|int| Redefining the Possible: John Register's Journey from Combat Veteran to Paralympic Triumph and Beyond | Ep 100

When life threw John Register a curveball that would make most people give up, he turned it into a stepping stone for something greater. Sit back and be inspired by the incredible journey of this combat veteran and Paralympic silver medalist, as he shares with us the indomitable spirit that drove him to redefine the possible after a life-altering injury. John's insights on shifting focus from limitations to possibilities, underscored by his reflections on the Constitution's role in his life as a black American, offer a piercing look at resilience and the human spirit.

Our conversation with John is one for the books, tracing his path from aspiring to join the Army's World Class Athlete Program to facing the stark realities of military service in Operation Desert Shield. As a 31 Charlie, John's knack for boosting soldier morale even in the bleakest moments, coupled with the cultural exchanges that broadened his worldview, is a story of adaptability and growth. Learn how a mindset shift post-injury led John from helplessness to optimism, allowing him to embrace a "new normal" and later stand tall on the Paralympic stage.

Finally, we explore the power of community and mastermind groups in propelling us forward, highlighting John’s efforts in creating support programs for fellow veterans and the significance of planning for life's transitions. His platform, "JR's 90 Days Friends," and the impact of leading through storytelling are all part of the tools he offers to others striving for success. Engage with us in this episode to discover how John Register's story is not just about overcoming adversity but about thriving through change and personal evolution.

Connect with John:

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Contact Thad - VictoriousVeteranProject@Gmail.com

Thanks for listening!

Transcript

John Register: 0:09

All my Olympic dreams are over. All those things were crushing on me and I was thinking deeply about them. I had a general, four star general, uh, Gordon Sullivan, chief of staff at the army at the time. Uh, he was one of my first calls that came in because it was a pretty high profile injury, asked me what I wanted to do and I had. I told him, sir, I have no idea. I just you know. I'm trying to understand what's going on, but I'll tell you what. I'll call you back. You know, some, tell this four star, this corporal, tell this four star, I'll let me get you on my calendar and I'll call you back.

John Register: 0:42

That's what the state I was in, you know, I was just I. So I and I, I wanted to do that, but my wife, she, she said you know, we're going to get through this time together, it's just our new normal. When she spoke those words, she, she made me understand, with just those words, that life really hadn't changed that much Still have my family, Still had my faculty, still have my degree from the University of Arkansas. I still had dreams, goals, aspirations. The only thing that was different was I was now missing a leg, and so at that moment I began thinking about how that could I advance, how could I amplify the life I now have. Do I think about the 99% of things that I cannot do, or do I think about the 1% of things I can't do and the 99% of things I still can do? My name is Thad David.

Thad David: 1:39

I'm a former Marine recon scout sniper with two deployments to Iraq. As a civilian, I've now facilitated hundreds of personal and professional development trainings across the country and it struck me recently that the same things that help civilians will also help veterans succeed in their new roles as well. Join me as we define civilian success principles to an important role in success principles to inspire veteran victories. Welcome to another episode. I'm here today with a very, very special guest. He is a four time all American, two time with the Olympic trials, two time two sport Paralympian and a silver medalist, as well as a combat veteran, john Register. How are you doing, john?

John Register: 2:23

Thad, I'm doing wonderful. Thanks for having me on the show. I can't wait to hear the questions and get into this conversation for your guests that you have listening in.

Thad David: 2:32

Man, I'm so excited to have you on. You've got just so many things that you've done and that you continue to do and I'm excited to jump in, so thank you. One thing I always love to ask people right away is just knowing that you are a veteran and this is a show to help out and empower veterans. So, real quick, what got you to join the military?

John Register: 2:49

That's a great question. You know I was. I had just finished up the University of Arkansas, I just graduated with a degree in communications, I had a baby on the way with my wife Alice soon to be wife Alice and I had no job and so I was like, what do I do? And I still want to run track and field. So I wound up finding that the United States Army has a world class athlete program. This world class athlete program allows a soldier athlete to train a couple of years prior to the next Olympic Games If you are bonafide or validated by your national governing body. As pork and because I went to the Olympic trials, I figured my national governing body or track and USA track and field would validate for me, which they did. So I went into the army to a run track and field and be to have my kid delivered for free. So that was my, that's my way to get in.

Thad David: 3:46

I love how we were all so similar in the kind of what. Why we joined is some form of. I needed to link, and so this was the. This was it. That's that's incredible. So you joined in, and what did you end up doing in the army?

John Register: 3:58

Well, I want to kind of just caveat, because I think what happens is there's a time that that we find where what our service actually means for each one of us individually. And that time for me was crossing parade field. I was listening to a guy and I didn't know if I wanted to say in or not. And as I walked across the parade field for Jackson, South Carolina, I began to have this, this nostalgia of all the people, all the soldiers, men and women, who had walked this parade field before me to protect the freedoms of the United States of America. And I I got it. That's when it hit me, it sunk into me. But I also went a little further than that right, Because when someone will always ask or say thank you for your service, and so I, I take this as a learning point, and you'll you'll hear this all throughout our present, our conversation today, Because I think it's important for us to remember what the services that we were fighting for, or, you know, because that's fighting is a byproduct of why we all signed up, we all raised our hand to protect and defend the United States Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic, and that we would bear true faith and allegiance to the same Right. And so when people come and thank us for our service, that's the oath that we took.

John Register: 5:20

So then I asked the next question when's the last time you read our United States Constitution? What is the preamble say? Why does it start off? We, the people of the United States, what are the seven articles of this, of the, the Constitution? Why is article number five the most important article, the most important article that was written? And then, when we come into the amendments of the Constitution, why is that important for me?

John Register: 5:49

I identify as a black American because when the Constitution was written, I was only three fifths of a human being. So for me to sign up, walk across the parade field a part of this history that I wasn't even three fifths of a person I have the 13th, the 14th and the 15th amendments. That begins my journey, and so that is, I think, what we have to understand that the folks that put that Constitution together knew, tried to protect, ensured that we could not dismantle it very easily. This democracy that we're trying to make work, because we didn't want a dictatorship. King George over us, like other countries, had Right. So we put them into the legislative branch, we put it into the executive branch and we put it into the judicial branch to ensure there was a distributed power of government, and we've gotten away from understanding what that actually means and why it was done in such fashion. So I think that's the other answer of my deepening and understanding. You know what my service actually means.

Thad David: 7:08

You can just your passion that exudes out. Once you started talking about it, you can tell this is something you do often you talk to people about. Often you say you asked them when was it the last time? And you said you feel like we've gotten away from it. What do you think? We've got to wait for a minute and what does that look like?

