I'm a high school dropout. I'm a convicted felon. I can't spell. I can't type. I was homeless. I shot dope into my veins.

Whatever it is that you're suffering from, you can change in such a profound way that within a short period of time, you won't even recognize yourself anymore.

That's Khalil Rafati and this is the Rich Roll Podcast.

The Rich Roll Podcast.

Hey everybody, how you guys doing? My name is Rich Roll. I'm your host. This is my show. Welcome. Thanks for stopping by.

I'm going to do things a little bit differently this time. You guys know the deal, right? Like, you know how I always introduce the show and then I do a live read.

I talk a little bit about the guest. Well, I kind of feel like it's a little bit stilted. You know, sometimes I'm reading and I'm trying to get it all perfect and it just doesn't feel as real or as authentic as it could.

So I'm not going off any script. I'm just going off the cuff here. That's what we're going to do today. Let me know what you guys think.

I've gotten some comments from you guys. Me, Mal's occasionally like, uh, the intro's are too long or they're too boring or blah, blah, blah. So I'm going to mix it up. I don't know if this is going to work. Maybe this will be a disaster. They'll say what happened to the show Rich. It used to be so good.

You've lost your, you've lost your edge. You don't know what you're doing anymore. Anyway, I'm just going to do it anyway. So you guys let me know what you think. Happy New Year.

Did you guys survive the holidays? If you're listening to this, I guess you did. Are you intact? Are you hungover right now? How do you feel? I'm recording this on New Year's day. So I've got New Year's on the brain. And all I can tell you is I'm super grateful because I went to bed early on New Year's Eve and I woke up early sober with clarity of thought, well rested, enthusiastic and encouraged to tackle the day and the New Year.

It just felt really, really good. And listen, you know, I got, I got no beef with anybody who went out and let loose and partied like crazy on New Year's Eve. I used to do that. I used to be loaded most of the time like I completely get that. But it is kind of a weird crazy thing when you think about this idea of being hungover on New Year's day. I mean, we've put so much time and an intention and thought into our resolutions or goals. And that's a whole other podcast that I could do. But there's a lot of energy.

That goes into like, what do you want to achieve in 2016? What do you want to do differently? And then the idea that you would wake up super hungover and lethargic on the very first day of that year doesn't exactly set the right tone for the year. It does it. It's like kind of ironic and bizarre. So anyway, I'm just grateful that I woke up sober and that I'm feeling good right now. And you know, in this sober journey that I'm on, many of you might say, well, I live a boring life.

And you know what? I kind of do. I like to go to bed early. I like to wake up early. I'm a creature of habit and routine. And certainly when I got sober, I thought, well, the fun's over. Like nothing's ever going to be fun anymore. I'm just going to live this super mundane, boring life. And the irony, of course, is that my life has just grown by leaps and bounds. It's just exploded. And it's so much more interesting and fun and adventurous.

than it ever was when I was drinking and using that talk about a habit or a routine, a rut. I mean, nothing good ever happened when I was doing that. So my life is just so much better in countless, unimaginable and magnificent magical ways.

And today's guest knows a lot about what I'm talking about. Today, my good friend, Cleo, Raphati, rejoins the podcast. He was an early guest on the show back in, I think it was episode 61.

If you didn't listen to that episode, it is one of the most popular podcasts I've ever put up. You're going to have to get my free app to listen to that because iTunes only holds the most recent 50. But check that out. It's an incredible conversation.

Cleo is a wellness entrepreneur. He's the guy behind some life organics, which is this really successful chain of juice bar cafes that are popping up all over Southern California.

But it wasn't always that way for Cleo because it wasn't that long ago that he was a hope to die drunk and drug addict living in a cardboard box on Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles shooting speed balls, smoking crack, completely unable to live and hoping to die.

And Cleo's story, his tale is really astounding from that depths, the absolute depths of despair, homelessness, hopelessly gripped by heroin addiction.

Cleo really just, he was hell bent on dying. There's no other kind of way to put it. And yet somehow by way of a grace, you know, far beyond himself, Cleo was able to come out the other side.

He was able to overcome unbelievable odds just to survive, to live. And he did it not just intact, but he is somebody who is now repaired.

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