Speaker 1: Wind Down with Janet Kramer and I'm Heart Radio Podcast.
Speaker 1: Hello my little wife, hi vebe. This is a debut
Speaker 1: of podcasting away from each other.
Speaker 2: I know.
Speaker 1: I've got I've got a little blank space next to
Speaker 1: me on the sofa here.
Speaker 3: Do you miss me?
Speaker 1: There?
Speaker 2: I have a question for you, because I haven't been
Speaker 2: home because you're holding down the fort there in uh Tennessee,
Speaker 2: I'm in Kentucky film in my movie. How has it
Speaker 2: been with me not there? Be honest?
Speaker 1: How has it been with you?
Speaker 2: Like? I feel like in a way you almost enjoy
Speaker 2: it when I'm not there, Not in a bad way,
Speaker 2: no where, in a way where you can just go
Speaker 2: in your office and close the door and for hours
Speaker 2: on end, and you know, work all night long because
Speaker 2: you're such a you love to just be in your
Speaker 2: office and work, work, work, and when I'm gone, that's
Speaker 2: you know, not that you can't do that when you're home.
Speaker 2: But also I'm like, hey, family time and cuddles, TV shows.
Speaker 1: Okay, First, the first thing is you're my wife, and
Speaker 1: you're you're away from the family home. So there's a
Speaker 1: part of that where it doesn't feel right that you're
Speaker 1: not here. The second part is that you are away
Speaker 1: doing something that you love doing. So therefore there's there's
Speaker 1: a part of me is proud of you doing that,
Speaker 1: and I know the kids are proud of you away
Speaker 1: working for the family and doing things that you love
Speaker 1: and making movies. So it's good to see you happy
Speaker 1: and fulfilled when you go and do these movies. But
Speaker 1: and the third part is my mind goes to a
Speaker 1: different almost goes to a different place when you're not here,
Speaker 1: because I know that when Roman goes to bed, So
Speaker 1: we've obviously got someone looking after Roman for certain parts
Speaker 1: that and he's been looked after. I'm like, Okay, work
Speaker 1: as much as I can squeeze as much in and
Speaker 1: then there's almost like a calmness because I know and
Speaker 1: he goes to bed, that's like, okay, straight back to walk.
Speaker 2: Well, because the person that's helping she was she was
Speaker 2: Roman's fascinating part time.
Speaker 3: I would say she was.
Speaker 2: She was like twenty to twenty five hours when he
Speaker 2: was a couple months old. But she's she's kind of
Speaker 2: coming for a couple of hours in the morning, leaving
Speaker 2: and then coming back for a couple hours so you
Speaker 2: can go do your clinics. Because she doesn't want to
Speaker 2: be even part time, like she's just she's just really
Speaker 2: helping us until we find someone. So you don't have
Speaker 2: a lot of time to work, you know, because you
Speaker 2: have Roman, Yeah, a lot.
Speaker 1: It also reminds me of my old obsessive self, Like
Speaker 1: every night I'm having to say myself, put the laptop down,
Speaker 1: go to sleep. And I think's part of it because
Speaker 1: I get so much to the but those but when
Speaker 1: you guys, when you're here and everyone's here, there's like, Okay,
Speaker 1: you can't work. Your family's here and you need to
Speaker 1: you need to be present.
Speaker 2: Well, you can work. It's just the time and is
Speaker 2: very important to me because it's like when the kids
Speaker 2: are on from school. Kat knows pretty much anyone knows.
Speaker 2: I'm not really gonna I'm not going to respond if
Speaker 2: it's because I want to be laser focused and in
Speaker 2: present with the kids.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, Like tonight I've got I've got the Yesterday
Speaker 1: i was filming obviously, and then tonight I've got another
Speaker 1: another clinic, and then when I come back from the clinic,
Speaker 1: I've got a zoom with a new client. Like I
Speaker 1: wouldn't normally do stuff like that at that time. Of night.
Speaker 1: So I guess it's just like, Okay, there's a and
Speaker 1: it's from my obsessive nature of Okay, Jana's Jana's not here,
Speaker 1: so you don't does No, you can't give her any
Speaker 1: of your time at night, so you just have to work.
Speaker 2: What will it be a transition period when.
Speaker 3: I come back?
Speaker 1: Will it be a transition case?
Speaker 2: I think there's always a transition when you go, because
Speaker 2: I mean we've spent it'll be a total of but
Speaker 2: three and a half weeks, not together.
Speaker 1: Well, not not together being together for days with them.
Speaker 2: Two days but I mean not like a full three
Speaker 2: and a half, but like you know, two days here,
Speaker 2: four days and then that's pretty much it.
Speaker 1: So there'll be a transition, Yeah, because you'll come back
Speaker 1: and check the island and see if it's been wiped
Speaker 1: and cleaned.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a psycho my island. That's all I ask.
Speaker 2: I literally ask for one thing, you know, two things.
Speaker 2: The two things. I don't want to come home to
Speaker 2: laundry because after and I'll be coming from the final
Speaker 2: week here is overnight, so I'll be working from five
Speaker 2: pm to five five to six am, So I'm not
Speaker 2: going to be going to bed until like seven am
Speaker 2: by the time, because it's an hour drive from set,
Speaker 2: so it'll be so I'll I'll be finishing and then
Speaker 2: like coming home that last day with a zero sleep.
Speaker 2: So I'm like that, I just know me, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: I want to come I don't want to come home
Speaker 2: to laundry.
Speaker 1: I've already briefed Sarah.