John Register: 7:25

I think we're trying to use it as it was not intended. So we want to pick out a little piece here and pick out a little piece here to drive agendas and try to separate or try to make one part of the government more powerful than another part. So when I was building we'll get into this you know, the Paralympic Military Sport Program I got a unique vantage point to have been through four presidencies and been to the White House four times and have seen how our power structure changes from hand to hand, every president writing a note for the next president. Well, it's the last one, but it was an honoring thing that comes. That started with George Washington that said you know, I'm not going to stay. That is incredible to me when you look back in history of everybody the Mussolini's out there, the Hitler's that are out there, everybody that wanted to be a dictator and what we have done is we've split based upon what we think that document actually means and no one has read it.

Thad David: 8:41

I love that you do that my mother-in-law actually carries around. She carries around little mini documents and she actually hands them out to people. I was like, when was the last time that you read this? You should check it out when was the last time.

John Register: 8:57

I mean, it's easy Download it. It's not a very long documentary but I think it's important right when we start talking about. You know it's for veterans and you know this show is directed at veterans. It's important not to get to the sound bites that one group or another group can make, because we're into these short sound bites now and really do the. It's our own personal work that we must do to understand why do we exist differently than the rest of the world, than most of the rest of the world?

Thad David: 9:30

I love that and, as all things that comes back to the work that we're putting in or that we have to put in, should we take it on.

John Register: 9:40

Yeah, so I'm off my soapbox now let's go get it. No, I was fascinated.

Thad David: 9:43

That's what I love about these conversations I never know which way it's going to go and what a powerful starting point I mean at its core. That's why we all signed up and what we all signed up to protect. So it's fascinating. So you mentioned also one thing as I think back to introducing you, and then you joined up, obviously to be an athlete, to have a baby for free, and you are a combat veteran, and so what was that that? I'm very fascinated to get into everything you've done as Olympic trials, for just everything you've done there. But what was that like joining in? Because I would imagine there's a story in there that you joined up to be an athlete and somehow ended up in a combat role overseas.

John Register: 10:26

Yeah, because we all do the needs of the army or whatever sprints of service. And even though you're signed up for one thing, there was no guarantee. Let me be very clear Right now you can actually sign up for the Army's World Class Athlete Program. It's something that we can help to continue to work on. But when I was going through and the other athletes that were with me, there was no guarantee that you were actually going to get placed in this program. So I, fortunately, after basic training and advanced individual training, ait I had three days and I wound up getting selected for all Army track and field camp and I went out there was great and from there was selected for the Army's World Class Athlete Program.

John Register: 11:07

At this time I loved the military. I said this is the best thing in sliced bread baby, and I wanted to be a lifer. I'd already told my wife I want to be a lifer. So I took the officer selection battery test scored off the charts, it was great. So I kept that in my back pocket. Let me do my track and field stuff and after I get out I'll go to OCS down in Fort Benning school for girls and boys and I will be a military officer and I'll do another 20 years, get out, work for a contractor for another 20 years. I got my whole life a set Right. That was my vision. Then I get to my first leadership course, which is called some different now, but it's called primary leadership development course, pldc, and I'm two weeks in trying to make my rank and I get.

John Register: 11:54

They do a drill and the drill, the instructors do a drill. The drill is on what you must do if you get deployed. You know how do you make sure that you get your dental records done. You have to get all the stuff we have to do to prepare and preparing your families. So after we finished that exercise we come back into the room and I'm held outside the room and I just my instructor says to me you know, for everybody else that's going back in the room. That was an exercise for you. This is real. You've just been assigned to Fort Seloch, oklahoma, six to 27 field artillery and you are headed to operation does a shield.

John Register: 12:34

I was like what Excuse me? And I was kind of numb at that point. When I left and went back to the barracks my buddy was with me. We were talking about it. I said. He said you know, when you get back you're gonna be able to do this. And I said, yeah, if I come back. And when I said if, that gravity of I might not come back washed over me like no one. It was like a wet big wave that just pushes you under right. It's not letting you up. That's what that press was like. And I saw my wife. She was coming to meet me for lunch and I just even couldn't get out and just started ball and started crying. I mean, I couldn't believe this was happening and what snapped me out of it was I was on the plane right over to Fort Sill and it was actually.

John Register: 13:28

I believe I heard a voice just speak. Believe it was a voice. God, holy Spirit. What I wanna say to say this is just an answer to your prayer, the prayer I had about seeing my fruit. I wanna say, hey, I wanna see my fruit, you know, and three times God had told me no, don't worry about it. You got it and this was an answer to that. So going over, there was this whole big answer and I wound up having this amazing time that was very unique. So I got myself a Katabi. Katabi is Arabic for book. The I at the end makes possessive means my book, katabi. So I'm trying to learn a little bit Arabic.

John Register: 14:13

I'm getting placed on guard duty with the Saudi Arabian National Guard saying compound, and I'm practicing my Arabic. Lo and behold, this car pulls up. I don't know who it is. So I got my, you know, got my hand on my sidearm and as this gentleman gets out of the car, everybody snaps to attention. And it's one of the Saudi princes. So I hosted my weapon, so I probably don't want to do cause international incident.

John Register: 14:37

And as he's going down, I jump in line. So I practice on him and he can't believe it because as he's, you know, kind of shaking hands with every Saudi National Guard person that's there and thanking them, he gets to me that's at the end of the line. You know, one of these things that I've been doing is at the end of the line. You know, one of these things doesn't look like the other. So I say to him Salam alaikum. He's like what? Wa alaikum salam? You know, he's like what I said queez, and he said kevelach. He's like, oh my gosh, queez, queez, queez. And then it's.

John Register: 15:11

I had like about seven things I could say and I it all fell right in line and he couldn't believe that what he had heard about Americans coming to this foreign country of Saudi Arabia, their country, and he heard about all these kind of things that you know, whatever we talk about, the, the, the abrasive American, or whatever you saw, it was totally different than what he had seen. And so we had this conversation for about probably about six or seven minutes afterward of asking me all these different questions from faith background to you know, he said are you Muslim? I said no, I'm Christian. He said so. We just had this beautiful exchange and I realized in that moment that I, even in a military uniform, I'm an ambassador for the United States, even when I was talking to him, understanding that if I come in demanding things, I'm probably not going to catch a lot of positivity back. If I come in trying to understand who you are first, I'm going to have a conversation that opens up. So when he leaves, I can do no wrong with everybody on the Saudi Arabian National Guard. They're inviting me to dinner, to tea, to down into the city, they're taking me everywhere and these.

John Register: 16:38

I think we just became great friends all because getting a little book and trying to learn someone else's language or culture or customs and not thinking that my custom or learning was the center thing for the rest of the entire world.

John Register: 16:59

Everybody has to revolve around me and I think that's great lesson for all of us.

