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Resilience in Real Time: Gregg Champion on Recovery, Fire, and Starting Over · Finding New Waters

0:00
And so those elements along with 30 years of recovery, I'm a very
0:04
much a 12 step guy. That's my foundation.
0:08
And So what startup did was take all those elements of
0:10
entrepreneurship and mentorship, a a clinical therapy, some
0:15
Eastern modalities. I'm a big meditator, a big
0:18
breath work guy. And we said, OK, let's make a
0:21
unique program that is, is going to, is going to push the buttons
0:25
on a lot of a lot of different areas when we get clients in.
0:29
And and so that's what we, that's what we built.
0:32
And our, our tagline is shifting addiction to passion.
0:38
Welcome back everybody to another episode of Finding New
0:41
Waters. My name is Bea Reeves.
0:43
I'm the Director of Business Development here at New Waters
0:45
Recovery in Raleigh, NC Sitting here with our CEO, Justin
0:49
McClendon and our very special guest today, Greg Champion.
0:53
Welcome, Greg. Good.
0:54
Greg. Hey.
0:56
Hello, Bea. Hey, Justin.
0:57
Good to see you guys. Thanks for coming on.
0:59
Thank you so much for being here.
1:01
I Where are you exactly right now?
1:05
So I am in Manhattan Beach, I'm working from home today be, you
1:13
know, a little bit about what happened to me.
1:15
And so my family and I had to relocate from the Pacific
1:18
Palisades to Manhattan Beach. And so I I got everybody out of
1:23
the house and I said, I need the hour of power with my boys B and
1:26
Justin today. So they're out doing whatever
1:28
they're doing. But it is sunny here in Southern
1:30
California. We have kind of a heat wave
1:32
going on. I hear you.
1:34
What does a heat wave mean to you in Manhattan Beach
1:37
temperature wise? Well, it's 9095.
1:43
OK, that's hot. That's hot.
1:44
Yeah. Yeah, well, very, very humid, so
1:48
you guys should feel right at home.
1:50
Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, Greg, when we
1:52
were together in Madison, WI, not that long ago, that was that
1:57
was the sweatiest, most sweltering climate I've been in
2:01
in a very long time. And really in Wisconsin.
2:02
Yeah, yeah. And yeah.
2:05
And I mean, Greg and I, we know we had met before over the last
2:09
couple years and then he and I were with working with Casey
2:13
Gooding and some other people kind of spearheading this, this
2:18
inaugural and power collaboration thing.
2:20
And, but then in the, in the meantime, you know, once we
2:23
started doing that and then we were together at the
2:26
aforementioned recovery.com conference up in Madison, we
2:30
kind of, we, we got to know each other a lot better.
2:32
I got to hear some of his personal story and the story he
2:35
mentioned there about, you know, the, the fire.
2:37
So I definitely want to hear about that.
2:38
But first of all, that hat. Tell me about that hat.
2:43
So it's a we lost a young man to drunk driving about four months
2:49
ago here in Manhattan Beach. And his name is Braun Levy.
2:53
And he was a four time conference tennis champion on
2:58
his way to a full ride at University of Virginia and
3:03
basically was walking across a crosswalk and a drunk driver did
3:08
not see him at one O clock in the morning and he was killed
3:11
instantly. And The thing is about Braun is
3:15
that this kids special, this kid lights up a room.
3:18
He has lots of friends, he's inclusive.
3:22
And so in the last three to four months, his family and the
3:25
community has really rallied behind him.
3:27
And they came up with a a slogan called Live Like Bron.
3:30
And if you guys are tennis fans and start watching the US Open,
3:33
you might see some of those players having the same logo on
3:36
here. But since the three of us are in
3:39
the business of trying to, you know, prevent alcoholism,
3:43
prevent any sort of alcoholic harm, I thought it would be a
3:46
good way for me just to to chime in and say, hey, folks, take a
3:49
look at what they're doing. It's all about prevention.
3:53
And in in the name of a very special young man.
3:56
And here's the really sad part. The Levies were also a Palisades
4:00
family. So they lost their home on
4:03
January 7th and they lost their son three months later.
4:08
Oh. Man, I'm so sorry.
4:10
Well, thank you for what you're doing to bring attention to it.
4:14
And you're right. We are in that that is our job.
4:17
And one thing I, I did notice about, you know, doing some
4:21
cursory research, like I said, we don't want it too much.
4:24
But you know, you said your, your mantra is I'm here to I'm,
4:28
I'm here to help. What, what can I do for you?
4:31
I'm here to help. And I, I love that man.
4:34
Yeah. And I like that you don't just
4:37
say, hey, please let me know how I can help you.
4:38
You give the people an actual action item.
4:41
You know how? How can I help and open it in
4:43
action item like that? Well, it, it's funny be, you
4:46
know, I'm a lot older than you guys.
4:48
I, I certainly know kind of who I am, you know, through this
4:52
journey of just being on the planet a few years and, and also
4:55
being in long term recovery. And so, you know, my last name
4:59
is champion and, and, and it's a tough name to live up to every
5:03
day. You got to go out and go out and
5:04
make comments and all that kind of stuff.
5:06
And a few years ago, about 10 years ago, I did a little
5:09
research and I put together a Ted X talk.
