An Army of Normal Folks - Cheri Garcia: Hustling for Second Chances (And Cornbread) (Pt 1)

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

Cheri used to be gripped by meth and alcohol. Even during her own struggles with addiction, she helped formerly incarcerated Americans get jobs. Today, Cheri’s been sober for 4.5 years and her second chance staffing agency Cornbread Hustle hired more than 1,000 returning citizens last year. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You can call your drug dealer, you can call your dope dealer and get back in the game or you can call Cornbread Hustle. It's up to you. But you will know about Cornbread Hustle before you get out of prison. And if we don't have a job for you, we know how to help you find a job. We can help you. Welcome to an Army of Normal Folks. I'm Bill Courtney. I'm a normal guy. I'm a husband, a father, an entrepreneur, and I'm a football coach and intercity

Memphis in the last part. Unintentionally led to an Oscar for the film about our team. It's called undefeated. I believe our country's problems will never be solved by a bunch of fancy people in Naisu talking big words that nobody understands on CNN and Fox. But rather by an army of normal folks, us, just you and me saying, hey, I can help. That's what Sherry Garcia, the voice we just heard, is done. Sherry is the founder of Cornbread Hustle, a second-chance staffing agency that has helped over a thousand returning citizens get jobs just last year.

And it's a for-profit company. Sherry's incredible work is inspired by an incredible amount of pain and redemption that she's experienced. I cannot wait for you to meet her. Right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. [♪ Music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, music playing, Shari Garcia lives in Dallas, Texas and she flew to us in Memphis in January around some ice storms we had and a week after Tyree Nichols was brutally murdered by four Memphis police officers. Shari Garcia, what's up? Hey, how's it going?

It's going good. I'm so glad that you made it. Yeah. Had a little plane trouble. Mm-hmm. All that ice. We scared. No of course I'm not scared. You know what I am scared of though. Oh. Being stuck out here and not getting back home. This is a good place to be stuck. That's a good place. I don't know. Yeah. I mean, we can talk about some current events. We're not supposed to timestamp this, but I'm sure you like everybody else in the country saw the beating by the five Memphis policemen of an innocent man.

How's that strike you? I mean, just like any other videos that we see of the same thing happening over and over and over again in our country, it's painful, it's horrible, but you're right. Your city really handled it well. I thought, whenever I saw the date that I was coming in, I was like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna be flying into a war zone. Nope.

No war zone. You know why? I believe it's because instead of him hawing around the city, fire the officers, and then within a week, press charges on all of them. They didn't hide behind anything, and they did the right thing. And maybe that's an imprint for social justice without social destruction. Yeah, I think the swift action is definitely because if there was no swift action, then we might see something different.

Yeah, I mean, if you watch the video, there's really not much to question. Exactly. Exactly. Well, at any rate, the city didn't burn because we have some disenfranchised people who said the city is trying to do right in a God-awful situation and they certainly protested, which is their right, but they didn't burn our city down. And for that, I'm really thankful and frankly, I'm proud of my town. Me too.

So if you get stuck here a day, it's not the end of the world. Okay. Maybe I can just enjoy myself for an extra day here. That's it. If you have to. If I have to. That's right. So we're going to talk about cornbread hustle and a little bit, which is a great name. By the way, my nickname in high school is cornbread. Tell me why. Because I played football and during two a days, two a days is you practice and then you take off for about an hour and a half for lunch and then you have your second practice, two practice in a day, two a days. And everybody bring their lunch and mama always cook

southern. So it was always, uh, country fried steak or fried chicken or soul food or whatever with green beans or greens and there's always always quick skillet cornbread and we never ate it all. So she would always wrap up the cornbread in aluminum foil, usually half a pie and I would take that and that's what I would eat cornbread and buttermilk for lunch to a days and candid, the black guys on the team thought that was hilarious, because I ever saw a white guy like that. And they nickname me cornbread. So do you know how I came up with my company name? No. Almost a similar story. Everyone thought it was hilarious, because when I'd come

in and visit in the prisons to volunteer, I would eat like I wasn't going to eat again. They'd be like, dang Sherry, what's going on in prison food like that? Yes. So you like prison food. Okay. So everyone always was like, how do you like prison food? It's because in the world, I'm always on a low-carb diet. I was always dieting, but it was one of those things. Well, I'm in prison So I just load up on carbs while I was in prison because it was the easiest justification for me so That's why they were so have you ever seen the movie life? Yeah, sure remember the scene where they got in a riot over some cornbread

