Avoid This $10,000 Marketing Mistake TODAY | Teddy Tarantino DSH #769

I could go to a CVS and fill my prescription.

I could go to another CVS and just go fill that same prescription.

So there was nothing.

It's kind of like, and I'm crazy that this is the real thing, but there was no database saying that this prescription was

filled.

But not just that.

It was actually the doctor.

So I could go to five different doctors and get the same prescription for multiple things.

Whoa.

Yeah.

So you could print money.

All right, guys.

Crazy story for you guys today.

Teddy Tarantino.

Thanks for coming on, my my guy.

No problem.

How's it going?

Good, man.

Man, on drugs since 10 years old.

Pretty much, yeah.

What was the first drug?

So I consider alcohol to be a drug.

So alcohol is probably the first thing I ever did.

So that's what, fourth grade?

I probably got drunk for the first time, like kindergarten.

What?

Yeah.

That's like six.

Yeah.

So you were.

So, I mean, like, and what, like, I was at a family party, so, like, Hispanic culture, parents were drinking, and I snuck off and just started drinking some wine coolers.

But I did get drunk.

Wow.

But I didn't really, but that was like a one-off instance.

I was like drinking every day.

Okay.

But yeah, I got drunk for the first time, probably in like kindergarten.

It makes you wonder if it affected your brain development.

Drinking that.

Dude, that's the least of it.

So I would imagine that my brain development has gotten pretty fucked up from drugs at a young age.

Wow.

Have you ever done a brain scan?

No.

I'd be so curious to see yours.

Yeah, I'm interested to see, but I don't know.

I've been clean.

I also got clean young.

So I got clean at 17, too.

Oh, wow.

But I remember when I was on drugs watching a documentary about addiction, and they were doing brain scans on people.

And the most interesting part was they would flash pictures, and the pictures would be so fast you can't even see them.

Yeah.

And when they would show a thing of a crack, like a vial of crack, the person's brain would go crazy.

Whoa.

And this person was clean like years, haven't done crack in years.

And their brain would go nuts.

And I remember like being on crack at the time, I was like 14, 15, and being like, damn, I'm never getting clean.

That's nuts.

Yeah.

The subconscious is powerful, right?

Yeah, the brain's crazy.

Holy crap.

So crack at 14.

How did that happen?

Was it like...

I was so when I'd get into anything, I'd like really get into it.

Like most addicts are like that.

Some people become addicts later in life.

I was just always obsessive.

And, you know, I didn't have anything I was into.

And once I got into drugs, I like really got into it.

So I like dissected every part of it, the culture and selling it,

weed.

And then weed led to cocaine.

And then when I was selling cocaine, eventually you run into someone who cooks it and then I was selling to this guy who lived in a crack house and he was

he smoked crack but he doctor shopped so that's also I got introduced to painkillers so he was doctor shopping for oxies and roxies and had all the prescriptions you can want but he just sold those he had been on heroin before and he got off of it so his only thing was crack and the first time I saw it I was like I'm never ever ever gonna try that that's crazy and then you see it a couple more times and get that normalized.

Yeah, you kind of like, it kind of gets normalized.

And I tried it.

And the first time I smoked crack cocaine, I knew I would struggle with this for the rest of my life.

Whoa, the first time?

Yeah.

It was not good.

Yeah, I never bought powder cocaine ever again.

And I knew that forever I would always wanted to do this.

Geez.

So what's the difference between cocaine and crock?

Man, I guess it would be like

I'm really into cars, so it would probably be like driving fast on the street versus driving on a track.

Okay.

So you're faster.

Yeah.

So it's just like, you know, you think you could push your car on a road, but until you track your car, you really don't know where your car can do.

And then

it's just way more intense.

Wow.

Yeah.

What's doctor shopping?

I've never heard that.

Oh, really?

So back in the day, there wasn't a database.

So if you gave me a prescription for oxys and roxies and clonopen, I could go to a CVS and fill my prescription.

I could go to another fucking CVS and just go fill that same prescription.

There was nothing.

It's kind of like, and I'm crazy that this is a real thing, but there was no database saying that this prescription was

filled.

But not just that, it was actually the doctor.

So I could go to five different doctors and get the same prescription for multiple things.

Whoa.

Yeah.

So you could print money.

Yeah.

So back in the day, I mean, dude, if you...

If you weren't on drugs or on pills, I was like, bro, we're getting you an MRI.

