From West Point to Wellness: Nick Padlo’s Mission to Redefine Recovery

Welcome to Hometown Jax, where hosts Aaron Bacus and Jason Kindler sit down with Jacksonville’s leaders, creators, and change-makers to explore the journeys that define our city. From entrepreneurship to personal transformation, each episode digs deep into the stories of those making a difference across Northeast Florida.

In this episode, Jason sits down with Nick Padlo, a Jacksonville native, West Point graduate, U.S. Army veteran, Stanford MBA, TEDx speaker, and founder of Sofros Recovery. Nick opens up about his deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the identity crisis many veterans face after service, and his personal journey through addiction, healing, and entrepreneurship. He shares how a life-altering experience in Cambodia and a passion for mental health led to launching Sofros Recovery right here in Jacksonville. Through real talk and hard-earned wisdom, Nick explains how his team is filling the gap between traditional treatment and lasting change—one person at a time.

Transcript

00;00;00;00 - 00;00;14;29
Unknown
Where are your hosts, Aaron Backus and Jason Kindler? We like to sit down with our guests to hear their journey, their challenges, and how they impact the local community. So grab a seat. Tune in and let's get inspired by Jacksonville's everyday workforce. Welcome to Hometown Jacks.

00;00;14;29 - 00;00;34;07
Unknown
Hometown. Jax. I'm here with Nick. Pablo. Thanks for coming in, Nick. We appreciate you coming in. Yeah. Thanks. Remy. You've got a crazy interesting story. So I've done a little bit of background. But we'll just, we'll we'll just, we'll just chat it up. And I, I'd, I'd love to hear about it. So. Hometown.

00;00;34;07 - 00;00;52;28
Unknown
Jax. We talk about, people that are in our amazing city. And some of the things that, you're doing for, for the city with your with your company and everything. But take us back to the beginning. So you are, West Point graduate. Yeah. Well, before that, I did grow up in Jacksonville. You did grow up.

00;00;53;01 - 00;01;07;26
Unknown
Okay. Yeah. So I grew up. I went to Wilson. And then I, went to West Point for undergrad, and it's kind of a funny story. Like, the only reason that I ended up going to West Point was because they had a presentation that was at Crawdads, and I really liked the food. Yeah. And, I showed up and there was no food.

00;01;08;00 - 00;01;25;07
Unknown
But as I was trying to escape, they closed the door. I played the video and I was going to West Point. But it was a good four years, you know, I, I things changed in the middle. So I got there in 99 and graduated. No. Three, you know, in the middle of that was nine, 11. So, you know, I got to watch that unfold from a English classroom.

00;01;25;08 - 00;01;44;14
Unknown
Well, you know, West Point in uniform and I, you know, all of a sudden I realized, like, I'm not going to go, you know, sit in Hawaii and process security clearances like we're going to war. And so everything kind of changed halfway through, you know, the, the whole environment at West Point, you know, dramatically different. Everybody that was kind of not taking it seriously all of a sudden, you know, things were different.

00;01;44;14 - 00;02;05;20
Unknown
That's crazy. I've been watching a couple documentaries that have come out recently. And I mean, it's it's it's crazy even to see it, see it now, and just living through it. But you were like, living through it. Yeah. For sure. So you did serve. So you served in were you in Afghanistan? I was in Afghanistan and Iraq and Iraq.

00;02;05;23 - 00;02;25;20
Unknown
So shortly after graduation, went to military intelligence school house and then, right when I got to my unit, I did go to Hawaii. I didn't get to stay there. We deployed to Afghanistan. And so I was there for, 15 months, and then, back home for eight months or ten months, and then back to Iraq for for another year or so.

00;02;25;22 - 00;02;46;10
Unknown
All told, like 27 months. Well, thank you for serving. Yeah. Pleasure. Definitely. You definitely saw the the the heat of it, right? Yeah. You know, it was it was it was interesting. Like, from what I thought I was going to be doing to what I ended up doing, you know, I was military intelligence. So, you know, I thought I was going to be sitting in some room somewhere, and instead I was the am I guy for an infantry battalion.

