Hello everyone and welcome to the Within Range Coaching podcast.
I'm Ranger, certified holistic success coach, and in this podcast, I'm bringing down the
journey that entrepreneurs face as they start their organization, find solutions to the
roadblocks in their way, and create an impact that lasts.
So if you're an entrepreneur, nonprofit leader, or purpose-driven community member that wants
to learn how to grow your impact and develop yourself as the person behind the mission,
then this podcast is for you.
I know you're just as eager to get started as I am, so let's jump right in.
Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everyone, and welcome to today's episode of
the Within Range Coaching podcast.
I'm about halfway through my walk across the country.
I think I'm about 300 miles or so shy of the actual halfway points, but I'm taking a few
days off over in Oklahoma with some family.
And I don't know, I feel like I just want to sing the praises of Facebook and social
media again, because, you know, walking, like meeting people randomly has been fantastic.
I've met a lot of great people, heard some great stories.
I mean, just the people that have connected me with folks for staying for a day or two
or have been on the podcast or, you know, the hosts, the families, the people I come
across.
But I feel like Facebook and social media have done such a huge part in the connections
that I've made.
And one of those examples is our guest for today.
But again, like I did in Little Rock area, I posted on the Fort Smith, like what is it,
what's happening in Fort Smith Facebook group, kind of just talking about the mission for
the walk, who I'm looking to interview, looking for some help here and there.
And today's guest, Austin Coates, is one of the people that responded to it.
And when I heard about his mission, his organization and what they do, I knew I had to go and check
them out.
And I hung out with them for what?
What were we together for?
Like an hour or two that day?
Yeah, for about two hours.
Yeah, about two hours or so.
Had some news out there, some media, but I knew I wanted to try to get some more long
form content with him to really share the story more than just a what?
A 10 minute YouTube video can cover.
But anyway, I mean, you've already heard his voice a little bit.
So allow me to introduce the founder and director of Hope's Bridge, which is a recovery residence
in Fort Smith, Arkansas.
Austin, how's it going today?
It's going well.
Thanks for having me, Ranger.
I'm happy to be here.
Yeah, of course.
I'm excited to chitter chat and hear more about your story and share that with the listeners.
So thank you again for all that you do and for dealing with my scheduling conflicts today
and getting it getting it all squared away.
But but yeah, just to start the conversation off, let's go ahead and like share a little
bit about yourself with the audience and also talk a little bit about what your intention
for today's episode is.
So I'm in recovery myself from opiate use disorder, from opiate addiction.
I started back in high school, played football, had three surgeries on my shoulder from football
injuries.
I got hooked on the pain medication that I was prescribed.
And it really just took a horrible down spiral from there for the next, I don't know, 20
years or so.
Where I went through a whole lot and I put my family and people around me through a lot
and eventually got sober, wrote a couple of books, started this organization, Hope's Bridge
and here I am today talking to you.
And I think my main the main thing that I would like people to take away from today
is number one, that people that are suffering from from addiction and substance use disorder
that they can recover and live, you know, in empowering and sober and fulfilling lifestyle.
Wonderful.
So, yeah, it sounds like you being recovered yourself gives you that I don't know, that
unique perspective or that connection to people that are going through it currently.
And I mean, you even just through our conversations, which we'll get to in a moment, like it's
possible not only theoretically, but you've seen it happen.
And you're a shining example of recovery being possible.
Certainly possible.
Man, there's a point where, you know, we've talked about it before, Rose homeless, sleeping
on a beach in Florida, sleeping behind dumpsters.
And here I am today, you know, doing what I'm doing with, like I said, a couple of books
under my belt that have been published and and just trying to be a living example to
people in recovery that literally anything is possible.
So yeah.
And I mean, yeah, going from homeless under a bridge or wherever you were staying in,
you have to save up money to get well, I'm going to let you tell your own story, I guess.
I think it's just so interesting that we hear these stories of people after everything has
happened, right?
And after, you know, after you got out of your bad situation, realize what was going
on, kind of that rocky cut scene that I've mentioned a couple of times where, you know,
you're you're getting punched in the face, you're having all these bad things happen,
you're going through, you're putting in the work that I guess is needed to get where you
want to go.
So like, what what is your rocky cut scene?
What did that look like?
Yeah.
So, I mean, I think there was a point, I guess there's a point where I went to a treatment
center in Colorado.
This is my seventh, eighth time in treatment.
And I had, you know, it was I had already been through my entire addiction.
And this was on the tail end of when I got sober.
And I was sitting at a table filling out the paperwork in Fort Collins, Colorado, it was
actually Wellington, a little bit north of Fort Collins.
And I was filling out the paperwork to get admitted into this place where I was going
to be there for a year.
And you know, it asked for a background, your name, birthday, your drugs you're using, blah,
blah.
And they got to a question that was kind of a it was a defining moment for me.
And it was a very simple question that on the surface, nobody would think anything about.
But for me, it was kind of an epiphany and a changing moment in my life.
And that question said, who is responsible for all of the problems in your life?
And I sat there and it just hit me like a ton of bricks, like this blanket just blew
off and I just got this clear vision, you know, that and it sounds again, it sounds
so simplistic and so, you know, almost self evident that anybody would be able to realize.
But it would hit me like I am responsible for my problems.
And so it was the first moment where I had been kind of subconsciously waiting around
for people to somebody else to get sober for me, somebody else to go finish college for
me, somebody else to get a job for me.
And I realized like, this is my life.
I got to take charge of it.
It's me.
I got to do it.
And so from that moment forward, like I took charge.
And that's what really changed my life and set off on my on my journey where I am today.
Yeah, and when you mentioned that to me before that, you know, who's responsible for your
problems or your addiction?
Like what was their intention with having it on there?
Is that something that is commonly on questionnaires or do you think they were trying to kind of
cause that gotcha moment or what?
I think they were.
Yeah, I think they were.
Because like I said, I've been to treatment centers all over the country before and I've
never had that question on the intake paperwork before.
