My hope is that through the conversations we are having, we can start making personal conversations less taboo. We have become very good at masking what is happening in our lives.
As a part of our series about “individuals and organizations making an important social impact”, we had the pleasure to interview Brad H. Hill.
Brad H. Hill is a Wisconsin-based author, podcast host, and recovery advocate who draws from his personal experience with addiction, recovery, and the hidden struggles that can exist behind a seemingly successful life. In recovery from drug and alcohol addiction, Brad combines his own journey with the perspective of growing up with a father who battled addiction, giving him a unique understanding of both personal recovery and the impact addiction has on families. Through his book No One Is Normal, podcast, and advocacy work, Brad speaks openly about addiction, mental health, resilience, generational patterns, and the importance of seeking change before reaching a dramatic “rock bottom.”
Thank you so much for joining us in this interview series! Can you tell us a story about what brought you to this specific career path?
This path really started with self-guided journaling. I wrote things down for myself, trying to make sense of different experiences in my life, and eventually I started thinking there might be more to this. The more I wrote, the more I realized the book could become something bigger than just my story. I wanted to create something that might help people feel safe enough to look at their own lives, tell their own stories, and maybe even write them down.
That meant I had to be willing to go first. I had to expose the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of my own life instead of presenting a polished version, because social media already has enough of those. My hope was that by sharing those experiences openly, people could reflect on my experiences and use those stories to look at what has happened in their own lives. I am not trying to tell people how to heal. I want to give them the opportunity to reflect, ask themselves questions they may have avoided, and maybe begin their own healing process. It is easier to look out the window than to stare into the mirror.
That idea became the foundation for everything I am building now. It is about creating a space where people can see that their story matters and that sometimes hearing someone else tell the truth about their life can give us the courage to start telling the truth about our own. Self-reflection should not be something we use to beat ourselves up over the past. It should be a starting point for understanding it.
Can you share the most interesting story that happened to you since you began leading your company or organization?
The most interesting thing that has happened to me since starting all of this has probably been gaining confidence in myself. Some of the things I went through in my life had a huge impact on my self-confidence, and I think that is true for a lot of people. We carry experiences with us, sometimes for years, and they can change how we see ourselves and how willing we are to put ourselves out there.
When I released the book, I had this huge “oh crap” moment. I realized I had just opened Pandora’s box and put parts of my life into the world that I could never take back. People could read about my mistakes, my struggles, my failures, and some of the things I am not particularly proud of. I had no control over how they would judge me. My wife also made the decision to share her story of overcoming domestic violence. Between my experiences and hers, we hoped people might recognize something in our stories that caused them to look at their own lives a little differently. Maybe they would identify a pattern they had normalized, realize something needed to change, or recognize that an experience from their past was still affecting them today.
Oddly enough, putting all of that out there became incredibly freeing. Once the book was released, I started realizing I was not the only one carrying these kinds of experiences. Then the podcast reinforced that even more. Somewhere along the way, I stopped being afraid of being judged. I am okay with someone seeing me in a negative light if being open about our stories reaches someone who needs to hear them. If one person recognizes themselves in something my wife or I went through and it gives them that gentle nudge to take action instead of freezing in fear, then being vulnerable was worth it. I thought sharing my story was going to require confidence. What I did not expect was that sharing it, and watching my wife have the courage to share hers, would actually help me find that confidence.
It has been said that our mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
I definitely believe mistakes can be our greatest teachers. Sometimes you learn the lesson, and sometimes life makes you repeat the grade. I have attended the school of hard knocks more than a few times. I also think one lesson we forget is that we sometimes take ourselves way too seriously.
One of my favorite examples is actually a story I included in my book. Years ago, a friend and I were going to a concert and booked a downtown hotel so we could make a day out of it. We didn’t know the hotel was also hosting a national convention for little people. The lobby was packed. While I was waiting in line, a hostess waved me forward toward the desk. Suddenly, I felt someone tug on my pant leg. I looked down and a gentleman told me, “Excuse me, you cut in front of me. I was next.” Without even thinking about the words coming out of my mouth, I said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you there.” The lobby went dead silent, and I could feel everyone’s eyes glaring at me. As soon as the words left my mouth, I wanted to crawl into a hole. I obviously meant that I had not realized he was waiting in line, but there I was, standing in a lobby full of little people, having just said possibly the worst combination of words I could have chosen.