5:12
And the topic was discovering your hit factor.
5:15
What make, what's your superpower?
5:18
And in that research, I found out that my last name is my
5:22
superpower. And here's why.
5:23
If you look at the definition of champion, yes, it's winner,
5:27
victory, top of the mountain guy, all that.
5:29
But if you look at the second definition in Webster's, it's
5:32
someone who mentors or helps others with their problems.
5:38
And that's what I do on a daily basis.
5:39
I, I, I'm just wired. It's a part of my DNA and, and,
5:44
and I think like you, you and Justin is when the phone rings,
5:47
even if they're not appropriate for your program, you're going
5:50
to make sure that family lands somewhere safe.
5:54
Yeah, I love that man, You know, and that you're right, they that
5:57
second definition of champion doesn't get enough air time.
6:00
And I remember hearing that for the first time when my parents
6:04
were referring to this guy who was going to be my champion
6:06
helping me get into a certain school.
6:08
I remember I thinking champion what?
6:10
And yeah. Yeah, that exactly.
6:14
So you start, start up recovery is seems like kind of a
6:22
culmination of, you know, you're, you've been sober 25
6:26
years and doing a little math, I think you got sober around 30.
6:31
Is that about right? So I, I, I actually whatever.
6:35
So I'm actually just turning 30 years sober.
6:37
I got sober at 25. My bad, I had a flip.
6:41
Sorry, my bad. Yeah, I I can probably have an
6:44
older bio somewhere out there. Yeah, but you hit it right on
6:49
the head. B is a startup.
6:50
Recovery is like a culmination of every sort of thing that
6:53
touched my life in the last 30 years.
6:55
So, you know, I've been an entrepreneur.
6:57
I've been part of start-ups. I was a producer and director in
7:03
branding and Hollywood and sports.
7:05
I mentored over 100 kids to their first and second jobs and
7:09
I also taught entrepreneurship at USC.
7:12
And so those elements along with 30 years of recovery, I'm a very
7:17
much a 12 step guy. That's my foundation.
7:21
And So what startup did was take all those elements of
7:23
entrepreneurship and mentorship, a a clinical therapy, some
7:28
Eastern modalities. I'm, I'm a big meditator, a big
7:30
breath work guy. And we said, OK, let's make a
7:33
unique program that is, it's going to, it's going to push the
7:37
buttons on a lot of, a lot of different areas when we get
7:40
clients in. And, and so that's what we,
7:43
that's what we built. And our, our tagline is shifting
7:46
addiction to passion. We feel that you're always going
7:49
to be addicted. That's kind of the human nature.
7:51
We're, we're going to be addicted to sports, we're going
7:52
to be addicted to food. And if we put down the bad
7:55
addictions, which is obviously pills and drugs and needles and
7:58
all that stuff, use that same force that you have inside of
8:02
you to go do something good. And that's really the power of
8:06
our program. We have a great program of sober
8:10
mentors. These are people with a long
8:11
term sobriety and long term success.
8:13
They're not a sponsor. They're just someone who grabs
8:15
our client at say day 60, day 90 and says, hey, you have some
8:19
clarity, you have some self-awareness and you want to
8:22
go into real estate or you want to go in the movie business.
8:24
Well, here, here, here's what we're going to do.
8:26
We're going to talk 2 languages, recovery 1st and then about
8:29
getting you that job or that career started.
8:32
That's awesome. What did what did you work in
8:35
the in the film production? Were you working in that field
8:39
sober? Yeah, yeah.
8:41
I, I, I started as a production assistant at NBC and just worked
8:45
my way up, went over to Fox Television, DreamWorks.
8:49
And the thing about that, and I try to tell young people is pick
8:52
the industry you want to be in and start at the bottom and look
8:56
up and go, OK, that's where I got to go.
8:58
I'm not a big believer in the get well job.
9:00
If I'm over at Starbucks and I don't want to be a coffee maker
9:03
or coffee Connor, it doesn't make sense.
9:06
Take the lowest level job in the industry you want to be in and
9:09
go. That has served me well and what
9:12
I did in all those places, Justin it be was I learned
9:15
something. I learned something from my
9:17
bosses. And I have a little saying I've
9:20
had good bosses and I've had bad bosses.
9:22
I learned more from the bad bosses because they have shown
9:25
me what not to do. Yeah, that's a great point.
9:29
I mean, that's kind of when people sometimes are just in
9:32
terms of back to the recovery part of this and going to
9:35
meetings and they hear and see things that are, you know, that
9:40
maybe would could possibly drive them away, especially if they're
9:42
new. It's like, you know, that's,
9:44
hey, this is what not to do, you know, And it's important to see
9:47
that in all aspects of life. And I was just thinking when you
9:50
were talking about kind of getting that lowest level job
9:54
and working up, it just made me think like the, the, you know,
9:57
treatment field that we work in. Like I couldn't tell you how
10:01
many people I've seen that started as like a tech, right?
10:03
Like started as a tech, you know, maybe went and got a
10:06
clinical degree or found some other route, but you know, has
10:09
worked in the industry from the bottom up and, you know, and now
10:13
works in leadership and things like that.