And you know, knowing the people that were running the place and the type of organization
that was, I think they were trying to induce or incite that that aha moment and people
or at least get them thinking about it, you know, because it worked.
It worked for me.
And and I don't I don't know why I never really thought about that before, but I didn't.
And that's what you know, that's what kind of led me down the path I'm on today.
Yeah, because like you were saying, it kind of it sounds like there's very much that that
victim mindset of I'm waiting for someone to come and save me.
This is somebody else's fault.
Like who in your mind, like who was to blame at that time?
What did that?
I don't really think there was a particular person.
I think, you know, a lot of us.
Well, I can't speak for anybody else, but in addiction, it was we get so consumed in
the day to day lifestyle of trying to find money to get what we need to get to feel better.
Because, you know, for opiates anyway, like when you don't have them, you get really sick.
Like you get withdrawal and it's horrible.
And you're not going to die from it, but you feel like you're going to die.
You know, there are withdrawals from other substances like alcohol and benzo diazepines
that you can actually die from the withdrawal.
But opiates, you feel like you're going to die and you want to die, but you're not going
to.
And so, you know, it was it was very much a victim mindset.
I don't think I don't think that there was any one particular person.
It was just it was just it was never in the forefront of my mind that I got to take charge
because I was so consumed with the day to day lifestyle that came along with being in
the act of addiction, you know, that I just I didn't I never I never think about it.
You know?
Yeah.
And maybe I just don't know a whole lot about what addiction means and how that kind of
happens, because I feel like there is a there is a belief out there that people are addicted
to drugs or alcohol and it's just, oh, well, this feels good.
So I'm just going to do it.
Right.
But it sounds like there's a lot more like a physiological and almost like a fight or
fight response that happens.
I mean, just describing it as it feels like you're going to die.
And you know what I mean?
Like it would make sense why it would be such a oh, I need this.
It's not just oh, I really want this really bad.
It's like like what are those like physiological effects that can happen?
So there's there's a couple of different aspects to what you're describing.
So for instance, like alcoholics, it's it's been there's been studies and it's proven
science that like that alcoholics process alcohol differently in their brains and in
their body than people who are not alcoholics.
Right.
And so we talk about in recovery, there's there's a spiritual malady that we suffer
from in our active addiction, a malady, something that's missing in our spiritual life that
allows us to continue down that path and not change our course.
There's there's a physical allergy to it.
So that means that when when I put something in my body, there's there's a physical reaction
in my body that doesn't happen to normal people.
Right.
So, you know, we talked a little bit before.
There's a couple of different ways that somebody could find themselves in active addiction,
one being they could be predisposed to it in a familiar manner so they could it could
be passed down hereditarily.
They could be predisposed to addiction or they're more likely to engage in that kind
of behavior if they consume it at some point in their life.
Another way is that they are prescribed into addiction where their doctor, you know, prescribes
them pain medication like me for long enough.
They take it and become physically dependent on it through their body.
And then the third way is they could actively use their way into it, which they're not necessarily
prescribed something, but they consume something long enough that they become physically dependent
on it.
And so for me, it was a mixture between the last two.
You know, I was I was prescribed into it.
And then when the prescriptions ran out, I continued to use and use my way into it and
eventually started using the needle and just took it down for spiral.
So got it.
So it's the predisposed prescribed into it.
And what was that last one one more time?
You could be you could use your way into it.
So if you take a substance long enough that there's addictive properties, you're eventually
going to be dependent on your body will will change and you'll be physically dependent
on that chemical if you use it for a long enough period of time.
Gotcha.
OK, so it's definitely not just it feels good.
So I'm going to keep doing it.
There's legitimate physical changes that happen in the body that cause you to be dependent.
That's true.
But it is a case of like for me, like whenever I got prescribed pain medication, I like the
way it made me feel.
And so that's why I continue to do it.
But I was also being prescribed the medication.
So that's why I say it was a mixture between the two.
So yeah, it could definitely be the fact that I just like the way it makes me feel, you
know.
And there's kind of a stigma attached to addiction and addicts and alcoholics and, you know,
that they live a horrible grew up in a horrible life, horrible family or whatever.
But that's not the case.
I grew up in a great family, a great home.
My family took care of me.
I couldn't ask for better parents.
I never really wanted for anything.
You know, we weren't just rich by any means, but I had anything ever needed.
And so I had a great family.
So there's nothing I was really trying to run away from when I started mine.
I just I was prescribed this medication that I like the way it made me feel.
And it took off, you know.
Gotcha.
OK, so it's there's many different factors.
That sounds like it's going to be very different for everybody.
Sure.
Based off of, you know, family life, the people that you're exposed to.
I mean, in your case, it was a football injury, which is, you know, people you play sports
to be healthy and do all the, you know, build team and community.
And it kind of went south almost for you.
Yeah, yeah, I did.
I had three three injuries.
So I had one each year of my high school football career.
So at the end of the season of each of those years, I had an operation.
And so that's really what led me down my path was those operations and being prescribed
medication and then dealing with the pain in between during seasons and stuff like that.
Gotcha.
OK, so.
The surgeries happen, you become addicted to the opioids like can we go a little bit
more detail on what happened with you after that or what the situation you were in?
Yeah, so I went to college at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, and that's the
first time it was my my would have been my sophomore year in college.
So I used pain.
I was just taking the pills up until this point, pretty much every day.
I didn't really know that I was addicted.
There's a point where I was driving from northwest Arkansas from Fayetteville back down here
to Fort Smith one night, middle of December.
That's about an hour drive on the interstate directly south from Fayetteville to Fort Smith.
And I was coming back.
I don't know when I was coming back from.
And and I there was a there the time where it was freezing outside.
I mean, it had to be close to zero middle of the winter.
And I was just dripping in sweat and just so hot.
And I rolled all the windows down on my truck and driving down the interstate freezing cold.
And I was still I was still hot, just just dripping in sweat with all the windows down.
And I remember thinking like, this is not OK.
