What If It Did Work?
What If It Did Work?
From Addiction to Authenticity: Justin McClure on Sobriety, Success, and Social Media
Justin McClure, the inspiring social media creator and Daily Sober Coach, opens up about his transformative journey from addiction to success. With over ten million followers and a vibrant family brand, Justin discusses the pivotal moment that changed his life. He offers an authentic glimpse into the challenges of maintaining genuine connections in a world obsessed with clicks and likes.
Our conversation with Justin goes deep into his personal experiences with overcoming addiction, underscoring the crucial role of self-love and determination. He candidly shares how a documentary sparked his decision to change his life, leading to a fulfilling sobriety journey. As Justin delves into the therapeutic process, he touches on how it helped him unravel the root causes of his addiction, offering listeners invaluable insights into the power of vulnerability and personal growth.
The episode also explores the dynamic of navigating race and cancel culture, with Justin sharing his experiences as a white man in an interracial marriage. He reflects on the societal scrutiny that public figures face and expresses hope for a cultural shift toward positivity. Through anecdotes of embracing dreams and personal challenges, Justin emphasizes the importance of staying true to one's vision while fostering a supportive and loving family environment. Join us for an inspiring dialogue that celebrates legacy, authenticity, and the power of personal transformation.
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I never told no one that my whole life I've been holding back. Every time I load my gun up so I can shoot for the star, I hear a voice like who?
Speaker 2:do you think you are all right? Everybody? Another day, another dollar, another one of my favorite episodes, of my favorite podcasts. I'm biased. What if it did work? Season four already wow, I'm honored to have a celebrity, a man that's a family man, a man that has over three million followers on youtube. Very entertaining, a family man justin mcclure. Justin is a a Forbes top creator Four times that's three more times than me TED Talk speaker. His family, the Mighty McClures and the McClure Kids, has amassed over 4 billion YouTube and Facebook views. With over 10 million followers across social media platforms. The McClure family has been one of the most entertaining families since 2017, when a viral video put them on good morning america and the today show.
Speaker 2:Before social media fame, just justin was a professional comedian. He performed one of the biggest comedians in the world, did three uso tours for the troops, was featured on NBC's Last Comic Standing and made several TV appearances. But things didn't start peachy for Justin. Born and raised in rural Georgia, family trauma and neglect left him with an addiction as an adult that negatively plagued him into his 30s. Within two years, he found himself broke and in jail a few times. Sick of his life. Justin looked in the mirror and decided the problem in his life was himself. He quit alcohol and substances, took it day by day and got healthy. Justin's success stories based on vulnerability, humility and acceptance have changed Stories based on vulnerability, humility and acceptance of change. Today, justin and his family amazing wife and children the Mighty McClures are among the most watched and respected social media families. How's it going, justin?
Speaker 3:Oh, man, what an intro. Who sent you that?
Speaker 2:That's way too much, yeah, but it's true, dude. Yeah, yeah, but the podcast should be like like, hey, here's a dude I want to talk to. Hey, uh, tell your publicist, right me the book instead right, right, right well you know I I feel mildly insulted.
Speaker 3:It said we have three million youtube followers.
Speaker 2:We have like six well, there you go, man see, get, get with your publicist there, man. He needs to promote you more.
Speaker 3:But you know the thing, I'll get people to approach him. You know, followers doesn't mean anything because we have like 5 million followers and like most of them most of them don't see your content. Even on like Instagram, you have thousands or a hundred million. Most of them don't see your content, so it's like it doesn't really matter these days.
Speaker 2:Oh, tell a million. Most of them don't see your content, so it's like it doesn't really matter these days. Oh, tell me about it, but then you, you'll always have a hater taking a shot.
Speaker 3:Well you don't have three million comments. Yeah, it's like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you know what, if I can jump right into daily sober, you can do whatever you want. Man, I I had. No, this is the most vulnerable Omar project.
Speaker 3:Because when I wrote this book and I'll tell you why I wrote the book but I said, when I made an Instagram, I said you know what, I'm okay with putting this out there because it's going to bomb, because it's positive, it's inspiring, it's not toxic. I know that, starting out the gate, I'm going to get no followers, no engagement, because this is not dramatic and it's not negative. And I said you know what, I'm OK with that because I believe in it, because I don't care about the followers. My ego has been diminished. I don't care about none of that. So I think we're at a place right now where people want something positive and I'm far past the clickbait of like, my ego needs comments and I need engagement Because in the end, I wrote this and I knew going into it that it'd be an uphill battle, just because of how I know social media is.
Speaker 2:Well, it's an uphill battle too. I'm not going to lie, justin, you have, like the social media makes it look just like everybody else wants to hashtag winning. I would have never thought that you would be the daily sober coach. I would have thought that you know, on the surface I don't know, like, oh, look at Justin, sure he's great, probably like, oh, look at justin, sure he's great, amazing guy, probably had a picture perfect upbringing. You know, okay, because that's the story and you know it because we always had that knee jerk. Yeah, I mean, I, I grew up with alcoholism and that my, my mom wasn, but stepfather or whatever, he was an alcoholic, full-blown alcoholic, for over 30 years.
Speaker 2:Whenever I see because your videos are amazing your children, all three of them, your wife, thank you. Not only do you guys come across it's engaging man, it's dude. You should have 3 million comments just based on that. But the thing is is it's like I've got two degrees in journalism and I'll tell you if it. Oh, wow, okay, if it bleeds, it leads, brother, hmm, so, yeah, I'm surprised. I mean, we all want that life, but we all.
