The Comeback Chronicles Podcast
Welcome to The Comeback Chronicles, where raw truth meets unwavering resilience. Hosted by Terry L. Fossum, this podcast reveals the untold stories of remarkable individuals who’ve faced crushing defeats—only to rise stronger, wiser, and more determined.
Through candid interviews, you’ll hear about moments of failure, heartbreak, and doubt, as well as the transformational steps that led to victory. This isn’t just about inspiration—it’s about equipping you with actionable strategies, like Terry’s signature ‘Oxcart Technique,’ to overcome challenges and ignite your own comeback story.
If you’re ready to break free from fear, shame, or self-doubt and move boldly into your conquer zone, The Comeback Chronicles will empower you with the tools, mindset, and motivation to rise above and achieve your next great success.
Get ready to turn your setbacks into stepping stones and reclaim the life you’re destined to lead.
The Comeback Chronicles Podcast
How Terry got on a Survival Reality Show - against his will...!
In this fun but impactful episode of the Comeback Chronicles, Terry tells the story behind the story of getting on a Survival Reality Show - representing all of Boy Scouts of America! Riddled with absolute gold nuggets, this episode will entertain and inspire, and leave you with a feeling of hope. You're here for a reason!
If you've been stuck in fear, self-doubt, your past failures and you're ready to break through your comfort zones to finally reach the pinnacle of success in every area of your life, then this podcast is for you. Here's your host, Terry L Fossum.
Speaker 2:Hey, terry L Fossum here and welcome to a very different episode of the Comeback Chronicles podcast. So I have a lot of people asking me how I got on a survival reality show and why in the world would I wear my Scoutmaster uniform while doing so. So this episode, I'm going to tell you the story behind the story behind the story that led to all of that, and you don't know how that turned out. I'll expose that at the very end. So here's the deal. Have you ever watched any of those survival shows? I used to watch Survivor just all the time, boy. Every episode I'd watch that show and I've watched a lot of them. I enjoy those shows, but I always swore that I would never be on one. Have you seen what they make them eat? You know as much fun as I have watching them, and I do a lot of stuff in the outdoors by myself all around the world. It's kind of what I do for fun, not that no, I don't think so, but here's what led up to it.
Speaker 2:Okay, first of all, I was really blessed in business. I was part of the top fraction of 1% of the entire direct sales industry in the world. Life's going pretty good and I'm single, I'm kind of living the good life, and then love gets in the way a lot, doesn't it? Have you noticed that, see? I fell in love with this amazing young lady and her three amazing boys. Well, I ended up marrying said young lady and her three amazing boys, because when you marry a mom or dad, you marry the entire family right, which is fantastic. That was great news for me. I love kids. I always have, which is fantastic. That was great news for me. I love kids. I always have, so fantastic we're on Now.
Speaker 2:When I did so, though, I knew these boys needed to have a positive male role model. They needed one very badly, and I wanted to be there for them. So I called up my partners in business and I said guess what, I just retired. And they're like wait what? Yeah, I just retired, see, I've got one chance to turn these little boys into honorable men, and I'm not going to screw that up. I can always make money. You can always figure that out. I got one shot here, man, and I'm not going to blow it.
Speaker 2:So I spent the next several years basically raising these kids. That's what I did. I'd walk them to school every single morning. I'd be there when they got home from school, whether they liked it or not, you know. Okay, let's look at your homework all the things that a dad does. And that's how I spent the next few years Now while they're in school. I wrote some books, but I wouldn't ever promote them because you have to go traveling.
Speaker 2:And again, I got one job and these boys needed me very, very badly. So that's what I did, and fast forward a few years. Oh, by the way, I became their scout master. I'm an Eagle Scout, and the younger two twins were in Cub Scouts. So when it came time for Boy Scouts, I crossed over with them, as they say, and I spent some time as an assistant scoutmaster with them, and then the scoutmaster asked me to take over. In all honesty, I really didn't want to, but again, I had to step up, because these boys are watching to see if I step up or not. So I stepped up and became their scoutmaster as well. What a blessing that ended up being.
Speaker 2:It's one of the best things, if not the best thing, I've ever done. Just amazing. I got to help so many young boys grow up to be honorable men. What an honor, what an honor. And it's still. I mean, you can tell just by the tone of my voice how I feel about it. So it's fantastic. But fast forward a few years. Both those twins are turning 18, getting their Eagle Scout pretty much in that order If you're in scouting. You just giggled because you know that deal. See, at 18 is the cutoff and too many wait until way too soon towards their birthday and get their eagle only at the last minute, which was the story of my two boys. But they've got their eagles, scott, they're moving on to different things. So now I'm praying to God. Okay, god, what is it that you want me to do next? Whatever it is, I'll do it. You lead, I'll follow. Be careful what you ask for, because check this out.
