In this episode, Mike Gardon chats with Ty Reed. Many individuals escaping the adverse circumstances of addiction, homelessness, and past criminal justice involvement have difficulty finding employment, a key component of rebuilding lives. Ty Reed offers no-cost career coaching to individuals working to overcome these challenging backgrounds through his nonprofit, Recovery Career Services. He also educates employers and the public about the importance of providing second-chance employment opportunities.
In addition to walking his own journey in recovery, Ty has an MBA from the University of Washington and holds credentials in human resources and workforce development. He has been a featured speaker for Amazon, Comcast, The University of Washington, and many more.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
- Recovery Career Services - Ty offers no-cost career coaching to individuals working to overcome challenging backgrounds
- Ty’s background and why he started Recovery Career Services
- Challenges individuals with criminal convictions run into when trying to get back into the workplace
- How employers can move past biases and be open to hiring individuals with criminal convictions
- Slow down. Don’t automatically discard individuals with criminal convictions.
- Ask questions and be curious.
- How Ty walks individuals with criminal convictions through coaching
- He recommends that individuals with criminal convictions be honest and upfront with potential employers
- As an employee - how you can support fellow co-workers who have criminal convictions
- Companies that invest in second-chance employment
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BOOKS AND RESOURCES:
- According to the FBI, there are 70-77 million adults in the US that have a criminal conviction. That’s 1 in 3 adults.
- Nature, time nature - look at the nature of the criminal convictions, time since those occurred and nature for the position applying - framework that may be helpful for employers considering hiring someone with a criminal conviction
- Second chances aren’t charity, they are an investment - quote from Ty
- Recovery Career Services - free services Ty offers
- You can also research local recovery program and options
- Reach out to someone that you trust and ask for help
- Mod Pizza has built their entire company on second-chance employment
- Connect with Ty on his website, LinkedIn or call him at 253-347-1611.
TRANSCRIPT
Disclaimer: The transcript that follows has been generated using artificial intelligence. We strive to be as accurate as possible, but minor errors and slightly off timestamps may be present due to platform differences.
Michael Gardon (00:00):
Hi everyone. And welcome back to another episode of CareerCloud Radio. I'm your host Michael Gardon, and I'm on a mission to help people build thriving work lives over the years. I've thought about how we can help all people, including people who have experienced adverse personal circumstances, thrive in their work lives. I don't have the answers, but my guest today is talking to talk and, and walking the walk, Ty Reed offers no cost career coaching to individuals working to overcome these challenging backgrounds through his nonprofit recovery career services. He also educates employers and the public about the importance of providing second chance employment opportunities. Ty says many individuals escape. The adverse circumstances of addiction, homelessness and past criminal justice involvement have difficulty finding employment, a key component of rebuilding their lives. How does he know? Well, Ty found himself a homeless alcoholic and drug addict living on the streets after deciding enough is enough.
Michael Gardon (01:00):
He has courageously battled back to get his career in order and is now helping others do the same. In addition to walking his own journey in recovery, Ty has an MBA from the university of Washington and holds credentials and human resources and workforce development. He has been featured speaker for Amazon, Comcast, the university of Washington, and many more Ty doesn't hold back and discuss thing is prior life experiences and implores all of us to pause and get curious in order to help a friend, colleague or acquaintance overcome their circumstances through work. I hope you enjoy this amazing conversation with Ty Reid, Ty, welcome to career cloud. How are you today?
Ty Reed (01:40):
I'm doing great. Mike, thanks so much for having me.
Michael Gardon (01:43):
Excellent. So, uh, you know, before we get into everything, I just wanna kind of preface the discussion for our listeners with an interview question and I, and for them to kind of keep in mind actually, and hopefully it sets the stage a little bit for what we're gonna talk about. So this is a famous question from PayPal co-founder and venture capitalist, Peter, the that he uses to interview candidates, and it goes like this. What important truth do you believe that very few people would agree with you on? And since I first ever heard this question and thought about it, my answer has been that people can change. And so I wanted to kind of just use that for our audience to kind of think about as we get into this discussion. So, you know, just with that being said, really thank you for being here and sharing your story. And I, I really appreciate it.