Speaker 3: Sarah what not Sarah's job do the laundry. I also
Speaker 3: like the island.
Speaker 2: It really just like I don't want to see a
Speaker 2: ring stain on the island. It's just like my one
Speaker 2: thing where I'm just a total psycho over.
Speaker 1: I don't worry, babe. You know you're not going to
Speaker 1: come back sleep deprived and have to do laundry and
Speaker 1: clean the house.
Speaker 3: Okay, thanks.
Speaker 2: I just know how I get because I I.
Speaker 1: No one will domesticate me ever, but I get that.
Speaker 1: I'm also not selfish and realize you need to come
Speaker 1: back to an environment where you don't need to worry
Speaker 1: about laundry and cleaning.
Speaker 2: What's something for you like when you come back, Like,
Speaker 2: what is something that when you go away that is
Speaker 2: important to you when you come home? Because I've never
Speaker 2: asked you that, like when you come back from London,
Speaker 2: you know, or whenever you go, what is something that
Speaker 2: you're like, Hey, I actually would like this different next time.
Speaker 2: Nothing because I always have a clean house for you.
Speaker 1: But even if the house wasn't clean about okay, she
Speaker 1: had the kids. I've been away for a week, she
Speaker 1: had the kids. I understand, I get it, But different
Speaker 1: people when it comes to that.
Speaker 3: Way, Okay, how else have you been with me here?
Speaker 1: But we're not good being away from each other. We're
Speaker 1: not good. Like I always want to know what you're
Speaker 1: doing and how you are and if you're struggling. But
Speaker 1: there's also a part of me is like okay, shun
Speaker 1: movie set and it needs a time to Like, I know,
Speaker 1: you can't communicate whenever you want to communicate. I think
Speaker 1: sometimes that's tough when when we're apart, because you you
Speaker 1: might have howls and hours and hours where you don't
Speaker 1: really get to You might be able to look at
Speaker 1: your phone, but you can't then respond to things that
Speaker 1: are on your phone. So I'm always really aware of
Speaker 1: that as well, that you need your space to focus
Speaker 1: and operate the way that you need to operate. But
Speaker 1: I definitely prefer you here that's for sure.
Speaker 3: Well, I can't wait to come home.
Speaker 1: Wait if you come home, what what do you miss
Speaker 1: when you're away? Like, it's different for you because you're
Speaker 1: you're there and you're totally immersed and what you're doing,
Speaker 1: and you have your detached from us, So you're one
Speaker 1: person detached from the four of us, whereas we we
Speaker 1: are like four people here who have are detached for you,
Speaker 1: like you're I've still got Roman and Jolie and Jesse here.
Speaker 1: You've got no one there. Yeah, so it's different for you.
Speaker 2: This movie has been a harder. This has been tough
Speaker 2: because I've always at least had Roman with me, and
Speaker 2: so this has been it hasn't been my favorite shoot
Speaker 2: with that in mind, with that piece of it, just
Speaker 2: because I like having you know, I obviously love having
Speaker 2: Julian Jace with me, but they're at school. I'm not
Speaker 2: going to be selfish and be like, all right, the
Speaker 2: whole gang's coming.
Speaker 3: That's just not right.
Speaker 2: So they have to stay in their school, and you know,
Speaker 2: they'll obviously come up from Mother's Day weekend, which will
Speaker 2: be lovely. But with Roman, it's like he's not in
Speaker 2: a school, so he could be here with me, and
Speaker 2: so that piece is I've just I've always had the
Speaker 2: baby with me when I was on set, so to
Speaker 2: not have Roman here is is hard, but also it's
Speaker 2: a piece of me. And I was talking to Haley
Speaker 2: Duff about this, our director, where you know, there's also
Speaker 2: a sense of as I've gotten older, I would stress
Speaker 2: out so much to make sure okay, and every break
Speaker 2: I had to go back to my trailer and had
Speaker 2: to see Joli or I have to see Jace, and
Speaker 2: I just I didn't actually get to fully immerse myself
Speaker 2: into what I was doing, enjoy it and probably give
Speaker 2: the best that I could do because I was so
Speaker 2: focused on just making running running back to my trailer
Speaker 2: to like see the kids for five seconds and then
Speaker 2: running back to set. So I would like to find
Speaker 2: the balance. This isn't the balance. I like like to
Speaker 2: not have them at all. But of course our nanny
Speaker 2: situation had changed, so we didn't get the opportunity to
Speaker 2: bring someone with Roman. So hopefully the next one we
Speaker 2: can splits fill it, because this is this is too
Speaker 2: long without them for sure.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what do you think of Lexington? Because we were
Speaker 1: very nearly doing a lot of traveling, bay.
Speaker 3: I love Lexington.
Speaker 2: I think, well, from what i've I mean, I say
Speaker 2: that I haven't even been to the city yet. I'm
Speaker 2: going to go check out Whole Foods right after this,
Speaker 2: so go into the city. But you know, from what
Speaker 2: I've seen, everyone's been really sweet. But I mean mostly
Speaker 2: it's just been in and out of the hotel, door
Speaker 2: to the car and onto set so but it is
Speaker 2: it's a beautiful state. Lots of obviously horses and farm country.
Speaker 2: So and we've been filming at the heiress of the
Speaker 2: Wrigley so the daughter I believe it is, but yeah,
Speaker 2: she's the heiress of the Wriggly family. So it's a
Speaker 2: Misdy is her name, And uh yeah, we've been at
Speaker 2: her farm, and I mean it is just doneing. This
Speaker 2: location is so beautiful and it's it's been great. But
Speaker 2: I would love my babies to be here. But I
Speaker 2: know you're you're building and doing your thing and and
Speaker 2: it's important right now for you to build those certain things.