Yeah, so they would always, always, always say to me, hey, Sherry, you're going to eat your cornbread? Like they'd continuously make fun of me for how fast I was eating and always wanting seconds. And so whenever I decided to start the company, I was like, okay, cornbread.com, not available. And I was thinking of all kind of different combinations. I was like, cornbread inspiration, that's lame.

Like I was like, no, okay, cornbread. And then hustle, hustle came to mind. I was like cornbread hustle. I'm going for it, domain available, I'm buying it. It's perfect, it's a prison name. Well, I was never in prison, but I, my nickname was cornbread. In fact, there are, I'm 54 years old

and there are people that I will see out around town that I played with and against when I was a freshman sophomore and they do not know my name. They still call me cornbread. So it's a thing. And you know, there was a lot of business mentors that said to me, Sherry, you are going to be selling to HR professionals. Are you sure that you want a name like cornbread hustle? They were missing the point. You're going to be selling to HR professionals, are you sure that you want a name like Cornbread hustle? They were missing the point. You're going to remember Cornbread hustle.

Not only are they going to remember it, but my population were the people that I'm serving. So I was like, look, it'd be great if the HR people come along and give me money which I needed. So back then, I wasn't very bit, thank God. Back then I was drinking still. So I wasn't thinking it all the way through, but I had the right intentions in the right heart where I was like, I'm serving my people.

And my people love cornbread hustle. So here's the deal. Nobody has any idea what we're talking about right now. So we've got to unpack all this, okay? It's gonna be a lot to unpack. So first, tell me where you grew up. Tell me about sharing the kid. Where did you grow up? What was your growing up experience? I had a really great growing up experience. Great neighborhood, my parents. Where?

In the colony, the colony Texas. So just a suburb right outside of Dallas. Got it. And my parents were amazing. I didn't lack for anything. We had a great house. I was a very inventive creative child. I had business ideas starting from second grade,

going door to door, selling little bookmarks that I made. I also invented a peanut butter slash maple syrup type. That sounds disgusting, frankly. Well, it is disgusting. And so... How did it do? Well, I thought it was disgusting and weird that my mom smeared peanut butter on her pancakes then poured syrup on it. I wasn't interested in that but since she was doing a two-part process, I had the idea to mix it together and package it up and try it. And so I went door to door trying to serve my sails. Do you know the spressily's favorite sandwich was? Well, I'm just gonna guess since we're on this topic, it must be peanut butter and maple sandwich.

Peanut butter and banana. Oh really? Peanut butter and banana sandwiches and then they fraught them. Wow. Yeah. My grandma used to really disgusting. My people killed them. My grandma used to feed us marshmallow cream and peanut butter. That's disgusting too. So anyway, the peanut butter and syrup could not have gone well. I cannot fathom that doing well.

But the point is, you grew up with a mom and dad at home and a nice neighborhood, go to nice schools and you were in Vinov and entrepreneurial or young age and then you got on meth. Now how's that work? And then you got on meth. Now, how's that work? And then you got on meth. Well, I would understand that. Yeah.

So I actually don't share this story very often on, and I've never shared it on bigger platforms, but I'll do it today. Good. Good. I feel like I'd be forced anyway. Well, I mean, let's just, you know, we're normal folks, right?

You're not a politician and we all have struggles. And to hear so far, you painted a Norman Rockwell painting with peanut butter and maple syrup and the colony and everything else and somehow that turned into meth. And you're gonna have to connect the dots. Yeah, well, what's really difficult for me is I don't have a problem sharing my own struggles and things that I did in my own choices.

I'm such a daddy's girl. And it was my daddy that indirectly introduced me to meth and well, you sounds like What your mom and dad were married, right? They were so let me back it all the way up. Yeah Mom and dad are married. They did start fighting a little more often and things at home weren't very peachy, but it just seemed like normal, you know, lightly toxic family issues.

