guy that's been to the very bottom and brought himself back up by getting sober, give that guy an opportunity, just like somebody gave me an opportunity, they'll work their ass off for you. Now, I'm not saying it's a hundred percent guaranteed that it's always gonna be successful, but if you find the right guy that's working the program, is doing the things he needs to do that really values his sobriety, I believe that you're gonna have a pre-rock star employee.

Speaker 1:08:17

I would agree with that. First of all, what a great concept, right? Uh, I think knowing you that it's a it's an altruistic motive, you're not doing this because, like, oh, I think this is how I'm gonna be the next millionaire. Right. My primary motivation of doing this is to be of service to other people. So that alone lets me know it's probably gonna work, right? Yeah, it's just not a matter of if and a matter of when. I would also agree with what you said about like we've talked about so much, people that are practicing these principles. I started the conversation earlier, but I'm blessed with this disease. I'm blessed. People look at me like, what do you mean you're blessed that you're an alcoholic and a crackhead? Right? Because without that, I would not have these tools in my toolbox and I would not have this relationship with God. I would not know how to, I could have gone through my whole life very successful and miserable. I've been miserable in and out of sobriety with a bunch of money. Money does not buy you happiness, so don't get me wrong, take care of a lot of problems. It's easier to be miserable. I'd rather be miserable and have a bunch of money than be miserable and not have any, because I've been both.

unknown 1:09:24

Right.

Speaker 1:09:25

But it is more money, more problems, right? And money definitely can't buy you happiness. In fact, it can be the detriment. I can't quote the Bible verse, but better for a camel to fit through the eye of a needle than a rich man enter the kingdom of God.

Corey Berrier 1:09:41

That's a paraphrase. I think that's actually it, yeah.

Speaker 1:09:45

So that kind of scares me, you know what I'm saying? Because like I but my father wants me to prosper, he won, he wants me to be able to help other people. I look at my relationship with God, and I don't care whether you call him Jesus Christ, Tayy Buddha, Adam, Muhammad, it just doesn't matter to me. I'm a Christian and believe Jesus Christ is my savior, but again, um I don't pretend to comprehend an infinite, all-knowing, all-loving God with my little bitty finite brain. So we'll just leave it at that. Right. But as it relates to this, somebody that's practicing those principles, they have advantages. They're gonna make the better employee or the better business partner than the person who's not. Right. The other side of that coin is you're taking a chance. One of the things I like least about being an entrepreneur nowadays, I used to love it when I found somebody, well, not like you, because you were already like the top salesperson. You were already you can make money work, you can sell ice to Eskimo. But taking somebody and bettering their life, you know what I'm saying, and teaching them something has always been very rewarding. And you're and one of the things that I hate the most about what I do now is like, oh my god, the interview process now, no one wants to work. The millennials don't want to work, everybody wants to make the most amount of money and do the least amount. Then COVID, everybody thinks they can work from home and work in their bathrobe, and and then the millennials of being on my phone at work and being on social media and dicking around and not really having any ambition, you know what I'm saying? It's it makes me want to pull my fucking hair out. It's so hard to find good people now. I used to not have this problem, right? And it's it's the most challenging thing about being a business owner, is just because you can even look great on paper, right?

Speaker 1 1:11:31

Right.

Speaker 1:11:32

And have a good resume, and you can knock the ball knock it out of the ballpark in the interview. But until I see you drive the car, I don't know if you can really drive the car. Right. And I've been doing this a long fucking time. And it's still, you don't know if someone can drive the car, you can make an educated guess, and you're taking a little bit bigger of a chance with someone. I think there's a lot of variables at play. Where are they in their recovery? What kind of job are we talking about? Right? Right. Talking about a labor job, if these guys need to show up and follow a simple set of instructions, or is he got some responsibility, or is there some bunch of complex thinking that needs to be done and planning that has to be done in his position? I I continue to well, first of all, I always give everybody the benefit of the doubt, and I've give more than second chances because God gave me so many. So who am I not to give somebody else that's right second, third? Even I have my wife I've had people give third and fourth chances. Haven't you learned your lesson yet? Like, haven't you been burned you enough? And I'm like, Well, who am I to say that God they can't change?

