Jimmy Younis joins us from Attainable Dreams to talk about being an educator in recovery. He works with groups all over the country and uses his high energy direct authenticity to talk about planning on and creating a “lifetime of recovery.” He teaches principles like unmanageability, relationships, and cognition of choices, beliefs, and behaviors. Enjoy.
The Illuminate Recovery Podcast is about Mental Health, Mental Illness, and Addiction Recovery. Shining light on ways to cope, manage, and inspire. Beyond the self care we discuss, you may need the help of a licensed professional. Curt Neider and Shelley Mangum are a part of Illuminate Billing Advocates (illuminatebilling.com). They are committed to helping better the industry and adding value to the lives of listeners by sharing tools, insights, and success stories of those who are working on their mental health. #illuminaterecoverypodcast
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jimmy eunice joins us from attainable dreams to talk about being an educator in recovery he works with groups all over the country and uses his high energy direct authenticity to talk about planning on and creating a lifetime of recovery he teaches principles like unmanageability relationships and cognition of choices beliefs and behaviors enjoy welcome to the illuminate recovery podcast we shed light on mental health issues mental illness and addiction recovery ways to cope manage and inspire beyond the self-care we will discuss you may need the help of a licensed professional my name is kurt neider i'm a husband father entrepreneur a handyman and a student of life i avoid conflict i deflect with humor and i'm fascinated by the human experience and i'm shelley mangum i am a clinical mental health counselor and my favorite role of all times is grandma i am a seeker of truth and i feel like life should be approached with tremendous curiosity i ask the dumb questions i fill in the gaps the illuminate recovery podcast is brought to you by illuminate billing advocates make billing and collections simple with leader in substance abuse and mental health billing services verification and analysis of benefits pre-authorizations utilization management accurate claim submission and management denial and appeal management and industry-leading reporting improve your practice's cash flow and your ability to help your clients with eliminate billing advocates jimmy eunice is on the podcast today with kurt and i we're super excited jimmy is the founder at attainable dreams he is very passionate about his recovery and education and he takes that with him everywhere at attainable dreams they make recovery fun using humor teamwork and play combined with several modalities as a leader he educates people in fun and engaging ways his favorite part of working is the opportunity to motivate teams towards accomplishing their goals in all areas of life jimmy thanks so much for joining us today yeah thanks for having me happy to be here so um something that is always good to start with is you know give our listeners a little bit of background of your dreams as a little boy and and how you ended up in the recovery industry yeah so um you know the way i ended up uh in the recovery industry is i'm a person in recovery my story kind of starts um up in massachusetts i was a heroin addicted school teacher and my life had become completely unmanageable and i finally made the decision to go to treatment down in florida while i was in treatment i attended a couple i attended a program and um the groups were not my favorite part and i felt like they should have been and i made uh i made a big mess i said you know i want to learn but uh i don't really like the people who were teaching it and they were kind of like oh you can do better jimmy so that was when i ran a first my first educational class for my peers and um yeah that's kind of starts my journey in working in the recovery field and kind of being in recovery in florida then moving here to georgia to help open a couple um treatment facilities and then i started attainable dreams yeah so how was that first class was that because if the teacher says come on up let's let's hear you give it a shot that's not exactly like we want to see you succeed circumstance right yeah yeah yeah so um i'm gonna be completely transparent um when i had when i had that discussion with a therapist i was an angry young man and uh i had the the therapist had said you know jimmy i was just frustrated i was angry that day and i was kind of like a little mad because i didn't know if i was gonna get high and i didn't know if i was going to stay clean and the guy leaving the group had said you know jimmy i don't care what you say i'm not getting loaded because i said something fly off my tongue kind of probably told me go himself or something like that and um you know next thing i know i was like he said you know i don't care what you say i'm not getting loads and i was like oh you're not getting low you're not getting loaded and i just got really angry i stood up i ripped the book in half i threw it down on the ground i spit on it i grabbed a chair i threw it across the room and i was like you're not getting loaded you're not getting floated and i just stormed out i started walking down the street and i remember as soon as i walked out i was just like what the am i gonna do dude like what am i gonna do seriously i had a i had a bag with glasses that were held together with rubber bands the same pair of contacts i had used for two years you know i had like two t-shirts granola bars where was i gonna go you know oh and and by the grace of god these people came chasing me down they brought me back in