Shaped by Experience

In this heartfelt episode of Solid Start, Greg Reid sits down with Jake “Goody” Goodman for an honest conversation about how life’s experiences shape who we become. Together, they explore the powerful idea that God never wastes an experience whether it’s hardship, fear, growth, or personal transformation. 

Jake opens up about several defining moments in his life, including the decision to change his lifestyle one step at a time, ultimately losing over 100 pounds through accountability, discipline, and small daily choices. His message is simple but powerful: lasting change begins with deciding to start.  

This episode reminds listeners that transformation doesn’t happen overnight. It happens through consistent “baby steps,” supportive relationships, and the willingness to believe that change is truly possible.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to another episode of Solid Start, a podcast designed to help get your week off to a solid start by focusing on life from God's perspective. I'm Greg Reed, life coach at Merrill Bros, located up in the tropical paradise of Coke, Indiana. And we're missing our uh co-host today, Brian Hertzog. I think he's out running around the country somewhere. Maybe a trade show. He's got lots going on. But I do have Jake Goodman, otherwise known as Goody, is on the broadcast with me. So Jake, thanks so much. Yeah. And you're kind of a veteran of podcasts like that. Oh, yeah. I'm really used to this. So it ought to go great. This would be like maybe number one.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

Oh, number one, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:51

That's great. Well, hey, thanks for uh thanks for being with us today. Some of you may remember that uh we're looking at for these la in these last couple of weeks at the way of the shepherd, in particular how God has shaped us. And so we have been using this acronym SHAPE. So S is strengths, H is heart, A is attitude, P personality, and E experiences. I was thinking over the weekend when every time I see that word experiences or what we've been through, I think about the uh Saturday morning, Jake. When I got a call, it was uh 50 years ago, 1976. Got a call from my parents, and we would have a Saturday morning. I was in grad school in Chicago with my wife. We were newlyweds, and this Saturday morning, uh my parents, I don't know if it was my mom or my dad that said that they had discovered a melanoma tumor. And my dad was only 46 years of age, and we just thought, you know, like, is he gonna be alive by Christmas? Like, is this gonna be our last Christmas? That kind of thing. When we got that news, we went next door and talked to our uh good friends, and they opened up the Bible, and there's a passage in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 that's become kind of a cornerstone for me when I think about experiences, and it says this Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort. And then he says, Who comforts us in all of our troubles, so that. The first part of that is God comforts us when we're going through difficult times. But then there's a so that. There's a reason for that, not just to benefit us, but so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. So that was a turning point for me. My dad lived through that uh procedure and did very well for many years after that. That was a turning point for me to be able to recognize that man, God does care about what's going on in my life, and he also wants to use those experiences. I don't think God ever wastes an experience. No matter what, no matter what we go through, he doesn't ever waste that. A guy named Albert Einstein, you may be uh may have heard his name before. And I think I would take exception to Albert Einstein. I that's a little bold statement, but he says the only source of knowledge is experience. I think that's it's certainly a key source, but I'm sure he had something in mind that was way deeper than my little pea brain. So, Jake, tell us a little bit about your family, where you grew up, kind of how you got to Merrillbros. We'll start there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Um, so I'm Jake Goodman, like you said earlier.

SPEAKER_01 3:29

Um and where did the Goody just because of the last name being? So tell me about that. I don't know that I knew where that came from.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

So yeah, I had mentioned this morning that Connor Zeke, which is Ryan's nephew, actually was one of my best friends in high school.

SPEAKER_01 3:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:43

And my nickname in high school was Goody. It was my dad's nickname, my my brother's nickname, I inherited it.

SPEAKER_01 3:50

That's so odd you say that because in in high school my name was Goody Two Shoes. Oh, really? Look at that. I I didn't have the two shoes as well. Well, yeah, so I think that was yeah, there were probably some reasons for that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But anyway, so Goody, that was a nickname that came from your dad.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Yep, dad took my brother. That's you know, my my dad and his buddies all had kids about the same age. So, you know, when their kids heard his friends calling him Goody, yeah, they started calling my brother Goody. And then, you know, they had little brothers my age that heard my brother Jr. Yeah, I was Goody the Third. So Goody the Third. And when I started here, yeah. When I started here in 2016, we had another guy named Jake that worked here, Jake Archer. Yes. And uh so back in the day, we had what was called the war room, and it just had a big whiteboard on it, and that's what the schedule was on. Well, when you have two Jake's, you gotta figure out who Jake is that. Like I said, Ryan's nephew was my best friend in high school, and so Ryan just knew me as Goody. So he just started putting Goody on the board instead of Jake, and I think that's how everybody kind of knew me then.

