X
Jul 14
  • Written By Christiana Kimmich

    • #56 – Michael G Dash

    #56 - Michael G Dash

    Michael Dash’s Story

    Michael Dash is a recovering addict and the best-selling author of Chasing The High, the Founder of FATE – (From Addict To Entrepreneur), a mentor, speaker and philanthropist.  

    He struggled with multiple addictions throughout the course of his life, with the main one being gambling, which he was introduced to at 11 years old.  Struck with an unrelenting drive to succeed in life, Michael’s addictions grew to also include work, cocaine, marijuana and adderall just to name a few.  He worked harder and longer than anyone he knew and built a $5.5 million dollar a year company. 

    After growing resentful of the very business he built, he made some intense life changes and realized that true fulfillment is helping others in relatable situations to change their lives as well.  

    This led Michael to write Chasing The High and build F.A.T.E., a program designed for entrepreneurs and business leaders to take back control of their compulsive and addictive behaviors and step back into the leader they were born to be.

    Michael is insightful, hilarious and energetic, and he shares some incredible information in this tell-all interview.

    Additional Information

    Subscribe to The Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast

    Resources Mentioned

    Our Sponsor

    Connect with Us

    ****

    Episode Transcript

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Hello beautiful people. Welcome to the Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast. My name is Ashley Loeb Blassingame and I am your host. Today we have Michael Dash. Michael is a recovering addict and the best-selling author of Chasing the High, the founder of Fate: From Addict to Entrepreneur, a mentor, speaker and philanthropist. He struggled with multiple addictions throughout the course of his life, with the main one being gambling, which he was introduced to at 11 years old.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    He was struck with an unrelenting drive to succeed in life. But Michaels addictions grew to also include work, cocaine, marijuana and Adderall just to name a few. He worked harder and longer than anyone he knew and built a $5.5 million a year company. After growing resentful of the very business he built, he made some intense life changes and realized that true fulfillment is helping others in relatable situations to change their lives as well. This led Michael to write Chasing the High and build Fate, F-A-T-E, a program designed for entrepreneurs and business leaders to take back control of their compulsive and addictive behaviors, and step back into the leader that they were born to be. Michael is insightful, hilarious and energetic. He shares some incredible information in this tell-all interview. Please enjoy. Michael Dash. All right Episode 56. Let’s do this.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Michael, thank you so much for being here.

    Michael G Dash:

    Thank you so much for having me.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    I’m so excited. And I’ll tell you why. Because I understand most addictions, I can relate to most addictions, even some of the weird ones. Okay? I can imagine myself in the shoes of that person. Gambling addiction is one of the ones I cannot relate to, gambling terrifies me. I have no understanding of why this is. There must be something wrong with me. But gambling terrifies me because I want to know I’m going to get my money’s worth from whatever it is. I would rather buy something than gamble and win money. So my thing is, when I go to Vegas with my husband, my problem is every time I win, I want to walk, every time.

    Michael G Dash:

    That’s not a problem actually, that’s actually smart.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    But I’ll win $5, and I’ll be like, “I won, I’m done. I’m ready.” That’s where even my with my addictive personality. So I’m very excited to pick your brain about gambling addiction, overcoming it, what that looks like. How long has it been since you last gambled?

    Michael G Dash:

    Great question. I will have my 15th anniversary from my last in June, June 15th. So it’s 15 years, June 15th, about a month away.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Amazing. You count it from the last bet?

    Michael G Dash:

    Correct.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Okay. I know you’ve struggled with drugs and alcohol.

    Michael G Dash:

    Not alcohol.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Not alcohol, with drugs. Okay. So do you have a recovery there? How do you define your recovery?

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, look in the recovery space, everybody likes to use their date, and it’s a big to-do, and everything. But let’s be honest, it’s another day in our life. It might be monumental. It might have been like a day where it was the last time we did something that we were able to overcome. So we want to celebrate that, and I can certainly appreciate that. However, besides gambling, gambling is the only thing I have a date attached to.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    God. Okay,

    Michael G Dash:

    Because for me, gambling started at 11 years old and was with me for 20 years on almost a daily basis. Yeah, from 11 on. That was a true addiction like no other and even though-

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Hardwired.

    Michael G Dash:

    Hardwired. Even though the drugs were a different addiction, right? The only thing I can really compare to it was Adderall. Because Adderall, unlike the other drugs where I would be a weekend partier, I could compartmentalize those drugs, I could not do that with gambling. When I was on Adderall, I could not do that with Adderall either. It was an everyday obsession, where if I did not gamble, if I did not research gambling, if I did not take an Adderall, physically, I wouldn’t feel right in both of those circumstances. Mentally, I would be all over the place.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right. It’s the power of the reptilian brain, that part of our brain that controls all our autonomic functions, it controls that. So where where did you grow up?

    Michael G Dash:

    I grew up in Park Ridge, New Jersey, Northern, Northern New Jersey, right outside, probably a 40-minute drive outside New York City.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Okay, what was your childhood? Like?

    Michael G Dash:

    I was the father, I was the father. I was the son of an entrepreneur. I hope I wasn’t the father. I was the son of a-

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Plot twist.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, exactly. I was the son of an entrepreneur. I grew up working in my father’s warehouse. All the guys in there gambled. They would take me to the Meadowlands Racetrack, which was a 30-minute shot right down Route 17, where my father’s store was in Paramus, New Jersey. Those early teenage years, I was always chasing the high, that really set the groundwork for my entire life. Growing up, I knew two things. I knew that I loved gambling and that I wanted to be an entrepreneur, like my dad. Little did I realize that years later in college, I would fulfill that desire to become that entrepreneur. I just never imagined in my wildest dreams it would be as a bookie and a drug dealer.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right, right. Exactly. You didn’t get … When you had those dreams, you weren’t specific enough about what you wanted.

    Michael G Dash:

    I wasn’t fidgeting. I was watching too much Godfather, and Scarface, and Sopranos because I’m from New Jersey, of course.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right.

    Michael G Dash:

    So the Sopranos was a big deal. But that was later in life. Yeah, watching too many of those shows.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    So I have heard people say you only have a gambling problem if you’re losing. What do you think about that?

    Michael G Dash:

    I think that’s crocker shit. That’s like saying you only have an alcohol problem if you get a DUI.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right, right.

    Michael G Dash:

    It’s absurd.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    It is absurd.

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, addiction is an addiction. People say that who want to deny that they actually have a problem, so they say because I would say the same thing. Because people had told me I had a gambling problem, I told them they’re out of their mind. They don’t know what they’re talking about. I just enjoy it. I don’t have a problem.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    So it starts off with little, little bet or watching people make bets, right?