they they come out they gave me another chance and um yeah that was that was what happened in that group that pissed me off so bad that made me say you know what i'm gonna make sure that no one ever has to sit through some stupid educational class like this so what do you do differently how did you fix it well what happened i i said you know what they said oh jimmy you can do better you stay clean and you come back and you show us that you can do better so i was like bet that up all right all right cool yeah yeah i'll do that so i stayed clean i came back in six months and i said that you have to hire me at 25 an hour i told them as a person with six months clean and an uh elementary education uh degree i went back in there and said i'm doing so good you need to pay me 25 an hour and they laughed in my face and i frankly laughed back at them and was like you think that's funny dude i am like i am captain recovery right now and by hiring me to come into your facility and just be around your clients this is what you got to pay me and they brought me on at six months clean as the highest paid behavioral health technician just because i stood up for myself and i just like told them that you know i'm really gonna really gonna do a lot i did i still have clients till this day telling me how much i impacted their recovery just in that that time frame of my own recovery and my own journey so yeah it was a good time a good time but yeah that was um that was what i did about it that's incredible jimmy i can only imagine how you know working with you as a therapist would definitely challenge every part of of the job right oh yeah 100 yeah yeah yeah so i mean um i just i just did not want anybody to feel like the recovery was boring recovery was stupid because that's not what i wanted and i went above and beyond for my recovery to make it fun and engaging and like to have a place to to never to a reason to not get high that you know i i couldn't wait to go back and tell people about what these answers that i had that you didn't have to live this way anymore and you know it doesn't have to be boring and i went through this program too yeah so the therapist therapists were excited to have me too you know i'm actually surprised at the i'm always surprised at the support i get from the therapists the clinical directors and everything when i come into these facilities and when i'm giving my talk because it's almost like they see something in me that i don't see in myself and uh you know sometimes i feel in these groups i cross every single boundary i can but by the end of it the clients are like i actually understand it i've never been able to understand this my whole life and finally i feel like i do you step on some puzzle boxes along the way what do you mean by that by that phrase i mean is your approach well received by everyone yeah yeah yeah 100 percent because even hearing even hearing you tell the story i think like i can see a couple of things that tie together which i want to come back to in a second but like right off the off the bat you've got like this confidence right you've got some volume you've got i could see your approach actually rubbing certain people completely wrong right like you say that you don't like piss some people off along the way it's totally shocking to me and so it makes me wonder like do you do that along the way and can you recognize that or do you not recognize that it's not a good fit for everyone yes that's a that's a great great thing that you're bringing up i have had experiences where you know my approach isn't working and i'm totally open to adjusting my approach so that a client is able to in the information and attainable dreams hasn't always been the approach that it's been today you know i've had very intimate growth moments where clients have sat me down and said you know jimmy i love what you're teaching it's just every single time you say it i just tuned out and i'm like wow you know i am so sorry i am so sorry this is just an approach that i have that seems to work with most if you feel that it doesn't work thank you so much for your courage and your bravery to come and share that with me i will happily adjust my teaching method so that you are able to attain this information you know and eventually they're you know it slips out but they see me trying to make the change and i think that as a person in recovery you know and for me to apply these principles and all my affairs it's important for me to be open-minded and honest and willing that a client may see something in me that i don't see in myself and if they're if they're showing me a shortcoming i need to be open to to humbly ask them on how i can change that you know yeah i could see that especially the language thing i could see people bristling you know like yeah on the on this podcast you're gonna get a nice parental advisory at the beginning right but at the same time and that's part of why i asked because like i can see you know like the confidence in the and the whatever i could see it being a little hard to stomach in this like sensitive connecting like very thoughtful and deep industry right because that's we've got a sensitive crowd in our industry at the same time when i when i start to kind of put the pieces together of who you are and hear okay yeah you were frustrated you were mad you you were dealing with do i go into recovery or not you know as a as a adolescent adult male right meaning like you kind of are stuck in a certain place at that point anyways like you you mentioned at the same time you're having elementary school teaching degree right so like you have this training and how to connect with children which frankly which