whoa, wait a minute. I, I'm not here to quit drinking. I'm perfectly happy with my alcohol consumption. I've been drinking 38 years and I have no intention to quit. Finally they cut me loose at 17, gave me a diploma and said, don't come back. There's nothing like sparring there, there's nothing that brings you so in the moment. If you can scrub away all the anxiety and everything else that we have that's just kind of layered up on top of us. once you clean that slate, you're left with happiness. And that's what we're trying to show wherever you are in life and whatever you've been through, it has nothing to do with where you're going. past has no bearing on your future, and you're free to change the direction you're headed at any time you want.

Hello listeners and welcome back Social Skills Coaching I'm your host Russell, and our guest today is Rick Culleton. Rick is an entrepreneur, an author, and a mindfulness advocate. You have a book already out. Tell us about that.

my first book is Messed Up Like You, And it's a story that's framed around me getting my pilot's license, which was a pretty unusual thing to happen in the first place. it's got some great stories in it and it's inspirational probably to anybody who's trying to get by with a DHD.

So tell us what a DHD is and let's start with, as a child, because I don't think we have a real understanding of some of the struggles that, that, diagnosis brings, to, to children and their development.

when I was a child, they were all over the place. should we medicate 'em? Should we not medicate 'em, put 'em in a special room. one point in the third grade, they moved me into an accelerated class and put me with third and fourth graders, the idea that I would skip the fourth grade and go right into the fifth grade, which didn't happen. And I went from that class to the fourth grade the next year where they thought they should hold me back and keep me there an extra year. And then finally they cut me loose at 17, gave me a diploma and said, don't come back. And so it was a bit of a rollercoaster ride. And, you know, again, I didn't really see I had a problem learning. I knew that I was all over the place, but as a kid you didn't know that everybody else wasn't too, so it didn't really seem to me to be unusual.

You are an entrepreneur. You have several businesses, in several countries it sounds like. Are they related? Are they a wide variety of things? It sounds like you dabble into a lot of different areas.

very similar at all. And I deliberately look for things that are, different challenges to keep me entertained, you know, and I prevent the boredom. But my, oldest company I have is about 20 years, 28 years old now, and it's based in Texas. We sell refurbished computer equipment, a place called Discount electronics.com. and over the last 20 years or so, I've been investing in real estate and opened a company in Austin that does primarily, purchases, real estate, Fixes it up, rents it out. Commercial, residential, multifamily, single family. We've expanded that into Colorado and a little bit into Costa Rica where I got into the hotel business. started with vacation rentals down there, that I moved an operation from the states into Costa Rica, and then later changed the building type from homes and apartments and such into hotels. I enjoy working, so it's, a labor of love I have great people, and I couldn't do this without them. that's a big part of being successful is to have the right team. we've got some of the most fantastic people both in the United States and in Costa Rica. the folks I work with, the discount electronics, many of 'em have been there decades. we're a family. It's a small company, 30 employees. we've all worked together for a long time and I think we all enjoy our jobs very much. I've still got, one employee who's about to hit the 10 year mark down there. the hotel manager's been there since the day we opened up one of the hotels is on the beach. It's a beautiful spot to be. I'm not such an awful boss. they've got a pretty good job and they enjoy life down there. And then the, the real estate company is more of, on demand type thing, where I'll, you know, we have tenants, we manage a lot of that with software. And then when we need people, we sub out, we have regulars that we sub to all the time. One who used to be an employee who now is a subcontractor that just does his own thing and works for me in a variety of other people. but that's pretty much my work. You know, my email is very interesting. WhatsApp, you never know what's coming in. You open that phone up and you don't know what language it's gonna be in, and you have absolutely no idea what it's gonna be about. But I guarantee every morning. It's interesting.

how do you go about building that team? What do you look for? expand on that, and then when you have a team together, obviously you're doing some things very right that keeps that team together. Can you talk to both points?

