“Turning a Life around with Podcasting: The Journey to Recovery From Alcoholism and Building a Meaningful Career” with Larry Roberts from Red Hat Media

Dr. Brad Miller:: 00:00

Hello again, good people, and welcome to Beyond Adversity with Dr. Brad Miller. The podcast we like to help people navigate adversity and come to a life of peace, prosperity, and purpose. Love to talk to people who face issues or problems in their life and have come through it, with something to teach others. And that's the case here. Today, Larry Roberts is with us. He is the founder of Red Hat Media, which you can find at redhatmedia.io, a company dedicated to helping business leaders embrace brand stories, frame their next chapter in their business, and position themselves strongly in their industry. He is extremely well-known in the podcasting industry and has been featured at Podcast Movement, Pod Fest, and other great podcast events. Recently, he launched a new podcast called Branded with his co-host Sara Losee. And he's our bet he has an incredible story to tell about how he got to all these places. He's also an expert in AI, and we'll talk about that a little bit. He has a credible story about where he came from, to where he's now. Larry Roberts, welcome to Beyond Adversity.

Larry Roberts:: 01:15

Thank you so much. I appreciate you having me here. You know, we've known each other for a little over a year now, and I'm glad we finally had the opportunity to have a conversation. So this is cool.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 01:23

This is awesome. We got to know each other through some events and opportunities that we have had together. And not too long ago, I heard you unpacked and gave us really tremendous insights on the whole AI world and how you've become an expert. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. But you've created a successful media conglomerate, Red Hat Media.io is your company, and your new podcast. And you're very well-known in the world of podcasting. You've had some success there, but that's come through a journey and a bit of a price through some personal challenges that you have. I'd like to talk a little bit about that, Larry, about where you came from and where you're at now. Tell us a little bit about where you were a few years ago, cruising along relatively well in another career, in the corporate space. And then you had some challenges. Take us back to that place to help us set the context for where you're at now.

Larry Roberts:: 02:30

Yeah, and you know, actually, Brad, if you don't mind, I'm going to take it back just a little bit further. This is all about overcoming adversity. And literally from day one, I think I had a little more adversity than most. I was actually born with a birth defect where my sternum was concave as compared to normal sternums being convex. So it was growing in while my organs were growing out, and I was literally, as I grew, being suffocated to death by my own body. So at the age of four, I had to have reconstructive surgery that literally saved my life. So if I hadn't had the surgery, I would have passed away. I wouldn't have made it to age five or six, they said. So they went in, they restructured my sternum, moved organs around, put some pins in, removed some ribs, and did a variety of fun things, and sent me back out into the world. So right out of the gate, I went through some adversity, just trying to stay alive. And over the years, that surgery had a tremendous impact on my life. It allowed me to be here today with you. But at the same time, it changed everything. It took me from just a normal boy to a very fragile little boy. It did some things to me structurally, where I was very, very narrow in the chest area and also very thin growing up. I was super tall and super skinny. But because of that, my parents, my grandmother, they worked together to keep me safe. And they put me in private school, which led to its own interesting challenges. Many people think that going to a private school, "Well, man, you're just at the upper echelon of society." But the irony there was that my family was very, very poor, to the point where we lived in the back of the trailer park, literally in the maintenance shed of the trailer park. And my grandmother actually paid for me to go to private school. So while you're at a private school with all these other rich kids, you got the super poor kid over here that's trying to fit in. So that made for some interesting challenges over the years.

Larry Roberts:: 04:39

Yes. So as I grew older, and you know, we have to keep in mind too that I grew up in the 80s, late 70s, early 80s. And back then in the 80s, the action stars were what it was all about. You had to be a tough guy in the 80s. It was the testosterone era. And if we think back to the early 80s, ninjas were all on the scene, The Karate Kid was on the scene. And you know, I can relate to Daniel's son quite a bit because he was tall and skinny and got picked on a lot. And he learned karate, and it saved him. It solved all of his problems, right? So I just knew as a kid that if I learned how to fight, it would solve all my problems. I also grew up in a very violent household. My mother and my biological father, they separated when I was a year and a half old. My mom immediately remarried the drummer of the band she met at the skating rink, so they really vetted that one. There's another story there, yeah, three tangents because we could go off on a variety of tangents. I'm trying to stay focused on my story real quick. Yes, sir. So a very violent home, stepdad was very aggressive, did a couple years in the pen for drug dealing, all kinds of fun stuff. So a very, very interesting home life. And again, with the violence in the home, I just felt that if I could be a tough guy, if I could fight, that would solve all my problems.

