SoberNotMature - Episode 211 (Ryan T.R. - A Colonel Of Truth)

00:00:01.85
Bill
All right, everyone, welcome once again to another episode of Sober Not Mature. And yes, so we do have a guest tonight, and Ryan, we're going get to you in just one second here. I've got a real quick thing I want to just make note of, but Ryan, I promise we'll have you ah introduce yourself in just a second.

00:00:14.59
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:00:17.61
Bill
So for you, Mike, and also for everyone else listening, our guest, Ryan, he's going to introduce himself in a second, but he's been following us on Instagram, so that's kind of a that's

00:00:26.05
Mike
Uh-oh.

00:00:27.70
Bill
you You see where I'm going with this, right?

00:00:29.37
Mike
I do.

00:00:29.70
Bill
so So Ryan's been following us on Instagram, and I see that. You know, he's the the things I've been posting about the upcoming guests for the last couple of weeks and things like that. He's been very kind of active on on our page, which includes not just the things that then we posted about the podcast, but all the other garbage that I post, which it is.

00:00:39.67
Mike
cool

00:00:45.80
Mike
Oh yeah.

00:00:46.62
Bill
It's garbage. It's inappropriate. It can be a little bit, you know, ish, I guess, if you want to call it that. And here's the here's the thing I wanted to point out is that Ryan still showed up. Yeah. So, so Ryan, first of all, a gold star for you.

00:00:57.18
Mike
yeah

00:00:59.54
Bill
Thank you. Because I don't know. I, it it amazes me sometimes when, when people approach us, I both Mike and I kind of wonder, we stopped asking probably a couple of years ago, how people, how people found us and if they've listened to us and why they, why they contacted us.

00:01:07.73
Mike
yeah yeah

00:01:11.78
Bill
But, After seeing all our stuff, you still showed up and we appreciate you for it. So, um Ryan, um do do do us a favor and take a minute, minute a half, whatever it is.

00:01:16.15
Mike
We do.

00:01:21.68
Bill
Introduce yourself, um who you are, where you're from, just a brief introduction, and then we'll get into everything with you, okay?

00:01:27.96
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, thanks, Bill. Thanks, Mike. Greatly appreciate the opportunity. Yeah, Ryan T. Reichert, Hoople, North Dakota, circa 1978. It's Tater Town, USA, for all those who have never heard of 400 Town Village in northeastern North Dakota.

00:01:38.01
Bill
Okay.

00:01:43.26
Ryan T. Reichert
But yeah, born and raised Irish Catholic, married a Lutheran in 2001, joined the Army in So i think from

00:01:55.88
Ryan T. Reichert
1999 2022, I was a nationalist and did Fortune 500 America for a few years before they laid me off and started my own business. Greatest thing that's happened to me in the last 47 years is I sobered up 27 months ago and I get to be on an amazing podcast the you two gentlemen.

00:02:10.68
Bill
Nice. yeah,

00:02:13.65
Ryan T. Reichert
So ah let's go.

00:02:14.30
Mike
hey

00:02:15.99
Bill
so yeah yeah I was going to say, we don't...

00:02:16.15
Mike
All right. Yeah, so we we do have to point out, though, he's got some reverb going on.

00:02:17.95
Bill
we don't

00:02:21.34
Mike
He's not sure why, but it's very cool, and I want some reverb now, so we need to look into that, Bill.

00:02:27.45
Bill
Yeah, I don't know how to get, i don't know how to get, we, we you know what, are you well, you know how our podcast set up is. We had this, we were we were using, and i'm I don't have a problem with saying the name of it because number one, they they jacked us over and everything got got messed up on us.

00:02:41.21
Bill
They blamed us for everything. We used Riverside FM for a year and a half, almost two years, I think.

00:02:42.78
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:02:46.10
Mike
Yeah, right.

00:02:46.42
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, right.

00:02:47.64
Bill
And um it was a little bit about the same price as this, couple bucks more, a couple bucks less, whatever the deal is. But we started having problems as they grew, okay? And they had a lot of different things that did you could do this and you could do that and all these different things, all this stuff. OK, but every time that they added something and they grew the things that we wanted to do, which was just this, this basic stuff wouldn't work. And we we used to have to record half an episode that stop it.

00:03:14.65
Bill
and then record again because then we'd get a delay and all this different stuff so and they blame us every time so finally we went to this this is 20 bucks a month and literally all we do is talk into it and it works most of the time you know except for twice and that was that was you know no big issues on you know on their part but yeah i don't know how to get we can figure out i could look up how to get reverb at some point we probably just mess up our we probably just mess up our mess up our i don't know our our simple our simple thing but uh

00:03:24.97
Mike
Yep. Yep.

00:03:34.15
Mike
Right. I want to be a boss jock, man. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Anyway, so enough of that.

00:03:44.67
Bill
Anyhow, anyhow.

00:03:44.96
Mike
Yeah.

00:03:45.65
Bill
So, so yeah, but yeah, in the Dakota thing, I mean, there's a lot of conversation there. You mentioned um Irish Catholic. The reason we we laughed because we've got a conversation there, but um we obviously want to hear your story.

00:03:55.50
Mike
Right.

00:03:57.40
Bill
We have a little bit different way maybe that you might be used to as far as telling your story, but maybe not. But Mike, go ahead and let him know what our deal is when it comes to that.

00:04:05.62
Mike
Absolutely.

00:04:05.90
Ryan T. Reichert
Absolutely.

00:04:06.06
Mike
Well, our listeners know, um but basically the thing is we know how to get fucked up. We know how to fuck up our lives. We know how to fuck up the lives of everybody around us. We know how to do that. We're very good at it. What we're concerned with these days is the solution. So definitely tell your story, give some qualifying, but we hate drunk-a-logs. So we want to hear, you know, what happened, what it was like, but we want to know what it's like now.

00:04:35.63
Ryan T. Reichert
No, I love that, Mike, because I completely agree a thousand percent.

00:04:37.27
Mike
hey Uh huh.

00:04:40.50
Ryan T. Reichert
I know what I messed up, you know, a 25 year relationship with my former spouse, the beautiful years of my children.

00:04:42.55
Mike
Right.

00:04:45.27
Mike
Mm hmm. Right.

00:04:49.86
Ryan T. Reichert
And, you know, I'm sure could have been a lot more amazing in my military career than a lieutenant colonel and other things if I would have probably 100 percent, 100 percent of the time.

00:04:56.37
Mike
Hmm.

00:05:00.68
Mike
Yes. Yeah.

00:05:02.01
Ryan T. Reichert
And and and that to me today is is just that right.

00:05:02.15
Bill
Nice.

00:05:02.81
Mike
yes

00:05:05.85
Ryan T. Reichert
The joke of being being Irish Catholic. I was probably born born into this world with a drink in my hand.

00:05:10.66
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:05:11.61
Ryan T. Reichert
And one of those where you just know.

00:05:12.02
Mike
Yep.

00:05:15.01
Ryan T. Reichert
and this is so cool because next week as we record this here, the first week of March, my dad will have 41 years of sobriety, God willing.

00:05:22.09
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:05:25.05
Mike
Nice.

00:05:25.66
Bill
nice

00:05:25.82
Ryan T. Reichert
And it is super cool, but it took me, what, 45 plus years to, you know, finally become a man and tell the truth and actually, ah you know, establish boundaries with him and realize that, you know, there's all these different things.

00:05:36.09
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:05:41.46
Mike
Sure.

00:05:44.02
Ryan T. Reichert
So I guess in that is the reflection of what it takes to become a man and it's telling the truth every single day, which, you

00:05:51.34
Mike
None of us did. Hmm.

00:05:52.38
Ryan T. Reichert
It took me a long time to do And my former spouse certainly knows that, you know, I certainly didn't tell the truth for you know many, many years.

00:05:54.39
Bill
Right.

00:06:01.02
Ryan T. Reichert
And that probably was one of those where we, ah you know, like the the many people that probably dislike me in this world, they all take take a number, right?

00:06:01.66
Mike
none of a dead

00:06:03.10
Bill
hey

00:06:10.77
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's a no issue there.

00:06:11.45
Mike
Right. Yeah. Well, one of the beautiful things about this program is we learn that it's all our fault and there's freedom in that, you know, everything, all those people that don't like us, that's our fault.

00:06:24.31
Mike
And, and that's freeing, you know, that's cool. And, and if they, choose not to accept what we are today because of what we were. That's their choice. And again, freedom, we're we're free of that. we We don't act that way anymore. And so we don't have to concern ourselves with our past behavior.

00:06:45.39
Bill
Yeah, and both of us, I mean, I was 41, Mike was 43, so you said you were, what, 45 when you got sober, right?

00:06:50.78
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, I think it was about week-ish before my 45th birthday. So yeah, 44 and change.

00:06:55.54
Bill
Yeah, so, I mean, we're we're all basically in the in the same range, so, yeah, we we had that we we get it, we understand exactly, yeah waiting waiting that long.

00:06:55.58
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

00:06:58.66
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:07:01.54
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:07:02.26
Bill
It seemed like seemed like a good a good time of the life, I guess, for us to take care of it, right? Yeah.

00:07:07.11
Mike
All right. So how did a potato farmer become a lieutenant colonel?

00:07:12.38
Ryan T. Reichert
Well, see, there's there's even another side of that story. i was the We were the bastard family in town. So my father was a business owner.

00:07:19.03
Mike
Sure.

00:07:22.16
Ryan T. Reichert
he and his father had Rikert's insurance. And so when you look at that side of it, mother's a teacher, father's a businessman. Yeah, I had this massive chip on my shoulder, not fitting in Irish Catholic and an all Protestant community.

00:07:36.66
Ryan T. Reichert
And it's one where it took me many, many years to you know basically forgive that upbringing that allowed me to be as tough as I was. and so forth. But yeah, I think I was 12 when I started drinking and it was, you know, no, no feet or thing that you're proud of. Right. to My own man, you know, sobered up when I was what, six.

00:07:58.84
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's, it's one of those that, uh,

00:07:59.83
Bill
ah wow. Okay.

00:08:02.74
Ryan T. Reichert
In a town of 400 people, I think there was him and another guy that were sober. So it's one that really when you reflect on it, you know, you're you're weird because you're a Catholic. You go to church in a different town. You're weird because you're not a farmer's kid.

00:08:16.91
Ryan T. Reichert
You're weird because your dad can't drink like the rest of the world can.

00:08:21.13
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:08:21.24
Ryan T. Reichert
and And, you know, all these different eachs across the board. And then my freshman year in high school, and this is just like your normal Friday night light small town. So you play football in the fall, basketball in the winter, baseball and track in the spring.

00:08:37.24
Ryan T. Reichert
I blew my knee out. And that's where I really got into prescription drugs with, you know, I was was on morphine and all the different pills and stuff like that. And so it was cool. And what I didn't realize was,

00:08:50.03
Ryan T. Reichert
know, all your hopes and dreams that get washed away in a Friday night football game and you think your life's over. you don't realize you'd be cool and become an airborne ranger 10 years later and head over to Afghanistan with 31 bad asses and, you know, go take it to the Taliban and so on and so forth.

00:09:03.70
Bill
ah

00:09:06.75
Ryan T. Reichert
So that's that's what's so interesting to me was, I think, between my grandfathers both being World War Two naval veterans and and my father being a Vietnam veteran.

00:09:19.22
Ryan T. Reichert
It was just, I don't know if it was playing GI Joe in the front yard with my best friend, Pat, and his dad being the other guy that was sober in town. And they didn't grow up in Hoople. You know, there were transplants as the postmaster kind of thing.

00:09:35.41
Ryan T. Reichert
Where i i think it was just expected, or I believe it was expected of me to join the service, either be it the Navy or the Army. And I laugh because my grandmother...

00:09:45.98
Ryan T. Reichert
was when I told her I joined the army, she's like, why would you do that? They have such ugly uniforms.

00:09:49.88
Bill
Right.

00:09:50.94
Ryan T. Reichert
And I'm like, I said, you know, I was like, kind of cause the navies are white and kind of gay, but anyways, like it's, you know, I don't think that way anymore, but I certainly used to say that.

00:09:51.89
Mike
Yeah,

00:09:58.29
Mike
yeah right.

00:09:58.84
Bill
yeah

00:10:01.08
Mike
a Sure.

00:10:03.41
Ryan T. Reichert
Uh, it,

00:10:03.86
Mike
Have you heard of the village people?

00:10:06.97
Bill
hey

00:10:08.41
Ryan T. Reichert
but, but yeah, so, you know, 1999,

00:10:12.80
Ryan T. Reichert
basically the University of North Dakota. I wanted to go to West Point, couldn't get in because of my that knee injury, so I just went to the University of North Dakota.

00:10:18.16
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:10:19.60
Ryan T. Reichert
I found myself running out of money, and my roommate said, hey, did you ever think of ROTC? I'm taking this class. It's an EZA. They have cute girls there.

00:10:30.97
Ryan T. Reichert
We rappel off the law school, and we shoot M16s. At minimum, you'd get two credits of A's, and maybe could get a scholarship.

00:10:37.40
Mike
ice

00:10:38.68
Ryan T. Reichert
And so I i found myself, my sophomore year, heading over there and talking to the secretary, Trudy, and she's like, well, some things have changed since she applied to West Point.

00:10:45.72
Bill
Bye.

00:10:48.60
Ryan T. Reichert
years ago. Why don't we see what happens? I got three year scholarship and the next thing you know, I was in the infantry and like i said, did that for 20 years. And that's the coolest thing about it, though, is we, you know, worked hard, played harder and it wasn't that big of a deal for most

00:11:03.90
Mike
Right.

