Latest / Aired Out / From a life of drug use and homelessness to a complete turn-a-round, Brad Griffen shares his story of great hope and resiliancy

Transcript

From a life of drug use and homelessness to a complete turn-a-round, Brad Griffen shares his story of great hope and resiliancy · Aired Out

• 1:55
  Speaker 1: Oh my god, there is so much stuff trending in
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: framont This morning. We got Red hen Bakery. Everybody's talking
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: about it in Montpellier as downtown Montpelier continues, it's come
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: back story. Wow, there's just so much happening. We got
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: a big spiking crime, sorry to say, making a lot
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: of safety headlines this morning. Saint John's Berry's bomb threat.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: We got the armed robbery and Bennington. We got the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: big bust, the big drug bust in Berry that has
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: just recently taken place. What is a gentleman from Hartford, Connecticut.
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I think these stories and so much more kind of
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: dominating the clicks and the conversations statewide. We have forecasts
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: that are calling for some strong storms this week. As
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: you know, we're still talking about weather, and I heard
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: yesterday and I don't know that there's any truth to it.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I hear all kinds of shit that this summer is
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: going to be the wettest that we've had in one
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: hundred years. So we'll see. Also seeing and hearing all
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: of her Facebook about the seasonal black bear issues, which
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: we were talking about a little bit last week with
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: the bird feeders and all that stuff, which I'm gonna
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: have fun with later this week. I promise you I'll
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: give you an update. I actually probably just stream it
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: live from the backyard and give the the update there.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: I think I will. I think I will. We have
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: a crackdown going on on fake ticket sites that's happening,
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: price gouging in resale markets, all all kinds of stuff
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: that is dominating the news right now. And of course
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: everybody and their brothers talking about Spirit Airlines, the big collapse.
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: And I don't know if I should be has worked
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: up about it as everybody else is. I mean, what
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: did I hear last night? Sharonlan was telling me people
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: are coming together so far to try to save Spirit Airlines.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: Now they've put together and raised just in the last
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: couple of days, just since the weekend. What it's today, Tuesday,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: just since the weekend when it was announced that Spirit
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Airlines was dead. One hundred and thirty two million dollars
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: raised to try to save Spirit Airlines, and I think
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the goal is five hundred million. That brings up a
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: lot of questions in my mind. Maybe it does for you,
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: maybe it doesn't. I don't know if we can as
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: people put together one hundred and thirty two mil in Like,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: what forty eight hours to save an airline? Can we
• 5:08
  Speaker 1: maybe think about something else, maybe putting together that kind
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: of money for our veterans. Just curious. A lot going
• 5:22
  Speaker 1: on with travel chaos still across airports, speaking of the airlines,
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: passengers stranded, major disruptions in Florida, New York City, Midwest hubs.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: It's just the whole, the whole airline industry right now.
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: What a giant kerfuffle all of it is. What a
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: mess it is Tuesday. As we posted up yesterday, the
• 5:56
  Speaker 1: roadwork is going to be going on for the next
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: couple of weeks on Camp Street between Hill Street and
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: Tremont Street, as the Cruis are getting ready for paving.
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: This week. Camp Street is going to be closed during
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: the workday between Hill Street and Delmont Street, so expect delays.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: Be happy that they're paving. Right You got the airedal
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: podcast live from North Main Street in Barry. We are
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: looking at sixty or feeling sixty degrees right now here
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: in central Vermont. Rain showers and thunderstorms today and some
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: of them could be pretty strong. Seventy seven degrees for
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: the daytime high, so temperature wise, pretty good. But you know,
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: think about the possibility, and I saw it last night.
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: I'm sure you did. The potential for tornadoes. Anyway, just
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: keep that in mind. Tonight forty eight more showers and thunderstorms.
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: And Wednesday looks like it's going to be cloudy, some
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: rain showers, a little cooler fifty two for the high
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: on Wednesday, sun clouds on Thursday. And that's the one
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: that you should enjoy and or mow your long because
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: we have some rain coming in Saturday, Sunday and Monday.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: It looks like and I don't want to be the
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: bearer of bad news here, but it looks like the
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: weekend could possibly be a little bit of a washout,
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: all right, So keep that in mind. What I want
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: to mention to you the Community Calendar, brought to you
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: by the World Central Formoth's favorite weekly newspaper, over twenty
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: two thousand people getting it every single week. It is
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: the Tuesday night dinner over at the American Legion right
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: here in Bury. Post ten. Starts at five thirty Shepherd's
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: Pie Tonight twelve bocks call ahead order at four to
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: seven nine zero five eight the Tuesday Night meal. Always
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: try to promote it here at aired out. God, I
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: love the words Shepherd's pie. It just if anybody says
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: those words, I stop and I pay attention. Wing Wednesday
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: is tomorrow night, five o'clock at the VFW Post seven ninety.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: This Friday morning, I'm going to be streaming live at
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: the Chamber Challenge golf tournament over at the Very Country
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Club with the Central Vermond Chamber of Commerce. It's going
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: to be amazing. I just can't wait. Do I play golf,
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: Hell to the no. The last time and I was asked, JD,
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: you're gonna put together a golf team. The last time
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: I played golf, First of all, it was mini golf,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: and secondly it was forty years ago. It's thirty at least,
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: So no, I will not be playing golf unless you
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: want to see something hysterical on Friday. I don't even
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: know what a golf club is. I don't understand parr whatever.
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: I don't get any of that. I'll be over there though,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: streaming live and having some fun. I guarantee you. On
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: Friday morning at about nine o'clock. We're throwing some big
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: kudos this morning to Alice Goltz, who's getting ready for
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: her best Buddies International Friendship Walk coming up on Saturday.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: You know, when she started talking about it on the
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: air here, she had thirty dollars raised so far of
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: her two hundred dollars I'm sorry, one hundred dollars goal
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: thirty bucks and she texted me last night that she
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: got two hundred and twenty bucks so far. I'm so
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: happy for her. Very good morning to you. This morning,
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: I am going to be chatting with this handsome dude
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: who's sitting right next to me, Brad Griffin. Good morning man,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: How the hell are you?
• 10:00
  Speaker 2: Good man? I appreciate having me dude.
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: I'm first of all, this is the second time I've
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: met you. You came in here with HEATHERN. Pett. Yes,
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: my wife, Your wife, who is the headhunch, badass, big
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: cheese whatever you want to call her over at Potters.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Angels to do it all or she is.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: A serious go gutter. You have started your own business,
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: which is dog obedience dog training.
• 10:37
  Speaker 2: I work mostly with reactive and aggressive well that's my specialty,
• 10:40
  Speaker 2: reactive and aggressive dogs, but I do obedience. I do
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: pretty much anything they need behavior wise.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Your company is called Confident K nine.
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: Confident K Dash nine all right.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: So confident kdash nine dot com is your website, yes,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: and you got a Facebook.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Page and I do have a Facebook. I apologize now
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: for anybody that looks me up my content. I'm I'm
• 11:03
  Speaker 2: not as good as you about putting up content. Probably
• 11:05
  Speaker 2: the other side of it where I don't put up
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: a lot. Yeah, I'm trying to get better about that,
• 11:09
  Speaker 2: but it's there.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing, though, the reason for that is
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: because you are slammed.
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, I mean absolutely this time of year. It's like,
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: you know, winter will slow you down, it's the slow season.
• 11:22
  Speaker 2: But once it starts warming up, my god.
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: I love being around busy people and I get it.
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: I understand. I understand. So you you, You and I
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: had a of a very brief exchange back and forth
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: by by text, by email I can't remember which. Uh,
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: just a little bit about you and what a success
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: story dude. Here you are. You've started this this local
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Vermont business, and you're doing well. You're doing well, and
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: you have you have had, you have lived a life
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: that would not necessarily suggest that you would be even
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: moderately successful. And I see the look on your face.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I mean, is that an understatement.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: Well, yeah, because it's it. I was living a life
• 12:19
  Speaker 2: that that wouldn't even predict that I'd still be here,
• 12:22
  Speaker 2: you know what I mean.
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: Alive?
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, alive.
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, you are a young thirty eight years old. Yes,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: we're going to open the book a little bit on
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: your life and we're gonna we're gonna chat about it.
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: But it involves a lot of things. Resiliency, I think
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: is one word that comes to my mind. But you're
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: a big You're a success story in the making, thank you,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: and you've got so much more of your life ahead
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: of you. But you have made so horrifically bad decisions.
• 13:07
  Speaker 2: I knew that was coming, that's why.
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, I have absolutely. I mean they're
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: probably the epitome of bad decisions. Yeah.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: Have you done time?