Larry Roberts:: 06:00

So I always had a fascination with martial arts, always wanted to be a ninja at the time. But it became less and less obvious that I probably am not going to be a ninja. But I did become very, very well-versed in the martial arts. I've got multiple black belts these days. That became life. Karate became life, fighting became life, and fighting in karate, in my world, are two entirely different things. I was a black belt before I even learned how to fight. I had no idea. I had been a black belt for years, and I went to this new school and started to train with their fight team, and immediately got knocked out on the first night. I was like, "Oh my gosh, I don't know how to fight." So I learned how to fight, and then I started fighting competitively. I started off kickboxing and found a lot of success. Kickboxing actually went nine and oh as a kickboxer. Then in the early 90s, The Ultimate Fighting Championship came to the United States, and we saw what real fighting was. And we're like, "Oh my gosh, this is what it's all about." So now, always wanting to be the fighter, always wanting to be the tough guy because that solves all my problems, I had to do this mixed martial arts stuff or back then they called it NHB or no holds barred. So I started learning how to fight in mixed martial arts. And then I started competing in mixed martial arts and found mixed success there. My ground game was always pretty suspect; I didn't have a lot of jujitsu or wrestling base to me. So I wasn't quite as successful there as I was with my kickboxing, but I continued to improve. And my goal was to eventually fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. I just knew if I could be a UFC fighter, that would solve all my problems. And I was training with professional fighters at the time; several of my teammates made it to the big show, they made it to the UFC. And I got to live vicariously through them. But late 1999, early 2000, I had a realization. I was training for a pro fight, a big pro fight that was a feeder league for the UFC. So if you win this fight, you're going to get some eyes on you from the UFC. And we went down to Houston on the way to Houma, Louisiana, where this fight was scheduled to take place, which is just a little swamp town in Louisiana. And on the way, we decided to stop in Houston and train with literally the number one mixed martial arts coach on the planet at the time. His name was Saul Salis. He trained multiple UFC champions; just about every champion in that timeline was trained by Saul. So we go down there, and it's the day before the fights, and I'm rolling, doing jujitsu, grappling with a UFC fighter by the name of Eve Edwards. And I hadn't been going for long, maybe 90 seconds or something. And as we're on the mat, Saul Salis walks by, and he says seven words to me that literally changed every aspect of my life. He looked at me, and he goes, "Your cardio is a bit suspect, bro." That's all he said. Now, that doesn't sound very impactful, doesn't sound like it should change your life.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 09:01

Go there. What happened there? What pivoted there for you?

Larry Roberts:: 09:05

What pivoted there was the fact that while you're not allowed to say this in any martial arts gym, whether it's mixed martial arts or Karate, it's not the birth defect that I had. The restructuring of my sternum left my ribcage very, very narrow. And because of that, my lungs grew very, very narrow. My lungs go up above my clavicle, and they go down into my hips, so they're very long, very tubular. And because of this deformity, I only have about 60% of the normal person's lung capacity. So when he walked by and said those words to me, I knew right then and there that no matter what I did, no matter how hard I trained, no matter how hard I tried, no matter how many coaches I had, my physical inability to fill my gas tank or be able to breathe at the same level as these real athletes, that was it.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 10:05

They had the acuity and the vision to see that, not knowing the medical part of things, right? But to see that part of you, that was evident to him, that was probably not evident to others, maybe not even yourself at the time.

Larry Roberts:: 10:17

It was evident to me, but you know, I had that determination, I had that perseverance that I was going to power through. And I was going to do it, even though I didn't have a full gas tank most of the time. And honestly, I kind of got a reputation that if you took me into the later rounds, you got a better chance of beating me because I'm going to gas, I'm going to run out of gas. But I just knew that I couldn't get past it. I knew. But when he saw walked by and said that after a very short amount of time, that just flipped that switch, and I went, "Man, I'm really not going to make it. I'm really not going to be able to fulfill this dream."

