Latest / Success Story with Scott Clary / Lessons - Quitting Chronic Alcohol Addiction | Kelsey Moreira - Founder & CEO of Doughp

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Lessons - Quitting Chronic Alcohol Addiction | Kelsey Moreira - Founder & CEO of Doughp · Success Story with Scott Clary

• 0:00
  What gave you even the courage to stop drinking when there was nothing negative going on in
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  your life?
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  Because that's a pressure situation, especially if it was a social thing.
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  But then also, what gave you the courage to jump from Intel?
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  How do you manifest this and bring this forward in your ideas and the decisions you make?
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  Yeah, two big jumps in my life.
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  You know, the choice to say like enough is enough.
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  I got to get sober.
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  And I think though everything is put together and perfect on the outside seemingly, right?
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  You always know.
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  You know, the individual knows how their relationship is with alcohol.
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  And like I mentioned, those close to me who had gone through the ordeals, you know, right
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  alongside and my poor parents, like through college and beyond constantly being like, okay,
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  like let's see what the phone call is from Kelsey this weekend.
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  You know, or if she's using someone else's phone because she lost hers.
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  But you know, as she hospitalized again, I got hospitalized twice for over consumption
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  of alcohol, you know, carried out of a party on a stretcher because I was blocked out.
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  I'm a, you know, five foot to 120 pretty much was all through my college career as well.
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  And like that, you just can't take the levels I was drinking at at that size.
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  So those things happen in getting tickets for minor consumption drinking.
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  I lied to a police officer.
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  I told him information from a fake ID.
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  So got false reporting to law enforcement.
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  These little, you know, tickets and issues throughout the time.
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  And then the way I would treat those close to me, you know, when I was drinking just weren't
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  a reflection of who I wanted to be.
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  The final hurrah of coming to the decision to get sober, sober.
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  I'd gotten sober for four months when I was 21.
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  This idea of like a reset.
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  I was like, maybe if I just stopped drinking for a few months, I'll be okay.
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  You know, and it's really, you know, this is the joy of alcoholism.
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  You just are trying however you can to navigate a path that lets alcohol stay in your life.
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  Because you just don't want to believe that you're going to have to be different.
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  You're going to have to be the one that doesn't drink.
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  And, you know, why is this happening to be?
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  So after that failed attempt and then now I'm 24 at the time feeling like, you know,
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  it's been about six months since the last episode, if you will, of acting out drinking.
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  And then I'm going on a business trip to Barcelona.
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  And from the moment I got off the plane, basically, you know, I got to the hotel
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  and they gave me a half bottle of wine as like the welcome gift, you know,
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  so I started drinking at like 10, 30 in the morning.
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  And on it went and I came to at 3, 30 in the morning in a stranger's apartment.
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  I had cheated on, you know, my boyfriend of four years
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  and had to have that phone call the next morning to explain all these things
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  that I was just horrified by and couldn't even had to pick the pieces together
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  and even remember what had happened.
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  And yeah, just feeling this absolute utter moment of clarity
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  of like, I never want to feel this way again.
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  I'd had so many mornings apologizing for stuff I barely remembered.
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  And now here I am, you know, where I should be in my, I'm in this career.
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  It's been already nine years at this time, I believe nine years within tell
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  and feeling like I should be in this new phase of life.
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  And this is happening, you know, still I'm still having all these issues.
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  I just said enough's enough, you know, alcohol is just not worth it.
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  And I found an English-speaking A meeting in Barcelona that morning
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  and I'll be six years sober this September.
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  So the recovery one is many chips away at the iceberg, you know,
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  you're like this stiff thing that's just like, I don't want to accept there's a problem.
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  I want to find another way you're just like holding on tight.
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  And it's like enough little chips away of these nights, of these incidents,
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  of letting down people I loved, of letting myself down that finally, you know,
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  enough was enough. And I broke into saying I got to make a change.
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  So that's the recovery jump.
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  The intel jump is another story on, you know, having that decision to say,
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  my happiness and joy was worth the pursuit of that risk, you know,
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  was worth the jump to see what, what could happen.
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  I honestly, as the idea started to grow with fur dope in my head,
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  I started to think the bigger risk was like, what if I didn't do it?
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  How sad and upset would I be if I saw someone else, you know, down the road?
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  Trying this idea that I have and me not having done it and always wondering what if.
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  And the corporate life though, it has its cushions, you know,
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  there's all these nice cushy things around the organization,
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  the structure and the support that you have, I always moved like a bit too fast,
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  you know, I always felt like I was running like at a speed 10 on the treadmill
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  and intel was like out of four, you know, it's just is a slower pace of things to get
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  stuff done or people, many layers above you, making decisions that your program
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  is cut, you know, the budget that was for this thing you've been working on,
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  pouring your heart and soul into, it's not going to happen anymore.
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  We're moving this way.
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  And you're like, what like by child, you know, I just wanted,
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  I thought what a cool chance to have the ownership over if it works or not.
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  At least it's going to be on me and that was that was worth taking the leap.
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  So February of 17, I got the idea.
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  April 20th, 2017 was the first day of my sabbatical with intel.
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  And that was the launch for dope.
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  That was my first day selling dope cookie dough and made a hundred pounds of dough
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  at a commercial kitchen in Oakland, carted it over to San Francisco and went to Dolores Park,
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  set up this cart I had had built for like 500 bucks and we sold out in three hours.