00:11:07.96
Ryan T. Reichert
people bosses here or that is if you're having a good time all you were doing is blowing off steam or you know hey let them celebrate now they're leaving for another year or hey he's got two kids like you know i'm sure it's a certain way at home you can at least have fun here

00:11:18.06
Mike
Right.

00:11:24.22
Ryan T. Reichert
And yeah, that's just the way I live for year after year after year. And then about five years before I retired and I knew I wasn't going to make full kernel, that's when things really started to unravel.

00:11:29.58
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:11:38.46
Ryan T. Reichert
And I was in jobs where i wasn't deploying anymore. And so it was just drink drink drink, drink, drink, you know, drowned all those sorrows because you said you were going to be a full bird kernel.

00:11:49.98
Ryan T. Reichert
That was your goal when you started. And I found myself retiring and within 18 months I gained 15 pounds. I was complete train wreck with abusing every drug under the sun that I was taking for my prescriptions to, you know, drown the the pain, the misery and everything else under the sun out.

00:12:04.48
Bill
Right.

00:12:04.50
Mike
All

00:12:08.52
Ryan T. Reichert
And, uh, you know I had a Fortune 500 job, so I was making more money than I could ever imagine. I think it was about two plus times what I was making in the Army. and it Yeah, I was just burning it at both ends.

00:12:18.71
Mike
right.

00:12:21.65
Ryan T. Reichert
And when I committed the all seven deadly sins, the good Lord said, well, finally, finally, finally, finally. we can start doing some work and i had my last drink the 26th of november 2023 and i found myself at my first aam meeting the 27th of november 2023 and it's been one hell of a ride ever since

00:12:44.44
Bill
Nice. And, you know, the the interesting thing, and you and I don't know if this is a the right statement, Mike, but I think it's probably pretty close that everyone that we've known and everyone that we've talked to that is now sober and was in the service found a way to abuse the service.

00:12:57.97
Mike
Yep.

00:13:01.42
Bill
You know, and it it was drugs and it was alcohol. And a lot of that stuff was was the same deal. You know, you guys are out there. you know, doing your thing and ah and it's hard or you're alone or whatever the case is. And I mean, everyone's doing it, you know, and it was ah it was accepted. And the people that got um like in trouble were the ones that, you know, went really, really overboard, you know. But I think it's a and I don't I'm not trying to blame, you know, it's not like blaming the culture of any particular thing. It just seems like and maybe it is it just we all flock together when we're in a in a situation like that. I suppose if if the three of us were in a group of it, it doesn't matter what it is.

00:13:37.79
Bill
Let's say we're we were the group of PTA members and we all got stranded on a desert island and the three of us were still active, you know, alcoholics and or drug addicts. I'm guessing that we would go off.

00:13:48.27
Bill
We would be the ones to mess things up, you know.

00:13:51.06
Mike
absolutely.

00:13:51.77
Ryan T. Reichert
yeah

00:13:51.79
Bill
And so I don't know if it's just if it's just us or if we would find each other in that group or whatever the deal is. But did you find that that I mean, did you see run across a lot of problematic drinkers and drug users while you were in the service, right?

00:14:05.56
Ryan T. Reichert
We certainly had, i mean, I think it's always just like probably, i don't know, for you guys as well, but playing that game of I'm not as bad as so-and-so.

00:14:15.40
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:14:16.60
Bill
Yeah, I've heard that before.

00:14:16.60
Ryan T. Reichert
And so-and-so's a Bible banger, you know, and and today I'm the Bible banger.

00:14:16.96
Mike
Of course.

00:14:18.10
Bill
yeah

00:14:24.23
Ryan T. Reichert
um So this is what's funny.

00:14:25.43
Mike
he

00:14:26.63
Ryan T. Reichert
I mean, I've gotten polar opposites here. And so for me, it was always, hey, I'm not doing what so-and-so's doing. So-and-so's way out there. But I certainly found myself and in the middle of that herd of being the guy that was like, hey, it's time to, you know, six o'clock, run down the shop at let's have a couple cases of beer, you know, each of us have a few and we can head home from there.

00:14:34.87
Mike
Right.

00:14:35.11
Bill
Right.

00:14:52.20
Ryan T. Reichert
You know, granted at that time in life, I had, you know, two baby girls at home that were both in diapers and just thinking, wow, I could have been home spending time with them today.

00:15:04.08
Ryan T. Reichert
But you can't think that way because didn't know the solution yet, right?

00:15:04.91
Mike
Hmm. No.

00:15:08.96
Ryan T. Reichert
Didn't know that there's an amazing life ahead of me and I would not,

00:15:09.05
Mike
Right.

00:15:09.51
Bill
Right.

00:15:14.10
Ryan T. Reichert
change any of it today i would i would go back through all of it the exact same over again with what i know now because the the way life is today it is is so beautiful it's so wonderful and there's no need then to even think about what it was but you know bill to that question there certainly was when I reflect all the way back to that first deployment, I mean, there was never DUIs previous to us going to Afghanistan.

00:15:46.17
Ryan T. Reichert
And I think about it when we came back from Afghanistan that first time, i don't know how many DUIs we ended up having within the first 90 days back.

00:15:56.69
Ryan T. Reichert
It was just like one of those things where we went from zero to 100 over that one year period of of not not saying people weren't drinking over there.

00:15:57.29
Bill
Right.

00:16:01.47
Mike
Right.

00:16:07.04
Ryan T. Reichert
I mean, the Romanians made their own wine. You pick, you know, go somewhere else and people are making booze, you know, hooch and they're this or that and people are shipping them booze.

00:16:15.83
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:16:17.66
Ryan T. Reichert
But just in the sense of being put into that meat grinder per se, the mental meat grinder that is, and having your life put on hold, all your hopes, all your dreams, all your wishes, and then you're doing something That will, you'll never, ever, ever, ever, ever again in your life have that adrenaline of manhunting like you did when you were downrange.

00:16:43.83
Ryan T. Reichert
And that just has this thing that when we come back, there's nothing we're going to ever do that that gives us that high again.

00:16:44.18
Mike
he

00:16:51.90
Ryan T. Reichert
And so we chase we chase that It's...

00:16:52.34
Mike
Right.

00:16:54.68
Ryan T. Reichert
waiting for, you know, call me that name or whatever, say that, and then then sweet, we can get into a fight.

00:16:59.16
Bill
ah

00:17:01.27
Ryan T. Reichert
Or let let me drive my motorcycle or my car as fast as it'll go.

00:17:01.46
Mike
Right.

00:17:05.98
Ryan T. Reichert
And I mean, I just think of all the things that we did over time and space, And I was I was pushing the limits looking for that high that we got on that first deployment.

00:17:18.39
Ryan T. Reichert
And you never, ever felt it again, because once my dad, he's got a ah saying from you know Vietnam, and he had on like a lighter and it said,

00:17:31.58
Ryan T. Reichert
those who have fought for it, freedom has a taste that protected will never know. And it's one, you know it's not to you know ever call somebody out or not to whatever, but it's like when you've been put in that,

00:17:46.94
Ryan T. Reichert
until you find God and find Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit enters your soul every time you take a breath, you never, ever, ever can look at it in a way where it's not like, I've already sacrificed and had the greatest purpose ever in my life.

00:18:04.12
Ryan T. Reichert
How is it possible that anything's going ever be that amazing? And that that's where it comes from, I believe, is searching salvation

00:18:09.06
Mike
Right.

00:18:15.48
Ryan T. Reichert
that reincarnation almost of please give me my life back, which what it was before I ever saw hell day in and day out for X days, X months, X years.

00:18:28.57
Ryan T. Reichert
And, it's all something that we make up in our minds and then we replay it over and over and over again. And I think that's where it causes us to go from, okay, the two beers we used to were able to have before we were on deployment to like, well, doesn't everybody drink 30?

00:18:43.87
Ryan T. Reichert
I mean, I think that's kind of a normal thing.

00:18:45.24
Bill
Hehehehe.

00:18:46.19
Ryan T. Reichert
And then it's a, Dick measuring contest and this bravado. It's not the it's not the true masculine protector provider that you'd be in a healthy mindset.

00:18:59.61
Ryan T. Reichert
It's the polar opposite.

00:18:59.84
Mike
Right.

00:19:01.05
Ryan T. Reichert
And I think that is what has happened over time and space because it It was the wild, wild west. When I think about Afghanistan, first deployment to my next deployment in Iraq, polar opposite. Like the ah r ROE was 100% different ah where we couldn't you know basically, it was like, hey, you have to be engaged by the enemy to this extent before you can engage them. And and then that that to be put in that kind of position,

00:19:27.58
Ryan T. Reichert
you know, to you know not get a certain way about the world we live in currently. But for me, I can't see how things are the way they are because we were pushed to both limits.

00:19:39.27
Ryan T. Reichert
We were able full reign out there on the prairie of Afghanistan to then also being basically told like you're going to have to get shot up before you can shoot back. And so that in itself has a whole nother fear dynamic and control dynamic in the psyche.

00:19:49.79
Bill
Right.

00:19:55.35
Mike
Yeah, I bet.

00:19:56.38
Ryan T. Reichert
and so there's a lot of eaches to it but before we ever left there was still the work hard play harder mentality in the infantry i can remember the right arm nights where it was you know get completely blackout drunk with you know your and nco that was your right right hand man because i was an officer and i'm throwing up and

00:20:07.59
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:20:19.77
Ryan T. Reichert
That was like my first time in my first real unit. I had other times where you do the dining-ins, and that's where you know you lock yourself in a hotel conference room center, basically, and just the guys get drunk.

00:20:34.23
Ryan T. Reichert
And that's old school.

00:20:34.88
Mike
Right.

00:20:36.87
Ryan T. Reichert
i don't think they do that anymore. ah

00:20:39.32
Bill
Well, at least they probably don't talk about them doing that anymore.

00:20:40.22
Ryan T. Reichert
But, yeah, well that's the thing.

00:20:41.91
Mike
right

00:20:43.64
Ryan T. Reichert
i don't remember doing them the last half. of we almost basically – the last half of my career, when I think about the first chunk of it, 10, 12 years of it, where we almost became like Uber safety with all the deployments and everything.

00:20:59.69
Bill
Sure.

00:21:00.76
Ryan T. Reichert
And yeah, the multiple DUIs and the drugs and the suicides and the wife beatings and all the different things that happened. We went the polar opposite to where it's like, okay, we can't have any more fun because this happens or that happens.

00:21:14.14
Ryan T. Reichert
And then then it just it still happened.

00:21:14.68
Mike
right.

00:21:16.89
Ryan T. Reichert
And we just weren't doing that that kind of stuff as well.

00:21:20.26
Bill
Right.

00:21:20.70
Ryan T. Reichert
so So, yeah.

00:21:21.69
Bill
Well, and you know, the the other thing, too, that you had talked about, which which we talk about quite a bit, is the fact that you know I think it's important to to focus on because ah we do talk about it a lot. as he You said that, you know, all the different things that, you know, if you had to do them all over again, you do them the same. And Mike, Mike says that, you know, you talk about that the worth part of it, right?

00:21:40.79
Mike
No, absolutely. I mean, it's it's one of the promises, right? You know, no matter how low we fell, um I'm paraphrasing, um you know, no matter how low we went, i mean, it it has worth because we can use it to help the next guy.

00:21:54.54
Mike
So we can go, yeah, man, I was there too. You know, I did the same garbage.

00:21:58.96
Ryan T. Reichert
I was a piece of shit.

00:21:58.94
Mike
I was a piece of shit, you know, myself.

00:22:00.86
Ryan T. Reichert
Myself, look at me now.

00:22:01.74
Mike
And look at me now. See, there's chance for all of us. So all that stuff that we did has worth because we use it to help the next guy.

00:22:10.04
Bill
Right. Yeah. And they I mean, to look back and there's times we had a conversation about that on here the a couple of different times. And we always did when we start to get into it, both of us are like, it's kind of dangerous because, you know, you're you're going back and you're you're questioning um decisions that were made and the the end result of where you ended up. Because, i mean, although um ah there's life is never perfect. Life still happens. Life on life's terms. Blah, blah, blah. We all have hopes and dreams. And you've mentioned it a couple of to different times, Ryan. And we all have things that we want to do with our lives going forward.

00:22:40.38
Bill
You know, but the things that happened up until this point, you know, what if, okay, so at, I don't know, 25 years old, any one of us um got sober or took a different direction or whatever the case is, what does that do?

00:22:53.31
Bill
It's that, you know, that that ripple effect, whatever it is, you know, Mike had mentioned at one point what I have the knowledge I have today to help out the guy I helped last week or the guy I'm going to need to help out next week.

00:22:58.92
Ryan T. Reichert
Thank you.

00:22:59.63
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:23:03.43
Bill
So, you know, we, we feel that as painful as it was, you know, we had, I had to get to 41, he had to get to 43, you had to get to, you know, to 45 for whatever reason, every step that we, that we went through, we had to get to that point.

00:23:17.23
Bill
And the key there is, is that, you know, the, you mentioned AA, we're AA guys too. So, you know, don't regret the past, but certainly don't shut the door on it. I never, ever want to forget where I came from.

00:23:28.70
Bill
i don't want to forget what I did, regardless of how good, bad, or indifferent it was. Because if I forget, I might repeat it. Even if it was good, I might repeat it in a weird way, you know, or take advantage of it. But certainly if it was negative stuff, I don't want to repeat those negative things. But I need to be able to look at that to learn what not to do today, but also to know what this guy over here is talking to me about. How can I relate to the guy, you know, if I if i don't if i haven't been through it, you know?

00:23:55.48
Bill
It just, it's, it's so important.

00:23:59.51
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, for me, i I definitely agree. I love that Mike talking about worth in it because you think about the dynamic, right? The most expensive club we've ever ever had to pay to get into. the The blood, the sweat, the tears, the money, the people, the all of it. But it's it's it is so great. it And that's the what's so beautiful about the promises is because We don't know when we're going to receive it, but that hope that it is coming creates the faith.

