"Don't Wait!!!" An Inspiring Conversation with Jack Martin

Have you ever wondered how one man can wear so many hats and still remain grounded in his faith and family? Meet Jack Martin,  an Electronic Engineer turned writer and zealot, who packs a punch with his stories of personal growth, overcoming challenges, and living life with unapologetic zeal. From his roots on a dairy farm, to his mountainous journey in the Golden State and his fight against prostate cancer, Jack's journey is a roller-coaster ride that will leave you inspired and introspective.

Despite living the Californian dream and a successful career as a mechanical engineer, Jack was grappling with the stressful reality of living in California, which he describes as deceptively stressful. His experiences, the struggles to make ends meet, and his fight against prostate cancer have shaped his philosophy of life - Don't wait to start living the life you want. His fascinating tales will inspire you to reflect on your own journey and the decisions you make.

Our chat with Jack also takes on a profound note as he opens up about his upcoming chemotherapy treatment, his unyielding attitude towards cancer, and the emotional journey he's embarking on. Despite the impending challenge, his passion for life remains undeterred, as he continues to inspire us with his encounters with adoption and the profound impact it has had on his life. Jack's story is a testament to embracing life's challenges and turning them into stepping stones for personal growth. So, pull up a chair, tune in, and get ready to be inspired by the remarkable Jack Martin.

https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Desert-Jack-Randy-Martin/dp/1496003993/ref=sr_1_5?qid=1691010151&refinements=p_27%3AJack+Randy+Martin&s=books&sr=1-5&text=Jack+Randy+Martin

https://www.amazon.com/Imprint-Story-Trust-Randy-Martin/dp/1094893676/ref=sr_1_6?qid=1691010151&refinements=p_27%3AJack+Randy+Martin&s=books&sr=1-6&text=Jack+Randy+Martin

https://www.amazon.com/Ran-Alva-Jack-Randy-Martin/dp/1490420525/ref=sr_1_9?qid=1691010151&refinements=p_27%3AJack+Randy+Martin&s=books&sr=1-9&text=Jack+Randy+Martin

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast with your host, Peak Performance Coach, Brian Bosley. Are you stuck on the hamster wheel of life, spinning and spinning but not really moving forward? Are you ready to jump off and soar? Are you finally ready to sculpt your life? If so, you've landed in the right place. This podcast is created and broadcast just for you, All of you strivers, thrivers and survivors out there. If you'd like to learn more about Brian and the Bamboo Lab, feel free to reach out to explore your true peak level at wwwBambooLab3.com.

Speaker 3: 0:41

Hi Welcome everyone to this week's episode of the Bamboo Lab podcast. I want to thank you for joining today. We have an amazing guest to share, actually from my hometown, st Ignace, michigan. This guy is a legend but before we get to him, I want to share. I want to read a heart letter we received I believe it was late last week. It was pertaining to the episode we did with Sarah Mossett two weeks ago. This letter came in saying I believe I saw this on LinkedIn or Facebook and they tagged me in it so I got to see it. This gentleman said I had the privilege of hearing Brian speak last night and turned into his podcast this morning.

Speaker 3: 1:21

Listening to this episode as I ran, it was hard not to get a little emotional. Here I was with two working ankles and able to run, listening to one of the most positive people, sarah share her story of not being able to ever run again. Mindset matters so much and Sarah's story captures the story behind the trauma and the daily opportunities to be a victim and to be the deal. Opportunities to be that we have to be a victim and her mindset to not let it stop her and focusing on what she can do instead of what she can do. And I want to thank to that subscriber and that listener. Thank you, and also to Sarah. I know you're listening, sarah. You're changing people's lives. So thank you, my dear friend.

Speaker 3: 2:01

All right, today we have an amazing, amazing gentleman on here today and I'm going to quick go through his bio. I'm just going to tell you a little bit about him, bullet Points we have Jack Martin on. Some people might know him as the author of Jack Randy Martin, author of four books. You can find them on Amazon or any major outlet of that nature. I'll have a link to all of them on the show notes today. But Jack is a Christ of God. He's a child of God or not? That great Jack, you're a child of God. Child of God, he's a father, husband, a patriot, motorcycle rider, writer, musician, triathlete and zealot, and that's the one I love almost as much as the child of God. I love that zealot one. So, my dear friend, I'm so glad we finally able to make this happen today. I know it's been a difficult couple of months trying to get us scheduled. But, my friend Jack, welcome to the Bamboo Lab podcast.

Speaker 2: 2:58

Thank you, I'm glad to be here and I really appreciate the invitation.

Speaker 3: 3:02

Well, I share with you in the pre-show today. My mom is very excited for this episode to air.

Speaker 3: 3:09

She's going to get a copy of this as soon as we're done today. She's like oh, my goodness, I remember Jack when he was younger and growing up. So so, mom, this one's for you as well. So all right, jack. So I got to know a lot about you, you know, I know we're. You're a little bit older than I am, so we didn't go to school together necessarily, but we've been friends on Facebook, we've talked on the phone. We have so many mutual connections, great friends, so I know quite a bit about you. But can you please share with the audience and with the listener out there a little bit about yourself, your childhood, where you're from, what or who inspired you growing up? Just share with you what, whatever you'd like.

Speaker 2: 3:43

Well, all right, as you mentioned at the outset, I did grow up in St Ignace, Michigan. I was born in Texas, I'm an adoptee, I was a pre-arranged adoption and but Sam and Aline Martin adopted me and raised me as their own. So, yeah, we moved to Michigan when I was five, actually. So then I lived pretty much my whole childhood and high school years there. We, my parents, bought an old dairy farm from my mom's father. It had been the old Porter Brothers Dairy Farm out there in Portage Road. Everybody knows the location and so I grew up dairy farming until I was 12. And, thank God, my dad sold the herd Dairy farms no way to make a living on good time, so. But in all that time I was always a motorhead. I always loved minibikes, motorcycle, snowmobiles. From the age of six I started pestering my parents incessantly. They finally gave in by the time I was nine, got me my first minibike. Out there in the farm we boarded a lot of local people's horses, and that was how I got acclimated to a lot of the older teenage kids at that time, because a lot of them had horses, Anyways. But once I got a minibike, my horse riding days were over, and then in the following year my mother won a contest. There was an annual contest Standard oil used to do. They would have a winner. In every town that had a gas station they would win a free snowmobile. And so my mother won in 73. And so that was our first snowmobile. And then all of a sudden now I've got a minibike and a snowmobile and I was off to the races. So I started racing snowmobiles at a young age. By 13, I was racing the regular Michigan Cirque at the MISA and I was my own horn here in 1976. I was third place in the MISA in junior stock and I still have a copy of Greg Means. He was a former writer for the St Dictus News. He did an article on me one time and I just I still kind of treasure it.