Speaker 2:It requires work and it requires vulnerability. Dude, you should know you did a ted talk that I. I saw one, yeah, of yours and that was vulnerability. Heck, yeah, I did for mine. I literally watched it. A year later, my, my office wanted to to see it. It was the first time because I didn't want to see it because I was vulnerable and and I cried and they had to edit. You know, when they're like when people don't realize that, that's one of the the things that if somebody flubs or somebody forgets their line, yeah, the logic of editing, right, but but yeah, man, and then, yeah, to write a book called daily sober requires vulnerability yeah, well, you know, omar, one thing about me I like to talk about being in the trenches more than the success.
Speaker 3:I don't care about what car you drive, what car I drive I don't care, but when you tell me the trenches you've been in, that's the conversation I want to have. So a year ago I asked myself I said you know, justin, you guys are doing well. What do I want to do If I had all the money in the world? What do I want to do? What do I want to do If I had all the money in the world? What do I want to do? And I said I really want to take some. What I get most excited about is when somebody tells me you know that they need help with alcohol or drug or losing weight or whatever. It kind of all is the same thing. I get so excited about that. So I said you know what? And I think this this is a really good story right here about sobriety and also building a business. So a year ago I said I want to do some sober coaching, but I'm smart enough to know that it's saturated and I'm smart enough to know that every day I'm not going to want to wake up and do content. I said what if I write a book that's daily lessons, 365 lessons, because nobody wants to read a whole book but people can read a page a day. And if I do an individual lesson every day, that's the content that I'm going to make for that day. So it makes it easy to make content, thus easy to promote your book. So I said, okay, I'm going to write a book called Daily Sober to promote your book. So I said, okay, I'm going to write a book called Daily Sober, 365 daily lessons. So if I go to today today is July 16th it's called Strength and Struggle. So Strength and Struggle. That gives me something to talk about. But the point is this is that when I wrote the book, I already had the business in mind of how I'm going to make the content, but I knew it'd be an uphill battle once it comes out, because it's positive. But the whole project is based around. This is what I want to do. I want to pay forward what I've given myself and what other people have given me, because you never know the seeds that need to be planted. Maybe one person right now sees this and they're like you know what? I think I've been drinking too much or I've been doing this too much. I'm going to pick up daily sober and maybe that that is the thing that they need to change their life, just like 11 years ago. I watched and read things that changed my life. I'm 11 years sober, so 12 years ago, omar, I wasn't on a winning streak. I'm 11 years sober, so 12 years ago, omar, I wasn't on a winning streak. You know, I said you know, justin. The problem is you. What are you going to do about it? You drink all the time. You womanize. You've been to jail five, six times. You've been to rehab a couple of times. The problem is you, my man. The problem is you.
Speaker 3:And so I got sober. And then I went to therapy and I realized and this is a good point about alcoholism that you mentioned about your family is that therapy, let me? So a lot of alcoholism and addiction is abusing yourself, running from yourself, abusing you. So when I went to therapy after I got sober, I realized that I started to love myself and I realized that I had to take out on me some of the things that I did as an adult because of trauma and neglect and other things. So I began to love myself. And when you begin to love yourself, your addiction gets smaller. So as the addiction got smaller and justin got bigger, I wanted to drink and use less and less. So you know that the entire secret, I think, to my sobriety is become bigger than your addiction. When you become, when you can become bigger than the thing that holds you back, you won't go back to it anymore justin, was there like that?
Speaker 2:enough's enough. Was there that one? Aha, oh, fuck, yeah, yeah, this is a quick.
Speaker 3:It's a good story, it's quick. But so I was living in New York City and I was womanizing the shit out of New York and I was drinking everywhere and I thought I was great and I said, you know, omar, nothing made me happy. Nothing made me happy. But I said, I said you know what, if I could date this one girl there was just like there was this Dominican woman who was just everything that I wanted. I'm like, if I could just date her, would I be happy. And so she gave me that, she gave me the time. I went on a date with her and she liked me. And I remember walking home after the date and I was drunk. It was like one o'clock in the morning and I felt miserable. Why am I miserable when what I wanted just happened? This lady likes me and I was miserable.
Speaker 3:I got home and I poured a glass of wine and I put on Netflix a movie called 30 for 30, the Chris Herron story. Chris Herron being an NBA basketball player, he wasted his career through drugs and alcohol. So I get home, I turn this on and I watch this guy waste his life, his career, through drugs and alcohol. Here I am, I've been wasting my life. So I started to relate to the movie. And then, you know, chris Herron gets sober. He becomes a hero in his community. He goes back. But this is the, this is the aha moment. There was a point in the movie where he, after he's sober, he went to the 7-Eleven and he said right, here is where I got.
Speaker 3:I passed out while my wife and my kid were waiting for me at the airport. So a week before that I had missed a big opportunity because I was drunk and I didn't make it on an airplane. So when that happened on the TV, I looked at the TV and I said that's pathetic. And then I said oh wait, that's you. You know, justin, that's literally you.
Speaker 3:So in that moment, in that moment I remember that I had that date and all this happened I had so much shame that went through my body. I was like you know what a piece of crap you are. Like you think you're great, you think you're successful, like really you are, you are a drunk who wastes your money and you have nothing to show for it. But then, at the same moment, I had shame go through my body. I had a lot of inspiration because I said you know what. You can change it. You can make better choices. You don't have to drink, you can start tomorrow and you can make better choices with your life.
