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EPISODE SUMMARY:
John Beyer returns to Frank About Health to further discuss his book Live A Little Better and to share the story of his son's challenges with Autism and growing the business Spectrum Designs.
Listen In to here the story of a John Beyer's Journey from Alcoholism to Sobriety and how he managed to create a successful company and even begin his journey into releasing music and revitalizing his life with family. All documented in his book Live A Little Better.
JOHN BEYER is a singer and songwriter from New York and the founder of Men on the Move, a top moving and storage company on the East Coast. He is an advocate for autism awareness and support and has served as chairman of the Long Island Chapter of Autism Speaks, a founding board member of Spectrum Designs Foundation, and as a founding member of the David Center. He currently lives on Long Island with his wife, Amy, and his daughter, Lauren, who insisted he tell his story.
John Beyer shares his remarkable journey from a chaotic home marked by addiction and neglect to building a thriving moving-and-storage business on the East Coast and having the strength in recovery to deal with the additional challenges of supporting his family in particular his son who was able to build a business of his own known.
LinkedIN: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-beyer-b976338/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnbeyermusic/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/johnbeyermusic/
Author Page: https://www.simonandschuster.com/authors/John-Beyer/232139178
#JohnBeyer
Tune in for this healthy conversation at TalkRadio.nyc
In this opening segment of Frank About Health, host Frank R. Harrison revisits guest John Beyer to dive deeper into his memoir Live a Little Better, exploring themes of addiction, family challenges, and personal transformation. Beyer candidly shares how neglect, early brushes with crime, and a “screw it” attitude fueled by family dysfunction shaped his youth, but also how music, education, and eventually meeting his wife became lifelines that redirected his path. For healthcare advocates and providers, this story underscores the critical intersections of addiction, mental health, and community support in shaping recovery and long-term wellness.
In this segment of Frank About Health, John Beyer reflects on his turbulent college years, deepening alcoholism, and the eventual turning point that led him to seek recovery and sobriety in 1986. He shares how building his moving company, Men on the Move, and finding stability with his wife Amy provided grounding, structure, and purpose as he worked relentlessly to rebuild his life. For healthcare providers and advocates, his story highlights how recovery is sustained not just through treatment and meetings, but also by channeling energy into family, meaningful work, and creative outlets like music, which ultimately became a healing force.
In this segment of Frank About Health, John Beyer shares how his love of music became both a creative outlet and a healing force, with his song “I Love You More” inspired by his daughter and granddaughter. He also reflects on the challenges and rewards of raising his son, who was diagnosed with autism at age two, and how that diagnosis fueled his determination to provide the best care and opportunities possible—eventually leading to his involvement with Spectrum Designs, an organization employing neurodiverse adults. For healthcare advocates and providers, his journey illustrates how recovery, family support, and community-centered programs can empower individuals to transform adversity into advocacy, purpose, and joy.
In the closing segment of Frank About Health, John Beyer reflects on his journey from addiction and hardship to building Men on the Move, a thriving business that empowered him to support his family, philanthropy, and advocacy work. He and his wife now lead the Beyer Family Foundation, supporting autism initiatives like Spectrum Designs, while John also pursues creative projects including a forthcoming Broadway-style musical exploring addiction and recovery. For healthcare advocates and providers, his story serves as a testament to resilience—showing how recovery, purpose-driven work, community support, and creative expression can transform personal disruption into lasting impact.
00:00:27.760 --> 00:00:50.140 Frank R. Harrison: Hey, everybody, and welcome to a new episode of Frank about health. It is now Thursday, August 14, th 2025. This is part 2 of my special guest from the end of July, Mr. John Beyer, if you remember, we had our technical challenges that day, but he's got a load of music out there that I want you guys to hear. I also wanted to go more in depth into his book.
00:00:50.310 --> 00:01:12.469 Frank R. Harrison: which is called Live a little better. And basically, we want to be able to consider it not a sequel, but a redo in order to get full, John Byer, because, if you remember, he was on my phone device audio. Only then he was on Whatsapp. But now we have him in living color, and we're going to talk about another aspect of his family life.
00:01:12.510 --> 00:01:32.640 Frank R. Harrison: in his stages of sobriety that were not covered at all. So it makes sense to have a sequel, because he's got a lot to say now that, all being said, I will issue my disclaimer. This is not the views of Frank about health or talkradio dot Nyc. But they are obviously the views of John Beyer covered in his book.
00:01:32.710 --> 00:01:56.160 Frank R. Harrison: If you remember from the 1st episode in July we had discussed about how he had gone through a life of alcoholism, and it wasn't until he had met the love of his life, and of course was able to have children and get through sobriety and use his music as a creative outlet, while also at the same time facing ongoing challenges in building his business men on the move.
00:01:56.240 --> 00:02:06.200 Frank R. Harrison: So obviously, this is an example of a story when you face distraction or disruption, what do you do about it? And this man certainly has, so
00:02:06.390 --> 00:02:10.309 Frank R. Harrison: as far as the book is concerned, we already covered
00:02:10.680 --> 00:02:21.119 Frank R. Harrison: about the alcoholism being a burden in how he had dealt with his parents and his sisters. We also talked about how he got involved in alcoholics anonymous.
00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:44.290 Frank R. Harrison: and also did what he could to be able to pick up the pieces of his life when he was seeing an example of one benefactor that gave him $2, and what he did with that was bought himself a slice of pizza, and realized, not only is there value in the money as being validated. But there's value in using your own inner resources to make things grow from nothing, and that's what he's done.
00:02:44.830 --> 00:02:47.199 Frank R. Harrison: How's that for a recap, John?
00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:49.310 Frank R. Harrison: You have to unmute yourself first.st
00:02:54.480 --> 00:02:55.153 John B.: Good job.
00:02:55.930 --> 00:03:07.489 Frank R. Harrison: All right cool. Did I leave anything out? I think, even after we did the show, you'd mentioned something about almost being part of a gang that you wanted to emphasize. Did you want to go into that a little bit.
00:03:07.490 --> 00:03:12.425 John B.: Yeah, I mean, there was a it's it's in my book live a little better. There was
00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:34.989 John B.: There was a guy that had. He was a big, tough guy. He was huge monster size, guy, and he I'm still even afraid to mention his name. I won't. He was a bad guy. He was a bad, bad dude, and he intimidated you. He said, if you don't do what I tell you to do, I'm gonna hurt you.
00:03:35.110 --> 00:03:36.689 John B.: I'm going to really hurt you.
00:03:36.890 --> 00:03:49.570 John B.: And you did what he told you to do. And and we we did some bad things, you know, that are detailed in my book. I admitted to some crimes that I committed when I was in my mid early teens
00:03:50.170 --> 00:03:56.029 John B.: and weapons were involved, and to this day. I feel terrible about it.
00:03:56.230 --> 00:04:02.259 John B.: I can't believe it. I could have gone down that road so easily, and just
00:04:02.430 --> 00:04:08.829 John B.: one day he disappeared. I don't know what happened to him. He was just gone from the neighborhood.
00:04:09.237 --> 00:04:29.679 John B.: He was a ringleader, and everybody else just fell by the wayside, and I don't know if he went to prison or what happened to him. He was older than us. He was about 20 years old, and like I said, this monster Guy, and he was very intimidating, and he was forced us to do some really really bad stuff, which I go into a little detail in my book.
00:04:30.080 --> 00:04:47.539 Frank R. Harrison: Now is the aspect of it being in your book, showing how, when you were under the mercy of alcoholism, that you were just led to do things that someone in in recovery would not do? Or was it you constantly feeling bullied, and not knowing the right choices to make for yourself?
00:04:47.540 --> 00:05:12.970 John B.: It was. It was the. It showed the lack of supervision that I was having from my parents, because I was 1314 years old at the time I wasn't drinking. I wasn't a daily drinker or anything like that at the time, so I it wasn't my alcoholism. It was more my parents, alcoholism and the neglect, and where I could, you know, just be out till one o'clock in the morning, and nobody even knew it. At the age of 13 years old.