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: I have done some some stints in Yeah, nothing no
• 13:18
  Speaker 2: federal prison or anything, but probably about four years altogether
• 13:22
  Speaker 2: in like county jails and stuff.
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: Okay, so let's so let's let's let's talk about that.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: When When when did you get out of jail?
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Most recently was I think it was about well, I'm
• 13:35
  Speaker 2: eight years sober just about, so it was probably six
• 13:38
  Speaker 2: years ago. I got out.
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: Okay, six years six half something, and you've been sober
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: for eight years.
• 13:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, because I include the year that I was in
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: jail as well. So yeah, so eight years.
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: About that's a long time dude.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, which is good.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: You know, congratulations, something that I appreciate. It certainly the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: furthest thing possible from easy though.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean I tell people, like, you know, people
• 14:04
  Speaker 2: that are trying to get out or whatever, I don't
• 14:06
  Speaker 2: talk to majority. I had to separate myself, you know,
• 14:08
  Speaker 2: that's how you do it. Sure, But when people do
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: come to me for advice or they talk about their experience,
• 14:14
  Speaker 2: I tell them that, you know, for me, staying away
• 14:17
  Speaker 2: from the drugs isn't hard. It was functioning in society again,
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: because you come from such a deep dark hole of
• 14:25
  Speaker 2: the world. When you're in that in that space, in
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: that environment, that you just you don't know what normal
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: society's like anymore.
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: You know.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: It's just the depression and everything else, everything that you
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: do to get the drugs, it just brings you deeper
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: and deeper down. You see the worst of the world, unfortunately,
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: and it just makes it worse. And so once you
• 14:45
  Speaker 2: get sober, it's like all your responsibilities plus trying to
• 14:49
  Speaker 2: function in society again comes. But you know, you're so
• 14:53
  Speaker 2: sad when you're like that. For me, because I saw
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: the worst of the world, because I spent so many
• 14:58
  Speaker 2: nights homeless, cry and doing all the things. You know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 2: I never want to go back to that, and that
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: part of it's easy for me. But that's my experience.
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: Or going back to jail, yeah, or going back.
• 15:08
  Speaker 2: To it, well, they're kind of coincide, but yeah, yeah.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: Holy crap, dude. Listen, you know when I hear your
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: your story and when others hear your story, and there's
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: a lot of folks that can relate to to some
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: extent and maybe to most extent, uh, what what you're
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: going through, what you've gone through. Usually it doesn't result
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: like this. We've got a clean cut guy who's well spoken,
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: cup of coffee in his hands, sitting here, nice clothes on,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: well spoken, and well well put together here on the
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: aired out couch. It usually doesn't go that way.
• 15:49
  Speaker 2: You gotta be careful, Jada, You're gonna blow my head
• 15:51
  Speaker 2: up so much I'm gonna float out of here.
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: Wow. I mean it's but it's true, though. I mean,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: usually this is a downward spiral that picks up a
• 15:59
  Speaker 1: level of momentum that is not stoppable for most of course,
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: it can be, but there's there's a one constant here
• 16:10
  Speaker 1: that I think we both have have heard many times
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: is that it is absolutely totally impossible to get your
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: life together to stop doing something that you're doing regularly
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: that's not good for yourself or good good for If
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: it's not good for you, it's probably not going to
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: be good for others around you, especially in your close circle.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: But you can't stop anything unless you want to do
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: it badly enough. And I put those words in there
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: because a lot of us are walking around saying I
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: want to do this, but we don't want to do
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: it badly enough.
• 16:55
  Speaker 2: Right, right, right. I was just gonna say I cut
• 16:57
  Speaker 2: you off, but I but I I always said that
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: I think the best measure for somebody that's in active use,
• 17:05
  Speaker 2: like that active addiction is is for them because most
• 17:09
  Speaker 2: people want to get clean, dude, you know they not.
• 17:12
  Speaker 2: Most people don't have horrible souls, These these behaviors and
• 17:16
  Speaker 2: this depression and all this is coming out because they're
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: in some type of you know, downspout in life. We'll
• 17:21
  Speaker 2: call it. You know what I mean, downward slope, and
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: so majority of people will try to go to rehab.
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: Maybe their family wants them to, they talk them into it,
• 17:30
  Speaker 2: or maybe they just really want to do it themselves,
• 17:32
  Speaker 2: and they'll try and they fail. Right, So I always thought, like,
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: wouldn't it be cool if there was a place where you,
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: you as an addict, signed a waiver and and said,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: I'm cool with being like locked in a room for
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: however long so I can detox and and be giving
• 17:45
  Speaker 2: the given the right medical provisions to keep hydrated and
• 17:49
  Speaker 2: things like that. Because if you have the ability to
• 17:53
  Speaker 2: make any type of choice for yourself, you'll just go back.
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: It's that much of a dependency, you know. But the
• 17:59
  Speaker 2: majority of people I ran into wanted to get clean.
• 18:01
  Speaker 2: And the only reason I did was two factors. One,
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: I was in jail for the year and some change,
• 18:06
  Speaker 2: and I wasn't able to get the things that I
• 18:08
  Speaker 2: would have really wanted, which is kind of the same
• 18:11
  Speaker 2: scenario I was talking about. And after the fact, I
• 18:15
  Speaker 2: was involved with a program called KOSA that's right down
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: the road from here, and they actually put people that
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: are under supervision in the Department of Corrections after they
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: get out in apartments, set them up for success, and
• 18:30
  Speaker 2: help them with counseling so that they don't go back.
• 18:33
  Speaker 2: And I owe them pretty much everything for starting me
• 18:36
  Speaker 2: off when I got out and stuff, you know, not
• 18:38
  Speaker 2: the sobriety itself, but everything opposed or excuse me leading
• 18:41
  Speaker 2: to it, everything that every direction I could have taken.
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: They helped me stay away from you go through treatment
• 18:48
  Speaker 2: court I didn't. That is another program that they do though.
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, there's so many people police Kosa. It doesn't
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: matter who can and and the courts can and will
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: hold you accountable. Yeah, but if you don't hold yourself accountable,
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: this cycle is never gonna stop. Yeah, it's kind of
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: like it'll be a game that keeps on playing.
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: It's kind of like the dog that gets out of
• 19:20
  Speaker 2: the kennel. No matter what kennel you put it in,
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: it's got some way of you know, unlocking it with
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: its tongue or something. You're gonna find a way to
• 19:27
  Speaker 2: go out and and and do the things you don't
• 19:30
  Speaker 2: want to do again if you have the choice.
• 19:32
  Speaker 3: Yeah, generally, I you know, I just just before we
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: went live, I turned my phone on, refreshed my screen
• 19:42
  Speaker 3: here and.
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: There's a message that there's there's a post on on
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: Facebook that I is right here in front of me,
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: and obviously I'm gonna I'm gonna keep this this guy's name,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: uh confidential, but can't make this up. I mean, it's
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: just coming in right now. His post says, have you
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: ever felt like you were truly dead and gone and unfixable?
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: I don't know, this guy, what do you have to
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: say about that?
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: It resonates so hard because when you're alike that, I'll
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: tell you this, right, So, when I was like that,
• 20:30
  Speaker 2: I wanted to die, like I knew it was coming.
• 20:34
  Speaker 2: When you're doing heroin like I was, especially Ivus, you
• 20:38
  Speaker 2: know that you could die at any time that you
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: put that into your body. And a lot of times
• 20:44
  Speaker 2: when you're using, you're looking for the good stuff that
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: puts you on the brink of death and not being dead,
• 20:50
  Speaker 2: you know, or being being out of it and then
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: being dead on the other side of that line. And
• 20:55
  Speaker 2: I did die a couple of times. But the point is,
• 20:58
  Speaker 2: as you are, you're so depressed and you're so encompassed
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: in that in that you know dark world. I told
• 21:03
  Speaker 2: you that you know what's coming, and you could care less.
• 21:06
  Speaker 2: If it does, you may not be committing suicide, but
• 21:08
  Speaker 2: you basically are every time you use IV like that.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: I don't know or in general, but did so you
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: used IV?
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: I did? Yeah? Wow, not at first, but you know
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: that's typically how it happens, you know. I did like
• 21:20
  Speaker 2: perk thirties, you know, prescription meds kind of thing, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 2: then I went on to heroin, and then from starting heroin,
• 21:27
  Speaker 2: I decided to use IV because I don't know why.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: It's not really good decision either way.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Uh what else? What other drugs? Uh?
• 21:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I mean when I was young, maybe eleven, no,
• 21:40
  Speaker 2: probably a little later, maybe thirteen fourteen, you know, I
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: did the whole smokes and pot kind of thing. Ye
• 21:46
  Speaker 2: wasn't great in school, as in like just didn't want
• 21:49
  Speaker 2: to be there. I was great at studying and doing
• 21:51
  Speaker 2: all the things, but I didn't want to be there,
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: and so I dropped out at about fifteen years old
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: or whatever principle like I think I told just before,
• 22:00
  Speaker 2: but he had had enough of me. So it was
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: only a couple months till my sixteenth birthday and he's like, yeah,
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: why don't you just why don't you go what school?
