Episode 28
James Perdue on the Power of Perseverance in Triumphing Over Adversity
This week, I sit down with Dr. James Perdue, host of the Professor of Perseverance Podcast, where he inspires you to face challenges head on in life, and motivates you to be a leader to others.
Each week, James shares the stories of his guests and their powerful message of hope. James draws on his life-changing event at 19, and how that led to many changes in his life until he got to where he is today.
It's not out of pity; it's out of being kind.
James talks about his accident at college when he was 19, that left him immediately paralyzed. He shares the irony of how he wasn't even supposed to be playing the football game at the time, and how that "one more moment" changed his life indelibly.
How Good Parents Build Good People
It was clear when talking with James the love he has for his parents, and how their strength was so important when it came to his recovery and journey back from his accident.
Had James had different parents, it's very likely he wouldn't be here today, at least not in the manner he is, and with the personal achievements and victories he's overcome.
As kids, we'd rather take a spanking than hear the words from our parents, "I'm disappointed in you."
He cites the example of doctors telling his parents that he'd be too much of a burden for them, and they should put him in a nursing home. But his parents had other ideas.
Why The Triumph Over Adversity is Key for His Show
When it comes to sounding out guests for his show, James takes a very deliberate approach to who he wants on, and why. It's not that he doesn't want to share stories, but it's important to him that the journey is the path to a victory:
- he wants to make sure they're really over their challenge
- they have to offer hope to the listeners going through the same journey
- they have to be able to help others and not display negativity
James also shares how he went through the 5 stages of grief after his injury, and how that impacted his recovery process in the early days following his paralysis.
The first stage of grief is denial, and part of my denial is that I was in a wheelchair.
The Mindset of Perseverance
With incredibly inspiring stories from every guest, there is something for every listener of James's show to take away from For James, there were two in particular that he always goes back to.
The first is Captain Charlie Plum, who was one of the very first guests on the Professor of Perseverance Podcast. Charlie shared how a moment of fate changed his life dramatically.
How many times have you heard people say this is the last thing I'm doing, and then something happens to them?
The second is W. Mitchell, who has gone on to become a mentor to James. When he was in a motorcycle accident when he was younger, it resulted in 60% of his body being burnt.
If that wasn't a challenge enough, four years later Mitchell suffered another tragedy, and James talks about how Mitchell's determination continues to inspire his own mindset.
I used to be able to do 10,000 things. Now I can only do 9,000. - W. Mitchell
On Dealing with the What If and the Why Me
For many people, we often have the "What if" conversations with ourselves.
- What if this happens
- What if I can't do this
- What if I'm forever changed
For James, the first five years saw him so convinced he was going to walk again, the What If and the Why Me conversations never really came up.
Later in life, his thinking has evolved, and he shares why these types of internal conversations are moot points.
My thing on the What If is now, What If you don't try? You don't know what you can do.
Join us for an incredibly inspiring and wide-reaching chat on adversity, resolve, grit, and the love of living to overcome the challenges that can be thrown our way when we least expect them.
Connect with James:
Contact me: danny@podcasterstories.com
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Transcript
Instantaneously. I was paralyzed. So I was told I would
Speaker:never walk again, possibly not move from your neck down
Speaker:and a lady, her own doctor's advice and my family
Speaker:to put them in a nursing home or at the
Speaker:age of 19, because I'd be too much of a
Speaker:burden for them to provide care for her. And so
Speaker:he can imagined 19 some one's going to a nursing
Speaker:home. I mean, I understand it happens, but it's just
Speaker:hard to believe something like that.
Speaker:Hi, and welcome to Podcaster Stories. Each episode, we will
Speaker:have a conversation with Podcasts from across the globe and
Speaker:share their story. What motivates them by the start to
Speaker:the show are the crucial And More will also talk
Speaker:about their personal lives. And some of the things that
Speaker:have happened, I've made them the person you are today,
Speaker:and I'll here is your host, Danny Brown. Hi, Welcome
Speaker:to podcasterstories the show that it gets to meet the
Speaker:people behind the voices of the shows we will listened
Speaker:to this week. I'm speaking with James Perdue host of
Speaker:the Professor of Perseverance Podcast, a show that encourages you
Speaker:to face challenges, head on and went in through difficulties.
Speaker:James, welcome to the show. I really appreciate it coming
Speaker:on. And I know you've got a really interesting episode
Speaker:coming up to date.
Speaker:How about you introduce yourself and your podcast.
Speaker:And again, I go by the professor or a Perseverance.
Speaker:They get friends of mine bestowed that on me. One
Speaker:day he says, he called me one day, we were
Speaker:talking and he says, Hey, Professor Perseverance and said, What?
Speaker:And his name, John Bitly, I'd go, got to give
Speaker:him credit it. And then he said, you had to
Speaker:get a pressor or Perseverance. They said, what are your,
Speaker:what do you mean? And he said, well, do you
Speaker:have a doctorate degree? Don't you? I was like, yeah.
Speaker:He say, what professor? And do you want to go
Speaker:to talk about Perseverance? Don't ya? Yeah, wait a year
Speaker:at a professor or a Perseverance. So that's how we
Speaker:come up with the tag and Brandy Professor, a Perseverance.
Speaker:And what had happened is that I got my neck
Speaker:broke playing football. I was two weeks in the college
Speaker:on a baseball scholarship, but a one day people on
Speaker:campus were playing football.
Speaker:Just no pads, no helmet, no protective gear and a
Speaker:scored one touchdown and a guy who was more serious
Speaker:about it. The game to me. Cause when I turn
Speaker:around towards everyone, after a scoring, a touchdown, you know,
Speaker:testing and to play is dead and now we're over
Speaker:with it. So I'm putting a ball down and turn
Speaker:it around and Dora to everyone. I say something on
Speaker:the right side of my peripheral vision. Have no idea
Speaker:what it is, but I'll say something. I felt a
Speaker:contact on my shoulder. And then I heard a loud
Speaker:pop. And both of those went through the ground and
Speaker:instantaneously I was paralyzed. So I was told I would
Speaker:never walk again, possibly not move from your neck down.
Speaker:And a half later on doctors advise my family to
Speaker:put him in a nursing home or at the age
Speaker:of 19, because I'd be too much of a burden
Speaker:for them to provide care for her.
Speaker:And so he can imagine 19, some was going to
Speaker:a nursing home. I mean, I understand it happens, but
Speaker:it's just hard to believe something like that. It goes
Speaker:on. I got it
Speaker:Right. I can't imagine I was going to say, I
Speaker:can imagine, but I can't because obviously I'm, I'm not
Speaker:in your position. But then as you mentioned it at
Speaker:19, that must have been like something very scary to
Speaker:face. Or what were your thoughts in that guy at
Speaker:that time
Speaker:Laying on the ground? I realized I was paralyzed because
Speaker:it did those three things. You know, you know, if
Speaker:they say three's a charm on things. So I tried
Speaker:to get up at one time and Lyft my head
Speaker:to get up because I, when I heard a lot
Speaker:of pop, I thought that my collarbone broke. This is
Speaker:what I thought. Cause I felt contact up high. I
Speaker:didn't know if it was a spinal cord and you're
Speaker:at that moment. So I tried to get up and
Speaker:lift my head and nothing else came up. My shoulder's
Speaker:in, come up in my stomach, arms bending legs. Did
Speaker:it move. So I'd put my head back down and
Speaker:take a cut, a few breaths and someone made some
Speaker:comment. And so I was gonna try to get up
Speaker:again. So I left my head, nothing came up again.