00;02;46;10 - 00;03;04;22
Unknown
And then I was on a team embedded in the Iraqi army. So it was a really good experience. And, you know, my best friends still come from that time in my life. Yeah. After after the after the military. You got your, is the MBA. MBA? You got your MBA at Stanford? Yeah. Awesome. Two years. That's all.

00;03;04;23 - 00;03;18;19
Unknown
I mean, talk about. So different from from my time in the military, but, yeah, so helpful. You know, so many of us, when we get out. And I talk about this a lot when we talk about treatment. But so many of us, the veterans, when we get out, we don't know who we are anymore. We don't have the psychedelic, we don't know where we belong.

00;03;18;19 - 00;03;31;09
Unknown
Like what I do go apply for a job. You know, I don't know where I even apply for a job. I know how to lead people, but I don't know anything about business. And so, you know, the MBA was kind of a nice two years to, like, figure out what I was doing and kind of where I wanted to go next.

00;03;31;14 - 00;03;50;08
Unknown
That is, and that's something I definitely want to go, you know, kind of kind of dig into a little bit, it's it's kind of, I guess we'll start. I mean, your, your, tell us a little bit about what you do now, and then we'll kind of backtrack, okay. Yeah. So now I run a company called Sol First Recovery.

00;03;50;11 - 00;04;16;29
Unknown
And our mission is to help people get their lives back. So we do addiction and mental health treatment for people who are struggling with alcohol, drugs, depression, anxiety. Really. With the goal being to build a toolkit of skills so that you can deal with what life brings. Like, you know, we we think about, you know, if you're building a house and you just had a hammer, a hammer is a really useful tool when you're building a house, but so is like a screwdriver and a wrench and a level.

00;04;16;29 - 00;04;36;00
Unknown
And different things need different tools. And so when we go in through life, you know, some days we might need mindfulness, some days we might need to reframe the thoughts that are going on in our head. Other days we might need to shut it down so that we don't get, you know, stuck in a spiral. So we try to build those tools and skills through like therapy, medical intervention, everything.

00;04;36;03 - 00;04;59;04
Unknown
That's it's awesome. I think I mentioned to you, I've been, going on 13 years sober myself. Yeah. So, I definitely I mean, there's a huge, huge need for it. I know that, you know, in my personal, struggles, you know, during that period of time, it's like, if I didn't have those coping things, I mean, it's.

00;04;59;04 - 00;05;33;21
Unknown
You can. Yeah, you can be in and out and in and out. So yeah, it's kind of like it's kind of like going, you know, going to battle an armed riot. You're just not prepared for for what's coming. So with, with that, with that being said, you talked a little bit about on the military side. So, I'm not military, not former military, people that serve in Afghanistan and I, you know, in a war and then come back and you had, you know, the, the Stanford experience to try to figure it out.

00;05;33;22 - 00;05;50;07
Unknown
Yeah. What is that like for somebody that just comes back and then what? Yeah, there's a few things we struggle with. Okay. So I mentioned one briefly, but it's this, this identity that we form in the military. So when you go in, you know, you think about that first day of basic training. You know, everybody sees it on TV and movies.

00;05;50;07 - 00;06;05;21
Unknown
It's like, you know, you get your haircut all the same. You put the same uniform on. You learn the values of the Army or the Marines or the Navy or the Coast Guard. They're ascribed to you. So now your values are their values. You look the same, you act the same, you live under the same rules. And so you have the shared identity.

00;06;05;27 - 00;06;23;29
Unknown
And then when you're kind of ripped away from that, you don't know who you are. I didn't know who I was anymore, right? I didn't know what I valued, I didn't know what I believed in. Everything was foreign to me. And so trying to find my place in the new world was difficult. Second thing that we struggle with is like, we have this tough it out mentality, right?

00;06;23;29 - 00;06;44;21
Unknown
Where, you know, if you're on a run, if you're on a five mile run, and I if I was on a five mile run and I sprained my ankle, I was going to die before I fell out of that run. Like it was just this tough it out mentality, right? You run, you don't you don't quit ever. And that's super useful in combat when like crazy, unimagined animal things are happening and you keep going and you push through, that's great.

