Justin McClure | From Darkness to Light: A Path to Sobriety and Success
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Are you ready to change your habits, sculpt your destiny, and light up your path to greatness? Welcome to the epicenter of transformation. This is Mic Unplugged. We'll help you identify your because, so you can create a routine that's not just productive, but powerful.

You'll embrace the art of evolution, adapt strategies to stay ahead of the game, and take a step toward the extraordinary. So let's unleash your potential. Now, here's Mick.

Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another truly exciting episode of Midcom Plugged and I am honored here today because our guest is a remarkable individual whose influence spans across multiple platforms and industries. As a Forbes top influencer and a distinguished TED Talk speaker, he's inspired many, including myself, with his powerful messages and insights. Beyond his professional achievements, he takes immense pride in being a devoted husband and father.

His family, known as the Mighty McClures, have captivated audiences worldwide, amassing over 2 million views on YouTube and Facebook and garnering over 10 million followers across social. Say that one more time. 10 million followers across social media.

His passion lies in helping people realize their true potential by living a substance-free life. He's an amazing author. He's an amazing follow. He genuinely is a person that inspires me to be a better human every day. Ladies and gentlemen, please help me welcome the incredible Mr. Justin McClure. Justin, how are you doing, brother? Thank you, Mike.

You know, I'll talk about it, but I talk about me in a way now that is not arrogant, but I love myself. Like there were years before I got sober, I didn't like who I was. I was very ashamed of myself. And I think shame also is a big motivating factor to change. But now when I talk about myself, people will say like, sometimes like, you really love yourself. I'm like, yeah, I do. I

really do. And that's not an arrogant thing. It's a great place in life to say, I really love who I am. I don't have to look over my shoulder. I don't have to guard my phone from my wife. I know I'm there for my kids. I have no guilt. So I think it's a remarkable thing to really love who you are.

And for me, that's the first step of anything that you ever want to accomplish in life. I don't care who you are. If you don't, number one, love yourself, you can't believe in yourself. And here's the beauty of this, Justin, because I'm a huge fan of yours. And I told you this personally, I'm just a huge fan of you, right? Forget all the accolades and the success. Huge fan of who you are because you genuinely come across as that person of love. And like I was saying, you can't go anywhere and do anything without having that self-love first.

Yeah, man. And that's part of my story is that before I got sober, you know, I was drinking all the time, drugs, womanizing, and I knew I had a lot of potential. And it was just basically, I knew that I was holding myself back. And I'm really into like a lot of Eastern philosophy, you know, Taoism, and I'm into a lot of things. Like just, I like healthy mindset. So anyhow, my point is that I remember before I got sober, I said, because

And because this is one of this is like my why or my because is that if I live to be 88 or 92 or whatever it is, I have many years ahead of me. I want to be happy. I have a right to live this life and be happy. But also, I knew that I need to make better choices. And the choices that I'm making in my life are not in alignment with being happy.

And so that was my first motivating thing to stop drinking. And then along the way, I think one of my gifts is, and I think that you kind of alluded to this, is that I like to humanize myself and be in the trenches with people or like let them know what my trench was like, because people need that.

to get out of where they've been. I don't like to hang out with people who talk about their success and cars or whatever it is. I want to know what your darkest days were like. And if your darkest day is right now, then let's dig in and let's go because I've been there. Because the thing about our family make is people look at us and they're like, man, you know, they do really well. I bet they got multiple cars and a nice house and blah, blah, blah. And we do because we've earned it. But let me tell you something.

I have not changed as a person from the guy who was living a very deleterious and, you know, quote unquote, bad lifestyle. I took my energy from here and I put it here. I didn't get smarter. And I think that inspires people a lot because they think when they see successful people, they're like, oh, I wish I was that smart. I wish I had those skills. And the same person that

that had no money, that was broke, that was pretty much suicidal, that hated who he was. I said, maybe you should stop drinking. And I shifted over here and better things happened. And that's really my story too. My story is that one day I looked in the mirror and I realized the problem was me. I remember I was going out in New York City and I was like womanizing everybody in New York City. I was trying to date every woman in New York City because I wasn't happy. I was miserable.