00:05:13.380 --> 00:05:20.029 John B.: So yeah, crazy, crazy stuff. But he made us ride the top of the elevators and and
00:05:21.220 --> 00:05:26.470 John B.: and left rack and stop the elevators with people in them down below. He made it. It was pretty bad stuff.
00:05:26.610 --> 00:05:29.310 John B.: It was. Yeah, yeah, it's very scary.
00:05:29.890 --> 00:05:37.249 Frank R. Harrison: So what happened to you during that time as a kid? Were you in school, or were you homeless, or what was your life like.
00:05:37.490 --> 00:05:48.739 John B.: It was very interesting. There was a point in my life where I was in. I was actually in the accelerated classes in 6th and 7th grade. I was supposed to skip the 8th grade.
00:05:49.510 --> 00:05:52.589 John B.: You're doing that when you're 13 years old.
00:05:52.720 --> 00:05:54.739 John B.: and this is around that time.
00:05:54.850 --> 00:05:55.510 John B.: And
00:05:56.340 --> 00:06:00.400 John B.: My attitude was, they told me that it.
00:06:01.170 --> 00:06:06.260 John B.: They told me that if I didn't pass math because I started to do a little bit lousy in math
00:06:06.842 --> 00:06:09.310 John B.: that I wouldn't be able to skip.
00:06:09.510 --> 00:06:13.310 John B.: and I never forget this. This is a profound turning point in my life.
00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:14.680 Frank R. Harrison: They said
00:06:16.060 --> 00:06:42.830 John B.: If you don't pass math, you're not going to be able to skip, and I wound up failing math. My home life was. There was no accountability. There was no one there. My dad was had moved out years ago. My sisters had already moved out, and my mom was just a drunk all the time, and I failed math, and then the teacher calls me, and he tells me the counselor calls me and and says I'm very disappointed, he says, and I'm making up your schedule for next year.
00:06:43.130 --> 00:07:04.349 John B.: and he makes up the schedule for next year, and he's putting me for 8th grade, so I'm not skipping. So I'm staying now. And he says, yeah, I'm putting you back in the accelerated classes. And this is where we talk about the disease of the attitudes. This is what I said to him, I said, you're not putting me in the accelerated class. Why should I work so hard
00:07:04.620 --> 00:07:22.551 John B.: if it's not going to mean anything, and I made him take me out of the accelerated classes. Except for English. I always like to write, and I kept the English accelerated classes, and I remember going to science and social studies and and the rest of the classes. Of course, math, too, because I was not great math student
00:07:22.910 --> 00:07:37.289 John B.: the following year, and feeling like I didn't belong there feeling that I wasn't challenging myself, and it was boring because those classes weren't. I could have done something a little bit tougher there, but my attitude was, you know, screw it.
00:07:37.940 --> 00:07:45.819 John B.: and from there I had a screw it attitude I really did, and that that changed a lot of different things for me. And then, of course.
00:07:45.820 --> 00:07:47.570 Frank R. Harrison: Did you end up? Dropping out.
00:07:47.730 --> 00:07:58.979 John B.: I didn't drop out. I went to I I was always singing. I was always singing, so I was in the chorus, and the chorus teacher talked me into
00:08:00.340 --> 00:08:02.560 John B.: applying to the High School of Music and Art
00:08:02.960 --> 00:08:24.880 John B.: for singing, and I got into that high school. I sang on a clear day, and raindrops keep falling on my head. And what happened after that as I get in and it was 4 trains was into Harlem. None of my friends were going there. I didn't like the commute, and I felt alone, and I only went for a few months, and then I transferred.
00:08:25.430 --> 00:08:29.649 John B.: I transferred to my local high school, John Bowne High School in Flushing.
00:08:30.066 --> 00:08:32.199 John B.: and I finally moved out of left rack.
00:08:33.105 --> 00:08:37.294 John B.: In 75, late 75, and
00:08:38.039 --> 00:08:57.440 John B.: We moved to Flushing, and John Bound was my high school, and I go in the middle of the year, and I hardly know anybody there. I don't know anybody. Only a few of my friends had gone to that school because a lot of people were moving out of left Fracker moving into different directions because the neighborhood really did change and I felt lost. I didn't know anybody, and I wound up
00:08:57.720 --> 00:09:00.519 John B.: skipping a cut every day.
00:09:00.630 --> 00:09:10.394 John B.: I cut every day I went from and I got 46 s. And 50 sixes. Whenever you get into class ended in a 6, it means you just were delinquent and
00:09:10.810 --> 00:09:19.869 John B.: My! What occurred there is the irony is that here there was this kid who was supposed to be skipping.
00:09:20.760 --> 00:09:24.780 John B.: and then a year and a half later he was becoming a high school dropout.
00:09:25.700 --> 00:09:31.230 John B.: It was just overnight. The attitude my attitude was f it. I didn't. I didn't care.
00:09:31.360 --> 00:09:34.729 John B.: Yeah. And my my older sister, Denise
00:09:35.506 --> 00:09:42.480 John B.: saw what was happening. She caught wind of it. She was she was like 18 at 19 at the time.
00:09:43.190 --> 00:09:51.850 John B.: Tried to talk to me, and I didn't hear much, and she managed to get to my father, and my father showed up, and I think I liked the attention, which is a rare thing.
00:09:51.960 --> 00:09:58.269 John B.: and he kind of chased me down the block. I remember this. I was cutting class, and he found me, and
00:09:58.740 --> 00:10:01.410 John B.: and I went back to school there.
00:10:01.810 --> 00:10:08.569 John B.: and he told me I had a counselor at school who said to me, What makes you think we're willing to take you back?
00:10:08.780 --> 00:10:11.210 John B.: And I remember that worked on me.
00:10:11.480 --> 00:10:18.059 John B.: What do you mean? They always want to take you back at school and my dad said to me.
00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:30.790 John B.: I'll pay for your summer school if you if you you have to go to summer school in order to graduate, and I'll pay for it, which was unbelievable. And I was stunned.
00:10:31.990 --> 00:10:42.599 John B.: He did show up and and managed to do that, and he was all screwed up. He was drinking his ass off, too, but he did come up with the money for that, and I went back there, and
00:10:42.850 --> 00:10:57.808 John B.: I got my act together, and I started getting eighties and nineties in school, and on my 17th birthday is in my book, a good buddy. I was on the basketball team was a decent athlete. I was on the swimming team. I was pretty good swimmer and
00:10:59.040 --> 00:11:06.700 John B.: My buddy introduced me to this girl named Amy on my 17th birthday on the steps of my high school, and.
00:11:06.700 --> 00:11:07.060 Frank R. Harrison: Cheers.
00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:11.429 John B.: We'll be married 38 years now. Exactly. Yeah.
00:11:11.800 --> 00:11:14.510 Frank R. Harrison: Wow. So then, I mean, it sounds like that
00:11:14.700 --> 00:11:18.610 Frank R. Harrison: you were rebelling. And you were also just bank.
00:11:19.040 --> 00:11:34.179 Frank R. Harrison: Yeah, right? But I'm not. I'm not sensing, unless maybe maybe I didn't get to the part that we talked about a couple Thursdays ago. Where you yourself were going through binge drinking and alcoholism. Did that happen.
00:11:34.410 --> 00:11:34.770 John B.: When I.
00:11:34.770 --> 00:11:35.949 Frank R. Harrison: After high school.
00:11:35.950 --> 00:11:43.910 John B.: No, there were episodes. There were episodes in my high school years. There were
00:11:44.490 --> 00:11:55.140 John B.: it wasn't. It wasn't every day. But when I drank I still drank differently. I drank more. It just it was never enough. So I would get drunk.
