Transforming Rock Bottom into a Stepping Stone: 12 Steps to Sobriety & Success

A guy who is here to show you that you can get out of that hole.

You just have to keep moving forward.

Rick Warner found himself living in a tool shed, addicted to drugs.

Every day of his life was spent getting high, doing drugs, passing out at night and doing it all over the next day until something changed.

Something happened.

And well, that would propel Rick Warner to where he is today.

A guy very successful in the real estate industry.

A guy who is using his past challenges as the fuel to light his fire and inspiring you to never give up on life.

Rick Warner is an awesome guy here to inspire you by simply sharing his story of how he got out of that hole and how he's created the life he has today.

This is episode 252 of Grit Grace and Inspiration.

What's up, my friend, and welcome to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

I'm your host, Kevin Lowe.

Twenty years ago, I awoke from a life-saving surgery only to find that I was left completely blind.

And since that day, I've learned a lot about life, a lot about living, and a lot about myself.

And here on this podcast, I want to share those insights with you.

Because, friend, if you are still searching for your purpose, still trying to understand why, or still left searching for that next right path to take, well, consider this to be your stepping stone to get you from where you are to where you want to be.

Do you ever feel like there's got to be more to life than this?

Yeah, maybe on the outside your life looks good.

But in reality, you are so unfulfilled with life.

You keep thinking that there has got to be something more, that you're meant to be doing more, but you don't know what that is or how to even make it happen.

Well, imagine if it was different.

Imagine if you got to wake up on Monday morning, full of enthusiasm, so excited for the day, because you are finally living in alignment with your life's purpose.

Well, friend, it's possible.

And that is why I created Discover Your Purpose, my signature one-on-one coaching session where we can dive deep into your life purpose.

If you are finally ready to make this the year that you start living out your truest potential, well, it's time that you discover your life's purpose.

To learn more, text the word discover to 5544.

Again, just text the word discover to 55444.

And with that, I hope you enjoy today's episode.

SPEAKER_01: I've had so many moments that were like turning points and crossroads and that kind of thing.

The biggest crossroad for me was when I was 20 years old, and my best efforts at life had landed me living in a tool shed, being the father of a little baby that I didn't want to be a dad to, addicted to cocaine and alcohol, and really my whole life surrounded was just around just getting high, recovering from getting high, figuring out how to get high again.

And how could I just be high all the time?

Like that was my best effort, got me to that point.

And this is despite having great parents and being taught right from wrong and no drug addiction or alcoholism in my family or anything.

Like somehow this is this is what where I ended up.

And all that was fine until it wasn't on um November 17th, 1989.

And all of a sudden I could see my life for what it really was, because I've been living in this like non-reality of like I'm doing pretty good, you know.

I mean, I really believe that.

And all of a sudden I could see my life for what it really was.

And I was like, oh my God, what happened here?

And what about this poor little baby who I'm his dad?

And oh my God, I'm gonna wake up tomorrow, even though I have this realization right now, I'm gonna wake up tomorrow and I'm gonna do it again.

And that, by the way, that's if I wake up, because I think I did too much and I might not make it through the night.

And so the next day, I got introduced to a 12-step program.

And, you know, my life has been forever different since then.

That was that was 34 years ago, actually last week.

You know, I mean, and everything that's happened since then, and there's been a lot of amazing things, but also a lot of life has happened since then.

But everything that's happened since that moment to right now, the foundation of who I am was born, you know, that night.

And it's been all about like, how do I, how do I undo what seemed like a completely undoable circumstance that I was, I felt like I was doomed to live for the rest of my life in that place, that I was completely stuck, that there was no way out.

And the idea that I I don't have to live that way anymore.

And, you know, it's been a long, long time.

So I don't know that that's a spark.

I don't even know if that answers your question, but that was the big crossroads, you know, and and the things that happened, especially those first days, weeks, and months of of learning how to live a life a different way.

There was just amazing, incredible, unbelievable things that happened that you just, they're just head scratchers.

And you go, well, what how did that, where did that guy come from?