One day, I was across the street at a friend's house. He was an older kid who had already dropped out of high school. He was kind of the bad kid, but I was across the street at his house. What were you doing hanging out with him? He had a younger brother as well, and my brother, and my brother's friends with that younger brother.

So it was, yeah, it was just the kids next door, and we were always over there. And neighborhood stuff. Neighborhood stuff, yeah. How were you? I was at that time, I would say, around 16 years old. Yeah, maybe getting into 17. I would say around 16 years old. Yeah, maybe getting into 17. I think I was 16 at that time.

To a teenager. Yeah. And... Trying to figure it all out probably. Oh, I had it all figured out. Of course. Not bad, I forgot. Yeah, remember?

Right. Okay, so you're at the neighbor's house and you get teenager. And he was like, hey, you know, your dad smokes, right? And I was like, smokes. My dad makes fun of my mom for smoking. Like, he calls cigarettes cancer sticks. There's no way. And he was like, nope.

And I was like, well, I know it's not weed, because my dad's like totally anti-drug. My dad was a strict dad that was pretty religious. And so he wouldn't even allow me, like they had pajama day at school and elementary school. And he raised hell over that because he didn't want his daughter to be in front of boys and pajamas.

So my dad was always pretty straight laced. And so I was like smoke. So what do you mean? He was like ice. And I was like, ice, what's ice? And he was like, you know, meth. And I was like, no, I had no idea what that was. And I was like, there's no way my dad's doing drugs. There's absolutely no way. And he was like, Sherry, look out the window. It's 11 o'clock at night and your dad's mowing the lawn. He's on meth. Oh my gosh. Is that true? Yeah. And I was like, he always does that. And he was like, that's my point. And I was like, why? And it was just

hold it. How does a guy like that end up on meth? He tried it one day. Well, I can, well, I'll fast forward whenever I get to, I guess we shouldn't fast forward yet because I found out later How he ended up on meth. I mean the same way that so drug addiction doesn't discriminate my dad Had a lot of unresolved trauma. He was an amazing dad and he had a beautiful wife and he had beautiful kids But my dad walked in on his dad, his dad killed himself and my dad found him. He hung himself and was an alcoholic.

So addiction was in my dad's DNA, even though my dad had no interest in drugs or alcohol. My dad, you know, he partied every once in a while like at family barbecues and sometimes he'd get a little tipsy but my dad was a real straight-laced guy. But he was just, he was struggling at work, he worked a really, it was a telecom type job and it was a overnight job where he was trying to stay awake and a friend had Suggested to him that he could try something to stay awake because my dad was like man. How are you?

Staying awake. How are you getting all this work done? And he let my dad try it. My dad was instantly hooked and so that is horrible Yeah, it is and so that is horrible. Yeah, it is. And so whenever I heard about, you know, this guy, he's telling me my dad smokes meth, which by the way, this guy knew my dad smoked meth because he was my dad's drug dealer, the neighbor. I know across the street. Yes. So I was like, give me some. Is your dad really cutting the grass at 11 o'clock at night? Yes he was. Good lord. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Okay. But I was like, just okay. He's just weird, you know. And this is a very hard for me to I've because I love my dad so much and I've grieved his death so much because he died recently. love my dad so much and I've grieved his death so much because he died recently. So, of course, that's why I never came out with the story. My dad was my best friend and I didn't want

to hurt him. I get it. And he was still living. And then, right at his passing, of course, I only wanted to remember the good things about him. And I wanted him to, you know, have a better legacy than the dad that got his daughter on meth. And I wanted him to, you know, have a better legacy than the dad that got his daughter on meth. And he, just to be clear, he never got me on meth, I heard he was doing it, so I wanted to go find it. Well, you were hanging out at his dealer house. You didn't have to look for it. I didn't have to look far, but the dealer being the person of integrity that he is, he wouldn't let me be the first to try it from him. So he told me I need to go find it first, try it,

and then I can come back and buy it from him. Oh, what a shower is. What a fine young man. Yeah. I will say that he's sober today in doing really amazing, and we've reconnected and we've had discussions. So I bet you have had quote discussions.