00:24:33.14
Ryan T. Reichert
And then the just the brotherly love, like three of three of us, three drunks on a Friday night. I love it, right?

00:24:37.75
Mike
Yep.

00:24:39.18
Ryan T. Reichert
On a Friday night BS and over the, thank goodness we don't do that anymore. And

00:24:46.58
Mike
Yeah.

00:24:47.18
Bill
Right.

00:24:48.02
Ryan T. Reichert
I don't know what other group out there has that ability to to have that happen, right? Where you can just be grateful for everything that's happened and then grateful that you're just not doing that anymore.

00:25:01.98
Mike
Exactly.

00:25:02.03
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

00:25:02.98
Mike
Grateful it's not happening right now.

00:25:03.33
Bill
Right.

00:25:05.85
Bill
And, you know we actually started doing this on on Friday night because when ah we both got Mike still lives in Cleveland, I'm actually in Northwest Indiana right now, but lived in Wisconsin for years.

00:25:16.09
Bill
But we both ended up getting I went out to Cleveland got sober out there. So that's how we met.

00:25:20.42
Ryan T. Reichert
Thank you.

00:25:21.36
Bill
We met right away out there. And at the time that we were out there and then we were at the same place, the same sober living ah facility and then lived together for a couple of years, we went to the same meeting every Friday night.

00:25:33.35
Bill
It was our, well, one of Mike's home group because you had two.

00:25:33.75
Mike
Mm hmm. Right.

00:25:36.50
Bill
But it was it was both of our both of us had a home group on a Friday night and we'd we'd go to the meeting and then we'd go grab pizza.

00:25:36.69
Mike
Yep.

00:25:42.58
Bill
you know And now it's just the other way around. We both grab pizza and then we do our meeting, which is this. And that's literally why we started doing it because after, well, I mean, it wasn't until 2022 when we started this, but, you know, it's roughly nine years after I moved out of there.

00:25:54.64
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:25:58.61
Bill
But the thing of it was, is it was the point of doing it again. Friday night was huge for us. Go to a meeting. it It capped off our week. And then that's what that's what this was. And then, you know obviously this has grown to a certain point.

00:26:10.20
Bill
We're not a huge podcast or anything like that, but. It's still our mindset. That's still why we do this. We get together with each other on a Friday night. And every once in a while, we're lucky enough to have people like yourself and and other people reach out to us and join the conversation.

00:26:17.34
Mike
Right?

00:26:24.32
Bill
So, you know, it is.

00:26:24.54
Mike
he

00:26:25.92
Bill
It's ah it's it's our little it's our little meeting every every Friday night. It's a lot of goddamn fun, you know?

00:26:31.67
Ryan T. Reichert
i I love it. I mean, I think that all the time, right? I mean, to have a ah meeting, you just need two of us. So, I mean, hey, we're over overachieving tonight, but it's certainly one of those things that i've I've really, my father and I have grown so much closer over the last couple of years with both of us being in the program together.

00:26:37.68
Bill
Right.

00:26:48.39
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:26:50.57
Ryan T. Reichert
And then to see him

00:26:51.16
Mike
Right.

00:26:52.25
Ryan T. Reichert
finally start working a solid program again just since like December. So three, four months ago, and he's had his ups and downs in life and health and so forth.

00:27:01.82
Mike
Right.

00:27:02.82
Ryan T. Reichert
But to see that is so cool because how it just, invigorated and working a healthy program again toward, you giving back and, you know, having sponsors again and so forth.

00:27:14.55
Ryan T. Reichert
And you just, it's just really cool. And, um, for me, just like anything earlier today, i had a couple other podcasts.

00:27:24.91
Ryan T. Reichert
They weren't, you know, of this flavor, but just even telling your, so even telling your story to, to help other people out that are, you know, struggling if it's, you know Hey, i lost my job and sure.

00:27:27.48
Bill
ah

00:27:27.95
Mike
All

00:27:36.02
Ryan T. Reichert
Like for me, and I was laid off a a couple of years coming up, you know. Yeah, it was the first time I'd ever lost a job. And I struggled with this dynamic of, you know hey, I was laid off versus fired, right?

00:27:48.08
Ryan T. Reichert
And like i had a buddy, same thing happened to him this past summer.

00:27:48.94
Mike
right.

00:27:51.52
Ryan T. Reichert
He's like, I got fired. And i was like, it sounds like you got laid off. He's like, what's the difference? I don't have a job.

00:27:56.60
Mike
Right.

00:27:56.76
Ryan T. Reichert
And and and I'm like...

00:27:58.06
Bill
Right.

00:27:58.47
Ryan T. Reichert
I'm like, I guess in and in a gentler, softer way, an easier, softer way, kind of like it says in the big book.

00:28:02.90
Mike
the

00:28:03.83
Ryan T. Reichert
And so for me, I think I struggled with saying I got fired, you know, and it doesn't matter. you don't have, you don't work here anymore, bud. So.

00:28:11.99
Mike
Right. Exactly. Well, I mean, except, you know, laid off is like a company decision to let people go as opposed to being fired is directly something you did wrong.

00:28:24.25
Mike
You know,

00:28:25.17
Ryan T. Reichert
Well, and that's the way I agree. I completely, that's the way I look at it.

00:28:27.85
Bill
Right. Oh,

00:28:29.11
Ryan T. Reichert
My, my buddy just didn't see it that way. He's like, I prefer fired.

00:28:31.58
Mike
easy

00:28:32.84
Ryan T. Reichert
Cause I've, I've, I've never been laid off all the other times I've been fired.

00:28:33.08
Mike
a

00:28:36.59
Ryan T. Reichert
So I don't want to change.

00:28:36.86
Mike
Well, yeah, exactly. I know what fired is.

00:28:38.97
Ryan T. Reichert
ah

00:28:39.06
Mike
Yeah.

00:28:39.35
Bill
yeah

00:28:40.10
Mike
I've never been laid off.

00:28:40.47
Bill
my my my My dad used to say, my dad had his own businesses for years. I got a quick side note story on my dad too. But my dad used to say that, yeah, this that gentleman's no longer participating in our salary program.

00:28:53.82
Ryan T. Reichert
like that

00:28:54.00
Bill
That's what he used to say when he had to fire somebody. But that's a good point. I mean, I got, and I had different situations. It's been, I've never actually been fired for cause.

00:29:04.50
Bill
Maybe that's the way that people look at it.

00:29:04.50
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

00:29:06.22
Bill
Like I did something wrong.

00:29:06.65
Mike
Yeah.

00:29:07.70
Bill
And I got fired for it.

00:29:08.04
Mike
Yeah.

00:29:09.10
Bill
I've been I've been slowly pushed out of a job when I was still drinking, umm gently pushed out because they didn't want me anymore. No one what I was doing. I had been, you know, companies downsized or restructured.

00:29:20.57
Bill
but They've done all those different things. But the end of the day, you know, we're you're exactly right. Your buddy is right. I don't have a damn job anymore. So I don't care what you want to call it. I'm i'mm out of work, you know. But so here's the thing, Ryan. You mentioned your dad, okay?

00:29:35.13
Bill
So my dad died one month before I got sober. That was literally the, that was my breaking point. I was a 41-year-old man who had no idea how to deal with life, cope with life, anything like that. I didn't know how to deal with the loss of that level either. That was ah that was the closest, most important person that I had had die in my life.

00:29:55.26
Bill
um At the time, my dad died. So at the time he died, he was he had 29 years sober. He died March 14th of 2000. I'm sorry. um

00:30:05.30
Mike
ten

00:30:06.04
Bill
Yeah, 2010. God, I'm losing my date here. Yeah, March 14th of 2000, 2010. And then I got sober on April 18th. So you're talking whatever this is at 37 days, right? So the problem was is that when he died, didn't know how to deal with it. So again, I went off the rails, blah, bla blah, blah.

00:30:23.93
Bill
And end result was I ended up at the the Keating Center in Cleveland. But here's a funny thing. Well, you just said it made me think about it. And I'm i'm glad that you brought it up because I thought 100% in between what i what I was experiencing with my dad before he died. You know, I was still drinking, but, um you know, I knew he'd been sober long enough and we talked about different things and I knew how he was living his life. Plus our sister talking about those different things with him.

00:30:50.92
Bill
You know, it kind of put two two together, thinking that in knowing how he acted at certain points in his sobriety, he probably wasn't living his best sober life. That's number one. And I think because our sister and I have talked about it, is that more than likely he lived sober.

00:31:08.12
Bill
when I got sober, I think the same thing would have happened with what you said, you know, that get a little bit closer, number one, because you guys are doing the same thing. But also maybe it it could have brought him back or would have brought him back into a more enjoyable program.

00:31:22.33
Bill
Mike and I were talking about that he was sober and I don't think he was, I don't think he was white knuckling it. We just don't necessarily think that he was completely happy, joyous and free, if that's a, if that's a good way to put it, you know?

00:31:31.36
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:31:32.28
Ryan T. Reichert
Mm-hmm. Yeah. know

00:31:37.69
Bill
But yeah, so I mean, that was all it's just, it was interesting that you brought that up because I thought the same thing. And that's the reason I'm glad you brought it up is because I think we've ever talked to anyone that's, yeah, well, we've talked about people that have parents and stuff like that that have, you know, that have obviously been around in their lives after they got sober. But I don't know, it's ah it's an interesting dynamic. And I think it adds, you know, again, it's ah it's a different talking point and it's a different opportunity for people, you know, to, it's ah it's our nature. We're going reach out to to somebody that's, It's newer. And just in this case, it happened to be with your dad. It's happened to be, you know, his, his son.

00:32:10.85
Bill
So he gets to help out with the new guy and it's you, which has got to be kind of cool. Right.

00:32:14.58
Ryan T. Reichert
it's so It's so wild over the years. i don i don't know if you guys have heard, probably have, but earlier on, this is probably 2008, 2009 timeframe when I was company commander and really running and gunning with the boys.

00:32:30.49
Ryan T. Reichert
And i we were out. It was boys' night out. This is like Tacoma, Washington, and girls' night out in Olympia, Washington. So like 30 minutes apart. and no No should these paths cross. If the boys are up north, the girls are down south, we'll be just fine.

00:32:40.97
Bill
Hehehehe.

00:32:44.47
Ryan T. Reichert
And we did a good job. I was painting the town red. And at one of the bars in Tacoma, happened to look over, and my former spouse was standing next to me.

00:32:56.50
Ryan T. Reichert
And I'm like, that's weird. What's she doing here? Like, they're supposed to be 30 miles away.

00:33:00.38
Bill
ah

00:33:02.59
Ryan T. Reichert
Anywho, one of the lieutenants called his wife and said, hey, we're at this bar. Like, you might as well come up here if y'all are, you know, just be bopping around, done with dinner and so forth. And he didn't tell any of us.

00:33:13.50
Ryan T. Reichert
So, yeah, whatever nightclub. When I looked and then talked to her because I was obviously just like, yeah, that's not her. Somebody look looks like her.

00:33:21.89
Bill
Yeah. yeah

00:33:22.55
Ryan T. Reichert
She left and, you know, I was i probably wasn't as far in the bag as I thought I was, but maybe I was and found myself out in the street and she had my dad on the phone and basically, hey, you need to talk to your son. He's out of control.

00:33:37.14
Ryan T. Reichert
i wouldn't talk to him. And so gave him to one of my platoon sergeants.

00:33:38.87
Mike
Right.

00:33:41.22
Ryan T. Reichert
And I was like, hey, you talk to my old man. That's cool. And after that, though, he was like, hey, you know, once you let the vampire in, I can come and go as I please. And Michelle let me in.

00:33:51.24
Ryan T. Reichert
So basically, you know, do we need to have an intervention?

00:33:53.01
Mike
Right.

00:33:53.48
Bill
Oh, yeah.

00:33:55.50
Ryan T. Reichert
And I was like, no, I'm i'm good. Right. It's like kind of thing. And into that, I reflect all the time going back to that with. you know letting the vampire in.

00:34:06.76
Ryan T. Reichert
And for me, it was always like, I'm nothing like my dad. i

00:34:10.77
Mike
Hmm.

00:34:11.42
Ryan T. Reichert
so on and so forth. And realized, though, I should have wanted to be more like my father, to realize how hard it would, I can't fathom. what it was like to stay sober in Hoople, a town where you know there's two of you and you gotta go 18 miles or 20 miles to the next town that actually has an AA meeting in it.

00:34:32.20
Bill
Right.

00:34:32.89
Ryan T. Reichert
And just to go like, what was that like? All of his friends, the guys he grew up with for you know his entire life, now aren't his friends anymore because you know he's not a normal drinker he's one who had to quit and so on and so forth and i'm just like golly i would i'm not I'm not like my father.

00:34:53.44
Ryan T. Reichert
I was right because I wouldn't have been that strong. I wouldn't have been able to to go through what he went through and run a business in you know a town like that, especially in insurance business.

00:34:56.47
Bill
hey

00:34:56.47
Mike
Mm-hmm. Right.

00:35:03.12
Ryan T. Reichert
No one needs insurance until you need insurance. So it's always like, why is it so expensive and why do I have to buy it every year kind of thing?

00:35:06.10
Bill
ah

00:35:06.08
Mike
Right.

00:35:10.86
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

00:35:11.42
Bill
right

00:35:12.06
Ryan T. Reichert
Those are the the things. So, yeah, listen and to your story, Bill. Absolutely. Certainly. And for your father, God rest him. And it's amazing that, yeah, no matter what, I look at the same thing because I know over the years my dad's program has ebbed and flowed.