How did that, how did you have that conversation in that moment, right when you needed it and all that stuff?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: I love it.

I love it.

Now I want to come back to that day, November 17th.

But talk to me, though, about what led you to this point in your life that you said you're living in a shed, you're you're doing drugs.

What even got you there?

SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, I don't know because, you know, I'm gonna call myself a pretty good kid.

I did start smoking cigarettes at the age of 12, if you can believe that.

And so, you know, smoking, but I wasn't doing any drugs or alcohol.

And then right before I turned 16, you know, I got high for the first time and I was like, this is awesome.

I cannot wait to do this again.

And while there's been so many things in my life where I said, I'm gonna do this again, and I never really followed up, I really followed up with doing drugs and alcohol.

You know what I mean?

Like I was great at it.

And uh, and so, you know, it was totally fun.

And but for me, and this isn't this is not most people.

Most people can have fun and use it for enhancing fun legitimately and take it or leave it.

And what happened for me was somewhere along the line, it went from being fun to just being necessary.

It was a coping mechanism.

And I mean, we could spend hours examining and re-examining, well, what was going on for Rick that he needed a coping mechanism?

And to be honest, I, you know, I've spent a fair amount of time looking at those things, and I'm still I'm a seeker, you know what I mean?

Like I'm I'm always I'm read, I constantly read books, personal development books, I do personal development programs.

I'm still very involved in 12-step work.

Like it's all I know there's work to be done.

And so, you know, what was it?

I I don't know.

You know what I mean?

There's so many different things that have led me to where I am, but but for me, it was it was necessary for me to just function.

I needed to have something in me, you know.

And um I I don't know, I don't know why, you know.

I remember there was this guy, there was this guy, Henry, that I met in a 12-step program.

He's passed away now.

But the question of why, uh to me or to a lot of people is like, uh, well, kind of, who cares?

Right.

He said, you know, I I think that what happens is that we uh before we get born, God lines everybody up and he gives them a number one to 10.

And then he goes, All right, all you sevens, you're alcoholics.

Like that's it.

Like it's like it's that random, you know?

And uh, you know, that may be true.

You know, a lot of people have a story that's like, oh man, my there was drug addiction and homelessness in our family, and there was, you know, all this really tragic, you know, child abuse and really tragic stuff.

I don't have any of that.

That's what I'm saying.

Like my best efforts really I did it all by myself.

This place that I ended up, you know.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, no, no.

Totally get it.

And I also totally get it.

Like sometimes we're like, gosh, we we we need a better story than this.

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, right.

I don't even have a good story.

I really don't.

You can you can edit that part out.

There's nothing, there's nothing, there's no there there, you know.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.

So now when when you talk about that time November 17th, how long had you been in this chapter of your life?

SPEAKER_01: Where I was totally just, you know, out of control, probably a couple years, you know.

I mean, I I was only, in total, I was only getting high for four years, right?

And probably the last two of it, you know, I just I just thought that the rules didn't, I think it was probably a typical teenager.

I thought the rules didn't apply to me and all this stuff.

And and one of the rules I didn't think applied to me was the laws of pregnancy.

And so my my high school girlfriend got pregnant, and I'm like, what are you talking about?

And man, I tell you what, I totally blamed her if you can believe that.

I'm embarrassed to say that, by the way.

But that is exactly what I thought.

I was resentful and um I was fearful.

And so I'm not uh a drug addict and alcoholic because I got a girl pregnant in high school, but it was one of those first opportunities for me to go, oh, here's my solution.

If it wasn't that, it was going to be something else.

Does that does that make sense?

Like it may have been a couple years later, but that was the first really hard example of like, oh, here's Rick not learning, you know, with no ability to deal with life on life's terms, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely.

Um so that's what I would say.

Somewhere in there was when I crossed over that plane.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, definitely.

Now, you said you were living in in the in the shed.

How did that come to be?

SPEAKER_01: Well, so my my son's mother, by the way, who I we're very close today.

My son's now 35 years old.