Dr. Brad Miller:: 10:53

So already, you face the adversity at Earth. Now, you faces adversity and an activity which we're passionate about. Insurance or transitions are going through right here, aren't they?

Larry Roberts:: 11:03

Right. The adversity of growing up in a violent home. I ended up coming to blows with my stepdad and finally whipped him a little bit and got his respect had to do. And honestly, even growing up, my biological father, and I've shared this before, so it's not, I say, it's not that big a deal. It's a big deal. But I was sexually abused by my biological father and his fourth wife. So there was some animosity there over the years, and I own my karate school. And he came out to the karate school one night drunk, as can be said, he will teach me how to fight. And well, it didn't quite work out the way he planned. So I'd had violent confrontations with both of my father figures. So all that adversity throughout the years, led up to this moment where, again, fighting solved everything, I finally got Richard's respect. When I beat him up, I finally got Larry, my biological father's name. Larry also gained his respect and kind of got a little revenge for the nonsense he put me through. So fighting had solved most of my problems up to this point in life. And now fighting is gone. What am I going to do? So I ended up that night reconciling with myself that I was not even going to fight the next day. So I went to the event, and I got sick, and I'm throwing up air quotes. I got sick because I wasn't sick. Right? I was mentally defeated. I was devastated and defeated. But I wasn't so sick that I couldn't corner my friend when he was fighting in the main event to win his first world championship. I was right there in his corner, screaming and yelling and telling him exactly what to do for him to win. And he did well, but obviously, I wasn't sick. But tend to make it even worse, I was embarrassed that I was at the end of my fight career that it really wasn't going to happen for me. And I went back home. And I lied to everybody. I told everybody the I thought, yeah, one of the first round, I got hit by knockout, broke his nose with a knee, blah, blah, blah. And I lived that life for years and years. But inside I'm just wracked with guilt and rash with every negative emotion you can imagine. And so from that point forward, I had to find something else to focus on. And I had started working for the company that I recently retired from. And I decided at that point to just give into the whole work life, you do your job, you work yourself into your work, yeah, throw yourself into my work. And beyond that, throw myself into the corporate social schema. So you do your job, work eight to five, whatever it is, then you get off and go to the bar and play the game, whatever.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 13:38

The nuances are there were politically within the bar.

Larry Roberts:: 13:45

100%. So we ended up—I ended up going to happy hours, literally every night. We went to the same bars, a little place called Fox in the Hound. It's kind of an upscale pool hall, cigar lounge type scenario. And we literally got to the point where we lived there. I mean, it was like "Cheers." Everybody knew. We walk in, we know all the staff, we know everybody. And we'd get there at 5:30 because it was just down the street from the office. And we'd shut it down literally every night. And in doing this, I started drinking and started partying and started drinking and started drinking and continued drinking. Drinking became everything.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 14:22

Let me get it straight, there was some drinking involved?

Larry Roberts:: 14:31

A little bit of drinking. And I never really drank for the enjoyment of it. It was always drinking to escape and drinking to just make the pain go away, you know, drinking to distract.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 14:42

Peers from peer aspect, peer pressure as well with that?

Larry Roberts:: 14:46

I wouldn't say there's peer pressure. I mean, there's definitely peer pressure in a corporate environment. And I see that even today when I go to meetings or I go to lunches or I go to happy hours for networking. Everybody's like, "Oh, what are you drinking? What are you drinking? Let me buy you a drink. Let's go get a drink." And so yeah, I guess there was definitely some peer pressure from that perspective. But for me, it was just, let's just party. Let's just party till we pass out. And that pattern continued up until 2013. It was July of 2013 when I ended up in the hospital for the first time for alcohol poisoning.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 15:26

And just to clarify, also at this point, you are married into a family, is that right?

Larry Roberts:: 15:31

Well, I had family from my first wife—two children from my first wife. I got married right out of high school. So I ended up having my children very, very early. I was 18 years old when my daughter was born. And then three years later, my son was born. So that's why I sit here today at 50 and I have a 33 and a 30-year-old, and people go, "What?" Yeah, that's how it started. So yeah, but so we ended up getting divorced. And I met my current wife, who I'm still with, in 2001. And we partied together. So we both had a good time. And we both enjoyed our liquor, and we both got all liquored up every night till we literally passed out. And Bradley, before I got into in July of 2013, when I went to the hospital, I mean, it was to the point where she and I both would get off work. We work together.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 16:24

She wasn't part of the crowd. She part of the game?