Something is radically wrong with me.
And I had no idea that I was inactive addiction and that this was part of withdrawal.
So I didn't even know.
And so fast forward a little ways about a year after that, I was introduced to the needle
and and I started using Oxycontin intravenously.
And that's really where it took off for me.
I stayed up in college for the next couple of years, slowly drifting out of classes and
grades falling.
And I ended up ended up leaving college with one semester left to finish.
And so I was one semester shy.
And I ended up leaving just because I was in too bad shape.
And I came back home.
I couldn't pay my rent, couldn't do anything, got kicked out of school because I wasn't,
you know, I wasn't going to class.
And so I came back home and just continued to know when I had several different stints
and rehab.
You know, there's a moment.
There's a first time where I went to my family and I said, hey, you know, I've got I've got
something going on.
I've got a problem and I got to fix it.
I need some help.
And so, you know, my family was real new to this, as was I.
And we didn't really know what what to do or where to go.
And so they just found the most expensive, best, fanciest place in America that they
could find for me to go to treatment.
It happened to be in southern Florida.
And we kind of had this idea that I was going to go down there and and stay for a month
and come back cured.
You know, we're going to go back to life.
Life is we know it.
And we both kind of felt that way just because we had no idea what this was about.
And so I went down there and, you know, stayed at this beautiful resort looking thing and
went to treatment and came back home.
And life did not go back to the way it should be.
You know, I was not fixed.
And and I realized that this was something deeper than that, that, you know, and so I
continued to use.
And about a year later, I went back down for another stint in a different treatment center,
but back down in the same area in Florida.
And this time, the goal was for me to finish treatment, stayed on there for a year and
work and just kind of start a new life, you know.
And I ended up using relapsing right when I got out of treatment and started getting
kicked out of halfway houses, bouncing around from halfway house to halfway house.
And I eventually ran ran them all out and didn't have anywhere to go.
And so I found myself homeless for the first time in southern Florida and didn't know what
to do, didn't know where to go.
And so my best idea of the safest thing I could think of was the first night that I
was homeless.
I waited until the police station was just about to close at five o'clock and I snuck
in the front lobby there and snuck into the bathroom and in the lobby of the police station,
the Delray Beach Police Department.
And I slept in that bathroom all night long and it was freezing.
I remember all night long reaching up and hitting the big silver button on the hand
dryer by the sink and letting it blow down on me all night long because it was so cold
in there.
And then, you know, like I said, a couple of nights I slept on the beach, which was
not fun.
It sounded like it's fun, but the sand gnats are absolutely relentless overnight.
And you know, I slept behind a dumpster at the library one night.
I remember getting shooed off like a dog from the library in the next morning about 7 a.m.
And I remember that was one of those moments where I was like, what, how did I get to this
point in my life?
You know what I mean?
When I when she was shooing me off, but I knew exactly how I got there.
And so it was kind of a weird moment for me and I didn't feel good.
And so there's things like that.
I spent a month in Africa, you know, trying to do some mission work and go on safari to
get away from here, and that was an experience in itself.
I was actually the plane ride out there.
I used up until the moment that I left.
And so I spent 16 hours of the flight in the bathroom, just throwing up, shaking uncontrollably
and withdraw.
It was awful.
And then I got out there.
And like I said, it was a very cool experience.
But again, that was not enough to change me, you know, change my addiction.
I continued down the path and and there was a lot more to play out ahead of that, you
know.
Yeah.
So it sounds like a lot of it was trying to get yourself out of different physical locations
and moving down to South Florida, going back home, going back to a different treatment
center.
I mean, just going across the world to a whole other continent.
Right.
I have a question.
So in regards to that first stint in rehab, it sounded like you and your parents were
both under the impression that, oh, we'll just just go for a month.
You'll be fine.
Almost like it's treating like the common cold.
Right.
Like, oh, if you just do this, like this will be fine.
Like where did that that I guess that what's the word that expectation or that belief of
how long it would take?
Like, where did that come from for you guys?
Well, we didn't have any idea.
Like we never dealt with it before.
You know, I guess it was kind of like we just we had an idea that like that it wasn't
necessarily the time spent.
I think it was just like the act of going to rehab, right, going to treatment.
So we just kind of I guess we just kind of just felt like maybe just go into treatment
like this is what we need to fix.
Like it would be just like the medicine of the common cold or whatever.
Like this is what people do to get better from addiction.
And then it's fixed.
You know, we didn't really know any better because we did our first experience with them.
Yeah.
But what do you think was missing from that experience that because I mean, it sounds
like it sounds like we're getting closer to the questionnaire part of the story.
But what how did a month in rehab not shift that mindset for you?
But a question on another intake form did.
Sure.
I don't think so.
To answer your question, I don't think it was actually that specific questions kind
of what sparked it on that intake form.
But I don't think that that is the question itself is what changed it.
I think it was I wasn't ready.
Right.
So that very first time I went, I knew in the back of my mind that I really wanted to
continue to use, you know, and so we don't change until we want to change, you know,
but but there's also a juxtaposition aspect of that that I remember many times I prayed
for, like, I would say I would say, please, God help me to want to change.
I knew I needed to, but I didn't want to.
And so I would the time wasn't wasn't right for me to get sober because I wasn't ready.
You know, I haven't gone I hadn't gone through enough and suffered enough consequences at
that point to really warrant a change in my life.
You know, I really hadn't gone through anything horrible yet.
And so, you know, fast forward through all the years where I found myself in Colorado,
there had been a lot that had happened.
And I had gotten a lot more mature.
And I finally had got to a point where I was like, man, I got to I got to do something.
This is enough.
You know, this is enough.
And I'd seen my friends that I graduated with all having great careers now.
They got families and here I am, you know, with nothing.
And I felt shameful.
I felt embarrassed.
I felt like less than, you know.
And so not to mention all the hurt that I put my family and myself through and all the
money that we wasted on stuff.
And so I just there that first time in treatment I had I wasn't ready.