I've had a great opportunity to be a father to him because I did get sober when he was when he was one.

So he may dub, he's never seen me high or anything like that.

And his mother, who is a lovely, amazing, wonderful person.

I mean, really, she should be on your podcast.

She's just tremendous.

She really loved me and she gave me so many opportunities to get cleaned up.

And she was the one that was like, you really got to stop doing this.

And, you know, first I was in denial about it, and then I, and then I was like, oh, maybe she's right.

In fact, on my 20th birthday, I invited all my friends over.

We got totally, you know, messed up on drugs and alcohol because these are the people I hung out with.

And then I made this gri big grandiose speech of how, you know, I'm a father now and I'm gonna, I'm gonna get cleaned up, you know.

And of course I was high when I was making this announcement.

And I really thought that I could just decide to not do it anymore, and then it would be so.

And I lasted about a week.

It was so bad that even my son's mother was like, hey, maybe you smoke a little weed because you're kind of a dick.

You know what I mean?

And I I got high because I wanted to get high.

But basically, within a few weeks, I was off and running again, not coming home at night and blah, blah.

And so she said, uh, listen, I'm gonna start dating other people.

And I thought, well, I should probably move out then.

Uh because that would be awkward.

So anyway, I I was a golf instructor at a driving range, and there was um there was a tool shed out there that I'd helped build when we built the driving range.

And I built a little loft in there and put a sleeping bag and a mattress and a heater.

And to be honest, I was totally content to move into this tool shed.

I mean, I was just like, this is perfect.

Because what I really wanted was no responsibility.

What I really wanted was for her to say, yeah, I'm gonna start dating other people.

What I really wanted was to not have to be a dad anymore.

I mean, I just wanted to run away from everything and all of my responsibilities, you know?

And so the tool shed was perfect for that.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Wow, wow, wow, wow.

Now, how long were you in the tool shed for it?

SPEAKER_01: Right.

So I lasted about 30 days.

Actually, I moved into the tool shed the day of the earthquake in in 1989.

So that was the World Series.

I don't know if you remember that, but there was how old are you?

SPEAKER_00: I was three at that point.

So you're you're almost my son's age.

This is beautiful.

SPEAKER_01: Yes.

Okay.

So you don't remember the earthquake, but there was this big earthquake in 1989 in San Francisco.

It was actually centered in Watsonville, and it was crazy.

And so just coincidentally, it that's the same exact day that I happened to move into the tool shed.

And so it was exactly 30 days that I lived in there, you know, getting high and drunk.

And then I got sober, and then for the first 10 months of my sobriety, I lived in that tool shed.

So I lived in there for almost a year.

And so I, you know, I don't, I'm reluctant to call myself having been homeless.

I was like advanced homeless, like I had a roof over my head, uh, but you know, I didn't have a bathroom.

There was a porta potty out there.

I used the porta potty, and then I got showers.

I took showers at the YMCA.

So I had my$20 a month membership at the YMCA, and I would go take showers there.

Yeah, it was uh that's that's what happened.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Wow, wow, wow.

Now, so at this point, I asked you to take me back to November 17th when you said was kind of a turning point.

What was different about this day?

What happened on this day that makes you remember that day?

SPEAKER_01: I think that what what had happened up till that point was that I think the cycle kind of went like this.

Wow.

I really do not like my life.

I really am in pain.

I'm really afraid.

I'm really resentful.

Now, I don't know that I was I had clarity around that, right?

I I think that I'm looking back, I'm giving you hindsight of you know what was really going on for me internally after I've reflected and done a lot of writing and a lot of work and a personal inventory around what was what was going on for me.

But the internal mechanism was fear, resentment, selfishness, dishonesty.

And how that manifested itself was discomfort and anger and depression and whatever.

And how I solved it was to get high, right?

Whether drinking or doing drugs.

So that was the cycle.

And it worked every time.

I would feel anything.

I I was gonna say I would feel bad and I would get high.

I would feel good and I would get high.

Like I wanted to just not feel, basically.

And so that worked every time until November 17th.

