Brandon Novak's Story - From Jackass to Helping Others | Ep 036

➡️ About the Guest: Brandon Novak

Embark on a profound journey with Brandon Novak, where soaring heights meet the darkest of depths. His story—one of both spectacular skateboarding fame and a fierce battle with addiction—is not just a tale to be heard but an experience to absorb. In a raw and honest conversation, we trace Brandon's remarkable path from a young skateboarder, enchanted by the freedom of his craft, to a star in the "Jackass" and "Viva La Bam" world, where his life spiraled into a relentless struggle with substance abuse. Together with Brandon, we dissect the labyrinth of addiction recovery, revealing the grit and reality behind the glossy façade. He opens up about his initial denial, the numerous attempts at rehab, and the life-saving advice from a mentor that only hit home after many years. His narrative is a striking illustration of the fact that the route to sobriety is uniquely tailored, forged from the fires of personal tribulation and shaped by moments of clarity. Brandon's nearly decade-long sobriety and his dedication to helping others on their recovery journey serve as a beacon of hope, proving that the return to life's summit is possible with unwavering support and self-confrontation.

➡️ Chapters
(00:02) Brandon Novak
(11:30) Journey to Recovery Through Pain
(24:46) Overcoming Addiction and Finding Hope
(32:30) Journey to Recovery and Success
(36:48) Life Transformation Through Friendship and Success
(43:49) Journey to Recovery and Sobriety
(56:33) Addressing Addiction

➡️ Highlights
(01:13 - 02:57) Brandon Novak (104 Seconds)
(07:04 - 08:17) Influence of Criminal Father (74 Seconds)
(14:03 - 15:10) Escape From Reality (67 Seconds)
(20:10 - 20:32) Battle With Addiction Cycle (22 Seconds)
(24:28 - 25:31) Internal Struggle Amid Changing Locations (63 Seconds)
(32:29 - 33:32) Life-Changing Decision to Enter Rehab (63 Seconds)
(45:44 - 47:01) Staying Sober Through Daily Routine (77 Seconds)
(50:00 - 51:42) Sober Living Homes for Recovery (102 Seconds)
(58:06 - 58:43) Navigating Personal History and Present (37 Seconds)

➡️ More about the guest: Brandon Novak
Website: https://brandonnovak.com/
The Streets of Baltimore: https://brandonnovak.com/product/the-streets-of-baltimore/
Dreamseller: https://brandonnovak.com/product/signed-dreamseller-book/
Recovery Homes: Redemption Addiction Treatment - https://brandonnovak.com/redemption-addiction-treatment/
Phone Number for Help: 610-314-6747
To Donate to the Centers: https://brandonnovak.com/novaks-house-payment/

Connect with our Hosts:
Stacey: https://www.instagram.com/staceymgrant/
Mark: https://www.instagram.com/mark_lubragge_onair/

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➡️ Thanks for watching - Brandon Novak | Ep 36
Skateboarding, Addiction, Recovery, Sobriety, Professional Sk

Transcript

00:02 - Stacey (Host)
This was one I was really looking forward to to talk to this human being, brandon Novak who most people know from. Jackass or Viva La Bam. We're here in our studio in Westchester, so we get to talk about our studio in Westchester, because he loves Westchester and he has tons of memories here and he was just mesmerizing is the word that comes to mind. 

00:24 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, no, that's a good word. I was saying to you, stacey, just right before we started recording this, that I have never been more in tune waiting for the next word to come out of our guest's mouth than Brandon Novak. What a story. What a story. Start to finish at the age of? I mean he started his story, I guess, around eight years old, seven years old. His story starts at seven years old and there's so much that happens to him and now, through him, positive things that you're going to love this. It's going to be a great time spent. 

00:55 - Stacey (Host)
World-renowned skateboarder celebrity, and also the other side of that, where he was. 

01:01 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, the darker side, the darker side, yeah. 

01:07 - Stacey (Host)
Of addiction, heroin, sleeping on benches, and then back to now where he is now, where he's inspiring and motivating people and helping those who are addicted too. 

01:13 - Mark (Host)
So it was yeah, such a raw story, so articulate, so well told let's get right to it brandon novak hi, I'm stacy and I am mark, and this is the Gurus of Game Changers podcast. 

01:30
Welcome everybody. Today's guest is known by many of you, I'm sure, but likely for many different reasons. Some of you will remember him as a 14-year-old prodigy who burst into the world of professional skateboarding and rolled with the legends. Some of you may remember him as a cast member on movies, tv shows like Jackass and Viva La Bam. And some of you likely know of his very public struggles with addiction that were so consuming that at one point his own mother had bought him a cemetery plot because she was painfully convinced that she was going to get that call. And through it all up to today, he's built a home Not just one home, but six homes where other struggling humans can go to find their redemption from their addiction. This man is Brandon Novak. Brandon, welcome to Gurus and Game Changers, buddy. 

02:20 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Okay, that was very, very kind and really endearing, and to say that I'm grateful is an understatement. You know, um, and and I'm really happy to be here today. And, more importantly, I look back. I look for any reason to make it back to westchester. It's a very nostalgic area for me. It's some of the best times of my life by far took place in this town. Some of the worst times of my life took place. 

02:45
I had my last drink literally before I got sober, right up here at the corner and passing it coming here. You know it took me back to that day. Westchester was home for so long. 

02:56 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah, we love it. We love it. I want to reel it back, though I want to reel it back to when you were seven years old and you got that first skateboard and you slept with it that night. According to everything I've seen, I believe that. 

03:07 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
I truly believe that every one of us are blessed with a God given talent, wholeheartedly. Unfortunately, I believe a lot of people don't find what that talent is. You could be the best ping pong player in the world, but God might not see fit to put a paddle in your hand. For me, at seven, my mother had given me a skateboard that night when she put me to bed, and I had no previous introduction to skateboarding Right, I had never seen it on TV, I never saw it in a magazine, a neighbor wasn't doing it, nothing that made me want to aspire or even think of it Really nothing at all. And it was magical. 

03:49
And to this day, at 45, I can recall that night the feeling I had. When you know talk about euphoric, it was better than any high I'd ever, you know, encountered later on in life. And it's funny thinking about it now, talking out loud, I always say that skateboarding did for me at a very young age what drugs and alcohol did for me at a later age. Right, like you, you give me that skateboard at the age of seven and you put me in a room with the world's prettiest models. I'll not only believe that they've been waiting for me, but that they're dying to marry me right and but and later on. 

04:27
I don't know what the fuck you're laughing at. 

04:29 - Stacey (Host)
That's not a joke. I love that. No, I think it's phenomenal. I love that, but later on down the road. 

04:36 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Drugs and alcohol would produce that same delusional narrative you know, that I really bought into. So it was something magical the moment that that board touched my hand and and I knew that, like this is what I was going to spend the rest of my life doing, and and I it's so hard to stay on one topic without taking it to others, but skateboarding raised me. 