00;06;44;21 - 00;07;01;12
Unknown
It's a wonderful skill to have. It also bites us on the other side, because what happens is we try to apply that to this mental health, in this alcoholism. We try to tough it out and we try to just ignore the pain. But the problem is all these things are super progressive. Yeah. And so it's going to get worse if untreated.

00;07;01;12 - 00;07;21;24
Unknown
And then we just ignore it more. And then by the time we raise our hands up and ask for help, we're so far down. Yeah. So I mean that that part, what you just said right there is, I think, the tough person, you know, because I think a lot of a lot of people that that go through addiction and, and, you know, it's just mental.

00;07;22;01 - 00;07;42;03
Unknown
You don't know what to do next. And you know, you're you're tough. Right? So you just kind of you keep going through it without getting help. So and I think, I think, you know, the military obviously struggles with that specifically. But I think everyone struggles with it. And I think especially men struggle with it. Right. We're just not used to raising our hand and asking for help, especially on emotional things.

00;07;42;03 - 00;08;05;29
Unknown
Yeah. So, so, just talking to you for a few minutes here, you're I could tell your, you're you're a motivational speaker. I mean, I try, I mean, we always talk about your motivational. Your delivery is amazing. Whatever. So. But you did a Ted talk as well. I did. Yeah. I mean, we always talk about in the rooms, we always talk about our experience, strength and hope.

00;08;05;29 - 00;08;32;15
Unknown
Right. And so, sure, I like talking. It's also a little easy because I feel like I've got a lot of good material of, like, things I've done wrong. And hopefully some of those things I'm not doing anymore. Yeah. So, you're pretty open about your, your own, your struggles and everything like that and has that really has that shaped you to be able to pass that on to other people?

00;08;32;18 - 00;08;48;02
Unknown
Like, hey, here's, here's what I went through, and here's some of the things that helped me. I think what I think, what it gives you is instant credibility. Right. I don't think you have to have struggled with drugs or alcohol to help someone who's struggling. Sure. You know, so there's a lot of people out there they might know a loved one that's struggling.

00;08;48;02 - 00;09;05;21
Unknown
Maybe they don't know what it's like because they haven't been through it themselves. I still think you can help. Yeah, I think it's a little easier for me to because I've been there. Right? I know what it feels like. And so it's hard for us when we're in that spiral or in that downward place in our lives for us to believe that anything can get any different.

00;09;05;23 - 00;09;26;16
Unknown
And so someone that's never struggled telling us that it can get different, like we don't. I didn't believe that. Right. But if someone that's been in it and they can tell me their stories and they can go toe to toe with me with all the dumb stuff I've done, and yet they're now doing better. Yeah. All of a sudden now I'm thinking maybe, maybe there's some hope and we really need that glimmer in order to, like, get on the right path.

00;09;26;18 - 00;09;48;11
Unknown
It that's so true that that's so true because you're you're you're in a position, to where you've been through it before. And I mean, like I said, going down those dark places, you're like, I'll never get out of this for sure. Never get I'll never get out of this. And then one thing and next thing happens, and next thing happens.

00;09;48;11 - 00;10;03;00
Unknown
And so tell me about tell me about your how to how to somebody do a Ted talk. Like how did this all happen. You know, I, I still don't know exactly because I've applied for a lot of them. But now is the only one that ever responded. Right. So I think it's the volume game, right? You just, you know, you apply to a bunch.

00;10;03;00 - 00;10;22;26
Unknown
And if somebody likes your story and it resonates with their theme, then, you know, potentially you get picked. And, it was a really cool opportunity. It's something I've always wanted to do to to share my story and like my ideas around, you know, addiction and mental health and like, how we can do it better. Yeah. So with, with, with the Ted talk, I mean, it has there have been anyone that's reached out to you?

00;10;22;26 - 00;10;40;11
Unknown
Is there been anyone that said, hey, this has really helped me. I've gotten it here and there. Yeah. More so I think I've gotten, other people that have reached out and said, hey, do you want to come chat about this? And so, you know, I would love to say I'm this, highly paid public speaker.