Speaker 2: And you know you can't be here where in other
Speaker 2: times you've been able to. So but hopefully we can
Speaker 2: find a happy balance on.
Speaker 3: The next one.
Speaker 1: Sure we will, Sure we will.
Speaker 2: And speaking of building things and you know, you're building
Speaker 2: some new, really exciting things. You're in a way, I mean,
Speaker 2: I feel like it's a it's a comeback, right.
Speaker 1: That's a good question. I think it's a comeback for
Speaker 1: the brand, not really for myself, because the Superior Striker
Speaker 1: brand was building and building and building, and then when
Speaker 1: I took the England job for five years, it was
Speaker 1: almost had to suppress the brand because of all the
Speaker 1: privacy stuff. So there's a lot of different arms of
Speaker 1: the brand which had to go because of the England rule.
Speaker 1: And now I feel like it's so much going on
Speaker 1: with the with the brand that it's almost like a
Speaker 1: comeback for for that and the many different areas that
Speaker 1: the brand can cover. So it's exciting. It's really exciting
Speaker 1: hard work, particularly the time. It's amazing that euroway filming
Speaker 1: movies and we've got a sixteen month old who's crazy
Speaker 1: seventeen seventeen months yeah, seventeen months old.
Speaker 2: Bad to be eighteen mm hmm. Yeah, but no for sure.
Speaker 2: But I say it as a yeah, a building.
Speaker 1: And I'm building something that I've always wanted. I've always
Speaker 1: wanted Superia Striker to be in the technology saye of things,
Speaker 1: and the digital say, so that is Yeah, there's a
Speaker 1: lot of fulfillment and this building process.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I see that, and I know that, and
Speaker 2: I know that you need to be there and building
Speaker 2: that stuff, and so you know, I support you in
Speaker 2: that too, and I'm excited to see you. I know
Speaker 2: it's not exactly you know, the the role, but it's
Speaker 2: also one of the roles you want to do, you know.
Speaker 2: So it's it's exciting all of it. And You've got
Speaker 2: some really new, exciting clients that I'm sure we can't
Speaker 2: share yet, but it's all very exciting. And so I
Speaker 2: see it as a comeback for sure. And our next guest,
Speaker 2: Christos Garkyos, is also very well aware of comeback, says
Speaker 2: he has a new book out, so let's take a
Speaker 2: break and get him on.
Speaker 3: Hi there, Hi, how are you YouTube?
Speaker 4: Fellow Detroiter?
Speaker 3: I know, Wait, where in Detroit are you from?
Speaker 4: I was actually originally born in Detroit. In the city.
Speaker 5: My parents had a restaurant in the Eastern Market for
Speaker 5: thirty years. Oh wow, and we moved on up and
Speaker 5: went to gross Point.
Speaker 2: So okay, that's where I was born gross Point. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I was born in Grosse Pointe and then yeah, and
Speaker 2: then I was raised in Washington Township, totally in between
Speaker 2: Romeo and Washington and Rochester.
Speaker 4: That was like farm country back then.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it still is. My old house that
Speaker 2: I grew up in is still off a dirt road,
Speaker 2: and so yeah, all the things. Well, let's just jump
Speaker 2: right into This is my husband Alan, he's in Nashville.
Speaker 2: I'm in Kentucky right now to meet.
Speaker 1: So I was reading them to a lot of your
Speaker 1: story and it's really interesting because you've almost became this
Speaker 1: evolutionist where you're always ahead of the curve. They like
Speaker 1: when I look at when I look at your how
Speaker 1: how your storyline develops. Like you started in the Virgin stores,
Speaker 1: which is what everyone loved back then, going to record stores,
Speaker 1: and so you maximize that. And then you went onto
Speaker 1: the the home shopping network, which is the evolution of
Speaker 1: going into stores, so you kind of mastered that. And
Speaker 1: then you went into the Instagram Live stuff, which you
Speaker 1: were selling all the all the fashion items too. So
Speaker 1: you've almost become this master of evolution. And you've and
Speaker 1: you've clearly had your It's not been a straightforward journey.
Speaker 1: You've clearly had your setbacks along the way, like every
Speaker 1: like every leader and powerful person does.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's been so basically like I've been fortuitous to
Speaker 5: kind of have a life where basically things kind of
Speaker 5: fell in my lap. And then some people, when things
Speaker 5: happen to them, do you either take the opportunity or
Speaker 5: or or I mean I got Here's how I got
Speaker 5: my virgin jobs. I worked for Richard Branson for five years,
Speaker 5: which who was like the most amazing man in the world,
Speaker 5: and I was. I used to go to the Virgin
Speaker 5: megastore in Paris, and I remember that store in Paris.
Speaker 5: I'm chances I would spend ten hours in the store.
Speaker 4: I just loved it.
Speaker 5: And when you're twenty eight years old, you're thinking, like,
Speaker 5: you know, what's my dream job?
Speaker 4: And I set it out loud.
Speaker 5: I can tell you right now, working for Richard Branson,
Speaker 5: head of marketing back in la where my life is.
Speaker 4: That's where I want to be. Cut to. Two months later,
Speaker 4: I was on a really bad blind date in London. Bad.
Speaker 4: I old my stomach. I had to leave you in
Speaker 4: the whole thing.
Speaker 3: Oh no, you called this fake stomach gig.
Speaker 4: That I was come out.
