Our Battle For Recovery

Welcome, soul healers, to the Heart-Led Soul-Fed Podcast. I'm psychic medium and old soul Christine J Gold. This is a safe space to explore all things mystical and magical, embodying practical spirituality and truly reclaiming who we are at a soul level. Living this lifetime, heart-led and soul-fed. Subscribe on your favorite way to podcast and let the healing begin. Hello everyone, welcome, welcome, and happy 2025! It has been a minute, like I've said before, in regards to our sixth season. Can't believe It's been 6 years already, and it's been a very long time since I've had a guest, and I'm super excited, uh, to have our next guest on. And you know what? I, I really believe, uh, in, in 2025. Why? Because I'm seeing more and more people being sober curious, going into recovery, healing at all levels. So this makes me super excited, and my guest Jay Barnard. He is the visionary for Alberta's Battle for Recovery and the Empower to Recover Foundation. And really, it's all about giving hope because that's what we really need is hope dealing with mental health and addiction issues. And these events are Canada-wide. They are about bringing people together to hear real stories and solutions from those who have been with it. And Jay is the CEO and fundraiser and program director and, and, and, and many, many, many things. I'll let him speak on that as well. He's the founder of Hype Recovery, Empower to Recover Foundation, motivational speaker, celebrity chef, program developer, and fundraiser. And hey guys, if you're here live, let me know. If you're on the replay, let me know. Drop a comment below, tag some people, share this out because If there's no unity, guess what? There's no community. And we at Soul Healers Community, that's what we believe in. That's what I believe in for everyone. We are not meant to travel, uh, and be in this world alone. That is an old program, a scarcity mindset, and all based in fear. So what we're about is raising the collective. So I'm just going to bring Jay on, and please, you know, tune in, uh, because we're going to be giving some tickets away to the event in Calgary. It is March 8th at the Calgary Ramada Downtown. All right, let's welcome Jay. Hi Jay, how are you?

Living the dream. How about yourself?

Very well. Thanks for coming on.

You know, I'm always, I'm always interested when people, uh, introduce me, because I mean, you gotta like, you know, from a, from a— it's just sometimes, um, I guess overwhelming to hear of the things that a human being does, especially when it's yourself. Never mind when you're actually like sharing about somebody else, but when you actually hear somebody else say stuff about you, it's like, oh boy. Um, so it's one of those things, uh, I still struggle. I mean, next Tuesday, 17 years in recovery, and, uh I still struggle with, with that. It's kind of like, I don't know, I don't know what it is. But thank you so much.

Yeah, imposter syndrome, maybe.

I don't know. It's just one of those things where it's like, you come to a place in your, in your life where it's just like, yeah, I had a calling. That's what it was. You know what I mean? And, and then February 11, 2008, when I, when I got into recovery, You know, if you would ask me 17 years ago if I'd be sitting here talking to you about, you know, what life is like today and what life was like, that, that's not even— that wouldn't even be there, you know what I mean? Like, that's not even the truth. There was two, two suicide attempts, you know, back before, uh, I got into recovery, and there's been two suicide attempts in recovery. Uh, so, you know, there's a story about recovery and there's a story about before recovery. And for me, 2020 Thriving, I like to call it not 2025. It's called 2020 Thriving. And, you know, the, the fact of the matter is, is that some of us that have long-term recovery, we need to share about the struggles that we really go through, because what I'm finding working with people is that a lot of people in long-term recovery are either overdosing or taking their lives because they're going back out. And, um, I don't know if it's a pride thing, an ego thing. I don't, I don't know. Um, but you know, all I can do is look at, you know, why I was doing what I was doing and share about that. So, um, you're absolutely correct. Calgary, March 8th. Um, that's exciting. You're going to be speaking. Yay to that one.

Um, I am. I almost forgot. How could I forget? No, sir.

Well, now it's time to talk about you. Let's get off of me. Um, so yeah, the— you're going to be speaking there, that's exciting. Um, you're right, I'm, I'm the executive director of the Empowered to Recover Foundation. Um, back in 2015, I, I did a TEDx talk. I, I just been really, like, really fortunate with the, the amount of opportunity, um, that has been presented to me in recovery, and it's really been just, uh, never stopping and, uh, really truly never giving up. And, um, you know, I, in early recovery, I used to always say, living the dream, never giving up. And that's kind of just how I, how I've always lived. And, and, you know, people will say, well, what's the dream? I'm like, I'm living it, you know. And, and, and that's, you know, when I say recovery is the best drug out there, it truly is. Um, and You know, when I did that—

how do you get there? Like, if someone's listening to you and they're you 17 years ago, how does someone— how do you get there? How do you even—

well, I mean, uh, I mean, me, for me, you know, I was up on 5 possessions for the purpose of trafficking cocaine. Um, you know, I didn't have anything in the bank account. My family barely was holding on. Um, I had no relationships. I couldn't hold a relationship. I didn't have a relationship with myself. I didn't like myself. I disliked myself. I manipulated, I lied, I cheated, I stole. I used every female I ever came in contact with because that's what I knew. I wouldn't allow them in because I was too scared. I had too much fear— false evidence appearing real. And, uh, you know, I think, I think a lot of people have watched that I, I got my father back in my life now, which was I saw that.

Congratulations. That's amazing.

14 years in my recovery, I never talked to my father. And, you know, it was a rocky road with my father and I throughout my life. And, you know, you come to a place of peace, you got no other choice but to come to a place of peace, you know. And, and so my name was Jay Cory. I was born Jay Cory. And around 9 or 10 years old, I had a name change. So identity crisis— who am I? What am I? Where am I going? Back in the '80s, divorce was a big taboo thing, so you couldn't talk about it. People looked at you differently. I got bullied. I got name-called fat, you're ugly, Jay is gay, all these things, you know. And you see a lot of that going on today. And, you know, because I have a beautiful young daughter, Destiny, 9 years old, who's gonna be 10. And, uh, you see it in schools today, you know, like it's just, you know, social media has kind of done that. They've made the bullies But, you know, I was getting it back then, and that's really what dictated what went on in my life. And, you know, for me, I had to figure out how to escape quick. And to be completely honest with you, the first thing I found was porn. You know, after food, porn came. So a lot of folks don't want to talk about porn and sex and all that other stuff, but it's readily available and it's got a lot of people by the, by the nuts, let's say.

But it's a hypnosis. It's a gateway. They always talk about weed. Need as being the gateway. There are so many ways.