04:57
It was, and, and, even in today's society, it's guided me and and and and held me and, and, and helped me and and created me to be a successful man, by the ethics and the morals and the values that I have that are a direct connection to skateboarding at seven, you know, and it's the glue that holds everything together, literally so how did tony hawk find you? Being from baltimore, you know baltimore isn't known as like um. You know there's. 

05:25
There's states and countries that are known to be like the mecca for skateboarding, and Baltimore isn't one of those right but one of the best skateboarders to date came out of Baltimore and his name was Bucky Lasek and he rode for pal. And yeah, obviously I was a kid coming up in that world and that had became my thing to just literally fixate, eat, breathe and sleep skateboarding. So I knew who was good. I recognized who Bucky was and I dressed like him, I acted like him, I skated like him. He took me under his wing because he saw the potential that I had. He originally got me sponsored by Pal Peralta, which then is who Tony Hawk rode for and I then started going out to California with Bucky and we'd stay at Tony Hawk's house and that was my introduction into that whole world. Wow. 

06:19 - Stacey (Host)
But you were really young, right, compared to everyone else. 

06:21 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
You were skateboarding with. 

06:22 - Stacey (Host)
Yeah Is that how you first found the drug scene or what happened? The? 

06:26 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
drug scene was introduced to me by my father, my mother. She is everything to me and if I could be a quarter of who she is as a human being, I've arrived in this world, love your relationship with your mom Totally, and I had a father who was around just enough to let us know that he wasn't around and he was an addict. His father was an addict, so I firmly believe that I was genetically predisposed. My mother was not. My brother and sister, who are both by a different man, are not. 

07:04 - Stacey (Host)
It's just me and my lineage. 

07:06 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
But he was selling drugs and he ran with the Hells Angels and he spent a lot of his time incarcerated. So I was almost unbeknownst to being groomed to become that. It was just kind of happening. He would take me with him when he would go to conduct his business Sometimes it's strip joints. He'd be in the back and they put me at the bar and the the, the pretty dancing girls would sit me, you know, in these chairs and pour shots of ginger ale and coca-cola into the shot glasses. 

07:37 - Mark (Host)
So I was like you're being groomed indoctrinated into the world whether you knew it or not. 

07:41 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Yeah, yeah, and my father would like give me that little approval, and the girls would like applaud and you know so unbeknownst to me it's part of who you were as a kid, for sure, growing up it was the norm and my father kind of sold a lot of drugs and later on in life, you know, we did drugs together. We did drugs together. We fist fought in the street on many nights. We, you know, called the police on each. It was just a really toxic thing and ultimately he had overdosed and died as a direct result of his addiction to crack cocaine. 

08:18 - Mark (Host)
Right, how long ago was that Long? 

08:20 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
time. Yeah, yeah, I was maybe 20s. 

08:23 - Mark (Host)
Oh, you were still young. 

08:27 - Stacey (Host)
Really long time. Yeah, yeah, I was maybe 20s. Oh, you were still young, really. Yeah, okay for sure, but so that was happening and then you were also on the scene in the skateboarding world. 

08:31 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
So because I know that Tony Hawk at one point tried to throw you a lifeline well, it was just ironic it that, like I, would witness my father go through this and in the the mayhem and confusion and chaos he would cause at home, while my mother, you know, early on in life she had got a job drawing blood for Mercy Hospital. For five dollars apiece she would go on these blood runs, she would draw the blood and and take them into Mercy, and she was 17 years old at that point. She literally had worked her way up the ladder to become a nuclear physicist on the board of Mercy Hospital and, not so long ago, recently retired after 53 years of gainful employment. 

09:16 - Mark (Host)
She was the second longest employer of Mercy Hospital history. 

09:21 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
And so she was working her way up the ladder to become that executive, that boss. 

09:25 - Mark (Host)
All that time. 

09:25 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
And to be able to provide financially for a family of three because my father was not helping or giving, he was taking and hurting. So seeing that and recognizing the traumatic stuff he was creating within our family unit, I actually excelled at everything I did to prove why I would never become that man from a young age, later to just realize I had became him times 10. 

09:52 - Mark (Host)
Right, oh my gosh. But that's what fed your skateboarding Not only the passion and love, but a proof I went. I need to for sure. 

09:58 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Yeah, so like you know, skateboarding raised me. My mother would, because you know, Skateboarding raised me my mother would because, you know, leaving me at home with my father, his behavior was very erratic and sporadic, to say the least, like anything could happen at any time. So, recognizing that my mother would take me with her, I'd go on those blood runs, she'd go into the hospital. I'd literally skate in the parking garage all day and just roam around. So I have a very special place in my heart for healthcare workers and hospitals because I was literally raised by all them yeah and and skateboarding was like my outlet. 

10:29
It was my safety, it was my comfort and it was my also escape from, from that home life sure um, and at the time I thought that it was a very sick, toxic place. 

10:39
And how dare my father, you know, how could he? But after you know, doing a lot of work on myself internally and embarking on this spiritual journey, I've come to understand that that not only do I accept him for who he was, I love him for who he was and and he was, just as we all are, a sick man, who who exposed his sickness in different ways yeah, doing the best that he could with what he had. 

11:03
doing the best he could Because at the end of the day, we're all just human beings. We're not human doings. This thing doesn't come, this thing called life does not come with an instruction manual. You read this, you get this and you become that Like fuck we're just trying to figure it out. 

11:17 - Mark (Host)
That's it. 

11:26 - Stacey (Host)
And you're gonna make mistakes. Mistakes, yeah, right. Yeah, I just remember there's a story that you told where he knew he noticed that you were, you know, doing heroin he tried to get you to stop. 

11:30 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
My behavior started to shift. They started to change. 

11:32
I became kind of unreliable the same behavior as my father right sure and erratic and and, of course, the people that loved me, you know, reached out and were like where are you? What's going on? Why are you not being productive? Why you're not a part of um the scene? Why are you no longer doing what you love to do? And you know, and as they questioned my behaviors, I I redacted and just kind of like you know what. Maybe I don't want to be a part of this when, ultimately in life, everything I've learned is just kind of in retrospect right and I had no idea what was happening then. Today it's very clear for me to see that that my disease was just progressing and manifesting in areas that and that I had, that I was just ignorant to. I was ignorant to and you were. 

12:20 - Mark (Host)
I don't say it was an ultimatum, but maybe it was right an ultimatum. Either either you get clean or you get help, I should say, or you leave the team. 

12:28 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Yeah, my first of like many, many ultimatums. 

12:33 - Mark (Host)
Oh, got it. 

12:35 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
That became like the part for the course kind of deal. 

12:40 - Stacey (Host)
Do they work? Did they ultimatums? They don't work until they work. 

