Join us for an engaging and enlightening conversation with John Register. John is a 4-time Track and Field All American, 2-time Olympic Trials Qualifier, and combat Army Veteran, John's journey is truly awe-inspiring as he shares his unique perspective on overcoming life's hurdles and embracing a new normal.
During this conversation we discuss:
John's journey is a testament to the power of shared experiences and the importance of having a support system. Tune in to be empowered, to show up as your most authentic self, and to learn what it takes to overcome adversity.
You can connect with John Register:
Thank you for listening.
Connect with Chart to Heart:
Website: https://www.charttoheart.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/73198543/admin/
Instagram: @chart2heart
Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjohnhenryscott/
Connect with Portia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/portia-r-scott-7753923a/
Join us for an engaging and enlightening conversation with John Register. John is a 4-time Track and Field All American, 2-time Olympic Trials Qualifier, and combat Army Veteran, John's journey is truly awe-inspiring as he shares his unique perspective on overcoming life's hurdles and embracing a new normal.
During this conversation we discuss:
John's journey is a testament to the power of shared experiences and the importance of having a support system. Tune in to be empowered, to show up as your most authentic self, and to learn what it takes to overcome adversity.
You can connect with John Register:
Thank you for listening.
Connect with Chart to Heart:
Website: https://www.charttoheart.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/73198543/admin/
Instagram: @chart2heart
Connect with John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mrjohnhenryscott/
Connect with Portia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/portia-r-scott-7753923a/
My left leg was amputated above the knee. So you go from the riches. You got everything going on. I was going to be a combat, i was a combat veteran. I was going to be officer candidate school. I was going to go down to Fort Benning School for girls and boys and become an officer. And you know, life was right before me. I figured I could do 20 years of the military and then get out and work another civilian job, do another 20 years. I'm good, i got double retirement.
Speaker 2:Hello and welcome to the Chart to Heart podcast With your host, john Henry, and Portia Scott.
Speaker 1:Through the lenses of stories, interviews, principles and best practices, we will discover the glue that connects the dots between business and people.
Speaker 2:I'm super excited about today's guest today's podcast. This is someone that I had the opportunity to interview, kind of in the middle of COVID, so about two and a half years ago, and his story is just amazing. But he is just that person that when you get on a call with him or you see him, he just makes you feel excited, excited to be there. He just draws you in, and so I know that this episode is going to be absolutely incredible.
Speaker 2:There's so many of us that teach and talk about resilience, but John really is resilience personified, not just as you hear his story, but even as he just travels through life. He is a combat army veteran who I four time track and field all American and a two time Olympic trials qualifier. However, one misstep in life cost him his leg and ended both his Olympic dreams and military career. Yet since that injury, he won the long jump silver medal in Sydney, australia, advised four US secretaries of states and founded the United States Olympic and Paralympic committees Paralympic military sports program, which help wounded, ill and injured service members use sport as a tool for their rehabilitation. As a vet myself, this is like just absolutely incredible, but it also makes me ask myself girl, what have you been doing with your life? Because listen. But today he is here to really talk about life's hurdles, overcoming those adversities and embracing this new normal mindset so that we can win medals in our own lives. So please help me. Welcome, john. Register to the podcast.
Speaker 1:I'm so excited to talk with you today, to listen and learn from you, as well as hear from your audience and the in the comments in the chat that might be coming on later from the show, all the show notes and everything. So thank you for that. Thank you for the invitation for me to come on.
Speaker 2:Thanks, john. Thank you for being here. So everyone that I bring on, i think you, i think you may know this already, but I ask everybody this question because I think it's so important to level set with everything we have going on and life's up and downs and just the craziness. Right Is today, what are you grateful for?
Speaker 1:That's an easy one for me. I am very grateful for my wife Alice. During the pandemic we say as husbands or as men, you know how much we love our families and then we're jet sitting off around the world and it's in some company. And I went through the pandemic from, you know, staying the words really to seeing her in a very different light, not not that I hadn't before, but just actuating on it every every day. So we would walk around the neighborhood because we weren't doing anything else. You know, we watched a movie in the evening times. We spent a lot of time together just kind of, and it was great just to kind of rediscover each other in that.
Speaker 1:But then she got sick with COVID and nearly passed away And that was, i think it was the most traumatic thing that's happened to me and my kids. They saw me kind of in distress because if you were, if we all recall, when people were sick and went to the hospital, you couldn't go in there with them. You had to rely on the doctor to tell you what was going on, if you got a call back. So you're just waiting for which way this, this virus, was going to turn. And so for four days it was, it was nipping tuck and we didn't know if she was going to make it.
Speaker 1:And thank God, she turned the corner with a, with a drug from from my, one of my, one of my clients, who was a Gilead Sciences. So they, they made room, disavir. And so when I heard about it, you know the experimental thing, and I just signed the paper, go do it, because I they were my client, you know it's, it's all the mcconnell for sure. So, yeah, so that's so, that's easy. You know my wife is I'm, i'm so grateful for her. You know my family, yes, but you know her in particular. We're coming up on 35 years of marriage and we're about to renew the vials. I mean, we're not really renewing them because we're our vials are fresh every day, but we're going to do a celebration over in Hawaii, so we're very excited about that.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is so amazing. So happy anniversary. And when is the renewal in Hawaii? So I can go ahead and you know, purchase my plane ticket, Get your plane ticket, right, come on over.
