Today we’d like to introduce you to Jason Umidi.
Hi Jason, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
My name is Jason Umidi. I’m a husband of 29 years to my wife, Aimee, and a dad to three amazing kids: Jessica, 35; Cooper, 26; and Sky, 20.
My story starts in Canada. My parents were true children of the hippie era, and for one year our family even lived in a tent in Vermont. Looking back, that childhood taught me early that life doesn’t always come with walls around it. You learn to adapt, to trust, and to find home in the people beside you.
In the late ’80s I was an international model based in New York City. By the late ’90s and early 2000s I was working there as an actor. From the outside it looked like the big life I’d dreamed about. Since then I’ve reinvented myself more times than I can count. I’ve owned vending machine routes. I invested in residential real estate, flipping houses and owning multi-family rental properties. Today I own Umidi Lifestyle Solutions, LLC, doing business as Med Emporium. It’s a durable medical equipment store in Chesapeake, Virginia, and we’ve been serving seniors and people with mobility needs since May 1, 2025.
But none of those titles is the real story. Apart from my family, my greatest achievement is getting clean and sober on January 10, 2017.
For most of my adult life, I self-medicated. After a failed back fusion surgery, pills and alcohol became my answer for the pain, and soon for everything else. I was chasing one thing: to feel nothing at all. And I was slowly dying inside. Sobriety gave me my life back. Everything I have and everything I am today stems from it, one day at a time.
Now I get to give back what was so freely given to me. I’m a certified Recovery Coach and a published author. My first book is Jesus + Seltzer: Stories + Meditations on Sobriety + Recovery, Vol. 1, and Vol. 2 is coming soon. I speak at recovery centers, meetings, and churches about addiction and recovery, and I’m honest about where I’ve been and what grace has done. I also run a nonprofit that gets my books into the hands of people who are incarcerated or can’t afford a copy. Nobody should miss out on hope because they can’t pay for it.
From a tent in Vermont to the runways of New York to a hospital parking lot on a cold January morning, God has been writing a story I never could have written myself. You can find more about my recovery ministry at www.jasonumidi.com.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Never a smooth road. Not even close.
I was an athlete growing up, and at 16 I injured my back playing football. Chronic pain led me to pills and alcohol, and I self-medicated for most of my adult life By my early 20s I was self-medicating with opioids and alcohol just to get through the day.
At 24 I had my first major surgery, a fusion of several vertebrae in my lower back with screws, rods, and plates. It failed. Over the years I went through five surgeries in total, and they left me with severe chronic pain that has never fully gone away.
The physical pain was only part of it. Deep depression set in, and my drug use escalated from opioids to a fentanyl addiction, alongside years of alcohol abuse. The wreckage piled up. I fell deep into debt and my first marriage ended in divorce. I spent years on Social Security Disability, unable to work. For a man who had built his identity on being strong, capable, and self-made, that season stripped away everything I thought defined me.
My finances collapsed too. When the housing market crashed in 2008, I was stuck with properties I couldn’t sell. I went through bankruptcy and the foreclosure of multiple properties. I lost what I’d spent years building.
So I’ve had to reinvent myself more than once. Each time I started over, I learned the same lesson: my worth was never in my body, my bank account, or my résumé. It took getting sober to finally believe that.
My oldest daughter, Jessica, is disabled, and I was a stay-at-home dad for the first four years of her life. Those years shaped me in ways I’m still discovering. I learned firsthand what caregivers carry, the exhaustion, the advocacy, and the love that keeps showing up anyway. Jessica is one of the main reasons I bought Med Emporium. I wanted to serve people with disabilities, the elderly, and the caregivers who love them.
I know what it’s like to live in a body that hurts. I know what it’s like to watch someone you love navigate a world that wasn’t built for them. Every hard thing I went through became a bridge to the work I do now. As I like to say, the burden is the bridge to the calling.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I never set out to be a writer. But getting clean and sober opens doors you never knew were there. I’m now the author of two books: Jesus + Seltzer: Stories + Meditations on Sobriety + Recovery, Vol. 1 and Jesus + Seltzer: Meditations on Addiction, Recovery + Hope, Vol. 2, soon to be released. Both are honest, unpolished accounts of where I’ve been and what God has done. Writing them was my way of putting the truth on the table, as I’m experiencing it, so someone else in the dark might find a little light.
I’m a certified recovery and life coach, and I speak at recovery centers, support groups, and churches about addiction and recovery. I also work with men and women who are incarcerated, helping them prepare for a successful transition home once they’re released. Through my nonprofit, Jesus + Seltzer, I get my books into the hands of people behind bars and anyone who can’t afford a copy. Hope shouldn’t come with a price tag.
I also own Med Emporium, a durable medical equipment store in Chesapeake, Virginia. We carry wheelchairs, scooters, lift chairs, incontinence supplies, wound care, braces, ostomy products, bath safety equipment, and much more. On May 1, 2025, I walked away from my career as a traveling project manager and bought the business. I wanted my work life to carry real purpose. As the father of a daughter with a disability, I’d spent years on the other side of the counter as a consumer, and I knew how much it matters to be treated with dignity and patience. Med Emporium lets me serve people with disabilities, the elderly, and their caregivers in a meaningful way, every single day.
What sets me apart is that I’ve lived it. I know chronic pain from the inside. I know addiction, depression, disability, unemployment, and starting over with nothing. I also know what it’s like to be the caregiver. “Love thy neighbor as yourself” was never part of my natural makeup. It grew in me, slowly, alongside my sobriety and my spiritual journey. Nine years and eight months of sobriety have given me a perspective built on empathy and service. When someone sits across from me, whether at a recovery meeting or picking out a lift chair for an aging parent, I’m not looking down at them. I’ve been where they are.
My sobriety is the foundation, but my faith is the most important part of my life. It informs everything I do and say. What I’m most proud of is the whole journey, through the addiction years, the mental health struggles, the years on disability, and into sobriety and beyond. God took every broken piece and used it. My Jesus + Seltzer books really say it all.
If you had to, what characteristic of yours would you give the most credit to?
Authenticity.
I’m transparent, whether I’m speaking from a stage, sitting with someone one-on-one, or helping a customer in the store. I don’t have a polished version of myself and a real version. What you see is what you get. I spent too many years hiding behind performance and pretending to have it together while I was falling apart inside. Today, honesty is how I live, and it’s the reason people trust me. When someone hears me talk openly about addiction, depression, bankruptcy, or failed surgeries, it gives them permission to stop hiding too.
I’ve learned the hard way that suffering in life is inevitable. What matters most is how you handle it. Life has knocked me down more times than I can count, and every time, by God’s grace, I’ve gotten back on my feet, ready for the next battle.
I haven’t done that alone. My wife, Aimee, my kids, and my parents have stood by me through every season, the worst ones included. Their support and encouragement kept me going when I couldn’t find the strength on my own. I owe them more than I can say.
I’ve also learned to keep a short memory when it comes to my failures. You can’t build a new life while you’re still living in the old one. Over the years I’ve developed a philosophy of “No Regrets.” That doesn’t mean I’m proud of everything I’ve done. It means I’ve made peace with my past and refuse to let it define my future. Every mistake, every loss, and every curveball taught me something I needed to know. That’s what has allowed me to keep reinventing myself, from model to actor to investor to stay-at-home dad to author, coach, and business owner.
My story isn’t finished. But whatever comes next, I’ll meet it the same way I’ve met everything else: honestly, with my family beside me, one day at a time.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jasonumidi.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jason_umidi/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jason.umidi
- Other: https://www.medemp.com/chesapeake