Speaker 3:And, omar, I haven't drank since. That was the last you know. That was the moment that I said tomorrow I'm not drinking, I don't care if I punch a horse or kick a baby, I don't give a shit, I'm not drinking, I'm not going to drink. And so I didn't drink. And after six months I said well, let me go to therapy, let me figure out my problems, let me figure out the reasons that I needed to drink so much. And then I started volunteering and I started helping people. I started mentoring kids and then, after about a year and a half of sobriety, I met my wife and we fell in love. And I let somebody love me, because part of my addiction was that I couldn't. I couldn't stay in a relationship because I was so unstable. So, and then we built a family and here we are.
Speaker 2:No relapses, no turkey. Congratulations, brother.
Speaker 3:But. But I tell you, when you want something that bad, nothing will stop you. And that's what I tell people, that people will say I'm trying to get my brother to stop drinking. Why your brother's going to stop drinking when he wants to drink. You can try to plant the seeds, but you can't make him stop.
Speaker 3:I mean, omar, I'm telling you, I stopped on a night when I thought I, what I wanted, made me miserable. And I saw a movie and in the movie I saw myself and in that moment I said you're just a piece of shit. And I said but then I realized, because I'm a big fan of Alan Watts and a big fan of, like a lot of Buddhism and all this Eastern thought and traditions, and I thought you know what? I have one life to live. I'm going to die. I can't keep blaming things on my past.
Speaker 3:I have a choice to be happy If I'm going to live, to be 88 or 92 or 79, whatever it is. I want to have happy, happy years and I don't want this addiction anymore. It's going to be tough to get rid of it, but I know I can do it. I've done tougher things. I know I can do it and now I'm 11 years sober, and part of this book a year ago is me saying you know what? I want to give away some of the things that I've learned over the years. But, yeah, no relapses in 11 years.
Speaker 2:Now, Justin, what caused all that self-destructive behavior, the shame, the self-loathing, the hate? What was the root of all that? You're a good looking guy. You've moved from Georgia to New York.
Speaker 3:I was a very well you know, early on in my childhood my mother had me at 16. My dad died when I was four, so my mom was a widow at 20 with two kids. We were very poor. I mean, you look at me as this white American, you know whatever I am. I grew up extremely poor, with a lot of neglect. No dad, a mom who was in and out of a bunch of different relationships, so there was a lot of neglect. No dad, a mom who was in and out of a bunch of different relationships, so there was a lot of neglect there.
Speaker 3:I realized in therapy in my 20s I took it out on myself with alcohol because I wanted to be accepted and I was so shy and bashful and awkward and anxious that alcohol helped me be normal. Like you know the story there. You help me be normal and I started doing standup comedy and I realized that I was funny. Um, but then I realized when I got sober I didn't love standup comedy. I love that people laughed at me. I need, I needed to feel better the love. I needed to feel the love. I needed to feel the love. So that's why I was a womanizer. I needed women to validate me, Like am I good enough, can I, I can, I can another woman like me, and I made this person laugh, like I feel like, I feel like I'm worthy, and so alcohol helped all of that kind of diminish. But what I, what I realized in therapy, is that I didn't love myself and I had to learn to love myself, and that's when I wanted to do less and less drinking and other things.
Speaker 2:So the drinking was really just a mask.
Speaker 3:I believe so.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you weren't. You weren't Justin McClure from Georgia, single mom. After a while you could let loose, you could be a character. Yeah, you could be whomever, because on the surface, from one straight guy to another, you know you're a good looking guy, you know very personable.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. So, omar, I had no problems, like you know, getting women or whatever, and that was a problem because I just abused that privilege, but you just thought that the alcohol was like your like, like, like your turbo Like the lubricant yeah, it allowed everything to happen.
Speaker 3:But I the thing about alcohol, too, is that I mean I probably was in and out of relationships forever and every woman said the same thing they're like Justin, I really like you and you're a safe space, or whatever, but I don't know anything about you. Like, I never let people in. I never let people know who I was. Once I felt that they wanted to know. I was out and I was on to the next relationship. So when I got sober, I had to make a lot of amends.
Speaker 3:There were a lot of people in my life that I hurt, a lot of women that I manipulated, and so I had to reach back out to these people and I had to say listen, is it okay to say I'm sorry to you, is it okay to recognize that? I know that I probably took advantage of your love and this type of thing, because in sobriety I started to feel for other people, I started to develop empathy and compassion. But you know, I would say my 20s was probably a pretty, pretty rough time, and I think I went to jail for the last time at 30. And then that was like, hey, man, what, what are you doing, like what, what, what, what, what kind of decisions to drink and drive, like what, what are you doing with your life? So luckily, luckily, I look back, I didn't hurt anybody or hurt myself. But now I'm very, very grateful for that.
Speaker 2:You know you had to go through all that so you can meet Kelly.
Speaker 3:Exactly. You know, and like you know, omar, whatever your life is, your journey, you're here. You've had to go through what you've gone through to get here and I've gone through to what I've gone through to get here, what I've gone through to get here and now, fortunately, I'm happy. There's a lot of people who aren't happy at my age because they haven't decided to make the hard choices and that's part of what Daily Sober is, is part of like hey, man, maybe this helps you with whatever you're going through in life, because it's not really about sobriety as much as it breaking bad habits, staying on the phone too much or trying to lose weight or stopping your drinking or your addiction or your womanizing, whatever it is.