Speaker 1:Come on, we're going to. We're going to do it on August the 13th. Our anniversary is actually the 14th, but the 13th, you know, kids are going back to school and things, so we wanted to make sure we did it on on that Sunday. But yeah, come on over, we're going to do it. A paradise Co is just if you have everybody. If you haven't seen us, you have not seen a sunset, unless you've gone to paradise Co to watch the sunset. It is remarkable And I'm not like the, the, the proof of guy, but I was like that is a nice sunset, right, so that's yeah All right, John Henry, I hope you hear this paradise, Oh why?
Speaker 2:Come on over.
Speaker 1:Oh, my goodness.
Speaker 2:I didn't know that about your wife, but I'm so excited that she is healthy, that she's well, that you know everything worked out, yeah, because I mean that was just a scary time And so obviously when I interviewed you last that had not happened, right, you know she had not got COVID yet. So I'm glad to hear just that, and I said it in my introduction that I feel like your life is resilient, right? So now you have even more to bring to just teaching people and helping us to really understand just life's hurdles. You know I love how you put that. So I've heard your story before because I've interviewed you, but I think it's important that people hear a little bit about your story. So for our audience members, the people who have never heard your story That may stumble across the podcast Can you give us a glimpse into your journey? Right? So we have one of the world's fastest hurdlers. I mean you're doing all of this stuff And then I mean just a regular day you going out and you can kind of tell the story.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, thanks. So I'll try to do it, condense it. I ran track for the University of Arkansas. I was a four time track and field all American, ran the high hurdles, long jump and Ma Relay team. Graduated with a degree in communications. Still wanted to continue to pursue my athletic career and try to make an Olympic games, so I joined the military and the military the United States Army has a world class athlete program and you can't sign up for it but you can try to make it once you are in service. So it's kind of a little bit of risk. But I got in and made the, the, the, the, the standard, made the team. But operation doesn't shield that.
Speaker 1:A storm came up and I got diverted to the Gulf of war and spent six months in the desert. When I came back, without a scratch, i was unable to run the high hurdles any longer because I was just out of not out of shape, but out of rhythm. You know the hurdles are it's a rhythm sport. So my coach and I decided to switch to the 400 meter hurdle, which is one time around the track over 35, over 10 obstacles, space 35 meters apart. So in my fifth race I qualified for the Olympic trials again And in my sixth race I finished 17th. In those trials US takes to top three. So I said, okay, i'll do another four years beyond this world class athlete program, train for three of those years And I can. I know I can make that team. It was a matter of time before I, you know I made it. So I ran my first 50 sub 50 second hurdle race on my ninth try And I was on the trajectory. But on May 17th 1994, when I was training in Hayes, kansas, right before race the next day, i misstepped the third hurdle and I came down wrong on my left leg and I hyper extended my knee and the hyper extension caused a blockage to the popliteal artery and then subsequently, seven days later, because of poor circulation and a failed reconstruction of that artery through a saphenous vein graph, my left leg was amputated above the knee.
Speaker 1:So you go from the riches. You got everything going on. It was going to be a combat. I was a combat veteran. I was going to be officer candidate school. I was going to go down to Fort Benning school for girls and boys and and become an officer. And I, you know, the life was right before me. I figured I could do 20 years of the military and then to get out and work another civilian job, do another 20 years. I'm good. I got double retirement. So that was my, my goal, my focus, and God had other plans.
Speaker 1:So the the injury caused me to do a retooling and that was. It was my wife, alice, who said you know what, john, we're going to get through this together. This is just our new normal. And so, with those words, with understanding what, what I understand them to be now which I'll explain a little bit later I started swimming for physical therapy. I got out of the military 27 months post my amputation, i actually made the Paralympic swim team. So now I'm in Atlanta, georgia. I'm swimming in the.
Speaker 1:In the games I see athletes running on artificial legs. I have a leg made for running And then four years later, i win the silver medal in the long jump in Sydney, australia. So that's kind of the, the book ends of my athletic career. As far as the high level sports performance, i did go to a world championship in 2002 in France, and that was only because I knew I was going to do 2004 Athens game. But as a legacy, the the? U? S gets four, three team slots and you had to finish fourth or higher to earn one of those, those team spots. So I just, you know, picked the spike back up but went over there. I got a fourth place, i got the USA a team spot for the team and I that I balanced out without those, my those, my give back, my leg is give back. So, yes, that's kind of the story as far as that piece is concerned of the athletics.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the things, and it's so funny, you bring up your wife because when I was listening to this video, right, And so essentially you have this choice to make. right, The doctors come in and they, they ask you, you know, was it that either they amputate your leg or what was the what was? I can't remember what the other choice was.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so you had to walk for a wheelchair. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Walker wheelchair.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so it's like, what do you do when you have two hard choices? Cause so often we're used to making either a good or bad choice, or you know the, the harder, the easy choice, but you had like really two hard choices to make. And I know you kind of speed through the story because trying to make it condensed, but how do you handle those moments when you are faced with two hard choices? Maybe our choices aren't to walk or wheelchair, but there's two hard choices that we have to make. And so in those moments like, how do you handle that?
Speaker 1:I didn't know this then, but I'm going to answer it from several different ways.
