How I Made It Into Recovery

As we come to the end of National Recovery Month, I wanted to share how I got into recovery. This photo was taken in July 2007 after dinner. Looking at it, I can tell that I’ve had lots to drink. My face is puffy and my cheeks a little red.

The thing is we don’t know what’s going on in the inside for another person. Others that night probably didn’t even know I was drunk. I wasn’t yet ready to concede defeat to my alcoholism then, but the journey to recovery had started, even if I didn’t know it.

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Dealing with Issues that Affect Your Legacy

Listen as coach, leader, legacy builder, and podcaster Lois Sonstegard interviews me on her Building My Legacy Podcast where we talk about these issues that impact your legacy as an entrepreneur:

  • How difficult and emotional big business transitions can be.
  • Moving through your fears.
  • How I used alcohol to cope with fear, stress, and the challenges of running a business.
  • My path through recovery from alcoholism.
  • The importance of a good coach to an entrepreneur.
  • There is hope no matter what you suffer from or with.
  • Have empathy for anyone who is suffering from alcoholism or addiction.

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NIAAA: Multiple Ways to Recover from Alcohol Use Disorder

The NIAAA is the American National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Addiction. NIAAA is the leading US organization focused on research around alcoholism, addiction, and recovery.

The NIAAA Alcohol Research Current Reviews has just published their latest research findings on the multiple ways we can recover from alcohol use disorder. I have collected all the articles and links here to make it easy for entrepreneurs and CEOs who are in recovery to find and read.

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Podcast: Beyond Belief Sobriety with Coach David Greer

John Sheldon hosts the Beyond Belief Sobriety podcast. I had the privilege of being a guest on John’s podcast where we had a wide-ranging conversation that touched on these topics:

  1. My story of recovery: what it was like, what happened, what it is like now.
  2. How entrepreneurial coach Kevin Lawrence was the first person I admitted I had a drinking problem to and how he coached me to going to 12-step recovery.
  3. Why I became a business coach.
  4. How John relates to the coaching in his work as a manager and in motivating people in his recovery work.
  5. My decision to focus on coaching and facilitating with entrepreneurs who struggle with alcohol or who have struggled with alcohol in the past.
  6. Why only some people are ready for coaching or recovery.
  7. Making conscious decisions in your life and how important it is to carve out time and energy to do things that are only for you.
  8. The power of holding space and listening to another person.
  9. How I was adopted at birth and my journey in discovering my birth parents.
  10. How alcohol is normalized in business situations and how difficult it can be for someone in recovery to navigate those drinking situations.

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Video: Are any of my employees alcoholics?

One in twenty adults in the US and Canada have alcohol use disorder. If you are a business owner, entrepreneur, or CEO with more than twenty employees you likely have one that is an alcoholic. Many women have challenges with alcohol just like men. Just because they are high performers, have a “normal” outside life, don’t slur their words, or fall down doesn’t mean that an employee isn’t an alcoholic. I fit all of those and I’m still an alcoholic. The key is to be curious, rather than in denial, if you think you have an employee with an alcohol problem.

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