Podcast Transcription: The Alcohol-Free Lifestyle: How to Restore Relationships, Health and Productivity by Getting Rid of Alcohol with James Swanwick

Ted Ryce: James Swanick, happy to have you on the show today. We got a lot to cover, so, uh, really excited man. Thank you for having me, Ted. And I'll tell you. As I said before, before we hopped on and, and press record here, I know you from way back when you have this company that sells blue light blocking glasses and now you shifted away from that to doing something. 

I can tell there's a lot of passion. About, even though this is the first time that we're speaking, talk to us about what alcohol free lifestyle is. Why you're promoting, what you're promoting right now. What's the, what got you into this so passionate about being alcohol free?  

James Swanwick: I. I was a socially acceptable drinker growing up in my native country of Australia, in that I would have two or three drinks most nights of the week, and I would drink heavier on weekends. 

I wasn't what society might refer to as an alcoholic. I didn't get a DUI. I didn't get arrested. I didn't wake up in a ditch. I didn't have this rock bottom moment that many people talk about with their drinking. I was just a socially acceptable drinker, but I did that from age 16 all the way up to age 35, and almost 20 years of drinking like that caught up with me at age 35. 

In 2010, I was 35 pounds overweight. I was envious of other people. I was irritable. I wasn't sleeping great. My finances were just average. I looked average. I just felt blah. And I remember I went out to an industry party. The South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas. In March of 2010, I had two Bombay Sapphire gin and tonics. 

Went back to my hotel room, went to sleep. Excuse me. When I woke up the next morning, I looked in the mirror and I just felt and looked, blah average. I walked next door to the hotel, to an ihop, an international house of pancakes. And it suddenly dawned on me, what the hell am I doing in an ihop? And I thought, wow, I just gotta make a change here. 

And so I committed to what I thought would be 30 days of not drinking. And it's now been 15 and a half years of not drinking because I lost weight. 13 pounds I lost in 30 days. My skin got better. I. Auditioned to become a sports center anchor on ESPN into my utter bewilderment, and they gave me the job and I ended up hosting that television show for two years. 

I credit the clarity that I got from alcohol free life to helping me get that job. I became an entrepreneur. I. Created these Swannies blue light booking glasses that you referenced. And then fast forward to today, I now have an an organization, which is called Alcohol Free Lifestyle, and we help high achievers, mostly entrepreneurs and executives over the age of 40 to finally break free from alcohol and live a beautiful life of health, wealth, love, and happiness. 

Ted Ryce: Love it. What I really appreciate about your story is it's not a rock bottom moment because most of my clients, they're living their best life ever. And then some people, they're not in a situation where it's like, oh man, I'm broke and you know, I'm drunk every night, and just my wife left me and just going nowhere in life. 

No. Most of the clients that I've worked with in the past few years, especially post COVID. Drinking kind of ramped up after the whole COVID thing without opening up that can of worms. But just for a lot of people, they started drinking more. And you know, even a few years later, after we've kind of come away from the haze of all that craziness. 

Their drinking habits are still a little, you know, they're still drinking. And so what I love about your story is that this isn't about like being at rock bottom. This is about like being, blah, being more of in a rut. 'cause so many of the clients that I work with. There. One of the reason you mentioned you lost 13 pounds. 

My clients come to me, they wanna lose weight. And what I find is the more someone's drinking, when we have that initial conversation, the more I know it's gonna be an issue. And I know you're, you're gonna get into, you know, your studies and, and how alcohol affects your brain and all the other physiological effects. 

But, um, you know, it's just really important. You don't have to be at rock bottom. So can you talk about like, when it comes to the effects of alcohol, 'cause you're really into the neuroscience of this and the neuroscience to change. What do people need to know about alcohol?  

James Swanwick: One seemingly innocent drink per night could be costing you millions of dollars in lost revenue or income. 

One seemingly innocent drink a night is enough to destroy gray and white matter in your brain. One seemingly innocent drink per night destroys your sleep quality, which shows up the next day with irritability and frustration and fogginess. One drink a day. Could be sending you towards a divorce. One seemingly innocent drink a day is creating disconnection with your children, irrespective of if your children are young kids or adults. 

I've seen this so many times over the years. I've been helping high achievers to quit drinking since 2015. We have a 90 day stop drinking pro uh, process called Project 90. Where we put our executives and entrepreneurs into a 90 day stop drinking container with other executives and entrepreneurs. And when they first joined that program, a lot of the folks are saying to us, you know what? 

I'm not being a good role model for my children. You know what? My husband or my wife. Has expressed concern about my drinking. You know what? I know I'm only operating at about a six or a seven out of 10 in my business compared to my potential. I know I can be at an eight or a nine outta 10. You know what? 

I'm aware that I'm probably 10, 20 pounds. Overweight, I could lose 10 to 20 pounds and one seemingly innocent drink a night is enough to compromise all of those areas of your life. And yet we are walking around convincing ourself that one drink a night's fine, two drinks a night's fine, three drinks a night's fine. 