Speaker 5: He tried to feed me on the date, I was like,
Speaker 5: this is not going to work. Standing back, and so
Speaker 5: I went to the sub Virgin Mega store in Piccadilly
Speaker 5: and like that's what where I hang out. And so
Speaker 5: I and I love Billboard charts. I love the music
Speaker 5: charts was like my thing. And so I flipped I
Speaker 5: saw the Billboard magazine, which was like a month prior.
Speaker 5: I have one copy in the corner, and this is
Speaker 5: before the Internet, and I'm flipping through it and I
Speaker 5: flipped to the want ads and there's my job, Virgin
Speaker 5: megastore head a marketing in Los Angeles, I swear to you.
Speaker 5: And I was like, oh my god, this is a
Speaker 5: time from God. I have to get this job. So
Speaker 5: I faxed them the next day I was and I'm
Speaker 5: playing two days later and I got the job. So
Speaker 5: these things kind of happened to me, you know, sort
Speaker 5: of like and I think it's like, you know, a
Speaker 5: godshot that I call it, and I'm able to kind
Speaker 5: of just you have to you have to like not
Speaker 5: wait for the universe to kind of like.
Speaker 4: Take you there.
Speaker 5: You have to take that first steps. That's what that's
Speaker 5: what my job, my life's all about. That happened to
Speaker 5: me with you know, Home Shopping Network. I was obsessed
Speaker 5: with it as a kid. I should have been playing sports,
Speaker 5: but I was home watching Home Shopping Network and hoping,
Speaker 5: like people will get sell out like this a woman
Speaker 5: named Adrian, Adrian RPL who's a big makeup artist, and
Speaker 5: she was like I actually ended up meeting here. When
Speaker 5: I was just saying, she's like fifty five years old,
Speaker 5: I was seventeen, and she's like and she was like
Speaker 5: a Jewish New York or lady. I even know what
Speaker 5: that meant back in the day, but she was like
Speaker 5: putting on makeup and I wanted her to win. And
Speaker 5: they would hear screams from my bedroom, like when she
Speaker 5: had to sell out, and my parents like, what are
Speaker 5: you doing? Like, I'm watching Home Network and I want
Speaker 5: to be on this at some point in my life.
Speaker 5: Cut to you. I have been to get a Bravo show.
Speaker 5: I have my own Brabosh show for a year called
Speaker 5: du Some El Rows. And the whole reason why I
Speaker 5: did the show was to get into the asius and
Speaker 5: offices to pitch me. I knew that the series was fine,
Speaker 5: but it was like it was gonna last a year.
Speaker 5: I knew it so I had like a one year
Speaker 5: opportunity to make this happen. I made it happen, and
Speaker 5: I just was When that happened to me Home Shopping Network,
Speaker 5: it was my life changed.
Speaker 2: So so are you kind of under the belief then
Speaker 2: if you say it, think it, believe it, then it'll become.
Speaker 5: It one hundred percent. That's been my entire life. I've
Speaker 5: you know, the first moment I knew, like I kind
Speaker 5: of had. I mean, I'm like a six spider sense
Speaker 5: is like I was nine years old in Michigan.
Speaker 4: H'm from.
Speaker 5: You know, my parents had a Greek restaurant. I started
Speaker 5: working when I was four years old. My parents' restaurant,
Speaker 5: like they put me on top of milk rate, was
Speaker 5: called Nick the Greek. He was an impossibly handsome man
Speaker 5: who was a cook. My mother was out front. They
Speaker 5: would be screaming all day along but I'd be at
Speaker 5: the register, like at four years old, taking money. So
Speaker 5: I was like, you know, I knew there was something.
Speaker 5: I knew there was something happening here. But when I
Speaker 5: was nine, I was being gross point and funny enough.
Speaker 5: My my grade school is called Fairy Elementary, which is
Speaker 5: the kind of nutty that I ended up being gay,
Speaker 5: but by myself playing teather ball. So I didn't have
Speaker 5: many friends because you know, we moved from Detroit, which
Speaker 5: is very not segregated, like very mixed, uh, and we
Speaker 5: moved to a gross point, which you know, Johnna is like
Speaker 5: the most one of the most, and we were not wealthy.
Speaker 5: We were like, you know, we basically integrated because we
Speaker 5: were dark skinned and Greek. And I took shish kabab
Speaker 5: the lunch or like, what the hell is this? How
Speaker 5: do you put pink and green together? I don't understand.
Speaker 5: So I was playing teatherball by myself and I because
Speaker 5: I had no friends, and the ball was going around
Speaker 5: and then outside the fence was like this high squirrel
Speaker 5: girl smoking cigarette but she had like really high heels
Speaker 5: on and I heard the clickly clock of her heels
Speaker 5: like outside from my ear and if dad manut it
Speaker 5: at nine years old, won't forget. I said, someday, I'm
Speaker 5: going to be around that sound. I don't know what,
Speaker 5: but I'm going to be around what that means. And
Speaker 5: it was like a Eureka moment for me. But in
Speaker 5: typical crystals fashion, the ball came around and hit me
Speaker 5: right in the face the tether ball and I.
Speaker 4: Got a black eye. So that's life.
Speaker 5: Like life kind of gives you these moments where it's
Speaker 5: like I think I figured this out and then you're.
Speaker 4: Like, no, not so much. So that's why I think
Speaker 4: I love that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what would you? So you've obviously had You've had
Speaker 1: a successful career and you've had a successful Johnny, what
Speaker 1: has been the highlight or your most successful key lead
Speaker 1: in your life?