Speaker 2: 6:09

But anyway, in all those years I was always motorcycle freak, car freak, snowmobile freak, anything with engines, anything with drivetrains, anything with any of that. And the joke that my sister once made was that while the other kids were reading Huckleberry Finn and Little House on the Prairie, I was reading the thermodynamics of the internal combustion engine and the basics of the Muncie close ratio four speed transmission, which is true. I was reading those things. And anyway, so fast forward to 15, my parents separated and my dad went to Texas to work with my flying friend of his down there. So the summer of 78, I spent the summer with him down there working and that's about my first hot rod.

Speaker 2: 6:57

I had a 68 Chevelle 396. The people that are about my age in the hometown there and saying they still asked me about that car. I did have it many years and, yes, so we drove it. My dad and I drove it from Texas to Michigan and barely made it. The thing was a pile of junk until I really got working through it. Throughout high school and even before that I played all the regular ball sports football, baseball, basketball but I quit basketball ninth grade and started in the wrestling. I also was really into band and everything. I played the alto saxophone and played also the bass, drum and marching band and that led me to a very, very close relationship with Wayne LaGrive. He was a band director for oh my gosh, I don't know 30 years maybe.

Speaker 3: 7:47

Yeah, he was there yeah.

Speaker 2: 7:49

And he was like a second father to me during the years when my parents were separated. I love the guy and we stayed in contact up until he died. And another adult man who became a good friend of mine during those years was Ed Ravey, and he was a local banker, a car buff, and he's the guy who created and founded the show currently known as the St Agnes Car Show, which is internationally known, and that was in 1976, the first year that he did that, and it was called the Streets Area Anki-Gatto Show.

Speaker 3: 8:31

But anyways, can I stop you for a minute, Jack? There's a coincidence there. Wayne LaGrive actually took me up in his airplane a couple of times and I remember him driving me to Pelston in the area. He says okay, you take control, Keep the nose of the airplane.

Speaker 2: 8:46

Yeah, I got to do that too.

Speaker 3: 8:46

Oh my gosh, keep the nose an inch below the horizon. We were doing instrument flying, we're just doing manual flying and all of a sudden the plane, the nose started going up and I panicked and I pulled back and that thing went right up in the air and he grabbed his whatever you call it steering wheel whatever you call it, stick or anything.

Speaker 3: 9:02

Yeah, and he got us back down and I was sitting there shaking. So we landed in Pelston. We had a cup of coffee got back up. He goes, okay, take it again. I said, no way he goes, take it again.

Speaker 2: 9:11

And so he got me flying back to St Agnes.

Speaker 3: 9:13

And another coincidence is, as you know, Ed Rabie's son, Sean, was on the podcast several months ago. He's the author of Rebel Without a Clue and I believe you are the editor of that book.

Speaker 2: 9:25

Wow, and that dovetails in with my relationship with Ed, because all those years that so, ed had this funny little office. It was all glass and it faced the sidewalk and the old bank building down there on State Street before they built the new one, and you could see them. You just walk past and there is his desk right there. So I used to just spontaneously drop in there and he never objected. I just sit right down and I'm so stupid and naive, I don't realize the guy's busy, right, but we just started talking cars and I never overstayed my welcome. It was always quick five, 10 minutes and I was gone. But you know, and all these years later, I never forgot that. You know that he took that time. I didn't have there were very few people my age or even older in town that I could talk to at that level about cars, that Ed could talk to me as well, and so I really appreciate it.

Speaker 2: 10:24

So then sometime goes by. Well, you know, it's just a couple of years ago and Sean said something about you know, I'm writing this book about my dad. Blah, blah, blah, blah blah. I don't remember how he came up with the idea, or somebody suggested it. Whatever that, I edit it. But he asked me you know, in some capacity would you be a part? Well, yes, because. Number one I'm a lifelong automotive historian. Number two I'm just a car geek right to the bone.

Speaker 2: 10:53

Number three it was my way of giving back to Ed a little bit, you know, just a way to say thank you, and in fact I made a statement to that effect in the book. I didn't have Sean's permission, but I made an editor's note in the book and I dared him to remove it, and he did, but anyway. So as school ended, it was 81. And so we were in a recession and I didn't know if I wanted to go mechanical or electronic engineering in school. But I looked at some of the hiring statistics and mechanical engineers were having the heck of the time just getting a job after their graduation. Mechanic engineers, however, had an 80% hiring rate within 60 days after graduation. So that's the way I went. And I went to the it was Ohio Tech at the time, but it's the DeVry School now in Columbus and so I went there, graduated in three years because they had an accelerated program.

Speaker 2: 11:52

And when I was all done I faced the dilemma. I got two job offers in the exact same day, one from Hughes Aircraft in Los Angeles and the other from Western controls in Scranton, pennsylvania, and I had absolutely no idea which way to go. And so my dad, who was a World War II vet, has been pretty much all over the world. I guess he's like well, if you go to Scranton, you're a Midwest guy, you'll understand the Midwest people, you'll understand the ways of life and you'll fit in and you'll be fine. If you go to California, that's a whole different daily. But I think if you go to Scranton they'll spend the rest of your life wondering what California would have been like. On the other hand, if you go to California, hate it. You can always combat, and so that's what I did. So I go to California Next thing. I know I'm married and I lived there 37 years and have five children. So but we left California in February of 22 and living in Springfield, missouri now, In the Ozarks.

Speaker 2: 13:04

Yes, love it. It's very pretty here. It's really pretty here.

Speaker 3: 13:08

What's it like right now for you? What's an average temperature in the summer?

Speaker 2: 13:14

So the temperature will range from 85 to low 90s. The big variance now, today is going to be hotter than that. But the big variance is the humidity. Some people will I mean some days the humidity fluctuates quite a bit. Actually, some days it's not humid at all and it doesn't matter if it gets to 90, it doesn't feel hot. But some days the humidity is quite high. Today is pretty high. I was up for a walk a little while ago and you could feel it. I mean, I could feel the moisture absorbing into my clothes. But I contend that Columbus Ohio was worse. The three summers that I spent there in school I think it was hotter and it was more consistently humid. That's my memory anyways.

Speaker 3: 14:07

So, Jack, what year did you graduate then?

Speaker 2: 14:10

High school in 81 and college in October of 84.

Speaker 3: 14:17

So you graduate like so I'm assuming Gary Terry and Billy Pope, that group.

Speaker 2: 14:21

Yeah, that whole clan of miscreants.

Speaker 3: 14:24

Oh, okay. I wondered what? Yes, yes, I believe this, I'm 99% sure of this fact and if Billy's listening and he can call me and question and challenge me, I was with Billy the night he met his wife.

Speaker 2: 14:38

Really, I know this story. I didn't know you were there.

Speaker 3: 14:41

Yeah, okay, so if the story is correct, we are at a pizza place or a restaurant. Yes, because Gary and I and Donnie Gustafson went down to watch March Madness at the Paul University. It was, I think it was the 2016 or something like that and we grabbed Billy on the way and or Billy met us there, because it was Chicago and we were at a restaurant and I don't. I just I vaguely remember that this. You know, billy looked like, you know, like a model, a six foot four built like a linebacker.

Speaker 2: 15:12

Oh yeah, he's a beast of a guy.