But there was one time I said, you know what? I would be happy if I could date that woman. I've been chasing her and I know that's why I'm not happy. If she would just give me the time, I would be happy. This woman gave me the time. We went out on a date. I went home from that date and I was miserable and she liked me. Wow.

I said to myself, Justin, why again are you miserable when you got the thing that you wanted, apparently? And it's because I wasn't happy. I went home that night and I turned on a Netflix movie. It's called Chris Herron, 30 for 30. It's about...

how Chris Aaron wasted his NBA career through drugs and alcohol and womanizing, kind of the same thing I was doing. In this guy, I saw myself. But the turning point was in the movie, he got sober and he became a hero in his community and he inspired people. Yeah.

And he went back to a place, to a 7-Eleven, and he said, "Right here is where I passed out while my wife and my kid were waiting for me at the airport." A week before that, I was drunk and I missed the airplane for something really important. So I looked at the TV and I said, "That's pathetic." And then I said, "Oh wait, that's you, Justin."

So the culmination that night of me thinking, if I could get this girl, would I be happy? I got that girl and I was miserable. And then I got home and I saw myself in this guy in one moment when I said, when I looked at the TV and I said, that's pathetic. Then I said, oh, wait, that's you. I had so much shame go through my body because I realized at that point, Nick,

The thing is, for the longest time in my life, I thought I was just a crazy guy. I'm like, no, Justin, you get a pass because you're that crazy guy. You're the guy that people tell stories about. And then I realized in that moment, I said, you know what, Justin, you got three driving under the influences. You've been arrested six times. You're going to rehab twice. Like you are the problem. There's no pass anymore. You're an adult. I started simple and I said the next day, just don't drink.

I don't care if I yell at people or punch a horse in the face. I'm like, just don't drink. I think that's very important to say is because a lot of people, they want to change their life and like, they want to lose weight to the, I'm going to get up at 5 a.m. I'm going to intermittent fast and I'm going to do all these different things. It's like, just do one thing first, right?

So for me, I think that was the real key is like doing one thing. And ever since then, it's trying to be like 1% better. And I think that's what brought me to a point where I'm happy and I love myself and I've earned a better life. It has been a lot of work, but it's a much more enjoyable life. It's much more simpler. And like I tell people, sometimes I'm like, people don't want to get sober or change their bad habit because they're like, life is boring.

It should be, you should be in the middle lane. If you're always here or here, like that's where I was, it was like highs and lows, but now like I'm in the middle lane, I just really, really embrace it. - No, I love that, man. I tell people all the time, success is actually in the mundane. Like it really is. Like success is in doing that same thing over and over again and just getting to your point 1% better at whatever that thing is that you're trying to do.

You know, Justin, I love that you proudly have maintained your sobriety for over 10 years. But I know that comes with challenges, right? Because it's a daily grind, right? And I tell people this, the more successful you become, or the more steps you get towards success, the bigger the challenge is going to be in front of you at some point. Can you talk about a couple of the challenges that you face? You know, you were talking about initially starting out, what were some of those challenges?

Maybe sobriety was a challenge because you're trying to become a different person and it's hard to do that. And I tell people one of my biggest challenges was I didn't know once sobriety became normal to me, would I be bored and would I want a more exciting life? So one of the things I did is to remove that is I was living in New York City and every day at five o'clock when I got off work,

like I had a job, but instead of taking the subway home, I walked five miles. I worked on Wall Street and I lived in Washington Heights. So it's all of Manhattan. So Wall Street is down here and Washington Heights is the top end of Manhattan. It's like five miles to get there. So I said, you know what, Justin, until you're strong enough in your mind psychologically

You're going to walk every day in the snow, in the rain, in the cold weather. Cause I didn't know if I took the subway home, would I get home at 7:30 and be bored and say, you know what? I'm feeling frisky. I need to go out and get a drink and try to get laid. Right.