Speaker 4: Jeez, I've had some fun time.
Speaker 5: I think if I look back at it, I think
Speaker 5: working in Virgin Mega Store and having all these openings,
Speaker 5: I dealt with everybody. Everybody, everybody's diva that could be
Speaker 5: known to mankind. I love music and so it's been
Speaker 5: a big part of my life, so you know deal,
Speaker 5: you know, meeting Share. I wrote down a sleigh with
Speaker 5: share don Michigan Avenue for Christmas, like and that's like
Speaker 5: a gay boys dream, right. I think that I think that,
Speaker 5: you know, that was kind of when I was able
Speaker 5: to kind of like really kind of come into my
Speaker 5: own So it's very corporate. When I went for Brandson,
Speaker 5: I was able to kind of be my own person.
Speaker 5: But I think the biggest thing is, like, you know, I, I,
Speaker 5: you know, sobriety is a big part of my story.
Speaker 5: And so I got sober nine years ago last Thursday,
Speaker 5: and I got I went thank you, But I went
Speaker 5: crazy at fifty, like loss has kind of been. That
Speaker 5: was like my dad died when I was young, and
Speaker 5: my best friends died when I was younger, and my
Speaker 5: really best friend died and I went off the rails
Speaker 5: and I left my husband. I'm actually the most legally
Speaker 5: gay man, legally married gay man in America. I've been
Speaker 5: married three times.
Speaker 4: Legally and divorced twice legally.
Speaker 5: So I think I'm in the given this book for
Speaker 5: gay records at some point. But anyways, I left my
Speaker 5: entire life after after my friend died, when when I
Speaker 5: turned fifty and I went down this road and what
Speaker 5: happened was I lost everything. I ended up coming up
Speaker 5: for air basically in May twenty sixteen and was a
Speaker 5: million dollars in debt. Had just ruined my life, my
Speaker 5: friendships and everybody, and I had to kind of literally
Speaker 5: rebuild everything. And so for me being we're mad right now,
Speaker 5: being able to tell my story of redemption and having
Speaker 5: these kind of amazing things happen, and where I am
Speaker 5: in someone. I'm in people's lives like every day, so
Speaker 5: there's thousands of people too, and every day to see
Speaker 5: my Instagram live shows and shop and and have community
Speaker 5: and you know, and kind of be able to grow
Speaker 5: it and to this kind of like huge deal has
Speaker 5: been like the biggest sort of comeback for me basically
Speaker 5: but compy but not happened.
Speaker 4: One word changed my life during this whole combat period.
Speaker 5: I was in Detroit, actually, Jenna and I was down
Speaker 5: in my last three thousand dollars and someone said, hey,
Speaker 5: you're from Detroit. I was living in LA Can you
Speaker 5: go host to dinner for or some I'm like in Detroit.
Speaker 5: I'm like sure, I haven't been there five years, but
Speaker 5: I'll figure it out now. It was like three thousand dollars.
Speaker 5: I was able to put this dinner together at the
Speaker 5: Foundation and a hotel, and this woman and I kind
Speaker 5: of like connected over the table at dinner that night,
Speaker 5: and I have breakfast around with me and I knew
Speaker 5: she worked with the hotel chain.
Speaker 4: I don't know what it was like. All this is
Speaker 4: like really cool. It was at the Foundation Hotel, which
Speaker 4: is in.
Speaker 5: Detroit downtown the old Firehouse, and we're just talking and
Speaker 5: I just and I had just been nearly sober, and
Speaker 5: I said to her like, I'm just I'm just trudging
Speaker 5: through life now. Trudging is a big a word, like
Speaker 5: you know, you're trudging the road to a happy destiny.
Speaker 5: And she she leaned into me and she said, are
Speaker 5: you sober? And because the breakfast weren' drinking and I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 5: she just so am I How can I help you?
Speaker 5: She from that one word, if I didn't say it,
Speaker 5: she stepped me up in these small cities like Omaha,
Speaker 5: Minneapolis and the b cities for me to go do
Speaker 5: my luxury trunk shows, which I do now and put
Speaker 5: me back on my path to like for my comeback,
Speaker 5: my aventu will comeback. So the great this thing was
Speaker 5: I did my I've Been a fifteen city book tour
Speaker 5: from my book covered the comeback, and I met her
Speaker 5: where she lives down in Tennessee, and she she and
Speaker 5: I reconnected that for all these years.
Speaker 3: So I love that.
Speaker 2: I think that's and that's kind of where you took
Speaker 2: an opportunity and then from there, you know, just in
Speaker 2: having conversation and meeting other people. I think that's I
Speaker 2: always love how life works like that because I always
Speaker 2: think you're meeting someone for a reason, You're doing certain
Speaker 2: things for a reason, and whether it leads you longer
Speaker 2: on your journey or destination, or you know, it kind
Speaker 2: of guides you in a different way. I always think
Speaker 2: there's a purpose for why we're connected and why we
Speaker 2: do certain things.
Speaker 4: I agree.
Speaker 1: Do you think if you're not sober at that point
Speaker 1: the opportunity presents yourself or.
Speaker 4: Not, Oh, I wouldn't be alive. I don't.
Speaker 5: I was down the path of like, you know, my
Speaker 5: path was, you know, I'll do coke and I'll hey,
Speaker 5: I'll ask a matter all onto it.
Speaker 4: Like I was, like I was just in a self
Speaker 4: destructive mode.