John Register: 17:04

Kind of even going back to the first form, make one of the US Constitution is what is the? What do we do? How do we show up? How do we ensure that we're not the we don't think that we're the centerpiece, only being a nation 400 years old or a little bit more, right, I mean, think about how old that nation is. We're not even. We can't even wipe the snot from our nose yet we don't even know if this thing is going to work. So I think we have to honor those and stay. You know, yeah, we got a thing going on here. You know democracy doesn't work. Can we? Can we talk about this and have a really robust dialogue about it without throwing stones and waving, you know, nationalism around and know that we're a community of the world? We're a community of the world, and so that it was a great lesson for me that would set me up later on to build these other programs and knowing how to talk to kind of both sides of the aisle.

Thad David: 18:12

I think it's fascinating and I see some undertones and just all the prep work, everything we've done to have this conversation and, right there, what you said with it, just the seeking to understand, you know, versus a lot of times we go into situations and this one very high profile situation but it works as a it could be a smaller version of the same situation that we all want to go in and say what we want to say versus how could I understand what's going on right now?

John Register: 18:37

Absolutely.

Thad David: 18:38

Yeah, oh, I think it's. It's a fascinating lesson and I love that you took it away. And so you, you went overseas. And then what was that like? What did you find yourself doing?

John Register: 18:47

So I wound up I was a 31 Charlie, which is a single channel radio operator They've changed the nomenclatures now and I wound up doing some interesting stuff. I had a buddy of mine we still talk to the state Dwayne Burbank, the Native American gentleman we were doing combo. He's my net controller back in the in the U S, so he's in. He was in Fort Wichita, arizona. I was in. I was stationed in Fort Dix, new Jersey, and so every morning we would talk because we were doing this.

John Register: 19:17

If the whole system goes down, all the computers and everything, you got a Mars system, military operation, military field radio stations that are that are round, and so we can still talk through, you know, short wave or long wave radio. And we we got together and we were able to figure out how to do an inverted V, that's, take your antennas and point them in a V direction, in the direction where you want them to go, and we were able to get a skip at about five o'clock in the afternoon to six o'clock in the afternoon all the way across to the United States. So we were doing morale calls home for the soldiers from the radio. We were keying up 50,000 watts going out and we were. We were broadcasting to the United States.

Thad David: 19:57

That's incredible.

John Register: 19:59

We wanted to be doing that, you know, finding our location, everything. Well, we're, we're doing it.

Thad David: 20:05

All things in hindsight we can look back and say ah, maybe, it wasn't the best idea. I'm sure somebody wasn't happy looking back.

John Register: 20:12

I did that. I drove for the commander and we talked a lot about that, captain Babernich, excuse me. We talked a lot about officer cannons tool, you know kind of which way I want to go in the military. So it was really a great. It was a great experience, but I lost a lot of my track and field ability because you can't run really fast in the sand and train that well. So I got back to when I did come back after six months and the Gulf War, I wound up going to Presidio, San Francisco, but I couldn't run the high hurdles any longer. I was, I was just too much, not out of shape, but the fast which muscle fibers to run them were just gone. So it takes a long time to build them up. So I switched to the 400 meter hurdles and after five races qualified for the Olympic trials and the 400 meter hurdles and in the sixth race I finished 17th in the Olympic trials and I said, okay, I got my race, I'm going to do one more four years. And that was. I was, you know, re enlisted for those four years, so I could just have that officer cannon school in my back pocket, went to Germany, was training over there as well. I was a different unit. It was great. I became the check ride in COIC of a Bitburg. Germany was training in tri-air and in Kaiser slaughter, k-town.

John Register: 21:31

And when I came back in May of 1994, two years before the Olympic trials I missed step to hurdle. During a training run, hyperextended my left knee, I severed the artery behind my kneecap and seven days later through because the surgery didn't work, I had my left leg amputated above the knee. So that was my into my two careers. So my track and field career I was not going to Olympic games, one leager and my military career I wasn't going to go to officer cannon school during that point. So I, you know I was in, I was kind of going down a downward spiral. It wasn't bad, but I knew that you know what's life going to be like and a lot of folks have trauma. They have transitions that they're about to make. Sometimes they are. The transition happens for us and sometimes we have time to prepare for the transition that comes. And what are we going to do? How do we handle those types of moments? And I was going down that downward spiral. You know, checking my identity. Who am I now? What's my identity? Is my wife still going to stick around? Is my son still going to see me as his father? Is he going to be in the military? Can I support my family? All my Olympic dreams are over and all those things were crushing on me and I was thinking deeply about them.

John Register: 22:57

I had a general four star, general Gordon Sullivan, chief staff of the army at the time. He was one of my first calls that came in because it was a pretty high profile injury, asked me what I wanted to do and I had. I told him, sir, I have no idea. I just you know I'm trying to understand what's going on, but I'll tell you what. I'll call you back. I'll tell this four star, this corporal, tell this four star, let me get you on my calendar and I'll call you back.

John Register: 23:20

Yeah, so, but that's what the state I was in. You know, I was just so, I and I. I wound up doing that. But my wife, she said you know, we're going to get through this time together. It's just our new normal.

John Register: 23:37

When she spoke those words, she, she made me understand, with just those words, that life really hadn't changed that much. I still have my family, still had my faculty, still have my degree from the University of Arkansas, I still had dreams, goals, aspirations. The only thing that was different was I was now missing a leg, and so at that moment I began thinking about how that could I advance, how could I amplify the life I now have? Do I think about the 99% of things that I cannot do, or do I think about the 1% of things I can't do and the 99% of things I still can do? So that's the mindset shift that began to happen in me, and I have a whole sequence and a process about that now.

John Register: 24:31

But it was at that mindset, that shifting of that, that got me down the road. And that wasn't even the worst. The hardest part the amputation. The amputation was just kind of the beginning. The hardest part was on June 17th 1994. You remember what was happening on that day? I think everybody, when I say this, every audience member, everybody listen to this and go oh, right, right, right, you go to the same thing. June 17th 1994, there was a white Bronco going down the I-5 freeway. Yeah, everybody out there knows what that means, right?

Thad David: 25:11

No one knows what's happening.

John Register: 25:14

We got OJ in the back and I am sitting on my cousin's couch in San Antonio, texas. The phantom pain that is crushing me right now. It's the worst pain I've ever felt in my life. I can't get any rest. I can't turn to left or right, stand up, sit down. I'm sweating profusely. My heart rates at about 115, 120 beats a minute and I just cannot get any relief. And there was a note that was being read by every commentator that afternoon, every news reporter, and it looked like the note that was found by OJ Simpson was a suicide note. Forget this shell of a man, don't think of this person here. Remember the good old days of OJ? Whatever, all that stuff that he had written in that note looked like the juice was about to check out and I made up my mind. At that moment. I said no matter how bad this gets, I Will never check out.

Thad David: 26:20

Hmm.