You got to be ready to change before you can change.
And I wasn't ready at that point, you know.
OK, so it sounds like it's a lot more of that again, that internal desire rather than just
it sounds like you're just going through the motions, like kind of expecting again, expecting
someone else to or something, someone and an external factor to make you change rather
than that internal.
I want to make a difference.
I want to change.
I want something different.
Right.
Yeah, definitely.
You know, you speak of like changing environments.
And so that's very common in this conception and in recovery regarding people that are
trying to get sober, they don't really know much about it.
Like I did.
Like I did not.
So, you know, we've got a saying of wherever you go, there you are.
Right.
So the problem is me.
That's not my environment.
It's not it's not this particular rehab.
It's not this particular environment.
The problem is me.
So I could go across the world to Africa like I did.
And I'm still, you know, there I am.
Right.
Because I am the problem.
The problem exists in my brain and in the spiritual malady that I'd spoken of.
And so until those things are fixed, I'm not going to I'm not going to get sober.
I'm not going to change my life.
And so it didn't matter where I went.
There was not a change in the environment that I needed.
So it can help to kind of propel you down the correct path, getting away from certain
people and stuff like that and triggers.
But but ultimately, the work has got to come from within to change, you know.
Gotcha.
OK, so it sounds like there is an aspect of.
Getting away from certain people, pulling yourself out of situations, maybe kind of
putting some distance.
But that's I'm just making up numbers.
So that's like five, 10 percent of the game.
But 90, 95, 99 percent of it is that desire and wants to change yourself.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
So what what started kicking off that internal desire for you?
It sounds like the I know being the police department in the library, like that kind
of started it.
Or was there something else?
No, I think, you know, that was that was real early on in my addiction.
It was much later than that.
I think, like I said, I just gotten older and I had.
I had I had enough, you know, I got to, you know, I don't believe that for me, I didn't
really have a rock bottom.
I mean, my rock bottom is going to be dead.
Right.
I went as low as I could and I could go lower, you know, but I've I just fortunately I got
to a point where, you know, there's a big spiritual aspect to my recovery.
And I got to a point where I genuinely, you know, I wanted to change.
Like I said earlier, you got to have to want to change.
And so I got to a point where I just said, you know, God help me.
I can't do this.
You know what I mean?
And so I tried everything in my power before that to get sober on my own with everything
inside of my body, with my brain, with reading.
I tried everything I could inside of me to get sober.
And I was not successful at it one time.
So therefore that told me that something outside of my body had to help me.
And it can't be something that is equal than me.
It can't be another person in a place.
It's got to be something greater than me because of something equal that to me like another
person could do it, then I could get myself sober.
Right.
So therefore I knew that it had to be something greater than me to help me get sober.
And so that's where the spiritual aspect came into play.
And that's been a major part of my recovery ever since.
And it was a major part of my life growing up, you know, the way I was raised.
And I looked at it a completely different way when I got sober.
Gotcha.
So, hmm, because earlier time I'm more like that external validation or external pressures.
But it's like those, you know, the people, the, you know, you're expecting someone else
to get me sober, right?
Like we mentioned that earlier.
It's not necessarily that is what you're talking about.
It sounds like that spiritual aspect.
I'm assuming, you know, God, the universe, whatever you want to call it.
Like that is like what about that was so impactful for you, I guess.
I think it was, you know, so the place that I went to in Colorado, right?
It was this big ranch and the plan was for me to stay there years, like working ranch.
There was like 90 other guys there and it was a faith based organization.
Right.
And so I, let me back up a little bit.
I grew up raised in, you know, a religious home where we went to church pretty regularly.
It wasn't, you know, anything over the top.
I mean, it was just a typical religious home, I guess, if you could say that there is one,
but we would go to church and we believe, you know, I grew up a believer and my parents
are believers and we believe in God and Jesus.
And so, but when I got to this place in Colorado, I didn't, you know, I would attend these Bible
studies and stuff like that.
And I just, I didn't get much out of them.
Right.
I mean, I believe in what they're teaching, but it wouldn't really affecting me.
It wasn't really helping me.
And while I find the Bible, you know, I believe the Bible and I believe that it's truth and
I find that it's interesting and I do enjoy reading it and trying to practice it.
But there was something about, you know, in the mornings, like for instance, in the mornings
I had to wake up and I had to walk about a quarter mile from where I was sleeping to
the cafeteria.
And it was always right before dawn when the sun was coming up.
And for some reason, I don't know what it is, but in Colorado, the sunrises and the
sunsets are just absolutely beautiful.
I've never been anywhere else in the country where they look like this, just the shades
of orange and yellow.
And it's just absolutely gorgeous.
And so when I would walk in the mornings from where I was sleeping to the cafeteria, I would
look at the sunsets and I would just begin to experience a feeling of fullness and content
and I would just be overcome with some sort of spiritual feeling of a void that was not
there before.
Right.
And so those became those mornings became the time that I would do by praying and talk
to God and I would start, I would feel God.
And so there's a time where I made a comment to somebody that ran the place that I get
more out of those walks in the morning than I do with the Bible studies.
Well, obviously they didn't like that.
They ended up kicking me out.
And so which is fine.
And so that's where I found myself 800 miles away from home and homeless again.
And I realized I found myself at a homeless shelter.
So I came to a point where I had the decision that I had to make.
So I could do what I've always done.
I could go out and find what I want and use and continue down that path or I could go
the other direction and I can make a choice to stay sober.
And so that's what I did.
And I stayed at that homeless shelter.
I got a job making pizzas and then I got a little bit better job at construction.
And I stayed at that shelter for several months and saved up money and I bought a truck and
I drove back home and I stayed sober.
And so when I got back home was when I wrote my first book about my addiction to my recovery,
Spoons of a Stardust Coffee.
Both of my books are available on Amazon.
So I wrote that book and I stayed sober for almost five years.
And I ended up relapsing after having this book out about my addiction, have it published.
I was a face of recovery.
