Sober since 2001, after a suicide attempt, Rob Lohman has helped thousands of people find FREEDOM from substance abuse and feeling “stuck in a rut” to living a transformed life at LiftedFromTheRut.com. He does this through sharing his testimony, Interventions, Coaching, Speaking, and being the host of both Beyond The Bars Radio and Addiction, Freedom & Faith Podcasts.
Rob invests in the lives of those wanting to see positive change, whether it is coming out of addiction, prison or just wanting more for their lives. He is a dynamic speaker who shares an extremely powerful journey of persistence, faith, and inspiration. Rob is also the Author of The Addiction Intervention Book (#1 in 14 categories for Bestseller and New Release on Amazon).
For more information about Recovered On Purpose, to get your free copy of Adam’s book, see the merch shop, or book your free call with Adam, visit: https://RecoveredOnPurpose.com
Read The Transcript Below
what’s up recovered on purpose family thank you so much for tuning in for this week’s episode of weekend recap right here on the recovered on purpose show we have a special guest tonight usually I do these on my own but my good buddy Rob Lohman is coming in to bless the community with everything that he’s up to guys stick around we’re going to be talking about interventions how to help addicts at their lowest love you guys so much enjoy the show keep living recovered on purpose the black represents the darkness from which we came the white represents the light in which we now live and the red represents the passion it takes to live recovered on purpose
what’s up everybody thank you so much for showing up for the recovered on purpose show weekend recap today we have a special guest my buddy Rob Lohman is here guys make sure that you’re sharing this out to your groups to your pages get this message out we’re gonna be talking about some things how to help addicts at their lowest so uh sober since 2001 after a suicide attempt Rob Lohman has helped thousands of people find Freedom from substance abuse and feeling stuck in a rut to living a transformed life at lifted from therut.com he does this through sharing his testimony interventions coaching speaking and being the host of both beyond the bars radio and addiction freedom and Faith podcasts Rob invests in the lives of those wanting to see positive change whether it is coming out of addiction prison or just wanting more for their lives he is a dynamic speaker who shares an extremely powerful journey of persistence faith and inspiration Rob is also the author of the addiction intervention book and it’s a number one best seller in 14 different categories as well as new release on Amazon Guys Without further Ado my good friend Rob Lowe and Rob what’s up brother hey hey hey hey it’s just a beautiful day to be hanging out with you Adam thanks a bunch man Amen brother I’m going to share this out to some groups right now I’m doing it right now too myself so man it’s been I don’t know why but I but I usually don’t even share this out I just get right into it so guys if you’re if you’re here let us know where you’re coming in from you’re cleaning sober dates because on the weekend recap we are always celebrating with the celebration lights for uh people that are well I’m actually not even going to show you if you’re celebrating something if you’re celebrating a clean time let me know in the comments so we can celebrate with you good afternoon Pam good to see you always good to see you December thanks for being here she said welcome Rob hey thanks Braxton Adam I got 43 days clean and feeling better than ever let’s go celebration life for Braxton let’s go let’s go 43 days that’s huge brother amen amen amen December we got January 18th 2020 amen amen let me keep sharing this a little bit so Rob while I’m sharing it out what are you up to right now oh man uh well first hanging out here in Colorado I love it out here it’s a beautiful day just uh you know I love stories I mean that’s why I do podcasting that’s why you share Stories We love seeing people’s successes in their lives totally totally change around so what am I up to today man um there’s just so much going on right now with the book that just came out and doing the swim for Recovery thing and just just loving on people and you know just just seeing lives change left and right and you know the coolest thing is like you’re getting messages from people that follow you right I love it it’s like here’s my day what’s up Adam go and when I get text messages from clients and say man you’re never going to guess what my son’s doing now like he he literally just got back with his kids they got baptized and just hear these success stories you’re like man that’s that’s why we do what we do that’s what it’s about that’s what it’s about so uh let’s do a little bit of of History so on the show you know a lot of most of the people that we’re talking to right now like both you and I usually talk to are either addicts struggling addicts and Recovery or loved ones of addicts and what we like to do we like to you know let them know we know what we’re talking about so tell us a little bit about your story why it is that you do what you do you know and uh yeah let us know where you come from yeah I feel I feel like I know what I’m talking about I definitely have enough lived experience I mean I found sobriety and recovery from substances 21 years ago so June 8 2001 the morning that morning of June 8 2001 I was facing the 350 pound barbell to cross my chest and take me out of the game and thank God that God intervened and divinely freed me for my addiction back then but it was yeah I mean you know 14 to 20 anybody watching you got your own crazy story right just insert crazy story right insert you know red and blue red and blue lights behind you insert jails insert suicide insert all those things and and that that’s the journey I went from 14 to 29 and it was not not fun at all but I just I love recovery and that night you know when I was so desperate and decided to well not even it was subconscious you know as people with addictions I feel like we’re driven by the subconscious so much yeah we know what the heck’s happening those lies and that you that you suck you failed all those things are going through our heads and I was just haunted by how badly my life had turned out and um you know some people say well you know six you know suicide and it was successful or it wasn’t I’m like who cares like I’m still here but what it is it woke me up and it took me to the rooms in recovery and then I haven’t had a desire to even think about drinking drug and it was just gone like I never even touched substances and but I know how hard that is for people that that try like they’re they’re on the roller coaster ride they’re they’re they’re go they’re going in and out of the you know what’s that thing called what goes round and round you try to get off it but I’m not a ferris wheel whatever time you know what I’m saying you’re stuck you’re stuck in the cycle and you get off and you get back on you get off you get back on and I’m grateful that wasn’t my story but gambling stuck with me until three and a half years ago and that that messed up my life pretty bad in recovery and I didn’t even know what was messing me up so yeah we all have our Cornucopia of addictions amen amen and I think because I’ve had this discussion with other people like um if I will talk about or if I will help someone with porn addiction or sex addiction or gambling addiction and or food addiction and these things and I have friends to send people to um and there’s it’s a very similar part of the brain that or it’s the same part of the brain but it’s a