10:15
Yeah, I'm that same thing was for me, my first job in this
10:18
field was was a mental health tech and a psychiatric
10:20
stabilization hospital. But you learn so much
10:23
understanding all those different roles and like the
10:25
clinical stuff and the support work and leadership it is, it is
10:29
vital for sure. Yeah, it makes me, yeah.
10:33
Just so here, here, so, so Justin, you're the leader of, of
10:36
finding new waters and, and it, it makes me feel good that you
10:39
started as a tech because now you know what every job means
10:42
underneath. That's right.
10:43
Yeah. Not at all.
10:45
Not at all, that's for sure. And it's so important to connect
10:48
with your staff that way because you've walked in their shoes.
10:52
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. It really does.
10:55
It gives you a full, full perspective, I believe.
10:57
I'm a little biased, but that's what I think for.
10:59
Sure, well, and I and I, I don't think I've ever heard anybody
11:01
come out and say what you just did about not necessarily
11:04
believing in the get well job, that recovery job, just to kind
11:07
of have a something to do and make a little bit of money and
11:10
get AI mean. Because I, I totally get what
11:13
you're saying. You know why, why not just go
11:16
ahead and get that, you know, go to the bottom rung of the field
11:20
I want to be in and go from there instead of going to work
11:22
at, you know, in retailer, you know at Starbucks or whatever,
11:25
which was great too. I.
11:26
Think the reason why I say that is because I realized that
11:29
people in early recovery are very sensitive.
11:31
We just are, you know, those first 3060 and 8090 days were
11:35
very raw and, and, you know, I, I work with a certain clientele
11:40
that is a little bit more high end, you know, and so I just
11:44
can't see somebody taking a job behind the counter really.
11:51
And, and, and, and embracing that.
11:53
I mean, I might humble them, but I also do, we've had multiple
11:57
success stories when we've done it our way, you know, in every
12:00
way works, you know, every way works.
12:02
So if you guys are the get well job guys and it's working for
12:04
you in North Carolina, God bless you.
12:07
But in my particular experience, it's, you know, because here's
12:13
what I always ask people, what would you do if they, what would
12:16
you do for free? You know, what would you just do
12:18
for passion? And once I get around that
12:20
subject, that's where I point them to.
12:23
I like that. I mean, that's kind of the we,
12:25
we we had a recently had somebody on here we were asking
12:28
about why a treatment center and the sort of inverse of what you
12:32
just said. What would you do for free?
12:33
This guy's his mentor and challenged him to say, you know,
12:37
draw up, you know, what you would do if you if if you had
12:40
all the money in the world and there was money had nothing to
12:42
do with it to sort of not because that was a possible
12:45
reality, more just to take that barrier out.
12:47
And this is the same thing, but just kind of in a different way
12:50
to get there like that. Yeah.
12:52
And so back to start up recovery and the recent what what's
12:58
happened? I mean, what, what I when I we
13:00
know we were talking to Madison and you're talking Madison.
13:03
I mean, tell us. Tell us what happened and what's
13:08
going on now. Yeah.
13:09
So you know, be when we first got to know each other a few
13:12
years ago, you know, we we were pretty powerful West Coast
13:16
treatment facility. We had three beautiful houses in
13:19
the Pacific Palisades. We had a Wellness Center that
13:22
acted as an IOP and APHP and then we had a a 15 unit
13:27
apartment building in Santa Monica and it was a nice
13:31
rotation. People would land in our houses
13:32
for 90 days, go to the Wellness Center and eventually earn their
13:35
way to the apartments. And we try to keep everybody in
13:37
a year long curriculum with us. And on January 7th, that changed
13:43
everything in a very short amount of time.
13:46
Within 24 hours, the three houses that housed our clients
13:49
that day either were burned down or significantly smoked out.
13:54
And so at that time we had 13 clients.
13:58
And so here my own personal story, Justin was I had to get
14:04
my clients, I had to get my kids, three kids in three
14:07
different schools. And I had to go to my house to
14:09
get my dogs and any, any sort of personal belongings.
14:12
And I basically had an hour and a half to do it.
14:15
And so I have this amazing staff.
14:18
I, I was able to direct them, get the clients out.
14:21
And luckily we had those apartments in Santa Monica.
14:24
And so the clients were in our, in our SU VS down the hill on
14:28
their way to the apartments. And that's where we got them
14:31
safe. I was able to go and pick up a
14:34
couple kids at school. My wife picked up the other one.
14:37
We got back to her house. We bloated up the dogs and, and
14:40
The thing is, we have had little fires in my neighborhood
14:45
probably every summer. And what happens is the
14:47
helicopters go up, they grab some water and they knock them
14:49
down and, and it's pretty much done within 48 hours.
14:53
And so they usually say, hey, go check in in a hotel for a couple
14:56
days and we'll tell you when to come back.
14:58
So that's the directions I gave my kids was hey, when we're
15:01
packing up, just we're packing up to go stay at a hotel.
15:04
So we didn't grab anything of any value, no art, no
15:08
memorabilia, no family heirlooms because we were were basically
15:14
known to just come back after a couple days.
15:17
So the only thing they grab for me because I'm a dad was a
15:21
couple blue jeans, a hoodie, hats and A and a couple laptops,
15:25
you know, and other that all my suits, ties, good shoes, a
15:31
favorite ski gear, golf clubs, all gone.