Larry Roberts:: 16:28

Yeah, 100%. I mean, I met her at the office, but I really spoke to her for the first time at Fox in the Hound, the bar we went to. We would get off work, come home, and our drink of choice was gin. We would do shots of gin. We both put our stuff down, went straight to the freezer where we kept the gin for two shots. We had a dual sink, and we stood there knowing the first shot would come back up. Our bodies were going through detox simultaneously. We knocked back about three shots in a row, and then things would start to calm down. Then we took care of our dogs and continued drinking until we passed out. This was our nightly ritual.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 17:33

Sick on so many levels, including physically?

Larry Roberts:: 17:37

Physically, emotionally, every aspect. It got worse for me. While she usually made it to bed when she passed out, I typically crashed on the couch or the floor. We even have pictures of me passed out in the backyard.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 18:02

You literally crashed where you were?

Larry Roberts:: 18:05

Yeah, like a robot powering off. But in the middle of the night, I would wake up and go slam two or three more shots to put myself back to sleep. Then in the morning, as we got ready for work, I would sneak off to the freezer while she was using the hairdryer, so she couldn't hear me. I would grab the gin, pour two or three more shots, often three. Then we would go to work. I started finding reasons to go home during the day just to slam more shots.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 18:58

So, this was pervasive. This was your life, wasn't it?

Larry Roberts:: 19:01

Oh, yeah, 100%. Every day and then the weekends. It just doesn't stop. You know, I really loved the drink. I was living with it, or I would definitely say I was living the dream. But yeah, I definitely lived in the drink, 1,000%. And it got to the point where finally my body was just like, "Dude, we're not doing this anymore." And I remember in July of 2013, my body just basically caught fire. That's what it felt like. I felt like my whole body was on fire, and I could not make it stop. We eventually had to call the ambulance, and they came to the house and took me out. I had alcohol poisoning. I think I spent three days in the hospital that time. At the office, we played it off as, you know, I got sick, I got food poisoning, or something. But everybody knew what it was. They're not stupid. They're just being supportive, but also my co-workers, my social group, everybody else. That's my median.

Larry Roberts:: 20:01

And I still consider most of them my family today because I mean, that's what they were. I worked at this company for 22 years. So that's a massive part of your life. I mean, it's nearly half my life that I was very this company and most of these people. So they were just trying to be supportive, but also the Chief Information Officer, or Vice President of Information Technologies, a close personal friend of mine, also knows exactly what's going on. He's a pretty wise fella. And after I got back to the office, he called me into his office and he said, "Look, I know we're playing a game here that you got sick or food poisoning or whatever, but we both know what the problem is. And either you stop now, or you pack your stuff. And if it ever happens again, you get help." And I said, "Dude, I won't do it. I'm done. I'm clean. I'm done. This scared me to death. I'll do a breathalyzer every day. I'll get a portable breathalyzer. And I'll blow it. I'll do it every whatever." And I cleaned up for a couple of months. You know, the interesting dynamic about working with your wife, because she's been there. At the time, she'd only been there one year less than me, so we both grew up in this company. And she's still there to this day. As a matter of fact, working together with your wife can be very interesting because we worked on the same floor, had the same social circles, we knew all of the same staff, management, you name it. I mean, everybody. We were all there, we all knew. So we all knew when there was some nonsense going on in different departments. If she got mad about something, I could literally stand up from my desk and look across the floor and see her at her desk. I mean, that's how close we were. And with my loud voice, she could hear me all day. So we knew what was up. We'd get in the car, we'd be driving home because we rode together, of course. No need to drive two cars. And we'd find some reason, you know, to just, "Let's go get a small bottle." Because we went through several iterations of trying to stop.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 21:57

You're playing the game yourself, not only in your company but among you two as a married couple.

Larry Roberts:: 22:04

100%, 100%. You know, there'd be times where she was ready to stop and I wouldn't, and vice versa. And then there'd be times where we got lucky and we were on the same page as far as, you know, we don't need to drink anymore. But it goes back to what I was saying, that we always found a reason. You know, "So-and-so made me so mad. What am I going to do to get past this? Well, let's just go get a small bottle."

