Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Bryce, thank you so much for joining our show today.
Usually I give our guests a softball, but I want to start with something very different with you. Would you be willing to tell us how your story started and share the low point in which you started this incredible journey?
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. There's one memory that kind of comes to mind.
It's both the low point and, in hindsight, the high point. Kind of my last, really, seven years on this path that I've been going down. And that starts off sitting in the back of a paddy wagon. I had just gotten handcuffs put on me, and I was getting regressed from a behavioral modification rehab here in Denver, Colorado, called peer one. And it was a therapeutic community intended to help men uncover the underlying themes and causes that were ailing them in their life as it. As it related to their behavior.
So I'm in the paddy wagon, and I'm sitting there, and I can't help but almost have tears of joy, because although I knew I was headed to prison at that moment, I knew for me that this was the turning point in my life. And I had a decision to make, that I could either choose the path of abstinence and sobriety and recovery and a life, or I could continue down the path of destruction and turmoil and stress and resentment and death.
So, for me, it was like, clear as day, the clouds parting. Even though this was that night, it was just like this revelation that I had.
And I knew at that moment that I was going to take my life into this direction and, you know, dedicate myself to becoming the person who not only who I desired to be, but who I know that I should be and can be and aspire to be. So for me, that was like, you know, they like to say in addiction recovery, you know, what's your rock bottom or your breakthrough moment? And for me, that was kind of that moment. And although I had a lot of work to do from that point moving forward, for me, that was like the big bang in your face. If it had to be one thing, it would be that.
[00:02:50] Speaker A: And this was both a beginning and an end for you.
What did that next step look like? What did that new journey look like? How did it start?
[00:03:02] Speaker B: So, as any new journey kind of unfolds, there's a lot of uncertainty and unknowns.
I knew for a fact that because I was being regressed from a treatment facility and I had been sentenced to eight years to the Department of corrections, I knew for sure that I'd be ending up in prison now. A whole slew of ideas and uncertainty and unknowns kind of came rushing in. You don't really know what to expect. I'd never been to prison before. Obviously, I'd been arrested many times and been to jail, but this was kind of a different thing. But what I did know was that I knew that I could take the lessons that I had learned from this treatment facility that I had been at for the better part of a year and a half and apply those things regardless of what the circumstances that lie ahead would be. And so that looked like staying true to who I wanted to become, embodying the core values and the characteristics and the traits of the person who I aspired to be. Knowing that this next, however long, whether it was a year or two years or three years, would take, aspiring to do the things that the person that once I had gotten out of prison would do, knowing that it's only temporary. So starting to set the stage, build the foundation and plan and prepare for the person who I ultimately wanted to become.
[00:04:43] Speaker A: What did that look like? What were those plans?
[00:04:45] Speaker B: So, at the time, it was like, really just kind of understanding who I was as a person. And I think over the course of developing self love and self esteem, the only way that you can develop self esteem is by doing esteemable shit, right? Like, you can't develop self esteem if you're out here, you know, doing drugs, committing crimes, being a degenerate, you know, running amok. You can't do. You can't develop self esteem. So the first thing I had to focus on was what are going to be the characteristics? What are the habits of esteemable people?
And so I had to really develop those things. It was, you know, getting back to my roots about, like, you know, reading, self discovery, learning, communicating effectively, being honest, being transparent, meditation, focusing on myself, listening to myself, listening to, you know, observing the emotional responses that I was having, and instead of reacting impulsively, responding effectively. And so from there, really, that take that took, you know, and I had been working on that over the course of my time in this therapeutic community. So I had some good skills already built up, but really, it was just like, realigning myself with those values and those characteristics.
And then I think once you kind of tap into that sort of energy and you start to behave in a way that is congruent with the person you're trying to become over a long enough period of time, you really start to elevate your frequency, and things start to happen. You become more creative. You start to see solutions to problems. You start to communicate in a different way with different people and attract different people. And so really, that's what it was. It was like doing the fundamentals on a day to day basis and taking care of myself and developing that self love so that I could be open to opportunities that light ahead.
And then what that looked like was, after practicing this for several months after being incarcerated, you know, I started to meet up with the people who were kind of on the same path as me and really embodied the same values and characteristics as I was trying to practice. And then that really uncovered, you know, a slew of problems. Right. Problems that I was seeing, you know, that other people were facing. Right. And being incarcerated, you see a lot of people who are decent human beings that just didn't have any family support, no financial support, no community, no connection. And then walking down this path of recovery and sobriety, that's the core antidote, right? Is community and connection. I know most people have heard Johann Hari's talk on addiction, and the antidote to addiction is connection. And so you start to see areas in which you can kind of inject yourself or offer up advice or be there for somebody or listen to somebody, and then sort of these ideas kind of come about. And then that's really what started me on the path to kind of what I'm doing now and being of service and giving back and wanting to help support people who are, you know, struggling with mental health and substance abuse issues.