Speaker 2:Now did anybody try to stop you like a publicist? Or maybe Kelly saying, well, that's bad for our image to write the daily sober or with no blowback? No, everybody was like positive and they're like Justin.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's been a big. It's been a big part of my story for years. But, omar, I'll tell you, man, we were canceled. Our family was canceled in 2018, like canceled because people found tweets of me when I did stand up, from 2009, 2010. And these tweets were, like you know, misogynist and they were stereotypical about race and blah, blah, blah. And people like how is this guy family man if we found these tweets? Well, nobody knew I did stand up. Nobody knew that I was sober because we were just a family channel. So we got canceled, which was a blessing because then I could finally be myself. I could finally say yeah, you know, I'm many years sober. I was a different person. Then I had a very irreverent sense of humor. I don't anymore. You know, this whole thing is is. This whole thing is great because I was able to become myself after we got canceled if that makes, makes sense, but, justin, how could anybody even say anything like that?
Speaker 2:You're married to an African-American, I know Earlier you talk about going out with a Dominican. So my peeps Hispanic. Are you Dominican? No, I'm Hispanic. So my peeps Latino. My family's Colombian. You're Colombian, got it?
Speaker 3:OK.
Speaker 2:And you know somebody that's racist doesn't move to New York City. That's like ground zero.
Speaker 3:I dated my share of Colombians. I dated every, because I just think that Latino women, black women are beautiful. Right, I'm a white guy. I dated white and after a while I was just like you know what I like dating other races because I like the culture and blah, blah, blah. Anyhow, we got canceled. People like this guy's racist and like Omar I also. I adopted my twins. Like I'm not the biological father, like I did something amazing.
Speaker 3:These motherfuckers said that I was this and that I was just like man. I got so. So, really, in the beginning it did harm Because I said to myself and my wife I said why change in life? Why become better, if this is your reward? Because I knew the truth. The truth is I fell in love with my wife. I adopted the girls that she brought into the world and my wife is black and I've done.
Speaker 3:I've done more for other races than I've done for myself or my race. I've always helped people and I said, if this is the payback that I get, why change? Why I should still be an alcoholic piece of shit? Like, why do all this? If this is what people are going to say about me? You know, like last night I watched the Kevin Hart thing and Kevin Hart, when they they asked him to do the Grammys and they said he should apologize for these old tweets about you know he did some stuff about gay people. He's like no, I'm not doing that. I've already apologized for it and I've changed since then. I'm not going to revisit that. I agree with that because I felt the same thing. I'm like why go back to then when I already addressed all that? And if you look at who I am now a sober person, I'm married outside of my race, I adopted and I'm a great dad. Why would you ever bring that up up?
Speaker 2:well, it's like everybody wants to build just to tear down. I know, have you noticed that? Oh no, I mean, we love people lance armstrong. We we're like, oh, this guy's amazing, this guy's an athlete. And then we tear him down and it's. We don't care about the cancer work, we don't care about the money that he raised, the awareness that he raised, the inspiration and motivation towards cancer patients. We're just, we treat that guy like he's a mass murderer, slash pedophile, slash Ponzi schemes, and it's like but we built them up. And it's always like we build people up just so that we can tear them down.
Speaker 3:That's why I don't want to get any bigger. I'm good, like I really. I really know that if I were to get bigger, my family, they would try to tear us down again Like we could do the greatest thing in the world and like they're going to try to tear us down again like we could do the greatest thing in the world and like they're gonna try to tear us down again. So you know some other news that we got we they've been filming a documentary about us for a long time and I found out that it's going to be on hulu next year. It's going to be on a couple streaming platforms and that's great, it's exciting. But, um, I'm also like, well, damn, like, what are people going to try to dig out of the woodworks then?
Speaker 3:well, they already know you were a comedian yeah, they could try to cancel me again, you know, but the whole thing is like it's like I just hope, I just I just wished it, and I think that we're almost at a point with social media that that we're just done with all the toxicity, like some people like that's why I said I want to write this, because I believe there's going to be a shift and people like I'm done with all the toxicity, like some people like that's why I said I want to write this, because I believe there's going to be a shift and people like I'm done with all this crap, like I want to see stuff that makes me feel better well, justin, we're all evolved.
Speaker 2:Man, if people I mean, thank goodness we didn't have social media or smartphones when, when I went to lsu and I was in a fraternity, because, man, I'd be like in jail, my, my fraternity brothers would still be in jail and they, they would be, they wouldn't be judging. Another thing is we judge people based on today. Yeah, things were different that I went to college in 91 and 90 through 95. That's way different than now. It's the same thing when we're like, well, christopher Columbus or Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin, it's like, no, they didn't have gender studies, right, and we can't judge people from hundreds of years ago. Yeah, standards, but that's what people want to do. But it's, justin. Do you think that people just love to tear down because it's so much easier to destroy than it is? It makes them feel better.
Speaker 3:If somebody can diminish my life, it makes their life feel a little bit better, and that's why people like the news. That's why people like to watch other bad things on the news, because it makes sure they feel a little bit better, like, oh, at least my house didn't burn down today, you know. So I think that's part of like what social media is. It's just like we have to deal all day long with like we put out a video today with our twins and they're dressed up in like little outfits and so many people are like they shouldn't be wearing that. Like they're only 11 years old. Like why do they have that on? Like this is not good parent. You know, we deal with that all day.
Speaker 3:Fortunately, we've been doing what we've been doing for many years. We've had a lot of viral videos. So at this point I don't even look at the comments. The great thing about Daily Sober is that I put these videos out and, omar, I work so hard. I put a video out every day, so every lesson. So today's lesson is struggle in the strength. So if you look on my Instagram on Daily Sober, in a little bit I'm going to have that video out because I do it every single day. I don't check the comments. I don't check anything, I quit.