Speaker 5: And I think I know for sure that if I
Speaker 5: was not, if I'm not sober, like I couldn't have
Speaker 5: done all this because there's a lot of there's a
Speaker 5: lot of pressure even this morning before with you guys,
Speaker 5: like I'm in the business meeting. I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 5: this is happening. So I don't think I can I
Speaker 5: you know, there's two types of sobriety. Obviously there's the
Speaker 5: drinking and drugging, which I don't really you know, miss,
Speaker 5: but It's all about your emotional sobriety and like how
Speaker 5: you treat people and how you treat others and how
Speaker 5: when a stressful situation comes up. I talk a lot
Speaker 5: in about the book about staying in solution. Like my
Speaker 5: team has gone from me to now I have like
Speaker 5: eighty people working for me, and like there's there's a
Speaker 5: lot we're in retail. Things move fast, a lot of
Speaker 5: problems have to be solved, and like, guys, just let's
Speaker 5: think about solution, Like don't worry about what the eventual
Speaker 5: outcome is.
Speaker 4: I talk about not future yourself.
Speaker 5: So if you live in the future too much about
Speaker 5: like what if what's going to happen, you're gonna fit yourself.
Speaker 5: So I just talk about like staying in, you know,
Speaker 5: in the present to have you know, a solution happen,
Speaker 5: right and so and so that's like been my guiding
Speaker 5: force in terms of like how I live life, and
Speaker 5: so that I learned that because I'm sober and I
Speaker 5: don't think about I think if I wasn't living more
Speaker 5: as I am, living more emotionally emotionally sober, I wouldn't
Speaker 5: be able to like deal with, like with being thrown
Speaker 5: at me on a daily basis because you know, listen,
Speaker 5: I'm you know, as you guys are, I'm responsible for
Speaker 5: a lot of people's like happiness during the day. They
Speaker 5: tune in, they want a piece of me, I give
Speaker 5: it to them. You know, we were shopping, but they're
Speaker 5: also like wondering, like how my day was, and so
Speaker 5: I've got to like, you know, turn it on, you know,
Speaker 5: and and uh and then realize that some people you know,
Speaker 5: maybe watching me who are like not feeling well, and
Speaker 5: I'm their only only connection because like that's for me,
Speaker 5: you know, connection is the most important thing we can
Speaker 5: do as humans, and for somebody who's I'm you know,
Speaker 5: despite me kind of talking a lot, I'm a loner
Speaker 5: and so uh so I'm taking contrary action every day
Speaker 5: to kind of.
Speaker 4: Like have that connection happen.
Speaker 2: In your book, you know, obviously it's about the come
Speaker 2: like having a comeback. What are your tips for people like,
Speaker 2: for for example, I'll just take mine, like I would
Speaker 2: love to get back on you know, a TV show,
Speaker 2: and I want to have that kind of comeback, but
Speaker 2: it's not coming at the time that I want it to.
Speaker 2: You know. It's from my husband. He wants the head coaching.
Speaker 2: It's not coming in the time that he is wanting
Speaker 2: it to be, like right now in the present. So
Speaker 2: how do you what are some tips for for that
Speaker 2: where it's it's the waiting period, you're speaking it, you're
Speaker 2: saying it, you're doing everything to get there, but it's
Speaker 2: not in the time that you want it to be.
Speaker 5: Well, I always go back those like there's your plan,
Speaker 5: and there's the universe univers's plan and so, and your
Speaker 5: plan is being laughed at by the universe because I
Speaker 5: just about like what what is going on? Because you know,
Speaker 5: there's there's always these things like I was late to
Speaker 5: the airport. Thank god I was because I would have
Speaker 5: been in that car crash because I didn't know what's happened.
Speaker 5: So I feel like those things are happening at all times.
Speaker 5: And when I was at my lowest point where I
Speaker 5: literally was like do I have to move back to Michigan,
Speaker 5: Like it's like, I mean, you know, I love Michigan,
Speaker 5: but like I can't I can't live there anymore. Like
Speaker 5: you know, listen, we're it's you know, I'm very excited
Speaker 5: from beefing there, but I couldn't move back.
Speaker 2: Now it's just like no, I hear there's a piece
Speaker 2: of Like when I moved out to Los Angeles when
Speaker 2: I was nineteen, there was a piece of I can
Speaker 2: never go back. I love Michigan, I love going to visit.
Speaker 2: It's still my favorite place. But to go back feels
Speaker 2: like a failure. It feels like that I failed my
Speaker 2: dreams and now I'm coming back to Michigan.
Speaker 3: And it's like, you know, is it over?
Speaker 4: It is my story over?
Speaker 5: Because I think we're all trying to tell a story.
Speaker 5: So I'll get back to your question. So I think
Speaker 5: even with you, like I was, people like, oh, get
Speaker 5: go conquer Hollywood. Christo's then and for me to like
Speaker 5: to go back and go like, well it beat me
Speaker 5: to Polp. I'm back and now I'm working at where
Speaker 5: I'm working at. But I think that, like, you know,
Speaker 5: so what you want to do is like just as
Speaker 5: you are doing, take that first step, like you're out
Speaker 5: here obviously and and someone's gonna it's gonna, you know,
Speaker 5: recognize you like or or or obviously recognize you, but
Speaker 5: like see what you're.
Speaker 4: Trying to do. And then that moved something.
Speaker 5: But when I was really at my lowest point, I'd
Speaker 5: had these dreams where I was in a forest and
Speaker 5: these trees were falling all over me.
Speaker 4: They're just falling, and.
