Signing book deals; launching a supplement line; leading on sober nutrition; consulting with clients; and educating others - all because one day, Dr. Brooke decided to go for it ✨ Dr. Brooke's journey documents her leave from the 9-5 lifestyle, how breaking up with alcohol influenced her entrepreneurial pursuits, and the many hats she wears on a daily basis.

A little bit more about our guest: Dr. Brooke Scheller is a doctor of clinical nutrition, a nationally recognized health expert, and the founder of Functional Sobriety, a nutrition-based approach to an alcohol-free lifestyle. Dr. Brooke offers online courses and individual one-on-one programs that use cutting-edge nutritional practices to change your relationship with alcohol and repair the body from long-term alcohol use.

Dr. Brooke has been featured in many online publications, including Forbes, Oprah Daily, and WebMD. Her book on alcohol and nutrition, How to Eat to Change How You Drink, will be published in Fall of 2023.

Sit back, and enjoy story time with Dr. Brooke as she recounts her journey to where she's at now and where she's headed! Future's bright 😎

Connect with Dr. Brooke!

Dr. Brooke's Instagram

Dr. Brooke's Website

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Hey everybody.

Welcome back to another episode of Rise and Flow.

We're your hosts, Ray Gabe of Inflow Law Group, and today we have

a great episode lined up for you.

Our guest is Dr.

Brook.

Yeah.

Dr.

Brooke is a doctor of Clinical nutrition.

She's also the founder of Functional Sobriety.

She's a nationally recognized health expert and she offers a bunch of

one-on-one services, as well as memberships courses, whatever you may

be, for you to learn how to better get in charge of your nutrition.

And she's a pretty person, pretty awesome person, and soon

to be world renowned author.

Yes, that's right.

Yes.

We get into all those juicy details in this episode, and we're super

excited to bring it to y'all.

Hope you enjoy this one.

Yeah.

Dr.

Brooke, welcome to our show.

We've been wanting to have you on for a while now.

You came up in our conversation with Tony, the IP professor.

Obviously he connected us with you and all the wonderful cool things

you're up to out on the East Coast.

And yeah, we're really excited to introduce you to our audience and

show them what a role model, creator, entrepreneur, doer of many things,

wear of many hats does on a day to day.

So yes, welcome.

Awesome.

Thanks guys.

I'm so excited to be here.

And yeah, special shout out to Tony.

He's the man.

And he introduced me to you guys after helping me with some contract

related stuff and I've just really enjoyed working with you guys.

As you know, I've referred several people over to you all, and I think

what you all are doing is so cool too.

So it's so fun to be part of a community of people that just

are interested in doing things that have not been done before.

That's what we do, right?

Yes.

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

So I think, I think we should start from the beginning, I

think, you know, to get Yeah.

Kind of audience you know, familiar with you.

I mean, tell us about your journey early on, you know?

Yeah.

Even educational, kind of what, what got you into this space?

Yeah, good question because I've got a DR in front of my name and,

and everyone's like, well, what, what kind of doctor are you?

I'm a doctor of clinical nutrition, and I always feel compelled to share more

about what that is and what that means.

My doctorate, I have a long history of education and nutrition.

I have a bachelor's degree, a master's degree, and a doctorate degree.

And I don't hold a traditional PhD in nutrition, but what I do have is a

clinical degree, which is different.

From a research degree where a PhD is going to be doing research and publishing.

I do have some published work in peer reviewed journals, but my degree

is more focused around practicing as a doctoral level clinician.

So more aligned with something like a doctor of chiropractic or a doctor

of physical therapy where you are a.

Clinical level doctorate.

So, my education is, is pretty deep in terms of nutrition, functional medicine,

how, how we look at the root cause of what's going on in someone's body.

And it's interesting because I, you know, I didn't set out or

intend to get a doctorate degree.

I started on this path.

I was originally a music major.

I have a, a two year certificate in audio recording.

Oddly enough from from high school, I went to a vocational school program.

So when I got into podcasting again, it was really exciting because I was able

to use my recording skills and my mixing skills, which is ironic in a lot of ways.

But looking back now, I can see that even looking at that, like

I just always loved education.

I can really see how.

I wanted to do more.

I wanted to learn more.

I've just always loved getting more student loan debt and, you

know, oh, we're familiar with that.

We all, I figured like as lawyers, doctors, we, we

all kind of get that right.

You know, hopefully that that student loan like forgiveness thing

is still potentially gonna happen.

Right.

But I started early in my career as a nutritionist working in clinical practice.

So, after completing my, my first degree, I started working

as a clinician in weight loss.

I then moved into working for a wellness center with.

Under several chiropractors where I started learning about functional medicine

and started learning more about root cause type of healing, where we would

do blood testing, stool samples, hair samples a lot of different biological

testing to get an understanding of what's going on in someone's body.

And that way we can support them with the very specific diet, supplements,

lifestyle modifications, et cetera.

And after working in clinical practice for about five or six years, I decided

to switch gears and I started working in startup and moved up to New York City from

the shore in Jersey, and I say the shore in Jersey rather than the Jersey shore

because as most people know, um mm-hmm.