Ty Reed (02:32):
Thanks. Glad to be here. Glad to have the opportunity.
Michael Gardon (02:35):
Excellent. So why don't we start with before we get into your backstory and everything, why don't we start with what you do today? Give our listeners an idea of what you do day to day with recovery career services.
Ty Reed (02:48):
Sure. I do a variety of things that are kind of developed around the workforce development space. Recovery career services is my 5 0 1 [inaudible] [inaudible] nonprofit that I began based on my personal experiences. And what we do is provide no cost career coaching and employment guidance to individuals that are in recovery from addiction, homelessness, and past criminal justice involvement. The challenges for folks that are rebuilding their lives and trying to re the workforce are pretty unique. So certainly there's some in common, everybody needs to interview. Everybody needs to have a resume, but the way that you tell the story of what's happened in your history and the way that you try to make an employer comfortable with in many cases, taking a chance on you are vastly different than what most job seekers have to go through. So to the best of our ability, we try to help folks navigate those waters and get better into, uh, sustainable work.
Michael Gardon (03:41):
Excellent. And, and as part of that, uh, you do some speaking and, and other types of consulting with, uh, employers. Is that correct?
Ty Reed (03:47):
That is correct. Absolutely. Excellent. Absolutely. Yeah.
Michael Gardon (03:51):
And so talk to us a little bit about your personal backstory. What kinda led you to doing this work
Ty Reed (03:56):
Very twisty road, quite frankly, it's not the, of the kind of work I ever thought that I'd be involved in. I was fortunate enough in, you know, kind of the early to mid two thousands to work for a fortune 50 company as a sales and business development, uh, representative, and was pretty successful, had received some national recognition for sales achievement, and, uh, got some awards, but I also so had a secret and that secret was that I was a pretty hardcore alcoholic and drug addict and it kind of started taking a toll on my personal life way before it took a toll on my professional life. So my personal life had frankly been a wreck for, for quite a while, but professionally I was able to outie some of the things that were happening in my personal life at, for a while. Unfortunately they caught up with me and although I went to rehab and although I tried a number of things to prevent myself from falling any further than I did eventually in 2014, I ended up as a homeless addict on the streets of Seattle and really spent the next couple of years of my life going through series of pretty painful things.
Ty Reed (05:02):
Quite frankly, I was in and outta jail repeatedly. I was committed to a mental institution. I was in that time, of course, completely unemployable and even, you know, was lucky enough. And I'm sorry if this makes some people uncomfortable, but I was fortunate enough to survive a couple of suicide attempts. And when I find was ready, really to get sober and start putting my life back together in 2016, I was surprised to find out that the great work experience that I had in the past, which is, you know, over 10 years of, of great corporate experience and the fact that I had an MBA from one of the best universities country, the university of Washington didn't really help me a whole bunch because people only saw that I'd been outta work for a couple years and that I had criminal convictions and despite all the advantages and the things that I'd been lucky enough to have on my resume, I, the first job I was able to get was part-time as a janitor and that's is needed work.
Ty Reed (06:00):
And that job actually did a lot for me. But as I progressed further in my sobriety and kept thinking about ways that I could help other people who might be walking the same journey, I kept coming back to this idea of employment. And frankly, just kind of reason that if a guy like me, who, you know, really interviews well, honestly, and, uh, has these advantages of education and work history has such a hard time finding quality employment. What's that battle gonna be like for somebody who hasn't been as lucky as me and that's where my nonprofit recovery career services came from. I started in 2020 during the pandemic and have luckily been able to through what webinars and in-person things recently and personal coaching with folks have been able to help hundreds of folks kind of get back on that employment journey and start to rewrite that story.