12:44 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Okay, again, that's the difficulty that this thing does not come with an instruction manual, especially with recovery and more so, addiction. Right like what worked for me, may very well not work for you, and you right, um, but I believe timing and alignment is everything, and it did not work until it worked and then looking back, because perspective is everything, yeah, right. 

13:06
So at my first attempt going into my first facility, that I thought was a fucking utter failure and waste of time had by all right, because I only went there to prove why I didn't belong or need to be there sure um and got loaded literally the moment I left there. I thought was like just a waste. But looking back, what I learned is I had one of my most profound experiences at that first attempt that I didn't recognize until years and years later what was? 

13:35
that. So I was in this facility, and I went in there with a closed mind and a closed heart to prove a point why I didn't belong that all of you that loved me were merely overreacting at best, like I got this, come on, I'm okay you just caught me at a bad time on a bad way in a bad day. Tomorrow will be different, so I went into this facility to prove a point why I wasn't any of you. I didn't belong. After all, you people were my father. I couldn't fucking stand you when. 

14:03
I looked at you, that's what I saw, the guy who I tried to escape from the majority of my life. And I'm 17 years old, I'm in Baltimore City, where I am born and raised, and I was given that first ultimatum. You know you go to treatment and you save your life. Can you escape with power or you have to leave the team and and abruptly I quit, yeah and um. What's funny, looking back, the disconnection from reality that had already taken place. The abnormal had become the normal and I had no fucking idea, and I haven't even had the pleasure of entering my first treatment center yet to start to acquire some knowledge or gain an understanding of of what the reality of my current situation looks like Right, like I'm just ignorant and I'm like so, and that's really profound if you think about that, which means that I have like a long life to live that's full of pain and anguish, aka addiction. 

14:59
But I go in there focusing, you know, only on why I don't belong the differences, not the similarities. Closed mind, closed heart, not willing to acquire any information or knowledge. And they take me into this room and this room's completely empty and they have me sit there and the woman leaves and, out of nowhere, this older black gentleman walks in and the room's completely empty. 

15:21
And he walks directly up to me and he uh, white boy, what are you doing here? I say heroin. He said how old are you? I said 17. He said do yourself a favor and don't turn 18 in a place like this. And as quick as he came he left. At the time he or I, had no idea the significance of that simple conversation was ever going to have in my life. And what I could tell you about that man is is where the four teeth were placed in his mouth. Right, because at the time I had all mine. Right, comparing out, proving a point why I don't belong, focusing only on the differences just to justify my current behaviors at the time. Right, justification and deflection, completely refusing to accept responsibility for my actions. Right, ignorant to all this shit at the time. But looking back, clear as day. And he's black, I'm white, he's 70 to 75, I'm 17. He smokes crack. I successfully do. 

16:17
Heroin is what I think at the time, right, he's homeless and I live with my mother, my girlfriend, so at the time I'm thinking man, I'm so grateful he found the answer for what he's in search of, and I mean this in my heart. What I can't tell you about that program was my therapist's name the relapse prevention package. They were trying to shove down my throat those healthy and unhealthy boundaries they're trying to instill in me. Because if I could tell you about those things, that means that I can relate to being one of you people and I want no part. You people are the people I hate the most in the world at the time, which is my father. So I leave that treatment center and I successfully complete it and I don't turn 18 in a place like that. So my mind immediately goes to how fucking dare this old man think that he could? 

17:02
predict my future Again. Those people have no idea what they're talking about. They don't understand who I'm so internally unique. I am not them, them or my father. You couldn't pay me to be at the time, but then I turned 19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 29, 32, 34, 35, 37, 38 in a jail or a treatment center. 

17:23
And every year I'd sit in whatever cell of a jail or a treatment center and every year I'd I'd sit in whatever uh cell of a jail I happen to be in or bed of a treatment center. I have to be in and think back to that older gentleman and say maybe if I just want to listen to him with an open mind and an open heart, I would not continuously create this outcome for myself, meaning that was fully self-induced, so life kind of being lived forward and learned backwards, unbeknownst to me, I started to become accountable for my actions. Even while still getting high. I was like starting to say, okay, like I bought this and being responsible for the part that I played and shit you know, so it worked backwards. That's crazy. 

18:01
Yeah, I get all in depth with shit, but that's crazy. 

18:02 - Mark (Host)
I get all in depth with shit, but yeah, no, I like it. So what was it? It was the 13th time, yeah, or 13th facility, yeah, that you went to, that. It clicked. 

18:10 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
And there was nothing different from 13 to 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7. 

18:14
Just, you were ready. Yeah, Timing and alignment. Timing and alignment the shit that they say at facilities is generally regurgitated and recycled. It it's a little bit different, you can put a little bit of a spin to it, but it's been things that have been passed down for for years and decades. Um, for me, what happened was at 38 I was no longer young anymore. I had been banned from every one of the bars here in town that I liked. True story like I. I couldn't even go out anymore because, like I wasn't allowed in, my friends would go and I'd be like, ah. 

18:48
I no longer had that feeling of being indestructible or indispensable. I saw the majority of my friends move on with life and get families and whatever made them happy homes, cars, whatever it is and I'm still stuck on stupid. I'm still sitting alone at a parking lot down here staring at the old house that I lived in, with my ex-fiance crying because she moved on and no one will take me like legit. 

19:16
That's where I ended here right down the street just staring at old house with my bag sitting next to me, nowhere to go, go. No one wanted me. I was like a stray dog that nobody wanted, not even exaggerating, and I knew that it didn't have to be that way. 

19:33
It didn't, the pain had become so great. Pain is the only motivating factor in my life that will dictate any form of change. I'm not the kind of guy where you get my attention with unmanageability. That's a Monday morning cup of tea for me. Yeah, the pain has to be so unbearable that I have no other option but to give you my undivided attention. And then I have to act quick, because that window of opportunity is generally the same size as like a $10 bill. Right, because I come up on a couple of bucks. I buy a bag of heroin, I ingest the drink or the drug and then all of a sudden I think that this is just an overreaction. Tomorrow will be different. 

20:10 - Stacey (Host)
And I mean that when I say that tomorrow will be different. 

20:13 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
But then I wake up tomorrow to repeat yesterday's actions and I'm stuck in groundhog's day for like another 20 years. And then, when I got sober, when I started to acquire the knowledge and information and no longer become ignorant about the disease that I possess, I realized that I was way off the mark. My problem had nothing to do with drugs and alcohol. 

20:32 - Stacey (Host)
Nothing. 

20:32 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Not one. Actually. The drugs and alcohol were the exact opposite of my problem. They were the solution to my problem. My problem was my thinking, my attitude, my behavior that always led me back to thinking that a shot of heroin or a glass of wine here at Moss was a great idea. 