Yeah, those people were all from New York.

So those of us who are actually from the Jersey Shore, we

were all like surfer kids.

We all, you know, like drank on the beach and had bonfires and you know,

one of my brothers-in-law is a kind of a Guido, but that's neither here nor so.

Yeah.

So I moved up to New York City and started working for a meal delivery

company as the director of nutrition and.

That sounds like a really cool role.

I, I'm sorry to interrupt, but No, it was cool.

It was cool.

Unfortunately, the company is no longer around.

However, I was part of an acquisition.

It was a really kind of exciting company to work for.

I worked with them for a little over three years, and in June of

2021, there was a lot of different things happening in my life.

I decided to leave my job.

I decided to quit drinking.

I decided to I know I was thinking about this before I got on this

call, like was I blowing up my life?

Like what was, what was really happening at that time?

But it was kind of like, there was just like a big change happening for me.

Yeah.

And I had gotten frustrated at the company I was working for

just after they were acquired.

There was a lot of changes happening in the organization.

I had been there for a long time and it was just kind of

like the end of the end of.

My time there, it seemed, and I had wanted to start my own business for

many years, and it was something that I had been kind of manifesting,

if you will, for years, and didn't really know how it was gonna happen

or how it was gonna come to fruition.

And when things started getting to.

Kind of the, an end point at that, that role I was in, I was like, you know what,

maybe this is time I just start an L L C, I start doing some consulting on my

own and just kind of see what happens.

Yeah.

And I was thankful to have been part of an acquisition with this company

that, you know, left me with a little of extra, a little extra pocket.

Money pocket change, if you will.

Yeah.

That whole entire shoot.

Yeah.

That kind of just gave me a little bit of flexibility of saying like, okay,

well I know that if I quit my job, it'll be at least a couple of months before

I would be like homeless, for example.

Like I have enough money in my, in my pocket to say like, okay,

I could kind of ride this for a few months and see what I can do.

So I ended up leaving my job in June of 2021.

About 10 days after my last day at that job, I quit drinking.

Oh.

Which you know what I do now and we'll talk all about that has been a big

part of this journey for me because I ended up completely focusing all of my

work around my sobriety journey and.

The last kind of interesting thing that happened in June of 2021 is I

had published a chapter in a textbook on nutrition and supplementation

for substance use disorders.

Mm-hmm.

And I had written that chapter at the end of 2020 and it

didn't have anything to do with.

When it published, I decided to quit drinking.

Yeah.

But ironically, all that stuff kind of happened at the same time, right?

Mm-hmm.

And so when I, when I left my job and started doing consulting it was

only a few months after I was doing consulting work that I decided, you

know, no one was talking about nutrition and the importance of it in sobriety.

Mm-hmm.

And.

Really at that time, there was just the beginning stages of the excitement around

sober curiosity and people becoming more interested in getting sober.

And I'm looking around going like, no one's talking about this.

I wrote this book chapter on it and like one day it was September.

I'll never forget.

September, it was like nine 30 at night and I'm sitting on my couch and

I go, I should write a book on this.

And so I grab my laptop at, you know, nine 30 at night.

I love it.

And I'm goo, I'm Googling like how to find an agent in New York City.

So I like, I find these two women, this one agency in.

New York.

And then I'm like, okay, cool.

Okay, these women look great.

Now what do I do?

Okay, so I find you have to write a query letter.

So now I'm googling how to write a query letter.

It's like, okay, now it's 10 o'clock at night and I write a query letter.

Um mm-hmm.

Randomly just had this kind of inspiration overflowing and I ended up.

Emailing these two women and one of them said oh, this sounds interesting.

Once you put together a proposal, let me know.

I'm like, okay, great.

A proposal.

Oh yeah, I'm working on that.

You know, I'll get back to you with it soon.

And the other woman emailed me back and said that she represented another woman

who wrote a book in the sober space and she was interested in talking with

me, and she wanted to set up a call.

Nice.

And.

Without knowing it, this random woman that I had reached out to ends

up representing a woman who has a very successful book in this silver

space and she ended up signing me and helping me with building the proposal.

And sure enough, we ended up getting a book deal, which Was how I got introduced

to you guys because Tony had helped me initially with that first contract, but

said, Hey, you might wanna check out these guys you know, if you have other

contracts and things coming down the line.

And that's how I got Introed to you guys.

So it's been like, you know, and then ever since then, I, you know, I've

launched programs, I see clients now.

It's, it's been like this awesome fruition of things happening.

Yeah, and I was gonna say like I didn't realize, like I know,

like I can't remember when we, like when we first met exactly.

But when we first met, I felt like it wasn't that early on in that journey

of you like working for yourself.

Like cuz I've, it was less, yeah, it was less than a year because I'm just,

in June, it'll be my two years of being fully self-supporting on my own, running a

business and like that's a cool milestone, like getting to that point in time.

Even the first year that I was like, wow, I didn't like, I've been paying my

own bills and bringing in my own money.

Like that's really exciting.

And that's like the dream, right?

Yeah.

