As The Leader Grows with Ken Joslin

Adam Jablin | Journey to Rebirth: My Tale of Addiction & Healing

• Ken Joslin

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When Adam Jablin opened up about his 18-year battle with addiction, it was like a window into the soul of transformation. This episode is brimming with raw emotion and candid revelations from Adam, who walked me through his remarkable journey of discovery, healing, and rebirth. His principle of living 'one day at a time' has not only been a lifeline in his recovery but also a catalyst for uncovering a passion for life he never knew he had. Our heart-to-heart touches on everything from surrendering to the unpredictable future to the power of faith in the healing process, and Adam's unwavering commitment to guiding others toward their own breakthroughs.

There's something incredibly humbling about reflecting on the moments that shape us, and I had the chance to do just that, recounting the lessons learned under the mentorship of Dion, a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame icon. From the dizzying heights of entrepreneurship to the grounding wisdom found through life's challenges, I share how my approach to leadership and mentorship has evolved, echoing the philosophies of greats like Phil Jackson. My own journey has been a testament to the transformative impact of genuine human connections and the magic that unfolds when we pay forward the gift of recovery.

As Adam Jablin and I wrapped up our exchange, we found common ground in the birth of the Hero Project amidst the chaos of the pandemic, and how it thrived by embracing the art of letting go. We also delved into the synergy of faith and business, celebrating the rise of a vibrant community where spirituality meets entrepreneurial spirit. Adam's anticipation for his upcoming book with his mentor Dion, which draws from the wisdom of musical legends like Eric Clapton and Bruce Springsteen, promises to be a treasure trove of insight. This episode is a heartfelt reminder of the strength we find in community, the enduring power of mentorship, and the transformative journey of faith.

Welcome to the ATLG podcast I am your host Ken Joslin, former pastor turned coach & host of CREATE, the #1 Faith-based Entrepreneur conference in America. My mission is to help faith-based entrepreneurs become the best version of themselves by growing in our Core 5: Faith, Health, Relationships, Business & Finances. You can get more information as well as join our FREE Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/676347099851525

If you enjoyed the podcast, come join our FREE GSD Community of hundreds of entrepreneurs & a ton of FREE Content including CREATE Conference recordings with Ken, John Maxwell, Gary Brecka, Ed Mylett & more. growstackdrive.com/free

Speaker 1:

Hey guys, welcome to another episode of as the Leader Grows. I am your host, ken Jocelyn, and I have got a super duper stud friend of mine on here today. We are going to have a blast. I just spent a weekend with him and my good friend, dr Rob Kelly in San Antonio a couple of weeks ago with their Neuro Hero Conference that they did there in San Antonio. Hero hero conference that they did there in San Antonio. This dude, my friend, adam Javelin. He is helping people create lasting freedom from addictions. We're going to talk a lot about that today and to ignite your freaking inner hero, adam Javelin.

Speaker 2:

My brother, my brother, so good to be here with you today, man.

Speaker 1:

Take a minute and tell everybody a little bit about you, dude. What? What drives you out of bed every day? What is? What's Adam Javelin? What's going on in the world of Adam Javelin right now, man?

Speaker 2:

Well, brother, you know it is. It is this feeling to truly free people, you know, to live in a higher reality. I'm coming up. July 14th will be 18 years, clean and sober for me. My recovery opened up these gifts, just these special, wonderful talents that I never knew I had, that were blocked inside of me from alcoholism, addictions, fears, insecurities, comparing myself all the time, but getting right with god and then getting right with myself and then getting right with others, just gave me a passion. So every day I wake up, man, and I just want to help the next person. I want to remove those fears, those insecurities, those compulsions, those obsessive thoughts and get them to feel like me.

Speaker 2:

I love what you said.

Speaker 1:

You just said 18 years. You and I are all fair, talking about relationships and all the stuff that single guys our age do. Right, we're just iron sharpening iron just gleaning off of each other. But you said it over and over and over when we were all fair. You said one day at a time, talk to us about the power of one day at a time.