00:11:55.370 --> 00:11:56.820 John B.: And
00:11:57.690 --> 00:12:12.119 John B.: yeah, I just I did. There were episodes there. I remember hitting going through the midtown tunnel, and you know those yellow rubbery spike things. I was hitting them. I was drunk going, going into the city to go out. I was already drunk
00:12:12.250 --> 00:12:32.019 John B.: and against my car, and I get out of my car, and there's yellow marks on them, because they were those yellow dividers that divide the lanes in the midtown tunnel, and I went out and partied, and I remember I was borrowing $3 from this one and $5 from that one without the other ones knowing. So I could get money to drink.
00:12:32.700 --> 00:12:33.350 John B.: Yeah.
00:12:33.350 --> 00:12:33.800 Frank R. Harrison: Incredible.
00:12:33.800 --> 00:12:36.289 John B.: 17. That was about 1718 years old.
00:12:36.450 --> 00:12:38.599 John B.: So I was. Yeah. It was bad.
00:12:39.040 --> 00:12:50.459 Frank R. Harrison: Well, so then, I guess if anything, I mean, you obviously found the love of your life, and according to the dedication in your book. She obviously grounded you as you move forward through your life, but
00:12:51.020 --> 00:12:59.300 Frank R. Harrison: it doesn't sound like to me that your let's call it illness, even though alcoholism is technically regarded as an illness.
00:12:59.490 --> 00:13:07.889 Frank R. Harrison: It doesn't sound like that. That was your major illness. It was more mental health oriented, or a sense of identity and purpose. Would that be fair to say.
00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:10.980 John B.: I was in pain. I was undernourished
00:13:11.090 --> 00:13:20.210 John B.: as a child I was in pain. Children learn what they live, and I had all the genetics and the environmental factors that go into becoming an alcoholic.
00:13:20.360 --> 00:13:22.751 Frank R. Harrison: I felt less than
00:13:23.870 --> 00:13:27.109 John B.: I had no direction and focus no accountability.
00:13:27.827 --> 00:13:39.830 John B.: Where was I? Gonna go? I was just. I was just was lost as a lamb, you know I, which is a lyric to one of the lines in the song from The From the Valley of the Dolls.
00:13:40.350 --> 00:14:01.439 Frank R. Harrison: You just said the magic word about music because you did say, where were you going to go? But throughout the rest of the show. We're going to show where you've been, where you went and what you're doing now going forward. So everybody please stay tuned right here on Frank about health on Talkradio, Dot, Nyc. And on our social media channels, Youtube, Facebook and Linkedin. We'll be back in a few.
00:15:44.870 --> 00:16:14.379 Frank R. Harrison: Hey, everybody, and welcome back. I'm here with my guest, John Beyer. We were just talking in segment, one about how this sequel to the episode we did on. I think it was July 24th basically showed how he was able to collaborate with the love of his life as well as with understanding how much pain he was in, especially while binge drinking, and, I guess dealing with alcoholism. But obviously he needed to be anchored down.
00:16:14.410 --> 00:16:30.699 Frank R. Harrison: probably because of the neglect he felt as a child, and of course, the way that his father supported him through that summer school story is one for the books. I gather you did not go to college unless I'm wrong. Please correct me if I'm wrong. But you did make something bigger men on the move.
00:16:30.850 --> 00:16:52.630 Frank R. Harrison: I would like you to share with the audience after you unmute what men on the move is, and what it's a reflection of in terms of your constant striving for maintaining sobriety, as well as how you were able to further succeed and engage with building a family after you married Amy, as as well as just tell us more about what we didn't get a chance to talk about last time.
00:16:52.630 --> 00:17:06.262 John B.: Sure. So in, in I I went, actually did go to college all, all of my my girlfriend at the time, and all of them. I fell in with the Goody 2 shoes now, and it's very malleable, you know, very impressionable. And
00:17:06.630 --> 00:17:26.860 John B.: I got into Stony Brook University on a economically challenged program because we were poor as dirt, and I wrote a good essay, and I get in, and all I did was already my ass off there. So I went for 2 and a half years, and I have 30 some odd college credits.
00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:48.510 John B.: and it was insanity and and mayhem and I punched showcases, got a glass on my knuckles, had car accidents, was sued for 2.9 million dollars in 1979 crazy crazy stuff this is. When I was at my pretty much at my worst. It was very bad, you know. I was drinking very alcoholically then, so I was a college dropout.
00:17:48.580 --> 00:17:59.859 John B.: and I wound up getting bartending jobs at the bar. My mother worked in and the bar my father worked in, and what I liked about that it was. It was empowering. I made a lot of money
00:18:00.440 --> 00:18:04.020 John B.: minimum money in those bars. I worked very hard to work 6 nights a week.
00:18:04.250 --> 00:18:09.539 John B.: and much of my early twenties or or a blur.
00:18:10.140 --> 00:18:16.890 John B.: It was car accidents and and insanity, and and waking up with strangers, and and.
00:18:17.060 --> 00:18:23.398 John B.: you know, just crazy stuff, the typical alcoholic stuff, till one day I
00:18:24.710 --> 00:18:26.680 John B.: So one day I came to
00:18:27.300 --> 00:18:30.330 John B.: the clock, said 6 6 o'clock.
00:18:30.610 --> 00:18:34.299 John B.: and I didn't know if it was Am. Or pm.
00:18:34.650 --> 00:18:40.440 John B.: I looked outside the window. The sky was a medium blue, and I could not tell if it was am or Pm.
00:18:40.810 --> 00:18:47.799 John B.: And you know that doesn't happen to somebody who doesn't have a drinking problem.
00:18:48.100 --> 00:18:48.929 John B.: And I.
00:18:48.930 --> 00:18:51.569 Frank R. Harrison: We're with Amy at this point because I thought you met her in high school.
00:18:51.570 --> 00:18:55.720 John B.: We. We were seeing each other off and on, she was ready to to
00:18:55.850 --> 00:19:06.639 John B.: get out of this relationship. You know we were off. We went off and on. It was, you know, typical stuff like that, because, you know, I could not be relied upon, and
00:19:07.040 --> 00:19:10.789 John B.: I actually called her up. And I said to her, I'm gonna get help.
00:19:11.300 --> 00:19:14.320 John B.: And I went to my 1st meeting that night.
00:19:15.040 --> 00:19:15.630 John B.: Wednesday.
00:19:15.630 --> 00:19:17.629 Frank R. Harrison: That the last time you ever drank.
00:19:17.860 --> 00:19:21.550 John B.: It was March 31, st 1986, and I haven't had a drink since.
00:19:21.750 --> 00:19:22.600 Frank R. Harrison: Awesome.
00:19:22.940 --> 00:19:27.439 Frank R. Harrison: You're almost at your 40th anniversary. What do they call it? Your 40th anniversary or 40th birthday?
00:19:27.440 --> 00:19:29.557 John B.: I like anniversary better. I don't.
00:19:30.280 --> 00:19:30.745 Frank R. Harrison: Yeah.
00:19:31.210 --> 00:19:31.690 John B.: Yeah.
00:19:32.170 --> 00:19:32.960 Frank R. Harrison: That's that's cool.
00:19:32.960 --> 00:19:46.909 John B.: Yeah, so I haven't drank. So yeah. So then I met a guy in one of the bars. His name is John. This story is in the book, and I know him fairly well from there, and he had recently gotten out of prison.