To be able to you know, do what I love and be able to make my

own schedule and like, and.

Be able to achieve the goals that I had.

Right?

And, and I honestly don't know if I would be able to have

done it without getting sober.

So for me, it's a big part of what I do and what I talk about is, you

know, like if you're struggling with drinking, you don't have to

identify as being an alcoholic.

You don't have to ever identify or label yourself as anything.

But the reality is that my experience and all the people that I work with, When you

stop drinking, like life gets really good.

Like these things all started unfolding so naturally for me

without me having to like try, right?

Mm-hmm.

You know, and, and Brooke.

Yeah.

No, absolutely.

And so I wanted to follow up on some, some of the, you know, obviously the, the key.

Timing right of, of your transition into, into, you know, your own business

because we always talk about this, right?

The shutdown right around 2020 obviously affected a lot of people, kind of helped

them realign their dreams and really kind of put everything back into focus Now.

I guess the follow up question would be, do you think that that time, right,

the time that we were at home, you know, did it have a huge role into your

decision to kind of realign your values?

And then number two, do you think.

As a lot of people did right after that, around 2021 with the great resignation.

Do you think you were, you're kind of part of that, right?

That you realized that, you know, you had bigger dreams, you know?

Mm-hmm.

Because of the shutdown, right?

Yeah.

Well, I think it's.

Multifaceted because I definitely recognize that one of my biggest

challenges with the pandemic and, and the shutdown was an increase in my drinking.

I was always a big drinker.

I mean, I drank, starting in high school, I was probably drinking

a alcoholically in high school.

And in my, you know, adult life in my twenties and thirties, I was.

working in New York City, there's always happy hours, there's always things going

on, , and I was drinking very frequently and was very high functioning though, you

know, I had degrees, I had a good job.

I was financially independent, living by myself, had all these things, but

at the same time was still not really.

Feeling connected with myself.

I was doing things that looked externally good, but mm-hmm.

Weren't necessarily feeling good for me.

And I talk about the pandemic a lot in my conversations about alcohol and

people changing their relationship with alcohol because I liken it to.

Like my drinking was probably like a pot simmering on the back burner of the stove.

Mm-hmm.

And the pandemic just like cranked up the heat.

Right.

So, yeah, I think a lot of people share that with you as well.

Yeah.

I mean, I think just like even myself, like I was never like a big, big

drinker, but during the pandemic, like I was clearing like, I don't know, just

like seltzers were a new thing, right?

Yep.

Like white claws and everything.

And I'm like, oh, just like me and my girlfriend were just like, I

don't know, cranking through a, a box of seltzers in like two days,

which I've never done before.

Totally lead to, led to other things.

And I think a lot of people are up like doing that, right?

Like totally.

There's a lot of research on it that showed that people

increased their drinking pretty significantly during those times.

And, you know, not only are we at home, we're isolated, we're working from home.

Like, that became a big thing for me in the end that I was

like, eh, I can't really drink at 2:00 PM Like, I'm still working.

But like, that became a challenge for me and between our schedules being

different, our routines being different, the world being super stressful

there's, there was so many things that I think contributed to people having

increases in their alcohol intake.

And, I'm one of those people, I'm, I, I like to be kind of

rebellious, so I hate to say like, I was part of the gray resignation.

Like, I wanna be like, no, it wasn't, you know, I, I'm unique

and I wasn't part of that.

But at the same time, I think a lot of us, I in, in our age demographic, like

in that millennial age group, I think that we just recognized that things

were not as much as they like, what they really seemed, you know, that we

were very comfortable in our lives and our jobs and, and I think we get this

from the generations above us, right?

Of like security and safety and yeah, you need to have a job with health insurance

and you need to have, a job that.

You work nine to five so you can have a family and you can have this normal life.

And what else changed is we realized that everything could be remote.

Yeah.

Like you no longer had to have an office.

You no longer had to like physically be anywhere.

And so people now are going, well, I could start my own business online.

I could start my own.

Practice, I could start my own law firm that has a, yeah.

That has a digital element to it because people, no one

needs to go in person anymore.

Yeah.

So I think there's a lot of complexities that we thought we had

to starting businesses that then themselves during the pandemic.

Yeah.

So just to piggyback on that, Brooke, I was just thinking, cause like that's

something we always talk about is.

There opportunities right there.

And I think it was like our generation, especially when you come from backgrounds,

like a lot of education, right?

Mm-hmm.

You know, doing what you're told, getting good grades, and then you leave that

world and it kind of primes you for being a good employee and like mm-hmm.

Sticking to a regimen and then like, go to school, get a good job and you'll,

you know, You'll be able to pay for what you want, what you need and get a house.

Mm-hmm.

But our generation, that's not necessarily the case due to some economic conditions.

Yeah.

And some of the things we were promised that, you know, if we

did the right things we'd be fine.

But obviously that's wasn't there for us.

So coming out of that and being like, wait a minute, this is all kind of,

we've been lied to half the time, like we've been kind of pruded.

And I'm like, I think a lot of us realize like, oh, we don't need to.

Get authority from some, we don't need a supervisor to give us a promotion to,

you know, achieve a certain accolade before we can start our own law firm.

