Erick Allen, affectionately known as EA, is a motivational speaker and the founder of Affirmations for Recovery. Hailing from the challenging streets of Portland, Oregon, EA has transformed his life experiences into powerful messages of resilience and hope. With a background marked by overcoming adversity and a deep commitment to helping others, he has become a beacon of inspiration for many.
In this first part of a three-part series, EA shares intimate details about his upbringing. He reflects on his childhood in Portland, the struggles of growing up in a low-income household, and the profound impact his parents had on him. Through candid conversation, EA reveals how these experiences shaped his worldview and set him on his path toward personal growth and recovery.
Listeners interested in overcoming adversity and personal growth will find valuable insights in this episode. EA's story of resilience in the face of hardship is both motivating and instructive. Keywords like "overcoming adversity," "personal growth," "Portland, Oregon," and "Affirmations for Recovery" are woven throughout, ensuring the episode's relevance for those seeking inspiration and practical advice on similar journeys.
Potential Listener Questions: 1. What strategies does EA suggest for overcoming adversity and building resilience? 2. How did EA's upbringing in Portland influence his current work with Affirmations for Recovery? 3. What are the key takeaways from EA's experiences that can help others in their personal growth journey?
If you are recovering from anything, this recovery podcast is a daily dose of positivity. I speak on mindfulness, and share thought processes and affirmations to help with your recovery journey. Recovery is not just about substances, recovery is needed for all kinds of addictions and thoughts and ideas that you may be addicted to. This podcast is for you!
Erick Allen, affectionately known as EA, is a motivational speaker and the founder of Affirmations for Recovery. Hailing from the challenging streets of Portland, Oregon, EA has transformed his life experiences into powerful messages of resilience and hope. With a background marked by overcoming adversity and a deep commitment to helping others, he has become a beacon of inspiration for many.
In this first part of a three-part series, EA shares intimate details about his upbringing. He reflects on his childhood in Portland, the struggles of growing up in a low-income household, and the profound impact his parents had on him. Through candid conversation, EA reveals how these experiences shaped his worldview and set him on his path toward personal growth and recovery.
Listeners interested in overcoming adversity and personal growth will find valuable insights in this episode. EA's story of resilience in the face of hardship is both motivating and instructive. Keywords like "overcoming adversity," "personal growth," "Portland, Oregon," and "Affirmations for Recovery" are woven throughout, ensuring the episode's relevance for those seeking inspiration and practical advice on similar journeys.
Potential Listener Questions: 1. What strategies does EA suggest for overcoming adversity and building resilience? 2. How did EA's upbringing in Portland influence his current work with Affirmations for Recovery? 3. What are the key takeaways from EA's experiences that can help others in their personal growth journey?
If you are recovering from anything, this recovery podcast is a daily dose of positivity. I speak on mindfulness, and share thought processes and affirmations to help with your recovery journey. Recovery is not just about substances, recovery is needed for all kinds of addictions and thoughts and ideas that you may be addicted to. This podcast is for you!