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: Twin Field yeah, that was. I was only there for
• 22:09
  Speaker 2: a short stint. Anyway. I was supposed to go to Spalding,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: but my house was on the brink of Barry and
• 22:15
  Speaker 2: headed towards Plainfield area, so I had the choice of
• 22:17
  Speaker 2: where to go. Anyway, when I left there, that's kind
• 22:22
  Speaker 2: of where I went down. Hell. I chilled with you know,
• 22:24
  Speaker 2: my my homies in Barry here and just kind of
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: drank and partied and did all the things, got my
• 22:32
  Speaker 2: life together, and then later on got into some hardship
• 22:36
  Speaker 2: and decided I'm gonna do hard drugs. So I had
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: like seven or eight years doing none of that, getting
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: my life together, and then you know, depression made me
• 22:44
  Speaker 2: make that bad choice.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: Wait a second, you're saying that post high school things
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: went downhill, then you slammed the brakes on all of this.
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: It did, Yeah, and you you cleaned yourself hop Yeah.
• 22:58
  Speaker 2: For I was still young, so I would go out
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: with buddies at night and stuff. But I was working,
• 23:02
  Speaker 2: and I had an apartment, and I was doing all
• 23:03
  Speaker 2: the things.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: What are we talking here, eighteen nineteen twenty years old.
• 23:06
  Speaker 2: Somewhere in that about about nineteen to twenty four, Okay, Yeah,
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: I would say it wasn't a lot, okay, so it
• 23:15
  Speaker 2: was a little bit less year wise than I thought
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: it was. We're clean years, we're clean years, and even
• 23:20
  Speaker 2: like one or so after that was fairly like it
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: was clean. But I didn't necessarily have things together, you
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: know what I mean. I didn't do the drugs until
• 23:28
  Speaker 2: it went real downhill. So what happened it was just
• 23:31
  Speaker 2: like you know, relationships falling apart, you know that kind
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: of thing. Money money, yep, money is another one. Yeah,
• 23:38
  Speaker 2: and it wasn't even as bad back then as it
• 23:40
  Speaker 2: is now to try to afford things, but sure, yeah, yeah.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: Anything else that made you fall off the.
• 23:48
  Speaker 2: Figurative wagon, well, it doesn't necessarily take much. When you
• 23:52
  Speaker 2: think in your head that things are falling apart, and
• 23:55
  Speaker 2: you've already been in that depressive state so many times
• 23:57
  Speaker 2: in your life, or that downhill state, it doesn't take
• 24:01
  Speaker 2: much for you to be like, I should get a
• 24:02
  Speaker 2: crutch again, you know, whether it be drinking or you know,
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: whatever it may be. And then the downhill starts again,
• 24:08
  Speaker 2: you know.
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: So so you were just you wouldn't full bore, yes.
• 24:14
  Speaker 2: And no, I started slight. Then it was full bore.
• 24:16
  Speaker 2: It was there was more of like a buddy, because
• 24:18
  Speaker 2: hard drugs like prescription pills and heroin and all that.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: I didn't do that until like twenty six, twenty seven
• 24:25
  Speaker 2: years old. I may be wrong on the math here
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: a little bit, but it's hard to remember. But regardless,
• 24:31
  Speaker 2: a friend had offered me half of a perk thirty.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: I said yes because I was in that downhill, that
• 24:37
  Speaker 2: depressive mindset, and and once that happened, it was over.
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: I was like, that's amazing, You're getting back on this train.
• 24:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, basically at that point, yeah, yeah.
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: And this is the real fast train.
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: This is the real fast yeah, real fast downhill train.
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah yeah, shit rolls downhill yeahs dude, yea.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: And that that lasted. So what happened obviously? Yeah, yes,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: that road ahead, Yeah what happened?
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: So so yeah, I mean it started there. My buddy
• 25:12
  Speaker 2: had given me that to do. I got that uphouric hi,
• 25:15
  Speaker 2: and I said, well this, nothing else is touching this.
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: And I actually still was doing fairly decent. I moved
• 25:20
  Speaker 2: up to Burlington area just randomly with a friend that
• 25:24
  Speaker 2: was living up there, and I started working at Well,
• 25:28
  Speaker 2: I don't want to go into all my appointment and
• 25:30
  Speaker 2: make a story long. But I had a really good
• 25:32
  Speaker 2: job up there, and then I had a couple of jobs.
• 25:35
  Speaker 2: And what I was doing after I found that euphor
• 25:37
  Speaker 2: at Kai was I was like, well, I'm gonna work
• 25:40
  Speaker 2: and then when I get my paycheck at the end
• 25:42
  Speaker 2: of the week, I'm gonna buy two or three for
• 25:44
  Speaker 2: the weekend and then I'll go back to work Monday
• 25:46
  Speaker 2: or whatever it was. And and that happens, and then
• 25:49
  Speaker 2: it just the times build and build and build to
• 25:52
  Speaker 2: be more and then you're just spending your whole paycheck
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: on it. Then you don't have a paycheck because your
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: whole life is surrounded by just doing the drugs. You
• 25:59
  Speaker 2: don't want to go to work anymore. And then when
• 26:02
  Speaker 2: you can't get those really you know, good drugs, you
• 26:06
  Speaker 2: get the next best thing. The next best thing from opiates,
• 26:09
  Speaker 2: prescription opiates is heroin, you know.
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: Which is not which is pardon the term here, but
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: it's kind of cheap.
• 26:17
  Speaker 2: Oh, it's way cheaper. That was one of the reasons
• 26:19
  Speaker 2: that I went over to it.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Yeah.
• 26:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, all my buddies right were doing heroin at that
• 26:25
  Speaker 2: point because you surround yourself with the people like who
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: you are at that point and so they were just
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: trying to talk me into how it's cheaper and this
• 26:33
  Speaker 2: and that, and I decided to do it, and it was,
• 26:36
  Speaker 2: you know, downhill from there. It didn't take long until
• 26:39
  Speaker 2: I was using ivy and stuff. So, yeah, a couple
• 26:42
  Speaker 2: maybe three four months.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: So Mondays are kind of starting to turn into Sundays,
• 26:50
  Speaker 1: and Sundays are turning into Saturdays, and Thursdays are turning
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: into Fridays, and.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: Dark dark Friday, dark dark every day of the weekend.
• 27:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah wow.
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: Yeah, so you were a little bit of a transient.
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: You were moving around CouchSurfing.
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I had a GMCCRA fifteen hundred
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: at the beginning of everything because I had been doing well,
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: and then later on had traded that for drugs because
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: it was the only thing valuable in my life that
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: I could get drugs for.
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 27:22
  Speaker 2: And then of course I was on foot, and you know,
• 27:25
  Speaker 2: I had been living in my truck at that point,
• 27:27
  Speaker 2: so then I was really CouchSurfing. I think I was
• 27:30
  Speaker 2: homeless for I say six years, because I was in
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: my truck for a couple but it was more like
• 27:36
  Speaker 2: four years. I was out and about homeless shelter churches
• 27:39
  Speaker 2: over here, that and that and the.
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: Third, but trying to survive through the winter.
• 27:44
  Speaker 2: Dude, it was hard. It was hard. And then the
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: hardest part was, you know, my family loves me, you know,
• 27:52
  Speaker 2: so I but they didn't want to be around that.
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: And I don't blame them. You know, who knows, you know,
• 27:57
  Speaker 2: if somebody's gonna steal from me or something like that,
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: And so I would I would knock on I'm not
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: gonna say what part of my family's house, but I
• 28:04
  Speaker 2: would knock on one of my family member's house, you know,
• 28:07
  Speaker 2: and be like, hey, it's fucking cold, you know, can
• 28:09
  Speaker 2: you Yeah, And they'd want to, but they'd be like,
• 28:12
  Speaker 2: we just can't. And it's like negative twenty out and
• 28:14
  Speaker 2: so you know, I feel bad for them as well
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: as myself. I had norse. So then you start resorting
• 28:20
  Speaker 2: to extreme measures like seeing a vacant uh what do
• 28:26
  Speaker 2: you call it? Not apartment, it's more like the business
• 28:29
  Speaker 2: apartments that are around here or whatever, yeah, office buildings,
• 28:33
  Speaker 2: seeing it's vacant, trying to find an unlocked window and
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: if there isn't one, breaking one and sleeping in it
• 28:38
  Speaker 2: because it was that bad, yeah, that cold out.