We can just do that and we can just have our own platform.

And I think a lot of creators started realizing that because

of social media, like mm-hmm.

The channels of distribution weren't just controlled by a couple TV stations

or a couple radio stations anymore.

It could just be you.

Right.

And that's what's awesome is like, yes.

You started your own consulting firm outta nowhere.

Right.

Just.

Out of the blue and just see what's going on.

And you developed your own trust with your clients by just doing good work.

And then you were just one Google search away from finding out.

You're like getting connected with a book deal, right?

Like right.

And long as you're just, you just realize like the opportunity

there for taking, and I love that.

Like your story is how, what your story is because it's not, you know,

oh, I was, you know, I put 30 years into like academia and then I finally

got like the recognition and then I started my own consulting firm.

It was just, you did it and you did good work behind it.

And that's kinda the story that's like the formula nowadays.

And that's the other thing too, is there's this level of, hmm,

I'm looking for the right word.

Kind of just doing it anyway, like maybe it's rebellion in some way,

but like you, you get to a point where you go, I could, there's a

good chance I could fail at this.

But there's also like, I get to decide that.

Like I get to decide if I'm gonna go out and make this a success or not.

And there's this level of.

I don't wanna say recklessness because it's not the right word, but

it's this level of like boldness of just being like, you know what, what

do I have to lose at this point?

Like, I can always go get another job.

I can always go and, you know, backtrack if I need to, right?

But the reality is like, I, this is how change happens in the world.

Like this is how the world shifts and the dynamic of life grows and builds.

And Ray really helped me in trademarking functional sobriety

and what functional sobriety is and is now kind of like my main brand.

It is.

You know, how I look at and address and kind of bring together these elements

of nutrition and supplementation and health and wellness to support

sobriety, a sober approach to health.

I, I started that like, yeah, there's this piece of it that like, I remember being

like, okay, I can trademark this and like make it a thing and being like, well, how.

Who am I?

Who am I to say that?

Like this is a thing, and then realizing like someone being like,

well, that's how things start.

Like someone has an idea and they just start sharing it with conviction.

Mm-hmm.

And people start learning about it.

Like it's not, it doesn't demand that there is some like, You know,

CEO of some Fortune 500, fortune $500, no Fortune 500 company that

like has to decide that, right?

Like we can decide that, right?

And that's what I think a lot of people don't understand or recognize

that like, oh, this is how things grow and develop and build and change.

Yeah.

And.

Everyone has the power to do that, and that's what's really

exciting about the creator space.

Yeah, and I love the fact that you bring that up of the generational thing because,

so for example, I'm in this, this.

Interesting space and I've, I've kind of been there, you know, my

adult life because I'm kind of in that gap between, you know, the

generation X and the millennials.

Right.

And as I was starting to get into the workforce, and, you know,

people are starting to throw the word millennial in there.

Technically, I, I'm a millennial that's, I fit into that generation.

I'm, you know, I'm there, but I was born in 81.

So it's like you're on cus literal on the cusp, right?

Yeah.

But what was interesting is that, you know, as I was in the workforce,

you know, you started hearing, you know, the the management.

The management and you know, the, the higher ups kind of belittle, you

know, the millennial term, right?

They'd be like, oh, the millennial, they're just overly demanding.

They're overly, you know, , they're asking for too much.

You need to hold their hand, this and that.

But what was interesting about all those conversations is that, You realize

now, kind of in hindsight, that our generation, because yes, I am now proud

to, I'm a millennial and our generation figured out that things were wrong.

And we spoke out about it.

And that was taken as a negative thing for a lot of years.

Yeah.

But now kind of, you know, fast forward.

Mm-hmm.

You know, 20 20 21, 20 22 and now I think all those older generations are starting

to realize that we did the right thing and we are actually causing this change.

And you know, when they're.

Kind of pushing back against social media and, you know, those types of avenues.

They wanted to keep things kind of the, the, the status quo.

And our generation literally pushed everything out of the,

literally out of the status quo.

Yeah.

When would you ever have heard, you know, virtual consultations

with, with a therapist or a doctor or lawyers, like mm-hmm.

This just unheard of, and even now when we try to explain this to other, like older

attorneys, They still don't understand.

And when we try to explain social media to them, you know, as, as a marketing

tool, as a, a way to communicate with our base, our, our clients, they're still

thinking, oh, you're doing TikTok dances and you're, you know, posting pictures

of your food on social, on Instagram.

And yeah, sure there's a little bit of that as well, but that's just because

we're so familiar now with that, that way to communicate with our generation and I.

We sparked the change, the Gen Z generation will even further adopt

it and further expand on that.

And I really think we are on this kind of time in history where mm-hmm

There's gonna be a huge change.

Yeah.

A hundred percent.

A hundred percent.

And I agree with you, Gabe, that millennial was like

a dirty word for a while.

Yeah.

Like, it's funny because as soon as you started saying that, I was like,

Ooh, it still gives me a little bit of this like, like negative connotation of

like, oh, the millennials and they wanna come in and they wanna change things.