We're going to the emergency room.

Like, because if, because if you don't know the game, I could get a piece of it.

So I would teach it.

I was also under 18, so I couldn't even get my own script on my parents' present.

So my hustle was that I would try to get people to get a script or fill a script.

And then you would go to multiple doctors, and that was doctor shopping.

And then you would go to like a lot of these mom and pop places that they just looked the other way.

Yeah, like sketchy pharmacies.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And all these big ones end up buying those, right?

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean,

the pain clinic industry was crazy back then.

People who owned those made millions and millions of dollars.

Oh, is it still like that now, you think?

No, because, well, now you're not really going to make tons of money like that because now they have that database.

But now, what people do is they just get people to go shop for them.

So I'll get like five homeless people to go and do that for me and bring me the thing.

Not homeless people, but sometimes, you know.

Wow.

So they get people to doctor shop for them.

But now they're more strict.

But

it went from OxyCotton, then they stopped doing Oxys or selling them at the pharmacies.

It was hard to get them to Roxys.

Then it went to Dilotted.

And then it just, the, it just switches to a different drug.

Yeah.

So if they say, we're not going to do Roxys anymore, then people just start doing fentanyl.

Damn.

So that's where it's at now.

People are just doing fentanyl?

Now it's like straight fentanyl, and that's people's drug of choice.

So there was a time if someone got fentanyl in their heroin or whatever, they'd be like upset.

Now they like want that.

What?

Like they want fentanyl.

They want, yeah.

Can you die easily off that?

Yeah, dude, it's crazy.

It's like Russian roulette right now with

the epidemic.

And they put it in cocaine.

Like,

I've owned drug and alcohol rehabs for years.

And I had a client who went to the gas station, bought a dime of Coke, did it at the gas station and died.

Whoa.

And there was fentanyl in his Coke.

They put it in everything.

It's crazy.

Holy crap.

So when you're in rehab, you can leave?

Well, this kid graduated.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

Damn.

Yeah.

There's different levels where people get jobs and they're an outpatient or something.

Yeah.

What's the level of people that come back to rehab once they're in?

Is it like prison?

Because prison is like 80%, right?

I always compare it to the gym.

How many people sign up to LA Fitness and then freaking don't get in shape?

Right.

You know, so

I would probably say the national average is single-digit success rate.

Wow.

So you're talking eight, twelve, or eight percent or ten percent or lower.

Uh, my treatment center for years, we were at like 15%.

Oh, wow.

So double.

Double the national average.

And that really just goes to because we have long-term care.

The only real statistic of like who makes it and who doesn't that is like a fact is the longer time spent in treatment, the better your success rate.

But that's also more money for the insurance company.

So they don't really want to, you know, use that type of statistic because they have to dish out more money.

So they probably only want you there for like a month, right?

Dude, they're fighting you every day.

Really?

So when you go to drug rehab, they don't say, hey, you're approved for 30 days.

They say, what are you using?

How long are you using?

Okay, you could go to detox four days.

days that's it then on day four you got to call the care manager and then you have to negotiate more days and be like he's not doing well

he still has these symptoms or he's still symptomatic or he's whatever so then they'll give you okay one more day so maybe you'll get five or six then when you go to a lower level of care they'll give you 10 days so they give you days at like a clip and then you have to negotiate with the insurance company and then most insurance if you have really good insurance will cover you for 30 days but I would say out of all the insurance out there there's probably 20 that cover for a luxury nice drug rehab most of them are going to send you to a county funded place or a state funded place yeah and yours was a private place yeah we were like private high-end luxury so we were like the top of the top which is also the hardest because insurance doesn't want to pay for that right there's some insurance says that would look at a website and be like oh this is luxury we're not we don't even damn like just because it was luxury they'd be like you don't need any of this just goes in in the hospital.

So you're probably dealing with a lot of known people and high-end ballers and stuff.

No, you would think so, but you can work.

Your mom could work at Kmart and can have good insurance.

Oh, yeah.

So you can have good insurance just based off having a decent employer that offers a good health care.

Okay.

So there are actually people who have tons of money who have really shitty insurance.

And just because you have good insurance doesn't mean it's good for substance abuse.

So your substance abuse benefits could be crap or your policy just doesn't have that coverage.