Speaker 2:

It has been the core of how not only I want to live my life, but I have to live my life. I have to, ken, when I get too far into the future. I am a guy that craves certainty and I want to know how everything will look and how everything will work, and I want to control everything. And if everybody will just act the way I want them to act, behave how I want them to behave, be the way I want them to be, then Adam's world will be great and that's not right. And when I'm coming from that perception and I'm coming from that way of thinking, it closes me off to all of God's grace, all the beauty, all the pain, the joys, the ups and downs of what life is meant to be.

Speaker 2:

But if I could just stay in the day, just stay in the day, do the best I can, mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally, financially, tell the truth, help another soul, you know, live within what I would say, what the gospels teach, what the 12 steps teach, you know what I mean True, true virtues and values. And then go to bed that night, clean, sober. That's a win. And then, to use some, you could stack those days. Yeah, you can step, but it's so important for me to stay in the date. Now I look ahead. I have a beautiful vision. I know how things want to be, but when I get too obsessed about that, I can get fearful. I can get competitive, I could get a scarcity mindset. I could. I could react and not respond because I want things my way. So I just got to stay in the present moment.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, how long in your journey. 18 years is a long time, bro. Thank you. How long Congratulations on that, by the way. How long in that journey? 18 years is a long time, bro. Thank you, brother. How long congratulations on that, by the way. How long in that journey for you did it take to where you were, like the light bulb went and you had that aha moment of man. The power really is in today. It's not in tomorrow, next week or next month, it's in today yeah.

Speaker 2:

Well, what happened with me was I had a profound spiritual experience in rehab which kind of brought me in at the end of the movie. Right, I had this experience that I was free and I felt that connection. I felt right now. But then you know, look, that's great, spiritual experiences happen all the time to people ayahuasca, lsd, you know. I mean they happen all the time. So the idea was how to, how to continue that, to make it everlasting. And that's where the one day at a time concept really really came in I love that you.

Speaker 1:

You mentioned the spirituality. Talk about your faith a little bit. How, how important has your faith been in this journey for you?

Speaker 2:

Oh, God, Ken, it's the foundation, it's the backbone. There's the famous scripture seeking you shall find I feel like I found what I was looking for. It doesn't say seeking you will continue seeking.

Speaker 1:

Right, right, not knocking, the door will be open Seeking.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1:

It should be given yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I feel like I found. I found what I was truly seeking. That doesn't mean I don't continue reading, growing, adding to it, trying to gain a greater faith and and for me a big one is even a greater trust, like my faith can be strong, but sometimes I don't trust the power, I don't trust god, you know. I mean, I don't know, I don't trust. Yeah, so that's been the last few years of my recovery. Is what is trust really look like? Yeah, but, but that's what it looks like. For me it's it's.

Speaker 2:

You know, just because you found something right, you get the perfect body. That doesn't mean you don't continually nourish it, train it, take care of it. It takes a daily maintenance. So I found that connection, you know I, for me personally, if you want to look at it in a religious context, I'm a Jew that found a Jewish Messiah. You know what I mean. But it can look however you want it to look. You want to talk religious, you want to talk New Age, you want to talk practicality in here, come down to those two most you know famous lines of love God with all your heart, might and soul, and love thy brother as thyself, the two top commandments.

Speaker 1:

Huge. Yeah, I love that. And this it's um dude, it really does. It really does encapsulate the entire gospel inside of that Love God and love people, man, and you can't. You can't love God and not love people. Yeah, and if can't love God and not love people?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and if you don't learn to love yourself, you're going to treat people how you treat yourself. That's exactly right.

Speaker 1:

And you'll forgive people with the same lens that you forgive yourself. And, dude, I've seen it so much over the past. I mean, I'm 55 and I spent 12, 13 years in full-time vocational ministry, pastoring churches and planting churches and working with some of the largest churches in the country, and that's the one thing I've seen across the board is, when you're in a relationship with somebody who has a hard time forgiving, it's usually because they can't forgive themselves and that's usually tied directly to them not understanding what God's forgiven them of. So you've been so clean and sober for 18 years.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, well, you know what I would like to say July 14th, right.