20:49 - Stacey (Host)
But was it caused by some kind of trauma? I mean, it was your father, obviously, but were there other things? Do you think, because you hear, that drug addiction or any type of addiction is caused by some internal emotional trauma? Or, like you head down a path, like there's a gateway? 

21:04 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
drug or something yeah. 

21:07 - Stacey (Host)
But you're saying it was just you. 

21:08 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Yeah Well, I mean, I think I believe that it was genetically predisposed to my father. I can't bet the bank on that, but I would. 

21:14 - Stacey (Host)
Well, it makes sense. 

21:16 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
I believe I was kind of cultivated within that world or society where that made sense, kind of like if drugs are the answer, then what's the question? My question looked like how I was raised in a biker family that allowed me to kind of just. You know, for my uh, I'll never forget for my um. For my eighth birthday my father got me a pair of uh chaps and a little yz50 motorcycle I'd be in the garage with the bikers as they're like working on their Harleys. 

21:47
And I got these little chaps on with this little YZ50. And then he gave me, to go with that, a machete that for some reason he insisted I keep in the freezer. 

21:58 - Stacey (Host)
Why I don't know. Just in case, but that was his mentality. That was my eight-year-old. Oh, my gosh. 

22:06 - Mark (Host)
While accompanying him to the strip joint to go conduct his business and to me that seemed like the normal at the time, it seems like every interaction you have, I'll say every but the interactions you're describing with your dad is he was just molding you to be him yeah, his mindset, his experiences, yeah his day, because that was his norm, right, totally like why not he? Wasn't really thinking about raising his son no, thinking about like come here yeah stay with me, for sure and then understanding. 

22:30 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
You know more about addiction later on in life when I found, or was blessed with, recovery. The core of our disease, right the core where it lies is in our selfishness and self-centeredness yeah so it's me, me, me, me, me, and if I have, I have two seconds to spare you, but only if it's going to benefit me. 

22:49 - Stacey (Host)
So I was just benefiting my father. 

22:51 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, it sounds just like that. 

22:52 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
And then what would happen is my mother, who was like earning an honest day living, would come home and he'd say look, pat, I did great. He's been with me all day. 

23:01 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, he's been with me all day. Yeah Well, doing what I brought him back alive. 

23:04 - Stacey (Host)
Oh my God, we're not going to talk about what happened, but he's home safe. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'll see you later. Did your mom know what was going on? Yeah, yeah, totally. 

23:12 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
And obviously, I'm sure, not to the extent of Right, right, right yeah. For sure, but love's a crazy. 

23:19 - Stacey (Host)
Do you think your dad ever felt like he was doing something wrong when he was doing the drugs and selling the drugs? 

23:24 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Did he think that way, or I don't believe he just did that was his no you know, that was his reality. Yeah so when my mother would come home and that was not her reality, right? She was in this quote-unquote normal world, um, and say, rome, what are you doing? You know, he probably thought that she was out of her mind right, you know like when people would say to me like dude, why? 

23:46
why? At one time I was going to get sober by moving out of the country right after I had been to treatment multiple times. I was going to literally move to a different country. And when people laughed at my plan right, because I thought that it was literally across the world, I, I could go there. They didn't even the world. I could go there. They didn't even speak my language. I could go there. I could regroup, I could reassess, I could reevaluate, I could redo my life. Right, because I damn sure don't like the results that I'm receiving here in Westchester or in Baltimore and when they'd be like geez, that's insane. I'd be like you're fucking insane for thinking that my plans and believe it, like I'd pass a polygraph for thinking that you're insane for not understanding my plan. 

24:28
You know only to find out once I found myself in a place where I was willing to be open minded and listen to others, that the geographical change will not change the internal malady from which I suffer from, and I will only take me with me wherever you go, there you are. 

24:46 - Mark (Host)
Yeah, it's like you checked into that 13th facility. I'm still kind of fascinated because decades have gone by. Yeah of you telling yourself and telling others. 

24:54 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
I got this tomorrow will be different. Multiple, um. What was it in the beginning? Ultimatums, yeah. 

25:00 - Mark (Host)
Multiple right so many, yeah, I could, so you've conditioned yourself to fail again and again yeah again you tell yourself you're not even listening to yourself at this point yeah, all those years yeah you check in? Did you have it? Did you have the epiphany when you were walking toward the building day? 

25:15 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
three. So it's funny you say that I was right down the street here at the the courthouse, yeah and uh, I, michelle Ward she's largely in part to blame for my journey of sobriety and she was supposed to violate me. And I showed up in her office and she said and this is the day before Memorial Day and she said I'm going to give you one more chance. And she was a really nice woman. She really, you know, she didn't speak to me or at me, but with me, right, she made me feel humanized. She didn't just say what's your discharge plan? 

25:52
What's your drug of choice. 

25:54 - Stacey (Host)
Why'd you? 

25:54 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
fail the PIS test Like she really like saw me and that was nice. 

26:05
And because the way I lived for so long. Unfortunately, people had to love me from a distance right, because if you told me you loved me, I equated that to ten dollars, right like I got you, and I'm gonna be able to rip you off and manipulate you. I'm gonna con you and you're gonna do it, and then I'm gonna apologize and it's gonna be a wash rinse repeat. So finally got to a point where people just had to love me from a distance right rightfully so for the safety of them and me. But Michelle, she couldn't love me from a distance. She was tasked by the state to make sure that I follow rules, or else I go back to jail and I show up for an appointment and I'm dirty and she says I'm going to give you a chance. 

26:39
And I actually really begged for this chance and the pain was becoming so overwhelmingly unbearable and the delusional effect that drugs and alcohol always produced stopped showing up. That was largely, in part, a big reason why the jig was up, because, no matter how bad my life had gotten to that point, before I ingest a line of cocaine, a bag of heroin, a bottle of wine, this delusional effect is produced, which allows me to escape the reality that I have created for myself. So it not only makes like being homeless wandering the streets manageable, it makes it kind of like desirable right. It produces this delusional effect that is not real. And now, at 38, no matter how much drugs or alcohol I consume, that effect is no longer being produced. So I'm having that moment of clarity while under the influence and sober. 

27:43
It stopped working and it's largely in part because the worst thing I ever did for my alcoholism is I started to acquire some knowledge and it started from that first attempt, from that first man saying don't turn 18 in a place like this, as much as I thought it was a failure. I started to acquire this knowledge from these seeds that were being planted along the way, all unbeknownst to me. And now you know, 38 years old, everything in my life is shit. Everyone who I care about in my life has moved away. People's lives around me that aren't involved with me are getting better. I'm the only one staying stuck on stupid sitting in a parking lot alone with my belongings in this bag, as I stare at my old home, where my ex-fiance literally ran from Westchester and moved into Philly to escape me, and I'm just crying about the days that used to be, and I was like dude, this is is like what the fuck? Like I did, I'm doing this you know so I finally saw all the light. 