different physical reaction to the thing that we’re addicted to so you know I gambling I’ve I’ve seen it affect a lot of people it affected me for a part of my life um you know I’m glad they’re out of it glad you’re out of it so what what did you do you know 21 years ago you have this and I don’t know if people miss this but a 350 pound barbell that you were getting ready to kill yourself with right yeah so what changed then and what did you actually do to find recovery yeah as you say that we I sit there and look at some of the things that if I really would have thought that out that probably wouldn’t have been my choice of using it like be like man look at that he was just trying to work out drunk and I was like yeah yeah that could have I could have passed it off as that you know um but uh but yeah I mean just the amount of desperation and stuff and I I totally forgot what your question was when you asked me this thing because I went back to the bar but what’d you ask me yeah how did you find recovery like what changed when you were looking at that 350 pound barbell and you know because that was that the last time you drank yeah yeah so you know it was one of those things that right before that I was hanging out in the bar that evening and I was so desperate and just crying out for help like I believe God hears our cries amen and just answers him when he’s going to answer him and he heard every single cry every single plea for help every single like just get me and it was one of those things I never prayed the Foxhole prayers like God get me get me out of this I’ll never do it again yeah I was like just get me out of this because I actually I know I’m gonna do it again and uh but that night it was just different man and I was crying out for help and um and I was in the bar so it was music girls everything just you know just kind of like and it was it was my scene yeah and then all of a sudden the whole entire bar got completely dead silent and I audibly heard the words you’re done and what I thought that meant was you’re done drinking right so I drive home and it’s kind of like you know I feel like something shifted but it didn’t I get home and the next thing I know yeah I got 350 pounds on a barbell crashing down on my chest and what I believe happened that night and this gets into the answer to your question is that I feel like God kind of stopped time in a moment yeah and he looked at my dog Jake it was like go save your dad um you know my dog comes over and he starts getting really close to close to my knee and just starts nudging nudging my head my my knee with his head and and I looked at him and I was just like man who’s going to feed you tomorrow morning and my so my heart broke for my dog which I believe was God showing himself to me through my dog and God carries the weight of the world so I believe God was just sitting there like okay you done all right let’s get let’s get done put that barbell back on the rack and and it’s instant every time I say I hear the metal hitting metal and I say that you know and it was just boom and but I slept for peace the first time that night so so my heart shifted is what happened yeah towards love for myself I believe and the next morning I called my mom and dad I meant to call my aunt Carol because thank God for family members that are clean and sober that pursue you because she had been sober 24 years at this time and I actually called my parents and I cried and reached out for help for the first time and my aunt came and picked me up and took me to a recovery meeting that day and we parked on the front curb in Fort Wayne Indiana walked to the back of a bar yeah back of the bar to my first AAA meeting my recovery meeting and there were people happy joyous and free and I saw God on the wall and that didn’t scare me and I was like you know what I’m in the right place these guys are laughing and last night I tried to kill myself so I’m in and that’s what that’s all it took I mean I literally haven’t had it I didn’t go through detox or withdrawal I could drink two bottles of scotch to a couple cases of beer in a day consistently for years it just went away and I just believe that I in that small percentage of people right unfortunately that that happens to the rest it’s a struggle and it sucks and I and my heart goes out for you guys um and I literally just became Mr recovery people say recovery is boring you hear that a lot I’m sure like what am I going to do Adam people that are still using say that for sure yeah yeah exactly it’s like oh this is a lot of fun like I mean right now I was joking with you before the show my eyes are totally dilated right now because I went to the eye doctor today yeah and I’m like boom big bug eyes I’m like I remember that guy oh yeah the big big bug eyes but but I just I I heard what they did you know and I did what my for for my program my sponsor told me to do he didn’t tell me he suggested and the best questions he ever asked me was hey Rob what makes you happy now some of y’all try to answer that question in your head real quick but what makes you happy even put it in the comments like what makes you happy and I said without a without hesitation milkshakes and he said all right go get yourself a milkshake every day at 12 o’clock so I did I use it as an excuse to feed my sugar habit um which is probably America’s number one addiction is sugar carbs the world yeah yeah the world and so so that was it I just became Mr recovery man and just stepped in and and it so saddens me now with clients and people I work with and I call AAA sucks or Celebrate Recovery stinks or almost sober softball and all this stuff like it’s never going to work I you know and I’m like well you’re right it’s never gonna work unless you try it yeah and if you try and it stinks then dude don’t go do it again go do something else but I just did everything I went on sober camping trips I became the whatever position that’s what it has to be and that’s what it has to be if people go into you know a meeting with the thought process that you know this is never gonna work you know this guy’s telling me to do it anyway so I’m just gonna go and I’m gonna sit there and you know I’m gonna basically have my ears closed while I’m sitting there right because this isn’t going to work if we go in with the with the you know perspective of anything to recover that it’s not going to to work there’s no use for it you know then then it’s not going to work for me like like you said you know you just went all in it didn’t matter what I was doing in beginning in early stages of recovery I was doing it all in everything I had was in order to recover from this drug addiction from this you know this thing that was taking everything from my life I just that was all I wanted at that time what was making and the only thing I can’t even remember anything that made me happy at that time except for like the thought of being in recovery you know I already had my relationship with God before you know I was building that relationship but the thought the hope of actually being recovered from drug addiction was like this crazy thought to me to work towards right and in that in that at that time in my life I had never completed anything I had never completed a lease I had never completed you know a promise a coaching program that I did like I did coaching programs with like really high level coaches and I was never able to complete anything because at some point I had to tell my coach you know I’m by the way I’m banging heroin and I can’t I can’t keep True to this you know I can’t afford you anymore because I have to put your money in my arm or whatever and then the 12 Steps were the first thing that I can