00:19:48.310 --> 00:20:17.759 John B.: And he had a van and was moving furniture, and he asked me to help him on, and I didn't have a job at the time. So I said yes, and then I wound up getting sober, and he said to me, You should get your own. You're a smart guy. You should get your own company in your own truck, and we'll work together, and we'll book jobs together. And I did. I started my own company in in actually in 1985 September of 85. So it's 40 years that I've been business and
00:20:19.600 --> 00:20:24.780 John B.: As soon as I got sober it exploded. All I did was work
00:20:24.910 --> 00:20:47.570 John B.: and go to meetings. And in my book, when I wrote the draft I kept saying in the I worked like a maniac. I worked like a maniac. I repeated the term so many times that when we went to the edit I had to remove some of them because it was too repetitive, but all I did was work, and I built quite a foundation of for my company. The phone kept ringing
00:20:47.700 --> 00:20:52.409 John B.: and of a foundation for my program, which was more important.
00:20:52.850 --> 00:20:53.520 Frank R. Harrison: Absolutely.
00:20:53.520 --> 00:20:53.870 John B.: Yeah.
00:20:53.870 --> 00:21:02.110 Frank R. Harrison: And so when when you were now finding traction literally, yeah. Were you then? Seeing Amy more and more.
00:21:02.110 --> 00:21:21.200 John B.: Oh, yeah, we I was sober 10 months, and I got engaged. They tell you no major decisions. In the 1st year I went to my sponsor and said, Listen, I know I don't have a year, but I think I want to get engaged, he said. She's the right one, for you get engaged to my still see and speak to him all the time.
00:21:21.200 --> 00:21:22.289 Frank R. Harrison: That is cool.
00:21:22.290 --> 00:21:28.489 John B.: Yeah. And I proposed to her, and we got married in a year later, 1987.
00:21:29.430 --> 00:21:45.819 Frank R. Harrison: It just sounds like to me that I guess, with all of the turbulence that you went through. And of course, the alcoholism your basic skill sets like your love of writing your entrepreneurial spirit. At the same time, when you find the love of your life, I'm sure it just changes you for the better.
00:21:45.930 --> 00:21:58.189 Frank R. Harrison: So it sounds like that you were able to make up for the family that you were neglected by by building your own and really being committed to that to keep grounded from preventing the recovery from being
00:21:58.600 --> 00:21:59.580 Frank R. Harrison: disrupted.
00:22:00.000 --> 00:22:03.609 John B.: It's really funny. You use the word grounded a few times.
00:22:03.610 --> 00:22:03.969 Frank R. Harrison: Okay.
00:22:04.330 --> 00:22:14.926 John B.: In our company. In, men on the move. I'm the CEO and my wife. I call our my controller with and without the P.
00:22:15.670 --> 00:22:16.659 Frank R. Harrison: Yes, you may.
00:22:16.660 --> 00:22:19.423 John B.: She hates that moniker, but that's what it is.
00:22:20.090 --> 00:22:34.990 John B.: No, she is the grounding. She is a grounding force in in in my life. Yeah, she gave us a lot of structure and and protocols and professionalism because she had. She had worked in offices and stuff. And we grew. We grew a truck a year.
00:22:35.549 --> 00:22:55.289 John B.: and then we were married. Oh, how many years! 3, 4 years! Then we had our 1st kid. Lauren was born. Beautiful little girl, and she's terrific. And then, couple of years, 20 months later, my son was born. Gregory Gregory was born.
00:22:55.410 --> 00:23:01.189 John B.: and unfortunately, on his. Just after his second birthday he was diagnosed with autism.
00:23:02.040 --> 00:23:14.620 Frank R. Harrison: And then we're going to save for the 3rd section of the show, because that's the one piece of the last show we didn't even cover. But I know that you are involved, not just with alcoholics, anonymous, but with autism speaks.
00:23:14.720 --> 00:23:26.710 Frank R. Harrison: And at the same time I'm really getting to the point where I'm interested to understand how your love of music and creating music went hand in hand with your writing, which hence created
00:23:27.390 --> 00:23:28.570 Frank R. Harrison: live a better life.
00:23:30.010 --> 00:23:43.400 Frank R. Harrison: So. And it's available on Amazon kindle at 50% off the price that's listed. All right. So that being said, what I'm trying to figure out, though, is that when did all the music and the writing come out while you're living this
00:23:43.650 --> 00:23:45.119 Frank R. Harrison: work like a maniac lifestyle.
00:23:45.120 --> 00:23:51.439 John B.: What it was very interesting is that I did not do a lot of the music. All I did, you know I write about
00:23:51.690 --> 00:23:59.629 John B.: the alcoholism and recovery run through the entire book. But the music.
00:23:59.920 --> 00:24:12.747 John B.: which also does run through the entire book because I use it to send to start each chapter off with giving you a sense of with lyrics from the song which gives you a sense of what the what the chapter is going to be about. But
00:24:13.020 --> 00:24:40.480 John B.: I really. I sang at some people's weddings. I sang a song here and a song there. I listened to music intently. I was not pursuing my music, passion, and interest at any real level for many, many years, many, many years. It really it really started much, much later, and then only really got serious about 7 years ago, 7 and a half years ago
00:24:40.530 --> 00:24:43.490 John B.: in my fifties. Yes, yeah.
00:24:43.710 --> 00:24:46.489 Frank R. Harrison: When it comes to music, I always say better late than never.
00:24:46.490 --> 00:24:54.819 John B.: Oh, oh, definitely! I'm enjoying it. I I can't get over how much I'm enjoying it. I it's my advocation, I guess. But I'm having a blast with it.
00:24:55.020 --> 00:25:00.699 Frank R. Harrison: And it's a substitute for what you were doing elsewise or 40 years earlier.
00:25:00.700 --> 00:25:01.210 John B.: Yes.
00:25:01.210 --> 00:25:06.050 Frank R. Harrison: Terms of of instead of berating yourself, so to speak.
00:25:06.280 --> 00:25:08.319 Frank R. Harrison: You're expressing yourself, and you're.
00:25:08.320 --> 00:25:08.750 John B.: Yes.
00:25:08.750 --> 00:25:10.010 Frank R. Harrison: Back to others.
00:25:10.320 --> 00:25:33.349 John B.: Just what the program teaches you. You know you have to. In order to keep it. You have to give it away, and I want to share my experience, my strength and hope, which is a common thing that we say all the time in the program. I want to share everything that I have in me that everything I've been through in life good, better, and different. The autism challenges and successes and the alcoholism challenges and successes
00:25:33.350 --> 00:25:51.459 John B.: and health, which is still an ongoing health stuff going on. But the music is music is, you know, it's got its own healing factor to it, you know it really does, and it's a great escape. And when I was a kid I used to listen to the music out on the terrace
00:25:51.780 --> 00:26:08.459 John B.: and left Rock city to get away from the insanity in the apartment, the fighting, or the strangers in the house, or you know the drunkenness, the filth, just and now it's it's just a much healthier escape.
00:26:08.990 --> 00:26:09.560 Frank R. Harrison: Exactly.
00:26:09.560 --> 00:26:09.950 John B.: You know.
00:26:09.950 --> 00:26:13.670 Frank R. Harrison: Exactly, and I guess it's your anchor to prevent you from even looking at a drink.
00:26:13.670 --> 00:26:16.080 John B.: Yeah, it's not something I consider
00:26:16.350 --> 00:26:18.549 John B.: it's really not something I consider today.
00:26:18.880 --> 00:26:34.829 Frank R. Harrison: Yeah, exactly. I know that. You know I have had my experience with people, both in my family and outside of my family, that have been addicted to drugs, or even cigarette smoking, or even addiction to too much sex, or whatever it might be. But the thing is is when they recover.
00:26:34.870 --> 00:26:50.799 Frank R. Harrison: If they don't have music, they kind of slide back into it somehow. Well, at least that's just what I've seen. I mean, I'm sure that there are other creative outlets that people can take ownership over and prevent going back into the downward spiral. But for you it's probably just in your DNA that it would be music.
00:26:50.800 --> 00:26:51.560 John B.: Yes.
00:26:51.730 --> 00:26:53.090 Frank R. Harrison: You know so.
