Honest Christian Conversations
A weekly podcast dealing with cultural and spiritual issues within the Christian faith.
Want to be a guest on Honest Christian Conversations? Send Ana Murby a message on PodMatch, here: https://podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/honestchristianconversations
Honest Christian Conversations
Overcoming Chaos Through Faith and Purpose
What if you could transform your life from chaos and addiction to purpose and faith? Join us as we uncover the extraordinary journey of Erik Allen, a man who has faced domestic abuse, addiction, and financial ruin yet emerged stronger through his unwavering faith in Jesus Christ. Erik's story begins with a harrowing childhood filled with violence and instability, but a pivotal encounter with faith sets him on a path to redemption. You'll hear firsthand how Erik overcame his addiction and dedicated his life to helping men find their purpose through the wisdom and faith he embraced.
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Have I Got an Interview for you? Today's guest, eric Allen, has been through domestic abuse, alcohol and drug addiction and is now devoting his life and his podcast to sharing the saving power of Jesus Christ. After quitting his addiction cold turkey, he has dove headfirst into God's will and is helping men become better versions of themselves by sharing the tools and wisdom he has learned through his years. This episode was so encouraging for me that I could feel myself getting choked up towards the end. You will truly be blessed by his story and his devotion to Christ. Be sure to share this episode with family and friends so they too can be blessed by the contents of this episode. Hey, eric, thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. I'm very excited to have you as my guest.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, anna. Thank you so much, truly, an honor to be here.
Speaker 1:Why don't you start by telling us a little bit about yourself, what your upbringing was and how you overcame that and found Christ?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's been an interesting journey for sure. I grew up going to the church. It was my grandparents were involved in the church, my mom's parents, and so we went to Sunday school and I was the kid that would bring GI Joes in my pocket and then asked to go to the bathroom and just wouldn't come back. I would just hang out in the bathroom playing GI Joes. For some reason they never came to find me. But you know that's the church that I grew up in and, you know, went to play Little League and my dad would take my best friend, dave and I and literally throw us in dumpsters on a Saturday morning and say go find treasure. You know we just did a when I was a kid for some reason. It was fun. But now looking back on it it was kind of weird, but it was fun stuff. But then my parents got divorced when I was 11 years old and my mom got together with a guy who was very physically abusive almost immediately and I didn't understand why she decided to stay with this man. I remember there was times where I'd be outside in the back plane and I'd hear them yelling, so I'd run over to their bedroom and I'd look through the window and I would see him hitting her in the head with a cordless phone with those around, and I'd call the police and they would show up and my mom would never press charges. And it was this rinse and repeat cycle over and over.
Speaker 2:Then they did the smart thing and they got pregnant and in the middle of my eighth grade year they decided to move us from Kenwick, washington, to Stevensville, montana. Population was about 1200 people at that time and they rented this house that was on five acres. That was outside of town, so there was really nobody around us, and the property was awesome. It had two big ponds and lots of room to run around on. It was by the Bitterroot River, but the problem was that house had three bedrooms and it was one for them one for my little brother, who's a few months older this time, and then one for my sister, who's four years younger than me. They said, eric, you get to live in the garage. I literally had this plastic tarp down the middle of the garage that separated my bed from the truck that would pull in. Now, luckily, my half of the garage had a fireplace that would keep me semi-warm in the middle of those negative degree winters of Montana, but there'd be many mornings where I'd wake up for school and could see my breath from the bed. It was pretty cold some nights.
Speaker 2:There was a moment when I was about 13, 14 years old that really changed, I would say, the trajectory of my life. I was brushing my teeth. We weren't going to church, I wasn't a Christ follower or anything like that at this moment, but brushed my teeth. One night they came home arguing Wasn't anything different than any other night, but I just felt God go, man, you've got to turn around and look down that hall to see what's going on. And so, as I peeked my head around the corner to look down the hall, it was to the kitchen, to the pantry, to the garage door where my bedroom was at. And I looked down there in the pantry, this man's on top, my mom just boom, boom, boom, punched her in the face, had this 20 seconds of courage, I guess, and I walked up and I grabbed a cast iron pan and I swung as hard as I could and I split the back of his head open. He turned around and he said what? Then, as he did that, I smacked him again in the forehead and split his forehead open. I hit him so hard the second time I'd actually fallen over. I still didn't knock him out, but I remember him standing up over me. He was bleeding down his face. My mom jumps up, lands like six punches in a row, like mama bear. You know there's blood splattered on the wall and the police finally showed up, took him to jail my mom doesn't press charges right, rinse and repeat.