00;10;40;11 - 00;11;01;17
Unknown
Now, I am not, but I've had a lot of opportunities to do unpaid public speaking stuff, which is I just really enjoy it because I feel like, you know, if it touches one person, it's worth it. So. Yeah, for sure. So the, the, tell me a little bit about how you decided that I'm going to start, I'm going to start the recovery center.

00;11;01;17 - 00;11;18;18
Unknown
I'm going to, I'm going to go that route versus doing business or something like that. Yeah. So just a little bit kind of fill in that gap in my story. So got out of business school, started a business and pet cremation, which was, you know, our goal was to make the worst day for a pet owner a little easier.

00;11;18;19 - 00;11;34;27
Unknown
Sure. And, the business grew like a weed. It was great. We had locations in eight states. We had, you know, major veterinary contracts. And while the business is going like this, I was just imploding at it. And so, you know, I imploded for a while before I got help. Eventually stepped down from that business, went to treatment.

00;11;34;27 - 00;11;54;18
Unknown
Not right away. I just I was like, oh, if I do it on here, it wasn't for the entrepreneur. The stress of entrepreneurship, I wouldn't drink so much. Yeah, right. If it wasn't for this, if I could just change this, then I wouldn't have a problem anymore. I quickly realized that was not the case. And so eventually I went and got help, a couple times and, went to Cambodia for three months.

00;11;54;18 - 00;12;10;23
Unknown
Just lived in a temple there practicing meditation and yoga full time. Really? Which was awesome. You know, army guy from the South doing meditation. Yeah. Yeah. Right. But it was great for me. And so, you know, I kind of came back from that experience right before Covid and it was like, what do I do now?

00;12;10;25 - 00;12;26;28
Unknown
You know, I'm kind of this, you know, wounded duck, so to speak. I'm feeling better, but I'm. I'm a wounded duck. And, like, I kind of have a black mark, you know, and so, like. But I'm also really passionate about what I just went through. And so how do I take something that I'm passionate about and find an opportunity?

00;12;26;28 - 00;12;44;29
Unknown
And I think, you know, I mean, even the pet cremation thing, I was passionate about animals I love, I love animals, I love pets. And so finding something that I'm passionate about and then making that part of my mission was really helpful. And I think that this space really lends to it. Right. You know, there are a lot of things we do, right, in addiction treatment.

00;12;45;06 - 00;13;10;12
Unknown
There are a lot of things we don't do right. And so I felt like there was an opportunity to kind of combine my life experience with my entrepreneur hat of like, let's define the problem, let's figure out a better solution. What what are some of those? What are the what's your philosophy? What are some of those things that, you know, so first recovery does that maybe the another place doesn't do so so the first thing you know, we think about rehab, right.

00;13;10;13 - 00;13;37;21
Unknown
Residential level care. And then we think about, you know, the rooms Alcoholics Anonymous smart recovery. And between there there's this giant gap of like I can go to some meetings and get some peer support or I can be, you know, in a facility for 30 days. Well, what's between so and, and I think, you know, to date for some like, you know, systemic business reasons, there hasn't been a lot of focus put on that because it's it's kind of too small for the big private equity firms to care about.

00;13;37;23 - 00;13;58;11
Unknown
And so, I felt like what we needed to do was give people the opportunity to have intensive treatment, which we call IOP treatment. It's not novel that it exists. I think it's novel that it's done really well. IOP treatment or partial hospitalization just means you're there all day. But how do we make that better so that people are being exposed to the triggers of life?

00;13;58;11 - 00;14;15;11
Unknown
They're not in the box in rehab. Yeah, but yet they still have a lot of support. And so that's really where we fit in. And I feel like within that level of care, there was a lot of, just don't drink mentality. Yep. Which is great. I mean, that's a great philosophy. Just don't drink. It's easy if you're not an alcoholic.

00;14;15;14 - 00;14;39;05
Unknown
That's a hard if you are. And so for me, I felt like if we could take that level of care and really address the whole person and really start to get down into like trauma and PTSD and depression and anxiety, really get down into these some of these deep emotional wounds and like things we believe about ourself, we could start to put people in a better position so that now they can go to those meetings in the community and that can keep them sober.