Larry Roberts:: 22:25

Let's just get it. Well, it's going to be a small one, not that big a deal. But that small bottle goes to a bigger bottle. And then finally, it goes up to 750 milliliters. And before you know it, you're back doing four to five 750 milliliter bottles a week. Our alcohol consumption bill was the mortgage base. It was a mortgage.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 22:45

I don't remember exactly what the numbers are, but I just know that it's going to be a lot of money, just the alcohol alone.

Larry Roberts:: 22:55

100%. And we don't always buy beer as well. We didn't drink the beer because this was so weird. We'd always have cold beer in the house, and we'd always have one in our hand. But we didn't drink the beer. It was more like, I don't know, the beer was kind of like a security blanket. It was just weird. And you'd get up in the morning, you'd find a 100% full beer on this table or the bar over here, where you'd find they're all full. We never drink the beer. But we always had to have it.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 23:18

Some weird vacation that wasn't quite as bad.

Larry Roberts:: 23:22

Maybe, who knows. Yeah, never really understood that one. But...

Dr. Brad Miller:: 23:24

So have you started to get out of this?

Larry Roberts:: 23:27

Well, like I said, I cleaned up in the hospital scenario for about two months, and then found a reason and just went back in full bore ahead. Just went at it and just started. I didn't see a way out. I think at this point, you know, I think I was frustrated and felt kind of hopeless. So in a weird way, I think I was trying to just end it. And because I quit, I quit eating, I quit going to work.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 23:58

So you won't have overt suicidal thoughts, but maybe kind of this recklessness maybe.

Larry Roberts:: 24:03

Yeah, 100% recklessness with, you know, you knew that was the end. There was no alternative ending once it was over, and I kind of reconciled myself to that. And I thought, "Well, I'll just go out soft and easy or whatever." I don't know. It's kind of hard to really articulate the thought process. And I just have to look back on it and make those educated assumptions. Fairly sure. But I had been out of work eventually for about two and a half weeks. Why they didn't let me go, I have no idea, other than I definitely had the CIO in my corner. He's kind of a father figure to me, even today. You know, I still look to him for guidance and input. And, you know, yeah, I look to him for everything. Honestly.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 24:50

The same guy told you to clean up your act or you might have to go?

Larry Roberts:: 24:54

Yeah, he was running protection on the back end for me, hoping that I would clean up my act. But after about two and a half weeks of really not eating, I was consumed. The only thing I was consuming other than alcohol was Special K pre-mixed breakfast drinks. They come in a little, I don't know, eight-ounce bottle or something. And they're like chocolate milk, basically. So I was drinking chocolate milk and gin. That was how I was being. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it worked out really well. But after about two weeks, I was sitting on the couch, on the end of the couch. And I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what intervened. We can say it was a voice coming to me and going, "Hey, man, it's not time yet," or what? But there was a vocal voice that told me that if I don't get help today, tomorrow is not going to be there. Okay, this is it. This is it. This is your final warning. This was your moment. This is it. This is your final answer, you know. And that scared me to death. I think I was sitting there watching Xanadu. Xanadu was on the TV. Which, wow, you have to be drunk to watch that.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 26:13

Yeah, let's face it. Olivia Newton-John in Spandex turned you around there.

Larry Roberts:: 26:19

Yeah, that's what it was. When I heard that, I got up and reached out to a friend of mine who also worked at the same company. I called him up and said, "Kenny, man, I gotta have help, I'm going to die." And he jumped into gear. He ran over to my wife, Tracy, and said, "Larry just called me, he needs help. We gotta get something going now." They went into the CIO's office and laid out a scenario. He happened to live next door to the son of a doctor who is a partner at one of the most prominent rehab facilities in the country, InterHealth. They have offices in Dallas and a ranch in a small town called Van Osteen in North Texas. It's a high-dollar facility that I shouldn't have been able to go to with my insurance. But he worked it out, got me a little bit of a discount. What really made it possible for me to go to InterHealth was that three years prior, my grandmother passed away. She played a pivotal role in my life, supporting me in every way imaginable. I had just found out in January or February of 2013, that I was her sole heir. While there wasn't a lot of money in the estate, I inherited everything. There were oil royalties I didn't even know about. I received a call from an oil company, and it turned out there was a fairly decent amount of money coming in. That's what allowed me to afford the facility. It's interesting to see that in my most desperate time of need, my grandmother came to the rescue once again. So Ray made the arrangements for me to go to InterHealth. Within a couple of hours, Kenny and my wife were at the house to pick me up and take me away. I don't remember much of the exchange because I continued to drink even after I called for help. They told me that I wouldn't leave the house until I did about five more shots before heading off to rehab. So I don't know what got into me there. Anyhow, they got me to rehab.