15:35
And so as I so that basically with that 24 hours, I found out
15:40
that I had lost my business, had lost my house and my two of my
15:45
three children had lost their schools in this devastating fire
15:49
in January. And in short, I wouldn't wish
15:54
this upon my worst enemy. The the talk I gave in Madison
16:00
was called resilience in real time, how startup is starting
16:05
over. And what I tried to do was
16:06
document from January 7th to today.
16:12
And what I'll tell you is that my priority was this was, hey, I
16:16
got to make sure my clients are safe, OK?
16:19
I'm an owner of this company. These are all people that are
16:21
really in a tough spot. They're they're, they're with us
16:24
from Toronto and from Montreal and New York and Texas.
16:28
We got to find some space. So I went up and make sure that
16:30
was that was going to happen. Then I got to make sure my kids
16:33
are safe. So my wife took over that chore
16:36
went down and, and took care of that.
16:38
And then after about day three, I started talking to some other
16:43
families in my neighborhood, the volleyball family, the soccer
16:45
family, the school family. I said where, where are we going
16:48
to move our kids? Because I said to them, I said
16:51
we have to keep the friend groups together because I have a
16:55
house full of people who have childhood trauma, right?
16:59
This fire is going to cause childhood trauma.
17:02
But if we keep the friend groups together and they go through
17:05
this together, that trauma will lessen.
17:08
OK, So we decided to 16 families and there was more, but sixteen
17:12
families decided to move to Manhattan Beach and we kind of
17:15
all joined the same church. We all went to the same
17:17
restaurants. We went, we had pool dates and
17:20
beach dates and all that kind of stuff.
17:22
And we were able to keep these, you know, kids together.
17:25
And all of a sudden these kids began to go to concerts
17:27
together. They went on sports camps
17:29
together and they were trucking along and, and what was a real
17:34
miracle of all this was that here I was, yes, I got my, I'm a
17:38
part of my, I got my ass kicked. Business wise, we've lost 70% of
17:42
our revenue. Justin, the CEO is like, Oh my
17:45
God, 70% of her right. So but on the way to the
17:51
airport, my wife is driving me and my 12 year old daughter
17:55
tests me on her shoulder and she goes, Papa, I just want you to
17:59
know that even this might sound crazy with the fires and
18:03
everything, but this has been the best summer ever.
18:08
And that's what I knew that that single step of keeping those
18:13
kids together was the right move.
18:17
And I'm going to tell you right there, I didn't make that move.
18:20
That came from being in recovery, that became having
18:23
good sponsors, good fellowship also came from our higher power
18:26
going, hey, you know, make sure the children are safe.
18:30
And so I just tell everybody that like, man, it it's, you
18:34
know how to say it's family first.
18:36
It's always family first. And so I take great pride.
18:40
We're still, you know, 7070% of our books are not fixed yet,
18:45
Justin. You know, we're still trying to
18:46
figure that out. Right.
18:48
Well, what I will tell you is that startup recovery and
18:51
startup recovery, startup Wellness are alive and well.
18:54
What we were able to do is we secured a house in Santa Monica
18:58
on 3rd and Montana, which is a nice neighborhood and it's 3
19:01
blocks away from our Wellness Center.
19:03
And so now our clients come to this house.
19:06
It's more of a beach house. They live there, they get great
19:09
food, a, a meetings, mentorship, coaching there, right?
19:13
And then they walk three blocks down and that's where they get
19:15
their clinical, their family therapy, they get the
19:18
acupuncture and Reiki and biohacking and all the things we
19:22
do there. And so we're in that rotation
19:24
right now as we begin to look for new houses, you know, and
19:29
then I'm going to just make Justin aware of this.
19:32
So one of the cool things we have is we have these startup
19:35
apartments and what they are is a complete apartment complex of
19:40
sober people. And you need 90 days, 90 days
19:44
sobriety, clinical attachment and no abusable meds, no MAT,
19:49
and you sign a nine month to 12 month lease.
19:53
You go in, you have a roommate. We run 3:00 AM meetings there.
19:58
And what's great about this is it's really where people can
20:01
push the reset button on their life.
20:03
They have the 90 days. Now they're having independent
20:06
living of guardrails because we have a full time case manager
20:08
there. He does the breathalyzing, the
20:10
drug testing research rooms, search cars, make sure parents
20:14
and loved ones and reference are updated.
20:18
But it's it's nine blocks away from Santa Monica College.
20:21
It's a few blocks away from Universal Music Hulu.
20:24
There's so there's there's a job things and it's one block away
20:28
from 26th and Broadway, which is a legendary Eleanor or a, a
20:32
building. So, so that's what startup's up
20:36
to now. And I'm glad you guys will give
20:38
me the form to kind of let that out there because you know, a
20:41
lot of people like, oh, startup's dead or what happened
20:43
to startup. And you know, I just wanted to
20:45
say that, you know, from day one, I had the resilience to say
20:51
we're not dead, we're not going away.
20:53
We're too good of a program and we do good work.
20:57
I don't want, I don't want the good work programs to go away.
21:00
You know, and BI think I might have said this with you, Casey,
21:04
is that, you know, 80% of our industry are, are chiefs, lies
21:08
and thieves. And there's this quote, 20% that
21:12
are rock stars. And, and I know that I'm talking
21:16
to two of them right now. And what's great about that is
21:20
we refer to each other. We make sure we're all informed
21:23
of what's going on and I'm really proud of that group.