Yeah.

i'm in that boat because like self-employed insurance is tough to find good ones you know so i have to pay a shit ton for it yeah for insurance yeah and it's like dude i don't even like western medicine anyways like why am i even paying a thousand a month for this yeah it's kind of crazy or insurance uh or whole southpark just did an episode of like the american insurance uh yeah industry was so funny it's such a scheme right i mean yeah the insurance company is like the mafia yeah no they're you know you're they make up their own rules and they pay whatever they want to pay and then it's like um

it's crazy because there's no black and white.

Like, if this happens, this is what we're going to pay.

It's like you submit a claim and then they like

debate.

And then I've had siblings on the same policy and one pays 50%, one didn't pay anything.

And then you got to fight it and then whatever.

I mean, it's really, it's sad because these people have insurance.

They've been paying for insurance.

They should be insured.

And they got the best lawyer.

So if you can't afford to go to the lawyer to fight it, not just that.

If you really get into it, they'll be like, okay, we're going to stop paying you until this is done.

So then you won't take any more of their, you know, you can't take any more of their clients.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

And you built your rehab center to 20 million in revenue a year?

Yeah.

That's impressive.

Yeah.

Was that one place or was it like no multiple locations?

We had like five locations.

Holy crap.

Yeah.

That's huge revenue.

And this was back in the day, too.

Yeah, it wasn't too long ago.

I mean, I left the company about a year and a half ago.

Oh, okay.

But yeah, I didn't even know until the other day.

But the other day, one of my employees was like, yeah, we had 200 employees.

Like, we had 200 employees?

I thought we had like 130.

How were you able to scale that quick?

Man, a lot of treat, that's actually slow in treatment.

There are people who scale 10 times that.

Oh, really?

Dude, I mean, to me, we were like modest growth and strategic.

And there are some people who, dude, well, they got into the drug rehab business and went full-fledged.

And a lot of them.

failed you know uh the business has gotten worse and worse every year just because insurance don't want to pay and it's so competitive and saturated.

But I thought that was like that pace, we grew, but I didn't think it was like dangerous growth.

You know, a lot of people, they like filling the beds is the hardest part.

So a lot of people would be like, well, if we build it, they'll come.

And I've seen so many places expand and not be able to.

When we were growing, we were growing

20 beds at a time, 15 beds at a time.

There are some people who they'd have 50 beds, they'd open up another 200 beds.

Jeez.

It's too fast.

Yeah, and it's like care goes out the window.

It's like these are people's lives.

So

staff in a facility takes a long time because even though you have good staff, it takes like a year for you to get a good core staff.

I don't care who you are because, you know, it just takes a while for you to get those chemistry people.

Yeah, the chemistry of a facility, but a small facility could have 60 staff.

So even though 200 seems like a big number, we started out with 60 employees.

Wow.

So one center is at least 60 employees.

That's crazy.

I didn't know that much went into one center.

60 employees?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Your Your overhead at a small treatment center could be 200 grand a month

without marketing.

And if you're not filling the beds at least 50%, you're probably losing money.

Oh, at our facilities, if we're not full more than like 75%, we're breaking even.

Wow.

So you got to be like 80% plus full.

Yeah, just to make a little bit of money.

And the turnover is high, so you got to constantly be.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Is that why you left?

The business is really crazy.

Like, I...

I am,

I'm a different owner than a lot of owners.

A lot of owners, like, they just care about the money and whatever.

But, like, dude, I ran a group at my treatment center every week for like six, seven years.

Group?

Yeah, so I would run a group.

Oh, a group?

Yeah, so I would like bring in a speaker.

I would meet with the clients.

Like, I knew almost every client's name.

I would talk to the families.

Oh, wow.

So I was like pretty involved.

A lot of owners, after they get off the ground, they're not really even going to the facility.

They're staying at the corporate office.

And it's like, dude, I was really involved.

And it's like...

Man, I've probably been to like, how many funerals have you been to?

Only like two, actually.

How old are you?

27.

yeah i'm 33 i've probably been to like 50.

holy crap yeah so you go to your patients funerals yeah i mean am i am i'm in recovery myself so it's like half my half of those are my friends damn you know maybe more i've probably been to like a hundred funerals oh my gosh yeah so it's like you know it gets it's tiresome if you work in treatment you can almost work anywhere because it's 24-7 it doesn't close there's no business hours you're picking up people from the airport there's people trying to leave at all different times you're talking to the family You're dealing with a disgruntled population.

I mean, you're dealing with people relapsing, wanting to come back.