frankly we know about a lot of the addicts yeah depending on when they start into their addiction emotionally a lot of them are children right including where i was at that point and you know many others and so in some ways i could see that being a way to really cut through some of that and connect and communicate communicating in a different way and then also briefly before we get started today you mentioned you're doing some other things around you know outside of this industry including comedy and that's kind of the story with comedy too right like it's a habitual line crossing game of where do you push the limit with that comedy you're gonna offend people kind of constantly right and that's when you know to back off a little bit this industry is not used to that right and so i could see that being kind of an interesting dynamic right especially as you're kind of pushing into these you know public groups or groups where you don't necessarily know all the audience and i see that being like kind of a different and welcomed approach in a lot of ways so that's interesting yes thank you and um you know it wasn't easy you know trying to convince people to give me a shot either you know everyone's kind of just like like jimmy what do you got and i'm just like i got this idea i got this dream i got this i'm really good at teaching people people listen to me you know i i have i can teach your clients you know and that was kind of all i was saying i was going around saying you know i'm the best group facilitator around writing my business cards down on a post-it note saying you know give me a shot you know saying my business cards are in the mail yada yada and they're like okay jimmy and now that was back in 2019 you know spring or what is 2021 two years later i'm i'm at 12 different facilities and they're they're you know eager over the content that i'm that i'm presenting the the the companies are telling me that you know without a re without a shout out of a doubt um the clients love coming in and hearing my content even the ones who were you know most resilient at first they can't wait to come in and get a breath of fresh air from the content that i'm teaching and and just the atmosphere that i bring in and the positiveness and that i that i bring it into so yeah it's i think i could see obviously as we know in addiction there's a lot of shame there's a lot of that you know there's some other mental illness things that get tied into that too anxiety and depression all those kinds of things so i could see i could see the positivity and the energy you know being really great for some groups right and we know that in the industry in general right we've got facilities that specialize in different age groups different backgrounds different you know sexes or whatever what's as your invite getting invited back to these groups consistently do you feel like you're seeing a similar demographic in the groups that are really relating and responding to your facilitating um like a specific age group or like males or females or anything along those lines i mean i don't know i doubt you get sent to the adolescent centers you know for yeah that's i mean the 14 year old's very consistent you know you'd be surprised that that's a lot of my volunteer work you know they say we love you here but you got to just be careful with the big boy words you'd be surprised you know when i when i sit down with teenagers they are like you know jimmy i've never had a therapist like you i've never had anyone like you who i feel this comfortable with you know um and they they share everything that they're going through i have i have some clients that i walk in and they're like oh my gosh attainable dream come here too jimmy you're here too you know and by the third class they're they're trying to hang on to me after to ask me questions about how can i be honest in this relationship or jimmy how can i you know practice humility when i've been when i'm doing this or whatever the case may be so i think it's i think at first it's almost shocking it's something that they've never seen before it's like who the heck is this guy and why is he so happy about recovery and stuff and then by the third time you know by the third group or second group in they're like you know i see it makes sense what he's saying actually makes sense you know and and i i i might actually listen to this guy it's like a tv series you know the first episode you can't rank a tv series based on the first episode you gotta get a couple into it so that you can really see how good of a season it is so sure outside of your energy and kind of your just personality what what's different about the way that you approach these conversations these discussions i use a lot of my personal experience strength and hope for one i also have a t like a teaching method that i use that um it just it just pushes the the conversation in the direction you know me as a person i have a you know i'm a artist so i have a book that i that i wrote that's a compilation of all my artwork available on amazon uh called poppy seed poetry i'm an actor so i have an imdb page my stage name is jimmy diamond i've been doing stand-up comedy for over a decade now i've been teaching over a decade now both addicts and kids you know um so these these and then when i get into the classroom um or the group room as they call it you know i think uh one thing that separates me from other facilitators is you know my confidence my ability to carry a conversation my ability to to use my experience as a vessel to understand these life principles and how to apply recovery to your everyday life i think um i think that's another thing that i that i do that's