Well, and that's what's exciting, or exciting about what we're doing, because that's why we say All Pathways of Recovery, because there's so many different people recovering from so many different things. And I, I'm one of those individuals. Drugs and alcohol weren't the problem. The porn wasn't the problem. The food wasn't the problem. The overworking wasn't the problem. I'm the problem. And if I can get to me then I can actually start working on— that's why it's like, you know, impossible, I'm possible, right? Nothing's impossible, I'm possible. That's, that's, that's what it's all about, right? And, and, and that's— and, and, and, you know, hitting the food once the divorce hit, ballooned, got fat, only wore sweats, got name-called. That stopped working. I used to force myself to puke because I'd eat, eat, eat, puke, right? And then porn, got lost in that. Obviously every relationship after that was a mess because what did I know? I just saw what I saw and did what I tried to do. And, and, and you get kind of lost inside that world. It's, it's ridiculous, really. And, and, uh, and then around 11 or 12, that's when I found my first drink. And that's when, uh That's when I, you know, I already at that point I should have known I had a problem because when you take a Mickey and you pound half of it back in one shot, I mean, there's something going on there. It wasn't let's just sniff the bottle, see what that is, let's all take a look at this, oh, let's go through the liquor cabinet of my grandfather's liquor cabinet and see what he has. It was nothing, that was just grab slam. Um, and that's just straight up, it's not why the addiction, it's why the pain. I had so much pain that it was just boom. Oh no. And then I was like, I could breathe. I was just like, oh my God, this feels so good. I don't have to do this. Like, I don't have to be Jay Corey, I don't have to be Jay Barnard, I don't have to be anybody. I can just pretend to be somebody that I'm not. I can put all these masks on. I can just lie and manipulate. And then all of a sudden the drug scene came. And then so now I'm rolling with the booze and with the drugs. And my uncle was the president of the Hells Angels, so I Things just went sideways. And, and so then all of a sudden I became a drug dealer. And so when I wasn't popular, all of a sudden I became very popular. And all of a sudden I had money all the time. Then all of a sudden I had this all the time and had that all the time, and I did this all the time and I did that all the time. First one at the party, last one out, loudest, uh, you know, all these. And it was 100%. I was just I didn't like Jay, man. I didn't love Jay. I didn't know how to love Jay. You know, God bless my mom. My mom stuck right beside me through thick and thin. And, you know, Shelley McBride, she's— she is one amazing soul. And to this day, you know, my mother supports me and loves me. Her husband Rick as well, her third husband Rick, um, you know, they've really— you know, this past year, they've really helped me out. And you know, that's, that's family. And you know, my mom was right beside me through it all. She saw all the jail stints. She came to the jail. She went into the canteen. I'd go weeks missing. She'd wonder where I was, you know, like, so she went through it all. And you know, for her to be on the other side of this and still love her son as much as she does is a real testament to what family and mothers are. And I can understand that today because I'm a father. So But, you know, 2005, I was really at the end of my rope. And I was 25 years old. And at that point, I, you know, I had some success in my life. You know, I always loved cooking and food was my outlet. And that came from my grandma. I was always really intrigued at like how you can make something from nothing. You know what I mean? You could take this, this cucumber and make these sexy pickles. Like, how does that happen? You know, I was like, how does that happen? And, and, but that's life though, because we are really nothing. We create what we want to create, right? So, so cooking was like a real outlet for, for me. And, and, uh, so I always cooked in the kitchens, and, um, so I was always doing that stuff and But I just, uh, you know, I was 3-time, 3-time Sales Guy of the Year for, for a company called DS Max. So, you know, obviously I was really good at sales because I was a drug dealer. So for me, uh, you know, on the street selling stuff wasn't anything that wasn't, you know, nothing I couldn't handle. But I came to a point where it just— I just didn't love myself anymore. I didn't think my family loved me. I had nobody around me. I I started isolating. I got busted driving under suspension for the 5th time. I, I just, I couldn't, I couldn't wake up without getting high. I couldn't wake up with getting, not having a drink. I couldn't, yeah, I couldn't. And I was 25 years old, and I made a conscious decision to take my life. Um, well, it was a Thursday that I wanted to take my life. And this girl at the bar that I was going to had these green pills, and she kept saying, do you want these pills? Do you want these pills? Like, I— and I was a guy that never took— I didn't like that high. I was the cocaine, crack guy. That's what I liked. Um, but, um, so anyways, I, I made the decision on the Tuesday, and Wednesday I had the best sleep of my life. And, uh, basically, when you've made that decision to take your life, it's kind of like you've come to terms with, you know what, I'm, I'm okay with this. And, and that Wednesday was like one of the lightest days of my life. Like, I had nothing bothering me, nothing burning me, nothing, nothing. And so the Thursday I went and saw her, and I got 13 of those green pills, and I snorted one and, and took, took the rest. And the girl that I was seeing that had left because I'd become very violent as well, so The drugs and alcohol really brought out this angry guy. Mm-hmm. And she left. She wasn't with me for about 3 weeks, 4 weeks. I don't know where she showed up at midnight that night and found me in a pile of black puke, barely breathing. Obviously, I got rushed to the hospital and they, they, they charcoaled me and brought me back to life. And, you know, one of the worst worst feelings in the life— in life is coming back to life when you've already made that decision not to be alive. And, uh, I was so full of fear sitting in that hospital because I was like, I can't even kill myself right. Like, I can't— like, you know, I'm such a failure at life. This is where you got yourself. You don't have a license, you've been driving under suspension, you have all this, all this stuff going on. And you can't even kill yourself right, you know what I mean? Like, and, uh, 3 days later I go to the hospital and I got an ounce of crack and a 60-ouncer of rye, and I tried hanging myself for 24 hours in the basement of her house. And every time I went to go put my head in the noose, I couldn't draw. I just wouldn't draw. And I ended up turning myself into the Barrie police, um, on those possession— or on that driving under suspension 5 times. And I was a mess and the court office yelling, put me in jail. They're like, do you know what you're doing? Anyways, I got a year in the Penetang Penitentiary, uh, which saved my life. Um, but it didn't stop there, you know. I was 25, got out of there, came back to Kenora and just continued the vicious cycle. It's what I knew. It's, it's just what I knew.

Exactly.