No, it's not about money. Finances are always going to be there, right? It's about energy. I'm an energy person. I live off of energy. Today, we're talking to Eric Allen, the man behind Affirmations for Recovery. This will be a three-part series where we find out just who Eric Allen is. Yes. This is part one. And we're going to talk about how you grew up and things of that nature. But first, let's say, hello, EA. How are you? I am feeling amazing. You know, every day above ground is a blessing. So I'm truly blessed just to be above ground today. Aren't we all? I mean, I certainly am. Yes, ma'am. So tell me a little bit about yourself. How did you grow up? And where did you grow up? Things of that nature. Well, my name is Eric Allen, but I'm better known as EA because EA is just the way I move around these days. I grew up in the mean streets of Portland, Oregon. Okay. The only city in the state of Oregon is Portland. I mean, besides the college town Eugene. But Portland is the major city. Okay. And I grew up 3% people of color. That's how I identify as a BIPOC individual. And I grew up with only 3% of us. So my early years, man, I remember growing up, mom and dad, I grew up in a two parent household by the grace of God. I had an older brother and my older brother left. That was my first memory. My mother lost custody of my brother because his father had petitioned the courts for custody because he had said that my mom was abusing my brother, physically abusing him, whooping him too much, whooping too hard. So ultimately my brother lived with his dad. So the court sided with my brother's father's dad. And that was the earliest memories that I have of trauma because I was about four years old and me and my brother are four years apart. So he was eight and I was four. And it was just one of the hardest times. One of my first hardest memories that I remember just like growing up with my brother and then one day gone, he was somewhere else. So that was it. Then from there, I was the only child in the home. So it was difficult growing up, I should say. Let me ask you this. Your mom lost custody of your brother. Do you recall, like, did you get whoopings or, you know, and it's a very gray area because how we grew up in a time is much different than how kids of now generations are growing up. But would you say that you were punished more harshly than maybe what you punished your kids? Or does that make sense? Yeah, that makes sense. I would say no. I would say my mom was a typical disciplinarian. Like, again, I did grow up in a two-parent household, but my mother was the disciplinarian and she's only 4'11". So it wasn't really a lot. I don't recall, me personally, I don't recall being physically abused by her more so than I saw, like, other things. Like, you know, she had drug problems. She had some other things going on, but it was never, to me, it was never a physical abuse thing for me. Sure. And then, so you, I assume, went to school in Portland, Oregon. What was school like there? School was amazing. I was the only child growing up in the home. So I was, you know, I had difficulties because I come from an underserved, broken home. So, you know, parents, we barely had money. We was living check to check. So, you know, my wardrobe was less desirable. So, you know, as a kid, man, kids make fun of you. If you don't look the part, they definitely make fun of you. So I grew up, you know, traumatized by other children based on, like, how I looked, what I looked like, what I smelled like, you know, just being real. Yeah. You grew up underserved and underprivileged, but tell me about, did you have a religious background growing up? What was that like? Yep. Yep. Yep. We went to church, not every Sunday, but we definitely, we followed the Christianity doctrine. We went to church, you know, every holiday. Okay. Like Easter, Christmas, church was definitely on the horizon for that. But outside of that, we went to church whenever we could, when we could get there. We grew up, no cars in the home. We didn't even have a television. Okay. So it was like really poor, you know, poverty, not even poor, poor is a good word. Like we were, it was poverty, you know, how I grew up. Yeah. Are there any stories that stick out in your mind that maybe are like core memories that have led you to where you are today? Yeah. I think one of the things that I grew up with that messed me up and I'm still getting through it. I'm still dealing with it today. It's like, I have women issues and I grew up where I felt like my mother, strong, beautiful woman. I feel like she was definitely, she was my first example of a woman. And due to some of the things that she did, like, you know, she had a drug problem. I did see her abuse my father, like not physically, but it was more like the abuse, like words, the words are more stronger than picking up something and hitting somebody with it. You know, and my father is 6'3". So just imagine my father's 6'3", my mother's 4'11". And then she's just, she's a firecracker. So anything comes out of her mouth, it can cut like a knife. Right. So that was my first example. I do, I do remember, you know, growing up in the household, just saying to myself, like, man, when I get married, when I have a woman, she'll be nothing like my mother. It'll be nothing like my mom. I want to