21:27
I I, I think that we are are are a special group of Avengers.
21:31
We all have our own superpower or it factor right.
21:35
And I know when I need to send somebody to an East Coast
21:39
program with good a foundation, other elements, I'm going to
21:43
send them to finding new waters. We appreciate that, Greg.
21:48
We really do, man. Yeah, thank you.
21:50
I yeah, you're right. And it's, you know, I always
21:53
talk about how the, it's is important, it is for me to know
21:55
you and start up and other, other Avengers in the 20% of
22:01
good. But it's, it's, I mean, it's, I
22:03
think more important to know the, the bad, which usually
22:05
stands out. But thank, you know, thankfully
22:08
it's pretty easy to just scope them out because, you know, I
22:11
mean, last thing, you know, it's one thing for the we, I, we our
22:17
whole model is referring to pieces to people and places and
22:21
providers we like know and trusts.
22:22
And you know, if you send somebody to some one of those
22:25
fly by night rookeries where they're liars, cheats and
22:28
thieves, then that makes not only is that person the client,
22:32
which is the most important, their experience, the most
22:35
important thing, but just, you know, it makes us look bad too,
22:37
you know, Absolutely. Well, man, my just condolences
22:44
and everything go out to you and your family and everybody that
22:48
works with your organization and everybody else out there because
22:50
I mean, what we saw just watching on the news and things
22:53
like that was, was absolutely horrendous, man.
22:56
We're so we're extremely sorry for all the loss that you guys
22:59
endured. And also, I mean, I, I just find
23:01
a lot of hope in here and the resilience that you've been able
23:04
to, to, you know, muster up through that process as well.
23:07
So that's, that's amazing. Love to hear that.
23:10
Story. Yeah.
23:10
I mean, and that the part about your daughter's just.
23:13
It's incredible, you know, and it's almost like she was able to
23:16
say without saying it. It was just stuff, you know?
23:20
I mean, we're together, yeah. That's huge.
23:23
Yeah, you know, and, and what I will say, gentlemen, and and
23:27
Justin, I, I, I'm, I'm a guess you're a man in recovery.
23:30
And, and if I wasn't sober, I wasn't in a program, I didn't
23:36
have a board of directors to lean on, You know, I don't know
23:41
what sort of frame of mind I would be in.
23:44
Because about three weeks after the fires, I, I, I had breakfast
23:48
with a guy and I said, you know what?
23:50
Out of these fires, there's going to be a lot of divorce.
23:54
There's going to be a lot of addiction, and there's going to
23:56
be some suicides. And the reason why I know that
23:59
is because I have 30 years of sobriety.
24:01
And I've thought of all three. Yeah.
24:04
Yeah. And I say that because I also
24:09
know this. I'm allowed the alcoholic
24:11
thought, I'm not allowed the alcoholic action.
24:15
And as long as I'm in a program, as long as I don't put anything
24:18
in my nose or, or, or, or drink anything, I won't take that
24:23
alcoholic action. And I hope that any newcomer can
24:27
see that, hey, even after 30 years, you're going to still
24:30
have crazy thoughts. You just can't activate activate
24:32
them. Hopefully what they're seeing is
24:36
after, you know, 30 years, you know, your first reaction when
24:40
you lose your business or 70% of it, your house, your kids,
24:44
schools, that your first thought is to get everybody safe, number
24:48
one. And then the second thing is to
24:50
get all their friend groups and migrate together and just make
24:55
the best of a of a horrible situation.
24:57
You know, I'm sitting here talking to a guy who's in
24:59
Manhattan Beach, who's an LA guy who works in, you know, in, in,
25:03
in film production and TV production.
25:06
And I mean, I'm thinking how this could be a great premise
25:11
for a sitcom or a movie or or both.
25:13
You know, really. I mean, it's, it's unbelievable.
25:16
And the fact that you did that on the fly, there wasn't a
25:19
moping around, wallowing around in the misery.
25:22
I mean, this just you just that was your instinct.
25:24
I mean, and I don't know, you know, I didn't know you 31 years
25:27
ago, but I mean, I would imagine that that your recovery, you
25:31
know, is. I had instincts be 31 years ago,
25:34
my instincts wanted to get up hungover, grab some Gatorade and
25:38
and and and and Chinese food and do it all over again the next
25:43
day. Those are my instincts.
25:46
Yeah. Sound familiar?
25:48
It does. Yeah, Absolutely.
25:51
Yeah. No, like I was to echo that.
25:53
I mean, what a true testament to your recovery, man, exactly what
25:56
B said that you're that that you're your first mood was what
26:00
are my priorities? And the priorities were family,
26:03
friends, You know, how can we keep this thing moving forward?
26:05
I mean, that's that's, that's amazing.
26:07
That is absolutely amazing. I guess I could only hope that
26:10
if I endured that, that I would respond the same way, right?
26:14
Well, you know. Hopefully I would think of him.
26:16
You know, seriously are. You guys going to be affected by
26:19
this hurricane coming in? I mean, knock on wood, it
26:22
doesn't look like it and we hope it stays that way, right?