Michael Gardon (06:46):
Very interesting. Thank you for sharing. What do you attribute your success in terms of, of getting sober and, and getting the upper hand on what you were going through? What do you attribute the success to? Was there a specific moment or anything that, that really struck you as, okay. Now is the time I'm gonna do this and, and be able to get it done,
Ty Reed (07:07):
Frankly, it was just, I've had enough pain. I'm a really funny, weird individual in a couple ways. So, you know, the first way which maybe some folks can respond to or can relate to, I respond to pain, the avoidance of pain, feeling pain, you know, consequences really kind of motivate me to do anything. If it's easy, I'll take it. If it's painful, I typically I'm gonna avoid it. And I had, frankly just reached a point in my life where I had taken, I had suffered enough pain and I wanted to do something different for me. There wasn't a magic moment. You know, I didn't get arrested again. I didn't, I get kicked out of some place or there wasn't some big incident. It just really was the accumulation of so many things that had been happening for years and years and years. You know, by the time I started trying to get sober, I'd been using alcohol and hard drugs for well over a decade.
Ty Reed (07:57):
You know, it isn't one of these things where it happened. You know, I had did drugs for a little while and then I just decided to get sober. It really was just a bunch of experiences and I was kind of sick of it, quite frankly, but it wasn't just me. I've had a ton of help along the way. And my recovery journey has not been a straight line. I've relapsed. Definitely. And that's the story for a lot of folks, I've had setbacks, but I knew what I was working towards was always gonna be better than what I was coming from, because what I was coming from was the worst. I don't know that people really understand what homelessness is like and what it's about. And that was just a dark road. I didn't wanna go back down again. I got lucky. I was sick of being tired. I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. As I say, had a lot of help, you know, with a lot of organizations that stepped up and helped me and a lot of friends and family and strangers that showed up at just the right time in my life to kind of help me on that journey. I feel really, really fortunate.
Michael Gardon (08:51):
You alluded to some of your challenges when you were coming back into the workforce, in terms of a gap on your resume and, and criminal convictions, what are sort of the typical impediments that people run into when they try to get back in the workforce?
Ty Reed (09:07):
The primary impediment is bias. It's a bias that employers have, you know, employers, hiring managers, HR people have against folks who have criminal convictions because they quite often will lump everyone into one category. And the truth is that it's pretty easy to get a criminal conviction in this country. I don't know if people realize it. So just some statistics to throw here. Number one, the FBI says that there are somewhere between 70 and 77 million adults in this country that have criminal conviction. That's one in three. And that's more people that actually have bachelor's degrees to give you an idea of the scope of that. Add to that, the fact that there's just a bunch of laws in this country, it's pretty easy to actually end up with a criminal conviction and often the difference between those who have criminal convictions and those who don't is simply luck.
Ty Reed (09:53):
So if you have ever gotten behind the wheel left, you've had too much to drink, but didn't manage to get a DUI and didn't get in a wreck. Well, you were kind of lucky if you've ever smoked a little weed before weed was legal at a lot of places in this country and didn't get caught. You're pretty lucky. And if you ever got into a physical altercation in your life, but didn't end up with assault charges, you're kind lucky. But so often what people think is that if somebody has a criminal conviction, whether it's a misdemeanor or a felony, that they must be a person of poor character, or this is someone that can't be trusted. So it's that bias that folks often face that is the biggest obstacle to actually, before I got the janitor job, I had to interview with a large national company for a job that I was frankly overqualified for, but they told me that I was the best candidate that they had went through.
Ty Reed (10:40):
The entire process met with the hiring manager. Hiring manager told me she would hire me on the spot if she could. But all I had to do was get through this background check. And when the background check came back, despite the fact that all I have is misdemeanors, they said, come back in seven years. That's kind of rough. Be told to come back in seven years and it can be discouraging for a lot of folks. And, you know, that's the biggest obstacle that most of the folks that I coach and that I'm fortunate enough to be able to help kind of deal with
Michael Gardon (11:07):
I'm in the position of, of hiring people. And I know a lot of our listeners are as well, right? Either in a managerial capacity or as a founder co-founder of a, of a small, medium sized business, us, uh, what are the keys to getting over this bias? Cause again, I, I, as I preface the conversation, I'm like, I believe people can change as well, but when we have these classifications or, you know, it it's just do we need to have some type of company or, uh, organization help us classify these things. What are the types of things? How can we get over some of these biases? Cause to me again, I'm just putting my personal, I'm trying to be honest, put my personal things out there. It's like, when I hear criminal conviction too, it's like, oh, okay, what pattern is that indicating? Right? Or, or whatever, whether that's, yeah, that's obviously not good in this case, but it's there. How do we get it over
Ty Reed (11:59):
This? Well, I think there's a few things that employers should keep in mind. So the most common objection that I hear from employers and hiring managers is the risk involved in hiring somebody that has a criminal conviction. And I just wanna be clear, there's a risk involved in hiring any employee, right? It's just a matter of how we mitigate that risk, right? So since we know there's risk, then with any employee that we get off, indeed, we're gonna check references. We're going to, you know, pull a background check, we're gonna do certain things. So that's the first thing. Let's get that outta the way. The other thing is that the best way to overcome bias is cur. So often what I ask employers to do when I'm, you know, doing consulting is slow down. That's the first thing. So when you see somebody that has a, you know, criminal background, don't just automatically have a policy or have a judgment in your head that says that this application's now going in the round fund.