different than other facilitators at another at their own facility is i i just apply these things to your actual life i want to know what you're going through what do you got going on outside of here i want to know why you ended up in here and what what what you got going on that that is the the thing that you've been looking for that is going to best help you with your recovery by walking through and you know other other facilitators do that um but i think their job is more to be the therapeutic side and my job is more educating them on these are some free simple things that you can do to increase your recovery dramatically you know and this is this is what it would look like you mentioned you had some other people that have worked for you in the past too how well do you feel like that curriculum transitions over oh to another facilitator yeah if they uh you know if they are able to teach they rock it you know i had uh the other facilitator i had um and have had they they are just little little rock stars in recovery themselves you know um and they have uh they have their own personal journey and they're able to you know provide the material the same way that i am and at times i hear the same feedback about my that i get from myself about the facilitators that i have coming to the facilities as well i love what you're doing jimmy i think it's really valuable and i can tell you're super super passionate about it i'm really curious about your background in elementary education um did you did you teach did you teach school yeah so i was a substitute teacher and then um yeah i was just a substitute so i taught a lot yeah where did your addiction come in at that point it was so my addiction was uh was in in college you know i found myself addicted in college to to purchase that and uh near the end heroin and it was just you know i had to make i made the decision you know i can either go back home and become an addict and try to juggle it or i can go back home and and get clean and you know this is this is the choice i have to make i remember consciously like making the decision to hit up my dealers spend all this money and make it happen and thinking that i i was able to manage my powerlessness and that's one thing that i talk about in my in my groups is you know at one time i thought i could manage my powerlessness you know as a kid i thought i could manage my powerlessness by saying okay our parents are going away uh this weekend so saturday night everybody comes over we'll smoke pot dude and you know we'll we'll watch tv and we'll eat snacks and i know that i'm going to have no power over how i am under the influence of this drug so i reserve a time later to use it and it's all like all first steps up and um yeah by the you know by the time i um i got out of college i was i was an addict just trying to trying to stay clean and you know teaching at that time was just at times i was the best teacher in the world and other times i was the worst teacher in the world so i i just i'm just imagining you in front of a classroom of of of these kids and and you know having your personality and your energy and and having them watch you and interact with you just um it seems like you just liven up that class oh they loved it they were they really you know uh it's yes yes it's a blessing to to have this this thing about me that just captures people you know and you know my client my students back in the day the high school students saw her at the middle school students our elementary kids wanted to we're excited when i was popping you know and it's funny because now it's almost like i see i'm almost kind of doing a similar thing now where i'm just kind of like a substitute therapist i pop in and the clients are like jimmy's here oh thank goodness you know and then by the end it's like oh yeah we're doing resentment today and they're like frustrated but they're excited because they know that it's going to be a fun experience you know what i mean like they're going to have pleasure while experiencing this pain it's like exercise for the mind you know instead of for the body you know they kind of you're gonna feel pain while you're exercising but afterwards you're gonna feel better like in my group you may feel some cognitive pain you know but by the end you're gonna feel a little bit more relieved and a little bit better do you still teach do you still go back and substitute at school or are you pretty much done with that i don't do that anymore you know when i first got clean everybody was like why don't you go back to teaching you know you have your teacher's degree you should go back to being a teacher and i'm like dude i'm not trying to the only thing i need to change is everything what am i supposed to go back to that dude i'm not doing that bro like i i don't know what i'm gonna do but i am not going back to teaching kids i can't so you you pick the adults which is awesome you pick people that relate to you and and your red your uh recovery story and uh you connect with them talk about um some of the topics your group topic some of the things that you address when you're doing these groups awesome yeah so we break down um we have a couple different things we do decision making we do a whole feeling course we do a whole um character defects and shortcomings we do amends and but the biggest ones that a lot of people are very receptive to our feelings and our decision-making course our decision-making course is basically like the the first three steps broken down pretty simply about just and how they relate in everyday living you know um what's the problem where's the problem how and how how can i it's one there is a problem and i need to identify