Speaker 2:And it wasn't much longer than after that, with about three months left in my freshman year of high school, I got kicked out of that house. I had to go live with my buddy, forrest, and slept on the hardwood floors with his dad and him and I would wake up and we'd steal a cigarette out of his dad's pack and walk to school. Like you know, we were a bunch of bad dudes and we really were. But that kind of started this trajectory right. And so over the next 10 years of my life, after my freshman year of high school, I went back to live with my dad and got into drugs. Earlier on he rented a house for him and I. He put 20 bucks in a cup for my lunch money for the week and then he put Hungerman meals and cereal and milk in the house, make sure there was food there, and then he would go stay with his girlfriend. So I'd see my dad a few times each month. In passing, he got me a bus pass so I could get to school, get around town, things like that.
Speaker 2:But, like I said, I was doing drugs pretty early on, so I was smoking pot before school, at lunch, after school, acid mushrooms, whatever I could get my hands on, and by the time I was 18 years old I got arrested for having a bong in Washington, which is now legal in that state. But in 1998, when I was a senior, it was not. I had to go to jail. I had a Dayton Washington black and white chain gang outfit on bright orange slippers. Luckily I only had to stay one night and it was interesting because here I was not walking with God, obviously, but I was scared of what would happen if I had to go to jail, and so I brought my dad's Bible with me and I said that was the only thing I was allowed to bring in there. I was able to bring my Bible into the jail and so I sat down at the table and I just started reading in Genesis and didn't really talk to anybody. Luckily, I didn't have a cellmate, didn't sleep that much, didn't learn my lesson, though, and went right back to doing my same thing as soon as I got out, two weeks after I graduated high 21,.
Speaker 2:I would move 21 times, living off a couch here, couch there, living off credit cards, and one of those moves was to Seattle Washington. I had $100 in my pocket by the time I was 21,. I was $28,000 in debt and ended up filing bankruptcy, and I eventually landed a job with the music industry Universal Records. It was a dream of mine to get in the music business. I don't know how to play anything, I just wanted to be a behind-the-scenes guy. I actually lied to get the job because they said that you had to be in college. So I went and paid for an internship quote-unquote class. I took my receipt and said look, I'm in college and I never went to college. But I got in and I rockstar lifestyle for about a year, where I had open tab at every concert, two to three nights a week, got to hang out like rockstars backstage and live a rockstar lifestyle without being a rockstar. Uh, it just completely lost in the world. Um, I was laid off after a year because of a thing called Napster. Right here, I am just completely wandering the world and Napster takes my dream away, you know, and laid off half of the office there. I think that's really where it was this moment where I was super just depressed.
Speaker 2:I was working at Starbucks at night. I get off work, go to my grocery store, get a six pack of beer, go to my ghetto apartment and drink myself to sleep. Every night it was this rinse and repeat cycle. One day, a girl came into Starbucks and she said hey, we've got a college age event down at our church. Would you be interested in going? And she was good looking and I was depressed and had no friends. Yep, what time do I need to be there? Right, that was my mentality at that time. I got to that event and I ran into guys that I had met four years prior when I had the small attempt at going to college, before I moved up to Seattle.
Speaker 2:I said man what are you guys doing here? Like, oh, we're church pastoral interns and things like that. And it was just this weird connection. It was in that moment like I started to realize that God was probably working some things in my life, but I wasn't ready to give up this worldly desire. A month later is Easter 2004.