And that was, you know, what they describe in the program, a moment of clarity where I could see my life for what it really was.

That's what I was describing to you, versus normally I would just get high or drunk, and it was like, ah, okay, good.

Right.

And on this night, no relief.

It didn't matter how much I put in me, I couldn't numb myself.

I could only see myself for reality.

And it was a gift.

It was a gift to see with absolute clarity of what was really going on versus how I saw myself all the other times.

Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: Oh, absolutely.

And it's funny because, you know, a few months later when I was part of my process of getting cleaned up is to clean up the messes of my past, the things, the places where I've harmed people and so forth.

And so I was doing that with my mom, and I said, Hey, you know, what was it like for you?

And she goes, Well, it was like this.

Every time I spoke to you, it was like you had no sense or in touch with reality at all.

Because we lived 200 miles apart.

So we it was basically on the phone.

She didn't see me regularly.

Okay.

But it was like you you just had no sense of reality.

You were just, you were living in la la land.

And of course, I didn't think that.

If you'd asked me the time, I'd have said I'm pretty, pretty good guy doing pretty good things.

You know what I mean?

Like I really, I really had no idea how messed up I was.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Wow.

Wow, wow, wow.

Now, so did you go through AA?

SPEAKER_01: I did.

I did.

Yeah.

Now so this is where it gets a little dicey because AA is anonymous, and I want to respect the traditions of Alcoholics Anonymous, which is anonymity in press, radio, and films.

This is technically none of those things, but at the same time, it kind of is.

But I've already, I guess I've already broken that in anonymity.

So what I will say is that I am just a member of AA.

I do not speak for AA.

Everybody has their own experience.

I'm always, if anybody's listening and they are struggling, put in the show notes, whatever my, you know, give you my contact number.

Anybody's allowed to call me and go, hey, I'm, I need some help.

I will help anybody.

But I want to be clear, I do not speak for AAIM, but I am a product of having worked the program and uh and done the steps.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.

Amazing.

Well, I can say you're you're not the first guest on on the podcast who who has gone through AA and done the 12 steps.

And I just want to say simply applause to you for putting up the fight because it couldn't have been easy.

SPEAKER_01: Well, I I appreciate that.

And I know that that is coming from the right place.

My reluctance around receiving that is let's see, what is going on for me here?

Because I'm it's funny.

What it was a very kind thing that you just said.

So I want to like, okay, let's break this down.

Why am I why am I pushing back on this?

I think that for me, it is such an unlikely story.

And knowing, like, I I'm so good at quitting things.

And I when I say quitting things, I don't mean quitting drugs and alcohol.

I mean quitting everything else.

Right?

In other words, if it gets hard at all, I'm out.

I I don't have, or I or at least my old story of myself was that I would quit.

I'll give you an example.

That first night on November 18th, I thought there was a meeting at a restaurant in a town that I was in.

And so I went into this restaurant and it wasn't, it wasn't there.

So kind of a funny story, but it wasn't there.

And so literally my very first thought was, well, AA doesn't work.

I mean, even even though there I didn't even get to AA, right?

And but I'm just such a natural quitter.

I I joke when I tell my story that I'm like, I'm if you think you're a good quitter, I'm a better quitter.

I'm like an Olympic gold quitter.

Like I'm the best quitter you've ever met.

If you know what I mean.

And so knowing that about myself and the idea that I'm still sitting here having stayed clean this whole time, I have a real reluctance around crediting that to me in any way.

Right.

I credit it to this higher power thing that I thought was total BS when I got to the program.

I credit it to the people that helped me, but I can't really it's hard for me to receive it for myself.

Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, it it does.

It does.

And I mean, I totally respect that 100%.

I want to ask you about something.

I I read it and I want you to give me the story around it before we start kind of moving forward after that moment, after getting clean.

I want to back up.

I read something that that you said when you were 12 years old.

You were watching a train go by and it changed your your perspective on life.

Would you share with me that story?

SPEAKER_01: Well, yeah, yeah.

This is I don't know where this story belongs, except for it's kind of it's entertaining.

