SoberNotMature - Episode 99 (Wrestling With Our Demons)

Bill (00:02.566)
All right, everyone, welcome once again to another episode of Sober Not Mature. And here we go. This is a good one. We're going to have a night of recovery. It's kind of a little joke, but in all seriousness, we have Chris and Shannon with us, and they were actually part of that documentary, Night of Recovery, which I know we're going to talk about. But first of all, Chris and Shannon, if you guys can.

Mike (00:14.53)
Hehehehehehe

Bill (00:29.546)
At least introduce yourselves briefly, both of you guys introduce yourselves and then we can get started, okay?

@chrisdreisbach (00:36.65)
Sure, man. Sounds great. My name is Chris Dresbach. I'm happy to be here. I'm the host of a documentary on Prime Video called Night of Recovery, where I get to hang out with three of my good friends, one of whom is here with us today, Shannon Moore. And I'll just let him talk now.

Shannon Moore (00:54.682)
Sweet. Thank you, Chris. I'm Chris's sidekick, Shannon Moore.

Bill (00:59.569)
Hahaha

Shannon Moore (01:00.494)
Probably am best known for a career in the professional wrestling industry or sports entertainment, however you want to chalk it up in 2024. Been in all the major companies and now I work with alcoholics and addicts trying to help them get sober after I was able to go through the process myself back in 2017. And I met this guy, Chris.

We became friends and me too is working on this Night of Recovery show.

Bill (01:37.89)
Wonderful. Well, yeah, we and seriously we appreciate you guys hopping on and I know it took a little bit We had I think we had to get through the holidays or something like that trying to get everything scheduled But yeah, we really appreciate you guys being on and kind of exciting. I don't I know we've never had a wrestler on yet What right Mike? Yeah, so you're our first wrestler Shannon but

Mike (01:55.858)
Nope, nope, we have not.

Shannon Moore (02:00.55)
Oh, awesome.

Bill (02:01.554)
Yeah, it's actually kind of fun, but usually what we do and you know what? Go ahead, Mike, explain what we do and how we do it, then we'll get rolling. Okay.

Mike (02:09.836)
Well, real quick, you know, we want to get to know you guys a little bit. Um, you know, we, uh, we don't need drunk logs. We don't need war stories. We know how to fuck up our lives and fuck up the lives of everybody around us. Um, we want to hear about the solution, how you're staying sober today. So, uh, go ahead guys. Uh, Chris, you started, so why don't you go ahead and start, give us a little background on you.

@chrisdreisbach (02:31.998)
And you want to talk about how we stay sober. How about we fly down to Tampa, Florida, from Lancaster, Pennsylvania, to hang out with Shannon in 60 degree weather when he shiver in and crying. You know, both of these guys are from up north, Shannon, so they're, you know, they're on my team.

Bill (02:44.525)
hahahaha

Mike (02:45.272)
Hehe

Shannon Moore (02:45.837)
Hehehe

Mike (02:51.917)
Right.

Bill (02:52.156)
Right.

Shannon Moore (02:53.01)
And there's plenty of homes for sale in Florida, guys.

@chrisdreisbach (02:53.279)
out.

Mike (02:56.265)
Mmm! Hehehehehehehehe!

Bill (02:56.97)
Heh heh heh.

@chrisdreisbach (02:58.927)
No, I mean, I think one of the, one of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to recovery and it comes to staying sober long-term is service to others and selfless action and just kind of doing things because, and it was a really particularly annoying thing when I first got into recovery in 2007.

Mike (03:09.37)
Mm-hmm.

@chrisdreisbach (03:21.714)
I had a sponsor and my sponsor was telling me to do these ridiculous things. Like go back to the halfway house that I lived in and fold another dude's laundry. You know, and I'm like minutes out of jail, I'm ready to just like fight anything that moves because I hate being at this halfway house and this guy who's like way happier than me, living a way better life than me, tells me to go fold another dude's laundry. So I'm like, all right, you know, whatever. Like, I don't want to go back to jail yet.

Bill (03:33.05)
Hehehehe

Bill (03:50.091)
Okay

@chrisdreisbach (03:51.242)
So I'll go fold this dude's laundry. And I'm like, call him the next day. I'm like, yo, Drew, folded this dude's laundry. What, you know, what do you want to do? And he was like, all right, man, just go home and like, find the dude you hate the most and do his chore and don't tell him you did it. And I was like, come on, man. You know, like I ain't doing this shit. Like I don't, I don't want to know, you know? And like every day he would give me a silly little task or something to do. And little did I know he was tricking me into selfless acts of service.

Bill (04:04.825)
Hahaha!

Mike (04:06.092)
Right.

Bill (04:09.723)
Hehehe

@chrisdreisbach (04:21.63)
And like that, having somebody in my life, a mentor, a person like him to teach me how to crush out that selfless or selfishness in such a simple way, because like I'm an idiot, I would fight you on everything under the sun. But when you put it in such simple, practical ways, you know, like I latched right onto it and I haven't let go and it's been like 17 years. So

Mike (04:21.779)
Mm.

Shannon Moore (04:39.67)
Thank you.

Mike (04:46.766)
Nice.

@chrisdreisbach (04:48.002)
That's a simple little story to start out with. I'll let Shannon talk though, because he's gonna bolt on us a little early.

Mike (04:50.336)
Absolutely.

Right, yeah.

Bill (04:53.218)
Yeah, that's what Shannon gave us that right off the bat saying, oh, I'm going to throw a wrench in this. I'm leaving shortly. We're like, wait, what? You don't have to apologize. Just the fact that we were talking about that, the fact that people even take time out of their lives to be on this thing and talk silly with us, it's great. So no, it's perfect.

Shannon Moore (04:59.168)
Yeah, I'm sorry guys. It's been busy.

Shannon Moore (05:16.538)
Yeah, man, I'm with Chris, man. What keeps me sober and the reason that I love being sober and in recovery and in this new community that I never knew existed, it's the selflessness, right? I just remember whenever I first got sober, my sponsor told me right off the bat, this is a selfish but selfless program and I couldn't wrap my brain around it.

I was like, selfish with selfless, what are you talking about? But finally, you know, like whenever you understand what that's really about, you know, like being selfless, man, like that's, that's the main thing. And you know, it's like Chris said, you know, like being around people that share that same that same feeling and that same passion for being selfless and being of service. I think for me, like, that's the biggest thing, you know, like we always hear as a kid and

Bill (05:46.726)
Ha ha

Mike (05:47.32)
bright.

Shannon Moore (06:14.346)
our parents or just anybody that we look up to whenever we're younger, they say, you are who you hang out with and stick with the winners and all that. Back in the day, we were like, oh, you sound like a nerd, like no, stick with the winners. But it's so true, man. I don't hang out with people that's gonna push me down. I wanna be around people that's gonna pull me up and I wanna be around people that's doing better than me.

Bill (06:28.358)
haha

Mike (06:43.168)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon Moore (06:43.338)
And you know like doing this selfless thing better than me And I think you know along with that and then like for me to my spirituality like I never understood what my spirituality was I never understood a god concept or anything like that and you know getting sober and being in recovery it really it really let me look at that and you know, like I'm not gonna sit here and

12-step everybody and all that good stuff. But, you know, like, I think going through a 12-step program, you know, they say that it's a ladder to God, and I truly believe that. Like, you know, like, I just, I believe that you can't have one without the other. You can't have this God concept of whatever you may believe without having the other part of it. And I think, you know, my spirituality is a big thing of it too, just making sure I'm on top of.

you know, my spiritual game, making sure I'm being selfless and that I'm given back. You know, and at this point too, man, like those two go together. And I actually, I went to church this past Sunday and like, that was what they were talking about was like, just as far as being of service and just helping others and all that good stuff. And like, I'm sitting there and I'm like, man, I would love to be in a position to be able to do more for people. And it's like, I think that's.

That's the driving force for me is like, okay, how can I be successful to do more for others? Now it's not about being successful to buy materialistic objects for me, because like I've had that life. I've lived that life where I had the big houses, the cars and all that crazy stuff. And like, it didn't make me happy. I remember sitting in my big house in the living room in North Carolina, you know, a couple years before.

Mike (08:14.652)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon Moore (08:36.342)
I went into treatment and thinking to myself how empty I felt. I was like, man, this don't even feel like home. And I was sitting in this beautiful home that I always dreamed of. So I think it's that, man. It's like not focusing on materialistic stuff. It's focused on other human beings and making sure that I can make somebody else's life better.

@chrisdreisbach (08:57.836)
you

Bill (08:57.966)
Well, and you mentioned, and I was actually gonna ask about the 12 step thing, but it sounds you already mentioned it. And the thing of it is, and we've had people on here, Mike and I are both 12 step people, we were brought up through the program. Neither one of us are the quote unquote, mainstream God people, but we do have, believe in higher powers and all that sort of thing. Everything you said we agree with, we're just not God people, but there's nothing wrong with that. But, you know, the 12 step side of things, we talk about it, we don't force it down people's throats because

There's plenty of people out there that are getting sober other ways, but we've had people on here that did not do an AA thing, but ended up doing an AA thing. If that makes sense. They followed another path that didn't call it the same thing. There's a gentleman that we had on a handful of episodes, right, Mike, when we had Nico on. And he's telling us about this mentor and he wanted what he had and all these different things. And, but it wasn't an AA thing. And we're like, wow, you know, it is, he was going through the same process just on a little bit of a different road, you know.

Mike (09:44.269)
Right.

Bill (09:57.066)
So yeah, we agree with all that. And God, how many times were we told that might to get out there and help somebody and pray for people that we hated, right?

Shannon Moore (09:57.24)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to the next speaker. So I'm going to turn it over to the next speaker.

Mike (10:05.336)
Right. Exactly. Right. It's it's well, you know, Bob used to call it. It's it doesn't add up. It's AA math. You know, how is doing something for somebody else make our lives better? You know, I still don't understand it. I don't ever want to really understand it. All I know is that it works. I do something for somebody else and my life gets better. What the fuck?

Bill (10:29.757)
Yeah, it doesn't make any sense, right? Not at all. So, Shannon, were you always in the Tampa area? Because I know that, I guess maybe explain the part where you, how you guys met, how you met Chris and how that whole thing happened.