Speaker 5: I was like the first time I had I was like,
Speaker 5: oh god, that was the worst dream like this. Those
Speaker 5: trees almost hit me when I was walking through it,
Speaker 5: you know, and and and I just I don't want
Speaker 5: to have that dream again. Then I had it again,
Speaker 5: and I realized in that dream, like there was a
Speaker 5: path being made for me. I thought I saw a
Speaker 5: path through this forest that I didn't know where I
Speaker 5: was going, but I kept walking that path and and
Speaker 5: it was very visceral to me. And I feel like
Speaker 5: that's that's the moment, like whether it being like listen,
Speaker 5: I've had I've made luckily, I'm really happily married now,
Speaker 5: but I made you know, my second marriage was a
Speaker 5: disaster and like you know, took me down like this
Speaker 5: whole thing. And there's no no offense to him, but
Speaker 5: it was more, you know, it was both a two things.
Speaker 5: But I think that, like I, you know, what you
Speaker 5: got to do is trust youre gout. I've been in
Speaker 5: relationships like that, with relationship my entire life, and each
Speaker 5: one was worse every time I got into it. And
Speaker 5: I didn't learn my lesson, So I don't think until
Speaker 5: you finally learn your lesson about like where you need
Speaker 5: to be or what's like not right for you, because
Speaker 5: this isn't life about like figuring out like what's not
Speaker 5: right for you. I feel like life, you know, you
Speaker 5: kind of know that's not good for me, that I
Speaker 5: know is not good for me, Like that's good for me.
Speaker 5: So I think for me, it was about what I'm
Speaker 5: doing now with covered by Crystos is like everything I've learned,
Speaker 5: good and bad in my entire life has led me
Speaker 5: to this point. So I think that's the same thing
Speaker 5: about one's own personal story. Like you know, you may
Speaker 5: not be getting what you're getting right now, but you're
Speaker 5: getting it and you're getting another way.
Speaker 4: Maybe you're healthy, like you know, and that's what you
Speaker 4: need to be right now.
Speaker 3: Right, Yeah, no, I hear you.
Speaker 2: Where it's about focusing on it will come and the
Speaker 2: greater plan is is already being work done and we
Speaker 2: don't know.
Speaker 4: Yeah you know, and that's the.
Speaker 5: Excitement about it. So it's gonna it's gonna happen to you.
Speaker 5: So I talk to people like I've been doing. I've
Speaker 5: seen thousands of folks on my book touring, Like some
Speaker 5: of them are like in their early twenties and like
Speaker 5: our mid twenties. They just got laid off my job,
Speaker 5: and like they're really fearful about the future. And you know,
Speaker 5: I there are people like always kind of say these
Speaker 5: things like, oh, it's going to be okay, it will
Speaker 5: be okay.
Speaker 4: So what I said to that was like, no, it
Speaker 4: is okay.
Speaker 5: Where where you are right now is okay where you
Speaker 5: should be, and just let just don't sit back and
Speaker 5: like go like, oh, please, someone save my life. Like
Speaker 5: you don't do some things that you know you may
Speaker 5: not think is is comfortable. Like I always tell people
Speaker 5: if you're if you're like worrying about yourself too much
Speaker 5: or feeling a little bit too egoistic egotistical, like just
Speaker 5: call somebody up and talk to them and just ask
Speaker 5: them about their life and get out of your own head.
Speaker 3: Yeah your way. Well that's that's the thing.
Speaker 2: Like whenever I have a tough you know I'm going
Speaker 2: through something tough, I remember I do this sometimes where
Speaker 2: I'm at therapy, there's a there's a prayer wall, and
Speaker 2: I will look at other people's prayers and I'm like man,
Speaker 2: like I like, I don't have someone dying from cancer
Speaker 2: or I am not struggling from this or that, and
Speaker 2: it's like you can kind of put things into perspective too,
Speaker 2: and taking yourself outside of your own struggles to go
Speaker 2: there are other people around you struggling, and then how
Speaker 2: can I how can I help? And you know, whenever
Speaker 2: I get to the place my therapist, I was like,
Speaker 2: go surf, go do something that you know puts you
Speaker 2: out of your own Oh poor me. Kind of not
Speaker 2: that our problems aren't valid, it's just there are so
Speaker 2: many people out there that are going through, you know,
Speaker 2: things that are that are really hard, and it kind
Speaker 2: of opens your eyes to things.
Speaker 4: Yeah, one of my and I totally and I had this.
Speaker 5: You know, it's kind of a spiritual box I have,
Speaker 5: and like every year I'll put in like my biggest
Speaker 5: fears in the box to kind of let them go,
Speaker 5: you know what I mean, or like I will look
Speaker 5: at them and like it's funny, like I and when
Speaker 5: you look at it a year afterwards, the things you
Speaker 5: were worried about a year are like, oh, yeah, you.
Speaker 4: Kidding me, That's why I was worried about year ago.
Speaker 5: And so my dad died in my you know, he
Speaker 5: you know, was fifty nine when he dies, so he
Speaker 5: was very young, and like, you know, it was fire
Speaker 5: for our whole family, and like he died penniless. I
Speaker 5: was like supporting my family at age twenty, and you know,
Speaker 5: it was It's always been a part of like my
Speaker 5: being like am I gonna end alo with my dad?
Speaker 5: Will I be penans at the end? And like am
Speaker 5: I gonna? Because I'm a lot like him? And so
Speaker 5: you know, in that fear and that sort of box,
Speaker 5: I put things like, you know, I'm afraid I'm gonna
Speaker 5: be broke, you know once and I look at it
Speaker 5: every year. I'm like, really, Cristos, like you know, so
Speaker 5: that you know, it almost happened to me because I
Speaker 5: wasn't really being I wasn't being really mindful about my life.
