"The Casey Code" Why Everythng Changes Today

What if quitting drinking was never the goal?

The real goal has always been building a life so meaningful, disciplined, and fulfilling that alcohol simply no longer belongs in it.

The Casey Code is a philosophy built on truth, ownership, and freedom—and it will become the foundation of every conversation moving forward.

You've got questions? 'Casey on Tap' has the answers. Kind of.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:08

What's up, everybody? It is incredible to be back. My name is Casey. This is Casey on Tap. Man, have I missed this. And thank you so much, all of you. Thank you so much for the outpouring of support and emails and messages through the show. Just soul moving. So thank you. My gratitude knows no bounds when it comes to how you maybe feel. All right. So thank you for that. Definitely needed the break. Not because I was burnt out, not because I didn't have anything to say. And by the way, this is um, you know, I'm gonna lead into something very exciting here. This is there's a there's a there's been a shift, a seismic shift in something that I've been working on now for a couple of months and incredibly excited to announce it. So just stay tuned and I'm gonna get there. But needed the break as life obviously slowed me down to a complete halt, just got knocked completely on my face, completely it had the air knocked out of me. Clubberlang, my nine and a half-year-old uh best friend, Kane Corso, decided to say goodbye to him. And, you know, that was just we've all experienced grief and loss and things, and it's all very specific. And the the depth of your grief reflects only or echoes only the intensity of what you cared and loved, right? So that's the neat thing. The neat thing is when something really puts you on the brink, okay, it's horrific. But the cool thing is, after reflection and time, it really exemplifies and and reminds you of the incredible love that was shared. And he meant so much to me on on many levels, and we'll discuss that. But that was easily not my divorce, not my any, you know, relatives, my grandparents. I mean, are those incredibly painful? Yes. What I'm saying is this for me specifically, and what it meant in my life the last 10 years was easily just the most intense blow to who I was at the time. And as always, when a storm like that comes in for all of us, it's not whether the storm will pass, it's who will be when it does. Who are we when the light creeps in again? Because things like that can paralyze, they can paralyze people and they never recover. Or can find the path of reflection, the path of what does it all mean? Okay. So another thing that passed, pretty big deal, but again, because it was in the midst of all this, my 10-year sobriety anniversary was January 13th. So I'm, you know, 10 and a half years sober, which is incredible think, honestly. And I also had a pretty big birthday. Okay. So I turned 50 years old, which everybody will at some point. Those that haven't, you'll see, but those that have, I wonder if it psychologically messed with you the way it did me. But it really messed with me more than I anticipated. It sounded weird. I feel like I'm 18. You know, one was incredibly heartbreaking, and one was amazingly humbling, and one was kind of just psychologically altering, and I'm grateful for all of them, but they all happened in the last six months and they changed me. And by change, what I mean is were forced me to look at them deeply, deeply and adjust accordingly. Okay. So people would ask me, Are you thinking about the next podcast? When are you gonna do the next podcast, the next project? And and I just didn't have anything to say because I had this, I just had something deeper in mind. I walk Penitentiary Glen, which is the most uh this amazing park trail over in Brooklyn. And it's to me per personally, it's uh it's where I go to frankly to to be with God, to talk directly to God. Now I go to church too, but I'm just saying there's a spiritual element to it for me personally. I mean, sometimes it's 30 minutes, sometimes it's hours, just thinking, reflecting, purpose, what matters, what what's happening, and why? Realize how much energy you've been investing in things that in all of a sudden it was just completely off the priority list. We all talk about, you know, everyone thinks, hey, we're all gonna die, and everyone knows that, you know, mortality is real and yada yada yada. But when Clubber passed, it would in I turned 50, it was the first time I actually really felt it. None of us live like we're the cliche said, like we're dying tomorrow. I mean, we don't, right? Come on. But boy, did it feel real. It just felt more fragile than ever. Okay. And then you cross 10 years sober and you can't, you just can't help but look back on everything. And that's exactly what I did. But not just the 10 years. I my whole life. There's a distinct divide in my life. And there's a before when I was just a total clown with no principles, no emotional structure or ability to deal with life. And there was arrogance and and pride and ego, but nothing underneath the house of cards and an arrogance. And it