John Register: 26:21

I will never check out, and for those vets that are out there right now that might be even thinking about that, because you don't think that your life Is worth it. You are valuable. You are created unique. You are the only one that can do what you do. No one else is designed to do it. But you and you have to stay with. You've got to fight through.

John Register: 26:41

Whatever the support is that you need to find it. Come up and and and and reach out and connect, because we got your brothers, we got your sisters, we got you it. We need your voice and I'm gonna share why. You'll see from my life in this point of if you can take anything from this, this life, I Went on to do some pretty incredible things after making that decision, and if I would have stopped it there, maybe we don't get all these other programs that have happened. You're the only voice that's out there that can actually make it happen. So that's my plug for it. Hey, we got it. We got to take care of each other. We got to take care of each other.

Thad David: 27:24

Oh, that was it.

John Register: 27:24

That was my, my, my embarkation, the, the jumping off point was that moment of watching OJ and saying I'm gonna go through. And I knew was gonna get worse. That before it got better. I knew it. But I said I'm gonna, I'm willing to go through that fight, I'm gonna go to that fight. And it did it got. It got hella worse.

Thad David: 27:45

Well, what was it in that moment that Obviously there's a lot going on his his note that was left? What was it that that made you just click Like no matter what, I'm not checking out?

John Register: 27:56

Yeah, I, I don't know. I think it was just Understanding that this was, I call it, my night in Gethsemane. This was just. It was just my. I was there alone, no one was around me, and this was just me. I had I had to. Are you gonna fight through this? You know you've been through some tough stuff before, but this was gonna. This was taken to the brink and if you can get through this, think about all of the lives that you can help Because of your one commitment to this moment in time, this defining moment. I think we all get them at points and do we rise to that occasion? Because if we get through that point, we can help others release from from their points and do what they're called to do.

Thad David: 28:41

They don't have to necessarily my thing, but whatever they're called to do, it helps them get through that point to discover, uncover, push into the space that they are designed to, to impact and and you mentioned something a few steps prior to that and a few pieces prior that I wanted to circle back to because, as we tie into veterans and Just what you had said in that moment, am I gonna focus on the 99% of things I can't do or the 99% of things that I can do and just bringing it up when, as you mentioned, veterans too I often wonder how many people are so hyper focused on what they feel like they can't do right now? Why is it so important to shift that, to shift that mindset, in your opinion?

John Register: 29:22

Yeah, I think you know, when I studied a little bit later on in life, dr Martin, the Silicon Man's work we have, he talks about learned helplessness. And so you know I'm not going to go in all the studies and stuff, but we we teach ourselves to be helpless and Even though there are escapes, we choose to stay in the danger zone. We tend to stay in the the negative space. So we have to flip that mindset to a couple more areas. The first one is learned Optimism. So I can have a helpless statement, but I need to turn that helpless statement into an optimistic statement. So I begin to see what are the, the things that are around me that can support me and push me to an optimistic, optimistic level, to see a better end for myself than this negative end. Because if I can think about a helpless state, I can think about an optimistic state as well, because they're both future states. Neither one has happened, so I can choose which path I want to be on. We just think that we have to go down this negative one, hmm, and then, after we get to the learned op, learned optimism. Now we can take ownership of it. So now I can make an owner statement. I will do, I will show up as and that begins to the affirmations that that we can make in our lives, our lives, that will Advance us away from that negative mindset.

John Register: 31:00

So there are, there are tactics around this. You know, make a list of all the negative things you think are negative. Make a list of all the positive things you think are positive. Tear the list up, you know, divided half, and then crumple up or burn up the negative stuff so you only have the positive stuff left. There are lots of things that we can do as tactical, but we also we have to make up in our mind that we're not gonna listen to that negative voice. It's too easy. It's too easy.

John Register: 31:23

I have I'm having my own podcast coming up, right, it's okay, it's amputate to amplify and and the amputate amplify podcast, and we're just getting some things started right now. But the but the question I ask is to every guest is You're writing a book entitled how to destroy those. Those lots is directed to meeting planners and stuff. How do you destroy the perfect meeting? Right? So it's a sabotage Because no one comes up how to save a meeting. No one, no one gives you that. But if I ask you how to sabotage a meeting, how not to sabotage one. You think about all the stories of sabotage, of running a screw-up a meeting, and there's a story that goes behind that. So that's you know. We always think about the negative, then we can, we bring it back to the positive. So we go from the learned helplessness learned helplessness to the optimistic, to the owner mindset.

Thad David: 32:19

I Really love that and, just for anybody listening as well, I don't know when, when, a when can we expect your podcast, because I know I'm gonna jump in and and and check it out.

John Register: 32:28

When do you think that would?

Thad David: 32:29

launch out.

John Register: 32:31

So I have, you know, we're batching them, you know. So we got the URL and everything, but we're batching them and when I get about six I want to launch. So it looks like middle of February sometime, what would be that maybe early March, but but yeah, we're starting to get the shows tight together. It's, they're, they're hilarious, I mean, because you can imagine they just go.

Thad David: 32:50

Mm-hmm.

John Register: 32:51

Oh yeah, yeah, because they just, they just tell me the story of what was the how they would sabotage it, because they saw Someone else sabotage that direct way. I'm like what really they did, what? So, oh yeah.

Thad David: 33:02

Conversations when I'll be sure to link the podcast. Once it goes, I'll put it in the bio and we can get it linked up so anybody listening. You go check yours out as well. And I love that. Exercise is something I do often with people because a lot of times we struggle what to do. I just don't know what to do here. It's like, well, let's talk about all things. It would be the opposite of what you, what you end result you want. And then, and all of a sudden, they have this big list. I was like, well, let's just do the opposite of everything you just put down. Yeah, and then it's a cool little bridge and pathway to get to that. That good stuff, absolutely. And the learned optimism, I think, is a Really important thing. And I don't know, do you spend a lot of time talking about optimism and positive thinking, things like that?

John Register: 33:42

No, not really, Because that's not, it's really not my work. Um, I see similarities with the, with the concepts, and I haven't studied Dr Silverman, so I'm probably gonna as much as I probably should have. I've studied him a little bit in his On positive psychology, but not to the depths of, you know, like phd level, what I, what I with a lot of the, those frameworks. There's a, there's a destination that happens, and my Focus, my thought, is that there really is not a destination. There are plateaus that we can reach, but there's from that plateau some people might call it growth mindset I say the plateau is for our next level of growth. So we, we, we write, we hit a plateau in order to grow. Um, because in my model I have three phases and I can, I can jump to another one. Yeah, um, I have this what's called the reckoning moment. The reckoning moment is realized or hurtled when we realize we do not get back what we desire to have back After some type of trauma has impacted our life. So that's the reckoning moment, uh, the, the, the next one, that's when we realize that we, we are, we can't go back.