remember since since I was young very very young that I actually completed to the Finish and after that it was almost as if like that was my first the 12 steps for my first step towards a new life and being able to set goals being able to you know have a dream have something that I want to attain seeing the steps that I have to do to get there and then holding myself accountable and knowing that I actually can count on myself to do them so anyone out there that is you know if you’re still using go into whatever recovery system you’re going to do whatever Journey you’re going to take go all in and anyone that’s in recovery we have the opportunity now to do the things we’ve always wanted to do again what makes you happy right what makes you happy so you talked a little bit about this uh this swim for Recovery tell me what the swim for Recovery is that you’re doing oh man this is so cool so three weeks ago I was swim in the pool so um swimming has always been part of my recovery and was part of my addiction right not the swimming was addiction but alcohol really impacted my swimming so uh three weeks I was literally swim in the pool and it just came to me in this thought of like swim for Recovery I didn’t I wasn’t even thinking September is recovery month it was just swim for Recovery I’m like okay so I went home and journaled about it and just thought about like what does he mean yeah I thought oh man September swim for recovery so if people go to swimforrecovery.com what I’m doing is I’m swimming one mile a day to raise awareness for addiction and Recovery in sharing one recovery story a day for people to just see it’s possible and we all have our different ways of recovery but the bottom line is like I said these people all went all in for their recovery and there’s people that have like a year to 20 years to 40 years I mean the stories are awesome so every day I’m going live on a bunch of different social media channels on Facebook YouTube Twitter um LinkedIn yeah and and just I’ll go swim at 7 45 in the morning for an for I’m in the pool for like an hour because I go to the hot tub and kind of relax a little bit come home fire up stream yard share someone’s recovery story and just trying to create awareness but also trying to raise funds to help people that cannot afford help people that need help with sober living counseling or therapy scholarships and just support all the podcasting and stuff that I do like yourself just out there being an advocate for people so it’s totally cool and side result I finally get to lose like that 15 pound because you’re a pretty buff dude you’re in shape you know but I still got this little thing here that is like Dad freshman 15. yeah yeah that and now I Call It Puppy bag because we got a new puppy but swim forrecovery.com is where it’s at and um and it’s a way to do that because I mean again with the new book that came out it’s exciting and I love it and it’s opened up a lot of other doors too uh the sofa recovery is one of those things people can tap in get immediate kind of like wow awesome stuff and yeah use it like right now and they can even the tools in the book they can use too so amen so just just for uh you know for my sake I guess how many laps is a mile okay so picture a 25 yard pool okay so it’s I call it length so people some people say it’s a lap some people say a lapse down the back it’s 66 links so down and back 33 times so at the end of 30 days will be 1980 lengths of the pool 30 miles and the cool thing is it was like when I was a kid swimming is so important to me that’s what I did that was my sport swimming and soccer yeah and we did these swim-a-thons to raise money for our film clubs and people would donate like a penny a mile or a penny a lap or 10 cents or a dollar a lap so I adopt that same philosophy now see because when I was a junior in high school I made the state swim meet and I was a good swimmer I don’t know if I would have like gone the Olympics or anything like that but I was a really good swimmer and I was really proud of that accomplishment but the problem was we were drinking at lunch every day and before practice so senior I was like man I gotta make a decision quit swimming which I really love or quit drinking which I really love I think I’m going to quit swimming and screw the career and just continue to drinking and yeah man I never know what would have happened but um but so therefore yeah swimming in recovery I mean when you put and you know this when you put like potential and alcohol or Addiction in the same room it’s like alcohol or the addiction just kicks the crap out of potential every single time every time every time yeah I remember uh my my senior year of high school I had colleges recruiting me for both football and wrestling and I remember I even set a meeting with a college that I was going to meet uh like in in high school and after school I literally just made the conscious choice that I’m just not going to show up I’m not going to call them nothing I’m gonna go get high like who who in their right mind does that when someone is coming to pay for your college you do right yeah we do that I do that yeah this guy and just so you know in case it comes up later but it’s always always good for engagement to show new puppies to people watching oh man Sam he’s right down here hold on a second yeah let’s let’s see the new puppy who wants to see the new puppy he’s asleep yourself oh yeah okay you ready are y’all ready for this let’s see
oh my goodness hi baby oh that’s perfect he literally just woke up he’s he’s uh nine weeks old and he’s a little oh my goodness I’ve never had a small dog before so this is really really weird oh my goodness Cute Overload Cute Overload yeah three nights and no sleep I’m pumped the blessing of recovery bro just being able to have a dog yeah totally and feed it and let it pee and poop outside the house amen and bro uh I left Aaron’s Aaron’s comment up because he is a uh he’s in Australia he shows up basically every life and he professionally scuba Dives does scuba diving swimmer and uh photography and everything and he actually is just uh he’s getting his son he found out 10 years later that his ex-girlfriend didn’t tell him about a son and he’s actually being awarded the sun right now and he’s in the process of getting him so he’s coming up on two years clean and sober you know living a new life and just super proud of you brother thanks for always being here that is awesome congratulations Aaron yeah amen purpose on purpose amen what’s up Jennifer don’t run away from heavy emotions honor the anger give pain the space to breathe this is how we let go amen love you too Jennifer I know I know this is these are the comments about the puppies oh yes his name’s Sam he can pray for Sam and he has a is the other dog we have is 80 pound Labradoodle so we got 80 pounds and five pounds right now so oh so cute all right so what’s up with this book you’re I know that you do um you know interventions and we all what my what my understanding of an intervention was before I met you what a lot of people you know have this um this idea of it is is from the show intervention right where where they follow around someone that’s in their addiction and they tell them they’re just doing a documentary about their story and then at the end of the show they lock them in a room with their family and tell them you know if you don’t go with them you’re cut off we’re never talking to you again right so how does that how does that fare for what you do well I’ll tell you this this is I’m a she’ll be on the book this is why I wrote this book called the addiction intervention book Adam you can get one in Australia because it’s Global