So I've removed that for about nine months. I walked every day to home after work. And so that was one of the biggest challenges for me. And then the next big challenge was after that, you know, sobriety is interesting when you do it the right way, because at some point you almost grieve yourself and you say, why have I done this to myself? Why have I chosen to abuse myself this way? Why did I make these decisions?

And so I went to therapy and I went to therapy every Wednesday. And I learned through therapy that because of a traumatic childhood and neglect, my mother had me at 16. My dad died when I was four. So my mother was like 20. She was a widow. So we were very poor. There was a lot of neglect. My mom made bad decisions with men. So I learned through therapy, I needed to

forgive myself for not thinking that I was enough, enough to be loved, enough to be important to spend time with because knowing my mother at her age, if she would have known better, she would have done better. And then when I put myself in her shoes, if I was a 20-year-old parent, I would have been horrible. I would have been really bad. So those two hurdles there were the biggest ones in early sobriety. And then the next big one, and this is probably the best one about my family, is that

When I was in my addiction, I was a complete womanizer. And it wasn't because I wanted to get laid or whatever. It's because I was so insecure that I needed validation. I needed women to say, you're good looking, you're funny, you're worth being around. I like you're around. But when that woman would like me, I would go to somebody else. When I got sober, I said, you know what? No dating, no dating, because you need to be sober from our

alcohol, drugs, women, everything. So no dating. A year and a half after being sober, I said, you know, I think I'm ready to like share my new life with maybe somebody. I think I'm secure enough to be sober with people. And so I was getting out of the subway in Washington Heights. And when I got out, I looked across the street and there was this woman and there were two guys behind her. And they were like, hey, baby, hey, baby, you know, Washington Heights, like, hey, baby, hey, baby, chasing her down the street. I walked across the street. I walked

right up to this woman and i said hey listen these guys behind you they're chasing you they're not gonna leave you alone why don't you just pretend like you know me i'll walk with you though they'll leave you alone and you know just just walk with me we walked around the corner and that woman you became my wife that's amazing brother so the powerful thing there is that i abstained from dating and i met the person who became my wife without even trying because i think mick

the people come into your life at the right time when you've earned it. You know, it's not my timeline. I just need to keep doing the right thing and I'll meet the right person. I'll meet the right relationships, the right business partner. Like we'll all do that if we just stay patient and stay the course. So that's why I think I think those were a few of my challenges early on. I love it, man. And you've turned that into a lot of things, right? But more importantly, I think,

You became the person that you were destined to be, right? I think a lot of times we as individuals hold ourselves back. Like 90% of the problem that most of us have is here with us. And you became the person that you were destined to be. And you're an amazing motivational speaker. I probably watch hundreds of your videos in a week. A lot of times the same ones because you always have a great message.

And so as a motivational speaker, you know, and the things that you do from TED Talk presenting as well, what are some of the most important messages that you hope to convey with the audiences as you're speaking?

- I keep thinking of two that are very important and also make, I appreciate what you're saying. I also don't speak from any cliches. I really, really speak from my heart, meaning that what I'm telling people right now is really what happened, what I apply in my life today and back then and always. One is people places things.

People, places, things. When I got sober, I changed the people I was around. When I got sober, I took my phone, I deleted every contact, I formatted it. And I said, the people that need to contact me will, I don't need to have any temptations. I need a new set of people. If my sister wants to get in touch with me or my mom, whoever, they're going to reach out to me and I'll save their number, but I'm going to get rid of all the people. Places,

I moved from where I was to another place in Washington Heights. Things. I changed the things I was doing. I stopped drinking. I stopped going to the place I was going to before. I started working out. I started doing other things. People, places, things. You cannot change your life without changing those things. And if you do change those things, you can change your life. So people, places, things. The other one is something that I made up myself. And it's called...

