I was a great athlete.

I'd categorize myself as a public speaker, and what that looks like is me sharing my story and then giving them tools at the end that they can start their personal growth journey.

The way that I connect with my audiences is through coming to either a school, a conference and presenting workshops and keynotes.

What I wasn't prepared for early in the journey is, feedback in the comments, the messages that I was going to get from people.

You know, the ability to watch my videos and stay disciplined in trying to get sober.

My name is Derek Moore and I'm from Anchorage, Alaska.

High school was great for me coming into high school.

I had a 4.0 GPA.

I had zero absences.

I was good at sports.

I was growing taller.

And so the future looks bright.

But at the very beginning of it, you know, the early eight years of age, it really it really was just about partying, living the fast life.

And you're not thinking anything of it, but looking back, you realize that that's full blown addiction.

2013 I used heroin for the first time, and I used it every day for two and a half years.

I quit for one year while I sat in prison.

I got out and relapsed in a week, and then I went back to prison for four years.

So that's a nine year stretch of nothing but addiction in prison.

And I'm thinking to myself, bro, you're the issue, man.

You're the problem.

If you want your life to change, then you have to change it.

You've got to do something to change it, bro.

First steps I did was I started picking up books and reading books, and I was astonished of the progress that I made within the first couple weeks of learning growing.

Teaching myself how to be, a different type of person.

I think a strong community is when everybody is taking accountability for their own growth, and that's how the ships rise.

You know, there's resources and asking for help and all these different avenues to support each other are very vital and important.

But the most everybody has to be willing to do the work themselves.