Speaker 2:I quit that a long time ago because I would get all bent and twisted. Somebody wrote a bad review on one of my books and it's like or or or. This is you're going to love this one, when people are going to be like Justin, how many books did it sell Because they want to compare it to? Well, dickweed. It's not a Stephen King book, right, right, right right. It's not Harry Potter. There's no fucking dinosaurs. There's no fucking dinosaurs. There's no wizards. Yeah, and this. But it makes them feel better. And, and my my thing is listen, dude, even if I sold one copy, it's one more than you'll ever do in your life, so don't worry.
Speaker 3:Right, no more. That is such an important point. Is that, uh, I did the work, you did Nobody can take that away from you.
Speaker 3:So the victory? The victory is not in how good it does, the victory is in. A year ago I said I'm going to write this. And in the next day oh this is how I work and this is why I'm an addicted personality type I told my wife. I said I'm going to, I want to get back, I'm going to write a book. She's like when are you going to start? I said you know, I'm going to start tomorrow. So the next day I wrote 3,000 words every single day until I was done and then I revised it seven times on my own. That's so much work. So if nobody bought this, I'm so proud of it because the work that I did and I realized, omar, I'm built on achievement. My drug of choice is achieving is success. If it's helping somebody else or helping myself, I like to achieve. So this is a big achievement and that's the win. That is the win is doing the work, justin it's already, it's going to be massively successful.
Speaker 2:And this is why and I consider my books successful, because we like-minded people all you want to do is help one person to change their life. After that, if it's two people, that it changes even better. And if it's three, four, five, after, the more people it saves, the more people it changes their life for the better. Yeah, that's a win, that's a success. That's called changing, that's called making people do a shift so they can create their own legacy.
Speaker 2:That's why dude Daily Sober is way more important than a book that people will read to check out of their reality.
Speaker 3:Right, yeah, yeah, you know 100%. Like you know, Omar, if I wanted to write a book that would be successful, that helped my ego and self-esteem, it wouldn't be about sobriety, Like this is all about me and my most vulnerable. Like guys, listen, I about me and my most vulnerable. Like guys, listen, I haven't been perfect in life. I'm a. I'm a. Here's some, here's some of the struggles that I've gone through. So, knowing, knowing that, like I knew, going into it, that this is something that I want to do for me, it will help somebody and that is all the benefit I need for my soul, I am enriched and it's already helped a lot of people. People have already reached out to me and that makes me feel so good.
Speaker 2:But if I want to do something for my ego or likes or engagement, it wouldn't be something about my sobriety, you know you could do two books one on how to be an influencer, how to get followers, and a shit ton of people would buy it. You have, you know, the proof is there, you have the results. And into fiction. You could write a fiction book about a comedian yeah, murder something, something goofy, and and that's why there's two. When it comes to bestsellers, they have to have the non-fiction, because people want to check out, man. Yeah, they don't want, they don't want reality. Those books will never sell as much as a fiction book. Just like you know, people don't want to be working on their dreams. Instead, they're busy watching the streams, man. They're watching the netflix, the hulu, all that other shit, while they're venting, or, you know, they're on YouTube and they're like, oh man, the McClures Right, fuck them, man, they're pimping out their tits. That's not. We would never do that.
Speaker 3:Right, right right.
Speaker 2:That's not us.
Speaker 3:We deal with so many jealous families like that. We would never do that. Yeah, you would. I mean, first of all, we don't pimp out our kids, we don't export our kids.
Speaker 2:I know, that, but that's a new joke.
Speaker 3:We run a family business where our kids contribute. You know, I told my kids. I said you know, I grew up in rural Georgia. When I grew up, I had to milk cows, build fences, chop wood. Do you want to do that work or do you want to make videos Because you're going to do something, you're going to be a kid, you're going to help out somehow. They're like oh, we want to make videos because it's fun and they're like okay, well, let's do a video about some type of a hag or something, something they enjoy. So our business is all about our kids are part of it and they have a lot of fun. But it's definitely not the business that I was part of when I was a kid.
Speaker 2:it wasn't fun no, but you know what both build character? Yeah, because it requires work. It requires effort. Yeah, building a media presence, doing a ted talk, all that requires work man and it is dude, I I had this fear of rejection and that's what the book and what, if it did work was based on how to overcome that. Because we always focus, dude, I would have never been able and I'm sure you guys got for that first TED Talk like a shit ton of rejections, man.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. There were a lot of people like oh, this is the guy who's racist, right? You know that type of stuff. Here I am talking about my vulnerability and that's what they want to say about it. Of course, of course.
Speaker 2:This is fine, but they didn't see the work Right. Everybody loves't see the work Right. Everybody loves to see the finished product. Everybody loves to see your content, but they didn't see the A, b, c, d Right, even with your TED Talks. They didn't see all those two-minute submissions that you had to do. They didn't see that you had to frigging, memorize a script and if you, if you veer off script a little, which I did at the very end- right right but, but, but they, they cut it, they edited it right yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:But on thanksgiving, the guy's like you know what, uh, we're sub. You know the submission's in, but you know headquarters or whatever. They might not air it because it's not word for word. Oh my gosh, and you know what I'm like. I could care less. That's not going to change who I am as a fan. I know I did one, I know I was up on stage and if only the 20 people or 30 people or whatever saw it, I did something that I never thought I would do one day right, and it was thanksgiving.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna be with my two daughters. You know my family. That's not bad news. Bad news is hey, you have cancer, not oh they're. We're not gonna show a video, right? Everybody's always like wanting the knee jerk.