Ty Reed (12:52):
What you need to do is slow down a little bit and take the opportunity. Now this is only applies if they're actually the right person for the job. So if they're qualified, if they're the best candidate for the job and you're committed to having the best workforce that you can, I would argue that what you need to do is slow down when you get those folks that might have something on their criminal background and just ask some questions. So ask 'em some questions about, you know, what happened with this particular criminal conviction or, or convictions as the case may be. But then the second question is actually more important. What's been happening in your life since that happened, because as you mentioned, Mike, people can change, right? But we also need to give people an opportunity to explain to us how might have changed. If you run across an applicant who has two or three criminal convictions for, let's say drug possession in the last couple of years.
Ty Reed (13:45):
And as you start talking to this person, you ask 'em, what's different in their life. They make it clear to you. I've entered a 12 step program. I work with a sponsor. I go to counseling, I've connected with my church and my family. And oh, by the way, here's a couple of recommendations from folks that kind of know me that aren't my family. This is somebody you should probably seriously consider. But unless you get curious and are committed to providing folks an opportunity to provide you data that might demonstrate their living their lives a different way than they did before. It's gonna be a non-starter people aren't gonna get opportunity. So it is that mental commitment and saying that I'm gonna slow down. I'm gonna ask just a couple of questions. I'm not saying you spend another week with somebody spend like an hour with, 'em try to get a sense of who they are. You can probably get some good data and then you can at least base your decision on having more information versus is having this preconceived notion and simply acting on a judgment,
Michael Gardon (14:40):
A couple of things you, that, that you said there that just peaked my interest in curiosity was, was first slow down. I, I love that because yeah, it doesn't take a whole lot of extra investment to just ask a few questions. And I think that the questions that you asked are super key too, cuz I okay. Slow down. Well, what do I need to ask here? Do I, do I need a tip toe around this? How do I need to do this? But you know, it's just, what's been happening your life since then. I think that's fantastic because again, I, I come a little bit from the VC world and there's a really famous venture capitalist that says I invest in lines, not dots. And he is referring to like a chart, right data around different data points in a startup's lifespan. But here we're applying it to a person's lifespan, right. Or, or what they've done. That's always stuck with me as well because that's indicating that people can change this one day data point happened, but let's get a few other data points. We're like, where's the trajectory of this going and what's likely to continue in the future. So I, I love those two things.
Ty Reed (15:40):
And Mike, I'll just jump in the, the other thing I wanna add here is that there is also a right person, right? Job attitude that needs to be instilled in hiring managers and employers. And what I mean by that is, you know, not every person that has a criminal conviction and not every type of criminal conviction is gonna be right for every position. So if you get somebody who shows up to apply and they've had, they had a couple of auto theft convictions in the last five years and you're maybe hiring them for a driving position. Well maybe not. Or if they've got a, you know, they've got DUIs in the last couple years, you know, maybe that's not the right position. But if somebody shows up to work for your company in a sales capacity or they show up to work, you know, in the warehouse or something, and they have, you know, some criminal convictions in the last couple years for possession, or maybe even low level theft, depending on what the position is and where they are and what they have access to by asking some of the right que questions.