Speaker 1:One way which I've learned is there's a gentleman I'm trying to think of his name, i'll think of it later who wrote a book that is called like the third way. So we look at two binary choices that we might have go left or go right. Can we find another way through that abyss? He tells a story about he was a professional speaker. he was traveling back and forth through London a lot from Chicago. He didn't want to buy like the $8,000 ticket to get a first class ticket, but he also didn't want to sit back and coach because he got his feet and he's trying to figure out different. So how do I do this? So what he does is he goes oh, i got the answer, i'll just buy three tickets, because three tickets in coach were less than the business class tickets, but he got more space than in business class and he gets three meals, right. So you know. so he just had to figure a way through that, and I think that's a great place for us to think about. is there a third way? or is it a fourth way? Because oftentimes we stop at that binary choice And for me, you know it was difficult, because the doctors gave me this one or this one, and it was really the pain that spoke to me, because the pain said if I just get rid of my leg, i'll get rid of my pain. And how many times do we do that? How many times do we amputate? just because we're in pain, we get rid of the thing that you know is causing us to pain. but that might not be the best thing to do, right, we might need to go through the pain And it's a hard decision. So for me, a third way, you know, may have been okay. let's see how the leg is going to operate afterwards, you know, and how this is gonna work, and maybe I have to have an amputation later on or maybe I could live life in a different way. But it comes down, i believe, to our mindset.
Speaker 1:The reason why I believe for myself I was challenged in understanding what life was going to be like is because of societal pressures or societal normalization around people with disabilities. I mean, think about it. like every person with disability that we saw as a child, as a kid growing up, we had a stigma associated with them because society through you know a Disney movie, like Captain Hook, who has, you know, captain Hook's an amputee, above the wrist amputee or we have people who are disfigured, right, they're the villains in the movie. And because of the villains now we say, oh, those folks are bad. but when we join the club because as a tap temporarily able-bodied individual, there are body out there we're afraid of joining it because we don't want to be ostracized from society And it's very difficult to work through that. So that's a mindset that we've had. We've been conditioned into that, that normalize around that condition of this reality that's in our head But it's not really there. it's not real.
Speaker 1:When people ask me, how'd you overcome the amputation of your left leg, i said I said I didn't, because how to overcome the amputation of my left leg? I'd have my leg back. So what was it? It was my mindset around those things that were holding me back.
Speaker 1:A second thing you know I talk about this in my speeches now. a second thing is other people, other people will believe for us what we can or cannot do, which is based on what they believe they could or could not do if they were in our situation. right, so they're speculating on us what they believe we should, how we should have a life, and most of those people that we're listening to, they're very close to us And so when we're beginning to revision or redream what might be possible, they can thwart the dreams without even realizing how much impact they're having on us. The doctor that might say you'll never run again, you'll never walk again, you never do this the same way, you'll never be an athlete again, right, yeah? And they don't know, because their world is myopic, it's very small. And then you meet somebody that's actually doing it and like, oh, i can do this.
Speaker 2:Because, I've seen it right You have that exposure.
Speaker 2:One of the things that I'm so glad you said that is just that it speaks to some of the work that we do is that most of the time when we go into an organization and when we're talking to leaders or middle managers or employees, the results that we're seeing are always based upon this belief or this buy-in that people have around. This is how the company works, this is how we should operate, this is how my particular position should be right, based on those beliefs, based on that exposure. But you had said something earlier on when you talked about how you had gotten out of this rhythm. But you knew if you could get the rhythm back And I think it's fair because you didn't say I got the rhythm back in a year.
Speaker 2:I did another enlistment for four years and I knew that within that time, within that two, three years, i would be back. And so I think sometime, when we're looking at ourselves and trying to, i guess afraid of the time that it may take, and especially now is where trying to come into this new normal and change and digitization and everything that's going on within our organizations and individually, like sometime we want that change to happen so very fast. But I love how you really did speak to. It didn't happen all of a sudden. I didn't have that rhythm enough to get to where I needed to go. But if I just took more time to get into the rhythm of hurdles and so could you kind of walk us through, what would that look like in somebody like individually or organizationally, to kind of develop these rhythms of hurdles, develop these rhythms of overcoming these challenges, these decisions that we're faced with?
Speaker 1:I love that question I'm writing. I got so many notes and so many things where I can go different directions on your question, because it's such a great, insightful question on regaining our rhythm and I didn't even make the connection between the hurdles and regaining my rhythm back there to run the four-in-meter hurdles right. So first I want to start with my coach, remy Khorchimni. So he's the one that got me to the Olympic trials in the four-in-meter hurdles. And after I had my amputation and I was training for and after the games of Atlanta where I was swimming, i was trying to relearn how to run. And what he did was he brought out like 24 paint sticks you know like how you mix your paint up, and we were down in Dallas and Fort Worth area and he set the paint sticks up on a track and he said what I want you to do is I want you to run symmetrically between these sticks with your artificial leg, alternating between the sticks with your real leg, and so just make those steps incremental. And so he had me run like that over and over again and he said do not do anything else but to teach your body how to run again with this artificial leg, how to use force into the ground, and so before I had run about 17 seconds for 100 meters with one leg. So I'm relearning how to run I mean this is pedestrian time, but I'm relearning how to run on an artificial leg and what I did was I focused on the space and grace it took to grow in that time where he said just run 100 meters, exactly like this for one month. You know that's all you're doing as a workout. And when I finished that, i ran 100 again on the litmus test and I was down like three seconds. So I'd gone from 17 seconds down to 14 seconds just because I stayed true on the rhythm.
Speaker 1:Here's why that's important, you know, for us as the audience, people tend to get jaded with terminology or just follow the crowd to make it easier for them to overcome an adversity, or they think they are, because they say it's been out of cliche or something becomes cliche, and then they say, oh, i like or I dislike it. So we get back in that binary choice again, without really doing the homework to unpack what we are trying to understand. So, for example, the new normal, as you mentioned, right, the new normal. During the pandemic people got really jaded with the term because it was beginning to be overused. But I've been using that term for over 20 years, 25 years, So why am I gonna change it just because somebody else is not liking the term? I can't read with it anymore because I have to explain what it means. So I come now. I say transform adversity into advantage. People, they book me because of that. But I'm really giving the same speech, and so I unpack the new normal, because new, when we look at the words, new means no prior point of reference. So if new is no prior point of reference, we can't use old systems, old thoughts, old ideas to put into a new bucket to get a different output.