be, I want to buy, I want to find the opposite of my mother because I felt like, again, my mother was abusing my father. My father, he, he, he didn't read so well. Okay. He definitely didn't read so well. So some of the abuse that I saw were like, you know, the money that was brought in, like the fact that he couldn't read. My mother would say things cost more than what they did. And then, you know, manipulative, that's the word. So I just, I had a, I didn't have a great respect for women growing up just by seeing that. I always wanted to just be like, you know, I want to get women back for just how my mom did my dad. And that's something that drove me, like through my early years, like I abused women, like nobody's business. Okay. Right. I just, I didn't have a, I didn't have a sense of care or concern for women. It was, it was like, whatever I can get out of them. You know, I remember how my mom, like, again, my mom and dad, I remember that relationship. So I never, I never truly understood the dynamics of a, of a healthy relationship between a man and a woman. Would you say that seeing your mom take advantage of your dad because he didn't read well, would you say that drove you to do better in school? Like, were you a good student in school? For me, school came easily because I'm, you know, I'm very intelligent. I like, I like learning things for me. I was just, I was challenged by just staying focused, staying on track, like I was a class clown and just, you know, being the only child at home, I didn't really have an outlet. So I use school as an outlet. I go to school, I clown with the kids. I would harass the girls and slap them on the butts and all that kind of stuff. I remember another, another memory I remember having as early as third grade. I remember a parent coming up to the school and, and I had to be disciplined because I was sexually harassing one of the girls in the school. And to this day, me and that girl, we're still friends to this day. Like I've been knowing her since third grade, but definitely I was a, I was a hellion around that time. So you said that you, you know, tried to take advantage of women, like get whatever you could out of them and things like that, because of how you saw your mom treat your dad. Did you go through a lot? I mean, I don't know how to ask this in a polite way, but I mean, was there a lot of women in your youth? I mean, you know what? Honestly, I was a serial relationship type of person. So based on having that example from my parents, I didn't want a lot of girls. I didn't want a lot of girls. I wanted one girl. But then even when I had that one girl, I wanted to just have many girls in addition to that. So I wanted some, I wanted to be in a relationship because I, like, again, I saw my parents do it. And I thought that that was the American way. At the same time, I do want, I wanted to be the one on top of the relationship. I wanted to be like, okay, I got this girlfriend. I got this one. I got this one. I got this one. Cause I really don't care. I don't care about women. Like, you know, I don't even love, I don't love my mother like I should. So how, how, how am I, how am I going to love you? I don't give a damn about you. So that was the early years for me. How is your relationship with your mom now as an adult? Like, do you still feel like you don't love her like you should? My mother is one of my best friends. Definitely through prayer, through meditation, through just work, doing the work. I rebuilt that relationship because, you know, as a parent, it took me to become a parent to understand parenting. Okay. My mother, my mother did the best that she could with what she had to work with. So I learned to forgive her. You know, I love my mother dearly. I will kill for my mother. Okay. So today we have a great relationship. Have you always had a good relationship with your dad? Oh, my dad is my best friend. My dad is my best friend. That's my hero. And no, just based on the things, like I said, seeing him grow up, my father's the, he's the only male of 14 children. My grandmother had 14 kids and he was the only guy. He's the second oldest. So he was kind of like, no, he was the husband slash brother slash protector. So like my dad, I got all of that from him. Like as far as, you know, family origins and making sure we keep the family together and the importance of family came from my father. Came from my father, for sure. What are the contributing factors growing up? Do you think that led you to the next phase? Yes. That's a great question. And I think for me, it was just really looking at life for what it was. When I was young, I was the only child in the home. My parents had some substance abuse and some mental health challenges. So a lot of that is what, you know, catapulted me to do that second chapter. And I would say it started going like left. I would say probably around freshman year in high school, around my high school years is when I really started like discovering more women and just discovering life. Like, okay, hold on. I was paying bills. I was paying rent by junior year in high school. I was paying to live at my parents' house. You know, so, you know, life just became, it just started going really quickly. High school year, that's where it turned. That's where everything started. Do you think that, I