Speaker 1:

July 14th. I got you, I'm coming up. I'm coming up 17 years, nine months and 20 days. Yes sir, that's about close how does that sound? Yes, sir, yes, sir. What are some of your favorite moments in this journey?

Speaker 2:

Oh man, you know, some of my favorite moments were in the very beginning, when I was learning how to live this and my mentor, my spiritual father we have a book coming out this year. His name is Dion, rock and Roll Hall of Fame Legend. His name is Dion, rock and Roll Hall of Fame legend when he would be teaching me how to live and how to think and we would have these lunches and we would just hang out and I was learning how to emulate the way he lives, the way he behaves, the way he thinks, what to read, and it was like I was. I was still Adam, but I was in a different reality. You know, I was in this new. So, being the student, those are some of my favorite moments, and I still am the student.

Speaker 2:

But then some of my moments when I was able to pass that information on and watch the lights go on in people's eyes, you know, watching my son be born clean and sober. You know that was just a miracle. Then you know, running a family business and learning from my, rather than trying to be my grandfather and trying to be my father, which really just escalated my alcoholism addiction Cause I couldn't, you know, one was Joe Montana and one was Tom Brady. And I couldn't live up to these two big shadows of getting clean and sober. I realized my gifts were like I'm more like Phil Jackson. I'm not. I'm not a quarterback, I'm not even. I'm not even a football player, I'm not even in the same sport.

Speaker 2:

I know how to lead an organization and a team, the way Phil Jackson knows how to run a team and building, you know, taking that family business and building a community of love, support, knowing every single employee one-on-one, knowing when to call a timeout, knowing when not to call a timeout, knowing who's going to work in the same synergy and let the play go. That was my. So watching my gifts come through my recovery on how to lead and how to actually run an empire, that was great. Then understanding that I did have enough courage and balls to start my own thing which the entrepreneurial journey is one of the scariest things I've ever encountered in my life. Understanding what really love is and the action of love, understanding that I have a message, that I can speak to an audience, and it's not about the me, the Adam show, it's about what I'm delivering and not about what I'm receiving, that was great. Losing love, finding loves. You know just these ups and downs of life, just the ups and downs and being okay, learning to be okay.

Speaker 1:

How did those moments strengthen your sobriety?

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm somebody that I learned the lesson with a little bit of lag time.

Speaker 1:

We just talked about this off.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I dive, I'm all in, I love it, and then the lesson comes later, right, yeah, because I'm all in, I'm fucking. You know what I mean? Which, which is a great superpower, and it's also a yes, it is, you know character. No, yes, it is, you know, character.

Speaker 1:

No.

Speaker 2:

However you look at it, it strengthened my sobriety when I was able to actually process my emotions, process what was happening to me, realizing that this is a gift, even if it's painful, even if it's ripping me open from every pore of my body.

Speaker 2:

Realizing this is a gift and then understanding that this gift isn't if I'm selfish, then I just think this gift is for me being able to take these lessons wants to really really anchor it and download it into my mind, body and spirit and pass it on with full transparency, full vulnerability and really trying to build a true intentional connection with another human being or a group or an audience, pulling the layers of the fucking mask off, you know, knowing how I'm presenting myself, how I'm showing myself, showing okay, yes, somewhat handsome, somewhat charismatic, so you know, good body, but and then being like I, I, I know what you're seeing, right, because that's my mask, that's my mask. That's for you to get into the room with me now let me show you who I am. And building that connection with somebody and allowing them to feel that they're going to be okay man that's interesting.

Speaker 1:

Talk to me. Yeah, I love it, dude. Talk to me about some of the guys that you've helped that are starting their recovery in this past 18 years and being an instrumental role in helping them find sobriety being an instrumental role in helping them find sobriety.

Speaker 2:

There is no better joy, yeah, when you find somebody that actually has the willingness to give this thing a try one day at a time and allow the fucking miracles to happen.