Ty Reed (16:33):
And again, looking at the person, the position and how long ago those crimes occurred, you know, maybe this is somebody you should consider in the world of, you know, second chance employment as we call it. We call that nature time nature. So you look at the nature of the criminal convictions. You look at the time, since those have occurred. And then you look at the nature of the position for which they're applying to see if it makes sense to provide somebody an opportunity. But again, unless you slow down and are committed to having the best workforce you can, regardless of criminal background, that doesn't apply to the job, you know, you're gonna have a hard time making those decisions.
Michael Gardon (17:14):
I think I read on your website. You, you say second chances, aren't charity, they're an investment. Absolutely. And, and, and coupling that with this idea of just curiosity, what sparks in my mind is as a person who's hired a number of people across different industries. Like when someone gives you that feeling like, oh, they would be good. They would be great in our culture or whatever. Right? Like that's rare. So to have the curiosity to go a step further and say, I need to figure out what this particular mark
Ty Reed (18:34):
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Well, number one, I always encourage people to tell the truth. I always but be strategic about when you tell it and what you tell and what I mean by that is, you know, so often, you know, people who are turning their lives around, they wanna be honest. They wanna be honest to the points sometimes where they walk into an interview and they just verbally vomit all over the interviewer and tell 'em a whole bunch of stuff that they don't need to tell 'em right up front. So, you know, let's be strategic about when we tell it and what we tell. And so when I say about, when we tell it the best time that I, I think to re feel that you may have some criminal history is after the first interview, but before they run a background check and it does a couple things and there's, you know, sometimes you can figure out they're gonna run a background check and sometimes you can't, but that's really the best timing.
Ty Reed (19:24):
And the reason why is because you've now given them an opportunity to kind of see it and talk to you in an interview, decide if you're somebody they want to move forward in the process. But then you want to be honest and just give 'em a brief statement about the fact that you have criminal convictions. Something like, I just wanna make sure you know, that when you run my criminal background, check that you're gonna find some criminal convictions in my past. I'm a different person than I was. Then I'm committed to living my life in a different way. Some, some statement like that, because then it gives the applicant an opportunity to take credit for being honest, which is kind of important as opposed to them running the background check and finding some stuff. And then it kind of looks like you left some stuff.
Ty Reed (20:02):
You tried to hide it in some way. The other thing is that there's four elements when constructing either a letter of explanation about criminal pass, or if you're gonna talk to somebody about it that I used in my own life that worked really successfully, and this is what I advise my clients to do. So the first thing you want to do is you want to talk in kind of a really high level way about what happened. In my particular case, it would be something like from 2014 to 2016, I was homeless and suffering with addiction on the streets of Seattle. It was during this two time that I picked up some criminal convictions. So this very kinda high level view, but now the employer knows some important stuff. They know I was homeless. They know I've got criminal convictions and that those things were tied to my time on the streets.
Ty Reed (20:46):
So first you wanna talk about it at a really high level and give the facts. The second thing you want to do is you want to pivot and start talking about any ways that your life is different. And so, as we kind of talked about it a little bit earlier, if you have entered a 12 step program, if you maybe had a violent crime in your past, and you took anger management classes, and you have a certificate where you grew, you know, anything that you can do to demonstrate that you're living your life a different way, and that could include volunteering, it could be it being in recovery. It could be going to church. It could be working a few different jobs. It could be a bunch of stuff. So first you give an overview of kind of what happened. Second. You demonstrate the ways that your life has changed.
Ty Reed (21:24):
Third. You wanna talk about any new or mention any recommendations that you have from any other work you've done? So this can be from actual work. It can be from volunteering. It can be from someone in the community who is trusted and is willing to vouch for you. And then the final thing, which a lot of folks forget is that employers don't post jobs because they're just trying to pay money to people for nothing employers, post jobs, because they have a need. And so the last thing that you want you want to do is you want to finish up your explanation by making it clear to the employer that you can fulfill that need and that they should consider you strongly. So that's the four things. Number one high level view of what happened. Number two, how's your life different today? Number three, any, any new skills or any recommendations that you have. And then finally you wanna bring it back to the employer and tell them why you're the person that they should consider for that position. I have found that, and my clients have found that to be a really effective way to kind of talk about any criminal convictions. So it gives, 'em a chance to kind of think through it and get their story straight in a lot of ways
Michael Gardon (22:28):
In case I just missed this. When do you recommend this happen at the end of an interview or completely after?