I didn't know how to get out of it. I didn't want to get out of it. I didn't feel I should get out of it. I You know, people would ask if I had a problem. I'd say, "No, I don't have a problem." You know, meantime I'm hiding everywhere doing lines of cocaine and, you know, and January 7th, 2008 was the last day I had a drink. That's when I got busted for the 5th time with possession for purpose of trafficking cocaine. But I used drugs right up until February 10th. I couldn't give up the drugs. I had a real hard time letting go of that. And then February 10th, I used for the last time. And, uh, somewhere in between January 7th and— in that— anyway, somewhere in there to February 11th, I, you know, I wasn't supposed to get out of jail, um, but the judge wasn't there and the justice of the peace was there, and they're like, we will let you out with a bracelet, go to to the police station, sign in, and you know what the first thing I said? I got them again. You know, like, how, how ridiculous the system is. Like, oh, I know, on 5 possessions of the purpose of trafficking cocaine, like, yeah, let him go with a bracelet, you know, revolving door. That's— and, uh, so somewhere in that period of time, I had to see a counselor, which was Sandy Paul, beautiful, beautiful soul. Um, and, uh, basically what she said is, you know, you got one house left on the block, Jay. It's treatment. It's God-driven, and I don't think you're gonna succeed, but you should go. And I'm like, why are you sending me somewhere where I'm gonna fail? I'm already a failure. But you know what I didn't understand is she was planting the littlest seed, and that littlest seed was, I have to prove her wrong. It was the only— you know, it was almost like somebody really cared about me. Somebody was showing like, they were like, hey, we, we want you to get better. Not saying my mom didn't, and not saying people— but you don't want to hear what they have to say. It has to be an outside, right?

Yeah.

I was blowing lines in the bathroom at her work. I'd tell her I got to go to the bathroom, I can't handle this anymore, and, and, and, you know, she'd just let me do my thing. And but somewhere in there, the Salvation Army called the Anchorage Brew Center down there in Ottawa.

And bless the Salvation Army, great work the Salvation Army does.

Huge shout out to Glenn and Mark.

I support them a lot. My son works for them in New Westminster. Shout out to them.

Yeah, Salvation Army does some amazing work. And I saw the number on the phone. I was living in my dad's basement at the time, and I was so high I threw the phone into the freezer. The freezer started shaking like brrring, brrring, and I was like, fuck, I'm not answering that phone. And it went on forever and ever, which I thought, and then I picked up the phone and they're like, we have a bed here February 11th for you if you can make it. So we got to February 11th, which is very interesting with the system because I like to share about this part. Uh, you know, a guy that had a bracelet up on 5 possessions, the purpose of trafficking cocaine, the intent, um, they just cut the bracelet and said, hey son, have fun getting the treatment. Um, they didn't really— besides my counselor helping get treatment set up, there was no help getting there. My family, you know, I took the rest of my drug money, got that to get myself to Winnipeg. My family got me a plane ticket to get me to Ottawa, but there was nobody with me. And here's the thing, I could have been John Doe at any moment. Like, I was in Manitoba, you know, I'm in Kenora, Ontario, so I got to go to Winnipeg, fly to Ottawa. I don't know what treatment is. I don't know if I'm going to eat again. I don't know if there's OxyContin in there and I'm going to sleep. I— all I knew is like, this is not fun. And, you know, I, I land in Ottawa, I go to Harvey's, I get 4 hamburgers because I don't think I'm ever going to get a hamburger again. You know, like, nobody told me what treatment was, nobody told me what I was going to do, nobody told me what to expect, nobody, nobody told me that you're gonna take a deep dive and look at who you are. You know, nobody said any of this stuff. And as the cab driver brings me to the Salvation Army, and I'm like, why are we car gets swarmed by 6 people asking me, you know, if I want drugs. And I'm like, where did they send me? And I walk over, it's the homeless shelter. And I'm like, what is going on? And they're like, well, Jay, the treatment center is down the road. Honestly, in Kenora, the post office is really down the road, 10 minutes, you know what I'm saying? The treatment center is literally 3 minutes down the road. The homeless shelter, the treatment center. And that was the first time I ever seen anything like that in my life. And, uh, you know, went in there and they're like, did you use? And I said no. And then I got piss tested and then it showed that I did. And, um, luckily they were like, Jay, you can stay. The, the, the, the, the, the, um, chaplain said— I think— and honestly, to this day, I don't know if I heard them say I needed 72 hours clean. I, I don't know. But that's what you're supposed to have, 72 hours clean before you go into that place. And I had not that. And by the grace of God, they let me stay. And then I started my journey. And that's when I started, February 11th, 2008. Um, 17 years next Tuesday.

Yeah, that's amazing. Amazing. And, um, I don't know if you saw, but, uh, Chelsea just wanted to say Uh, Jay, it's one thing to have so many years of recovery. That alone is inspiration in the fact that it's possible. And I, I believe that's what you're giving people. You are living proof that no matter what happens in life, there can be change. And now you've gone and done it and went one step further, helping so many others find their own path in recovery. Keep it up. This is the year for recovery, healing, and awareness. Yeah, I believe that. It's also the year of the snake, and it is the only animal that sheds its skin. So we are shedding our past and we're healing.

Yeah, she's, she's a beautiful soul. She, uh, spoke in Fort Francis last year. She's going to be speaking this year as well in Dryden. Her, uh, her boyfriend did my tattoo on my arm, Destiny. They did a giveaway at the Fort Francis event. And so huge shout out, Pat.

Love that. That's amazing. That's amazing. Anybody else want to share their experiences? Like, where— go ahead, don't, don't be shy. Even if you're on the replay, we'll— we're here to answer your questions. You can maybe send them to me by email or through the show notes as well. Um, and first of all, bless your mom. I mean, your mom is an angel. That, that's, you know, when you're talking about her, and you know, there, there's so many, um, the fact that you're so open and transparent, um, there's a lot of synchronicities between what you're, you know, talking about, um I, I had two attempts to die by suicide. A lot of people, and here's the kicker, when they look at you, they're like, you? And I'm like, what am I? Is there a poster or a poster child for what suicide looks like? Or addiction?