Speaker 3: 15:14

Yeah, yeah, and I remember he either walked up to her or she walked up to him, I forget. And then the next thing I know I'm hearing they're dating, they're engaged and they're married now and follow him on Facebook. He stops and sees my mom once or twice a year, every year, and I got to see him maybe three or four years ago. I was over there. He and Donnie were over visiting and I was coming through to go to my dear camp property and I stopped and got to take some pictures with him in his mother. So yeah, that's crazy.

Speaker 2: 15:37

I thought that was the case. He calls. He calls his mom and your mom when they're together. He calls him Thelma and Louise.

Speaker 3: 15:43

Yeah, he'll put on Facebook where Thelma and Louise had it off to today.

Speaker 1: 15:47

Oh, that's great.

Speaker 3: 15:50

I thought that was the group you graduated with. That wasn't 100% sure, though. That's the boys. Oh man, that's great. That's a good group. That was a good group. So just pick your time frame on this, Jack. I always ask the question 12 months, 24 months, whatever it is. What do you think in the last couple of years of your life has been your greatest learning?

Speaker 2: 16:14

Greatest learning and greatest surprise was how deceptively stressful it was living in California, and the funny part is I didn't live in the city. I lived five or six miles outside of the town of Placerville, which is only about 9,000 people. But Placerville is close enough to Sacramento to be what I guess you call what a bedroom community or whatever. So in highway 50 is the main artery going not only that part but also all the way it goes over to the Tahoe, and so daily driving there. I did not realize how stressful it was when I moved to Missouri. My first doctor appointment was four or five months after I'd been here and my blood pressure dropped 40 points. And not only that. Sometimes and it's related to stomach acid, but it used to happen Like if I was eating some chips or something and I injured, I made like a cut in my mouth. It was always followed with a canker sore, always, and that was for decades. And I haven't had a canker sore since I left California.

Speaker 3: 17:33

Really I didn't realize that was stress related, or I guess it's.

Speaker 2: 17:37

Yeah, you can cut your mouth right and it's no big deal. Nothing happens unless you've got some stomach acid going on. You've got something going on stress and then it matures into a canker sore. And I always had them. I would get five or six a year and I haven't had one since I left.

Speaker 3: 17:56

Oh, so you guys are happy to be in Missouri then. Oh, yeah, very much so that's good to hear. I know I want to talk a little bit about your oh, you got so many stories, but I'm going to jump right to the. I'm going to jump to the most difficult question. I ask everyone Jack is All right what has been the most difficult thing you personally have gone through? And then, what are you or what have you done to scale that wall and overcome it?

Speaker 2: 18:26

So a period of time from about the fall of 1992 to early 97,. I was married, had two young children, I was working three part-time jobs, try to make ends meet, and those jobs were always in danger of even going away. During that period of time the economy in the whole Sacramento area I was living in a suburb called Orangeville the economy in that entire region was struggling and the tech industry was basically nonexistent. And so I drove limousines. I had a newspaper route. My motorcycling experience actually paid off because I had a job as a motorcycle escort for funerals and processions and things like that. So that and I did other I don't remember. I did a security guard stint for Hewlett-Packard and it was five solid years of just one week to the next just trying to make sure to get that paycheck man. It was one thing after another. What?

Speaker 3: 19:51

year was this then?

Speaker 2: 19:52

Jack From about the fall of 1992-ish to early 1997. So four and a half years early. Okay so yeah, yeah, yeah, wow. And then that came to a merciful and abrupt end when I finally got hired with a company called All Data and I was able to parlay my tech experience into a stable, salaried job. That kind of slowly but surely kind of pulled us out of that scramble, I guess you'd call it.

Speaker 3: 20:27

You were in your early 30s then.

Speaker 2: 20:30

Yeah, I was. I was in 1982. I would have been nearly 30 when this all started and I think I was 36 when I got the job. At All Data.

Speaker 3: 20:43

Well, I'm going to jump on something that's not a question in here, but it's something that you and I spoke about when we talked back in. I don't know, maybe May I think it was when we spoke.

Speaker 1: 20:51

Maybe May or something in there.

Speaker 3: 20:53

Yeah, that was about that, yeah, when you said I know I always like to ask when I do a pre talk was if I get an opportunity to talk to somebody prior to the episode being recorded is, hey, what would be a good primary message? You want to talk about Jack? And you made the comment. It was real quick. It came out of you like lickety-splickety. It was don't wait. And I, when you said that, I saw three exclamation points after that, after that demand don't wait. It was like it was that profound. Can you expand on that for the listener out there, explain where that came from and what that means to you and what kind of message we can take from that?

Speaker 2: 21:31

Sure Shoot, bear with me a little bit.

Speaker 3: 21:39

We're here with you, brother.

Speaker 2: 21:40

Because I get a little emotional about this one. So 2008, I got diagnosed with prostate cancer and obviously I survived, but until that time, you know. So 2008, so what was I was 45. So, like a typical person, all my adult life pretty much is you know, one of these days I'm going to do this, one of these days I'm going to do that. And I had kind of a laundry list kind of running in my head about these things that I was going to do, and they weren't just pipe dreams, they were things that I felt I could do, and one of them was write a novel. I had ideas for stories. The other was, around that time, online publications were starting to proliferate, including publications that revolved around motorcycling, and my thought was that, you know, I could write this stuff. I know motorcycles and new motorcycle history, I know the motorcycle industry. I've been riding since I was 10 years old. I've been breaking them for just as long and so, but you know, so yes, I didn't do it, you know.

Speaker 2: 23:11

And then there was a thought about, you know, making a motorcycle trip or something and just these things. And so all of a sudden that diagnosis comes along and I'm just like what the hell am I waiting for? And what really hit me was that my wife worked in the healthcare field for Kaiser Permanente and I remember one time she told me the story of this guy who came in healthy, fit. He was either a marathoner or a triathlete or whatever, and that's why I kind of stuck in her head to tell me this story, because I was doing triathlons and stuff and he came in, he wasn't feeling particularly well and his color was a little off and it turned out he had pancreatic cancer and he had a month to live and some like. Okay, and this is after I already had my cancer diagnosis. Right now I was already going through my treatment and the prognosis was good. I had no threat to my life at the time there was. But I thought to myself, what if I was that guy? You know, you got, you got, you got a month. I'm like when would I have written my books? When would I have tried out or submitted an application or whatever, to a motorcycle publication and would I have taken that next great road trip on my bike? There wouldn't have been time. So, anyway that that, that story that she told me and then along with my own diagnosis, was was? You know, it was a big kick and, to be perfectly honest, although there's been some negative side effects, I suppose from from the radiation and stuff that I went through, they were fairly minor. But whatever, the cancer ironically was the best thing that ever happened to me. And but I will tell you, don't wait.

Speaker 2: 25:22

So I got off my duff and I immediately started writing my first novel. I applied to five or six different motorcycle publications and I actually landed a job with. It was called examinercom and they were sort of like USA Today. They covered everything, they had everything and I was. My title was motorcycles examiner and I I had it from 2009 to 2016. And I wrote, I wrote it down here on me. I had 219 articles that I wrote in that time with pictures and videos.