And then what? I think I made it up. So it's called And Then What? You know, I was doing a podcast with my wife and I was being very open to her. I was like, you know, early on when we got together, I said, I didn't know if I would cheat on you because that's all I knew was I was, you know, I cheated on women before a long time ago. And

I was just like the re I told her the reason I don't well, one, I love her and I'm in love with my wife. But another reason is, and then what? Because I'm able to now play the tape forward. If I want to do something devious, I do it in my head.

and then I ask the question, and then what? And then I feel miserable and I don't want to do the act. So let's do a scenario here. Let's say that a lot of people can't resist temptation and they don't have discipline. So they go do a bad thing. So I'm just going to make this up. This is not true, but I'm going to make this up.

What if I was somewhere, because right now I'm in New York. I'm away from my family. I'm at David John's house, actually. So I'm away from my family. What if I went out and I saw a woman and I'm like, man, she's beautiful. Nobody knows that I'm here. It's like, you know, whatever. So what I do in my mind is I say, okay, Justin, let's say you go talk to her and let's say that she's interested in you. And let's say she wants you to go home with her. And let's say that you end up having sex.

And then what? - And then what? - And then what? And then I'm laying there miserable, feeling guilty and shame and I run out. - Scared. - Everything, everything. So the, and then what is really a powerful thing for in my mind, if I think about eating bad, it could be as simple as anything. I always ask myself, okay, so let's say that thing happens and then what? That is so powerful to me

It allows you to almost like live it in your mind. And then you just say, okay, no, I don't want to do that. Those are really two really powerful things that day to day, like I really believe in. I would say the other one is just really being patient, meaning that a lot of people want things right now. When I got patient and when I got sober, I said, just don't drink what

When it got bad, I would just get angry and sad and I would sit there and be angry and sad because I knew that's how life is sometimes. You can't escape it through drugs and alcohol and other things. You just got to be sad. You got to be patient. When we started our business, you know, I mentioned a minute ago, Damon John on Shark Tank. He's my business partner. People say, Justin, are you surprised Damon John is in your life? And I'm like, no, I'm not.

because if you stay the course and you stay positive and you keep doing what you should be doing in life, do not be surprised at the amazing people who will come into your life and help you because you earned it. So the patience is another thing. And like I had a meeting today and at the end of the meeting earlier today, and they were just like, Justin, you didn't speak about this meeting, like anything that you wanted and whatever. I'm like, I don't want anything. I've already

I got a beautiful family. It's like, I've got some money in the bank. It's like, I don't need anything. So when you are that way, it allows you to be fully present with people. And it allows you to go back once again to how we started the conversation to really love yourself because you already have what you need. And I think if you can admit that, that's true gratitude.

wholeheartedly, man. And you're exactly right. And I said it earlier, you know, like, you're exactly where you are supposed to be. But you also earned it, right? Like success. I tell people this, it doesn't fall in your lap. And anyone that tells you if you do these five things, you'll be successful, turn and run.

because you have to put in the work. You have to be diligent to do that. - Mick, years ago, I got DUIs and I went to jail. I earned that too. So it's like people say like a pedestal, like this guy's got that thing. I earned it. But the same guy, I didn't get smarter in a previous life. I put my energy in bad places and I, you know, I married my high school sweetheart. She divorced me. I earned, you know, getting fired from jobs. I earned DUIs and going to jail.

I earned those things in a previous life because my energy was not in the right place. I love it, man. Like, Justin, I could talk to you for like five hours, but I know we can't do that. I don't want people to hate me by changing my format, but I would totally change it for Justin. Is your format half an hour? It's half an hour, but it's us, bro. Like, I don't care. It's my show, right? I can do what I want. Right.

Of course you can do what you want. I'm here with Justin McClure, right? This doesn't happen every day. You know, again, the success that you've had, the brands that you're working with, the business partners that you have are freaking phenomenal. And obviously I know a little bit of the story, but I would love for you to talk about that viral moment and what that's done for you.