Speaker:So to put my head back down and in a
Speaker:three is the charm Wright.
Speaker:So I thought that, all right, we'll get everything out
Speaker:together to try it a third time to see. And
Speaker:nothing happened. The thought that instantaneous that came into my
Speaker:head, I was a man named J T J T.
Speaker:He came in my head, it's the right thing. And
Speaker:they're, I visualize so J T in my memory and,
Speaker:and I just knew. And J T was so important
Speaker:to my JDT is back when I was 14, 15
Speaker:years old, my grandfather was in a nursing home. So
Speaker:I used to go visit him one day, I'd go
Speaker:to visit or a room before my grandfather is a
Speaker:gentleman. I guess it could be just been moved in
Speaker:over there at the nursing home. He says, Hey, bud,
Speaker:come here for a minute. And I go into is
Speaker:nursing. And I went to his room and he, his
Speaker:name was J T and he asked me to get
Speaker:a, hold his glass of water for him, with a
Speaker:straw to get a drink.
Speaker:And I helped him for him. And I found that
Speaker:out that he was a spinal cord injury from a
Speaker:car accident in his mid thirties. And so in my
Speaker:mind, I'm going at the age of 19, I'm going
Speaker:to be in a nursing home. And again, professionals later
Speaker:confirmed that to my family, that they should put me
Speaker:in one, which thankfully they didn't. But J T he
Speaker:came into my head during the process, right. At the
Speaker:very beginning.
Speaker:Now, did you ever get to a, during the recovery
Speaker:process, I guess, did you ever get to speak with
Speaker:JT again to, to see?
Speaker:Yeah. Yeah. I, I w I was, when I was
Speaker:younger, I would stop in his room every now and
Speaker:again, just to go and say hello and see if
Speaker:he needed any help and stuff. And then they go
Speaker:about seeing my grandfather. But yeah, we used to go
Speaker:in and talk to him every day, again, at 14
Speaker:or 15, you're trying to be polite to your elders.
Speaker:And, you know, so, and, and as you get older,
Speaker:you realized a lot of these people are in a
Speaker:nursing home, or they don't get visitors everyday. My grandfather,
Speaker:somebody who was saying to him every day, even if
Speaker:it was my mom and grandmother seeing him, and that
Speaker:way they would help him at supper time helps get
Speaker:him cleaned, help him get his bed ready for them.
Speaker:Every night, they were there, five o'clock to six, five
Speaker:to five or 6:30 AM to make sure that he
Speaker:was comfortable.
Speaker:Plus the, it keeps the nurse at home on their
Speaker:toes, you know, how some of our neglect so much.
Speaker:And so when I went to go see JT, I
Speaker:wouldn't doing it because feeling guilty or, or that he
Speaker:may or may not have someone, if it was just
Speaker:a polite thing to do now that I've met him,
Speaker:just being respectful to him and have a think maybe
Speaker:two weeks later, he was that he was in and
Speaker:every time I dunno, whatever happened to him,
Speaker:It gets interesting. You mentioned about the, you know, at,
Speaker:at 14 and 15, that it was being polite and
Speaker:making sure that people, you know, they were told they
Speaker:had visitors and all before COVID hit here and Canada,
Speaker:but at, at least in a village study where real
Speaker:live our school or a local kid school had a
Speaker:program like a doctor grandparent, almost where they would go
Speaker:up. The kids would go to a care homes, long-term
Speaker:care homes to talk, and just hang out with older
Speaker:people to ensure that once it didn't get visitors, had
Speaker:someone to talk to her and keep their mind active,
Speaker:et cetera. So it sounds like a very similar to
Speaker:what you're doing as a kid, too.
Speaker:That's a great program. Again, it teaches us kids. The
Speaker:life is not all about them. And so I'm glad
Speaker:that my family raised me to be somewhat perspective. Now
Speaker:don't get me wrong. I got in my mischief if
Speaker:I got in a little trouble with it, and I
Speaker:was still a kid, but I knew when I was
Speaker:around an elderly, I had better be on my best
Speaker:behavior or mom and dad would give me the confrontation,
Speaker:the talk that I needed to learn to be respectful.
Speaker:Not that they were abusive for anything, but they, they
Speaker:should be, let me know. And then, you know, we
Speaker:would rather take a spank it or put in time-out
Speaker:or whatever. Then here are the words from our parents.
Speaker:I I'm disappointed in you. And so that hurts more
Speaker:than any punishment gift. So, you know, we, we try
Speaker:to avoid the I'm disappointed.
Speaker:Do you think that there's maybe, and, and I'm not
Speaker:sure, but I do you think that may be like
Speaker:a, a, a, a Southern thing? I always find that,
Speaker:that the, the Southern part of the us, and is
Speaker:very respectful towards our elderly and respectful will have parents
Speaker:that are et cetera, whereas may be less, or as
Speaker:you go away from the surf and, and 2 cent
Speaker:part of the Canada, is that something that's been instilled
Speaker:in, continues to be instilled, or is that just like
Speaker:a, a, a stereotype that I am? I, I apologize.
Speaker:And I'm being completely honest.
Speaker:Yeah, yeah, no, I, I believe it was a stereotype.
Speaker:I believe there is plenty of people up in other
Speaker:areas of our States. There are just respectful. You can
Speaker:go to the South where they are very much disrespectful,
Speaker:so
with and where you're at. And it's the same thing.
Speaker:So I believe it was probably was pretty much the
Speaker:same, you know, the balanced out.
Speaker:Now, your show premiered there in June last year. And
Speaker:from the start I had shared some incredibly inspiring and
Speaker:stories of overcoming adversity. Is it a, a process that
Speaker:you go through for choosing guests and the types of
Speaker:stories you want to highlight, or how does that work
Speaker:for your show?
Speaker:Oh, my show. Yeah. I looked for people that are
Speaker:definitely overcome that adversity and that way they can share
Speaker:what they went through, share how they got through it,
Speaker:to encourage them and give hope for someone else listening.
Speaker:And so I tried to talk with the first, don't
Speaker:wanna say, we'd come out because I do, and then
Speaker:we can have an opportunity to, to share it with
Speaker:that. But also I want to make sure they're really
Speaker:over the re really over their challenge, you know, because
Speaker:if you talk to him one time when one guy
Speaker:one time and, and he just signed it so negative,
Speaker:it sound like he was still hurt from it. He
Speaker:didn't say he sound like he was, and I'm going
Speaker:to have to sell if I didn't want to hurt
Speaker:his feelings, but you're not helping anyone if you're not
Speaker:helping yourself.
Speaker:And so I try to make sure that they're truly
Speaker:Over whatever situation they're in too. So, and I, and
Speaker:I'll give them a great example. You know, people talk
Speaker:about me being positive and people being, you know, overcoming
Speaker:what all of it to accomplish would have succeeded In.