Speaker 2:I went out and partied with a band that I was managing and woke up on Easter. I don't think that's a coincidence, but woke up on Easter and felt God saying dude, you're going down this path, that's going to end your life if you don't start making some changes. And so it was in that moment that I gave my life to Christ and I quit cold turkey, drugs, drinking, cigarettes, everything. In that moment I text that girl that invited me to that church event and I said, hey, thanks for inviting me to church, maybe I'll see you at the store sometime. And 11 months later we were married and we've been married for 19 years now. That's just been blessing us. And you know, uh, being married for 19 years not every year is rainbows and sunshine. But you know, we we've uh been doing this. We're breaking the chains of addiction, rejection, abuse, uh and divorce that have plagued our, our family for generations.
Speaker 1:Praise God for that. My goodness, you have an amazing testimony. It's full of everything. Like you mentioned movie, it could be a movie. This is like it's amazing.
Speaker 1:God had his hand on you the whole time. I can see it Hindsight's 20-20. I'm sure you see it all throughout. Now that's how I feel about my own life. Story is I can clearly see where God's been working the whole time. It's hard to see when you're in the middle of it, but he's been working and, like you said, seeing those people that you hadn't seen in like four years and all of a sudden there they are, is just the way that God works is awesome and I love it. And your story is so encouraging. And to see how you've come up on top of your addictions you met your wife through everything. God. Just completely cold turkey, I mean with my own addiction to pornography it was kind of cold turkey for me as well, but with alcohol and drugs I feel like that would be a lot harder to do. Cold turkey Did you have a lot of withdrawals? Did you have a lot of tough months, or was it actually just easy to do?
Speaker 2:Yeah, for me.
Speaker 2:It was easy, and the reason it was easy, though, was because I changed the environment, where I had called up all my buddies and I said hey, for me, I got to take a break from the party scene. I can't go out to the bars, I can't do this. And what I did was I replaced that scene with men that I found in the church that I started going to that had great marriages, they had been Christ followers for a long time, they were entrepreneurs, they were great employees, and this is way pre-podcast days, but I would say I want to take you out to Starbucks and I want to understand what you're doing to live the life that you are, and I just sponged up as much of that information as I could, and I just replaced that party scene with just being enveloped with men who loved the Lord, who had great marriages and just spoke into my life, and I'm just sitting them down and saying I'm going to buy you coffee. I want to understand what you're doing to live the life that you are, because that's what I want.
Speaker 1:It's important to have good foundation of people that you're surrounding yourself with. The pastor at our church did a sermon a long time ago talking about the five people that you surround yourself with and how you're the sum of those five people. So it was very wise of you to realize that quickly that this is what I need to change. So I'm going to do it. A lot of people don't do it, especially people who are addicts. They have a harder time distancing themselves, so you must have had something in you that was strong enough to say no, I know what I have to do. I'm going to do it. I'm not going to learn the hard way. For too too long I had to learn the hard way.
Speaker 2:Yeah, definitely not my own power. Oh, thank you. Yeah, definitely not my own power. It was all God for sure that got me through that and, like I said, it's been a crazy life. But I think God, like you said, has had his hand in my life the whole time. Lots of prayers from my grandma, who's 90 years old and loves the Lord and still prays for me, and all of our 54 great grandkids, and things like that each day. But it's prayers like that that have kept me safe. I mean, I'm 44. I've never broken a bone, never had a stitch right. Like God has protected me and has a plan, and I just acknowledged that and said all right, god, whatever you got for me, then let's do it, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how do you ensure that you stay on the right path? Do you have a routine you do for the day with God? What is your daily routine? I guess?
Speaker 2:my eyes For me being 44, if I open my eyes, I immediately out loud say thank you, jesus, for another day to see and hug and hold my family Immediately. That's the first thing that I say out loud. Got to say it quietly so I don't wake up my wife. But then I get up and I make my bed and so for me that's two wins that I've already got One, I woke up, and number two, I made my bed because I said I was going to make my bed. So I did what I said I was going to do. So I'm already kind of firing up on all cylinders going. We got two wins already. Let's keep it going For me.