Oh, yeah, that's a great little story, too. So I'm sober. My wife and I, we got twins. And I just as a new dad, I just was like, you know, let's start documenting our lives, like, you know, going to the park, petting geese, these silly things that families do. Because I thought YouTube at the time was kind of like your new yearbook, you know, like that was the way you kind of made memories.

I didn't really know what I was doing and I didn't know that there was you can even make money at it so we were doing this and I don't know if we have the videos up there anymore but they're just like I mean kicking the soccer ball outside doing dumb stuff there was no narrative right anyhow I knew there'd be a moment when our twins realized they were identical twins and that moment is the moment that went viral because one twin Alexis got upset because Ava was older

And so Alexis is like, you know, I want to be older. I want to be older. Right. And then a minute later, the one who's older realized she's a little bit shorter than Alexis. And now she wants to be taller. And so they're both crying. And, you know, my wife is just like, oh, you know, you guys are both, you know, so she just kind of warmed it up. But that

video came out like on a Friday and we were on Good Morning America the next week and today's show. So we got like 100,000 subscribers like overnight. It put us in a weird situation. Most people get into like YouTube or social. They're like, we're going to try to be a big family. I'm like, I don't even know what to do with this. I don't know how to edit videos well. I don't know how to like, is this what we wanted? What does this mean? And so I think the good story here is, Mick, is that I had

I had all this energy because I wasn't wasting my time. I wasn't going to places I shouldn't go to or whatever. I was sober and I was focused. I self-taught myself how to be a good filmmaker, how to be a good digital marketer, how to be good at Photoshop, how to make thumbnails, how to tell stories. So I self-taught myself everything because my motivating factor and because I did not want to go to a job.

I didn't want to go to a job, but I also did not want to use my kids or exploit my kids. So I said to my wife, like, we got to make this a family business. The kids got to have fun doing it. I'll do all the work. It's insulting kind of when people like these kids are working, my kids are having fun. I'm doing the work.

I'm the one who edited the videos and built the whole thing. And I understand the algorithms and all this kind of stuff. My kids have fun with it. So I'm self-taught at everything. And that great lesson there is that once you have the time and you have the focus, you can put your energy once again into places that can produce good results. And since then, we've worked with Disney, Walmart, Target, Disney.

Google. I mean, we've worked with everybody and we're still working with everybody. We're still, you know, getting brand deals. We're just so grateful for it. Like we're just really, and Nikki, if you ever saw my family outside of all this, we're exactly the same. Like we're just real normal human people. My daughters are very grateful for their success. Like they always talk to people. So I'm just really, really proud of the family that we have. And I guess that's the most important thing is just, we're just a beautiful family to me. I love my family, you know?

And I love your family from a distance. I'm going to make a promise. I'm going to come see you. We're going to hang out one day. You're in Greenville, South Carolina? Greenville, South Carolina. Yep. Oh, okay. Well, I mean, I'll keep that in mind. We'll stay in touch because definitely when you're in Atlanta, meet up or if I'm out that way, we're not that far away. No, I'm in Atlanta all the time. You know, my personal mentor is Les Brown. He lives in Atlanta. I actually was just in Atlanta yesterday doing some things with Les. So yeah.

I'm always in Atlanta and it's only an hour and a half from here. So we can definitely. Oh, done, man. Next time you're around, if I'm around, like, let's make some time. Absolutely. And we're going to have to do part two because there's so much that I want to get into. I definitely wanted to talk about you because to me, that's more important than anything you've done. It's the human that you are. And that's what attracted me to you on social.

Right. It wasn't the fame of Justin McClure. It was the story and what you just said, your because. And to me, I resonate completely with that. And I know that there's so much more that we can and should get into because you have some amazing tips and strategies on social and algorithms and how to do this the right way. Because, you know, I tell people this when you're trying to go viral, you fail. Right. Like when you're trying, you fail. Like the one thing I love about Justin is he is authentically himself and he is proud of it.