Yeah, it's, yeah, you're right. Like, it, it affects everybody. And that's, that's the truth. Like, there's the, the two common bonds in life with humanity is we all have a level of trauma. And we're all recovering from something. That's a guarantee. I can tell you that for free. You know, everybody has got some level of trauma and everybody is recovering from something. And, you know, that's, that was, that's, that's what was exciting, you know. I remember, you know, the treatment center asked, you know, Jay, do you want to go speak at this church? And I was like, yeah, we'll give you a $50 clothes voucher for the Sally Ann. And I mean, I was ecstatic because I needed clothes. Not only that, I needed to go to the NA dance and I needed to see if I could get myself a girl, you know what I mean? Like, I'm, I'm in shape here now. This is, you know, I got 60-90 days going on here. I'm like, you got this stuff going on. Um, so I go down to the church and I'm like, where is everybody? Did I go to the right church? Like, you know, and then, and, you know, for about 5 or 10 minutes I was beating myself up, but then I was just like, you know what, I'm gonna just share my story in front of God. Like I can, you know, and that, Christine J Gold, is when I found my voice in that church by myself. I shared my story and I went back to the Salvation Army and I was like, I don't know if I went to the right place, I don't know what was going on. Oh no, Jay, it got canceled, you don't have a phone so we couldn't call you, but here's your $50 clothes voucher. I was like, what? I just— there's the God check. I just got the God check. For like opening my mouth and sharing. So down to the Old Sally Ann, I went and got myself an aggressive salmon shirt, pink, and got myself some dress pants and, you know, went to the NA dance and tried to do my thing, which I don't suggest doing, but the end of the day, that's where I was at, right? But what had happened in there was that I found my voice, and, um, luckily for me, I found my voice and, and, you know, I was able to get to, uh, I stayed an extra month at treatment and then I went to second stage, which I want to give a huge shout out to Robert Ware at the Liberty House who really, uh, taught me the different pathways of recovery. So it wasn't just about NA and CA and all that. He showed me a different way to recover, meaning that there's all these different ways from a holistic approach to active lifestyle to nutrition to, to, to sauna to hot tub to all these ways. Um, relationship coaches, uh, you name it. And, um, but I was looking at 5 years in prison for those charges, and I had to go back to Kenora, uh, in September of 2008, uh, to deal with it. And my lawyer was like, Jay, I don't— 50/50, you know, like, hey, you're doing good, but, you know, and, and, you know, I was kind of pissed at the system, you know, and then 'Well, Jay, you did the crime, you got to do the time.' And, and, you know, so it took me about a day to get out of that. And, you know, I was like, 'Okay, well, if I do 5, I'm gonna do 3 and a half. And if I do 3 and a half, that's going to push me to like 31 years old. I still have a great life ahead of me, and, and I would have almost 4 years into recovery. So, you know, I don't know what I'm gonna do once I get out of here.' But so I, I had made peace with myself that I would be going to jail and that, you know, 'You did the crime, you got to do the time, Jay. That's just the truth.' And Um, so I showed up and, uh, Judge Fraser, God bless his soul— I was the judge of mine from the age of 12 up— and, uh, he's like, where's Jay? I'm like, what do you mean, sir? He's like, well, where's Jay? Yelling, screaming, gray yellow eyes, ripped pants, dirty, smelling, swearing. No sir, yes sir, dressed up in a suit. And he says, I've never seen anybody work so hard to get their life back in 9 months. And a 5-year sentence turned into 18 months probation, and he allowed me to go back to Ottawa to fulfill my dream to be a chef. And kind of emotional here because this is where, like, the— this is where I understood that if you're willing to help yourself, others are willing to help you. Nobody knows if you need help if you're not willing to help yourself. So if you're willing to help yourself, people are going to know that you need help. And, uh, Judge Fraser let me go to Ottawa to fulfill this dream to be a chef, and, uh, that's what I went and did. I wanted to learn everything about food. I wanted to be the best chef. I wanted to make the sexiest plates. I wanted to be I wanted to be the best, and, um, that was the goal, and that's what I went out and did. And in my own mind, I feel like I was one of the best out there. And I started branding myself as Chef Recovery, and that's where it took off. And, uh, you know, at the time I was saying Recovering Chef, and then my pastry chef at Algonquin College was like, Jay, you got it backwards. What about Chef chef recovery. And I'm like, oh, I can brand that. I'm a chef in recovery. And, uh, God bless Ron Ede. He was the food editor for the Ottawa Citizen, and he did a massive front page story on me about this chef in recovery. And that took my speaking career and who I was to a whole new level, which then brought me to Fort McMurray where I became a celebrity chef and started doing things for Wayne Gretzky, Marc Messier, William Shatner. The whole list went on, which then took me to another level of doing a TEDx which then took me to another level of motivationally speaking all across Canada and sharing this, this story that I have of this transparency and truth and honesty of being honest about, you know, who I am and what I went through. And, um, and, uh, just really, really started honing in on who I was and who I wanted to be and. And, you know, in, in 2011, the Delta Hotel came to me and they said, hey Jay, we think you should go see a relationship coach. And I'm like, whoa, what do you mean? I got great relationships with women. And they're like, no, no, Jay, relationship with yourself. And I'm like, ah, no, Alex. Um, so I— this is— but this is where I found out that there was other ways to recover. So I show up to this, this place in Ottawa, and it's this girl, and she's pitching me, and she's— I'm like, I'm a sales guy, like, you don't have to pitch me. You want me to pay you money so you can help me. You're gonna help me, and I'm gonna be better, and I'm gonna go on my merry little way, and I'm gonna have the best relationships in the world. Like, that's where you're at, right?

Yeah.

And, uh, but I was at a place where I was like, maybe I need to try something. Different. Maybe I need to switch it up. Maybe I am stuck and stagnant. Maybe, you know, and, and first, you know, a couple seconds there, it went through my mind because it was $1,000, and I was like, holy, what do you mean? I'm just in early recovery and I'm down to $1,000. And then I was like, whoa, what about all the money on the drugs, hookers, and all this other stuff? Just give her the credit card.

Comes into perspective.

Yeah. So I gave her the credit card, and I was like, bam. And you know what I did there? Is the first time I made an interest of an investment into Jay Barnard. And when you make an interest of an investment into yourself, it's, it's, it's different than going to an AA meeting. It's different than going to an NA meeting. And I love those places, and that's where I got my recovery. And God bless all of the people that are there. And there's been many of them that spoke on our platform and continue to speak on our platform. AA has helped a lot of people, NACA, they all have. But for me, I needed something more than that. I needed something more. I needed more. I needed to see beyond recovery. I need a life beyond recovery. And I ended up staying with her for 2 months. I paid her $2,000. And yeah, she— that minute that credit card went click, click, all of a sudden I'm like, I want all the answers to all the questions I got. And it's happening now. Game on, girl. And that's how I looked at it, right? I looked I never looked at it that way.