Speaker 1:Normal, then, is the everyday typical occurrence of a thought or an action. What are the rituals I have in place that lead me to a rhythm, that elevate me, to arise, that create the desired results that I'm looking for? So, even though the environment I've shifted into a new environment, because environments are just the environments. Environments don't shift environments, they're just here. So I have to show up with whatever I have as an apparatus or my atmosphere to take into the new environment. And if I don't have the right atmosphere, i can't survive If I don't take scuba gear underwater, i'm gonna drown. If I don't take a space suit into space, i'm gonna pass out and you'll probably eventually die. So I need oxygen to survive in the environment. So I have to build my atmosphere to take into that environment. And that's where the space and grace comes to grow.
Speaker 1:Because once we've made a commitment to something, once you've made a choice, the rebirth is that new. You cannot. And that's where I talk about a commitment. Commitments are. Let me say it this way when I told the doctor to take off my left leg and he does the operation, i don't get my leg back. That is a commitment In the kind of the old joke we can say that way in breakfast we have our bacon and eggs. The chicken was involved in the process, the pig was committed, the egg and light back. So that's the commitment.
Speaker 1:And if you can get your, if you can grow back on your commitment, i challenge whether or not you made a commitment, because you cannot go back. It's impossible to go back, whether mentally or physically. You cannot go back to that way And that is that's tough. If you can go back, i say you're what I call in my model. I call it the, the, the reckoning moment, because we have a desire to go back to the way it used to be and we kind of camp out in there and we have. That's our first hurdle.
Speaker 1:But in the rebirth we've committed And now we need, as you stated, we need space and grace to grow. I kind of use that as my framing. So I don't know everything about being a hurdle, being a an happy T. I now have to learn how to manipulate a wheelchair to a prosthetic appointment. I have to learn how to put on artificial leg. I have to learn how to walk between the parallel bars. I have to learn how to to use a four bar walker to gain my balance around the hospital So I won't trip or fall. I have to learn how to go from a four bar walker to crutches, crutches to a cane, cane to free walking, free walking to running, running to jumping, jumping. Then I get a silver medal. Took seven years for that to happen. But, like you said, we want to right now and can we give ourselves space and grace to grow in the process of what is new for us, in the environment that we're showing up with our, with our, our atmosphere.
Speaker 2:There was so much there, i'm trying to figure out where I want to go right, cause there's two things that I want to do. But since you ended on atmosphere, i'm going to go there because in chapter 10 of your book, you know 10, not no one of the chapter. Sorry, the book is 10 power stories to impact any leader, and you were talking about atmosphere. You were talking about the NASA story And I just thought that was so incredible, and so I, you, you hit a little bit about it and kind of letting you explain about what it really means to have that ability to take our atmosphere into any environment. I think, as organization is changing, as the workplace is changing, that is so important that, no matter what environment we go into, that we take this atmosphere. So give me an example of kind of what does that look like to bring atmosphere to your environment?
Speaker 2:And I also think we have to evaluate the atmosphere that we're bringing, because not all atmosphere that you're bringing is going to be, is probably where you want to go right, because sometime that environment will level you up right, Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So give me, let's talk a little bit about how do I bring you know this atmosphere to a new environment, or an environment that's changing, or you know.
Speaker 1:So, first of all, we have to be aware that we are entering into a new environment And usually the telltale signs are we get, we panic, we panic or we go to sleep, but underwater. If we don't have, you know, lifeguards are taught to come from underneath the person, behind the person. If they're drowning because of the panic situation, if they see them approaching, they're going to grab onto them, and then two people are going to have a bad day. If we get up to a high level altitude and we don't have oxygen, you know to breathe, we can, we can. Just, you know, go to Demia. You know we go to sleep and we can. We can pass out and die that way, and both situations of death can be, you know, the final result.
Speaker 1:So here's one of the things I'll share to answer your question. When we panic, we do irrational things because we're not thinking correct. So we know we don't have the, the atmosphere we need for the new environment. How do we know? in March of 2020, right before the pandemic was hitting or coming to the United States, we're just shutting down? what were we doing in America that showed that we were in a panic situation? What do you think? What was it Remember?
Speaker 2:Oh, what were like, what were we doing?
Speaker 1:when it happened, what were we all doing in America?
Speaker 2:I would say, at first we were just going on about our lives, right, but then it was shutting down, it was mask, it was you know all of these things.
Speaker 1:Before the mask, the first thing we did was we bought toilet paper.
Speaker 2:That's true Toilet paper, water, all of the essentials right And the event that, like yeah, toilet paper was a big thing, though I remember that It was huge.
Speaker 1:It was so huge. It was causing supply chain disruptions. They couldn't get enough toilet paper on the shelves. They were fighting over toilet paper. That doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense, it just doesn't.
Speaker 1:So that's that's. That's a panic. We're panicking And so we know if we're we're thinking, we're rational, but that's not a rational thing to do. That's not going to solve COVID. We didn't know how, right.