Speaker 2:Everybody is bent and twisted man and you know what they need to find happiness. And and you're right, because a lot of times we, we are all addicted to something, the, the dopamine, whether it's the cyber hugs, you, you know how many likes, how many comments do I have? That's no different than somebody saying I need a six pack. Yeah, to be myself, it's true, overweight. The reason why you know the obesity is out the window is not because of frigging processed foods. There are processed foods when we were little kids. It's because people aren't comfortable in their skin. Right, processed foods when we were little kids. It's because people aren't comfortable in their skin.
Speaker 3:People don't have the discipline to, they allow themselves to keep going with these things. It's easier.
Speaker 2:I can always just blame Justin's tweets. It's easier.
Speaker 3:It's your tweet, you're kind of like what if it does work? What if it does work is what if it does work? You know, what if it does work is what if the book drives people to the website and I get coaching and more speaking engagements and my SEO is like because so that's what if it does work. But the other thing is that I want to bring up is that I want my kids to know that I'm a sober person. Like when they talk about their dad after I die and I pass away or whatever they're like, my dad was sober and he helped people. That's one of the things that was very instrumental in me deciding to do this.
Speaker 3:I don't want my kids to say, hey, he did some businesses and like he was a YouTuber and like he was great with cameras, he could still tell stories. No, I want them to say my dad was sober and he helped people. That is the most important thing. So that was, that was also some of the driving force, because now my kids bring it up. They're, like you know, daily sober, like what are you talking about today? Or like this and that. So it's a really a good conversation topic and it allows me to communicate with my kids. So it's a really a good conversation topic and it allows me to communicate with my kids, so that that was one of the other things too that was important, because that's your legacy and also every day people realize we're writing our obituary, we're dying every day.
Speaker 3:Man, I'm one day closer yeah.
Speaker 2:And you said it best what, what's more impactful? The person that you are now and becoming, and helping people find sobriety, helping people pick, picking them up when they're at their lowest, being vulnerable or think about it. Oh yeah, yeah, my dad had over 10 million followers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, exactly, I would hate that. I would. I really I really can't stand that, Like I don't care about that at all. I want, I want to be known for a couple of things, and one of them is, um, I was a good dad, I still am a good dad, and that I'm sober and then I help people. That is really, really important. So for me to do that you know that's part of what this project is, so that, so that my kids were like man, that's, that's my dad.
Speaker 2:So daily, sober the book. What do you want the book to evolve? That you coach people on a grander scale on.
Speaker 3:I mean yeah, I mean, you know, like I had this. I had this great discussion with my mentor, damon John, who I have a business with, and Damon's like what do you cause Damon's like I'll help you, like you may buy a hundred copies, or like I'll get you on podcasts, and like whatever. I said no, no, damon. I said no, no, no, I don't want any of that. I want to start this from nothing and I just want to make content. I just want to make my daily videos. I don't need it to be a bestseller, I don't need any of that. The people who need it will find it when they need to find it. I want to cook on the work. I want to do the videos. I want to put in this effort. And you know what I told Damon and I told my wife in a year, my life is going to change and I know it. I started my first video. The book came out on May 19th, so I started my first video. The book came out on May 19th, so I started my first video on May 19th, and May 19th is reflection on impulsivity. Okay, since May 19th today's July 16th I have not missed a day, and I will not miss a day until May 8th, may 18th. That's one year.
Speaker 3:In one year, I know that my life will change for the better. I don't know what's going to happen. I could have a lot of clients, I could get speaking gigs. I could change people's lives. Something and this is the inspiring part for anybody listening is that I know that by doing the work and being positive, my life will change in ways that I don't even know yet. And that's what inspires me tomorrow and the next day to keep going, because something great is going to happen, and I fucking know it. And when it does, I'm going to tell people. I told you because I knew that doing the work is the hardest part, because I knew that doing the work is the hardest part.
Speaker 2:You're a dreamer and your dreams are huge. A lot of times, what stops dreamers is they listen to some fucking idiot that quit on themselves, that possibly never dreamt, right, oh, justin, you're stubborn man. You're like fuck it, fuck it a little bit there's. They're gonna do it because you know they're. Oh, come on, justin, you you've already found success. Why are you gonna do that? Right, let someone else do it, man, but not you. Your vision is greater and your vision is huge because think about it, man, the key to success Zig Ziglar said it is to help others become successful. You're not chasing.
Speaker 3:But success is also selfish, like when I help other people. I feel good, so it's almost selfish.
Speaker 2:That's a good thing, man, because most people are wired win-lose. I want to win. I think everything's scarce. I live in scarcity. Fuck that other person. If he wins, if he breaks, even who cares If he loses? And that's no way to do it. So many people will be like, yeah, why am I going to help that guy? Nobody's helped me. You know how many people are wired that way to say that or I'm not going to help, that he can't do anything for me but, but, but I don't.
Speaker 3:I don't see people, as in my competition I think we can all succeed, meaning there's room for all of us. So if I help you, that makes me feel good. So it's almost selfish to help other people for me, because I'm like man. That made me feel so good. So that's part of what this whole thing is about, too is like you're helping other people and like I do my videos and sometimes I read what I wrote and I'm like people and like I do my videos and sometimes I read what I wrote and I'm like I needed that today. What I wrote I I forgot it, I forgot I wrote it. Man, I needed that today. So even even the small things about this are just great for me.