John Register: 35:01

People will say, because people say this and we can hear it in people's voices or what they say. I wish things would get back to normal. Can we just go back to the way used to be? If we can just get back to a the old days, it's gonna be. It's gonna be, but the old days remember that great. They were just older. So anytime we hear that we know somebody's in a loop Of the past or a loop of trying to get back to a nostalgia or something, yeah, if we can just go back to the way used to be, if we can just go back to the time of the 1980s, it would. It'd be great. If we can just get back to before that we had Not. Just we can't, we can't go back, and that's an impossibility, it's just impossible.

John Register: 35:38

So Once we understand and realize that we now have hurtled into the revision, I can now begin to have a new casted vision. And that new vision begins with a redefining the problem, then a rebuilding on that we start tinkering around with. In other words, we don't have anything constructed, but we're starting to erect, maybe dig the hole for the building to be erected, and then we have to make a commitment to the new vision. That's hard. It's the second hardest part of the model, and the reason it's it's so hard Is because we have usually People who are very close to us, what I call other people.

John Register: 36:24

It's other very close people who believe for us what we can or cannot do, which is often based upon what they believe they could or could not do If they were in our situation. So a doctor might tell me you'll never run again Because I don't have, I've never been an amputee before and I assume that this doctor is the authority because he's done, she's done multiple amputations. They are the authority in my life that tells me I will never be able to do this and I trust that authority figure. So therefore I believe them, because I know no other basis or grounds, and they become that authority figure in my life To tell me I can't do it. So therefore I think and I assimilate that into me very difficult a mom or dad, you're not gonna amount to anything, you're just, you're just like your mother, you're just like your father, right, and we internalize those things because as kids, we assume our parents to be the closest things to us, the closest people, and so if you, if I hear that constantly, I'm never going to amount to anything from the person. That is my confidant, my, the one that I'm closest to I have. I struggle. The second thing is we have society. Society dictates to us our normalities.

John Register: 37:44

The antagonist in in um peter pan is captain hook. He's made. He's scaring the lost boys. He is. He's the antagonist because he has his. He's an above the wrist amputee. He wears a hook. Hook represents I'm. I have a claw that's going to hurt you if I Put this into. I can hook you like I hook a fish, like I hook something. You know that, uh, I want I'm gonna spear you. And so he's made the villain, this disfigured person cartoon character. I Wait a minute. I'm now an amputee and I begin to associate things around.

John Register: 38:22

Every Halloween I see people with disfigurements. I see people that have maybe amputees or Freddy Krueger's. They're burned over their bodies, they. I see Jason, who's mentally kind of deranged. And so now society has told me that these people are to be feared. Hannibal Lecter, ladies, right, all these people are to be feared. Now we want to have a mental health conversation and we can't Because we've been told that that is wrong. That's who we blame everything on In society, for all of our ills, all of our woes, all the things that we don't want to take responsibility for ourselves. We just say Big mass school shooting happens, oh it's, they weren't mentally ill. We just blame everything, instead of taking ownership Of what we need to take ownership of. We cast it out. Very difficult to move past those two.

John Register: 39:30

And now, um, the third piece is I have to do it. I've had some of the world's best hurdle coaches in the world. They never ran a hurdle for me. I have to be the one to attack the hurdles in my life. No one else can do that for me. So I'm either going to attack it or I'm going to stop at it, or I'm going to go around it. But you've got to attack the hurdle. So maybe you start off with small hurdles. You know small wins and you begin to raise them up. That's how we teach the hurdles. So, yeah, so it's very difficult. That gets us to. So once we hurdle that, now we're in the third part, which is great, because now we're in the renewal and we want to be in the renewal. But it begins with the hardest part of the model and that's the rebirth. Once I make a commitment, there is now a chasm that has been created.

John Register: 40:26

With a commitment, there is no going back to the way it used to be. It is an impossibility. If you can go back on your commitment, I say that you have not made a commitment. You're probably in the reckoning moment and not the rebirth. That's the difference between the two. When a commitment is made, when I tell the doctor, take my leg off, and the doctor amputates my leg, I do not get my leg back. When we make commitments, we do not get back what we had prior to. We don't want to hear those things. It's very difficult to hear those things. I can go back on my commitment? No, you can't. You never made a commitment in the first place. If you can, because a commitment is a commitment it's like the old joke right when you have your breakfast baking an egg. The chicken was involved in the process, the pig was committed.

Thad David: 41:20

I've never heard that and I'm going to steal that. You can't get more hate from that chicken, but you can't get any more bacon from that pig, you got to get another pig, baby. So, inside of that too, where do you think people I think you alluded to it when do you think people struggle the most inside of this process?

John Register: 41:44

I think it depends wherever they are, because I think when you see yourself, you can see yourself where you are in the model. Here's what happens. I'll finish the model out. So in the rebirth there's a couple of things that have to happen. One you might have phantom pain.

John Register: 42:02

I've had that huge phantom pain to remind you of a previous state that you were in, but you're no longer there because you made the commitment you may have a longing for, in my case, my mother, who passed away two years ago to see mom again, to talk to mom. It's not happening. That pains me. That is a visceral, reactive response. I'm not getting it back because the commitment is already done. She has passed from this life, so I cannot get it back. It could be you want to go back in the military, but you have exited and you no longer are able to get back into your unit or get back into the military. You have exited and now you're in this whole new world. So how do we respond in that For me, I didn't know how to use a wheelchair, but now I have to use one to get to my prosthetic appointment. That's new, because new is no prior point of reference.

John Register: 43:00

And when new is no prior point of reference. If that's the definition, then we can't use old systems, old thoughts, old ideas to put into a new bucket to get a different output If you do the same thing over and over again, expecting a different result. It's a definition of what Intensity, absolutely so why do we do it? So then I have to learn the manipulate that wheelchair. I have to learn how to put on an artificial leg. I have to learn how to walk between the parallel bars. I have to learn how to walk on a four bar walk around the hospital. I have to learn how to use a walker to crutches, crutches to a cane, cane to free walking, free walking to running, running to jumping, jumping to a paralympic silver medal. That process took seven years. Can I shorten the time? Can I shorten it by getting through those other phases faster, by honoring that.

John Register: 43:50

I need to get out of this reckoning moment. I need to jump past this, the revision, and start working. So I have to get in the renewal. So I have to have this, this, give myself space and grace to grow. I need to give myself space and grace to grow, because when something is new, you just can't start running. If you're a toddler, you can't start toddling if you don't even know how to walk, you just, you learn. You got to learn these things again, and so that is the space and grace we need. Once we have done that, and I'm walking, well, and I'm up on two limbs again, walking around. That's my resolve. I'm resoluted, who I am. I know exactly how I'm showing up. No longer do I ever want to go back to the way it used to be. No, you need to catch up to where I am. That's not braggadocio. You just done the work. You've read the Constitution. You know what the preamble is. You know the seven articles. You know why article number five is the most important article. Right, trying to pull that back.