28:49
Yeah, so okay I forgot where I was going. Sorry, I zoned out. So so that happens. I go see michelle. Michelle says I'm gonna give you one more chance and she signs me up for an appointment down here at the outpatient center at the gaudensi, right across from the wawa, directly across, and I go there. I, I have my last. 

29:10
I'm sitting after I leave her office, right, the courthouse is right here, right behind the courthouse, at the top of, uh, new street where it kind of branches out. I'm in that parking lot, that's, and I, I, me and my ex lived at that corner house, okay, right next to the church. I'm staring there crying, and I see a buddy of mine who owns a business here in town, and he pulls by and he sees me and he's like what are you doing? And I'm like just make up a lie. And he's like you hungry? And I'm like, yeah, not hungry at all, but I know that if he takes me to eat, which he will here in town, I can, you know, order a handful of glasses of wine to kind of get away from how I feel right now. So we go to Moss and we sit here outside and I slice back like six or seven glasses of wine, who the owner of Moss, joanne, is a dear friend of mine, joanne and John. There have been nights where Joanne locked me in her office because everyone had kicked me out and and she didn't know what to do with me. And you know like people really Westchester came together and tried to help me as a whole so many times and then we finished that and I have him drop me off at my assessment down here and I remember going in there and I was so sick, I was so violently ill and withdrawing that it's an outpatient program and there were clients in there that were getting ready to go to group for the day and they look just like us now. 

30:27
I did not look like us now. I was in a really bad way and I remember getting, while I was waiting to be seen, I I got on my knees, I got on my side and in this fetal position and and tried to lay like under the chairs, like I almost wanted to get into the wall, just so people couldn't with my back too, because I didn't want anyone to be seen. And finally they call me and I go into the office and it's this older gentleman named Charles who worked there at the time. And a really nice guy and he's got me in his office and he's asking me a list of questions and I can't stand my skin, I can't sit up. I can't stand my skin, I can't sit up, I can't lay down. So again I get into that fetal position on the ground at his feet, almost like a dog, and he's asking me the questions and he goes okay, we'll see if we can get you a bed, but I wouldn't hold out on it. 

31:14
It's the holiday weekend this is Memorial Day, holiday weekend and he goes go outside and wait and I don't want to be in the waiting room. So I go sit outside on the curb and next to the curb is a cigarette butt receptacle and I'm literally just pulling cigarette butt after cigarette butt chain smoking. And my thought was because I had someone reach out to me that said they would give me a scholarship to a treatment center in Fort Lauderdale, florida. But the thought of me making it to Philadelphia airport through security and doing a three hour flight to get to Fort Lauderdale was the equivalent of like trying to climb Mount Everest with no hands or feet or eyes like that overwhelming. Yeah. So my thought was if I don't get this bed. The very best that I can do is outside of the building. There's a row of hedges that go around to kind of separate the building from just a pretty look aesthetically, and and I was like, okay, I'll just crawl around in between the hedges and the brick wall and I'm just going to lay here until something happens. 

32:13 - Mark (Host)
Hey guys, thanks for listening. If you like what you're hearing, please leave us a review, give us a follow, subscribe, subscribe all those things, all those things. We love it because we read each and every comment and it helps shape the show, so we would appreciate it. 

32:25 - Stacey (Host)
Please, and back to the show. 

32:29 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Like that was. That's where I was. Wow, like legit I, I, the fight was over. I I literally had no more dog in this fight. I was just physically, mentally, emotionally fucking. I couldn't even walk, I couldn't even sit up. And he came out and he said we got you a bed. And the reason why they got me a bed? Because I had been to this program a few times before and I did well I'd always done well in there. I was, you know, kind of wasn't a problem, and I've done interviews since and they're like were you depressed in rehab? And I'm like no, I was depressed before I got that bed, but the moment they told me a bed was available, it was like I hit the mega millions where most people would be like oh, I'm going back to rehab I was like. 

33:12
And at that moment, on my journey into rehab, they picked me up one of those kind of druggie buggies, those little van deals, and on my way there, every one of those seeds that were planted along my journey just like fucking erupted, like they were on cocaine, like shot through the like. It all made sense, it all aligned and I was like, ah, I get it, I get it and I'm telling you. 

33:40
I'm coming up on nine years in may and and my sobriety, for the most part, has been really even keeled, and it's for a few different reasons, but largely in part because of the pain that I was in, which made me become willing to be open-minded, to listen to people who clearly had a way better idea of reality than I did and how to stay sober, because I clearly didn't, and I adhered to what they suggested and all the information I acquired along the way that I thought were failures that really weren't. 

34:13 - Mark (Host)
What would happen if she didn't give you that chance? 

34:16 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
God only knows, god only knows. But I always say thank God, god is God and I'm not God, because I would fuck that job up straight up. 

34:26
I've seen me do that in some properties that I've bought. You know one in particular the very first silver house I bought, I did everything backwards, meaning the very last thing I acquired in the deal was the actual house. I had bought the furniture. Very last thing I acquired in the deal was the actual house. I had bought the furniture, I had taking the photo, I had taken the photos on the porch while the previous owners were sitting in the living room for the brochures that I was going to make for the business that I was turning it into. I started staffing it, I started accepting clients and I hadn't even had the property. Oh my goodness. 

34:57
And literally when we went to do the walkthrough, they said um, we glad to inform you, but the bank's not going to give you the loan. And I had the contractors coming the next day to start. I had aligned everything and I'm like what the fuck? This can't be right, there's no way. And at the midnight hour the bank said we're not giving you the loan. I scramble, Of no fault of mine. They said we're not giving you the loan, I scramble, Of no fault of mine. 

35:21
It was literally a mistake made on the bank's part, but they thought that I was late on a payment which set up. We're not going to give them this loan, which I wasn't Whatever, but it is what it is. But then my real estate agent said well, I have another lender, let's try with them. And we go with the other lender. The lender does what lenders do and finagle some things and and come back to me with a better loan where it's saving me twelve hundred dollars than it was if I went with the first guy. And then, as soon as we got the house, some problems arose that pushed us back by nine months. So if it would have went how I wanted it to go in the beginning, I would have went bankrupt because of the nine months it put me out and the money that it bled while fixing the problems. 

36:11
And right there was one of the biggest learning lessons I had ever had. I'm like dude, thank God. I didn't get what I wanted. 

36:18 - Stacey (Host)
Straight up. Oh man, I want to reel it back because we're in Westchester, right? So you know we have to talk about BAM and jackass and I know you guys have had a, you know, controversial relationship. We don't need to go into all those details. I know on your website or on your YouTube page you talk in depth about your relationship with BAM, so we don't have to go into that if you don't want to. But I'm just wondering what was it like to kind of get into that world, the jackass world? And you know, I know you were using at the time, I think, off and on right. 