    Michael G Dash:

    No, I gambled right away. At 11 years old.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    You had money.

    Michael G Dash:

    Well, here’s the deal. Okay. I’m 11 I’m walking in to my Grandma Agnes’, God bless her soul, her house for Thanksgiving weekend in Massachusetts that we did every year around Thanksgiving. You smell the turkey cooking. You got that marshmallow covered yams, the delicious stuffing mashed potatoes, all of it. Right? Everybody’s eating. I’m just watching my uncle who’s glued to the television, watching football games and cheering exorbitantly while everybody’s in a different side of the house. I like sit next to my uncle who I thought he was the cool uncle. I want to know why he’s so excited about these games. He takes out this sheet of games with lines on it.

    Michael G Dash:

    Okay. So you have your favorites and your underdogs and the spread, when I say lines, I mean the spread. So the spread of the game could be three points, four points, five points. He shows me that he circled four games, and he bet $10. If he wins, this is the fourth game. He won the first three. If he wins it, he gets $100 back. From that moment, I was hooked. I said, “Can I have one of those?” He said, “Yeah, you need $10.” So I ran over to my Mom and I asked her for $10. She said no. I went to my dad and asked him for $10 and said I’m hanging out with Uncle Joel after, we’re going to go buy hoagies. That’s what they call them up in Massachusetts, the big sandwich with a lot of meat on them. They’re hoagies, they’re the meatball sandwich with sauce. I don’t know. Oh my god, I love those sandwiches.

    Michael G Dash:

    So he gave me $10 . Then I bet on four games. Over the next two days, I won all four games. The first bet I made and 11 years old, I won. That started that 20-year. I was watching my uncle, per se. He introduced me to it and it just excited me. It was just that competitive spirit I had. I just loved the rush and I loved the chase for money at such an early age. That just continued more and more and more and more and more. Throughout this, I was always a hard worker because all I knew about my father is he was the first one in the office and the last one out of the office. he wasn’t around a lot for me in different extracurricular activities as I was in high school and everything, but he worked his ass off. So I followed him. I really worked, worked very hard and became a really good salesperson like he was. So throughout all of these other addictions, I was addicted to the chase of money as well, which is when you need to put it down.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right, so that was going to be my next question. What was your dad’s relationship with money? His feelings when he talked to you about money as a kid?

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, he’s very frugal. He’s very conservative with his money. He’s like the exact opposite of me. I don’t know if he was always like that. I don’t think he was always like that. Like in the 70s, he had a cafeteria, he was in a totally different business in Texas. That kind of went belly up, but he’s very conservative. I would throw money around a lot because I had a good amount of it because I was earning a lot of money because I was a hardcore salesperson. I went door to door selling Home Improvements in college in Northeast Baltimore, Southwest DC, some of the toughest areas. I mean, I remember walking down the street in Southwest Baltimore with a window knocking on people’s doors and being called the white devil.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Oh dear.

    Michael G Dash:

    Because I was the only white person in that neighborhood. Right?

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right, you were.

    Michael G Dash:

    They think I’m trying to scam them, giving them my spiel and everything like that. At the end of the day, it turns out I didn’t know any better. I was in college. I just want to make money. I kind of was, it kind of was a scam, the whole thing, but I didn’t know that. I didn’t know any better. But anyway, I was knocking on these doors and had some very interesting experiences there. If you can sell anything door to door, then you can sell anything anywhere. That’s when I knew when I was successful in that, I got a raise in that I started becoming a manager there. That’s when I knew sales was my passion.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right? So were there times when … I mean, I’m sure there were times where you didn’t have money, where you didn’t have enough like. What did you feel about yourself without the things? Your identities were around being a salesman, being a hard worker, dad, being an entrepreneur, you being an entrepreneur, making money when you didn’t have those-

    Michael G Dash:

    And partying.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    And partying. Right? Okay. When you didn’t have those things, what was left?

    Michael G Dash:

    I had them at an early age, so I wasn’t even in … I mean, now, I don’t have any of that. I don’t do any of that stuff. So it’s different now. But back then, it was all about … When I went into college, I started selling … My roommate got shot with a 357 Magnum by his ex-girlfriend.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    What’d he do?

    Michael G Dash:

    I think he cheated on her, and it blew out his tricep. They had to actually do surgery to cut arteries. I shouldn’t say arteries, to cut some some something out of his calf and stuff, to give them a mobility, his tricep and his fingers and the nerves and everything. So I remember that. I remember coming back from spring break, and he had all these drugs. He just like, “You should try this and you should try this,” and I did. I tried everything. I was very interested in all that. Then I got hooked and then I started dealing drugs. So I was working in Home Improvements. So I had money coming in which I would gamble, of course.

    Michael G Dash:

    Then I had a lot of credit cards. So when I needed to, I would pull money off of credit cards to pay debts. Then I would work to pay off the credit cards. So I would just be moving money all around. So I had access to availability of money, even if it wasn’t really mine. I would move it around and everything. I would always pay things back, because I was doing relatively well. Then I started selling drugs. So I mean, I was literally moving massive amounts of drugs at University of Maryland where I went to college.

    Michael G Dash:

    I took a trip driving from University of Maryland to the University of New Mexico, and I asked my father if I could borrow his Lincoln Continental. I mean, I’m like 20 years old driving a Lincoln or 21 driving his Lincoln Continental. I picked up 22 pounds of marijuana at the University of New Mexico and drove it across the country back to the University of Maryland. As a business, I looked at it as a business deal. I could get $300 a pound in New Mexico and sell it for $800 a pound in Maryland. I’d make 500 a pound. If you’re talking 20 pounds, you’re talking $10,000. I mean, a college kid getting 10 grand, that’s a lot of money. So it’s a lot of money in general, but especially if you’re in college, and this is 20 years ago. Not to date myself. So I when I made that money, I took two friends down to Atlantic City with the 10 grand. In three days, we gambled it all away and spent it all on girls, and gambling, and booze, and partying. Three days it was gone.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Was it worth it?

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, it’s a great story, but no. I mean it was foolish behavior, because I got away with so much that I wasn’t caught for any of my unruly unlawful behavior until later in life when it caught up to me.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    What were some of your craziest bets or craziest stories from those days?

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, what comes to mind is going … Every year, we would fly from New York, New Jersey to Las Vegas for the NCAA Tournament. If anybody knows anything about gambling in general, the NCAA Basketball Tournament happens every year and is the largest sports gambling event of every single year. Las Vegas makes so much money during these weekends because they’re just back to back to back to back games. 64 teams playing in this tournament. I’m sure you’re familiar with March Madness. That’s what it all is.