You're dealing with, you know,

stopping them from sleeping with each other.

Like, they're pranking each other.

Like, it's like, you know, it's like a crazy summer camp hotel hospital.

Yeah.

You know?

So that stress was just too much for you.

I think I really loved it for a while, but there was a time where,

dude, like the deaths and the overhead, and we were expanding and making the same money every year.

So we would double in size and we were making more money three years ago.

Wow.

So it's like the industry was just so difficult.

And dude, some people are still crushing it and killing it, but a lot of people are really scaling back and hurting.

Yeah, I've had two owners on the show.

Eric Spofford, if you know him.

Oh, yeah.

I think he sold his.

Yeah, I think he sold his in like the heights.

Oh, yeah.

Like when he first sold, dude, if I would have had what I had back then, I'd probably be making five times.

Yeah, a nine-figure exit, I think.

Something crazy.

And then Chad Carlson.

not familiar.

He has one in Cali, but yeah, his is smaller.

But yeah, that makes sense why your recovery rate was double the average because you were hands-on.

I was hands-on, and we had a lot of scholarships.

So usually if someone runs out of insurance, their insurance is going to come in for 30, maybe 45 days, 15, 20 days of outpatient.

We had graduate houses where you could stay there indefinitely.

Wow.

So I've never even heard of a facility that would do this, but you could stay in our graduate house indefinitely.

And our first graduate house had 10 beds.

All 10 of those clients were clean two, three, four years.

Damn.

Because, you know, it's just like,

you know, when you're in the military, you're surrounded by like-minded people.

If everyone's waking up and going to the gym, you're waking up and working out, you know?

So it's like when you are in a safe environment,

your chances of staying clean are so much higher.

And then it's when people leave or they get their own place.

And I'm not saying you got to live in a halfway house forever, but statistically, if you stay in a halfway house for like a year, you know, you have a twice better chance of someone else who immediately goes back to their own, their old place.

That's cool.

And insurance doesn't cover that, though?

No, that was just cash pay.

We charge like $120 a week in rent, and they would just stay there.

But

if they stayed clean, they don't have to leave.

Wow.

So you were drug testing them?

Yeah, absolutely.

So even though they're in this aftercare, some of them had years clean.

They're still getting drug tested.

They're still having like a house meeting once a week.

There's still structure, still curfew.

And and some of these people just loved it.

Like when you would go to their rooms, it was so weird because usually at a halfway house, people were trying to get out of there.

Where houses were so nice that a lot of them during COVID, bro, there wasn't, you couldn't go rent a place for a hundred bucks a week anywhere.

Yeah.

You know, so when you would go to their rooms, dude, guitars on the on the wall, pictures of their family, like they decked it out because they want to stay in that house.

It was a nice house.

Most sober livings were in like shithole areas or sober livings were like nice houses.

So a lot of them, they were like, man, i'm never gonna leave here like they didn't want to up because they knew you know yeah that makes sense hard to find a place like that what was that moment at 17 for you was it a specific incident that happened that made you like stop so people always ask me two questions like how i got on drugs and how i got off yeah and i got on drugs because someone taught me someone showed me someone introduced me someone you know piqued my interest And it was the same thing when I got off drugs.

So I started going to 12-step meetings.

I'm like a super hardcore 12-step person.

And it's like when you start to to go to meetings and you're surrounded by thousands of people who have gotten clean and their lives are just so like interesting and like you're just blown away it really inspired me and made me feel like i could do this forever and like one day like the

uh the switch flipped like i remember i was like i don't know if i could stay clean you know i still want to get high and I was just like, you know, I'm young, whatever.

And I'll never forget, I went to this one meeting, this guy, Ray Guggs, was speaking.

And dude, this guy was a heroin addict for like 30 years.

Whoa.

Lived in Washington, D.C., homeless.

And he was probably 55 years old.

And I'll never forget.

He said he had five years clean.

And he said he was working on his second bachelor's degree.

And he said, this time next week or this time next year, I'll be going to law school.

Wow.

And I was like, get the, and like, dude, I just couldn't, like, you just don't hear about stuff.

Yeah.

And then I started following him around.

I would just see him like he wasn't full of shit.

And he actually ended up working for me at the treatment center center for years nice and actually became a lawyer and you just hear stories like that and dude it just started to change how I how I thought about getting clean and

I wanted to do drugs because drugs were like crazy but like what was even crazier was like being clean like what if I didn't even drink or smoke or anything what if I did get totally 100% sober and I was like That would even be crazy.