SPEAKER_01 4:52

Okay. Had never really asked you other things uh where that came from. That's where it came from. Yeah. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:57

I'm from Galveston, Indiana. Okay, which is yep. Yep. That's where we're located. Yeah. Not not Texas, not Galveston. I'm from Galveston. So yeah, say it right. Yep, that's right. I've lived there my entire life, never gonna leave. I love it. It's home. Okay, yeah. I'm I'm rooted here, my entire family's here, you know. My that's great. My grandparents were born here, and I'll never leave. This is home. I love it. Yeah, and okay. You're married? Been married for five years in June.

SPEAKER_01 5:23

Congratulations.

SPEAKER_00 5:24

Yeah, yeah, thank you. So we've been we've been together for 11 high school sweethearts. I was a junior in high school when we got together and you know, been through a decade of professional careers, and she, you know, went to Purdue for four years and made it through college together for her, and got married when she got out of school and started her job, and we've been together ever since and not going anywhere. So that's so great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 5:49

Well, so as you think about this whole the E of in the acronym shape experiences, what would you say is at least I'm sure you've had lots of experiences. Yeah. What's one experience that you would want to talk about today? You say, hey, that was a life-transforming experience.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

It's actually kind of funny. I didn't think to say this this morning, but I remember getting the phone call that they found a tennis ball-sized brain tumor on my mother's brain. Oh I believe it was twenty two. Okay. I can't remember the exact year. I'm not as good with dates as you seem to be. I don't remember, but I just made it up. Yeah. But yeah, you made it up. There you go. I was here. I I was working. My mother was an instructional aide at a grade school, and a young man had knocked her down and she ended up with a concussion.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 6:43

And through the help for, you know, the brain scans for the concussion, they couldn't figure out why she wasn't getting better, and they started doing brain scans and found a tennis ball-sized brain tumor.

SPEAKER_01 6:53

Oh my.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

So that was actually laying on her optic nerve, and you know, it was a it was a pretty big deal. That is a big deal. The hospital kind of it it was a weird situation where they kind of sent everybody into a panic for what ended up being no reason, and luckily there was a doctor there that got everybody settled down. But I remember I was for the guys that work here, I was pulling a Trinity. I was coming down County Road 750, coming back from the Kokomo plant. I was doing Kokomo in the afternoon and my phone rang, and it was my grandmother, and she was crying and was freaking out. And you know she had taken mom to the hospital because mom wasn't driving at that point, she wasn't feeling well enough to. And that's when they said, you know, you have a tennis ball-sized brain tumor, we're gonna put you on a helicopter and send you to Indianapolis. Everybody's losing their mind, you know, freaking out. My wife's at work, so I came back. You know, you'd look at things, you would do stuff differently, and I should have done something differently. But went and got my, you know, I told grandma I'd be there as soon as I can, went and got my scale ticket, and came, went and dumped my load.

unknown 7:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

And I pulled up to the shop and I ran in and I said, Randy, I'd text Ryan and said, you know, I need to get going. I need to figure what out what's going on. And he said, Yeah, go. And I told Randy Troyer, I was like, hey, I I told him what's going on, and he said, I don't know why you even went and dumped. You should have just talked to me and I'd have gone and dumped it for you. But you, you know, you look at things differently. I was just trying to figure out what's going on. And sure. And plus you're yeah, you're early. You know, I yeah, I was 20, I was 22, 23. So you're young, you've never been through anything like that before. Yeah. Wow. That definitely was a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Tell us, tell us how that turned out.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

Uh well, that turned out great. They did a 10-hour brain surgery to remove the whole tumor. She still has yearly scans, and but it ended up being, you know, not cancerous. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:41

So it was benign.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

So it was it was benign. It was a blessing. They got it all out the first shot. She's had great scans come back ever since, and it went as as well as it could have. The doctor was phenomenal. Uh it was Dr. Ansari, I still remember his name. He was great down in Indianapolis, and she has ri fully recovered from that and just has her scans every year to make sure she's good, which luckily it's been so good that she's extended every two years now.

SPEAKER_01 9:07

So that's great.

SPEAKER_00 9:08

But yeah, so that went as well as I mean, in in that situation, that went as well as it could have.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

And I know that God used that to help you be more, probably more grateful for your mom. Oh, absolutely. More aware of what's going on. And so how about for you personally? What uh what's been an experience that uh you would want to share with us today?