Speaker 2:

Can some of these guys listen? I know some of these guys. I met them in a halfway house. They make 10 times more money than me. I know some of these guys. They started and their marriage was absolutely broken. There was no shot and they're more in love today than they've ever been. I know guys that were carrying on to the most shameful stories of what happened, from molestation to robbing their parents. I mean really, really things that if you just itemized prisons, jails, violence and watching these people transform from the inside out to just be a light bulb, other people, and then to realize I was just a participant in that, I was just his vessel to you. I mean I, if I take credit for the, for their recovery, and I take credit for people's accomplishments, I have to take credit for their relapses and failures. So you take no credit. Yeah, to watch life unfold. Ken man, it's the, it's what got me into this industry.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So I see it in man. I see the joy, I see the fulfillment in your countenance when you, when you talk about that process, talk about your sobriety and how that led you to become one of the top one-on-one coaches with professional athletes, big time CEOs, businessmen. How did that journey take place in your life?

Speaker 2:

You know again this goes back to Dion, ken, it really does we decide to sell the family business um 14 years, clean and sober. And I look at dion and I'm like I've had visions, I've had flashes, you know. I mean some of them felt very egotistical, to be honest, you know I mean so I didn't trust what they were. Uh, I remember looking at dion being like, what am I going to do now? And he said he like looked at me with without blinking. He's like what are you talking about, man? He's like you're finally going to be adam javelin, you're going to bring people to a higher reality, you're.

Speaker 2:

So I started this thing called the hero project, right when covet hits, right, right when covet hits. And it Right when COVID hits. And it was a blessing, because alcohol and drug consumption spiked through the roof, because people were stuck at home with their spouses and with their kids and they were losing it and they needed some sort of support and lifeline. Somehow, some way, all of the repetitions, all of the effort got a little attention. From the attention got momentum. From the momentum started gaining trust. From the trust started meeting the right people at the right time.

Speaker 2:

You know, I can't. I couldn't make this up. If I tried yeah, you know what I mean. Doors were opened, things were, I almost felt like, handed to me. You know and this is actually still part of my journey right now, when I'm in that place, what people will now call flow state, when I would call trusting, when I would say it's, you know, letting a truly letting go and letting god can. That's when all these things really happened for me. Now, when I try to get into that control, I need to make it happen competitive. You know what I mean Drive, drive, drive. Like it may look very busy and productive, but for some reason I squashed the opportunity. I squashed the opportunities. You know it is a lesson that has been repeated until I fully learn it.

Speaker 1:

So good, so good. I love that. It's almost like the children of Israel in the desert. They just kept marching around the mountain for 40 years until they got it.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, that's me pal, 40 years.

Speaker 1:

I said this to you all fair People are always like Ken, you have so much wisdom. I'm like do you have any mistakes? I've made in 55 years A lot and I've got amazing friends that I get to learn from their mistakes as well. There's a reason I have the wisdom that I have because of what I've been through. Well, dude, tell me what's on the forecast for Adam Javelin man. Tell me what's coming up. What are you excited about? What are you pumped about?

Speaker 2:

Dude, thank you for asking. So we are in the process that you know you become the one-on-one guy and you love the work and I love the work and I love working right. So there's one person that's going to burn the candles at both that I'm going to suffer. So we are in the process right now of building a community and a group coaching program, and what I've also started realizing is you can help people more in groups, because now they're feeding off of each other's energy and they can talk.

Speaker 2:

You know what I mean Now. Do I wish I had done that earlier? Yes, what makes me feel very proud of myself is I actually got my system and my expertise down. That I know it helps a lot. So, as you know, that's kind of like going back to the drawing board. It's going back in, kind of getting quiet, building it out. You know what? I love helping the person, but it's time to get quiet, slow it down, to build these systems out, to then bring that back out to the world. But what I'm most most excited about is the book that I have coming out with my mentor, dion Right. So it is. When's the release date on that? October.

Speaker 1:

It is.

Speaker 2:

October 29th, and it correlates with his Broadway play coming out called the Wanderer, which was and the name of the title of the book is Is Dion the Rock and Roll Philosopher.