Speaker 1:So when we look at our lives and we are, we're trying to figure out how do we take atmosphere into our environment, we first have to understand that we're panicking when we're doing irrational, irrational stuff, right, but the environment is just the environment. So how do I then show up in that environment? What do I need? What are the tools I need to show up in this new environment? So one of the things I challenge the audience, my audience, is to do is to to think about a self-reflective exercise. And could you said you know, one of the things that we fought about was whether I should wear a mask or not, whether I should be vaccinated or not, and these fights were going on And what happened is it wasn't so much, in my opinion, about whether somebody wanted to wear a mask or didn't want to wear a mask.
Speaker 1:It wasn't so much about whether somebody wanted to be vaccinated or not be vaccinated. The issue was how did I show up in somebody's environment, in this environment that's now new with my atmosphere, did I, did I add oxygen into their environment? Did I give it or did I take it away? And that, to me, is the essence of it all, because now that's on me, that's not on anybody else, that's not on me. Political party, that's not on left versus right, that's on what did I do, because that's my responsibility for our teams. Am I adding oxygen into my as a manager for my team, and I'm adding oxygen into my company, my business, or am I causing a panic to happen? Are people running around?
Speaker 2:I'm trying to find toilet paper. So good, that's so good.
Speaker 1:So I can see it by the results of what people are doing. If people acting crazy in the office you're adding, you're not adding oxygen into it, You're not creating an environment, not the. You're not adding ox, phallic in the atmosphere to the environment that is now existing. It's not to say that we don't need systems and processes. We do. They just may have changed in the, in the environment that we're now in. Yeah, I can't. I can't just run down to the grocery store and get you know my toothpaste, Right. I got it on Amazon, Different process, Right, But I still need the process to work for surviving. So that's what I. What I say is how am I showing up? And then we can look at, we can flip it and say when do I panic?
Speaker 2:Yes, yeah.
Speaker 1:When did my oxygen leave me? What gets my dandruff? What gets you know, what takes, what takes me off kilter? Because those are telltale signs that something's happening on the inside of me, not necessarily the other person. If somebody hurts you the wrong way, that's something, that's something going on to you.
Speaker 2:Right Not feel that, not feel that individual.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you are so right. So thank you for that, john Cause. That makes complete sense. Like, how are we showing up and what are we adding or taking away, right, based upon the results that we see? when we go into companies, you know and we're talking about culture work or redefining their culture or doing some type of culture change The one thing that people always say is everything is going to change And you know, there some people are excited.
Speaker 2:We kind of have four archetypes that we talk through that we've seen pretty much in, you know, every company, and so I think it's important though, as we're working through that, because when we work through culture right, we're working through it on a organizational level, but on an individual level really is where a lot of that really starts is on this individual level of us coming together as a team to be able to create this culture as a team together.
Speaker 2:And so one of the things I wanted to ask you cause you kind of talked about reckoning, and that is so true is that we want to go back to so how things work.
Speaker 2:Even if it was crazy, we knew that crazy and we want to stay within that crazy that we know, because we don't know this new commitment right that we may have to make. And so how can we conquer, like, those hurdles right When we are in the midst of change in our business, in our career, in our life? And one of the things we realized is that there may be change in business, so we may be going through a culture change, but there may be somebody else that just had a baby, or somebody else that's taking care of an aging parent, or somebody else that's in the midst of other things within their lives, and as much as we may not want to say that they intersect, they absolutely do. And so how are we able to kind of conquer those hurdles of everything is going to change, of life is going to change, of you know, and kind of starting with, like you said, that first thing is like the reckoning, and kind of taking us through what that looks like for us.
Speaker 1:I've worked on this model for a very long time. I'm still working on it, but I think it's a life journey. I first started off with like nine things in this model of how we overcome any adversity And now I'm down to three. I was down to five and I'm down to three, with three subsets underneath it. But I'll give you that very high level and walk through the model And I think people will see A where they are on the model, b where somebody else might be on the model, and why it's important to understand both of those where people are. So the first is the reckoning moment, and the reckoning moment is the first hurdle. The first hurdle is hurdled when we realize we do not give back what we desire to have back after some type of trauma has impacted our life. So we have everything's going on. Every day is a typical day, it's a normalized day, and then a catalytic moment happens, something changes, and the first reaction is not to, you know, become somebody new. The first reaction I just want things to go back to the way it used to be. I just want things to go back to normal. That's what we say. But normal is gone, it's already gone. We just it hasn't caught up with our reality, that that is no longer accessible to us. So we're staying this loop of. I just want to go back to the way it used to be. They're going to take my whatever. You know, we're shifted. It's not the way it used to be when I first moved here, right, and it's their jobs, not the same. People have been on the job for 20 years and they say, well, we were not the same thing when we were doing it, when the back of 1975, when I was, you know, coming through, pay your dues, right. So we, it's very hard for us to get out of that loop because we wanted to go back to the way that we thought it was. But we forget all the stuff we were complaining about when we were coming through that time, right, so it's not that it's the better time. You know, companies came through COVID that made more money during the pandemic and they're still want to now shift that to the way it used to be to earn revenue. But they earn more money when people were working at home. So help me understand that, right. So that's, we get caught in that loop.
Speaker 1:Once we understand that we, we cannot get that back. We are now free to, and we have hurtled the reckoning moment. We're now in the revision capital R, lowercase e, capital of VIS. So right, it's revision. So revision begins with we have to. We have a, we're beginning to build on, we're beginning to build and we're building towards a vision that we have.
Speaker 1:So something in our head say I know that this way is better than that way. I'm not going back, i have to go this fort, but but we don't have the vision. It's not all the way baked out And it's not big doubt, because there are those three things we talked about earlier that hold us back People in society. And then, third is ourselves. We have to make the job.
