November 11, 2025 • 50 mins
In today’s hustle-obsessed culture, overwork is often glorified as loyalty. For Roderick Jefferson, that mindset nearly cost him everything. After a devastating health collapse, he was forced to face the consequences of relentless drive. Now, he shares how faith, family, friends, and fun helped him recover—and why real success begins when you stop running yourself into the ground. His journey reminds us that the greatest success is not in how hard we work, but how fully we live.
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Working on Purpose is broadcast live Tuesdays at 6PM ET and Music on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Working on Purpose is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).
Working on Purpose Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/working-on-purpose--2643411/support.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortes.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Welcome back to the Working and Purpose program, which had
been brought to you with passionate pride since February of
twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning again this week. Great to
have you. I'm your host, doctor Elise core Tes. If
we've not met before and you don't know me, I'm
a workforce advisor, organizational psychologist, management consultant, logotherapists, speaker and author.
My team and I at Gusto Now help companies to
unlive it and fortify their operations by stoking their passion,
(01:27):
meaning and purpose of the team to align with your
organizational aspirations. We do this by helping companies build a
high performance culture, inspirational leadership, and nurturing managers who meaningfully
connect with their team members and coach them to develop
more skills and contribute their highest performance. You can learn
more about us on how we can work together at
Gusto dashnow dot com and my personal site on Leiscortes
(01:47):
dot com. Getting In today's program, we have Roderick Jefferson,
an internationally recognized keynote a transformational speaker. He's given keynote
presentations nationally and in fourteen countries and understands the power
of sharing real life strategies that work. Roderick frequently presents
at industry events and is the author of sales Enable
at three point zero, the Blueprint to Sales Enable It, Excellence,
(02:09):
the sales Enable at three point zero workbook, and lastly
Stroke of Success, how climbing the light of success may
be detrimental to your life. We'll be talking about his
obsession with climbing to success and how it ultimately culminated
in him dying and coming back with a new Lisa
on life and a message to fortify it. He joined
it today from the San Francisco Bay area. Roderick, welcome
(02:30):
to working on Purpose.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
But Julius, thank you for having me. I'm absolutely honor.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I'm delighted as well, and we have much to share
and talk about here, right, And what I wanted to
start with just because it was a delightful way when
you and I first met and we were having a
phone conversation to get acquainted. You told me the story
that earlier in your life that you were set out
to be a pro athlete, and I think you even
had a contract from a team, but then you met
(02:57):
this woman and things changed. Maybe you should start with
that story.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
This woman, you know, I think that's how I'm going
to start referring to her. Oh no, you're going to
get me in trouble until she kills me.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, it was to get me in trouble.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
You know. It was an interesting story. I had played
basketball all the way through college and I was about
two weeks away from leaving. I had a contract down
in Nicosia, in Cyprus, Greece to go and do what
I had loved since I was, you know, six years old.
And I met her and life change right away. It's
(03:34):
one of those things where you just know when it's
the right person. And I to say I was smitten
was probably an understatement, which is the first time ever
that I had actually felt this way, and so I
was like, this is the one. Absolutely. So she got
a chance to meet my mom. My mom said I agree.
So that cleared things up on that side. But you know,
(03:56):
we met. I said I'm going to leave, why don't
you come with me? And she said, no, that's not
gonna happen. I've known you for two three weeks. There's
no way I'm gonna go over there. I don't know
what's gonna happen to my passport, I don't know what's
gonna happen to me. And I said, fine, then I'll
figure it out. What she didn't know is I actually
(04:16):
went after that conversation, I called my agent and I
tore up my contract. Now, remember I want to get
to the point of being a pro. Being a pro
was kind of optional at that point. I knew that
I wasn't going to the NBA, so it would be
cool money and I give a chance to go around
the world and those kind of things. But when I
(04:37):
told her, here's the answer that she gave me, you're stupid.
I thought this was just a fling. It was like,
oh great, I just gave up my entire future for this,
and you know, I have not regretted it for a day.
We have two beautiful children and a beautiful granddaughter now,
and that was literally thirty five years ago, and we
(05:00):
are still going strong. And I got to believe that
after everything this woman's been through with me, she's got
to be about a quarter of an inch away from
Satan did right now.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Such a beautiful story, and there's hope for all of
us out there that still want to find our partner.
So thank you for scaring that.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Now fast forward here. If we were to just kind
of even just roll over your resume, we would find
all kinds of really interesting, well recognized company names that
they're that you've had executive leadership roles with. So just
sort of trace for us, just to give us a
bit of a tour of this big career that you've
enjoyed here.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Thank you for that. You know it was, it's been amazing.
Disneyland fairy Tale of a ride, it really has. I
started out at at and T my first i'll call
it big boy job, and I was an inside salesperson,
you know, a BDR SDR as they're called now, and
I did well, got promoted to executive, went to President's
(06:02):
club a couple of times, then got promoted to sales
leader and I quickly said no, thank you. First of all,
I don't want to be responsible for other people in
their push. And I've also heard that sales leaders actually
make less than the people that are selling. That's not
what I was about to sign up for. So I
actually met with my VP of sales and I said,
(06:22):
what if I could do two things. One, take some
of the basic rudimentary templates that I created and help
people to get onboarded faster and start hitting quota. And
the other piece is what if I could you've had
so many people that were eligible for President's Club that
you didn't have enough budget, And he said, a new job.