I'm not an alcoholic. I don't need to go to an AA meeting. I don't have that much of a problem. Well, don't be so sure because one drink a night can cause all of those. Things that I referenced. Imagine what two drinks a night, three drinks a night, and now we haven't even got into a situation yet where we're actually drinking to excess and now we're being combative at home with our wife or husband, or with our kids. 

We're being hostile, we're irritable. That really compromises many areas of our life. So stop worshiping at the altar of alcohol and glorifying it as if some joyous. As if it's some joyous, amazing substance that creates connection and romance and believes you of stress and is there for all the good times. 

How about you just create good times while being alcohol free? Because I've been doing it since 2010. It's pretty simple. We like to make things hard. We human beings though.  

Ted Ryce: I wanna get into that because, you know what, what's at the root of what's going on or what you've seen with the, the executives and entrepreneurs that you've worked with. 

One thing I wanna ask you before that though, because I'm, you know, health and fitness is my, my wheelhouse when it comes to the. The effects of alcohol and some of the things that you mentioned, like, um, a drink at night costing millions in your business. So, I just wanna say one thing, like what you said, referencing the gray and white matter. 

We know that now from recent studies, if you're having a drink at night and you're in your forties and up, we know that your brain's, you're, you're getting brain damage from it. It would, would be the, let's say, the casual way of putting it, but. The way you said, like, you're losing, you're lo losing brain matter. 

So it heavily affects like brain health and it also, it's one of the things where, um, you know, it, it's one of the best things you can do if you want to lower your cancer risk. It's not getting rid of the microplastics or endocrine disrupting chemicals that might be an issue, but we know for sure that alcohol is causing problems. 

But can you talk about. Those things that you mentioned with the relationship causing issues with your kids, with your relationships, with the amount of money you're making, is that from research? Is that from the experience of talking with your clients? Where does that, where do those claims come from? 

Well,  

James Swanwick: let's talk about relationships. I have so much anecdotal evidence from coaching entrepreneurs and executives since 2015, including have a woman named Sheila. And she's a day trader, and she has a 19, 20-year-old daughter. And as a drinker, Sheila was essentially estranged from her daughter. Her daughter at age 15 or 16 was very combative towards her mother because her mother was irritable and stressed and she was 45 pounds overweight. 

And she felt stuck and she was drifting, and she wasn't present. She hadn't been present with her daughter for years because she was drinking. She was irritable. Combative, and so Sheila came and joined our Project 90 Stop Drinking Program in 2021, and her rock bottom was, my daughter won't talk to me. 

Well, fast forward now to 2025. About six months ago, Sheila shared a photo of her and her daughter hugging on the steps of. The church that Sheila attends on a Sunday morning, and Sheila was just saying, oh my goodness, becoming alcohol free. Got me my daughter back, got me my relationship with my daughter back, and her daughter's not religious, but the fact that her daughter willingly and proactively turned up. 

To a church session with her mother and then they took a photo on the steps of the church. After the session, smiling speaks volumes. Now her daughter is willingly wanting to spend time with her mother, Sheila, so that's what I mean by healing that relationship. There's another gentleman whose name is Robert, Robert Walsh. 

He had a very similar situation, a teenage daughter. She wasn't present with him because he wasn't present with her. He was drinking, he was irritable, he was foggy, he was distracted, and he lost that connection with his daughter for years. But again, about six months ago, seven, eight months ago, he posted, uh. 

A photo of he and his teenage daughter. And you can see this actually, if you go to alcohol free lifestyle.com/reviews, it'll go through to our Google reviews page. And if you scroll down and just look for Robert Walsh, you'll see the photo of him and his teenage daughter going to a uh, Broadway show together in New York City. 

And. I remember he was at our annual event in Medi and Columbia in January, 2025. And he said, James, can I show you something? And I said, sure, Robert. And he pulled out his phone and he brought up a photo of him and his daughter smiling, posing for a photo, and he said, me becoming alcohol free. Got me my daughter back, and I looked at him and as he was showing me this photo, there was a tear coming down his eye. 

That's how much it meant to him to reconnect with his adult child. That's what I mean. That's the impact. Now, in terms of the financial impact, let's do a mathematical equation here, Ted. Let's imagine, if you will, a male entrepreneur who's 45, who's drinking two or three drinks a night. Therefore isn't sleeping great, is foggy, irritable, distracted. 

Probably says that he makes a million dollars a year in annual revenue operating at about a six out of 10 if he was to come and stop drinking through our neuroscience based process. And he remained alcohol free for several months and he loved being alcohol free, and now he was sleeping well. Now he had strategy and now he hired someone or fired someone or made a couple of additional sales calls, or raised his prices or had some kind of better strategic thinking. 

In his business, he might make one and a half million dollars. Over the course of a year, he's generated half a million dollars additional revenue because he has that clarity and focus. Well, in that scenario, you can argue that his drinking habits. Is costing him half a million dollars a year, but the entrepreneur goes, oh no, I'm only spending like 5,000, $6,000 a year on alcohol. 