um but if you go to Amazon you can look it up and the reason I wrote it is because there are many many different ways to help somebody through an intervention yeah so many ways that I actually interviewed 10 other Professionals in the back of the book that have their own chapter in the book on how they how they help people and so there’s all these different ways different modalities all these things and I just say we need to use whatever way is going to be the best for whoever we’re dealing with yeah because there’s not one way but the one thing I want to say is you hear a lot of people say well we’re just going to wait till so and so hits hits their bottom we’re gonna wait till they crash and burn and we’re gonna wait wait maybe this need to get a DUI or lose the kids or lose their job well we know a lot of that has happened to a lot of people I had a lot of stuff in my own Journey that was pretty crazy but here’s my philosophy on interventions really plain and simple are you ready for this this is it we’re gonna simplify it I’m in the business of bringing the bottom up to your loved one in the family instead of you having to crash and hit the bottom yeah that’s my whole philosophy and that’s what I want to do so what does that look like well for me and what I do is it’s kind of a different approach I always say I kind of talk myself out of business sometimes because families will sometimes call and say you know so and so when my husband needs and the husband needs to get sober he’s ruined the family he’s going to lose his job and it’s just all about berating the husband yeah and I asked him a simple question sometimes and this isn’t always the case but I’ll say well have you ever asked Rob if he wanted to get sober no I just know he needs to and it’s there’s never an aspirin a real heartfelt ask it’s just from attacking and blaming and just yelling and stuff so I say hey why don’t you just ask him say I met this guy named Rob it’s pretty cool dude got a crazy story I don’t know how to help you because we fight every time we talk about so were you willing to go have coffee with him okay that’s opportunity number one for someone to step into an opportunity to sit down with me and talk yeah right says no then we can invite him to an intervention and say hey family’s confused we don’t know how to help you anymore we’re really scared for you we’re having a meeting with this guy named Rob on Tuesday at four would you please show up because we’re going to talk about some options he’s pretty smart guy he knows what’s going on we’re hoping you’ll be there yep that’s called like an Invitational intervention-ish and I was like yeah shows up cool we have a great conversation it’s more you know open to the idea getting help and then there’s the other end of kind of like more of an extreme intervention where it is kind of waiting around the corner in our cars have a coffee at Starbucks talking about what’s the strategy okay we’re getting ready to go over there like he’s awake he’s having eggs or he’s still asleep okay here’s the plan and I know there’s gonna be like four audibles called the whole day because it gets kind of crazy and we just show up yeah and we’re there unannounced has no clue what’s even happening right but here’s the great thing is when he or she comes up and they’re up there and you know they’re kind of like okay uh hi Uncle Dave um and who are you and and I get to introduce myself and sometimes it’s like well who the get out of my house you know and I’ll say well I get that I understand that I’m only be here for a few minutes just to let you know like your family invited me to come over because they love you so much and they’re concerned and it’s like well how do you understand like well let me tell you my quick story yeah 14 years drugs by the way I’ve been to prison all this great stuff and I understand what you’re going through to an extent so let’s just have a conversation yeah and so it’s a whole plethora but that’s why I wrote the book was really to help um families understand there’s there is a way to help their loved one they don’t have to crash and hit bottom yeah to the point of a therapist or a counselor that has no clue how to use an intervention to the interventionist that watch the TV show would say that it’s a great show It’s Entertainment you know but that’s not the way they’re all done and to give interventionists an idea of how to be better at what they do so it’s kind of a plan for to hit people I’ve I’ve looked into it I’ve read read a lot about it and the actual show intervention because I used to get high and watch that and I think December was saying I used to watch that show drunk yeah I saw that post yeah you know that show did more to harm our community than it did to do good because the the whole you know cut the addict off it doesn’t it doesn’t help us it really it really doesn’t help us and there’s there’s a point where you know we called this compassionate intervention right like there’s there’s a way to intervene with an addict without telling them you’re no longer going to love them without telling them you’re no longer going to be there for them you know and there’s there’s a way to talk to them and help them through the process with boundaries around yourself because that’s the number one thing like when I’m when I’m talking to when somebody hits me up in their loved one of an addict right and I’m and I’m talking to them the number one thing that I check on first is their well-being because the well-being of someone of the loved one of an addict is more important than it is the well-being of the addict in that moment because if the loved one of an addict is coming into a space of like he’s done this and he’s done this and you know coming in with all this hate and energy and everything and he’s harming me in this way and he’s doing all these things to me you know then there’s no way that that energy is going to be brought into helping this person because all they feel in that moment is all of that hate and harm that they’ve caused they’re just like I just want to get away from that the only way that I know how to get away from that drugs and alcohol yeah drugs and alcohol and separating from you but if that person’s healthy you know okay what are you doing to work on your life I literally have this conversation with with mothers with uh with spouses or significant others of addicts like what can you do right now to live in your best your best self while this is going on over here right how what is it that you want to do with your life I’ve talked to people about you know and what comes out is they’ll blame the addict for you know their unhealthy habits of eating or their inability to go to the gym because they’re so stressed out about the addict so they can’t get their habit back in in line they’re so stressed out about the addict that they can’t do this they don’t think that they can go to school because they’re worried about the attic the whole time and I’m like hey all of those things right if you start doing all of those things and you stop resenting the addict for taking them away from you you’re going to be in a way better situation to stand up and say something you know and and they’re not going to feel like they’re tearing everything away from you in that moment when you come to help them right what do you what do you think about the you know the importance of the loved one of anatomy healthy themselves you know oh yeah 100 and that’s usually when the phone call comes in I always try to slow the train down a little bit and kind of hear more what’s going on and because I won’t just say okay yeah let’s do an intervention and jump into it right off the bat I’ll say hey