Speaker 1:I've had some of the best hurdle coaches in my life that have gotten me to the Olympic trials, which means I made the Olympic standard. So they never, they never ran a hurdle for me in my life. I'm the one that has to attack the hurdle. So I have to get rid of all that other people's noise in my head and society's noise in my head and actually attack the hurdle. And that's very difficult because we want to belong to groups And they're very few that become the leader for the group that actually follows. So I just, i'm just complacent, so I'll just sit right here, i'll park myself right here because I'll just normalize around what I know to be true And I'll just, i'll just stay right there. You know, stay back up, what I call them in the government backing up against your check. I don't got it. I can, i can be safe because every first of 15, they're going to check Right. So that's, once we get the courage to hurdle that's what I do call courage. When our truth outweighs our fear, we will commit to a courageous life. When our truth outweighs our fear, we'll commit to a courageous life. Now we have hurdled the revision and we're in the renewal which begins with the rebirth I was talking about. And in the rebirth we have to give ourselves space and grace to grow. And once we've done that, you know we'll rehash that, but we give ourselves space and grace to grow. Now we can be at the, the, the resolve.
Speaker 1:I know exactly who I am because I've done the work Right. I know how I'm going to show up at the Paralympic Games because I've done the work. I know that. No, no, only two people have jumped over five meters in the world. There's the world record holder and the, and the current world champion, and, and, and Olympic and Paralympic champion, and the other ones me. So I know I've done the work and it's only going to be two of us in the in the finals. The competition will be keeping me against each other. This I know why, because I've done the work. So it's not bragging dojo, i've just done the work. And then at the end of it, you know, we, we have the reward and the reward is, you know, i've won the silver medal, he won the gold medal. You know, some of us were the bronze, but at the end of the day, we have the reward And at the end of the day, we won our rewards. But the rewards are are our placeholders.
Speaker 1:It's only a plateau, because the new normal, the new normal, is not a destination. We don't arrive at the new normal. I think that's where people get it wrong. The new normal is a plateau by which we grow. It's like the Olympic model of city is all to his forties.
Speaker 1:swifter, higher, stronger. Those words are not written in the superlative. The highest form of the word, the rid, with an ER stem ending, which means we can be the swiftest today, but swifter tomorrow. Jump the highest today, jump higher tomorrow. Right Heaviest weight today, heavy, heavy weight tomorrow. So we can always press what's the ER streaming that you have in your life? What are you pressing for? Or are you just settling for where you are?
Speaker 1:So now that you have heard the model, you can kind of see where you might be. Are you at the reckoning moment? Are you at the revision moment? Are you at the renewal moment? And inside of that, are you at the rebirth? Are you about to make a job, a commitment?
Speaker 1:And once I understand that, i can now see where other team members might be As I manage them, or my senior executive team, as I lead them as a, as a CEO. I can see where they are and I can empathize with them Instead of saying, oh, you just need to just make a decision. Well, that's hard for that individual because you got all this belonging stuff that's over here and they have to pull away from that. And can we now give them space and grace to grow in order to make that decision? We can shorten that curve for them And I can empathize. I can say you know what, i know you got to make that choice. I know that was a hard choice. I had to make that exact same choice And it's, it's. It is tough, it's, it's not going to be easy, but I got you on the other side.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And we're going to walk this thing together.
Speaker 2:I love that And.
Speaker 1:I'm going to give you space and grace to grow so you can learn this, this new opportunity, this new, this new thing. So, so that's what we have to do, and that, that, then, is bringing oxygen into the environment.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, that's so good. I love the space and grace to grow, right And just. I know we continue to say but I absolutely love it because I think we do need that space and grace. You know, last month, two months ago, i think it's been two months ago I started to take Spanish lessons, right? So my daughter had a Spanish tutor. I was using the same lady to teach me. Granted, i took Spanish for three years in high school, two or three years in high school, and it is not the same. I feel like I learned nothing. But with her, because it is more immersive, right, it's a more immersive experience.
Speaker 2:I'm not just knowing numbers and things, we're taught. We're speaking sentences, or she's speaking sentences, and the thing is, i always say this I don't know the language, and so, because I don't know the language, i have to be immersed in it. I have to hear it over and over and over again. And now, you know, i'm able to greet her in certain ways, we're able to have a shorter sentence, but it's a sentence, right. And then, when we get to that shorter sentence, now she's saying this is how you add more. It's that space and grace to grow is the same thing. Is that in our you know when things are changing, when we're going through any kind of transformation. They don't know the language yet, so giving them that grace to, per se, learn the language.
Speaker 2:One thing you said is to have this empathy And this I'm going to say it because I like nearly was in tears when I was listening to your video and your wife was saying you know, you had to make that decision and I am going, i hope I get it right. Right, but you said your wife wraps her arms around me and says you know what, john, we are going to get through this together. First of all, i love her and I've never met her, but those words, together, she, she, was saying that I can't take the pain, i can't feel that same pain I, but what I am going to be is in this together. And whenever we're going through anything life, organizational change it's so important for us to individually find those people that will, proverbial, get in the ring with us, wrap their arms and say we're in this together and bring a sense of togetherness. You know to have that individually And as we lead our teams. How do we create that type of that type of togetherness? Cause, that type of togetherness was yes, you're my life partner, yes, i love you.
Speaker 2:But there's more to it. When we say we're in this together, it is like being in the foxhole with someone, and I don't think I ever realized how much I would have this choice to have to make. But when I was in the fire, when I was in Iraq and I was in the foxhole with somebody or we were on duty, my life wasn't. It just wasn't a thought of what I needed to do to be in there with someone else, to have my battle buddies back to make sure that we were safe. And so everybody doesn't get to get that right. Us in the military, we understand that, but a lot of us don't in corporate and as we're going and teaching these things, and so as we lead teams, i mean I can't put my teams in a foxhole. I could, it would be a great and that would be a great team building. But how do we really create this togetherness?