00;14;39;07 - 00;14;47;03
Unknown
That's awesome. That that's awesome because you're really you're you're at the root, right? Or you're, you're trying to trying to get to trying to try to tackle the root.

00;14;47;03 - 00;15;01;17
Unknown
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00;15;01;17 - 00;15;17;25
Unknown
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00;15;17;25 - 00;15;26;22
Unknown
what, what was important about, having your business in Jacksonville, having the the the recovery in Jax? I mean, it kind of felt like it was full circle to me, right?

00;15;26;25 - 00;15;44;10
Unknown
Because I hadn't lived in Jacksonville for about 20 years. You know, I've been gone, and, you know, they always say don't make any big changes in the first year of sobriety. So I changed everything. You know, I took some of the suggestions. Not all of them. But it did allow me to change those, like, people, places and things that were associated with my behavior before.

00;15;44;12 - 00;15;59;07
Unknown
And so it's kind of nice to come home. And I feel like being home and being a part of this community, even though I didn't have any connection, so to speak. I've always felt connected to Jacksonville. Yeah. And so it really feels special to be able to, like, help people in what I consider my community.

00;15;59;07 - 00;16;23;09
Unknown
Right? You know, to start to heal and get better. And it it impacts more than just the person, right? It impacts the family. It empowers, the employers, you know, the employees, whatever it might be. So for those, you know, those people that haven't been around AA rooms or around, you know, people that are struggling, it affects everyone that they touch.

00;16;23;15 - 00;16;42;24
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, personally, I can tell you, like, employers, family chill, like it fact it affects everyone. And so that is, there's a it's a, it's a big spiderweb. And that was one of the biggest lies, I think I told myself, when I was in active addiction. Yeah. Was that. I'm only hurting myself. Yeah. I really believe that.

00;16;42;26 - 00;17;01;21
Unknown
I'm not hurting anybody else. I'm not. I'm not out there, you know, getting into fights and, like, I'm not. I wasn't driving drunk much. I probably did, but I wasn't doing some of the things where it's like, oh, that person is hurting other people. But like my mom, my employees, my customers, my family. Like, they're worried about me, right?

00;17;01;22 - 00;17;20;01
Unknown
You know, they care. And so, you know, I think I underestimated and I think we have a tendency, you know, as alcoholics and acts to underestimate the people in our life that are that are hurting as a result of our struggle. I think that you go back, you go back and go, oh, man, I can't I can't even imagine doing some of those things now, right?

00;17;20;01 - 00;17;47;28
Unknown
Yeah. Like I can't imagine, but I but I did, I did, yeah. So let's kind of talk about the veterans. Right. So you obviously are a veteran. And I mean, that is something that you talk about PTSD, right? That's a, that's a word that, you know, how how deep is it like so so I want to distinguish two things.

00;17;47;28 - 00;18;09;07
Unknown
So, PTSD is obviously a big issue. There's another issue I think it's closely related. It's called operator syndrome. And effectively what that means. So I don't have a moment that I can point to where I'm like, that's where I got PTSD. Got it. Because technically it's a moment or a series of moments where it's like this one event that plagued you for a long time, your body and your brain react differently.

00;18;09;09 - 00;18;28;04
Unknown
With operator syndrome. What it means is I was in Iraq for 12 months. I wasn't Afghanistan for 15 months. During that whole time, I always had to be concerned that there was a tiger lying around the corner trying to eat me. Yeah, right. And so I was hyper vigilant for a very long period of time, not PTSD.

00;18;28;07 - 00;18;46;10
Unknown
Right. Because I don't have that specific trauma, but it manifests in the body very similarly. Yeah. So some of these people that say, oh, well, I don't have any right to be, to feel this way because I didn't lose my friend on the battlefield or whatever. You were also hyper vigilant for 15 straight months, and now you have to come back and you have to sit in an Applebee's.

00;18;46;12 - 00;19;06;17
Unknown
And what do you do? You sit your back to the corner, to the wall. You know, where all the exits are. And the stress that that puts on the body and mind is just unbelievable. That's deep. So I need me to think about that, I can't, I wow, so PTSD is its own thing. And a lot of people that don't have PTSD still struggle for reasons that are, you know, that's not in the DSM five yet.