You know?

Yeah.

So yeah, like I went from being the kid who like everyone in school was like, dude, that kid smokes crack.

Like get

to like being someone who like doesn't drink doesn't party none of that.

Wow total 180.

Were you a big adrenaline junkie?

Still am.

Yeah.

You know you just had to find a healthier.

Yeah, I think my first three years clean four years clean like I really practiced like

the part of your brain that has like the breaking.

So like, dude, I just believe that like I just never had that.

Like I never had a slow down button.

I never had like a consider the consequence button.

Like if it felt good, I wanted to do it a thousand times, you know?

And I really like my first probably five years clean.

Like I didn't go to strip clubs.

I didn't go to clubs.

I didn't socialize with other people that weren't in recovery.

I started reading tons of self-help books.

I was, I got introduced to like yoga.

And it's like, I didn't even know how to be a kid.

Wow.

You know, so like my whole story is that like I just wanted to be cool my whole life.

Like I just wanted to fit in and be with the older kids.

Yeah.

I was always lying about my age and I was always driving when I shouldn't be driving and leaving the house when I shouldn't be leaving the house.

I couldn't follow rules.

And it's like I really had to learn that like all my shortcuts were actually fucking holding me back.

Damn.

You know, everything I tried to do to like cut the line ended me up in a fucking handcuffs, you know?

Wow.

So I really had to relearn just to how to be with myself, you know?

Yeah, that's deep, Matt.

So you had to grow up quick.

Yeah, I had to grow up quick, but I also like regressed and like I also learned how to like ride a bike.

Like, I remember 17.

Well, yeah, because I knew how to ride a bike, but I like when I was in seventh grade, I was selling Coke and I was going to parties and I was like hanging out with people in college.

So, when I used to see little kids in my age riding the bikes, I thought, you guys are losers.

And I'm like, when I first got clean, one of the first things I did was bought a bicycle.

And I used to bike and I got into biking.

I started going to spin class.

Wow.

Like, I used to think, like, bro, you're going to spin class.

Like, you're a fucking

loser.

And it's like, I really had to like relearn to do things that I used to think were like corny, you know?

And I got into biking.

Like, I still go bike ride, you know, like I learned how to like be myself, you know?

Yeah, it's easy to form those beliefs to fit in with a friend group.

You start like hating on certain people, you know?

Yeah, especially when you're young, everyone's competing to be cool.

And like, you know, all my friends, I thought we were so cool.

I'm like, all literally like 70% of the kids I grew up with are either on heroin or in prison.

Damn.

You know?

Where'd you grow up?

I grew up in a nice area.

Wow, that's ironic, right?

Yeah, so I grew up in a really nice area called Davey, which, you know, you have like million-dollar homes and then you have trailer parks.

It's like,

it's like

just because you live in that area doesn't mean you have money or you don't have money, but it's a big, like, I don't know, diverse town.

Yeah.

And dude, there's just so many kids there that were just so bad.

Like in that area, I'm sure Fort Lauderdale in general, we had the most pain clinics in the country.

Jeez.

Broward County had dispensed more medication, painkillers, than other states combined.

Holy shit.

So, like, that town was just like, everybody started doing opiates.

Wow.

So, like, you would go to a party and yeah, you would see a kegger and people smoking blunts, but you'd also see people doing oxycontinent, like, it was nothing.

So,

you know, when OxyContin started to go away, people started to do Dilotted.

And Dilotted, yeah, it works if you eat it, but you mainly shoot it.

So, then these people are shooting pills now, and then they're shooting heroin, and then, you know, they're heroin addicts.

So, holy crap like all my friends that i grew up with it's crazy like they all got addicted to iv heroin and you said a lot of them ended up dying too yeah i mean i like i said i've probably been to like a hundred funerals did that did that like numbness like did that ever stop so when i was using it never really bothered me because when people would die i would like be like oh well it was a girl she probably like weighed 90 pounds and did an oxy 80 and just couldn't handle it or something but when i got clean it started to happen more and more.

And then,

man, it's like when you're using, you have no feelings, like you're totally numb.

And then when you get clean, it's like the opposite effect.

Wow.

I started crying watching the fucking Publix commercial.

You know, like, I just started to have so much emotions and then like feel attached.

