Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear
The Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear is here to help you stop drinking alcohol and achieve the life of your dreams. We want to support people getting sober so they can get on with their life without feeling miserable. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, head over to https://www.soberclear.com/
Stop Drinking Podcast by Soberclear
I quit drinking alcohol for 6 years and learned THIS
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Welcome to the Stop Drinking Podcast, where we help you make stopping drinking a simple, logical and easy decision. We help you with tips, tools and strategies to start living your best life when alcohol-free. If you want to learn more about stop drinking coaching, then head over to wwwsoberclearcom. Six and a half years ago, everything in my life changed after I quit drinking alcohol, and today, in this video, I'm going to show you how alcohol is the one thing standing in the way of the life of your dreams. I spent 10 years struggling to stop drinking. I tried going to AA meetings. I tried begging God to help me. I was using willpower, stopping and starting all the time. Sometimes I'd go a day, sometimes a month, sometimes six months, but something would always lead me back to the drink. But six and a half years ago, everything shifted, and today I want to talk to you about the amazing things that have happened in my own life since stopping. I'm not trying to boast, I'm not trying to show off. What I'm trying to do is show you proof that stopping drinking will give you everything that you want, because the transformation that's happened in my own life is exactly what I dreamed about. My name is Leon Sylvester, I'm the founder of SoberClearcom, and this is my story. Now I'm going to keep it brief for my backstory because I want this video to really focus on the benefits and the good things that have happened in my life.
Speaker 1:But I spent about 10 years drinking. I had periods of my life where I drink every single day. I had periods of my life where I'd drink every single day. I had periods of my life where I'd binge drink, but the common theme was alcohol was the one thing that was holding me back and I was motivated to stop. It was just that nothing worked for me. None of the conventional ways worked, but basically what happened was six and a half years ago. Everything just shifted in my worldview. I stopped seeing alcohol as something that enhanced my life, that made it better. I stopped looking at other drinkers and wanted to be like them, be a normal drinker. I stopped this idea of having just one drink and I basically fixed my understanding and my worldview of alcohol. Now, how I did this was I used something called first principles thinking, and if you want to understand how that works and how I did it, and how I've been helping hundreds of people to do it as well, you can click the link in the description to access a free video training that will tell you more about how I actually stopped and the method and how it works. So if you want to learn more about that, definitely click the link down below. A new page will open up. You'll put your name and email address in and then a new video training will start playing. So with that out the way, let me bring it back to day zero.
Speaker 1:Now for me. Day zero I basically hit this rock bottom. Now, not everybody gets there, not everybody needs to hit a rock bottom, but I pretty much did, and it was an emotional rock bottom. What had basically happened is I had a period of about six, seven or eight months where I stopped drinking alcohol. I was crushing it. I had my own business, you know. Just, things were going so well.
Speaker 1:I ended up drinking again and then, slowly over the next six months, I just destroyed and dismantled everything. All the progress and all the success I had built as a non-drinker just slipped away and I felt like I was at ground zero. And one day I woke up with one of the worst hangovers I'd ever had. It was like 5pmm. When I woke up and I just felt like if I continue doing this, I'm dead. Now to cut a long story short over the next few days I fixed my worldview and then just made a decision Again. If you want to learn more about that, there's the video training in the description. But for me, day zero sucked. I felt so bad. I felt defeated Now because my sleep was all over the place. The next few days were kind of lame as well, but within a couple of days, for me things just turned a corner because I knew I wasn't going to drink again. I just knew I had to change and I knew that this was it. I made a commitment to myself like never before. It wasn't an attempt, it wasn't a trial, I wasn't trying this anymore. I was done. I was moving on with my life and it was so liberating.