Speaker 1:Yeah, i think it's the surrounds vision, mission and values. When I was the amputee coalitions acting CEO for seven months, we didn't have a mission of a vision. We had a mission. I thought that needed to be tightened up, and external community and internal community wasn't adhering to the values that we had written, but I had some, you know. So I just kind of stuck to those until I could get the board of directors together in order to redo, you know, not like a drill, but actually do a vision, mission and values based upon our organization and who we want to be in the world. And it was a. It was fantastic, it was a great exercise, but what we got out of it was kind of a more cohesive board understanding. You know, these are our values, are these down the hill things that we, that we have, how we're going to show ourselves to the world and this. These are the lines that we have drawn in the sand And they're tangible. We can actually measure the values right. One of our values there is this our stories matter. So how do we tell our stories? you know, from the amputee coalition, the seven house. So I think that that is where we really draw the line in the sand And when we're putting people and bringing folks onto the team, we have to the HR, whoever's doing the hiring really needs to look at are they a fit for the culture that we're trying to create here, or are they going to be a distraction, disruption to it? Are they going to try and just do it their way?
Speaker 1:and it's very difficult now in this, in this current job market that we're in, because for the past two, two and a half years, you know, during the pandemic, people shifted. They started doing a lot of they had to figure it out on their own And companies laid off a lot of people. And some companies took PPP, you know, and Kate kept folks on, but a lot of folks were, you know, doing the obreets or they. They shifted to doing other things And now we're asking them our values, where we protect that we support our people, and then we let our people go And now we're asking them to come back because we support our people. No, no, you didn't, you just poured me during that time And so, and so we're not what.
Speaker 1:I say this all the time to my clients and we're not out of the pandemic. I just went to a graduation three graduation this year of high school kids, and every valedictorian was talking about the pandemic. So this hasn't left us, even though we wanted to leave, because we wanted to go back to normal. I just want to go back to ways to be. It's not. I think that's why the Federal Reserve can't figure out how the interest rates are moving, because we're trying to use old levers in a very shifted environment. Now Right, and so we have to honor that and give ourselves space and grace to grow in the new environment, because we're not going to get it all right. Because it's new. It's new, yes, yeah.
Speaker 2:John, this has been incredible and I've taken up so much of your time, but there is something that I want to ask you. There's. I have two more questions. One is like a lightning round, but this one I do want to. I think this is so important.
Speaker 2:One of the things I love is personal responsibility And I think for me, when I think a little bit about that, is really taking ownership as it relates to our organizations, where we sit in an organization and things like that. I can remember being an administrative assistant. You know, i worked for the Colonel and the Sarn major And I remember running that thing. Like a way I felt like I was the Colonel, like I made the decisions, or at least I made the decisions as it relates to the position I was in, how I managed them, how I managed people coming to see them. I took that responsibility. So there was a air of confidence, there was an air of ownership, like no, you need, this is our procedure.
Speaker 2:in your book You say this. You asked this question how do you show up as your most authentic self without being in an un, in an apologetic state, and you talk about like I'm not talking about being a jerk and all of this stuff, but I like that you say. I am talking about having an air of confidence about yourself which allows others to exercise their confidence. So oftentimes we look at leaders and we feel like, oh, they have it together, they know everything In this. How would you speak to just we're saying individuals, because at every level we're individuals? How would you speak to someone to say you know, how do I show up as my most authentic self, with this confidence that allows others to exercise their?
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a great question. I believe and I'll use my style, use myself an example I wanted, in one of my former jobs, people to recognize my work and then promote me, instead of doing the evaluations and sit and asking for those things myself because I know I'm doing the work Right, instead of because no one's going to see it like you see it. So we have to. We come into those environments, whether it's on work or whether it's in the household, having clarity of who we are And I believe we talk about, like the vision, mission and values we just had that conversation on. We also need to do that on ourselves, on our life. What's our vision, mission and values for our life? What are non negotiables of our values? Because it becomes easier when we know our direction and our focus and we're solid in it. So for me, you know, my vision was given to me by Pat on Ricas for a business and business. She said what's the most important thing in business? and we all got it wrong and our veterans entrepreneurship class And she said she said the most important thing in business is how are you going to wrap the business up? I only rid of it. I said, wow, that's deep, because that takes a consideration. You run a successful business And now you're thinking so far ahead that you're just figuring out we can put on a stock exchange, or going to give to your children, or you're how you're going to build your empire. I said, man, that's good. So then I said, okay, i rest with that thing for like six months. What I want at the end of my life And I came to this I want to hear my God say well done my good and faithful servant, and turn the joy of my rest. And so I want to. I want to see first God's kingdom and his righteousness, and all things will be added to me. So I need to be very cautious of how I build on the foundation that has already been laid, which I believe is Christ, and then, as I build upon that foundation, i can build in six different ways. I can build with gold, silver and precious stones which, when they're refiring, when they get hit by fire, or I can build with wood, hay and straw, which are burned away When they're with fire. I want my work to last, so I want to breathe oxygen and inspiration. I want to breathe oxygen into people's environments. So I'm very clear with that. And so how will I do that? And it's one of my values is plus one days You may have I think that's in the book, you know, plus one days or days.