Speaker:And I said, you would never bet on it. The
Speaker:first five years of my injury, I tried my best
Speaker:to be happy and positive. But when that door was
Speaker:closed, when I went to bed, how many times I
Speaker:cried myself asleep, I put the Hill front and face
Speaker:on, in front of the public, but I wouldn't have
Speaker:been good for a podcast or anything back then.
Speaker:And I can imagine as well that my boss, my
Speaker:wife and I suffered from a mental health issues. And,
Speaker:and to your point where you put a face on,
Speaker:sometimes in public and behind the scenes, it can be
Speaker:a different story. I, I can imagine. How did that
Speaker:hinder your progress during these times, or do you, do
Speaker:you feel that that was part of you getting to
Speaker:where you are today?
Speaker:Do you know? They say that they go through the
Speaker:five stages of grief and whatever, and, you know, the
Speaker:first part is one of them is denial and everything.
Speaker:And so, you know, being an athlete, I had that,
Speaker:that mentality that I was invincible. I was gonna do
Speaker:what I needed to another. One's going to stop me
Speaker:to be able to, to, to be a, as an
Speaker:athlete. And so out of that kept that mentality as
Speaker:I was trying to recover, but more, and for my
Speaker:injury and part of my denial, His, I was in
Speaker:a wheelchair. I went to 18 different rehabs and the
Speaker:five years, I'm trying to find that cure to walk
Speaker:again.
Speaker:You know, a bunch of them were one day evaluation.
Speaker:I have Dr. One time, 18 hours to spent 15
Speaker:minutes for the doctor say, no, we can't do anything
Speaker:to help you. Or, you know, a one day trip
Speaker:to Atlanta to spin two hours with them, do check
Speaker:me out. No, can't do anything to help you. If
Speaker:you come as far as you can and then come
Speaker:back. So part of, part of it that I was
Speaker:looking for that care to walk again, and, and, and
Speaker:then whenever I heard, no, or it didn't get what
Speaker:I wanted, then I was slightly a little bit depressed.
Speaker:Uhh, but still try to hide it from every one,
Speaker:because there was another know there was another, no more
Speaker:to get out of the wheelchair. And so find out
Speaker:what had happened.
Speaker:I was at around five years, I went to one
Speaker:place and it, it, I didn't do it on purpose.
Speaker:I didn't do it at the time. But now in
Speaker:looking back, I actually lie to my family and lie
Speaker:to myself. And what I told him was, I said,
Speaker:not that I'm giving up walking, but I need to
Speaker:put it on the back burner. And if I want
Speaker:to have any type of life, I need to finish
Speaker:my college degree. I need to look for a job
Speaker:that needed to be like, everyone else is the best
Speaker:I can be. I said, and again, not that I'm
Speaker:quitting giving up on the walking, but I need to
Speaker:focus with other things in life. Well, years later, looking
Speaker:back, it was when I finally accepted what's going on.
Speaker:'cause I've never been to a rehab since then in
Speaker:30 years, looking to walk. Now I've gone to rehabs
Speaker:to try to build some other strength and learn how
Speaker:to pivot and transform better step like that. But to
Speaker:walk, I'd never been to one since then.
Speaker:And it's like, I think you mentioned a lot as
Speaker:well, but in 19 full of life, you know, you
Speaker:were an athlete, you know, like, you know, a find
Speaker:a physical specimen. If you like it, it takes, I
Speaker:guess it takes a lot to get from that mindset
Speaker:and to, okay, I'm accepting that I may never walk
Speaker:again. And this is what I need to do. And
Speaker:how much of a challenge was that for you?
Speaker:I tell people don't take the Dr. Thing too seriously.
Speaker:I mean, I did work and get one, but I
Speaker:tell people to say, I was like, now I can't
Speaker:write up a prescription for you, but I can drive
Speaker:you to your pharmacists if you need me too, to
Speaker:pick him up like that. So we took him, I
Speaker:mean, a lot of work don't get me wrong with
Speaker:that. But when I graduated high school, I was a,
Speaker:See man, See average. I just did just enough in
Speaker:school to stay eligible so I can play sports. That
Speaker:was it just enough. So after I finally put everything
Speaker:in the back burner and went back and during those
Speaker:first five years, we got a, a community college where
Speaker:I live down the road. It's a two year school.
Speaker:And so I would go one, two, two semesters and
Speaker:quit. You go one semester or quit go into a
Speaker:year and a half. I quit. And finally, we want
Speaker:to put everything over with a stud. This is what
Speaker:I needed to do. My brother older brother. He's the
Speaker:one that says, you know, all of the focus you
Speaker:had on playing sports, all your determination, all your motivation,
Speaker:everything you used to be able to be an athlete.
Speaker:Now you need to direct that mindset to your studies
Speaker:so you can graduate to help you in the, in
Speaker:the long run. And so as from my wife's older
Speaker:brother,
Speaker:And then you had mentioned for your, your show that
Speaker:you have a very set way of that in guests
Speaker:for one of a better description, because they're have to
Speaker:have to overcome the adversity that they could have gone
Speaker:through and listen to you and your show up and
Speaker:listening to the last few weeks now. And I come
Speaker:away from every single episode, I'm with a vast depreciation
Speaker:of life and live in it because the stories that
Speaker:are being shared are they are, they are incredible. But
Speaker:I, again, I highly recommend to anybody, you know, to
Speaker:listen to the, the, the show and episodes. How has
Speaker:there been anyone on any episodes that maybe stood out
Speaker:in particular when you were in a chunk to the
Speaker:guests and end this, or why these ones or why
Speaker:that one
Speaker:There's too, that I've had a, not a lot of
Speaker:people asked me that the same question, but similar is
Speaker:something that I come back to. These two people, one
Speaker:of them is Captain Charlie Plum. One of my early
Speaker:ones that I had on my podcast, back in the
Speaker:late sixties, he was in the Vietnam war. He flew
Speaker:planes. He was on his 75th mission. And, and he
Speaker:said his last mission. And how many times you've heard
Speaker:people, this is the last thing that I'm doing, or
Speaker:I'm retiring in a month. And then, you know, there's
Speaker:something happens to them. You know, how do you, how
Speaker:many times do you hear it? Like, for example, when
Speaker:I was playing football that day, I said, I said,
Speaker:my team's got the ball back.
Speaker:We have been after about two hours. I said to
Speaker:him, I'm done playing. I need to give him my
Speaker:stuff ready for college classroom. And the next day. So
Speaker:I walked out to the huddle. I heard someone say,
Speaker:we need someone to run the ball. So I stopped
Speaker:it, turned around and said, all right, we'll come back.
Speaker:One more, play one. And that one plate put me
Speaker:where I'm at today, broke my neck. Well, same thing
Speaker:with Kevin and Charlie Plum. He said he was on
Speaker:his last mission, 75th mission flight, last flight, last mission.
Speaker:He gets shot down and it becomes a prisoner of
Speaker:war in Vietnam for nearly six years. And he told
Speaker:his story and you know, the torture of the mental
Speaker:health aspect.