I was absolutely mortified. What made the story even better, though, was what happened later. When we came back from the concert, I had the opportunity to spend some time with people from the convention. We talked, laughed, and got to know each other a little bit. The thing I had been replaying in my head and beating myself up over did not become the defining moment of the night. Looking back, I can laugh at myself, but I also appreciate that experience for another reason. It reminded me how quickly we can make assumptions about people or feel uncomfortable simply because someone else’s life experience is different from our own. We are all going to say the wrong thing, make mistakes, embarrass ourselves, and have moments we wish we could rewind. Learn from them, apologize when you need to, but don’t spend the rest of your life beating yourself up over every imperfect moment.
Sometimes the lesson is serious. Sometimes the lesson is simply to laugh at yourself, realize you are human, learn something from the people around you, and keep moving forward.
Can you describe how you or your organization is making a significant social impact?
My hope is that through the conversations we are having, we can start making personal conversations less taboo. We have become very good at masking what is happening in our lives. We go to work, post pictures, laugh with friends, and tell everyone we are fine, even when something underneath the surface is not fine at all. Part of the problem is that vulnerability is still too often viewed as weakness, so people learn to hide the very things they probably need to talk about most. That is where I think the danger is.
No one knows something is wrong unless it is communicated. People cannot support someone through something they do not know exists. Whether it is trauma, abuse, failure, fear, addiction, self-doubt, or simply feeling lost, silence can make people believe they are the only ones going through it. Through the book and the conversations I have on the podcast, I want to help change that. I want people to hear someone speak openly about something difficult and realize that sharing their experience does not make them weak. It makes them human, and opening up can be the first step toward coming out better on the other side.
The brand is another extension of that idea. I don’t want it to be something people simply wear. I want it to symbolize that the person wearing it may have been through something, overcome something, or is still working through something. If someone recognizes the brand, I hope it creates an opportunity for a conversation that otherwise may never have happened and helps create a healing community around those shared experiences. Someone may see the shirt, ask what it means, and suddenly a conversation starts that gives another person permission to share something they have been carrying too. If we can make those conversations more acceptable, we give people a better chance to recognize when something needs to change, ask for help when they need it, and realize they do not have to carry everything alone.
Can you tell us a story about a particular individual who was impacted or helped by your cause?
This is a difficult question for me because I don’t know that I can point to one person and say, “This is the person I have helped.” What means more to me is recognizing every person who has trusted me enough to sit across from me and tell their story. Every guest brings something different to the conversation. They may be talking about adversity they overcame, something they are still working through, or a cause they are trying to move forward. If I can give them a platform where they feel heard and help their message reach someone who needs it, that means more to me than anything else I am building.
My wife is probably the most personal example. We created a six-part series around her experience with domestic violence to kick off Season 2, giving her the space to tell that story in depth rather than trying to fit decades of her life into one conversation. Later, I interviewed her again about life after abuse because surviving something is only part of the story. There is also the process of figuring out who you are afterward and what moving forward actually looks like. Watching her tell that story reinforced why I continue doing this. The podcast is not about me having the answers. It is about giving people the opportunity to use their own voice, support what matters to them, and hopefully reach someone who sees a piece of their own life in that conversation.
I may never know every person an episode reaches or what part of a conversation stays with them afterward. That is one of the humbling parts of doing this. Sometimes the impact may happen quietly, in a moment of recognition or in a decision someone makes long after the episode ends. What I do know is that every time someone trusts me with their story, I have an opportunity to help that story travel a little farther than it would have otherwise. If it reaches someone at the right moment and helps them see something differently in their own life, that means everything to me. To me, that is impact.
Are there three things the community/society/politicians can do to help you address the root of the problem you are trying to solve?
I don’t really see this as a political issue as much as a human one. The root of what I am trying to address is that people often feel like they have to hide what they are going through. We have made vulnerability uncomfortable, and in some cases we have made personal struggle something people are afraid to talk about because they do not want to be judged, labeled, or treated differently. Politics can actually be a good example of what happens when conversation becomes too polarized. It can bring out the worst in how people communicate with each other. Instead of listening to understand, people start listening to respond, defend, or attack. Once that happens, the conversation usually stops being productive.
One thing that would help is creating more room for honest conversations. That starts in homes, workplaces, schools, and communities where people feel like they can say, “I am struggling,” without immediately feeling like they have done something wrong. We also need to do a better job of connecting people with support once they do speak up. Starting the conversation matters, but people also need to know where they can turn when something is beyond what a friend, family member, or coworker can help with.