Speaker 2:I came down to my computer my office one morning came down to my computer checking my email. You know, not a big deal, right? Every day I get this email from something called Metal Flowers Media Casting Company. I'm like okay, and I open this email and it says something to the effect of this is Metal Flowers Media Casting Company. We're casting a brand new television survival reality show, prime Time on Fox Network, pitting 10 of the top survival experts in the country against each other, all the while bringing along a complete novice, somebody who's never even camped out in their backyard before. And we think you'd be great.
Speaker 2:Now I'm thinking, okay, cool, first of all, which one am I? Wait what? And then next, let me ask you something. If you get an email out of the blue like that, what do you think? It's fake? Right, it's spam. Of course it is. I'm waiting for it and please send me $10,000 to Nigeria, kindly. But there's a phone number. And I called up my wife and I said man, here's what I just got and it sounds like a fake to me, but I'm going to make the phone call. So I called him up.
Speaker 2:That phone call ended up being a two-hour interview and like, oh my gosh, this is real. So like, okay, you know, here's the problem I told. I said I'd never be on one of these shows. I don't want to do it, I have zero desire to do it. But here's the problem. If you're praying to God, okay, god, whatever it is you want me to do, I'll do it. You lead, I'll follow. You can't say no. I mean, if you've been waiting for a sign there, it is right, an email out of the blue to be on a survival, really. So there I was.
Speaker 2:I had no choice, but several problems with that. First of all, I found out later on who my competitors were. I was going to be the oldest competitor on the entire show. Let's see, this was about what? Seven years ago it's about 53 years old, something like that. Okay, 53 years old going on to one of these things. Okay, and I'd had a decently sedentary lifestyle for the last little bit of time Actually, mostly since I married into these kids. I used to do crazy stuff around the world. But so, oldest person on the entire show. Now, next, I found out who my competitors were going to be People like a Marine Scout Sniper.
Speaker 2:This is one of the baddest dudes I've ever met in my life. He has seen a lot of action in different fun-filled parts of the world. We've got a bunch of special forces guys. You've got a fourth-degree ninja black belt that I'd seen on Naked and Afraid All-Stars all except for the fuzzy parts. You've got let's see a mercenary who helped take out Saddam Hussein. You've got military survival expert trainers. That's what they do for a living. And you've got me. So let's add on to that.
Speaker 2:They wanted me to represent all of Boy Scouts of America wearing my Scoutmaster uniform. No pressure there, right? No pressure at all. See, suddenly it took on a whole different world. I don't mind looking like an idiot, I'm used to it, it's okay. But suddenly I'm representing all the Boy Scouts of America. And let's also be honest in that. I'm not that good of a guy. I'm prior military, I'm an outdoorsman. I will admit there's profanity that comes out of these lips upon occasion and depending on how much I stubbed my toe, maybe a decent amount. And now everything I do, everything I say, if I screw up everything, people will judge. All of Boy Scouts of America now called Scouting America by me. Now that's a whole different pressure. And I told my wife I don't want to do this. I don't want to, but I don't feel I have a choice. And let's add on to that. I knew I wasn't going to win.
Speaker 2:You know, let's be honest, here I'm not going to win, but I called the entire thing blind faith. I even told them when I got on the show look, I know I'm not here to win, I get that. Okay, no delusions of grandeur. But I feel like I'm here for a reason. I want you to pick up on that. I feel like I'm here for a reason. I really want you to listen to that for a second and internalize it for yourself. I think I'm here for a reason. Now, I don't know what that reason is, but I feel like I'm here for a reason. Now we get into the show and first of all oh, by the way I mentioned, the survival experts were all going to have a novice, somebody who's never even camped out in their backyard before. Thus the name of the show Kicking and Screaming. It's currently, at the time of this, recording on Prime Video again, right now matter of fact.
Speaker 2:Now let's talk about the novices. So there I am, I am the Boy Scout, I am the Scoutmaster, in uniform, even with my cute little neckerchief, and my novice that they assign to me is pink and blue hair, fully tattooed up, tongue ring, atheist, admitted sex addict, online video gamer. Now, why would they do that? Because that's good TV, right. There's going to be conflict involved there, and they weren't completely wrong. But here's the deal, and I'm going to give scouting a little pitch here. I usually do because it transformed my entire life. I've seen it transform a whole lot of other lives.
Speaker 2:What they didn't understand is that's what we do. That's what I did as a scoutmaster. I would take kids from all different backgrounds, race, color, creed, religion, socioeconomic. We don't care. We don't care about their past, we care about their future. That's our job is to lift them up. Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting, taught us that there is good in every kid. He said, boy, that's what he did. But in every child there's good in every person. It's our job to focus on that good, not on the bad, not on the things that separate us, but the things that bring us together. God, there could be a little bit more of that in the world today, couldn't there? So that's what I did.