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: And you did that for a couple of years.
• 28:43
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, yeah, a few really, but yeah, it wasn't
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: that bad until the end. So yeah, i'd say a.
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: Couple of years.
• 28:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. And you, like I said, you see the
• 28:55
  Speaker 2: worst of it. It's not just that, it's then, it's
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: then the people that you're involving yourself with. Uh. I'm
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: talking about going to one of the hotel rooms of course,
• 29:04
  Speaker 2: you know, and uh and and seeing you know, going
• 29:07
  Speaker 2: in there to smoke crack with these people and they
• 29:09
  Speaker 2: got their their year old kid that they're holding, they
• 29:13
  Speaker 2: pass off to somebody else to take a crack hit
• 29:15
  Speaker 2: and then get their kid back blowing out the smoke.
• 29:18
  Speaker 2: I've seen. I've seen women, you know, who have boyfriends.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: So a couples come to a trap house. The guy
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: will stay up in the car, the woman goes down
• 29:30
  Speaker 2: and then goes back up to the husband after he
• 29:32
  Speaker 2: has no idea what happened. That kind of thing. I'm
• 29:34
  Speaker 2: not gonna go TMI, but you get what I'm saying.
• 29:37
  Speaker 2: You see all this dark stuff going on, it's just
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: like that's your world. It just eats you alive, you know.
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's fascinating for me to to hear this,
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: but even more so to learn about how you were
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: able to get off this this train, man, because most
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: people don't. Just simply don't most people. And I'm not
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: trying to be negative, I'm just being real here that a.
• 30:08
  Speaker 2: Lot of my friends have died. Yeah, absolutely have they?
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: How many?
• 30:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, I couldn't put a number on it, but
• 30:14
  Speaker 2: I would say I would say less than thirty. But
• 30:17
  Speaker 2: over on that number probably well depending I mean mental
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: health issues attached to it. Yeah, overdose accidents that may
• 30:25
  Speaker 2: have happened because they were under the influence, that kind
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: of thing.
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: Lieutenant Governor John Rogers is going to be coming in
• 30:34
  Speaker 1: here real soon and I'll let everybody know about it
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: when when it's going to happen. But we're going to
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: be talking about some of this. It's going to be
• 30:43
  Speaker 1: one of the subjects that we're going to talk about
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: in Vermont. We've got uh, We've got to, We've got
• 30:50
  Speaker 1: to We've got a lot of problems, man, this in
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: this little beautiful state of ours. The drug issue, the
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: opoid addiction is only one part, but it's connected to
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: mental health. It's connected to housing insecurities, food insecurities, I mean,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: everything is interconnected. Tell me about your your family. Where'd
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: you grow up?
• 31:22
  Speaker 2: I grew up right here in Barry, right here in Barry, yeah, majority,
• 31:26
  Speaker 2: So I'm not going to name any names just because
• 31:30
  Speaker 2: my grandparents they're older, you know, and they don't know
• 31:33
  Speaker 2: much about technology and what a friggin podcast is. But
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: they had a store up the hill on Washington Street
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: that had an apartment above it, and I was there
• 31:42
  Speaker 2: until I was like five or six, and then I
• 31:44
  Speaker 2: actually grew up on Windywood Road, like up in Berry
• 31:47
  Speaker 2: Town area. Yeah. And then, you know, like I said,
• 31:51
  Speaker 2: when I felt like I wasn't really fitting in, I
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: decided to come back to like Barry City with my friends,
• 31:57
  Speaker 2: and I kind of hung out here majority of the time. Yeah,
• 32:00
  Speaker 2: Berry's where I'm from.
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 32:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: Mom and dad.
• 32:04
  Speaker 2: Mom and dad. So dad wasn't really prevalent. Biological dad
• 32:09
  Speaker 2: wasn't really prevalent in my life. I met him later
• 32:12
  Speaker 2: when I was sixteen, and we still don't really have
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: a great relationship. But my stepdad was there, so they
• 32:19
  Speaker 2: did great all through my childhood. When I moved out
• 32:21
  Speaker 2: around eighteen nineteen years old, they divorced, but they were
• 32:26
  Speaker 2: still fine with each other, and so everybody in my
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: family's doing pretty good, got good jobs, keeping on the
• 32:32
  Speaker 2: up and up with society.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: So close with your stepdad.
• 32:38
  Speaker 2: Yes, so yeah, yeah, I haven't seen him in a while,
• 32:39
  Speaker 2: but yes, close, ye, okay, yeah, what about mom? Mom?
• 32:43
  Speaker 2: Very close? Yeah, very close, brothers, sisters, brothers and sisters,
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: half brothers and sisters. So I got I got a
• 32:50
  Speaker 2: brother and a sister down in well, my sisters in
• 32:55
  Speaker 2: North Carolina, and my brothers no, excuse me, my sister's
• 32:58
  Speaker 2: in South Carolina, my brother's in North carol I get
• 33:00
  Speaker 2: them confused. And then I have another sister that used
• 33:03
  Speaker 2: to live in Randolph that she actually just ended up
• 33:05
  Speaker 2: moving down to I think North Carolina too.
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: Okay, yeah, what were they What were they saying during
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: all of this.
• 33:15
  Speaker 2: Well, we're not super close, so they weren't saying a lot.
• 33:17
  Speaker 2: They wanted they wanted the best for me. You know,
• 33:19
  Speaker 2: they're my brothers and sisters regardless of how close we are.
• 33:23
  Speaker 2: But you know, they weren't really prevalent through it, so
• 33:25
  Speaker 2: they didn't say. But my other side of the family,
• 33:27
  Speaker 2: they just wanted me to get better, wanted to keep helping.
• 33:30
  Speaker 2: But it's like you said, if you don't want to
• 33:32
  Speaker 2: do it, You're not going to do it. You can
• 33:34
  Speaker 2: try as many times as you want, you're just going
• 33:36
  Speaker 2: to fail because you know you actually don't want it.
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: It's amazing when you can have family, parents, partners, wives, husbands, brothers, sisters,
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: it doesn't matter your own kids who want it more
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: than you do. And the sobriety I'm talking about, and
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: it's just not no matter how badly they want it,
• 34:10
  Speaker 1: it's it's not enough to turn the ship.
• 34:16
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yep, and it's it's it's really sad because a
• 34:20
  Speaker 2: lot of times they'll try everything, they can everything, and
• 34:24
  Speaker 2: not only did it not get them anywhere, it got
• 34:26
  Speaker 2: them less than where they're they're where they were before
• 34:28
  Speaker 2: because maybe some of their stuff is stolen, maybe they
• 34:31
  Speaker 2: took time out of the day where they should have
• 34:32
  Speaker 2: been at work and didn't get regardless, it's it's a cancer, man,
• 34:36
  Speaker 2: you know. It really is just that the drugs and
• 34:40
  Speaker 2: the mindset and everything.
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: You know, we just had a big one here and
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: Barry big drug bust that was just talking about it
• 34:48
  Speaker 1: this morning. Did you hear about it? Do you see
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: what was?
• 34:54
  Speaker 2: I didn't know?
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: Honestly, there are and have been over just since I
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: started podcasting eight years ago. So many busts that it's
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: almost something that I've become admittedly kind of desensitized too.
• 35:19
  Speaker 1: They're so frequent. There's small ones, there's medium ones, there's
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: big ones. Like we just had this guy's from Springfield,
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: mass that guy's from Hartford, Connecticut. This is coming in
• 35:32
  Speaker 1: from Albany, New York. I mean, there's this guy's pulled over.
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: That guy's pulled over. There's a card chase couple of
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: weeks ago. There's so much of it in this. I'm
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: not dissing on on Barry. It's all over Vermont man.
• 35:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're not wrong.
• 35:52
  Speaker 1: Now we were getting out in the woods. Now we're
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: getting out in the country.
• 35:55
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah. I know. It's always it's always so
• 35:58
  Speaker 2: weird to hear that, you know, like I hear about
• 36:01
  Speaker 2: like Wooster and like, you know, you know, I'm like,
• 36:03
  Speaker 2: how what the you know? But yeah, verset year, I
• 36:07
  Speaker 2: mean really yeah that was That was even a while back.