Shannon Moore (10:45.067)
Yeah, you know, I heard about Chris a long time ago, you know, through mutual friends, you know, like Xbox, I think I even heard Xbox talk about it. We've had some long conversations about him. But everything that I heard about Chris, like before I ever even met him and had to make a decision on my own, like I was like, this dude sounds pretty cool. Like he sounds like he loves to help people. And this was whenever I was probably still in my act of addiction to like whenever I was hearing this stuff.

Bill (11:04.858)
Hehehehe

Shannon Moore (11:12.322)
So like even back then, like I was hearing about, you know, Chris and just what he was about. And then obviously whenever I met him, it's like, you know, even Chris, man, like we're on this, you know, I'm doing this night of recovery thing. We're doing this together and walking along with this. I mean, obviously it's his production, but you know, like we've, we come together to do this thing. And we've been talking about this thing and vision, you know, envisioning this thing, but like Chris is another person that, you know, once I started to get to knowing,

And even now, like I'm still learning a lot about him. It's like, he's the person that I wanna be around. Cause Chris is doing what I wanna be able to do, two years from now, three years from now. The things that he does for people that, whether they're getting back on their feet, helping them start businesses and all this stuff. It's like, man, that's magic. That's unheard of. You don't see that. You never see people do selfless acts like that.

um to get back on their feet and i'm a firm believer because i've had those opportunities where somebody believed in me for a moment and i've turned that into success um my tattoo shop it was the same way you know like i had a moment where i had a little bit of money and i took a chance and it turned out to this you know into this magical business that you know still exists today i still get people wanting to get tattooed today i just don't have a shop now um but like

Taking a chance on somebody, especially in recovery, I think that you get, you know, it's magic and those people, like they will better themselves and they will work hard whenever you can give them that opportunity. So, you know, what Chris is doing today, like it just, it made me realize like who he was as a person. And I was like, man, he's pretty cool. But then it also like has shown me like, man, like that's exactly like where I wanna go is to be able to help people like that.

once I'm in a place where I can.

Bill (13:10.414)
Right. So you were, were you in Philadelphia when you met him or how did that work?

Shannon Moore (13:16.662)
Well, I think we met just obviously through the phone and phone contact first. And then we end up putting the first show together and I flew up and that's the first time I think I probably met you Chris, right?

Bill (13:20.964)
Okay.

@chrisdreisbach (13:21.282)
Thank you.

@chrisdreisbach (13:32.621)
In person, but we actually did those pandemic town hall things virtually. Remember that?

Shannon Moore (13:38.73)
Yeah, that's right. Yeah, I forgot about that.

Bill (13:40.134)
Ha ha

@chrisdreisbach (13:41.222)
I was like the precursor to Night of Recovery when we were all just like crazy bored during pandemic times and we're like, what can we do to entertain people? And, uh, we whipped together a pretty cool, uh, like virtual town hall style thing with some notable folks. And Shannon was, uh, was one of them.

Mike (13:50.702)
Mm.

Bill (13:59.994)
Well, that was the one thing. There weren't a lot of like huge positive things that came out of a pan, you know, worldwide pandemic. But one of the things that I, that I saw was the, and Mike and I talked about this quite a bit is when it first happened, all of these online groups popped up on all over social media, you know, just for people to get in there and chit chat, whatever, and then all these different groups, you know, went, went online with their zoom meetings and everything like that, the way that, uh, I don't know, you say you take a.

a program like Alcoholics Anonymous that's what 87 or almost 88 years old. And to have that type of quickness happen in what could be like a dinosaur type of community. It was pretty cool to me. And I know a lot of people started podcasts. We didn't start this back then, which probably would have been a great time though, right Mike? But, um, yeah, we did. We just, this is, this is just, this was out of a fucking whim to begin with. But, um, you know,

Shannon Moore (14:30.894)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you. So, I'm

Mike (14:47.36)
Yeah, probably late to the party as usual.

Bill (14:56.246)
No forethought put into it like it sounds like you guys did, but it was nice to see all those things that came out of. And when you talk about opportunities to now meet people and new opportunities that people have these days to get sober, whether it's to watch your documentary or go online to a meeting, I mean, I'm sure you guys have seen the same thing pop up that just so many more opportunities for people these days, which is great, right?

@chrisdreisbach (15:21.99)
Oh yeah, absolutely. I mean, I remember when like online meetings were kind of new, it might've been like 2011 or 12. And I had a friend who was super into online meetings and it was just like AOL chat room style like meetings. And the first time I had to speak at an online chat room meeting was probably the weirdest moment of my entire recovery.

Shannon Moore (15:27.063)
I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you. So, I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to you. So, I'm

Bill (15:39.382)
Right.

Bill (15:46.646)
Right. Yeah, and I don't, I mean, for the life of me, I don't know that, did you ever hear of online meetings before the pandemic, Mike?

Mike (15:54.04)
now. I was stuck in a church basement somewhere.

Bill (15:56.355)
Yeah, and I don't-

@chrisdreisbach (15:56.921)
I mean they certainly weren't.

Bill (15:59.258)
Ha ha ha!

@chrisdreisbach (16:00.514)
They're not the most popular.

Shannon Moore (16:02.415)
Yeah, yeah, honestly.

Mike (16:02.784)
Right. Yeah. But they, but you know, like Bill will say in the pandemic, you know, kind of forced us to do it. I mean, you know, I, if it, when it was happening, if you wanted to gather with fellow alcoholics and drug addicts, we had to go online and do it. Cause we were all locked in our houses.

Bill (16:20.674)
Right.

Shannon Moore (16:21.954)
See, another reason you guys should move to Florida, because us crazy Floridians, we had live meetings. Ha ha ha.

Mike (16:28.535)
Great.

Bill (16:30.471)
Yeah, and I know there was there was some, you know, people were gathering outside and stuff like that if they could. But man, there was just so many different areas that, you know, literally wouldn't allow it in the meetings, you know, we're not sanctioned. But people still got together. But in Shannon, I know you're running short on time. So maybe tell us a little bit about what you're doing down in Tampa. What's your I mean, it sounds like you're trying to build some things down there right now.

Shannon Moore (16:33.602)
Yeah.

Mike (16:40.949)
Right.

Shannon Moore (16:54.09)
Yeah, man. You know, like, God, I got sober in 2017. So I'm moving into like six years in a month or so whatever. But it's yeah, like, you know, the last three years last four years have been amazing because my main focus, you know, like I still wrestle. And like, I love wrestling, I love professional wrestling. But like, whenever I went through treatment, you know,

I was in treatment for a while and I did the whole sober living thing. And I was allowed to, whenever I was in sober living, to get back on the road a little bit. But whenever I got back on the road, like there was something that I would think about constantly and that was like helping others because whenever I was in sober living, I was still helping some of the athletes that would come through the treatment center I was working for at that moment. And like it was just fun, man. It was

Like I just felt like my purpose was to help, right? And you know, my sponsor was telling me that I need to be of service. Everybody was telling me this stuff, but once I started doing it and seeing that I was making a difference, like my priorities changed then. Like they were, it went from being on the road and like I was gonna go to, I had the opportunity to go to Japan for a while. I turned it down. And then as time went, like, you know, the CEO of the company is like, hey man, like you gotta.

something's natural with this in the way that you are helping these clients. You know, why don't you start taking some classes and do some things around here? Let us hire you. You can come in as a tech. So I just started as, you know, just being a tech man and just being there for the clients and helping where I could. And then from there, just, you know, it just kind of built and I got some certifications that I needed. And then like now, man, like, you know, what am I?

five years later, going into, or it's my sixth year sober, but five years of really buckling down and working in the recovery industry. And it's, I'm the Client Relations Manager at Riverside Recovery here in Tampa. And my job there is, I'm basically a peer support specialist that works with veterans and pro athletes. I make sure that these clients, that they get what they need whenever they come into treatment.

Shannon Moore (19:15.198)
I work with the clinical team. I'm part of the clinical team. I run groups. I do everything that a therapist does basically from a peer support specialist standpoint. And then, like I do a lot of networking, I do a lot of, just I'm kind of a multi-tool there, honestly. That's my job title, but I'm part of management. And we just...

Bill (19:37.718)
the

Shannon Moore (19:43.938)
We try to help people, man, on a daily basis, and it's the greatest thing ever. I got a fun team that I really love working with that shares the same vision with these people that come into treatment, and that's where my passion is. And then secondary, I'm still wrestling, and I'm trying to get my tattoo shop open this year. That's a big goal of mine that I haven't been able to do. So I've got all these different little avenues that I'm...

crawling down, but the main focus on doing this stuff is doing exactly what Chris is doing. It's amazing that God put Chris, and I know you guys aren't God people, but for me, God put this person into my life that shares this vision that I could see myself in five years ago, then here he is. He's doing it. It gives me more, I guess it kicks me in the ass, making me want to get there quicker.

Mike (20:41.252)
Mm hmm. Right.

Shannon Moore (20:42.279)
eventually.

Bill (20:43.602)
Yeah, that's the I'm a I'm a horrible person when it comes to patience. But in the thing of it is, let me just kind of step back in the whole God thing. We are all of the all of the opinion, Mike and I, that there's something else out there. We get all that point and we don't whatever people want to call it. But we're also a firm believers in exactly what you just said. People, places and things are put in front of us for a reason. And there's no accident by it. It happens, you know, in a lot of it's just doing the next right thing, doing the work, helping other people.

realizing that all these different things that happened to us out there have really nothing to do with us. We've got to do the work, yes, but there's a plan in place. So we get it. We get it absolutely, and that's wonderful.

Shannon Moore (21:23.292)
Yeah, absolutely.

Bill (21:26.286)
So Mike, did I interrupt you or were you about to say something too?

Mike (21:29.388)
No, not at all. Not at all. Um, yeah, but you know, I think, uh, Shannon said he needed to scoot out of here at eight 25 and it's eight 29. So, all right. I just try to look out for you, brother.

Bill (21:38.14)
Hahaha!

Shannon Moore (21:39.93)
I got a few more minutes, Van. My wife, whenever my wife, I'm waiting for my wife to yell at me and then I'll tell you.

Bill (21:40.982)
Okay, cool.