Ty Reed (22:36):
So this is gonna be after the interview. So you're gonna, at the end of the first interview is when you're gonna kinda let them know that they're gonna, if they're gonna run a background check that they're likely to find some criminal history. Then at that time, you can all offer to provide a letter of explanation, or if they want you to give more of a verbal explanation about it, you can do that at that time. Most companies are gonna actually want you to provide something in writing just for legal purposes. So they have it in the file and they can use it to evaluate whether you're an appropriate candidate for employment, but you definitely wanna bring it up after that first interview. I wouldn't say you bring it up before that because you might run across a company that isn't gonna run a background check. And if they're not gonna run a background check, there really isn't any reason to divulge anything that might eliminate you from consideration for employment.
Michael Gardon (23:22):
Okay. I wanna switch gears a little bit and talk for our listeners who are employees maybe may have peers, right, struggling with, uh, with addiction. I'm curious, how can they be of help and of service to a peer coworker? You can start by talking about how maybe you were helped or just however you recommend people
Ty Reed (23:44):
Help others around them. Well, this is gonna sound really weird, but the first thing you can do is not gossip about some, about the struggles that somebody might be having that, you know, that may sound like a, a strange thing to say, but I had the opportunity in 2009 to use my company's employee assistance program and go to rehab. And when I came back to the company that first day walking in, I had all these anxieties about, are people gonna know what are they gonna say? What's that relationship with my boss gonna be like, what's that relationship with my coworkers gonna be like, so I had all these anxieties kind of in my head in the, the thing that really helped me transition back into the office was I had this. I had a couple of people that I had work relationships with before that I was able to confide in and let them know that I was struggling, that I might need their support.
Ty Reed (24:37):
It wasn't a big conversation. It wasn't this heavy thing. I just kinda let 'em know. You know, I really was vulnerable and honest about what was happening, but what really helped was that my company did a really, really great job of guarding my privacy. And so I didn't hear a lot of rumors. I didn't hear a lot of, a lot of innuendo. And that is the biggest thing that I think people can do in the workplace is, you know, mind your business is kind of a cliche thing, but if you're gossiping about the struggles that's someone might be having, you're not helping that person. As a matter of fact, you're likely adding to the stress levels that they have. Now, the other thing that people will often ask me when it comes to folks that are seeking employment, I work for a company, but I don't have hiring and firing authority.
Ty Reed (25:21):
How do I help somebody who's in recovery or somebody who has a pass spinal record that is looking for work? The best thing that you can do for them is advocate. What I mean by that is if there's somebody that, you know, in your life who is trying to turn their lives around, and you think they're doing the right things, they are living their lives a different way than they did before. And they're really making efforts to the best that you can, you should advocate for that person. And that means you. If there's a position that comes up at your company that you think they might be right for, you should talk to your boss about it and let them know. I think this is somebody that we should seriously consider. If that's at another company and you know, someone that you can connect them with to the best of your ability advocate on behalf of that person and help them get their start.
Ty Reed (26:06):
What is common in every comeback story, whether it's in real life or whether it is a movie, is that there's always this person or there's group of people that show up in somebody's life to help 'em get to that next step on the path. And you can be that person. You can be the person that helps make a difference in someone getting from where they are to where they want to go. But you can only do that if you step up and advocate on their behalf. And I assure you that everybody who is watching this knows somebody who is either in recovery and looking to put life back together, or has a criminal record and is looking to put life back together, because there's just too many of us out there for you not to know somebody, quite frankly.
Michael Gardon (26:46):
Yeah. The statistics, uh, that you, that you mentioned pretty much ensure that, which is really, really interesting. So I'm obviously very ignorant on this entire subject for someone listening, who is, who is struggling with addiction and worried about keeping their employment or gain employment, what resources are out there, obviously the work that you do, what other resources are out there and free and accessible for people who are maybe struggling, uh, with this, with this idea of getting back in the workforce?
