My guest this week is Gregg Champion
Gregg has been in recovery for over 20 years after nearly ruining his life with drugs and alcohol.
These days he’s a Recovery Coach and a highly valued member of the Recovery Community in California. 7 years ago he founded Start Up Recovery which is a transitional living facility built on his own values as well as lessons learned during his own recovery.
In this episode
- You heard Gregg say that he was an alcoholic before he picked up his first drink – that’s a very interesting statement which would apply to many drinkers with unresolved childhood trauma
- Greggs father was killed in a car crash when he was four which left him feeling angry and abandoned
- As he grew older he became addicted to anger, fantasy and attention
- That all changed when he took his first drink as a young teenager, a drink that soothed him and took the pain away
- At 15 years old he was crossing the border into Mexico to drink in bars and chat up girls – he just wanted to be a grown up
- Gregg chose to study at Arizona State University as it was known to be a party university
- Alcohol and Drugs were always present during his College years but it was normalised and as Gregg says there were always people “worse than me – doing more booze, more drugs”
- These comparisons are so dangerous – why do we always compare ourselves with people who are in worse trouble - when we should be comparing our ourselves to who we could be if we were leading our best life
- Even if alcohol doesn’t destroy us it will always prevent us from reaching our potential
- Gregg topped off his University years by getting his first DUI on Graduation Night…
- That set the tone for the following 2 years when we was arrested 7 times!
- He went from overnight stays in prison to 2 night stays and finally the prospect of a 5 years sentence.
- Gregg got a job in broadcasting which involved shift work ending at 3am which meant he was mixing with other users after work
- He got into a cycle of selling drugs and then over-using and over-drinking to overcome the shame of being a drug dealer!
- He got busted at an airport carrying drugs – the judge told him that if he saw him again he would be activating his 5 year suspended sentence.
- Gregg partied on regardless but got busted a second time by an undercover cop at a party
- Back in a jail cell he heard a voice telling him to call his mother – which he did
- She told him to go to church so he went, he went to confession and told the priest everything
- He finally realised that Greggs Way was never going to work so he listened to the priest and went to an AA meeting
- It was his moment of truth – the time he had to decide between two paths
- He chose sobriety and his AA sponsor told him to take boxing lessons – he would need a punchbag for all the anger which would emerge in early sobriety!
- Gregg did 90 meetings in 90 days – as he said when we stop using there is a great gaping hole in our life that we need to fill with something
- We can fill it with 90 meetings and follow the 12 steps or
- We can join a sobriety community – go to tribesober.com and hit join our tribe if you’d like to check out our membership program
- As Gregg says we have to find our Sober Tribe
- He stayed sober for 3 years by using the first 3 steps but couldn’t bring himself to open the Pandoras box of step 4
- One day he listened to a speaker at the AA meeting and the things he heard really resonated with him
- The guy had been sexually abused at a young age and Gregg was able to finally admit to himself that this had happened to him as well
- Gregg began to work with this person who told him that he was blocked because although he had sobriety he hadn’t got recovery
- It’s so true that there is so much more to recovery than not drinking!
- I loved the expression that Gregg used:-
“Not Drinking is the ticket to the Show, the Band hasn’t even started playing yet!” - So his new sponsor used a process called Uncover/Discover and Discard which you heard Gregg describing during the interview
- Applying this framework to all 19 things on Greggs “shame” list liberated him
- He now uses this process with his own clients and calls it "Unpacking the Backpack of Shame"
- In 2016 Greggs media career was stalling so he began to look at alternatives
- All he wanted to do was to be paid for being himself
- Sharing his story at an AA meeting one day he met a lady who told him he would be a great group facilitator
- This encouraged him to put together a talk and visiting rehabs to share tell his story
- He trained as a recovery coach and used his experience to put together a coaching curriculum
- 7 years ago his coaching business evolved into a Transitional Living Facility
- They do 1.2.1 and group coaching to address that all important question “I’m Sober Now What?”
- He has a Wellness Director facilitating practices like breathwork, acupuncture and soundbaths
- Each client has a therapist
- Of course Community is at the heart of everything and every day starts and ends with a meeting
- You can find out more about Gregg by going to his website which is startuprecovery.com and he is on social media
- Instagram link is here - Twitter is here
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This episode is sponsored by the Tribe Sober Membership Program. If you want to change your relationship with alcohol then sign up today
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