Larry Roberts:: 29:38

Exactly. They got me to the facility, but they couldn't check me in because my vitals were too unstable. They had to call an ambulance, and I was whisked out on a gurney to the hospital again. I spent three or four days there, don't remember much of the stay. I remember wanting to leave because nobody likes being in the hospital. But before they released me, I had to walk a straight line. I focused on the seams of the 12-inch tiles, telling myself to stay on the straight line and follow the light. Then they took me back to the rehab facility where I spent a week in their recovery wing, much of which I don't remember. I was supposed to be there for only six weeks, but at the end of the six weeks, when my wife came to get me and we went out for lunch, I realized I wasn't ready. So I asked for another week, despite the cost. I believe that decision was pivotal for my recovery. I don't think the results would have been the same if I had left at six weeks instead of seven.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 31:14

That was probably a pivotal decision for you as well, wasn't it?

Larry Roberts:: 31:17

I believe it was. I don't know if the outcome would have been the same had I left after six weeks. But I decided to stay for that extra week.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 31:27

So after going through rehab, Larry, you were able to overcome incredible adversity and pivot your life in a completely different and better direction. Can you talk about some of the actions you took or decisions you made during that time? What were two or three things that helped you break free from the destructive path you were on? You had to be intentional to change your course.

Larry Roberts:: 32:22

I had to find another purpose. And for the record, I've been sober since coming out of rehab, and I don't attend meetings.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 32:32

But let's celebrate that. It's a remarkable achievement to make the decision and maintain your sobriety. Good job.

Larry Roberts:: 32:43

So, how did I get to where I am today? After getting sober, I needed to find direction and fulfillment. By accident, I discovered podcasting and became deeply involved in the podcast community. My first podcast was unexpectedly successful and provided me with creative fulfillment and a sense of direction. Back at the office, my career was stagnant and unfulfilling. Although they wouldn't fire me, I knew I wouldn't progress. So, I decided to pursue podcasting and content creation. From 2014 to 2021, I built on that passion, launching my own company in 2017. It took time, but I established myself as a podcast coach and on January 4, 2021, I retired from my corporate career to focus on podcasting full time. Now, I'm a national level paid speaker, and speaking engagements have become one of my primary sources of income. I speak about various topics, including my personal story, podcasting, leveraging AI, and branding.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 35:08

Two other things. I just want to come in here. You put right on your website, Redheadmedia.IO podcast, and not only changed my life, but saved it. Now I owe it to the industry to give my clients everything I have. I think it's a fascinating thing to say because a lot of people would, given your story, maybe I did it on my own or somehow found the wherewithal, or my wife helped me or whatever. And those are all factors, I'm sure. But you found something to give you fulfillment. You found fulfillment in something like podcasts, where you are contributing your voice, literally, as part of your essence, to serve others. I love what that's about, and I think it's an important thing for our audience to hear. It wasn't just the absence of the bad stuff anymore. That is the essence of the drinking. You were finding all kinds of ways to justify that, artificial means, chemical means to give you some fulfillment. Now you had to find fulfillment by feeling the pain and then filling the void with something that is progressive and purposeful. So I think it's awesome, and that's part of what that's about. Let me ask if there's any aspect of this. A lot of times when people have a change in their life, Larry, there's not only this sense of action, you know, they have to do something, then they find some direction to go. So people find it in their kids or their grandkids. That's kind of my story here. I'm overcoming cancer right now. But also, for a lot of folks, there's some sort of connection to something greater than self. It might be a spiritual thing or religious thing, or it might be meditation. But sometimes people have some sense that there's something, some greater purpose, not only the fulfillment of the action of podcasting, but some greater purpose, some greater Divine Sense. Was there any aspect of this for you in your process of recovery here?