00:35:27.35
Ryan T. Reichert
And so it's it's hard to see, right? Previous, he lived in San Diego for a number of years and when COVID hit, all his meetings you know went away because he's like, I don't know how do you run the damn Zoom things you all talk about.

00:35:39.11
Mike
Right.

00:35:42.13
Ryan T. Reichert
Like, what's what's that take? And so he kind of you know stopped going to meetings for, i don't know how many, well, just up until recently.

00:35:44.36
Bill
you

00:35:50.25
Ryan T. Reichert
i know last year when I went and visited him Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, we went to meetings, but he he stopped. And it's just one where you see that and you can just watch the life leave somebody. And then, yeah, are they white-knuckling What are they doing? Whatever program they're working, you know, hey, if it works for them to not drink, great. But they're not living either. And so I... ah it's just great to see him with a little lifeblood back into him the last handful of months he was up here for thanksgiving again this year which was wonderful and that's my my birthday so you know i had two years this past uh in a november he went back home and he's like i have the war purpose again and i'm i'm back going to meetings and he was he was getting it it like it was amazing he's like yeah i go to five in a row like you know i'm gonna take and to take the weekend off and get back at it.

00:36:28.26
Bill
Right.

00:36:32.44
Bill
ah

00:36:33.70
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:36:40.91
Ryan T. Reichert
I'm like, yeah, sounds good. I mean i think it's fantastic. and yeah it's It's one of those where we just really, think that's the thing. We just want the best for everybody. If it's you know a dad, a mom, a sister, brother, cousin, whomever, is just to get that lifeblood back inside of them to not, just to have that hope.

00:37:03.38
Ryan T. Reichert
So, yeah.

00:37:04.49
Bill
Right. Yeah. And I mean, we've we've seen that with plenty of people over over the years. And, you know, I mean, that you can you can tell, you know, when there's when there's somebody that is, um you know, dry or, you know, they're they're a really, really, really, really unhappy, sober individual.

00:37:20.61
Bill
You know, some people quit drinking and they don't do anything to work on work on the themselves.

00:37:20.95
Ryan T. Reichert
you

00:37:21.18
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:37:24.73
Bill
They don't do anything to get better. We went to a ton of meetings when we first got sober. um I do not go to a lot of meetings anymore. Mike, you go to one.

00:37:35.13
Bill
He goes to one every every week.

00:37:35.61
Mike
Yeah.

00:37:36.65
Bill
And...

00:37:37.06
Mike
I go to my home group to be of service, you know?

00:37:39.19
Bill
hey

00:37:39.66
Mike
I mean, and I tell people, it's like, you know, um look, man, if I need a meeting, I'm doing something wrong. um You know, i'd I'd never need a meeting. I don't need to go and and sit in a church basement anymore, which is wonderful. I'm grateful that I don't, you know, I'm living my life. I'm doing what I'm supposed to do. I i live my program every day.

00:38:03.58
Mike
But i need I go to my home group where I'm an active member and I'm of service.

00:38:07.41
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

00:38:09.26
Mike
You know, I have a position and bla blah, blah, blah, blah. And that's why I go. You know, I go to help somebody else out. I go to keep the doors open for the person that needs to go to a meeting.

00:38:20.21
Mike
Thankfully, I don't need to go to a meeting anymore. i go to a meeting because I want to keep the doors open for somebody else.

00:38:28.95
Bill
Yeah. And I mean, we consider this to be this podcast to be a, um you know, like I mentioned before, it's a we're not a sanctioned. Everyone knows that. And we would never try to pretend that we are.

00:38:38.23
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:38:39.83
Bill
But, you know, we do consider this to be we've talked about, you know, service commitments. This is we talk about, you know, a meeting of sorts. And this is we talk about, you know, giving it a way to keep it.

00:38:49.95
Bill
This is, you know, this is we're we're fulfilling, you know, don't even want to say a requirement, but we're we're fulfilling a requirement of sorts, but also filling.

00:38:55.64
Mike
youth

00:38:59.26
Bill
I felt at at the point that we started doing this, I was feeling this void and I didn't know what it was. And then this is this was one of the things. And it was, again, you know, it's coming out of COVID after, you know, those couple of years of everything that everyone went through.

00:39:14.07
Bill
But the thing of it is, though, is that with with meetings, um when when I'm in Cleveland, um i I go to a meeting without an issue. when I travel a lot. And for a while there, I was going to meetings out of town because I like to check out what different people are doing.

00:39:27.69
Bill
I like doing it as a getting out and meeting people.

00:39:27.86
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:39:30.45
Bill
I love the fact that here's the thing that I really, really enjoy about. we We've talked to a number of people and a number of guests on here that that do this recovery sober thing alcohol free thing whatever people want to call it they do this thing where there's no alcohol in their life a number of different ways maybe outside of alcoholics anonymous but what i like is that i can go i can be anywhere in the world anywhere.

00:39:56.79
Bill
To your point, Ryan, I may have to drive. There's been places that I've stayed and in in my travels over the last couple of years where if I wanted to go to a meeting, it'd be a 40 minute drive. I'm kind of out the middle of nowhere ish.

00:40:08.23
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:40:08.75
Bill
um But, you know, um I know for a fact I can go anywhere in the country, anywhere in the world. I can walk in a room Even if I don't understand the language, I can feel at home.

00:40:19.72
Bill
I could be welcomed and I could get exactly what I want and or need in a room of Alcoholics Anonymous. That in itself, you talked about before, you know, that the faith and the hope and and all that sort of things, that's comforting to me.

00:40:32.30
Bill
But it's also, you know, I have faith that that I have that. it's ah It's a faith thing for me that, you know, I know that I can I can grab onto that no matter where I'm at, which is which is kind of cool, you know.

00:40:44.00
Ryan T. Reichert
Oh, absolutely. i love it. I mean, I think that is always the our programs working at, you know, just like you said, Mike, is your program. And it doesn't have a you know, it's got to be seven meetings a week.

00:40:56.43
Ryan T. Reichert
It's got to be one meeting a week.

00:40:56.92
Bill
Right.

00:40:57.71
Ryan T. Reichert
It's got it. How you work your daily routine, 24 hours at the pace, that that is it.

00:41:02.20
Mike
Yo.

00:41:04.39
Ryan T. Reichert
And I love i love that because, right, it's

00:41:04.89
Mike
Right.

00:41:05.20
Bill
Right.

00:41:08.02
Mike
Yeah, well, I mean, you know, we were told early on, you know, it's not what you do between the serenity prayer and the Lord's prayer. It's what you do between the Lord's prayer and the serenity prayer.

00:41:19.66
Ryan T. Reichert
Mm-hmm.

00:41:21.06
Bill
Yeah. And we were, we were taught this, this routine when we were at the Keating center and we kind of like it. And we always joke about the, you know, karate kid, you know, it's like, you know, the wax on wax off stuff, you know, paint the fence and do this.

00:41:31.88
Bill
We were taught all these different things and we didn't realize what we were actually being taught. We were taught, we're being taught how to live like, you know, adult males. Cause we weren't, were on paper, but we weren't actually adults, you know, at 41 years or, you know, 41 to 43 years old at that time.

00:41:41.88
Mike
Mm-mm.

00:41:44.23
Bill
But

00:41:47.13
Bill
The thing of it is, and in the in the cool part, is that, um you know, again, with with these things that we were taught, there are certain things that we do. Both of us do a certain set of readings every morning. Both of us do a short set of prayers every morning.

00:41:59.33
Bill
Both of us do a 10-step every single day.

00:41:59.56
Mike
Mm-mm.

00:42:02.23
Bill
Both of us make our bed. um Both of us, um you know, act a certain way and and carry ourselves a certain way.

00:42:04.18
Mike
Yep. Yep.

00:42:10.09
Bill
that hasn't changed in, you know, almost 16 years. We're coming up on 16 years in April. And in this, this daily routine, like the, you're familiar with the 24 hour book, right? 24 hours a day, right?

00:42:20.15
Ryan T. Reichert
Yes, yep, yeah, correct.

00:42:21.59
Bill
Yeah. So we, we were introduced to that, you know, the, whatever day it was, you figure what you, both of us were probably what Mike six, seven days sober. The first time either one of us read that book, right?

00:42:31.32
Mike
Right. yeah Well, I mean, you know it wasn't my first rodeo, so I had seen it and read it before.

00:42:32.54
Bill
You know,

00:42:35.63
Mike
But um yes, but the Keating Center.

00:42:35.93
Bill
Oh, okay. Yeah. But I mean, it, but see,

00:42:38.55
Mike
Yes. Right. We got out of detox, went to the Keating Center and the first goddamn day there. First morning.

00:42:43.61
Bill
a

00:42:43.71
Mike
Get up. We're going to read this book.

00:42:45.88
Bill
Yeah. And neither one of us, you know, you figure in however many days that's been, you know, in almost 16 years, neither one of us has missed reading that book. And we've added other books of, you know, from Hazelden, like God grant me and keep it simple.

00:42:58.06
Bill
I used to read one day, one day at a time.

00:42:58.05
Mike
Mm hmm.

00:43:00.50
Bill
We both read touchstones now. um All these different books that we've gotten into that take literally, I mean, my morning routine with everything takes 15 to 20 minutes. And we've ran across people over at the time.

00:43:11.71
Bill
And it's I say this all the time. It still drives me nuts. so there's one guy that I had that I had sponsored.

00:43:14.73
Mike
Yeah.

00:43:16.95
Bill
And all I wanted him to do, I said, do you don't have to do anything else. You're, you're out, you're back to work. I was helping him, helping him through and sponsor him. I said, just every morning, you know, don't, don't skip this, this thing that we've been doing in here.

00:43:27.75
Bill
At least, at least read the 24 hour book. What does that take? Two minutes, three minutes.

00:43:31.96
Mike
yeah

00:43:32.12
Ryan T. Reichert
this this is

00:43:32.38
Bill
And every time we'd get together, like, Oh, I was busy. I was got up late. I'm like, you, you're telling me you, you literally don't have two or three minutes to, to give to your recovery. And that's all I'm asking you to do Do that. As we were trying to walk through the steps a little bit too, but yeah,

00:43:46.71
Bill
He refused to do it. And I'm like, i I readjust my life. I've gotten up and literally in the middle of the night to travel. And Mike and I talked about that because I sat down one time at 1.30 in the morning because I was about to start my day, quote unquote.

00:43:58.21
Mike
Yep.

00:43:59.95
Bill
And I did i did my readings, you know, and I'm like, this is so stupid. It's 1.30 in the morning, but I went to sleep. And I woke up and I'm about to get out there and it it enter the world with you people out there.

00:44:12.82
Bill
And I need to i need to get my shit straight.

00:44:13.13
Mike
Yep.

00:44:15.78
Mike
yep

00:44:16.66
Ryan T. Reichert
I, Bill, I love, I love hearing that. Cause I do the, I do the same thing and granted.

00:44:22.10
Bill
Right.

00:44:22.34
Ryan T. Reichert
was amazing. You guys 16 years for me, you know, 27 months, but it is that side of it of, for me, it's, I call it your three daily wins.

00:44:33.12
Ryan T. Reichert
It's a, Physical win, it's a mental win and a spiritual win. So for me, it it looks like working out, reading my Bible, meditating. There's some practices that go in that meditation. But yeah, like whatever works for you to do that before.

00:44:45.99
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:44:46.11
Bill
Right.

00:44:47.28
Ryan T. Reichert
mean, I kind of call it like putting on the armor of God for myself before I go out and have to fight the demons of the world.

00:44:51.55
Bill
Right.

00:44:51.71
Mike
Right.

00:44:55.26
Ryan T. Reichert
And unfortunately, or fortunately, I guess I've had a lot of years of

00:44:55.77
Bill
right

00:44:55.90
Mike
Right.

00:45:01.11
Ryan T. Reichert
the ah physical side of doing it now it's more of the spiritual and emotional side but

00:45:03.76
Mike
Mm-hmm. Right, yeah, but it all it all comes down to discipline. Right.

00:45:07.74
Ryan T. Reichert
it it is It is that discipline every single day. And to tell me, I love that with the 24 hours.

00:45:11.08
Mike
Yeah.

00:45:12.42
Ryan T. Reichert
It's like, let's just say it's three minutes. You literally can't spend three minutes of your day getting yourself right.

00:45:14.71
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:45:17.61
Mike
Yeah.

00:45:18.96
Ryan T. Reichert
So you don't have a mental breakdown when you're at the stoplight or you're waiting for your fast food, you know, the drive through and it takes a little bit longer, whatever it is.

00:45:19.82
Bill
Bye.

00:45:21.59
Mike
Yeah.

00:45:29.44
Ryan T. Reichert
Like you, if you would have done that one discipline thing,

00:45:30.09
Mike
Yeah.

00:45:33.50
Ryan T. Reichert
Your day would be great.

00:45:33.97
Mike
Right.

00:45:35.10
Ryan T. Reichert
It'd be wonderful because it just sets the tone. And so anyways, I just, I feel the same way, Bill, when it comes to that.

00:45:38.25
Mike
Right.

00:45:42.44
Ryan T. Reichert
Like it's kind of, there are some simple, and whatever idiosyncrasies to that where you're like, if if you can't do this, I can't help you kind of thing. It's just what it comes comes down to.

00:45:52.18
Mike
Right.

00:45:52.33
Bill
Right. Well, he ended up.

00:45:54.55
Mike
Well, tell tell the...

00:45:55.43
Bill
Oh, sorry. Go ahead.

00:45:56.02
Mike
Yeah, no, I was going to say, um you know, I'm looking at the clock. um So tell the Cliff story from the retreat we went to, and then I'm going to take us to a little break.

00:45:59.66
Bill
Right.