Like, I never felt attachment to people.

I never really had like friends.

And then I start making friends in recovery and they start relapsing.

Now I'm like worried about them.

Now I'm like, fuck, this is what my parents went through, you know?

And then it comes around full circle and I'm like, dude, they die.

And then you're like, you know, it starts to really affect you.

And

at nine months clean, the first kid I ever sponsored was my childhood friend and drug dealer.

Last time I had seen him, he was selling pills out of like a motel six and people are shooting up on the bed.

He was selling pills.

He was with this lady who was smoking crack.

Fast forward, I'm clean like nine months.

I'm speaking at a rehab.

And I remember he was like, yo, I know you.

And I started, like, I didn't recognize him because he lost so much weight in jail.

Yeah.

And I started sponsoring him.

him and um dude he died of an overdose oh shit so I was 17 and this kid died of an overdose and my first sponsee ever and that's when I was like damn like like we really are like in in recovery like they give out chips because symbolize that you're gambling with your life and it's like damn we really are then fentanyl came out fentanyl didn't come off like two three years after that so when fentany came out Man, I think right now, I think like 120 people die a day.

What?

A fentanyl overdose.

Yeah.

It's like 70 000 people a year holy

that's in the us or worldwide no it's in the u.s wow so it's in the u.s so before fentanyl the number was like 30 000 wow so a number number has doubled in fentanyl that's crazy so like while we sit here do this podcast someone will overdose and die that's nuts dude yeah yeah these days you got to really test the drugs if you're gonna even take them yeah no one does that

it's like no one's testing their drugs you know there might be like a small percentage but it blows my mind some people like dude their drug of choice is fentanyl they're looking for fentanyl they're not like they're not testing it because they want the fentanyl that's insane yeah that's crazy uh what did you transition to after this i know you did some adult industry stuff too yeah so like i've always been into like

like sex and drugs you know what i mean and like when i got clean like i kind of had this like perspective of like

anything adult is like bad and there's a lot of like christian people in recovery so like i kind of like never really talked about it or whatever but i've always been like promiscuous and even in recovery, that's like not a good thing to be promiscuous,

especially your first year.

Maybe your second year, but like your first year, you should probably like chill out.

Yeah.

Which I did.

And then like as I got older, like I just got like more interested.

And like,

I think at like 21 or 20, I went to like my first swingers club.

I went to a swingers club and like, dude, I had never seen shit like this in my whole life.

I didn't even know this shit existed.

I didn't even know this went on like in America.

I was blown away that this is even legal.

And I went to my first swingers club blew my mind.

That's when I got like introduced to like the idea of polygamy or like open relationships.

And I started to become like really open-minded.

And when I was 22, I had a friend who had like a big male escort agency.

It was like one of the only straight male agencies.

And I remember my friend could like never stay clean.

And I would tell him, like,

dude, it's probably because you're doing this escorting shit.

And then he got clean and we became like closer and friends.

And I remember he was like, yo, I need you.

I was like, for what?

He's like, I need you to like hook up with this lady in Miami and she's going to pay you.

And I was like, dude, I'm not hooking up with no old lady.

And he was like, who said she's old?

And I was like, she's not old.

And he sent me a picture of her.

I was like, dude, she's hot.

And then he, I was like, that girl's going to pay me.

And he's like, something like that.

And I went down there and it would be like her sugar daddy would pay for guys to hook up with her.

She would be blindfolded.

It would be like, what?

Yeah, it'd be like 20 minutes.

And he paid me three grand.

whoa so the first time i got like three grand he's not in the room he like walks out and like waits in the living room and he just does this as like a treat for them whoa and um

he told me that she thinks that we're paying her or like you know i don't know what it i didn't ask a lot of questions you know and uh i would do that like a couple times a month and dude that was like an extra nine grand in my pocket and um

That's when I started to like really see like this other world of like, you know, escorting and it was fun.

And then my friend Alex Adams shout out he's a number one male porn star ever he has like billions of views most viewed I never heard of him I know most people have because he does POV so you never see him oh you know but if you watch his stuff you're like oh I've seen this guy before so he like

really is like the king of like the step brother thing which that genre just like took off yeah but he has billions of views his name's Alex Adams but you probably have like don't he's he's not like on social media big he plays video games, but dude, makes millions of dollars, killing it.

And back in the day, I used to think like people who do adult entertainment don't make any money.