(06:45):
So I took on my first new job immediately because
I wanted to stay close to sales, but I didn't
want to have a quota that I know that now
the entire branch became my quota because I became the
branch trainer from onboarding through continuing education. From there, like
I said, it just shot up like a rocket. I
went to I've run enablement at siebel eBay, HP, Oracle, Salesforce,
(07:09):
MARKETO and a number of others, and I started, as
I said, as a BDR. By the time I finished
my corporate run, I was a senior vice president. But
at that point I realized that I was kind of
the leader of leaders, and I couldn't literally look myself
in the face and say that I was a practitioner anymore.
So I started my own company about eight years ago,
(07:31):
taking on kind of the things that I was doing,
which was something called sales enablement, which was kind of
think about training on steroids. And that worked for a
few years, and then a buddy of mine called and said, Hey,
I've got this SVP slot. You could probably do it
with your eyes closed. It's a nice salary. Plus we
get a chance to put the band back together. I
(07:51):
went out and did it. Little did I know that
that was going to be the beginning of this is
the first time I've actually heard it called a death march,
and I never looked at it that way, But in hindsight,
that's exactly what I was signing up for.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, as I was writing this for the description of
the podcast and the title, I was like, I think
this is what we really need to refer to this
as so, listeners and viewers, you were in for a
ride here as he shares his story here, But let's
talk about how things began to unravel. I don't know
where you want to start with bec there's a couple
of junctures in the story here that are important to say.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I think I'll start where I was living a great life,
flying around on corporate jets and corporate helicopters, and I'm
staying in the La Monte Carlo Casino. I'm riding around
in cars at the ground Prey in south of France,
and something changed. I'd come back, I'd taken a new
(08:51):
job and I was in so I lived in the
San Francisco area. I was down in Los Angeles, and
we're getting ready for a sales kickoff, doing the usuals,
walking the property, tasting all the food, checking out all
the rooms, making sure that it was set up. And
it felt like a regular day until it wasn't. So
(09:12):
we went to dinner like every other night, had dinner,
had a couple of cocktails, and I got really tired,
but tired on a level that I'd even know existed,
to the point to where I literally woke up with
my head down on the table and people staring at
me like are you okay? They looked at me like
I had a narcolepsy. I had just fallen asleep, And
(09:33):
I'll say that in jest, like I'd fallen asleep in
the middle of a sentence, which is about what happened.
I said, Okay, I'm tired. I'm gonna go back to
my room. I'm gonna get some sleep because tomorrow we've
got a lot of things going on. And then I
fly home later in the afternoon. Fast forward next morning.
I wake up. Every day that I'm out on the road,
my wife and I jump on and we sink up.
(09:55):
What's going on? How are the kids? How are you?
What's going on with there? What's your schedule? Like? What
I heard was the words similar to what you hear
now inside of my head. With her, she heard gibberish
and that I could hear fear in her voice. And
she said, let's jump on face on FaceTime. I need
to see your face. But she didn't tell me why.
(10:18):
She said, I just want to see your face. I
was like, okay, fine, let's jump on face time. She
walked me through, thankfully, stroke protocol because a friend of
hers had had one previously, and she had had a
small tia also a minor stroke years back, and it
was essentially, what's what's your name? What's your middle name?
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I'm like, oh, I don't know. I should probably know
that you know. And this was only I dare I say?
All of this happened four years ago. This wasn't something
twenty years ago.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
And so she says count to ten, fine, one to
eighty seven, twelve, forty six thirteen, say you're for me, babe,
And I said, come on, seriously, ab XLQTWC why And
she said, babe, I need you to call and I
had one of the directors on my team. She said,
(11:13):
I need you to call Tim Carlson because you're having
a stroke. Now fast forward. We get to the emergency room.
They do a battery of tests, they check on me,
and now I'm stuttering uncontrollably, something called apheenia. Medically, I
can't get words out. We were there for ninety minutes
(11:33):
two hours max. They released me. Why I do not
know to this day. The worst part is it turns
out that there is a clot buster, if you will,
of medication that they could have given me to break
up the clot that created the stroke. Problem was and
(11:55):
this was miracle number one. I had my sleep my
stroke while I was asleep. Ninety eight percent of sleep
stroke victims never wake up. That is why it is
called the silent killer. So we fast forward to that.
We're at the airport, flying back to a bad move.
As it turns out, I land in Oakland. My wife
(12:19):
is there. They meet me. I'm in a wheelchair. Now
she's really worried that something's seriously wrong. And I don't
remember the first three days in the hospital at all.
So this is all based on information from my wife.
She takes me to our local hospital here in Walnut Creek.
The first thing they say to her is the main
(12:39):
is a miracle because between cabin pressure, altitude and midstroke,
he should be dead right now. So my turns out
my stroke was unusual. Although I was a high profile athlete,
I had been, excuse me, diagnosed with something called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,
which is and in large heart. So essentially, I've got
(13:02):
a really big heart, one of the worst kind. Because
of all the athletics, I had an excess layer of
muscle around my heart, so I didn't have any blockage
or anything of that sort. But what happens is the
average heart squeezes at about sixty five to seventy five
percent on average. When you get down to twenty percent,
(13:23):
cardiac arrest hits and you die. When they really excuse me,
when they wheeled me into the emergency room, I was
at twenty two percent heart function. It only gave me
a two percent chance to live well, and that's the
good part. So I'm there in the hospital for about
(13:46):
two weeks at this point, and I'm having a tough
time breathing. On a particular day. Now, bear in mind
four years ago, let's think about this. It's COVID, so
no one can come visit me other than my wife.
I'm in the ICU, so I really don't want her
there because we've got the sickest of the sick people.