00:26:53.090 --> 00:27:06.000 John B.: I picture the legal scales and on legal scales. I picture a bottle of alcohol on one scale and everything else in life that you could dream of having and wanting and enjoying.
00:27:06.580 --> 00:27:07.040 Frank R. Harrison: Yes.
00:27:07.040 --> 00:27:11.680 John B.: One or the other, you know it's 1 or the other, and and I've I've made
00:27:11.910 --> 00:27:13.420 John B.: had made one choice.
00:27:13.780 --> 00:27:15.529 Frank R. Harrison: Nice, very nice.
00:27:15.800 --> 00:27:32.660 Frank R. Harrison: Well, I think we're about to be headed to another break, literally. I just saw the warning 2 min to break. So I'm going to now lead off into our next commercial break and and show autism speaks the website, you know, and browse through it. So people get.
00:27:32.660 --> 00:27:33.000 John B.: Go ahead!
00:27:33.000 --> 00:27:42.209 Frank R. Harrison: Donate and participate. And then I'm going to open up the next section with another one of your songs, and we want to talk about the story of your son and his life with autism.
00:27:42.500 --> 00:27:43.140 John B.: Okay.
00:27:43.500 --> 00:27:45.750 Frank R. Harrison: Alright, so I'm sorry. What? Say that again?
00:27:45.750 --> 00:27:46.930 John B.: I said, you got it.
00:27:47.514 --> 00:27:49.266 Frank R. Harrison: Alright cool, alright!
00:27:50.140 --> 00:28:03.729 Frank R. Harrison: Also I will make sure that I turn on the light. That's the brilliance of the commercial break. So when we come back I'll be in a bright room again all right. That all being said, please stay tuned right here on Talkradio, dot Nyc. And on our social media. We'll be back in a few.
00:29:41.830 --> 00:29:42.430 Frank R. Harrison: But
00:29:43.120 --> 00:29:56.399 Frank R. Harrison: leaves on the trees more than the seconds passing by. I love you more more than the sand on the beach, more than the ocean
00:29:56.710 --> 00:30:20.009 Frank R. Harrison: more than my arms could ever reach. I love you more. I love you more more than the kisses on achieved more than the rise of Mercury more than my heart could ever be. I love you more.
00:30:22.830 --> 00:30:46.420 Frank R. Harrison: I would have loved to play more, but we're also running on our own time clock, and yes, I'm in a bright room again, that all being said, I don't remember what you said. I know it was a danceable track when we were going to play it during our 1st show together. But what was the impetus for that song in particular? Was it your son, or your daughter, or both of them or your wife even.
00:30:47.030 --> 00:30:53.120 Frank R. Harrison: Oh, you have to unmute first, st okay?
00:30:53.490 --> 00:30:55.878 Frank R. Harrison: Unmute. So that I can hear you.
00:30:56.890 --> 00:30:58.050 Frank R. Harrison: Okay.
00:31:00.700 --> 00:31:02.679 Frank R. Harrison: Unmute your microphone.
00:31:03.930 --> 00:31:05.090 Frank R. Harrison: No problem.
00:31:05.780 --> 00:31:08.370 Frank R. Harrison: Okay? Was that your son or daughter, son or daughter.
00:31:08.370 --> 00:31:09.989 John B.: That's my granddaughter.
00:31:10.490 --> 00:31:10.990 Frank R. Harrison: There!
00:31:10.990 --> 00:31:12.829 John B.: Yeah, yeah, can you see that.
00:31:12.830 --> 00:31:13.340 Frank R. Harrison: Yes.
00:31:13.340 --> 00:31:21.510 John B.: She's adorable. So my my daughter Lauren had my granddaughter, Harper. In the very beginning of that song, my daughter.
00:31:21.670 --> 00:31:25.640 John B.: I have my daughter begin the song by whispering, I love you
00:31:25.770 --> 00:31:27.869 John B.: and I, and I say back.
00:31:27.930 --> 00:31:55.400 John B.: no, my dear, let me make it clear. I love you more, and then it goes into that upbeat tempo, and I sing about more than the leaves on the trees, and my daughter is she. She's a social worker, but she also creates artwork. She presses flowers, and she, the name of her company is, Lauren, believes be leaves LEAV. ES. Yes.
00:31:55.770 --> 00:32:20.590 John B.: it's very cute play on words. And I wrote that lyric in there just for her. And what's really great is my 4 year old granddaughter can sing that song from beginning to end, and of the hundreds of thousands of streams that I have on there, I'm thinking about 10,000 of them are from my granddaughter asking for the song, and when I leave her
00:32:21.410 --> 00:32:30.219 John B.: I say, Harper, I I love you, and she says I love you more. She says it's singing.
00:32:30.220 --> 00:32:30.560 Frank R. Harrison: If
00:32:31.930 --> 00:32:37.999 Frank R. Harrison: so, is that part of an actual ep or album? Or is it just individual tracks that you've placed on spot.
00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:47.830 John B.: No, I just have a handful of tracks up there right now. We're gonna be able to put together an Ep, probably in the next 5, 6 months, and we have a couple more songs coming out.
00:32:48.320 --> 00:32:49.070 Frank R. Harrison: Very nice.
00:32:49.070 --> 00:33:04.780 John B.: Yeah, I'm very excited about them. It's great. It's fun. The music doesn't get done automatically, and I'm still doing other things in my life. I still have my company, and I've had some health challenges I mentioned before, and I still see my son all the time.
00:33:04.780 --> 00:33:23.280 John B.: so there's plenty of responsibilities in life. But the music is what is probably the most rewarding. And of course I did take out the time to write that this book. So that was a big time consuming thing, too, but I enjoyed that. That was very cathartic.
00:33:23.860 --> 00:33:30.190 Frank R. Harrison: Well, I do remember you were saying you actually have a soundtrack based on the book based on the 12 steps or the 12 chapters.
00:33:30.190 --> 00:33:51.530 John B.: Yes, I mean, it's 12 chapters, and each chapter begins with a song, and I recently went into the studio, and it begins with just 2 or 3 lines of each of the song, and the song is there to set a tone for the upcoming chapter, and I just sang them very mellow because I'm going to do the audio book next.
00:33:52.100 --> 00:33:56.769 Frank R. Harrison: Now when you do the audio book. Is that also going to feature the song from the artist.
00:33:56.770 --> 00:34:01.979 John B.: It's gonna feature, the song. Me singing the 1st couple of lines just as it's written in the book.
00:34:01.980 --> 00:34:03.959 Frank R. Harrison: So you're literally covering it.
00:34:03.960 --> 00:34:04.800 John B.: Correct.
00:34:04.800 --> 00:34:06.580 Frank R. Harrison: That's nice. That is excellent.
00:34:06.760 --> 00:34:20.959 Frank R. Harrison: You mentioned earlier about your son, and I know we talked in the second section about being diagnosed with autism when he was 2 years old. Was that a challenge for you in managing your sobriety? At the same time, while uncovering that.
00:34:20.969 --> 00:34:32.619 John B.: I was sober about 5 years, and I had been going to hundreds of meetings every year. So I did have a strong foundation. I remember the day he was diagnosed.
00:34:33.155 --> 00:34:45.219 John B.: I felt as if my wife at the time my wife at that time didn't get quite get the severity of the seriousness of the situation. I remember walking to the car
00:34:45.549 --> 00:34:59.069 John B.: and saying, We're in trouble here. This is serious. And I also said, This is, I'm going to have to make a lot of money, because I knew that we would be able to. If we had a lot of money we'd be able to get them the best care and the best help
00:34:59.269 --> 00:35:10.839 John B.: to make him the best that he could be. I was having that conversation from the front door of that place to where they said, we see autism here. It's a clinical subjective diagnosis, but they were right
00:35:11.364 --> 00:35:16.879 John B.: to to the, to to the car across the parking lot. I had that conversation with myself.