Yeah.

And the reality is that you're right, these are like.

I think it's a really powerful generation of change.

Yeah.

I think that unfortunately, you know, the people who initially walk out

of line first are the ones that get like, you know, kind of punished.

Punished, right?

Like, well, hey, we shouldn't be doing things that way and ya da da da da.

But we're also seeing a world where, you know, I think if things don't change,

We are heading in some, you know, kind of more serious things, right?

Because our generation now isn't used to, no one wants to go to

work five days a week in an office.

People don't want to do that because what difference does it make if we're

here, if we're there It's gonna lead to more happiness and people being more

satisfied in their jobs and being able to, again, I think create more change

and not have to walk in that straight line and not leave all of the decisions

up to the kind of top 10 corporate guys, for example, that now there are, there's

more diversity, there can be more people that are, you know, running businesses.

It doesn't have to be down to these main companies.

And yeah.

You know, I think it's an exciting time for sure.

It's exciting and it's fun.

Like it's fun.

Like it's so fun.

Yeah.

I mean that's like, yes, there's more work.

Like, you know, it always the classic like, oh, I quit my nine

to five work four seven, but Right.

It's so fun and it's like so much growth involved.

Yeah.

And you start getting outta your comfort zone.

Like I just think back to like our first days, like on social media are like

our first weeks, months, even , Being scared to like put our face on there.

Right.

Being scared to talk to our audience.

And like our first like few po like many posts were just

like graphics because mm-hmm.

And like stock photography because we were just scared.

And then like, once again, just like gets you outta your comfort zone.

And like we look back and now people come to us, like we were just talking with a,

a lawyer friend of ours who was trying to like, You know, start their own firm.

And they were like, how do you guys get comfortable like on social media?

Because like, I'm an introvert.

I don't know.

I'm like, Hey, I'm an introvert too.

But you learn and you just, it's a new skill, right?

At the end of the day.

And that's what's fun.

Look back and like that opportunity of growth in many different ways, but also

just like the growth in the fact that.

You can start, I don't know, building a career that's more

than just your skillset, right?

Mm-hmm.

For example, when you started off and like many people started off, like if you're

a photographer or a nutritionist, right?

Like one-on-one services are probably your first offering.

Mm-hmm.

But then things start growing and I was, you know, we just posted this

kind of like synergy chart yesterday.

I saw it, yeah.

Yeah.

And I, I was thinking about you when I was making it and, cause I was thinking about

the conversation we're gonna have today.

And it's something I've been wanting to do for a while because,

For a while, like the, the Disney Synergy, chart from the sixties.

Mm-hmm.

Kinda viral recently.

And what that is, is basically explaining the Disney model, right?

Like why Disney launches certain things, right?

Like people think, oh, like why did Disney do Disney Plus?

Well, it's because they're not making money off Disney Plus.

But it's a way to promote other things that will eventually, you know, if

you watch Mandalorian, you might be.

You know, bring in new fans to the Star Wars universe so when the next movie

comes out, they, you know, will go see the movie and pay money to see that.

Right.

It's a, it's a strategy.

Right, right.

But the fact that you don't need to be Disney to do that anymore, you can listen.

Mm-hmm.

We see all our clients doing it.

Right.

We see you doing it.

Right.

Like the functional sobriety, like bigger than yourself.

Right.

Like, it's not just people are paying to come talk to you anymore.

They're coming to be a part of your community.

Mm-hmm.

They're talking, they're coming to like, Go to your courses or just be a part of

like what you're leading on, like mm-hmm.

Fearlessly in this space that you said, you know, there wasn't really a connection

between sobriety and nutrition and kind of helping people along that path.

And the key part there is that you, you understand like the value you're

bringing or like the need that's there for people who are struggling with that.

So, Once again, thank you for inspiration behind that.

It's no, and it's funny that you say that because I was like, I was

going through each part and I was like, am I doing all these things?

Like I was making sure that I was, and I was like, I think I'm,

so, yeah, it makes sense that you were inspiring it off of me.

Cause even products, you know, I, I launched supplements and you

know, so now I have some, some.

Physical products that are being shipped and distributed.

So it is kind of like this complex ecosystem that, yeah, I think

once you continue or once you, you have to start somewhere.

Right?

And that's the scary part.

And like this has taken me two years to get to where I am and it's by no means

like perfect or where I want it to be.

But as you said, like this is the fun stuff like, It's fun for me to go through

and decide which supplements I want to launch and create labels for the

supplements and like, you know, it's fun to be able to make my own schedule.

And I had, I was away for the weekend and I've been like, so under, under Slept,

I don't know what the right word is, but sleep deprived and I slept all day Monday.

And today I went to a workout this morning, I decided I needed

to nap and napped until 11, and then came to work at noon.

Right.

And now I'm just gonna work a little bit later into the evening.

Right.

So that's the kind of flexibility too in life.

That is really great to have because it's like, if I just need a little

extra rest and I, you know, I know I can still get my work done.

It's like that's, that's the quality of life that we're looking for.

We're looking for the flexibility to be able to care for

ourselves, nurture ourselves.