26:25
But this is entering that time of year where you know, week by
26:28
week it we just don't know what's coming our way kind of
26:31
thing. Yeah, it's fun.
26:32
Like I was going to say, where you go, ahead you go.
26:35
No, you know, be is for years I would watch on television
26:40
catastrophes happen from Oklahoma to Florida and I just
26:43
owe those four people, those four people.
26:45
And then on January 7th, I was one of those four people.
26:47
And let me tell you guys, I have a lot more empathy, a lot more
26:52
perspective. When the floods happened in
26:54
Texas, my sister lives in Texas, she was not affected.
26:58
But I said I need 3 names of three families that were
27:02
affected that you know, and I'm going to send them some money
27:05
because what I can tell you is when after from January 8th on.
27:10
I can't believe the amount of money, gifts, clothes, shoes the
27:16
people sent us. That's amazing.
27:18
There was a. Reporter who did a story on me
27:23
and as her mother's watching it in Florida as her mother's
27:27
watching it in Florida she the mom calls up and says I want to
27:33
make sure that that man's 2 girls are are taken care of
27:38
their their their bedrooms are taken care of and So what they
27:41
did she might Annabelle and Elise both made a list for
27:45
Amazon of what they wanted and within four days they had a new
27:49
bed new dresser all sorts of stuff and these people it was
27:52
unbelievable the amount of of of God-given gifting people gave us
27:57
so if you guys get stuck in this hurricane I know what that's
28:01
going to be like I mean I just it it's I don't recommend it
28:04
but. It.
28:06
I'm sure you guys have had some close calls, yes, in the years
28:08
past. Oh, yeah.
28:10
I mean, you know, I was when you were talking about how is
28:13
normal, like your the usual routine is there's a fire, we
28:18
get an alert, we check into a hotel and that's just there's
28:21
expected to go to a hotel for two days until you can go back
28:24
in your house. And that's to me, being from
28:27
North Carolina, that seems completely crazy, but that's
28:30
normal to you. In the same way, when hurricanes
28:32
are coming our way, you know, we might not the, we're not, not,
28:36
might not be expected to go check into a hotel for two days,
28:38
but we have our own crazy stuff that we just all get used to,
28:41
you know, and it's awful because, you know, like Justin
28:43
said, we were all watching that the fires, you know, 24/7
28:48
coverage and it's just so awful and so fast and, and, you know,
28:53
people watching the Palisades burn, you know, I mean, I know
28:56
people, including you, who, who live there, you know, and, but
29:00
just the, the, the beautiful human side of it, not just what
29:03
you did for your own family and for your, you know, your
29:05
neighbors and your friends and your, and your company, but just
29:09
strangers, you know, that, that you were just the, the, the
29:14
outpouring of help is just amazing.
29:16
And it's, it's, and it's encouraging, you know?
29:18
Definitely the going in the before the fires I didn't have
29:23
much faith in humanity. There was so much garbage going
29:25
on in the world and post fires, just amount of strangers,
29:30
absolute strangers just stepping up, showing up, you know, and
29:35
some of these companies that stepped up this one company
29:37
called baby to baby really took my wife and my three daughters
29:41
underneath their their wings and gave them all sorts of we just
29:44
got 3 backpacks, little school supplies for all three girls,
29:48
baby to baby. And I'll just give you a little
29:51
story. So I'm going to I'm a guy who
29:54
gets a manipetti every once in a while and about after after a
29:58
month of the fires, I'm looking like a Tyrannosaurus Rex with my
30:02
with my nails so long. So I go in and my usual Mani
30:08
petty manicurist starts stealing my feet.
30:10
She's like, hey, were you affected by the fires?
30:12
I say, yes, da da, da. She starts chopping up my toes,
30:15
starts chopping up my my fingers.
30:17
And this beautiful black woman next to me goes, I heard what
30:20
happened to you. I'm going to pay for your Mani
30:21
Petty. Love it.
30:24
It's amazing little shit like that.
30:26
And I got up. I just gave her a big old bear
30:28
hug. I took a picture with her so I
30:30
could show her heads. This person took, you know?
30:32
But like, that's humanity. Yeah, we, we.
30:35
That's amazing. We.
30:36
We. We've been at restaurants and
30:38
they kind of could tell that we're the Palisades families
30:40
because we're we're kind of in, you know, hoodies and sweats.
30:44
And also do people get up and all of a sudden, hey, I'll take
30:46
my check. Oh, that table over there, pay
30:48
for it for you guys. That's amazing.
30:50
That's amazing. Well, the other amazing thing is
30:52
you're, you know, on January 6th, you're sitting there in
30:56
your beautiful Palisades home with your beautiful Palisades
31:00
recovery residences. But meanwhile, you're, you have
31:03
no faith in humanity. You lose everything.
31:06
And that's what it takes for your faith in humanity to be
31:08
restored. About that great point.
31:11
It's a really great point and there's a line.
31:13
There's a line in our big book in Under 417 Acceptance.
31:20
Nothing in God's world happens by mistake.
31:24
And so I'm a big believer of that.
31:26
I don't blame God, I blame a lot of humans.
31:28
There were some human mistakes. Those those will come out.
31:32
But but, but the point is, is that nothing happens by mistake.