36:48 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Bam did help you too, a little bit during that time. I was always on, I was always using, yeah, just different capacities. But yeah, no, that was my introduction. That's how Pennsylvania Westchester became my home because, you know, at that young age, after I met Bucky, I met Bam, we, bucky and I, would come to the skate park in Pennsylvania called Sheepskates and we would go there and that's where I met Bam. And then we would go back to stay at Bam's parents house well, bam's house, with his parents, because we were like 14 at the time and um. 

37:22
And then Bam continued to rise in the world of skateboarding and he decided to pursue all these different avenues, with filmmaking, directing, the opposite, the juxtaposition, night and day. 

37:33
But nonetheless, when I was at one of the lowest points of my life, he was doing a tour with a toy machine which was a skateboarding company, and they showed up in Baltimore at a skate shop to do a demo and he asked if they had ever seen me and left his phone number for the day that I may stop in to have them give it to me. And I'd stopped in on a day when things were really bad and I was trying to get money and they wouldn't give me money. But they gave me his number and a few days later I called that number and it actually was not the number to his house, it was the number to Fairman's Skate Shop right here in the corner, around the corner, and he and I was calling from a pay phone right, this is before cell phones existed and I had like 50 cents. I'm like homeless at this point so that 50 cents was like my life. 

38:29
I could not lose that. And I get through to Barrowman's and they're like well, bam, timing and alignment. He's not, he was just here, but he's actually eating at Kuma next door. We'll go get him right. 

38:41
If I would have called 20 minutes before or later I would have missed him. No, 50 cents, probably never would have called again. And they go get him. And literally that night I was on a Greyhound bus here to Westchester where he was going to allow me to live with him and be part of Viva La Bam, which then led way to Jackass. And it was so cool because at that time you know I'm a homeless heroin addict in Baltimore. I had burnt all my bridges, like all of them, and all I wanted was to just A. I wanted to. I didn't really want to be clean, but I wanted what clean people had like relationships, friendships and good times and fun nights Like. 

39:19
I remember being homeless one night in Baltimore in this area called Fells Point, which is similar to like being out here in town. It's a little bar kind of area. People go out. I remember sleeping on this bench and this group of girls walked by and they stopped. It was like 2.30 in the morning and they're're like he's too good looking to be on that bench, what's? Yeah, and I remember hearing that and I was just like, oh god, it hurts so much because, and um, but so when he allowed me to come here, I started to create genuine relationships again that didn't revolve around addiction and I met all these beautiful people and had so many great times and relationships and parties and frat party and I didn't have to quite stop drinking and drugging, which was cool. And he made it very difficult for me to do heroin or any kind of opiates here because he everyone was widely aware that, like I, was not to be given any kind of opiates, you know, because cocaine was socially acceptable right in the scene and drinking was cool and but when I did opiates, whether it was pills or heroin, then I'd like not out and make conversation, I'd steal your shit, I'd wreck your like not very pretty stuff, so it nonetheless it just allowed me to kind of have that new lease on life and and create all these amazing friendships still today that I have with all them and their dear friends, and and uh seems so loving 

40:45 - Stacey (Host)
like you know, you guys the videos I see you're all hugging each other and you're loving on each other, and you know like it was really really nice, totally yeah it was. 

40:53 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
It was the the best times of my life, because high high school was for me in Baltimore. It was just high school. I went and I was already into drugs during that time, so I really never experienced those really fun things in life. By the time I was 21,. Most people want to go to the bar and have a legal drink. 

41:13 - Stacey (Host)
I was sleeping on those benches where those girls are like he's too good looking to be homeless. 

41:20 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
That's tough, yeah. So I totally skipped like laptops, like I could pawn them. I never used them. I still you know like I'm. I missed that whole era of. And then I showed back up and all of a sudden kind of like and thrust it into this, this crazy world here. That was really fun, but then became kind of like a household name at a point in time. 

41:38 - Stacey (Host)
Right. 

41:39 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
So it was a weird gap in my life that was missed. 

41:44 - Mark (Host)
Did, did, did was the jackass money I'll. I'll just put it that way the the world, that world money, is that where you made your most more than skateboarding oh yeah, that's all of it. 

41:57 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
There wasn't a lot of money in the sponsorship. 

41:59 - Mark (Host)
No I know like gatorade sponsored you. The youngest ever, yeah, first ever, I think, for a ski, yeah, but it's for the first they started endorsing like extreme athletes got it. 

42:08 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Got it, yeah, but there was no money to be had, then got any of that it all came from the tv show, tv and that stuff and then I'd parlay that into like side deals, you know, because I'm still like an addict and I remember going on the howard stern show and uh, yeah, I remember when he was on serious and before I went on. You know he was this is like before podcast, so I think like he was like the joe ro yeah yeah, I still love him. 

42:35
Broke the ground and um, I went to, like all the people that I knew that own businesses, and I'm like look, you give me a thousand dollars. I'll mention your business on air while I'm doing this interview on the Howard Stern show. 

42:47 - Mark (Host)
Probably didn't so I go do it and I walk out of the interview with like eight thousand dollars yeah so I would just parlay side shit like that to my addiction. Yeah, that's smart. It sounds like your drug abuse simmered during your time up here and doing the show, and all that because nobody's giving you opiates or anything like that. But then did it re-blossom once the show was over. 

43:08 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Totally yeah, because it's such a weird place. I was supposed to go on a tour with Bam and everybody to Australia and we're going to go to this tour. He created a band called Fuckface Unstoppable Sounds about right A lead singer. 

43:27 - Stacey (Host)
And there was like a lot of really fucking really talented musicians in this band. 

43:35 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
We're scheduled to go on the tour. And I showed up at his house and I was high out of my mind and he immediately was like um, you're not going on the tour, like you're get out. And I had previous to going on that tour. I was staying back in Baltimore at my mother's house. Like things were kind of fading out here and I was starting to burn those bridges here. It lasted way longer than I ever expected, but everything was coming to a head here. 

44:01
I was kicked out of the majority of the bars. My exes had become my exes. They had like friends were kind of. So I go back to Baltimore and I'm back at my mother's house and this is my last chance. In my mind. I'm like in my mind I'm like, all right, I'll do this tour, I'll get back in everyone's good graces, I'll make money, I'll kind of restart and do it right this time. And uh, that did not happen. I get kicked off the tour before we even leave for the tour and then I'm back in baltimore at my mother's and now reality is really setting in I'm like dude. 

44:35
This is this, is it. I'm at my mother's house at 38 came back around yeah, full circle yeah and then one day I go to score some heroin, I get back to my mother's house where I'm staying and and I'm a police officer pulls up and he was called by my family members and they served me with a restraining order that I was no longer allowed on my mother's premises and, thank god, served me with a restraining order that I was no longer allowed on my mother's premises and thank god um it was. 