00:46:06.55
Bill
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're in this cliff. I'm like, who's Cliff? Did I meet somebody named Cliff?

00:46:10.52
Mike
No, A Cliff.

00:46:11.76
Bill
I know what you're talking about. So we're at this. set We went to the the one and only retreat that we've ever been to.

00:46:17.03
Mike
Ha, ha, ha, ha.

00:46:17.23
Bill
it it was ah a friend of ours. Her name is Mara. We had her on here as a guest. She's a wonderful human being. We love her to death. But she invited us to this. So both of us spoke and we were in these breakout meetings.

00:46:27.83
Bill
And this ah one individual, she started talking and she said she's like, she's ok go okay. She goes every, and she was what, i ah less than a year sober, right? Like think, yeah, she was young, yeah she was young-ish in the program, whatever it was.

00:46:36.44
Mike
Yeah, but I think right around year.

00:46:42.01
Bill
And she said, every morning when I wake up, she said, i envisioned myself standing with my tiptoes at the edge of a cliff. And she said, with everything I do, whether whether it's making my bed or reading my readings, doing my prayers, she's like, I'm taking steps away from that cliff. she So she's like, all of these good things that I'm doing um for my recovery on a daily basis. At the end of the day, she's like, I can't even see the edge of the cliff. But then she's like, you know what?

00:47:06.46
Bill
When alarm goes off the next morning, she's like, I'm standing at the edge of that damn cliff again. And I got to do everything all over again. But both of us were like, oh, my God, what a great analogy, because that is what it is.

00:47:17.63
Mike
Yeah.

00:47:19.06
Bill
It's it's a ground recovery is like a groundhog day. You know, i mean, you have to you're doing everything the same every day at that certain point. Yeah, different things can happen. But just because you backed yourself away with all these good deeds throughout the day, all these good recovery things.

00:47:33.40
Bill
Throughout the day, um you're going to at the end of that clip the next day. So and if you don't do anything, one of those days, you're going to fall, you know. But it was one of the coolest things we've we've ever heard. And I love, love, love, I say this all the time, people who are anywhere between one to three years sober, I love that time frame.

00:47:51.42
Bill
Because usually, and I don't... not always, but usually people are more active, more open. um Some is still in that pink cloud phrase phase. um A lot of people are just really wide eyed in a really positive way. I'd love that. I'd love that timeframe. It's, it's inspiring to me.

00:48:09.23
Bill
don't, I, both of us, we talk about it. We're getting older, we're getting lazy, not in our recovery, but you know, just in general, it's, it's wonderful to see that spark in people. And that's what we took away from, you know, from somebody with a year sober. was beautiful, beautiful.

00:48:24.16
Mike
All right. So we are going to step away from the edge of the cliff for just a moment.

00:48:28.80
Ryan T. Reichert
a moment. We're to have some messages from our sponsors and be right back.

00:48:29.46
Mike
We're going to have some messages from our sponsors and we'll be right back.

00:48:42.30
Bill
All right, everyone. Welcome back. So yeah, step away from the cliff and go listen to some sponsors.

00:48:46.46
Mike
he

00:48:49.02
Bill
That was nice.

00:48:49.08
Mike
Yeah.

00:48:50.18
Bill
That was nice. Yeah. And everyone, everyone, if anyone did listen through that, that commercial break, it it talks about voting for us too. So yes, vote for us. Don't forget. Don't forget, we're we're in ah we're an award-nominated podcast now.

00:48:59.58
Mike
Right. Right. that That's right. And it's, we've only got what, ah about four weeks left, about a month left to vote.

00:49:08.75
Bill
Yeah, what day is it? Yeah, April 11th. Yeah, voting goes through April 11th.

00:49:12.38
Mike
Yeah. Yeah.

00:49:13.55
Bill
We want to talk about a funny thing, Ryan. And I don't know if – well, you probably saw I post. I'm posting the crap out of it on Instagram.

00:49:20.19
Mike
Hehehehehehe.

00:49:21.48
Bill
I was going to say maybe you didn't see it, but of course you probably did. but just throwing everyone's face.

00:49:24.40
Ryan T. Reichert
Oh.

00:49:25.74
Bill
But yeah, it's just a completely out of the blue. You know, we got approached. We didn't get approached. It was just something that we were tagged on Instagram and I almost ignored it. Cause I didn't, I thought just somebody sending me some, some thing to look at, but yeah, we were nominated for best podcast by this, this group called Sands Bar out of Austin, Texas.

00:49:45.71
Bill
And it's nominated by, by peers. So, you know, people from the sober community, um, somehow listened to this garbage and thought that we should be nominated.

00:49:51.86
Mike
he

00:49:52.79
Ryan T. Reichert
yeah

00:49:54.24
Bill
And you know, the, to begin with, and I told Mike this one, what I, cause I, I didn't tell him I held it. I held it for like three days. Cause I'm like, I need to tell him on, on the podcast, not just call him up and tell him.

00:50:04.54
Mike
Right. And Ryan, you must know, well, if you're one of us, so you know, he's a little impatient. he he like He wants what he wants and he wants it now.

00:50:09.82
Bill
Oh

00:50:13.40
Ryan T. Reichert
Oh yeah.

00:50:13.50
Mike
So for him to wait three days was huge.

00:50:13.71
Ryan T. Reichert
That's

00:50:13.72
Bill
yeah. And,

00:50:16.92
Bill
It was pain, and I didn't tell anyone.

00:50:17.24
Ryan T. Reichert
awesome.

00:50:20.82
Mike
Right.

00:50:20.92
Bill
Like, no one.

00:50:21.60
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:50:22.68
Bill
I mean, no one, you know? So, um but as I told Mike, I'm like, my first thought was, I'm like, okay, this is cool. And now for whatever reason, I tried to, I tried to, my my brain took the humble route, right?

00:50:32.71
Bill
Which it is humbling to begin with. But I'm like, like, hey, we were nominated. Whatever happens, happens. No need to try to push this and get greedy, whatever. And Mike's like, Mike's like, what did you do with you? Who is this person I'm speaking to?

00:50:43.55
Bill
and

00:50:43.54
Mike
right

00:50:43.73
Bill
And what did you do with Bill? I'm like, no, no, no. I changed my mind. I'm like, we're we're going for this fucking win now.

00:50:48.22
Mike
easy see

00:50:49.60
Bill
We're going to try to win this there their thing. But I don't know. It's just it's so it's so ridiculous because we um I don't know. It's just that we ah we just get on here. We talk. We have a conversation and it's it's humbling and it's it's gratifying only in the fact that, um you know, knowing that somebody thought well enough because, Mike, you said it best.

00:51:08.99
Bill
You're like, you don't do anything for this podcast in general and you're part of it.

00:51:10.85
Mike
Right.

00:51:12.34
Bill
And, you know, somebody, people went out there and actually nominated us for this thing.

00:51:12.55
Mike
Right.

00:51:16.34
Bill
So I don't know. It's a, it's a treat. Worst case scenario, nobody could ever take that away from us. We get to hang out of that forever that we've been nominated for an award.

00:51:24.56
Mike
Right.

00:51:25.52
Bill
It's so.

00:51:25.62
Mike
Yeah.

00:51:26.59
Ryan T. Reichert
Well, it's that shot in the arm every once in a while that we need to, you know, just know that you're still competing.

00:51:29.72
Mike
here

00:51:30.81
Bill
It's. Yeah.

00:51:33.05
Ryan T. Reichert
It's not competing, but I think it's the living, the fruits of your labor. no even Even though you're not you're not looking for anything out of this, it's just something that's turned two amazing friends into, you know, hey, this is what allows us to get together on Fridays.

00:51:38.42
Mike
yeah

00:51:42.45
Bill
Right.

00:51:42.46
Mike
Right.

00:51:48.59
Ryan T. Reichert
we still get to have this. Sometimes we have a guest. It's wonderful, whatever.

00:51:52.66
Mike
Yeah.

00:51:53.24
Ryan T. Reichert
But... If you're doing it with your heart, you love, compassion, so on and so forth, that's where this, that's why you have somebody saying, hey, you guys need to be nominated for this because you're not out there throwing, you know whatever you want to call at it and trying to be the the dry drunk side of it of, you know, hey, I don't drink, but, you know, we got to be the best damn podcast out there.

00:52:03.42
Mike
e

00:52:17.26
Bill
Yeah.

00:52:20.92
Mike
Yeah.

00:52:21.07
Ryan T. Reichert
It's just, it's, It just comes with the territory of of who you guys are what you do. And every once in a while, you get to have some sprinkles on your ice cream. but that's That's it.

00:52:29.99
Mike
Yeah.

00:52:30.55
Ryan T. Reichert
That's all it is.

00:52:30.97
Mike
Exactly. And the sprinkles are put on there by our fellow drunks and drug addicts, which is the cool part.

00:52:35.16
Bill
yeah

00:52:35.77
Ryan T. Reichert
Right. Yeah.

00:52:38.10
Bill
Yeah, and it's, I mean, ah but i'm I'm the first one to am admit i'm I'm still an egotist to this day. And I, you know, i've um i I work on it and I'm better than I used to be.

00:52:43.86
Mike
Yeah.

00:52:48.15
Bill
It is, excuse me, one of my character defects. But there was nothing I couldn't even be egotistical about the whole thing. It was just so, it was so surprising. But yeah, like you just said, Ryan, it's getting out there.

00:53:00.76
Bill
And the thing that was so nice is we just, we got on here with no expectations, just doing what we do. And the fact that somebody said, hey, you know what, we appreciate you for that. That's kind of cool. You know, and that's what I don't need a pat on the back all the time.

00:53:12.63
Bill
I don't need my handheld. I don't need, you know, my butt slapped all over the place by people. I just don't need any of that stuff. It's nice every once in a while, but I don't need it. But when it's when it's random, you know, again, by your peers, like you just said, the sprinkles were by by our people, which was which was wonderful.

00:53:24.90
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:53:27.91
Bill
So. All right. Enough about us. and they They get to people get to listen to all this garbage from us all the time. So I get I get two quick questions for you, Ryan, that I know that you've you've got a book that obviously I'm sure you want to talk about.

00:53:33.45
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:53:38.91
Bill
You've got a podcast also. I think you do with your wife. Am I correct?

00:53:42.50
Ryan T. Reichert
She's my partner in crime today.

00:53:44.66
Mike
e

00:53:44.84
Bill
OK.

00:53:45.14
Ryan T. Reichert
so one um should probably be my She'll probably be my wife one day, but yeah, we're ah we're just playing playing the game of living, yeah not in sin, but in sin kind of thing.

00:53:46.12
Bill
OK. I apologize. I.

00:53:49.66
Bill
ah

00:53:50.23
Mike
me

00:53:55.03
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's ah it's all good.

00:53:55.19
Mike
That's all right.

00:53:55.98
Bill
it's It's okay. You know, it's it that was that was a, and I don't know in the in the reading that I did where i where I took that assumption.

00:53:57.24
Mike
that's all right

00:54:02.50
Bill
But so anyhow, you you have a female podcast partner, which will i I know we want you to talk about that. Obviously your book, we always want people to be able to promote what they're doing. But my question though, kind of back to the whole Alcoholics Anonymous thing.

00:54:14.89
Bill
um How did you, because you said that you, there was a particular day that you took your last drink. And I think it was what, three days later, you had your first AA meeting. um Why Alcoholics Anonymous? What drew you there?

00:54:25.65
Bill
were you Were you asked to go there or was that your choice or how did you end up with AA?

00:54:32.22
Ryan T. Reichert
I think it was just knowing that AA was familiar to me. I was the Alla kid, Alla teen.

00:54:38.97
Bill
Okay.

00:54:39.03
Ryan T. Reichert
my my mom went to Al-Anon.

00:54:39.08
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:54:41.30
Ryan T. Reichert
So i I believe it was just the next right thing. And it was a weird, just the way it happened because I think where I was just at in it, i had just all this guilt laying on top of me and it was like, can I get some relief?

00:55:01.22
Ryan T. Reichert
What does this look like? And finding myself.

00:55:03.06
Mike
h

00:55:03.13
Bill
Right.

00:55:04.50
Ryan T. Reichert
And when I was telling somebody actually, I think earlier today about it, I believe where I went, It was this dark, smoke-filled room with like the oldest, crustiest recovering alcoholics you've ever seen in your life. There was like one bulb that was flickering in the room and and so forth. And I sat like all the way in the back.

00:55:26.20
Ryan T. Reichert
When I go into this room today and you know, it's my home group, I laugh because it's the brightest, biggest room ever, but there's not that many seats. You know, we probably have 20 people at at the biggest ever.

00:55:38.15
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's it's not huge. But in your mind, how you just play back, like how low I was and how dark my life was.

00:55:40.09
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

00:55:46.30
Ryan T. Reichert
And I laugh because I bring a little notepad with me and jot a couple of things down every time someone says something in a meeting or if I'm having a thought. And I wrote in there, you know, to be become a good man, to tell the truth, become honest again.

00:56:04.44
Ryan T. Reichert
and you know, it was just simple. And I laugh now and I reflect about it because... They're a certain squad number, but they're not known for that. They're known as being the God squad. And it's really cool to me because only has my life become the way it is really because of that first meeting and then going to it every week for the last, I don't know, 100 plus Mondays now, minus traveling. And you just...

00:56:34.61
Ryan T. Reichert
It's home. it it feels like going home and I never go home. So it's one of those to today for me that, yeah, like I said in the beginning, you just can't see it any other way.

00:56:42.04
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:56:48.18
Ryan T. Reichert
Wouldn't do it to any other way.

00:56:50.81
Bill
Yeah, like I said, it was just curious and the same thing. I mean, my my dad was um Alcoholics Anonymous. so The Keating Center introduced us to Alcoholics Anonymous. and here's a funny thing. So, and, you know, I mean, obviously, you know, 16 years is 16 years.