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But guys, that's really not what it's about. You get all that cool stuff and we're gonna provide all that stuff. But the truth is, we're trying to grow the army of normal folks and have a greater impact on the country. And with the premium memberships, we can fuel our marketing efforts to grow it. This podcast picked at number 10 on Apple's podcast chart and all of the US, which is absolutely crazy. And it's not about me, it's about the guest and it's about you. So we've decided to set an exciting new goal of trying to be on Apple's top shows chart for our entire first year, which will mean more attention, more listeners, more army members,

and most importantly, more impact. But we need you, as always. So go to normal folks.os and click on Premium if you're down to help. If not, just keep listening. We'll be right back. You go out on the street and find some meth to try because your dad's doing it. So I'm trying to connect those. I mean, honestly, you're 16 or 17. You had to knoweth was not good.

Well, I mean, I was a cheerleader at the time, and I was told it could make me lose weight. I was sold. Oh my goodness. I was sold on that alone. So you found it, and I assume if your grandfather was addictive and clearly your father's addictive, you have some of that same genetic predisposition for addiction. Yeah, I ended up finding it. It's not hard.

I was working at a golden corral and all I did was go to the back and ask a couple of guys if they knew anybody who had it. I mean, that was it. I know a lot of people, when they think of meth, they think about people who like pick their face and are out on the street and super skinny. There are a lot of people that you may not even realize that you interact with every day that are functional methodics and using and going to work every single day. Well, I just also had a thought that, um, I don't know that I'm

ever going to eat it a golden cry again now. Well, I don't know if you can. I think they're like going out of business. Well, that's probably, I think COVID killed, but you can understand why there are people run around eating their 17th plate. The, the mashed potatoes might have met them. Okay. Well, let's, I couldn't have found it at IHOP at Denny.

I can, what I'm telling you is you can find meth anywhere you want. I get it. I'm playing. And so you win. Got some meth. You tried it. You got hooked. And now your dad's dealer is your dealer who happens to be the guy across the street

who's a friend of your brothers. I mean, this is like all really close to home. Yeah. So I tried it and I did it every single day for two years from the day I tried it. Are you kidding me? Except for one day in the only reason why I remember that day. So vividly is because I was sick as a dog. I only didn't do meth because I had a stomach bug. And I was. Oh, and withdrawals. It was your sick. I was sick as a dog. I only didn't do meth because I had a stomach bug. And I was sick. Oh, and withdrawals, it was your sick. I was just sick.

So you're in high school as a cheerleader doing meth. Yes. For real? For real. Yes. That's putting it in my drink on the way to school. They had just built a brand new QT and they did a year of free slushies. So that was part, I know,

that was that was what I did. I'd stop and get a slushie and drop a couple of shards of meth into my slushie. And I mean, I shouldn't even be talking about this so lightly. That's horrible. It was really horrible looking back like it's allowed me looking back and seeing it as wow that's it does allow me to give myself a lot of grace for how much I've stumbled and being an adult and becoming an alcoholic and like all the other toxic behaviors that I had that I had to undo and peel the onion back on. Yeah, but it's not where we start, right? It's where we finish. Yeah, so I'm thinking about your mom. She had to have known your dad was doing math so

That's another interesting thing that I've never ever talked about on any platform ever My dad had fallen out of a vehicle and he was in a coma for several months because he got ran over by another car. He was in a... Brief. Yeah, he was in a coma and we were making funeral arrangements because he wasn't expected to make it. I bear, I don't remember much of it because I was only like five years old or younger. But my mom was thinking that all his erratic behavior

she kept taking him to like brain specialists and they'd go to therapy and she was trying to... Nobody in the whole family believed that somebody like my dad would ever do drugs. So it was like it wasn't even like, at the top of the list as a possibility. It was like, there's no way. My mom did end up leaping all the behavior

and him not paying the mortgage and the money disappearing though that was the reason for the divorce. And so when they divorced, I told my brother, I'm going to go live with dad. You stay with mom. Of course, if my mom knew at that time that my dad was absolutely positively using meth, then I'm sure she would have tried to stop me from going to live with him. But I was older than 15 years old and able to make my decision on which parent I wanted to live with.