Speaker:Do you know the physical abuse starvation and what was
Speaker:worse than that is they were not allowed to communicate
Speaker:with any other prisoner. They were in individual cells. And
Speaker:so he's, he told this story about how they learned
Speaker:to communicate without them knowing what was going on. And
Speaker:he said they were called the spit choke, and they
Speaker:each represent something in the alphabet to communicate back and
Speaker:forth. Or if they were chopping wood, they were chopping
Speaker:at a certain pattern. Everybody like Morris code for everybody
Speaker:to figure it out, the guy, the next sale over
Speaker:because I was beside him somehow slit a string through
Speaker:a hole, and it had a note to attach to
Speaker:it and he read it and it had the alphabet
Speaker:on how many tugs, like against Morse code on with
Speaker:the string.
Speaker:And then we could communicate. And then he had told
Speaker:him the note, Now eat this note, swallow. It don't
Speaker:let them catch it. You know? So they would slide
Speaker:the string back and forth and there were tugging it
Speaker:so they can communicate with each amazing if they will
Speaker:be able to do that. And so, but then another
Speaker:one he's become a mentor. W Mitchell W Mitchell, he,
Speaker:he just, he back in the late sixties, he was
Speaker:riding the motorcycle, got hit by a vehicle. His motorcycle
Speaker:burst into flames. He got 60% of his body burned,
Speaker:face, scarred up last, all of his fingers and hands
Speaker:burnt off 60% of body, you know, doing all this
Speaker:skin graphing. He found her recovery from all of that.
Speaker:Four years later, he's learning to fly these planes. You
Speaker:know, he says in the planes and he asked the
Speaker:people in there with him. He come down to land
Speaker:and bounced on a tarmac a little, a little bit
Speaker:as he is landing. Everybody walks out to the plane,
Speaker:doing a good time for him to get out when
Speaker:it bounced, it broke his back. Now he's paralyzed going
Speaker:through one tragedy. I mean, that's horrific is enough. Now
Speaker:you have two major tragedies. You're burnt out and paralyzed.
Speaker:And so W Michal has become a mentor to me.
Speaker:And he says he has quoted is saying, I used
Speaker:to be able to do 10,000 things. Now I can
Speaker:only do 9,000.
Speaker:I don't concentrate on a thousand. I can do concentrate
Speaker:on the 9,000 I can do.
Speaker:And that sounds like a one on one of the
Speaker:things that I was curious. Obviously you have a lot
Speaker:of guests with very inspiring stories and you've shared it
Speaker:to there. Do you take what it is, our lesson
Speaker:that you take it from? I mean, obviously your, your
Speaker:inspired yourself, your, your story, and you are how you've
Speaker:overcome your adversity in and what happened when you were
Speaker:19 and other things from your guys' stories that you
Speaker:have taken that, you know, you have taken and implemented
Speaker:in your own life that you've just mentioned at w
Speaker:Mitchell. Now it doesn't have to worry about that. Those
Speaker:are the things you can control, who was just what
Speaker:you put the name of it. I was in a
Speaker:candidate as the things that you have taken for your
Speaker:own, your own life.
Speaker:I, I try not to have nothing else. I thought
Speaker:to tell, tell her or for our guests, as I
Speaker:tell them that, you know, when, and if we do
Speaker:our first live on YouTube and their way of feeding
Speaker:in my subscribers, command listening, and they have some questions
Speaker:that I'm not thinking of it, they can ask as
Speaker:well and so on. But I tell them to say,
Speaker:you know, I've had as many as over 20 that's
Speaker:coming, listen to have a little to zero come in
Speaker:at that time. But that doesn't mean being an evergreen.
Speaker:They won't pop in later or something, but I tell
Speaker:them and said, I say, Hey, if nothing else that
Speaker:you are you going to inspire me yesterday? So that's
Speaker:a, I'm going to benefit out of it no matter
Speaker:who you, you know, what you're, which is what you're
Speaker:saying it, and how many did we get it at
Speaker:the time? So when you know, you'd get from one
Speaker:of them
Speaker:It's, and I, I know certainly a lot of a,
Speaker:a, a lot of feelings that I have the are
Speaker:podcasters don't really care about it. The audience size, the,
Speaker:eh, the validation is to get on an email, our,
Speaker:or get on a tweet or something from a listener
Speaker:who really connected with an episode because of the story
Speaker:that's told. And it helped him really focus on something
Speaker:that they can do a refocus their life, et cetera.
Speaker:So I think that to your point, like the validation
Speaker:as a zero listeners at that particular time, there's always
Speaker:opportunity that one person is going to be impacted afterwards.
Speaker:And the great thing Danny is that is they say
Speaker:this stuff on the internet. So it's going to be
Speaker:the same thing with podcast is here forever. Once its
Speaker:in printed, it's out there forever. So you know who
Speaker:to, who gets to know in a, a a hundred
Speaker:years from now when we were all dead and gone
Speaker:to, we're going to be touching someone else and a
Speaker:a hundred years ago, it may find these
Speaker:Why not, Sarah? You never know. I, I look back
Speaker:now and at some of these old TV shows that
Speaker:I used to love and, and I'm going to lie,
Speaker:I kind of cringed when I start to look at
Speaker:them and think, Oh, well, you know what? That's, that's
Speaker:not really a good thing to be enjoying, to be
Speaker:no one to what my kids would think of it.
Speaker:You know, if they were like, ah, getting to the
Speaker:edge I was and watching them, would they enjoy it?
Speaker:Or would they think that it was ridiculous? How did
Speaker:that ever take place? You know,
Speaker:It's a bit, it's amazing with technology. It's all an
Speaker:amazing How the special effects and everything, all His and
Speaker:these kids see a lot of special effects. But if
Speaker:they were watching a show back in the fifties, sixties,
Speaker:seventies, like we used to, you know, there was a
Speaker:lot of work to put it into a special effect.
Speaker:Now it's all digital. And so a lot of work,
Speaker:but these shows now today, I don't know how it's
Speaker:like up in Canada, but there are too much to
Speaker:me sexual into a window into it. Sometimes I can
Speaker:understand cussing a little bit, but when you go too
Speaker:far, they have the TV, none of the innocent lesson,
Speaker:learning things like leave it to Beaver or Andy Griffith,
Speaker:you know, stuff like it.
Speaker:That's out there today. I used to coach baseball and
Speaker:basketball. And I will tell you how I would tell
Speaker:the, the parents that you needed to be sure that
Speaker:you take an interest of what your child is doing.
Speaker:Because if you don't, they're going to find something that
Speaker:they're really interested in and their not going to include
Speaker:you in it. And you may not like it. So
Speaker:when they are into sports or dancing or singing, you
Speaker:need to go at it with a a hundred percent
Speaker:to share with them. Because again, if you're not show
Speaker:any interest, there are allowed to know, drop into drugs
Speaker:and drop into, or whatever pornography, jump in to drinking
Speaker:alcoholism and not say the alcohol, depending of what drug,
Speaker:you know, the marijuana, you know, may not be as
Speaker:bad or whatever, but you may not be happy with
Speaker:how they choose if you don't show interest.