Speaker 2: 26:00

I met almost everybody there is to meet in the motorcycle industry, that being not only the industry people, but racers, crew chiefs, promoters, you know, heads of marketing of American Honda, you know Yamaha, the United States. All I met all those people and I would, I would have never done it. And then the books. You know, like that got me going and I've written four novels since then and you know, but you know, don't wait. And you don't. You don't know if you're going to get a cancer diagnosis like I got, which gave me time, sorry, which gave me time to recover and to and to pursue, or if you're going to get the diagnosis that that other dude got and he had a month. You don't know, so don't wait.

Speaker 3: 27:11

And since that diagnosis, how many motor, how many road trips have you taken? Oh my God. I know it's all over Facebook Every time I see you now it's on your, your beauty bread.

Speaker 2: 27:22

Yeah, and so the first I guess the first major thing that I did. I thought about it since I was a kid. There's a thing called the iron butt and it's a legitimate organization, the iron butt association, and and it's where you ride a motorcycle a thousand miles and 24 hours or less, and and I'm just like I'm getting my iron butt, I'm getting it, and and and I did. And then, and to be honest with you, in the Western States Nevada, utah, california where I rode, I it wasn't even that hard because I had a Honda ST 1300 and it'll run 90 miles per hour all freaking day and and so you could just run out on those open highways and I did it in like 14 hours. So it was, it was, it was not a big deal, but anyhow I did that.

Speaker 2: 28:22

And then, yeah, you know I made I actually developed a minor following. I suppose I had a off road bike called red cat. It was a red Honda XL XR 650 and I rode all over the Sierras in Northern California and, you know, took pictures and stuff, and I always did it with kind of this funny narrative, like red cat was an actual person and and despised my riding style and my lack of courage, and so red cat in our dialogue was often disparaging me for the places we might have gone or the things we could have seen if I only had some balls.

Speaker 3: 29:07

So yeah, I've got a picture of you in red cat at Yosemite. Here I got a lot of pictures of you. Red cat yeah, and red cat's no longer with us.

Speaker 2: 29:20

No, so a long story. So my cancer came back in 2016, and it had gone away in 2013. They basically declared me cured, and I wish they hadn't done that, but I was cancer free until 2016 and it came back. But they managed it for many years with just medications, you know, zytiga and Lupron and a couple others.

Speaker 2: 29:51

And what happened, though, was, as time went on, my joints particularly my extremities my wrists, elbows, ankles became very sensitive to shock, and I had that bike set up with a pretty stiff suspension so that it could handle, like single track trails and things like that, because in the Sears there's a lot of rocks, you know, and stuff like that. So it's it can be fairly hard riding, and so I just got to the point where not only the trail riding, I mean just riding down the street on the thing, and if I hit a bump or something like that, just the shock that it transmitted into my arms and wrists, I couldn't take it. And so I knew a friend of a friend that was in the market for a bike like that, and so that was that was that was kind of where she went, and she's still she's still prowling the. She's still prowling the trails and byways of this year in Nevada.

Speaker 3: 30:56

Is she still disparaging her rider? You think?

Speaker 2: 31:01

Probably. Yeah, I would think so because, if I'm being perfectly honest, the person, the guy who bought her, he was I'll just be polite he was kind of a rotund individual and I felt that he spent too much time on the foot pegs, you know more on the seat, and and red cat was accustomed to taking us into the hard stuff with me standing up and so I you know, so I don't, I Think he was, I think he was more of a seat time kind of guy, but anyway, Well, I just want to just pause for a minute.

Speaker 3: 31:39

I want to talk directly to the listener out there right now who is, in fact, thinking about doing something, a group of things saying to yourself one of these days, when this happens, at this point my life, I'm going to do these things. I want you to remember what Jack just just shared and he, up until 2008, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer you know, he was 45 years old or so had been talking about writing a novel, had been talking about, you know, writing for an online Motorcycle publication, wanted to take that a road trip. I mean all these things that we all do this. I mean I'm thinking right now, as you were talking, jack. I'm thinking of all the things that I keep saying I'm going to do. I'm going to do sure, professional or personal. Take Jack's advice right now. Don't wait. Jack was fortunate enough to be able to now do those things and written so far for books. So far, he published 2219 articles and he's gone on multiple, multiple road trips on red cat and other bikes and has earned the iron butt Distinguished, distinguished, this distinction.

Speaker 3: 32:44

Get out there and do it, man. Don't wait because you can't. You might be that guy who comes in and says you have a month to live, you know. So just get out there, man, life is so beautiful. And I started feeling guilty, as you were, as you were sharing your story, jack. I was like, oh my god, here I'm thinking about, okay, I'm gonna start doing this and I gotta, I gotta change this. I want to move on to this. I want to add this to my life. Take this away from my life, I'm gonna quit this. And I'm like holy cow, man, that.

Speaker 3: 33:09

I think that is the best advice I've heard in so long, and it's so simple, yet so damn powerful. Don't wait. Don't wait to tell your, your husband or wife, that you love them. Don't wait to grab that baseball and go out and throw catch with your son or daughter. Don't wait to take that trip. Don't wait to start that side hustle. Don't wait to to take, you know, to write that book. Whatever you have in your heart, start it now. Wow, you know, the best time to have done anything you want to do was yesterday. The second best time to do something you want to do is right now and today. So start now. So thank you for that amazing wisdom absolutely it was.

Speaker 2: 33:44

It was, it was, you know, kind of a revelation, and some of it came through the school of hard knocks, if you will. But but well, I'll tell you. I've already said it three or four times, just in this conversation. Don't wait, because you don't know.

Speaker 3: 34:03

And that is. We already know what the title of today's Podcast is going to be. It's just that simple. What do you? What right now, jack, for you is? I've always loved following you on and Facebook and I, when I was talking to my mother Yesterday, I stopped in to see her I'm a way home after being gone for three weeks and I I told her I'm gonna have you on, like I told she's excited to hear this episode. I said he's a really interesting dude. I said you know I get to follow him on Facebook. He's. He's a really he's. He's got a strong opinion on things. He's a guy. And I said he seems like a very kind, hearted, good man, which just was a very interesting story to share. And I said and so you've done some cool things, you know, and some great things, and obviously your family being probably the greatest thing you've done so far. But what do you consider now at this, you know, or what? Are you close to 60? Are you 60 years old yet?

Speaker 2: 34:52

I just turned 60.

Speaker 3: 34:53

Yeah, happy 60th, thank you. What do you consider to be a win or a victory in your life?

Speaker 2: 35:04

Honestly, it tickles me quite a bit when I see one of five kids and when I see one of them Either know more about a subject than I do or they can perform something better than I can, I Like. I like that because it, you know, as a parent I guess there's always a sense of insecurity, for me, at least I, I don't know. Did I do enough? You know that I teach them enough, that I, you know that I protect them enough, but not too much, etc. Etc. And then all of a sudden, I see them they'll know something more, like you know some, especially if it's like history or politics related, because I'm really like, addicted to those topics.

