Steppin' Out Radio

As a senior-level marketing executive, John has achieved extraordinary results in brand development and business value creation by aggressively challenging industry standards and consistently developing disruptive innovation. He has the proven capacity to successfully motivate large global teams to realize exceptional performance, while developing protégés to step up and run key domestic and international businesses in the organization. John is a high-level strategist with tremendous passion for the business and an instinct to minimize the investment necessary to gain essential knowledge for evaluating future opportunities. His broad background in marketing, new product development, P&L management, team building, global commercialization, sales, in-licensing, and acquisitions/divestitures has enabled him to proactively run complex business models.

Few musical acts have seen the extreme highs and lows of the Pointer Sisters and Ruth Pointer (@RealRuthPointer). From their humble beginnings in West Oakland to the center of the pop music scene, they've endured more than 40 years under the harsh heat of the media spotlight. Their music entertained and brought joy to millions of fans around the world, but for Ruth Pointer, the journey wasn't always a happy one. In Still So Excited!: My Life as a Pointer Sister Ruth opens up for the first time about the troubling stories behind the music, the cocaine-dusted road of fame, and how she finally reached sobriety through a near-death experience.

Carolyn Costin MA, MEd., MFT, CEDS FAED., is a world renowned, highly sought-after eating disorder clinician, author, and international speaker renowned for her expertise, passion and accomplishments. In her twenties, Carolyn recovered from anorexia, became a teacher and a psychotherapist. After successfully treating her first eating disorder client in 1979, Carolyn recognized her calling. In 1996, she created Monte Nido, the first licensed, residential eating disorder treatment facility in a home setting. Carolyn's humanistic, relational approach, her six books, and the outstanding success of Monte Nido all spurred Carolyn to international acclaim.

Jenn has yet to buy or drink alcohol lawfully, having gotten sober by age 19. She spent the previous five years drinking, however. Jenn's family were all sober alcoholics, and she feared her parents would send her straight to a punitive treatment center if they ever learned she'd been drinking. And so Jenn, ironically, used alcohol to quell the fear of her parents anger over drinking.

Born and raised in Birmingham, Ala., Lee grew up with a family that never drank or smoke. His parents were very strict, and he never saw his parents ever take a sip of an alcoholic beverage. But at age 12, Lee's brother started experimenting with drugs and got into trouble with the local police. It was enough to scare Lee away from using alcohol or drugs when friends asked if he wanted to join them. Though at age 14, at a party at a friend's home with no parents watching, he tried alcohol and engaged in his first bender. As if that wasn't bad enough, he lied to his father when confronted the next morning.

The people hurt most by alcohol and drugs don't even use them; they are the children of addicted parents. NACoA believes that none of these vulnerable children should grow up in isolation and without support and works to bring hope and help to them. NACoA is the national nonprofit membership and affiliate organization working on behalf of children of alcohol and drug dependent parents. Its mission is to eliminate the adverse impact of alcohol and drug use on children and families. In a word, NACoA helps kids that are hurt by parental alcohol and drug use. NACoA Program Director Mary Beth Collins discusses why this group plays such a vital mission in the fight against addiction.

In the heart of downtown Seattle, a diverse group of men and women will come together to climb out of homelessness and drug addiction through an unorthodox recovery program that uses mountain climbing as a means of rehabilitation. After one year of intense physical and mental conditioning, the team will attempt to summit one of the most dangerous mountains in the country, Mt. Rainier.

The Painting and the Piano is an improbable story of survival and love. Growing up more than a thousand miles apart and worlds away from each other, Johnny and Adrianne seemed to have all that children could ask for. However, the demons of their respective mothers would tear their fragile young lives apart. Eventually, destiny would bring Johnny and Adrianne together, but first they had to endure the painful toll that alcohol, drugs, and a negligent court system would take on them. With parts of Adrianne's story ripped from national news headlines, their story takes them from the depths of despair and near death to their first serendipitous introduction and the moment each knew they were finally safe. Filled with hope, inspiration, and humor, The Painting and the Piano is an unforgettable story of pain, loss, and the undying human quest for happiness.

Michael can remember being shy and fearful his young life, and even as a teenager couldn't muster up the strength to talk to girls until he took swigs from a bottle of Crown Royal his friend swiped and brought to the school dance. His love of alcohol began then, and spent high school blackout drinking. Michael enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in order to avoid being a responsible college student and have enough time to drink often, but injuries forced him to end his military career shortly after it started which sent him into a suicidal fit and abuse of illicit and prescription drugs.

Joani Gammill is a substance use disorder interventionist who has her own company, Joani The Interventionist, where she has performed hundreds of interventions for 12 years. She now works full time at Recovery Centers of America facilitating interventions. Joani has authored two successful books. Her first was the memoir. "The Interventionist." Joani's sobriety came through an intervention that her family participated in with Dr. Phil McGraw on the Prime Time Special "Escaping Addiction." Joani's second book, "Painkillers, Heroin, and the Road" to is about opioids, and their long history and hold on society from ancient times to the 21st century. She speaks publicly about her struggles and success with opioid addiction and advocating and attempting to change the negative narrative that continues to swirl around substance abuse.