Speaker:No, I, I completely agree. I, we recently watched the,
Speaker:the Tom Hanks movie where he played Mr. Rogers and
Speaker:the kids had never heard of Mr. Rogers, my eyes,
Speaker:to be honest, I'd never heard of Mr. Rogers because
Speaker:I'm from the UK originally. And he was more of
Speaker:a North American thing, but my wife she's Canadian, she
Speaker:was speaking about Mr. Rogers. So they started watching some
Speaker:YouTube videos for a while. What a guy that just
Speaker:the lessons he shared and what would seem a very
Speaker:innocuous church here, but lessons you've shared. So the kids
Speaker:loved her. And, and to your point, I think we
Speaker:tend to try to make kids grow up too soon
Speaker:by creating TV shows or media or whatever that has
Speaker:messages that don't need it. And to your point, I
Speaker:think something like a Mr. Roger, you know, all the
Speaker:shows you mentioned, we need more of that today as
Speaker:well.
Speaker:You know, we used to grow up with a Mr.
Speaker:Rogers Sesame street with a big burden Ernie and Bert,
Speaker:a there's, another one of the electric company was another
Speaker:one, though. It was similar to those. And you know,
Speaker:we'd catch the end things. First thing in the morning
Speaker:to you before we start our day, or, you know,
Speaker:we're getting ready for school here, we are watching him.
Speaker:And so, yeah, they are, they just, they need to
Speaker:have more of those lessons, easier for the kids to
Speaker:get too. Again, even when they were saying this stuff
Speaker:is Paigey 12 or whatever, I still think it's too
Speaker:risky for 12. And he thought to be up there,
Speaker:you know, 18. And so I think its, we were
Speaker:there.
Speaker:They said they were doing a sub limbo to go
Speaker:subconscious stuff. Dr. Bearing in your brain where the kids
Speaker:who don't understand what's going on, but there are hearing
Speaker:it and listening to it and watching him and his
Speaker:baring and, and, and, and, and it's going to have
Speaker:an oppression on them as they get older
Speaker:And speaking this last semester. I mean, we are recording
Speaker:this for the audio, a show, but we are a,
Speaker:a video game green room. It looks like you got
Speaker:to assess mission, a straight tee-shirt on everything. You know,
Speaker:We were going to be burdened. There is a cookie
Speaker:monster. It's all right. Awesome. So yeah, I didn't even
Speaker:think about it that when you were talking about it,
Speaker:there you go in and just say it has the
Speaker:same room in reverse for me. I didn't know if
Speaker:he'd is right for you, but it says everything. I
Speaker:know I learned from Sesame street.
Speaker:No, I saw that when you were up, when we
Speaker:switch the cameras on and I just loved it immediately
Speaker:because I, I love watching Sesame street growing up, you
Speaker:know, it's like one of the, the shores then sort
Speaker:of a Korean and then the Muppets afterwards, because it
Speaker:seemed a natural progression. So I just wanted to highlight
Speaker:that if I was like perfect, that you were speaking
Speaker:about the lessons from the show and you got to
Speaker:show them that you have to teach him how to
Speaker:be like that. What's awesome. You mentioned when you, when
Speaker:the accident happened and for maybe five years, they think
Speaker:after the accident happened and you are lying to your,
Speaker:your family and put it out on a face and
Speaker:be in a more positive, I guess, than you were
Speaker:feeling. And, and also sometimes a lot of people have
Speaker:this sort of philosophical. Well, what if conversations with themselves?
Speaker:What if something happened? What if I wasn't able to
Speaker:do this? And sometimes that can be a good thing.
Speaker:Sometimes, maybe are not so good thing. Depends on what
Speaker:happens next. And I'm curious, did you ever have any
Speaker:what conversations with yourself and if so, what sort of
Speaker:you, you got yours for that sort of speak?
Speaker:What if I tell people the what ifs and the
Speaker:why me? I don't, I don't really remember going through
Speaker:those. I mean, the kids at Costco the first five
Speaker:years, I was so convinced I was going to walk
Speaker:again, that it was going to take just hard work
Speaker:and determination. So I don't know if I remember why
Speaker:me now or later on in life, have I done
Speaker:the Y me or, or, or the what if situations
Speaker:and I'd just have people that you can do the
Speaker:wood, if all you want to, it's not going to
Speaker:change your situation when you're in too. So now it's
Speaker:what if I try but fail? Well, at least if
Speaker:you tried and failed, you know, whatever you're trying to
Speaker:do is not going to work.
Speaker:So now lets try something different to still accomplish what
Speaker:you're main goal is. You, you know, there's a, you
Speaker:know, the will just say there's more than one way
Speaker:to skin a cat. And I will tell people it
Speaker:was more than 10,000 ways to skin a cat. If
Speaker:you figure it out. Thomas Edison say to you, 10,000
Speaker:tries when we finally got there a light bulb, right?
Speaker:And he says, he people say that we could fail
Speaker:10,000 times. He goes, no, I found a 10,000 ways
Speaker:of won't work. And then I finally found the way
Speaker:it would. So some of my thing on the, what
Speaker:if it is now, what if you don't try, you
Speaker:don't know what you can do. And I'm a firm
Speaker:believer that we go through certain situations in life because
Speaker:we need to know how strong we really are.
Speaker:I've had other people say, I couldn't do what you're
Speaker:doing in your wheelchair and get up and go like
Speaker:it. And I said, well, you don't know, cause you
Speaker:are not in a wheelchair. I said, I've never been
Speaker:through cancer, but I don't know if I can deal
Speaker:with that. You know? So I'd never been a diabetic
Speaker:so on if I can deal with that. So, but
Speaker:I've never been through it. So I think that we
Speaker:would go through some things, has to prove and show
Speaker:us how strong we really are in life. And so
Speaker:I think we could quit the what if, if I
Speaker:can't try it, if it doesn't work, move on to
Speaker:find something else to do it, try it. If it
Speaker:didn't work, Hey, how does, how does the port, it
Speaker:is you, if it still important to you, you find
Speaker:a way to do something different to get it out
Speaker:there. And so I think it's better to do the,
Speaker:what if it doesn't work to just try it.
Speaker:And if he didn't say you succeeded, then you go,
Speaker:eh, I don't like this, but at least you tried
Speaker:it and find out I didn't like it.
Speaker:And, and, and that reminds me of, of the, the,
Speaker:the kind of that the Mainsail of Steve jobs, reading
Speaker:his story. I got his alibi. I was in his
Speaker:autobiography may be in his biography and I got his
Speaker:books and read about him in and the other story
Speaker:of Bush neck, I can never say something improper and
Speaker:how they took that mindset that you just mentioned, James.
Speaker:Oh, okay. We were blue. You know, we were a
Speaker:big failure of this first Apple iMac or whatever it
Speaker:was, but we kept going because we realize that these
Speaker:conductors aren't real good for this kind of process and,
Speaker:and, and so on. And I think I know that
Speaker:a lot of talk about, say a helicopter parenting, where
Speaker:we take our away the risk of a lot of
Speaker:this stuff that our kids could do compared to what
Speaker:we have done as kids where we were younger.