was when I was younger and then my marriage and divorce. I had nothing. I didn't have any found, I had no foundation, I had no practice, I had nothing. Everything was shattered. My ego, everything. It was just a mess. I made my way to a path where I didn't live the rest of my life resenting and being angry at her. I started walking a path of, oh, how do I start to become more? How do I help others, not just serve myself? Victories, the failures, the mistakes, the people who believed in me, the people I let down, everything, all of it is what I reflected on. And one question kept coming back just over and over and over and over is what does it mean? But what am I supposed to do with it? I just feel what am I supposed to do with this incredible journey? Going from absolutely broken nothing to the largest multi-unit franchise owner in the world for title boxing club franchises in Columbus and Cleveland, over $15 million in sales combined, something crazy like that, and just countless people that I've interacted with and been a part of their lives being invited to schools to talk to the youth. I started a podcast. And by the way, we're in 62 countries now. I mean, look at this Japan, Hong Kong, Vietnam, Australia, thousands of downloads and listeners all over the world have published a children's book. I know I'm not Captain America with fitness, and I'm certainly not Muhammad Ali's a boxer, but yet everyone's, it was like you could just see it. Everybody was drawn to Casey. And it was built on something. And this podcast, you know, is it you know my incredible jokes? Is it my what certainly isn't, you know, the whatever is on my face and my in this toupee or whatever this is. Like there was something, I can't do much on this planet, but somehow, some way through it all, I was making people feel better. That's my gift. My gift is the more selfless I became, I realized that people were drawn to my story and drawn to my ability to easily talk about it, easily relate. And the more that I was striving for something, just something to help, something for purpose, something to give, it seemed like everything would open up. And when I would fall back on selfishness and self-centered in me, things would kind of get clunky. All the emails, the messages, the phone calls for years. I have had so many of you, every make and model you can imagine, reaching out to a stranger, people I've never met, trusted me with some of the most personal, most hard-hitting questions imaginable. Sometimes I'd open my email or my messages and think, there's this person has never told another human being this. What an honor, what a blessing. But how and why was it happening? Well, now I can see people coming from 30 feet away. I can tell when they're eyeballing me, when they're kind of making it clear. I know when someone wants to approach me. I'm not kidding. If I'm in a room full of 50 people, I know when someone wants to ask me about drinking. I have responded to every single Facebook message, Instagram, TikTok. I noticed something since I've been back, something that I'd missed all these years. I always thought it was just about drinking. They thought they were asking about alcohol. How did you quit? When did you know? What got you through the weekends? How did you go to Fourth of July parties? How did you handle your girlfriend or boyfriend making fun of you? What did your friends think? What if I fail? What if I quit and start again? What if I lose everyone? Those are questions, but they really weren't the questions. They were simply different words for people to ask. Can I trust myself again? Can I become the person that I know I'm capable of becoming? There was a time in my life when I was, I was young and carefree, and I can remember that feeling. I can remember it. And I had hope and I had joy. Can I get that again? Can my life feel different? Can I be free? That's what they were asking. So I sat with it, realized something, and it stopped me right in my tracks. They were asking me how to start living again. I have to find a different way. You know, I've answered honestly the best I could the last decade or so. So what changed? You see, people are afraid of change because they they think it's just overwhelming. Change happens instantaneously. Change happens in a decision in a moment. Don't get that confused. Some people can have a glass of wine and then never think about it again. Those are the outliers. The vast majority of people that drink have a very complicated relationship with drinking. They also know how many people are suffering in silence. This is about those people. You know who you are deep down. Alcohol has taken way more than it's given. And perhaps depending if you're in your 40s or 50s, if we're being honest, it's taking so much more now than it did. See, that's the that's the ultimate trick. That's the that's the old Pied Piper there, right? The devil, where it's like, no, you're fine, you're fine, you're fine. Well, we'll make it up down the road. It you you you can't work it off the way you used to. You can't shake it off the way you used to. You look in the mirror and it you your body is starting to look different. It's not