Ty Reed (27:16):
Well, I'm free and accessible. Uh, all the services that we provide to individuals are absolutely free of charge because we're funded by donations. And so that enables us to, to do that work. So feel free to reach out to me@recoveryandwork.org. That's the website. And you can, uh, I'll be happy to set up an appointment and chat with you. There are a number of other, you know, local resources that you can reach out to. And so I, I think this is going out nationwide, worldwide. Yeah. But you could search out any, you know, recovery or recovery programs in your area. Uh, if you are struggling with alcoholism or addiction, of course, there's a ton of 12 step programs. I'm not a representative of, or a spokesperson for 80 12 step or recovery programs, but there is lots of help out there for folks that may be struggling.
Ty Reed (28:00):
The sometimes the first place that you can start to ask for help is kind of whoever is closest to you that you trust. Now, this might not necessarily be a family member in some cases, depending on what your family situation is, it could be a friend, it might be a member of your clergy. It could be an HR person. The first step is always, if you think that you're having an issue is just kind of, you know, ask for help, kind of think about it and really examine whether this is something you should take more of a look at. I would say that well, here's what I would say for me when I knew that I had a problem. Now, I wasn't ready to do anything about it when I recognized that I had a problem. But when I knew that I had a problem was when I started sacrificing things in my life that should have been important and order to consume alcohol and drugs, I stopped showing up for family events.
Ty Reed (28:49):
I was calling in sick to work more than I should have. I wasn't showing up and being present in my life. And that was when I realized that, you know, maybe this is a problem. Maybe this isn't just fun anymore, but I wasn't ready to ask the questions yet because I wasn't ready to do anything about it yet. It doesn't cost anything to be curious and get more information. So if you think that maybe there's an issue, just, you know, ask some folks about it. That doesn't mean you gotta go to rehab. There's a great distance between where you are now and going to 28 days of inpatient rehab. But it's that curiosity again, having more data, never heard anybody.
Michael Gardon (29:25):
Are there any, you have any examples of companies that are, that you think are the model for second chances investing in second chances a as you kind of put it any come to mind?
Ty Reed (29:34):
Yeah. Mod pizza does a great job of providing folks with second chance employment opportunities. They really have built their entire culture and their company on one of providing people second chances. And as a result, a huge percentage of their workforce are folks that are in recovery or have past criminal justice involvement, formally homeless or all three. And they've grown like crazy over the last years, but it's because they have bought into the fact that everybody deserves a second chance. People can change and have given the opportunity and the right support. Most people will change. So they are a shining example of a company that has bought into what that means as a culture. And they've grown by leaps and bounds as a result.
Michael Gardon (30:18):
Really interesting. I have one close to me in, in, in my area. I'm gonna, I think I'm gonna start going there a little bit more after hearing that. I appreciate that
Ty Reed (30:26):
They do a great job
Michael Gardon (30:27):
For people listening, who wanna learn more about you and what you do. You mentioned the website already. Are there other places on the interwebs, as they say that folks can seek you out and find you,
Ty Reed (30:38):
They can find me on LinkedIn. I think there's a few Thai reads on, but I'm certainly the only one who looks like me. So I'm pretty easy to find if people just wanna call me directly. I know this is very rarely done, but you can call me directly on my personal cell, 2 5, 3, 3, 4 7 1 6 1 1, happy to provide any information or support that I can to folks who may need it. Even if you're a family member that just has concerns about someone who may be struggling, I'm happy to provide whatever insight that I can.
Michael Gardon (31:07):
Excellent. I think that LinkedIn handle is Ty Reed MBA. And if I get that wrong, we'll make sure we get it corrected in the show notes. And we'll, we'll provide links to everything. Ty has mentioned here in our show notes. Ty really appreciate the conversation. Thank you so much for being here and thanks for the great work that you do.
Ty Reed (31:23):
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I appreciate it, Mike.
Michael Gardon (31:26):
All right. Have a great day.
Outro (31:27):
CareerCloud Radio is a production of CareerCloud.com. Please review this episode on iTunes. We really appreciate it a lot. And thank you for listening.