• 36:11
  Speaker 2: And I want which one, no, no, But I'm saying,
• 36:14
  Speaker 2: like so many when I was when I was like
• 36:18
  Speaker 2: fifteen or sixteen, that dude was murdered out out there
• 36:22
  Speaker 2: over ecstasy or whatever. It was back in the day,
• 36:25
  Speaker 2: so yeah, I remember that, and that was when like
• 36:27
  Speaker 2: things weren't happening like they are now.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: So it's just yeah, man, listen, we can sit around
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: very easily, yeah right, and point fingers at why we've
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: got the problems that we have in Vermont, why we
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: have the drug problems, and the courts aren't tough enough
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: and slaps on the wrists and so on and so forth,
• 36:50
  Speaker 1: and there's not enough services or there's too many services,
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: or this is the go to state to come if
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: you want freehand out in everything, and if you're if
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: you want to live your life as a junkie, Vermont's
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: the state to do it. You know, we hear this,
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: We see it. I see these comments all the time
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: constantly on Facebook. There's some real things that we need
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: to get our hands on the wheel and start getting
• 37:25
  Speaker 1: control of here in Vermont. And like I said earlier,
• 37:28
  Speaker 1: they're all many of them, if not most of them,
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: are interconnected and related. But to see, to hear, to
• 37:39
  Speaker 1: experience this morning, somebody who is, like I referred to
• 37:46
  Speaker 1: you earlier, a success story in the making, gives real
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: hope and encouragement and inspiration that man It's like, if
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: you want it badly enough, you can do anything. You
• 38:06
  Speaker 1: can do anything that you want in your life, anything
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: including getting sober and starting change baby stops, whether it's
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: losing weight, quit smoking, or even as extreme as your
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: situation getting clean. What is your what? What? What? What's
• 38:33
  Speaker 1: your family saying now? What you've been You said, you've
• 38:37
  Speaker 1: been sober for for six years? What are they saying now?
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: They've got to be blown away? You're you're you've got
• 38:43
  Speaker 1: this business?
• 38:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, they they they're super proud. I mean, they're
• 38:49
  Speaker 2: just they're just as proud of me as as I
• 38:51
  Speaker 2: am of myself. You know, I kind of live every
• 38:54
  Speaker 2: day like I'm still atoning for everything, you know. So
• 38:57
  Speaker 2: it's like it's easier for them to take it in
• 38:58
  Speaker 2: because they gotten outside. But they're super proud of me.
• 39:02
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know, they were the first ones in
• 39:04
  Speaker 2: my corners or first ones in my corner. I delivered beer,
• 39:09
  Speaker 2: and my whole thing was delivery for like fifteen years altogether.
• 39:13
  Speaker 2: I delivered everything you can think of, mostly beer though,
• 39:16
  Speaker 2: And I injured myself and and that was like last
• 39:20
  Speaker 2: year essentially in around this time of year, and I
• 39:23
  Speaker 2: just told myself dude, I'm falling apart. I'm at the
• 39:26
  Speaker 2: time I was thirty six and I said, I can't
• 39:29
  Speaker 2: do this anymore. I want to be happy in life,
• 39:31
  Speaker 2: I want to have meaning, and so to take that
• 39:34
  Speaker 2: jump to say I'm not gonna do what I've done
• 39:37
  Speaker 2: for fifteen years, I'm going to try to run my
• 39:39
  Speaker 2: own business. They were the first ones in my corner, dude,
• 39:42
  Speaker 2: And that was a scary, scary scenario because you don't
• 39:44
  Speaker 2: know what you're gonna do or what it's gonna be like.
• 39:46
  Speaker 1: They never would have been in your corner if they
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: didn't really believe that you could do something.
• 39:51
  Speaker 2: Like correct yeah, yeah, yeah, which I wouldn't want them
• 39:54
  Speaker 2: to be if they thought for a second that, you know,
• 39:56
  Speaker 2: I wasn't gonna do it, they probably just would have
• 39:58
  Speaker 2: kind of shrugged it like good free you know that
• 40:00
  Speaker 2: kind of thing. But they wouldn't have been in my corner. Now. Yeah,
• 40:04
  Speaker 2: it was genuine yeah, oh yeah.
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: You know. The thing is and we all, we all
• 40:10
  Speaker 1: need to remind ourselves of this. We all need to
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: learn this is that my god, do you know this?
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: You're the epitome of this. You have to surround yourself
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: with successful people with folks who are pushing forward, believe
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: in themselves that they can thrive and not just survive,
• 40:46
  Speaker 1: but people who have real ambition, people who have goals
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: that maybe are attainable. Maybe they're not so much attainable,
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: but at least they have dreams, and they're pushing for
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: forward for that, and they're they're motivated, they're driven. Every
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: single day they begin their day with I'm you know,
• 41:10
  Speaker 1: I'm I want to do this. I'm I'm I'm going
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: for it. I'm not gonna let even even on bad days,
• 41:15
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna let anything discourage me to the point
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: where I'm considering giving up those of the people that
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: you want to surround yourself with. And you're you're doing
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: that right now.
• 41:25
  Speaker 2: Look at your wife, she's uh, she's incredible. I have
• 41:30
  Speaker 2: to you were saying before, or we were saying before,
• 41:33
  Speaker 2: that she's a go go goer. I literally have to
• 41:37
  Speaker 2: almost kidnap her, put her on the recliner and say, dude,
• 41:41
  Speaker 2: here's your blanket, here's some food, watch a.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: Movie, just chill, sh down and stop.
• 41:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah seriously, man, but that's that's.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: The kind of and you want friends like that.
• 41:51
  Speaker 2: Too, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I gotta get more of those.
• 41:54
  Speaker 2: I've had less of those.
• 41:55
  Speaker 1: But uh yeah, man, that's that's the key, bro.
• 41:58
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think it is. I think you're right.
• 42:01
  Speaker 2: I think honestly, I mean, not only are you onto something,
• 42:05
  Speaker 2: but I think like whatever you see is success. Yeah,
• 42:09
  Speaker 2: the people that you know what I mean? You know,
• 42:11
  Speaker 2: because like some people, just some people have a hard
• 42:14
  Speaker 2: enough time sitting with themselves for twenty minutes, you know
• 42:18
  Speaker 2: what I mean. So I say, so, find people that
• 42:20
  Speaker 2: are okay with themselves, okay with you and especially where
• 42:23
  Speaker 2: you feel like you want to go or even if
• 42:25
  Speaker 2: you haven't found that yet, maybe those people will help
• 42:28
  Speaker 2: you find that, you know. So, like you know, success
• 42:30
  Speaker 2: doesn't have to be Joe Rogan, success doesn't have to
• 42:34
  Speaker 2: be you know what I mean. Success could be you
• 42:37
  Speaker 2: just feel at peace with yourself, you know, and that's huge, huge,
• 42:42
  Speaker 2: you know. That's where I'm trying to get there. Man,
• 42:45
  Speaker 2: it's you know, but busy, busy. You always got to
• 42:48
  Speaker 2: find the time to take for yourself too. That's the thing.
• 42:51
  Speaker 1: I'm gonna having a hard time doing that. Well, really,
• 42:54
  Speaker 1: I really am. Yeah.
• 42:55
  Speaker 2: No, I believe you.
• 42:56
  Speaker 1: I believe you, superd you say twenty minutes.
• 43:00
  Speaker 2: And whatever it takes. Man. I mean, I'm lucky enough
• 43:02
  Speaker 2: to have a little brook by my house. Now, I
• 43:04
  Speaker 2: might take one dog down there, because we have five
• 43:08
  Speaker 2: of our own at the house and then I do
• 43:10
  Speaker 2: board and trains and we babysit and board too, so
• 43:14
  Speaker 2: typically at the house is like ten dogs at a time.
• 43:17
  Speaker 2: But anyway, I'll take one go to the brook. Just chill,
• 43:20
  Speaker 2: watch him do his thing for me. That's peace, that's serenity.
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: You know, I was going to say to you, and
• 43:27
  Speaker 1: I was waiting for the door to open on this
• 43:30
  Speaker 1: and you just opened it. I was going to say
• 43:32
  Speaker 1: something to you to the effect of, you've led a
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: life that's really dark. You've seen a little bit of
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: the light, gone back to the dark. Now you're back
• 43:48
  Speaker 1: in the light, and the light is strong, brighter than
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: ever strong. Okay, there's something about when I say man,
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: I don't necessarily mean a man humans with our relationship
• 44:07
  Speaker 1: our connectivity with animals broad strokes here, but really specifically dogs.
• 44:18
  Speaker 1: There's something, Man. I've tried to write about it in
• 44:23
  Speaker 1: the past, and I've looked at it and I'm like, man,
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: you're just barely scratching the surface here. The relationship that
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: we have with dogs. You know, there's a reason why
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: it's man's best friend. They don't judge us, they don't
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: frankly give a shit what your past is. They just
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: want to be here and now. They want to be
• 44:58
  Speaker 1: present with you, with what's going on today right now.
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: They're happy when they're in the river and you're sitting
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: there watching them. They don't give a shit about anything
• 45:14
  Speaker 1: else other than the fact that they're playing in the
• 45:17
  Speaker 1: river right now and they know that you're close by
• 45:21
  Speaker 1: and that you're happy.