Speaker 2:Then I come upstairs and I turn on worship music and I read the Bible and I spend time in prayer and my prayers are very gratitude driven, you know, because I'm just. I am extremely thankful and grateful for having a roof over my head and shoes to wear and just working vehicles Right, and I spend so much time and just in gratitude and then just saying Lord, use me how you want, help me to hear that prompting from the Holy Spirit to encourage somebody, and that time, that prayer time, can be 10 minutes, maybe it's 20 minutes. It kind of depends on the day I'm reading through. I just started reading the Bible again from Genesis one at the end of May. I hadn't done that for a really long time. So it's really cool to be going through the old Testament right now. But I think that's that non-negotiable. For me, it's being grateful and then immediately going into prayer time. If I don't have that prayer time, that sets the tone for the day, right. But if I have that tone or have that time with God in the morning, then that's really what excites me about the day.
Speaker 2:I spoke to a pastor just a couple of weeks ago on my show and he said something that resonated with me and I started to implement it. But he said I made a covenant with God that I would not open my phone to look at email or social media or anything on that phone until I had time with God. And I was realizing that when I was waking up I'd be getting my coffee, I'd be looking at my phone, right, and then I'd come upstairs to go to my get my worship time. And so I'd already had, like this, access to social media prior to this time with God and I said, man, god, I'm going to make that covenant with you. I don't want to have, I don't want to look at my phone or look at emails or any of that until I put you first. I started implementing that a couple of weeks back and, man, it's been a game changer for me to not look at my phone or social media or anything like that until I've had that time with Jesus.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've actually started doing that too over the last year. It's not easy because everything is on the phone, so it's very it's right there. You want to check to see the time. Usually you get your phone. Emails might be flooding in over the night, especially if you have a business. Just where your mind wants to go is let's get this done. That's what we think we need to be doing, but it's important to make sure we put God first, because I don't know about you, but when I don't put God first, my day sucks. I have such a hard time with my children. I have five kids, but four of them live with me and they're all home right now because it's summer.
Speaker 1:So if I don't put God first, I can feel that immediately. First time they do something that irritates me and then I'll tell them mommy didn't spend time with God. Like she should Learn from mommy and spend time with God, Put him first. Mommy's going to go read the Bible now, because if she doesn't, it's not going to be a good day for everybody.
Speaker 2:Totally Right.
Speaker 1:How do you handle the difficult days if you haven't had a chance, because there are times where you have to get up early, you have to get going and it's just not possible to do everything. The way that your usual routine would be Doesn't mean you can't pray, because we can always pray.
Speaker 1:And I always make time for that. That is the first thing I do. But then you know your day might get going, something bad happens and you have to get out of the house quickly. On those days, how do you handle the fact that you weren't able to finish your routine the way you would have liked?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I get up before everybody else, with quite enough time to make sure. So usually I wake up between four and four 30 every morning. Uh, I don't have an alarm, it just my body wakes me up between four and four 30 every day and I just get up. Um, rarely do I have where I have a moment where I'm I'm not able to sit down and pray, but I think when there's moments where I'm like man I got to, I got to hustle up that prayer might be me standing there while my coffee's brewing, going God, I need to have this day with you. Like I'm rushing out the house, I don't have time to sit there and read my Bible right now, um, but I think in that moment I have to tell myself like, all right, then we're going to get in the Bible, we're going to listen, or when we're driving or wherever I'm going, I need to listen to a sermon or I need to have something that speaks life into me. Uh, if I don't have that time to read in the word, right, maybe I'm listening to the audio version of the Bible as I'm driving to the that thing that I need to go to, right, um, or I I'm doing it later If I have an early morning phone call I've had those where I have a, you know, an interview at five, 30 in the morning or something like that and I'll do that and immediately, like, if I wake up at five, I'm hustling up to upstairs, right, and I jump right in to the show Immediately after the show.
Speaker 2:I'm spending time in the word it really is. If it doesn't happen the first thing in the morning, then I'm going to do it the first opportunity that I have early in the morning, so that it does set the tone for the rest of that day. But, like you said, we can pray at any point and so for me, in those moments it's praying wherever I can, if it's in the kitchen or brewing coffee or even running up the stairs, right, like I am making sure that I'm spending time with God every single day and that really does set the tone for me as a parent, as a husband, in the way that I approach my day. So if I don't have that, it does definitely set you off.