Speaker 2: 35:47

And If I'm saying something, like you know, I think I remember hearing this particular story and one of my kids would be like no, that's not what happened, it's this way, and when I can validate that which because I always do I'm impressed. You know that they, they actually knew that subject matter better than I did and it gives me. It gives me a quiet kind of a satisfaction and a confidence. You know like, okay, good, good, look at them, look at them taking the lead. You know they, they know more about this or they can do this particular thing better than I can. That's, and that's wonderful. I love that this.

Speaker 3: 36:26

You know, and I always love when I hear. I hear this a lot. I hear this quote a lot, and I think it pertains to both. It's always referring to dads and sons, but I think you could equate it to say your parents are the truly the only people who are going to be genuinely happier for you, for being better than they are.

Speaker 3: 36:44

I mean oh yeah, and that really is true. You look around your friends, your colleagues, your peers, your bosses, teachers, professors, whoever you have in your life. Most of them, the vast, vast majority, do not want you to be better than they are. But His parents, that's exactly that but it's true.

Speaker 2: 36:59

Yeah, it is very sad.

Speaker 3: 37:00

And it's probably sad because some parents probably don't feel that way, but I think the vast majority of them. I think that's powerful. Yeah, I Love that you phrase. The I loved when you put on here is zealot as one of your things, and obviously a zealot is someone who's very uncompromising and their ideals, whether they be political, religious or beliefs or things of that nature, why do you? Where do you come? Where do you see yourself as a zealot, jack, if you don't mind?

Speaker 2: 37:24

my asking.

Speaker 2: 37:25

No, that's fine. So zealot applies to anything that I decide to Default my energy or efforts toward In, and that could be like when it came to the writing, or when it came to when I was younger and I did the sports, or even later when I was doing triathlons. I, I, I Let a lot of things just slide by me. I'm just not that interested. You know what I mean. Like, some things interest me, you know, but I just, you know, not that much. But when I decided that something is interesting and I'm gonna Indulge it, I'm in, I'm in the whole way and yeah, and it could be anything, it could be.

Speaker 2: 38:18

If you can't like, like the hunger games, that, that trilogy, the book of the three books, the trilogy, I think I read all three of them and a weekend, something to that effect. I mean it was a very short time Because it had me from the first chapter and I'm just like no, stay away from the people. I'm reading, you know, and so it's, it's that and it's also, you know, even if I'm just building a deck or whatever in the back of the house, I Get the right materials, I have the right tools. I, I measure and I re-measure everything, I cut everything precisely, I Attach everything precisely. You know I, just when I decide to do something, I'm all in.

Speaker 3: 39:09

I call that maniacally focused and that's. I feel that way a lot. I've never heard it described as zealot before. And I have very few interests. I don't golf. I don't ski nothing wrong with those things. My, my kids, my sons love to ski in golf and I Just never got into it. I don't have a ton of hobbies. I love to exercise and and Like and and I like to travel.

Speaker 3: 39:38

I don't do it as much as I used to, but when I but with the things that I'm focused on, it's that they contain, they can stay, they dominate my mind consistently, you know, and I have to have a pad of paper everywhere I go, even next to my bed. I go into the bathroom, I jump in the shower. My pad of paper is sitting there because my mind is always thinking of it's, always thinking on those Subjects that I'm so much zealot about. Yeah, zealous about, I guess that I I'm always afraid I'm gonna miss capturing an idea, thought or something like that. So, yeah, I guess I guess I like, I like that term zealot. I think I'm gonna start referring to myself as a zealot.

Speaker 2: 40:13

I won't put it on.

Speaker 2: 40:15

You know, that that idea of you writing everything down had a.

Speaker 2: 40:20

I've stopped with that also, but it came to me because it's in one of it's. In one of Tom Clancy's books, the main character and Tom Clancy is Jack Ryan, yeah, and, and he's married to a doctor. The thicker name is Kathy, and so I Don't know which book it was, but anyhow, jack Ryan somehow accidentally becomes president because there was a bomb or something set off and everybody was killed, and and so the notion or whatever of like how are we gonna remember things, or whatever. So his wife had this little nugget in there about if you don't write it down, it never happened, and and she means you know, you're gonna forget that's, that's, that's the crooks of what she's saying, and and so it was because of what she told him that in turn, he then all of a sudden devised a plan how to get the United States back on solid footing again. So, but, but, but even that little nugget in that book kind of stuck with me to this day. I, I, I write, I jot things down too.

Speaker 3: 41:28

You know it's Going back to. You mentioned Tom Clancy. I really I'm gonna Stress that you read Jack Carr's novels. We talked about it on the pre show. I think you would love them. I, I'm, really, I'm just. I'm on the first one, the terminal list. Right now I'm only 90, 95 pages into it. I'm already was. I was grabbed, like in the first five pages and I like a book that can do that. But yeah, I learned a lesson, jack. Probably oh my goodness, it was before my son was born, so 20. He's now 20. He'll be 21 in a few months here.

Speaker 3: 41:59

So probably 23 years ago I had a contract with a company and I had my, my employees, my. I had at the time, I believe, 10 or 13 people working for me and they were mostly consultants I you know they worked for. They were employees of mine, but they were, they were the consultants who would go out and do the work. And one particular large client of ours, which was a major breadwinner for us, called me and said hey, the corporate budgets are, they're gone and this year there were strapped. He said we're gonna have to, you know, in this contract, which really would have probably cost two or three of my consultants their jobs, because I had two or three consultants out there and I said, okay, here's the deal. I said we won't charge you anymore, I'll flip the bill. And oh anyway, I was driving down 28th Street in Grand Rapids in my car going how am I gonna? This is probably three, four days after the phone call. How am I gonna do that? How do I salvage this? You know they don't have the money. So I had a pad of paper to pin there and it came to me. I won't charge them. I'll only charge them for X amount of money.

Speaker 3: 42:54

For if my program brings in them in I think it was 200 clients. So our program would teach companies how to bring in new clients. And I did the calculation. I thought we bring in them 200,000 clients. That's gonna be about a million dollars for them in revenue. And I thought, okay, all I called the vice president, I said, and I said, okay, here's the deal, we'll all continue with my people sending them out to you For the next three months. If my company, if my program, does not help you guys bring in 200 clients, I charge you nothing. So if we end that, if we end at 199, you pay us nothing if we end at 200, you have to pay us.

Speaker 1: 43:30

Something was $120,000 or something that was a lot of money.

Speaker 3: 43:33

It's a lot of money today, but sure 20 years ago, 25 years ago, and we ended up and so he goes. That's great. We have nothing to lose because we know what by you. If your program brings in these company clients, we're gonna make million or 1.5, whatever it was. And we landed at 203 clients. So it got paid and I thought so that idea of having that pad of paper in that pen was worth a hundred and whatever thousand dollars.