I'm not really that much interested in what you spend on alcohol. I'm more interested in what you don't make because you are drinking alcohol. And in this scenario, that's a half million dollar a year swing. Now if I'm just pulling out my calculator on my phone here, if I type in. $500,000 divided by 365 days of the year. 

Every day of the year that that entrepreneur chooses to drink is costing him $1,369 and 86 cents. If that entrepreneur has just two drinks a day, we divide it by two. Every drink is costing that entrepreneur $684 and 93 cents. That's frightful. That is just, that's a drop the mic moment because. We're convincing ourselves that our drinking habits are harmless. 

Just social. Come on, relax. James Swanick, you talk, coming on the On Ted's podcast trying to convince us to stop drinking. Relax. Just have fun as if drinking alcohol equals fun. Well, I don't know about you, but I. Making an additional half a million dollars. Seems pretty fun to me.  

Ted Ryce: Yeah, for sure. And uh, I like the way you answered it. 

I kind of was curious about like the, the data statistics, but I think what you, the way you answered was more poignant in that if you're listening right now, we all know as someone like having gotten into my story, but uh, alcohol wasn't really my thing. It was more marijuana. Don't need to talk about it 'cause that's not the subject today. 

But I understand why people wanna escape from their feelings or why they feel the need to shift their chemistry with drugs. 'cause that's what alcohol is. It's a drug, socially acceptable and legal drug. But it's a drug. Right? But like, um, we all know if we're not feeling our best. Right? We all know if we're drinking like, hi, you know? 

Ha. Having a couple drinks every once in a while is one thing, but if you have a habit and if you defend that habit, like you don't wanna stop and then, you know, you made the, you kind of came up with what someone listening to this might say about you coming on and, and trying to take their fun away. Yeah. 

It's really like a person who's defending their, let's say, reliance on you, really coping with life. Either with the negative parts of life, too much stress as you mentioned, or. I've never believed in the, the fear of success until more recently, but sometimes you accomplish things in life, a certain amount of money, or taking you, selling your company, and then you're like, what do I do now? 

Like I did the thing and then like I was supposed to feel a certain type of way, but it feels almost, I work with clients who sell their companies and we know people. I mean, there's data on this. People who retire or sell their company, they're more. Likely to have anxiety or depression. So, and they've never had more money or more time ever in their life. 

Right? So it's one of those situations where it becomes very easy to turn to alcohol, to kind of, to manage that exist existential angst. So, well put. James, what about your approach? Because you said that it's nine. Uh, it's, uh, so I. Right. It's neuroscience based and you even have some research here if you go to alcohol free lifestyle.com. 

There was a University of Washington study done on the A FL method. Can you talk to us about what you do and, and how it's different than like joining a 12 step or, you know, going to one of those rehabs in Malibu?  

James Swanwick: Yeah. Yeah. So the name of my organization is Alcohol Free Lifestyle. It's known affectionately by our clients as a FL, and our flagship stop drinking process is called Project 90. 

It's a 90 day stop drinking program where we introduce neuroscience to our clients and we put like-minded entrepreneurs and executives over the age of 40 into a community and we support them to stop drinking together. And because of that, like-mindedness. And the comradery and the relatability. Our clients have tremendous success. 

The University of Washington conducted a scientific study on Project 90 in 2023, and the result was a 98% reduction in drinking across the study participants. Now, that was described by Professor David Bellen at Cambridge University as groundbreaking. If we compare that result to Alcoholics Anonymous, there are reported studies that suggest that a's actual success rate is around 7%. 

Ted Ryce: Wow.  

James Swanwick: Very low. Didn't know that I. Very low. In fact, there was a book by Dr. Lance Dodds from Harvard University called The Sober Truth, and in that book, Dr. Dodds described a's actual success rate as being one of the worst in all modern medicine. Now, it's definitely helped millions of people, no question. 

However, statistically speaking, it hasn't helped 10 times as many people who've attempted it. Now, I would submit, there's a few reasons for that. I think I. In aa, you have to surrender to a higher power. Maybe no one wants to do that. You have to say, hi, my name's John and I'm an alcoholic. But you may not resonate with that. 

Just an interesting side note, there actually is no such term as alcoholic or alcoholism in modern medicine. It's actually now alcohol use disorder, but we can get into that a little later if you like. In aa, you are sitting around in a circle, engaging possibly with. Someone from a completely different background as you or someone with a completely different perspective of life than you. 

For example, you may be sitting next to a 19-year-old meth addict who's holding up gas stations, and if you're a 40 or 50 something, well educated, articulate, high achiever, you can't relate to that person. Of course, you want the best to that person. For that person, but there's no relatability there, and so it becomes very demotivating to return to an AA meeting in aa. 