Speaker 1:Yeah, intentionality is important when it comes to this. Yes, I have been learning that a lot through my life because I have major anger issues and if I don't spend enough time with God can immediately see the difference and I don't like it. So I'm definitely trying to be more intentional and trying to teach my kids that skill because I didn't have it. So I'm definitely trying to be more intentional and trying to teach my kids that skill because I didn't have it growing up.
Speaker 1:I mean I'm 40 now I'm just learning it. So I don't want my kids to go through their whole life not knowing these nuggets, so I'm throwing them their way. So that is very good that you have taken intentionality and ran with it. It's very important.
Speaker 2:Most definitely.
Speaker 1:So you have mentioned that you have a podcast. What do you do with your podcast?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I started podcasting in 2017. I had no idea what I was doing and actually the first podcast I started doing, I was interviewing MMA fighters and I was asking them why the heck do you want to get in a cage and get punched in the face? That was really my only intention around interviewing and it took off faster than I thought. I ended up doing 256 episodes of that show interviewing MMA fighters from around the world and super fun. But in 2018, I came across a guy named Ed Milet and I was like man, I really liked the way this guy approaches podcasting and being honest and just like being authentic, because he didn't know what he was doing when he first started on this whole technical thing and and I liked the way that he approached entrepreneurs and his values and I said, man, I want to talk with entrepreneurs about that as well. And so I started just like following him and sponging up everything he could and started watching his show more and then actually landed a phone call with Ed. I won a contest that he ran and then actually we landed a phone call with Ed. I won a contest that he ran on Instagram. That landed me a phone call with Ed and I was able to record that and released it as episode 12 of this brand new show called Eric Allen show, and prior to that I had Sean Whalen on and then it kind of took off from there and here we are episode 277 drops this Friday um of the Eric Allen show.
Speaker 2:But what ended up happening was the first couple of years I ran the Eric Allen show. I was talking with entrepreneurs Some were Christ followers, some were not and it opened up doors to amazing relationships that I have with just awesome people. But about four months ago I just felt God saying I love what you're doing. You're talking with great people. However, you're not talking about me, you're not bringing me into that show.
Speaker 2:And I just had this kind of awakening where I said, all right, I'm going to start focusing more where I'm talking with men, specifically that struggle in that area of how do we balance the relationship with Jesus and keep our family and our faith and our finances together and our business running. How do we balance all of that but then still have this hunger to be like Jesus? How do we balance that as men? And so I just started talking with men about four months ago that just specifically target those areas and we also get in the business and how Christ envelops into that and helps them that.
Speaker 2:But it's really around. How did you come to know the Lord? What is it that prompted you to step into that? How do we intertwine that with our business and things like that? And it's been a huge transition. But I think it's brought in more people to the show. I haven't had any bad flack or anything like that, and I announced to my audience that hey, I'm going to be making a shift in my show and it's just been a great experience so far. And that's what I do is I just talk with men about their journeys with Jesus.
Speaker 1:That is awesome and definitely something that is needed. Men, I feel, are being really neglected lately in everyday life, in the church, although our church likes to be very intentional about engaging with the men. Like everything around is aimed more towards men, because they know that if you can get the men to church, lives can change. God created you guys to be the head. The women are supposed to follow, and a lot of women don't like hearing that. I'm totally fine with saying it because I know it's true. The Bible says so and I've tried to do it my own way and it sucks. So men are supposed to be the leaders. So if you get them on the right track, the women will follow. The children will follow more easily. That is great that you are choosing to do that for your show.
Speaker 1:I am so excited to hear that, because men are being pushed aside. Nowadays, in our generation, they're being told shut up, women are better. None of that is true, and it's great that you are choosing to follow what you felt God telling you to do and you're going all in. I love your approach. You just go all in. When you know that God is telling you to do something, you just go for it and see what happens, and more people need to do that. That's kind of what happened with this podcast that I'm doing. It's been through several changes and I love what I'm doing right now. When you go and do what God is telling you to do, it's a lot more exciting.
Speaker 2:And you have a great show, by the way, and I've been listening to your episodes. You do an awesome job with asking great questions. You have great guests on your show. If people aren't listening to your show or subscribe to it, they need to go do that right now, because you do have a great show.