Speaker 3: 43:56

Yeah, not just to me. I was a. I paid out my consultants as well, but they were getting paid regardless. So I'll never go anywhere without a pad of paper and a pen, and I don't. I don't go anywhere. So I have one sitting right next to me and I, every chair in my house, bedroom, bathroom, I'll have a pad of paper and a little pencil. Yeah, so, yeah, that idea. So, okay, I'm gonna take you back now, right now, I'm gonna, I'm gonna come to the Ozarks, we're gonna come, I'm gonna bring my time machine today, jack, we're gonna sit down, we're gonna shoot in that thing. We're gonna take you back to I don't care, you pick the age 20, 30, 40, maybe at 45 when you're diagnosed something and you're gonna sit down with your former self and your share With the audience member out there. What would you tell your former self Like? What piece of advice, words of wisdom, recipe for success would you give?

Speaker 2: 44:45

Um, for me, honestly. Okay. So I did go to college, but if I had it to do over again, I would have still gone to college, but immediately after I would have entered into the military and gone to officer school and my the only real regret that I have as an adult is that I did not serve.

Speaker 3: 45:10

You know it's interesting, jack I've thought about that many times in my life as well that I that's a regret I have now.

Speaker 3: 45:16

I don't like to regret things because I wouldn't be have the children, yeah, have today and things like that, but it is what I think that was exactly I could be where I am right now in my life, with the people I love around me but yet still have served our country, and I've had so many amazing guests on here who are Currently or who have served our country, so hats off to all the.

Speaker 2: 45:35

Yeah, there was. I had a college college classmate named Michael, and so we all graduated, we all got jobs, and Michael had. He had actually been in the ROTC in college, and so he went to work for it. I forget who, doesn't matter. About a year later, though, we find out, michael had actually joined into the Air Force, and he was in Texas at OCS, and he served 23 years, I believe, and exited as a lieutenant colonel, and To this day I'm proud to help to know.

Speaker 3: 46:13

It's, it is, it's an honor, it's. It's so interesting to sit down with those who have served and hear their stories. You know whether I've done on the podcast or over a beer or over, you know, yeah, or run on the phone or whatever might be to hear their stories of terror. But yet such a great pride in what they've done for the freedom and liberties of not just our country but so many of the country they're on the world, I think it's so fantastic.

Speaker 2: 46:35

All right.

Speaker 3: 46:36

I think now I bet we've had 15 or 20 guests on who have served and in fact, the last week's guest a little little air here in a couple days. He served in the Coast Guard for a number of years, oh, yeah, yeah, seven year, I forget how many years. I was just listening to Joe Rogan and my trip yesterday driving up from Lansing and he had Zach Brian. Is that his name? Zach Brian, the country singer? Anyway, uh, luke, brad, luke, no, zach, something, he's okay, never mind, sorry, he has a really good song out, called into the orange, I think. But I think it's Zach Ryan, he's really big.

Speaker 3: 47:11

Okay, yeah, zach Brian, and he was talking when he was in the Navy. He was in there for seven years. He wasn't even going to be a singer, he just he was. He wanted to be a writer, he wanted to write a novel and write Um, and he started writing songs and he was just playing on his guitar. Well, it was in serving in the Navy and he'd put him on YouTube and then, all of a sudden, he, he, he, he got. They finally came to him, said hey, you're, you're getting too big, you lead, you need to leave the Navy. The Navy, the Navy came, wow, you need to leave. And now he's one of the top singers in the in the in the For country music. He's gonna be playing at the Van Andel Arena in Grand Rapids here. I see here coming up here, so I mean he's playing the big it rigs or the big Auditorium. Yeah, so good for him, that'd be. Your advice is hey, go to college, but join a branch of service when you're done and go to officer candidate school.

Speaker 2: 48:01

Yeah, yeah, that's that's I mean, that's that's me, I, I. You know that's not gonna work for everybody, but you asked me the question so I answered it.

Speaker 3: 48:13

I think that can be with anybody is, you know. It comes right back to one thing Don't wait, you know, yeah, just don't wait. If it's something you want to do it, explore it, look into it, do it. I you know I clients who you know.

Speaker 3: 48:25

We did an exercise a few months ago with some clients and I said you know, if we could eliminate your top, all of your fears for the next seven days, what would you do differently this week? And it was amazing, the things that people share with me. You know I would do this. I would do that. Like, well then, do it if you. If you can't, if it's not something you can do this week, start the process. You know, if you want to, I would buy a commercial property, start looking into commercial properties, take the first step. Sure, you know something you can do this week. Some people are like, well, I was, you know I would. I would take my wife out to dinner and really look into eyes and tell her I love her, even though We've been getting, we haven't been getting along for the next three years, last three years, take her to dinner.

Speaker 2: 49:03

Tell your lover, you know, so don't wait. That's there's a little bit of a tie-in there to Advice that I've given my kids and some other younger people about how to make a decision, because a lot of times they get caught up and they just get bound up and it's just not knowing which way to go. And I'm like, yes, you do, you know which way to go, you know which decision to make. The problem is is you're getting bound up by the consequences. And so and I partly learned this from martial arts years ago and I don't, I I can't remember the exact story, but it was an instructor who was who gave me the first little nugget of this thought process, which kind of has evolved over 30 years. But If you could make your decision In a vacuum, right, or where nobody gets offended, nobody gets hurt, nobody loses money, nobody gets physically injured, and and everybody Decides that your decision was good and they support you, if you could make a decision in those conditions, your could, your decision would be easy, would be almost a foregone conclusion. Okay, so make that decision. There's the decision now. There's decision, you have it. Now. You introduce the consequences, maybe one at a time, maybe whatever. And then after that process, if you conclude, okay, that you're going to change your decision, you know what I'm not going to. The consequences are not worth it Well, that's fine.

Speaker 2: 50:41

You've, you've made an honest appraisal. You've made an analysis Of the decision you want to make. You've waited against the consequences and you decided not to do it. You've made an analysis of the consequences and you decided not to do it. And so I don't think the kids have listened to me all that much what I'm trying to pontificate this stuff to them. But I have given that advice many, many, many times in my lifetime about how to make that decision, and because people, when they start to even think about the decision, they get all bound up with the consequences. Aunt Mary is going to have her feelings hurt, I'm going to lose $10,000 or whatever, and make the decision in a vacuum. Then contemplate the consequences and you will arrive at a decision that you will live with. You'll be able to sleep at night because you know you made an honest appraisal.

Speaker 3: 51:42

Okay. So I'm going to just capture that again, because I just wrote down exactly where this was, about 50 minutes into the podcast or 49 minutes into the podcast. So make your decision in a vacuum, in a vacuum, in a vacuum. So take everything out and just look at. Can you kind of explain that a little bit again, because I'm writing this down.

Speaker 2: 52:02

Yeah. So you make that decision assuming or believing that nobody loses money, nobody gets their feelings hurt, nobody gets physically hurt or injured, Everybody will support you, everybody will give you accolades for that decision that you made. It's all good, everything is positive. So when you put those conditions on, the decision becomes almost obvious which way you're going to go. And I don't care what you're trying to decide it's almost always an obvious decision but you're bound up by the consequences. So, okay, so now you've made your decision in that vacuum, right, and then then introduce the consequences and maybe you'll stay the course, maybe you'll change, but either way, you did it honestly.