31:36
Because guess what? On January 8th, God took care of
31:38
me on the 9th, He took care of me on the 10th and so on all the
31:41
way to get to you guys today he has me, He has me.
31:45
And so I just keep trucking with him and just realize that if if
31:49
there are mistakes, they are human mistakes.
31:51
And it kind of goes as being part of human, you're going to
31:54
make mistakes, but sometimes it costs other humans their, their,
32:00
their fortune, you know, their, their good fortune.
32:03
Yeah. How are the other families
32:06
faring, you know, to his? I mean, your daughter has said
32:10
that she's had the best summer ever in spite of everything.
32:12
I mean, how's everybody doing? I I I, I would say so.
32:15
Well, here's another thing, guys.
32:16
God. Oh, so Justin and B, shortly
32:24
after the fires, I had a few therapists out here in the West
32:28
Coast call me up and say, hey, I want to make myself available to
32:31
your family. And what that meant was that
32:34
they would see my daughters and my wife, you know?
32:39
And what I can tell you is that they are all still seeing a
32:43
therapist. They're having great outcomes
32:47
coming from it. And here we are in month 7 and
32:50
none of them asked for a dime. That's amazing.
32:54
That's that's the kind of people we have in our circle, Justin
32:57
and B, you know, and so it makes because I understand that that's
33:02
what they need. Our our family needs that that
33:05
place to go for safety. The other families be, you know,
33:09
they're, they're right there with us.
33:10
And I think, you know, they give me a silent thank you for for
33:13
kind of rallying the troops to go do this.
33:17
And you know what, we're returning to schools.
33:19
We're all returning back to schools together.
33:22
That's all happening in the next couple weeks.
33:24
Just happened for one of my daughters.
33:27
But what I want to do is tell you this is that I know of two
33:30
divorces, I know of one suicide, and I know of a lot of addiction
33:36
and alcoholism. So what I predicted back when
33:41
did. Yeah.
33:41
I was about to say you. Yeah.
33:43
I mean, yeah, I mean that you saw it.
33:47
I, I, I I could sense it. Yeah.
33:51
And So what are you going to do? So you've got the idea is you're
33:55
looking for houses, you've got your you're up and running, but
33:57
you never, you never weren't up and running, but you.
33:59
But part of your big chunk was not And so.
34:03
So Jeff, Jeff Van and Patricia Myers are my partners.
34:06
We, we, we're, we're circling the wagons and really seeing
34:09
what our future is. And you know, we it's it's it's
34:18
funny, we we worked our way up to be a very established
34:21
company. But now I feel like part of the
34:23
pun here. We're very much operating as a
34:25
start up, you know, lean a mean only essential employees.
34:31
We can't make any bad choices because we just don't have the
34:34
gunpowder to make bad choices. So, you know, we'll, we'll just
34:40
keep raising our hand asking for help.
34:43
We will keep leaning on each other in terms of our
34:45
partnership. And then, you know, it's really
34:49
tough because, you know, what we had in the Palisades was so
34:53
special when people came to those houses.
34:57
It was a magical feeling that we had hiking trails off the back
35:00
of the houses. We were looking at the Pacific
35:01
Ocean. We had a great, if you guys
35:05
know, the West LA 12 step programs are incredible.
35:10
And, you know, we're really trying to capture that magic,
35:15
but realistically, we're probably just going to have to
35:17
do startup 2 point O It's never going to be the same.
35:20
We're never going back to the Palisades, you know, so it it's
35:24
we have to get real. And so it's still a a lot of
35:28
unanswered questions, but I. Think it's important that you
35:32
did, you say that and you've sort of re referenced 417,
35:36
accepting that you're not going to be able to just recreate that
35:39
same magic, but find some new magic, you know?
35:42
Yeah, you know, be Justin, I hope maybe in two years I come
35:45
back on here and I go, Oh my God, guys, because of the fires,
35:50
I'm over here doing this and look at it, it's it's magical.
35:53
It's huge, you know, and it's kind of like without the fires,
35:56
I don't get pushed over to go do that stuff.
35:59
And and I've known that time and time again, when there's a
36:02
disappointment, there's a rejection.
36:04
There's, you know, I always say rejection is God's protection.
36:09
And, and so all of a sudden, if these fires have some sort of
36:12
meaning of like, hey, go over here and do this, I'll come back
36:15
on your podcast and go, guys, I think because of the fires, This
36:19
is why I'm doing what I'm doing well.
36:21
We'll we will have you back on absolutely.
36:24
And you'll be able to tell us what, what magic you didn't you
36:27
know that you never saw coming, that you've created.
36:29
Yeah, yeah, I feel like, well, I hope, right.
36:33
I hope that's going to be the exact story.
36:34
I'm a big fan of that as well. I think, you know, in the moment
36:37
it's really easy to fixate on like, you know, the barriers and
36:40
the rejections and things like that.
36:41
But it's true. I don't know about the you guys,
36:43
but I think taking the backwards glance, I mean, there are just
36:46
countless events like that, that if I wouldn't have allowed the
36:49
flow of life to take me in a different direction, I don't
36:51
know what things would look like right now.
36:53
So thank God for that. I just had a reading either this
36:56
morning or yesterday that was talking about how it's not read
37:00
read rejection but redirection. There you go.
37:02
Yeah, I love that. It's great.