Mike (21:47.056)
Oh, we're all, yeah, right. So that's pretty much life, man.

Bill (21:51.325)
the- right yeah I had I've had those

Shannon Moore (21:56.719)
Yeah, man, they're great. Once you find the right one, it's amazing. Tell you what.

Bill (21:58.738)
Yeah, well, you know what? And I found out and I joke about this, but it's true. I mean, I'm sober now. That's that helps. But I joke about being making an excellent ex husband because I get along with both of them really well now. But it's yeah, probably not being, not being the dick head, the drunken dick head that I was when I was married to both of them. So probably right, Mike. I'm sorry.

Mike (21:59.209)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon Moore (22:10.486)
Hehehehe

Mike (22:18.176)
Yeah, odds are.

Shannon Moore (22:18.286)
Yeah, you know, talk about people, you know, like coming into your life and, you know, God bringing people into your life. Like, it's amazing. Like I've been married twice to myself, but, you know, the lady that I'm married to now, like, she's so supportive and just like, I've never had somebody like that in my life. So it's amazing whenever you find that right person and you guys are a team.

and you work together, like, it just, there's nothing like it.

Bill (22:50.362)
So just...

Mike (22:50.764)
Yeah, well, you know, it's, it's great hope that, you know, you're carrying half of the load now. Right. Exactly. Yes. You can actually have a successful relationship when you're doing your part. Imagine that.

Bill (22:55.769)
hahahaha

Shannon Moore (22:56.577)
Yeah.

Shannon Moore (23:04.298)
Yeah, right.

Bill (23:05.359)
Yeah, in curiosity, Shannon, is your wife sober or is she an orme?

Shannon Moore (23:10.718)
Nah, she's sober, she's in recovery herself. Yeah, she's a hell of a woman, man, that knows exactly, knows nothing about wrestling, could care less about wrestling, or knows nothing that I've done in wrestling other than what people tell her, and she's like, well, he's just shattin' to me, so I don't care. So it's pretty awesome, because I've never been with somebody that wasn't in the wrestling industry. And like...

Bill (23:14.49)
Okay, cool.

Bill (23:23.565)
hahahaha

Bill (23:32.459)
Right

Mike (23:32.494)
Nice.

Shannon Moore (23:38.498)
this lady come into my life and it's like, what? We would never have ended up together, you know, eight years ago.

Bill (23:47.194)
Right? Yeah. It is funny that the people that we meet and the people that we would have never been friends with, and Mike and I are, we always talk about this, are great example. There's, there's no reason in the world why he and I ever would have met, you know, or if we did Mike's joke is that he probably would have robbed me. Yeah. Just, I just, some drunk dude walking down the street. He would, he would have beat me over the head and taken whatever little money I had left and it went on his way. But, uh, but yeah. And like, like Mike said, you know, being able to, you know, obviously

Mike (24:04.492)
Easy mark.

Bill (24:16.974)
be a part of and that's, you know, when, when I got sober, my son was nine, we were, my ex and I were already divorced, but you know, I had that opportunity, even though it was at a distance, because I was in Cleveland and they were in Wisconsin, you know, to actually help raise my son, you know, for the, you know, from nine until well, currently, I mean, we still talk about he's 23 years old, but you know, kids, kids always need a little bit of help. But again, being sober and being there and being able to work together, huge. And you know, surprisingly,

Ha ha, we get along now, you know, so.

Shannon Moore (24:49.559)
Yeah.

Bill (24:51.586)
makes a bit of a difference.

Shannon Moore (24:54.382)
Yeah, the kids thing, that's the whole dynamic. I never planned on having kids ever. It wasn't in my cards, just because I figured that my life would be living out of a suitcase in a hotel in the wrestling industry for the rest of my life, probably. So I never thought it was fair to have these kids that I'd never see. But my wife, she had two kids in her previous relationships.

@chrisdreisbach (25:13.91)
Thank you.

Shannon Moore (25:22.342)
It's, they came into my life, man, and like these kids are everything to me. And it's like, you know, I think I love them. I mean, well, I do love them just like they're my own kids. And it's my daughter, she just had our first grand kid. And it's like this little thing, man. Like, I just, I remember holding him and talking about like, you know, recovery and the way it makes you think and look back and reflect. It's like, I remember holding them in the hospital just in one hand.

Bill (25:39.578)
Hehehehe

Mike (25:40.088)
Hehehe

Shannon Moore (25:51.658)
and just looking at him like the day he was born. And I just had like this, it was like a movie being rewound, just going through my head of all the craziness that like I've been through in my life, all the way to my childhood and the, you know, the, just the craziness of my childhood. And I just remember like it stopped. And I was like, man, I hope the world doesn't, you know, doesn't take you like it did me. And I just hope it's a better experience than what I had.

It's crazy. It's crazy where your thoughts go whenever you have kids that come into your life in some way.

Mike (26:29.24)
Yeah. But the beautiful thing is you're sober and you're, you're conscious and present for him. And you get to be there and make his little world a better place because you're doing the next right thing. That's the cool thing about it.

Bill (26:29.423)
Yeah.

Shannon Moore (26:42.174)
Yeah, absolutely, man.

Bill (26:44.354)
Yeah, Mike's got a granddaughter that, uh, what did she, she turned just be, you got sober. Yeah. And she, and she was, she was barely two when he got sober. Um, so she, yeah, she's never known any other person, but you know, that person we see now, which is kind of cool.

Mike (26:48.76)
She's going to be 16 in May. Yeah.

Mike (26:56.725)
Right.

Shannon Moore (27:02.142)
Yeah, that's amazing.

Bill (27:04.118)
Yeah, and I have a grandson that's going to be two in March. And I saw him when I go up to where my daughter and son-in-law live. And I got to see my grandson two days after he was born. And same deal, you know, you're holding this little human being. And I'm like, oh my God, he's wonderful. He runs my ass ragged, you know, but man, I wouldn't change it for the world. I'd rather have that little shit run my ass ragged than...

Shannon Moore (27:23.158)
Yeah.

Bill (27:32.558)
you know, half the other things I have to deal with in life, which in my life is not bad, you know, but yeah, I don't know, grandkids are a whole different level. Kids are wonderful and especially having kids come into your life like you had mentioned, but, and these grandkids are just, you can't even explain it.

Shannon Moore (27:36.674)
Yeah.

Shannon Moore (27:48.202)
Yeah, I mean, you want to build everything around him. Like now, anything that I do now, you know, and I tell my wife, I'm like, man, I got to get this tattoo shop open somehow because like, you know, I got to have, give this kid options. Like, you know, like when can he start Jiu-Jitsu? I want him to be a world champion. When can we get him in wrestling? Because it's like, I just want him to do all the things right that I did wrong. And it's like, man, if you could just do that, man, you're going to be okay. But then I have to take a step back and go, well, I'm not your dad.

Bill (28:04.878)
Ha ha

Shannon Moore (28:18.026)
So I better, I need to pull back a little bit. He's like, you're not his dad. Would you quit, quit putting him in jujitsu? He's only one. He's not, he's not ready yet.

Bill (28:18.618)
Hehehe

Bill (28:27.892)
I was just gonna ask how old he was, but yeah, that made me laugh. Yeah. But yeah, you know, there's nothing wrong with that. Like Mike said, you know, you've got a, we've got a chance now to be present, you know, in all these, all these little people's lives. Well, people in general, but yeah, definitely all these, all these little people's lives and yeah, it's a, it's a pretty wonderful thing. So what else did you get? You guys are trying to get the, the documentary going up in Tampa too, or?

Shannon Moore (28:31.254)
Yeah.

Bill (28:52.482)
Or is that what you're working on?

Shannon Moore (28:55.754)
Yeah. You sure? You're good at it. Yeah, man. Like so, you know, Tampa, the one reason that I ended up in Tampa is because of the recovery community. Whenever I went through treatment, I've seen this recovery community down here that was non-existent to what, you know, I'd went home and visited North Carolina, like while I was in treatment and went out to some of the meetings and there just wasn't a community there that was strong.

@chrisdreisbach (28:55.85)
Ah, Shannon, you can talk about that. Yeah, oh, yeah, definitely. You're good, too, though.

Mike (29:04.1)
Hehehe

Shannon Moore (29:25.454)
Tampa's got this young, hip, like just, you know, middle-aged vibe of recovery here that, you know, it's hard to find in places, you know, between the meetings, between all the activities that, you know, that go on here, it was just so easy to go out and figure out how to have fun with a group of people that are shooting for the same goals. So I ended up moving down here and, you know, what...

Working in the treatment industry down here now and just being connected down here, like there's not, all I could think about it, before me and Chris even really started talking about this is like, man, like we could do something huge here that would be so fun and so awesome and so education, so educational. But I just wasn't aligned with anybody at that point like that had the same vision.

And then, you know, like once me and Chris connected, it was like, boom, there's two people that are thinking pretty much the same thing. Um, but you know, we really wasn't focused on Tampa at the time, but as this thing's grown and like, you know, we started, you know, like wanting to take this thing across the nation, man, like, you know, it just makes sense to bring it to Tampa, uh, where this recovery community is because it's, you know, there's no doubt that it's going to be amazing once it comes through.

Bill (30:48.802)
Right. Yeah. And I mean, that's a, and we both got, well, Mike is still in Cleveland, but both of us got sober out there. And I mean, there, we, we talk about it all the time, but in our opinion, there's no, there's nothing like, you know, Cleveland AA and Cleveland meetings and I've been to different meetings around, you know, the country, not all over the place. Mike, you have to write to me in different areas. And there's just a, there's just difference with Cleveland, right?

Mike (31:12.157)
Mm-hmm. Sure.

Yeah. Well, I mean, you know, we're, uh, 40 minutes away from where Dr. Bob and Bill met each other down in Akron. So, I mean, this was, you know, the first world, um, uh, whatever conference was here in Cleveland in like 1955 and you know, this is the oldest men's meeting in the world is here in Cleveland still don'ts men's. And, um, yeah, it's just, you know, there's a huge, it's been here forever.

You know, sister Ignatia came up and worked in Cleveland after she was working in Akron. Um, we actually knew a gentleman who knew sister Ignatia quite well. Um, you know, so I mean, the roots of AA are here. So yeah, it is, it's a special place. You know, I love it here. Um, there's, there's tons and tons of meetings. There's tons of, uh, support and it's, it's a great place. You know, you guys, either of you guys ever been to founders day in Akron?