Speaker 1:Now, during that first week, I was working in a restaurant, trying to rebuild my finances, just rebuild my life. And I remember, within the first couple of days, I remember going to one of the members of staff and I said his name. I won't say his name, but I said dude, I'm done, I'm not coming out tonight, I've stopped drinking. And he looked at me and he just said again but you know what I did. I stopped myself. I said you know what? I don't need your validation or your affirmation that I'm going to do this. I know in my heart I'm doing it. So I didn't tell anybody else, I didn't tell my family, I didn't tell any of my friends. I told one friend, actually, but only because he was also stopping drinking, because I knew in my heart it was done. So what happened after the first week?
Speaker 1:Well, day seven to 90, my confidence started coming back. I started to feel like the old me again. My energy came back, my clarity came back. I started thinking, okay, I've got this big win under my belt. Now I've actually stopped drinking. And because I knew I truly stopped and I knew it wasn't a trial, it was like I've done it. So I felt like I'd already won.
Speaker 1:A lot of people they like to count the days and they feel like on day 90, day you know, year one, that's when they're a non-drinker. But I didn't feel that way. I knew on day zero it was a done deal. So I started thinking like, okay, I'm back, what can I do? And at the time I'd already built a personal training business. It went really well. I was making good money gym. I got a couple of clients.
Speaker 1:Then I quit my job in the restaurant and went all in on my own business and I just went into this psycho mode. I felt like I was making up for lost time. I felt like finally I've got the energy back, I've got the confidence back, the clarity's back, I'm making the most of this. I'm just going to attack. So I remember waking up at like six in the morning going to the gym and up at like six in the morning going to the gym, and I think I used to annoy the other personal trainers because a lot of them would like to talk and sit around in the staff room. Hey, it is what it is. They already had a successful business and I was just on the gym floor talking to everybody, feeling good about myself and just trying to help as many people as I can to build my business. I got back to lifting again. The bloating went down, the fat went down. I was working with an online fitness coach and pretty much all my free time was spent taking courses, leveling up my skills, learning about health and fitness, marketing business. I joined some online community and everything was just going in the right direction. I was feeling awesome.
Speaker 1:Anyway, it was around three or four months into things, but winter was arriving in England and I don't know if you have ever been in an English winter, but it sucks. You know, the sky is white. I'll put a picture of what it looks like now. But everything feels so gray and dull and it's freezing and there's this cold wind. And me and my girlfriend just came back from Japan this winter. We went skiing I'll talk about that later on but there there wasn't much wind and the sky was blue and I'm like I thought I hated the cold. I actually quite like the cold. What I hate is an English winter. So I'm sat there and then my friend gives me a call. He's like oh, leon, I'm in Bangkok. He had an online business. And I'm like how is it? He's like I mean, I'm walking around in t-shirts and shorts in December and I'm like that sounds pretty good right now.
Speaker 1:But because I'd got the win of stopping drinking under my belt and because I had the momentum with personal training, I said do you know what Screw this? I looked at my life and I played it out. I said, okay, let's say I stay with personal training. Where is this going? And I was living in Oxford. I didn't really like Oxford. I had a lot of bad memories from my drinking days and I played it out. I said, well, you know, I'm going to get more clients and then I probably need to open my own gym and have a a gym. It just wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to be able to choose where I lived and not be restricted. So I YOLOed it right.
Speaker 1:I booked a one-way flight to Chiang Mai. My buddy that was in Bangkok also came to Chiang Mai and, funnily enough, while I was doing the personal training business, I met a man online called Dan, who was doing an online business and he also lived in Chiang Mai. And I thought do you know what? This is it? I'm doing it. And Dan was very encouraging. He was like just book a flight. I don't think he thought I'd do it. But then, a couple of weeks later, we're meeting for a coffee in Chiang Mai and I'm like I'm here and what I did at the beginning was I just spent basically a full year freelancing, because when I got to Chiang Mai, I had a vision.