Thad David: 44:55

Yeah, not a bullet that you do so we know.

John Register: 45:00

We don't have to have CNN or Fox tell me what it is, we don't have to have a talk ahead tell me what to think. No, because I've read it, I know exactly what it says and I can begin to my own interpretations off of it of what I think the founders desired for that. So now that equals my freedom, my destination, my reward, so to speak. But the reward, remember, is not a destination, it's a plateau for the next level of growth. That's where my model, I think, changes from some of the other models. Like I said, I haven't studied them all together, so maybe I'm right, maybe I'm wrong, but I haven't seen them go. I think they've been destination type models where mine is no, we hit here and then we elevate to the next level. We've learned something.

John Register: 45:49

It's not even elevation up. Right. Elevation usually is up. I think it's elevation is when you turn it on its side and I jump from, like maybe, a lily pad to a lily pad or a stone to a stone, because I honor the place where I was and then I move to the next stone, I gather myself and I land on that stone in order to jump to the next stone. So I can't move to stone two unless I honor stone number one. I don't climb over stone number one. If I think about go up a ladder, I'm climbing over somebody. You've got to climb the corporate ladder. What if the corporate ladder was wrongs like over a chasm to help other people across the chasm of commitment.

Thad David: 46:41

There's something that I read is the book's called With Winning in Mind. It's a bit of an older book, it's a little bit dated, but he was an Olympian Back in the day. He had this goal his whole life to be a gold medalist in precision shooting. He said the most depressed day of his life was the day after he won his gold medal and it was because and his wife told him she's like well, you've had this goal your entire life Like, of course, you're depressed because you don't know what's next.

Thad David: 47:10

You've always had a goal and that's what I love about where you're stating this is honoring that we're going from this lily pad to this lily pad or this stone to this stone, and knowing that we're going to the next stone. But we got to honor where we're at. And I think far too often to his point and to what I'm hearing in your point is that if we don't know where we're going next, it's easy to kind of really focus in on what we don't have back to. You had talked about earlier that 99% of what we can't do right now. It keeps us hyper focused in, whereas when we know what that next is, it's great, right.

John Register: 47:41

And sometimes I think we know and sometimes we don't know, but I think we know that changes in the air Right. So I think about, let me see, maybe like Jim Brown maybe some folks remember Jim Brown great, running back right, but he stops before the height of his career and he does something else. And then we look at maybe a Brett Barve or Tom Brady. Michael Jordan can't give the game up, have to stay in. We'll switch teams to stay going on to play, because they're not what they're afraid of. But when I listen to them talk, they're missing the four people on the court with Jordan or the 10 other people on the court on the field going down the football field. That's what they're going to miss the most and they want to stay part of that element.

John Register: 48:41

Same thing with a soldier, same thing with a military, like a commander. They're leading all these people. Now who are they going to leave when they get back to the house? And they have, just in time, their service, gts, their family that they were never there for Because they were always on missions. Somebody else was lead that household. That's the and Garrison.

Thad David: 49:09

Oh yeah, absolutely. And recognizing that, and it made me think of something as well as you had talked about with the staying in. And then I love how you brought it back. You know, like with all these greats that have stayed on their team forand then moved teams, but thinking about the military in general, that was one of the reasons. I remember talking to some buddies that we always said you know, if we could stay together for 20 years, it could probably be a different conversation. But we know immediately, if we all re-enlisted, we're all going to end up in different spots. And so I don't ever look back and think about what if? Simply because I know that it wasn't going to be what it was. It couldn't be, it was going to shift, it was going to change.

John Register: 49:45

And I don't mean to you know that, I don't mean to make light of, I'm being very serious, right, these are very hard, difficult challenges that people and it doesn't escape anybody is what I'm really trying to say. So then, how do we prepare for it? That's where I really come in. That's my work that I do now. So you heard, I went on from, you know, the military to becoming this Paralympic athlete. I swam for physical therapy and I fluked up, messed up and made the Paralympic swim team like a night and a day. I ended up going as a fordner meter hurdler. I went as a Paralympic swimmer. I saw athletes running and jumping with artificial legs, had a leg made for running and four years later I went to Sydney, australia, and won silver medal in the long jump. And then, you know, I was working for the military, that started working for the Olympic committee.

John Register: 50:40

And that's when the the Gulf War to turn into the new Iraq war you know, gulf War 2.0, what do you want to call it? And the first casualties were first starting to come back from that conflict, that war, and Walter Reed was being overrun with people that were primarily amputees at that point. They were getting maimed and stuff, and so we had a different war on our hands than what was the last one. A general officer got fired because trying to do the right thing and we hadn't prepared. So he got the axe and I had this new program. I was asked by my boss what can we do for our veterans from the Olympic committee? Because I had this. I had all the KIAs on my door, I was getting reports. I still have my Pentagon account. I got my, I would I would post the names of the KIAs that were coming up and I said what do you want to do? And so we started a wheelchair basketball clinic at Walter Reed. That turned into a program at Walter Reed and then programming medical center. I got some money, some funding for it from a senator, a congressman out of Pennsylvania, and he gave me five million bucks. I got 10 million from from representative Filner out of Chula Vista, california, for the VA side, and that really began what became known as the Paralympic Military Support for Women.

John Register: 52:25

So all these things that we're talking about right here, right these, the planning for the transition begins to open up other opportunities that you may have never seen coming, and so what we should do is we should always plan for our transitions. The great April Holmes, paralympic Athletes. He says train for your transition. We do all these training for operations. Train for the transition. It's a part of your duty, it's a train for your transition. Look at your options before you need to get to your options. And I think that's the always preparing for.

John Register: 53:06

The next thing is, you know, even when I went full time as a professional speaker now, I trained for that before the United States Olympic Committee decided to right, size me, upsize me, you know, switch me out to something different, because the mission changes right. And so I was prepared for that to go out as a full time speaker because of my basement at from six o'clock in the evening to about 10 o'clock at night. I, I worked on it, I worked on the business to see where this thing could take. And then, when I was going to leave in February of 2000, 2000, 2019, and they let me go in 2019, january, january 4th, 1230, 34 seconds. It was great. I had 15 years, you know, with the organization I learned a ton. I had my, my stone that I had, I was on. I learned a lot from them. So I'm not bitter about that, it was just time to move. I had a, I had a different vision and now I could step to the next stone on secure, on a secure stone because I built it instead of being. You know, I do an exercise with.