SPEAKER_00 9:27

From a work standpoint, I kind of talked this morning, just working here has been an entire experience in itself, just getting to see the country at such a young age. You know, I've been I started I graduated on a Sunday, I had a week off, and then I started here the next Monday. So I've been here my entire adult life and I grew up here, basically. I mean I feel like I did. Right. But I've you know I've traveled coast to coast, I've been border to border. I've been in, you know, Michigan, I've been to Texas, I've been to Washington, Oregon, I've been to North Carolina, Florida, and I've driven most of those places. So I've gotten to see a lot of the country at a pretty young age. Yeah. And that that's been very important to me. And seeing different cultures and seeing different And that shapes how you think too, too.

SPEAKER_01 10:12

Oh, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

No, absolutely. Yeah, you see different different parts of places and you drive through different parts of places and you're just like, boy, I'm I'm glad I live where I do. I know. But there are also a lot of beautiful parts of this country that I really am glad I got to see.

SPEAKER_01 10:28

Exactly. So I think that's how we first met is that uh one of the things I said to the owners is that if I'm gonna be able to have any conversations with truck drivers, could I get permission to ride with them? And so they gave me permission to do that. And I think you mentioned this morning I'd forgotten about that. I think we'd had a couple of times, but I think one was a six and a half hour trip to Ohio, wasn't it?

SPEAKER_00 10:50

Yep, you rode with me to uh Maume, Ohio, to the Anderson's plant and rode back with me. I was about a six and a half hour day.

SPEAKER_01 10:56

Yeah. So my kids would say that had to be absolute torture. No, it was great for somebody to ride with you. It was great. But it was good just to be able we have lots of conversation that day. Yeah, couldn't really go anywhere else.

SPEAKER_00 11:06

No, I think we're both pretty chatty too. I think people would probably describe both of us.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Well, at least you, not me. No, never not me. Never. Uh yeah, that's right. Yeah. So personally then, what so that's your work, and you've your mom, but uh there's another experience that I think has shaped you a lot in many ways.

SPEAKER_00 11:23

Yeah. Um in the last year and a half, I've lost right out of a hundred pounds.

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Uh it's another person.

SPEAKER_00 11:28

Yeah, yeah, pretty much. Yeah. Yeah, I've really worked to uh change the way I eat, change the way I live, and just and so what started that?

SPEAKER_01 11:36

Like why like uh how how long has it been since you when you started that journey? It was January of twenty-five. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 11:44

So it's that's twenty six now, right?

SPEAKER_01 11:45

Yeah, so so we got a year and five months almost. Yeah. So what what prompted that? Um there was obviously you were a lot heavier than you wanted to be.

SPEAKER_00 11:53

Yeah, yeah. I was at my heaviest, I was 360 pounds. Okay. Um, I'm down to roughly I I kind of fluctuate between 245 and 255 now, which is about where I want to be. Yeah, okay. You know, I mean I'm I don't people can't see me, but I'm 6'4, 6'5. I'm not a small guy. I'm never gonna be small.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

So yeah, but you look great. I mean, I remember you remember me at my biggest.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Sure, I sure do. There was another gentleman that worked here who uh is not here anymore, but his name is Eric Schoen, and he was he's still one of my best friends. And we had gone to dinner one night, he was talking about he wanted to lose weight, because I mean he was bigger than me. You remember Shoney too.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yes, sure.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

He was my size or a little bigger, and you know, he was wanting to lose weight, and he was more focused on getting strong. He's like I said this morning, he's as strong as an ox, you know, bench pressing almost 400 pounds.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

But uh just a little over where I am. Yeah, a little bit, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:44

But he just a great guy too. He told me what he was doing and eating better, and just you know, he'd changed the way he was eating and doing a little bit of exercise, and he's like, you know, I've lost 30, 40 pounds already. And I was like, holy cow! So, well, if you can do that, surely I can do that too. That's right. And so we did. Me and him worked out, you know, four days a week and held each other accountable and shared, you know, recipes, shared different foods to, you know, yeah, as replacements for sugar or fatty foods or fast foods or whatever, and okay. Talked about what we were meal prepping for the week to bring to lunch because we're both truck driver. Well, I mean, I'm not a truck driver technically anymore, but yeah, he's a truck driver and I'm a you know equipment operator and still drive a truck. So yeah, he, you know, we really just kept holding each other accountable. And then when I started doing it, I talked to my wife and she decided she wanted to do it as well. So we held each other accountable at home and she started working out and we, you know, worked on meals together and found what we liked that was better for us and just did a lot of that.

SPEAKER_01 13:39

Yeah. So it's affected the people around you then. I guess that's what that's the point is that experiences affect how we treat people, how we look at people, to think, hey, you can make and it doesn't necessarily have to be in the weight loss area. It could be like it could be lots of areas. It could be relationally, it could be personally, it could be financially, it could be spiritually. There are all kinds of ways in which we can say it's time to make some changes. Absolutely. And so you may be listening to this podcast and you think, hey, I need to make some changes, and I don't I don't even know if it's possible. Well, you know, Jake's here to tell you, uh, and I'm here to tell you that it is possible. It's possible to make changes, it's possible to take new steps. So if somebody's listening to the podcast, uh Goody, what might you say? Well, like where do they start? Whether it's on this one or something else. How what would be the place to start? What has to happen first?