    Michael G Dash:

    On the way to an epic four-day weekend, we would gamble on the airplane. Because I couldn’t stop, I gambled everywhere. We would play something that you call Liar’s Poker. So like Liar’s Poker is if you take out a $10 bill or any dollar bill, but let’s just use $10. For an example. There are serial numbers on every bill and on a $10 bill. So I would have a $10 bill, and the person I was betting against would have a $10 bill. You would have to gamble on the numbers, the total amount of a particular number on each bill combined.

    Michael G Dash:

    So I would start, and I would say three eighths, both of our bills would have to be three or more eights, right, but I wouldn’t see the other person’s bill of course. Then they would come back and they would have to up that. So they would say four twos. Then I would say four fives and they would say four nines and then I’ll call bullshit. If there weren’t a combined four nines, I would win. If there was more, the other person would win. If it was exactly on the nose, you would have to pay double.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Oh wow, how long was the flight?

    Michael G Dash:

    The flight’s five hours or four and a half hours or whatever. So one of the flights I had lost $1500 before I even got to Las Vegas. So I mean I’m in my 20s. That’s a lot of money for me. I was miserable as hell after landing, starting a four-day weekend so that would immediately go to I go to get high I can’t deal with deal, even think about that. I don’t even want to think about it, blah, blah, blah. I allotted myself like 2000 for the whole weekend and 1500 is gone already. So those were some of the out of control. Then I would like to stay up for days doing coke and gambling in Las Vegas, for like three or four days straight and like be absolutely mortified with myself and want to be on the verge of committing suicide.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Then what would bring you back? Why wouldn’t you commit suicide?

    Michael G Dash:

    I think just getting out of that drug-induced state, and then sitting in the depression of it. I don’t really know why I’d never committed suicide, but I was very close to it.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah. So you’re selling drugs? Did you graduate college?

    Michael G Dash:

    Four years.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah.

    Michael G Dash:

    I kept it all together. Nobody really … Well, in college. I was a different human than I am now than I was at then. I mean, I had hair down to my shoulders, three earrings. I was doing steroids, I was all jacked up. I mean, I had a major anger issues, mostly because probably the steroids and the other drugs. So yeah, from that perspective, from that perspective, I was you knew something I was kind of unruly, let’s put it that way. But afterwards like I lead a double life, nobody really knew I had all these issues going on. I gambled with my friends, they would talk to my friends about gambling. I’d be out partying, and I’d have games that I’d bet on and I’m checking my phone all the time everywhere I am.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right. How did you how did that work in romantic relationships?

    Michael G Dash:

    Oh, my romantic relationship was with gambling.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right, and you never-

    Michael G Dash:

    I would have relationships, but I mean, I wasn’t present mentally. I was there physically, I wasn’t present mentally. The girls I would date back then were into the drug scene like I was. So we would relate around that again, they couldn’t relate to gambling, but they didn’t care. We were partying, we’d have a good time together and that was the extent of it.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    To me, the allure feels like I mean going to Vegas, gambling, strippers, money, drugs. That sounds like an amazing weekend to me, right? Sign me up. That’s glamorous, right? But what you’re saying is that the experience itself, those experiences did not make you feel, like it didn’t work. It didn’t fill whatever void. It didn’t end well. It wasn’t a fulfilling experience.

    Michael G Dash:

    Well, at the end of the day, you’re alone. You’re left alone in a room, feeling soulless, feeling empty, feeling lonely, feeling depressed, feeling confused. None of those are good feelings. No, and then those feelings lead to depression and then eventually thoughts of suicide. That’s what they left. At the end of the day, yeah, I mean, it does sound great if you did it once in your life.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right. That’s true.

    Michael G Dash:

    It’s not great when you do it all the time because I would go back to New York City in my 20s, I’d go back to New York City, I’d still party, I’d still be gambling, and I’d still be at the strip clubs, I’d still be doing all that stuff. So it wasn’t like an anomaly. It was like an every weekend thing.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    That’s such a great point. That’s such a great point. It truly is. It truly is the difference between addiction and partying which is something that is glamorous, and wild, and out of control, and whatever, rebellious, whatever you want to call it, sinful, indulgent. You do it one weekend, right? You do it one week, whatever, that is a totally different experience than when you’re doing it every weekend. You’re totally right, because it loses all of its … I remember, I’ve been in Vegas loaded before. It just is so bad. It’s so grimy. There’s something for me. My experience being loaded in that city was like I just couldn’t get out. I could not get out of that city.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, I mean, the ironic thing is when I got sober from gambling, it seemed weird to say that. But when I got when I stopped gambling or whatever, took me five years until I could go back to Vegas. I was doing business with companies in Vegas. See, I started later in life. I moved to Salt Lake City, Utah and started a recruiting company. It was a technology recruiting company. I was working with casinos in Vegas.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah, of course. I mean …

    Michael G Dash:

    Obviously.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah.

    Michael G Dash:

    Duh.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    I mean got to use what you know, I love it.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yes. Then I was staffing software engineers to companies who manufacture slot machines. I would go down every year. I’d go to all of the conventions and all of that. I tell you, Vegas is a completely … So it took me five years to go back there. When I went back there, I went to a casino that didn’t have gambling. It was Trump’s casino down there. It’s not even a casino. It’s a hotel, but it’s like one of the only hotels that doesn’t have a casino in it, so you can stay away from having to walk through the casino because at that point, I couldn’t do it.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah.

    Michael G Dash:

    So I would go down there. Eventually, I was able to do it because the thought of gambling to me disgusts me. I can now actually … I mean, I don’t do this, but my father used to tell me a story because my dad had pass in gambling also. So my father used to tell me he would go into the casinos and just watch people lose, and that’s how he stopped gambling. So I couldn’t do that. But I do remember like only a few years ago, and I’m almost 15 years clean, I was down there maybe three years ago for a bachelor party or something. My friends were gambling at a blackjack table.

    Michael G Dash:

    I stood there and after 10 minutes, I felt completely uncomfortable. I didn’t trust myself. Because in the wrong situation under the right set of circumstances, I still don’t trust myself. I left. I’m like, guys, I got to go. I can’t sit here and stare at you gambling because I would want to sit down and start gambling. So I left. But generally, I try to stay away but it is interesting now that I’m not drinking either and I’m not doing drugs, going down there. There’s actually a lot of other things to do in Vegas than strippers, hookers, gambling and drugs. There is a lot of other things that it offers you and you can start appreciating those things a little bit more.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Totally. It’s funny, going to Vegas sober and also a lot older, married kids. It’s just a totally different experience. Of course, I see the girls in the dresses, carrying their shoes and after the club. I remember the whole thing, right? I’m coming from a show or dinner or whatever. I laugh like, oh, how different things can be.