Larry Roberts:: 37:19

To a degree, probably not to the degree that many would expect. I get a lot of fulfillment out of watching others grow, helping and coaching them, and living vicariously through their success. Without going off on tangents, I have a lot of negative experience with concepts of higher power and religion. It's interesting. So from that perspective, I'm a little shallow, to be quite honest. I want to make my wife happy and my kids proud of me, but it doesn't go much deeper than that, honestly.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 38:13

Thank you for being honest and sharing that with me.

Larry Roberts:: 38:15

I mean, I won't blow smoke and tell you, you know, but it's just not what I'm about.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 38:22

To me, one of the most important and least boring things people can have is integrity, honesty, and authenticity. I see you, Larry, as someone who values authenticity highly. Is that a fair assessment?

Larry Roberts:: 38:36

That is a very fair thing to say. Yeah, I can't build on nonsense or fallacies.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 38:46

Well, and I think you build from your authenticity, especially considering that you were heavily involved in living a fake life. Would you agree?

Larry Roberts:: 39:04

Yes, because it's not, in an inebriated state.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 39:09

Almost by definition, you are clouded, sharing fried, messed up, and in order to do things, you're highly skilled in artificial intelligence and a lot of high-tech stuff. Sharing that with the world, you cannot be messed up in the mind to do that.

Larry Roberts:: 39:35

I can't imagine doing what I do now, having any sort of distraction from that perspective, not at all.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 39:42

You have to be creative, thinking creatively. That means your neurons must be firing. I love what you're talking about: serving others. I want to discuss the cognitive part of this. Getting through the cognitive part is about discipline and how you live your life. You mentioned that you had a rhythm or a habit, drinking after work and at various times. It was your discipline to numb yourself. What disciplines do you have now, either physically health-wise, mind-wise, workwise, or disciplines to be productive? What are some things you do now that replace those old habits with something productive?

Larry Roberts:: 40:30

Yes, it's accountability, more than anything else. Looking back on my martial arts timeframes, there was always accountability. Without accountability, I don't perform at the level I need to. Back then, if you didn't perform where you needed to, you were held accountable by getting punched in the face. That got your attention quickly. Nowadays, you don't physically get punched in the face, but face adversity each day. Securing new clients, securing speaking gigs, it's a very competitive market. If you don't stay on top of all the latest trends, techniques, and consumption habits of content consumers, you will disappear. It's simple and catches you very quickly. You're held accountable when you see new technologies, developments, and trends, and can't speak to them. I'm in a public space in podcasting, and even in the AI space to a degree. When people want to meet with me and have questions, if I can't answer them, I lose all credibility. So, I'm held accountable each day. I have to show up every morning. This is a habit I have. I fall asleep on the couch due to a rough back from years of being beaten up. Sleeping in beds is difficult, but the couch is perfect. It allows me to watch whatever I want while the wife sleeps comfortably in bed. I go to sleep every night watching YouTube videos on something, whether it's how to tweak a YouTube channel or the latest AI news. I wake up at 4:30 every day, without an alarm. Upon waking, the first thing I do is consume several instructional or educational videos on YouTube. That keeps me abreast of what's happening in the industry from different perspectives.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 42:45

You grasp it and process it in order to teach others.

Larry Roberts:: 42:49

Exactly. I have a book that sits here, Extreme Ownership. It's with me all the time. We're responsible for everything we do, whether it's good or bad, whether it's good luck or bad luck. It all comes back to me. So, my accountability is knowing that, regardless of what happens, it's my fault.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 43:14

Yes, it's your ownership. I want to take that ownership about yourself, let's see how. I want to go one more track with you. How you transfer or translate that ownership in yourself to how you serve others. We talked about how authentic you are, but I also see you being a passionate servant of others. You're passionate about podcasting and AI. You wear the Red Hat, your symbol, because it shows that you want to be noticed, that you have something of value to share. So, tell me how you share passion and love, what you're all about to people who want this information. How do you serve?