Bill (31:53.206)
Right.

Shannon Moore (32:08.756)
It's awesome.

@chrisdreisbach (32:11.982)
No. Nope.

Mike (32:13.)
Now in June, it's cool, man. They fill up a football stadium and it's, uh, yeah. The big Saturday night meeting is in the football stadium. There's like 15,000 drunks, you know, and it's just, it's amazing. It's cool, man. If you guys ever get the chance, man, come on up to Cleve or down to Akron. Um, and it's, what is it? The second weekend of June. Yeah.

Shannon Moore (32:25.358)
That's cool.

Bill (32:33.614)
Yeah, usually, what, someplace between the 10th and like the 14th or 15th right in that area? 9th and 13th? Yeah.

Mike (32:37.78)
Yeah, right. Cause I think I believe the 11th is the actual day. Yeah. So, yeah, it's cool, man. You'll see us there.

Shannon Moore (32:43.486)
Nice.

Bill (32:46.338)
Yeah, we were, yeah, we were, we were, we were taken. Well, Mike, Mike wanted to go. I was taken to founder's day the first year in 2010. When we got sober, I did not want to be there. Mike actually chose to go with a bunch of people. And then we've gone every other year. We missed two years because of the pandemic. And I missed one year because I was babysitting for my grandson, I think two years ago, but, um, it's a great time. Dr. Bob's house is, is there. We always take, try to take new guys and, you know, with us and tour Dr. Bob's house.

Mike (33:00.877)
Mm-hmm.

Bill (33:15.93)
There's a meeting, there's a big book, the history of the big book thing. It's just, it's a huge sober gathering and it's this party atmosphere, but everyone's sober. It's ridiculously fun. And you know, again, it's the birthplace of Alcoholics Anonymous. So yeah, definitely, if you guys have the chance, come up, come up there. We'll meet you up there. It's a good time.

Shannon Moore (33:30.314)
Bye.

Shannon Moore (33:38.33)
Nice.

@chrisdreisbach (33:38.698)
Do that. It sounds pretty awesome. Sounds pretty awesome. I've been, I've been watching people do it for years, heading over to Ohio, but I never, never joined them.

Bill (33:40.846)
Yeah, it's pretty cool. It's pretty cool.

Shannon Moore (33:43.939)
Thank you.

Mike (33:47.224)
Right.

Shannon Moore (33:49.262)
Thank you.

Bill (33:49.653)
Yeah, and it's, what is the ticket Mike? 30 bucks, 35 bucks or something like that I think.

Mike (33:53.388)
Yeah, it's like 30 bucks to get into the main meeting. All the rest of it's free, you know? And yeah, you know, if you're hanging out long enough and you need a ticket, somebody will get one for you. You know how that goes.

Shannon Moore (33:57.303)
That's cool.

Bill (34:03.606)
Right. Yeah. And I mean, for us, I mean, Mike, again, Mike still lives in Cleveland. So I mean, I, anytime I go out there, I mean, I've got a place to stay, we just drive down there. But there's people that head up. I mean, there's this, what do you think, Mike? I mean, a football field size parking lot, you know, full of motorcycles that's there. So they got motorcycles, they got camping, they have, you know, all this different stuff around there. And then

Mike (34:22.051)
No, yeah.

Mike (34:26.888)
Oh yeah. People come from around the world. I mean, there's people from Australia and there's always a Polish contingent. And, uh, yeah, it's, it's very, very cool.

Bill (34:32.682)
Right. Yeah, it's a lot of fun. Yeah, but yeah, seriously, if you get the opportunity, and it's not for everyone, we've got like our sponsor in Cleveland, you know, he had no desire. Did he ever go? Did Joe ever go that you know, Mike? Yeah, I know he wasn't anywhere about it. He would kind of not make fun of us, be like, yeah, I guess you guys are going to Founders Day again, but man, we have a great time. My sister, well, our sister goes every year. She's not one of us, but she likes to go, likes to hang out and have fun with us. So, yeah, it's a lot of.

Mike (34:46.302)
I have no idea.

Shannon Moore (35:01.607)
Alright fellas, I am being summoned now and I have to take this because if not then I will never be allowed back on a podcast ever again.

Bill (35:02.118)
It's a huge, huge amount of fun.

Mike (35:08.226)
Right.

Bill (35:12.474)
Hahaha!

Mike (35:13.024)
Absolutely. You're not in control, man.

Mike (35:18.712)
powers greater than ourselves running our lives. Shannon, hey man, thanks for joining us. We appreciate the time. Absolutely, dude. Keep doing what you're doing and hopefully we'll have you back on when you got a little more time to hang out.

Bill (35:21.415)
Right.

Shannon Moore (35:23.065)
Yes. I.

Bill (35:33.487)
Yeah.

Shannon Moore (35:33.698)
Yeah, dude, anytime, man. Just give me a, just let me know when I'll be here. Me and Chris, we love to do some podcasts.

Bill (35:37.974)
Okay, yeah, absolutely.

Awesome. Well, yeah, Chris, hang out. And then Shannon, whatever. I can disconnect you if you can't, but make sure you let everything upload for you before you get out of your screen, though, OK? Yeah, I think you can exit out if I think on your end, right? OK. All right, thanks, Shannon.

Shannon Moore (35:53.663)
Okay, sounds good.

Mike (35:54.82)
Cool. Thanks, Shannon.

Mike (36:00.228)
Cool. All right. Well, we're going to do that. And while he's doing that, we're going to be right back with more of Sober Not Mature and Chris right after this word from our sponsor.

Bill (36:18.826)
All right, everyone, welcome back. And then there was three. And yeah, actually, Chris, now you get, you kind of get the floor now. That was nice. I'm glad Shannon was able to hang out for a few more minutes than he thought, but yeah. It was good to obviously have him on and learn a little bit more about what he's doing down in Tampa. But yeah, so I mean, you know, Chris, go into, you know, go into whatever you wanna talk about. We wanna talk more about the...

Mike (36:23.992)
Hehehehe.

Bill (36:45.838)
Obviously the documentary, a little bit more about your background, anything you want to share. We like to use this as a kind of an open forum, right, Mike?

Mike (36:54.052)
Absolutely.

@chrisdreisbach (36:55.19)
Man, I feel like that is so broad. And, you know what, why don't we talk about the documentaries? Because, you know, it's one of the reasons I've been doing so many gosh darn podcasts lately, you know, so many just kind of fun, awesome things to meet new people like yesterday. Shannon and I were on great day live Tampa in the morning and like, you know, just being like in a TV station.

Bill (37:01.092)
Let's do it.

Mike (37:01.924)
Let's do it.

@chrisdreisbach (37:25.078)
for a dude who used to be homeless and eat out of dumpsters is like, it's kind of unbelievable, you know? And like Shannon was talking about, I had a baby like a year and a half ago. I'm not as old as you guys, so I don't have any grandkids, but you know, just like all that stuff I could relate to now, you know? And you know, I waited, you know, what's almost 16 years into recovery to have a kid.

Bill (37:30.352)
Right.

Bill (37:39.674)
Hehehehe

@chrisdreisbach (37:51.234)
because I was so hyper-focused on building businesses and building other people's lives and consequently then building my own life, almost against my will really. It's just so cool when the universe, so Shannon likes to say, God, I kind of shifted more into the universe because the universe kind of tosses me places that I never would even imagine that I'd be. And you know.

Mike (37:59.338)
Mm-hmm.

Right.

@chrisdreisbach (38:18.078)
it's a little bit less offensive to some people because it's 2024. Like people get offended about everything right now. So like, I remember being in a, so we have this real cool diversion program too, where we, uh, we send out certified recovery specialists with law enforcement, uh, to help people go to treatment instead of incarceration, which is huge for me because I spent several hundred days of my life incarcerated and, you know, I like to do everything I can to keep people out of jail.

Mike (38:24.555)
Eh, fuck all.

@chrisdreisbach (38:48.702)
And so like, dude, there's just so many crazy, amazing things going on. I don't even know what to tell you. And then we talk about what that's where that's what I'm saying. There's so many things. And then you talk about Shannon Moore, this dude who, you know, isn't really that much older than me, but I watched on TV when I was a kid and he, you know, throws out endorsements left and right like that earlier on in the show.

Bill (38:58.542)
Whatever you want.

Bill (39:03.034)
Hehehe

@chrisdreisbach (39:16.306)
Man, like, you know, is this even real life?

Bill (39:19.206)
Hahaha.

Mike (39:21.592)
Exactly.

@chrisdreisbach (39:21.85)
And that's what recovery is to me, is such an open book. And if you're aware of opportunity and you have the right heart and are focused on other people, you never know where the world's gonna take you. I think, yeah.

Mike (39:35.976)
Oh, absolutely. Right. Well, you know, I was, I, I don't do much research cause that's just how I do this, but I did read the exactly, but I read the, I was reading a little thing that bill posted and a name popped out at me talking about people that you wouldn't normally meet, um, vice presidential candidate, man, spike Cohen, how the fuck did you hook up with him?

@chrisdreisbach (39:42.163)
Me either.

@chrisdreisbach (39:58.514)
So Spike actually, I ended up on Spike's podcast, uh, three or four years ago, I want to say. And it's because of that diversion program. He's a huge fan of the idea of people not going to jail, uh, because of that pointless. And you know, he loved. Correct. Addiction is not a crime. It's really like the whole premise of this, this thing we have going here in Lancaster.

Mike (40:04.351)
Okay.

Mike (40:07.937)
Aww.

Mike (40:13.024)
Right, right, right. It's a disease, not a crime.

Mike (40:25.422)
Mm-hmm.

@chrisdreisbach (40:25.498)
And he became aware of it through some mutual friends in the libertarian world. And, you know, I ended up on this podcast and I was like, hanging out with him beforehand, talking a little bit. And I was like, damn, like this guy is legit, really cool. And so we're talking a little bit deeper here. I find out he's in recovery. I never realized it. And I was like, man, how cool is this? So we just kind of stayed in touch, you know, became friends and

Mike (40:30.57)
Right?