Sherry, that means that your dad was using meth and you're in high school living with him using meth. Correct. Oh, gosh. We're using meth with him. No. So we never crossed that boundary. Thank God. I did you both know each other was using it. Yes. Wow. Yes. That is phenomenal. That you know, stories like that typically lead to complete destruction. It did. Well, but you stopped. How? You know, I was always a very ambitious person, very inventive, like I said, creative.

I was on the cheerleading team. I had even created, I started my first company while I was in high school. It was called Shroud of Style. It was a photography studio. I was doing senior picks and charging the parents money and this was like before I know this was while on meth slash before I got on meth. I was just It's weird. It's hard to remember if it was let's see before no it was during it was during meth I started taking pictures because I had worked at glamour shots while I was heavy in my methodiction

Did the other kids parents not know was this like the biggest secret on earth or did your friends know? I'm I mean, I remember a hospital wasn't that long ago and Haskell kids know what other hospital kids are doing typically Mm-hmm And high school kids know what other high school kids are doing typically. And that's something I have to live with all the time every day is the people that I introduced to it. And what it did to them. Wow. That's a hell of a burden. And yes, parents did know and rumor mills did happen. And I did get kicked off the cheerleading team because I got evicted

from my apartment because of weed actually. So I was just thankful that I got kicked off the cheerleading team for having weed. I was like, okay, well, sure. You know, wow. I was very quickly going from being a respected person in school that made decent grades and played sports to. I was the kid that the parents said don't go to her house, you can't go to her house. You know what's interesting is not 10 minutes ago I asked you to tell me about the way you came up and you said, oh, it was great. It was a wonderful house. It was in the, I think you said the colony in Dallas, everything's great. Yet you were dealing with meth and getting kicked out of stuff. And I mean, and I mean, it even makes your story to me more remarkable because very few people will overcome an adolescent situation like that one. So again, what made you stop?

So I just, I kept a lot of people who have used meth can relate to this feeling, but there were a lot of times that I, because once meth takes over your life and your life sucks, like your whole life becomes like you're a slave to the drug. You worked your grip. You're gripped. I've heard, I've heard addicts say it's,'s it's got to be gripped. Yes, so it can start out as something that wow I did like 10 flips down the football field. This made me better at cheerleading. Wow, I've lost 15 pounds in one week This is amazing. Wow, I stayed up all night and just finished this paper and got an A on it. So

night and just finished this paper and got an A on it. So people don't start drugs because it negatively affects them and keep doing them. Like who's going to keep doing drugs that didn't feel good or didn't give a result. So it was giving me results, but then once it gripped me and once I was, I mean, I'm getting kicked. I had an apartment while I was in high school. That's growing up fast. That's some fast growing up. So getting evicted from my... Why did you have an apartment? Because I wanted to live on my own and my dad co-signed on it for me.

Wow. Yeah, I just wanted to do my own thing. And I'm sure he was just fine with that, you know? We both kind of wanted to do our own thing. So, I just, I spent a lot of time doing the whole fleshing the meth down the toilet or stomping the pipe and saying I'm done, but what would happen is I would face my 430 credit score

No car, no money like facing all those feelings, what meth does really well is numb feelings. meth makes you feel like you can be like president of the United States tomorrow and your crap doesn't state and you feel no feelings. We'll be right back. There's a meth problem throughout the center of our country. There's a meth problem everywhere, but there's an especially egregious meth problem in a lot of rural areas and places like West Virginia

and Kentucky and Ohio and East ASE and I'm sure it's everywhere, but I'm just, I'm aware of those. And it's largely people who've been left behind by the factory in the town shutting down or the mill in the town shutting down in very little prospects and hearing you, I guess I can see being a high school kid from a rural area who really doesn't have the money or prospects that's maybe lowered the middle income and not much going on and

meth being the only thing that makes them feel good at first. I mean, is that, do you see that? I mean, Emma, is that right? Or I think that, because I had, I mean, meth landed right in my, I mean, my family had it all. I think drug addiction can get anybody. And if you have a lot of unresolved trauma and especially people who live in inner cities and are in toxic families, they're definitely going to probably let that drug grip them quicker than somebody. And be more susceptible.

