My conversation today is with Ray, who lives in St Augustine, Florida. Just a couple of years ago, Ray was on a downward spiral in terms of his health. Like a lot of people, his weight had gotten out of control. He didn’t realize how far off track he was until he visited a doctor one day.

That doctor visit was his wake-up call. And he definitely woke up. I think you’re going to love this story.

I also wanted to mention something right up front. Part of Ray’s amazing turnaround is the fact that he underwent gastric bypass surgery. And I want to be clear, and Ray will tell you this as well, this is not for everyone, and it’s not an easy quick fix. If you’re considering it, or really if you’re thinking about ANY change in your diet or exercise regimen, you should consult your doctor for advice. In this case, this surgery was just a tool that was available to Ray, and he used it to his advantage.

And his transformation has been amazing. Calling this a “weight loss success story” is a huge understatement. He has plunged headfirst into the world of long distance running, which, as you might be aware, is also a personal interest of mine. Hopefully we didn’t geek out too much on the details of ultrarunning, and I hope you find his story and his progress as interesting and inspiring as I did.

And if you like this podcast, I invite you to become a patron at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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Acaimie and her husband, Clay, have been through a pretty bizarre experience. When I heard this story, I knew I needed to talk to this young lady.

She and Clay were doing a volcano hike. That in itself might seem story-worthy. But this was not actually an “active” volcano so it wasn’t spewing lava. They hiked the 2 ½ miles up to the rim, hung out for a while, took some pictures. Then Clay decided he wanted to climb down into the crater. Acaimie didn’t feel safe because of the steep incline, so Clay ventured down on his own. Things didn’t go as planned.

This happened on an island, and they were all alone, and Acaimie had no phone signal to call for help.

And, they were on their honeymoon – they had only been married a few days.

Acaimie and Clay are back home in Indiana now. What you’re about to hear is an experience they would not have chosen to go through, but they do have quite a story to tell their grandchildren some day.

And did you know we have a private Facebook group for listeners of this podcast? We’d love to see you there – WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook.

And if you’d like to join the others who support this show for as little as $1 per month, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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In an ideal world, children should be able to trust their parents. After all, it’s the grown-ups in the family who are responsible for the kids. No child should ever have to worry about safety when mom and dad are around for protection, in an ideal world.

That’s the world Ross thought he was living in when he was 8 years old, with his older brother Ryan, who was 10. They were happy kids with no reason to be afraid. Until one night at their home in Charlotte, North Carolina, when his mother told his father she wanted a divorce. That’s when something snapped in Ross’s dad’s mind, and he got a gun, and forever changed the history of their family.

Ross is 21 now, and he’s permanently blind. And he’s amazing. He’s currently at the Colorado Springs Olympic and Paralympic Training Center, where he’s training to swim in the Summer 2020 Paralympics in Tokyo.

We talked about a lot of things – what happened that night, how he and his mother have adapted, how difficult it was to learn Braille, getting his first guide dog, how he is able to play computer video games, why he sometimes wears earplugs, and how he can swim competitively without being able to see.

Ross has plans for a career in software engineering, and there’s no doubt in my mind that he’ll meet that challenge.

If you’d like to contact him, you can email Ross at [email protected].

And if you’d like to join the others who support this podcast for as little as $1 per month, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support

Links:

Investigation Discovery show called “Unbreakable – Live to tell” https://youtu.be/RKJwrQrCMA8

XMO speech https://youtu.be/8hsfxVIRW-A

Ross’s YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoZujToINVP7xax9BTc7s2g

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/ross.minor.5

Instagram https://www.instagram.com/minor_threat17/

Meeting and training with Dixie https://youtu.be/X1xB6-29NUU

Twitter https://twitter.com/ross_minor

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Lexington, Kentucky. 1 pm on a Friday, Labor Day weekend.

Diana, a medical flight nurse, was sitting in a Lear jet. The pilot was unconscious. The co-pilot could not move because he had a broken back. Diana’s patient had died on impact.

The plane was sitting on Versailles Rd in Lexington, after it had just slid across the road on it’s belly. The landing gear was gone. The right wing had been ripped off the plane. And now that it had come to a stop, Diana knew she had to get the door open and get people out, because she could hear the crackling of fire, and the cabin was filling with smoke.