Speaker:And I wonder if we need to stop being that
Speaker:kind of, well, you don't do that because you might
Speaker:scrape your knee. You may buying it, your elbow. It
Speaker:was like, go ahead and let them slip the need,
Speaker:the one script and leave the next time. You know,
Speaker:going back to your point, I think,
Speaker:And again, I think at some point, you know, they
Speaker:got to go and I'm not a parent's. So I
Speaker:I'm sure that I'm telling you to run with all
Speaker:of this. But to me, you know, I'd much prefer
Speaker:getting out of the scrape in my leg. And even
Speaker:if I fell on a broken arm, they had been
Speaker:bubbled rapt to protect me from my life, because then
Speaker:when you're old enough to do what you want to
Speaker:do, and mom and dad is not there, you may
Speaker:not have the right mindset to come up with the
Speaker:right decision, to be able to do what you need
Speaker:to do and wanting to do, and maybe get in
Speaker:more trouble and you want so, yeah, I think they
Speaker:needed to do a lot more and understand what some
Speaker:health disability is. Like. I had a friend, he was
Speaker:part was born outside.
Speaker:It's a real jobs. So it under the skin on
Speaker:the side. So here he was days old having his
Speaker:first open heart surgery and put his heart back when
Speaker:we do, we build on and I couldn't understand, you
Speaker:need to bubble wrap them because we don't want him
Speaker:to really hurt himself. But once you realized the first
Speaker:time to follow they're like other and the kids give
Speaker:him some more leeway and goes, because again, he teaches
Speaker:him when they get older to make better decisions in
Speaker:life as well.
Speaker:And it may just take a look at a member
Speaker:when, when our kids who are younger are our son
Speaker:is 10. That was going to be a live in,
Speaker:in may. And he used to love running how a
Speaker:scowl or run to a house when he was only
Speaker:maybe four or five years old. And he he'd run
Speaker:in and he went one time, he ran it into
Speaker:the kitchen, worked up and it was like at the
Speaker:corner of a kitchen worktop. So you, you had a
Speaker:Muslim or a boy to excise Bruce and say, how
Speaker:you think that we are going to allow, you know,
Speaker:you did it. And he did another two times before
Speaker:he stopped. So sometimes you have to make sure you
Speaker:get hurt before you learn that lesson. Right.
Speaker:It makes sure that they're not breaking anything. Other than
Speaker:that, I live and learn.
Speaker:No, not one of the things I really enjoy learning
Speaker:about you and, and read in your story is you
Speaker:really took, you know, you went out and dropped the
Speaker:lights, go by the horns you, you mentioned before you
Speaker:do you coach kids, you received your doctorate degree and
Speaker:in 2011. So so-so looking at this stuff you are
Speaker:doing when you're not an accident happened back in 83.
Speaker:Again, would you have ever imagined being where you are
Speaker:today in and achieve and this stuff you were to
Speaker:achieve and to continue to achieve?
Speaker:Oh, no, no. When I first got injured again, J
Speaker:T F the nursing home and thought coming in my
Speaker:head, even though it was, my mentality have been invincible,
Speaker:that was still downshifted at the beginning because we've never
Speaker:been through this right now. Our family may have never
Speaker:been through a spinal cord injury and not walking, but
Speaker:we as a family, again, I'm glad that, and I
Speaker:tell the people that said, you know, I created everything
Speaker:that I've done by a three things, one gun, he
Speaker:knew the family to put me in to you before
Speaker:I was even born, that this thing was going to
Speaker:be with me all along. And they sacrificed so much
Speaker:for me to be where I'm at to, you know,
Speaker:thankful for other, the friends and everything like that.
Speaker:And the family, you know, family and friends and God
Speaker:for putting him out there. So, and giving me the
Speaker:mentality to be determined and everything. But now I had
Speaker:no, when I first and do it because we've, we've
Speaker:never been through this. So I didn't know what a
Speaker:spinal cord injury a person. Now, I went to school
Speaker:with one child, one guy, he was two years younger
Speaker:than me in high school. And he had multiple sclerosis
Speaker:or a muscular dystrophy, muscular dystrophy type one of the
Speaker:diseases. And so I've met him at a wheelchair. And
Speaker:again, I'm going to see a nurse and it was
Speaker:a yacht of older people in wheelchairs, but someone my
Speaker:age or other than the guy, he went to school
Speaker:with a lot of, we never knew of a spinal
Speaker:cord injury. We never knew what to expect.
Speaker:For example, my driver's license came. It was time to
Speaker:renew, came in to mail. And I told him, my
Speaker:mom said it. I just thought what a trash can.
Speaker:She said, well, you never know. You might be able
Speaker:to drive again and say, I never met anybody in
Speaker:a wheelchair that was driving. And I said, mom, I'll
Speaker:never drive again. And just throw it away. She says,
Speaker:well, I don't, you want me to renew him? Just
Speaker:so you have an ID. If someone needs it for
Speaker:something, I said that they need an ID, I'll go
Speaker:buy an ID. I said, it's cheaper than the driver's
Speaker:license. And so well, lo and behold, who wants to
Speaker:learn to drive again after a year, after two years
Speaker:of mom taking me somewhere and my brother's taking me
Speaker:somewhere, always dependent on them.
Speaker:You know, I'll go to class. Like you said, I'd
Speaker:go to start a class quiz on them, but you
Speaker:know, I'll tell them a class B over one o'clock.
Speaker:And then I went in there to two o'clock side
Speaker:for them to come and get me. And so I
Speaker:tell them I'm about to get my drivers license. And
Speaker:again, the other people I mentioned early about how God
Speaker:has put people in and out of my life. So
Speaker:when it was time for me to learn to drive
Speaker:again, they have those hand controls to put in your,
Speaker:so I can take my left hand and push down
Speaker:through the floor. It makes the gas work and you
Speaker:put it in two days, she had a break and
Speaker:he had to put your other hand on the steering
Speaker:wheel, what those things were. But at that time they
Speaker:were $500, but I didn't have $500 to do that.
Speaker:I was in class one day, he got to talking
Speaker:to this one woman and she had adopted, she told
Speaker:me at that time, I had adopted over 20 disabled
Speaker:handicapped children throughout her life too, to be a foster
Speaker:parents who though the types of children.
Speaker:And so I explained to her about pointed Dr. Again,
Speaker:but I'd have to money for the, for the hand
Speaker:control. So she comes to class the very next day
Speaker:and hands me all envelope with $500 cash. And he
Speaker:said here to go to start driving now. And she
Speaker:said, all I asked when you get your license and
Speaker:get everything just comes back to pick me up, to
Speaker:take me around the block. Well, so people are amazing
Speaker:when did it during that time. But if a long
Speaker:story there wouldn't have to go back through it and
Speaker:get to know no doubt. I'd never thought I would
Speaker:be where I'm at today at the very beginning. But
Speaker:when you reach success and encourage you for more success.
Speaker:And so again, to learn to drive again, was the
Speaker:most independent thing I've ever had after two years of
Speaker:waiting for someone else to help me do things, to
Speaker:drive me to somewhere, driving a class, driving to a
Speaker:store or driving, to pay the bills, drive around in
Speaker:circles, just to be driving. You know, and now here
Speaker:I can do all of that by myself. Again, the
Speaker:independence that came from all of that. And one day
Speaker:I was building it out of the things that they
Speaker:said, they saw me going to a Wendy's to go
Speaker:get something to eat. If one of my instructors saw
Speaker:me and the next few days I was in class,
Speaker:she says, James, I think I saw you driving the
Speaker:other day. And so sometimes they get a little facetious
Speaker:and me, and I said, yeah, I said, but don't
Speaker:tell my mom.
