The Exchanges

Q Yeah. So how did you use this energy to get into a business that would become stable? And what, what, what, what was your idea of like a business that you could run that would allow you to use your energy in a positive way?

A Yeah. So my first business was actually writing business plans for startups, which I learned on an internship that I took over in Australia in college. That didn't do too well, but it ultimately transitioned into what I, I, my first really successful company. But when I got out of JP Morgan, I realized you have to have some type of intent. You got to learn how to get attention in order to monetize things. So I read a book called crush it by Gary Vee, which talked about personal branding and how it's your resume and it's not going away and it's a major trend that's going to continue. So I started a personal brand. But I had credit issues from all the, you know, years of destruction and all the debt that I had. So I learned how to get late payments collections off. I learned how to remove my utilization. So the debt that I had over to a business credit when I started some companies so that I could have my utilization lower and increase my credit score. So I got it from a five, 24 to a seven, 93. And at that time I was running a marketing company. With another entrepreneur running ads for chiropractors, doctors, dentists. And while I was doing that, I was personal branding really heavily and teaching about credit and the process that I took my credit from a five, 24 to a seven, 93 did that all on, on Instagram shared tons of things about credit and travel hacking. People were aski…

AI assessment note: “So my first business was actually writing business plans for startups”

Q them. Years. You said that internally you were a mess and you tried to keep it together personally. Did people realize in your life that this was a problem or were you hiding it from them? My dad didn't even hide it, but did you, did you have to hide it or did you try to hide it? What was your relationship with other people? How did opioids change that?

A Yeah. I mean, I, I isolated the, the heck out of myself because I didn't want to, I was trying to limit the amount of people that ever got involved in it because I knew that it was bad. I didn't enjoy doing it whatsoever, but I had to just to keep, you know, feeling normal and to be able to operate and continue to study in college and pass tests. Like I went through college and I, A lot of my friends, they tried to major in finance and things, and they had to bump down to communications and, and different, uh, majors just to get through college. Meanwhile, I'm like heavily, you know, addicted and I'm still on top of my game, uh, still getting, I think I graduated college with like a three, two, but so that's what I'm saying from the outside. It looks like I was okay because I was passing. I was Uh, getting through college. I was still working, uh, you know, in type like the last year I was driving my Nissan Altima to pick up hundreds of shoes from discount outlet malls and then selling them on Amazon. And I was like climbing up the stairs of this like frat house with like all these shoes and they're like falling down and people are partying downstairs. So I'm like the, the dude that's still working, trying to hustle and get after the money. And everyone was, you know, partying and not taking things too seriously. So for like, from the outside, I looked Look decent, but from the…

AI assessment note: “I isolated the, the heck out of myself because I didn't want to”

Q have to go through five people, possibly more, dying from it, um, I'm sure was very impactful for you. And I'm sorry that you had to go through that, but I guess also it was a lesson that was really important for you that unfortunately you had to learn through the, the loss of other people. Did that teach you something else besides I need to just change my life?

A I mean, it taught me that, look, I can learn from everyone. I can learn what not to do from some people and I can learn what to do from some people. And my problem was I was, I was listening to everyone about what their opinion was of what I should do or what success was, or, you know, if I should use this thing or not use this thing. And I realized that I was people pleasing my whole life because I was trying to please everyone's opinions of what they thought about life and their worldview and what they thought I should do. And then I realized I need to, yes, I can learn from everyone, but I'm only going to listen to the people that actually have what I want in life. So I can hear everyone and be respectful of what people say, but I'm only going to listen and change to the people that actually have what I want in a certain area of life. So yeah, the biggest thing was just taking the lessons away. Like, look, I can learn through osmosis by, you know, soaking up what's going on around me. And I don't necessarily have to die to try to learn from it. Unfortunately, some people did, which yeah, it was pretty tough, but it did allow me to understand that like, look, this is reality. Like this, this is what is going to happen. So do you want to do this? Do you want this result or do you want this result? And then I stopped listening to like, I mean, I was listening to everyone's opin…

AI assessment note: “it taught me that, look, I can learn from everyone.”