And then here I am, I had relapsed and it was real humbling and real embarrassing.
There's a major humility aspect to it.
And I used for about a year and a half and then I eventually got sober again and I've
been sober now for eight years.
So that's where I'm at now.
And I want to acknowledge you for that in terms of just being honest about it, right?
Because I feel like it could have been something that you would hide or again be shameful of
or embarrassed.
But it sounds like that's just part of the story.
Yeah, no, it is.
And it's important for me to talk about my relapse with people, especially after being
the face of recovery like I was, because relapse does not have to be a part of recovery, right?
And that's not necessary, it doesn't have to happen.
But relapse is a part of recovery for me and many, many people that I know.
So it's very common.
And a lot of people have this misconception that you lose everything when you relapse
and you got to start all over.
And while you do in regards to how long you've been sober, you don't lose everything you
learned throughout your sobriety in that time.
You still know all that stuff.
And so you don't start over.
And so there's obviously something missing in your recovery, which caused you to relapse,
right?
And so it's a learning opportunity to be able to identify that and prevent it from happening
again.
Right.
And I mean, just kind of taking that and putting it and expanding it out, that's true for whether
you're an entrepreneur, a leader, a parent, like you can go from, in this case, addiction,
sobriety, relapse, sobriety, or failure, success, failure, whatever you want to attribute it
to your story.
But again, like you don't lose those lessons that you've learned.
And I think, again, what you're saying is it takes a lot of humility to kind of step
back and say, OK, something worked here.
But something really did not work either.
What's that thing that didn't work?
How can we get rid of that?
Or how can we expand on these things that did work?
So with that being said, like what is it that wasn't working?
Or what did you have to change to maintain your sobriety this long?
Yeah.
So I think in regards to my relapse the first time, there was somebody very close to me
that was introduced to my life that was using at the time.
And I didn't know that they were.
And it came out that they were.
And I continue to tell them that I couldn't be around them, that they continue to use
because I'm in recovery.
It's dangerous for me.
And they continue to say that I will quit.
I promise I'll quit.
And it didn't happen.
And just time and time again.
And there was a point where I finally just said, OK, let's do it together.
And that's how it happened.
And so I think the complacency played a major part in that.
I wasn't really doing the daily stuff that I know to do to stay strong.
And in hindsight, I should have not allowed myself to be around that stuff to begin with.
So I think that's where initially I went wrong.
But I think I just become complacent.
I was five years into this thing.
And I was like, I got this.
I'm good.
But I was not good.
Yeah, it's just kind of what you're saying there.
It's like how people kind of get relaxed on safety regulations or rules.
You know, oh, I'm around it every day.
I don't need to put the PPE on.
I don't need to do that anymore.
It's like, no, it's you've got to practice the small stuff because that's what's going
to come and bite you eventually.
It is.
Yeah, it is.
And so, you know, it was that.
And so I remember, like, I got I ended up getting arrested after I relapsed and I get
arrested again for something.
And that was that was July the third 2016.
Right.
So I've been sober since that day.
And so I remember getting put in the back of the police car that day.
And the police officer, they're waiting for me outside of my house that morning for something.
And they put me in the car.
And so they put me in the back of the seat and nobody had the officer hadn't got back
in the car yet.
So I was the only one in there.
They put me in there and I remember sitting in the back seat of that car with my hands
cut behind my back.
And I said out loud to myself, thank you, God.
Like I was so relieved that it was over.
Right.
I knew that if I could just get out of my situation and get get on a path of where I
can have a little bit of time under my belt without using that, I could I could remain
sober.
Right.
Now, I just couldn't get myself out of that.
I was so I was so deep back into it.
I couldn't I couldn't do it myself.
And so that was, you know, God doing for me what I couldn't do for myself.
And I was just so grateful that it had come to an end.
And it sounds crazy to happy and grateful that you got arrested.
But to me, that was a life changing moment.
Like I was so happy to be finally free of what I had been in, you know, for the past
year and a half.
That's so interesting, just because you'd be locked up for however long or you wouldn't
be you wouldn't even have the opportunity to have access to anything.
It was almost like a forced like reset or a forced quit.
Yeah.
Yeah, I was I was in I was in jail that time for about a month.
And then I went from there to another treatment center for three months.
So but yeah, that month it was a forced, you know, and you can get you can get drugs in
jail.
You know, don't get me wrong.
It's no surprise you can get drugs in jail.
But it was it was much easier for me to stay sober in jail than it was outside because
I was able to keep myself in there.
And I just saw it as an opportunity to stop.
You know, it was kind of a forced reset, like you said.
And then that was kind of a springboard to go into another treatment center, like I did
for another three months after that.
And so when I was back out into the real world and society at that point, you know, I had
four months of sobriety under my belt.
And I knew that if I could just get a little bit of time under myself again, that I could
do it, which I've done it before, you know.
And so now since then, it's been eight years and here I am, you know, and I'm so grateful
that I'm still able to say that I'm not used to drugs or alcohol since that day.
That's amazing.
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I guess to kind of like transition to the now, it sounds like you've taken all of those
lessons the five years, the whole thing, right?
Because how long roughly did this whole from from high school when it started to now?
What is that like 15, 20?
So it would have been, I guess.
I mean, I graduated in 03.
I started using my first year and really, it was really the year before high school,
but say 2000.
So yeah, I mean, so it's been now it's been 25 years, but I used for, you know, a good
15 plus years, I guess, is what it would be.
And so it's been quite some time, you know?
Yeah.
And it sounds so weird to say this about a situation like this, but it sounds like with
that experience with what you've gone through, what you've learned about yourself, what you've
seen work for others.
Now you've been able to kind of take all of that and transition it into Hope's Bridge
to help other people through their recovery process, through their addiction.
Like how did Hopes, how did Hopes Bridge come to be?
And like, what are you guys doing now?
Yeah.
So, so, you know, like I said, after my first, after I wrote my first book, I started getting
messages from people all over the world, you know, that would say stuff like, hey, you
know, thank you.
You saved my life or thank you.
You helped me understand my son better or my mom better, or, you know, you helped my
family out through your story.
And so it was those messages that made me feel so good.
And so I knew at that point that I had, that was my purpose.
And so, you know, there's, Sigmund Freud has this concept, this idea that we live two halves
of lives, right?
Or that we have to put the potential to live two halves of lives.
And so we live the first half of our life trying to figure out what purpose we're supposed
to serve on this planet.
And then there's a transition period before we enter our second half of our life.
And so the second half of a life is you end up living out that purpose.
Right. And so this little transition period between there where you're figuring out what
exactly you're supposed to do.
Sometimes it's not comfortable.
Sometimes it's really uncomfortable.
It could be very volatile time, which was mine, you know, during that volatile time.
And then you get this opportunity to live out the purpose of your life.
And so, you know, some people aren't fortunate enough to be able to do that.
Some people live their entire life in the first half.
They don't ever get to figure out what they're supposed to be doing.
They just kind of live this humdrum life and go through, you know, the routine.
But I figured out in writing my book that my purpose was helping people.
And through my story and through what I've been through.
And so that's what led me down the path of working in this field.
I worked at a couple of different treatment centers prior to opening Hope's Bridge.
And then a very, very dear friend of mine, Hope Wright, died of an overdose from fentanyl.
And so it was immediately following that.
About a year after that, I founded Hope's Bridge in honor of her name.
And I wrote a grant to the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership, which is an agency that
received opioid settlement money from the opioid epidemic.
So you look back and the opioid epidemic really started with Purdue Pharma and the Sackler
family where they invented OxyContin back in the early, I think it was around the early
90s.
And so they marketed this drug as very, this amazing, incredible drug that was non addictive,
that could cure pain.
And they told everybody that it was non addictive.
And so obviously it was very addictive.
And that's really what started me on my addiction was that particular medication.
And so fast forward to recent times, the federal government ended up suing them for falsely
stating that it was non addictive.
And they got ordered to pay billions and billions of dollars along with a couple other drug
manufacturers that were making similar drugs.
And the federal government got all this money and then dispersed it to the states.
And each state got the amount that was equivalent to how much they had been affected by the
opioid epidemic and how they figured that up, I'm real sure.
But so Arkansas got a big pot of money from the settlement and they are now able to give
that out through grants to state agencies and nonprofits who are using these funds,
these settlement funds to help abate the opioid epidemic.
And so I had founded Hope's Bridge and I wrote a grant to the Arkansas Opioid Recovery Partnership.
And they graciously granted me a grant for $319,000 to buy my first house here under
Hope's Bridge and remodel it and furnish it.
And we founded the organization January of 2023.
We were granted the funds.
I believe it was in May.
And then we closed on the house shortly after that.
It's been a couple of months.
It was March, I believe is when we received it.
It's been a couple of months remodeling.
We opened the first house in August, August 1st of last year.
And we filled it up within the first month.
The need for this is just so great.
And so now we're able to provide this house.
So what we try to do is, I mean, our mission is to empower and support individuals recovering
from substance use disorder and their journey towards a sober and fulfilling lifestyle and
help them in their integration into society through different comprehensive and individualized
recovery resident services and peer mentoring and job readiness training.
So we offer quite a lot, as opposed to just giving them a little place to stay.
They have to participate in our program and stay sober to get a job and participate in
their own recovery.
So they've got to go to meetings.
And so we're able to provide this safe place for them, but they also have to do the work
to be able to stay there.
And so that's where we're at now.
We're looking to expand and open a couple more houses, another men's house and a couple
of women's houses.
We want to get one open that is for women and children, so mothers that have children,
because we have identified a great need for that in our community.
And so our goal for this year is to get those other houses open and provide services to
a broader range and demographic of people in the community and then kind of go from
there and see where we want to go.
Gotcha.
Yeah.
So really just taking so many different parts of your life and putting it into what Hope's
Bridge is and it sounds like there's resources and everything out there for people that want
to do things like this.
How did you figure that out?
I mean, did you just Google it or what?
Are you talking about like the grants and stuff?
Like the grants, yeah, because it's just interesting that there is so much money out there because
I've heard that from other people too, that for different, for specific use cases, there's
a lot of government funding.
So I'm just like, how did you find out about that?
Yeah.
So that particular one, a very good friend of mine, Casey Wilson, who has been involved
in the organization quite a bit.
And he's the one that told me about that specific grant.
And he was with a different organization at the time who was able to access some funds
through it.
And he called me and he said, look, Austin, because we talked for a long time for years.
We were childhood friends, grew up together and kind of went down a similar path.
And we got sober and we were both working in the field.
And we'd always wanted to open an organization like this.
And he called me up and he said, look, this is real.
Like they're actually able to provide these funds.
You need to do this.
And so that's what I heard about that first one.
But over the course of having this organization open and working with different people and
organizations across the state and state entities, I have found that there is a lot of grants
and funds to be able to get access through the government and through different other
nonprofit agencies.
If you know where to look and if you are an organization that is eligible, obviously,
there's a lot of assistance and funds that you can access.
Absolutely.
Gotcha.
And I guess in terms of the because you've only been even what, basically less than a
year.
So for a year, you guys have been open and operating.
Operating.
Yeah, right under a year.
Yeah, right under a year because yeah, we're recording this May 2024.
And you said you opened right around this time in 2023.
August 1st is August 1st.
We had our residents move in.
Yeah, we closed on the house around this time.
Wow.
OK, so yeah, just a few months off.
And I know that when I was there, you said that there was only 10 or you have 12 beds
in the house.
Ten are open right now.
How many people have gone through the house through recovery already?
So we actually do have 10 people in the house, but the other two are committed to a couple
of people that are coming out of treatment.
We do have a wait list of people that are wanting to get in.
So I mean, the need is just endless.
You know, I've got a very long wait list.
And so when a couple of beds come open, I'll call the next person that had been on the
list and the two people that are coming in happen to be in treatment right now.
And so we've reserved those beds for them.
But yeah, so there's how many people have come through.
I could look at our annual report and tell you.
But I mean, the bed stays full.
It stays completely full.
Fortunately, we have had really good success as far as the people that come in.
There's not a lot of there hadn't been a great amount of turnover.
Right.
So that tells us that we're doing something right.
The people are enjoying what we're providing and that what we're providing is helping them
in their own recovery and they're able to stay there and stay sober.
Because if they leave, it's either because they have returned to using or, you know,
some other external factor that's not related to what we're doing.
And so it continuously stays full.
And I think, you know, we've had a little bit of turnover.
It's hard to say.
Like I said, I could go back and give you some specific numbers, but we've been very
it's been everybody that has come through have been very receptive to what we're doing.
They really enjoy what we're doing.
And there's nobody around here that is providing these services in our area.
There's nobody.
And so the need is just so great.
And we're trying to fill a gap that's been been here for years and years.
You know.
Yeah.
And I think I realized the way that I asked that question and what I was defining success
for Hope's Bridge as they come in, they get clean, they leave.
Right.
That's what I would like.
Yeah.
It's not like turning people out, like getting like getting through the process as fast as
possible.
And I guess that's not necessarily the goal.
Right.
So like, can you describe what your like what a success look like for you with the gentleman
that come into the house?
Sure.
No, I mean, it is exactly what you said.
I think what I would love to see is everybody that comes through the doors of Hope's Bridge
that they would stay there for, you know, six, eight months, a year, year and a half,
whatever it takes on, but that everybody that comes through the doors would eventually walk
about out the doors in a situation where they are ready to move back into society, get their
own place.
They have a job, they have income, they're stable, and they move on.
You know, that would be ideal for in my eyes.
That would be a success as far as everybody that comes through the doors.
Some people, that's not really in the cards for them.
Some people they prefer and they thrive in a community setting like we have set up at
Hope's Bridge and that's what they need.
And so that's why I don't put a time cap on how long people can stay at the house.
I tell them that they can stay there as long as they want.
You know, they can stay there forever if they wanted it, because for some people that's
what they need.
And so I'm not going to cut off access to something that's helping improve their lives
and helping them stay sober.
So but for the most part, they do move on.
You know, they do get stable and move on and go out and get another place and they're able
to stay sober with the foundation that they built at Hope's Bridge.
Yeah.
And what is it that, so it sounds like they come for the treatment or they come for the
help and they kind of stay for that community that you've built there.
Because I mean, even just the gentleman that I met a little bit when I was touring with
you, I mean, they were very welcoming.
They were very cool.
It sounds like and I went back to the video that I made about it and I mentioned how clean
and homey it felt like three or four times.
And I don't know what I was expecting going to like an addiction treatment house center,
whatever.
But it wasn't that I suppose because I brought it up like four or five times.
And again, right now.
So it sounds like that's it's really cultivating that family, that that relationship, that
accountability within the space.
Right.
Yeah, no.
So a couple of different aspects to what you're talking about.
So number one, the accountability, the community.
Yeah.
I mean, look at the look at, for instance, the 12 steps, right.
So that's the 12 step program is founded on the idea that somebody who has been through
what you have been through is able to walk you through it and get out through the other
side.
Right.
And there's such value in a community setting or somebody who you can relate to.
I spoke about it when we sat down at the table the other day, I think about how back, you
know, it was like after the Vietnam War, World War Two, where they did a study that when
these soldiers returned back from war, they go and they're ordered to go see this psychologist,
psychiatrist and to talk through their PTSD and some of the things that they endured while
in battle and in combat and war, the things that they saw.
And so they found out through this study that the soldiers would actually benefit greater
and they got more out of their time spent in the waiting room talking amongst the other
soldiers that had been through what they've been through more so than they got out of
speaking with the doctor.
Right.
And so that there's a value and a shared commonality that you can identify with between your brothers
or sisters and a family.
Right.
And so the community setting plays a major part in what we're doing.
The guys have all been that they all have different stories, but in but it's the same
story overall.
And so they can identify and help each other through a lot of the things that they're struggling
with and bounce things off of each other.
And so that's one aspect of it.
The other aspect is, you know, as far as the physical structure in the house, you know,
I wanted to build a space that these guys could be proud of.
I wanted to build a space that I would live in myself.
I didn't want it to be some sort of rundown house that, you know, is it kind of the typical
idea, I guess, like you had mentioned, when you think of different recovery homes or if
they're the preconceived notion of them.
But I wanted to create a space that these guys will be proud of to call home.
And I tell them when their first day that they get there, this is your home.
This is your house.
It's not mine.
It's yours.
And so I wanted to create a very nice and clean and environment that they might not
have the opportunity otherwise to live in that they can be proud of to come home from
work every day and look forward to come home to.
Because if you feel good about where you're living, it helps you feel good in general
and it helps in your recovery, you know.
Gotcha.
So you're really playing into that factor of that community building trust, having that
shared experience.
And it sounds like that's been pretty successful with you guys.
No, it has.
They have just they they love it there.
They really do.
And they love what we're doing.
They love the program that we have in place and the house overall.
And that's really what continues to drive me is to see these guys happy and succeed
in recovery and, you know, soon to be women, hopefully pretty soon.
That's what continues to drive me and helps reinforce the idea that to me that what I'm
doing is right, you know, and I'm doing the right thing.
And I know there's certainly things that I can improve on and things that I can do different.
But overall, I think I think we're headed in a pretty good direction as far as where
we're going with the with the organization.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
Well, I know you mentioned I think you said for the the second men's home, the women's
home and the women's and children's home.
That's the goal is by the end of 2024 or 2025.
The goal is by the end of 2024.
I don't know.
We'll see if that that's going to happen.
That's the goal right now.
And I think by the end of 2024, we will be at least halfway through that goal, if not
the way through that goal.
That's amazing.
Yeah.
And I guess it just kind of like wrap up.
Is there anything that you would want to say to someone that is either in your position
going through recovery, finishing up recovering, kind of looking for that next step?
Like you said, you were like, my purpose is to help people.
What would you say to someone that's at that from that first life to that second half in
that transitional space?
Yeah, I think, you know, we talked about it the other day.
And I think I think it's to be able to walk blindly with with faith.
And, you know, we what I said before, it's it's OK to reach for something that you don't
get comprehend.
It's OK to reach for a goal or to go after a goal, not knowing exactly the path to get
there.
But you know where you want, right?
You know where you want to be, you know where you want to go.
So it's OK to not understand how you're going to get there or how it's even possible.
Right.
But just go just just like you're doing on your walk.
Just take that first step.
You don't you didn't know what was going to happen to you along the way.
You didn't know exactly how you were going to make it.
But you just started.
And it's the same thing.
You know, just just take that first step.
When I started off on this, man, I had no idea what I was doing.
And I told people that I was like, look, I have no idea what I'm doing with this.
No clue.
I'm just I've got faith that it's going to work out.
So I'm going to do the next right thing.
And so I think, you know, to answer your question, just just take that step.
Take the first step.
Just walk out.
And all you have to do is is do the next right thing, have good intentions and it'll work
out.
And when I say it'll work out, it may not be the way you want.
But I promise you that if you're honest and you do the next right thing, it's going to
work out the way it's supposed to.
Yeah, no, I hear you.
I love that.
And that's I think that's a beautiful way to kind of end it off, honestly.
But yeah, man, now, if people because you said you wrote two books, there was Spoons
are for stirring coffee.
And there's a second one.
I'm not sure if you mentioned that the second one is called Getting Over Jordan.
I had the opportunity to I've got a very dear friend of mine who's a retired physician.
And he's got an incredible, incredible story and the opportunity to to tell that for him
and the way that we had met was pretty I don't know, I guess it was a pretty poetic way that
we met and things that have transpired since then.
But I was able to tell his story of some time that he spent running an emergency room.
And there was a little girl named Jordan that died in his emergency room under his watch.
And it changed the course of his life and changed, eventually changed his beliefs and
the way that he really walked his life.
And so I had the opportunity to tell his story.
And it's called Getting Over Jordan.
And both of them are available on Amazon.
And you can just, you know, Google Austin Coates or look them up on Amazon.
They'll be there.
Oh, you don't have to Google Austin Coates.
It's all going to be in the show notes.
Perfect.
I'll go ahead and link both those books in the show notes, Getting Over Jordan and Spoons
Are For Stirring Coffee, and as well as all the social media.
But where can people find you if they want to just listen to this and Google things?
Where would they find HopesBridge and everything on socials?
Yeah, so you can find it at HopesBridge.org, our website, we've got a media page with a
little, I'll have this on there and all the other news clippings and you can read about
our organization there.
There's contact information.
You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, Austin Coates, Austin Lee Coates, and then HopesBridge
has a page on Facebook.
Also HopesBridge of Fort Smith is on the name on Facebook.
And you can reach out to in those ways or me directly through email, Austin at HopesBridge.org.
So any of those ways.
Perfect, Austin.
All right, I'll go ahead and link all that in the show notes, the books, the Facebook,
the social media, the email.
If anybody wants to follow along on Austin and HopesBridge's journey as they expand and
help more people and does really be a shining light for treatment through addiction and
helping folks get to the other side of that and really just create the life they know
they need to live.
So Austin, thank you so much for all the work that you're doing, for spending some time
with us.
I appreciate it.
And I'm looking forward to seeing what you guys do and opening up house after house after
house and getting folks in because it sounds like it's definitely something that's needed,
especially in the Fort Smith area and I'm sure all over the place.
So yeah, yeah, absolutely.
And again, I appreciate the opportunity to come on here and speak with you.
I admire what you're doing, Ranger, and your walk.
And that takes quite a bit of fortitude and ambition and discipline and strength.
And so I commend you on what you're doing as well.
And I'm trying to spread your message and what you're doing throughout my means of communication
and media also.
Awesome.
I appreciate it, sir.
All right, man.
Well, I'll talk to you later.
Maybe we'll do a re-up here in another year or two and see where you guys are at.
But until then, I appreciate it.
All right.
Thanks, sir.
Thank you guys once again for joining us on today's episode.
I think that my biggest takeaway from our conversation with Austin today is how our
stories and the trials and tribulations and really the pain we go through in our lives
can really be used as a sounding board, like a jumping off point to help and serve others.
I hope that everybody can take a moment to see where your story has led you and where
you can lead others to the other side of any issues, trials and tribulations that they're
going through in their life.
Once again, I'm going to be sharing all of Austin's information in the show notes, including
information about Hope's Bridge and ways that you could donate to help their cause, that
you can support them on social media.
Really, I do think that this is a great cause and something that really should be replicated
in, I'd say, just the big cities, but pretty much any area where there's people, I'm sure
that the service can be used.
So I hope that you take away some key points from today's discussion.
Remember once again to check out our sponsor, Cold-Buddied Caffeine Company, in the description
as well.
They're a great source of all of your caffeine needs.
So if you want to support the podcast and stories from people that are making a difference
in other people's lives through the experiences in theirs, please check them out.
Even just follow, like and review on social media for them would go a long way.
And if you enjoyed today's episode, please remember to give us a like, a review, and
take a moment to share the episode.
Guys, the best way for us to get the word out about how important it is to support and
help one another and serve humanity would be to share episodes like this.
My intention with every episode is to inspire, to elevate, and really just help people learn
that they can make a difference regardless of how small, regardless of where it is.
I think today's episode would be a great way to share that message.
So share us on social media, tag us.
Every time you tag me, I'm going to reshare it.
So share the podcast.
And with all that being said, thank you guys once again.
I'll see you next week.
Remember to have fun, stay safe, and be yourself.
Thanks.
Bye.