let’s just get more of a history let’s talk about and some of it we try to get into kind of their part in a way of the relationship in that first call and just kind of say okay now because I’m really big on the family plugging into the intervention process if they’re not willing to there are times I haven’t even taken a family on because they just want me to go get him or her fixed yeah and I’ll say yeah I understand and they need a fixed because we’re not really broken I mean we’re broken but you know what I mean we’re not like a a toaster that’s that we’re just gonna change some knobs and be good so with the family I just say no look I understand that and and know you’ve been there kind of like most of the journey and he’s been there she’s been there most of the journey so my goal is to talk to the entire family who would be a part of the intervention and I’ll and I’ll let you know kind of who’s going to be a part of it not because I’ve Uninvited people because they’re going to be toxic they’re going to come in with that attitude Adam of they’re going to come in ready to just swing and box us if this is not family therapy right all we are wanting to do is for you family to buy into getting some help and your loved one to say yes to getting help yes right because they because they can and so in the process what I do is I literally my first step in what I do with lifted from the rut interventions is we’re just going to listen with love that’s the first thing is I’m just listening with love or out judgment none of that because what I’m teaching them in the beginning is that we’re going to do the same thing to your loved one when we meet with them we’re going to listen with love so it’s kind of this process in the beginning I start and say what we just did is what we’re going to do with your loved one yeah because they don’t really want to be doing what they’re doing anyway they just don’t know how to get out and if they do want to keep doing what they’re doing is because they’re listening to the lies in the head that you suck you failed you’ll lose you may as well die no one cares about you you’re invisible blah blah blah that stuff that keeps us in our addiction sometimes yeah amen and guys we’re going to take a quick 30 second break when we come back we’re going to talk about the successive interventions the success of the show interventions and how we can bring this into our own lives with the loved ones what’s up recovered on purpose family I hope you’re enjoying this episode as much as I do when I’m making them guys if you’re getting any value from this if you’re seeing any golden nuggets that you want to share with your community make sure that you are you’re sharing it with your groups you’re sharing it with your personal page or your pages order that one person that you’re thinking of right now in their messenger so that they get this message and guys the brand new recovered on purpose website is up and it has a whole bunch of different merchandise and resources and the free calls with me so make sure you’re checking out recovered on purpose.com after the show and if you are a loved one of an addict if you have a kid that’s suffering an addiction I’m now doing free calls that we can strategize and find out how we can get them clean and keep them clean love you guys so much and enjoy the rest of the show all right so someone set up here anna set up here that that show was so tricking for me I watched it though because I did get to see changes come from so from some of those people and it gave me a little hope but didn’t take me anywhere near close to getting clean because all of the using yeah so there was actually you know and you can Google this yourself I don’t have the exact numbers on hand but there was much closer to zero percent success for the for that show with long-term recovery than there was to 25 much closer to zero percent because even the ones you know even the ones that went right they didn’t go because they decided that they wanted to they didn’t go because they were talked into an internal decision to go and that’s the number one first step for finding recovery you have to admit and have the desire to stop period am I am I right Rob yeah yeah I mean it it starts with desire I mean you can be forced to do all sorts of things but if you don’t want it it ain’t gonna work yeah and if you’re telling an addict that’s that’s in their addiction like if you would have came to me you know at certain points my addiction and told me you know especially with my family if my family would have circled around and done an intervention with me and told me that they’re no longer going to talk to me if I don’t go they are not going to love on me anymore if I don’t go you know and they’re going to cut me off if I don’t go I’m going I’m going I I’m well aware that 30 days I can ugh if I’m locked away I could probably make it 30 days but day 31 I’m I’m banging and then I’m like I’m like it’s probably gonna be cheaper for me for a little bit because my tolerance will be so low that would be my thinking before I went so the the odds of that happening are are slim to none so in these conversations that you’re having with these with these addicts and alcoholics in the intervention are you instilling that that desire in them because I know that you know like the founding founding fathers of recovery right Bill and Bob the way that they would do it and when Ebby came in the First Time with Bill he sat down and all he did was told the story that’s all I did and that’s where the desire started the Hope started and what they did was they would go and they would tell their story and that’s it they would find out if somebody had the desire just by sharing their story so is that what you’ve been noticing by sharing your story do they start to you know get that desire themselves yeah I mean once they realize I’m a guy that’s been through a lot of stuff myself and that’s why I love like the coffee conversations right because it’s not this whole orchestration but but the great thing is though in that setting where we do you know kind of orchestrate if you will an intervention and we approach it from this place of love you know people do write letters you know in most of them but the letters are so powerful and moving that what it does is it stirs the person’s heart to want to change they’re not confrontational they’re not in their face but my one of the phrases I use a lot when I’m talking to someone is I said when was the last time that you invested in yourself um I say forget what your mom wants your dad wants your brother your boss I said when was the last time you invested in yourself and and it’s this head-till thing of like what do you mean it’s a great question so and we get we get into our because I mean one of the best intervention I did was so much fun you know the family was real worried and it was all this stuff and it was you know we’re like you know kind of one of those things where you know um kind of like we’re hiding in the bathroom and just kind of waiting to come out and she was there and all this stuff and it was just I don’t know if this is going to work and I said hey just trust the process yeah destroy and I’m looking at her and I just said um are what I’m trying to think of the exact words but something like aren’t are you sick and tired yet of just playing the game um and she looked at me and just she looked around the room and just started bawling she goes I need help and her family just stepped back we didn’t read a letter yet we didn’t do anything to set back and just thought what just happened no one had ever asked her that before because it was always darts and targets like and it was just like yeah I