    Michael G Dash:

    It’s better on this side, I tell you. Obviously, when you’re in your 20s, you go have fun. You do it once a year. It’s cool, it’s fun.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    No, you’re so right, you’re so right. It’s overdoing it.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, well, or the repetition of it. That’s what defines addiction, when you have to do it every single weekend or every single day or every single moment you’re thinking about it. That defines the addiction.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Absolutely. Talk to me about your quote unquote, “Bottom,” you’re turning point, finding Gambling Anonymous, Gamblers Anonymous, excuse me. Like what led up to that?

    Michael G Dash:

    Yes. So it’s an interesting story, not a typical story. I was driving back up to Massachusetts for Thanksgiving with my brother, just me and him, our parents were in a separate car. I remember it clear as day. It was an early Saturday morning, and like 10:00 AM. I was sitting next to him in the car. He put music on, I turned it to sports radio, he objected. We started an argument. He told me that he could not listen to Sports Radio anymore, because he went and was going to Gamblers Anonymous. We always gambled together or talked about gambling all the time.

    Michael G Dash:

    I kind of made fun of him like, “What do you mean you’re going to Gamblers Anonymous? What the hell’s wrong with you? I mean, they’re a bunch of degenerate losers in there. You’re not a degenerate loser. You’re 20 years old, 22 years old. I mean, you’re making good money. You’re going to that?” He’s just like, “No, I’m done gambling. I can’t listen to this. We’re listening to music.” So I gave in, and we listened to music. For that three and a half hour drive, it was the most soothing, mind calming drive, that I had been on up to that point in my life because I would always listen to like, “No, I need to know what’s going on with the injuries of the game, with the line of the game as it moved. Who’s everybody betting on? I need to prepare, there’s a game on later in the day.”

    Michael G Dash:

    So my mind was always racing with those thoughts, but just listening to music up there after the three and a half hour ride, I was like, “Wow, that was so soothing.” It sparked a curiosity in me to find out what did this Gamblers Anonymous do to my brother? I want my brother back. That was my thought process at the time. So he didn’t push it on me or suggested or anything.

    Michael G Dash:

    I said, you know what I want to go check out a meeting. I’m going to go next week. That’s what led me to my first meeting. I went to that meeting, and I felt within the first hour and looked around the room. I scanned the room, and I saw about 30 to 40 people. They all look like degenerate losers to me. After an hour and a half of listening to everybody’s story, I recognized that I had more in common with all of those people than I did with my very closest friends. I recognized that that was actually the place for me. I got a sponsor, and I worked the steps. I never gambled again.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Wow. Wow. That’s amazing. It’s amazing. It’s unusual for people to go to their first meeting, particularly under the circumstances where you’re trying to figure, you’re not like, “Oh, I need help,” and look for the similarities, right? People go to meetings. They look for the differences all the time, particularly when they’re going, “Oh, I want to see what’s up with these, what did they do to my brother?”

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, you look for reasons not to be there versus the reasons to be there.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right. Right. So those degenerates became your people.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah. 100%.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    It’s crazy how that happens.

    Michael G Dash:

    Well, I was one of them. Just because I was in my 20s making six figures in a suit didn’t mean shit.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right. That’s the confusing part. I remember going into like low bottom meetings where people were talking about shooting heroin, and they looked like degenerates. They described my story, they just were further along in it. They were shooting, they had shot all the money away. I still had some left. That was the only difference between us. I was doing all the same things and they were older. Yeah, it’s quite the eye opener. So what were some of the things that you did early on in Gamblers Anonymous to … I only know it as it relates to drugs and alcohol or relationships, things like that. I didn’t go into a bar for a while unless I had a good reason to be there. There were certain things that I did in early sobriety, kind of like you’re talking about, not going to Vegas for five years. What were some of the things? Because I would suspect that any sporting event would be triggering in the beginning.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, well, I mean, you’ve been in the program. So you know. For anybody listening to this, it’s people places and things. You have to change the people that you hang around with. You have to stop going to the places that you’ve been frequenting. You have to stop doing the things that you were doing. I did that in righter ways. I eased up on hanging out with the same quote-unquote, “friends” of mine that I gambled with all the time, because 95% of them when I stopped gambling, went away. They weren’t friends.

    Michael G Dash:

    There were 5% that I was friends with before I gambled and I grew up with. I’m still friends with, right? But 95% went away. I would stop going to the places I went, to the bars every weekend to watch the games, I wouldn’t go, to Las Vegas, to Atlantic City, to the horse track, to the weekly card games, so all of these things that I would participate in, every single week, I stopped doing. The things I put on a technology called Gam Block on my computer. Gam Block will shut down any application that is related to gambling or sports related. It will shut it down when you try to open it up. So it served as a roadblock for me.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    I love that one.

    Michael G Dash:

    So I had to put roadblocks in place. This was one of the roadblocks. The other roadblock was I called the casinos because I didn’t trust myself. I told them not to ever give me any credit line or anything, and not to allow me in if they saw me there. If you call them, they won’t give you credit if you ask them not to prior. So these are the things that I put in place as roadblocks in. I had a sponsor that I would rely on when I needed to. That sponsor would call me and insist on knowing.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Those are awesome. Thank you for sharing that.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Stay tuned to hear more in just a moment.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Hi, it’s Ashley, your beloved host. When I’m not hosting the Courage to Change: A Recovery Podcast, I’m running the Recruiting Department at Lionrock Recovery. We are always looking for amazing licensed mental health counselors, along with various other sales and operations positions that pop up from time to time. The Lionrock culture is one of collaboration, support and flexibility. Our employees work from home offices all over the country, utilizing technology to connect to one another. We are always hiring. So if you want to have the best job ever, check out our open positions and apply at www.LionrockRecovery.com/About/Careers.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    What about those things where I found that some of the obvious things in my recovery were easier, like don’t go to the bar, don’t hang out with your drug dealer. But there were things that happened where it was like … This is just a weird one. I went to school abroad. One of the field trips was one of like … The school field trip was to a winery. I found myself in a winery. There are situations where I can imagine you’re … The one I think of is you’re in a restaurant with brands or whatever. There’s those big TVs, and there’s a game on, or you go or your family. You go home and there’s a game on or like what were some of the things you didn’t expect that you had to adjust for?