Speaker 2:Natalie was my partner and she was a partner because let's look at it this way. First of all, let's look at it from her standpoint. Okay, all of us survivalists are standing up on this hill, you know, looking as cool as we could possibly look, it wasn't hard for the rest of them, For me, well, I'm me all right, and we're standing up there and they all the novices come in on a boat and they see us all standing there. You know what Natalie was thinking. She is looking at all these studly guys and gals, rough, tough, and the fat old Scoutmaster, hi, you know. She was thinking please, god, don't give me the Scoutmaster. Okay, she was an atheist. She was still thinking it, because there are no atheists in foxholes or on survival. Reality shows perhaps. Please, god, do not give me the fat old scoutmaster. Please don't give me the fat old scoutmaster. Please don't give me the fat old. And what did she get? The fat old scoutmaster. Happily, she looked at the good in me too, and the good in her is that she's a good person, y'all, and she is smart and she's strategic and she was tough and she wanted to win.
Speaker 2:And we worked together not perfectly, because we are both human beings and we did get into it but when we did, we both decided to separate ourselves for a little bit and then not look at the things that we're fighting about, but rather the thing that would bring us together. We wanted to work together, we wanted to support each other to win the show. I'm there for a reason. I don't know what that reason is Interesting. Now, throughout the show and I'll admit it was kind of fun in its own sort of way Now, did we eat nasty things? Yeah, we really did eat nasty things, watched the show, did we go through some hardships? Sure, I lost 25 pounds on that show, but I also was walking into our little camp area. They was all camping together, camping, surviving together, and I walked in one day and the Marine Scout sniper Brady. And I walked in one day and the Marine Scout sniper Brady, who I mentioned, one of the baddest dudes I've ever met. He's also just a great, great guy, amazing man. He looks at me and goes Terry. And, by the way, I got to say I'm thinking you know, again I'm the old guy, I'm tired. He goes, terry. You probably got the best attitude of anybody I've ever met in my life. Huh, I'm there for a reason, you know.
Speaker 2:A lot of times we think we're not making a difference in the world, and you might not think you're making a difference in the world, but you are. You are. One of the phrases I use is that we are all preachers by our every word and deed. We are all preachers by our every word and deed. It doesn't matter how loud we speak. Our actions always speak louder, whether we realize they're doing it or not. Our actions are always speaking louder. Your actions, both good and bad, are speaking loudly and you are having an effect on people. It might be worth keeping in mind, as we're going out there every single day and just being around people. So we're going on.
Speaker 2:And we go to the first competition, right, where, okay, somebody loses this, they're going to be slated, maybe to be out of the show. Every single one of us is praying please don't let me be the first one, right? That's what I can tell you. All of those competitors you see on any of these competition shows, that's what every single one of them's thinking Please don't let me be the first one. And that's what I'm thinking Because, again. Oh great, yeah, the scout master, he's out of there.
Speaker 2:But we weren't. In fact, we almost won that first competition by a few seconds, and thank God we didn't, because nobody noticed. We almost won that first competition by a few seconds. They noticed the winner. They didn't notice us and throughout Natalie and I kept doing just fine and we kept winning a decent amount. And we just started thinking don't look at us, don't look at us. I'm just the fat old Scoutmaster, don't worry about me. But we kept making it through and making it through.
Speaker 2:Now, at one point we did fight and we fought. I mean, the cameras loved it, right. As soon as we start going at it while we're going at it, it doesn't matter, okay. Another important thing to remember it doesn't really matter. We're hungry, we are sleep deprived, we're under a lot of stress. Look, something's going to set us off, okay, and we go at it.
Speaker 2:But I taught Natalie at that point something I learned in scouting there are four stages of team development. Listen, please listen to this. Four stages of team development forming, storming, norming and performing. Now, I tell you this for a reason Forming you just get together the honeymoon stage, right, maybe, of your relationship. Storming the team. You're going to fight, okay, whether it's a corporate team or if it's a marriage or just buds or whatever. You are going to fight and you want to. Here's why the next stage is norming. You start getting together and aligning and then performing.
Speaker 2:So I came back to Natalie and said guess what? I got great news, what? We're in the middle of number two. Yes, we are. No, that's not what I mean. We're in the storming stage and as long as we can get through this, we want to win. See, the storming stage is not a stumbling block, it's a stepping stone, as long as you do it with love and respect. And that's what we did. And after that listen, this is important we became the most winning team on the entire show. If you never go through that storming stage, then you're never really going to be honest. It's just going to be niceties, it's going to be platitudes, it's going to be avoiding the issues that are truly bothering you. So storming is okay, whether it's at the corporate setting or the philanthropic setting or whatever it is. It's okay In fact, you want to as long as you do it with love and respect. So we keep doing all right. We keep doing all right. We keep doing all right.