to hiring, I, I really look for self-motivated people. I am not an over the shoulder kind of boss. I don't know where anybody is. I don't know what time they come to work, when they go home or where they're working from. And for that, you know, it just requires somebody that's got self-discipline that knows how to get the job done. I don't care if you work four hours or 12 hours. I prefer you don't have to work 12 hours and. It's just a matter of getting the job done, you figuring out how to do it and getting results. The hotel's a little bit different in that, you know, we have places there where people need to be, you know, somebody's gotta be sitting at reception, so there's a schedule and they need to be there to check people in. And, you know, it's a little bit different hiring there because you need somebody bilingual and there's a lot of other requirements, but this kinda electronics and most of the folks that have been there long time, have had varied positions. You know, they'll come in the door as one thing, you know, one of my favorite stories is a guy that we hired outta the Home Depot to lay bricks at the construction of a new store back in 2010 or 2011. And when we finished up, I gave everybody a little bit extra money, thanked them for the work, and said goodbye. And the next day I came in when the store opened and he was there. And I said, well, you know, Fernando, what are you doing here? And we're done. And he goes, no, I'm gonna work. And I'm like, any work for you. And he goes, I'll do whatever you need. I'm like, well, I don't need anything. He goes, you got this store. Somebody's gotta work here. Right? and he barely spoke English at the time. I'm like, you know, I, I'll find something for you for now, but you need to find a job It's now 2025. That was 2010. He is our number one computer technician. He, he's never left, got married, had some kids, and has turned out to be quite the employee.

your bio talked about a journey through A DHD, which we've talked about, and then it mentions a phrase I've not seen before. Accidental sobriety. what does that refer to?

you know, that's an interesting story. I was on a path I was having a lot of anxiety, which I think is, Pretty typical for entrepreneurs. And, sometimes we don't even realize how much we're living with. And, mine had gotta the point where I'd wake up in the morning trembling, like literally shaking in bed and have to get outta bed quickly because it was just gonna get worse. when I'd stop and think about what was causing the problem, I really couldn't get to it. There were acute things every single day. It was something different. Or sometimes it would be the same things. It could be money, it could be this, it could be that. And you'd see a recurring theme, that once this problem left my mind, another one, fill it. and I knew that, these weren't really problems of the severity that I was giving them credit for. And I received an email one day from a woman by the name of Julie Hutchinson. it read, would you like to Wake Up Happy? And then the email proceeded to. Sound like she'd been peering through the windows and watching me because it was just very spot on. And I showed it to my wife and I said, this is just kind of crazy. And so I responded to the email. It turns out that Julie, was a family member of some people that I knew very well. two of her family members had worked for me. One of them, her niece and I had worked together very closely and had traveled together. And, so that there was a little bit of trust there. And, I started a course that she took, called Core Performance. And, was tricked a little bit, maybe outta my own naivety in, in a few ways. But the first one was that we started breathing exercises, which is a meditation practice that I still use every day. I do the same, meditation that we learned back then. Did it today, and I'll do it tomorrow. during this process, as we were getting in here through this, she told me about a month in, she said, Rick, you know, you're gonna find, when, when this anxiety leaves and you get all of this under control, you're probably not even gonna need the alcohol anymore. And I said, whoa, wait a minute. I, I'm not here to quit drinking. I'm perfectly happy with my alcohol consumption. I've been drinking 38 years and I have no intention to quit. And, a couple months went by and I was in Manhattan in my apartment one day and had gone to see an old friend. I bought a bunch of beer that morning and I loved, IPA still do. I just drink it without the non-alcoholic version now. And I, I bought some pretty expensive beer down the street from my apartment, brought it back, put it in the fridge, walked around town most of the day and came back at about five o'clock threw it and all the rest of the alcohol down the trash chute from the 45th floor, a hit the bottom and I never had a drink again. I'm sure I'm still not a hundred

Wow.

what caused that to be the day. I mean, it was something I contemplated before. You know, I always thought, you know, one day when the doctor tells me that my liver's gonna jump outta my body or something that I would quit, I drank every single day of my life for 38 years, except for two days when I took my son in a Boy Scout camp out. So it was a pretty major change.

you now help others find true and lasting happiness. Does that relate to, another entrepreneurial adventure you have going is that personal relationships are, are you a coach or a, a counselor?