00:57:03.26
Bill
It's been ah it's been ah a long time, but not long compared to a lot of other people that we've known and the time they've been sober.

00:57:09.18
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:57:10.26
Bill
But... Just since, um again, April of 2010, the number of um things that have evolved from technology standpoint with recovery, the different areas, the different ways to to get and stay sober. you know they Even with, I mean, you go on you know the Facebook and Instagram, there's these whole ah TikTok, from what I understand, these whole communities that of, of sober people out there, you you know, people always referred to it it as sober Instagram. I'm like, I wasn't on Instagram before we started the podcast. I went on briefly about a month before, i think just to kind of, you know, kind of check it out. And then I changed over to our, our sober, not mature page. But yeah,

00:57:51.50
Bill
there's this whole community of people out there you know that that work on trying not holding each other accountable but offering accountability and there's so many other ways out there we are full fully invested and you know we were brought up and and so believe in everything aa related i don't know that i could have gotten sober another way i don't really care to find out you know i'm i'm cool with what what i did and how i did things and how i continue to do things but There's just so many other other ways out there.

00:58:21.12
Bill
And that's why I wondered, again, within the last couple of years that if it was just, you know, familiarity, you know, that's what you knew or that's what's available. Because a lot of times, depending on I know that if people go through the court system, usually it is a a right, Mike, that people get referred to.

00:58:36.28
Mike
Yeah.

00:58:37.07
Bill
You know, so I just think that it's, it seems to be, it's like, well, okay, so you're, you're going to go to this grocery store because that's, that's the kind of food that, you know, we, you people eat, you know, so you're going to go there.

00:58:37.16
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:58:46.71
Bill
So again, I just didn't know, but that's, that's nice. I mean, you've gone, so you've gone to that same meeting consistently ever since, huh?

00:58:53.30
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, i it it was really interesting because, you know, it's not like every podcast you hop on is sober, not mature. So it's really having some great reflections here of just what it did look like.

00:59:02.07
Mike
Yeah.

00:59:05.34
Ryan T. Reichert
I had a, I call him my little brother today, but a guy I worked with at the time in that corporate job, and he was a friend of Bill's and younger than me.

00:59:06.70
Mike
Mm-hmm.

00:59:14.18
Ryan T. Reichert
But I looked up to him because he had so many years in supply chain and so forth and realized, and I had kind of no one that he was was a friend of Bill's. But yeah, on that Tuesday, he had a meeting that he went to in St.

00:59:28.06
Ryan T. Reichert
Paul. And so then I just started my 90 and 90 and so forth with that. So basically... Today, i do a Monday-Friday meeting, and you know I have service commitments at both of them.

00:59:39.80
Ryan T. Reichert
And the Friday meeting's been the Friday meeting ever since the beginning as well.

00:59:40.64
Mike
Right. Mm-hmm.

00:59:45.27
Ryan T. Reichert
And it's really interesting. How's the saying go? you know All AA meetings are good. Some are just better than others. And so it's one to me where there's still a a few out there that I go, man, I haven't been to that one since that first year sobering up.

00:59:53.59
Bill
ah ha

01:00:01.55
Ryan T. Reichert
I should really you know check it out. and head back to it so-and-so. I wonder if they still got, should at least minimum reach out to them and see how they're doing. And, it, it is interesting because I've seen a lot of the different sides of it going around of, there are so many different communities out there on social media to help with, you know Hey, we can talk about this now.

01:00:19.84
Bill
Right.

01:00:23.17
Ryan T. Reichert
It doesn't have to be anonymous anymore. Or, and I agree, like for me, just like you guys, where, um,

01:00:25.50
Mike
Right.

01:00:30.27
Ryan T. Reichert
that's a little bit of the problem at times is, you know, us not talking about things and continue to isolate ourselves, but that's okay.

01:00:35.76
Mike
Mm

01:00:37.75
Ryan T. Reichert
Like if you're not ready, you're not ready. But, but to for me, I know I want to help as many people out there, be it, you know, I'm i'm a big advocate for, you know, suicide, ah ah awareness prevention so forth, especially with veterans and the same, you know, with Alcoholics Anonymous and And everything else.

01:00:51.95
Mike
hmm. Right.

01:00:56.57
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's just knowing that if my story can save one life out there, I don't care who I got to tell my story to. And there's so many things that we're not proud of. But you know what?

01:01:07.12
Ryan T. Reichert
They happened. And the cool thing about it is now it can't hurt me anymore. I'm no longer afraid of Freddy Krueger like I was for my entire life after I watched it 42 years ago with my babysitter.

01:01:17.05
Bill
ah

01:01:19.10
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's it's realizing that in itself is just continuing to just try to help as much as possible. And so, yeah, I love that you brought that up, Bill, because it is something where there are there's so much out there.

01:01:34.41
Ryan T. Reichert
You know, if AA is not for you, there's there's something else out there. So just keep looking.

01:01:38.21
Mike
Right.

01:01:38.45
Bill
Right. Well, and that's the thing, too, that, I mean, I, based on the, and my last name's all over the place now, but i kept I kept my anonymity very, very close to the chest for for years.

01:01:52.12
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:01:52.82
Bill
It was literally two and a half years ago. I think that, yeah, it was two a half years ago that I opened up online and stuff like that and started using, you know, my last name. And I just didn't. I didn't for years because, know,

01:02:06.42
Bill
i was in I was in the type of jobs. i wasn't like I don't consider myself to be anything of a big deal ever, but I've got a very uncommon last name.

01:02:18.21
Bill
And it's not too hard to figure out if it's me, it's me type of thing, that sort of thing.

01:02:22.42
Ryan T. Reichert
Mm-hmm.

01:02:23.75
Bill
I was concerned, I don't know if it was rightfully so or not, on a professional level, how people might look at me based on the positions that I had and the things that I was doing, you know, of being an alcoholic, even though I was sober and all those sort of things.

01:02:37.42
Bill
And I finally got to the point where I just, I left the job, I was going to try and I did, I, you know, kind of took my stab at sober coaching for a little while that didn't work out. But from that point forward, I just opened up and I'm like, okay, enough of this.

01:02:49.10
Bill
Okay. But I it was, you know, mean, again, two half years ago, I was 13 and a half years sober, you know, and at that point, you know, because Mike and I used to actually talk about it every once in a while.

01:02:54.40
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

01:02:58.68
Bill
And I would tell him and I would I would actually question myself every once in a while. And he's like, he's like, it's he goes, you do do whatever you got to do. You know, he goes, you do it this way.

01:03:07.06
Ryan T. Reichert
yes

01:03:08.18
Bill
I do it this way.

01:03:08.18
Ryan T. Reichert
yeah

01:03:09.18
Bill
It hasn't hurt you. And he goes, maybe it's helped you. Maybe it hasn't. But he said, it doesn't matter. He goes, it hasn't, it hasn't affected you. Just keep, keep on doing what you're doing. It's you're fine. if you ever choose to, you know, kind of come out of the closet on that whole thing, then do it And I did, you know, but, but that's the cool part too, that you said, you just said the right thing.

01:03:26.58
Bill
that The thing that I agree with also is that the thing of it is that we, we knew this guy in Cleveland, Ray Brown, he had, what did we figure? 56 years.

01:03:34.14
Mike
Yeah.

01:03:34.84
Bill
Okay. So he talked about, he was the first one that I think that I remember that really taught us about anonymity. And he said, it has nothing to do with, with me talking about my program and me talking about who I am or, or who I'm involved with.

01:03:44.96
Mike
Right.

01:03:47.75
Bill
He goes, I'm not supposed to tell somebody else about you, you know?

01:03:51.06
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

01:03:51.50
Bill
And he said with me, and his name was Ray Brown. And he said it openly, he goes, I want everyone to know that my name is Ray Brown.

01:03:55.23
Mike
Right.

01:03:58.02
Bill
Cause he says, how the hell are people going to find me if they need my help?

01:04:00.59
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah.

01:04:01.42
Bill
If they don't know my name, you know, he was the sweetest guy in the world, but yeah, he died with like 57 years of, of a sobriety, new sister, Ignatia way from Bay way back in the day.

01:04:03.07
Mike
Yeah.

01:04:03.45
Ryan T. Reichert
yeah

01:04:07.51
Mike
Yeah.

01:04:10.33
Mike
Yeah.

01:04:11.01
Ryan T. Reichert
Oh my goodness, yeah.

01:04:12.22
Bill
Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it was crazy. But in the the type of guy too, he knew your name. I mean, we'd, we'd walk in there out of the hundreds of thousands of people that he knew.

01:04:20.50
Mike
easy

01:04:21.01
Bill
We'd walk in there. Hey, Mikey, how you doing? Hey, good to see you Billy. You know, he can walk you through with this and that.

01:04:24.95
Mike
yeah

01:04:25.85
Bill
And you're just like, how does this old dude know who I am?

01:04:26.06
Mike
yall

01:04:28.80
Bill
Yeah.

01:04:29.22
Ryan T. Reichert
Mm-hmm, mm-hmm.

01:04:31.45
Bill
But yeah, I mean, it's, ah I don't know. It's, it's a great group. It's a, it's a great thing, but yeah, I'm glad, I'm glad you brought, I'm glad you, up you know, I obviously brought that up about your, you know, the home group too. Cause again, I just so I don't know sometimes how people get into it. And if people, if people like AA, fine. If people don't like AA, the only thing that we don't like,

01:04:48.82
Bill
is when people try to, I don't like people that talk down about it because we don't, we're of the opinion that we don't care what you do.

01:04:52.63
Ryan T. Reichert
yeah

01:04:55.22
Bill
We've joked about it. You know, as Mike always says, as long as you're out, you're, you're out there trying to be a better person and not hurting anyone along the way, you know, we don't care what the fuck you do, you know?

01:05:03.83
Mike
Right.

01:05:04.93
Bill
But don't tell me that I'm doing something wrong. um Don't bash what I'm doing because you don't agree with it or it doesn't work for you. And there's there's a few individuals, and we've talked about it here and there.

01:05:13.11
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:05:16.48
Bill
We haven't talked about the individual openly, but there's a few few people out there that are quite popular that have tried to change names and books and stories and concepts.

01:05:24.82
Ryan T. Reichert
yeah

01:05:26.96
Bill
And we're just like, leave it alone.

01:05:29.11
Ryan T. Reichert
yeah yeah well that that's the the whole ego thing right the pride and ego that thinks let's let's change let's change the world and uh yeah good luck and so

01:05:29.46
Bill
Damn it.

01:05:29.61
Mike
Right.

01:05:35.16
Bill
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

01:05:35.50
Mike
Mm hmm.

01:05:40.41
Bill
Right. Exactly. So, okay. So we obviously got the AA thing. So once again, you have a podcast. I know you wrote a book. um Basically what there, our whole point of doing these things, we always love to, you know, connect with people and hear their stories, but also want to give people the opportunity to anything that you're doing, talk about what you're doing, whether it's your business or your book or your podcast, um take the time, talk about whatever you, whatever you want, Ryan, feel free to open up about what you got going on in your life with your things.

01:06:07.86
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, no, I really appreciate that. I mean, it's to me, it's just my life today is what it's become.

01:06:12.92
Bill
ah Right.

01:06:13.85
Ryan T. Reichert
And we just happened to label it a certain way.

01:06:14.24
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:06:18.30
Ryan T. Reichert
You know, like was saying, after I was laid off, it was about eight months after I sobered up. So I was right in the middle of my divorce. And so it was perfect timing from that side.

01:06:28.58
Ryan T. Reichert
Saved me saved me a lot of money. And I didn't realize then what it was going to be. I was offered like to be a manager of a sober home and and run operations for them. And I was like, I think think the Lord's got something else for me.

01:06:41.78
Ryan T. Reichert
I'm just supposed to just wait. And it was really my lawyer saying, you know, don't get a job until this is all over with.

01:06:47.17
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:06:48.54
Ryan T. Reichert
ah But no, at the time I was just trying to find myself, right? Just go like, Hey, you're working a good solid program. You just lost your job. You got a severance package. You got some unemployment.

01:07:01.11
Ryan T. Reichert
Just keep doing what you're doing. Focus on you. And it was December and I had this, don't know if it was popping up in my social media feeds or whatever, but it's like, you know, join this thing and, you know, create your own LLC for 99 bucks and we'll, we'll help you out. And I was like, you know what? I still got 99 bucks in the bank account. Let's, let's see what happens. And so I started R-Protector LLC, which turned into R-Protector Legendary Leadership Companies because the North Dakota motto is legendary. And so I thought that fit nicely in there as we started writing books. So we have a book series today under the umbrella now has turned into R-Protector Development. And so for the science variety folks listening, it's obviously a guy with 23 years who served this country. That's our protector for the more spiritual S type. Our protector is God, Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit. But you can pick which side of the fence you want to play from.

01:08:01.40
Ryan T. Reichert
And we leave that up to you. Also, ah our protector development is OPD, and we had that every Thursday, which was Officer Professional Development as OPD in the Army.

01:08:13.78
Ryan T. Reichert
And I just, it's funny how it all comes together, because I didn't come up with any of this stuff. I'm from North Dakota.

01:08:17.81
Mike
Right.

01:08:18.10
Bill
yeah

01:08:18.86
Ryan T. Reichert
I'm publicly educated, so

01:08:20.89
Mike
us

01:08:21.37
Ryan T. Reichert
i I was the kid in third grade getting ready to be held back because I couldn't read yet because I'd been lying the whole time that I'd pick up picture books and be able to tell great and wonderful stories because there was pictures.

01:08:33.11
Ryan T. Reichert
You know, no one ever asked you, like, is that actually what it says in that book?