Mike (40:39.268)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (40:44.355)
Great.

Mike (40:47.533)
Yeah.

@chrisdreisbach (40:54.69)
Uh, we filmed this mini docu series called repurposed that actually also just dropped on prime video if you're bored and you want to watch for, uh, four episodes of awesome recovery stories, look up repurposed on prime video. Uh, but spike is actually episode two and his story is unbelievable, man. Like the first episode is Brandon Novak. So if you know much about Brandon Novak, his story is

Mike (41:15.743)
Mm-hmm.

@chrisdreisbach (41:21.77)
bonkers and filled with all sorts of mayhem and craziness and, you know, heroin and being on MTV and, you know, nuts stuff. And then episode two is Spike, who has a totally different story. You know, he had a successful business. He was a, you know, heavy drinker and marijuana user and, you know, he never let it get to the point where Brandon got. And I love the idea of this docu-series being called Repurpose because it's really just about people finding their purpose.

Mike (41:31.172)
Sure.

@chrisdreisbach (41:52.438)
from an otherwise purposeless life. And it was so cool to have that stark contrast between those two first episodes. But yeah, man, it's just super awesome to be able to connect with people that you never thought you would. So yeah, that's how I met Spike, and I'm still honored to call him a friend.

Mike (42:11.396)
Cool. Very cool. Yeah. You know, I'm, I'm a registered libertarian, so he got my vote last time.

@chrisdreisbach (42:16.684)
My man, me too. Me too.

Mike (42:18.156)
Hehehehehehe

Bill (42:18.735)
Yeah, and that's it. We rarely, well, I would say never talk about politics on here, but Mike and I ended up inadvertently. So when we were literally thrown together in this thing, we met at the Sovereign Living Facility. And then I love the fact that you talk about the universe, because that's what we've joked about it. But I mean, we're probably more about the universe throwing shit together than we are a god thing or whatever. But it's cool. Like you said,

Mike (42:23.723)
Right.

Bill (42:42.938)
You know, some people get offended, but we don't care what people wanna call it. Let people think what they want. But we're also not afraid to say what we believe in, you know, and it's, we do you, you do you, it's easy. But, so throughout this entire process, Mike and I become better friends and this and that. And I don't even remember what election it was, Mike, but you and I started talking about something. Maybe it was a Facebook post. And then we're both talking about this, this libertarian candidate, this Green Party, this third...

this third party candidate, I'm like, fuck man, we're even politically aligned. You know, and, and people, you know, always talk about that, which again, we're not going to get into politics, but it just, it's funny how you end up, um, you know, people say, and Mike and I talked about this a couple episodes ago, where we, were we drawn the people who drank or did we just end up there type of thing? And, and I think the same thing happens in recovery, you know, everyone.

Mike (43:16.875)
Hehe

Bill (43:35.438)
has their story. Everyone comes from a different, you know, life and background and all those different things, but we're all in the same place, looking for the same solution. And I think just invariably or by accident or by whatever you end up, you know, same thing you get drawn to the same type of people and Mike and I don't look the same. We are not from the same background. But I mean, we literally even joke about having, you know, the same we operate on the same brain. I can't remember something.

Mike (44:02.924)
Right, we share a brain.

Bill (44:03.65)
Yeah, especially with this shit that we do because I'm like, for the life me, I'm like, I can't fucking remember this and he remember remembers it. We, you know, we're able to fill that sort of, you know, sort of thing in. But yeah, it's just kind of weird that the people you'll come across. But now Brandon, so we had, do you know who Todd Lojin is, Chris?

@chrisdreisbach (44:25.866)
Tim?

Bill (44:26.402)
um no it's Todd isn't it Todd

Where's it?

Mike (44:32.152)
Don't ask me man, I'm horrible with names.

Bill (44:34.114)
Oh God, now I, right. Oh, you know what? It might actually be Tim. We had him on as a guest and he was childhood friends with Brandon. So he brought him, yeah, he brought him up on our podcast episode. And then, cause I think they, I didn't Brandon know Bam, what's his face from MTV and all that sort of stuff. And forget how it was. Yeah, so when, and I follow, I mean, our page, you know,

@chrisdreisbach (44:34.794)
Yeah, I don't even know. I don't even know who I am most days.

Mike (44:37.524)
Right, thank you very much.

@chrisdreisbach (44:47.434)
Yeah.

@chrisdreisbach (44:58.878)
Yeah, yep.

Bill (45:04.026)
Brandon on Instagram, so I see a lot of the stuff. But I mean, I kind of have an idea of what he's doing. So when I was watching your documentary, The Night of Recovery, and I saw him walk on, you're like, oh, we got a special guest. I'm like, holy fuck. Because I didn't really, I've never heard Brandon's entire story. I've heard bits and pieces on his posts. But I was just kind of blown away. I'm like, it's a small world. I mean, not that I know Brandon, but I know of him. And then being on your documentary, I thought that was kind of cool. So.

@chrisdreisbach (45:17.515)
the

Bill (45:32.962)
Yeah, it was just, it was very cool.

@chrisdreisbach (45:35.81)
It's like a small world, man. And the reason that we did that on that particular night of recovery was because Kurt, who's the one that featured speakers there, he actually was kind of pushed towards recovery from the inspirational videos that Brandon would put out and like Steve-O would put out and those different guys who, you know, had that celebrity status. Their ability to reach people and connect with people is something that definitely can't be underestimated in any way, shape, or form.

And, you know, it was kind of really amusing because Brandon's a friend of mine. And I was like, oh damn, you know, Kurt let it slip during conversation that Brandon was one of his big inspirations. And so Kurt was going to be in Lancaster. We're going to throw this, uh, you know, night of recovery together. And I was like, yo, Brandon, you really, you know, you inspired this guy. Do you mind like taking a whole night off to come up here for, you know, for this whole thing, just to surprise him on stage. And he was like, absolutely, dude, no questions asked. Just.

Bill (46:15.686)
Hehehehe

Bill (46:31.354)
Hehehehe

Hehehehe

Mike (46:36.207)
Hehe

@chrisdreisbach (46:36.702)
Blocked off his whole night, came up, hung out, surprised him live on stage, on camera, and man, it was just a beautiful, beautiful experience.

Bill (46:37.871)
Hehehe

Bill (46:45.762)
Yeah, I mean that was that was cool. I mean things like that, especially, you know, I don't know a surprise birthday party or whatever it is what it is. But yeah, I mean, the look on his face when you said Brandon was there and then Brandon walks out, I was just like that was really cool. And I did not I'll be 100% honest, I didn't get through the entire thing I watched about I got to a little bit over the halfway point, but it's it was really cool. You know, I mean, the fact that you guys were able to put that together and

I guess maybe step back at that. How did that come about? How did you end up putting it together? Where was that, you know, filmed and how did that all come about?

@chrisdreisbach (47:23.298)
Well, we actually we have a cool wrestling company over here in Lancaster called Three Legacies Wrestling that actually partner with Jesus Rodriguez, one of the other featured speakers who was another guy who'd been in the WWE who came over here to get sober. And, you know, once he got sober, got through the process a little bit, we were talking about like what he wanted to do with the rest of his life when he grew up, you know, and he said, man,

Mike (47:47.136)
This is the same thing.

Bill (47:47.546)
Right.

@chrisdreisbach (47:50.61)
You know, I've traveled all over the world. I've trained people to wrestle in Egypt. I've trained people to wrestle in Australia I've trained people to wrestle in India train people to wrestle in the UK Germany blah Rattle him off. He's been there. He's done that But I've never had my own thing. He said and so I you know We gave him his own thing

Bill (48:15.434)
Hahaha

@chrisdreisbach (48:16.394)
We set up three legacies wrestling and now he has a wrestling academy. He's a business owner. He's an entrepreneur. He's building something of his own, a legacy of his own. And we call it three legacies wrestling. I guess you could probably guess why. Maybe, you know, being some old school AA dudes, you could probably put two and three together and, uh, you know, from that we do large events on occasion, uh, wrestling events. And so we bring out some of our friends.

Mike (48:29.562)
Hehe

Mike (48:33.504)
Right. Absolutely.

@chrisdreisbach (48:45.986)
And it just so happened that like three of the guys we were bringing out to the wrestling event were also in recovery.

So we were like, why don't we put on a really cool night of recovery and like share our stories in a little theater and then talk about it. And so what happened was we did that in February. It was such a success. I mean, we had, I think three people went to treatment just that night from the event. And, you know, we have an awesome production company, Babaconda Productions, and guys were just super committed.

Bill (49:10.831)
Really?

Mike (49:10.913)
Wow.

@chrisdreisbach (49:21.394)
to getting this message out there and they filmed it and went out and just unbelievable, unbelievable stuff. You know, the response from people, the raw emotional power of a night like that and guys being open and honest and just completely raw about where they came from, what they did, what happened and you know, how they are now. And I'll never get tired of it.

As long as I'm liable. Never.

Mike (49:50.444)
Right. Yeah. I mean, it's, you know, pretty much doesn't matter what level it's on. It's two guys sitting in a church basement or you guys in a theater with some, you know, name people. It's it's yeah. Sharing your experience, strength and hope with each other and, and sharing that hope that's the big one, you know, and giving hope to someone else. Like you said, three guys left that night and went into treatment. That's pretty fucking amazing, man.

@chrisdreisbach (50:18.11)
Yeah, unbelievable, unbelievable stuff. And, you know, then we're like, well, we're going to get together and hang out again in, in August. Why don't we do another one? And then it kind of ballooned into like that being such a success. Uh, actually, I think we did one in May in Philadelphia in between. Um, but, you know, it's just like, we're going to do this. We're going to be together. Why don't we do it? And now we're being more intentional about it. So we've been talking to. Riverside, the treatment center that Shannon works for.

We've been talking to them about trying to set up a night of recovery tour through Florida to be able to impact more communities with these nights of recovery. And you know, we're still working through the details on that. Obviously it's a rather large undertaking, but you know, I couldn't be more excited. We just spent a couple days down there with them in Tampa and what a beautiful recovery community.

Mike (50:55.14)
Nice.