SPEAKER_00 14:29

Just deciding that you're ready to make a change. Okay. That's the first place to start. Okay. And you know, the way my mind works, I get deciding where to start is the hardest part because there's so many things to do. You know, yeah. Just really driving in on deciding this is the one thing I'm gonna work on for right now. Start small. Make big problems small. That's that's it. Growing up playing sports, my dad always used to say, take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves. So break it down into little parts, into well, I need to, you know, I really could drink a water instead of a coke right now. Or, you know, in whatever you're doing. Think of these different tasks, right tasks and break them down into smaller components and tackle them individually, and then they will combine themselves into the whole picture. Right. Is kind of the way I looked at it. Jumping in is the hardest part and deciding you're gonna do it and sticking to it. Okay. And when you do fall off the wagon of whatever you're going through, whatever you're doing, don't be afraid to jump back on it because you can always you're always gonna fall somewhere, no matter what you're doing. But you have to make the conscious effort to get back into it and continue to try.

SPEAKER_01 15:39

For sure. Yeah. So I think about that phrase, what it's inch by inch. Inch by inch. Anything's a cinch. Yeah. So in a sense, it's that uh, you know, baby steps kind of thing. That uh I think that one of the uh favorite movies, I think it's What About Bob. Yeah. And if you remember, he talks about baby steps. Yeah, yeah. I think he's a psychiatrist. He's trying to help, you know, try to. It really was funny, but it's that baby steps thing. So so if you're listening to the podcast, uh whenever it is uh that you're picking this up and you say, Hey, I'm I'm ready to do something, I'm ready to make a change. And if you'd want us to pray for you, um you can go to our website, Merylbros.com. There's a prayer tab, and you can always send us an email and just say, Hey, I'd like to talk to somebody, or maybe you want to find out more about this uh weight loss uh experience. My guess is you'd be willing to have a conversation with somebody to help them get started. Love to. And so if we can help you with that, or if there's something else that you're working on, maybe it's a relational issue or financial issue, we have resources to help you get started on that, a spiritual issue that you're dealing with. We just want to be able to help you take a next step to uh support you in that journey. So however you can do that, get a hold of us and we would love to jump in and uh and be a partner with you and be a part of caring for you. So anything else? What's uh what else for uh what's next for you? Are you you do you have some other big goals that you uh are look working toward or anything coming up this summer?

SPEAKER_00 17:10

Nah, just enjoy myself and enjoy my time with my wife and my family. You know, I'm very fortunate. I've only lost one grandparent, so they're all still here, and I still try to spend time with them. And I that's such a great gift. Yeah, I yeah, I you know, mom, like we said earlier, she, you know, after that, and she had a bout with bank breast cancer, and so I still I'm just happy she's here. We're actually going to Nashville this week for her 60th birthday. Oh, yeah. We leave Thursday and yeah, I just do what I always do. That's you know, my time with my family and friends is probably the most important thing I have. So it's great. So just continue to do that.

SPEAKER_01 17:45

Okay. Well, hey, we'd love to pray for you and uh give thanks for uh the journey that all of us are on to see what uh what God has in store next.

SPEAKER_00 17:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Father, we give you thanks for uh how you use the experiences of our life to shape us and mold us into the kind of people you want us to be. You don't ever waste an experience. And so thank you for this journey that Goody's been on since he was a child and the family that you allowed him to grow up in and his parents, and thanks for now good health for his mom, and thank you for his wife and the journey that they're on together. And so look forward to ways that you're going to use him to encourage other people to take a next step and to decide, hey, it's possible, and he knows it's possible to make significant changes. And so thank you that by the power of your Holy Spirit, we can in fact make the changes that you call us to make. So we just give you thanks for this week. Thank you for your goodness to us, and thank you for all the exciting things that are happening for Merrillbros, for the trade show that's taking place and the other exciting things that are going on in our company, new technology that we're looking at in ways that we can continue to make this world a better place. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Well, Goody, thanks so much. It's been great to uh have you on the podcast. We'd love to have you come back. We'll probably up to Taylor Swift uh uh viewing now with you being on. I would imagine it's gonna be uh I did what I could. You did what you could to get us to uh to that level. So thanks for uh listening to the podcast, and we look forward to uh having a great week, and we'll see you back uh next Monday. Take care.