Well, absolutely. You're investing in yourself because you loved yourself. You, you've proven a lot of things to yourself that you can do it. You are worthy. You're not abandoning yourself anymore. And this is something I, you know, I tell my clients as well. When you pay money, you pay attention.

1000%. Yes. And, and you wanna soak it up, right? Because what was interesting is that I'd be go, I'd be going to like AA or NA meetings. And then, you know, they would ask if I had went to the meeting, and I'm, oh yeah, yeah, I went to— meantime, I was standing outside eating donuts. Why did I have to lie about going? You know why? Because I would have got judged. I got judged so many times that I didn't go to the meeting. I mean, I didn't want to say I didn't go to the meeting so I wouldn't get judged. That was—

yeah, that's not good. It happens in a lot of circles, unfortunately, and, and that's why people fall backwards or slide backwards as well. So we've got to stop that because when you point a finger at someone, take 3 of those and point them back at yourself because really that's what it's about.

And I mean, this is my story and everybody has a different story, you know, and, and, you know, I did roll back into my NA group about 60 days later and, you know, they were like, you know, what do you think the first question was when I rolled in there? Did you relapse?

Yeah. Are you—

and I was like, uh, do you know what a relapse is? Yeah, you went out and used. I'm like, no, that's the end result. Like, you plan your relapse way before the actual relapse of the using part happens. We relapse every single day by the way we talk to ourselves, our negativity, what we watch, what we see, how we see it, what we eat, all of that stuff. That's— if you're hurting yourself, you're relapsing. That's the bottom line on that story. But at the end of the day for me, you know. So I was like, you know, and, and, you know, the fact of the matter was, is I just outgrew it, you know, and that was okay. And, uh, so I went on this, I went on this journey by myself of building, like you had said, Hyper Recovery. Now, it wasn't called Hyper Recovery or anything in the beginning. It was just thinking thoughts, patterns, triggers, series of events. That's just what I kind of lived like That's what I— boundaries. And I was just like, God, I'm not calling myself an alcoholic because I'm not one. I'm actually a healaholic, and I'm addicted to healing. Alcohol wasn't the problem. Drugs wasn't the problem. I'm the problem. I want to heal. That's a healaholic. And I'm like, okay, now that I figured that out, life is a little bit better, right? And, um, so then I just started really helping people with this concept theory as I'm traveling across Canada and I, I did a— I was a keynote speaker in Thunder Bay in 2017, and I was laying in my bed and just shot out of bed at like 1 in the morning. Hype! Help your personal effort! And I was like, what did I just say?

And I'm like, wait a second, you gotta find download. You got a divine download.

That's what that was. And I was like, I am the hype guy. That's amazing. Help your personal effort. My goodness. Um, now it took, it took a while, um, for that to even manifest, to get to where it's at. After the whole entire thing, I moved back to Kenora, Ontario. I was a chef at a restaurant here. That's when I met, uh, Destiny's mom Julie, and we had my beautiful daughter Destiny, who like is my, my— her name says it all, um, you know, my little, uh, my little girl.

I've seen her.

Little girl saved my life more than once. And, um, you know what's, what's really cute is because I'm so open about everything, you know, she, you know, she'll say recovery rocks to people, you know, and, and she'll wear her shirt to school. Daddy, I'm wearing the— I'm wearing the recovery shirt to school for people to know that they're not alone. And, you know, this is this little 9-year-old you know. And, um, I'm a proud— I'm a proud dad, you know. I'm a real proud dad. And, uh, and then I went and opened up my own fish processing business called Freshwater Cuisine. So everybody, you know, everybody's dream as a chef is to actually own your own business and create products. And, you know, one thing's to get them in the, uh, in the, uh, farmers market, but, you know, I want it to be bigger than that because that's just the kind of guy I am. And So I went on this journey of creating products out of waste fish. And I looked at it like my life, underutilized, undervalued, underappreciated. And that's how I looked at my life, underappreciated, undervalued, underused. And that's how some of the fish are in our lakes. There's so much food waste in this world, it's ridiculous.

Oh my gosh, don't get me started.

So then all of a sudden this business takes right off, one in five top businesses in all of Ontario. We won $25,000, flown down here, Entrepreneur of the Year, 20 Under 40, all this stuff, magazine, blah blah blah, TV shows, um, and I was living out the dream as a chef. And, uh, in 2018 when I celebrated 10 years, I went back to the Salvation Army and we sold out the Shaw Centre downtown Ottawa., and I was a keynote speaker there. I got off the stage and then, uh, when I was in my room, I was like, I— nobody got anything out of me. At this point, I was going through a separation with Destiny's mom, and, and so there's a lot going on there. And then I was, I was trying to figure out the business side of things and, and, you know, trying to figure out how to be co-parenting and a dad and, and, you know, the whole 7 on, 7 off. And, you know, I, I never wanted to be, um, like my mother and father, so I kind of looked at Julie and I separating like I was a failure. But it actually turned out to be one of the best things of my life, that now Julie and I are able to really co-parent really well. And, you know, we get along really well. I mean, it's not perfect all the time, but we do a really good job at making it about destiny. And, you know, so huge shout out. You'd shout out to Destiny's mom if, if she's out there watching, you know, I appreciate you and everything you do. Um, so at the end of the day, I came back and I was like, if I give Destiny a hug and I don't feel any love, I'm gonna hang myself. So this is where I want to talk about long-term recovery and where, um, we need to talk about this because I tried taking my life in 2018. That's, uh, 10 years into recovery. And, uh, after all of that success, after all of that stuff, beautiful daughter. Yeah, I— like, most people honestly don't get to live the life I have got to live inside of recovery. Um, and I came back and I gave her a hug and I was like, I don't feel any love. And I was like, this is strange because I'm a real good dad. You know, like, I'm a really good dad, like, what's going on? And it wasn't what's going on because there was nothing wrong with me. I hate, you know, and I went to where my best friend hung himself and I tried hanging myself. And, uh, out of nowhere, there it was, quietest day, out of nowhere, water just came rushing out of the dam, water everywhere. And I'm like, whoa, what am I doing? And I was like, what am I doing?

And yeah. That was a God wake-up shake-up. You were meant for something again.