Bill (51:10.498)
Right. Yeah. And like Mike said too, you know, I mean, whether it's a couple of guys in a basement or, you know, some big name people, I love the fact that this, you know, this whole addiction thing, this whole recovery thing, the disease that all of us, you know, somehow ended up with, you know, makes us all the same size. I was going to say small, but that's the wrong way to put it. But you know what I mean? Doesn't matter if you have, you know, $300 million or $3 in your pocket, we're all sitting there in the same place.

You know, but you know, you take a guy like, you know, a Brandon Novak or even Shannon, um, and the other guys that came, you know, from, you know, this whole wrestling scene and people watching them on TV and they're like, wait a second, this dude's the same as I am, you know, or Mike and I have known, you know, doctors and lawyers and judges. And, and we've known people that were, you know, literally, you know, gutter drunks and gutter junkies and everyone in between. And it didn't matter. I had a.

@chrisdreisbach (51:54.507)
No.

Bill (52:06.506)
I had a sponsor in the Milwaukee area when I lived there and he used to say it the best way. He said that the same dog that bit you bit me too, you know, and it just, it doesn't matter. And it's cool that, you know, it doesn't matter where you are, the stories are the same, words are a little bit different, but you know, you can reach people and have an effect on people in any medium, which is really cool.

@chrisdreisbach (52:32.018)
Yeah. And it's one of those things like you guys started this podcast and you know, how many people have been helped just by you guys hanging out and talking.

Bill (52:40.534)
Right. Well, you know, and the, and you know, the funny, the funny thing is that, you know, because as most alcoholics and drug addicts are, you know, we did this kind of selfishly. And we'll tell you that I'll make this as short as possible. So cut me off, Mike, if I'm talking too long, because I know you will. So during the pandemic, obviously meetings and stuff, we talked about that. Everything shuts down. I'm doing online meetings and then

@chrisdreisbach (52:42.151)
I'd bet a lot, you know?

Mike (52:53.865)
Hehehehehehe

Bill (53:08.026)
The online meetings start to dwindle a little bit. And, um, I, I didn't end up going back to the club, uh, that I was going to, you know, on a regular basis prior for. Whole other reasons that are unimportant, but I felt this, this void. So I started looking up somehow ran across, um, a sober podcast, started listening to that on my way home from work every day, so 30 to 40 minutes a day, I'm getting my meeting, you know, by listening to this podcast. So I'm doing that for a few months. And.

Mike and I always get together for Thanksgiving at our sister's house. So we're both sitting outside, we're smoking a cigarette, I think, and I'm telling him about this podcast, and I'm telling him about all these stories. And I just said to him, I'm like, we could do that, right? We could just talk a bunch of shit into a microphone, right? So this is Thanksgiving, and that's what he said. He's like, yeah, absolutely. I'm like, yeah. So this is end of November, of course, Thanksgiving time. We didn't launch this until.

Mike (53:54.756)
Absolutely.

Bill (54:03.098)
February, that was 21, we launched this in February, end of February 22. So basically procrastinated as we always do, you know, for a few months. And then, um, when we, when we started it up, literally bare bones on our phones, anchor, which is now Spotify for podcasters, it had not a fucking clue what we were doing. I mean, no clue. And we just decided that, okay, every Friday night we're going to get together and we're going to shoot the shit. We had no idea what direction it was going to, we had no plan.

@chrisdreisbach (54:04.439)
Thank you.

Mike (54:12.032)
Mm-hmm.

Bill (54:32.938)
Um, and we're like, if anyone listens, fine. If they don't fuck them, you know, and that's how we started this. And, and we have, um, a small ish Instagram following. We have a small ish listener base. Okay. But here's the cool part about the people that follow and listen to us that they're, they're engaged and they're extremely loyal. And it's, it's very, it's really cool.

And you know, engage to the point where we get these personal comments. People quote us. We end our episode a certain way, which you'll end up hearing and people, you know, people throw that line back at us. I had a guy just the other day, Mike. I posted one picture. Oh, it was me standing outside. It did this picture of me, like the sun behind me and his comment in the, uh, in the, in the comments was, Ooh, popular with the ladies. That's one of our, that's one of, that's one of our lines in our opening, you know, to our podcast.

@chrisdreisbach (55:04.866)
Thank you.

Mike (55:23.512)
Heheheheheheh

Bill (55:28.014)
You know, so these people started throwing the shit at us and we're not, we're not a big podcast, but you know what we have gotten, when we started to get feedback, I think Mike, you and I were talking about it at like that six month period. Um, and that was one of the big things, you know, we started it on a whim, but we started getting these comments and started realizing, you know, people are telling us that they're getting something out of it. And I remember Mike, you said, you said, that was just mind blowing because you were hearing it from normies, right?

Mike (55:53.732)
right? Oh yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It was like, holy shit. Somebody's listening and somebody's actually like getting something out of this, right? Cause I didn't, you know, I still don't care very much. Um, but I didn't care at all when we started this. And, um, yeah, you know, now I do, I care a bit cause like, apparently we're, we're doing something, you know, and I just looked in this. I mean, I, I heard I was, I, there's a radio show here in Cleveland that I listened to most days and, uh, during the week when I'm working,

Bill (55:57.166)
Hahaha.

Bill (56:03.194)
Hehehehe

Mike (56:22.572)
And they were talking about podcasts the other day and he was saying, you know, yeah, I mean, yeah, there's a million out there. But I mean, most people, you know, they do, they do like three or four episodes and then they're done. This is our fucking 99th episode, man. No, do this thing. Got a proud of it.

Bill (56:39.204)
Right.

@chrisdreisbach (56:40.742)
You should be, you should be man. Cause it's like, you build your own community. When I showed up in Lancaster in 2007, I had like a squirrel, you know, like a squirrel was in my corner and like, you know, like my mom and dad were like loosely in my corner, you know, they were my mom and dad, but they were ashamed. Yeah. You know, like I was their junkie felon loser son. And like I was.

Mike (56:53.889)
Right.

Mike (56:57.796)
Sure. Right. But you burned them pretty good. Right. Hehehehe.

Bill (57:02.384)
Hehehe

Mike (57:06.302)
Exactly.

@chrisdreisbach (57:07.174)
moving to a halfway house after rehab again and jail again. And, uh, you know, like around Lancaster now there's literal hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of young, excited, sober people, middle age, excited, sober people, old, excited, sober people. And, you know, I can't really even understate just like what my hand in that was just by existing and just by offering my heart to people, you know,

Mike (57:33.976)
Mm-hmm.

@chrisdreisbach (57:37.078)
this community kind of grew and built. And the same thing is true of the community that you built through your podcast, man. You open your heart to people, you share your experience and your life with them and they are attracted to it. They wanna join you and they wanna help people too and they wanna be a part of it. Although, kudos to you and smallish, hugeish podcast does not matter. If you're hitting people, you're impacting their lives and I love that, that's the stuff I live for, so.

Mike (57:51.148)
Mmm.

Bill (57:58.499)
Hehehehe

Bill (58:05.902)
But it was funny.

Mike (58:06.732)
Yeah, well, you know, we're taught early on, man. You know, show up, just show up, man. That's what I do.

@chrisdreisbach (58:06.754)
Congrats.

Bill (58:11.213)
Hahaha!

@chrisdreisbach (58:13.118)
Yep. It's the only thing I'm good at.

Bill (58:14.786)
Yeah, and, and we haven't, you know, since, since the week that we started, we haven't missed a week. We didn't, we haven't taken a break. We work around our schedules. You know, we'll sometimes, you know, record, we recorded on a Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Didn't we record Sunday one time? I think we had to. You know, but we, so we still have Monday and Tuesday, but we, you know, we had, actually Mike's girlfriend's son was, was texting, texting Chris and texting Mike one weekend going,

Mike (58:17.405)
Exactly.

Mike (58:32.17)
I think so, yeah.

Bill (58:43.482)
Where's the podcast? It's not up yet. And it was like two hours before I'd posted anyhow, but I'm like, then he messaged me. I'm like, dude, settle down. It's okay, we got it. But I mean, part of that was, I'm like, cool, man, because people look forward to it. But when we were originally contacted by Ronnie from your group, and I always ask the same question. I'm like, okay, first of all, why us? And have you listened to us? Because, you know, I'm like, I want to know, we want...

@chrisdreisbach (59:08.983)
Hehehe

Bill (59:12.066)
We want to keep this thing as whatever our mission is, which we won't really have like a written mission statement, but we know what we wanna do and we know what we don't wanna do. And we know who we wanna do it for and who we don't wanna do it for, if that makes any sense. So we always ask, we have no issue whatsoever. People have come on here and promoted books and podcasts and all these different things, documentaries, we're all about that. We want people to get their shit out there.

And we always joke, you know, whore your stuff out as much as you want, because that's our part of what we want is to get more sober shit out there. But so I asked, you know, again, why us and where did you hear about us also? And he said that he ran across us, you know, just like in an internet search. I'm like, really? I'm like, that's awesome, because we're all over. If you type in sober, not mature, I mean, we come up all over the place, but it just it...

Mike (59:48.804)
Mm-hmm.

Bill (01:00:09.002)
It amazed me in a really good way that that's how he found us, you know? And I was just, that's kind of cool. And, you know, I don't really care how people find us, but I do, I'm like, you need to listen to make sure that you know what we do, you know? Cause I want you to get on here and people like, we've never had it happen yet. But if, if we had somebody on here that just wasn't, you know, kind of, if you wanted to say it, the kids stay vibing with the way that we do, um, we could easily piss somebody off pretty quickly, you know, and

@chrisdreisbach (01:00:14.219)
Yeah.

Bill (01:00:36.674)
We have no desire to do that and it would just, it would embarrass probably the person more. We'd have fun with it, but you know, it'd be in a wrong way. You know, but we want to make sure that again, that the, you know, people are, you know, we're trying to promote, you know, things, positive things that people are doing, you know, is kind of what we're, you know, what we're all about. And the other thing too is that we made a decision right off the bat, like everything from the minute we hit record to the minute we hit pause.

Mike (01:00:36.996)
Mm-hmm.