Speaker 1:Thank you. I want to know what you define success as. What is success to you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is always an interesting question. In fact, my wife and I were having this conversation just a couple of weeks ago. It was like, how do we define success? I think for me I've always had this mentality of like, well, I want the house and I want the property and I want the legacy to be built. Generations can come and live on that property. And you know, sitting down with my wife I'm like if it's great and all. But I think what's more important is.
Speaker 2:Success for me is if my kids go and follow Jesus. Success for me is if they go and love people how they are and love people where they're at. And success for me is if my wife and I can stay together and show our kids that through the tough times we made it and we chose to be intentional about our marriage. Right, and when we said I do, we meant it and I think so. Success for me is being the example for my kids that marriage is tough and we can continue to fight for our marriage, but always putting Jesus first. If my kids, who love the Lord and stay that way and follow Jesus all their lives, and their spouse do the same and generations to come are the same. That's success for me. I'm so thankful for my wife because we brought our kids home to do homeschool this last year and the first hour, hour and a half of the day is just my wife reading the Bible with our kids and just speaking life into them and being that example for them.
Speaker 2:I mean, I work from home. I've worked from home since 2015. So I'll go downstairs and grab coffee and they're in the middle of prayer and I'm like man, what a cool moment to see them. And I know that when I go downstairs I've been grabbing coffee and they're in this deep conversation. All of a sudden the conversation goes quiet and I look over and they're like I interrupted a time session, right. I'm like, oh crap, sorry, I'll go back up to my office, right to my office, right.
Speaker 2:But I think that's what success is to me is being able to speak life into our kids, but putting Jesus first and then seeing them love Jesus. And I coached my son's baseball team for the last six years and we had this moment where we had to win and a couple other things had to fall into play for us to make the playoffs. We didn't make the playoffs before the game. My son, who's 11, he's 10 at the time. He looks at me and he goes dad, win or lose, we're just going to praise Jesus either way. And I thought, man, what a cool moment for my son to have that realization.
Speaker 1:Yes, that is awesome. Amen, I don't even know what to say. That was perfect. There's nothing to add, I think, to that. I want to ask you another question related to your podcast and how you talk to men, entrepreneurs and everything. What's the kind of advice you give them on how they can grow their faith in business?
Speaker 1:Because a lot of people have a hard time in business trying to keep their integrity. You see these different businesses where maybe they're getting flack because they stand on their values. How do you encourage someone to want to stay doing God's will in the midst of their business, nowadays especially? Yeah?
Speaker 2:I think that we have to put God first. If we want to be successful in life and in business, as a husband, as a father, we have to do that first. And I think if it comes down to a point where you're like, man, I can't talk about Jesus because my business will hurt, that's the wrong mentality. I think if we talk about Jesus in our business, the right folks will become our customers. The right folks will open the doors for us to step into those opportunities. And I think we also need to look at it like. I don't want to compare myself to somebody who is making millions of dollars in their business and they're not a Christ follower. So I'm just going to kind of step in that way and have that as my goal and not put Christ first. Now there was a guy that I had on my podcast named Greg Reed. He wrote the book Three Freak from Gold and it was an amazing book. He invited me to go to an event at his house in Carlsbad, california, called Prosperity Camp. It was 50 people only and I walk in there and 49 are millionaires. I'm the one that's not, and I met this guy there named Kelly Cardenas, and Kelly was this surfer looking dude, long, dread blonde hair, just the super cool dude. And I was like man, I want to connect to this guy. And we just started connecting. We were chatting, he's a Christ follower and that was a great event.
Speaker 2:I went back down for that same event a couple months later and Kelly said dude, let's go watch the sunrise and read our Bibles on the beach. I live in Idaho. We don't have access to the beach. I'm like man, heck, yeah. So here am I walking through his fancy neighborhood in the middle of the night. Here am I walking through his fancy neighborhood in the middle of the night, like early morning, it's still dark and people are probably like who's this guy walking in my neighborhood? But we got there and Kelly and I would go down to the beach.