01:08:33.23
Bill
Right.

01:08:36.82
Ryan T. Reichert
So any who... So yeah, started writing the books and we ended up turning the books into a a course. It's called The War of Purpose Built to Break.

01:08:47.81
Ryan T. Reichert
So all these things that I know Mike's went through and the you, Bill, have gone through and everybody else listening and out there has gone through. It takes you through in ways that you're not going to break ah basically when you go through all the trials and the tribulations and the fire and the doom and the gloom and so on and so forth.

01:09:06.31
Ryan T. Reichert
It's literally making you stronger. And the problem is we always quit in it, i.e. suicide, or continue to drink ourself to death, which is suicide, and so on and so forth.

01:09:17.59
Mike
All right.

01:09:18.23
Bill
Right.

01:09:18.71
Ryan T. Reichert
And so, yeah, we we built that. And then we also, i met Lisa. a couple years back and she's a nurse of 25 years and she grew up in a house and with family members who suffer from our illness and she's got the most amazing heart you could ever imagine because she's been through hell and back with gasoline underwear on like I used to say always and it's really cool her dream was to you know

01:09:44.31
Mike
Hehehehe.

01:09:50.46
Ryan T. Reichert
be on the Oprah show or, you know, she used to play, uh, like the Oprah show with her girlfriends. and she showed me a picture. She's like, I would love to start a podcast. And I was like, yeah ah sure, I'll co-host it with you.

01:10:04.34
Ryan T. Reichert
And so we, uh, started last, I want to say may, uh, our healer, our protector with, uh, Ryan Raker and Lisa Sander. And it's, Christian podcast with two divorced folks that have basically adult children.

01:10:21.09
Ryan T. Reichert
She's got a boy and a girl and I got two girls and they're 17 to 24. And we just talk about what it's like to be divorced and still deal with your ex or former spouse.

01:10:26.01
Mike
Right.

01:10:32.21
Ryan T. Reichert
So ah work with your kids and what that's like, you know, as they're trying to navigate the world of their parents not being able to agree on anything and they knew that because they lived in the same house as us but now now we have miles apart and half as much money on each side of the fence so it's uh one of those that We just kind of tell it how it is and work through what we're going through each month.

01:10:44.18
Bill
Right.

01:10:44.15
Mike
Right.

01:10:57.92
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's it's been pretty fun. I think we've been able to sustain an episode a week on Tuesdays when it gets launched for everybody. And it's it's on, I don't know, all the different, that that I don't know what's what.

01:11:08.92
Mike
Right.

01:11:10.76
Ryan T. Reichert
I just you know i just hop on every every Monday night when we record it and say, what are we talking about?

01:11:14.01
Bill
hey

01:11:16.80
Ryan T. Reichert
And I can talk for 22 minutes or whatever we do since it's on video too. And yeah, it's just been amazing. The the books basically stem from, you know, a broken heart and divorce with a little bit of sobriety sprinkled over the top to estrangement with your children, that corporate layoff and how to build a vision board and create the life you've always dreamed of and everything that I put on the board.

01:11:42.29
Ryan T. Reichert
And that first year of building the business happened. So this year, this past fall, I had upgrade everything to make it you know a little bit cooler and so on and so forth because I didn't want all those dreams just to die last year.

01:11:55.13
Ryan T. Reichert
And yeah, second book is about becoming a man and you know facing those fears and not running from them.

01:11:55.44
Mike
Right.

01:12:03.29
Ryan T. Reichert
And then we launched the third book actually just this week. It's called Let's Get Spiritual, The Six-Step Method to Transform Your Life. And that's a 90-day prayer meditation journal.

01:12:13.74
Ryan T. Reichert
And it takes you kind of through scripture and a quote every day. And then it's got the Hour Protector Development spiritual practices that I've, the first 18 months of sobriety that I was doing every day that kept me from not taking a drink and I was able to compile that into what 90 days looks like to really help somebody out when they struggle coloring inside the lines per se.

01:12:37.41
Ryan T. Reichert
So we made it real easy There's only like a handful of things that you got to do.

01:12:39.50
Mike
Right?

01:12:41.43
Ryan T. Reichert
You literally like check boxes and, you know, some gratitude stuff, some, some prairie, prairie, some prairie, some good North Dakota English there.

01:12:52.89
Ryan T. Reichert
Some praying for people you don't adore and things like that.

01:12:53.30
Bill
yeah

01:12:55.96
Ryan T. Reichert
And it, it, it's all been fun and and it's it's cool because,

01:12:56.31
Mike
right

01:13:01.50
Ryan T. Reichert
like Just like you guys, I'm not looking to make money on any of it. I'm looking to save souls. And it's one where I don't i don't look at it anymore as like work or a job or anything else. It's just all about service and helping others. and Wanting to become the kind person my mom always believed I was or knew that was inside of me.

01:13:25.69
Ryan T. Reichert
and And I kept pouring gasoline on the fire or drinking the gasoline.

01:13:26.53
Bill
Right.

01:13:30.45
Ryan T. Reichert
And now I know that that little boy was always in there. He was just scared of a lot of things. And I'm not scared anymore.

01:13:36.54
Mike
Right.

01:13:37.98
Ryan T. Reichert
So let's go.

01:13:38.73
Mike
Yeah.

01:13:39.94
Bill
Right.

01:13:40.01
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:13:41.58
Bill
Yeah. And that's, uh, I'll tell you, and they, we started, we started this whole thing, uh, on a whim. And, um, I, I think the, the people that, that we know, and I mean, everyone's got a podcast.

01:13:52.49
Bill
That was the other, the other, the other thing that was, you know, kind of crazy about, uh, you know, getting the, again, back to the whole nomination thing.

01:13:53.28
Mike
Ha. Ha.

01:13:59.27
Bill
It's like, I've been, Why us type of thing. But then again, why not us? You know, we talk about the same thing. But starting it on starting something like that, in my opinion, on a whim and just like you just you were just talking about, you know, saying that, you know, you just have a conversation, kind of what's going on, whatever.

01:14:17.08
Bill
Those are actually the podcasts that I that I enjoy listening to. There are a few that I listen to that are structured. you know and i also appreciate that you know if they have their place like i listen to the sober motivation podcast i talk about that on here all the time guy's name is brad and we're gonna actually have uh i squared away everything with that functional medicine dude mike so we he's coming up at the end of the month um but yeah we just pulled we just pulled a guest from there because we there there's things something he was talking about that we want to know more about but the structure of their ah brad's podcast doesn't allow for that more information so we're like I contacted the guy.

01:14:38.82
Mike
Ah,

01:14:45.68
Ryan T. Reichert
Thank you.

01:14:53.42
Bill
im like, and come on, come on over here. Let's talk about this some more type of thing. But people who have just normal conversations, that's, that's what I appreciate. and I think that's why, you know, we, we have so much fun doing what we're doing.

01:15:05.52
Bill
It sounds like the same thing that, that you guys are doing, just, you know, what's going on in your life, this and that, hopefully worst case scenario, right? People, people have always told us if there's, you know, if you, if, if one person gets one thing out of one episode so every once in a while, that that's a win, right?

01:15:20.80
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:15:21.60
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, absolutely.

01:15:23.67
Bill
So the, so what else? I mean, how did you, I don't know. I mean, you said you got, you got, did you get laid off just a couple of years ago? You said with the, with the corporate thing and started the business and kind of on a whim or.

01:15:33.18
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah. Yeah. and so let's see. Corporate, it'll be two years.

01:15:37.66
Bill
Or fired.

01:15:37.74
Ryan T. Reichert
this

01:15:38.22
Bill
I'm sorry. We're supposed to say fired, right?

01:15:38.62
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, i fired.

01:15:39.73
Bill
Right.

01:15:39.90
Ryan T. Reichert
Let's say fired. It's it's supposed to, like, if i if my ego is still around, but it helps there.

01:15:40.68
Bill
Okay.

01:15:44.15
Bill
right

01:15:45.97
Ryan T. Reichert
July, it'll be two years. So what's that put us at? Like 20 months ago. And then the business on paper was December.

01:15:51.51
Bill
okay

01:15:51.69
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:15:55.08
Ryan T. Reichert
So I don't know however many, 16 months ago, 15 months ago. But basically, I would say... You know, the first book came out last June, started speaking and coaching.

01:16:09.37
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, thereafter. I mean, so I just say a year. it's It's still all pretty fresh. It's still all learning learning how this world works. in like And that's another one.

01:16:19.77
Ryan T. Reichert
I bring up my dad again, like thinking about being an entrepreneur in that small town. I mean, I would i would much rather get kitted up and, you know, go throw me in the Middle East and go fight again than be an entrepreneur.

01:16:33.18
Ryan T. Reichert
I mean, this stuff every day is, you know, you're talking to people that,

01:16:35.29
Mike
Rule 62.

01:16:38.52
Ryan T. Reichert
you know, anyways, it's just different. It's, it's new and it's fun and exciting, but scary at the same time.

01:16:41.50
Bill
Right.

01:16:41.53
Mike
excuse

01:16:44.80
Ryan T. Reichert
And I, uh, I, I do enjoy it though, because I realized that I, I finally learned not to take myself so seriously. And, uh,

01:16:53.88
Mike
sixty two

01:16:54.68
Bill
right hey Right.

01:16:58.81
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, absolutely. So, so yeah, it's been just different. And and that's the thing, you know, going on podcasts and just having meaningful conversations with people and getting to know other people. And I suppose just like you guys, i mean, you got many years under yourself, but you actually care about people again.

01:17:15.39
Ryan T. Reichert
Right. And you want to know, you want to know their story and no worry.

01:17:16.31
Mike
Yeah.

01:17:16.50
Bill
Right.

01:17:19.71
Ryan T. Reichert
Can you help them kind of thing? Cause I'm sure, you know, somebody you worry this and that.

01:17:21.80
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:17:24.55
Ryan T. Reichert
And that's, what's so neat about it now is when someone's talking to me, I'm like, Oh, I need so-and-so to meet so-and-so. So then they're, you know, and it's before I would have never, I wouldn't have cared.

01:17:32.97
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:17:35.43
Ryan T. Reichert
I've been like, yeah, okay.

01:17:36.34
Mike
Right.

01:17:36.51
Ryan T. Reichert
good Just, could you just shut up so I can talk more? And now I just want to listen and be a service.

01:17:40.12
Mike
Right.

01:17:43.02
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:17:43.69
Ryan T. Reichert
it's So weird, such a weird concept.

01:17:45.46
Mike
but Yeah, I mean, it comes it comes down to we're still selfish. We just figured out that what's best for us is to shut up and listen to somebody else because we don't know what the hell we're talking about.

01:17:51.70
Bill
ah

01:17:56.09
Bill
Yeah.

01:17:56.09
Ryan T. Reichert
Right. Yeah.

01:17:57.41
Bill
And we could, you know, now we we have a, we have a forum in a, you know, a little, a place where we can, you know, when we want to know something more. And I think that that might be that this guy we're going to have on at the, at the end of the month that we were just talking about.

01:18:08.97
Bill
The the short story is ah he, and again, if you've ever listened to the Sober Motivation podcast, basically he goes from, um you know, how are things for you growing up to when you got sober and we'll get this little slice at the end of what they're doing with now type of thing.

01:18:22.86
Bill
So it is, it's a, it's an hour to an hour and 15, 20 minutes of kind of a drunk-a-log, but that's, that's his format.

01:18:24.26
Ryan T. Reichert
Thank you.

01:18:29.74
Bill
That's what he does. And I'm still fine to listen to those every once in a while. And I listen to them almost religiously on a, on a weekly basis. But, um you know, in a general sense, I get, I get tired of those at times too.

01:18:41.53
Bill
You know, because there's bits and pieces of these things that these stories that we never you should never hear about, you know, it's like in the end. Oh, and I got sober and, you know, things are good. Hey, everyone have a great day.

01:18:52.44
Bill
And you're like, wait, wait, what's what's going on now? But this this guy was talking about this, how he he came back from cirrhosis and liver failure in this type of medication and medicine that he was going through this this nontraditional medicine.

01:19:08.42
Bill
And like, tell Mike about I'm like, I need to reach out to that guy. Plus, he's from Wisconsin, which is where I'm from. So I'm like, this is going to be kind of fun. And he he was he was happy. like He goes, I've never had i'd never had a the opportunity to talk about that that whole subject in more detail on any podcast because all the sober podcasts out there – They want to know, okay, what was it like from start to finish?

01:19:24.09
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:19:30.95
Bill
And nobody talks about the details, you know, and we go the other way around. There's certain times when we've, we've gotten to the end of the episode and I've listened to, I'll end up stumbling across, maybe I'll stumble across, I don't know, another podcast that you've been on Ryan and I'll ah you hear your entire story.

01:19:47.01
Bill
And I'm like, we never talked about any of that. And we had a great conversation, you know, um or we'll run through an entire, entire episode and we'll never, not that we don't know where the person's from, but we'll miss some, something that they talked about somewhere else, whatever the case is, but we want to focus on these, these other details.

01:19:51.18
Ryan T. Reichert
Right.

01:20:04.19
Bill
And again, it's a selfish way for us to, to learn more, but also end up having in most cases, great natural conversations with people. Right, Mike? Yeah.

01:20:12.63
Mike
Absolutely.

01:20:14.29
Bill
Yeah.

01:20:14.81
Mike
So, um, speaking of that, ah where the hell do we get these books at? And where you said the podcast is everywhere. So if you're listening to this on something, you'll probably be able to find Ryan's podcast, but where are the books?

01:20:27.32
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, absolutely. If you go to ourprotectordevelopment.com, that's kind of the hub where everything does exist. So if you go there, you can get all the books and so forth.