• 45:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's it. Yep, yep. I think as a society,
• 45:26
  Speaker 2: you know, especially as a human as humans, we're so
• 45:29
  Speaker 2: smart and we've created this structure, you know, and and
• 45:33
  Speaker 2: it's great in some senses, and then in the other
• 45:35
  Speaker 2: it's like, you know, Vermont's I don't mean to go
• 45:38
  Speaker 2: from one subject to the next, but this goes into it.
• 45:40
  Speaker 2: Vermont is so great to be able to be in
• 45:43
  Speaker 2: touch with nature and what was meant to be here beforehand.
• 45:47
  Speaker 2: You know, cities, you go into a city and it's
• 45:49
  Speaker 2: all around you that the societal structure I was talking
• 45:52
  Speaker 2: about is all around you and you feel like you
• 45:54
  Speaker 2: can't escape it. Vermont is really easy to be grounded
• 45:58
  Speaker 2: and realize what it was all so supposed to be,
• 46:00
  Speaker 2: not this ship, you know. And so I don't know
• 46:03
  Speaker 2: why I find I have a better relationship with dogs
• 46:06
  Speaker 2: and I do humans. But I know in those moments
• 46:09
  Speaker 2: watching them play or training them and seeing how happy
• 46:12
  Speaker 2: they are to work with you, literally because they'll get
• 46:15
  Speaker 2: happy to work with you, you know, those those that
• 46:19
  Speaker 2: piece in those moments, I know that's why we're here,
• 46:22
  Speaker 2: those moments, you know what I mean? I feel like
• 46:25
  Speaker 2: that in my experience.
• 46:26
  Speaker 1: You know, do you do you think that that you're
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: the the life that you've led in everything, that this
• 46:36
  Speaker 1: is partly or or mostly responsible for why you've gravitated
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: two docs?
• 46:46
  Speaker 2: Repeat that and I'm sorry, the life that.
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: You've you've led, that that that is partly or mostly
• 46:54
  Speaker 1: the reason why you have gravitated so much. You've been
• 46:57
  Speaker 1: attracted so much to two docs?
• 47:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think it's the see me personally,
• 47:03
  Speaker 2: I want to work with aggressive dogs. I want to
• 47:06
  Speaker 2: work with reactive dogs. I want the fucking dogs. I
• 47:10
  Speaker 2: want the fucking dogs that are having the hardest time
• 47:14
  Speaker 2: this close to euthanization. People are going to give up
• 47:17
  Speaker 2: on them. I want those dogs, And I think that
• 47:20
  Speaker 2: is very prevalent from what I was doing before. For sure,
• 47:23
  Speaker 2: you know, giving somebody a chance when it looks like
• 47:25
  Speaker 2: they shouldn't have one, that kind of thing. But but
• 47:29
  Speaker 2: it's it's the innocence, it's the unconditional love they have
• 47:32
  Speaker 2: that you brought up, same thing, and it's the giving
• 47:35
  Speaker 2: them a chance when they don't got one.
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: That Yeah, you've you've made strides with some of these dogs.
• 47:43
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely. Now granted there's you know, there's a
• 47:46
  Speaker 2: small percentage that you wouldn't be able to get through to.
• 47:49
  Speaker 2: But we're talking a very small percentage. I mean, I
• 47:52
  Speaker 2: I feel like dogs with neurological issues, dogs with PTSD,
• 47:56
  Speaker 2: maybe former police dogs, that kind of thing take up
• 47:59
  Speaker 2: maybe five tops ten percent. Majority of the rest, it's
• 48:03
  Speaker 2: just it's it's it's behaviors that people couldn't see coming
• 48:08
  Speaker 2: because they couldn't read the dog, or they didn't give
• 48:11
  Speaker 2: the dog enough structure or outlets. Nine times out of ten,
• 48:15
  Speaker 2: when I go to a home to do like a
• 48:16
  Speaker 2: private session or do an evaluation for a board and
• 48:19
  Speaker 2: train or something, it is almost one hundred percent. Well,
• 48:23
  Speaker 2: I said nine times out of ten, So nine times
• 48:24
  Speaker 2: out of ten. It's what's called lack of leadership. It's
• 48:27
  Speaker 2: a term in the training community, well dog community. It
• 48:30
  Speaker 2: just means that for whatever reason, that dog doesn't see
• 48:34
  Speaker 2: the owners as a leader, so it's choosing to do
• 48:37
  Speaker 2: what it wants, and then those behaviors in time get
• 48:39
  Speaker 2: worse and worse, and you know, then we get the
• 48:42
  Speaker 2: dog that we see when I show up and stuff.
• 48:44
  Speaker 2: But I can't tell you how many times that I've
• 48:47
  Speaker 2: just told the dog no and it stops. But it's
• 48:51
  Speaker 2: because the owner didn't know. They just didn't have the
• 48:53
  Speaker 2: information or the knowledge to know how to do things appropriately.
• 48:57
  Speaker 1: Are you coming in there guns with a loud voice
• 49:01
  Speaker 1: and boom the booming alpha or you chill like you
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: are right now?
• 49:05
  Speaker 2: So I do what's called balance training, And it all
• 49:08
  Speaker 2: depends on the behavior. If you have a fearful or
• 49:11
  Speaker 2: anxious dog, no, you don't come in like you don't
• 49:13
  Speaker 2: really come in like that anyway. You have to build
• 49:15
  Speaker 2: a bond with the dog before you can start, and
• 49:17
  Speaker 2: you have to direct the dog before you can ever
• 49:20
  Speaker 2: correct the dog. But with with a fearful or anxious
• 49:24
  Speaker 2: type of dog, no, you don't do any of that.
• 49:26
  Speaker 2: It's more desensitization is what it's called. And counterconditioning. So
• 49:30
  Speaker 2: the counter conditioning these big words, right, but it just
• 49:34
  Speaker 2: means you're handing the dog in uno reverse card. So
• 49:37
  Speaker 2: you're saying, whatever your trigger is, I'm now going to
• 49:40
  Speaker 2: give you high value treats or whatever it takes for
• 49:42
  Speaker 2: you to feel good in this moment, for you to
• 49:45
  Speaker 2: be happy in this moment. So, if you have a
• 49:47
  Speaker 2: dog that's fear aggressive, let's say you would you would,
• 49:51
  Speaker 2: you know, do what you got to do to form
• 49:53
  Speaker 2: a little bit of a bond with him, because chances
• 49:55
  Speaker 2: are he's not going to give a shit aboute He's
• 49:56
  Speaker 2: gonna want to bite you, right, So maybe you muzzle
• 49:59
  Speaker 2: condition them. However, you possibly can get them used to
• 50:02
  Speaker 2: having a muzzle on, and then while he has that
• 50:04
  Speaker 2: muzzle on, what you first would do is you'd work
• 50:07
  Speaker 2: up in doorphins. You'd take them out on little hikes
• 50:11
  Speaker 2: or walk them around, get those endorphins going so they
• 50:14
  Speaker 2: feel a little bit better, build a little confidence with you,
• 50:16
  Speaker 2: maybe a bond with you.
• 50:17
  Speaker 1: Brain chemistry.
• 50:18
  Speaker 2: Brain chemistry, man, it goes down to the four big ones. Oxytocin, dopamine, serotonin,
• 50:25
  Speaker 2: and endorphins. Oh yeah, yeah. Oh wait, excuse me, oxytocin, serotonin, dopamine,
• 50:34
  Speaker 2: and the one I just mentioned in doorphins. Yeah yeah,
• 50:39
  Speaker 2: well anyway, I'm not a freaking scientist over here, but
• 50:42
  Speaker 2: but you would release endorphins through through exercise, and then
• 50:46
  Speaker 2: while they're muzzle trained or muzzle conditioned, you might be
• 50:49
  Speaker 2: able to get some oxytocin, some touch in there, make
• 50:52
  Speaker 2: them okay with you a little bit more. And through
• 50:55
  Speaker 2: time you would expose them to desensitize them, maybe bring
• 50:58
  Speaker 2: them out and about showing that people aren't a threat,
• 51:01
  Speaker 2: they don't have to be scared. But it's all individual.
• 51:05
  Speaker 2: So every dog is different every excuse me, a situation.
• 51:11
  Speaker 2: It's situational. Every dog is different. Every job I go
• 51:17
  Speaker 2: into requires a different touch.
• 51:21
  Speaker 1: Everyone's unique.
• 51:22
  Speaker 2: Yeah, exactly, So never no story is ever the same. Yeah, yeah,
• 51:26
  Speaker 2: so the approach is always going to be different.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: What did you say earlier? You said you said directing,
• 51:34
  Speaker 1: and you can't direct unless you something.