Speaker 2:I remember in this moment I was just expressing to Kelly like dude, I'm around all these people, they're successful in their business and they're all millionaires. I'm the one that's not. He looked over at me and he goes man, they are, they're all successful in their business, they all have great businesses, they're all millionaires. He goes, but how many of them have great marriages? I just went, I had my priorities all wrong and it was in that moment that I was like man, I'm not putting God first, that I'm not being that husband I'm supposed to be, I'm not being that father I'm supposed to be, because I've got my priorities all wrong. I think that moment is what kind of woke me up to going all right, I have to put God first. I have to implement God into my business, I have to implement God in my podcast, I have to implement God into my everyday conversations, and I think that's what has helped me get on the path that I'm in. But that one conversation with Kelly on the beach was a life changer for me.
Speaker 1:Nice. That is great wisdom and I'm so happy that he shared that with you and I'm glad that you share that with others, because it is important. We get our priorities wrong all the time. I've got my priorities wrong, which is why the podcast has gone through so many different changes. It's so easy to just slip back into something that might be comfortable or what you think God's telling you to do, rather than what he is telling you to do. It's important to have somebody come alongside you and disciple you and mentor you and let you know honestly when you're making a mistake and you're not thinking correctly. It's good that he was able to put things back into perspective for you and again you ran with it and you have a successful show.
Speaker 1:I've actually listened to your show. I've listened to you on other podcasts. You are a dynamic person and I feel just we're not even in person, but I feel like we are, because your spirit is. You can see your passion for what you do, who you are, where you've come from, what you've come out of. You can just feel it all and I'm really in awe.
Speaker 1:I have a hard time speaking right now because your story is amazing in so many different ways. You have allowed God to just use you and he's done great things through you and gets the glory for it, and you are completely content with that, with helping others, which is something that is absolutely necessary helping other men, other entrepreneurs. So I thank you so much for everything that you are doing for who you are as a person. I'm pretty sure you have changed many lives and I know you're going to change more through this podcast or anyone else who you go on their show, because you are such a dynamic person, and thank you so much for coming on. Before we go, I have one more question. I want you to give advice. I guess it's not a question. I want you to give advice to anybody who might be listening, who is addicted to drugs, alcohol or anything in general and is having a hard time. They want to get out of what they're doing, but they don't know how. Give them advice.
Speaker 2:First of all, thank you for the kind words. I appreciate that and the encouragement. Addiction is no joke. I've seen it happen to my own family. I've seen it happen to my friends. There was five of us in high school that hung out and two of them have passed because of addictions.
Speaker 2:Now since I've, and just in the last 20 years, if you're battling addiction, the one thing that I can say that was the game changer for me was I had to change the environment. So if you are hanging around people that are encouraging you to smoke pot even, or take drugs or look at porn or whatever that is, if you're hanging around people that are saying things to you that trigger emotions for you to go and do those things, you've got to change the environment. Go to a church, go to AA, go to an environment where it's a safe environment, where you can be open, you can be honest. For me, I think the church is the best route to go, but you've got to change your environment, so you've got to get uncomfortable and put yourself in those situations where you're new but it's a safe environment, where people aren't going to judge you, and I think that the church and AA, those are places that will not pass judgment on you, because we're there to love you, encourage you where you're at.
Speaker 2:So I think, if you're battling that, step away from that environment that you're in. Go find a church, go find a small group, go find men in your area or women in your area that have gone through that right Like I had Ed Milet on the show and he talked about, if you're walking around at 80 degrees, you need to go surround yourself with people that are walking around at 120 degrees, because just being their presence is going to lift you up, it's going to motivate you to be a better person, right? And so do that with people that are in the church, do that with people that are sober, do that with people that have changed their lives and stop doing the addictions that you've gone through or you're currently going through. So step into that, have faith, step into that more and man, just keep going, and that's how you overcome those addictions.
Speaker 1:Awesome. Thank you so much again for coming on this show. I have been blessed by our conversation and I guarantee there's others that will be blessed too. So thank you so much for coming on today, Eric.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, thank you. It's truly an honor to be here. Anna, thank you so much for having me on.