    Michael G Dash:

    Well, it was more like when my friends who I still hung out with would talk about the lines of a game. Then that would get into the … I would be like the want who’d want to listen. Yeah, I would. If I started listening, and then I referenced the game they were talking about that was on at the restaurant, then I’m getting way too close to what’s going on. So I would walk away.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    But the game being on was okay?

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, it was fine, because I didn’t know what that line was. I didn’t really care. I wasn’t rooting for anybody. All about the line and knowing what the line is and what the money chips and all that other stuff. But at the same time, one of the other things I had to stop doing which I failed to mention was fantasy football and fantasy sports because fantasy is huge. Everybody plays fantasy. People who don’t gamble, like play fantasy. Then you have that whole group of other people that tell you, “Well, fantasy isn’t gambling.” Yes, it is. I’m sorry to tell you. Yes, it is. Okay. Anything that you are risky, any game of chance that you’re risking any amount of money where the outcome is uncertain, is gambling.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Okay, great. So that leads us to the next piece, right? So I’m an entrepreneur, you’re an entrepreneur, right? I mean, in our business, we made some took some big risks. That’s what entrepreneurs do. Tell me about you got clean, and you started this recruiting company. That’s a gamble, right? How in the entrepreneur world and using … How do you measure risk, I guess is the question.

    Michael G Dash:

    Oh, how do you measure risk?

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right? The risk that’s too big.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, yeah. I get it. I’m a risk taker in general. But when you say starting a business is gambling, I don’t look at it that way. But if I reframed it that way, I would say, “Okay, I could agree with that. But it’s a gamble on myself.” None of those other things I was gambling on were investing in myself. I look it more as it’s an investment in myself. It’s not really a gamble.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    I love that, yeah.

    Michael G Dash:

    When I’m investing in myself, or as you would say, gambling in yourself, it’s a different point because I’m in control.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Okay. Okay. Yeah. No, that makes total sense to me.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah. So that’s how I look at it. I’ve always been able to generate money because I’m a very good salesperson. So I never like … It’s not risk to me. That’s just what I do.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right. Right. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense. So you started this company. You moved to Salt Lake City, started this company. It’s doing well, tell me about that.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah. So I shifted addictions. I went to Salt Lake City. Actually, I remember clear as day. The second day, I looked up, where is the Gamblers Anonymous meeting, the first thing I did when I got there., I was about a year sober at that point, two years sober at that point when I moved there. So I wanted to know, where’s the gamblers anonymous meeting? I was coming from a room of 40 people every week. It was at the VA, and I didn’t have a car yet. So I got a cab, didn’t even have Lyft and Uber, I got a yellow cab.

    Michael G Dash:

    It was driving me around in a new city, dropping me at the VA because that’s where the meeting was. I walked in and there were five people sitting there. I was like, “What the hell is this?” I’m used to a 40-person meeting and that is five people. That was the extent of the meeting in Utah. There was only one meeting, it’s so sad, in the whole state. The whole state, there’s one Gamblers Anonymous meeting. There was only five people there. So people either didn’t know about Gamblers Anonymous, like they hadn’t had that.

    Michael G Dash:

    You can’t gamble in Utah, it’s illegal. There’s no legal gambling in Utah. But you could drive right down to Las Vegas, you can go to St. George. It’s right across from Vegas. You could gamble there right across from Nevada, and you could gamble there. So gambling was very close, you could drop, people would drive to Idaho to play the lottery. So when you have online gambling, you can do it from the seat of your couch. So you can do it anywhere. So even though technically it’s a clean state, right, and there’s no gambling there, you can gamble anywhere in the world, anywhere. It’s not like drugs where you have to go find a drug dealer.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right.

    Michael G Dash:

    Gambling, as long as you have a computer or a phone with internet, you can gamble.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    But don’t you need money?

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, yeah, well, you need credit.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    You need credit, okay.

    Michael G Dash:

    You don’t really need … I mean, if you have a credit card, you can gamble. So yes, technically you need money or you need access to credit. If you’re doing online gambling, it’s got to be credit or you deposit money in an account. But I had accumulated a bunch of credit at that point. I got credit cards from an early age. So I started early. I actually charged everything in my life because it’s free money. I don’t understand people who pay with cash because they are giving up points that can get them free flights. that can get them all these free things. But whatever. So I always used credit. I also needed access to cash because when I became a booky, if I was in the shore, I would need to pull down credit. I would need to pull off money from a credit line so I could pay people off.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right, right. Okay. So you go to this five person meeting, but you still decided to stay in Salt Lake.

    Michael G Dash:

    Well, I had started a business. So I already had business stuff going on. I started it in from New York, we had this huge client, EJ Financial. That’s what started me out there. So we already had a client, me and my ex business partner. Then we started building it from there. So I went into this meeting, it was a whack meeting. I was like, “Let me lead the meeting.” So I started leading the meetings, and I led the meetings there for five years. We built a good 15-person meeting for a while. Then I kind of fell out of it. But for good five years, I went every week. I led the meetings every week and worked the program, worked the steps multiple times.

    Michael G Dash:

    But the first year, year and a half, I didn’t work anything. I just didn’t gamble. So yeah, so I stayed in Utah, I was building my business and going to the bars because I was trying to meet. I was single, trying to meet women, trying whenever, became friends with a bunch of these guys. They introduced me to Adderall. I didn’t know what Adderall was before that. I knew what Ritalin was. I dabbled in Ritalin, but not Adderall. They told me how to get it from the doctor. So I went to the doctor. I made up some bullshit story and then bought it, and they gave me prescription. Adderall was just, I just got hooked to it like this. I mean, it’s like cocaine in a pill basically.

    Michael G Dash:

    I do have ADD, I do have ADHD, however you want to. So for me, it was like, “Well, this is helping me.” I get distracted very easily, and it really controlled my emotional level, Adderall. I was hooked quickly, and then I was introduced to GHP. That’s a complete opposite drug that it is originated I believe from the bodybuilding industry. It allows them to … It basically has no alcohol in it, but it gives you the effects of like you’re drunk and wasted. So bodybuilders could take it and get that feeling. It wouldn’t like add calories to the diet or anything like that. However, it is also known more in the mainstream world as the date rape drug, which obviously is a horrible thing to be attached to a drug you’re addicted to, because people think you’re using it for other reasons.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, I mean, I would take it with my boys on the weekends, and it was just another party drug that we would use. You could also have sex for hours on it nonstop. So I was addicted to Adderall. I was addicted to GHP. I was smoking weed every night, shabu. I had stopped the cocaine use though I was done with cocaine. I hated it. I kind of stopped doing all that.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Okay? What happened with the business that as that progressed?