00;19;06;19 - 00;19;28;14
Unknown
So it's not a diagnosable, you know, mental condition, but it is one that we've noticed over and over again. And a lot of literature is starting to pick up on. So I mean that, that that has got you're constantly on super awareness, right. Like, I mean besides maybe at home like, yeah, going out doing things like you're just you dialed in I can imagine.

00;19;28;14 - 00;19;53;29
Unknown
Yeah. I mean, and nothing that has ever happened to me at an Applebee's. Right. So I mean, I have no reason to, to be concerned, but yet my body doesn't know that. My brain doesn't know that, is there, not a specific time that that that you're like, oh, I'm cured. I mean, but during the recovery, is it, things get better.

00;19;54;02 - 00;20;14;06
Unknown
Is it is it constant treatment? Like what? What what does that look like? So that you're that you guys do? Yeah. So what I've noticed is there are a few kind of key markers where things tend to get a little better. Yeah. And I think it's probably just a spectrum. But for me, I kind of say when you get 30 days of sobriety and in treatment.

00;20;14;06 - 00;20;34;23
Unknown
So not just 30 days of white knuckling it and drinking, but like 30 days of getting treatment and in sobriety you start to feel a little more regulated. Your body starts to heal. You're not having any of those, acute withdrawals anymore. The post acute withdrawals is what we call them. Some of these things like feeling irritable, feeling tired, those might last for a year, right?

00;20;34;23 - 00;20;52;13
Unknown
They might. But around the 90 day mark we start to see those drop off too. So now you're starting to feel really like relaxed. And the risk that we run there is a thing called the pink cloud. Where where you feel like you've solved the problem. Nothing's good. And that's that's a danger point for us, because if we're okay, then maybe we can drink casually.

00;20;52;17 - 00;21;09;22
Unknown
Maybe I can use casually, maybe I can, you know, revert back to some of these old behaviors and I'm okay now. I fix my myself. Well, I've, I've experimented with that as well. Yeah. It doesn't work for me. Yeah. And then I think there's another point, probably around a year where you're like, okay, like, I'm not thinking about it much anymore.

00;21;09;25 - 00;21;27;23
Unknown
You know, it's not it's not occupying my mind anymore. I don't have these, like, cravings. It doesn't mean I can't go back and relapse. I certainly can have. But it doesn't mean that I can't do that. But what it does mean is that it's going to take a lot more than, you know, bad traffic this morning for me to feel like I need to pick up.

00;21;27;23 - 00;21;54;12
Unknown
Sure. So I mean that that that right there is something that, I mean, I know for myself is like, okay, as you just go, it gets easier, easier, easier. But that first year's tough first year is tough. That first year is tough. Yeah. Yeah. And you know I've had to do that first year more than once. And the challenge with that is it's like it feels like it's just as tough.

00;21;54;12 - 00;22;20;03
Unknown
The second time. It's like totally not worth it, you know, to go out and do research as we say. Do research. Yeah. With, your recovery, what is what does that look like for someone that is struggling? Someone that's struggling, that's thinking about I need to I need to get help. I needed, like, what does that look like for somebody that, could be watching now?

00;22;20;03 - 00;22;36;00
Unknown
Could be like, what does that look like for somebody to get in touch with, with, with you and. And what is that? What does that look like? Yeah. So whether it's you that's struggling or whether it's a family member, I would say about 60 or 70% of our first calls come from a family member. And that's okay too.

00;22;36;01 - 00;22;51;05
Unknown
We can give them a little push to it doesn't mean that they'll get do it if they're not ready. But, you know, we can try. Generally what we do is we just schedule an assessment. And what we mean by assessment is it's an opportunity for you to come in, look at the place, get a tour, sit down and talk with us, tell us what's going on.

00;22;51;08 - 00;23;07;05
Unknown
We get to hear your story, make sure you're appropriate for care at our level. Right. Because if you've been drinking, you know, a handle a day, you might have a seizure. And you know, we're not a medical. We're not a we're not a full medical facility. And so it's a chance for us to get to know you and you to get to know us.