Speaker 1 1:12:36

Right.

Speaker 1:12:37

Who am I to make that decision? I'm not, and certainly you need to use discernment, right? Right, especially when it comes to a company asset because you're putting your business at risk, right? But it's the same thing, it's almost like the broken record. You get back what you put out. If I'm putting back helping people in charity, yes, I've been burned, I still get burned, I got burned recently. I get if I got burned twice in the past two years with deploys, right? But the rewards of the ones that I didn't get burned by were so much greater than the pain of the ones that I did. And you need to use discernment. I'll cut some loose, you know what I'm saying? Quicker if I'm not if I'm seeing the behavior. Look, just because they're sober doesn't mean that they've had the spiritual experience. That's right. Yeah, they haven't had the psychic change on how they look at life and how they're dealing with life, how they're handling life.

Corey Berrier 1:13:35

Yeah, but their sponsor's gonna know the answer to that question. You best believe I'm gonna speak to them.

Speaker 1:13:40

Well, it to some in some instances, they'll have a good gauge. I'm such a big book plumper, I didn't plan on saying this, but it's kind of on my heart now three times. Look, to me, it is I hate cliches. Like, are they working a program? Because what the fuck does that mean? That's everybody's got a different definition. Some people say, Oh, yeah, they go to meetings every day, they're working a great program. Well, that's not my definition. Meeting makers make it ain't in my vocabulary. Those people, I've seen people die that way. Again, not alcoholic. That's great. I distinctly say, where in the pro what step have they completed? By my definition of completed. I tell the story all the time. And AA had changed. It was so far away from what that big book is when I got sober that most meetings were garbage. They were treatment centerized. They you heard shit that not only was not in the book, but it went the polar opposite of what the book says. The book says the act opposite. The program is this book right here. You know what I'm saying? This is the program. It says we meet frequently so we can find the solution, find the fellowship, right? The fellowship is the friends in the meetings, the solution is the fucking book, right? The solution is God. Three parts of the puzzle. The you know, the problem, the solution, and the practical program of action, right? That is this. So, where are they in that process? Because I had a really good, healthy relationship with a girl that had been sober 11 years when we started dating, and all her friends gave me shit because I had six months, but I was working 10, 11, and 12 at six months. You know what I'm saying? The second that we finished chapter seven, I remember like yesterday. Okay, now go pick, tackle pick people picking up a white ship and offer to walk them through the book. I'm like, whoa, you can't do that. The rules in the meeting say that I can't sponsor anybody until I have a year sober. Well, where in the book does it usually or sponsor? And where in the book does it say that? Because actually it says the opposite, because Bill Wilson was doing it with no time. The first early years of sobriety, they called old timers people that had two years. You know what I'm saying? And so, you know, I took that promotion to Charlotte, and I was scared to death because the treatment center is like, oh, no major changes. I had nine months, don't make any major changes. I'm in a relationship, I'm taking a big, what they would consider a high pressure promotion, where I'm going from an area manager of four stores to having ten, you know what I'm saying? And having area and district managers up under me. And but they said, look, you if you go up there and tackle people picking up white chips, a fellowship would grow up around you, and it did. The book study grew up, but man, I never would have stayed sober. I had probably hadn't, I don't know, three and a half months, maybe when I walked the first person through the book. And I can't honestly say I know to this day whether they stayed sober, but guess what? I did. That's right. But more importantly, I wouldn't have had I not done that. So it would be more engaged to me as like where they are in the program as to what kind of risk that I would want to take on them if I'm the business owner, right? Right. But dude, if you tell me somebody's on 10, 11, and 12 and they're practicing them, I'm gonna hire that guy over there, his twin brother that's not right. You know what I'm saying?