means of doing that right now is through the second book. Um, but you can find out more about that1@mymorningstack.com. But it, I took the, the meditation exercise that I did and when I found that that was, um. Doing so much good. And then when I did it in the day seemed to really matter. And I learned within a couple months that the earlier in the day I did it, the better off I was. That became one of the first things I did. And then I, I, I took that piece that came from having done the meditation and thought, you know, I'm gonna make use for the, of this for a little while. And I developed a, morning stack that I follow. And the second piece of that is something I call techno fasting, which is where we, you just stay away from technology for as long as possible in the morning. You don't wake up with a cell phone. But this is where we're going with this, is to try to help people build their own morning stack and find That comfort zone, that peace, that can be there. I believe that we're all happy and peaceful. If you can scrub away all the anxiety and everything else that we have that's just kind of layered up on top of us. once you clean that slate, you're left with happiness. And that's what we're trying to show is that, you know, you can get to this with just a little bit of work, but it's a continuing effort. It's not, you know, the gym, you can't go to the gym for a month every other day and get done at the end of 30 days and go, look, I'm strong and fit and I'm gonna be great for the rest of my life. And, and. is the same way. You know, it's a, it's a, it's a lifelong practice. If you want to be mentally healthy, it's the same as being physically healthy. it's something you need to work at all the time. You can't eat good one day and then live on cotton candy and expect to maintain your health. So this is where we're going with this. it's a starter plan that it'll get you going with your stack and then instructions as to how you can develop your own.

what does your average day look like? What are some of these things that you're doing that you're willing to share?

I have a special stack that I brought with me because I'm traveling. I'm in Europe right now, so I don't have a cold plunge that could carry around with me. I'm working on that, but at the moment, I'm without. So, it starts out pretty easily. I get up very early, so I'm up at about normally five 30 in the morning and, one of the very first things I do, I drink a glass that's pretty much salt water, it's got magnesium in it and so forth to rehydrate. And then I head outside, not looking at light through the windows, but actually get out, get outdoors and help reinforce my circadian rhythm and make sure that, you know, I'm keeping my sleep cycle, in sync. And then I come back inside and, meditate for whatever amount of time it takes me to get my 600 points. And then I do 25 pushups and I stretch. I've been nursing an achilles tendon injury and I just started running again, so I'm being kind of cautious with that. I journal after I get done stretching. I have a quirky thing that I picked up about a year ago or a little less with my journal. For the first paragraph I write with my left hand. It's a neuroplasticity trick that, on top of, keeping all the neurons firing in my brain. enough, I've learned to write pretty well with my left hand, even in cursive. I'm impressed. I've even impressed myself. And so, you know, this is probably where I would leave most of the people is like, this is where, you know, if those things work for you, that's a great foundation for your day. You know, you're talking about 40 minutes or less. So, I think that's that type of stack. It doesn't need to be those things. And then where I go from there is, there's physical exercise every day. It's either gonna be running or the gym and I'll go back and forth, and then I take at least one day and sometimes two days a week. To recover. And I'm a gadget junkie, so I've got an aura ring on one hand and a Garmin watch on the other hand. And, you know, I'm always looking at the data and I listen to it too. So when it says, Hey, you need to back off, time to take it easy. I do. I learned, just recently how important the recovery part was. I was always go, go, go, go, go ignore, you know, they're, they're not talking to me when they say slow down. So I was pushing it and I started to see some data signs that looked really bad. Rate, my resting heart rate was going up, my heart rate variability was going down. And so since I've started to listen to these gadgets a little bit more closely, I'm doing better. So, you know, every other day I'll run, every other day I'll go to the gym. and then once I finish that routine, you know, it's then my workday really starts, you know, so when I get that stuff out of the way, that's when I, go and on the computer. and one thing I left out in that whole routine is the techno fasting. And that, you know, I stay away from the phone. So my phone stays and do not disturb all the time, every day, all day. But I do need to use it in the morning for the meditation. I have a tone that plays, so my breathing is, asynchronous. It's the same amount of time in and out, which has been a very important part for me. So I do need that gadget for that part. But, you know, I don't use it for anything else. When I'm done with the meditation, I put it down. and then, you know, it's usually at least two hours before I pick something up electronic or turn on anything where you've got any screen or any even audible. I don't even let the news play in the background or anything sleep's an incredibly important part of the day. You know, we can't even talk about a morning stack if you haven't had a good night's sleep. There's no point at all. Sometimes I'm just in it, you know, I go out and see the sun when it's setting as well as when it's rising. So you get some of that light, at sunset. It doesn't be right at sunset, but it's really important to send that signal to your brain that this is the end of the day, especially for someone who moves around. And it's not just about going from the states to Europe, but when I move from Colorado to New York, that two hours difference, it's really important that I get reset, stay reset, then, you know, if I need to at night, I use this little electronic gadget that makes you drowsy. It's got damp sponges. You put in your temples. It's called TDCS. Transcranial something. anyway, that along with Bin Beats and knock myself out in seconds. Literally, I mean, literally it's probably five minutes with that stuff and I'm, I'm out. I've fought TaeKwonDo for a decade. I've been, I have put my body through some stuff and cold plunge makes me pain free. I forget about the endorphin release or the, the weight

