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Speech Transcript

Unknown Speaker  0:00  

Hey, this is Randy Mortensen and I’m on a mission to crush the stigma. And if you really want to learn how to level up your life, you should be listening to the time to shine today podcast with my friend, Scott Ferguson. Hey, it’s time to shine today podcast time. It’s Scott Ferguson and today I have a really good friend of mine, Randy Mortensen. He’s going to talk to us about his passion for crushing the stigma. And this stigma really has to do with substance abuse and how it needs to be recognized as a true disease. Like anything else that’s out there. Randy’s went through a lot of tragedy in his life. We till you hear the stories, what happened with his family, about his journey, about how he was able to still move forward and level up, he touches so many lives. He’s always leveling up, and I cannot wait for you to hear from Randy. So, without further ado, here’s my good friend, Randy Mortensen.

Unknown Speaker  1:09  

Hey, time to shine today squad This is Scott Ferguson and thank you so, so much for coming on to an interview with my friend Randy Mortensen. He has so many. I’ve vetted out his past and he’s going to have so many knowledge nuggets that’s going to help you level up every aspect of your life. Randy is a guide for counted management professionals whose drive has let them down a path of destructive and compulsive behaviors. Randy’s been sober 29 plus years kudos to you, brother. With a background in finance and energy. He’s a former former vice president of 50 billion that’s a B billion Gas and Electric electric utility company with enough evidence to convict him of being a serial entrepreneur. He’s an author, popular national and international keynotes. beaker, founder of lifestyle champion cohort and the courageous recovery podcast. His passion is to crush the stigma. So is some serious credentials. Randy, thank you so much for coming on if you could introduce yourself to our squad, but first, tell us your favorite color and why.

Unknown Speaker  2:19  

Wow, nobody’s ever had I haven’t been asked that question for a long time. My favorite color is green. Okay, and the Why? What I would I typically say my my gift to sarcasm would typically say because that’s the color of money. But it’s also the one of the one of the colors of my high school sports team. Okay. those colors were green and white. Okay, so those are the two reasons why green is typically my my favorite color.

Unknown Speaker  2:49  

That’s my Michigan State Spartans colors.

Unknown Speaker  2:51  

Oh, that’s right.

Unknown Speaker  2:54  

So, let’s go back to the origins Randy. I mean, I know that you’ve been sober going on called To 30 years we don’t we can start wherever you want, but I really want to know the origin of what started to make Randy Morton Fenn. And by the way, folks, it’s Morton sin fcn is Danish. If it’s so and it’s Norwegian, correct. That’s, that’s what I’ve been told. Okay, great. But give us the origins of Randy Mortensen, please.

Unknown Speaker  3:19  

Well, I some a lot of a lot of my friends know it’s dangerous to give me the microphone. But but here’s here’s the, here’s the short version. actually grew up in the great state of Minnesota, was born in Iowa. If we were in the upper if we were in the upper Midwest, I would say I was born in the ice cream capital of the world. Oh, but you being from Michigan, you probably don’t know that. That’s where wells blue bunny ice cream is from. Lamar Lamar is Iowa is where I was born. That’s amazing and moved to rural southwestern Minnesota. And when I was a small child and what I what I often share in this sort of a setting is is we had 3000 pigs, and one of my jobs growing up was to clean the hog house. And what the most valuable lesson from that experience is don’t bite your fingernails.

Unknown Speaker  4:14  

Oh, yuck

Unknown Speaker  4:17  

resonates with our time right now. It’s March 24. And we’re all kind of self isolating right now. Well, we digress.