So Justin, I'm proud of you. - And you know, I started this new, I started Daily Sober real quick. That's a motivating factor. I went from zero subscribers, now I have like 2000, but I'm in the early stages of building a new business. - Let's talk about it. Like what's upcoming with Justin? We've got the book, "The Daily Sober." I'm gonna have links to everything here and I'll make sure that it's posted everywhere. But what's upcoming for Justin? - Well, Daily Sober is my new thing.

You know, like a year ago, I told myself, you know, Justin, what do you really want to do with your life? Money aside. And I said, I get most passionate about helping people, sharing my story, inspiring people. And I said, well, I don't want to write a whole book because people don't read a whole book. But what if I had a lesson, you know, one lesson per day today? And they were all different. Some lessons are about health. Some are about, you know.

It's over celebrities, some are science related, like all kinds of stuff. And I have my story kind of woven through the whole thing. And the business lesson here is that I wrote 365 daily lessons because I knew that would be 365 pieces of content I wouldn't have to think about.

If every lesson is one minute long, like today's lesson is real quick. What is today? July 26th. So July 26th, I'm going to put out a video today and it's going to be called Living Today is the Gift. So what content do I need to do today? I'm going to read this and I'm going to put it down and I'm going to do the video. I've been selling a lot of books because people like, oh, there

was really good. What'd that come from? The book he's holding up. And the other cool thing about it is I don't even tell people they have to buy the book. Like I give it all away for free. If you go to my Instagram or go to the website, it's all there for free because I really want to help people. If you really want to help people, you'll just say, Hey, here it is.

And Mick, the last thing I'll say is that years ago, I didn't go into sobriety on a winning streak. I read things, I watched things that changed my life. So this is my little nugget to throw it out there. It might be a seed that might help somebody else. - I love it, man. And you know, like I said, I've been following you for a while and he is completely correct on Instagram. That's where I follow him. That's where if I'm not on LinkedIn, I'm on Instagram. And that's where I see Justin daily.

And he does give it away for free. And he doesn't like shortchange. It's not a tease, right? A lot of folks try to tease to upsell you into something. It's authentic. Every day, you're getting wisdom. And I'm going to tell you this, I don't care who you are, where you are. Like, I follow Justin, and I get a lot of mindset, right? Like he helps me with my outlook on the day. And that's what I appreciate, Justin. Number one, that you're authentic. Number two, you're genuine. And number three, you're just a great freaking dude, man. And

The world needs more great treatment. You've made my day. I already felt good. I had a good workout in, but now, man, I feel way better. Like the things you're saying, man, I really just appreciate that. And it's also, I have bad days too. So what you're saying is a blessing because it encourages me just to stay who I am because people are saying these things about this person. So on my bad days, I'll think about things like you're saying, and I'll be like, yeah, just stay the course.

That's it. Well, Justin, we're going to do part two some other time because I want to get deep into teaching people how to do a lot of the techniques and strategies that you use. But again, I know you are one of the busiest people that I know. Honored to have you here with me today. It means a lot. And I know the listeners got a lot out of this. I'm going to make sure that I post everywhere that you can find Justin. Justin is one of those people that can say this phrase right here.

Google me. You can Google Justin and everything's going to come up, but I'll make sure I'll pop links in too. And the daily habits he's talking about, make sure that you're doing it, the daily sober, everything. He's a freaking winner. He is my guy, Justin McClure. I love you, brother.

Thank you so much for having me on, man. I'm grateful. You got it. And to all the listeners, remember your because is your superpower. Go unleash it. Thanks for listening to Mick Unplugged. We hope this episode helps you take the next step toward the extraordinary and launches a revolution in your life. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and be sure to check us out on YouTube at Mick Unplugged. Remember, stay empowered, stay inspired, and stay unplugged.