mean but but then again the family can say those same things and then it from it doesn’t struggle with it and then I can walk in or you can walk in and just say and here’s my story I think don’t you want to go off the roller coaster yeah how many times have you want to get off the roller coaster and just couldn’t oh every day dude well what if you could get off it today for good you know what if you could get off here today we’re good yeah and and so it’s kind of asking the right questions and all that kind of fun stuff um all those good things so I have a peop a person peeping in my door here I’m gonna say I’m gonna tell my son he can come grab the dog so come grab the dog Zeke it’s uh that’s they don’t care about me anymore they care about the dog and um but speaking of dogs you know oddly enough you know Adam that’s one of the biggest objections people have sometimes like what about my dog and we get into like all the objections I hear from people but what about my dog he needs me here and then and the question I’ll ask sometimes is well let me ask you this if you’re drunk and high and not and going to the bar and sleeping in stuff are you really here how great would it be that you could go invest in yourself in your dog could like be well taken care of and when you get back together you’re both really healthy and then you can do all sorts of cool things right amen and so it’s just it’s medium where medium where people are yeah and in the intervention I mean they’re all different it’s that’s the fun thing about them is just you don’t know what you’re going to get the stoic dad that’s never cried is bawling in the intervention and the family’s looking like what just happened so we cracked the heart open man and so getting I mean there’s this whole process I take people through through the intervention and uh um which again I know you’re a big book guy you know when you write a book you’re kind of putting everything on paper and it has to be articulated well right yeah and it forced me to really articulate well what are the steps when I do interventions with people and so it was really kind of cool all of it kind of really coming together so um yeah so just meet people where they are craft a heart open get them to invest in themselves not worry about mom or dad or anyone thinks and I mean I’ve kicked I kicked parents out of the intervention sometimes I’ve kick the whole family out of intervention I said hey it’s just time for me and Adam to talk yeah and I prep them for that I say hey there might be some really weird things I do but just trust the process yeah and those conversations are a lot of fun just one-on-one yeah absolutely yeah I think that you know I I haven’t I haven’t dove into the the whole intervention space yet I’ve gotten asked to get into that space I’ve gotten asked to you know do interventions on this person or this person or this kid and I’m just like man it’s it seems like a a very consuming path like if you’re doing interventions it would be you’re doing interventions that’s like the path that you’re taking in our community to help people and I’ve had to say I’ve had to say no to certain paths in our community while doing this like I’ve been asked to do marketing for treatment centers I’m like you know I just can’t do it because there’s no treatment center with the success rate of of what I what I talk about you know I talk about something that if someone does it exactly how I talk about they’re going to recover every time it is absolutely impossible to do exactly what I did exactly how I did it and not recover it just never happens I just took someone a girl that had a she had you know I met her on her day one in her first ever meeting and then I didn’t see her again for a couple months because I wasn’t going to that meeting I wasn’t you know I was doing a lot of this and uh then I see her again and she’s on day like 60 something 70 right around there awesome but she hasn’t done a step yet and she’s like letting me know you know I’m like I’m worried about relapsing I I think that if I do this I’m going to relapse and I’m like you know and bro in this meeting before she told me any of that God told me you need to take her through the steps you need to take it through the steps you know and this past weekend I took the whole weekend off schedule from morning to night Saturday and Sunday met with her and did all the first nine steps the first eight steps in the beginning of ninth step and bro what happened in that work she had never actually believed in God before doing this work in the first day she was crying and said that she fully believed in God now that’s that’s the power of someone picking a path right and giving it their all in helping an addict struggling because us us that are doing this and this and this and this this path and maybe this and maybe our opinion over here and our opinion over here if we’re doing that and not going all in with what we know to work it’s it’s never gonna work if we’re if we’re taking bits and pieces from all these different things it’s not going to work we have to talk about what worked for us and do that and do it with everything we have yeah and I really appreciate that you are that you’re doing what you’re doing because man it was something it’s something that I have thought about but I’m just I’m just not ready to step into it because I know is there quite a bit of Heartache in there also what do you experience some of that yeah you know if when it first got started I had a hard time when people said no or a hard time when family members it just didn’t work out technically you know and then and I just realized it’s not I’m not I’m not responsible for the results I’m just going to bring the right tools and strategies and and teach people and and so that in a sense in along the way yeah there’s always heartache when people say no there’s heartache when because people will say and I love this question when families call me they’ll say well Rob there’s two things that come up um well three things one Rob we’re Christian family we know you’re a Christian we love that we’d love to use you cool because I’m kind of like outspoken about my faith which when I wrote the book it was kind of like okay God I’m throwing it out there it’s not called that like people know and and uh and but like 45 or so famous use me no I’m a Christian and they say we’re not but we still want to use you because we hear you’re good and we want to hire you cool right and then the third one um along the way is what’s your success rate because there are people that post success rates 92 I know one guy is 100 success rate in interventions everyone he’s ever worked with has gone to treatment and everyone has been successful I’m like you know what I I don’t have any arrogance or Pride or it’s just like I I don’t have a success rate but here’s what I tell people kind of like what you just said if you do the things that work you will have success whether you’re the family that learns about healthy boundaries and you know you know loving them in their recovery not in their addiction and or it’s a loved one that goes to treatment and does all the work and the family does nothing because I tell families when they say well that program didn’t work and as you know there’s a lot of crappy programs out there but there’s also a lot of good ones when I hear that program didn’t work I’ll say well let’s talk about that well how was their family program what do you mean family program okay wondering why probably didn’t work um and then just asking them questions down along the way you know well did your loved one engage in treatment or did you were able to talk and so well I mean they said the groups were okay