Speaker 2:

Conversations on Life Recovery, Faith and Music. And what it is is like Tuesdays at Maury's, it's Dion. Every chapter is Dion passing these lessons down to me, Right? So I'm the author of the book, Dion's talking to me and, in the end, how I will pass that information on. You know what I mean, but you're hearing it from a guy that's 54 years, clean and sober.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Married for over this? Is it right here?

Speaker 2:

Prologue by eric clapton and paul simon yeah, paul simon bruce springsteen, bishop baron bob dylan, dave marsh yeah, stevie van zandt. You know, dion is a very eclectic group of friends, you know, because he's a legend and these guys looked up to him when they were growing up.

Speaker 1:

That's awesome so I I'm actually going to put the link in here for this in our show notes. So every one of you guys I'm looking at actually at the publisher that's actually doing this book for you guys, I mean I'm super pumped for you man and maybe he and I can come on together to the show together.

Speaker 1:

Oh, 100%, I'd love to have you guys on, that'd be great dude. Yeah, you're talking about doodle. You're talking about a legend, bro, a legend. So talk to me about that relationship and how you guys got connected oh man, I met the.

Speaker 2:

it's hard, it's hard. I love him so much. You know he came to my daughter's graduation with me yesterday. I met dion when I was 10, 11 years old and he came to my school and played and I just moved from Jersey down to Florida and it was a big deal Back in 1985, 86, you know movies like La Bamba and Stand by Me and Buddy Holly Story all these movies were out and there was a revival of that time in the music. He was going to be the person on the plane with Buddy Holly, the Big Bopper and Richie Valens and he made Richie Valens. You know the plane that went down.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So there was a revival and the parents made such a big deal. But when I was in the room with him I'm like an 11-year-old kid I just found him so magnetic and and like I was, he was wearing the cabbie hat and everything and I came up and I ran to him and I was like that was amazing, you know, I mean just enthusiastic young kid and I was like the only kid with like a northeastern accent, you know. And he, like you know, he just put his arms around me. He spent 20 minutes with me. Blah, blah, I blah. I don't see Dion until I'm 30. Okay, wow, I don't see Dion until and.

Speaker 2:

But he, he made an impression on me and it's my very first 12 step meeting ever and I remember walking up to him and I I'm like you could just hear all the doubts and the fears and the insecurities in my head. He's not going to remember. He's going to think I'm asking him for an autograph. He's going to think I want a CD. Like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. You know what I mean and I come up to him it's my very first meeting, my very first recovery, and I'm like listen, I have to talk to you fast. He doesn't recognize me, of course, and I'm like, when I was 11, 12 years old, you came to my school and you gave me some time and like you don't know what that did for me and how that helped my entire life. And he looked at me. He goes you're that kid? And I'm like I'm that kid. He's like I remember everything and he went like this and he had a seat with me next, right next to him. He took me under his wing that day, that day, that day we went to lunch and my own recovery process started and I have my dad, who is like a hero to me.

Speaker 2:

My dad crushed it in business. He is a cowboy, he has a mindset of stone, I mean, he is a man, man. But I also have my spiritual father, who taught me how to live by these biblical principles, how to live by these recovery principles and how and how, how to be in the world. You know I mean, and that relation, you know, in many ways I I can't sing, I can't play the guitar, I can't you know I mean, but I do. I have a, a north star of how I want to live. You know I mean, and it's somebody that I'd like to emulate, you know I mean so, you know, if you were to actually be like adam, what like? What's really like? Stop it with all the vision and the mission and the purpose and the data, like if you were to be like what like? Like, why the hell are you here? What do you really think you're about? Like unrivened for us.

Speaker 2:

You know how Tony Robbins always pays homage to Jim Rohn. Yeah, always. Yeah, I want that. When Dion's no longer on the earth, that his message continues. You know what I mean. I would. You know what I mean. I would. I mean I wouldn't want you know you say that.