44:59 - Mark (Host)
It was requested by your mother, yeah, well, no, my mother would never do that. 

45:02 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
It was my brother oh, your brother, yeah, because like they knew that my mother was, you know, ultimately going to love me to death got it right. 

45:09 - Mark (Host)
Of course, as a mom, yeah, right, so right thank god, um, that they stepped in. 

45:15 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
And then timing and alignment. I was due to see michelle ward for my visit and I never wanted to go to jail, so I would always kind of like show up for that stuff, and I came back up and I begged her. And you know, everyone says the system is like out to get you and the system is gonna like get you and and and the system saved me, and one of those rarities I think I don, and one of those rarities I think. 

45:36
I don't want to say rarities, because it probably happens more than the public is aware but the system saved me. 

45:43 - Stacey (Host)
Do you think so? For like our audience, Cause I we probably have people watching that are learning from you. Right now Are there like three or four things, or. 

45:51 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
I know it sounds so systematic, but is are there things that you do to stay sober? I was taught so many valuable things like that. I had to to uncover the problem in order to discover the problem, if there was ever any hopes to recover from the problem right, like there was so many layers to it. And I had learned that I'm an accessories whore and I'm easily diverted by women, by things, but you know, just whatever. Because it allows me to not have to focus on the, the, the real problem, which is me, I never want to look at me. 

46:21
So, uh, understanding that they told me, if I stick to the basics, I'll never have to go back to the basics, right? So so I still do the same very rare handful of things today that I did when I was in that 90-day inpatient treatment center. You know, um, and I wake up every day. Uh, the very first thing I do is I make my bed right. And this is almost nine years later, and if you walked into my house two, three days in a row, my bed's not made. Like problems are coming, as simple and as trivial as that may seem, you know, for me it's, it's not. But I make my bed and then I immediately get on my knees and I have a really good relationship with my higher power. 

47:02
I'm not religious, but I'm insanely spiritual, and then I'm very proactive in my recovery. I recognize that I suffer with a disease called alcoholism, not alcohol-wasm, and I can't stay sober on yesterday's sobriety. So I have a sponsor, a guy who kind of guides me and directs me, that I can bounce things off of. I attend 12-step meetings, aa meetings. I have a home group that I go to once a week, every Saturday morning at 10 am, and I work with others, with other alcoholics. I sponsor other people and, as you started this out, do for others what someone did for you Did for you, yeah. 

47:41
And I keep it very simple and very basic and stick to the basics. And I'm just aware. More importantly, I'm aware of the reality of the situation, right, the reason why I always got beat so fucking bad by my opponent meaning addiction or alcoholism is because I never gave it the time, attention or respect it deserved. Right, I always underestimated the opponent that I was up against. And then I started surrounding myself with, like, really intelligent people who truly had my best interest at heart and they said don't you fucking know? You've been fighting a fixed fight your whole life. You will never win that fight. And the only time that we win this fight is when we admit complete defeat. And the moment I admitted complete defeat was the exact second I secured the ultimate victory. 

48:31
But I didn't understand any of that, because prior to admitting defeat, the way that I lived my life was to fight. To fight was to win. To fight was to win. To fight was to survive. To fight was to secure another drink or another drug. To fight was to not be sick. When I come into recovery, they tell me to fight is to die. To fight is to lose. To fight is to relapse. So I literally had to rewire my brain, but I didn't know how to rewire my brain. What so? I literally had to rewire my brain, but I didn't know how to rewire my brain. What happened was I had a spiritual experience, and the definition of a spiritual experience is simply a psychic change. So that means to me that I today no longer look at things the way I did almost nine years ago, when I sat on the curb pulling cigarette butts out of that receptacle, deciding if I was going to sleep in between the wall and the hedges, you know, but it was so simple I overlooked that for so long yeah so. 

49:20 - Mark (Host)
So when you went through this 13th recovery, um, the detox from heroin, I hear, is just a horribly horrible physical experience right for the first two days, three days, I don't even know sure, speaking just sure randomly, but did you go through that multiple times and still relapse? 

49:38 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
yeah, over the years, totally so. 

49:39 - Mark (Host)
That's what the the those recovery centers that you were in, those rehab centers you were in, were to get you through those early uh early stage of of detox yeah but your novak's house, is it that same type of facility or it's once they're through that? We're going to support you. 

49:58 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Yeah, no, it's once. You continue some level of care, primarily in an inpatient setting, yeah, and you want to continue on your journey in recovery in a safe, structured environment. I've created sober living homes, which is basically a step-down process. You know you're not in an inpatient setting, you don't receive medications, got it. You have freedom. You can have a car, you have a phone, a laptop, but there's provisions set in place. There's a live-in house manager. You have curfews to attend, to random your analysis, to give a set amount of meetings to attend during the week, actively working. 

50:41
The goal is to become a productive member of society, self-sufficient member of society, and I just, I wasn't trying to recreate the wheel, or, you know, cure world hunger. 

50:53
I was just recreating what worked for me and I went to a 90 day inpatient treatment center and from there I went to a sober living house for one year and that's where I learned how to navigate through this weird thing called life. Um, somewhat normally, you know, I I learned how to do my wash. I learned how to brush my teeth consistently, shower regularly, put my clothes away, make my bed, get a job, open my own bank accounts with my name on it, not attached with someone else's, start paying my own $165 a week in sober living, which then I started paying biweekly. And that debit card turned into a pre-secured credit card. And, and, uh, that debit card turned into a pre-secured credit card and the pre-secured credit card turned into a credit card that today have multiple credit cards. You know a couple with no limits, you know, and it's it's not bragging or boasting, it's just saying that I literally had to be taught how to walk through those, those weird worlds in order to get what you know. 

51:55
Um it's a transition, yeah, transition, back into walked and guided through that and in an in an environment that was still holding me accountable to the most important thing, which was my recovery. So I just recreated that in Wilmington, Delaware, and I opened one house with 10 beds and today I have six houses with 65 beds fantastic and you have personally helped people, which I I find amazing. 

52:21 - Stacey (Host)
Like I go on your instagram account and you're giving out I don't know if that's your personal phone number- yeah, but if someone's struggling, like they can reach out to you directly like it's just I think so incredible. And are there people or a story you can tell about someone that you've actually helped? 

52:38 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
um, there's just so many. But there's a funny story. You know, again, with humanity, just the way it has its own way of right sizing me in the whole thank god, god is god deal. I remember one time I was at the airport with this kid and, and we were in Baltimore and I was flying him to treatment with him and in hindsight I thought it was like dude, this is slam dunk, easy case. The kid who knew who I was, he was a big fan and he reached out to me and I had spoken with the family and we had aligned everything and I was like I felt very good about the outcome. I was going to get on a plane with him, I was gonna fly him to treatment and everything was gonna be great. And we get to the airport and it's starting to become reality for him, right, and I started to see a change in his demeanor, a shift, and and all of a sudden the flight starts to board and all of a sudden his. The flight starts to board and all of a sudden his eyes light up and reality set in. He's about to get on a plane and literally go away and I can't do it. And in my mind it was as good as done and we were already there in my mind. And now I'm like I have two phones, I'm calling family, anything, support, to get him to encourage me, get on this plane and I turn around, sit my bag down for a second and I turn back around. He ran, he's gone, he left the airport right. He returned back to active addiction in my mind. 