You are forced to say that you are powerless over this disease. Powerless. Are you kidding me? I submit you a power full. And so what we do over in Project 90 is we take a neuroscience based approach, not a faith-based based approach, but a neuroscience based approach. We bring in the world's leading neuroscientists to explain what is going on in the brain when we drink, what is going on in the brain when we have a craving for a drink? 

What truly drives human behavior as it relates to alcohol and food and habits and vices, and in educating our clients as to the neuroscience and human behavioral psychology, our clients get a deep understanding of what is driving their need and their urge to drink alcohol. With that understanding comes the accountability of the like-minded group. 

We have professional coaches who identify our clients' blind spots in life. We help our clients to communicate consciously with their wife or husband or their children to ha to make healthier nutritional choices to get moving, to live a life of. Appreciation instead of expectation. Just a side note, there was a study that came out that suggested that even just. 

Introducing a daily gratitude practice to your life had been shown to reduce cravings for drugs, including alcohol by up to 30%. So we ensure that our clients are participating in a daily gratitude practice and that neuroscience-based community of high achievers, of executives, of entrepreneurs, of folks who are in a similar phase of life and similar demographic and similar careers in. 

Conjunction with great coaching from coaches who were educated at Stanford University and Harvard and Cambridge, and Oxford seems to be incredibly effective to get high achievers to finally break free from alcohol without having to go to aa, without having to go to rehab, and without the most ineffective methodology of all willpower. 

Willpower and white knuckling, it is useless, completely ineffective. And I would submit, most of your listeners have probably found themselves at times stuck on this stop start cycle where they stop drinking for a while, but then they start again. They stop drinking for a while, but then they start again. 

And the reason why they're starting again is because when they're stopping, they're using willpower. And that is a finite resource. So what we do is we get rid of the willpower, get rid of the shame, get rid of the surrendering to a higher power nonsense, get rid of the, I'm powerless over this disease nonsense. 

And instead we take a very scientific approach, a very uh, measured approach. Like-minded community, and that seems to create tremendous positive change.  

Ted Ryce: That's awesome, James. And, um, you know, I see the parallels in, in what we do, although with alcohol, you don't necessarily, you don't need alcohol in your life, period. 

Um, meaning you don't need it. In the literal sense. Whereas like with food, you literally do need to eat or you'll die because you'll starve to death. So you always have to have some type of relationship with food and some control over it. 'cause you'll be eating several times a day, right? Till you die. 

But like I love the way that you're approaching this and the points about the community. I think that's so huge. By the way, I was in a few AA meeting or NA meetings. They kind of grouped them together. I. When I was a teenager 'cause I was just crazy story for another time. But yeah, I was in there with people who were, you know, I, I smoked some weed and I felt addicted to it and I used other drugs. 

Alcohol wasn't real, like I still drank, but it wasn't like, oh really need a drink. But I was in there with people like what you said. Even I was a young kid and I got in trouble, but I was like, man, this dude was like, you know, people were doing crazy things on the street, some violence, some things that I won't even mention for drugs. 

And I just felt like I don't need to be here, you know, with these people at all. And so I could only imagine, um, yeah, that putting to people together in, in a place where it's like, yeah, your lives are really good. You're making money right. Nobody's busting your balls about it either a few drinks, maybe your wife, maybe your kids don't love it. 

But in general, it's like you're the winner. You're making money, you're successful, you're an executive, you're running business or businesses and um, but it's not really the case. You really do need help 'cause you're. Drinking too much. What are some of the things, and you know, it's fascinating what you said about bringing in top neuroscientists to come in and explain. 

I think that's so powerful. What are some of the reasons, like what can you share to help someone listening right now who maybe feels like they're imbibing a little bit too much? To help them understand why they're going for that, like why it's so hard, and maybe why they even defend it when someone like yourself maybe talks about, you know, going through a 90 day process to back off. 

James Swanwick: There were these studies that came out in the eighties that claimed the glass of wine a night was good for your heart health, but they've been debunked so many times now over the years. In fact, there was a 60 minutes television episode in 1991 that aired to 32 million Americans, in which the journalist, Morley Schaeffer, interviewed a French scientist who first made this claim that potential longevity lay in a glass of red wine. 

And the following day from that episode airing US airlines reportedly sold out of red wine. Red wine sales spiked by about 40%. Over the next year, sales were up by 32%, and then they re aired the same episode a year later, and the same thing happened, a big spike in drinking next week, and then a big increase in red wine sales. 

Over the course of the next year, there was only one problem, and that is that the claims from the French scientists and the claims from the 60 Minutes episode. Weren't true now. They weren't deliberately untrue at the time, but it's just now with medical improvements and studies, we now realize that that claim was just complete nonsense. 

And also the French scientist who was interviewed in that 60 Minutes episode comes from a long lineage of winemakers in France. So he had a vested interest obviously, in putting forward this claim. So. That's where it really originated from. And Americans and the world at large just latched onto it. Yes, now I can have guilt-free consumption of alcohol. 