[00:08:04] Speaker A: You said self love.
Why is that such an important part of the puzzle?
[00:08:09] Speaker B: If you don't have the ability to love yourself, then you have no shot to be able to share love with other people.
And ultimately, I think the human experience is about sharing love.
So in order to take the first principles approach, that is the prerequisite to be able to share with others. And, I mean, you have to fill your cup first before you can overflow your cup.
[00:08:41] Speaker A: That's a beautiful segue into community.
I would say the basis of community is this trade and participation in giving and receiving.
What does that look like? What does building community look like for you?
[00:09:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I think that's a multifaceted question. I think initially, it's a one to one approach.
So being able to be present with somebody and listen to what they're saying, and, I mean, you can look at being of service in many different ways, but I think some of the core components of just humanity in general is just like, listening and actually hearing what somebody has to say and being there for them emotionally, physically, spiritually, what have you. So initially, it was a lot of that it was kind of developing that skill not only with myself, but then with other people.
And seeing the reciprocal energy that I gained and the fulfillment that I gained from doing that really caused me to want to be able to do that with more people and share that with more people and help more people. And so that's really kind of what I set out to do, was, how can I leverage the energy that I inject to help thousands or tens of thousands or millions of people? And so that's really.
[00:10:23] Speaker A: Let me stop you. You said something, I think, quite incredible. You said that, and I'm paraphrasing, so keep me honest. If my understanding is correct, but you said that on your journey, you found that the process of truly listening, not hearing, but listening, and then also sharing part of yourself, that was part of your journey to both heal and towards your future accomplishments.
I don't think that's a. Did I. Did I get that right?
[00:10:55] Speaker B: 100%.
[00:10:57] Speaker A: I don't think that's something I've heard before, that listening can be healing. That's.
I feel goosebumps. I gotta stop you on that. Tell me more. How does listening heal?
[00:11:13] Speaker B: I believe that we as a society are so distracted and so removed from the fundamental experience of life that it has become kind of taboo.
And indirectly, I found through my experience that this, for me, was a healing experience. By doing these things, I felt a certain way. And so if I can share my experience with somebody else and it affects them in the same positive manner, and I can reciprocate through my learnings and be able to help somebody else out, not only does it make me feel good about myself, but it also makes me feel good to know that. I mean, it's kind of like the parable of, like, teach a man to fish, or give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime, it's really that same thing. But I think at the end of the day, people want to overcomplicate, you know, all of this stuff about, you know, sobriety and recovery. And really, it boils down to the same things that were taught, really, as children, or most of us are taught as children. Right? It's like, be honest, work hard, show up, like, be consistent, have intensity, be passionate about what you do, find love in what you do. And I think as you embody those kind of traits, like, you start to develop a sense of, like, hey, what you resonate with. And then that passion kind of feeds through your soul, feeds through you in these interactions. And so, really, I kind of stumbled across it. But, you know, I think a lot of it I can give a testament to. I was practicing Buddhism in prison a lot, and I think there are a lot of components about Buddhism that really reign true with the type of person that I was trying to become. You know, rather than being very reactive, it's being more observant. And, you know, when you are meditating, it's like that's literally what you're doing. You're observing things. And so if you're actually paying attention, then you can be more mindful about your response. And then in having that intentional response, you get more energy from that. And the beneficiary on the other side of that gets more energy from that, too. So it was really kind of an indirect thing that I learned. But, you know, it's the simple stuff that matters, right.
[00:13:46] Speaker A: That's wonderful. And on your journey, you learned how to connect and on an individual basis through listening. But then you came up with an idea that this is powerful, this is scalable, and you set out, keep me honest here, to share that insight and build something greater.
[00:14:10] Speaker B: One of the things that I noticed, especially in this industry and in this space, is that there's a very low success rate. Why? Why? And I think there's a lot of people who have set out to try to combat that and create positive effects in that area of having more likelihood for success and how people define success and actually what that means.
And so that's really kind of what led me down this path, was saying, okay, well, there's a problem. I know there's a solution. There's a million different. There's an infinite number of solutions to this problem. Let's probably take the things that aren't working and get rid of them. Let's throw them away and try to apply some of the things that are working and really double down on those. And so that's really what's caused me to go down this path. It's, you know, intentionally wanting to, like, do good and do better than what the status quo was. And then it's this constant reiterating. And, you know, what were the insights.
[00:15:13] Speaker A: That you had in mentioning? Look, the status quo is not great.
[00:15:19] Speaker B: So I think the biggest one, or at least the first one that comes to mind, there's this book called the Coddling of the American Mind by Jonathan Haidt.