metabolizing the same. Your memory is not the same. It's making you uncomfortable and irritable. It's okay. Just stay with me. Don't shut down. Think about all the promises the people have made of themselves and broken them. The people who have stared at the ceiling at three o'clock in the morning and whispered, Oh my God. I started writing down everything sobriety taught me. No drinking tips, no recovery slogans, lessons, patterns, truths that kept showing up for me over and over. I just kept writing in my notebook failures, conversations I've had, watching people succeed, watching people struggle page after page, idea after idea, and a pattern began to emerge. I wasn't writing random thoughts anymore. I was writing principles. I was drilling them down to principles. Okay. Listen, there are doctors and there are counselors and there's rehab and there's AA. I love all of it, everything, whatever it takes for you. But there's clearly a major, major segment of people who felt incredibly comfortable coming to me as opposed to going to those other places first. Do I have all my goofiness figured out? Do I struggle with relationships? Do I of course, but man, do I have a foundation? And man, do I have principles? I have core values. I have non-negotiables. It's a pretty awesome feeling to know that you stand for something in this life, that people look to you for, for balance, for peace, for guidance. It's an awesome feeling. I realized I had accidentally written a code, how I did it. Not a list, not a recovery program, not a promise to snap my finger. I I had some principles, a code, you know, they quietly guided the most important decisions of my life. I had never fallen back on drinking. I've had massively, massively triggering events that in the past, of course I'd fall back to drinking. I haven't come close. For the first time I had a name, the Casey Code, and now have fine-tuned a way to get the opportunity for anybody and everybody that wants to know how I did it. Now they can have it. It's about direction. The people who find freedom. You can look right here at the greatest example. They're not the smartest, they're not the strongest, they're not the most talented. Usually the people who have a few simple, non-negotiable principles. And that's it. It's a process. Process, process, stack wins, and then you have days, and then you have weeks, and then you have months, and you've stacked wins. Okay. Not rules, principle, not guilt, freedom. Not becoming somebody else, finally becoming yourself. My entire life changed because of that one moment, that one decision. One decision. Share the story before. It was at one of my best friend's funerals. He died of drinking and drugs, Doug Dorley. I was in the church. I drank whiskey all night. I was in the church. I was looking at his casket. I was sick from drinking the night before. And then I was buzzed because I had to chug whiskey before going in. And I said, I'm done. Not, I hope. Not. We should probably slow down. The definition of the word decision means to cut off. To cut off all other choices. Period. You make decisions all day long, whether you even know it or not. We make decisive choices all the time. Except for some reason when it comes to alcohol, right? We negotiate. We always leave the door cracked. Maybe someday, maybe after vacation, maybe after football season. That's not a decision. That's a delay. That's a tactic. Everything comes after that the healing, the habits, the relationships, the freedom. But first, you have to decide. You have to decide completely. I mean, that's it. The battle, the energy. I can think about it. My God, I can think about it. I think about that. I mean, when you're just stuck in that, you know, when you're just waste, you're wasted and you know it. And then someone you love says something to you, and you just attack and you want them to go away. But the good, the good inside you, the light doesn't want to go away, but the darkness does. And it just, you just start to, your mind starts to just absolutely put you in a cage, right? Let's get your energy to stop going to the debating and going towards the building. If you're listening to this still and you're thinking, man, I gotta do this. First of all, thank you for being here. I know how much courage it takes in spite of all the laughter and the yuck-yuck-yuck and all this nonsense. You know, everybody drinks and no, no, they don't. They don't, not everybody wants to. I know how much courage it takes to even press play. I know how triggering it is. I know how triggering it is. And I and I applaud you and I appreciate you for feeling safe for staying here with me. It's not easy. This is not, especially maybe you're on the verge of a divorce. Maybe you're on the verge of a relationship crumbling. You know, if you know you've hurt somebody badly, I mean continuously, there's still hope. If you're still, if you're looking at this into this, I'm telling you, there's still hope. So again, thank you for still hanging in there. Maybe nobody in your life knows you're struggling mentally. Okay. Maybe everybody knows, but I promise you everybody sees things you don't think they see. Perhaps