• 51:38
  Speaker 2: Oh, you can't correct until you direct, meaning you have
• 51:41
  Speaker 2: to teach the dog what you want from it before
• 51:45
  Speaker 2: you can correct. So you know, it's like if the
• 51:48
  Speaker 2: dog has no leash skills, you can't just start, you know,
• 51:51
  Speaker 2: popping them on the leash, trying to correct them because
• 51:53
  Speaker 2: it doesn't know what the hell to do. It's like
• 51:56
  Speaker 2: it's like somebody you don't know walking to you, up
• 51:58
  Speaker 2: onto you on the or excuse me, walking up to
• 52:00
  Speaker 2: you on the street and slapping you for no reason.
• 52:02
  Speaker 2: They have no idea where the hell that just came
• 52:05
  Speaker 2: out of left field from, you know, So you have
• 52:07
  Speaker 2: to show the dog before you can correct the dog.
• 52:10
  Speaker 1: This is have you ever felt, Wow, I don't know
• 52:17
  Speaker 1: if I'm going to be able to make a difference
• 52:20
  Speaker 1: with this dog. This this dog might be unfixable.
• 52:26
  Speaker 2: Unfortunately I did run into that. While it's because I
• 52:29
  Speaker 2: had I didn't have enough time. So it was a
• 52:33
  Speaker 2: dog through Potter's Angels Rescue. He was a big bulldog.
• 52:37
  Speaker 2: I can't remember so his name was Boob, but he
• 52:40
  Speaker 2: was a big bulldog. He was brindle, white, different color eyed,
• 52:43
  Speaker 2: beautiful dog and amazing with humans for the most part.
• 52:46
  Speaker 2: But he just had he had a frustration type aggression
• 52:51
  Speaker 2: where because he was in the kennel for so long,
• 52:53
  Speaker 2: he would just start taking his aggression out on inanimate
• 52:56
  Speaker 2: objects and stuff. Wow and yeah, yeah, yeah, just like
• 52:59
  Speaker 2: you know, like a water bucket, that's in with him,
• 53:01
  Speaker 2: or he'll be walking by a little wooden ramp and
• 53:05
  Speaker 2: maybe try just inanimate things random times. You know, it
• 53:09
  Speaker 2: seems like unpredictable kind of thing. And I only had
• 53:13
  Speaker 2: five days to work with him. That's not enough. I
• 53:17
  Speaker 2: should have gotten to it beforehand, but I was doing
• 53:19
  Speaker 2: so much probonal work to try to get my business
• 53:22
  Speaker 2: going anyway, I didn't have a lot of time, and
• 53:25
  Speaker 2: so I got somewhares with him, and I E caller
• 53:29
  Speaker 2: trained him because you can. You can use the e
• 53:32
  Speaker 2: caller as a behavior modification tool, but you have to
• 53:35
  Speaker 2: do it properly. And it was working so well, he
• 53:38
  Speaker 2: did so good, but his prey drive was so high
• 53:43
  Speaker 2: that ultimately what ended up happening. And you learn through experience,
• 53:46
  Speaker 2: so this is something I learned. But ultimately what happened
• 53:49
  Speaker 2: is prey drive was so high and he was so
• 53:51
  Speaker 2: locked in that when I tried to use the E
• 53:53
  Speaker 2: caller to change the mindset, which is that's all it's
• 53:56
  Speaker 2: supposed to do, is is wherever they are instinctally in
• 53:59
  Speaker 2: their mindset, it's just supposed to snap him out of it, right,
• 54:02
  Speaker 2: It's never supposed to be anything more than that. But
• 54:04
  Speaker 2: because I was trying that and he was so locked
• 54:07
  Speaker 2: in on that parade drive, it actually intensified it and
• 54:10
  Speaker 2: made it worse. And that was the telltale near the
• 54:12
  Speaker 2: fourth or I think it was the fourth day, where
• 54:15
  Speaker 2: I was like, I'm not going to have time to
• 54:17
  Speaker 2: get through to this guy. Wow, you know. And so
• 54:19
  Speaker 2: that was the only time though, that was thank god,
• 54:22
  Speaker 2: that was the only time. And I've trained probably close
• 54:24
  Speaker 2: to one hundred dogs at this point because I've been
• 54:26
  Speaker 2: in business just the last year, so just just a year,
• 54:31
  Speaker 2: what's that just a year for the business itself, it's
• 54:33
  Speaker 2: been yeah, just about yeah, a year. Yeah, yeah.
• 54:36
  Speaker 1: It's it's a lot of people look at the ecollar
• 54:40
  Speaker 1: as a punishment, but it's it's really just like you,
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: like you say, interrupting their distractions and redirecting them to focus.
• 54:50
  Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, And it's funny. It's it's a stigma, right.
• 54:53
  Speaker 2: It's like I got two bullheaded rottweilers that I loved
• 54:57
  Speaker 2: to death, but the stigma when I walked down the
• 54:59
  Speaker 2: street with them, people like, I think I'll go to
• 55:01
  Speaker 2: the other side for now, you know.
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah wow.
• 55:04
  Speaker 2: But it is a stigma because people think shock collar
• 55:07
  Speaker 2: and I think e collar they think shot collar. The
• 55:10
  Speaker 2: thing about the E collor is yes, there's electronic stimulation,
• 55:13
  Speaker 2: but it's level zero to one hundred. And typically what
• 55:16
  Speaker 2: I'll do with a client is I'll put it on
• 55:18
  Speaker 2: what's called a working level that you would normally use
• 55:20
  Speaker 2: with the dog. Sure, and it's like a five verse
• 55:23
  Speaker 2: five to eight normally, And I'll put the E collar
• 55:25
  Speaker 2: on their palm right here, and I'll press the button
• 55:28
  Speaker 2: and they'll be like, I can't feel it. And then
• 55:30
  Speaker 2: I'll say, okay, let me know when you do, and
• 55:31
  Speaker 2: I'll raise the level up just a little bit. Yeah,
• 55:34
  Speaker 2: and they say, oh, yeah, I felt that. It's like
• 55:36
  Speaker 2: level fifteen to twenty normally, right, So they wouldn't even
• 55:40
  Speaker 2: feel with the you know, of course, So I show
• 55:42
  Speaker 2: them that it's not what you think. It's not a
• 55:45
  Speaker 2: shock collar in that sense. And it's the same thing
• 55:48
  Speaker 2: with the pron collar. People look at the pron collor
• 55:50
  Speaker 2: like it's this barbaric tool, but it's actually designed for
• 55:54
  Speaker 2: two specific reasons. One to mimic the bite of a
• 55:57
  Speaker 2: mother dog right around the neck.
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: Wow.
• 56:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah. And then two it's actually designed if you get
• 56:02
  Speaker 2: the proper one, which you're supposed to do like a
• 56:04
  Speaker 2: herm Springer. So it's actually designed on the bottom to
• 56:08
  Speaker 2: where the prongs go this way, and it's designed not
• 56:12
  Speaker 2: to sit on the trachea of the dog. When you
• 56:14
  Speaker 2: have a heavy pollar. There's really no other other collar
• 56:18
  Speaker 2: out there that you'll find like that. Everything else cinches
• 56:21
  Speaker 2: and rests right here, even if it's just stea right.
• 56:26
  Speaker 2: So when you have a heavy pollar, that's why prong
• 56:28
  Speaker 2: can be night and day and you're actually saving your
• 56:31
  Speaker 2: dog's neck versus you know, cinching it and being on
• 56:35
  Speaker 2: the trachiat It's amazing.
• 56:37
  Speaker 1: It's amazing. I'm just thinking of my wife who wants
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: to get me an eat collar, trying when she's trying
• 56:46
  Speaker 1: to talk to me, and I'm so focused on what
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to do. I just I just asked you
• 56:51
  Speaker 1: a question. Play attention a man. This is fascinating stuff.
• 56:59
  Speaker 1: So folks, they can reach out to you. They can
• 57:05
  Speaker 1: set up an introduction between you and their dog, ask
• 57:12
  Speaker 1: you questions, do a little bit of a what phone
• 57:15
  Speaker 1: interview maybe.
• 57:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that's typically how I do it. If they
• 57:19
  Speaker 2: reach out to me, it's generally through submission on the
• 57:22
  Speaker 2: website because I have a form that you know, has,
• 57:25
  Speaker 2: like you know, is the dog neuter? What age you know,
• 57:28
  Speaker 2: such and such, what breed? You fill all that out,
• 57:31
  Speaker 2: you know, goals you wish to accomplish, that kind of thing,
• 57:34
  Speaker 2: and then I'll give you a call when I get
• 57:36
  Speaker 2: the submission and talk a little bit more in depth
• 57:39
  Speaker 2: with you. But generally it all starts with an evaluation.