But when I was 12, I lived in the Central Valley, and you know, this is 1982.

Okay.

So it was a different time.

I'm a Gen X guy.

This was back in the you know, summertime.

Parents, you know, were like, hey, get out of the house, don't come back till the lights are on at the, you know, and the whatever.

And so it was like you're, you know, this is, you know, we drank out of the hose and all those jokes that you, those memes that you see on TikTok or whatever.

Um and so I had this little gag of motorcycle dirt dirt bike guys that we would just ride around and have the greatest um imaginable time, right?

I mean, it was like we would pack up our lunches and we would ride our dirt bikes around and we'd get in trouble, and and it was just awesome.

And this one time we were at the Kings River and we had it, we could kind of get anywhere by going on the railroad tracks.

So we would, you know, get to a dirt path somewhere, and then the dirt path eventually would lead us to a railroad track, and then from the railroad track, we can go anywhere.

So we were like way out of town, and we were gonna go swimming in this Kings River, which by the way, if my mom knew I was there, she would, you know, died.

Like, there's no way I could have gone swimming at the Kings River.

Kids drown in the Kings River every year.

It's like this gigantic river with no, you know, no lifeguards, no nothing.

There's a current, there's trees, it's a mess.

It's like I would never let my kids swim there.

But anyway, so there's all of us swimming in the Kings River underneath this train trestle.

And then there's probably 10 of us.

And there's all of a sudden one kid goes, There's a train coming.

We should get on the train trestle while it's going over.

And we're all 12, and it's it's peer pressure haven, right?

Nobody has the courage to go, that's insane.

We shouldn't do that.

And so we all did it, right?

We all scampered up the side of the riverbank, up to the railroad tracks.

We ran into the train trestle and we all sat down inside these I-beams and waited for this train to arrive.

And when you sit down in these I-beams, there's like one person per I-beam, and you're just all of a sudden you cannot see your friends.

You can see your friends across.

There's like five across from me, and there's four on my side.

I can't see the ones of my friends, but I can see the ones across.

And some of them are smiling and some of them look terrified like me.

And all of a sudden, here comes this freight train.

And it's not, it's not like an Amtrak that has three or four cars.

It's a freaking freight train that has like a hundred cars.

And those train trestles are not designed for people at all, right?

And so there is literally no room between where the train goes to, the width and the width of the train trestle and the sound and the shaking and the proximity and how fast this train was going.

I was sure I was going to die.

I mean, we're all screaming, but nobody can hear each other screaming, right?

And this and it went on for however long it takes for a train to go over a hundred-car train to go over a train trestle.

And I'm I'm guessing it was 100.

I, this is about how many cars they have on these trains, you know, out in the valley.

And all of a sudden it got done.

I mean, I don't know if I was crying or not, but I certainly felt like crying.

And then it got done and nobody died.

And you just thought we all won the Super Bowl.

You know, we were all jumping on the actual high-fiving each other.

This is the greatest thing ever.

Oh my God, look at us, you know.

But only a few minutes later, we were all thinking we were gonna die, you know?

Yeah.

I I don't know how much that changed my life, but it was an experience that was uh some it's a story I like to tell.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I love it.

I love it.

So, Rick, we've got you, Mr.

Daredevil as a kid.

We got you in the story that we've we've heard about.

Where does life kind of go from there after you you got clean, you went through the program?

How does life then get you to where you are today?

SPEAKER_01: Well, so what's happened between then and now is to me, it's been, it's kind of alluded to before.

I think in a lot of ways, I've kind of changed my addiction more than just not have it.

So my addiction now is more around addiction, that seems a little bit strong.

Uh there's something that happens when you get a chance to help other people.

There's something that happens when you get to look at your own experience of struggle and change that from like, oh, I'm so embarrassed that that happened, to, hey, you know, I I've had that happen to me too.

Let me show you how you don't have to live that way anymore.

Right.

And so when you get a chance to help other people and you see their eyes light up where they go, oh my God, maybe there's hope for me.