00:35:17.019 --> 00:35:18.819 John B.: and it was.
00:35:19.009 --> 00:35:24.289 John B.: It was challenging life through quite a curveball that day.
00:35:24.399 --> 00:35:27.519 John B.: You never know. Life comes at us all, but that one was
00:35:27.859 --> 00:35:30.049 John B.: one of the biggest ones ever.
00:35:30.730 --> 00:35:32.150 Frank R. Harrison: So how old is he now.
00:35:32.740 --> 00:35:34.419 John B.: It's 33.
00:35:34.770 --> 00:35:37.200 Frank R. Harrison: And he's living his life productively. I gather.
00:35:37.780 --> 00:35:57.009 John B.: So my son works in an organization called spectrum Designs. I'm not. I'm not involved really very much at all with autism speaks now I'm much more involved with spectrum designs, spectrum designs. It employs adults
00:35:57.260 --> 00:36:26.820 John B.: with people, neurodiverse people, people on the spectrum. It employs them, and they make T-shirts and sweatshirts and hats, embroidery and silk screening, and and you can order coffee mugs through them and pens, and that those types of things. And my son works there he folds the shirts, and he moves the boxes around. They employ about 40 adults with autism. Right now I sit on that board, love giving them love and guidance. There
00:36:26.950 --> 00:36:27.519 John B.: in business.
00:36:27.520 --> 00:36:27.980 Frank R. Harrison: Nice.
00:36:27.980 --> 00:36:28.630 John B.: Everything. Yeah.
00:36:28.630 --> 00:36:31.399 Frank R. Harrison: Think I actually heard of them on TV recently.
00:36:31.400 --> 00:36:43.869 John B.: They've been all over the place. They're knocking it out of the ballpark. They were on Kelly Clarkson recently. They were a part of a big autism fundraiser at the Beacon Theater in Manhattan, recently.
00:36:44.120 --> 00:36:44.790 Frank R. Harrison: Wow!
00:36:44.790 --> 00:36:53.199 John B.: Yeah, they they do work for companies like Uber and Google, and Microsoft. I don't know if you ever heard of those companies.
00:36:54.202 --> 00:36:55.410 Frank R. Harrison: Yeah, I, kind of.
00:36:55.410 --> 00:37:11.749 John B.: They? Yeah. So they're they're they're not gonna dead. And it's great because these people you go in there. And it's it's really a special place, I mean. I I would take you for a tour any day of the week, and it, it's something else to see.
00:37:11.750 --> 00:37:12.260 Frank R. Harrison: Wow!
00:37:12.260 --> 00:37:18.899 John B.: Engaged and being productive. And it's wonderful. And my son.
00:37:19.350 --> 00:37:20.010 Frank R. Harrison: I'm sorry.
00:37:20.010 --> 00:37:22.480 John B.: My son works for my son-in-law.
00:37:23.980 --> 00:37:27.049 Frank R. Harrison: That is very nice keeping it in the family
00:37:27.690 --> 00:37:39.899 Frank R. Harrison: same time, though, you had mentioned when you got the diagnosis, and you saw you needed a lot of money. I gather you managed to raise the funds for all the training and health programs you needed to participate in or development programs.
00:37:40.300 --> 00:37:50.339 John B.: My son, by the time he was 15 years old, went to Harvard twice economically.
00:37:50.340 --> 00:37:53.780 Frank R. Harrison: Oh, okay, in other words, that's how much it cost.
00:37:54.593 --> 00:37:56.219 John B.: The private.
00:37:56.220 --> 00:37:57.360 Frank R. Harrison: Cost of tuition.
00:37:57.360 --> 00:38:25.700 John B.: Yeah, we would. We would. We tried everything. We would fly out to California, see specialists there. We've we tried this, that and the other thing. We did everything to to find a cure or come up with, you know, the best therapist, and so on, and so forth. And it did make a very big difference. We have few regrets of anything we've ever done with him, and there's very little we would have done differently very little. We would almost nothing. And he's a very happy, productive person now, who.
00:38:25.700 --> 00:38:26.290 Frank R. Harrison: Very nice.
00:38:26.290 --> 00:38:46.800 John B.: Still limited communication. It still hurts. And you know there's a big piece of the book is how? Because I did not have much of a relationship with my father that I really promised having that I was going to have a very great relationship with my son, and frankly, autism cheats you of that.
00:38:46.800 --> 00:38:59.779 John B.: It's not typical. It's not the same, I mean, I know he loves me. But there's no communication, not talking about sports. We're not talking about 1st dates or driver's licenses or college entrance exams. It stinks.
00:38:59.860 --> 00:39:09.749 John B.: It's not the word I want to use on that level. Yeah, it's very painful on that level, but you have other rewards.
00:39:11.320 --> 00:39:19.129 Frank R. Harrison: There are some people I would like to introduce you and your son to, but we can talk about that offline because maybe they could be of some additional help.
00:39:19.260 --> 00:39:20.070 John B.: Okay.
00:39:20.310 --> 00:39:40.769 Frank R. Harrison: But the thing that I guess I mean I have a history of epilepsy which all of my audience knows, and you can consider that neurodivergent, especially when you know. Now I haven't had a full blown seizure in 25, maybe. My God, yeah, 20. That's about 20 years already. But the thing is is that
00:39:41.020 --> 00:40:06.440 Frank R. Harrison: I would have to say that probably there have been some limitations imposed upon me as a result of, first, st the social stigma around it, and, second, even some of the things that I may have missed out on as a result of having repetitive seizures, and therefore being excluded from certain groups or certain situations, but you know, I guess, like what you have experience with your with your struggle with alcohol, and then the recovery
00:40:06.470 --> 00:40:14.360 Frank R. Harrison: you just have to make something more innovative out of it. To to live as best of a life as you've been meant to do with your limitations.
00:40:15.030 --> 00:40:20.819 John B.: Right. They just tried to live a little better. Seriously, I mean, it sounds Hokey.
00:40:20.820 --> 00:40:23.290 Frank R. Harrison: No, but it is. It is like a mantra in your case.
00:40:23.290 --> 00:40:29.649 John B.: It is. It's just, you know, one day at a time, just live a little better, and just put one foot in front of the other, and and march on.
00:40:30.630 --> 00:40:37.649 Frank R. Harrison: Now I guess it sounds like your son was on the spectrum, but much more advanced, based on his limitations. Am I correct.
00:40:37.650 --> 00:40:44.010 John B.: No, no, my son, I look at my son as being a real typical textbook case of autism.
00:40:44.550 --> 00:40:54.189 John B.: But what I feel. I think most other parents would agree with me. There's 1 thing that runs through 90, something percent of these kids,
00:40:54.930 --> 00:41:08.890 John B.: and adults is obsessive, compulsive disorder. He is. He's very Ocd. Like if we go to a restaurant and and he needs to, he obsesses over the Pellegrino bottle becoming empty.
00:41:09.260 --> 00:41:13.790 John B.: He can't stand the glass, not to be filled all the way to the brim.
00:41:13.950 --> 00:41:17.069 John B.: and this is completely distracting you
00:41:17.210 --> 00:41:22.349 John B.: him from experience everything else in life, because that's all he's obsessing on.
00:41:22.700 --> 00:41:25.860 John B.: so he still very much has that he has limited language
00:41:26.020 --> 00:41:29.633 John B.: still doesn't even cross the street with
00:41:30.580 --> 00:41:40.320 John B.: The way you and I were across the street, being so aware of the cars, and and so on and so forth, his awareness level you. You! Is he really looking? Is he really looking. You're getting
00:41:40.760 --> 00:41:46.700 John B.: no matter. Spent hours and hours and hours, you know, working on those skills with him.
00:41:47.280 --> 00:42:01.450 John B.: But we, we can take him to a restaurant. He doesn't yell or yelp or flap his hands. He acts pretty appropriately, and he can order his food that he wants, but he wants the same food at the same restaurant all the time.