Speaker 1:I'm going to do something that is above and beyond what anybody else in my industry will ever do. I want to find that thing. I want to send a gift. Whatever it is, i'm going to do. I'm going to try to give an extra day. I want to give a hard yes versus a very easy no. Another value, right, it's not to say that I'm not going to say no from time to time, but it's to say I'm always going to look for the way to get the information or to answer the question in a way that is not just going to say when the kid comes up to you and says, molly, can we get some ice cream, and mom says, no, daddy, can we go to play the part? No, right, we're going to find a way. Like Jason saw this is named Jason saw it. No, i remember from the third way to do it. A third way Jason saw says fire. In the third way, what are they? What are they really asking for? They're asking for time.
Speaker 1:Another story in the book is is what my son taught me at six, six years old, when I first had my prosthetic. We're at the church, we come out of church. He wants to sprint with me down to the creek because that's what we did when I had two legs. After church We go run and he's like when he was like three, you know, and he's trying to figure himself out. And I say to him you know, pain flasks it. I can't run, i can't run in this artificial leg like that. I'm in pain, i just can't do it. And he says to me he looks down on my leg, he looks back up at me, looked down on my leg, looks back up at me and says what, what dad? can we just walk down there? I mean, six years old, this kid is saying it's not about the race, It's about the relationship.
Speaker 2:Yeah, oh, john, that's beautiful, that is absolutely beautiful. So I'm going to jump right into this lightning round and this is to get to know a little bit about. You already know you like homemade waffles, which let me tell you waffles pancakes.
Speaker 1:those are my favorite, But I'm going to ask you cop.
Speaker 2:I'm going to ask you coffee or tea, tea, i beat your mountains. What is your favorite place to travel?
Speaker 1:Next one.
Speaker 2:Oh, that's so good, that is so good. Okay, so are you adventurous, or do you err?
Speaker 1:on the side of caution.
Speaker 2:Okay, what is the most valuable lesson you've learned from a mentor or advisor?
Speaker 1:To stay in the moment, to be present. You know, like I think Oprah Winfrey said, be where your feet are. Or somebody said like that Be where your feet are and stay present in the moment you have.
Speaker 2:So yeah, you can invite three people, living or dead, to brunch. Who would they?
Speaker 1:be. I want Nelson Mandela, martin Luther King and Malcolm X, okay, and the reason for that is because these gentlemen had very different viewpoints and I would love to hear that conversation. I guess I could put the whole conversation in chat, gpt now. But and I just try to understand what they were thinking about. And then, on the other side of it, i would probably want Maya Angelou, nikki Giovanni and Michelle Obama. And again, i've met first lady Michelle Obama and Maya Angelou. I haven't met Nikki Giovanni. But again, different, very different thought processes of you know somebody that was trying to achieve what a first lady, michelle Obama, got into the White House and what Nikki kind of writes about, right, so it's kind of all those things amalgamated together. It can be Alice Walker, you know. So I mean, it's just I don't know. There are a lot of folks I've loved. It's kind of just to say I'd be at the table.
Speaker 2:I like that, I like that, I like that. So let's just think and I kind of think I know this answer just by talking to you. but let's think about 20 years from now and you've accomplished everything that you've gone out to accomplish. you know, you've inspired and transformed millions and millions of lives around the world to live, you know, healthier, wealthier and more fulfilling, passionate, purposeful lives. You're a household name and you sit back, you know, and you and Alice are celebrating anniversary after anniversary and just looking around your lives that God has so graciously given you. What are you most proud of?
Speaker 1:Yeah, i think I'm most proud of walking on the path that God has laid out for me. Did I have the courage to walk in places where and trust, trust this guidance and leading you know? so that's what I'm most proud of that I had at least some type of courage to walk on a path where it didn't look like the path was, that was with the way to go, and you chose to do that path because you know that's the way you got to go. Yeah, that's what I think Walking on the it says our steps are ordered by the Lord. I want to be have the courage to walk on it, you know, no matter where it takes me.
Speaker 2:I love it. I love it Well, John, thank you. Thank you so much for your time and just all of these nuggets and tools. While you were talking, I know you probably saw me typing. I was just taking notes. So one other thing how can people keep in touch with you?
Speaker 1:If you're listening to the podcast, the fastest way to kind of see who I am or get out there and get to my social media channels is to go to johnregistercom johnregistercom, and so that kind of begins the process Also is you can send me a direct message there and I'm building out a network, a group called pro speakers society, and so pro speaker society is not necessarily for professional speakers. It's for people who speak as part of their profession. So you have to give a presentation for your organization, your leading training for your organization, and so we're building this society to just it's a global community and that's that speaker around the world, and so we have folks in there from Kazakhstan, uganda, think Japan, and so we're just having these amazing beginning to start having these amazing conversations on this platform. So join us over there, love to get you all into the group, and so it's just. You know it's a.
Speaker 1:You know I do a little bit of talking in there and some videos, but it's really a community. We really want a community for everybody else to interact and see where you connect. So, yeah, join us up. Pro speaker society. It's on mighty networks and and yeah, ask me for the link and I'm happy to share it with you.
Speaker 2:Okay, yeah, if you can give me the link, i'll go ahead and drop it in the show notes to make sure that we have it, cause that sounds incredible. Well, john, thank you so much again for your time and being on the podcast.
Speaker 1:It's been wonderful.
Speaker 2:Thank you again for listening to the chart to heart podcast. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Make sure to subscribe and share. Leave us a five star rating and review. You can also connect with us on all of our social media channels. At chart the number two, heart. Until next time, we'll see you later. Adios, zai John Quahere. Thanks, folks.