It's it's an experience that is hard to replicate in any other way.

And so for the last, you know, 34 years, looking for those opportunities.

And at first, you know, for me, it was probably at least like 12 years where I really was just centered around helping other alcoholics, right?

And then as I got into the business world, I found it's equally awesome to just help people in general and to see where you can be of service to people and to come from contribution and make a difference in people's lives.

And so that meant doing basically the same model.

So where have I struggled in life?

Uh well, let's see, I struggled in, you know, like I'm I'm so I'm a real estate broker.

Well, in 2004, I got my real estate license.

In 2005, I was selling a lot of houses, 2006, I was selling a lot of houses.

I thought, oh my gosh, this is great.

I've arrived.

I finally found my career.

And uh 2006, I bought a million-dollar house, which was kind of a big deal for a guy living in, you know, formerly in a tool shed.

And then in 2007, things started to go a little bit sideways.

2008, the market crashed.

And by 2009, on my 40th birthday, actually, in exactly 20 years almost from when I got sober, I was totally broke and I could not even pay my mortgage.

I had three little kids, three more kids that I'd had on purpose.

Uh stay-at-home wife who needed to stay at home.

And uh, oh my God, here I am again, right?

Here I am again at a crossroads of desperation.

And how did I end up here?

And a little bit of like, who did I think I was, right?

Spending the money, I was buying a million-dollar house, all that stuff.

Because all of a sudden I can't, there's no houses being sold.

I don't even know what I'm doing.

So, kind of like when I went to the program, I sought help to I'm like, I remember sitting on the couch at night every night.

I couldn't pay the bills, just feeling like uh an elephant was sitting on my chest.

What am I gonna do?

I'm gonna lose the house.

Where are we gonna go?

I I mean, it was just, it was brutal.

And so the only option was for me to get better at what I did.

And so I sought out help, just like I did when I got sober.

And except for in this case, I had to pay somebody to, you know, I had to pay a coaching thing, whatever.

But it really made the difference for me and it turned my whole career around.

And then once I got stabilized and I paid off all my debt, and I I only actually had one 30-day late on my mortgage, and we were able to keep the house, and I paid off all my taxes and I paid off my credit card debt, and I did all these things that I thought would never, ever happen.

And once again, I just want to highlight like I was sure that I was stuck, that it was never gonna get better, and I there was nothing I could do about it.

And once I got to the other side of that, I was back to, well, wait a minute.

I bet there's other agents that are struggling.

And so that, so for the last whatever, 14 years, that's really been my thing.

It was the mentoring agents and then eventually having a little bit of a coaching company.

So I do both now.

I mentor agents for free, and I do, and I have a paid coaching business as well.

And then I, you know, I'm fortunate to have a successful real estate practice.

But again, the foundation is all, it's kind of the same foundation, right?

Which is make sure I'm doing the right thing and treating people right and make sure that I'm helping other people.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I love it.

I love it.

Now, I have no idea if you'll even be able to remember to to pinpoint it, but do you remember when you realized, wow, this totally just kind of jacks me up, this idea of talking to people, helping people.

Do you remember when that was?

SPEAKER_01: I don't know that I have a first time, but it was early, early on in my sobriety when here I was having spent the better portion of my life thinking that I was worthless and useless and that I had nothing to offer, and then talking with somebody who was newly, newly sober and telling them just my story.

And for them to go, oh my God, like you mean I don't have to live this way for the rest of my life?

And to really to have that, I can't describe the connection, but it's it's that.

And then I guess probably so those one-on-one conversations for sure, and then getting it an opportunity to speak in front of a group, whether it's in the program or later on professionally, that's where I'm most comfortable, right?

I got to do it last night, actually.

I was I was somewhere and I got a chance to share some of my experience.

You know, my mom was a school teacher, my dad was a pastor.

It is in my blood to tell stories and to teach and to help.

And to, and so um, you know, it's a it's a gift that was given me by my parents and by the universe, whatever.

And so, you know, that's where that's where I that's where I get to see it.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I love it so much.

What about for the person listen today?