Yeah, again. And, uh, I went over and saw Sandy Paul and I told her what was going on. I told her what had been going on. I hadn't really had any contact with her in 10 years. And she's like, uh, Jay, have you ever said you're proud of yourself? What did he just say to me? She's like, Jay, you've catered arguably the best hockey player in Canada, like Wayne Gretzky. Most people don't even get to meet this guy. You got to cater him and all this other stuff you've done. Have you ever said you're proud of yourself? Do you know I never stopped and said that? I never stopped once. Said, yeah, I'm proud of you.

And I get it, you were riding, you were riding a high and like you're up on top of the mountain, right? So then you— after that, it's like coming down from being high, literally. You're in the valley. So it was time. New level, new devil. That's what I call it. But go ahead.

Yeah, and, uh, you know, my grandfather passed away too, right around the same time Julie and I separated. And, and, you know, so, um, but You know, once again, God wasn't done with me, and God provided a statement that I needed to hear: Jay, have you said you're proud of yourself? At 10 years in, um, you know, from, from there, you know, success just took off again because now I, I kind of leveled up. I leveled up inside of myself.

Yep.

Which then brought us to 2020, the mysterious virus. And, uh, yeah, where I took one of the— well, the biggest financial entrepreneur hit of my life of $2.1 million. And, um, I had to close the business that was like my, my life, you know, that, uh failure, that I didn't even ask for that, that I lost this. And but what I didn't realize at the time is it was pushing me to the biggest purpose of my life, which is what we see today. And August of 2021, um, is when we— I met Brooke Robichard, who's Sober Bizco Babe. She helps out entrepreneurs live out their dreams. She's our chief communication officer with Empower to Recover. And, uh, we started building out Hype Recovery, and we got into a book form, 6 and 12 weeks. We took everything out of my mind— Sabrina, Robert Ware, uh, Brooke, uh, Ashley at the time— and we put these, these— this program had been working into book form, and we launched it October 15th, 2021, on my 5,000 days in recovery. And Now, I didn't know what was going to happen. I knew there was a massive gap, but 72 people came through the program from all across the world. But there was this other thing that happened. 500 people reached out from all across the world going, I can't get into treatment, I can't see a doctor, I can't get a counselor, I can't see this, I can't do that, there's a waitlist. I was like, holy cow, I'm just like this small little sardine in this big trauma mental health addiction recovery world. Are you telling me to go to the biggest dream of my life? Which is today is Empower to Recover. I didn't know it at the time. So I brought it to Brooke and Carl Heath, who's our Chief Program Officer, also founder of EnergyWise, great dude. Him and I are like brothers. He's stuck with me through thick and thin, that man, in the last 3 years, right by my side. He's the passenger in this thing as we drive this thing. I never met an individual that really cares about another individual as much as he does. And, uh, I said, I got this idea, I want to do this thing all across Canada, I want to sell out stadiums, and I want to call it Empower to Inspire. I want to go out there and inspire people by empowering them. And they're like, oh, that's interesting. And so Brooke went to go look at the name, and Empower to Inspire was gone. She's like, what about Empower to Recover with the number 2J? What did you say? Empower to Recover? Are you kidding me right now?

Mind blown.

Are you kidding me right now? And, uh, I said buy it. And, uh, that's when we started the journey of Empower to Recover. And, uh, we were supposed to do our first event November 21st of 22. We weren't ready, and it's okay to say you're not ready. Uh, there's a big piece of, am I failing, like a 0.1% inside of there, because I basically took whatever money I had left and invested in the platform to do like some trade shows and the website and everything else. Um, and then I was like, May 27th, New Westminster, BC, Anvil Center. We're doing the first event. I don't care if one person shows up. I don't give a rat's canoe if it's just the team. We need to get some content so people can see what we're doing.

Yeah.

And we showed up to New Westminster at the Anvil Center, and it was everything that I thought it would be and more. Um, 120 people showed up to that event. Um, we had amazing speakers. Uh, one of my good friends, Shay Emery, two-time Grey Cup champion with the Montreal Alouettes kicked us off, no pun intended with football player kicking us off, but great, great story. We had Scott Kramer. He lost his wife and he wrote a book, Devoted Dad. Check him out. He's doing some amazing things. Brooke shared about losing her brother. She lost her brother to an overdose at a young age. We had Tesla beds there. We had treatment centers there. We had nutritional products there. We had kids play there. Cal shared. He was phenomenal. TJ shared about all the work he was doing. And Beatrice Love was there. She was just coming off of Canada's Got Talent. She was a semi-finalist. Um, Theo Fleury was there.

Um, I know Theo.

And, um, so at the end of that, I was— and we raised $14,000, so it cost me $54,000, but whatever. Um, the end of the day, I was like, hey, if, if all I get is this I've lived out the dream. I've lived the dream again because I'm in Northwestern Ontario. We just pulled off an event 3, 4, 5 provinces west and 120 people showed up and we had a phenomenal day. If nothing else comes from this, way to go, Jay, and way to go team. Um, and, uh, but then all of a sudden I got a call, hey Jay, you want to speak? So now my motivational career is starting to pick up. I'm in— I gotta go to Calgary. Fly to Calgary to speak, too excited to share about my story, just sharing about what happened the week before, which was this. And they're like, when are you coming here? And I'm like, is Canada really open to a loud, hype, energetic guy that does recovery in all different shapes, sizes, and forms, loves everybody, wants to bring all of Canada together, doesn't care who you are, and wants to create this space where there's just love, kindness, and compassion? Is Canada really ready for that. So I was like, if I go home and we sell out the event in Kenora, Ontario— because we all know that selling events out in your hometown is one of the hardest things to do— um, then we have something. Then we have something. And we did. We sold it out. 225 people showed up, raised $26,500. The event cost $22,000, so the foundation made $3,000, which just went towards helping people.

Yeah, exactly.

And, uh, that's where we introduced youth. So we had Street Angel, who got into recovery 4 days before her 16th birthday, share. She just celebrated 2 years, she's 18. Uh, we had Indigenous Daryl Red Sky share. We had, uh, the counselor share. We had the MP share. We had the MPP share, Greg Rickford, who shared about losing his younger brother to a fentanyl overdose 2 years prior to that. So it doesn't matter who you are, we all deal with something. That's right. And, uh, so at that point I was like, okay, then we go back to Calgary. We sell out Calgary in 2023. So if you remember, I said we're going to do our first event November 21st of 2022. We're rolling into Calgary doing our third event in 2023 on November 19th in our third city in our third province. So the year before that, when I thought the dream was gone, all of a sudden we're doing 3 events when we're only going to do 2. At this point, I was going through a long-term relationship breakup again. Ashley and I were together, we're Canada's Recovery Couple, and we traveled and shared all about our story. I was going through a long-term relationship breakup there, and we rolled into Calgary. That's where entertainment got introduced. Greg Ryder, Truth in Agony at the Silver Springs Golf and Country Club, raised $20,000 there. Big shout out to Hunter Family Foundation who donated $10,000 to that event. Out there in Calgary, some great things. ARC— I met ARC, the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center. They're doing phenomenal. That's where I met Carrie Snyder from Teen Challenge. Carrie's doing some phenomenal work. Teen Challenge is doing some great work. That's where I met ALVCO. That's where I met Bill Ward, the Changemaker. That's where I met, um, met a lot of people in Calgary.