Really.

the mental, I am pain free and it's. Without it, it came back quick. I think it was day seven without a cold bunch. Like here it comes. And, the same pain that I've probably been living with for decades in my shoulders and neck didn't bother me that much then, because I was accustomed to it when it came after. I've had relief for a while, and it comes back. It's just a reinforcer is, and the lesson behind all that is that, you know, once you learn the benefits to these things, to eating healthy, to going to the gym, to getting enough sleep, it's not hard to stay focused on them because it just, you know, do you want a great life? Do you want to be happy and healthy or do you not, you know, it's your choice.

when you're building your morning stack if you get one or two habits and then you build, do you find it to be cumulative, something that you work on over a period of time and it becomes a big part? Or did you jump into a large part of it and just to maybe expand a little bit from there?

is something that I. had to work on. And like I say, I'm no different than anybody else. The meditation was on my list to do, and in the beginning it didn't get done in the morning, and it was oftentimes anxiety causing because it was on my list of things to do. And here it is, five o'clock and it hasn't been done yet, especially when I was still

I.

And six o'clock is right around the corner. So you, you know, that was a big, you know. I would do it, but it would be late in the day and it didn't have quite the same effect. I would find that, I wasn't getting the score that I needed. I wasn't getting the relief from the anxiety that I had gotten at other times. And then if we had a scheduled class or a meeting and I was doing it earlier in the day, I felt better. I didn't jump into it at all. I had no morning routine whatsoever other than, wiping off my hangover and heading for the espresso machine.

And what was the first thing that you started that started building your stack?

The very first thing that I did for my stack was pushups. and I don't even remember where that started. Probably inspired by somebody watching some YouTube video Almost immediately, within a couple days of starting with the pushups, I went into stretching, just because I was having so much flexibility, so many flexibility issues all the way around. And later on when I was having problems with my Achilles, they reinforce that thought with, you know, I don't really have it, and Achilles tendon injury, it's, the upper chain is just so tight. I was somebody who just went to the gym and just lifted all the time and didn't pay much attention to anything else other than that. So that was the next thing. It was pushups and stretching. And then I don't even remember What got put in there next. the abbreviated version of techno fasting came on pretty quickly. I knew the phone and the computer were big triggers for me. I would use them all day long to. Aggravate myself looking at things that I shouldn't be looking at, whether they were sales numbers or stock quotes. it's crazy how self-destructive. You can become with something like that. You know, your body's doing something that you know is gonna do all the wrong things, just screw up your endocrine system and send all these signals that you don't want yet. You do it anyway. You know, like putting your hand on a hot stove. life is, um, is one big lesson, you know? And if you're willing to, to, to pay attention and, and learn along the way, life becomes so much better. You know, I think when I was a young man, I looked to, to old age. What now where I am is what I thought was old age to, to be something, to dread and fear. And I'm so much happier today than I ever was in life. and it's because I've learned the way, you know, as you're going through life, you pay attention to what makes you feel good and What, you should do, what you shouldn't do, and then act accordingly. And it's a great lesson it's something that's just very, very enjoyable

can you give our listeners a rundown of your top recommended books that are out there in addition, of course, to messed up like you. what else would you recommend for our listeners, to implement into their lives?

that changed my life, um, were Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. seven by Dr. Covey and, uh, rich Dad, poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

Great. Yeah. Very well known, very popular and for good reason. Some excellent works there.

thing that I'd like to finish with is that, wherever you are in life and whatever you've been through, it has nothing to do with where you're going. past has no bearing on your future, and you're free to change the direction you're headed at any time you want.