And so I said, you know, just kind of come
when you can. That meant every day for her, of course, right.
(14:10):
But my kids couldn't come see me. My family couldn't
see me. So it was a lot of face timing.
But I stopped doing FaceTime because the less that I
used my words and the sicker I got, I got
weakness in my tongue. So it was a difficult time
swallowing more or less trying to speak. So one night
(14:30):
I hear flash, I see flash of the lights. I
hear code blue, code blue, and it's my room, and
I'm like, I know, I'm not feeling good. I think
I was this bad. And then suddenly I'm watching the machine.
It went from beep beep, beep beep to beep I'm flatlined. Now,
for those that are curious about indies and near death experiences,
(14:54):
now I did not see a white light, but what
I did see some of the most vibrant origes and blues, greens,
and grays inside that room. Because I floated up to
the corner of the room. I'm looking down on the
doctors and nurses. They're sucking out fluids, they're doing chest
compression on me, and I'm thinking, is this how it
(15:16):
all ends? This is it? There's no trumpets, there's no music,
no harps, nothing. I looked to my left and I
see my mom. That's the lady that's up over my
left shoulder right now for those watching. And I'm just
as stunned as you are probably right now you're in
(15:38):
this piece. And I said, okay, Mama, fine, I've done
everything I'm supposed to do. I'm ready to get home.
I'm done. And she looks at me and she says,
and I remember the words like it was yesterday. She said, no, baby,
I was sent to tell you you have a new
purpose in life. And she explained to me what I
was supposed to do. And I'll talk about that in
a bit, but here's what you're supposed to do. And
(15:59):
I said, okay, fine, let's go. She said, no, you're
going back because there's still things for you to do.
Now I look to my left, she's gone. I get
sucked back into my body. Now I'm lying flat on
my back. I'm looking up at the doctors. I also
should notice that at this point I've got snowblindness, which
(16:21):
means it's bright all the time, like there's a light
in my eyes, so I have no concept of day
and night. My entire left side, my arm, and my
leg are paralyzed. It's the point to where they're not moving,
They're just kind of hanging. And now I feel the
most excruciating pain in my chest because they're doing these
chess compressions, and I feel like my sternum's about to snap.
(16:45):
And then I hear the two words that nobody ever
wants one word, I'm sorry that no one ever wants
to hear. Clear. I was like, no, no, no, please, no,
this cannot happen. I've seen enough TV now I know
this is not going to be good. I think, God,
he is on my right side, because remember my left
side is now paralyzed. I hear him rubbing the paddles
(17:08):
and he's starting to come down to hit me with
the electricity.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
I go from beep to beep, beep, beep, and I
grab his hand and now they're all running around and
the ert which is the emergency response team comes into
the room and takes over, and they start taking me
through a bunch of different battery of tests as well.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
But I will say this, while I was out, it's
kind of like when you go to the dentists and
you get twilight. You can hear all of the muffles
on top, but I couldn't tell what they were saying.
But when I came back, it was very clear and
I could feel literally the power of my we'll call
it my soul being snatched back into my body. And
(17:52):
after that is now in the hard work began because
now I've got physical therapy, I've got speech therapy, I've
got occupational therapy. I got to learn how to walk again,
start all over, do all the things that come natural
to us. I'll see this doctor least. The one thing
that it may sound crazy, but the one thing that
really caught my attention when I finally was out of
(18:12):
the hospital was I realized just how far my couch
is from the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
On that note, let's take our first break because I
want our listeners and viewers just to really take in
the amazing story that you just shared before we go
on and talk about what it took to move away
from that hospital bend that brought you back to life.
I'm your host, doctor Relis Cortez, who went an air
with Roderick Jefferson and internationally recognized keynote and transformational speaker.
(18:40):
We've been talking a bit about his life changing story
and the details of it. After the way, we're going
to learn a bit about his recovery, what that entailed,
and where his recovery has taken him to today.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning imfuse cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more, or to invite
a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(19:31):
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Alise A Lisee at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to
(19:55):
Working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to Working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes, as I
am dedicated to help them create a world or organizations
thrive because they're people thrive and are lit by inspiration.
Leaders that help them find you contribute their greatness. And
we do business at Betters the World. I keep researching
and writing my own books. So one of my ladies
came out called The Great Revitalization, How activating meaning and
purpose can radically in liven your business. And I wrote
(20:23):
it to help leaders understand today's very diverse and discerning workforce.
What do they want to be able to perform their best?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
And stay with you?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And then I provide you twenty two best practices to
equip you to create that in your leadership and your culture.
You can find my books on Amazon or mypersonal site
at Leiscorretes dot com. If you are just now joining us.
My guest is Stroke of Success, How climbing the ladder
of success may be detriult to your life, the author
of which is Roderick Jefferson. Okay, so you left us
(20:51):
hanging talking about what was like to be now awake
and back breathing in your heart, beating on that hospital bed,
journey forward from what recovery looks like there Now, I
know there's a couple of things that happened along the
way as well.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
There was, And one of the interesting things is and
then I said earlier that I had a strong case
of aphasia, or as we commonly know it as stuttering.
I found that the oddest way of talking to one
of my family members, and I couldn't get words out,
and it just started to frustrating me to the point
(21:28):
to where literally for about two weeks, I stopped talking.