Except she couldn’t stand up, because she had a broken back and two broken legs.

I think you’ll hear from our conversation that Diana is pretty incredible. She’s the type of person who arrives and takes charge. She’s a natural-born leader who was born to help people who are in a bad situation. But for this story, that was turned around – she was the one in desperate need of help.

I want to thank our mutual friend Sandi for connecting me with Diana. Really, I continue to be surprised at the people and stories that are right in my own network.

And hang around after the conversation for a couple more things that might be of interest. I now have bumper stickers available, if you’d like to let everyone know about your favorite podcast. And, I recently appeared on another podcast hosted by my friends Glenn and Jamie, where we talked about this show and other podcasting-related stuff. That’s about a 15-minute interview that will play in full if you want to listen to it.

If you’d like to contact Diana with questions or to have her speak to your group or organization, you can contact her by email at [email protected].

And if you’d like to be a supporter of this show, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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One summer day in Jacksonville, Florida, Karen got the surprise of her life. She was with her friend Sheryl. They were pulled over on the interstate, I-95, and Karen was holding a blanket to her face. She was bleeding, and she didn’t even know what had happened. In short time, she learned from a police officer that she had been shot.

And she wasn’t the only one. Nine cars that afternoon, on that section of I-95, had been hit by bullets from an unknown source. Six people were injured. And the manhunt was on for the shooter, a 16 year old boy, who was eventually caught and arrested.

Karen and I talked about what happened that day, what it feels like to be shot in the face, and the lucky break she caught when she was taken to the ER. And at the end of our conversation, Karen gives the scoop on her area of expertise, angel investing and the Compassionate Capitalist Movement.

Links:

Original news story

Compassionate Capitalist website

Karen’s book

The Compassionate Capitalist Podcast

And if you'd like to join the others who support this podcast for as little as one dollar a month, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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Today’s episode is a little different. I’d like to know what you think about it.

My guest today is Chloe. Chloe is a university student in New York, and in the last couple of months, she has gone through a pretty radical change.

Two months ago, Chloe was in a desperate state. She was unemployed, having lost her job with no notice. After losing her job, she had gone through her savings. She was 48 hours away from having her electricity disconnected. She was a week away from losing her apartment. And she had 33 cents in her bank account. She was in a panic.

Fast forward 30 days. Her rent is now paid up. Her electric bill is current. And she is working, from home, 70 hours a week. And here’s the funny part – she didn’t find a job. She created one. How she did that is what we’re gonna talk about today. You can check out her website at advicebychloe.com.

From my point of view, I’m an entrepreneur myself, and I’ve been running my computer business for over 20 years. If you’re not aware of it, you can see my website at ComputerTutorFlorida.com. So I am always pretty fascinated with a business success story. But, like I said, this is not really the type of story I usually do on this podcast. That’s why I’d like to hear what you think of it. You can email me at [email protected].

And if you’d like to join the others who support this show, for as little as a dollar a month, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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If you were out in public somewhere, just going about your day, and you saw someone collapse – someone you don’t know – what would you do? Most people don’t really know what they would do, until they’re actually put in that situation.

There are stories of people who witness something like this, and they just freeze. Or, if it’s a busy place like a public sidewalk and someone is on the ground, a lot of times everyone will just walk by. It’s an unfortunate psychology thing with humans called diffusion of responsibility – everyone thinks that someone else will help. And as a result, no one helps.

Thankfully, not everyone is like that. There are some people who see a situation, maybe a person in distress, and their first thought is “What can I do to help this person?”.

One of those people is Kevin Purcell, who you’ll meet in today’s episode.

Kevin is the Executive Director of the New Jersey State Golf Association. One day about a year ago, Kevin was finishing up a round of golf, and he saw something was happening on the course. As he looked more closely, he could see that a man was on the ground.

The man who had collapsed was Carlos Tapia, and he was having a heart attack.

In today’s episode, we’ll hear from Kevin what happened. And I was also able to get a few comments from Carlos, to get his perspective on that day.

Links to what we discussed in this episode:

And I also want to thank my friend Paul Kondo for connecting me with Kevin. If you’re looking for new podcasts to listen to, Paul publishes a weekly email newsletter that helps with that. Every Wednesday he highlights three podcast episodes that he has found interesting. Check it out at PaulKondo.com. I don’t know if he’s related to Marie Kondo or not, but his sense of humor does spark joy for me and maybe you’ll like it too.