Speaker:I said, I had had to take her a broomstick
Speaker:and a using it as the gas and brake. I
Speaker:said, and she's already warned me not to be doing
Speaker:this as a police. Don't tell her mom like, but
Speaker:they just sound like they were more surprised that I
Speaker:was driving than I was. I do remember
Speaker:We were speaking to that a little before we started
Speaker:recording about your awesome dog. I am guessing now that
Speaker:just being able to jump in a car and go
Speaker:to, I don't know how to go to the beach
Speaker:and take the dogs out. And that does that, that,
Speaker:that must be pretty cool. And then Mickey, I'm glad
Speaker:you didn't just throw the idea away forever.
Speaker:Well, I'm glad, you know. Yes, I'm again, it's so
Speaker:much independence in, I've talked to the other spinal where
Speaker:people do not let the driver's license expire. Technology changes
Speaker:so much. There's people that are weaker than me and
Speaker:my arms, where you are to me and they're driving
Speaker:now days because technology has made it so easy. So
Speaker:don't, don't got to be, I encourage the, don't give
Speaker:it up. And my boy, Ricardo, you know, he's just,
Speaker:he's an amazing dog. He says he was my first
Speaker:service stuff. He's, he's an older one. Now he's AB
Speaker:turning 13 in may and he'll be turning 13. And
Speaker:I've had a nearly 11 years. He's an amazing dog
Speaker:again. I told you, yeah. I told you he's got
Speaker:five children's books about him.
Speaker:And we took different types of disabilities. One guy who
Speaker:was going through cancer and truth is basically the story
Speaker:of the books. True. We kind of fix you did
Speaker:at the end because the boy, he ended up real
Speaker:life dying of cancer. And so the family gave me
Speaker:their story to use. And so in the children's book,
Speaker:I don't kids to be afraid of cancer if they
Speaker:got it. So he got healed in my book and
Speaker:then him and Ricardo went hunting. And so here you
Speaker:see them both out in a hunting and then Ricardo
Speaker:was retrieving a, a duck to bring it back to,
Speaker:to the guy, Isaac and that one.
Speaker:So, but he said, if he's got his own Christmas
Speaker:book where he helped signed in and meets Rudolph in
Speaker:it,
Speaker:That's all. So I know what we did. We spoke
Speaker:in our little boat, the inspiring kind of a TV
Speaker:shows that were used to watch it be great to,
Speaker:to have that note and in your books for a
Speaker:second, is that the follow-up part? And we were speaking
Speaker:out loud about how Ricardo helped the, the, the kids
Speaker:that had, it was an autistic autism. Yes. Autism kids.
Speaker:Yep.
Speaker:Yeah. What did happen there is that we were to
Speaker:a store. And when, when we come up and say,
Speaker:it came to my son and pet your dog and
Speaker:a son was in a hit the shop and buggy
Speaker:cart. And that said, sure. And so it got Ricardo
Speaker:to get it up on my lap. So the boyfriend,
Speaker:the buggy could pay in his head. And then all
Speaker:of a sudden, the boy points, they Ricardo's his dog.
Speaker:He said, yeah, buddy, he's a dog. You ride a
Speaker:good job. And I look over at my mother and
Speaker:my mother started crying something and I'd go, Oh, well,
Speaker:my mom and I put a Ricardo down. I said,
Speaker:I don't know a Ricardo did that. As I said,
Speaker:I apologize for it though. She says, no, no, no,
Speaker:it's not him. It's not the dog you don't understand.
Speaker:Then she says, my son is autistic.
Speaker:And that's the very first word I ever heard him
Speaker:say in the boy had to have been four or
Speaker:five years old. And so in the book you can,
Speaker:my son paid your dog is a little children book.
Speaker:And we go in about autism and we talked about
Speaker:it a little bit. And to try to explain it
Speaker:to the professionals and people that are working with these
Speaker:people, autistic, the information is getting in. They just because
Speaker:of the wiring what's going on, they are having trouble
Speaker:getting them back out. And, and the proof of that
Speaker:again, is he called Riccardo a dog. He pointed is
Speaker:that dog. He didn't point and say, Kat, he didn't
Speaker:point and say door knob.
Speaker:He didn't point and say a car. He said doke.
Speaker:And so that was enough proof for me there getting
Speaker:information in there, you just have him in trouble getting
Speaker:it back out.
Speaker:And then obviously the, the, like the innocence of the
Speaker:child and the dog, it was just like, when you
Speaker:told me it was like amazing. And I was like,
Speaker:so I'm definitely going to be, your books are available
Speaker:to buy on Amazon as well as you are you
Speaker:say correct? Or
Speaker:I Amazon. Yup.
Speaker:And so if we can, my book is for the
Speaker:kids, because I, like, as I say, it was like,
Speaker:he didn't say a couple of the stories that you
Speaker:mentioned then, and it just sets the stuff that inspire
Speaker:our site. I'm really looking forward to that.
Speaker:We'll take it to and appreciate it. I know
Speaker:For sure, for sure. No, you know, you should have
Speaker:been gone almost a year now, a junior. I think
Speaker:it will be celebrated as a first line of virtual
Speaker:in June, in June for it. And you do it
Speaker:as a livestream on YouTube and see some videos, obviously
Speaker:a filtered over to Instagram. What are your goals for
Speaker:the future of the show? You're going to keep the
Speaker:same format or you've got a different ideas for them.
Speaker:All right. At the moment he had it just keep
Speaker:going the way we were doing. Someones mentioned about maybe
Speaker:if we can do maybe add three people instead of
Speaker:just me and one person, and maybe two of the
Speaker:people who was similar or spinal cord injuries or assemble
Speaker:are going through cancer or a similar, most of muscular
Speaker:division to sclerosis or muscular dystrophy, or, you know, something
Speaker:similar. And then I'd like to have them compare and
Speaker:contrast with each other and let me host. And so
Speaker:if someone had mentioned it, so that, that may be
Speaker:a possibility as well. So other than that, I, and
Speaker:I'm a firm believer. We are here to help inspire
Speaker:and motivate, encourage others to reach their best potential as
Speaker:possible.
Speaker:And so then, you know, that's the thing that I
Speaker:just wanna reach out and hopefully we're help helping other
Speaker:people and in what you're doing day, and I appreciate
Speaker:you with all that you're doing, I meet people out
Speaker:there are getting inspired, motivated from who you are bringing
Speaker:on as well to help them get in, in a,
Speaker:in an amazing thing where I've received. I take me
Speaker:to tell people, I took me eight years to get
Speaker:a two year degree. He said, but when I went
Speaker:out with, when they had the, when they had, they
Speaker:had a breakfast, an award ceremony the day before the
Speaker:graduation. And so I ended up going through the breakfast.
Speaker:I took my mom with me. So we, we were
Speaker:listening to all these people because they knew I wouldn't
Speaker:get no award, again, a, a, a C student in,
Speaker:in high school. And so I'm a 2.0 in high
Speaker:school, but I did have a 2.5 when it's over
Speaker:with, and this two year schools.