00;23;07;07 - 00;23;27;11
Unknown
And then you decide, we'll give you our recommendation, and you can decide to do it that way. You will. And we don't charge anything for that, you know? And if somebody wants to get started, they get started that day. But it's really just a phone call, you know, a phone call to our team. And, you know, if you're not appropriate for us and we know right away, whatever that might be, we'll just find you somewhere that is, you know, there's there's help.

00;23;27;11 - 00;23;46;08
Unknown
Even if it's not even if it's if it's not yours. I think that's the that's the biggest thing is that if, if, if you know a family member, but especially if you're the person and you're ready, like, yeah, even if you're not ready, that's a phone call. Even if you're not ready and you think maybe you want to learn a little more, right?

00;23;46;08 - 00;24;09;02
Unknown
It's like, I'm not quite ready. Okay, fine. Come in. Maybe what you'll find is that it's not so scary, you know, after all. And we try to make it super comfortable. It's not. It doesn't feel like you're going to a hospital, you know? Would you, I think I know the answer to this, and. And would you say that, you know, life can get better and life does get better when you're not when you're not using it?

00;24;09;05 - 00;24;29;19
Unknown
Oh, man. I mean, I think about my life now, you know, I back in 2018, like, I didn't want to be around anymore. You know, I was ready to and I was ready to be done with this world, you know. And and now it's like, I'm gaged I'm getting a new house. I've got, you know, a cat, I've got a business, I've got employers, I've got people I health like that.

00;24;29;19 - 00;24;47;09
Unknown
I mean, my life is so dramatically different. It's almost it's almost hard to believe it was the same person. Yeah. And so, you know, can I get that story? Yeah, but not just better. It's completely different. Right? It's, you know, it's almost as if, like that old person is gone and there's a new person here now.

00;24;47;10 - 00;25;13;20
Unknown
Yeah. You know, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know. Yeah, I get it. Tell me, how do you think your, from the from the business side? How do you think that your, military background, you know, your, your MBA, how do you think that's helped with your, with your business now? Yeah. So I think the military gets a bit of a bad rap when it comes to leadership.

00;25;13;23 - 00;25;34;02
Unknown
You know, people watch movies and they think that it's this kind of like top down, you know, you do this, you do this. And I think that one of the things I learned in the military was like, how to really care about your people, like, you know, care about who they are, learn, learn things about their family, like support them in their life ventures, that it's because the military is so intertwined with your life.

00;25;34;02 - 00;25;51;02
Unknown
Yeah. We we incorporate a lot more of that. And I think that's kind of carried over to now, you know, when someone is struggling, like, I want to help them the best I can. I mean, I'm not perfect, far from it, but but I try to and I think people see that. And so I think that part of there were things I did adjust about my leadership style.

00;25;51;02 - 00;26;11;23
Unknown
But I think that part of it about, you know, being mission driven. Yeah. And really caring about your people, I guess humans. I think that carried over really well, and I think from the MBA side is really about how to structure the potential answers to a problem. You know, at Bain, I worked at Bain for a couple of years, too.

00;26;11;23 - 00;26;27;19
Unknown
I left it out. But really what we always did was like, what do I need to believe in order to believe that this is true? So in order to believe that Saros people will come to Sock Ross, I need to believe that, you know, we can do it the right way. We provide a better solution than other people.

00;26;27;22 - 00;26;41;04
Unknown
There's a need and maybe something else. And then you can look at each one of those. You can break them down further. And so really starting to structure my thought in terms of like, what do I need to believe in order to believe that this is true? And then if so, then then the military kicks in. It's like, all right, go.

00;26;41;06 - 00;27;15;19
Unknown
That's awesome. That that, the piece that you were talking about with the military and the family, I mean, that there are companies and there's companies that I try to emulate my company, but it all is with the people. Yeah, it's all with the people and the you know, I mean, if you look at the, you know, longevity of of, you know, business wise and people staying whatever, it's that you truly care if you really, really care and you really get to know people not on, you know, a numbers, platform, then it it helps tremendously.