37:04
Yeah, I've never heard that before.
37:05
B That's a good one. Yeah, all of that.
37:07
Well, for the meantime, so we'll, we'll kind of wrap it up
37:10
here, but what, how do we, our audience find you and and
37:15
startup recovery? Well, so you know, basically we
37:19
have three websites, Startup recovery.com, Startup
37:22
wellness.com and Startup apartments.com.
37:26
And they are all three entities in the recovery field.
37:30
You know, we have the one house in Santa Monica, we have the
37:34
Wellness Center and then we have these beautiful apartments.
37:36
And then I'm very, I'm very visible on social media.
37:40
You can find me at Greg champion, Instagram, Facebook,
37:43
LinkedIn. But the only thing about Greg is
37:45
I spell it with two GS on the end.
37:47
And, and there's a story behind that.
37:50
When I was in the third grade, I, I went to the first day of
37:54
school and there was three other Greg's in the class.
37:58
And I went home that day and I said, Mom, I'm going to change
38:01
my name. I'm going to change it to Mark.
38:03
She goes, no, you can't change it.
38:04
Mark. Mark was my high school
38:05
boyfriend's name. OK, how about Tom?
38:07
No, no, Tom's Tom's the, the, the, the gardener out there.
38:10
I don't want you associated with Tom the gardener.
38:13
And so I'm watching Monday Night Football and lo and behold,
38:16
there's this tight end for the Washington Redskins.
38:19
And he, the, the lower third comes on after he makes a catch
38:22
and he spells his name Gregg. And I yell, Mom, mom, come here
38:27
I go. We're going to do that.
38:29
She goes, we're going to do what?
38:30
I go, we're going to add that extra G.
38:31
She goes, OK, go ahead. So at the 3rd grade, which is
38:34
probably 8 or 9 years old, I threw on the extra G because I
38:38
wanted to be different. Hey, you other three grades, you
38:41
could be the 1G, I'm going to be the double G.
38:44
And so I'm interviewing for a job post college and the guy's
38:48
looking at my resume and he goes, what's up with the two GS?
38:51
And I tell him that story and he goes, well, why did you do that?
38:54
Go I wanted to stand out. He goes, your last name is
38:57
Champion. You stand out enough.
39:01
Great point. That kind of hits it.
39:04
That kind of hits it too. You saw where I was going to
39:06
like I'm sensitive. I got a different.
39:09
You kind of know where I was going to.
39:10
Yeah, not been a few years. Yeah, unique, but not terminally
39:14
so. There we go.
39:15
Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome.
39:19
All right, Well, hey, man. Well, thank you so much and
39:21
congratulations on what you've what you this disaster you've
39:24
turned into a beautiful thing and just keep up the good work
39:28
and we will check in with you and I and you don't have to
39:31
answer this question right now, but I do want you to think about
39:32
it. What can we do our audience, New
39:35
Waters Recovery, us individually to help seriously, whether it's
39:38
your family directly, start start up recovery directly, or
39:42
just some people you know out there.
39:45
Well, I, I would like, you know, B, you saw me give my speech out
39:49
Madison and you know, that was the first time doing it.
39:52
And I would just love the opportunity to do that speech
39:56
more. Go do it where the people just
39:58
got flooded out in Texas. Go do it where, where hurricane
40:02
Aaron's about to wipe out a bunch of things and really say,
40:04
look, I this just, this didn't happen four years ago.
40:06
This happened seven months ago. And here's my playbook for
40:10
resilience. And, and, and, and that's kind
40:14
of, I mean, that would be the greatest gift is to be able to
40:17
go out, get books. And begin to evangelize of what
40:21
real resilience looks like and then other than that, you know,
40:27
I, I, I would love to come out and tour your.
40:29
Pro. Yeah, would love to have.
40:31
You and then B I'll, I'll let you kick my butt up and down an
40:33
18 hole course a few times and we'll go from there.
40:38
But you know, it's funny. I guys, I've never been to North
40:40
Carolina. Oh really?
40:41
Aren't we? We'll have to change that.
40:44
Well, hopefully we don't have a, an, a reason, you know, a
40:47
specific reason for you to come speak to him for this hurricane.
40:50
But we'll, we'll have you come. For sure in your own backyard.
40:54
No, right, Right. There we go, There we go.
40:56
Well, but you know, consider it done.
40:58
We'll have you come out for sure.
40:59
Yeah, absolutely. And guys, thank you for the
41:01
opportunity on this. Thank you for letting me just,
41:03
you know, be a man in recovery given a story, personal,
41:06
professional. Oh man.
41:09
And you know, hopefully I I can do the same thing somewhere down
41:13
the road and give you guys an opportunity on a platform that I
41:16
have. I'm going to restart the a
41:19
podcast called the Recovery Playbook.
41:22
It's where I interview sober entrepreneurs.
41:27
Cool. Love that love.
41:27
That awesome. Well, Greg, thank you.
41:30
All right, man. Greg, thank you so much.
41:32
We will talk to you soon. Appreciate it man.
41:34
OK, cool. Awesome guys.
41:35
Thank you. If you liked what you heard
41:37
today or just want to know more, give us a call on 9196708119 or
41:44
visit us at newwatersrecovery.com.
41:46
Thank you.