I just kind of I pointed and I grunted a lot,
until my wife and her infinite wisdom said, if you
don't start using your words, you will lose them. And
so something came on one of the commercials that I
started singing with it, and I realized, when I sing,
(21:50):
I don't have a stutter. Now, I'm not going to
make a promise that the singing was good or even
remotely close to something that resembled good, because it was horrible, right,
But what I had is a new way of communicating
because my stroke actually happened dead center in the middle
(22:11):
of my speed center. Yes, for a person that gets
paid to talk, I couldn't die off. And what I
found out is the emotional center is directly next to
the speed center, which meant every time someone would ask
me a question, how are you doing? How are how
are you doing? Bouncing back tell me the story of
the stroke, I'd sing it for them, but then I'd
(22:33):
instantly break into tears. Now I have no problem sharing
and showing emotion, but I never was that level of
emotion filled because the brain had swollen. So now my
speech center was it next to it was overlapping my
emotional center. So that was something that was new to me.
(22:57):
So and the second piece was I just started singing
all the time and I would have conversations and I
just found it to be added. So I asked my neurolators.
He says, oh, it happens all the time because it's
too completely different parts of the brain that you're using
for these So and I thought, oh, this is cool.
I bet you've never seen this. He's going, yeah, that's
pretty odd, pretty basic. What else can you show me
(23:17):
that you can do kind of thing. The other piece
was and I said earlier that my mom had given
me my new and I'll call it marching orders of
where I was going to go. And my new focus
is what I call my fore f's of pillars, and
(23:40):
that is faith, family, friends, and fun. Now the foundation
of that and my anchor being faith. Because I've learned
and I grew up and I should probably share it
with your audience that my dad was a minister before
he passed, so I grew up as a PK a preacher. Yep.
(24:00):
That means I was good and bad on both sides
of the street. And I had both sides of stories
that I couldn't tell anybody. So what I found out
is it was a new definition of faith. It was
less about blindly believing what you're told, and it was
more about radical trusts. Because it was the first time
that and I remember when I was younger, my mom
(24:26):
used to say that two things. One faith is never
tested in good times, and I didn't understand what that
meant until I went through this piece. And the second
thing I realized is faith definition changes because we assume, oh, okay,
maybe nobody's promised tomorrow. Well how about that when you
(24:48):
don't have it tomorrow, you think that you can make
your body respond to whatever you wanted to do until
you can't. And so this whole thing was all about trust,
and I had to say, God, it's yours. All I'm
going to do is listen and let you lead, and
(25:08):
I'm going to follow. So it was about trusting that
the struggle I was going on was not just shaping me,
but it was changing me completely. Now it's believing that
people have lost I've lost her still somehow with me
because my mom showed that. And I don't mean just
(25:30):
in a dream that seems impossible, but I started to
relate that to real life. What am I going? How
am I going to walk again? I had to literally think,
bend your knees, put one foot in front of you,
move the next one, shift your weight, turn your shoulders,
and things that, just as children, we naturally do until,
(25:53):
like I said, you can't. And then I realized that
there were other people that were watching what was going on.
I was in a number of support groups, and my
recovery started to accelerate to the point to where I
actually started to have survivors guilt because I'd be on
(26:16):
one of the groups and soon said it's been ten days,
and I just walked across the street, across the room,
or I can use a real spoon again, and I'd
be like, man, I got a keynote coming up in
San Diego. I'm not tell these people that. I also
(26:36):
realized that, just like everything else, you can't compare yourself.
Your chapter twelve, maybe their chapter fifty right, or my
chapter two, maybe their chapter thirty seven. And I was
going to Stanford University and I had about eleven neurologists
that were poking and prodding me because they had never
(26:57):
seen anybody bounce back as far as fast as I
had before. And to me, it was all I knew
as an athlete, as an executive, as a salesperson, and
I don't say this when an ego. I expected to win.
And I think that's what helped me fight back from this.
In that stage that I was in was I realized
(27:21):
that I hated losing more than I loved winning, and
I was not going to let this thing beat me
because it became a U versus me situation. I also
realized that what it meant when people say no one
is an island. Remember I'm home, but I'm not back
(27:46):
if you will. And so I still need help moving around.
The paralysis has not completely come back. And so it
wasn't like, you know, people were feeding me, but they
were feeding my soul. And I realized how important the
(28:06):
smallest thing mattered. I started to put words together with
my use of my visual and auditory exercises, and then
they'd start to turn into a sentence. They were cheering,
like I won the Super Bowl, right, I could take
the first time. I remember the first time I went out,
(28:27):
and the whole family was terrified, trust me. So is
that the first time I got to drive my car
after this stroke. I didn't know if I'd be coming
back home or you know, I'd be going back to
the emergency room a kid. And also you realize the
definition of love changes. Families think that we love each
(28:49):
other because we're DNA and we just have to love
each other, well, not necessarily, and you realize the difference
between like and love love each other doesn't mean we
like each other all the time. We literally got to
becoming and we refer to ourselves as Team Jefferson, and
our family model has always been with Jefferson's we don't
(29:11):
quit no matter what. It's that last part that really
stuck with me right, because I will say this, I
started to wonder if I'd ever get back completely because
most of us see someone and they have and again
I try not to compare, but when we see, we
(29:33):
hear someone had a stroke. I listened to it, and
I think, stroke, stroke, They're not going to get back.
The arm is pinned against the body, they're dragging the
legs behind it. That wasn't the case for me. I
was actually I wasn't stuttering, but I was starting to
talk again, slowly, right until one day we were watching
(29:55):
I remember we were watching a college football game and
it was a day before my son's birthday coming up,
and he had gone to go get his car washed.
