Gregg Champion's father was killed in a head-on collision with another drunk driver when Gregg was 4. He grew up angry, filled that with alcohol and attention, and spent his 20s collecting DUIs, assaults, a marijuana trafficking operation out of a van, and two arrests in the same 24-hour stretch at Mardi Gras. He got sober at 25, went back and finished his ASU degree sober with a 4.0, sits on the Arizona State Alumni Leadership Council, taught entrepreneurship at USC, and is 30+ years sober.

This episode covers the childhood trauma he carried alone for decades. The night at he woke up in a jail cell, found a Catholic church in the phone book, and sat down in front of a priest named Father Bill — who turned out to be his stepfather's sponsor — and who sent him to his first meeting. He built Startup Recovery and Wellness over nine years and three sober living homes in the Pacific Palisades. In that same stretch he also lost his mom to Alzheimer's, his sister to suicide, went bankrupt in 2008, and watched the January 7, 2025 fires burn all three houses to the ground. He's still standing.

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Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.

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#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

0:00 Cold open
0:38 Intro
1:07 Gregg Champion
7:14 31 years sober and still working on it
10:26 The seven-year itch: three years without AA and no sponsor
13:42 Being a girl dad in recovery — why he shares it out loud
17:17 His father was killed in a drunk-on-drunk collision
18:01 Becoming what killed his father
18:49 Attention as the first substitute
20:23 A secret he carried since he was eight
22:33 Age 13 to 25: Arizona State, six credits short, and a rampage
23:16 Going back to finish his degree sober now on the ASU Alumni Leadership Council
24:15 Lost sister to suicide, mom to Alzheimer's, bankrupt in 2008, Palisades fires
24:38 Getting sober at 25: DUIs, assaults, two Mardi Gras arrests
29:13 Running weed out east
32:20 Waking up in a jail cell and hearing a voice say his name
33:17 He finds the nearest Catholic church in the phone book
34:21 Father Bill
36:20 Father Bill turned out to be his stepfather's sponsor
41:36 His daughter asks: "Papa, have you ever been to jail?"
47:25 Teaching entrepreneurship at USC
57:48 The TED Talk he bombed
59:11 Couples counseling: finding the therapist with 25 years in Al-Anon
1:00:37 What year ten of sobriety demands: going a level deeper
1:06:34 The Recovery Playbook: sober, now what?
1:08:22 The thing he relapsed over but never fully faced
1:15:35 Breaking the cycle: giving his daughters the life he didn't have

Golf Prospect w Full Ride to UCLA. Meth Took It All w/ Danny Dalton | The Hopeaholics Podcast #350

Danny Dalton grew up in Huntington Beach playing golf when Tiger Woods was the standard everyone chased. He was good enough to earn a full scholarship to UCLA. He lost it junior year and spent the next decade filling the gap with cocaine, then meth, then heroin. This episode covers the whole run. The UCLA golfer who shot course records and still couldn't get out of his own way. The meth use that progressed to the needle at 33. The night he looked in a mirror and saw Gollum staring back. And the second day of treatment when a stranger walked into the room with the same name as his deceased father.

Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics
https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!


Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com



Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics

Our Merch:
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

0:00 Cold open
0:18 Intro
0:47 Danny Dalton, welcome to the show
1:09 Golf: how Danny got into it late and why it took over
6:35 progressive alcoholism begins
7:11 Full athletic scholarship to UCLA
9:12 The gene: addiction running through the family
14:45 Growing up with Tiger Woods as the benchmark
15:05 "I didn't realize how insulated I was until I wasn't"
19:03 Losing the scholarship junior year, somehow graduating anyway
21:56 Course records / sponsors: pro-level golf he couldn't hold onto
24:14 Cocaine, then meth
25:09 The needle at 33
32:33 First meth charge at 36: parents finding out
32:59 Nine charges with the law
33:21 Heroin: the thing that took him all the way down
34:48 Four years of isolation + his father dies
35:49 "I looked in the mirror and saw Gollum"
36:13 The shot that almost killed him
37:18 Threw everything in the trash and walked to the beach
38:01 Detox on his mom's couch, then court
39:17 Court-ordered 90 days
39:38 Day 2 in treatment: breaking down in church
41:13 A stranger named Tom Dalton walks in — his dead father's name
43:08 "That's why you have a gift"
44:29 Losing his treatment community, starting to slip again
45:23 Why he stays in recovery: it's for the next guy
48:33 Chad on his own hard year
51:12 The two words he says every morning
57:35 The recovery side has to come first
1:02:41 What Danny does today

They Said I'd Never See My Kids Again. Got Them Back Sober w/ Ian Day | The Hopeaholics Podcast #349


Ian Day grew up a standout athlete in a one-stoplight town in Indiana with one bar. His first drinks were sips of Miller Lite off his grandpa's lawn mower. By 17 he was smoking weed every day and panhandling in his high school hallways for lunch money because he'd spent it all on drugs. By 26 he was in Maricopa County tent jail in pink underwear and it was a country song in the jail chapel that finally broke him open for the first time in his life. He was told he'd never see his kids again and he got them back while fully sober. Ian shares his experience in the fork in the road between homeless, prison, and the halfway house, 90 meetings in 90 days, waking up at 4am to work a food bank before heading to a tattoo shop in the evenings, and what it looked like to slowly build a life he never thought was possible. Ian is now 8 years sober, owns Everlasting Inc. tattoo shop in Phoenix next door to a sober lounge, goes into intake prison on Monday mornings, and is raising his kids with his wife, Christin Day


Follow the Hopeaholics on our Socials:
https://www.instagram.com/thehopeaholics
https://linktr.ee/thehopeaholics

Go to www.Wolfpak.com today and support our sponsors. Don't forget to use code: HOPEAHOLICSPODCAST for 10% off!


Visit our Treatment Centers: https://www.hopebythesea.com
If you or a loved one needs help, please call or text 949-615-8588. We have the resources to treat mental health and addiction.

Sponsored by the Infiniti Group LLC:
https://www.infinitigroupllc.com

Join our patreon to get access to an EXTRA EPISODE every week of ‘Off the Record’, exclusive content, a thriving recovery community, and opportunities to be featured on the podcast. https://patreon.com/TheHopeaholics

Our Merch:
https://thehopeaholics.myshopify.com

#TheHopeaholics #redemption #recovery #AlcoholAddiction #AddictionRecovery #wedorecover #SobrietyJourney #MyStory #Hope #wedorecover #treatmentcenter #natalieevamarie

Timestamps:
0:00 - Cold Open: First Blackout
0:26 - Welcome / Intro
1:45 - Eight Years Sober This Weekend
2:55 - Told He'd Never See His Kids Again
4:06 - They Lied to the Courthouse
6:52 - Losing His Sister at 32
9:27 - The Last Time She Moved Was to Hug Me
12:37 - First Drinks on Grandpa's Lawnmower
13:28 - First Blackout: Let's Try Again
15:40 - Alcohol as a Solution to Social Anxiety
20:47 - Panhandling in High School Hallways for Lunch Money
22:32 - I Believe Wholeheartedly I Would Be Dead Without My Parents
44:57 - Chris Young Song in the Jail Chapel
45:27 - God I Want to Be a Good Man — First Honest Moment
49:16 - Homeless, Prison, or the Halfway House
52:46 - Sponsor Says Stay
53:44 - Two Jobs at 4am for Almost Two Years
55:04 - Meeting His Wife at a CA Convention
1:02:25 - God Told Him to Pay Off His Fines Instead
1:10:09 - What Are You Going to Do With Your Power Today