    Michael G Dash:

    So as I progressed, business kept growing. We were doing about five and a half million a year in revenue. Me and my business partner started having different visions, I ended up buying her out. Then six months later, we got into a lawsuit over the buy agreement that I felt she violated. She basically stole a bunch of my employees, in my view. I had paid her a million dollars for the company, and I owed her 350,000 more. I had to borrow, I had about half of that million that I’d saved up over 10 years of working. I had to borrow the rest, and then the 350 those payments I owed her after.

    Michael G Dash:

    When she was violating the agreement, I sent the letter that we’re going to do an internal investigation, and she sued me. So that started a lawsuit that lasted six years that was fueled by the Adderall, fueled by my emotional decision making and the trauma that I still had with the chaos in my life that I hadn’t really worked on myself. Yeah, I might have gotten sober and worked the steps, but truly worked on myself beyond that, no. I hadn’t done anything. I would just go from one thing to another to another to another. I was very busy and very involved all the time. I still am. It’s like one of the things. I’m just always involved in a lot of things.

    Michael G Dash:

    So I was actually running marathons at the time and raising money for Leukemia Lymphoma Society, and doing drugs, and running a business. I was just doing, doing. So working on myself. There wasn’t time to sit for myself to make journal, to think about mindset stuff, to do any of that. That stuff was just kind of starting back then. So I ended up in a place where I continued to destroy internally my soul. I made a lot of bad decisions that were emotional, and she did as well in this legal battle. Basically though, it was like Groundhog Day.

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, I was a jerk as a boss. I was an (beep) to my employees. Excuse the French. That is a French word, I don’t know if you ever came across. But I was jerk because I was so worried about closing every deal because I had a million dollars and legal bills piling up that I was trying to hide from my employees. So all this was going on. I would go home and self medicate. I would smoke every night. I would eat and have the sushi, and watch horrible reality television for two hours every night.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    The real crime.

    Michael G Dash:

    And isolate myself and become very depressed. Along that time, my partying got out of control, I got arrested. I got arrested twice. Once was the last trip I had taken to Vegas. I got arrested for possession of GHP. Actually they charged me with distribution because I had in a little five-hour energy, but when you take the liquid and you transfer it to what it would be in actual weight, it’s a huge amount. A small amount of liquid is huge. So they charged me with a felony which I pled down to misdemeanors. Then a couple years later, I got caught for DUI.

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, I had come from … You can’t make this shit up. I had come from a Christmas party at my lawyers. Five glasses of wine later, I’m arrested and in jail. So the ironic thing is nobody knew about either of those arrests because I bailed myself out. Thank God I wasn’t posted, my mug shot wasn’t posted on the internet. I was checking every day because I was like, “I’m going to be screwed. I’m the CEO. All employees in Utah, conservative Utah will be like, ‘Who are we working for? If they ever found any of this stuff out,” so I lost my license. I just made some bullshit up to them. I told them my Audi is out for six months, I ordered a part. It’s in Germany, and it’s not coming for six months. So I don’t have a car for six months. So can you guys drive to the meetings? They believed me.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah.

    Michael G Dash:

    I mean, why wouldn’t they?

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah, yeah. So how did you meet the business partner? Was that from New York?

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, we had worked in New York City together for one year before 9/11. Then she went back to Utah and I stayed in New York. We stayed in touch, and I worked in New York for four more years. Then I landed this deal with E-Trade. I was calling on E-Trade Financial. They said to me, “We don’t have any new work in New York and New Jersey. However, if you happen to know somebody in Sandy, Utah, we’re trying to hire 200 full-time financial service representatives in the next three and a half weeks.” I was like, boom. I was like, hello.

    Michael G Dash:

    So I called her up. I’m like, “Hey, I’m putting a bid on this project. Do you want to come in with me?? She’s like, “Yeah.” So we put a bid, and we won the bid. We didn’t have a company at the time. I was doing this on the side. My company in New York didn’t want any business outside, but that started the path to Utah. Because yeah, it’s such a random place. Like why would you move to Salt Lake City, Utah? So that’s kind of how it came about.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Well, what’s funny about that or some synchronicity is that Utah is a non gambling state.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Actually when you first said that, I was like, “Oh, that’s why he moved.” That’s how he picked Utah. So it’s interesting. It’s interesting that that the universe moving in mysterious ways. Okay, so this lawsuit was, so it was revenge-ish? It was like …

    Michael G Dash:

    No. I didn’t feel like it was revenge. I feel like I was getting completely screwed over, she was having an affair. My ex business partner was having an affair with my director in my India office. So we had offices in Utah, India, and New York, and Idaho for a time. She was doing it behind like, I didn’t even know about it, which is fine, because I don’t need to know about her personal life. However, it’s not fine when you negotiate a deal with somebody, and then you inherit this guy as a director, and he’s having an affair with the person that hate you, you guys hate each other.

    Michael G Dash:

    So obviously, he’s not going to have a vested interest to work hard for me. I just paid a million dollars, that’s a lot of money which I had to borrow half of it. So I was under a lot of stress. The company had to perform, and here she is doing this behind my back. I never would have paid what I paid for it. But more importantly, the NB Office was a million-dollar producing office and it started tanking within the first six months. She was over there four times in six months. She was married with two kids over here.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    I guess, shifting, the lawsuit, you ended up having a million dollars in legal fees. I mean, did you come out of that situation ahead?

    Michael G Dash:

    Ahead in life.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Okay, okay. Fair.

    Michael G Dash:

    Because I have a lifetime of lessons that I learned throughout that situation that has allowed me to live a much healthier life, to understand the downs and pitfalls of emotional decision making and to really understand what matters most in life, and it’s not about how much money you have in your pocket. It’s how and what you do with your time because you can earn, you can make millions, you can lose millions. But one thing you can’t get back is the time that you’ve wasted on these things in your life. Whether it’s the addiction, whether it’s the lawsuit, whatever it was. So no. I went to trial. I was on the stand five times.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Oh wow.

    Michael G Dash:

    It was brutal. They they destroyed my credibility. They tried to all this stuff. The jury ruled, the case was over 350. The jury actually ruled in my favor that I only ordered 90K, but she was threatening to appeal, which would last another one to two years. I was already six years in, my life was miserable at that point. I hated life. I felt stuck. I wanted out of the company. I hated the company that I built. So I ended up settling for the same 350 that I owed her six years prior, just a million dollars later, and a million lessons later.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah, thank god the million lessons. I would say there are people who probably do things like that, don’t pay attention, don’t absorb the lessons. That-

    Michael G Dash:

    I could’ve easily fell back into addiction for sure.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Right, right. What did you do?