The last piece is how we respond when someone finally opens up. We do not always need to fix them, diagnose them, or tell them what we would have done differently. Sometimes listening without judgment gives someone enough space to begin understanding what they need to do next. If communities, society, and our leaders can help make those conversations safer, make resources easier to find, and reduce the judgment that keeps people silent, I think we start addressing the problem much closer to the root cause.
How do you define “Leadership”? Can you explain what you mean or give an example?
Leadership is multifaceted to me. It means making sure people are moving in the right direction, being willing to make difficult decisions even when those decisions go against the grain, and understanding that part of your responsibility is helping the people around you grow. Throughout my career, I have trained people to be able to replace me. Not because I was planning to leave, but because most organizations are not going to move you forward if there is nobody capable of stepping into your role. There is always the risk that you become replaceable, but I think that is a risk good leaders have to be willing to take. You keep making the team around you stronger, delegate real responsibility, and give people ownership so they can grow.
That part of leadership gets overlooked far too often. Someone can be very good technically, understand a business inside and out, and still be a terrible leader. I have worked with people in leadership positions who were poor coaches and mentors. They micromanaged, held people back, or even seemed to sabotage people they viewed as a threat. I have experienced that on more than one occasion, and it is not fun. Those experiences taught me just as much about leadership as the good leaders I have worked with because they showed me exactly what I never wanted to become.
I also think organizations sometimes make the mistake of assuming that because someone is successful at their job, they will naturally be successful leading people. Those are two completely different skill sets. Leadership requires emotional intelligence and enough confidence in yourself to recognize that someone else’s success does not diminish your own. A good leader should want the people around them to become better, even if that means one day they outgrow you or move beyond you. Your job is not to make yourself indispensable by keeping everyone dependent on you. To me, leadership is ultimately about direction and development. You have to be willing to make the hard call when it needs to be made, but you also have to make sure the people following you are stronger because you were their leader, not smaller because of it.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why.
1. You do not have to feel ready before you start.
I spent a lot of time thinking confidence had to come before action. I have learned almost the opposite. A lot of my confidence came because I acted while I was still uncomfortable. Publishing the book is probably the best example. Once it was out there, I had that “oh crap” realization that people could now read some very personal parts of my life and form whatever opinion they wanted about me. I could have waited until I felt completely comfortable with that, but I probably would still be waiting. Starting before I felt ready forced me to grow into the person who could handle it.
2. You are never going to make everyone understand what you are doing.
I wish someone had told me earlier how much energy we waste trying to control other people’s perception of us. Some people will understand what you are building immediately. Others will question it, criticize it, or simply not care. When I started sharing my story publicly, I had to accept that someone might read the same story that helps one person and judge me negatively for it. I cannot control either reaction. Once I understood that, I could focus more on the people who may actually need what I am creating instead of constantly worrying about the people who do not understand it.
3. Perfection can stop more progress than failure ever will.
I have always had a tendency to be very hard on myself. I can look at something that went well and immediately find the one thing I could have done better. That can be useful when it pushes you to improve, but it becomes destructive when nothing ever feels good enough to let go of. The book, podcast, and everything I am building have taught me that something can always be improved. At some point, though, you have to put it into the world. I would rather learn from something I actually completed than spend years perfecting something nobody ever gets to see.
4. You have to be willing to change direction without seeing it as failure.
When I first started, I had ideas about what the book, podcast, and brand were supposed to become. Some of those ideas worked, and some did not. I have had to change direction more than once as I learned what connected with people and what did not. Earlier in my life, I probably would have looked at changing direction as admitting I was wrong. Now I see it differently. You can believe strongly in where you are trying to go and still realize the road you chose is not the best way to get there. Changing the plan does not mean abandoning the goal. Sometimes it means you finally understand the goal well enough to find a better path toward it.
5. The impact of what you do may not always be visible to you.
This one has become increasingly important since starting the podcast. Someone can listen to a conversation months after it was recorded and hear something at exactly the moment they needed it. I may never know about that moment. The same is true of the guests who trust me with their stories. Once that conversation is released, their experience can travel far beyond the recording session. That changed how I think about success. Of course numbers and growth matter when you are building something, but they cannot be the only measurement. If a story gives someone enough perspective to look at their own life differently, start a conversation they were afraid to have, or take a step they had been avoiding, that matters too. I wish someone had told me when I started that you do not need all the confidence, answers, or validation upfront. Sometimes you build those things by doing the work, making mistakes, and continuing to move forward.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
Man, there are so many meaningful quotes out there, but I think my favorite life lesson quote is from Dr. Seuss: “Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” It sounds simple, almost like something you would only hear as a child, but I think there is a tremendous amount of meaning in it.