00;27;15;19 - 00;27;36;09
Unknown
So I'm glad you I'm glad you talked. You know, we have I think we have the best curriculum. I think we have the nicest facility where we're actually located right by town center. Okay. So that's pretty close to everything. But if we didn't have the right people to deliver that, none of it would matter. You know, none of it would matter if my therapist weren't going to call someone in crisis at 6 p.m. on a Friday.

00;27;36;11 - 00;27;51;24
Unknown
You know, I mean, none of it would matter, right? And I know Herb Kelleher, the CEO of southwest or founder of southwest. Yeah. You know, he said, I'll take my business plan and leave it on a Delta flight. He said, I don't care. It's like nobody can execute it. And I really feel like that's what it comes down to is, yes, the plan is important.

00;27;51;25 - 00;28;12;08
Unknown
Yes, the facility is important. And if you don't execute on it, none of it matters. Yeah. That's that's so good that that that's so good. There's just my mind just went to like, three different things. Yeah. Three different things. Like. Okay everybody, you know, everybody tries to keep their secrets. You know, sometimes it's like, man, just whatever.

00;28;12;14 - 00;28;44;01
Unknown
Because if you execute on it, then, you know, how about it? For sure it's harder to execute than than just the plan. So that's awesome. Anyone that is listening right now, that's that's struggling. What would you say to that person? Nothing changes if nothing changes, right? Do something right. Do something different. Because by now, if you're asking yourself that question, you've probably tried some other ways to fix the problem.

00;28;44;08 - 00;28;58;22
Unknown
You've probably tried to do it your own way. You've said, hey, I'm not going to drink during the week, or I'm, I'm going to I'm going to get up every morning and I'm going to do my morning routine and go for a walk and walk my dog and eat. You're depression. It's not fixing itself. So do something different, right?

00;28;58;22 - 00;29;17;14
Unknown
Try something different. And I know that's easier said than done for a lot of us, right? Because we're down in this place. But like if you can't do it yourself, there are those of us out here whose sole mission it is to help. Right. So that's your mission. Just reach out. You know, all you have to do is make a phone call, and things can start in a dramatically different direction, you know, with, with, with the right help.

00;29;17;14 - 00;29;40;16
Unknown
It sounds like you're, you know, you're you're yourself and your team is just that dialed in with a with that mission. I 100% believe that. That's awesome. Where can people learn more about, so for us, and we're, you know, where can people learn more about that? Yeah. So our website is just soft rose recovery.com/rose recovery.

00;29;40;16 - 00;29;58;06
Unknown
That's all I said. So for us first time I met up for us. Well so the word real quickly the word comes from the Greek words the frosting. Okay. So when Pandora's box was opened, all the bad stuff was released that we know about. Don't open Pandora's box. So frosty was the counterbalancing spirit that allowed us to have judgment and moderation in light of all the stuff in the world.

00;29;58;09 - 00;30;19;03
Unknown
So that's where Soft Roast comes from. I just shortened it. Oh, but yeah, just go to Soft recovery.com to our webpage, or just give us a call 904 4401479. Any, any closing thoughts that that you might have, just goes back to, like, it can get better. Yeah. No, I can get better for you. You can get better for your loved ones.

00;30;19;03 - 00;30;51;23
Unknown
Like a year from now, things can be unrecognizable. Different. Yeah. I truly believe that as well. So, you've been awesome to have on here. We appreciate your what you're doing in general, but what you're doing, you know, for a lot of families, a lot of people in our community, it's just it's awesome. Obviously the, you know, the the care that goes into that and, the mission that you that you've got, I mean, you could do a lot of different things and you've put yours towards, you know, recovery and, and help.

00;30;51;23 - 00;30;59;17
Unknown
So we appreciate that and in appreciate the city of Jacksonville. Well that helps keep this over something. Oh good. Yeah. Well pleasure. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you.

00;30;59;17 - 00;31;13;25
Unknown
The Hometown Jack's podcast is recorded and produced by First Coast Mortgage Funding. Located in the heart of Jacksonville. Do you want to be our next guest? Visit our website at Hometown Jack's podcast.com. We can't wait to hear your story.