Speaker 2: 52:54

You didn't sit there with your head in your hands, all bound up, like I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. No, you knew what to do. You just weren't thinking and processing clearly the consequences. So once you do that, then you can live with it. At least that's been my experience. I've had thoughts about like I decided I'm going to do this, and then I think about you know, it's really going to hurt my buddy's feelings, it's really, you know, whatever. And I've decided not to and I'm like, okay, but I made a conscious decision one way or the other. You know, I didn't just sit there, just you know.

Speaker 3: 53:40

Man, we could have done a whole show on just that. I mean, I literally am sitting thinking, okay, how can I use this tonight when I'm sitting here alone and doing some reading and journaling on some decisions I have to make? So I look at it. I like to simple lie. I'm looking at vacuum consequences, decision or live with it. I mean, that's how I look at it and that's and your kids didn't listen to you with that one, or you think they have and you don't know it.

Speaker 2: 54:09

They may have and they just might, you know. But but I mean, at the time it was always like they sat there kind of patiently making eye contact, you know, but I don't know if it was sinking it or not.

Speaker 3: 54:26

I don't know. Well, I would imagine that it did. I got a question what's next for you, brother? I mean, you got any more book? What do you? What's the next big thing for you?

Speaker 2: 54:37

Well, yeah, I am working on the next book and I'm sketching out a one after that. The second one will actually be my first murder industry and that's going to be a stretch for me. But honestly, the next big thing for me is Friday. I start chemotherapy, and so I will be doing chemo every three weeks, apparently into February. So I just completed two weeks of radiation and that that attack certain tumors where they were, but there's other tumors that it couldn't do and so so I'll be going through the what is it called dose attack, soul or something like that, some nasty old thing, you know that could make my hair fall out and, you know, make me less attractive.

Speaker 3: 55:34

Dude, you have good hair, man. I looked at your wedding, I looked at your wedding photo. I think Donna put it on the Facebook and I like that Google. I'm like, wow, man, you're like George Michael hair and you still have good hair.

Speaker 2: 55:51

Maybe there was a day and it's still I mean for guys, my age. Yes, I still have a pretty thick head of hair.

Speaker 3: 55:59

Well, I just want to share, you know, I know I want to share with the audience out there. We had this podcast interview scheduled for a couple of months ago and I think a couple of days before we were scheduled, you called, you shot me a text or a call and said hey, this is what's happening, brian, and you're like first thing. You said don't you dare feel sorry for me. And you said we're not waiting to do this, we're just going to postpone for a few weeks, but we are not waiting to do this.

Speaker 3: 56:26

And so I think that shows so much of your character and your integrity and your grit, man, and I just want to share with the audience out there for a minute and I know you wouldn't ask for this, jack, and maybe you won't like me saying this, but I'm going to ask anyway. I'm going to ask the audience members out there please put Jack in your prayers, send him your strength, ask the Lord to give him all the positive strength that he possibly can muster for him and, if you don't believe in prayer, send positive energy and positive thoughts to Jack. I appreciate that.

Speaker 3: 57:02

All that positive stuff, man, that quantum physics, whether you call it prayer or quantum physics, or energy or manifestation, whatever it is, that shit works and I believe for strongly in the power of prayer. So you've been in mind now for the past two months, each morning and each evening, and you will remain there, but not because of pity, it's just because I want to give you everything I can. So let's get all the hundreds of thousands of people out there saying, sending some good vibes towards you, man, thank you.

Speaker 2: 57:29

Yeah, I've told my coworkers, the ones that I've revealed all this to, and I'm like, because sometimes you know, I work from home, right, I'm a software contractor, so I work from home and the mothership is up in Topeka, kansas, so we have a few meetings a day that are on teams or zoos teams, teams with video, and so I've warned them, you know, about what's going to happen in the future as far as my hair falling out and all that stuff. And I'm like, don't, I have one rule, and that is no pity, don't you, don't you, don't you dare? No, jack, we're so sorry. No, you jokes. I want to hear jokes. That's, that's what I want to hear. I want to hear jokes, and they better be full of sarcasm and deprecation, because I'm not going to be happy if you're trying to, you know, trying to throw that pity on me. I don't want to hear it.

Speaker 3: 58:20

So well, you're finally going to learn and realize what it feels like to be a bald man like me. I'm going to save a lot of money on shampoo and conditioner.

Speaker 2: 58:30

And you know, I've the irony of all of that. The irony of the whole thing is I have ridden a motorcycle my entire life, well, since 10, I've always, always worn a helmet in it. And I swear to you, it's true, I would have never cared if my hair had fallen out, because it would have just made it. I wouldn't have had to get haircuts so often to keep my helmet fitting right, because when the hair grows out, then all of a sudden the helmet gets tight and I got to go get another haircut. You know all those decades, you know. I mean I wouldn't have needed my hair, I wouldn't have cared if I had it or not, and you know so I. It's just kind of ironic.

Speaker 3: 59:15

You do. You do save money on haircuts. I forgot about haircuts and even though even though my haircuts were would go, I would go to Bull Ricks and get a 999. I got. I went to Bull Ricks the day of my wedding and got a 999 haircut, number four on the top and number two on the sides. I keep telling them there you go. But you know you do.

Speaker 3: 59:32

You buy this little thing. I bought it. It's like a little I don't even know what it's called, it's a head shaver and it gets it right down to the. But then the other day I let it grow a few days and then Melissa said I like your hair with a little bit of five o'clock shadow on it. So I went back to the old trimmer's for your our beards and I just put take the guard off and it kind of. So I have a little stubble on top of my hair. I'm like I don't know, I don't have to look at it. If she likes it better with a little stubble, I'm going to keep it that way. But I mean, I remember one time where I decided to cut my hair.

Speaker 3: 1:00:02

One time I was speaking in actually Detroit area and I had long hair. I was a long hair bald man. I had long hair, you know, everywhere, but I had that thin, thin hair on top and, you know, look great in a ball cap. You know you look like a rock star. But then I, you know, when I'm speaking in public, I, of course, and afterward, the person who hired me to do the speech, I knew the guy who was a professional colleague years and years ago when I worked for American Express and we went to lunch after we were talking. He goes dude, what's up with your hair? I said you look like Frasier Crane.

Speaker 1: 1:00:37

I remember Frasier from the from.

Speaker 3: 1:00:40

I'm like that was it, man. I went home and cut it and I saved it right off. So I decided to grow a beard. Well, Jack. One final question as we begin to wrap up. Is there a question that I didn't ask, that you wish I would have, or is there a final message you want to share with the bamboo pack audience?

Speaker 2: 1:01:03

Oh, I don't know, I guess I want to as an adoptee, if there's any adoptees are, you know, out there? You know, my life was in just three years ago. I was able to locate and connect with my birth mother and the siblings, and so, you know, it's a peculiar feeling, in some respect, to be an adoptee, even though, you know, believe me, Sam and Aline, they did. Oh, I had a hell of a child, believe me, and they sacrificed. And because our income level, there was other things, there was things I got to do that other kids didn't, just because my parents were willing to make other sacrifices, right, so that myself and my sister were able to have things and do things.