Yeah, yeah, especially men.

So I saw him go from like, and he's also sober or clean.

He's in recovery a long time.

Nice.

So I saw him get clean, start his like little film company by himself with $1, nothing, you know, and go from like Toyota Corolla to like multiple McLaren's and Rolls-Royce's.

Damn.

And at the time, he was super successful.

I was making money.

You You know, I was ready like a millionaire.

I was your age, 27.

And he, and I asked, like, how does it work?

And, dude, he like showed me like the ins and outs of it.

And I posted my first video.

And I would not show my face because I'm still like the CEO of this company.

And, dude, none of my videos were getting any views.

And you got to get views to make money.

Yeah.

The odds are.

Yeah.

So I was like, what am I doing wrong?

So I was like.

He does a lot of like talking, you know?

So then I started to talk in them and I got like the number one video in 2018.

No,

yeah, my video started making so much money.

And then I was like, oh my God, it's going to take off.

And then people started recognizing my voice.

So then I was like, dude, I can't own like a rehab and do this.

And then,

you know, I really am super loyal.

And like, dude, I didn't want to screw over my business partners.

And like, you know, drug rehab is such a sensitive thing.

Like, no one wants to send their daughter to a rehab that's like owned by a guy who's doing all entertainment.

People don't take, I'm also super young.

I started the treatment center at 25.

So like a lot of people already didn't take me that seriously so i overcompensated by being like super professional like um

man we just did things like buy the book you know and um

then when i left the treatment center i started posting my videos and i didn't realize that because of covid so many people had gotten into that industry that it was kind of what happened with my old industry was so saturated yeah i thought i was gonna make all this money and the videos make like a little bit of money like on of and stuff like that and like a little bit like on on Pornhub and X videos and stuff like that, but not like I imagined.

So, you know, I listened to one of your podcasts and you're saying like a lot of my success is like timing.

Yeah.

And like, yeah, I've had success.

I've also have done a lot of things that didn't work out because of timing.

Same.

Yeah, I've definitely had my share of those too.

Yeah.

Yeah.

OF is hard for guys too, I heard.

Anything adult is hard for guys, you know, because 99% of the clients are men.

Right.

So it's like...

And you don't do gay content, so it's even tougher.

Yeah.

I mean, if you did any type of even sus content, you know, I know a kid who like, he makes like sus videos.

What's that?

Well, he'll make like a TikTok of like him and his friend doing something borderline gay.

Yeah.

But he doesn't do anything gay like on camera, but he'll send like solo videos to guys.

Like I've had guys ask me for like, I had this guy offer me like $1,200 for my underwear.

Damn.

And I was like, One, like, I don't need the money that bad.

I don't even feel right sending my underwear to like another man.

I feel that.

So it's like,

but I did ask him how much would you pay just to see?

And I just like kept upping it.

And he was like, yeah.

And he said he'd pay up to $1,200.

I was like, no.

Holy crap.

Like, I just couldn't do it.

It's tempting, though.

Yeah, I mean, I guess if I really needed the money, but it's like, I'm already successful.

Like, I don't really need $1,200 that bad.

So I was just like, nah, I don't feel comfortable doing it, you know?

But I don't know.

Like, I refuse to do any of that.

Even like when some of the men like message the OF page,

like when they're clearly interested in me, I'm like I just can't do that I feel that you gotta hit up Adam 22 yeah do a little collab with Lena yeah that'll skyrocket your numbers Jason love I heard made a ton off that video yeah so he made a ton of that video because that was like the first boy girl that she had did and because he's just a giant black dude and they're white and interracial stuff like that just pops off but like even with like podcasts so imagine this I'm sure so many people are like oh if you get this guest on your show it's gonna pop up yeah doesn't work no it's not like that it's not like that at all like I had a podcast for a long long time, Hell Has an Exit, and dude, we would pay big money for a lot of guests.

Yeah.

And yeah, it would help, but it wouldn't.

So a lot of people think, like, in the adult industry, oh, if you shoot with this person, you'll blow up.

It's not really like that.

It's kind of like you just have to keep pumping out good content.

Facts.

And dude, I've shot with some girls that look like the girl next door.

They're not like the most attractive looking girl.

They're very average looking and they will do way better than like a superstar girl that everyone knows.

Wow.