00:42:02.441 --> 00:42:04.829 John B.: And as much as we try to
00:42:05.440 --> 00:42:18.100 John B.: try to get him to mix it up, and he'll mix it up in different restaurants. But if the 1st time he has that meal at that restaurant, it's 99% sure. That's what he's going to eat there the next 2040 times he eats at that restaurant.
00:42:18.490 --> 00:42:25.849 Frank R. Harrison: Incredible. Yeah, it's the way it is. And you pick and choose your battles. That's what he's gonna have. That's what he's gonna have. It's fine.
00:42:26.440 --> 00:42:29.620 Frank R. Harrison: Does he know about your story and your history?
00:42:30.597 --> 00:42:38.529 John B.: No, I don't think he would be really. Yeah. I don't think he would process that the way you and I would process it necessarily.
00:42:38.800 --> 00:42:45.609 John B.: You know he's never seen me drunk, neither. Neither one of my kids have ever seen me drunk, and that's that's a that's a gift.
00:42:46.020 --> 00:42:53.189 Frank R. Harrison: Yes, it is, and with your gift of making music every time, even if that compels you to drink, you just write a new song.
00:42:53.190 --> 00:42:53.779 John B.: Yeah.
00:42:54.660 --> 00:42:54.950 Frank R. Harrison: Yeah.
00:42:55.970 --> 00:43:05.980 Frank R. Harrison: well, we're about to take our final break, and then when we return, I'd like to talk more about. I guess your future plans with your, with your son, with your music, with your book
00:43:06.150 --> 00:43:12.440 Frank R. Harrison: you did mention. You're doing an audio book, and at the same time men on the move, learn more about your whole business, and
00:43:12.770 --> 00:43:40.950 Frank R. Harrison: you know I offer the platform for people to promote their business when they want to. So thank you. If you want to talk about it in any way after the next section begins. Well, we'll do just that all right. So everybody, please stay tuned right here as again we are echoing the 1st episode that John and I did together. We're talking about from sobriety to success right here on Frank, about health, on talkradio, Dot, Nyc. And on all of our social media we will be back in a few.
00:45:26.320 --> 00:45:54.660 Frank R. Harrison: Hey, everybody, and welcome back overall over the last 2 episodes with John Beyer. We've had a chance to see his struggles as a child, and through middle school and high school, and meeting the love of his life, and having become a dropout in college because the alcohol was just consuming him, and then, being like, I said, grounded with the love of his life, coming up with beautiful children, Lauren and his son. What was your son's name again?
00:45:54.890 --> 00:45:55.830 Frank R. Harrison: Unmute.
00:45:59.340 --> 00:46:00.200 John B.: Gregory.
00:46:00.200 --> 00:46:02.319 Frank R. Harrison: Gregory. I almost said Greg, but that was close.
00:46:02.320 --> 00:46:03.270 John B.: That's all right. You can go.
00:46:03.270 --> 00:46:07.610 Frank R. Harrison: We go. And and then, of course, the whole aspect of his music and writing this book
00:46:07.670 --> 00:46:35.329 Frank R. Harrison: live a little better. He had mentioned earlier that he is going to be doing the audiobook version of it, and probably release a soundtrack to the titles of the book. As a result of the songs that are used by traditional artists that have superstar messages behind those songs. I'm now calling this segment about building your new identity, which you've already done, and I gather you're still on the road. We all are on the road each day.
00:46:35.380 --> 00:46:44.469 Frank R. Harrison: you know, so other than doing the audio book and continuing to participate in autism speaks, or rather with your son's business.
00:46:44.470 --> 00:46:46.200 John B.: Action designs.org. Yeah.
00:46:46.250 --> 00:46:53.230 Frank R. Harrison: spectrumdesigns.org, I guess what really drives you quote unquote is men on the move that's giving you your
00:46:53.570 --> 00:46:55.450 Frank R. Harrison: good to maintain all of these
00:46:55.700 --> 00:47:00.029 Frank R. Harrison: incidentals to preserve the new identity that you've developed over time. Correct.
00:47:00.190 --> 00:47:14.954 John B.: That's right, men of the move has enabled me. It's given me the vehicle, albeit a moving truck. It's given me the vehicle to do all these things. So yeah, I built from scratch. I built quite a little empire with that, I think.
00:47:15.300 --> 00:47:42.669 John B.: probably the largest, independently owned 1st generation moving company on Long Island. You know there are other ones, but you know, inherited from their dad, and and maybe maybe bigger than my company. But yeah, I'm kind of proud of that, because it was from scratch. And and I did it. And I in in the last 15 years or so I really broke off and started becoming a
00:47:42.810 --> 00:48:05.100 John B.: developer self storage facilities which made me a lot of money. And I didn't want the book to be about that. Yes, I have become. It is a live, a little better, is a rags to riches story. But it's really about survival. And it's meant to inspire people. It's almost an aside. Yes, and and what I've discovered through all that is really
00:48:05.100 --> 00:48:20.699 John B.: just wanting to give back everything that I've ever had and learned. And now my wife and I are trying to figure out how to give money away, you know, and we created the Buyer family foundation. And we're trying to be generous, as you know.
00:48:21.140 --> 00:48:37.609 John B.: going forward with autism and other agencies, too. And I want to teach people about the function of money, because people don't understand the function of money and interest, and and you could you could have a master's in philosophy and not have a
00:48:37.610 --> 00:48:54.599 John B.: goddamn clue about how money works, and that that's a shame, because that robs you. I think if that was taught better in this country, all boats would rise. If that was really specified in our education system.
00:48:55.410 --> 00:48:56.220 John B.: And
00:48:56.220 --> 00:49:23.360 John B.: you know I hate when people are overextending themselves, and so on and so forth. But yeah, men on the move. It was one truck. We have 28 trucks. At 1 point we had 4 self storage facilities. We had 250,000 square feet of self storage facilities. Right now, I still have 20 some odd trucks. Business is rough, actually, in the moving business these days, because of interest rates and the market being tough. So we're mostly residential movers.
00:49:23.722 --> 00:49:40.039 John B.: But we're more than surviving. And and we are developing 2 new self storage facilities right now. 1, 2 on Long Island, 2 on Long Island, and a 3rd in Jersey. So it's actually 3 new facilities that are becoming
00:49:40.040 --> 00:49:56.130 John B.: into being in the next year, and by the by, 2026. And I'm excited about those. Those are creative processes, too, because you're taking an old building and making it pretty and and or from the ground up. And you have. There are aesthetics involved there, and I enjoy doing that.
00:49:56.290 --> 00:50:14.189 John B.: I enjoy doing that, and it's enabled me to pursue my music and and help out in the autism world. And you know, like I said, I'm on the Board of Spectrum designs, and I do what I can there. I was also on the board for Cormaria Retreat House, which is out in Sake Harbor, which is a retreat house that helps
00:50:14.523 --> 00:50:30.507 John B.: people with alcoholism and all kinds of issues. And I enjoyed that experience working with the nuns and the staff there. Out of this retreat house. The place saved lives Core Core. Maria Retreat House is really a special place. I've been going there since
00:50:30.900 --> 00:50:34.710 John B.: for over 39 years. So yeah, that's.
00:50:34.950 --> 00:50:35.830 Frank R. Harrison: Nice.
00:50:37.340 --> 00:50:42.359 Frank R. Harrison: Do you think that you yourself have slowly become an advocate in your own right?
00:50:43.135 --> 00:50:48.609 John B.: Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, my wife and I are, go to people we don't
00:50:49.490 --> 00:50:53.469 John B.: 2 weeks doesn't go by where we don't get a phone call from a family
00:50:53.670 --> 00:51:22.710 John B.: that wants to know about. What did you do when this happened with your son? What did you do? And and now it's about when people, because because we're older, people want to know what to do with their kid when they've aged out of the school system. Safety net of 21 is after 21. It's gone, and that's what happened with Greg. We wound up working at spectrum designs, and we got him a house, and and it's very complicated to put all those pieces together. The most challenging thing I ever did in my life.