Speaker 2:Anyhow, but justin, you never thought, that man, that that last day that you're drinking wine, yeah, the date with the Dominican before you turned on ESPN's 30 for 30, you never realized 11 years later.
Speaker 3:No man. That's a good point right there. That is such a powerful point. All I knew in that moment I'm like. This is making me go back. All I knew in that moment is like man, this is making me go back. All I knew in that moment is like man. I don't want to live like this anymore. I'm sleeping on somebody's couch. I had a good job but I've wasted all my money. I don't want to live like this anymore. Let me start tomorrow, now.
Speaker 3:If I knew then that 11 years later, I would have a beautiful wife and kids, I'd be like there's no way. Because when I met my wife, I didn't think I was capable of being a good husband or a dad. I thought I would always cheat on women. I thought I didn't think I could be a dad, much less adopt girls. I didn't bring into this world. And here I am and this is what I tell people, omar, is that don't limit your potential, because be open to what the world can bring you Like. For me, I said you know what? I'm sober. I never thought I could be a dad or a husband, but let's try it. Let's try it Next thing. You know it's, it's, it's been the greatest thing I am as a dad and a husband, and that's what I didn't think I could even be 11 years ago. And so here I am.
Speaker 3:So the point there is, I think, is that when people they try to pretend to know what they don't know, I've always been like I don't know man. I'm a country guy from Georgia. I've lived everywhere I dated outside of my race. There are so many people where I'm from who are living in the same town, who are bigots, who probably hate Black people, because growing up in the rural South it's's like you don't really embrace a lot of people. But here I am, traveled and in experience I said, okay, let me experience the world for myself. And that's when I said you know what I want to date outside of my race. I don't believe in all this religious dogma. What do I feel about life? Whereas most people adopt maybe what's been given to them from their parents or their culture or where they live, I tried to think for myself.
Speaker 2:Justin, you're more Christian than those who go to church every day because they don't understand the word. Christian means to be more Christ-like.
Speaker 3:Right, I agree with you and that's why probably I don't believe in a lot of it, because most Christians I'm around I'm like I don't want to be any part of who you are. Even a lot of it because most Christians I'm around.
Speaker 2:I'm like I don't want to be any part of who you are, but you have to laugh because there's all these memes and they act like he'd be like some machine gun. He'd have a machine gun, he'd be like hardcore capitalists. I'm not helping anybody. That you know. Don't help out the poor. I don't help out the sick, and it's like well, I, you know, don't help out the poor, I don't help out the sick, and it's like well, I think you have it twisted compared to what's written about it, right, right right, I agree.
Speaker 2:That is a good point. So, Justin, where?
Speaker 3:do we get the book? Well, if you go to dailysobercoach, that's the website, dailysobercoach, that's where I have my coaching and the book is there. But, omar, some people, if they don't want to buy it or they can't afford it, go to my Instagram. I do the lessons for free every day. If you go to my website, I have the blogs free every day. So today, if you go, whatever's in the book is going to be on the website for free, so I give it all away. It's on Instagram, it's on YouTube Shorts, it's on my website. If you want to support and buy the book, you can get it on Amazon. But, omar, like I said, I'm trying to help people, so I give it away for free. With that attitude, if it's good, it's good, it will be successful. If it's good, I don't need to try to charge a lot of money or be exclusive about it. If it's good, it's good, people will want it.
Speaker 2:Well, it's good because it's changing. Think about it, man. You've people that have fallen with their addiction, because you know it's not linear. A lot of people fall off the wagon, a lot of people relapse, a lot of people quit on themselves because they made a mistake by having that drink. Yeah, I talk about that because you had bigger, bigger goals, you had bigger aspirations. You crushed that inner voice that says have another drink.
Speaker 3:Well, the whole aspiration, the whole aspiration was to be happy and I think it comes down to a simple thing is that we have one life to live. And I just decided I want to live a happy life, man, I want to live a life of no stress and happy, and not looking over my shoulder or having to make amends. Or I said how do I get that life? And I said to myself I think part of that life for you, Justin, is not drinking. So that basically comes down to that. Somebody the other night I was with they had a drink and they they like can I drink around you? And I'm like you've had one drink in an hour. If I could drink like you, I would still be drinking. You know what I mean, so I know.
Speaker 2:So for me, I decided for my life and to be happy drinking didn't fit into it, because I want to live a happy life and you changed your legacy. You don't want to, you don't want. You didn't want to be a comedian. No, I never loved it.
Speaker 3:I love that. People made me feel better through laughter I that's what I loved so you don't even miss that no, no, sometimes I do.
Speaker 3:I would love to do it again, but I mean because I love the storytelling I love, I love, you know, making people feel better. But now I would do it for different reasons. You know, when I was a comedian I was kind of more irreverent and I wanted to be a good looking guy on stage and, like I wanted women to want me, I did it. I didn't do it for the right reasons. Now I would do it for the right reasons of looking silly and vulnerable and corny and all these things that people would say man, that's a funny guy. I like that guy Not that. Oh, this guy thinks he's better than us I know it's you.
Speaker 2:It's going to be tough to get four billion youtube views and likes when it comes to daily sober, because I probably I might get a thousand a day, maybe a thousand, but think about that man, that you are in a room, an AA room, full of a thousand people every day. That's true.