Speaker 1:I knew that I wanted to do businesses, websites, youtube, whatever and I just made myself as useful as I could. So that first year I was just basically working for people who were where I wanted to be. I didn't care about the money, I cared about the skills and the experience. All I was there to do was figure out how this game worked. So I just worked like crazy that first year. It was just nonstop. Also, I got into a relationship this year as well with my current partner today, or and I was feeling great that first year. I just felt like I'm finally getting momentum again. My life is going in the direction that I've always wanted it to go and for the first time in years, there was no more two steps forward, one step back, three steps forward, five steps back. Now, don't get me wrong, not every day was perfect, but it just felt like every day was building upon every other day. So I've been living in Chiang Mai for about a year at this point, and there was a transitional moment.
Speaker 1:I was in some YouTube or Facebook groups and in the Facebook group there was a guy called Nick Nimmin and Nick Nimmin had like at the time I think he had like 800,000 subscribers and I saw he was in Chiang Mai. So I said do you know what Screw it? I'm going to message him. And he was so kind. He was just like, yeah, I'll meet to you about YouTube, I'll help you out, just like a guy with a good heart. And he gave me some work. He was like I was writing scripts for him. You know he's paid me a hundred dollars here and there because, again, I was learning, I was getting around the people who were where I wanted to be. Anyway, every time I'd meet Nick, he'd be like you know, you should be doing your own thing. You can't keep doing freelance work for all these other people. And he was very encouraging because he knew what I wanted, but I was afraid to take the leap to do my own thing. And he kept saying it and eventually he owed me $300. And I said do you know what? Man, don't give me that money until I've made some YouTube videos on my own channel. He's like all right deal.
Speaker 1:So I made three videos. I made one about not drinking. I made one about some powerlifting I was doing at the time and I made another one, and I can't even remember what the other one was, but it doesn't matter because the video I made about not drinking alcohol, because it had been one year at this point. It got like 5,000 views. It got hundreds of upvotes on Reddit and I was just like whoa, wait a minute. Like this is crazy. People were leaving comments like this is just like me. Well done. I resonate with your story so much and if I hadn't made that video, I definitely wouldn't be in this position today. But I was vulnerable. I just shared my experience. It was raw. I think I even cried in that video because it was a moment of like I've done it. It's been a year.
Speaker 1:Anyway, over the next few months I still wasn't quite sure what to do and I remember I was doing a border run. So you're not supposed to do it like this, but everybody does it. You know the immigration don't care in Thailand, but what people do is they'll get a car or they'll do some tour and they'll cross the border, they'll get a stamp on their passport, they might stay a night in another country and then they'll come back in and then you get like another 60 days or something. Anyway, I remember doing it and I had a motorbike at the time. I had this Kawasaki, this Z650. I'll put a picture of it on the screen now and I remember riding it like probably like 400 miles to the border and then 400 miles back. It was a savage, savage journey, but it was so much fun because you're riding a bike through Thailand. It feels so freeing, and I remember I used to ride my bike and then that's where I'd get these moments of calm and these ideas would just flash into my head and because I was so kind of scattered and not sure what to do, this epiphany just popped into my mind and it was just actually help people, talk to them, see what's going on.
Speaker 1:So I came back home and I said you know what? That's what I'll do. So I made another video about not drinking, and then I started joining some Facebook groups. I started connecting with people, I started talking to them, asking them what are you struggling with? What's going on? And then I decided to put everything that I knew about stopping drinking into some little video course and I think at the time I had like 50 people in a Facebook group that I was trying to help and I gave all of them this course for free. I don't think a single person took the course and I was just like man, what am I going to do with my life. I'm not sure what path to go down.
Speaker 1:And in the course I spoke about first principles, thinking, reframing alcohol. This is how I've done it. Here's how you can do it. And I remember after maybe a month or so, one guy just emailed me bit of the video now but it's like pouring these expensive bottles of like brandy or whiskey down the drain, just like Leon. That was the best thing ever I am done. And I remember showing my girlfriend and I got full body goosebumps. I was like no way, this is it. So I knew my message worked, it had changed somebody's life and that was like the turning point where I was like right, this is serious, this can help a lot of people. There is serious value here.