No one wants to force themselves into this box, and it has a lot to

do with our health and wellness.

Right.

Okay.

If we are, you know, kind of constantly working these high stress

jobs without fulfillment, it does take a toll on our physical health.

It dicks fall on our mental health.

Yeah.

Why do you think a lot of people drink?

Because they're miserable, right?

We're miserable in our jobs, in our lives, in our, , relationships

and , we use alcohol to get through that, unfortunately.

But it perpetuates this cycle and that's why I talk a lot about my experience

in sobriety and how it really helped fuel my journey in my entrepreneurship.

Because not only is what I do around sobriety, but you know, I don't have

that kind of constant nagging of a hangover or, feeling like I need

to be involved in certain social situations that keep me out late.

So it's really, I mean, it's just so exciting.

I love it.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

And I love, I love the fact that you bring it up because I think.

You're right.

I think the quality of life and mental health plays a huge role and it's

gonna continue playing a huge role on people that are leaving their nine

to fives to start their own business.

I mean, I think even Ray and I discussed this early on, I mean

that, that's a huge component of it.

Right.

And especially in the legal world as lawyers, you know, we're.

We are probably one of the, the highest in like alcoholism, suicide rates.

Mm-hmm.

Because a lot of people in our profession have to absorb so much

negativity from situations that are happening from, you know, regardless

of what field of law you're in.

And it's, we, Ray and I always talk about this, it's like, How did, how are we here?

Like how did we end up here?

Like we're happy with what we're doing.

We're excited to work with our clients because they're, they're exciting, right?

Like they, they're doing something exciting.

We get to work our own schedules.

We get to, you know, if we need time off, I'm gonna go to Disneyland

tomorrow through Sunday with my family to, you know, to go hang

out for May the fourth, you know?

And, Oh, nice.

Yeah.

Cuz Star Yeah.

I'm a big star.

Star Wars Day.

Yep.

Of course.

A Star Wars day.

And it's, it's those things, the, the change and the quality of life that

I think we end up promoting sometimes more than the business itself.

Right.

And especially when we're talking to other attorneys trying to, to branch

out and thinking about leaving their firm and to start their own thing.

I think we always lead with kind of the happiness in mind, right?

We don't lead with the money.

And I, that's, that's another huge component of it that I

think it is a generational thing.

And like you guys were talking about, it's like I.

The whole, Hey, if you do this, you're gonna become wealthy and you're gonna

be rich and you're gonna be able to buy whatever you know, you, you want.

We're starting to realize that's, that's not the case and

maybe money is not the answer.

It's more about our mental health, our families, our, you

know, our friendships, our own.

Just, you know, wellness.

Yes.

So well, and I think it's taking, just to kind of piggyback on that, Gabe, I

think it's taking out the standard like paycheck mentality too, because we,

and again, that's that quote unquote safety that we were taught as children.

You know, you grow up, you get a job, you work nine to five, you get a, you

know, you get a steady paycheck, you get health insurance, you get a 401k,

you know, Is there gonna be social security around like when we retire?

Who knows?

Right?

So you know, that safety that I think we always believed was there is kind of this.

Way to keep people in this kind of comfortable box, right?

Mm-hmm.

It takes a little bit of time and adjustment to think, okay, well maybe I

don't get a steady, you know, x amount of dollars every other week into my bank

account, but you can still make the same amount of money a year, for example.

It might not come in in that same.

Way that you're used to.

And that's a lesson too in learning, okay, how do I balance things?

How do I balance my, my finances?

How do I balance, you know, expenses?

And like learning all of the tax related stuff is like a

whole nother like ball game.

But that's the kind of fun thing about being an entrepreneur

is if you like to learn.

And a lot of us who are entrepreneurial, do you know, we're educated people

or we really love, the idea of.

Being multiple things.

We don't wanna show up at a job and just, sign on the same papers every single day.

It's, do I wanna say it's fun to do, you know, the, the

expenses and the tax part of it?

No, it's not, but at the same time, it's like I feel really

validated when I do it and I.

And I'm learning something new and I'm being a part of like

this broader kind of picture.

Right.

Yeah.

Well, you're part of, you're like a leader in a movement now, right?

Like you really stepped into a purpose, which is really cool.

Yeah.

Like that.

A lot of people, I think it's hard to find that, right?

Everyone's like find your purpose and stuff like that.

But it's interesting, like you don't know what it is until you

like take those first initial steps.

It's something you figure out along the way.

And you really just have to take like the breadcrumbs, right?

Like the idea of doing it all.

Like, okay, one day you're just gonna like change and then

everything's gonna be done.

And you have to figure out like how to start an L L C and how to do this and

how to open a business bank account.

And like all these little things that when you look at it, you're like, whoa.

Like I can't do that.

Paralyzing.

Yeah.

But it's about taking it in these tiny little steps, finding the

people that can help support you.

Like that's why I've loved working with you guys.

You guys have helped me with the contracts and things, and like I kind of, if I have

a question, I know I can get an answer and like not feel overwhelmed like, oh shoot,

I gotta find a lawyer now and pay however much an hour and like doing things.