Unknown Speaker  4:24  

Yeah. So so then to continue, I actually had my first drink my first beer when I was 13. And, and it was it was very interesting because it was more the exhilaration of getting away with it. I didn’t get caught. And so, so in my high school years, I was I was fortunate to be a pretty decent athlete. I was, if you ask my 87 year old mom, she would tell you I was a superstar baseball player. And came from a great family. My dad was was a successful businessman. stay at home mom and had great parents, but yet the joy of drinking was there despite just having a great, great home life and went into the banking industry, played baseball in college and went into the banking industry six months into the banking industry. My dad died of a massive stroke after open heart surgery was 45. So that kind of sent me off into a tailspin. And six months into my banking career, the reason I went into banking was dad wanted to buy a bank, and that’s what we were going to do so. So I had married the homecoming queen. You know, my high school sweetheart. And life was I had I had everything but yet there was this dirty little secret called Randy like to drink. And on the outside, you would have never known anything was wrong with me. On the inside, I was a mess because it’s the guilt and shame that oftentimes holds us back. Sure, and I didn’t like who I was. So if I speed up Have a bit there was a time I was now in my second marriage because my drinking and poor choices had broken up my first marriage. We were at a place and on the river in northwest Iowa. My five year old son began vomiting his green stuff and he was crying out dad helped me. You know, I don’t feel good and and so he rushed him to the emergency room. He was just doubled over and excruciating pain. And there was an emergency room physician that had worked 36 hours straight, and we didn’t. We weren’t ever able to prove it. But there was a lot of evidence to say that the only reason he was able to work 36 hours straight is he was high on crack. Oh, and so he did the math wrong and the bedsheet to er nurses refused to administer the dosage that he’d gave him so instead of pushing two mil equivalents of potassium, he pushed 20 mil equivalent potassium and killed my five year old son Sorry, right and so he would be 37 now and and so what I say often is my poor choices, excuse me, my poor choices, class me relationships and hundreds of thousands, probably millions of dollars. But the poor choices that one man cost me the life of my son. And so 95% of parents who lose children end up divorced so that took me down my second divorce. So again, my business life was good. My personal life was a mess. I didn’t like who I was, and ultimately ended up moving to Las Vegas because I was running even though right? Not yet

Unknown Speaker  7:44  

on your Twitter,

Unknown Speaker  7:46  

not yet. Not not yet sober. still drinking and and business was always successful. So had a couple of businesses that I that I owned at that time that I could run remotely randomized before Vegas. And the part of that story is is we had 1300 restaurants on the contract in seven states. And some of those are on the West Coast somewhere in the Midwest and I was coming home on a flight. And it was a connection from Phoenix to Las Vegas. And I opened up my briefcase because I had to get some work done before I got home to Las Vegas. And on my tray table, there were two bottles of scotch in my briefcase, there were three. And it was then in there that I said enough, you know, I’m tired of who I am and so on. I was only going to do a recovery treatment once. So I checked out all the big names, you know, the Betty Ford’s the Hazel dens and so on ended up going to a center 28 day program up in Utah. And what I now realize is the reason God took me to Las Vegas is because it’s the only city in the world that you can go to a meetings four or five, six times a day, and I did. I literally

Unknown Speaker  8:58  

were there.

Unknown Speaker  9:00  

I literally did. And that’s how I got sober September 24 1990. and ended up marrying a beautiful woman about six months before getting sober. She’s one of the driving forces behind why I got sober. And we just recently celebrated 30 years of marriage. It’s not a coincidence. I’ve been sober 29 and a half years, and married 30. So that’s the that’s the history. If you want me to expand, I will, but I’ll take a breath now. Oh, God,

Unknown Speaker  9:30  

that’s amazing. Thank you for the we’ll call it a backstory. But I’m really, really sorry for the tragedy that you went through. God does work in some crazy ways. And I’m really sorry about the loss of your son. So as we as you kind of move forward to you influence so many people being an international speaker and a published author, what was the aha moment to start there? What What was the aha moment to become A speaker and an author.