We spend so much of our lives comparing ourselves to other people and trying to figure out whether we fit whatever definition of normal has been placed in front of us. We change parts of ourselves to fit in, hide things we are embarrassed about, and sometimes spend years trying to become the person we think everyone else expects us to be. That is really at the heart of why I wrote No One Is Normal. Writing the book forced me to look at who I actually was, not who I thought I was supposed to be. That included parts of my life I was proud of and parts I would have rather kept hidden. Eventually, I realized that all of those experiences helped shape the person I am today.
The same idea carries into the podcast. Every person who sits down with me has a different story, shaped by their own struggles, victories, experiences, and perspective. No one person has a universal idea of what life is supposed to look like. That is why this quote means so much to me. I spent many years wondering whether I measured up to everyone else. Now I think the better question is whether I am being honest about who I am. Each of us has only one version. We can spend our lives trying to make that person look more like everyone else, or we can finally give ourselves permission to understand and accept who that person actually is.
Is there a person in the world, or in the US with whom you would like to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she might just see this, especially if we tag them. 🙂
There are a lot of people I would love to sit down with, but I think Warren Buffett would be a fascinating choice. It would not be because he is a billionaire. Wealth by itself has never impressed me. What interests me is what someone chooses to do once they have more than they could ever realistically need. While others hoard resources, Warren Buffett has pledged more than 99 percent of his wealth to philanthropy and has already given away tens of billions of dollars. I would love to understand how he arrived at that mindset and what responsibility he believes comes with having that level of resources.
I think there is something powerful about reaching a point in life where accumulation is no longer the goal and impact becomes more important. I would want to talk with him about how he decides where his money can do the most good, what he has learned from giving it away, and whether philanthropy changes the way someone ultimately defines success. That connects with what I am trying to build in a much smaller way. I want the work I am doing to have value beyond myself. If the book, podcast, brand, and the conversations around them can help people open up, recognize something in their own lives, or feel less alone in what they are going through, then the impact matters more to me than simply being able to say I built something.
I think that would be an incredible lunch because I would not be interested in asking Warren Buffett how to become a billionaire. I would be much more interested in asking him what he learned about life after becoming one and why giving so much of it away became important to him. And if he happens to read this and wants to throw a few bucks toward the cause, I probably wouldn’t argue with him.
You are a person of enormous influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could inspire a movement, I think it would be one centered around self-reflection and personal accountability. We spend a lot of time looking outward. We look at what someone else did wrong, what society should change, what our employer should have done, what our family should understand, or why someone else is responsible for where we are.
Sometimes those things are absolutely valid. People get hurt, mistreated, overlooked, and put into situations they did not create. But at some point, I think we also have to be willing to look inward and ask what we can control from here. I said earlier that it is easier to look out the window than to stare into the mirror. I believe that more and more as I get older. Self-reflection does not mean blaming yourself for everything that happened to you. It means being willing to understand how those experiences affected you, recognizing the choices that are yours to make now, and deciding what you want to do differently going forward.
I think the world could use more people willing to ask themselves difficult questions before immediately pointing at someone else. Not because we should ignore injustice or stop holding other people accountable, but because real change becomes much more powerful when accountability includes ourselves too. If I could inspire that kind of movement, I think it could change relationships, workplaces, families, and communities. We cannot control everything that happens around us, but we have a lot more influence over what happens next than we sometimes realize.
How can our readers further follow your work online?
The easiest place to follow everything I am doing is https://www.bradhhill.com. That is the home base for the book, podcast, speaking, merchandise, and links to all of my social platforms. You can also find the No One Is Normal Podcast on YouTube at https://youtube.com/@nooneisnormalpodcast and connect with me on LinkedIn. Everything I am building ultimately connects back to the website, so that is the best place to start.
This was very meaningful, thank you so much. We wish you only continued success in your great work!
Social Impact Heroes: How Brad H Hill Of No One Is Normal Is Helping To Change Our World was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.