it and then i go through exactly how do i identify a problem how do we define what a problem is how do we prevent problems and how do we progress towards solutions and then we look into solution what could work is there something that might work you know what i mean i i mean do i what do i have to do to make it work how does it work for other people how does it work for them where can i get these answers how can i like maybe i need to draw a map you know and we do all different types of activities um and it's funny because the activities that coincide with the content that i teach are actually where you'll see a lot of the elementary educational type of content introduced you know i take a lot of my elementary type of activity that i did in school and i applied them to recovery today so i have a whole bunch of really cool interesting um different engaging hands-on activities that i do just to get clients to understand these different parts of decision-making or feelings like resentment fear you know um shame guilt uh understanding relationship relationship is a long class that's like a four-part class where we understand how addiction has affected our relationship with people objects and concepts and we go through how that has just made our lives unmanageable on several different degrees um so yeah i mean that's a little bit about the program um and a little bit about the the content that we teach and what is brokendown and how it's kind of broken down very powerful and i can see that it very much you know is very strong on those 12 steps um i i imagine this is not an uncommon piece but i would think that people have a really hard time um you know really accepting that their life is unmanageable is that something you come across and how do you address it you know um i find that it varies on levels of care so depending on the level of care depends upon the degree of unmanageability they see when i i mean i don't go beyond decision making on the detox level um they are not going to respond to uh talking about feelings you know what they will respond to is just being able to identify the areas of unmanageability um and that's kind of what i focus on and that's pretty abundantly clear about how the addiction causes unmanageability on like a a detox level you know but once you get to like a partial hospitalization or intensive outpatient the unmanageability from the addiction becomes a little bit more insidious so you know that's where you get more into the the maybe how does the desire to use not just not like in detox it's like how does using make your life unmanageable when i get into iop and uh php i'm talking about more than how does the feeling of wanting to use make your life unmanageable because you know if we were gonna break down addiction addiction is a mental and physical dependence on a substance stinger activity and if we're gonna break it down then after detox it's all mental baby you know we got the physical gaming detox and then from there i mean if our it's dependent on the drug and the individualized treatment plan i'm talking a lifetime of mental recovery and if i'm not honing in on that aspect of my recovery then i'm i'm i'm i'm losing 90 of the game you know and that's what i try to focus on outside of detox but detox the way i present unmanageability is okay did you use when you were at work did you use when you were hanging out with your friends how did it affect your relationship with friends how does it affect your finances how does it affect your living situation and i just go through all these responsibilities and relationships and how our addiction affects those and then i go into how it affects our um our the way we view ourselves the way we view the world and the way we view the world uh the people that live in it and we kind of um go through unmanageable thought patterns unmanageable beliefs we may have about the world or ourselves and it's just a series of questions that i go through while at the same time defining what unmanageability may be what manageability is so i encourage the client to think of a role model that they have in their life who they believe is one of the people who manages their life the best and what areas do they have that you see as strengths that you need to incorporate into your daily living so it's almost like um it's like i'm subconsciously teaching them the strategies in which to identify a sponsor perhaps you know i'm teaching them the strategies in which to do all sorts of things that they may need to sustain recovery outside of treatment so they don't need to see my beautiful face again at this facility or another facility for that matter i love it and i love the way you kind of come at it from every angle possible so that so that someone who is having a hard time understanding can grab hold you know and grab hold of that teaching technique and an approach because you're hitting it from all angles i think that's pretty strong a strong approach thank you yeah i you you know more about what i'm doing than i do i i know that in recovery often that one of the challenging things and you mentioned this about you know having four series on relationships is that relationships can sometimes be that catalyst to relapse and that you know that if relationships are difficult how do you address that piece because that's one of the one things i think that a lot of a lot of i mean all of us want to be loved right we want that connection but sometimes that is really unhealthy when we're in recovery how do you address that um so when i focus on relationships that primarily focus on the unhealthy destructive relationships and how our choices beliefs and behaviors have resulted in those so