Speaker 1:

And I'm telling you the one thing we've been having a lot of discussions with my good friend, katina Moby played in the NBA for a long time and you know my son-in-law is African-American. I've got a lot of black friends. I grew up in Detroit and I think this is the one thing that, like Tino and I've been talking about different issues in our society today. And the one thing that we miss in our society today is honor. Like there's no honor anymore. It's if I disagree with you. I'm coming after you and what you're talking about is honor.

Speaker 1:

Tony honors Jim Rome and what he's done in his life. Dude, honor is huge. Honor is huge to God. As a matter of fact, there's two of the 10 commandments that were punishable by death. One was thou shall not murder and the other one was honor your mother and your father. Like honoring your mother, the honor is huge and I think, man, as a society, if we could get back to what you're talking about and honoring the input and the value that we get from other people, even if we don't agree.

Speaker 1:

Man, listen, grant Cardone was instrumental in me starting what I started four years ago, but there's a lot of things that I look at, grant and I'm like bro. We are not in alignment, but it will never stop me from honoring the input and the value that he put in my life and he was the spark that helped me go. I'm going to go start this thing and I'm going to honor him. So, dude, hats off to you for kudos, to you for understanding honor and the power of honor. And, dude, I think honor is one of the things. If we got that back into our society at the level I think that God really views honor and we viewed it as as important as he does, I think it would change our culture.

Speaker 2:

I agree, I agree. So, ken, to give you a summary of what I'm up to when it comes to this coaching, personal development influence space that you are, you and I are in, it's time for me to slow down, to put these, these things in place where I can really just have a really beautiful community and a really beautiful platform to specialize in helping the people the way I help, where I'm not constantly the one-on-one guy, and during that time, build up to the launch of October 29th with the book, with Dion. Live one day at a time, try not to live in fear, try not to live in financial insecurity, not try not to control the uncontrollable, do I mean? Try to really be present and enjoy what this life has to offer. And it sounds so easy to say and beautiful to do, but I'm letting you know, for this man here it can be a challenge because I can live in my heart, in my head and heart, like that.

Speaker 1:

A hundred percent. What's the best way for people to get in touch with you?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so for me personally, my Instagram account is kind of my hub, right. So go to my Instagram. It's Adam Javlin. At Adam Javlin, I have a website which, again, it's it's good. It's not great we're redoing that with everything I'm talking about, right but we have a website and you could always reach out to me at info at adamjavlincom. So we have the social media platforms. There's my email, um, but one thing I am is accessible, so you will get you, you will reach me and we will talk you're accessible.

Speaker 2:

I facetimed you on your birthday oh, by the way, I found more phone numbers in my phone that the name is just. I don't know if it's a I don't know what, but it was weird when don't know what's, but it was weird when I was in the Air Force we called that OE Operator Air. Yeah, yeah. Story of my life pal.

Speaker 1:

Operator, I know right.

Speaker 2:

Operator, air. Well, hey, dude, last thoughts, I'm the old.

Speaker 1:

Andy Javlin, I know right. Final thoughts for our audience today.

Speaker 2:

my friend, Final, final thoughts. You know, don't blame any other people for your life. Stay responsible. Find some sort of spiritual connection ken and I use the word god, we believe very, very, very similar but find what that spiritual anchor is for you. When you straighten out spiritually, the mental, the physical, the emotional and even the financial will follow. If you try to do those others four before the spiritual, have fucking fun.

Speaker 1:

I love it, dude. Guys, listen. Thank you for joining us on another episode of as the Leader Grows Adam. I love you. Dude, listen. Adam talked about faith and how important that is. Listen. You can go over to growstadddrivecom forward slash collective and learn more about our core five, what we do inside of our collective, which is a community of faith-based entrepreneurs around the country Absolutely the most amazing humans on the planet. Growstatdrivecom forward slash collective. You can get the link here. You can hit it on our bio inside of Instagram. Go check out my guy, adam Jablon, at Adam Jablon. That's J-A-B-L-I-N on Instagram. Go check him out. He's absolutely crushing it. Dude, I love you, my friend, thank you for joining us.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, brother, for having me on. Love you man.