So that left my wife, my daughter, and myself here
at the house. And I felt this sharp pain in
my head. It felt like somebody was drilling nails into
(30:18):
my head, and I I mean, just excruciating me. I
look up at them and they're like, Dad, are you're okay?
What's going on? What happened? And I said, I'm not
sure what happened, but I feel like myself again. With
this voice that you hear today, now, you would think
(30:39):
everybody would be so excited. Oh my God, Dad can
talk again.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
First thing my wife said was get your shoes on.
We're going back to the emergency. She thought that maybe
I had an aneurysm that had burst, or something in
my brain that was temporary. We went to the emergency room,
take me back and red mrict. The doctors come in
and they take my original films. They put it up
(31:03):
and they take the films from that date on top
of each other, and they were mirror images. So physologically,
nothing had changed my brain. They couldn't explain why suddenly
I could talk when I couldn't, you know, just an
hour ago. I didn't care. I'm like, it's working. But
that wasn't enough. So back to the death march that
(31:25):
we were talking about. Crazy me. What do I do? Oh,
I'm fine. I go back to work as an executive
with a high level of stress that I have become
accustomed to working at. And I'll call it the red
line of stress. Like I'm sure some of you out
there can relate to. The problem is I wasn't as
(31:50):
healed as I thought I was. And guess what happened?
Oh no, not again, yes again, that I'd had a
second stroke. I started stuttering, again. My head was killing me.
I was feeling numbness in my limbs. Right back to
the same hospital, literally two rooms away from where I
(32:13):
was before. And at that point, and I know you
can believe what you choose to for me, God said,
you don't get a third time. Now. You either are
going to make a change now or I'm going to
(32:34):
take you out, because clearly you're not smart enough to
handle this by yourself. I stayed in the hospital a bit.
I went through the same regimen and routine that I
went to before, but this time I came home a
very different man. I was ready, I was prepared, and
(32:55):
I knew that how I continue doing things the way
I was going to or I was planning to, and
haid continue doing My cardiologist said, now I had my stroke.
We call my stroke adversary October twenty eighth, just a
couple of weeks ago, four years ago. And so you
(33:18):
know that we're all pushing towards Thanksgiving here in the US.
And then shortly after that Christmas, my cardialogier said, had
I not had my stroke, I would have never made
it to Christmas, may not have made it to Thanksgiving.
So I look at it now and I think that
the best thing that ever happened to me physically. Of
(33:40):
course there's family and kids in all those things, but
physically the best thing that's ever happened to me because
I had a stroke, I died and they brought me back.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Oh my goodness. Let's grab our last break on that one,
so people can just chew on that. After the break,
I want to talk about where we are, where's the
direction next? Where did what did Mama tell us? And
where how we play in the game of life after
this this juncture. I'm Alice Cortes, your host, who've been
on the air with Roderick Jefferson, an internationally recognized keynote
(34:12):
and transformational speaker. We'll be right back to talk about
his direction from here.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at
(34:54):
Eliscortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your
employees working on purpose. This is Working on Purpose with
doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to
open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise
A Lise at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to working
(35:18):
on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor release Cortes. As you
know by now, this program is dedicated to empowering and
inspiring you along your journey toialize more of your potential.
If you want to learn more about how we can
work together and learn about the gusta Now Academy for
leaders and individuals on various journeys alike, make your way
to gusto dashnow dot com and then navigate to the
training tap. You can find more information there if you
(35:46):
are just now joining us. My guest is Roderick Jefferson,
who is the author of Stroke of Success. How claiming
the ladder of success may be detrimental to your life,
So listener, Inquiring minds want to know what did mama
tell you were going to be doing?
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Next? Great question, she said, A couple of things. First,
is I need you to make sure that you're looking
out for, in her words, the invisible people. And I
think during COVID we called them what we call them again. Hmmm,
(36:23):
I'm gonna just flash sorry, but these are the folks
that are your waiters and waitresses. These are the people
that are.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
The essential people's essential yea, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
These are flight attendants, the people at the gate, all
the people that you only notice when something's wrong. And
she said, your job is to make sure that every
one of them that you come in contact with, you
give them at least one smile today that they would
not have gotten they not come in contact with you.
(36:59):
That's the this easy thing. The other piece was you
need to go out and tell everybody that will listen
about what happened to you, in hopes that it never
happened to anyone else, and also giving them an opportunity
to do what I wish I would have done. And
(37:19):
that was Remember I said, my new four pillars were faith, family, friends,
and fun. That was the other piece. You need to
start enjoying lime. You're working all way too hard, son.
I remember, right before my stroke, I was talking to
my daughter and she said, Dad, you've done so much.
(37:40):
You mentor people, you help out in the community, you
give back, you volunteer, You've flown around the world. What
do you do just for you? What do you do
for fun? I looked at her and I said, what
is this fun you speak of? Child? And it was
a half joke, but at the time I realized I
really didn't do anything for me. Please, I implore you
(38:04):
that's watching and listening to this, don't be me. You
know we were when we were small, fun was just
a part of what we did. But it feels like
the older we get when we get this mass that
we put on because there's expectations of I've got a title,
or I'm with a company, or I've got a degree,
(38:24):
and I'm supposed to be fill in the blank according
to who are they? I've been trying to figure this
out for a long time, doctor lees, who exactly are they?
And clearly they are not having any fun? So I
don't want to be a part of them anymore. Every
day I write up my top four things on my
whiteboard that I'm going to do professionally before I turn
(38:46):
off my laptop. My fourth one is always one personal
thing just for me, and I just completely changed my
approach doesn't mean I work hard. I don't work nearly
as hard as I use. You're not going to find
me in here at ten o'clock at night still going.