Yeah, Jamie Miner.

Uh, no, I didn't make Jamie— I didn't meet Jamie. Well, I met Jamie over the phone, but Jamie was on vacation. Jamie came into Edmonton.

Okay.

All right.

So do you want to talk about Calgary a little bit for—

Yeah.

Yeah.

So March 8th, we're down there at the Ramada Plaza downtown. Phenomenal lineup of speakers. We've got Dave Hunter, 3-time Stanley Cup champion, coming. He's been a part of the platform for Edmonton. We got Paul Collins. He's 2019 Business Hall of Fame. Man of God, phenomenal story. You yourself are going to be sharing, so you're going to be sharing some wisdom on everything that you're doing and how you're a change maker and what you're changing and how you bring the Reiki and the medium and all the other stuff, the beautiful things that you do. Uh, you're going to be sharing all about that. We got Carl Heath there, he's going to be— Jamie Miner is going to be doing some entertainment. We got Jonesy showing up. Jonesy's an entertainer, got a great story in recovery. We've got Danny Floyd, we got a lot of entertainment. Danny Floyd's an amazing singer as well, found his recovery through land-based approach. Great, great, great, great, great singer. Who else we got? Who else we got?

And I heard you're giving away tickets.

Yeah, we got some tickets to whoever's watching live or on the replay. Yeah, we got 10.

All right, 10 people. And I love that. So who wants to win tickets to this event March 8th? Comment Empower to win. So comment Empower to win, and, uh, we'll leave this open for, well, a couple weeks, maybe two at the most. And, uh, we'd like to give all these tickets away if possible. And, um, now with this, with this, with these tickets, are these going to be single, or can somebody have two tickets, or can somebody—

yeah, they can share whatever, they can just reach They just reach out, they talk to you as soon as the 10 go. It comes with the catered lunch. So they're doing a catered lunch there. We also got Josh Deck. He's going to be sharing too. He really talks about gut health and recovery in that side of the world. Brooke's going to be hosting the event with me. Bill Ward, the changemaker, he's coming again. We got— I don't know if anybody knows Gail Taylor, but Gail Taylor Music, she was a founding member of the Mental Health Foundation Edmonton. She now has a catalog of music, creates music. She's got a phenomenal story of recovery she's going to be sharing. Nancy Nance, uh, she's going to be sharing as well. Um, Ty McKinney. So I'm really excited too that we're going to be partnering up with 8-Bit Cortex to start creating digital data at every single event that we have. So the digital data is going to have digital questionnaires for not only the attendees but the speakers and the community asset boost. So that's massively exciting because of that data. Uh, so yeah, another huge shout out to, to the people that have come in right now so far for, uh, community partners. That would be the Hunter Family Foundation, that would be ARC, That would be Reversible Max Green, that would be, uh, Silver Bizco, that'd be 8-Bit Cortex, uh, that would be Simon House. Um, so you can get involved, uh, with this, uh, this, this event. Uh, these events are not funded by the government. Everything is traditionally fundraised. So we do have to do fundraising, uh, which I do understand it's probably a pinch out there right now for fundraising. But if, uh, you know, what I know is right now we need to really be talking about trauma, mental health, and addiction and recovery and in the most positive but truthful, transparent ways so that people from all walks of life can, can see. If you're wondering if you can come to the event, it doesn't matter who you are. Anybody can come. If you're an adult, if you're a grandma, an aunt, a sister, a brother, kid, it doesn't matter. Whoever you are, you can come to the event. It's not a single thing. If you're not an alcoholic or you don't think you're an alcoholic or whatever, here's, here's the truth. Everybody's dealing with trauma and everybody's recovering from something. So everybody's invited to the event. So there's no labels. If you, if you choose to say you're an alcoholic, I love you. If you choose to say you're an addict, I love you. If you choose to say you're nothing, I love you. If you choose to say you're a healaholic, I love you. If you choose to— it doesn't matter. I just love you. Um, so at the end of the day, anybody can come to the events. Uh, when it comes to donations, we do accept donations to help put on the events. Uh, we have raised $10,700 so far for this event. The event is costing—

what do you need? What do you need?

We're manifesting $8,426 to go to break even. Okay, $1,426.23, I believe the number is. $8,426.23.

Yeah, so we need donations, we need community sponsors. Um, you guys have tables as well, like a vendor's table?

Yeah, so you can get, uh, community, uh, community asset boosts. I don't like to call them vendors. I'm kind of like this guy that's changing the lingo, you know what I mean? I like community, and that's what the theme is this year. The theme of our events this year all across Canada, because we are doing 13 to 14 events across Canada, the theme has been, what if we, what if we could stop addiction before it starts? That's what the theme has been this year. I wanted to switch it up, and I wanted the theme to be What does community mean to you? Why are you here? Why are we gathering? Why did you get the ticket? Why did you send these people here? So I really want to hear what people have to say about unity in the community. What does community mean? Why do we do these things? Why do we, why do we talk about trauma, mental health, and addiction and recovery? Why do we do this stuff? Like, and that's just really community. And so all the events all across Canada are, our, our theme is going to be this year, community. And And that's massively exciting. And we also give tributes to people that have lost their lives to overdose or suicide as well at our events on our slideshow. So we have people that have sent us in videos of their loved ones.

No, I love that. It's good to remember and it's good to honor and it's good to heal, be the chain breaker, be of intergenerational trauma.

Yeah. And that's like, you're gonna just get, it's just a full-packed day. Like, I mean, every speaker has intro music, so it's like you get intro music, you hit the stage. I mean, I'm a hypey guy all day long and it's just, it's not like your traditional welcome to this mental health summit. We're gonna be talking.

Oh yeah. Yeah. Get ready, get your pillow ready and have a nap. I don't sign up for any of that. I want stuff that's engaging and fun. We've got to go back to having fun because that's, you know, if you can make somebody laugh and connect with them, huge.