Speaker 1:So from years one to three, that was it. I just went all in. I started working with more people and then COVID hit. Now, covid was a blessing in disguise, because I ended up getting this amazing villa in Koh Samui, which is an island in Thailand, and this villa is just. It was unreal and I'm not joking. It was like 20% of the original price and I was like, oh my days. Wow, I can live in a place like this. You know, really locked in on making videos. We started getting more traffic. I started working with more people, more results started coming in. And then I built a program. So I built the Sober Clear program and what it is today this system of first principles, thinking, reframing of alcohol, support, coaching, community and I just locked in. I said no to everything. Every weekend, my best friend was like Leon, are you coming to the beach? And I'm like no, bro, I've got to work, I've got to get this stuff done. At this point I started investing in more coaching. I probably spent like $30,000 on coaching and getting help and finding mentors.
Speaker 1:At this point I got featured in Men's Health, which was just surreal. I couldn't believe it. The relationship was going amazing. We were doing all sorts of fun things together and also I was powerlifting. So I was training with somebody who I'd actually followed online for years. We became friends, which was also super surreal, and I really started realizing, in that year, one to three mark, that I was becoming the person who I'd always wanted to be. I was finally working on my own thing, I was creating content, I was helping people. I was the strongest I'd ever been. I was in a relationship. I was like, oh my days, it's happening.
Speaker 1:Anyway, fast forward to around years three to five and the momentum just carried on building. I ended up bringing my whole family three to five and the momentum just carried on building. I ended up bringing my whole family out to Thailand. I had my mum, my brother, my nana, my cousin, my auntie. One of my cousins couldn't make it, but I paid for the whole trip and I was like this is a dream come true. I can't believe I'm doing this At this point. I started CrossFit. I started getting better at cardio, I started losing a bit of fat, I was getting in better shape and I just felt more focused than ever.
Speaker 1:Another big thing I did at this time was me and my girlfriend. We paid off my mom-in-law's mortgage. It wasn't a large amount of money, but it was just like oh my days, like wow, I'm able to do this for other people now, when I'd spent 10 years being so selfish, so self-centered, it was so good to finally be able to do things for other people. I helped my grandparent with retirement so she didn't need to worry about money. And again, I'm not saying all of this stuff to boast. I'm just showing you the amazing things that happened after stopping drinking, and I just spent so much time just locked in going as hard as I can. So now let's bring it back to year five, to the present day. So now I actually live in Dubai. So I moved to Dubai, where there's no income tax to pay here, which is pretty good, especially with an online business why not? It's remote. That's what I wanted. And then also, there's a lot of amazing people that I've met here. I've built an amazing network of good friends, other entrepreneurs, and now I've got a small team of people who are helping me with the mission of just building the best programme and giving the best support that we can.
Speaker 1:And 2024 was a year of experience. I'd spent so long just locked in grinding building things that this year we lived a little. So we've done a bunch of travel this year. I took my girlfriend skiing in Japan. We've been to Seoul, we did six weeks in America. I met up with the coach in the program, so I have a coach called Joe who helps run the program. You can see a picture of us here on the screen. We went to Vegas together. We've now got almost 500 clients.
Speaker 1:Also, in this time, I've generated 20 million views online on this YouTube channel, which is the most viewed YouTube channel in the world for stopping drinking.
Speaker 1:Jordan Peterson tweeted my stuff and it's just crazy. The life of my dreams became a reality after stopping drinking, and I wanted to share the wins with you, because I know some of you have been following me since that first video I'm sure there's a couple of you but this is what happens Once you get momentum after stopping drinking, everything just starts building upon the thing you did last, so there's no more roller coaster. So I didn't want to make this a boastful video, because I want my story to be your story. Yours is going to be different, right, but I want you to see what is possible in your life as well. I promise you the life of your dreams is right around the corner. Stick on this path, you won't regret it. Thanks for checking out the Stop Drinking Podcast by Sober Clear. If you want to learn more about how we work with people to help them stop drinking effortlessly, then make sure to visit wwwsoberclearcom.
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