Fantastic. And we still have that today. It still shows up today. In addition, we have these things that I refer to as smiling assassins, and a smiling assassin. Is anyone who's smiling at you as they offer you their attractively packaged poison? It's the waiter or waitress at the restaurant who says, hello, sir. 

Hello ma'am. Can I get you started with a drink? They're essentially saying, hello, sir. Hello ma'am. Can I get you started with 10 pounds of unwanted body weight? Hello, sir. Hello, ma'am. I'll be your waiter and server for the evening. Can I get you started with a glass of a poor night's sleep and some irritability tomorrow morning and we're all smiling, all of us, and then. 

You know, we've hosted people over to our house and we want to be very hospitable, and we say, hi, Ted. Welcome. I'm gonna get you a drink. Would you like a wine, a beer? In that scenario, we are becoming the smiling assassins. We're offering our guests straight up poison, which has been linked to seven different cancers to the car, energetic. 

It's been proven to destroy sleep. It's been proven anecdotally to. Destroy relationships. There's an estimated 400 million people in the world experiencing an alcohol use disorder, and I would submit 350 million of them, probably don't even know that they have an alcohol use disorder. 'cause they're just walking around with a smile on them, their faces thinking, oh yeah, cool. 

Drink. Let's have a drink. Let's catch up from the drinks. It's fun. Oh, you create romance with drinking. Oh, celebration. Oh, you gotta have drinks to network. Have to. Oh, I'm being a host. I've gotta provide drinks. Oh, I'm being a guest. I expect drinks. Oh, it's a wedding. Gotta drink champagne. Oh, it's the Super Bowl. 

I've gotta have a few beers with the boys. Right. Nonsense. How about you just enjoy the Super Bowl being alcohol free? By the way, I've been to seven Super Bowls in the stadium and drunk zero alcohol, and had the most wonderful time. I've been to the Playboy Mansion before. They shut it down, danced on tables, hung out with Hugh Hefner and Playmates, alcohol free, zero alcohol. 

Had a wonderful time. I've been to the. Golden Globes after party to the Oscars after parties in Hollywood, California. Open Bar. You would think the most hedonistic of times, 0% alcohol. I drank. I've had so much better times because I've been alcohol free. You do not need the alcohol in order to create romance or connection or to network. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah. I'll say this, the more you drink it might, the romance might be there for maybe when you're initially dating. Or, you know, for a date night. But eventually, if you're a man, it will become harder and harder to have a high libido. The more you drink and um, the more it disrupts your sleep. And also, just anecdotally, from the clients that I've worked with, we see, we got a couple clients that I'm working with right now. 

The alcohol use isn't even that bad, but it's, it's gotten people stuck to where they can't move beyond it. And it's meaning they're not getting results, right? Their weight loss has plateaued. And so what, so my hypothesis, because ultimately weight loss is just calories and calories out, but it's like, okay, then why does it stop? 

And so what I end up having to do, I'm like, uh, I'm, and I'm really curious to hear more. About your thoughts on this and what you do in your, your program, but like for me, what I have to do, I'm like, listen, if you want to drink, you gotta earn it. And if you're not getting results, you gotta get rid of it because it's messing up your brain. 

If you think you're doing everything right, but the results are saying they're not, and alcohol doesn't affect your. You're like, the calories are the calories, meaning it's not, it doesn't have a special effect on stopping fat loss. Like, oh, I'm eating nothing but I had one drink, or Everything's healthy, but I had one drink and it stopped. 

It's like, no, it's messing. You think you're doing things right. And you are not even aware of what you're doing because you're having a couple drinks as too frequently disrupting your sleep, as you mentioned James. And so like we'll have to come and be like, look, earn your alcohol. Start losing weight. 

Stop drinking until you start losing weight. Then, then flirt with how to put it back in if you feel like you need to. 'cause some, we, some of our clients, you know, I've had clients tell me like, Hey, listen. I'm gonna keep drinking. It's not something I'm gonna quit. Although now I'll have someone, I'll have you in your program to refer them to. 

But just outta curiosity, like, you know, how do you, how do you help people quit? I know you bring in the neuroscientists, but what I feel is like people are turning alcohol in those social situations to calm themselves down so they're not so anxious or 'cause they're bored. What do you have them do?  

James Swanwick: So look, here's what I did before I went into a bar, a restaurant, a party, and this is in the early days, right when I first stopped drinking alcohol. 

I literally just stood in front of the mirror and I just said, tonight I'm gonna be the most engaged, to have the most fun. I'm going to introduce people. I'm going to have genuine curiosity about people and ask curious questions, and I'm just going to do so while nursing a soda, water, ice, a piece of lime. 

And it was just an intention. Irrespective of my introverted feelings, irrespective of my social anxiety, I. It wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it might be. Sure it was something new. I had to lean into that resistance. But what became really surprising to me was when I just went to the Jones Bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood to go and have drinks with my friend Zach and Tom, and I was ordering soda water. 