For me, I found that so many people in their early recovery process, we're being enabled by family support, clinical staff.
You know, this industry is very, I think there's a fine line between coddling and enabling and empathy.
Right? So there's a difference between being empathetic towards somebody and coddling somebody. But I think those lines are often blurred in the addiction treatment space. And for me, it was like the therapeutic community that I went to. Pier one was very militaristic. It's a behavioral modification rehab. So it was very structured, very.
It was a tough program, and it wasn't for everybody. But taking some of the aspects that I learned there and really trying to apply that to this all pathways approach. Meeting people where they're at, but not coddling them, I think, was one of the biggest insights that I gained. It was saying, like, how can I still be empathetic but also not take any shit? Because at the end of the day, this is black and white, and you either relapse or you don't. So what are the inputs to get the outcomes that you desire?
And so for me, there's a lot of different mechanisms that we implement, not only personally, in my own experience, but that we implement in our programming. And it's, you know, the same stuff that we talked about earlier. It's communicating effectively. It's moving your body. It's communicating with people in a community that you resonate with.
You know, I live here in Denver, Colorado, and it's a very outdoorsy place. So it's getting outside, it's getting sunlight, it's walking, it's eating healthy food. It's the core basics of, like, Maslow's hierarchy of needs. You have a roof over your head. You have clothes on your back. Now it's like, okay, we got those things. Like, how do we get up the ladder? How do we go one more rung up the ladder? And it's just doing the things that. To go back to your point about self love, it's like, think about what your future self would want you to do right now and do those things. So it's pretty cut and dry, pretty simple.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: I think you're. I think you're being very, very humble.
I think these things aren't simple. And I think these are incredibly insightful comments. So don't undervalue what you have to say.
I actually haven't heard this school of thought, but it resonates to me personally that boundaries matter.
And in. If we are in vulnerable states, boundaries can be valuable.
So that resonates very strongly with me. You've taken these concepts and you've built communities. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing today. What are the communities that you're involved in today.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. So, like I mentioned, we have three different organizations. We have a sober living organization called Elevate Recovery Homes. So I'll start off and I'll kind of compartmentalize them and break them each down. But essentially, that was the first business that I started, and it really kind of the catalyst for me starting that was noticing that I had very dear and close friends who were, you know, struggling with relapses, going in and out of treatment, going in and out of sober living, and there really wasn't a solution that catered to them in the marketplace. And again, taking that entrepreneurial mindset and saying, like, cool, I think I can do this better and more effectively and really address the solutions that I think this core avatar needs. So that was the inception of elevate recovery homes. A lot of what we did, I'm part of the Tony Robbins community and some other, like, coaching communities. A lot of what they practice in those communities is clarity, finding clarity, and what it is that you aspire to do, what outcomes you want to achieve, and really going after results based outcomes. So at the end of the day, that really kind of transpired into us starting and was a catalyst into us starting a clinical practice, which is a joint commissioned, accredited, licensed behavioral health treatment center. The reasoning for doing this was that in that coaching that we were doing that one on one coaching and group coaching with our guys in elevate, it became apparent that the industry wasn't living up to, and I don't want to say industry as a whole because I don't want to generalize, but sort of the circles that we were in were mediocre, and they were doing the bare bones and the minimum viable product, if you will. And that's not what we're going after. We're not going after an MVP. We want to help change people's lives. We want to create impact.
So I noticed that I had to probably just do it on my own. So that was the catalyst for me starting this treatment center. And now we have, like I mentioned, a fully accredited joint commission, accredited and licensed Behavioral Health treatment center, which offers, you know, multiple levels of treatment across what they call the continuum of care.
The continuum of care is basically that ContinuUm in which somebody is receiving therapeutic services, and there's different stages within that, all the way down from, you know, medical detox, all the way through outpatient.
And so what we do is we provide clinical services to clients, you know, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient. We are a managed service organization for a number of other organizations so that they can understand the framework, going back to the clarity component for how to actually run a successful peer led organization. And I can touch on this peer coaching aspect with a nonprofit, so forgive me if I'm jumping around a lot, but really the core focus of true north recovery services is to provide that clinical support, provide resources, case management, individual therapy, family therapy, what have you. And then, as I mentioned, we have a nonprofit and that's called all the way well and all the way well, puts on programs and events and activities, and is also a scholarship organization to help people who cannot afford to get into treatment or into post treatment care like sober living. So we do a lot of fundraising and we do, you know, we have all kinds of events where we raise money to help get people into the services that they require for recovery navigation.