Speaker:So I'm already half of have a point of smarter.
Speaker:Right. And so, but, but I know I wouldn't get
Speaker:to know, to know trophies. Is there any awards? So,
Speaker:I mean, that's a cooler, I just wanted to be
Speaker:a part of the program. So mom with w when,
Speaker:with me and the president of the universe of the
Speaker:college, he got up and they have an award named
Speaker:after him. He's going on and own known for about
Speaker:10 minutes about this one person. And I was going
Speaker:to a man, I want to meet that person. I
Speaker:leaned over. My mom said, mom. I said, we needed
Speaker:to meet that guy like that. And then about, at
Speaker:the time they had announced my name as they award,
Speaker:then I'm going, what? And they were talking about me.
Speaker:And, but yeah, it, it, it was called the Heil
Speaker:or Ramer, which he was the president at that time.
Speaker:And it was for overcoming adversities. And so he brought
Speaker:me up to talk about that. And so, and, but
Speaker:here's what, here's what I'm getting to him. This, he
Speaker:leaned over to me and whispered people who are watching
Speaker:how you do things, because they want to learn to
Speaker:see how strong you are. And so they could get
Speaker:through a situation. You don't have to know who they
Speaker:are. You don't have to know they're watching, but I'm
Speaker:letting you know they are watching. So the same thing
Speaker:with us, we don't have to know. We won't know
Speaker:a lot of people that we are touching. Even if
Speaker:it's planting the seed in growing through somebody, else's stuff,
Speaker:we're helping people.
Speaker:It's a great to know when we get reinforcement that
Speaker:we really are helping people. That's great, but we don't
Speaker:have to know that. Right.
Speaker:And all of this. So that's a great point, James.
Speaker:It always reminds me of, when people talk about heroes,
Speaker:then there are various forms that heroes can take. But
Speaker:I always find that they're, the heroes are the ones
Speaker:that are not clamoring and for attention, and then not
Speaker:climate and the fame and the lime light, they just
Speaker:get an eye on. And there are a 14 year
Speaker:old kids that goes to speak two older people in
Speaker:a long-term care home. For example, it just, you know,
Speaker:it's like you say it just do good stuff and
Speaker:be a good person. That's it is. It's so hard,
Speaker:you know,
Speaker:Is it so hard with our world today in that,
Speaker:in that a difficult question to answer for some people,
Speaker:is it so hard, but here here's a great hero
Speaker:story. A that happened a couple of years ago, Parents
Speaker:of this woman, our elderly one was passing away. This
Speaker:was a different state, not even in my state, but
Speaker:I saw it in the, in the news, right in
Speaker:the paper, the elderly gentlemen, his wife was passing away
Speaker:and on her death bed, he asked, is there something
Speaker:we can do? And she said, for some reason, he
Speaker:says, I would love, have a slice of pizza where
Speaker:we first went and date it and stuff like it.
Speaker:They said that the pizza joint was in the next
Speaker:state 200 miles away from him. They had moved away
Speaker:away from him. And he called them later at night
Speaker:because she was on her death bed and call the
Speaker:pizza place, explain the situation can do to stay open
Speaker:long enough for us to get there. So this is
Speaker:going to take two to three hours. We'll get there
Speaker:for us too. And to bring him back for her
Speaker:on their deathbed, which is the pizza guy says, Oh,
Speaker:don't worry about it. I've got to take care of
Speaker:it. He drove all the way to their house to
Speaker:deliver it, gave him the pizza and drove all the
Speaker:way back that same night to get up, to go
Speaker:to work at the very next morning. And he say,
Speaker:it was like a four hour trip, both ways for
Speaker:him to do that.
Speaker:And so, I mean, and again, he didn't do it
Speaker:out of liquid. I did hire a and R Superman.
Speaker:So yeah, he, he did it just because doing the
Speaker:right thing and helping us to someone else.
Speaker:And it's probably the best pizza order is ever had.
Speaker:I'm guessing. Right?
Speaker:Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. For him and definitely for the ma
Speaker:a with a woman on her death bed and the
Speaker:husband two reminisce, the good old days.
Speaker:That's incredible. And the good people doing good stuff. Right.
Speaker:Hey, you're doing great things again. So we appreciate you
Speaker:doing this. This is a right.
Speaker:No, thank you, James. And I was going to say
Speaker:so for people, I mean, this, I really enjoyed our
Speaker:chat and I could chat for hours with you if
Speaker:this was a Georgian show, maybe, you know, and then
Speaker:the less, those were tough, two or three hours or
Speaker:whatever, but it was
Speaker:Spotify. Spotify. I want you to come and talk to
Speaker:Dan and my podcast and give us some of a
Speaker:Joe Rogan's a, a a hundred million y'all gave him.
Speaker:So go ahead and hit us up. Spotify and Spotify.
Speaker:They don't want to come and get us a podcast
Speaker:or Podbean or a what's the all of other ones,
Speaker:a Lipson, you know, what are you out here? It
Speaker:is up.
Speaker:Oh, fun. A lot of actually one of our podcast
Speaker:hosts. So I am, let's say it's funny. You mentioned
Speaker:that there are so far for people that want to
Speaker:learn more about, you are watching a show on YouTube,
Speaker:a bio to children's books, et cetera, where is the
Speaker:best place for them to connect with you?
Speaker:You can go to, again, I tell people to just
Speaker:easiest thing is go ahead and Google Professor of Perseverance.
Speaker:And that leads me to my website, which is a
Speaker:professor or a Perseverance dot com that led you to
Speaker:my YouTube Professor, a Perseverance that leave you two, my
Speaker:Facebook Professor, a purser. So you just Google Professor Perseverance.
Speaker:And I'm not sure if that'll work on Amazon and
Speaker:buy books. He may, I have to go in and
Speaker:do James Perdue and that's P E R D U
Speaker:a E James Perdue and end the books we'll come
Speaker:up. So I need to go fix it on Amazon
Speaker:Professor or Perseverance sort of fall in line. It's all
Speaker:about the Brown did, right? Yes.
Speaker:Well, that's awesome. And I will be sure to leave
Speaker:the lengths for your website you're Podcasts. And obviously there
Speaker:are links to your books and Amazon in the show
Speaker:notes. So if you're listening to this in your favorite
Speaker:podcast app, or you have written it online, be sure
Speaker:to check out the show notes. So it links through
Speaker:to Jim's online, where he can connect with him. So
Speaker:again, James, I really appreciate coming on today. So thank
Speaker:you for coming in it and then sharing your story
Speaker:with us.
Speaker:Thanks for the opportunity to be able to, again, reach
Speaker:out, share it with some people, some journey and give
Speaker:them some hope. And I appreciate you giving me this
Speaker:opportunity. Thank you, Dan.
Speaker:So this has been another episode of Podcaster Stories. If
Speaker:you enjoy this week's episode, be sure to hop on
Speaker:over to Podcaster Stories dot com. We can sign up
Speaker:for the free newsletter or catch up on previous episodes.
Speaker:You can also listen to it for three on your
Speaker:favorite podcast app, like Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, and
Speaker:more until the next time stay safe and take care.