I was as comfortable, if not more comfortable being alcohol free than when I was drinking. In fact, I remember the awkwardness. Even backtracking from then, I was a single man at the time and I was about two weeks into not drinking and I invited a woman named Andrea out on a date and I invited her to meet me at the Jones Bar that I just referenced, and I was so. 

Worried that she would think that I was an alcoholic if she learned that I wasn't drinking that. I got to the bar 20 minutes before our scheduled time and I did a deal with the bartender and I said, look, when I order drinks for her and for me, I'm gonna say vodka soda, but can you just make mine a soda? 

Don't make it a vodka soda. I'm gonna say vodka soda, but just make mine a soda. And he said, sure, no worries. I got you. So Andrea came, turned up to the date. She ordered a wine. I ordered a vodka soda even though it was a soda. And I got through the date without her realizing that I wasn't drinking. There was just one problem. 

About two weeks later, we were at that year's Coachella Music Festival outside of Los Angeles, and one of her friends said, Hey, James, I'm gonna the bar, can I get you a drink? And, and I said, oh, no thanks. Actually, I haven't been drinking for a while. I'll just have a soda water. And Andrea, who overheard this, said, yeah, you've been drinking. 

You were drinking on our first date. And I had to kind of sheepishly admit that I hadn't been. She was really upset. She said, what? So you lied to me? And I'm like, uh, yeah. I can't, I guess I did. I guess I withheld that. Yeah. And that was enough of an, an energetic break between us to, in, at least in her mind, mean that we weren't gonna continue with the relationship. 

And I found that really interesting. So I just started owning it after, then I just started sharing with people, look, I'm alcohol free. And I did it with a smile on my face and I didn't apologize for it. And I wasn't embarrassed by it. I just said, yeah, I'm alcohol free at the moment. Been 30 days alcohol free. 

You're feeling pretty good. I'm gonna get drunk on this soda water tonight. I will go shot for shot with you if you like. I tell you what, for every shot vodka you have, I'll have a shot of soda water. Ha ha ha. I was just lighthearted. About it. And when I started embodying that type of lighthearted confident energy, that social anxiety dissipated just fell away. 

And you know, it takes a little bit of practice, but once you got it, the social anxiety falls by the wayside. Now you're not relying on attractively packaged poison to get through social scenarios. Now you're actually being engaging and fun and open in social activities.  

Ted Ryce: Yeah, I, I'll, uh, recount a story or one of my current clients told me he has to, he, he calls it stealth drinking, uh, which is what you kind of did. 

He's like, instead of have getting into any type of conversation about like his choice to not drink, he would just order right, the soda and the lime, make it look like a vodka and soda and just kind of pretend. And it's funny how people feel like they have to do that. And the social pressure around drinking. 

And I love what you're saying there. It's like you gotta, you gotta step up and own it. James, I remember I was at a mastermind event for a friend of mine in Bali, and at the time I wasn't drinking, I just didn't want, wanna drink. I, I, again, alcohol has never been like the issue for me, but I remember everybody was drinking and there was this guy. 

Who is part of my friend's mastermind. He had just, he was one of the engineers. He's like this Russian dude, but just, uh, he was part of the engineers that sold, oh, what is it? Uh, I forget 'cause nobody talks about it anymore. But it's the VR headset that Facebook created and he was one of engineers that sold it. 

So he had like hundred, he, he made hundreds of millions of dollars. Right. And we were talking for a while, right? And he saw that I wasn't drinking and, and he started trying to put pressure on me. And, and for me, I don't, I don't care. Like, 'cause I've, I've done a lot of things. I don't have any issues. And I started messing with him about it. 

And I started saying, well, I. No, the doctors told me that the drugs that I did back in Miami, uh, you know, when I was in my twenties in Miami, there's the, the levels I just started making shit up and he knew it was complete nonsense, but he was so flustered about like, like why I wasn't drinking and I just had to make fun of it. 

But it's there this social pressure around it and people not feeling comfortable talking about it, you know? Do you find that's a big part of what your clients deal with? Yeah. When clients first  

James Swanwick: become clients, they feel embarrassed. They've got some shame, they have some regret. They don't want anyone to know that they're doing this program. 

And then by day 90 they're saying to me, Hey, can I leave a review somewhere? Can you interview me on the podcast so I can share with everyone this breakthrough that I've had? It's fascinating. There's so much shame, so much desired withholding so much. I don't want anyone to know that I've got a drinking problem that I've had to invest in a program to solve this because everyone's coming from the default of I should be able to solve this problem on my own. 

And of course they think that way. 'cause most of our clients are high performing executives and entrepreneurs who've had a lot of success financially, a lot of success in their life, a lot of success as parents and. Lovers and business people and performers, but they haven't been successful in this one area of their life, which is conquering alcohol and they've been trying to quit for years and haven't been able to, haven't been able to conquer this one thing, which is holding them back. 

And so there's a lot of shame around that. And then a lot of people who come in to stop drinking program, they have this fear that, wow, what happens if this doesn't work? Then I must really be broken. Then I've spent my money, my time, my focus in trying to solve this problem with professional support and this neuroscience based program, which has a 98% reduction in drinking success rate according to a scientific study. 