Speaker 2: 1:02:01

But as an adoptee, the peculiar thing was that I walked through the world and nobody looked like me, and it didn't ever really bother me, but it always kind of made me a little bit curious, you know. And so that was the reason, though, that I valued my friends so much from childhood I hope you don't mind I dropped some names like Jim North, Heather Mitchell, people like that that graduated with me in 1981. I knew them since kindergarten, and the reason I treasure those friendships so much is because they were the ones that knew me from childhood. They were the ones that could tell all those stories that normally family kind of tells, you know, because everybody is the same, or everybody's of the same lineage, Anyway. So but you look back on the way that the young gal her name was Grace Moore that's my birth mother in Texas and she had to make a decision, a very difficult decision as a 19-year-old.

Speaker 2: 1:03:14

You know how can I support this child? Well, I can't, you know. So she already knew my mother. They had a casual relationship, I think she was her hairdresser, and so it was a privately arranged adoption. So you know two people, Grace and Aline, my mom. Both made monumental, momentous decisions in their lives that affected me, and both of them, you know, turned out to be for the positive. And so so I would. I would say to anybody that's in that whole chain, whether you're an adoptee, whether you adopted a baby or whether you took one in, you know it's a special arrangement, it's a special relationship in each direction, and so be grateful that you're a part of that, that you made a rational, adult decision to either take in that baby or to give the baby to somebody responsible, you know. So that's a parting message there.

Speaker 3: 1:04:23

I love that, and we've never had anybody mention that on the podcast before, so I would thank you for that, because I know there are people out there who have adopted children, who are adopted children or who have adopted children out you know, and so it is. It's an incredibly powerful tool and definitely beats the alternative. So I do have to ask you one question, dude you have a night ranger. You have a night ranger poster framed with all the signatures. I want to know your favorite night ranger song.

Speaker 2: 1:04:52

Thank you you could still rock in America.

Speaker 3: 1:04:57

I love Sister Christian man. And when you close your eyes.

Speaker 2: 1:05:00

Oh, I like it yeah that's a good one.

Speaker 3: 1:05:03

I like when you close your eyes.

Speaker 2: 1:05:05

I like that one too, and I really like the video on that one.

Speaker 3: 1:05:08

I don't remember the video on that one.

Speaker 2: 1:05:10

Yeah, he's driving in the car and she sees him from a distance and he's in a convertible or something. I could see the imagery in my head. But anyways, yeah, I know you could still rock in America. I don't, it cannot. It cannot be the first night ranger song I heard, but it was definitely the first one. I'm like, oh man, I dig those guys, yeah.

Speaker 3: 1:05:34

Mike, melissa and I have talked about Night Ranger a few times. I think we listened to, you know, when we were having a glass of wine or a drink. We'll turn on like the 80s classic rock, you know. Oh sure, and there's a hodgepodge of and here's the crazy thing, jack, I've never dated anybody in my really who's grew up in the 80s. It's so refreshing to be with somebody who understands the music that we grew up in and loves the music, yeah, and so it's beautiful to be able to share those songs with somebody who actually has memories and, you know, because songs bring you back to a point in your childhood, high school, college years, whatever, yeah, and it's so cool to sit there.

Speaker 2: 1:06:13

Oh my gosh, this song reminds me of the prom, or this one reminds me of my first game or the football game or whatever it might be so yeah, that's so true that the song by the cars let's Go yeah, you know how that starts off with that boom, yeah, right. And it's got that minute, that instant, that I hear that I'm transported back to my little ugly green metal desk in that bedroom sitting there doing homework. Because back in high school and stuff, I would do my homework at my desk and I had a stereo system in my room and I only had like three, eight track tapes and one of them was the cars. And well, actually I had them both. I had the first one that had candy, but I still I hear that first noise, that first sound from let's Go. And instantly, man, I'm back at that little green desk doing my homework. And it was, life was good.

Speaker 3: 1:07:13

Well, you know what that song does for me, Jack Back, I don't even know the song was on an eight track. My brother, David, had a Mustang. I don't even know what it was. I remember it was kind of brown colored.

Speaker 2: 1:07:24

And maybe a yellow. Your brother was a rascal, by the way oh yeah, he has settled his life down big time.

Speaker 3: 1:07:31

Yeah, he was definitely a rascal. He was 10 years older than I am, but he has settled his life down dramatically. But I still I remember and I still hear a lot of stories. But he had this Mustang and my mom doesn't even know this story. I don't think so. She's going to know it now, but when nobody was home, I don't know. My brother must not have taken his Mustang. At times I would. I was probably 14. I don't know 13. And he had that eight track and that's I would. I would get to that song and I would take his Mustang around our block. You know, we live up there behind Clark Drive-In and I'd go down this, I'd go up to where the Shell Station is Now I don't know if that was there. I'd go around and then I'd go down the service road and I wouldn't go far because I couldn't. You know, I didn't want to be caught and I would play that song, I would wait for the timing and I would accelerate or I would take off when that song came on.

Speaker 2: 1:08:20

Oh, my gosh.

Speaker 3: 1:08:21

Yeah, that song. Every time I hear it I think of that. I think it was a brown Mustang, I can't. I'm pretty sure it was brown.

Speaker 3: 1:08:26

Mustang you know, but well, yeah, it's amazing. All right, my friend, we're going to sign off here and I want to go back before we do. And you know, I'm going to go back to what I started with because I want to read your what, how you've kind of declared your titles to be in life, and I'm going to add one at the end. So we have Jack Martin on here today, folks. We've had him on for a little over an hour, which is this has been amazing. Jack is a child of God, he's a father, he's a husband, motorcycle rider, writer, musician, triathlete and zealot. And I'm going to add one more he's a tough as nails warrior. So I want to add that one to you, my friend, and I know when I called you tough of nails the other day, you didn't really, you didn't accept that title.

Speaker 3: 1:09:08

You were a tough as nails warrior and you've got you probably won't put that on your Facebook, but that's what we're going to call you here, so we're all with you. We know you're going to get through this. You're going to get stronger. We've got a lot of people praying, sending positive vibes your way, and so you have a ton of people. My friend, I love your brother and I just want to thank you for being such an amazing and inspiring, impactful guest on the Bamboo Lab podcast.

Speaker 2: 1:09:33

Well, I appreciate the invitation and I hope you know, I hope it was beneficial to somebody who may be going through some of the same things.

Speaker 3: 1:09:42

You changed lives today, my friend. I know that for a fact. Thank you, all right, everyone. We'll talk to you in a week. Thank you for tuning in. Please, if you haven't yet hit that like and subscribe button rate, review us. And please share this episode with five people. I usually say three. I'm going to ask you to share this episode with five people you love. Who can really get that message in life of hey, don't keep saying, you know, in the future or one of these days, or when this happens, get that message. That person that wants to, who needs to hear the message, don't wait. All right, until then. Everyone love you all and please get out there and strive, love and live. See you later, thank you.