    Michael G Dash:

    I sold the business, and paid off the lawsuit, and wrote a book. That’s what I did.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    How did you go from the drug addiction, fueling the drug addiction to selling the business, like absorbing these things? What was the transition there?

    Michael G Dash:

    Everything was a slow progression for me, nothing was like on the same level. The GHP, I stopped doing because I got arrested for the second time while I was on this stuff. I poured, I had like a two liters of it, two liters of GHP, which would get me in jail for 10 years. It’s like $2,000. I dumped $2,000 down the toilet, I remember to this day, there was a liberating feeling. The Adderall is a very interesting story because I can remember that as clear as day.

    Michael G Dash:

    I used to keep my Adderall in my front desk drawer, okay, in my office. I would walk into the office, open my drawer, there’d be an Adderall. I’d pop my Adderall, off and running. I walked in one day, I pulled a drop and there was no Adderall left. I started freaking out. I called my doctors, they weren’t even in yet. I left them a message like, “Hey, I need my Adderall prescription filled today. I am out. I got to have it or it can’t function.” They didn’t call me back. I was every phone call that was coming in that day. I was like, “Is that the doctor? Is that the doctor?”

    Michael G Dash:

    Then 9:00 came, 10:00 came, 11:00 came. In my mind, I’m like, “I’m driving over there at lunchtime.” Then 12:00 PM, and then I drove over to the doctor’s office and there was a line of people. I sat in line. Then I was like, “Hi, I’m Michael Dash. I called earlier.” They’re like, “Oh, yeah, for the Adderall prescription.” They’re like, “We got your message. What are you doing here?” I’m like, “Well, you didn’t call me back.” They’re like, “Well, look around. It’s packed with people. We haven’t had an opportunity. We were going to give you a call back. The doctor can’t see you for three days. He’s jam packed. So earliest, we could see you is four days from now.”

    Michael G Dash:

    I’m like, “Look, I just need my prescription filled, I need it filled. I need it filled.” They’re like, “We can’t do it.” I went back into my car, and I was dejected as could be. I just sat there in silence. I was just like, you have an addiction. You are addicted to Adderall, because I was in a panic in a state of flux, thinking, who can I call for this Adderall. Then it was right there, then I was like, you’re in addiction again. I just went back to my office and I said, “All right, I’ll make the appointment for four days from now, I’m not going to do anything until then.” Then over those three days, my employees started noticing changes in me, and the changes in how I was communicating with them, how I was leading them. This is just over a three day span, and how I was collaborating with them instead of talking down to them and telling them what they were doing wrong and what they needed to do right, and all these things.

    Michael G Dash:

    They asked me straight up, they’re like, “Are you okay? Is something wrong with you?” I’m like, “What do you mean?” They’re like, :No, you just seem so much more calm and so much more level headed,” and all these things. I was like, “Okay, I’m done. I’m done with the Adderall.” That’s when I quit. I haven’t done Adderall since. That was like two years ago.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    That’s awesome.

    Michael G Dash:

    So it’s interesting. My addiction journey, each has a story tied to it that doesn’t relate to the typical person’s addiction where they hit rock bottom. My stories are a little different. Because you would think like … Yeah, you would think different things that happen to me would be my rock bottom, but they weren’t. I had to learn a little bit more before it actually happened.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    I very much relate to that. So tell me about now and moving through so you you quit Adderall. Then you talk about finding this inner peace, and doing this inner work, and trauma work. You went to Bali. What happened?

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah. I took a trip to Bali. I was still in all of this really. Not the gambling but the other stuff. I went to Bali. It’s three years ago, three and a half years ago. It was a retreat called Unconventional Life. There were two people there speaking in one of the sessions about living in a state of flow by following a process of making decisions by following your intuitive guide, and your intuition, not your conscious mindset. This was all new to me, this is some shishi nonsense. I’m from back east, I don’t believe in this crap.

    Michael G Dash:

    But I challenged them. The whole premise of it is that if it’s not a hell yes in your life, then it should be a (beep) no in everything that you do. I just didn’t approach life like that. I would always be convinced to do things that I was like, “Yeah, I don’t really want to go. All right, you convinced me to go. Fine, I’ll go.” I would have it an eh time. I wouldn’t have a great time, regardless of what it was. Could we go out drinking, go out to the club, whatever, go to somebody’s house. I was always convinced into doing things . they weren’t a hell yes for me, but that’s how I lived my life at the time. Again, I thought they were full of (beep), but they explained this whole process they went through.

    Michael G Dash:

    I was in so much internal pain, misery, agony, frustration, all of it with the lawsuit, with the Adderall, with the GHP, with the marijuana, with the eating, with the TV, with everything, I was keeping it all inside. I didn’t talk to anybody about any of this stuff because I wasn’t going to GA at this time either. I didn’t talk to anybody then. So I was like tearing it up inside. I was torn up and miserable. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t know how to. So this flow thing, I decided on my trip back from Bali to New York to Salt Lake City, I kept saying to myself, would it be so bad to live a different way?”

    Michael G Dash:

    I just kept repeating myself. When I started really letting that sit with me, I thought a smile came on my face. I thought, “Oh my god, that feels so liberating.” For the first time in my life, I said, I’m going to go ahead and take this course. It’s something completely new to me. They’re offering this 10-week course. It was like $1200. I’m going to put my normal thought of they’re scamming me at $1200 aside. I’m not going to judge anything. I’m just going to do what they say. They took you through a process of clearing out your limiting beliefs through tapping an EMDR.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yes, yes.

    Michael G Dash:

    I started doing these things that I thought were totally weird.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Super weird.

    Michael G Dash:

    They’re super (beep) weird.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    But they do what they say they do, which makes it even scarier, because you’re like, “Oh my God, I don’t know what’s happening.” They were working.

    Michael G Dash:

    More than that, they talked about all these synchronicities that you can see in life and that you could manifest your future and all this (beep). Again I didn’t believe in that. Back east, it was like synchronicity. What are you talking about? I’m like, if you work hard, good (beep) happens). Then when they would talk about synchronicity, when you talk about manifestation, when they talk about synchronicity, I would say, “Look, it’s called coincidence. These things happen in life. There’s no such thing as synchronicity, give me a break.” Right?