54:05
I was so angry of that outcome. I felt like I had failed. I felt like I could have done better. I felt like that was not how it should have played out. I was really angry. Cut to. Two weeks later I get a phone call from him and he said I'm so sorry. I was overwhelmed with anxiety and fear and I couldn't get on that plane and go. But I actually did go to treatment. It just wasn't in a different state and he said I'm in treatment now and I have two of my friends that need help, can you help them? So ultimately it did not go as I planned. I thought it was a failure. He went to treatment, was in treatment and called me and told me about two friends of his that wanted help and I was able to help those two people successfully get the help they needed to wow, what does that feel like when you can help I don't think that much about it because I get so consumed with the day-to-day that I really you're saving the day that I think about. 

55:13
It is may 25th, which is my anniversary. I always go to that parking lot and I sit in that parking lot where my friend found me and took me to mosque to have a glass before, and then I go to the Galdensia here and I pop my face in and say hi, to let them know that what they're doing is valuable, and that's the day that I reflect the most on what I've done to this point. 

55:37
But besides that it's just kind of like part of your day, yeah, which is probably good, because if I did focus and fixate on that, then I'd start thinking that I was the one who created these outcomes and then, like god doesn't know what the fuck he's doing and I got this, and it's bad when I get this, yeah, when you say I got this yeah problems. 

55:57 - Stacey (Host)
It's like the bed, not me, but you are a catalyst. 

56:00 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
I mean for sure, I mean so I'm just a good way to put it yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm just merely a messenger man you know, and I'm blessed to be a part of. 

56:08 - Stacey (Host)
That's it it's that simple. Um, I do want to talk. Like I love your relationship with your mother, I would. I would love it if I'm not sure if you do, but if you have any advice for the moms out there who are dealing with their kids, who are going through this If you want to just like talk into the camera and talk to the moms. 

56:25 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
I wish, and everyone would wish too, that there was just an answer, an answer right, and I promise you this. If you look at the data, the analytics, the numbers collected from the studies they do all over the world in regards to addiction and recovery, it states that we are fighting an unwitting battle. It does. You look at the numbers? We are fighting an unwitting. We are losing the fight, right, we are losing the fight right, and that's a very unappealing, undesirable topic to want to be addressed or recognized. And who wants to enter that fight if you're looking at the results and we're losing, and that's very true? But ask my mother if we're losing that fight, right, because I very easily could have been buried in that plot that she bought me years ago. So it's all perspective. 

57:25
But what I know is my experience, and my experience is when things started to get better is when my mother created boundaries healthy boundaries, right. She no longer chose to love me to death and and she started making me um, experience some repercussions of my actions as a direct result of addiction, right, I believe, if you baby an era, if you baby an addict, you'll bury an addict. One of the best things my mother ever did was put me out of her house at 19 years old because I was an IV heroin addict and she was no longer going to let me live under her roof while consuming heroin. That's my experience. 

58:07
I don't have the answers. I don't profess or pretend to know what to do. I just know what my history looked like that led to this present, and it's such a intricate, delicate dance, if you will, that has to be met on such an individualized basis. You know it's, it's tedious, but I suggest that you leave them with resources you create healthy boundaries. Remember that no is a complete sentence. You don't need to elaborate on anything and make their drinking or drugging as difficult as possible for them. 

58:53 - Stacey (Host)
Wow, wow. I just I'm a mom, so it's like I feel that so deeply, thinking about having to say to your kid, you gotta go. 

59:04 - Mark (Host)
You gotta go. That's so hard. 

59:05 - Stacey (Host)
I am not gonna deal with this anymore and I've had friends who've had to deal with that and I just can't imagine how hard that was for her. Sure, sorry. 

59:16 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
But there's's, you know, there's like alan on, there's resources available. You can call me and my team, um, we do that. So I also with novak's house. I then realized I could help more and and do better and and bigger and, and I opened up a treatment center uh, redemption addiction treatment center which is 13 minutes away, ironically ironically from the houses. 13 was my treatment center. 13 has become my lucky number. My poison has become my medicine in a weird roundabout way, if you will. But I opened an outpatient treatment center Monday through Friday, from 9 to 5. 

59:50 - Mark (Host)
Where is that located? Wilmington, Delaware. In Delaware Got it. Wilmington. 

59:55 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
Like 38 minutes from here, got it. So we help people there on a daily basis. We have outpatient settings, we do virtual, we have Zoom and we have weekly AA meetings in the basement of the facility Redemption Addiction Treatment Center. So check that out and if you need help with yourself or a family member, call us 610-314-6747. 

01:00:23 - Stacey (Host)
Amazing um. Can you do sort of the same thing for those who are struggling with addiction right now? 

01:00:25 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
just a few hints you know, right to camera and just say here's a couple things I think you can do yeah, yeah, if you're out there and you're caught up in an addiction or alcoholism and you've created an outcome that you can't seem to get out of on your own, the best advice I could give for you is to simply reach out and ask for help. It's it's. It's physically impossible to use the very same brain that thought you into this problematic position to, in turn, think you out of it defies logic. Um, we're here to help, but just know that help is available. And and when the day appears and the timing aligns and that window of opportunity appears, call me. We will be here to help you. I assure you that, and we'll get you the help not that you need, but that you deserve. 

01:01:23 - Stacey (Host)
Any way we can help you besides the donation to the demo account, my goal is just to help raise money to provide scholarships, okay. 

01:01:31 - Brandon Novak (Guest)
And if anybody wants to donate, amazing. If not, I completely understand that too. And if anyone needs help, our number, my number, 610-314-6747. Myself or John will answer that call. One of us do. I can't answer everyone, I have to sleep sometimes and do other things. But myself or John will answer that call and we will get you the help that you deserve. 

01:02:01 - Mark (Host)
Fantastic. We cannot thank you enough for having man. 

01:02:02 - Stacey (Host)
I had a really good time, brandon, very, very insightful justice here today. Yeah, this was great. 

01:02:05 - Mark (Host)
We're honored to have you thank you very much and we will see you all very soon. 

01:02:09 - Stacey (Host)
Yes, you're still here. You're still listening. Thanks for listening to the gurus and game changers podcast while you're here. If you enjoyed it, please take a minute to rate this episode and leave us a quick review. We want to know what you thought of the show and what you took from it and how it might have helped you. We read and appreciate every comment. Thanks, see you next week.