it's usually i want us to look at our own right versus wrong behavior in our good or bad outcomes and i basically want to take an inventory of those and we do that with relationships as well so with our relationship in mind you the way i always let my clients know that mind you where your relationships are right now is a natural instinctive state of the relationship deriving from the circumstances um that you have had with these with these people these places or these objects you know because it's the way a relationship is the way in which two or more people places and objects interact so i need to not just think about a relationship as me and one person but i need to think about it as how is this relationship affected by a cigarette how is this relationship affected by laziness how is this a relationship affected by dishonesty you know how is why is it that um people have you know maybe heroin addicts have a poor relationship with a syringe why is that well you know look at a heroin addict's day-to-day living you know of course they're going to have a poor relationship with a syringe it would be a natural instinctive state of mind for a client to have a desire to use upon the you know visual in the actual scene of a needle that in itself may release dopamine which could cause the client to get motivated enough to pursue the use of that very syringe you know and if they aren't aware that their brain works like this which most of them aren't because they may not have gone to college then they're going to be walking around not knowing why they have the desire to use an even concepts we can even have a relationship with concepts as well some people may not even have a relationship with the idea that they can maintain sobriety for more than three months because they never thought about it they've never searched in their in their right and wrong behavior long enough to find an example of how they may have done it in the past so with these relationships it's a very very in-depth discussion on how this is a dimensional relationship you know me and my i often give this as an example me and my baby i have a year and a half old baby me and her totally cool if i'm holding her in my arms no big deal and actually people would look at that and say wow that's amazing but if i introduce a relationship with a cigarette while holding my baby so now it's me and my baby and the cigarette now there's an issue so we look at relationships and how the introduction introduction of drugs and alcohol can affect those relationships and have negative consequences because we are powerless over the outcome if we don't manage it appropriately sorry about that that was in but that's kind of how i do that well it's a hot topic too and i love the way you bring in all of the different elements of you know smoking is a decision that we make but it does affect the relationships around us for instance and that's the one that you brought up and especially if you're holding your baby right um so then and another one i give real quick sorry is like smoking when we before i say that you buy a new car and you're like jimmy i want to go for a ride in my car and i'm like cool and i light up a cigarette and you're like what are you doing i'm like let's go they're like dude i just bought a new car what are you doing i'm like nah it's cool i insist i smoke in your car and often attic insist upon people and uh i'll insist that i smoke in your car and they'll be like no you can't get smoke in my car the cigarette is the only thing that is causing this fault otherwise we would be in the car right now and drive it but because of my cigarette addiction now there's a problem i love it you bring it to life so well um jimmy let me ask you about what you do outside of of group groups and education you know what what do you do outside of that and maybe even include you know the jimmy diamond stage name that and what you do there yeah awesome so outside of group family is number one so i often am finding ways to spend time with my family um and you know spend time with my daughter my girlfriend jessica and everything like that um also exercise is really important to me i work really hard on like taking care of myself outside of groups because with so much going on really easy to get burned out so not only am i focused on maintaining like healthy exercise and everything but it's also really important to maintain healthy relaxation as well so you know i'm always scheduling time to just like sit down and chill and not be on your phone and do stuff like that i'm always exercising and cooking and creating intellectual properties writing books and you know trying to um you know do stuff like that making new t-shirts and everything and uh jimmy diamond is uh is a whole story within itself you know um that's my stage name i have an impb page j-i-m-i diamond um i started stand-up comedy back in high school um and when i had i i i walked on to an audition late i actually left a business scene so i opened i moved to georgia it helped open two a 40 bed detox facility and a 40 bed partial hospitalization and i was in a meeting when i was working at this corporate um company for uh treatment addiction treatment and um i saw this opportunity for a uh audition and it just my whole life flashed before my eyes and i just heard every single person was like oh jimmy you're really funny dude you should be an actor oh jimmy your boy used to be an answer won't you do tv you should be in movies and i just heard all of those in like my head at once and i stood up out of this business meeting and i walked to my car and i just left this business me and i went to this audition for this tv show pilot and i got the