Larry Roberts:: 44:07

I serve by helping them achieve their goals in a variety of ways. My speaking career took off from 2017 to today. Many podcasters also want to be speakers. I help them every step of the way. People want to launch their podcast; I help them launch their podcast. Sure, in my business I charge to launch podcast, branded podcast. They're different from an independent creator who just wants their voice heard or their message out to the public. I help those people all the time, without charging them. It's fulfilling to see the smile on their face, their shoulders rise and back straighten because they're proud of what they've created. From a speaking perspective, there's an interesting parallel. Last August, when I spoke at Podcast Movement, I was nervous. Podcast Movement is a premier organization in podcasting, and I was speaking on their stage. It was a big auditorium. I remember I was kind of bouncing around. It felt like I was about to get in the ring.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 45:22

Back to your fighting days, okay.

Larry Roberts:: 45:24

Absolutely, it felt the exact same way, the same nerves, the same anxiety, the same amped-up feeling. Then I got up there, did a decent job, came off, and it felt like having my hand raised in the ring. Except, I didn't have to get punched in the face, so that was really cool.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 45:47

Sometimes when you speak, it feels like a punch in the gut.

Larry Roberts:: 45:50

Sometimes it does. Yes, it does. I've been there, but it's part of it.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 45:56

That's awesome. And you served your audience. I bet people have responded well, right? You've been serving people. Let's get the whole sense of serving others a bit more intimate for a moment. Can you share a testimony, if you will, of a person or a company you've been able to serve? You don't have to give any names if you don't want to. You can if you want to, but you've served them, shared, and seen that aha moment come out. Perhaps seen some actual transformation of how they've done life. Can you share a story with us?

Larry Roberts:: 46:38

There are honestly so many. From a podcasting perspective, I had a gentleman with a PhD in safety and engineering. He was struggling to get his podcast and website off the ground. He's one of the first guys I worked with directly around 2017 or 2018. To see him take his podcast from nothing to where it was brought me so much fulfillment. When you see people struggling, frustrated, trying to achieve their goals, and you can provide an answer to a question or suggest a small change, it can bring about transformation. Dr. David Perrodin was his name. When I saw him elevate his podcast, start speaking on bigger stages, it was a joy to watch. He remained in contact with me up until last year. Witnessing that type of transformation is truly amazing.

Larry Roberts:: 48:20

I should mention Dr. Perrodin is just one of several I've taken this journey with.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 48:25

That affirms you so much; personal stories, seeing the 'aha' moments, people's lives changing because someone invested in you - it's incredible.

Larry Roberts:: 48:55

There are so many people who have put me in the position I'm in today. I wouldn't be speaking on national stages if it weren't for Chris Krimitsos from Podfest or David Hooper, our shared podcast coach. These guys have been instrumental in elevating my game.

Larry Roberts:: 49:16

Everything always goes back to karate. I remember walking through shopping malls when my 'little dragons' would approach, showing me their practice kicks. When you see that type of response from people you've impacted, there's nothing better. It's exciting to see their excitement. It's not just six or seven-year-old kids, it's the same with a 47-year-old man or woman doing something cool with their podcast. They're showing off their kicks in their own way. That's what I love.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 50:10

There's almost nothing better. I received my doctorate degree in transformational leadership because I love seeing transformation in people when my leadership plays a part in that process. You experience that and you live it out through your website and offerings. You have a new podcast, please tell people about it.

Larry Roberts:: 50:39

As you mentioned, it's a new podcast called Branded. We're six episodes in. My co-host, Sarah Losee, and I met at a podcasting conference. Our dynamic is interesting, I'm soon to be 51, she's only 27. She's fresh out of school with her marketing degree, I never went to college. I have more life experience which creates interesting conversations and a fun dynamic.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 51:09

I encourage people to check that out. Larry Roberts, tell folks how they can connect with you.

Larry Roberts:: 51:25

You can visit my website, RedHatmedia.io. I'm on every social media platform. On Instagram, I'm The Larry Roberts. On Facebook, The Larry Roberts. YouTube as well, The Larry Roberts. Look for The Larry Roberts. If you find The Larry Roberts not wearing a red hat, it's not me.

Dr. Brad Miller:: 51:45

We'll put connections to your work on our website, DrBradMiller.com. Larry Roberts, thank you for joining us today on Beyond Adversity. Visit RedHatmedia.io and listen to the Branded podcast. Beyond adversity aims to help you grow through what you go through.