The offer that you guys have, have made it really helpful for people like me to

be supported on this journey and like not have to feel some of that overwhelm.

Mm-hmm.

For example, like employee contracts, like how the heck else would I have done that?

Right?

Mm-hmm.

And so, It's really just like starting to take the steps.

Like I didn't know when I decided to start my business where it

was gonna end up in a year.

I had like loose goals of how much money I wanted to break six figures

in my first year, which I did.

And like, you know, all these things that you don't have to

have all the how's figured out.

You just have to know, okay, I have this desire to do something.

You wanna take a semi calculated risk, right?

You don't wanna just be throwing caution to the wind.

But it is easier, I assume, to do it today than it was even three years ago.

Yeah.

Because of social media, because of, you know, Online businesses and the,

the scalability with what we can create.

So it's so exciting.

I mean, I recommend this to all of my friends and they all think I'm

crazy and I'm like, quit your job.

I'm trying to get my sisters to quit their jobs.

Everyone's like, you're crazy.

So maybe I'm like leading my own great resignation.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I, everyone I know.

But it is, it's just like, and you guys know, it's like once

you do it, you're like, oh.

It's easier than it seems.

It's definitely hard work, but it's so worth it in the end.

Yeah.

That it's so rewarding.

Yeah, absolutely.

Mm-hmm.

So, I mean, what would be three tips that you would give

kind of our listeners, right?

Mm-hmm.

As far as like someone who's, I mean, you kind of already touched on that, but.

Somebody thinking about starting their own business, kind of launching

out, what are three things that in hindsight you wish you would've known?

Well, I will shamelessly self plug and say the first thing I

suggest is cutting back on your alcohol intake if you're a drinker.

And if you're interested in learning more about how to do

that or gaining some support in doing that, I definitely recommend

checking out some of my programs.

You know, I work with a lot of.

High, high functioning people, high functioning alcohol users.

I work with some celebrities.

I work with a lot of executives and people who.

You know, drink because it's been part of the lifestyle,

it's been part of the culture.

But ultimately it's holding them back.

And I can say with utmost certainty in my life that alcohol

was really holding me back.

And when get it, when I did get sober and decide to stop drinking, it allowed this

path to unfold for me that I could not.

Ever imagine.

And so I know it's something silly that isn't super related to like

business per se, or No, I understand.

Early step, but I highly suggest, and it life is still very fun sober.

I can attest.

I went to an amazing gala last night and you know, was surrounded by

amazing people in the sober world.

Yeah.

The second thing I would say is, I'm a big fan of goal setting and manifesting.

Maybe to some degree, I think goal setting is manifesting.

Mm-hmm.

I had for many, many years been writing down things like start my own business,

write a book run a half marathon, which I did at the end of 20 21, 5 months sober.

And.

I carried them over on my list like year after year after year.

I'd probably had similar goals for five plus years.

And you know, in some regard it's like, okay, am I gonna put the

same goals down again next year?

Well, yeah I am because these are the goals, these are the

things that I really want.

And so I think it's so valuable for us to spend a little bit of time,

whether it's 20 minutes, whether it's, you know, an hour once a.

Year to write down the things that we really want to do,

the things that we desire.

Even if it seems totally outlandish, like write it down.

Because the more that we kind of put that into the.

Put that intention onto paper, we put it into reality and they,

all these dreams can come true.

So I think that's a really awesome thing for people to do and a good way

to practice in, you know, trying to identify what it is that we want, what it

is in our lives that we want to achieve.

And the last thing I would say, Mm.

Okay.

So the last thing I would say is, To listen to people that have done

the things that you want to do.

Listen to podcasts, listen to, you know, follow them on social media.

One big thing I did after I quit drinking is I unfollowed all of the

negative accounts on social media that made me feel better, like about being

hungover, made me feel better about having dysfunctional relationships

or dysfunctional friendships.

I unfollowed all of the negative.

Stuff on social media, and I only followed positivity.

I only followed accounts that were speaking about things that I wanted

to do, things that I wanted to achieve, you know, travel accounts.

Because the more that we surround ourselves with what we want to be

the more likely we are to become it.

So I know that it can feel like silly to unfollow some of these accounts,

but it really does have a big impact, especially if we're spending

a lot of time on there every day.

Yeah, I was gonna say that's like the true nutritionist in you right there, right?

Like not just like your your physical food diet, but your information diet.

Right?

Like Exactly.

And I think that's huge.

When we were doing.

I just got like into business books, business podcasts and Right.

My whole thing was, you know, law firms don't know, like

they never consider themselves businesses even though they are.

Right.

They consider practices.

And with that in mind, I was able to like think and share with Gabe and we

were able to like, Come up with like what the subscription model would be,

because that was different and like, seemed like a business, a business person.

Right.

And just like in that inspiration.

And I think that's like so important to like reiterate that last point

you had about Yes, definitely.

Like follow and figure out.

Like, and you don't have to be like, you don't, you're not

reinventing the wheel, right.

If someone totally done something or laid the path before you like follow it.

Totally.

And just like, you know, buy in, honestly.