role and um just in a long story short and uh yeah jimmy diamond was a name that i came up with back in college with a bunch of my friends just like keep around thinking that i'm i'm just i'm just doing i'm just joking around you know but when i actually got a roll they were like oh do you have a uh do you have a stage name i was like dude i have a speech are you kidding me jimmy diamond write that down dude put that down for the stage name and they did and it sucked and now um now acting is another thing that i do on the side i usually do my own marketing for my acting and uh once every quarter i'll usually get a gig just we either stand in extra or something else and uh it's a real fun little hobby that i get to get to do so that's a little bit about jimmy time that's fantastic um and and what about your your you know comedian um career where do you see that going you know um well i it's cool because from that pilot that i did i made a lot of really awesome amazing friends in the industry and um you know right now i just see it to be honest i see it as another way to stay clean that's it and i tell my clients this dude i'm like bro if i am in acting class for three hours a week that means that that's three hours i'm not thinking about getting high and i'm around people who are sober clean doing the right thing there are so many multiple pathways of recovery that if you are open-minded and creative enough you can see acting class as a method and a route to recovery so right now i just see it as in the same thing we're seeing with dreams like i don't see where it's gonna be you know a year two years three years ten years from now right now i see it's working i see that i'm doing a really good job at it and i'm having a lot of fun doing it so in my opinion that's what my higher power asked me to do and if i can just continue to do that he'll handle the rest i could not agree more i think it's incredible what about clubs so i do um i've i haven't done an open mic since just before cove so a week before coven i had done open mics and it was my first time doing it in atlanta and uh since cobit i have not done it i see all my acts and friends getting back up on stage and that's enough pain to motivate me to to get back up there but you know you gotta write material you gotta you gotta create content you know so i can't just go up there and not be funny dude so i can i gotta come up with some funny jokes and stuff before i get back up on that stage you know but but what's that environment like does that feel like an environment where you can control yourself does it feel like a safe place for you yeah you know um it is because it is to me laughter is uncontrollable joy and i love laughing i love making jokes i love funny things you know once i heard i don't know who said it maybe it was like shakespeare or something but life can either be a tragedy or a comedy and i just go about my life just just being grateful that i'm here for another day and when i'm in that environment you know it's not like i'm i'm just there to laugh i'm there to be better at my craft i'm there to meet people you know it's not like an environment where people are getting based it's on environment where people are like doing cocaine in the bathroom it's like when i go to do open mic the only other people who are going to the open mics or the other comedians you know so they're they're supporting me in in my jokes they're supporting me and giving me tips the same way that a community of like narcotics anonymous would you know with anyone's recovery they're just instead of giving me tips on my recovery they're giving me tips on my jokes you know well i think you're incredibly talented jimmy and you've got your hands on a lot of things so it's kind of fun to to have you on today um if uh if someone wants to get a hold of you and talk with you about what you do with attainable dreams and you know maybe they want to book you as a as a comedy act as well how what's the best way for them to connect yeah absolutely you can email me my email is attainabledreamsllc [Music] gmail.com um my cell phone number 781-760-3312. i don't care call me um and if you uh if you want to check out some of my videos some of the content that i put out there um you can follow me on facebook at attainabledreamsllc um and yeah that's how you can get in touch with me fantastic awesome i want to thank you for uh giving back to the recovery community that you know that really helped you and get you back on your feet and and being so passionate about it because uh i think it makes a huge difference as you are finding out yeah yeah thank you um i just don't want any more of my friends to die you know um the other day my dad my dad just retired he's 60 years old and he was like you know she's always so passed away and can't believe it you know and i was like yeah yeah i know you know what you're talking about my friend zach do and he was like what the what the jimmy what do you mean dude like what are you trying to one-up me and i was like no i i i genuinely know what you mean like my friend died and i'm single-handedly trying to make sure that that doesn't happen to any more of my friends and it's just a sad realization when i'm you know as a as a 30 year old man i'm going through the experiences that like a 60 year old man is going through because of my friends choices around drugs and alcohol and if all i can do is go in there make them laugh make them smile and be a little bit more okay with being an addict and i would i'm so happy to do that it's a super powerful i appreciate your message and and the work you do jimmy thanks thank you very much appreciate you guys for doing this yeah thanks jimmy