You're not going to find me here at five o'clock
in the morning going. Because someone said something the other
(39:08):
day that really caught my attention. I have never seen
a hearse whether a U haul connected to it. I
had to stop for a second after I laughed, like
you didn't win. You might be onto something. I used
to get upset with my team over in Europe, like
(39:29):
when you guys ever work, it's always a banker's holiday somewhere.
I think they might be onto something. I really do.
I think here we have this badge of courage of
I put in sixty hours, I worked, and I did this,
and I'm on this committee and my name is on this.
When you die, does it really matter? No from someone
(39:51):
that has died. I had someone else ask me something
the other day that stopped me in my tracks. If
you are doing something and you're the only person that
can be counted on to do it, is it really
that serious and that important? It really isn't. So take
your time and enjoy life. Because it's not a video game.
(40:16):
You don't get a do over, you don't get to restart,
and so the other to honor my mom and to
get this word out. As I said earlier, I'm a
keynote speaker. I've spoken in fourteen fifteen countries. Now, I
was talking about driving revenue, driving productivity, leveraging AI. Those
(40:37):
things are secondary to me. Now Now Stroke of success
is my new signature. KEW. Why is that? Because it's
about kind of highlighting that grit, that tenacity, that determination,
and all of that minus self care is a really
(40:58):
bad imbalance and a concoction for an early death. My
goal now is to try and inspire positivity and promoting
I'll say, a shift towards working to live rather than
living to the work like I was doing. If I
can impact and influence and inspire just one person to
prioritize mental health, emotional and physical well being and not
(41:23):
have to fight through the things that I had to
recover from, you know what, mission accomplished Because we don't
get enough emphasis on self care. And now everyone has
their definition of self care. My definition has changed. Self
care for me is not about just going to the
gym and going to get a massage. It's about thinking
(41:47):
about how this is going to impact everybody around me.
It's about thinking about my nineteen month old granddaughter and
the legacy in her. And I want to be able
to have memories that once I'm gone. She remembers that
I was talking to my wife not too long ago.
(42:07):
And it may sound a little more bit, but hear
me on is that there's a method to my madness. Here,
I said, when I do die and it's all over
with at my funeral, first of a lie, I don't
want it to be. I want you to have a party,
have a good time, and really celebrate, just like we
do down in Louisanna, where I'm from. We have a party,
(42:32):
We have Marty Grass every time somebody dies, and I
think that's the way it should be. I said here,
I have one rule. No one can talk about any
of my keynotes, any podcast I was on, any job
that I worked at, any award or accolade that I
ever won. They're only allowed to talk about how I
made them feel once I was in their presence and
(42:55):
when I walked away from them, and what part of
me I left them with. Miss just accomplished.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
That is so beautiful. In fact, by the way, I
would be amissrotic if I didn't tell you and celebrate
with you how beautifully written your book is. It's just
so beautiful. It just draws you in and you're just
in there, all nestled in it. It's beautiful. In fact,
I want to read a short little passage that really
spoke to me. It's quite different than what you were
just talking about, but still a big part of your message.
(43:25):
It reads like this, you say, I've learned that life's
obstacles are often our greatest teachers. They don't come to
break us. They come to reveal who we truly are.
They strip away everything we thought we needed to be
happy and show us that what we truly need to
be whole. They teach us about our resilience, our capacity
for love, and our ability to find meaning even in
the midst of suffering. It really speaks to me.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Thank you, thank you so much. If I might ask
what was it about that the.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Graduate, Well, I've certainly navigated my own suffering. I haven't
died and been resurrected and come back to life, but
I you know, I've certainly navigated some some tough stuff
that has definitely catalyzed learning and transformation in me to
the to the to the tune that I literally have
(44:15):
become so much more competent and able to be attuned
to other people, to how they're feeling, to what they're thinking,
helping them find their words and to express them. And
that has only come through the suffering.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
I don't smile for your suffering. I smile because you
just made my soul smile. And the fact that it
is now through that difficult time, it has made you
far more empathetic others and what they're going through, which
says to me that you have learned or continue to learn,
(44:49):
to take those setbacks in life and turn them into
stepping stones and turn them into I'll say, the universe
has a way of being one of our best teachers
if we'll just listen right. A lot of times we're
(45:11):
so focused on moving so fast that we try and
drive and I'll say, drive the bus of life, if
you will. And I've realized every time I try and
drive that bus, I hit a tree or a wall
because I'm trying to moult multitask, and quite honestly, multitasking
(45:33):
doesn't actually exist because you're not focused on anything. You're
just kind of randomly taking bits and pieces. But if
you would take your your moment, if you will, and
just sit in that passenger side of life, it's amazing
how beautiful the view is. It takes a person that
(45:55):
is willing to take their hands off the steering wheel
and say I don't need to control everything. I don't
need to be in control all the time. And I
know it's tough because I've got a eight plus plus
plus plus plus personality as well that didn't go away
with the stroke. But what I've learned to do is
to temper that. And I've also learned to shift priorities.
(46:20):
I missed my daughter's eighth grade graduation because I was
in Paris, a great place to be, not by yourself.
I missed my son's football games, that's dance competitions. My wife,
for the longest, felt like she was a single mom.