Maybe they're struggling.

Maybe, maybe they're you back in the days of the tool shed, or maybe they're you later in life when when you have it all and then everything disappears financially.

What would you say to that person?

SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I think this is the whole reason I go on these podcasts.

You know, I mean, I'm not selling a book.

I don't have, I'm not, you know, the you know, your audience isn't filled with realtors or look for coaching.

So what you're talking about now is exactly why I go on all these podcasts, and this, and it's this that you are not stuck, that everything is temporary.

And when I say everything, I don't mean like people have certain physical conditions, whatever they're that stuff that they cannot do anything about.

But the emotional state that goes with that, they're not stuck with, right?

And a lot of their external circumstances, they're not stuck with.

And the key is to find the people that have been where you are right now and get help from them and give them the opportunity to be helpful to you.

And then once that happens, and once you get out of your stuckness, which you will do, then you go help somebody else.

And that's how you keep it.

And that's to me, that's the formula, right?

This idea of I can handle it myself is some archaic, patriarchal, bullshit idea.

And the more you can allow yourself to be helped by other people, two things happen.

One is you get helped.

And the other is you give the opportunity to the other person to be helpful.

And then once that happens, make sure that you don't just get your helpfulness and go about your life, that you go back and you give back to the next person who is behind you that needs to help.

And that kind of link, I kind of picture a, you know, the links on a chain and that you gotta, you don't want to be the last link on the chain.

You know what I mean?

You wanna be, you want to have one person in front of you, one person behind you at all times.

I mean, even in our coaching program, we formulate that where we encourage our students not only to have mentors and coaches, but also to have mentees, even if they think they don't have anything to offer.

I I promise you, you do.

Everybody has something to offer to somebody.

So to me, you're not stuck.

That's the first thing.

And the next thing is that's, and I just gave you the formula on how to get out of it.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Rick, dude, you are absolutely awesome.

I appreciate you taking the time to share your story for the the reason of exactly what you said is the reason you do this.

Is the the hope that maybe there's somebody listening living somewhere in the world who hears something you said, hears your story, and says, you know what?

If he can do it, so can I.

SPEAKER_01: That is exactly right.

That's my whole purpose.

That's why I'm here.

And it doesn't have to be drugs and alcohol.

Like that happens to be my experience, but it could be anything.

Maybe you're in a bad relationship, or maybe you are in a career that you don't love, or maybe you think that, you know, whatever it is, like everything is unstuckable, in my view.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.

So my next question is this for the people who are like, man, I actually like this guy.

Where can they plug into your world at?

Where's the best place for us to send them?

SPEAKER_01: 415-302-6348.

You can text me right now if you're and in fact, the reason I'm saying that is do text me right now.

If you're listening to this and you're like, oh man, I should probably talk to this guy.

Don't wait because there's only a window, there's a small window of opportunity for that moment of clarity.

And you won't do it if you think about doing it later.

So that's why I give out on my number.

I'm also on Instagram, the Rick Warner.

I'm on Facebook.

I'm easy to find.

I'm a realtor, so I'm easy to it's easy to find.

But probably just call me or text me is the best way to get in touch with me.

SPEAKER_00: Absolutely awesome.

Rick, I will be sure that your phone number is in the show notes for anybody.

So you don't feel like you got to rewind and jot it down.

Just check out today's show notes where that phone number is there and available.

Rick, dude, on behalf of everyone listening, thank you, man, so much for just being you, for being here today.

It means a lot.

SPEAKER_01: It's awesome, Kevin.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity.

I really appreciate it.

I appreciate all the things that you're doing.

And I know that you're out there helping a lot of people.

So kudos to you for all that you've done.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, thank you so much.

And for you listening, man, another amazing guest here on Grit Grace and Inspiration.

My hope, my prayer is that you take something said today and you use it to impact your own life and then share it with others.

It's just like what Rick was talking about being a link, another chain, passing it on.

That's what it's all about in this life.

My name is Kevin Lowe, your host.

Get out there and take on the day with great grace and it's great.