John Register: 54:12

Everybody has a rope and everybody holds onto the rope. And it's interesting to see. I say, okay, we're going to, we're balanced on the ropes or feet have to be inside the rope, and we're going to, we're going to. I tell a couple of people to let go of the rope because they're going to move to a different job or move to a different thing, and so some people just they let the rope go really quickly, so everybody has to scramble, trying to balance themselves out on the rope. Some people let the rope go very gently to let allow other people time to fill in the balance on the rope. So what type of leader are you? What type of? What type of way do you leave an organization? Do you just drop the rope or do you really try to replace the person that you have coming in to, so that there's a lot less friction on the organization? Is it time for your to sunset what you're going to do for that organization?

Thad David: 55:02

So I wrap my head or I love the, just the idea, the concept of it, with grabbing of the rope, and I can totally see people just dropping it and just peacing out. I'm done, I'm out.

Thad David: 55:15

Yeah, I'm done, which is very representative of a lot of things you had mentioned earlier and I was hoping to touch back on it as well, because I don't know, we're back into 2019, but fast forward all the way back to 94. Because you had said something and then it's easy to see and I say easy to see and hindsight, because you've spelled it out so, so masterfully of just all these lessons that you've learned. But in that moment in time that you said that you had your leg amputated, that you had thought it's over. What's my life like now? And I don't think you could have ever known that. You know when you just say it's over, and then now you're a silver medalist, so it clearly wasn't over. Maybe the vision was different, but what was that like for you in that moment? I mean committing to something different. I mean what helped you in that moment? Because I think a lot of times you go find ourselves in that moment unsure of what to do.

John Register: 56:15

Well, my mind is a very easy answer because I alluded to earlier. You know I'm a person of faith and why I say faith I mean Christianity. When I say Christianity I mean Christ. So I look at, I look at life through a, and not even what the most people think probably in Christianity. So let me unpack that just a little bit.

John Register: 56:32

So when I was going through a business leadership class for the for veterans run out of Syracuse University, I was doing at Oklahoma State University a week long intensive certification course for entrepreneur entrepreneurship, we had a woman that came in. Her name is Pat Rodriguez. Pat said to us what's the most important thing? Your business? We all got the answer wrong. So she's like a little little bit of drill sergeant and she was like she's built like millions of dollars of organizations and contracts and stuff. She says the most important thing in your business is not your clients, it's not your. Your. Your marketing, it's not your. Whatever you want to put in there is your supply chain.

John Register: 57:19

Most important thing in business is how are you going to wrap up your business? I said, oh my gosh, what a brilliant way to think of it. Because when you say, when you begin with that question how am I going to wrap the business up? Am I going to put it on the stock market? Am I going to give it to my children? Am I going to train up somebody else to take it? Do I just want to sunset the entire thing? I put you in the state of saying that my business is so successful that I have something to wrap up and I was like, dang, that's brilliant. So then it was still bugging me right Six months later and I realized the question that I was really asking myself was how are you going to wrap up the end of your life when it's all said and done, back to dust.

John Register: 58:09

How are you going to wrap it up? And my answer was I wanted my God to say well done, good and faithful servant. That's what I want, that's what I want to hear. And so how do I do that? I have to seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness. All things shall be added to me. So how do I do that? I have to be very cautious on the foundation that I build. So when I say the foundation, I believe is Christ.

John Register: 58:38

And so we can build in six different ways. We can build with wood, hand stubble or gold, silver and precious stones, because every person's work gets tried by fire. And if I build with wood, hand stubble and my works tried by fire, it's a fire sale. I smell like smoke but my foundation is still there. If I build with gold, silver and precious stones, my work lasts. It's purified. Fire purifies those things. So I have a tag or a place in my speech where I talk about that. We have to breathe oxygen into our atmosphere to survive and thrive in our environments and that's how I kind of look at things. Right, if I have oxygen leaving my environment, say, I'm under water and I can't get back to the surface, you're a marine, you know what do you do. What do you do? You know you can't make it to the top. What's the first, what's the response in the brain that begins to do? It begins with a pee.

Thad David: 59:44

Panic.

John Register: 59:45

I panic. When I panic, I might start doing irrational things. All right. So if you think back to the beginning of the pandemic, how do we know that America was in a panic situation? What was the one thing we were doing that told the rest of the world we were panicking, remember.

Thad David: 1:00:04

I mean, I'm thinking about all the masks. Everybody was buying all this stuff, everybody's buying.

John Register: 1:00:08

We weren't even buying masks at that time. We were buying toilet paper.

Thad David: 1:00:13

Oh, that's right. Yeah, man, I forgot about that.

John Register: 1:00:17

We were fighting over toilet paper.

Thad David: 1:00:21

That's right.

John Register: 1:00:22

That's not rational, because that was not going to solve COVID, right? We didn't even know we were dealing with that point. But we're buying toilet paper, so we do irrational things. So when we are adding oxygen into environment, oxygen becomes rich, it becomes a sustainer, becomes a life giver and it helps other people have other life. We take oxygen away, we cause panic and stress.

John Register: 1:00:49

So the question wasn't even about going back to the pandemic. The question wasn't about whether somebody wanted to wear a mask or not wear a mask. The question wasn't about whether somebody wanted a vaccination or not have a vaccination. The question was, excuse me, when someone came to you, john registered with the opposing idea that you had. Did you add oxygen, john, into their environments or did you, john, take it away?

John Register: 1:01:22

Because that's on me, that's not on a political party, that's not on a left versus right, that's on. What did I do in that moment? What am I responsible for? For another life that is here, that has a unique design and a capability of only doing one thing in this earth that that life is designed to do. So that's how I look at my life right now, when I add oxygen into people's environment.

John Register: 1:01:52

All the time life was given to me. I have to push life into others. If I'm not, if I'm causing panic in someone's life, I got to check myself because I'm not designed to do that, I'm not designed to take life away, and that's on me. I can't blame anyone else. But if I do it or not do it, so that's how I show up, that's what I talk about in my faith.

John Register: 1:02:18

I am designed to do this and so I do it now through the lens or through the platform of keynote speaking. I do it through the platform of leading conversations for CEOs and executives. I do it through a platform of having fireside chats and taking that contextual model that I just said and sharing it with those that are doing mergers and acquisitions Some very challenging times for people and their employees to move one organization to another. Or when someone's going through a reorganization in their business or they're trying to get people on board to go through a new time or concept. How do we add life through that entire process to make the organization not just survive but thrive? So I hope that answered that question. It was a long one to answer, but I'm a stereotype, so that's what you get.

Thad David: 1:03:09

Beautiful. I love that. I was thinking. It made me ponder and just think about where I'm adding oxygen in other people's lives in general, whether it's in passing I think even on a basic level, which you were in a very high beautiful space with that and just in everyday passing. Are you causing panic in others? If somebody's got a good idea, are you sampling it out? Are you adding oxygen? I just love it. It's a great way to look at it. That can be applied to a lot of things.