Bill (01:01:06.346)
Um, everything's going on the podcast. We don't edit anything, you know, and we decided, well, to begin with, we didn't, we decided to do that. Cause I'm like, I'm not taking that much fucking time to try to cut this thing up. So again, back to the selfish part of it, but then it kind of became a, you know, it's kind of like our thing and it's like, we've had, we've had power outages. We've had mess ups. We've had, um, you know, parts of, you know, Michael drop out or I'll drop out. We've all these different things. Um, you know, we've had.

audio problems. We just keep it all in. It just doesn't, it doesn't matter. And that's, that's just yes, we've had, we've had dogs, we've had fireworks, we've had maybe even gunshots if we've been recording around holidays.

Mike (01:01:39.9)
Lots of dogs. Hehehehehehe

Mike (01:01:47.448)
Possibly. It's my favorite game in Cleveland, Ohio. Gunshots or fireworks.

@chrisdreisbach (01:01:52.546)
I was just gonna make a Cleveland joke right there, but you know, we'll hold that back.

Bill (01:01:54.37)
Yeah. Well, and that's, you know, again, summertime and he's got, you know, his neighbors will be out partying and stuff like that. We can, you can hear the music and you can hear that, you know, people bumping in their cars up and down the streets and, you know, but I mean, all of it is just fun. It's people have actually, they, they'll make fun of us, you know, for it or in a, in a fun way, you know, but like you say, it's just part of, part of what we do and we're not, we sometimes, we do it a lot. We joke about other podcasts, how structured they are. Some of it's cool.

Mike (01:01:55.361)
Hehe

Bill (01:02:22.734)
You know, and we've got friends of ours that do podcasts that things that I listen to on a regular basis, and I do because of the structure, but you know, we're just like, this is what we do. We just want to get out and have hopefully meaningful conversations with interesting people, you know?

@chrisdreisbach (01:02:38.63)
Yeah, that's literally akin to what the night of recovery is. And, uh, we don't, we don't really edit anything out. I think they might change the color a little bit, make me look a little less ugly, but, um, you know, really, truly it's just the conversation and we're really just doing that on video and in front of, you know,

Bill (01:02:42.511)
Ha ha ha!

Bill (01:02:50.77)
Hahaha!

@chrisdreisbach (01:03:00.854)
However, many people come out to watch the night of recovery and be a part of it. And the family members that come out for a little bit of education are, you know, just as hyped up about the stories as the wrestling fan who comes out because of the grew up idolizing, you know, Shannon or Jesus or whoever it might be. That's a part of it. And yeah, just how cool, just how cool is all this stuff? Cause we just get to talk and have a conversation and help people.

Mike (01:03:25.06)
Absolutely, man.

Yeah, absolutely. Share the love, man.

Bill (01:03:31.95)
Yeah. So in your area, and what else are, and I know you do a lot of other things in the area. What else do you want to talk about? I mean, we're, again, I mean, the night of recovery is cool. And I have the, I will have, I have the links in the promo and I'll have the links again in this episode description to the website for it. So people can, people can hit, you know, obviously click into that. But, you know, I guess give us a little bit of an idea what the other things you're doing around the, because you're in Philadelphia still, right?

@chrisdreisbach (01:03:32.508)
Yep.

@chrisdreisbach (01:04:02.046)
So we're in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Bill (01:04:02.466)
Or Lancaster, I'm sorry, why did I say Philadelphia? You flew into Philly, that's where I got that before. Okay.

@chrisdreisbach (01:04:08.038)
Yes, yes. So I flew into Philly this morning about 10, 12 hours ago. Now we have a little tiny one, a little tiny airport, but yeah.

Mike (01:04:10.956)
Yeah, not, not a big airport in Lancaster.

Bill (01:04:12.878)
Yeah, right. I'm sorry about that. That's the first thing. I messed up, Tim. I called Tim Todd, and now I'm thinking you're in Philadelphia. So first of all, I'm sorry, Tim, if you happen to be listening to this. And then I apologize to the people of Philly, because they don't need to be affiliated with you. Ha ha.

Mike (01:04:16.248)
Right.

Mike (01:04:34.016)
Hehe

@chrisdreisbach (01:04:35.538)
Whoa, well, if you're not from Pennsylvania, your general opinion of Pennsylvania is there's Pittsburgh, there's Philly, and then there's like corn and woods. And it's not entirely incorrect, because like there's Philly, there's Pittsburgh, and then there's a lot of corn and woods. But in the midst of the corn and woods, there are some really awesome little towns and some awesome little cities. And Lancaster happens to be one of those

Bill (01:04:45.236)
Right, right.

Mike (01:04:45.836)
Right. Hills.

Mike (01:04:59.212)
Yeah.

@chrisdreisbach (01:05:04.002)
places and a lot of the stuff we have gone on over here that I love to talk about is like those diversion programs we call it second chance PA and you know, we've helped about 3,200 people stay out of jail in the last six years and And I could not be more hyped up about that stuff The blueprints for addiction recovery is our treatment center that I happen to be the CEO of it's something I love talking about as well

Mike (01:05:18.244)
Cool.

@chrisdreisbach (01:05:30.058)
because we accept everybody into our treatment center, Medicaid, county funding, no money, no nothing, we don't care, just come on over, hang out, gets over. Blueprints is just a completely different type of treatment center, and I urge you to check it out if you've never heard of it. Second Chance PA, check that out. We got Three Legacies Wrestling, check that out. You got Red Rose Sports Cards, which is another one of my awesome.

Bill (01:05:46.147)
Nice.

@chrisdreisbach (01:05:57.662)
companies that we have going on if you know any card collectors. You know, I'm basically just like a really old eight year old at this point.

Mike (01:06:06.376)
Hehe

Bill (01:06:06.588)
haha

@chrisdreisbach (01:06:07.302)
You know, you got a wrestling company, a card shop. Yeah. We have a, what, a food service concession, a food truck. We have, I can't even tell you an art gallery in Lancaster. We've got the production company, all kinds of different, awesome things going on. And in each, each one of those companies, there's like an attached

Mike (01:06:12.322)
Right.

Mike (01:06:28.396)
Yeah.

@chrisdreisbach (01:06:32.374)
partner who's also in recovery or it was like their dream or their life's goal to start that company. And I love just being that dream connector for people. And, you know, Shannon was talking about that tattoo shop. Now, even though I have zero tattoos, I feel like I got to go open a tattoo shop in Tampa.

Bill (01:06:49.414)
Ha ha ha, right. Ha ha ha. Yeah, Mike's got a couple of tattoos, I think. Yeah, he and Shanna could probably have a conversation or two. Ha ha ha.

Mike (01:06:49.836)
Mwah

@chrisdreisbach (01:06:52.124)
You

Mike (01:06:55.484)
Eh, one or two.

@chrisdreisbach (01:06:58.11)
head down to Tampa. Yeah, head down to Tampa. I'm gonna be opening a tattoo shop.

Mike (01:07:00.62)
Right.

Mike (01:07:03.948)
Nice.

Bill (01:07:04.391)
Yeah. And we would, who was that we were, I can't remember. We have one of our followers. I don't know if it was Tampa or Miami, some nightclub that she works at or it's a sober nightclub or comedy club or something like that. She's like, she's like, you guys should come down to it, perform or do your podcast at our comedy club. And Mike and I are just to ourselves. You're like, anyone wants to pay for us to go down to freaking Miami and do a podcast and you know, put us up someplace, you know, put us on a plane. We'll head down there.

Mike (01:07:31.004)
I think, uh, I wasn't, I think she was in Naples, which is not far from Tampa. Yeah.

Bill (01:07:33.678)
Was it Naples? Yeah, okay. Yeah, I couldn't, yeah, I couldn't remember, but yeah, it just, it was, it's funny. I mean, we've ended up with, and we've get majority of the people who follow us and listen to us are, you know, in the US, but we get some UKs and Canada, some different parts of the, you know, other different areas. But yeah, just different spots across the country, we get these, you know, individuals that'll...

@chrisdreisbach (01:07:37.514)
There you go.

Bill (01:07:58.638)
you know, again, start interacting with us. I'm like, oh, you're in Florida, you're in Utah, you're in wherever it is. And it's so much fun to me to, and both of us, I know, to just hear about, you know, how's recovery here or what are you guys doing there? And I mean, you got all these different things going on, you know, in Lancaster, PA, you know, which is crazy to me in a good way, you know? So.

@chrisdreisbach (01:08:21.362)
Yeah, well, you're welcome to come over anytime, man. We got an open door policy in Lancaster. We love everybody.

Mike (01:08:24.545)
Right.

Mike (01:08:28.253)
I know there's a really cool punk rock store down there. Ain't angry young and poor. Yes. Really? It was, uh, I think they're still open.

@chrisdreisbach (01:08:31.954)
There is? There is. I don't remember what it's called. Yes. I think it closed. I think it's gone. I think. It could be.

Could be wrong. I could be totally wrong if you are open and listening to this thing. I apologize.

Bill (01:08:48.3)
Ha ha!

Mike (01:08:49.5)
I know I've ordered some stuff from them.

Bill (01:08:51.226)
Hey, I'll tell you what, if that particular punk rock shop is open and we just kind of said it was closed, we'll even do a free advertisement for you to make up for that, how's that? Yeah, feel free. But yeah, so I mean, all these different things that I didn't, I'll be honest, I didn't take a look at your Instagram page in too much detail.

@chrisdreisbach (01:08:52.324)
Well, that's pretty cool.

@chrisdreisbach (01:09:03.586)
There you go. Now I feel like I have to go on Google after this and check.

Bill (01:09:16.45)
And I know I had you tagged on it and Shannon tagged on it. And I'll do the same thing, obviously in our description. If people hit your Instagram page, can they, can they get in touch with you for all these different things, or is there like a different website you want me to put in there to like compasses all those things you just talked about?

@chrisdreisbach (01:09:33.63)
Uh, you know, I think chrisdrysbach.com is sort of under construction, but I think it has the meat and potatoes on there. Uh, you could just reach out to me on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, any of those things, uh, some variation of Chris or Christopher Driesbach on each one. Uh, but I do, you know, respond to messages and, and always happy to make new friends. And I'm really thankful to be a part of this podcast in general and meet you guys.