Speaker 3:That's a good point To get that message. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is a good point. That is way more powerful than all the YouTube videos that you had before. Yeah, it's great because, yes, you have a family and it's amazing. But there's a lot of people that can't have a family because they feel they're not worthy. Right, you know they can't kick this addiction, or or you know they they hit a vein or they do what they smoke, crack or they do whatever because they're not worthy, they don't feel like it.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:At least hey would, because they're not worthy, they don't feel like it, yeah, so at least hey, you're expanding their vision because if they do quit, they, they can have that, they can have the wife, they can have the three children. Right, they can live in prosperity. They can be happy because, right, every, sometimes, all all this, yeah, there's the self-h, but sometimes they feel like maybe I'll be happy if I do another shot, right.
Speaker 3:I'm trying to, you know. Ultimately, I want to give people hope. So the hope is that there's nothing special about me, but there's something special about what I did. But anybody can do it. I didn't become smarter, I just took my energy from here and I put it here. That's all I did. But anybody can do it. I didn't become smarter, I just took my energy from here and I put it here. That's all I did. I'm the same guy as 12 years ago. I, instead of putting my energy here, I put it here, and better things happen on this side than on that side. That's all you get. That's all I got to do.
Speaker 2:You're the visionary. Where do you see the daily sober coach five years from now?
Speaker 3:Oh man, I see it as a thriving business where I probably have people working for me who I train to coach other people. I've probably written another book, I do a lot of speaking engagements and I just have a really rich life of the people respect what I've done in sobriety and the man that I am, and that every day I wake up and I feel joy because one day I decided let's start with a book.
Speaker 2:Daily Sober. You know the TED Talks are great, the 10 billion views are great, the followers are great. But you know what's even better? That you're living your life in service. You're living in life of helping people. Man, there's nothing better than knowing that you did change people's lives. Man, either from suicide, divorce, because addiction, man, it, it, it, it kills. It kills the American dream, it kills everybody.
Speaker 3:You know, today, with social media, you hear about all the time all the things, all the lives that are taken, famous people, who, who give up, and you know that that could have been me, that could be other people, so part of my effort is, just like man, I have a little something here that might be able to help you. It's only twenty nine dollars or it's free. On my Instagram, watch it every day. It might give you that little bit of hope that you need to, to plant the seed, just like I needed it years ago of both worlds for sure.
Speaker 2:Watch the content for free. Yes, buy the book, read the book, implement it, and we all know someone that says they don't need the book. But damn, they really do for sure. For sure, because you know, sometimes they that, that that big, know that vice. We think we have complete control and our lives are out of control because the vice owns us.
Speaker 2:Yeah you're right, justin. What would you tell the person that's out of control? That they've given up all hope of sobriety? They've tried the meetings, they've tried NA, they've tried AA, they've tried sponsors, but relapse after relapse and yeah, well, justin's successful. Other people are successful. Sobriety is not for me. What?
Speaker 3:would you tell that person. I would tell them what I told myself is that, uh, to be more um, to be very pragmatic about it is basically, you know, I was very binary. I took a piece of paper and on the right side of the paper I I thought I wrote a list of things that I could achieve if I was healthy and sober. On thehand side I wrote how I felt now and what addiction has taken from me. And so once I wrote it down, it was so easy for me to say I want to be more like this side where I'm healthy and I'm happy. So I would tell somebody to write a list of the life that they want to be and who they want to be, of the life that they want to be and who they want to be. And don't think they have to have it tomorrow, but try to start. And if tomorrow you want to stop drinking but you start again the next day, who cares? Who cares how many times you relapse? The more you care about wanting to change, the more you will change, because you'll start feeling guilty about the things you're doing. If you want to stop eating cake and you, oh, I want to have a piece of cake. Today I had a piece of cake. Now I feel guilty about it. Well, tomorrow you may not More days in a row of that, and you'll want it less and less and less, because I think a lot of people try to stop something abruptly. They're like I'm going to stop drinking, I'm going to stop doing this.
Speaker 3:My whole approach is well, what is the motivation? Once you write down on a piece of paper that you want a family or you want a better job or you want better health, then you know what you're working towards. Then you have motivation. Until you have motivation, you don't know why you're quitting. So for me, once I knew what I had motivation, that I wanted to be happy, and I knew that alcohol and drugs didn't contribute to it. I knew that I would never be happy by continuing to do these things. So I would tell somebody make a list of what addiction or what your life is taking from you and where do you want to be. How do you think you can get there? Try to make those steps every day. If you fail or you relapse, who cares? Try again the next day. The more you think about it, the more guilty you will feel when you fall back on the other side very powerful words there, justin.
Speaker 2:That's what I did. So, yeah, I know, and you did, and you're doing. I still, I still doing it. You're doing it every day. Brother, you're an inspiration. Thank you To Kelly.
Speaker 3:My wife is on me, oh, okay.
Speaker 2:And you're an inspiration to your family man, your three beautiful children.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm definitely a dad first, though You're a dad first and hey, congratulations on that partnership with with them and John, thank you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe I'll come back on next time and talk about that, because that's a whole other thing, Like that's a whole other story about how we we, we created such a mate, we have such amazing rapport.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dude, have have your publicist, we'll. We'll speak in a couple months. We'll speak a couple months when you're killing it on that aspect and you have more people on the daily sober, you and people they're not like, oh, it's the mcclure family, right, and they're like man, that's the daily sober coach, exactly all, righty brother, bless you for your time. Thank you, brother. You are a rock star man and and it's not the views, it's what you're doing all right, I appreciate it, man.
Speaker 3:I really appreciate that you have a great positive presence about you.
Speaker 1:I was trapped inside that prison, oh, for a long time. To make it happen, you gotta take action. Just imagine what if it did work.