Unknown Speaker  10:03  

Well, I’ll give you one more backstory. And then so the what allowed me to become the VP of a $50 billion gas and electric utility was after getting sober. We made the decision, we wanted to move back to the Midwest and ultimately moving back to the Midwest. I ended up getting my pilot’s license. And I no longer wanted to be in either the businesses that we owned, I wanted to go sell commercial airplanes, no corporate corporate jets. Okay. Well, I soon realized I couldn’t fly what I wanted to sell, and now is a restriction. So actually went into the energy world in in early in late 1991. And we built a very fast growing company that I was a partner of we were doing lighting retrofits then we did 600,000 year 110 million year 220 million years. Three, year four, we were on the run rate of doing somewhere between 40 and $50 million. And to the Enron era, anybody with some gray hair knows what that meant. And so we were actually acquired by that utility in Minneapolis. And I was part of the team that work to merge that with the utility in Denver out of Colorado is that Xcel Energy today? So after being successful now living back in Minnesota, had an airplane in the hangar 4000 square foot house country club membership, we had, you know, I had accomplished everything that the American Dream said that we should accomplish Sure. Okay. And read a book called from success to significance by Lloyd rebe was that book that radically changed my life. And what he said in there that really struck me in light and I are now personal friends. What he said He said, your your life, five years after you die is going to be remembered for what? What is there in your life that you’re going to be remembered for that has significance. And as I looked at, you know, my wife and I do a an annual marriage retreat with just the two of us on Labor Day weekend. And and as I looked at my accomplishments, there was nothing. The bank accounts, the new Mercedes every two years, the airplane in the hangar, the big house. There was nothing of significance there. And so I made a decision to walk away from that very lucrative, corporate career. And you were sober, too. In my early 50s, people thought I’d started drinking again. Okay, so I walked away from that without having a clue what I was going to do, I had no hint. I just knew that there had to be something of significance. So two things that came to light to respond to your question number one, my my second son who was born a year after my previous son was overdose and killed. Was was now living with us. As my, my wife was able to become the evil stepmom. She did a great job helping with my son. Sure. And he was just struggling with with life, basically hanging out with the wrong crowd and so on. So, a couple of my buddies said, Why don’t you take him to Haiti? And I said, Why would I do that? Right? And he broke his leg to two weeks before he broke his leg snowboarding two weeks before we were supposed to go on a trip to Haiti. So I went up by myself, and it was just mind boggling. Not to over spiritualize it, but I knew that I knew that I knew that this is what God had been preparing me for my entire life. I could manage people raise money. do projects and so on. So that’s how we got to the work that we’re doing in Haiti today. Okay, we’ve been doing work in Haiti for 15 years now. We have 1400 kids in our schools. And that’s a whole nother story. Okay. The flip side was, is that as I left the corporate world, I started a faith based ministry at a church at that time, it was about 1000 people. That was on

Unknown Speaker  14:27  

St. Patrick’s Day of 2005. And we launched it today that that ministry has served somewhere around 20,000 people. It’s now at five locations in Minneapolis, St. Paul, well, I swear I saw the impact that that one person could have, right, a one on one. And so as I was, as I was looking at, leveraging some of my contacts, leveraging some of my corporate speaking experience It really occurred to me that it’s imperative for us as we’re building relationships and making an impact, to be able to say, I know how you feel, or felt the same way on there, right? Here’s the path that I went down. And here’s who I am today. And that’s the message. And as you’ll see, the the, the most common topic of the talk that I give is crushing the stigma, right? Because what’s holding us back today, in corporate America, or in our faith communities, or in our families is the stigma. Okay? And in So, if we’re going to save lives, if we’re going to reduce the $800 billion a year that drugs and alcohol are costing us in America, it’s imperative that we see substance use disorders in the same light as other illnesses. So that’s the why I’m tired of seeing marriages broken families torn apart. And, and you know careers jeopardized because of the stigma.

Unknown Speaker  16:12  

Wow. That’s, that’s amazing.

Unknown Speaker  16:15  

That’s that’s, it’s crazy that your journey. So with this experience, what do you think makes a great leader?

Unknown Speaker  16:25  

What I interesting I love your questions by the way. One of the things that I’ve learned in in, in doing sales training is it’s imperative that we listen 70% of the time and talk 30% Okay. So I think it’s important for us to, for a good leader to be to be a good listener. I also think it’s important to be empathetic and it’s also important to be willing to empower others to To make mistakes, I mean, you and I don’t know you well enough yet. But, you know, I’ve made so many mistakes over the years that, you know, if we’re relatively intelligent, we hopefully learn from those mistakes. So

Unknown Speaker  17:17  

we got to fail forward, right? Yeah, exactly. I love that. You said that 7030 with your mom always told me actually just put a podcast out Monday about being empathetic and you know, two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Unknown Speaker  17:31  

Right? Yes.

Unknown Speaker  17:32  

So, with this experience that you’ve went through the triumphs, the tragedies, everything that you’ve went through? What if you could write a letter or even go back in time to say the 18 year old rock star baseball player as for your mom? Randy, what would you tell him?