you've actually tried to quit. It's different now. You're at a crossroads now. If I'm in my 20s and 30s, I'm I'm I'm quitting. But I mean, if you're 40s and 50s, you're at a real, real crossroads. That's all I need. That's all I need is the awareness, okay? And just keep walking with me. You don't have to have the worst story in the room, deserve a better life. You don't have to have, you don't have to drink a gallon of vodka a day. No, that's not what it is not about that. You don't have to lose everything. Let me repeat that. You don't, you can get off the elevator. You don't have to hit rock bottom. You don't have to get the DUI. You don't have to be humiliated with a mugshot or watching yourself on YouTube uh with a uh police body cam, which by the way, if you're out there still drinking and driving in this day and age, you know, with Uber and everything. I mean, I I understand why you are, because your brain's not working. You're gonna get it, you're gonna you're gonna get pinched. So before you make fun of everybody else on YouTube and before you make fun of the of the uh mugshots, just be ready for your own, okay? You don't have to lose your marriage. You don't have to lose your job. You don't have to wake up in a hospital bed. You don't have to earn your way into recovery. You don't have to ruin, you don't have to ruin someone else's life. If alcohol is stealing an ounce of your peace, if alcohol is stealing an ounce of your well-being, your thoughts, your focus, how much time you you think about getting that next drink. Okay, if it's stealing your confidence, anything, stealing your presence, that's enough. If it's stealing your relationship, enough. Come on, man, look at it. Look at what it's taken from you. Please look and answer the question. Look how much it's taking from you. If you could ask your kids, would you rather have me drink more or less right now? What do you think they'd say? I mean, do you think it's cool to drink from your kids? I mean, do you think it's they're not noticing? Do you think you're just being loose and relaxed? And you wonder why your kids are drinking. Let me guess. You tell your kids not to drink and drive, you don't do that. And and you do? You don't think they know? You want your kids to respect you? Show them, be the example. Nobody gets to decide where your line is except you. Once alcohol begins losing its grip, life starts asking you bigger questions. Well, now what? What do I want to become? How do I rebuild trust? How do we how do I repair relationships? How do I forgive myself? How do I become someone who keeps my word? Because alcohol and truth, they don't mix. You know that. They don't mix. They don't mix. How many coworkers or people do you again, lying to yourself? You innocently talk to, text, snap that you know your spouse would be brokenhearted than you. Come on, be honest. There is no truth with alcohol. There is no truth. Which brings me to something many of you have been asking me for for years coaching. Do you offer some sort of platform to coach? Well, I didn't until now, and it's coming very soon. We've been working on it, building it, grinding it, shaping it, molding it. And the Casey code is something that's much bigger than just the podcast. Okay. It's going to be one-on-one coaching, small group coaching, practical tools, a roadmap, a framework. So this is the platform that I've created. How valuable it is to have somebody walking beside you who's already been down that road. It's a resource that I wish I had 10 years ago. Something honest, practical. Your freedom is possible. You'll never ever be able to reach true freedom, true liberation, and your true potential with alcohol in your life. Finally, somewhere that you can get dedicated one-on-one time with me, get my code, get my blueprint, and your path to freedom. All right. So remember, life, unbelievably fragile. If you're 50 years old right now, 40 years old, this is something that you're going to be 60 and 70 like this, hopefully. And I mean, you don't want to wake up 60 years old under the bottle. We're not going to wait. You're not going to wait till January. We're not going to wait for another negotiation. You're not going to wait for an imaginary rock bottom. All right. You're going to start asking me a different question. What would my life become? The greatest gift sobriety ever gave me the opportunity to become the man that I am capable and that I'm supposed to be. My gift, right? My light is being extinguished. And so is yours. If I can do it, of course you can do it. Thank you for trusting me. Thank you for being here. Thank you for walking this journey with me. This is the beginning of something I've been dreaming about for a long time. And I'm incredibly grateful you're here for it. So welcome, everybody, to the new era, the Casey Code, the coaching platform, coming very soon. All right. So until next time, you can find me, Casey Wondell, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook. You can write the show at questions at the casey on tap.com. So until next time, my friends, feel good. Get excited. Okay. We're ready. Take care. God bless. Peace and love. Talk soon. Bye bye.