I've shot with girls that they only did that one video with me and everyone wants to see more videos of them because they're not known yeah so you know yeah like it would be cool to do something with atom 22

and um but it's like that's not a game changer for your career that's relatable though because with the pod i'll have on huge celebrities sometimes and it won't get as many views as just a normal guy dude i've listened to i remember i saw a podcast with one of like my favorite artists and it was mike posner right no i saw i saw his on your show yeah but that only got like 10k and i'm like oh really like mike posner Wow.

That should have gotten 100K.

Yeah, I love him.

And I'm such a fan.

He's like one of my favorite people just because I followed his whole trek to Everest.

Yeah.

Which is dope.

His hike across the country.

Yeah, his story is so cool.

But I just think that, I mean, I was surprised that it got 10K.

I actually haven't listened.

I was trying to listen to it today.

I was like, I wonder if it came out yet.

It's out.

It's out, yeah.

But I was like, damn, because.

Yeah, he's such a huge name.

Yeah, I think people don't know him.

Like, cause like I'll tell people, like, oh, you know, Mike Posner?

And people are like, no.

And then you play his song.

Yeah, and they're like, like yeah, but I'm also like a big Black Bear fan So I just that's a good one too.

Yeah, so I want to get that music.

Yeah, but it's like you would think and then even if it does go crazy I had videos get millions of views on tick-tock and it's like dude.

It's not bringing in a ton of money.

It's not I'm not Joe Rogan.

Yeah.

So even with the podcast like I stopped doing my podcast because dude, I had I probably put like 500 grand into my podcast.

Dude, most podcasts lose hella money.

I was unprofitable for six months.

the first six months.

I've been on profit for like three years.

Well, I never paid guests.

So yeah, I never was dangerous.

I was was paying guests.

I had like a whole team.

We were pushing out ads.

And not just that, like

we never ran ads.

So I know like sponsors.

Yeah.

Yeah, you need to.

I know.

I was just like, dude, I don't want to do ads.

That's how you offset everything.

I know.

And it's just like, and then we would do ads and we'd make like 500 bucks.

Yeah, it's not a lot, but it offsets all the like filming costs in the studio.

I was flying, you know.

So after a while, I was like, you know, I want to do something else.

So.

Yeah, don't start a pod to make money if you're watching this, guys.

You're not going to make shit.

Yeah.

And originally I did it.

You know, I did it just because I loved like having people's stories on there.

It's like an addiction podcast.

But then eventually I was like, well, let me throw all this money at this and see what happens.

And I was like, fuck that.

Yeah, I feel that.

So what are you working on now then?

I'm really trying to come out with my books.

So

since 17, I've been keeping a diary.

So I have like 40 composition books and probably like

I have word documents of diaries that are so big that you can't even open it.

It crashes.

Holy crap.

So like I've been keeping a diary for literally 16 years so every day you're writing it not every day but every day for probably four years nice yeah maybe five years almost every day and then after that I've kind of like did it once a week every two weeks sometimes I would go a couple months without writing but I would update like my whole life

so

I had it up for a while and honestly it like makes me so uncomfortable reading my old writings it's like

this kid is so fucked but like in my mind like um i don't know i'm like i don't want to see that stuff like yeah i would imagine anyone reading their old diary kind of like a super cringe.

But I did put it out, like, before I had the treatment centers, and there are people today who still know me from that.

Wow.

But

I just love helping like addicts.

So, like, whether I do the podcast or not, I'll always kind of do something creative to like spread that message.

Yeah, I'm sure you get messages daily.

Yeah.

You've saved probably hundreds of lives indirectly that you don't have to do it.

Yeah, dude.

I get so many DMs all the time.

I just got one the other day.

Someone read it to me that runs the Instagram page and it's like, dude, I get so many people who are like, bro, I had no idea that recovery was even a thing because where they live, when they go to meetings, it's all like older people.

And he literally flew down, went to South Florida, started going to meetings, and it's clean like three years, and he did the podcast.

Wow.

So it's like, you know, we've had like people that are like.

podcast alumni who like they started off as listeners they were using and now they have years clean that's cool so yeah that's inspiring because that's relatable you know for sure yeah that's super cool teddy where can people find you and what you're up to next uh you can find me at teddy.tarantino and Twitter.

I think it's just Teddy Tarantino.

And yeah, that's what you're doing.

We'll link below, brother.

Thanks for coming on.

Thanks for watching, guys.

Thank you, bro.

Yep.

Thanks for watching, guys.

As always, see you next time.