• 57:42
  Speaker 2: I'll come see the dog, either at your house or
• 57:44
  Speaker 2: wherever we deem necessary, maybe a park somewheres, meet the dog,
• 57:48
  Speaker 2: and then give you my evaluation what I came up
• 57:52
  Speaker 2: with from seeing your dog's behavior and exhibiting that and stuff,
• 57:56
  Speaker 2: and then we'll come up with a game plan.
• 57:58
  Speaker 1: Wow, a lot of people we we get dogs. We
• 58:02
  Speaker 1: love dogs, but we don't necessarily know sometimes unless we,
• 58:11
  Speaker 1: you know, get an older dog that's just a lap dog.
• 58:15
  Speaker 1: A lot of us we get puppies or whatever, and
• 58:18
  Speaker 1: we get into a situation where the fantasy of having
• 58:25
  Speaker 1: this dog is not turning out to be the reality
• 58:28
  Speaker 1: of what's going on. And it's honestly, let's just say
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: it like it is. It's creating more stress and anxiety
• 58:38
  Speaker 1: in the house than it is joy.
• 58:41
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, can be absolutely I agree. Yeah, yeah, because
• 58:45
  Speaker 2: well you have you have you have dog owners that
• 58:47
  Speaker 2: aren't necessarily aware of the things that are entailed with
• 58:51
  Speaker 2: with with having a well structured dog.
• 58:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah, And it depends on the breed too, It.
• 58:56
  Speaker 2: Does absolutely If you've got a working line breed that's
• 58:58
  Speaker 2: this high of dopamine all the time, is Allie very hard?
• 59:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah?
• 59:03
  Speaker 2: Border collie is are a good example.
• 59:05
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah, wow, Yeah, dude, this is This has been
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: a fascinating conversation both about your your personal life and
• 59:17
  Speaker 1: how this is all built up and connected into what
• 59:21
  Speaker 1: you're doing with your life now.
• 59:23
  Speaker 2: And I owe it all to Heather. I'm gonna be
• 59:25
  Speaker 2: honest with you. I was not as knowledgeable about dogs
• 59:28
  Speaker 2: until she came into my life, and she was my
• 59:31
  Speaker 2: biggest supporter in getting this business gone.
• 59:33
  Speaker 1: So it's so cool, man. I love to hear that.
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: And you talk about somebody that is well grounded and
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: determined to pursue goals and make a real difference, that's Heather.
• 59:52
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, oh yeah, she'll fight tooth and nail.
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: And I know yeah, yeah, yeah, you're you are you
• 59:59
  Speaker 1: found her per man I mean, that's she is. What
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: a great lady. She's always so well spoken, she's she knows,
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: she's invited in here anytime, no matter what she wants
• 1:00:09
  Speaker 1: to talk about. She loves coming here and it was
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: great to see you with her last time. I hope
• 1:00:15
  Speaker 1: you guys come in again. But man, it's like I'm
• 1:00:20
  Speaker 1: just listening to you. You're talking about dogs that have
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: some ingrained neuro chemistry whatever it is PTSD. What you know,
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: whether they were abused, whether they were neglected. There's so
• 1:00:42
  Speaker 1: many different forms of this, but the the firing and
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: the wiring of what's going on in their brains, the chemistry,
• 1:00:56
  Speaker 1: the circuitry of what's happening in brains you can relate to.
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, absolutely, yeah, yeah, I mean yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 2: for sure. I mean dopamine man, right, your dopamine receptors
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 2: when you're doing heroin, they're full, right, So yeah, I
• 1:01:19
  Speaker 2: guess I should coincide with those super hyperdogs more. But
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 2: but yeah, it is kind of like that.
• 1:01:26
  Speaker 1: This just relatability of man to beast.
• 1:01:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah no, really, yeah, no, shit, yeah it is. It
• 1:01:33
  Speaker 2: feels it, dude, It just feels good, man, Like I can't.
• 1:01:36
  Speaker 2: Somebody asked me not that long ago of the same question,
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 2: you did you know, how would you correlate that with
• 1:01:42
  Speaker 2: what you've been through and and you know, what do
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 2: you think? And I, I don't know. I can't put
• 1:01:48
  Speaker 2: a finger on it, but I would say that it's
• 1:01:50
  Speaker 2: just like like I said before, the innocence man, just
• 1:01:53
  Speaker 2: being able to help a creature that we put in
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 2: this position more or less probably you know, yeah, times
• 1:02:00
  Speaker 2: out of ten again that we created these behavioral issues
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 2: and now he's going to be put down. An innocent
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 2: creature that we created this mess is going to be
• 1:02:08
  Speaker 2: put down in yep. Yeah, I hate that.
• 1:02:11
  Speaker 1: That's incredible. They they what is it pheromones? I don't
• 1:02:16
  Speaker 1: know what it's called, but they they they sense they
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: smell your intention.
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah with that, yeah, they smell. It's like, actually,
• 1:02:31
  Speaker 2: give you a good example. So their nose is sixty
• 1:02:35
  Speaker 2: percent of the information to their brain, so yeah, sixty percent.
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 2: I think it is sixty or seventy, I don't remember,
• 1:02:42
  Speaker 2: but a lot it's the most from their other senses.
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 2: So I had Ginger with me. This is probably when
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 2: she was This is my female rottweiler. She was probably
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 2: about seven months old. Doesn't have a mean bone in
• 1:02:55
  Speaker 2: her body, friendly with everybody, you know, not your typical
• 1:02:58
  Speaker 2: rotweiler in that sense, and I brought her to the
• 1:03:01
  Speaker 2: gas station and I saw somebody that I knew from
• 1:03:05
  Speaker 2: the previous life kind of thing, and he hadn't gotten
• 1:03:08
  Speaker 2: out of it. And Ginger is like looking everybody wants
• 1:03:11
  Speaker 2: to lick. She makes eye contact with that guy one
• 1:03:15
  Speaker 2: time for reeks out, so she knew. Right. So it's
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 2: instances like that with dogs where it's like, man, they
• 1:03:21
  Speaker 2: can just they sense things that you had no freaking
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 2: idea or wouldn't have any freaking idea if you didn't
• 1:03:27
  Speaker 2: know the guy or what you know.
• 1:03:30
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's amazing. It's like like a different like a
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: night vision or something. It's amazing.
• 1:03:36
  Speaker 2: Yes, through you really?
• 1:03:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah? So cool? Uh, thanks for coming in here, dude, dude,
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: thanks for having Can we do this at all?
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 2: Right?
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: Let's do this is great? I love it. Becky wants
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: to know did the two dogs get adopted, which to
• 1:03:54
  Speaker 1: the two.
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 2: From here, I think they did. Yes. So we've had
• 1:04:01
  Speaker 2: in the last I don't know a few months or so,
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 2: we've had a couple couples of Yorkis, but the ones
• 1:04:07
  Speaker 2: that we're here with us last, I believe they did. Okay, cool,
• 1:04:09
  Speaker 2: I believe they did. That's the the rescue side of
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 2: things is more Heather. I'm not as prevalent with that,
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 2: but as far as I can remember, I think she
• 1:04:18
  Speaker 2: did tell me they were adopted.
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: Wow, this is so much more than you love dogs
• 1:04:23
  Speaker 1: and your name is Brad. What this is is your
• 1:04:27
  Speaker 1: name is Brad and you need dogs in your life,
• 1:04:33
  Speaker 1: just like Heather.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't think you got to have them at
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 2: this point. I don't think I can survive without him now.
• 1:04:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that amazing. I love to hear that, dude.
• 1:04:42
  Speaker 1: It's so cool, brother, Stay in touch. Man, What a
• 1:04:47
  Speaker 1: what a story on you? What remarkable story. I'm so
• 1:04:50
  Speaker 1: glad we did this me too. Let's do it again.
• 1:04:53
  Speaker 1: Thanks for coming in here, man, Brad Griffin. If you
• 1:04:56
  Speaker 1: want to have a look at his website at his
• 1:05:00
  Speaker 1: business confident k dash nine dot com, confident k dash
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: nine dot com and you're on Facebook.
• 1:05:13
  Speaker 2: I am all right, brother. Thanks guys.
• 1:05:18
  Speaker 1: Please keep on kicking ass in your life because you're
• 1:05:23
  Speaker 1: you're doing this. Man, It's like, really, who gives a
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: ship about who's proud of you? Because you're proud of
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: yourself and the bottom line is that's gonna matter. That's
• 1:05:34
  Speaker 1: gonna hold more water than anything else.
• 1:05:38
  Speaker 2: Rock on Bro appreciate Thanks Man, Thanks Buddy,