mean, that's a young age, like you, do you ever feel like you were kind of robbed of your childhood? I mean, I can't imagine my kids paying rent when they're in high school. Now that being said, I understand the necessity for it. If you are living in poverty and you're able to work, you're helping keep a roof over your own head and contributing, which maybe you would want to because you love your parents or, you know. Absolutely. I was selling drugs just for the record. I was selling drugs and that's what made my mom say, okay, hold on. You're going to be selling drugs, living in this house. You're going to pay rent, okay? You're not going to just be selling drugs, walking around and doing that and not, and just not doing nothing. I had some great examples from my mom on how to, you know, and I looked at it at that time. I was very like, damn, I got to pay rent. Fuck, fuck, fuck. But now as a parent, man, it was some of the best things. That was some of the best lessons that I've learned, you know, how to be self-sufficient early on in years. You know, my mom didn't, I had the kind of parents that just kind of throw you in the water, man. And didn't teach us how to swim. Didn't even give us instructions to say, hey, that's water. This is what it looks like to swim. You need to figure it out. Not that growing up in poverty is a good thing, but you think you're a stronger person because you grew up that way. Like you don't have, I mean, now that you have kids, do you look back and think, man, I really didn't have a childhood. If you could change how you grew up, would you change how you grew up? You know what? No, I wouldn't actually, because it defines who I am today. I'm totally confident in the man that I have become, and I needed those obstacles. I'm thankful because I learned life lessons early. You know, some people are still learning the lessons that I've already learned. So I believe everything happens according to the plan. So I have no regrets. No, I think it all was supposed to happen. That's kind of how I feel too about how I grew up. And I think, you know, now that you're a parent, do you think how you grew up made you a better parent? Absolutely. Absolutely. I mean, you know, first and foremost, you know, I had to find a woman that I could align myself with. And, you know, shout out to my beautiful wife because I've been with her since the early years, like right after, you know, I met her in seventh grade. And yeah, so we've been friends. We were friends because, of course, we weren't supposed to be doing nothing by that time. But so we turned intimate in high, like during the high school years, the second chapter of life. And we've been together ever since, like, you know, ups and downs and rounds and, you know, all that good stuff. But through it all, I mean, I wake up and go to sleep to her every day. So you've known your wife since seventh grade and you were a player, but she was just your friend. So how did, I mean, did she know about your extracurricular? It's a very interesting story. I had an actual girlfriend in high school. I had a girlfriend and my wife had a boyfriend. She had a boyfriend and, but we're kids. You know what I'm saying? I saw something in her. She saw something in me. And then we started, you know, playing and playing and playing. One thing led to another. Interesting story. My daughter now was by a gentleman in the high school years. Like my wife, we messed around or whatever. And then she winded up getting pregnant by the other man. Okay. So, and then we had a little saga. I thought it was my child. We went through the ups and downs of that. Turned out it wasn't my child. But years later, when we came back together, I raised a child from like, I would say from like the age of nine all the way until now she's 27. And that's some of the best memories that I have as a parent is with, you know, the family nucleus. When you thought that maybe you were going to have a baby with her, did you tell your parents? If you did, how did they react? I didn't tell my parents. Because by 18, I was grown, just being real. I was grown. I had already experienced paying bills in my parents' house. So I moved out at 17. I was still in high school. I moved out with my high school girlfriend. I mean, I figured like, if I'm going to pay rent at this house, I'm going to pay my own rent. Okay. Like for real, it makes no sense. And I can make my own rules. I can do my own thing. I started paying rent at 17. Are there any other contributors to the next chapter that you can think of that you would like to be part of this? The family dynamics, man, it was good in the early years as far as like grandma, great-grandma, we had Sunday dinners. And then, you know, the next chapter of life is when just chaos, drugs, selling, jail, all that good stuff happened. And to me, the contributing factors was just not having enough male influence in my life, right? And it was, you know, gangs were on the rise and, you know, that was the thing to do is either be in a gang or not, right? And so that's, you know, being gang affected, I grew up gang affected, like living in the neighborhood where gangs are just prevalent. But I stood my ground. I did not want to be in a gang whatsoever. And just, you know, some of the trauma that went through there, like being bullied