And if you’d like to join others who support this show for as little as $1 per month, you can do that at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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My guest today is Travis. He lives near Bismarck, North Dakota. Travis is a man in pain. You’ll hear it in his voice. He just lost his 16 year old son, Brandon.

Brandon had asthma. That in itself is not really anything unusual. The CDC says that 1 in 13 people have asthma. Here in the US, that means more than 25 million Americans have it. And it’s actually been increasing for the past 40 years.

Brandon had had asthma for almost his whole life. He knew what it was like and how to deal with it. He always had his inhaler handy for when his breathing felt restricted. On some occasions when it was bad, Travis would take Brandon to the ER for some special treatment. It was just a way of life, something they were all used to.

But one evening it was different. Brandon was at home, and the only other person at home with him was his younger brother, Aaron. Aaron is 14. That night, Brandon’s asthma flared up worse than it ever had before. His inhaler didn’t help, and he ended up unconscious while Aaron performed CPR until the ambulance arrived. Brandon never woke up. But before he passed out, Brandon told Aaron something that Aaron kept secret until he told their dad a few days later. I’ll let Travis tell that part of it.

And when did this all happen? Father’s Day weekend.

At the time I had this conversation with Travis, Brandon had only passed away about 6 weeks earlier. I wondered if it might be too soon. But Travis wanted to tell this story, because he wants other parents to be aware of the limitations of the medical facilities that are near where you live. And he wants everyone to be aware of the importance of being an organ donor. Brandon was able to donate several of his organs, including his heart. And his liver saved the life of a 10 year old girl. That’s the part of this story that Travis hangs on to, knowing that Brandon’s death meant that others were able to have life.

I’m a parent, and this story had an effect on me. If this episode affects you, whether it makes you think about life, or cry, or just give your kids an extra hug, then it’s a success. If you’d like, I invite you to support this podcast by becoming a patron for as little as $1 per month at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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If you’re a parent, you can probably identify a little bit with this story. Especially if you have teenagers.

My kids are grown now, but I remember back when they were teenagers. And my kids were really good! They never got in trouble or anything like that. But even with responsible, mature teenagers, you just dread that some day you might get a phone call.

It’s that phone call from one of your kids that starts out, “Now Dad, I don’t want you to freak out or anything, but something’s happened…”

Westin was 18 years old when he had to make that phone call to his parents one summer day. He and a couple of his friends, they were all teammates on the high school football team, were out on a boat all day.

Just before it started to get dark, Westin was standing out on the bow, and he fell forward off the boat into the water. The boat, and the spinning propeller under the water’s surface, continued forward directly to where Westin was treading water. He couldn’t move out of the way quickly enough.

He survived of course, but what happened that day is something he still thinks about even today.

This podcast is supported by you – the listener. If you like these stories, please consider joining the others who support the show for as little as one dollar a month, at WhatWasThatLike.com/support.

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Today’s conversation is one I’ve been looking forward to, ever since I first came across the story. As you might know, I’ve said in the past that one of my goals for this show is to never be boring. And today’s topic fits in perfectly with that goal.

My guest’s name is Shiny. Not his real name of course. Shiny was presented with a rare situation. Some might even call it an opportunity. How would you respond, if you were given the opportunity to actually eat meat that came from a human being? For most people, the reaction would be “Absolutely not! That’s disgusting.”

But what if it could be done in a way that was legal and ethical? And in addition, what if it were done in a way that was healthy, so you wouldn’t have any worries about disease, or infection, or any of that? Well, honestly, for most people, I think the reaction would STILL be “No way!”

But Shiny is not like most people. He and a bunch of his friends are pretty open-minded, and they seem to be willing to try just about anything. And they did.

Usually when you hear stories about cannibalism, it involves a serial killer like Jeffrey Dahmer. Or it might be about a group of people who are stranded somewhere for an extended period of time, and they end up eating the weakest in the group just to be able to stay alive. Shiny’s story does not involve murder, or survival. It’s really just a story about a brunch that none of them will ever forget.

We’ll definitely be talking about this one over in the Facebook group, and you’re welcome to join us there, at WhatWasThatLike.com/facebook.

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