John Register: 1:03:41

So, yeah, that's what I share with audiences and it's a self-discovery journey. I'm giving the recipe out here on your show at the head, but really the conversation is a very fun presentation. We do a lot of activity, a lot of exercise. I believe in experiential learning, so I'm always trying to do some type of activity to lock the learning in, and sometimes we do Paralympic sports that are easy to do inside of a room and sometimes we do a stand-up turnaround All these things that lock the learning in for the individual to be a better team player, for what organization they're with.

Thad David: 1:04:19

I think it's absolutely fascinating. I love it. Thank you so much for sharing all of this stuff. You got a beautiful story and an amazing journey, so I'm very happy that you jumped on and shared it all, absolutely. I'd love to ask you one more question, as well as to just share where, before we close it out with that, where's the best place for somebody listening that said you know what? I love John's message. I want to hear more. Where can they find you, aside from, obviously, your new podcast that's coming out as well? Yeah, it's going to be fun.

John Register: 1:04:50

Yeah, so the best place really is my website. It's johnregistercom johnregistercom. All my social media handles are up there on the upper right-hand corner. Everything's easy to toggle to. You know I have a business phone that number that's up there. I think my email is there too, so you can get with me or get my assistant If you're looking for someone to come in work with your teams or your employees CEOs, executives, you know, coaching on that. And then we have a little newsletter that goes out. I have a.

John Register: 1:05:26

It really came from a lot of people that were following me after my presentations, and so I try to get this community together.

John Register: 1:05:34

I started something called JR's 90 Days Friends. Excuse me, these 90 Days Friends are designed to take one aspect of leadership for 90 days and drill deep into it by conversations I've had with other people on various podcasts or other platforms, and we take a little snippet of what they have shared and their methodology, of how they shared it, and we share it with anybody that signs up for that. And that goes out once a week on Sunday, and we have a conversation once a month or, you know, definitely once a quarter with myself and you can ask any questions kind of ask JR anything, and that has to deal with any one of the modules that we have been through and it's just a good place to get a community together. It's kind of it's not on Facebook, it's on Mighty Network, so it's behind the you know, it's kind of on the people inside of that area so people can have a good dialogue with each other without having to the algorithms being changed on on. So it's, it's a nice, it's good, it's a good space just to be involved with.

Thad David: 1:06:38

I'm definitely going to throw that into the bio and and of the of the podcast for anybody listening. That way make it easy access to click and to go find you and hopefully to join the conversation. Absolutely, thank you. And knowing that you've talked to tons of people just throughout your journey you've helped out tons of people I'm curious to ask you where do you see people get kind of hung up to the right word or just unsure Like what do you? What do you see as the catalyst for them? Is there a common thread, that that somebody might be able to take something away from that? That this was it and this is how I was able to get through my, my problem or my struggle that I was having.

John Register: 1:07:17

Yeah, I think the common thread is understood, or making that, that this understanding that, that self identification moment, that you are stuck right, and I think people think that they're not stuck, when they actually are stuck. I have to recognize very quickly oh, you know what I am trying to do, every single thing, but I haven't gone back to the basics. Right, let's say from a sales point, right, why don't, why don't I have any events coming up in February? Well, idiot, because in November you stopped making sales calls. Oh, I got it back to something. So it's kind of it's we have the answers that are there for us, but do we want to see them? And I think we get blindsided by our own I don't know success or own belief in ourselves or something. We just don't see it. And so it's.

John Register: 1:08:08

It's very important, you know, to get with a mastermind group or get with a, and I don't do a mastermind, so I'm in a mastermind group. I don't do masterminds like that, like paper master. When I look at masterminds I'm talking about, you know, you get to start with two people and then two people must agree on the third person to come into the mastermind. But they're really there to help you advance forward to see your blind spots, because we all have them. We all have blind spots, and so we're there to help each other through those times. So you got to get yourself with a group of people that will not allow you to fail. That's not allowing to fail means you got to. You got to have some tough conversations and you make some you know, make some great choices from that, because you have other people in your wheelhouse and I think that's how we get past it. That's the. Those are some of the action steps that we kind of get stuck.

Thad David: 1:08:59

I love. Just it got me laughing simply because it's so obvious and true. But just recognizing that you are stuck, and then we do the things we need to do to get unstuck. But the start of it is just saying you know what it seems like I'm stuck and yeah, but we don't do any other stuff until we realize we're stuck, Because if I don't know I'm stuck, I'm not going to reach out, I'm not going to get advice from others. So I think it's a great great point.

John Register: 1:09:24

You remember the standard old standard cars where you had to shift the car into first and then you had to shift in reverse and you got to clutch it. If you're in the, if you ever lived in like Chicago, where I'm at right now I'm not living in Chicago, but I'm back in Chicago you had to you might have gotten yourself in a rut and you had to rock that car back and forth. And you some people just keep on going. They don't realize they need a tow truck or something else to throw them a lifeline and pull them out of the rut, because they've dug themselves in so deep that they're not getting out. I'm just not getting out, and so we have to realize before we start going back and forth and shifting the gears, we might need to call a truck to get us back on the road.

Thad David: 1:10:07

Absolutely. And then the tow truck and that and that example would just that mastermind group or having somebody else that can let you know your blind spot. So, john, thank you so much for taking some time. You have a just a wealth of knowledge and wisdom and I really appreciate you taking the space and the time?

John Register: 1:10:23

Absolutely I will. Can I have the one more thing in there, please? Yeah, so I do have a. I wrote a book for our ambassadors. It's out now. It's called 10 Power Stories to Impact Any Leader Journal your Way to Leadership Success. It's not on Amazon, it's not out there.

John Register: 1:10:41

On the big thing, I did it, you know, just down and dirty. I got it out to them because it was at the beginning of the pandemic and they were getting kicked out of countries. And if you remember, very early on we didn't know if the pandemic was coming to the United States or what was going to be happening. And at the same time they were being kicked out of countries and couldn't make their way through other countries because those countries had shut down too. So we couldn't get our ex-packs back home.

John Register: 1:11:05

So the question was not policy. The question was how do you lead in that type of environment? So you must lead with stories. So I wrote a book called 10 Power Stories to Impact Any Leader Journal your Way to Leadership Success. The goal of that book is, once you read through the stories my 10 stories you then are invited to write your own stories after each one of those stories. So at the end of the book you have your own 10 stories that you can lead in some type of a crisis environment. So that's the goal of the book, and now it's in paperback form so you can get it. And it's on the website as well, on the shopping cart.

Thad David: 1:11:42

Excellent, I'm excited to go check that out as well. That's very intriguing. I love that format.

John Register: 1:11:46

It's a bathroom reader man, Definitely.

Thad David: 1:11:48

I feel like there's a Marine Corps joke in there about why it has to be easy for me to get through. But man, thank you, John, I appreciate it. Thank you so much. Thanks, Dan.