01:20:37.55
Ryan T. Reichert
But basically, the first two books are everywhereunderthesun.com. So you can get at target.com, walmart.com.

01:20:44.54
Mike
Right.

01:20:46.17
Ryan T. Reichert
Amazon.com. The third book, actually we published that under our Protector Development Publishing. So you can currently get that on Amazon or IngramSparks. And so it's hot off the presses. Someone told me yesterday, because we did release it technically yesterday, that it was down on the day we released it. So that is one that is back up. And yeah, if you just if you just search Ryan T. Reichert on Amazon, if you're an Amazonian, it'll pop up.

01:21:16.34
Ryan T. Reichert
There's three books that I wrote and then I wrote one with Jack Canfield called Living Truth, where there was 11 other authors and we all kind of tell some of our stories. And that one has a couple of stories in it that I normally don't go into with my own suicide stuff, but that one is in there.

01:21:26.29
Mike
Cool.

01:21:33.63
Ryan T. Reichert
And yeah, it's, it was a lot of fun working with Jack. It's crazy at 80 years old. He's still as amazing as when the first time I watched him on Oprah all those years ago.

01:21:43.99
Ryan T. Reichert
So it's, ah it's interesting, kind of fun that my mom was like, I read all his books and I'm like,

01:21:44.15
Bill
ah

01:21:44.46
Mike
Huh.

01:21:49.51
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:21:50.60
Ryan T. Reichert
I'm like, i hadn't I hadn't read any of them until we started working together last year.

01:21:50.72
Bill
Hehehehe.

01:21:55.60
Ryan T. Reichert
But yeah, it's super fun. And I guess if you're on social media where I was never on social media up until the last year, it's ah Ryan T. Reichert or my original Yahoo account.

01:22:07.33
Ryan T. Reichert
But it's ArmyRT1978. It's also like the license plate version of, i think, a few of the TikTokers out there or whatever it may be.

01:22:18.74
Ryan T. Reichert
But yeah.

01:22:19.86
Mike
Gotcha.

01:22:20.50
Bill
Well, and in what I'll end up doing is in the, in the promos that I was doing, I had your Instagram i obviously handle on there. I'll have that. That's going to be, if anyone's listening to this on Spotify and you said, Mike, I heart.

01:22:30.90
Bill
And was it Amazon that you could click through?

01:22:31.43
Mike
Yeah. Amazon, I don't know because I've never been on there, but iHeart, you can.

01:22:36.92
Bill
Okay, so i know I know for sure if if anyone's listening on Spotify, you can click through. You go to our Facebook page on Sober Not Mature, you'll be able to click through the link because I'll i'll have a link to your website in the in the description on here, Ryan.

01:22:48.52
Bill
That's number one. I'll have your Instagram page also linked. Both of those will be in all the promos that we do this week too. Instagram, you know, it's a little hard to click through, but if people can get to your Instagram page or at least to your website, one of the two places, One way or the other, I looked you up just by your name, you know, so I was able to find your website without a problem.

01:22:57.45
Ryan T. Reichert
Mm-hmm.

01:23:07.37
Bill
You know, if anyone could use Google, you can find Ryan.

01:23:09.72
Mike
Hehehehehehe.

01:23:10.29
Bill
That's for, that's for sure. So, but I'll have, I'll have all those, all those links in there, which she, and I'm glad you brought that up with the website. I almost forgot to make myself note because I had the Instagram page on there, but so what else, what else ah either do you want people to know about you, what you're doing, what you got coming up, um anything that we missed in these, I guess, in these wrap up moments or final moments?

01:23:31.13
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, no, absolutely. There's a couple of things that am very tied to that are important to me. One is the Adult Rehabilitation Center with the Salvation Army.

01:23:41.18
Ryan T. Reichert
And so for folks out there, yeah absolutely, right?

01:23:41.65
Mike
Hmm. I've been there twice.

01:23:46.14
Ryan T. Reichert
Yeah, and I love it here. You know this the guys at the Sally. Thank goodness for that and ah love the team here.

01:23:52.31
Mike
Yeah. The ARC, man.

01:23:56.67
Ryan T. Reichert
And and so um'm I'm part of their board and it's just great to just be part of that.

01:23:59.16
Mike
Cool.

01:24:02.26
Ryan T. Reichert
And so if you're someone who supports donations and so forth, you know, donate your clothes at the Salvation Army drop boxes and everything else out there.

01:24:09.18
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:24:10.42
Ryan T. Reichert
You're helping. at least in the minneapolis region you know 100 guys that are are working their recovery program with them and the second one is we have the first ah all veteran male sober house here in winnebago minnesota it's called bravo zulu house and it's uh you know all veteran sober house and basically it's the fight against ptsd and addiction so for those of us who have both of those wonderful

01:24:17.79
Mike
Yeah.

01:24:28.86
Bill
Nice.

01:24:34.66
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:24:38.16
Ryan T. Reichert
disorders, diseases, whatever we want to call them, we have a hundred percent chance, uh, un-cured that we'll either drink or drug herself to death or kill herself, uh, you know, with with some form of things.

01:24:40.16
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:24:48.58
Mike
Right.

01:24:50.71
Ryan T. Reichert
And so if you're somebody that, uh, you know, supports other causes, check into that. And then next year they'll have the first all women's house in Mankato, Minnesota.

01:25:01.14
Ryan T. Reichert
And the goal is to just keep building this out over. So each state has one for, for veterans sober living.

01:25:06.44
Mike
Mm hmm.

01:25:07.27
Bill
Right.

01:25:08.02
Ryan T. Reichert
And the third one, and that'll probably get as close to taking this home is The mission project, it's ah it's a group but I call us the Misfit Avengers. And basically, it's ah it's a mastermind that was put together by actually Eric Rock.

01:25:18.33
Bill
ha

01:25:23.72
Ryan T. Reichert
And he so allowed me to have my book launching party as part of his Coeur d'Alene summit last June. And from there, you know it launched the mission project.

01:25:34.74
Ryan T. Reichert
And basically, you know, every quarter we do something where we're giving back, you

01:25:37.91
Bill
Thank you.

01:25:40.41
Ryan T. Reichert
january we gave to the the dream center out with the palisade fires it was their one year anniversary back in the fall i was with make a wish and we'll be doing some other things here coming up in the next couple quarters but it's just out there for people to know that you know join a group be active personal personal growth is so important just

01:25:59.49
Mike
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

01:26:04.09
Ryan T. Reichert
really finding yourself you know just like bill and mike are doing every friday night of their service of the the universe as they put things out over the airwaves here let's just keep growing together because that to me is where i think i i found myself right on my heels just wanting to ride it into retirement and after i retired from the army and i kind of throw my hands up and i look at it today i'm like golly i just want to keep living because life's so good today and knowing that it goes by just giving it away.

01:26:12.70
Mike
he

01:26:35.02
Ryan T. Reichert
Just keep giving it away.

01:26:35.71
Mike
Yep.

01:26:36.98
Ryan T. Reichert
thank you guys so much.

01:26:36.97
Mike
Mm hmm.

01:26:37.12
Bill
Right. Oh yeah. Not a problem. And you know, for, for anyone that, uh, that's the other thing too. We don't, uh, we're probably, i don't know if one of the few, but we stopped, uh, we stopped begging.

01:26:47.62
Bill
When were, were we begging for money to buy me a coffee stuff, Mike?

01:26:49.69
Mike
Yeah, we we we we suggested it might be an OK idea to buy us a cup of coffee or some bullshit like that. But yeah, we don't do that anymore.

01:26:57.05
Bill
Yeah. Yeah. to To begin with, we got on that, that whole train. And then I, I started hearing podcasts telling people that, that they couldn't, they couldn't continue if they didn't, you know, get their, if people didn't buy them copies, if they wanted to keep it in the ears of the newcomers and stuff like that.

01:27:10.42
Mike
Yeah. and c

01:27:12.97
Bill
So Mike and I started talking about it. We were like, we're like, don't em don't, don't donate to anyone. Don't donate to any podcast. Don't donate to us. Donate to a cause that you care about, because here's the thing, here's our opinion.

01:27:22.52
Mike
yeah

01:27:24.10
Bill
And you guys, you and your business partner are doing a podcast. if If you don't have the, and I'll say this to to you, Ryan, and your you business partner, same as I would say it to anyone else.

01:27:34.19
Bill
If you run a podcast and you can't do it on your own, put down the microphones and shut it off because you shouldn't be doing a podcast.

01:27:35.00
Ryan T. Reichert
Thank you.

01:27:41.58
Bill
Now, if somebody wants to, we've had, we had this one guy, Tim, out of the blue with six, eight months ago, right?

01:27:47.38
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:27:47.77
Bill
I think when he donated like 25 bucks just out of the blue and we do not, it's on our website.

01:27:50.82
Mike
Yeah.

01:27:52.37
Bill
If people really want to dig for it, they can find a link to donate to us, but we don't promote it anymore. And, um you know, if somebody wants to go through that hassle, we'll take it. And we thanked him and said, okay, well, basically you're paying for our studio for a month.

01:28:04.65
Bill
Thank you. But we do not want or need your money. So that's where we we start telling people because it's true.

01:28:08.95
Mike
Mm-hmm.

01:28:11.06
Bill
and But the thing of it is, is that when we have folks like yourself come on that are trying to either raise money or do stuff, everyone that's listening, this is what we keep talking about. This is where we want you to give your money to. Give your money to the Salvation Army or the other two causes that that Ryan had talked about.

01:28:20.92
Mike
Yes. Mm-hmm.

01:28:25.02
Bill
If you don't know where these places are, if they're not in your area, find one in your area that you that you care about. Give money to those folks because they're the ones that need the money. These two yahoos talking into the microphone every damn week. We don't need your money.

01:28:38.21
Bill
Yeah.

01:28:38.81
Mike
No.

01:28:39.90
Bill
So there. So there.

01:28:40.92
Mike
So there.

01:28:42.90
Bill
All right. So you're all you're all good. Nothing else, Ryan? you're you're all We're all caught up?

01:28:45.27
Ryan T. Reichert
No, i'm I think we're we're we're wonderful. More than more than caught up.

01:28:48.98
Mike
yeah

01:28:49.68
Ryan T. Reichert
i i I don't need this much love. it Like you said, you hit it on the head.

01:28:52.95
Mike
Right.

01:28:53.85
Ryan T. Reichert
give it Give it away to the places that need it And so that, to me, I know that the good Lord has taken care of me for 47 plus years now.

01:28:54.01
Mike
hey

01:28:57.43
Bill
Yes.

01:28:57.40
Mike
Yes.

01:29:03.81
Ryan T. Reichert
And it's one of those that it's it makes you always question deserving it at times, right? so we're

01:29:10.53
Bill
Right. Yeah.

01:29:11.22
Ryan T. Reichert
let's let's go to those less fortunate.

01:29:14.07
Mike
Absolutely.

01:29:14.36
Bill
Exactly.

01:29:15.36
Mike
We're all three doing better than we deserve.

01:29:15.54
Bill
art yeah Yeah. So I, you know what, we're, we're going wrap up to I don't know if you ever listened to an end of our episode, Ryan, but you're, you're about to get a treat here. Cause Mike has a, has a fun way of fun way of letting us out of here and there.

01:29:26.17
Mike
you

01:29:28.95
Bill
You're going hear some, you're getting you some words. It's okay. Just relax a minute. Then yeah you'll hear some, of you might hear some bad words. Okay. You ready?

01:29:34.92
Ryan T. Reichert
All right, sounds good.

01:29:35.70
Mike
All right. Well, thank you everyone for listening to yet another episode of Sober Not Mature. Thank you, Ryan, for coming on and sharing your story and your hope and all that good stuff. We do appreciate it. And as always, be kind to each other.

01:29:50.55
Mike
good to each other. out there and do something nice for somebody else and don't tell anybody that you did it. Now, from the bottom of my heart to the depths of my soul, from the beginning of time until the ends of the earth, always and eternally, fuck you.

01:30:02.98
Ryan T. Reichert
cannot fuck off past here.

01:30:09.37
Mike
Now it's time, kids. It's time for you to fuck off.

01:30:12.78
Ryan T. Reichert
Dream the impossible dream.

01:30:12.97
Mike
Then keep fucking off. Keep fucking off till you get to a gate with a sign on it saying, you cannot fuck off past here.

01:30:17.68
Ryan T. Reichert
Keep fucking off forever.

01:30:21.02
Mike
Climb over that gate. Dream the impossible dream and keep fucking off forever.

01:30:29.43
Bill
Ah, it's, it makes me laugh because it's ah two things. It's, it's Mike's favorite part of the episode because it's over, but it always just in general kind of makes me laugh because i don't know, nobody else out there is doing something like that.

01:30:34.94
Mike
Right? Mm-hmm.

01:30:40.91
Bill
So it's a time for us to, it's a good opportunity for us to be just a tad bit unique. So. um All right. So Ryan, seriously, thank you very, very much for coming on.

01:30:49.66
Mike
me

01:30:50.27
Bill
We truly appreciate you obviously having you. um We'll have all the links to all of Ryan's stuff ah in the description. So everyone take a look at that. Click through, follow him on social media. Keep an eye on what he's doing on his website.

01:31:01.69
Bill
Ryan, stick around. Once we're done recording here, you don't want to run away yet. Mike, I love you, brother.

01:31:06.65
Mike
I love you too.

01:31:06.85
Bill
Right.

01:31:08.13
Mike
And you might want to run away. shall.

01:31:10.42
Ryan T. Reichert
See ya.

01:31:10.94
Bill
And all right.

01:31:11.02
Mike
Bye.

01:31:12.35
Bill
I think we'll talk soon too, right?

01:31:14.10
Mike
we shall

01:31:15.41
Bill
Alrighty. Bye.

01:31:16.54
Mike
by