and, you know, being challenged just because you don't want to be in a gang. I went through a lot with that. Like, you know, as a black man, you know, and then, you know, with the women issues, a black man, woman issues, and then you living in a gang affected area. I mean, oh my God. And to top it all off, I was selling drugs too. And like, and not just selling drugs, like, you know, the basic level, I'm at the top of the food chain. Which is interesting that you weren't in a gang because it seems like if you were doing well in the drug game and selling and things like that, those gangs would be after you because they want a cut of that. Oh, MG. I mean, that's a whole different conversation. I mean, I've been robbed, gunpointed, all that. I've had my residence kicked in, everything playing with the drug life. So yes, it was by gangs. It's just some of the, you know, some of the things I went through in life are definitely traumatic for sure. I will say that I find it amazing that even though you had all of these factors in your youth, your parents' substance abuse, or, you know, in your dad not being able to read well or being uneducated and struggling with that, I do really think that it's great that you still come together for, like you mentioned, Sunday family dinners. Yes. I just don't think in these times that people do that often. Like their families aren't close-knit like they used to be. In your opinion, would you say that the good outweighed the bad in your childhood? Do you have more fond memories of your childhood than bad memories? Actually, I don't. I mean, to be quite honest, when I think about like my earliest memories, they all were negative. Like, you know, but as a counselor, you know, I pride myself in like recovery and learning how to, you know, not necessarily block those things out, but use those things to my advantage. Those are sources of energy, right? I look back at the past and I mean, I can talk about sexual abuse. I can talk about, you know, physical abuse, but at the same time, I can talk about perseverance too. And that's the most, that to me is the best part about it. Everything I've been through is the fact that I'm still standing with a smile, right? No medication. I'm not taking any medication, okay? If I was to talk to, say, freshman EA, what would his outlook be on life? Where would he be at in that time? Freshman EA was into girls, but didn't understand the whole rhythm of girls. I just knew I wanted to be in girls' faces because they were beautiful. They smelled good and all that good stuff. And yeah, and I was just crazy. I just, you know, I wanted, I never really wanted friends like through males. I've always been comfortable, more comfortable with female relationships, having friends, having friendships with females. And yep, I mean, I can honestly say today in the high school years, I've never had a female friend. I think I slept with every girl that I was claiming to be friends with, right? But still for me, that was better than having male friends that I couldn't sleep with. You know what I mean? What would high school EA's goals for life be? Like what were your goals, if you can remember what you thought your life was going to look like? I was a musician. I do remember being an artist. I was a singer. I thought my life was going to be, I was going to be signed to a major label and I was going to be putting out a lot of material. And I never looked at life from a woman, man standpoint. I always looked at life from a successful standpoint. I just wanted to be successful. You know, I wanted to do anything it took to be successful. A success to me was different than most. Like success for me was the people around me. I wanted to be successful. That was success to me. It's the craziest thing ever because I feel like, you know, when you're around people that's successful, that makes you that much more successful versus the opposite. Like when you're around people that are leeching, grabbing at your energy all the time, and that makes you less successful. Like you're not successful. It's so interesting to me that you recognized that at such a young age. Like I would think growing up in poverty, you would be like, I just want all the money. I just want to be rich. I don't ever want to live like this again. But your mindset was you wanted the people around you to be successful in turn making you successful. That's a fantastic view. I like that a lot. I still live by that motto now, like today. I mean, like I'm only strong as the team. If the team, if I'm winning, but everybody around me not winning, then we not winning. We not winning until everybody at the table is on the same, you know, level at least. Like, you know, and it's not about money. Finances are always going to be there, right? It's about energy. I'm an energy person. I live off of energy. And it sounds like you have since a young age. Through prison, through everything. So that's the second chapter. Well, you know, we'll get into that second chapter to talk a little bit more about prison and, you know, some of the, you know, women, the scandals, the, yes, the juice and the dirt and the tea. So this concludes part one of getting to know Eric Allen, the man behind the affirmations. Come back for part two, where we get into the juicy details that led Eric down a dark road.