Q So you said the first six months of recovery were hard. What kept you going on that path and prevented you from using again after rehab was over?

A Well, I mean, I saw many people, saw four friends die from that same thing in height that I, you know, went through high school with. So I saw that. And then when I got out of rehab, my, uh, my cousin was in a different rehab. This is probably the cousin that I was, you know, closest growing up to when I was growing up and he got out of rehab, like, I don't know, five days after me. And then he unfortunately went the other route and used again and overdosed and died. So, and that was like two weeks after I got out of, uh, rehab. And then I was like, I remember, you know, vividly. I'm in the car. I just like, this is one of the first time, you know, the probably the second week at a, at a rehab, uh, I got pulled over cause we're going like seven miles an hour over the speed limit. They let, let me off. But then after he was leaving, um, I got a call from like the old dealer that I used to talk to. And this is when I was like, okay, I gotta, I gotta get far away from these people. Cause I'm like in a vulnerable state at that point. And they call me and they're like, Hey Jeff, we're ready. Come meet us. I'm like, no. Hang up on them. They call, I blocked that number. They call me from another number, block that number, call me from another number, block that number. And then I'm like, okay, so I'm like about to pull off of the street and I'm like, I see a kind of T in the road. Th…

AI assessment note: “he unfortunately went the other route and used again and overdosed and died.”

Q What was that exact moment where you said? Damn it. All right. Let's do this.

A Uh, I went into my, my mom actually at this point in time, obviously she, I mean, I, I fell asleep and wrecked my car and, uh, it was as pale as a ghost and like 20 pounds underweight and people could really tell that something was wrong. So my mom found a place called Cornerstone of Recovery, which they had an intensive outpatient, uh, place in Columbus, Ohio, which I went into and I got an assessment done. And the three days before the assessment, I took like this medicine, um, that the doctors prescribed me. And if you take it too soon after you take opiates, you go into something called pre-recipitated withdrawal, which where it condenses all the withdrawals into like a week's period of time. So I couldn't even like swallow my own saliva without throwing up stomach acid. Like I let alone drink water or do anything else. So I'm laying into bed, Um, you know, feeling absolutely horrendous for three days. And then I'm sleeping in the basement of my dad's house, the basement floods. Cause we're out in the country and there's like wrong well water and the whole basement floods. And I'm literally, I've got to move out of the basement and go upstairs. Like on the second day of going through all this stuff. And then I went into the, the intensive outpatient to get a, an assessment done. They talked to me for like two hours and I was just felt like death the whole time. Like, yeah, …

AI assessment note: “You have to go into inpatient And then, uh, you know, I walked out”

Q Why do you feel like you were people pleasing? Have you figured that out?

A Well, I think I've gotten Got over it. But even when I got out of, out of rehab, I was still like, at this time I went in like 60 something in debt. And then I came out and I had even more debt. I had almost eight, like 80 something mid eighties, maybe even high eighties. And I had a five, 24 credit score and I was starting a business. And, and this is, I was still working for JP Morgan at the time. And then I, this was right before I left. And I even told my mom, I'm like, look, I want to, uh, I'm going to take 20% of everything that I make and I'm going to donate it to causes that I care about. And she's like, Jeff, you're in tens of thousands of dollars in debt. You just got out of rehab. Don't you think you should probably take care of yourself first? And I'm like, Yeah, you're probably right. And then I also realized that on, uh, you know, when you get on an airplane, what happens when they're going through the security protocols, right? They say, oh, in a case of emergency, the oxygen mask going to come down before you help others, make sure to put your own oxygen mask on first. Why do they say that? Because you would be dead if you didn't take care of yourself, which in return, then you couldn't take care of the other people. So I'm like, I have to make my glass super full. I've got to be selfish before I can be selfless. And the last like six and a half years, the vast …

AI assessment note: “I think I've gotten Got over it. But even when I got out of”