And there's, and there's so much of that on social media.

There's so much of that on podcasts and, and find people

that you resonate with, right?

Like for me masculine business guy talking about, you know, certain things

on his podcast doesn't resonate with me.

But a female entrepreneur who is successful in business like

that really resonates with me.

So that's what I like to follow.

So it's like, You know, just finding the people that are doing

something like that you wanna do, like who do you admire, follow them.

Because once you get into this, you realize that those people

aren't that far away from you.

Like they seem so unattainable or that their lifestyle seems so unachievable.

But the reality is once you start doing these things, once you start following.

You know, your path, your desires, your goals.

You realize like, oh, I could be on that person's podcast if I want to be right.

Oh, I can write a book and have, you know, this person potentially

write an endorsement for it.

So it's really exciting.

It's just like taking some of those first steps and knowing that you're

not going to do it overnight.

But getting excited about it.

Absolutely.

And the possibilities.

Keep that momentum going.

And speaking of momentum, going, like, I know you started off like virtually.

Mm-hmm.

You just recently have your own storefront, brick and mortar space.

We'd love to hear, well it's not a storefront.

We won't call it a storefront.

It is.

It is an office.

Yes.

Oh my, sorry.

It's, it's an office in an office building in downtown New York City

which has been really exciting for me.

Small space, but really beautiful lighting.

As you can tell.

I've got great sun that comes through here and.

That was another thing too, right?

Like mm-hmm.

I was working from home until the end of 2022 and I had looked into

getting a WeWork just to start like getting out of my house.

Cause I like really hit my limit with working from home.

And I was sitting at the WeWork and I was starting to think about

wanting to take clients one-on-one and I can't do that at the WeWork.

Mm-hmm.

And so one day I'm looking at space, you know, I'm just Googling like commercial

spaces on online and I was like, well, I don't know anything about this.

I don't know how I would start this.

Like, you know, you exit out and you go like, maybe another day,

and one day I'm looking at spaces and I'm like, you know what?

I'm just gonna call the guy on the broker on the site and just be like,

Hey, I don't know anything about this.

Don't, you know, just kind of poking around.

And sure enough started looking at spaces with him and within a

couple of weeks, found a space.

Signed a lease and like the rest was history.

Right?

So it was one of those things that I was like so terrified to do.

I had no idea what I was doing.

And you know that again, one of those things you just have to

start taking like the baby steps.

It's okay to not know things.

It's okay to call someone up and say, Hey, I don't know anything about this.

Can you help me figure it out?

Right.

It's the only way we're gonna learn.

And so, like I said to you guys, I'm hoping to maybe get a second

space maybe on the West Coast and see some clients in la.

So we'll see.

There's a lot more exciting stuff to come.

The book is publishing in December.

We've recently, which I have to talk to you guys about contract wise.

Got a deal for UK publishing.

So uk, Australia, New Zealand will also be published.

So international book Deal now, which is super exciting.

And yeah, so you know, once you start moving in the direction of, of where

you wanna go, you'd be surprised how much the momentum, you know, just

carries you when you're in flow.

There you go.

You guys can use that for like a commercial or something.

I know.

I might have to take that snippet right there.

Well, thank you so much, Brooke.

We really appreciate you, you know, taking the time to, to hang out with

us and talk to our, our audience.

Can you just kind of tell everybody where to find you, you know?

Yes.

How can they reach out to you and all your, your, your, your

projects that you've working on?

Yeah, so I'm mostly on Instagram at Dr.

Brooks Sheller, Dr.

Brooks Sheer.

You can also find more information at my website, functional sobriety.com.

And there's a lot of content there, a lot of info.

I post a lot of information on Instagram about my programs, and if you're

interested in exploring sobriety or taking a break from alcohol, you'll

find a lot of information there about my programs, both group and one-on-one.

Awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

All those links will be in the show notes, so anyone wants, they can

quickly search you up and get connected.

But thank you again Dr.

Brooke for stopping by.

It was very inspirational.

Once again, were inspiration behind us creating that synergy

chart and kinda like how we're doing things with inflow as well.

So yeah, thank you for that.

We love working with you and yeah, thanks for coming on.

Thank you for having me.

You're looking forward to your podcast coming out soon.

Ooh, soon.

Yeah.

We know that's gonna probably be another thing you offer,

so looking forward to that.

Thank you.

Cool.

Well man, that was a really fun interview.

Yeah.

And very insightful too.

Dr.

Brooke had a lot of great gems she shared with us.

I feel like I got to know a little bit more about her personal story and I

just think it's really inspirational for any new entrepreneur to follow

along on her journey, cuz she's been doing a lot of cool stuff and I'm glad

she was able to share that with us.

Absolutely.

And I can't wait to pick up her book once it's your lease.

That's exciting.

Very exciting.

Very exciting.

Mike.

Even, you know, I'm encouraged now to write my own book.

Maybe one day, I don't know.

Seems really.

A few made it sound easy, but I know it's a lot of hard work.

But thank you again for tuning in to this podcast episode.

We're looking forward to bringing you great other stories like this one.

And yeah, we'll see you guys next time.