What happens if I don't make it to the 90 days? What happens if I drink then I must really be broken. And so people don't wanna share that they're doing this in case they mess up. Or in case people mistakenly believe that they're an alcoholic. And as I referenced earlier, there is no such thing as an alcoholic in modern medicine. 

It's someone experiencing an alcohol use disorder, which is temporary. Whereas I'm an alcoholic, keeps people stuck in an identity. It's rigid. There's no moving from that. Yeah, I'm tireless over this disease. I'm an alcoholic. I say bs. You are powerful. And you might just be experiencing an alcohol use disorder, which is temporary. 

So yeah, there's a lot of resistance. There's a lot of fear. There's a lot of. Concern what people will think. But I will say this anecdotally, because I've been coaching entrepreneurs and executives now since 2015, that once people experience what it's like to live alcohol free and they have clarity focused energy, and they repair relationships with their children and they're connected with their husband and wife again, and they save themselves from a costly divorce and they improve their business and they reverse health conditions and they. 

Their heartbeat slows down and they sleep better and they feel better after a while. Those same people who had all that resistance from people realizing that they had a drinking problem are the same people wanting to shout it from the rooftops. I love being alcohol free. This is amazing. Let me tell you what's happened to me. 

Ted Ryce: Yeah. And I would even say like, yeah, what you said about the identity, it's, it's so important because, um. I had near Al on the show. He's a guy who has helped a lot of companies succeed with their, making their, their software kind of addictive. And so he is kind of studied this stuff, right? And um, and he goes into some of the, and then he wrote a book, I forget the name of it right now, but. 

He wrote a book kind of like, Hey, well this is how you get in control yourself. And one of the studies that he mentioned was that people's beliefs about what's possible or what their identity is can kind of become that self-fulfilling prophecy where someone is unsuccessful simply because they believe they don't have the power where, like what you're saying, it's that's not true. 

Right. That's not true. And Michael Easter more recently wrote a book called The Scarcity Loop, who also goes into addictive, addictive habits and how, like this story about addiction and how it's just this, you know, like you said, the, the narrative from programs like 12 Step or AA or whatever kind of do a disservice, even though they've helped a lot of people, as you said, and, and you know, they. 

They come from a good place, but it's just now with what we know, it's just not, it's not true and it's not the right way to do things. And so people quit all the time. Drugs, different types of drugs, including alcohol. So one, one thing I'm uh, curious about James is like, um, you know, for those people who, 'cause I'll be honest, man. 

I started drinking more in the past couple years. Now when I say that I want to put context around it, I go weeks without having any drinks. It's purely social and it may or may not happen in a social context, but I don't drink alone, for example. But, um, you know, for those people who feel like they want to maintain some type of. 

Relate, like they want to have a few drinks every once in a while. How do you, how do you deal with the people who are like, yeah, okay, get me free alcohol free for 90 days. But then how do you help them, you know, what are, what about the people? Even after that, they, they still feel like they want to have a, a toast on New Year's or, you know, on an anniversary. 

Or perhaps they're really into wine. Like, I got a client who just went to Dom Peron. He wanted to have, you know, the champagne, uh, at this great event. What about for those people who aren't as extreme right with their approach?  

James Swanwick: I wanna invite that type of person to really challenge the notion that alcohol is worthy of being referred to as a special occasion. 

I hear this all the time. Oh, I'll just drink on a special occasion like my daughter's wedding or the Super Bowl, or our anniversary or a birthday. As if drinking straight poison is worthy of being referred to as a special occasion. Let me be blunt, wake up. The special occasion is every day that you get to live a life of clarity and focus and energy and connection. 

It's every day that you give yourself the gift of eating, food and drinking water the way that nature intended you to eat food and drink water. It's not drinking a poison that's been linked to seven straight cancers. Now you might say, relax. Relax, bro. Relax, dude. Ease up. Why so serious? One drink a day has been proven to destroy gray and white matter in the brain according to a 2022 study out of the UK of 36,000 middle aged adults. 

There's also a Canadian study that that basically found the same thing. 7,000 people a day die from alcohol related illnesses. Right. And I'm, I'm not talking about what society deems an alcoholic. I'm talking about the person you are referring to, the drink on a special occasion. Here's the thing, A drink on a special occasion is a very slippery slope because then the drink on a special occasion turns into, oh, I'll just drink on weekends, and then a few months go by and then that turns into, I'll just drink. 

Towards the end of the week, and then that turns into I'll just have one drink a day, and then that turns into I'll just have two drinks a day. And now you start doing these deals with yourself. You start breaking the deals. Now you don't trust yourself. The slippery slope gets you, and before you know it, you've returned to the same level of drinking that inspired you to cut back on your drinking in the first place. 