Oh, yeah. And this year, this year, throughout this whole year, I'm sharing about 2020 until today. And I'm going to be really sharing about what happened last year, how I had the hip replacement and how I had the breakthrough and how that breakthrough came through and how I, how I managed to get through all of that stuff. To somehow last year put on 8 live events with the hip replacement after 6 weeks.

Um, that's— wow.

But at the end of the day, superhuman. No, I wouldn't say that. It's just we have a calling, you know. When you find your calling, when you find your purpose, you will do whatever it takes to continue that journey.

And for me, it just took me a long time to get here.

It took me, you know, it took me a lot of time to to actually really understand that I can have everything under one roof. So I can still be the chef and do catering, and I can still be the motivational speaker, but I was just getting pulled in so many different directions. Now it's all just underneath one beautiful roof called Empowered to Recover Foundation, which, you know, just some quick stats before we close out here because we're hitting an hour and I don't think anybody wants to listen to me anymore after an hour, so we'll just chug, chug it along. All right. At the end of the day, you know, 117 people have been on the platform since we, we kicked this thing off 17 months ago. Um, we have created, uh, we have test piloted the ARN, which is the Alternative Recovery Network, which is going to be the world's largest recovery network. Uh, and I say world's largest because it's already manifesting. I'm not saying Canada, I'm saying the world. Um, where today we have 97 different partners in there over 4 provinces. And, uh, I didn't want to overwhelm myself over the last in the 17 months. So directly, we've brought 39 people through this and got to their level and understood where they were at and understood what they were looking for. Not, you're an addict, so you're going to go here. Actually truly hearing, because hearing is different than listening. If you hear somebody, you actually really understand who they are and what they're doing. Uh, so we have a 79% recovery rate on that. So 30 of those people are still striding and thriving in recovery. The other 9 are still in contact with us. You're never— once you're family, you're always family, and, and the door is never closed. It doesn't matter. So I'm excited about that. So part of the ARN—

so am I—

we roll into the recovery spa, we call it. And the recovery spa is service, process, access. And that's how, that's how easy it should be. It should be what's the service, what's the process, what's the access. And so, right, that's exciting that we have that out, uh, We've done 11 live events so far across Canada, 4 provinces. Uh, to date we've raised $163,000, actually more than that now.

Amazing.

With today's money. So yeah, we've, uh, it's just been an amazing, uh, amazing to live out another dream and invite Canada and the world for the ride.

That's right. And I always end the podcast asking because, you know, you've talked a lot about you and your story and organization, but really we want to know about you, how we as a collective energy can help make your dreams come true. You, Jay, the soul.

Well, I think, uh, I think Canada and the world has already showed up in the last 17 months to help me live out another dream. I mean, Traditionally, most startups aren't raising $163,000 to put on these events. Just saying. That's Canada. That's you people doing it. That's not me. There— people are donating, businesses are getting on board, national partners are coming on board. People are seeing what we're doing. People are seeing that we're making— Canada's doing that. People are doing that. This is built by the people, for the people, with the people, and always will be that way. Um, and so how can you have another dream, like, for yourself personally? I don't know. I'm living it right out now. I mean, I got everything going on for me today. I mean, I, I mean, I think that what I needed to do is I needed to have that massive breakthrough last year through this hip replacement to really show me what my purpose was. And, um, I'm able to, uh, be a motivational speaker. I'm able to be an advocate. I'm able to still do catering and chefing. I'm able to organize and put on phenomenal events for people like yourself to show up and share your amazing story. Uh, I'm able to do this with all kinds of people across Canada. I mean, we're on the East Coast this year, April 25th, like literally we're coast to coast.

Yeah, I saw that.

Bridgewater, Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, in partnership with the No Matter What Happens Project. We got my buddy Kalichi coming there from the USA, and, uh, beautiful Heidi and Belinda. It's for their niece Hannah, who lost her life at the age of 25. Um, you know, and, and I guess if I was to ever— if I was just to end right now, I would say what I said a long time ago. Never give up, keep living the dream. And sometimes, uh, when you never give up and you live the dream, you actually find out what your true purpose is. And I think that people are always wondering what their purpose is. Like, am I, am I a part of the Matrix and is this going to be my life forever? Or am I going to break out of the Matrix and truly be who I'm supposed to be? And am I going to do what I am supposed to be? And that's not a knock against anybody that has a job. God bless all of those people, and I love all those people. But there is some of us that just love not— love creating things, not only for ourselves but also for other individuals. And, um, you know, 2,000— 1,995 people have attended these events. February 25th, we're doing our second Indigenous community in Shoal Lake 39, which we just put out there today. We're helping people everywhere. We will take our events anywhere.

Every province. I mean, Northwest Territories, Yukon, Newfoundland. I've been. Newfoundland needs to step up. New Brunswick, PEI. I mean, Quebec, come on now. Where are you? Let's go. Are you in Saskatchewan?

Oh yeah, we were there already. Saskatoon. But yeah, like this year we got like a lot. So I'll just run the list and then we can go. But we got Show Lake coming up. And then we got Calgary March 8th, then we got Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, April 25th, and we got Cornwall, Ontario, May 16th for National Prevention Week. June and July, I'm not 100% sure what's going on there. I got some catering going on, but that rolls us into August. August 30th, we're into Thunder Bay for our second event at the Superior Inn. Then I'm not 100% sure if we're going to go to Saskatoon September 5th, but I think so. I haven't confirmed that. September 12th, we roll into Dryden, Ontario for the first time, which is massively exciting at the center. September 19th, we roll into Fort Frances for number 2 at the Voo, which I'm massively excited about. September 26th, I'm trying to anchor down Kenora again for the 3rd recovery day. Then we roll into October, which is, uh, World Mental Health Day. October 10th, uh, try to close Timmins to go back to Timmins. Then we roll into November. November 21st, we're going back to Ottawa for number 2 because that's where it all started for me. And then we're going to do a dinner gala at the end of November Edmonton.

Nice. All right, well, it was so nice of you to spend, uh, your time with us. I'm so excited, uh, for the event in Calgary and then all across Canada. And if you want to get in touch, comment below, even if you're on the replay. We'll hook you up. We're giving away 10 tickets as well, so you'll have to go back for that. You have to comment Empower if you want those tickets. Thank you so much for being here, and, uh, please remember, healing begins where the ego ends. Take care.