And another component of that business is the peer coaching model. So come to find out, you know, early days in the elevate process when I was doing this one on one coaching and basically taking the things that I had been learning from my Tony Robbins coach and my other, you know, business coaches and mindset coaches and meditation coaches, was kind of boiling all those things down to give, again, some clarity to the guys so that they could accomplish the things that they wanted to mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, emotionally, relationship wise. What have you come to find out that was there's a thing called peer recovery coaching in this industry, and essentially people with lived experience to get certified are able to basically be accountability partners with other people who are walking down the path to meet them where they're at and provide them with skills and tools and resources to help them out along their path. So all the way well has an infrastructure of staff who helps provide those services, both in a group setting and in individual settings. So across those three entities, we really have the housing component, we have the clinical services component, and we have the coaching component to really establish like a cohesive ecosystem to help people really anywhere, anywhere they're at on that continuum of care, so that we can ultimately give them the highest likelihood for success and graduate our program and move into independent living and become self reliant and get back into good graces with their families and develop better relationships with not only their community members, but their families and their loved ones and live the lives that they aspire to live. So those are the real three core things that we're working on. And even though they're distinct entities, there's a lot of overlap and collaboration between the three.
[00:24:34] Speaker A: There's a few things that deeply resonate with me. One is this journey that you've taken from rock bottom to really being a community pillar, creating, supporting, servicing these communities deeply in need.
And the other, it's not just the individuals inside of your community, but you talked about the family and maybe just people who are not, maybe necessarily associated inside of a first or second circle, but they're living in the broader community.
What can they do to be more aware, to be more knowledgeable?
[00:25:19] Speaker B: That is a million dollar question.
You know, there is so much stigma still attached to this space and to addiction in general. And I think fortunately, over the past couple of years, there has been a lot of removal of that stigma in our communities because it truly does affect people from all different socioeconomic backgrounds, ethnicities, heritages, races, genders. Doesn't matter. And so people are becoming more attuned to the fact that addiction is a symptom and there's underlying causes to that, what they call the disease of addiction.
And so for the average Joe, what they can do is first and foremost, kind of what we talked about earlier is listen, hear people out.
Oftentimes, I think people don't know where to go for resources. And that's one of the biggest components is they don't know how to help.
I think there, I know, unfortunately for us, we live in Denver and it's a very progressive community as it relates to mental health and addiction, like most major metropolitan areas.
And so there are resources abundant. But obviously, you know, we live in a day and age where technology allows us to reach and find and research and build our own knowledge around these things. But still, that's one of the missions that we have that we aim to solve is like getting more resources into the hands of decision makers who can actually help individuals who are unable to find that themselves.
But I think first and foremost, it goes back to listening. What's truly ailing this person is it, do they need to speak with a professional? Like, do they need to speak with a clinician or a psychiatrist or their primary care physician or a nutritionist? Like, there's so many different levels to this. But ultimately, at the end of the day, I think just being open and honest and wanting to have a desire to learn and to understand is the first step for people is to say, like, this isn't an other than opportunity, right? This isn't like, hey, this is, those are those people. Like, we're all one community. So it's like developing knowledge and understanding around a what this disease does, how it affects people. And then I think people can make informed decisions on how they think they can help.
[00:28:00] Speaker A: You know, I think about firefighters. You know, they're great. Like, everybody loves a firefighter. There is a fire. They put it out totally. But if you're the person who stopped and listened, gave some advice, and the fire never started, did you drive any value? Maybe you didn't. Maybe you did. You don't know. And I think that undervalues the importance of preventative measures because you don't really know if they worked because nothing went wrong. But I think your message that I'm hearing loud and clear, and I want to really double down on it with our audience, is that stopping and listening and asking, how are you? No, how are you really and truly caring for the people around you in your community?
It can be the difference between life and death, and it can be the difference between five more years on dark path and the first step into recovery. So I just wanted to appreciate you and say thank you for your message here today and for the work and for the communities that you're building. Bryce, I want to ask you one last question.
If you had to go back and give 20 year old Bryce some advice, or any other 20 year old, what would you say?
[00:29:26] Speaker B: I've thought about this question before, and I've answered it different ways because as I mature and think about things in different ways through that maturation process, my advice also changes. In hindsight, I think today I would say you are enough.
You are enough. And you don't need to seek external validation.
[00:30:04] Speaker A: Tell you, I am goosebumps, shuddering and almost in tears just by those three words. You are enough. And I don't think we can say that enough to the people around you.
So really, my whole back is, I am feeling it deeply.
I see you, and you are enough. I think that's probably one of the three most powerful words you can say to a fellow human being. I deeply, deeply, deeply appreciate that.
[00:30:39] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm glad that resonates with you, because as I think about it, that's what would resonate with me as well. You're enough. You are love. You are light. You are love, man.
[00:30:51] Speaker A: Wow. Bryce, thank you so much for joining us today. I deeply appreciate your time and your message to our audience.
[00:30:58] Speaker B: Awesome. Well, thank you, Ari. I appreciate it. It was great being on here, and thank you for your time.