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  And I was like, oh shit, people really like cookie dough.
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  This is going to be a thing.
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  Let's go, you know.
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  And so you, you, when you take a sabbatical from intel, is that cutting your paycheck,
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  day one, 10 weeks paid.
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  Yeah.
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  So 10 weeks paid and usually people travel, right?
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  I actually had a like backpacking trip through Southeast Asia that I was going to go on of
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  which my dad was super freaked out about.
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  But then when I told him that I was going to start this cookie dough company and potentially
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  quit my job, he was like, what about the backpacking?
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  You know, maybe we should just do that.
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  I'm sure, you know, those thoughts crossed his mind.
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  He was a little, a little nervous about this, this concept I had, but the 10 weeks was
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  a gift, you know, to be able to say with a safety blanket of sorts, you know, that I could
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  go back, you know, if it really didn't work.
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  But at the end of the 10 weeks, I was like, I couldn't even come in to turn in my laptop
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  because I had two events in San Francisco that day.
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  I was like, I'm going to have to come down to Santa Clara on Monday.
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  You know, this, this thing is, is really happening and I'm going to pursue it.
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  So my manager at the time, he was super supportive and, and all that.
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  So I definitely felt like they got to watch me spread my wings and, you know, it's been
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  fun.
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  I came back to speak it until earlier this year and, and share my journey, which was
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  really cool.
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  Full circle.
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  How do you find this has impacted the culture at dope?
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  Like, I'm just, so if I think I'm young, and I'm going to go work at a startup, because
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  if I'm not mistaken, I'm doing some research and you tried to create a culture that doesn't
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  include drinking or other drugs or other things, right?
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  That's what, that's one of the tenants.
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  But if I'm young, I want to join a startup.
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  Well, I don't, I don't really get why I can't have drinks at a company party.
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  It doesn't make sense to me.
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  So what's the, what's the end result?
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  Is it has it attracted talent?
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  Has it pushed talent away?
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  Has it attracted potentially the right people that you want to work with?
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  I'm curious what the, the, the actual implication is for a company that champions this.
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  Yeah.
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  I mean, I think at the core of any authentic mission driven company, you want to have employees
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  that are super bought in on what the mission is, right?
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  You want to have employees that are like living and breathing it to some regard, or at least
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  are super passionate in understanding the value of what you're trying to do.
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  So for me, the idea that what we do would push anyone away is certainly like they probably
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  shouldn't work here, because it's a big part of the impact we're trying to have elsewhere.
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  It's a good, it's a good takeaway, yeah.
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  So I feel like, you know, for us in, in my eyes and, and through our journey with dope,
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  even from being a brick and mortar storefront, you know, having to interview more regularly
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  right to get hourly staff working in the stores, to now being a remote company with a, you
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  know, social media side, we've got customer support, and then obviously like the director
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  rules on operations and, and marketing, it has helped immensely not only to attract
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  the best talent, but to retain them, you know, to make them feel like they are able
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  to be their full selves at work, they're able to talk about what's really going on.
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  We have a mental health Monday Slack channel where we all share one high and one low from
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  the last week, and like, I keep that real, like I really share with my staff when something's
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  not going right, and I'm feeling out of balance, or I'm feeling super anxious, or something
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  else is happening, and it's not a place of, oh, feel sorry for me, and it's not a place
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  of, oh, I'm weak, and I'm not able to run the company now.
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  It's like, I'm in touch with what's going on, and here's what, you know, what I'm doing
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  about it, and it's okay, those, I think those moments when I've been able to share something
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  going on with my life, have really opened the door for them to share.
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  So we have a number of employees that are in recovery, which is awesome.
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  And again, I think there are some companies in this old school mentality that say they
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  would be an at-risk employee, you know, some, you know, with sober dates in 2020, even,
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  and it's, it's like, and in 2021, and I'm here for it, you know, I want to be supportive,
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  I want to be that employer that can be there, even if people are looking to get into recovery
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  for the first time, or relapse and need to get back on the right track, pushing them away
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  is a disservice to humanity, you know, and someone struggling in your company at that moment
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  is when they need you the most to say, and to see through the issue and see that there's
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  someone, a human struggling with something, and that you have an opportunity to help.
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  So, for employers out there, like we did share a policy on our mental health policy,
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  like a template version of the mental health policies on our blog.
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  So that's something great to look at.
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  There's also recovery-friendly workplace initiatives in, I think, the 13 states now.
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  So really cool to see these structured ways of showing how real the problem is, how
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  pervasive it is, what cost it's really having to employers to ignore it, you know, loss
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  of productivity, et cetera, turnover rates, all of this, and things actionable things you
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  can really do to change those, change those ways inside your company.
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  It's like you said, it has to be a culture change, the decision to not have alcohol at
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  client events, or, you know, when we did a client event in San Francisco, and it was like,
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  we had a mocktail bar, we had a bunch of fun mocktails, all with cool dope names and stuff,
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  and then had kombucha there, and like the whole thing.
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  So there's fun ways to bring that around, and it's very important, even for companies
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  who do allow alcohol to be present, you know, at events, really try to not make it the
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  focus, you know, really think about how isolated that is, you're someone who's struggling,
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  to feel like they need to drink, or they need to be a part of this drinking activity,
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  to get the inside scoop, you know, that is a really scary place for someone in early
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  recovery.