Unknown Speaker  17:53  

I think you would have have that question because I just had a podcast on that very topic. A couple a couple of weeks. ago what what is it that you wish your, your teenage self would have known? I, as I as I said earlier, I had I had just incredible parents, you know, they showed me the love they they probably gave me a little bit too much freedom. But I was sneaky. I would you know, so what? What I’m usually the one asking questions What do I wish I would have known I, I was I was excelling in many things that I was doing, but yet I wasn’t satisfied. So So I set the bar too high for myself is what I would say. And I thought I wasn’t good enough. And now, anybody listening to this that knows me would be surprised to hear me say that. But that must have, you know, at the very core of While I was drinking while I was going through the insanity I was, is because I thought, okay, you’re doing, you’re doing, you’re doing good, but you’re not doing great. Right, I think and I think we as Americans, set standards a bit too high sometimes and self expectations are a bit too high. And yeah, they

Unknown Speaker  19:20  

want to bite off so much at once. Instead of we say, and I was taught this by my mentor in 1999. And I have it right above my desk is inch by inch, it’s a cinch by the yard, it’s hard. So I just really think that you can set them high, but expect it’s gonna take time to get there. Right. I would, I would think that, you know, that that’s the way we kind of, kind of put that out there, Randy. So let me ask you something in your line of work being running a $50 billion, help run a $50 billion business and then starting to you moved into the coaching and leadership and speaking. You talk to a lot of people correct, sir Okay, so is there any question out there that you wish people would ask you, but they never do.

Unknown Speaker  20:08  

Give you a little bit different response. What what I, what I hear what I hear so often it makes my head hurt is is people will come up to me talented management professionals, corporate guys or gals, well successful people, faith faith community leaders will come up to me and they’ll say, Randy, can you help me? And I’ll say, you know, it sounds like you’re committed in the left, but sounds like you, you really, you’re finally tired. You’re sick and tired of being sick and tired. Sounds like Why haven’t you done this in the past? What blows my mind is the four words that they say are always the same, no matter what their social status is their income or education. It’s always the same I don’t know how right makes my head hurt. I don’t know how and that’s why I say I have solutions for the I don’t know how it’s basically in. And so tell me what your question was.

Unknown Speaker  21:14  

Was there any question? You already answered it to be honest with you because Okay, people like people will come to me and think that I’ve already made it and now you have the I’m a duck on a pond syndrome, you know, where I look really calm on top and underneath me and I’m going and going and going to stay afloat and a lot of people will come to me with weak questions. And that’s one thing that I was taught when I was younger by my mentors and coaches and what I pay forward to my students is the Ask the powerful questions of yourself, period, right? Never. You know that everything’s a question in life. And I tell this to my squad. I mean, if you’re driving down the road, and you need to make a left, your mind’s firing do I put on my blinker? Do I want to make sure everything’s it’s the most more powerful questions, but you answered it perfectly. I can’t do that. So We got three, you were going to take your cell phone out of this equation. Okay? What are three things that Randy Mortensen cannot live without excluding the cell phone?

Unknown Speaker  22:14  

Well, here’s three things. And I’ll say these are the three priorities in my life. How’s that? Please? three priorities in my life or gods number one, my wife’s number two, my family’s number three. That’s more than enough. And I’ve said that on stage, too, when I was being introduced to a group where I went and do some consulting and I thought, Okay, I’m gonna be my contracts are going to be terminated. But you’re a bold

Unknown Speaker  22:41  

to have that conviction. I look. I’m a man of faith. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I put that up front to people. But if you ask me,

Unknown Speaker  22:50  

that’s who I am. You know. So those are the those are the three priorities. I think. I think the tools today are relationships. And and it’s just really trust integrity and trust is also critical for me because I didn’t used to have that

Unknown Speaker  23:11  

right. Okay, gotcha. No chicken wings though, cuz I can’t live without chicken wings

Unknown Speaker  23:19  

yeah I’m old enough now where where I say that I used to be able to eat a 16 ounce steak and a couple pasta toast and a baked potato with loaded that when I when I gain and out I eat that 16 pound steak I gained like two and a half pounds right? capitalism is just gone

Unknown Speaker  23:37  

by right there with you. Ready? What is your definition of a life well lived

Unknown Speaker  23:45  

making an impact, living a life of significance. And, and and i also I also do a Facebook daily daily post in the title of my forthcoming You called me an author. So thank you. It’s not released yet. The title of that book is God took me to Las Vegas to get sober. Right? That’s the title. So I actually do a Facebook page there. Every day, I do a short post on a membership site and if your listeners that are interested just to ask to be invited, because there I talked this morning about joy. And even in his in the midst of chaos today, there’s still joy out there. It’s just a matter of, of the levels of anxiety and the levels of faith that we have and in how how we live our life because we all have the same 8760 hours a year we do. It’s a matter of how we live them. So I’m looking for joy as that ultimate, you know, tool to use,

