A Writer + A Fighter Enter the School of Hard Knocks

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It’s getting cold here in the Smokies. The kind of cold that makes the mist hang low in the valley and the woodstove feel like a blessing.

If I’m honest, I haven’t been outside as much as I’d like lately. Projects, screens, the constant hum of “getting things done.” But every single time I force myself to lace up my boots and step into the woods, even for ten minutes, something happens.

My breathing slows. My heart rate follows. The forest does what the forest always does: regulates my nervous system better than any app, any playlist, any well-intentioned reminder to “breathe.”

It’s the crunch of leaves underfoot, the faint sweetness of decay, the filtered gold of late-afternoon light through the trees. It’s not a cure. It’s a remembering.

We’re almost ready to share that remembering here, too. The dome at Wild Woods Retreat is nearly finished - floors and doors next, then photos, then our first Airbnb listing. I’m thinking about offering an early-bird special for those who want to be the first to stay: $250 for two nights, with farm-fresh eggs from our hens waiting in the kitchen. Reply to hit me up.

Because as we’re learning, rest is not a luxury. It’s a reset.

And no one knows that better than this week’s featured guests on Entrepreneurs Gone Wild.

They’ve built an entire movement around the idea that chaos can become clarity and that healing begins when you stop running from your own story.

Meet Shane Fichter and Scott Sery, the Montana duo behind Havoc Mindset and the upcoming book Addict: From Chains to Champion.

How an Ex-Addict and an Autistic Writer Built the Havoc Mindset

It started in a Montana MMA gym. Sweat. Grit. The sound of gloves slamming into bags. And a man, Shane Fichter, who’d already taken more hits from life than anyone in that room ever would.

This was no fitness hobby. This was survival with gloves on.

Shane had clawed his way out of heroin addiction, jail time, and the kind of darkness most people never come back from. He’d traded the needle for a notebook, violence for vision. But when the punches stopped, he was still chasing a bigger fight: helping others rewire their minds before they hit the same wall.

Then he met Scott Sery.

The Writer Who Wouldn’t Say Hello

Scott doesn’t do small talk.

Not because he’s rude, but because he’s autistic. He spent years getting scolded for not greeting coworkers every morning. (“We saw each other yesterday. Nothing’s changed.”) The office world didn’t make sense to him, so he built one that did.

He started writing. Quietly. Powerfully. One story at a time.

Eventually, people started whispering his name in ghostwriting circles: If you need a biography that doesn’t sound like a résumé, call Scott.

When Shane went looking for someone to help him tell his story - the real story, not the cleaned-up version. Everyone said the same thing. “Talk to Scott. He’s a genius.”

Chaos Meets Precision

You couldn’t script two people more different.

Shane, the fighter, tattooed and loud, all adrenaline and emotion. Scott, the writer, calm, methodical, allergic to small talk.

But here’s the twist: they were both obsessed with one thing… truth.

Shane brought fire. Scott brought form. Together, they built Havoc Mindset, a movement and coaching platform built on one radical belief: your story isn’t your shame; it’s your superpower.

The name fits. Havoc is exactly what happens when you stop pretending you’re fine. It’s the chaos before clarity, the place where addiction, trauma, and self-doubt get stripped down to something raw and useful.

From Addict to Architect

Shane’s transformation isn’t subtle.

At thirteen, he called his estranged father for the first time. The man hung up. When Shane called back to curse him out, that phone call became their last. His father died by suicide soon after.

Grief turned to rage. Rage turned to heroin. Then overdoses, jail, and the kind of rock bottom that strips you of everything except your will to survive.

In a 35-day withdrawal, Shane started journaling, scribbling the pain onto paper until something inside him broke open. He realized the very traits that once destroyed him, his obsession, defiance, intensity, could also rebuild him. He didn’t need to kill his addiction. He needed to redirect it.

That insight became the foundation of Addict: From Chains to Champion, the book he and Scott wrote together.

Channeling Havoc

Scott’s writing transformed Shane’s voice into something universal. It’s less “recovery memoir,” more “battle plan for the human psyche.”

Because addiction isn’t just heroin or booze. It’s anything you use to hide from yourself: hustle culture, achievement, your phone. (Yes, that one too.)

At Havoc Mindset, Shane and Scott coach entrepreneurs, athletes, and everyday people to stop running from their own chaos. Through journaling, silence, and some brutally honest self-examination, they help people face the stories they’ve been avoiding… and rewrite them.

Their group program, The Academy of Hard Knocks, sounds like a punchline until you realize it’s a lifeline. They’ve helped everyone from ex-cons to career waitresses find purpose, build businesses, and finally believe they deserve to.

When Grit Finds Grace

You’d think Shane and Scott would clash. They don’t. They complement.

Shane brings the roar. Scott brings the structure. Shane speaks from scar tissue. Scott turns those scars into sentences.

And when you listen to them talk, it’s obvious: this partnership works because they stopped trying to “fix” what made them different. They built with it.

That’s the Havoc Mindset in motion - transformation through truth, not pretending.

Because the real comeback story isn’t about becoming someone new. It’s about finally being who you already were before the world told you not to be.

Connect with Shane Fichter and Scott Sery at havocmindset.com Follow their journey, find Addict: From Chains to Champion updates, and learn how to turn your chaos into your greatest advantage.

You’ll love this interview.

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