Speaker 2:It comes down to the final three teams. Now, the final three teams were led by, first of all, myself, the Marine Scout sniper, and Ben, the US Air Force survival instructor, also a young strapping man, great dude, just a fantastic guy. And it's us three and our partners who are all obviously very strong or we wouldn't be there, that's for sure and it's a competition that we're all going at each other to see who's going to be the final two. And I'm looking at those guys. Look, let me be honest with you y'all, as I always will be. I'm looking at them going.
Speaker 2:I don't have a chance, which reminds me, by the way, I first met them when we got there. I met those two guys, befriended those two guys, but I met them. I saw who they were. I called my wife at that point, that's before we went into the jungle, and I told her who I had met and I told her I do not have a chance because that's my competition. And then there it is, a little over a month later, I'm going up against those two Are you kidding me? And, to my amazement, and also because of the help of my partner, no-transcript Marine, the Marine scout, sniper, and Claire, by the way, the beauty queen, who also just a great person. There's so many amazing people on there. I just loved almost all of those people and the other ones. God loves them. So doesn't matter what I think, right?
Speaker 2:So also another point I guess it comes down to the final two and we're getting one of those side conversations they do on these shows, you know where they interview you and they're asking me first of all. They're asking me man, how hungry are you? You got to be starving? I mean, it's obvious I'd lost a lot of weight. You got to be starving. No, I'm not. I'm not hungry at all. Like wait, what are you talking about? No, I'm not. I decided not to. I've decided not to be hungry. Is my body depleted? Sure it is, but my mind is not and my attitude shall never be. So. That's just an interesting point. That you really do have mind over matter, not just me, you do too. But the important one at this point is they're saying wow, it's down to the final two. You could win the show, you could do this. How terrible would it be if you lost? I said it'd be fantastic. And they're like wait what.
Speaker 2:I said it'd be fantastic.
Speaker 1:What are you talking?
Speaker 2:about. Look, I told you when I came on here I didn't think I was here to win, no delusions of grandeur. I told you I was here for a purpose, and that purpose might be to help them win. And if that is my purpose for being here, fantastic Glory to him, not me, you know. Now, I don't care whether you believe in God or the universe or whatever. You got to believe that you've got a purpose and you've got a reason for being here. And I believe you do have a reason for being here. Maybe you don't know what it is, Maybe you think you know what it is, but you really don't, but you do have a reason for being here.
Speaker 2:Well, it came down to the final battle, and it was indeed the Marine Scout sniper Brady and me and our two novices and it was mostly the novices and my novice came through with flying colors and we won the entire show. You know, to me it was less, truly. I mean, I was flabbergasted. Again, I'll shoot straight with you I was flabbergasted. I couldn't believe that I won a freaking survival show. And because I didn't, we did. We did, Natalie and I did Scouting. And I did because they trained me up, God and I did because man, it's all things with Him and the fact that, in so doing, the important part to me wasn't that I won the show, but rather I've been able to go around now and speak at countless scouting events and help raise millions and millions of dollars for a cause that's very important to me. I've been able to help kids who will never know that I existed, but because I did, they got an opportunity they might not have gotten otherwise.
Speaker 2:And I want to turn this back around to you, because it's less about me and my survival show and what I was able to do, but rather the point is you're making that difference. You may not even know it. You have affected people who have affected people who may never even know that you existed, will never know your name, but whose life you change profoundly, forever. You have a purpose. Now, a lot of people say look for that purpose, find that purpose, and I think that's great. Do it, Go for it. But even if you feel like you're flailing, like you're lost, like you don't know what your purpose is, and maybe, maybe feeling like you don't know what your purpose is and maybe feeling like you don't really have one, like there's really no reason for you even being here. I want to tell you just have faith.
Speaker 2:Whether you believe in yourself or not, believe that there's a purpose that you are here, for Whether you know what that purpose is or not, whether you have any clue, the difference you're making in your life or not. I want you to focus in on the fact, the fact that you do have a purpose, whether you know it or not. You are performing that purpose, whether you know it or not, and you are making a difference in the world, whether you know it or not. You are performing that purpose, whether you know it or not, and you are making a difference in the world, whether you know it or not. Focus on that and have your own Comeback Chronicle.
Speaker 1:This has been the Comeback Chronicles podcast with host Terry L Fossum. Subscribe, like and leave a review and share on your social media to help Terry share his amazing, positive message.