and then you find out the loved one never ever even opened up about their traumatic past so it just matters on what you do and so it’s all up to people’s success rate their success is what they put into it like you said amen if you’re gonna do if you’re gonna do steps one through four and forget the rest of them well how do you really how do you really plan to change your life when you’re not doing things that really do work now granted 12 steps may not be for everybody right Celebrate Recovery might be for somebody or I walk people through the steps to freedom in Christ and they thought well they get all sorts of crazy Leafs so desire and commitment are key for the family and the loved one 100 100 and there’s you know there’s things that I per I personally and I love that too yeah he planted seeds you’re a sobriety farmer yeah girl go all those fields and I and I threw up some uh some celebration lines for my boy Richard from October 28 2019 in Linwood Washington let’s go bro congratulations and you know um when we are when we are talking about the different Paths of recovery right and when I’m talking to someone about this works if you do this exactly how I did it it works 100 of the time right and the people that don’t do it it’s interesting because I I’m a fully faithful and God 100 believe that God directs people to recovery and directs them into and through recovery if my message telling someone that doesn’t come across to them where they’re like well I need to do that perfect I’m not changing my message about what works a hundred percent of the time when I do it with someone then then that that’s good if they’re not going to go with me but the thing is is that more people talking to that person more recovery Farmers out there you know more sobriety Farmers out there sharing their path exactly how they did it though not these like little nitpicky things from everybody else’s recovery Journey you know that might work for them you have to share what actually worked for you because the person that is supposed to hear your message and follow your path it will hit them in the heart in that moment it’ll hit him in the heart and there’s certain things that you know I personally didn’t experience that have worked for people that I’m not necessarily an advocate for but I’m absolutely Pro m.a.t I’m I’m I’m Pro medically assisted treatment I I will never tell somebody they’re not in recovery because they’re on Suboxone my and the reason why my experience with that my best friend I met him in his first week of recovery and he was bottom like me heroin meth homeless all that and he did Suboxone for his first three years of recovery in those first three years uh he bought his first house started a business we worked together for a little while he built my first recovered on purpose website and I was I was able to be the best man at his wedding he just had his first son and he stopped the suboxin after the first three years now am I going to tell people that Suboxone isn’t isn’t recovery because I have some kind of pride and arrogance that I got off a heroin without it no no and am I going to tell somebody that you know they have to do it this way or it’s not going to work or you know and if anybody out there is judging people for the way that they are recovering you are part of the problem and we are called in our recovery to be part of the solution period yeah like you said you tell people how you work with them and if they don’t want that then you’re not the right guy for them right so yes people know what you’re about say hey man there’s there’s multiple Pathways to Recovery if this if this doesn’t jive with if if this isn’t resonating with you that I’m not your guy and yeah there’s a bunch of other people here so go check out this guy and then that’s why we know lots of people in the industry because like hey that might work for them as well and I’m reading that comment right there and it was like those three words feelings emotions and thoughts yeah what what were those when we were drinking and Dragons I wasn’t connected to any of those things but um I hear what you’re saying girl or Jeremy sorry yeah I again my eyes are dilated so I can’t read terribly well but there you go yeah so he’s uh he’s talking about in recovery now yeah yeah recovery yeah and in recovery those all things come back and we get to feel them and work through them and understand them and like it’s okay to feel like I love I’m an emotional kind of guy I mean my kids and stuff will be like Daddy all right yeah I’m just thinking about what’s up
me too but man I’m I’m blessed because I even in my addiction starting in I think uh late 2015 to early 2016 I started journaling even even in my addiction and going back to those thoughts going back to those emotions that I was having at that time what I would do is I would whenever I would wake up in the morning I had a journal next to my bed and I did uh what was called morning pages I learned it in uh oh my gosh the way of the uh artist way artist’s way and you just write out your thoughts for three whole pages you have to write three whole pages next to your bed and I would date the top of the page bro and going back to those journals and seeing where my mind was at in addiction right compared to now oh my goodness oh my goodness it’s uh I was not in as much control of them as I am now I’ll just I’ll just say that right I was going through a lot oh my gosh I’m gonna turn my camera on because I have this nice backdrop behind me but here’s what my office really looks like so over there on that table all right I pulled out my PR I pulled out my prison box a couple nights ago you’re just crazy I was scared with the prison box so I was I was curious I was gearing up for the um for the uh swim for Recovery kind of month and I wanted to really kind of reflect on when I was in prison and all the cards and all the letters that people wrote to me so I just started reading them you know and I was reading my journal entries and I’ve got a bunch of these like right here by my desk now that I’m kind of going back through each day this month and I’m reading these things I’m just like man I don’t remember writing that at all and it was like total God download right and I’d read things I’m like oh I remember reading that because I was pissed off that day I was angry at some stuff and just be able to process that but my whole desk over there some of those I don’t know why this is kind of coming out of my mouth here but hey if you have friends or people in prison in in jail and stuff write them letters I’m like reading through my cards for the whole family was gone that night a couple nights ago and I’m just Weeping at my table I’m Weeping at the fact that I miss my Aunt Carol’s funeral because I was in prison and she was like my second mom she got me in the room to recovery and I was so I was so heartwarmed by all the letters my cousins wrote me and said you know we’re really sorry you’re not here we know you want to be here we love you and I was just like weeping that if my family would have walked in they would have wondered what was wrong with me but it was a true authentic elephant here so I was feeling those emotions right and and those feelings that um Jeremy posted about and but that’s like my table recently that I just I sort out the cards and I had I had like 40 Business 40 birthday cards sent to me in prison and these guards are like who the hell are you who gets 40 birthday cards in prison what are you doing here bro yeah I know it sucks like um it’s been a journey but thanks for not you know label me as a guy that should be here but right all those things and and those I mean yeah I mean I went to prison in