I had made myself believe that my role as a
man is to provide and protect, and I revel in
(46:42):
that a bit too much because I believed it so
much that I let my ego drive it. Yeah, I
was providing for them. It didn't suck that I was
on corporate jets and helicopters and eating well and you know,
playing Black Jacket the monitor Carlo Casino until I got
back to my room when I'm by myself and I'm
crying myself to sleep. Everything that glitters ain't gold. And
(47:08):
just because you can does not mean you should. You
gotta figure out. I've got my fore f faith, family,
friends and fun. That may not work for you, but
you should have something a personal mantra. And maybe it's
something that only you know of what your priorities are.
Because the moment you take your eyes off of your
(47:31):
why really ugly horrible things happen. You may never have
a stroke, but what I'm about to say may actually
shock you. According to the American Stroke Society, every human
over the age of twenty five, one out of four
will incur a stroke in their life. Well, the one
(47:52):
that took me down was my second. I didn't even
realize I had had a stroke previously. Maybe it felt
like a migraine. Maybe it just felt like I was
tired because I was working hard. Let me rejigger what
I just said. You may never and I pray to
God that you never have a stroke. But doctor Lisa,
as you said, and I'll kind of prayer phrase life
(48:13):
is life and for all of us, we're all going
through something.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Yeah, so true. Such a beautiful way to finish, Roderick.
What a beautiful So. I am so grateful to know you.
I loved your book, and I appreciate so much of
coming on my podcast to share this beautiful message in
your new way forward. In say twenty seconds, would you
let to leave lisers with anything.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Else, I'll leave you with this, learn how to build
balance in your life before your life takes over and
takes all the balance away from you.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Powerful Roderick. So beautiful listeners and viewers, you are going
to want to learn more about Roderick Jefferson, his books,
his speaking. So I would direct you first strutted this website.
It's Roderick Jefferson dot com. I'll spell it for you
in just a second. But you've got all kinds of
resources available to you on that site. So Roderick is
R O D E R I C K Jefferson standard
(49:12):
spelling j E F F E R S O N
Roderick Jefferson dot com. Last week, if you missed the
live show, you can always catch it via recorded podcast.
We are on air with doctor Jamie Goffe, the founder
of The Empathic Leader, where she specializes in helping leaders
unlock their full potential through executive coaching, insight for workshops,
and thought provoking keynotes. We talked about her new book,
(49:34):
The Secure Leader, Discover the Hidden Forces that shape your
leadership story and how to change them. We dove into
her research and expertise and relational attachment styles and how
they manifest in leadership effectiveness. Next week will be on
a with Cecily Mack talking about her new book Undimmed,
the Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from unwanted habits. See you then, together,
let's lean in and learn how to create destination workplaces
(49:56):
where people thrive grow to their higher potential, all while
doing business and ways. What better's the world? Let's work
on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise
Cortes each week on W four CY. Together, we'll create
a world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires and passion performance,
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on purpose,
The topics and opinions express in the following show are
solely those of the hosts and their guests, and not
those of W FOURCY Radio. It's employees are affiliates. We
make no recommendations or endorsements for radio show programs, services,
or products mentioned on air or on our web. No
liability explicitor implies shall be extended to W FOURCY Radio
or its employees are affiliates. Any questions or comments should
be directed to those show hosts. Thank you for choosing
(00:21):
W FOURCY Radio.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What's working on Purpose? Anyway? Each week we ponder the
answer to this question. People ache for meaning and purpose
at work, to contribute their talents passionately and know their
lives really matter. They crave being part of an organization
that inspires them and helps them grow into realizing their
highest potential. Business can be such a force for good
in the world, elevating humanity. In our program, we provide
(00:51):
guidance and inspiration to help usher in this world we
all want working on Purpose. Now here's your host, doctor
Elise Cortes.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
Welcome back to the Working and Purpose program, which had
been brought to you with passionate pride since February of
twenty fifteen. Thanks for tuning again this week. Great to
have you. I'm your host, doctor Elise core Tes. If
we've not met before and you don't know me, I'm
a workforce advisor, organizational psychologist, management consultant, logotherapists, speaker and author.
My team and I at Gusto Now help companies to
unlive it and fortify their operations by stoking their passion,
(01:27):
meaning and purpose of the team to align with your
organizational aspirations. We do this by helping companies build a
high performance culture, inspirational leadership, and nurturing managers who meaningfully
connect with their team members and coach them to develop
more skills and contribute their highest performance. You can learn
more about us on how we can work together at
Gusto dashnow dot com and my personal site on Leiscortes
(01:47):
dot com. Getting In today's program, we have Roderick Jefferson,
an internationally recognized keynote a transformational speaker. He's given keynote
presentations nationally and in fourteen countries and understands the power
of sharing real life strategies that work. Roderick frequently presents
at industry events and is the author of sales Enable
at three point zero, the Blueprint to Sales Enable It, Excellence,
(02:09):
the sales Enable at three point zero workbook, and lastly
Stroke of Success, how climbing the light of success may
be detrimental to your life. We'll be talking about his
obsession with climbing to success and how it ultimately culminated
in him dying and coming back with a new Lisa
on life and a message to fortify it. He joined
it today from the San Francisco Bay area. Roderick, welcome
(02:30):
to working on Purpose.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
But Julius, thank you for having me. I'm absolutely honor.
Speaker 3 (02:35):
I'm delighted as well, and we have much to share
and talk about here, right, And what I wanted to
start with just because it was a delightful way when
you and I first met and we were having a
phone conversation to get acquainted. You told me the story
that earlier in your life that you were set out
to be a pro athlete, and I think you even
had a contract from a team, but then you met
(02:57):
this woman and things changed. Maybe you should start with
that story.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
This woman, you know, I think that's how I'm going
to start referring to her. Oh no, you're going to
get me in trouble until she kills me.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, it was to get me in trouble.