Yes, absolutely. Avoiding the feelings that you have to do. Like there's that you have to deal with. Like there's, um, that's why I did create a 12-week starting over program inside prisons and that whole program is about understanding boundaries, understanding codependency, understanding toxic relationships because I can give you a job all day long. I can pat your head and tell you everything's gonna be okay. I can hand you a bunch all day long. I can pet your head and tell you everything's going to be okay. I can hand you a bunch of money. I can give you shelter. I can give you a car. But you're going to lose all of that if you haven't learned how to process your feelings. Or if you haven't learned

how to live in sobriety while being accountable and changing your life. It's hard. And one of the gifts that I have, because of my experiences, because people ask all the time, like if you could change anything, would you? I mean, I don't want to live it again. I'd say just kill me, put a gun to my head instead. Just kill me if you're going to make me go live it again.

But I don't want to change a thing because I don't think I would have had the ability to have this gift of making people feel good while holding them accountable. Not many leaders can do that. It's usually one or the other. Well. And one's enabling, and one is shaming, right? Well, certainly experience has given you a very unique set of tools and a toolbox to do the things you're doing now.

So again, I still don't know why you got off-math or how you got off-math. What did that? You stomped the pipe, you threw it down the toilet, but... I got it. I had a lot of arrests. My arrests were always frivolous. It was for Driving on the wrong side of a divided highway Because you were on math. I was but I never got my car searched and The times that I did get my I just got lucky

Simply put I never got caught with math So I never got charged with the, so I never got charged with a possession. I never got a felony, but you got arrested for driving on the wrong side of the road. Because I had a warrant. You also never died. I know. Because I had, so I had tons of warrants. In fact, I don't want to say this. I probably have a warrant in Memphis, Tennessee from a long time ago. I just told you the last time. If they still, and I'm happy to pay that ticket and make the immense okay.

So if the Memphis, I will pay my ticket just so don't make me sit in jail first. Oh my God. I was so how many times have you been arrested? Oh my gosh. I can't. So I think the number of times I've been arrested is around the 14, 14 time mark. But when we say arrested, did that mean jail time or?

No, always, always a night in jail. And I. So very privileged, very lucky. I never did any prison time that I cannot relate to the people that I serve on the basis of spending time in prison. But you understand the booking process. You understand the fear you understand. I understand the prison in your own mind of hating yourself or running from something and chasing something and being addicted and not meeting your potential. I understand that there's no reason I shouldn't be in prison for the rest of my life right now. My last arrest, which

happened five years ago, was a DWI and I was so drunk that I had to go back to the police station the next day and ask what city my car was in. So I could have killed myself or someone else, somebody called 911 and said that I was swerving so badly that I was going to hurt someone. Of course, I was angry for a very long time that somebody would snitch me out, but now that I'm in, They probably saved you a lot. They probably absolutely did. Back then, I probably would have rather died. That's how bad my life was. Looking at that point,

I was that drunk pretty much in the middle of the day. Were you working? I was. So you were. I was the CEO of Cornbread Hustle at that time. So I am four years sober from alcohol, The CEO of Cornbread Hustle at that time. So I am four years sober from alcohol, but I started Cornbread Hustle six years ago. Oh my gosh, we got, so.

Success is not linear, my friend. It never is, but yours is extraordinarily non-linear. I know. So you got off meth but you replaced it with alcohol. I mean is that right? Yep that's about it. That's that's to make a long story very short. Okay so here's we keep. And so you I know you keep so how I got off meth by the way it was just a rest after a rest after a rest. I'd go like 30 days without doing meth.

And then I'd relapse in both times that I relapsed after 30 days sober, something bad happened the first time I ended up still. I was at a drug dealer's house and I stole a whole bunch of methadone. And I tried to take a bunch of it to help me sleep because I just wanted to do a little bit of meth to stay up. I took a whole bunch of it and I thought I was going to die. Literally, I was so sick. I mean, my stomach was pumping itself.

Sure. I mean, you were a drug addict. Oh, yeah. I mean, I still am if you put drugs in front of me. So I'll always be a drug addict in an alcoholic, and I have to remember that. No, I get that part. Let me say it a different way.