Unknown Speaker  24:52  

like you said a life of significance. That’s fantastic. Okay, so we’re gonna as we wind it down a little bit. We’re we have a lightning round. You and I could talk for 1520 minutes on each one of these questions, but I’m going to give you a five, seven seconds max explanation. Just give me the answers. You’re ready.

Unknown Speaker  25:11  

Maybe. All right, here we go.

Unknown Speaker  25:14  

One what is the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

Unknown Speaker  25:20  

Relax.

Unknown Speaker  25:22  

share one of your personal habits that contributes to your success.

Unknown Speaker  25:27  

Too much coffee.

Unknown Speaker  25:30  

Okay, other than your own website, and of course time to shine today calm. That’s my shameless plug. What other websites do you maybe recommend even yourself or sending other people to to help them level up their life?

Unknown Speaker  25:44  

I would, I would go to one of the podcast channels and you know one of the podcast directories that I am really honing in more and the tools that are available, they’re

Unknown Speaker  25:56  

beautiful. recommend a book to us, other than From success to significance,

Unknown Speaker  26:02  

I was what I was just gonna say

Unknown Speaker  26:03  

another book. There had to been one when you were younger that boom impacted you.

Unknown Speaker  26:08  

And Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven Life orderly. Yes.

Unknown Speaker  26:11  

I love that. Yeah. What is Randy’s favorite charity organization?

Unknown Speaker  26:17  

Probably like worldwide village.

Unknown Speaker  26:19  

Gotcha. And last question, what is the best decade of music 6070s 80s or 90s 60s? I love it. I love it. Okay, so before we sign off, leave the time to shine today squad with one Knowledge Nugget Do you want to bury and burrow in for them to take with them?

Unknown Speaker  26:41  

Don’t wait until tomorrow to make the change that you know should happen today.

Unknown Speaker  26:47  

Love that. Oh, procrastination. So Randy, where can we find you?

Unknown Speaker  26:52  

Randy Mortensen calm and that’s Mortensen s e n.com is the best place rageous recovery podcast is on Facebook.

Unknown Speaker  27:04  

Also, there’ll be a show notes peeps.

Unknown Speaker  27:07  

And as, as I said, the the daily posts that I do to encourage people and challenge people is actually, under the title of my forthcoming book, God took me to Las Vegas to get sober. Lastly,

Unknown Speaker  27:20  

look, tell us a little bit about the lifetime champion cohort, the weak executive recovery program, can you not too in depth, but can you give us a three foot view?

Unknown Speaker  27:30  

Yes, he did what it’s intended for. And if you go to my website, there’s actually a 21 question assessment. Yes, I saw that on the front page of that. So that will tell you whether you’re eligible for the lifestyle champion cohort. What we have it’s a it’s a weekly date week. So we have 90 minutes sessions using this using zoom technology. And what we do is we talk on those calls about about evaluating where you are equipping you to move forward and then how do you improve Joy, your recovery once you’re successful, okay, well, so those are the three phases. And I’m actually in this time of uncertainty, it’s usually a 20 $349 entry fee for that. I’m just gonna discounting that by 75% right now because I know there’s a lot of people that are struggling with life. And and I want people to sign up for that. So that’s why I’m giving a 75% discount right now. Love

Unknown Speaker  28:29  

it. Thank you for doing that. Great squad. Will you just have heard a great conversation with me and my friend Randy Mortensen, who always he’s very humble. He’s always leveling up his health leveling up his wealth. He crushes the stigma, and he’s always leveling up his life of significance in Randy, you’re part of our squad now. So I’m grateful and blessed that you have came on and shared the valuable knowledge that gets today.

Unknown Speaker  28:59  

Thank you, sir.

Unknown Speaker  29:00  

Awesome, have a great great day, Randy.

Unknown Speaker  29:03  

Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast proudly brought to you by southern New Jersey real estate real estate excellence who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter and nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com slash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see a recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host, Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up it’s our time to shine.

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