    Michael G Dash:

    So I had an answer for everything. My answers were incorrect though. My answers came from a small, short sighted mindset that I had been living with and carrying all my life, but I started to expand it. I did this course. This course started shifting the dynamic of my thought process, and eventually allowed me to be in a position to say, the lawsuit, when you’re dead and buried, nobody’s going to give a (beep) if you want to lost this lawsuit. So get it out of your life. I eventually was able to get to that point because of the practice I was doing in the smoke. If anybody’s interested, it’s FlowConsciousnessInstitute.com, Jackie and Justin run it, you can get in touch with me. I’m glad to give you an intro. It is a life changer.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    I love it. That’s amazing. Now you’re doing executive coaching. Tell me about what you’re doing right now.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, so now, I am an executive coach to entrepreneurs, usually that are in the one to $5 million range, I help them take a top down approach. Look at their org charts, make sure they’re in line that people are in their lanes. They have the right roles and responsibilities, their departments are communicating effectively, documentation is in place, all that jazz, and help them double their profits. But I also work one on one with entrepreneurs, business leaders who are dealing with isolation. I help take them through this four-step process, they built to connection, starting with self recognition, and taking them through to actionable tasks and getting them reconnected with themself, with their family, with their employees and with their mission.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    When did you start doing that?

    Michael G Dash:

    Over the past year.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    How’s that been going?

    Michael G Dash:

    It’s going well. I’m involved in a lot of different things. I do a lot in the philanthropic community also, I have a nonprofit, I also created an alignment assessment that helps people align their daily activities, with their mission and goals in life. I’m actually giving a talk in a week and a half at an all female event where I am the only male speaking or attending, which is going to be interesting. My mother would be so proud. I’m going to present the alignment assessment to this group, but basically, I have … Anybody who’s interested, I can leave the information for you.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yeah, definitely.

    Michael G Dash:

    It’s a tool that allows you to track your activities over a 24-hour period of time and consciously look at what you were spending time on. Then to rate them on a scale of one to 10 give yourself an average alignment score, and then reassess the activities that fall below that alignment so then you could take your time and reallocate it to things that are getting you closer to your mission and goals in life. So many of us just go through life just doing doing, doing, doing and not actually tracking and assessing and planning. I know I was that person for years.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    So one of the things for me is as I’m like you. I like have a hand in everything. We talk about a human human doing rather than a human being, right? How in this alignment piece do you have people setting aside time to be in alignment with with relaxation and fun? Because I would think that would be a huge piece of the puzzle. that you work with, that they would struggle to be relaxed and fun and downtime more than actually the doing part.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah. Well, it’s a self assessment. So I can’t tell you if an activity you’re participating in is getting you closer to your goals, to your mission and things like that. But if you’re not in the right mindset, then you can’t be focused and really producing to get closer to your goals. So yes, doing mindset, doing meditation, doing those things, if you’re ranking those as a 10 for you, as a nine for you, then you’re in alignment, because that’s helping you get in the light.

    Michael G Dash:

    If you’re not though, then those are the activities you have to start eliminating. Then we go through a four step process where we tap into your curiosity, because what happens is as we become robotic human adult’s, right, where we are taught that the way to be be successful in life is to go to college, get a degree, get a job, get a promotion, find a spouse, get a house, have the children, get another promotion, get a nicer car, get a nicer house, have your kids go to better schools, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. It’s like I want to vomit when I say these words, because that is what traditional society has taught us, that is the way to live. That is the only way to live. That is the way to be successful, but it’s all a facade, it’s all (beep).

    Michael G Dash:

    So we blow that up. When we do that, you lose all curiosity that we’re born into this world with. As kids, we’ll stick a pile of mud in our mouth because we’re curious as to what it tastes like, right? But we lose the ability as an adult to be curious and adventurous. So we go through this task of writing down three or four things that you want to try that you’ve never tried before, or three or four things that you used to do as a kid, as a teenager, but you’ve gotten away from that, it used to bring you so much joy. It could be playing a musical instrument. It could be hiking that you got away from. It could be knitting. I mean, I can’t knit, but people enjoy knitting.

    Michael G Dash:

    It could be writing, it could be poetry, there are so many things that could be. There are tons of people out there that are doing them. So what we suggest, what I suggest, is to write these things down, and then try to find a tribe who is interested in these activities that you can join because that’s how you can make connection with people. Right? So let’s say it’s a hiking, then go on to Meetup.com and join a hiking group and then go hike with these people. You might not be able to do that right now. But there’s plenty of these groups that are doing online stuff now. So you can adapt. We are humans and we are adaptable. Tap into that curiosity, turn it into action, turn it then into connection by reaching out to three people within that group, and start building a connection with, and that’s how you start building community and tribes. Tribes are very important if you want to be aligned in your life because you can’t do it alone.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Absolutely. I love it. I love it. I 100% agree. I talk to people all the time who are trying to get sober, who were you know, trying to do it alone. I can just say unequivocally that that the connection is, the key is the answer.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yeah, 100%.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Well, where can people go to find your book, to find more information about you? We’re going to put everything in the show notes, but please tell everyone how they can find all your stuff.

    Michael G Dash:

    Sure. So my book is called Chasing the High, appropriately named. It is an entrepreneur’s mindset through addiction, lawsuits and journey to the edge. There are two, I mean, I think all the chapters are great, but two really powerful ones. One is on flow, which we spoke about, and the other is called the habit of habit making. It talks about the importance of habits. As you evolve as a human, that your habits need to evolve with them. You can find that book at ChasingTheHighBook.com. It’s on Amazon and Audible. So that’s where you can find the book. To find me, my website is www.MichaelG D-A-S-H.com. I’m on Facebook and Instagram. Instagram is M-1 and Facebook is Michael.D-A-S-H1. Yeah, if you want a free copy of the Alignment Assessment, it’s free, ChasingTheHigh@gmail.com.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Free ChasingTheHigh@gmail.com.

    Michael G Dash:

    Yes.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Okay, and people who are interested in any of your executive coaching, any of your coaching stuff, they would go MichaelGDash.com to find you?

    Michael G Dash:

    That’s where you can find all the information. You can shoot me a message there or just send me an email at Michael@MichaelGDash.com.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Got it. Awesome. Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate your time. It was lovely hearing your story. So many valuable gems in there.

    Michael G Dash:

    Absolutely. If I can impact one person who’ve listened to this on the show, then job well done, Ashley.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Yep, I have no doubt. I have no doubt it’ll be more than one.

    Michael G Dash:

    Great.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    Awesome. Thank you so much.

    Michael G Dash:

    Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

    Ashley Loeb Blassingame:

    This podcast is sponsored by Lionrock Recovery. Lionrock provides online substance abuse counseling where clients can get help from the privacy of their own home. They’re accredited by the Joint Commission and sessions are private, affordable and user friendly. Call their free helpline at 800-258-6550 or visit www.LionrockRecovery.com for more information.