Speaker 4 (03:11):
You know. It was an interesting story. I had played
basketball all the way through college and I was about
two weeks away from leaving. I had a contract down
in Nicosia, in Cyprus, Greece to go and do what
I had loved since I was, you know, six years old.
And I met her and life change right away. It's
(03:34):
one of those things where you just know when it's
the right person. And I to say I was smitten
was probably an understatement, which is the first time ever
that I had actually felt this way, and so I
was like, this is the one. Absolutely. So she got
a chance to meet my mom. My mom said I agree.
So that cleared things up on that side. But you know,
(03:56):
we met. I said I'm going to leave, why don't
you come with me? And she said, no, that's not
gonna happen. I've known you for two three weeks. There's
no way I'm gonna go over there. I don't know
what's gonna happen to my passport, I don't know what's
gonna happen to me. And I said, fine, then I'll
figure it out. What she didn't know is I actually
(04:16):
went after that conversation, I called my agent and I
tore up my contract. Now, remember I want to get
to the point of being a pro. Being a pro
was kind of optional at that point. I knew that
I wasn't going to the NBA, so it would be
cool money and I give a chance to go around
the world and those kind of things. But when I
(04:37):
told her, here's the answer that she gave me, you're stupid.
I thought this was just a fling. It was like,
oh great, I just gave up my entire future for this,
and you know, I have not regretted it for a day.
We have two beautiful children and a beautiful granddaughter now,
and that was literally thirty five years ago, and we
(05:00):
are still going strong. And I got to believe that
after everything this woman's been through with me, she's got
to be about a quarter of an inch away from
Satan did right now.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Such a beautiful story, and there's hope for all of
us out there that still want to find our partner.
So thank you for scaring that.
Speaker 4 (05:19):
Well.
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Now fast forward here. If we were to just kind
of even just roll over your resume, we would find
all kinds of really interesting, well recognized company names that
they're that you've had executive leadership roles with. So just
sort of trace for us, just to give us a
bit of a tour of this big career that you've
enjoyed here.
Speaker 4 (05:37):
Thank you for that. You know it was, it's been amazing.
Disneyland fairy Tale of a ride, it really has. I
started out at at and T my first i'll call
it big boy job, and I was an inside salesperson,
you know, a BDR SDR as they're called now, and
I did well, got promoted to executive, went to President's
(06:02):
club a couple of times, then got promoted to sales
leader and I quickly said no, thank you. First of all,
I don't want to be responsible for other people in
their push. And I've also heard that sales leaders actually
make less than the people that are selling. That's not
what I was about to sign up for. So I
actually met with my VP of sales and I said,
(06:22):
what if I could do two things. One, take some
of the basic rudimentary templates that I created and help
people to get onboarded faster and start hitting quota. And
the other piece is what if I could you've had
so many people that were eligible for President's Club that
you didn't have enough budget, And he said, a new job.
(06:45):
So I took on my first new job immediately because
I wanted to stay close to sales, but I didn't
want to have a quota that I know that now
the entire branch became my quota because I became the
branch trainer from onboarding through continuing education. From there, like
I said, it just shot up like a rocket. I
went to I've run enablement at siebel eBay, HP, Oracle, Salesforce,
(07:09):
MARKETO and a number of others, and I started, as
I said, as a BDR. By the time I finished
my corporate run, I was a senior vice president. But
at that point I realized that I was kind of
the leader of leaders, and I couldn't literally look myself
in the face and say that I was a practitioner anymore.
So I started my own company about eight years ago,
(07:31):
taking on kind of the things that I was doing,
which was something called sales enablement, which was kind of
think about training on steroids. And that worked for a
few years, and then a buddy of mine called and said, Hey,
I've got this SVP slot. You could probably do it
with your eyes closed. It's a nice salary. Plus we
get a chance to put the band back together. I
(07:51):
went out and did it. Little did I know that
that was going to be the beginning of this is
the first time I've actually heard it called a death march,
and I never looked at it that way, But in hindsight,
that's exactly what I was signing up for.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
Yeah, as I was writing this for the description of
the podcast and the title, I was like, I think
this is what we really need to refer to this
as so, listeners and viewers, you were in for a
ride here as he shares his story here, But let's
talk about how things began to unravel. I don't know
where you want to start with bec there's a couple
of junctures in the story here that are important to say.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
I think I'll start where I was living a great life,
flying around on corporate jets and corporate helicopters, and I'm
staying in the La Monte Carlo Casino. I'm riding around
in cars at the ground Prey in south of France,
and something changed. I'd come back, I'd taken a new
(08:51):
job and I was in so I lived in the
San Francisco area. I was down in Los Angeles, and
we're getting ready for a sales kickoff, doing the usuals,
walking the property, tasting all the food, checking out all
the rooms, making sure that it was set up. And
it felt like a regular day until it wasn't. So
(09:12):
we went to dinner like every other night, had dinner,
had a couple of cocktails, and I got really tired,
but tired on a level that I'd even know existed,
to the point to where I literally woke up with
my head down on the table and people staring at
me like are you okay? They looked at me like
I had a narcolepsy. I had just fallen asleep, And
(09:33):
I'll say that in jest, like I'd fallen asleep in
the middle of a sentence, which is about what happened.
I said, Okay, I'm tired. I'm gonna go back to
my room. I'm gonna get some sleep because tomorrow we've
got a lot of things going on. And then I
fly home later in the afternoon. Fast forward next morning.
I wake up. