Episode 228 Charles Smith Living the Hand You’re Dealt Transcript

This transcript is from episode 228 with guest Charles Smith.

[00:00:00] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host Scott DeLuzio and now let’s get on with the show.

[00:00:21] Scott DeLuzio: Hey everybody welcome back to the Drive On Podcast. Today, my guest is Charles Smith. Charles is an army veteran who has learned to survive a series of traumas that he’s experienced throughout his life. He’s also the author of several self-help books that come from his own experiences throughout his life.

[00:00:40] Scott DeLuzio: And he’s here today to talk about some of those experiences how he navigated through those experiences and how he’s currently helping out veterans find better ways of coping with the issues that they’re facing. So welcome of the show, Charles. I’m glad to have you here.

[00:00:56] Charles Smith: Glad to be here, Scott.

[00:00:57] Charles Smith: Thank you very much.

[00:00:59] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah, [00:01:00] absolutely. So. Over the years of doing this podcast, I’ve learned that oftentimes the issues that we face as adults. Sometimes start off way back when we were kids through things that we’ve dealt with. Sometimes there’s unresolved trauma from a childhood experience or a loss of a loved one or any number of other things that quite frankly, as kids, we were just not equipped to deal with in healthy ways.

[00:01:26] Scott DeLuzio: Without. The right support system in place and the right tools available to us. So would you mind telling us a little bit about your childhood experiences and kind of start us off there? So we kind of have a better idea of you know, who you were and what led you to where you ended up?

[00:01:42] Charles Smith: Yeah, sure. My childhood started out, I was supposed to have a legacy. My father. Own multiple nursing homes and land all around the Worcester, or you guys would probably [00:02:00] say Warchester Massachusetts area. And he lost it all. And one day it seemed, and my grandfather had to build a duplex for us to live in.

[00:02:12] Charles Smith: But shortly after that, my mother passed away of drugs and alcohol. And after that my father moved me and my sister around to Texas, Arizona. I lived in a Navajo reservation in Arizona. I lived on the border of Mexico in a small town called van or in Texas. And it was literally 10 homes in 11 years, which is one of my books that I.

[00:02:45] Charles Smith: And in Texas, my father actually passed away. I remember we lived in a dirt, poor house. Like I [00:03:00] remember having one full bed that me and my father slept in and I was 11 years old at the time. We didn’t have a box spring, just a mattress. Our clothes were in cardboard boxes. We just had enough food to survive.

[00:03:22] Charles Smith: And I remember one night, the last day we were there, I woke up, I looked at my father and I had this eerie feeling come over me. I got up. I went to my father. I hugged him and I said, dad, I wanna stay home from school. He said, no, you can’t. You’ve already missed too much school. Cuz I could go to school whenever I wanted to wanna stay home whenever I wanted to.

[00:03:53] Charles Smith: And after that I went into the bathroom, shoved my finger down my foot [00:04:00] and I went back and told him, Hey look, I just threw up. I don’t feel good. I wanna stay home. So they let me stay. After we dropped my sister off at school, we went to the store and he passed out on me in the store. He was a bad diabetic and the store clerk knew him juice to revive him.

[00:04:27] Charles Smith: And then we go home shortly after we got home. He passed out on me again. I ran out of the house. To get my neighbor and my neighbor, and I got him into my neighbor’s car and got him to the hospital, local hospital. And that’s where he passed away holding my hand. And then we came back here to Winchester, Massachusetts messages.

[00:04:57] Charles Smith: It’s

[00:04:59] Scott DeLuzio: yeah, [00:05:00] the, I mean, First off 10 houses in 11 years. I mean, I know a lot of times military families, you know, especially the people who might be listening to this podcast they move around a lot. And so that, that is kind of a common thing but one thing that I think a lot of military families and in this case you were not a military family.

[00:05:16] Scott DeLuzio: This is just moving from place to place all, all over the place. Different states, different locations. One thing that military families have. Going for them is other military families. They all kind of know support what they’re getting into and there’s that support network there. But when you move from from Massachusetts, To some other state in, you know, Arizona, Texas, and all these other places that you’re moving to, you know, there, you don’t have the roots there.

[00:05:41] Scott DeLuzio: And you know, I would imagine you probably didn’t have family in all of these places either. And so, yeah, no you know, so going to all these different places you’re kind of just. Almost nomadic. You don’t have your, your your roots settle down. You, it’s probably harder to make and keep [00:06:00] friends you know, especially back then, you know, it’s not like we, we have social media or email or anything like that, where you can just yeah.

[00:06:05] Scott DeLuzio: Do hop on that and stay in touch with people. But that’s gotta be pretty hard but then losing both of your parents at such an early age and. Dealing with all that. I mean, that just has to be difficult for any child you know, regardless of anything else that’s going on in their lives, just lose losing a parent at a young age is traumatic, but losing both you know, you said what age?

[00:06:28] Scott DeLuzio: 11?

[00:06:28] Charles Smith: That’s age

[00:06:28] Scott DeLuzio: 11. Yeah. Yep. That’s pretty rough. And so, you know, what was life like after, after that, after you lost your father? Well,

[00:06:36] Charles Smith: When I was writing 10 homes in 11 years, I was talking to my sister because I actually blocked out a lot of my childhood. And she told me that I was a mute for six months.

[00:06:51] Charles Smith: I totally forgot about that. Wow. But when I first came home, she said, I didn’t even talk to her. I wouldn’t talk to anybody for like six months [00:07:00] and growing. Like anyone that tried to be my parent, I didn’t want any part of them. You know, like me, me and a couple of my childhood friends just went up to see another friend up in Vermont.

[00:07:17] Charles Smith: He’s passing away of cancer and now he’s bedridden. And he’s, he don’t have much time left, but I asked one of my friends that we drove up with, like how was I when I was growing up? It’s like, you were looking for family. And we were that family, you know? And so I, yeah, it was really profound.

[00:07:47] Charles Smith: You know, the brotherhood that we had, it was like the military.

[00:07:52] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. I mean, it, it sounds like, and, you know, part of the story sounds like you, and I [00:08:00] say story not like this is a make the kinda thing, but it’s, you know, part of your story and your background. You know, it sounds to me.

[00:08:07] Scott DeLuzio: Everyone needs a family. That’s just one of the the basics. I mean, that people, whether they’re blood related or whatever they need people around them to, to talk, to, to care about, to look after and have them look after you and all that kind stuff. You just kind of need people around you.

[00:08:24] Scott DeLuzio: It’s one of those just basics. I think that most people really need. But at the same time, when. At such a young age and the people who you love are seem like they’re leaving you. Right. It probably felt like, well, you don’t wanna get too close to anybody because if you do then.

[00:08:41] Scott DeLuzio: You’re just gonna suffer that same kind of heart break again at some point. So, you know, I could totally see how when you said, you know, you were kind of pushing people away who were trying to be like a parent figure like I get that, like that it hasn’t happened to me, but I understand why that might happen because.

[00:08:59] Scott DeLuzio: Like, why would you [00:09:00] want someone to get that close to you just to, you know, have your heart broken all over again, right?

[00:09:04] Charles Smith: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. I mean, I was talking to a friend of mine today and I lost over 20 significant people in my life. Death wives. Yeah. Like, like just my friend. That’s gonna be like the first sibling, you know, cuz we’re like brothers.

[00:09:26] Charles Smith: But I’ve lost my parents. I’ve lost my uncle, my grandfather, three sets of grandfathers and grandmothers, because my uncle who raised me, his mother and father will like my grandparents. The list just goes on and on and right. I can tell you from experience. It doesn’t get any easier.

[00:09:48] Scott DeLuzio: No. And that’s the one thing about grief?

[00:09:50] Scott DeLuzio: Is it. It’s never easy to yeah. To lose a loved one you know, especially someone that you care about and that you’ve grew up around and all that kind of stuff that’s never easy. But I [00:10:00] think also if you don’t learn how to grieve. In a healthy, proper way. And grief looks different for everybody.

[00:10:06] Scott DeLuzio: So I, I can’t say that there’s like one checklist, like do all these things and you’ll be good to go but if you don’t learn to grieve in a healthy way the next time grief comes around it. It’s just gonna compound itself and you’re just not going to be able to handle it very well.

[00:10:20] Scott DeLuzio: Right. Yeah. And it seems like that’s what happened in your case, right?

[00:10:23] Charles Smith: It is. Yeah. Yep. And I actually talk about that in my latest book. Acceptance of a lost one acceptance of a losing a loved one, I should say. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:36] Scott DeLuzio: So, so, I mean, ultimately you ended up joining the military. So, so, so far all this stuff is pre-military.

[00:10:41] Scott DeLuzio: What was the prompt for you to join the military?

[00:10:44] Charles Smith: Well, I got into drugs and alcohol and it was enough for, it was ruining my life and my aunt that I lived with told me, get out, get a job and don’t come. [00:11:00] Which is what I needed at that time, you know? And so I went out, I joined the military.

[00:11:10] Charles Smith: I told her that I, you know, I’ll be gone in a month. I joined the military and then that’s, that was my detox pretty much.

[00:11:23] Scott DeLuzio: yeah. What was that like? You know, going from, you know, someone who was using drugs, alcohol and stuff, and then being away from all those negative influences in your life. What was that?

[00:11:33] Scott DeLuzio: I mean, I know basic training is difficult enough for some people, but then adding that on top of it could be just so traumatic too.

[00:11:41] Charles Smith: Yeah. It was hard because I. I was so skinny from using crack cocaine and so passing a PT test and all that was extremely hard. They fed me more [00:12:00] than a normal soldier, but then again I, you know, I don’t know if you were or not.

[00:12:06] Charles Smith: We, you went. Yep.

[00:12:07] Scott DeLuzio: Okay. Yep. That was yeah. Infantry. Yeah.

[00:12:10] Charles Smith: Okay. Yep. Yep. You know how the The platoon leader is done. We’re all done. Yep. Right? And so it didn’t matter how much they gave me once he was done, I was done eating. So I just ate as much as I could, as quick as I could. And then I bulked up and I had this guy haul that pushed me every night when we were done with everyth.

[00:12:39] Charles Smith: He pushed me to do pushups and sit ups. And he’s the one that got me to basic training.

[00:12:47] Scott DeLuzio: Well, and that’s good too, because you had that support again, you know, going back kinda like a common theme. It’s like having that support system in place and you know, just going through it alone on, you know, all on your own.

[00:12:58] Scott DeLuzio: Not really knowing anyone, not [00:13:00] really. Having that system in place you know, it’s good to have those people around who are there to encourage and motivate you to keep pushing forward and not quitting on yourself. Right?

[00:13:11] Charles Smith: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

[00:13:14] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Do you feel like the military experience overall changed your outlook on life in terms of, you know, Where you were before joining the military and in terms of like resiliency or anything like that or were you you know, kind of keeping some of that same mindset and attitude throughout the military career?

[00:13:32] Scott DeLuzio: I think it,

[00:13:33] Charles Smith: it built my resiliency for sure, but it also think that there was a lot of lingering things going on in my. You know, like, I, I wasn’t totally, there was one missing aspect that I didn’t experience yet that I needed to experience. And that came a few years later.

[00:13:59] Scott DeLuzio: And so what was [00:14:00] that?

[00:14:00] Scott DeLuzio: And what was that experience like?

[00:14:02] Charles Smith: That was my grandfather and my uncle passed away month apart in the year, 2000. And I became like very Barkly depressed, so depressed that I was cutting on myself and I wrote the, I carved the words, fuck you world in my arm. And I took a bottle of sleeping pills and I I tried taking my own life I was done.

[00:14:39] Charles Smith: And with that, I became a homeless veteran and I’ve seen the other veterans that were suffering like I was, you know, and that is what changed me. What I’ve seen, that I’m not alone. And I’ve seen that. There’s so many people out there suffering [00:15:00] that needed my support.

[00:15:04] Scott DeLuzio: That’s an interesting segue into, what came next. But you know, I hear you saying how here you are suffering. You’re in this dark depressed state and you’re homeless. That’s not an easy time for anyone veteran or not being homeless. Right. Right. And then.

[00:15:26] Scott DeLuzio: You’re seeing all these other homeless veterans around you and you’re thinking to yourself, okay, these people need some help. They are the ones who I need to help. Right. And yeah. And you know, I think that sort of ties back to a lot of people’s military services is how we. Find something bigger than ourselves to serve.

[00:15:48] Scott DeLuzio: You know, some people go to serve their country to support their communities and, you know, maybe it’s the national guard or something like that, you know, you know, it’s something bigger than themselves and they are [00:16:00] willing to sacrifice something of themselves. They’re willing to put in that extra.

[00:16:06] Scott DeLuzio: Because it’s like, well, somebody else is relying on me to do this. And if I don’t, this person’s gonna be in a bad shape, so I gotta do my best to help that person out. So, right. You know, that’s sort of what I’m hearing from you on your side as far as like what your experience was through all of this, right?

[00:16:23] Charles Smith: Yeah. Yeah. Most definitely. Uh,

[00:16:25] Scott DeLuzio: So yeah, you know, I’m glad that you know, obviously glad. Things worked out for you that you’re still with us here to share your story. You know, unfortunately it is. All that uncommon where veterans deal with suicide attempts and yeah. And I think your story and homelessness for that matter, but in your story, I think can serve as an inspiration to those other people who are struggling, feeling like they’re all alone.

[00:16:50] Scott DeLuzio: Like it’s just them against the world. And they got nothing left to live for and all that kind of stuff. So I think, yeah, stories like yours and you, I, I. The world is a better place with [00:17:00] you in it to be able to share those stories and, you know, yeah. You did have to go through some crap to hit that point where you’re like, okay, something’s gotta change.

[00:17:11] Scott DeLuzio: Right. Yeah. And then you hit that, that turning point where you decided to pick yourself up, dust yourself off and basically play the hand that you’re adult. Right?

[00:17:20] Charles Smith: Exactly. Yep. Yep. Yeah. I think that everybody has a crucible. In their life, you know, and it either makes you or break you. And I think that moment in my life was my crucible, you know?

[00:17:39] Charles Smith: And the thing about my suicide attempt that I told people is that was 20 years ago. I have a 10 year old son. Now you do the math, right? You. If I ended up killing myself, [00:18:00] not only would I not be here, but he wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t be a seven time author. My story wouldn’t be told I wouldn’t be on drive on podcast.

[00:18:14] Charles Smith: You know, the story go. I mean, the list goes on and on of things that wouldn’t be happening. If I ended up doing what I was doing. You know, if you know, I wouldn’t be working for one of the greatest companies that I’ve ever worked for in my wife away recovery care, you know, it’s exactly

[00:18:37] Scott DeLuzio: amazing.

[00:18:37] Scott DeLuzio: The, there’s so many things that can turn around just with. The right mindset, the right attitude the right energy going towards the right things, right. Not, yeah, not going towards the negative things, the drugs, the alcohol the stuff that is gonna send you down the wrong path. But with the right mindset and the right energy going [00:19:00] towards the healthy things in your life.

[00:19:04] Scott DeLuzio: Exactly. Like you said, so many things. Turned around and are better now that you’ve focused on those things. Like you have a son that yeah. That child would not be here if you succeeded in that attempt of yeah. You know, back exactly back then, you know? And so when you think about that, like there’s all these.

[00:19:25] Scott DeLuzio: What does a future hold for me? And it’s like this, it’s a, there is a big mystery as far as what the future holds, but if you’re putting the right energy and the right mindset in place, that future can be a good future, no matter what you’ve dealt with. Right? Yeah, definitely. Yeah.

[00:19:42] Charles Smith: I mean, I’ve, a lot of people have traumatic events in their life.

[00:19:49] Charles Smith: My life was a traumatic event. You know, but still it I’m pushing on I’m pushing forward [00:20:00] and I’m making something of it, you know? And then that’s what we all need to do. We all need, especially in these dark times that we’re in now, we all need to, you know, not give up hope, keep push ’em forward.

[00:20:15] Charles Smith: Drive on. Yeah. You know,

[00:20:18] Scott DeLuzio: for sure. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And that’s how you end up finding that inner peace and not being yeah. So down on yourself and depressed and thinking that the world’s out to get you or whatever, and yeah, you had, I’m just gonna be Frank with you. You’ve had a shitty hand dealt to you, you know, like I have all that stuff like going on.

[00:20:39] Scott DeLuzio: A lot of that was. Pretty shitty, especially at a early age you know, having to deal with all that kind of stuff. I mean that no one really should have to deal with that, but here you are. Once when you’re dealt that hand, you gotta play it. You have to yeah. Figure out what the next best move is.

[00:20:57] Scott DeLuzio: It may not be a great move. [00:21:00] It may not be like leapfrogging from, you know, poverty to millionaire status or anything like that. Right, right, right. But you’re looking to like every day, just get yourself a little bit better than you were the day before. And. That means you’re at least moving in the right direction.

[00:21:15] Scott DeLuzio: And if you can survive all of those bad days, all those miserable, terrible days that have happened in your past . And if you’re consistently making an effort to have a better future, better life, the days in the future, you’ll be able to handle those, you know, no matter what comes your way, you’ll be able to handle that.

[00:21:33] Scott DeLuzio: And I think, yeah you know, your story is certainly an inspiration in terms of, you know, the. Your ability to bounce back from literally that rock bottom moment that you had, right?

[00:21:45] Charles Smith: Yeah. Yep. Yeah. Most definitely. I mean, I’ve had a lot happen that we didn’t even talk about, you know, and sure. Like what got me into working in addiction recovery, my, my [00:22:00] cousin in 2016, he he was into heroin.

[00:22:05] Charles Smith: and he went missing on July 4th of July in wor and he was missing for six months. And then on the new year’s Eve, I think it was a hunter and his dog found his body. In the woods and they had to do dental recognition to identify his body. And there was lime around his body, you know, and after that, I dedicated my life to helping people, veterans and civilians alike with addiction recovery.

[00:22:48] Scott DeLuzio: So let’s talk about that a little bit. Let’s talk about the addiction recovery side of things and what you’re doing now to help people out with all that. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah. Yeah. So, [00:23:00] so yeah. Tell us about that

[00:23:03] Charles Smith: now I’m working with where recovery care and. It offers a novel in-home drug and alcohol treatment program for people.

[00:23:15] Charles Smith: And we have, we’re like a first of our kind and we’re in multiple states. We’re in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Florida. And we’re trying to get into other states Maine, but what we do is. We meet the client where we’re at. Like, if you want to go out for a coffee and talk about your recovery, we go out for a coffee and talk about your recovery at home on break for lunch, whatever, or go to an AA meeting with the client whatever they wanna do.

[00:23:55] Charles Smith: And we have like, a set of. [00:24:00] Criteria that we, we teach the client to help them more in their recovery. And we have the client for a whole year, which is phenomenal because I’ve worked in detoxes and CSS and places that I never thought I had enough time with the client. You know, like a detox I have like a week maybe.

[00:24:26] Charles Smith: And then, yeah. And then you let the client go knowing that they might die, or you might see ’em back in a week, you know, here we have the client for a whole year and our stats are just phenomenal compared to a lot of the other places, even AA, you know, so

[00:24:49] Scott DeLuzio: right. And that’s a really good Good alternative here, because like you said there’s other organizations, other people who will work with people, but for a [00:25:00] week or two, that really isn’t gonna cut it for most people.

[00:25:04] Scott DeLuzio: I, I would even think, you know, and when you have a whole year and perhaps even a whole year might not be enough for certain people, but at least you’re getting those people. To a much better place than they were before, probably to a place where it’s manageable for them at that point where they can go on and be able to handle this without dealing with all the issues that they were dealing with a year earlier.

[00:25:29] Scott DeLuzio: Right.

[00:25:30] Charles Smith: Yeah. Yeah. And now we’re we’re accredited with the joint commission and we’re have a whole bunch of stuff that they just sent me. We, we have the golden seal of approval and we were actually somebody from Yale helped to create this organization. So the, we had a lot of brain power behind what we were doned .

[00:25:59] Scott DeLuzio: [00:26:00] Yeah. Yeah. And having more people. Around who have different perspectives, different experiences, different. Yeah. Things that they bring to the table is just gonna create a better organization, a better service that you’re offering to people.

[00:26:14] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Yeah. So it sounds great. So aware recovery care and I’ll have links to this in this show notes as well. So people who are you know, struggling with addiction and you know, needing some. Thinking that they’ve tried everything. But this might sound like something that, that could be beneficial for ’em.

[00:26:32] Scott DeLuzio: They can find those the links and the show notes pretty easily. So, so I’m glad that you mentioned that and brought up all of this stuff, but yeah. What

[00:26:39] Charles Smith: also main New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Florida. Okay,

[00:26:44] Scott DeLuzio: absolutely. In Massachusetts and I’ll Massachusetts. Right. And I’ll put that in the show notes as well.

[00:26:48] Scott DeLuzio: And if, you know, over time, as you add new states we can always update those show notes too, so people can okay. Find that in this area. But thank you. Awesome. Yeah that’s great. Yeah my, I wanna, [00:27:00] I want to talk about your books too. Okay. And I know a lot of them. Focused on your experiences, your background, and the things that you’ve gone through but they’re all geared around, like you were saying before, helping out other people, the self-help type books.

[00:27:14] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. And I think one of the best ways to help other people is to share experiences. And that seems like exactly what you’re doing with these books. So tell us a little bit about the books and where people can go to find them.

[00:27:25] Charles Smith: All right. Well, they’re they’re all, most of them. Self-help workbooks. I have people really think about what they’re reading and then write down answers to a bunch of different questions within the books.

[00:27:43] Charles Smith: And I have a book on addiction, recovery. I have a book on PTSD. I explained my history of PTSD within that book. I have a book on positive thinking. Mindfulness. I have a book on [00:28:00] acceptance, a loss of a loved one, which a lot of people need to have right now because of COVID and everything else.

[00:28:08] Charles Smith: Definitely. And I have a book on self protection, a lot of which I learned in the military in Cuba. I was in Cuba for six months, guarding camps. And then a lot of experiences that I had being a private investigator and that the list goes on and on again.

[00:28:31] Scott DeLuzio: sure. Yeah. And I can imagine all of those experiences have their own stories that we could probably do a whole separate episode on.

[00:28:39] Scott DeLuzio: Right. So, right. Yeah. Yep. But yeah, I mean, all these books, I mean, there, there’s so many different topics here and again people who are looking to get the help that they need for any of these things, whether it’s addiction or PTSD or you know, grief from the loss of a loved one or whatever the issues are that they’re dealing with.

[00:28:58] Scott DeLuzio: Sometimes it’s just [00:29:00] hearing someone else’s perspective and be like, yeah, you know what. That sounds kind of like me and what I’ve been going through. Why don’t I try what this guy has tried and see how that goes for me and exactly go from there, right? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, co coping skills.

[00:29:16] Charles Smith: What works for me might not work for you, but it’s a place to start, you know, like my, it is my coping skills are Meditation yoga martial arts, that sort of thing.

[00:29:30] Charles Smith: And you know that yoga and meditation are two of the most common coping skills. It helps a lot of people, so people might wanna start with those, but like my addiction recovery book has the eight dimensions of wellness. and within all the eight dimensions of wellness, there’s coping skills for each.

[00:29:57] Charles Smith: So it goes really deep into each [00:30:00] dimension of wellness, like emotional wellness, physical wellness, intellectual wellness, soul wellness, all that. So even if you’re not into addiction, even if you’re not in recovery or using at that time, it’s still a

[00:30:16] Scott DeLuzio: good. Yeah, absolutely. Because like you said, there are different things that work for different people that the things that work for you, you know, yoga and martial arts and the exercise of physical type things may not work for everybody.

[00:30:31] Scott DeLuzio: Some people may be more geared towards doing things like. Artwork or something like that, you know? Yeah. You know? Yeah. In a way that’s physical, but it’s also mental. It’s also, it uses different parts of your body, different you know, parts of your brain and yeah. Yeah. For some people it just works differently, but I think it’s emotional.

[00:30:47] Scott DeLuzio: You hit on a key. Yeah, exactly. But you hit on a key point is that you gotta start somewhere and you have to try something. And if you’ve tried everything. As far as you’re concerned, like you, you think you’ve tried [00:31:00] everything keep looking, try something else. Try, just keep trying. Yeah, because.

[00:31:04] Scott DeLuzio: None of that stuff is in my book. It’s not a failure. As far as I’m concerned, it you know, you’ve tried, maybe tried martial arts, but that wasn’t for you. It’s like, oh, okay. Well, I failed at that now, too. Right? Well, no, you didn’t fail. You just found one more thing that doesn’t work. Now you can scratch that off the list and you can move on and try something new.

[00:31:21] Scott DeLuzio: Right? You don’t have to waste your time doing martial arts or artwork or whatever the thing is that you’ve tried and didn’t work for you. Cool. Now you’ve just discovered one thing that doesn’t work for you now you can move on and try something else. That’s the way I look at it is yeah.

[00:31:36] Scott DeLuzio: Is exactly just keep trying. Don’t have a give up you know, throwing the towel kind of mindset, have a more positive mindset that says, okay, well there’s something else out there. I just haven’t found it yet. Yeah.

[00:31:46] Charles Smith: As long as you’re learning something, there’s never a failure. Right.

[00:31:52] Charles Smith: You know, it’s just one more thing that you learned in life, you know, that’s it. [00:32:00] Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

[00:32:01] Scott DeLuzio: So, where can people go to get your books? Is there, there a website where they’re all at or they they mostly on like Amazon things like that.

[00:32:10] Charles Smith: Lifelong experience do net, if you go on there.

[00:32:15] Charles Smith: They have, there’s a link to everywhere else that they’re on. Cause they’re on everywhere.

[00:32:24] Scott DeLuzio: okay, so they’re auto

[00:32:26] Charles Smith: they’re on Amazon. They’re on this they’re on that?

[00:32:28] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. yeah. Yeah. So I’ll have a link to that that website, as well as the aware recovery care in the show notes so people can find your books for all the different topics that you cover.

[00:32:42] Scott DeLuzio: You know, and I think it’s great too, that you have shared your experiences from a lot of. Parts of your past the PTSD that you suffered with the addiction and also the recovery side of things the positive thinking, the mindfulness, the things like that too. The ways that you’ve been [00:33:00] able to cope with this stuff going forward is just as important as the rest of it.

[00:33:04] Scott DeLuzio: So, so I think these books sound like a great thing to have in our. Toolkit. And I really do encourage everyone who is struggling in one way or another to go check out one or more of these books to, to see if it might help you out. Because I appreciate that. Yeah. You never know when someone else’s experiences and their perspective might just trigger something in your brain that says.

[00:33:29] Scott DeLuzio: Oh crap. I didn’t even think about that. Right. Or I didn’t even think about right. This way of looking at things or whatever. And now you look at it this way and all of a sudden you’re dealing with you know, a whole new outlook on life. And so, yeah, definitely check those things out.

[00:33:42] Scott DeLuzio: Charles, it. It’s been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today. I’m sure. We could keep going for quite some time talking about these things, but you know, I want people to, I, I want people to get the books and take a look at that as opposed to you know, hearing all of the nitty gritty details of all of them on here.

[00:33:58] Scott DeLuzio: So go take a look at those books [00:34:00] check them out and and help get yourself back on the right track.

[00:34:05] Charles Smith: Absolutely. Thank you, Scott. I really appreciate it.

[00:34:09] Scott DeLuzio: Yeah. Thank you so much, Charles.

[00:34:10] Scott DeLuzio: Thanks for listening to the Drive On Podcast. If you want to support the show, please check out Scott’s book, Surviving Son on Amazon. All of the sales from that book go directly back into this podcast and work to help veterans in need. You can also follow the Drive On Podcast on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and wherever you listen to podcasts.