It's a very slippery slope. This is the stop start cycle. So there's two things. One is maybe moderation is a myth. Maybe moderation is a myth. For some people it is for some people. Here's the thing, if I can get you to 90 days alcohol free consecutive, not doing it the way that you are used to doing it with deprivation and willpower and trying to get to day 90, so you can then what? 

Celebrate with a drink, but I mean get you to 90 days where now you experience what living an alcohol free lifestyle is and you get to do it. You want to do it, you choose it. Then on day nine, you have the power to choose. Now, I'll share with you this. Most people who get to 90 days alcohol free in our Project 90 program choose to remain alcohol free. 

Some people candidly choose to return to drinking, and they do so successfully doing moderation. But most people, I. Get to day 90 and go, you know what? I don't even need to do moderation because I no longer worship at the altar of alcohol. I no longer see alcohol as being worthy of a special occasion. I now see that every single day that I'm alcohol free as being the special occasion. 

And so why would I ever return to drinking any amount of alcohol, irrespective of if it's my wedding day or my son's wedding, or the Super Bowl, it's the 4th of July, or it's like an anniversary, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Who cares? The gift and the special occasion is every day you are, you are living your life the way that nature intended you to live. 

That's the special occasion.  

Ted Ryce: I hear you James, for sure. And also I'm with you on that. Some people really need that. Some people, like you said, will go down into a situation where they'll start making agreements and, uh, you know, start making deals with themselves and won't be able to keep it up and, well, I think we all know if we're that person or not, right? 

Certainly the people who have a problem with alcohol. So, man, this has been an enlight conversation. I really appreciate what you're doing, James. And I, I even want to, you know, I would like to connect with you outside this podcast because I run into situ, I ran into a situation recently where the guy, like what you said with the shame and talking about it, and someone confided in me and said, you know, I don't, I can't talk about this with anyone. 

And I'm talking about it with you and I'm, I run a body transformation business essentially, right? Health coaching, we do a lot more than that and we're freaking amazing at what we do, but it's like, dude, I'm not a quit drinking guy. Like what we do, what we've done successfully is we start getting people in shape through specific I, I have a, something I call the metabolic reset sequence and it starts making them healthier and then naturally they cut back on drinking. 

Because if you're drinking every day, you're just, there's something wrong, right? There's something wrong with your brain or something like wrong with your life. There's something wrong. You should not be drinking every single day. Right? The and, and even if we go into the moderation conversation, the amount of alcohol that's, let's say no amount, amount of alcohol is good for you, period. 

It's always bad for you, but let's say, what is the amount of poison as you referred to it multiple times in this interview, what's the amount of poison you can get away with and not have any, at least to the best of our current technology, have any noticeable difference? Except for, you know, the nights that you do, it's two drinks a week, right? 

Two drinks a week is what they found. Okay. More than that. And you're starting to risk brain damage. Right. Or gray, gray and white matter losses, you put it, but, you know, brain damage is what it is. So any more than that. Yeah. And if you can't do that, then you know, you, you need to reevaluate. But James, you know, this is such a powerful conversation and now I have someone to, let's say, refer clients do, because that guy. 

He just, he, he was one of the few people, and this is why I started thinking about this more lately and why I'm really happy to have you on the show is like he just couldn't get a handle on it. I just couldn't get a handle. I tried, you know, he was in our group program. He should have been working with me one-on-one. 

Maybe we could have made something happen, but now I'm just gonna be, you know, listen, you need help and here's, here's a place where you can go. I. So thanks for doing what you do. What, what, uh, what closing words would you have for anyone listening who may be still on the fence or, I write about this  

James Swanwick: in my book clear. 

There's a whole chapter on this and it's really to say this, I've had a life with alcohol in the life without and without, is so much better. I wasn't an alcoholic, didn't wake up in a dish, I didn't get arrested. I knew that two or three drinks a night, most nights of the week was holding me back. And so I would just invite your listener or viewer to really explore their own relationship with alcohol and really question its place in your life. 

For me, being completely alcohol free has led me to wealth, great relationships, feelings of fulfillment, and it just keeps getting better and better, like compound interest. And there are lots of case studies in the book. And inspiring stories if people like anecdotal stories to try to inspire them. 

There's also a process there to start your journey of stopping drinking and living alcohol free. But more than that, I would just say really explore, relate, uh, really explore alcohol's point in your life because if you can. Even just reduce, wow. You can create generational impact in your family.  

Ted Ryce: Powerful words. 

James Swanick, thanks so much. And if you're listening right now, you're curious about. James program. You can go to alcohol free lifestyle.com. That's alcohol free lifestyle.com, and the book that James referenced, you can find it on Amazon. It's called Clear, the Only Neuroscience-Based Approach for High Achievers To Quit Drinking Without Willpower Rehab, or aa. 

Awesome work, man. Thanks so much, because it seems like it's more of a problem more recently for some reason, or maybe it's just my own personal experience with the type of people we're working in. But thanks for doing what you do, James. Really appreciate it, man. Appreciate your time today as well.  

James Swanwick: Thanks so much for having me, Ted