recovery but it’s okay because I found out who I was and uh it’s we gotta figure out who we are man it’s an identity piece of who we are that’s that’s even that’s step three of lifted or step two lifted from the right interventions is identity identify who we are identifying the problems and addressing those but it’s a gift to help people like and and you said something earlier I want to touch on that was really important that is is our hearts are geared to helping so many people we can do too many things that distract us from the purpose God has in front of us yes and I I wish I would I don’t need I haven’t been journaling lately so this might inspire me to start journaling again but I was sitting around once and and as I’m coming up with some different coaching programs you know I was looking at what everyone else was doing and I had all these things I’m like oh this is what this place does I like that thing like you said taking little bits and pieces I was like you know what stop it I took you all through the trash and I was like God what do you want me to do yeah get back to what is God calling me to do that’s unique about me and what I’ve been through and how God has wired me to help people and it was so refreshing man to just take all that I just threw it all in my trash can and I was like yeah all right guys let’s get back to business um what you really called me to do not what’s working for somebody else because guess what I ain’t somebody else I’m me and I have so much to offer people and and I do that already it was just I got distracted by oh that guy’s that guy’s doing really well over there what’s he doing yes you know or I need a cool Studio like Adam I’m gonna go spend ten thousand dollars
I got it on I got it on a 10 discount bro you got the clickable lights ten percent of 100 yeah but it’s like the comparison thing right so if you’re in recovery man just Embrace recovery you’re right where you are but you can’t stay there and find someone that’s going to help you move forward you know whether you know whatever it is I mean you’re here now I mean I was looking at the Facebook thing and it was I mean there’s so many comments right now on this stream because you’re you’ve done a great job Adam of encouraging people man the people better recognize you for that I appreciate you saying that but the people that show up to this like if you look at the comments everybody’s here for everybody else they’re they’re lifting each other up their this community that’s that’s here they they want to be here to lift each other up this isn’t about me it never has been about me I think people have recognized that and they I love this community bro like there’s there was one post once right one post once that was it was um you know find find a partner that loves God more than you right and all of a sudden it went viral it got like two three four thousand shares but the comments bro all the comments were negative like talking crap about God yeah have an imaginary friend and all this different stuff so the Facebook algorithm caught on to that right caught on to that and it was interesting to see because a few people like I know Jeremy was in there I know Brittany was in there and a few different people you know ended up seeing it but Facebook was pushing it to all these different people and it was just really interesting to see the difference from one post to every other post that I ever do of people in this community just lifting each other up that’s all I ever see here and that’s why I’m I’m passing it off to you guys I appreciate you saying that brother and I just I pass it off to you guys and thank you for being here and you said something bro that I had to write down because I’m going to journal on this later and I think everybody that’s listening right now you should write this question down and journal on this later what is unique and special about me that caught that God called me to do what is because something in this tattoo on the back of my neck right it’s it’s an Aquarius sign and I got it you know kind of mysteriously to have that but I got it because it’s also the approximate sign approximately equal to I got it right before I got sober and it was because when I was going into all the fellowship meetings everyone was like you’re the same as everybody else and you’re the same as everybody else you’re just an alcoholic you’re just an addict all these messages are coming at me and I’m like no I’m not I’m beautifully and wonderfully and uniquely made by God and I’m aware of that I know that’s true so when I’m walking into these meetings I don’t want to hear that I’m the same I want to hear that I have the same disease yeah that we all have a common solution to but I’m not the same I’m I’m approximately the same right and when I when I understood that that we in this community we have a common problem many of us have a common solution and if we came together and we strengthened each other in our strengths right that would make it so that the body would work better as a whole together if we weren’t cutting people down for weaknesses or we weren’t trying to trying to fix our weaknesses because this person over here is really good at that thing if we all focused on what we were really good at what we were really called to you know we could help a lot of people a lot of people yeah so Rob where can people I’m going to write this so that people can see it but where can people find you where’s the best place to find you right now I’m gonna write the website down uh best thing is lifted from therut.com in general but for September if you’re watching this in September right now go to swim4recovery.com it’s a lot of fun it’s really cool and totally stoked so swiftrecovery.com is the most fun thing happening right now and um I was going to show you this real quick so pictures are worth what a thousand words right yeah life’s worth I think 10 million words but but you look I will show this picture and look at how we’re uh smiling and all like happy good luckily these are my My Wife and Kids okay all right yeah that’s why I was in prison oh and I look at this picture every day I’m like yeah we’re smiling right and we’re enjoying quality time together while all these guards are watching and it was you know angel tree that was in prison that was in prison I had this picture from in prison look at that I’m just like it’s just my reminder that no matter where we are in any journey in our life anything we’re doing that we it’s important to just kind of embraced where we are right and look at what the lessons we learned are because I remember in that conversation right there my wife was wanting to talk to me about you know finances and the situation and stuff and I’m like there’s guards there’s cameras there’s microphones like I’m not going to talk real here but the picture would look so happy and um but in but in that you know if you’re away or you’re struggling people love you out there no matter what you’ve done or what you’re doing or where you’re going and you find a community like this or a community that can build you up is so huge because the the shaming toxic communities just they don’t help people move forward a lot of times amen amen so that’s what we’re here for guys uh we love you so much Rob thank you for coming and blessing the community keep up the good work I’m gonna have this banner up you guys can find him at lifted from therut.com and this month is really good for swimforrecovery.com uh for the you know mile a day and story a day challenge so guys check Rob out Rob thanks so much for being here guys we love you we love you very much keep up the good work have an amazing weekend and keep living recovered on purpose