Bill (01:10:00.11)
Yeah, exactly. But yeah, I will have, in worst case scenario, I will have obviously your Instagram tag on there and yeah, anyone who wants to. If somebody somehow can't find Chris, get in touch with us. I mean, and we'll get in touch with him for you. But yeah, I mean, that's what this thing is all about. And we just wanna be able to, and I joke about it, getting people to kind of whore out their stuff. But that's the point. People don't know what's going on unless you talk about it.

There could be somebody in, again, what you say, one of these little cornfield towns in Pennsylvania that had no clue what's going on, you know, two towns over where you're sitting at. So it's always good to get that information out. So what else, Chris? I mean, what else do you want people to know either about you or the documentary or anything coming up, anything else that you wanna talk about, promote, or just, again, get information out to people?

@chrisdreisbach (01:10:30.85)
Exactly.

@chrisdreisbach (01:10:55.746)
Wow. I mean, it really depends on your interest. We have a lot of varied stuff going on if you couldn't tell from that list. But, you know, if you are a wrestling fan, definitely scope out the Three Legacies Wrestling YouTube channel. I think we're also streaming on Premiere Streaming Network. And even if you're not a wrestling fan, it's pretty cool to watch guys, you know, fresh out of the academy, kind of learning, really stepping up and taking advantage of, you know, their youth and...

Bill (01:11:02.973)
Hahaha!

Mike (01:11:03.972)
Mm-hmm.

@chrisdreisbach (01:11:25.494)
their dreams and stepping out and doing those things. I just love supporting everybody trying to achieve their dreams. And if you look at life from that perspective, you know, even you can become a professional wrestling fan because you can watch these guys doing what they love the most, getting to live out their dreams and how could you not love something like that?

Mike (01:11:31.844)
Mm-hmm.

Bill (01:11:45.602)
Right? Yeah, exactly. Exactly.

@chrisdreisbach (01:11:48.074)
Right. And, you know, helping people stay out of jail, obviously really important to me, because jail's no fun. I didn't love it. I didn't love any of the four trips I took. I haven't asked for a

Mike (01:11:53.732)
Mm hmm. Right.

Bill (01:11:58.255)
Hahaha

Mike (01:12:00.844)
I only took one, but I'm not a fan either.

Bill (01:12:03.278)
Right.

@chrisdreisbach (01:12:04.158)
Yeah, I didn't meet too many people who loved it, you know, and I met a lot, a lot of people.

Mike (01:12:07.852)
No. I don't know. There's a few of them in there. It's kind of their lifestyle now.

Bill (01:12:13.478)
Hehehehe

@chrisdreisbach (01:12:14.718)
Yeah, but I, you know, I even look at that and I have a member of my family who's like that who spent the majority of his adult life in jail and he's, you know, creeping on 60 now. And he was one of the smartest guys I knew, you know, one of the most caring, you know, people who looked out for me even in those early days when I was starting to get involved in drugs. And I look at that and I think of like wasted potential, you know, because he, he could have gone on and done greater things than I've been doing.

Mike (01:12:24.377)
Right.

Mike (01:12:28.592)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:12:44.225)
great.

@chrisdreisbach (01:12:45.015)
Man, just... You think about that. Yeah, I think about stuff like that.

Mike (01:12:51.68)
Right. Absolutely. Well, and that's, I'm sure part of the motivation to keeping people out of that system.

@chrisdreisbach (01:12:57.522)
Yeah. So even if you are comfortable being in jail, because I got awfully comfortable with it, and it sickens me to even think about, but, you know, I was resigned to the fact that I was on that vicious cycle for the rest of my life. I was only 21 and I thought forever I was doomed to let this lie. Yep.

Mike (01:13:14.34)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is all I got. Yep. Absolutely. We've all been there, you know, to different degrees and whatever, whatever our own personal hells were, we figured, well, this is it, man. This is what I fucking, this is the way I'm going to live. And it's not, it's a lie. Like many of the lies that we tell ourselves.

@chrisdreisbach (01:13:33.67)
Exactly. And really being loud about recovery in whatever way it is we can is the most important thing on earth. Cause back in 2007, man, I didn't even realize recovery was a thing. I just thought it was a bunch of crusty old dudes sitting around the basement, like being mad about their lawnmower, you know, like that's all I thought. And like, yeah. And how many years of my life did I lose? Because that was my opinion.

Mike (01:13:45.516)
Right?

Mike (01:13:49.108)
Yup. Being pissed off that they couldn't party anymore. Right.

Bill (01:13:51.27)
Ha ha.

@chrisdreisbach (01:14:02.998)
of recovery. So I want to do everything I can to make sure that there is nobody out here in America or the UK or wherever struggling like I used to struggle thinking that that's the end.

Mike (01:14:03.06)
Mm hmm. Right.

Mike (01:14:11.268)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:14:15.86)
Right. Absolutely, man. Yeah. Turn that light on and there's no more fucking darkness.

@chrisdreisbach (01:14:22.298)
Mm-hmm. Come join us, man, it's beautiful.

Bill (01:14:26.158)
Yeah, and that's the other thing too, that like you said, not necessarily knowing that all of these things are out there. I mean, I think to some extent, that's exactly, that's the same for all of us. Some of us know that it's there, but have no clue that how good life can be. But we always talk about, you know, hey, life still happens, life on life's terms, all those different things. But knowing that we now have the mindset, the tools and the literally the ability, the mental ability to handle whatever life throws at us.

Mike (01:14:26.163)
It is.

Bill (01:14:55.434)
And actually what we think might be a quote unquote bad thing or a challenge. You know, we turn around and like, Hey, not only deal with this, but I could turn this into something positive. And then on top of that show this guy next to me and look, look what I did. I don't have a perfect life, but it beats the fuck out of what I had, you know, 14 years ago. I mean, it just, it is sobriety is a wonderful thing. It's not perfect. And we're at, we're never out here to tell people that it's perfect, but man, it's a damn good.

It's a damn good thing and it's a hell of a lot better than anything, anything that, especially towards the end, that any one of us had. I know that much.

@chrisdreisbach (01:15:32.754)
Yeah, yeah, I can't argue that, not even a little bit.

Bill (01:15:36.239)
So one thing Chris that in worst case scenario when you got these other documentaries or these get togethers or things like that you got going on whether they be in Tampa or as you start growing like that and we tell everyone this that we've had on if they're doing projects doing things anything new that they're having let us know even if it's as much as us you know promoting it on Instagram or letting people know or

I'm following both you and Shannon on Instagram now and I'd be more than happy to share those things. It's an opportunity for us, if nothing else, to try to give back a little bit and help you guys give back even further. So by all means, keep in touch and let us know.

@chrisdreisbach (01:16:17.79)
Absolutely, I appreciate that entirely. And, you know, why don't we, you know, after this, let's chat. Let's talk about bringing Night of Recovery out to Cleveland and, you know, Milwaukee, wherever else, you know. Why not?

Bill (01:16:28.514)
Yeah, Cleveland, I know would be would be a good time because we got I think we there's a we as the two of us have I've got more of a sober community and in Cleveland where we got sober. I think Cleveland would be a wonderful, wonderful place to put like put something like that together. Don't you Mike.

Mike (01:16:33.278)
Mm-hmm.

Mike (01:16:47.28)
Absolutely. Yeah. We got plenty of people here, man, to help you out. Definitely.

Bill (01:16:51.254)
Yeah, I think it'd be a good time. So, all right. So any, anything else, Chris, one last opportunity for you to take a swing at this, any, anything else you want to get out to people before we wrap up.

@chrisdreisbach (01:17:03.346)
Yeah, I just really hope you guys watch those night of recoveries and repurpose if you can, and really just love it. Reach out to us. Let us know how you feel about it. I know everybody that was involved in all those projects, put a lot of heart and a lot of soul and a lot of time and a lot of effort and a lot of love and a lot of energy and a lot of everything. So we love hearing from people. We love reviews. We love critics. We love, we love everybody.

So truly, if you love recovery, if you don't love recovery, reach out, talk to me, talk to us, talk to my friends, become my friend. And you know, just thanks again for sharing your community with me for this evening and you know, this last hour and some change. It's really, it's been an honor.

Bill (01:17:36.666)
Hehehehe

Mike (01:17:37.922)
Mm-hmm.

Bill (01:17:46.99)
Not a problem. It's a, yeah, sorry. All the thanks is on this side of the table, Chris, definitely. Little office space reference there for you. All right, so Chris, it's time for you and I to be quiet for a couple of seconds here because Mike is gonna run us out of here, okay?

Mike (01:17:48.236)
Yeah, it's pretty cool, man.

Mike (01:17:53.393)
Hehe

@chrisdreisbach (01:17:57.022)
Love it, love it.

@chrisdreisbach (01:18:05.161)
You got it.

Mike (01:18:06.372)
Cool. All right, everybody. Well, thanks for listening to another episode of sober not mature. We want to thank Chris and Shannon for coming on and sharing their stories and all that good stuff that they're doing out there. Definitely check their stuff out cause I'm going to do it. And now it is that time people, it is that time. It is time for you to fuck off. Then keep fucking off. Keep fucking off. Do you get to a gate with a sign on it saying you cannot fuck off past here? Climb over that gate. Dream the impossible dream.

and keep fucking off forever.

Bill (01:18:38.206)
So, Chris, that is what people parrot back to us all the time. People always message us and like a little message message, nice, great thing that, oh yeah, keep fucking off or they'll be fucked all the time too. It's just, it's fun. Yeah, we started that. Our sister gave us that, got long, long time ago now. But yeah, Mike's favorite part because he says he knows we're done and my favorite part because it makes me laugh every damn time. So.

@chrisdreisbach (01:18:43.714)
I love it.

Bill (01:19:06.638)
But yeah, Chris, 100% thank you. Obviously, if Shannon listens back to this, thank you, Shannon, both of you guys for coming on and we appreciate Shannon taking the time out of his night and possibly even getting yelled at by his wife to be on here. So that's even the extra effort. But yeah, we will all talk soon. Chris, hang out, we'll talk for a minute afterwards. Everyone else, thank you again. And Mike, I'll talk to you soon. I love you, brother. Goodbye.

Mike (01:19:06.732)
Hehe

@chrisdreisbach (01:19:25.41)
Truly.

Mike (01:19:34.648)
Love you too, man.

Bill (01:19:36.376)
Bye.

@chrisdreisbach (01:19:40.47)
See you.