You were a active practicing drug addict, and not just someone who, I mean, this was your life. Yes. It was my entire life for a couple of years. The strength it takes. I have Addics in my family and None of them have been able to kick it the strength the internal fortitude you have to be

four years completely alcohol and drug-free After having been basically an addict since you were 16 or 17 years old, and high school is, I mean, it just says a lot about you and that's a story unto itself. We keep referencing Cormbread Hustle. So we have to tie that together. Tell me about why and how at the very beginning, not what you're doing now, we'll unpack that, but why and how at the very beginning? So you asked what got me off meth. It was just the same reason I got off alcohol, the same reason I got off alcohol trying to quit for a little bit, it sucked quitting, but then realizing relapsing sucked worse. The second time I relapsed, I was in the back of a cop car. And how is that possible? Oh God. There's another

story. You were in the back of a cop car and then you were, no, I ended up in the back of a cop car because I you said the no, I ended up in the back of a cop car because I, you said the second time, I'm like, no, would you have it in your sock and decide to get high in the back of a car? Oh gosh, you don't want to be high on meth going to jail, but, um, no, no to listeners.

Yes. Don't take meth if you're going to jail. It's terrible. Okay, go ahead. Most people know that. If you got to say on it, most people don't know's terrible. Okay. Most people know that. If you got to say on it, though, most people don't know that. Most drug addicts may know that, but most people don't. Okay, you're right. Sometimes I forget how privileged I am to know everything about the drug world.

Anyways, I ended up going to relapse, met up with some old old friends and they looked strung out They must have been on a bender and I show up in my little cheerleaning bow and cute clothes I'm like hey guys, what's up? I'm gonna do some math because again I was like a month or a month and a half sober and I just I wanted to do enough Just to get motivated to fix my life. That is a problem with a lot of people. There's two problems of people that I see that get off meth and come out of prison or get off meth at all.

We have this idea that we can do just a little to jumpstart, either losing weight because you can gain a lot of weight getting off meth obviously, or to jump start getting back on track with like finding a job or or facing. And the problem is you walk right back into the group. That is the problem. So they ended up getting in some, gosh, some brawl in the front yard. There was some kind of trailer trash brawl. I can't remember what happened. Some lady come scream in like a banshee and it's a big big ol' fight in the front yard. And somebody calls the cops, the cops show up and the cops take everyone's ID. I ended up being the only one arrested because you had a warrant because I had a warrant. So all the times I got arrested it was

because I had a warrant. It was never because I got caught with the drugs, but because of the way everyone was behaving and the erratic behavior and cops aren't stupid, on the way to the police station or to jail, they were like, hey, you're the least likely person we thought we were gonna arrest tonight. And they basically just, I'll never forget, like, that, you know, people come in your life

and plant seeds and say things, and you put it in your back pocket, and you're like, boy, do I. Yeah, and so he just said, do you wanna look like those people? Because you don't right now. I hope you know that. Like, it's very obvious that you're new to this and

If you want to keep going down this road, that's how you're gonna look which means you look like you're 85 when you're 30 and your teeth are rotten out of your head pretty much Is what he was implying and so It wasn't really his words or him threatening that I'm gonna look like an old lady at 30. Missing potato head. It was more of the fact that, man, it really did suck being sober for that month or so, but it sucked a lot worse writing in a cop car to jail and starting all over again. So that was the moment that I really realized that no matter what, meth isn't going to solve my problems and I'm just going to have to walk this tough road to get better. That concludes part one of our conversation with Sherry Garcia and I hope you listen to part two

this now available. Her redemption story is just getting started. But if you don't, make sure you join the Army of Normal Folks at NormalFox.os and sign up to become a member of our movement. It only takes committing to doing one new thing this year to help others, and there will be a ton of awesome ideas on this podcast from the folks we're featuring. Some of them may resonate with you deeply and others may not at all and that's okay. We're all called to do different things with our different talents. But by signing up, you'll receive a weekly email and short episode some reason case you happen to miss an episode or maybe you prefer just reading about our incredible guest. Together, guys, we can change this country, but it starts with you.

I'll see you guys in part two. country, but it starts with you. I'll see you guys in part two.