Speaker 1 1:17:06

Yeah, 100%.

Speaker 1:17:08

You're gonna get burned, but you're gonna get burned by other employees doesn't matter, right? It's human, it's human nature. So you are taking a risk, but again, if my experience, if I'm taking the chance and helping other people in need, then I'm gonna get rewarded in some way from that. It might not be from that particular employee, right?

Corey Berrier 1:17:32

All right, so I know we are actually we are almost over time, to be honest. So could you uh Nick, I one really appreciate you coming on here. And two, do you mind telling people where they can find Cell Tech if they're looking to find when I get asked to do these at first?

Speaker 1:17:52

Thank you. So www.celltechmd.com, right? Is the website. We're not really an internet-based company, so it's not gonna woo you or we're believe it or not, and you know this to be true, of course, you know me. We're not in awe of sales organization. I built this the Atlanta's largest, both square footage and membership base, by one happy patient at a time, sending me another happy patient. There are some things that make us unique, although there are some other good clinics out there. Most of them are very cookie cutter. Everybody gets hit with the same rubber stamp. Yeah, everybody gets hit with the same dose of testosterone, which is insane. You're as unique as your thumbprint. Anybody that looks at you and says, Oh, you're this age and this weight, and this is what your testosterone needs to be, they're lying to you. Unless they have a time machine that can go back and test you when you were 22, then I'd know exactly where I need you to be. But that could be 700, it could be 1700. Right. And that's quite a difference. But anyway, I've got some of the best hormone doctors on the planet. One in particular I stole from the NFL. What makes them the best is it's an ever-changing science. Even in the business, the time I've been in, there's new stuff. Even the methodology on just even testosterone therapy has changed drastically. If he's not with a patient he's studying, number one, he's such a he's a Georgia Bulldogs fan, as am I. And he was, I called him doing a game one day, and I'm like, you're not watching this game. He's like, nah, man. I'm like, why not? This is a great game, it's a big game. This is going to the SCC championship. And he's like, Yeah, I'm into this peptide book. You know what I'm saying? And and he's just wired that way. And another testament to him, he treats a lot of other really high-profile famous doctors, and these doctors entrust him with their peptide and hormone therapy. Just like the orthopedic surgeon isn't gonna go to the ER and ask to get his heart surgery done. He's gonna know who the baddest fucking heart surgeon is on the planet because that's what he does for a living. So this group of doctors that he has that he treats that's growing, that's a really testament to his quality. Certainly we get the we love the John and Jane Does who get great results and we change their lives because they're gonna they're gonna feel better and they're gonna more important, they're gonna live longer, they're gonna be around for their kids, or be more active in their kids' lives. But these high-level doctors, these high big names that you would know if you're especially if you're in the sports world, that that allow us to treat them, that's a really testament to the level of care that we truly practice privatized, individualized wellness with each individual patient. So anyway, www.celltechmd.com. I tell them Nick sent you, I'll make sure you get taken care of. And uh, I've got some other business. I've got a peptide importation company and distribution company. So if you know somebody that's a trainer at the gym that's buys peptides in bulk, I've got a company that we have all SOAs, really high quality products. Um, you know, if you're locally, I'd be telling you, please book some more limo time over Mike's Limousine Company. Somebody just crashed one last week, a brand new escalated SV. So she's uh she's at the long face on that. But you know, what damage wasn't bad and weren't sure. But thanks for asking.

Corey Berrier 1:21:16

Yeah, man. I appreciate you, and uh I'll let you know when this drops, all right.

Speaker 1:21:21

I appreciate you, Corey. Enjoy your Sunday. Enjoy uh enjoy being a guest. Thanks for having me, brother.

Corey Berrier 1:21:27

Thank you, brother.

Speaker 1:21:28

Love you. See ya.