Speaker 4: I had been out of control and so you know
Speaker 4: that's what that's what I like to do.
Speaker 1: So yeah, amazing. So what's the when people read your book?
Speaker 1: If you got to tell them just one thing to
Speaker 1: take from the book, Yeah, what would you tell them?
Speaker 5: I would say, life gets lifey and you got to
Speaker 5: figure out what when these situations pop up, you know,
Speaker 5: what to potentially do when it happens, and some of
Speaker 5: it is like do nothing until to like really think
Speaker 5: about it, so that I mean like I would just
Speaker 5: say life gets lifely and just have a little bit
Speaker 5: of a laugh. Because the book is funny, I find
Speaker 5: I think, I hope so and it's kind of like,
Speaker 5: you know, if there's some people like, you know, the
Speaker 5: whole Hollywood interest in your story blah blah blah. The
Speaker 5: book is kind of like my big frat, my big
Speaker 5: fat Greek wedding meets less than zero, you know, because
Speaker 5: there's a lot of drama on Greek, you know, so
Speaker 5: I feel like dramatic moments. There is one of me.
Speaker 5: The most dramatic moment of the book is I was
Speaker 5: in my second marriage and the throes of my addiction,
Speaker 5: and my husband was starting to leave our you know,
Speaker 5: as literally, you guys, this is such a hollowey thing.
Speaker 5: I was living at the top of the holland looking
Speaker 5: at all of la like literally the top in my
Speaker 5: huge home, you know, hookers and strippers and coke, and
Speaker 5: I mean literally that the stupidest thing of all time.
Speaker 5: We have a huge fight and he wants to he
Speaker 5: you know, wants to leave, and so you know, in
Speaker 5: typical Greek fashion, I throw myself this way on the
Speaker 5: driveway with my body and he has the car like
Speaker 5: revving it to run over me to basically like because
Speaker 5: I'm saying him, just kill me, because I can't deal
Speaker 5: with this anymore. And I can tell this as a joke.
Speaker 5: That's a joke now as a funny story. And I
Speaker 5: remember like he was revving it like this is the end.
Speaker 5: I'm finally can be released from all the pain I'm feeling.
Speaker 4: And he didn't do it.
Speaker 5: And so when we're doing this movie, thing is I'm
Speaker 5: actually you'll see this in a drone and you'll see
Speaker 5: me look right in the camera and be like you're
Speaker 5: probably wondering how I got here. And so the whole
Speaker 5: story is back is like that whole story of like
Speaker 5: starting I was a four year old kid in Detroit,
Speaker 5: but like, you know, realizing that you can come back
Speaker 5: from even that moment where you want you want a
Speaker 5: car to run you over, Yeah, make that happen.
Speaker 3: So oh, I love a good old Michigan comeback story.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 4: I just like, I mean, how proud of you? Got
Speaker 4: a ross on the met gallic carpet making that happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, and I love it.
Speaker 2: I mean I think about, you know, my moment being
Speaker 2: in the bushes, I'm like, how did I get here
Speaker 2: in the bushes, you know, hiding from a from this person?
Speaker 2: You know. So it's it's we all have a come back.
Speaker 2: We all have come back story.
Speaker 5: I think we were from Detroit because Detroita we have
Speaker 5: great We think about it like it was that you
Speaker 5: know back in Detroit. Ell you may not know, like
Speaker 5: back in when you're your young Jedi, but like back
Speaker 5: in the eighties, you didn't stop for a red light
Speaker 5: in Detroit if you were downtown the city, you didn't stop.
Speaker 5: You had to roll through it, so you wouldn't get like,
Speaker 5: you know, mug you know, in your car. And so
Speaker 5: now it's huge, like you know, it's I love going
Speaker 5: back there so much.
Speaker 4: It's so great.
Speaker 5: And I think, and I talk about in the book,
Speaker 5: like I you know, my comeback, my first trunk show
Speaker 5: after I was kind of getting back to my feet,
Speaker 5: wasn't Detroit at the Foundation Hotel, And so that city
Speaker 5: has been linked to like my sort of like reblossoming
Speaker 5: as a person, as a business.
Speaker 3: So yeah, yeah, I love that. Well, I love that
Speaker 3: you still have loved for Michigan.
Speaker 2: I always get sad when people leave and saying bad
Speaker 2: things about it, like Madonna.
Speaker 4: Like, I'm sure she's gone back a lot.
Speaker 5: I mean, listen, that's my girl. You know my my
Speaker 5: first gay bar was her first gay bar in Michigan's.
Speaker 5: You ever go to Menjo's.
Speaker 4: No, Oh, you were good. You're a good Westside girl.
Speaker 4: That's fine.
Speaker 3: I just didn't go out.
Speaker 4: But she something there near you actually, you know that right?
Speaker 2: Well, Madonna went to my high school. But then she
Speaker 2: said that she said some bad things about Rochester and
Speaker 2: I was like, oh, like it hurt my heart, hurt
Speaker 2: my Michigan heart. But maybe, you know, maybe they caught
Speaker 2: her the interview, caught her on a bad day. I
Speaker 2: don't know, but it's all good. Uh all right, well,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for coming on. Everyone, go get
Speaker 2: covet the comeback. Thank you so so so much.
Speaker 4: All right, great, thank you guys, thank you guys.
Speaker 1: Ever, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 4: Pleasure.
Speaker 1: Bye bye bye