00:51:22.970 --> 00:51:50.949 John B.: My wife and I have accomplished, was getting a residence for my son, putting the pieces together with the caretakers and the other kids that live in the house with the other parents was the most challenging thing we've ever done, and I've faced some challenges, and that was that was a toughie. But he lives 2 miles away from me 3 miles away from me by design. My daughter lives 2 miles away from me. My son can walk to my daughter's house. It's also we're close, and we can see each other and stay physically close, which helps.
00:51:50.950 --> 00:51:51.750 Frank R. Harrison: That is nice.
00:51:51.750 --> 00:51:53.860 John B.: Emotionally. Close. Yeah.
00:51:54.010 --> 00:51:57.589 Frank R. Harrison: Now you did say you were going to be undergoing a procedure.
00:51:57.740 --> 00:52:16.930 John B.: Yeah, I continue to have health problems. I haven't touched on it. But I had colon cancer 8 years ago, and it spread to my liver 4 and a half years later. So 3 and a half years ago, I had 2 thirds of my liver taken out and had chemo directly into my liver.
00:52:17.230 --> 00:52:39.390 John B.: I concentrated Chemo for 6 months, and it turns out that that wound up, damaging me. 3 years later, 3 and a half years later, my liver is not doing well, and I was at doctors today, and I'm having a procedure done, and there's a probability that I'm going to be needing a liver transplant in the coming year, or something like that.
00:52:39.500 --> 00:52:42.840 Frank R. Harrison: So. But I'm okay. Today, registry.
00:52:43.170 --> 00:52:54.890 John B.: Not not just yet. I'm going to have this procedure and see how there's this procedure. It's called a shunt, and they're going to circumvent the blood flow and see how that comes out, depending on how that turns out.
00:52:55.492 --> 00:53:00.070 John B.: We'll see that, and I'll probably go on a donor list. After that.
00:53:00.640 --> 00:53:01.260 Frank R. Harrison: Okay.
00:53:01.260 --> 00:53:03.580 John B.: Yeah, just more challenges.
00:53:03.840 --> 00:53:12.469 Frank R. Harrison: It's more challenges. But I feel like you're going to get through it. I just thinking about the way you're presenting yourself. I just feel like that. There's an inner confidence that's gonna carry you through it.
00:53:12.770 --> 00:53:22.009 John B.: Well, I got to tell you something. My wife and I went to Alaska 2 years ago, and the water was. The air was so clean, and the water you would drink the water out of the creek.
00:53:22.140 --> 00:53:28.730 John B.: And I and I said, Wow, that's interesting. It's so beautiful, so clean and so pure, and I look up the life expectancy there.
00:53:28.940 --> 00:53:32.520 John B.: and it's only 73, or 74 years old.
00:53:32.970 --> 00:53:35.790 John B.: and nationally, it's about 78,
00:53:36.010 --> 00:53:40.170 John B.: and I look up on Long Island, Long Island is 82,
00:53:40.650 --> 00:54:01.660 John B.: and the difference being is, the people in Alaska do not have access to the health care that we have, let's say, in the in the Tri-state area, very fortunate. And so you have to access that health care. The finer institutions. Sloan, Kettering and Nyu and Mount Sinai, which is where I was today.
00:54:01.730 --> 00:54:13.739 John B.: Yeah. So we're very fortunate to be where we are. And it's very imperfect as our healthcare system is, it still has a lot of merit to be to be had for it too.
00:54:14.450 --> 00:54:40.809 Frank R. Harrison: Well, I know that you know my documentary has been released at this point, and it shows the history of Frank about health, and where it came from from an epilepsy stigma, removal story all the way to an advocacy platform. So I've renamed the company healthy media to hold all of my intellectual property, which includes this show, and so forth, and so on. But those hospital systems you mentioned, especially Nyu Langone.
00:54:40.810 --> 00:54:54.470 Frank R. Harrison: I am a firm believer in the way that they educate the very implementations they use for treating things like cancer and so forth, and so on. So based on what you're telling me, you're going to be going through. Maybe, like
00:54:54.550 --> 00:55:01.019 Frank R. Harrison: I think you mentioned you would want to spend some time in the city if you come on by. I'd like to talk with you more about all of the.
00:55:01.020 --> 00:55:01.460 John B.: Sure.
00:55:01.460 --> 00:55:03.100 Frank R. Harrison: Work you're doing with those hospital systems.
00:55:03.100 --> 00:55:05.580 John B.: Absolutely. I'll buy you lunch
00:55:05.730 --> 00:55:19.580 John B.: so that would be cool. I would tell you that my next project after after live a little better. Because this is written out of gratitude. My sister, my sister, my my daughter, talked me into writing this book.
00:55:19.600 --> 00:55:49.210 John B.: The next project that I'm working on is. It's been underway, and Covid came, and it hit a little thing it's called we. It's a Broadway play. It's a musical, and my collaborator, Ben Ben Hay, and I have 20 some odd songs written for this play already, and we have more than an outline of characters. I have the whole story, but I don't have dialogue. I still have to write the dialogue. I hit a wall with that. I don't know how to really incorporate the dialogue into it, but that I'm going to be going back to, and we
00:55:49.340 --> 00:55:53.070 John B.: is all about addiction, and the fact that 12 steps
00:55:53.430 --> 00:56:12.600 John B.: of Aa are the same 12 steps in every every addiction anonymous program, whether it's cocaine, anonymous sex, anonymous sexaholics, anonymous gamblers, anonymous overeaters, anonymous all of them and all these characters are in the play together, and they and they interact. And it's fun. And
00:56:12.680 --> 00:56:35.840 John B.: somebody dies. Somebody falls in love. And that's that's my next project. I'm going to make that go and be off Broadway in the coming years. I want to work with Emily Ashford, the actress I met her. She's a delightful person, her husband, Joe Tepper and and I just that's what's going to happen. I'm going to make that happen. That's my next.
00:56:35.840 --> 00:56:37.409 Frank R. Harrison: Thank you. I believe you.
00:56:37.750 --> 00:56:53.519 Frank R. Harrison: Well, I can't believe. Here we are, and at the end of our second show together, overall, I have definitely retooled this show to be about success stories. After facing disruption, you are definitely one for the books right here on Frank about health.
00:56:53.590 --> 00:57:12.669 Frank R. Harrison: ladies and gentlemen, I hope you had a chance to see my 150th show. John gave me a surprise visit, and we talked about this show as well as everything else that's going on in his future. You already have had a taste of what's going on in my future with this show and with my business model. But
00:57:12.670 --> 00:57:28.589 Frank R. Harrison: we are out there to advocate for all people that are dealing with disruption, whether it's through the healthcare system itself, or whether it's the condition that you're carrying and learning to live with. Or even if you're an advocate trying to fight on your own podcast for example.
00:57:28.610 --> 00:57:50.793 Frank R. Harrison: So please continue to watch us, not just on Talkradio, dot Nyc and our social media. But we are now available on apple podcasts as well. So hopefully out there, you'll get a chance to even hear some of his music as was played on the show, and then go to spotify, or Youtube or Amazon music, or wherever else it's being played. But
00:57:51.370 --> 00:57:55.059 Frank R. Harrison: I thank you, John, for being here today, Jesse, behind the scenes
00:57:55.360 --> 00:58:10.299 Frank R. Harrison: for engineering the show, and we will be back next week with another episode. Stay tuned at 6 o'clock for success with a splash with Bruce Kramer, and I will see you all next week. Alrighty. Take care!
00:58:11.680 --> 00:58:12.400 Frank R. Harrison: Bye-bye.
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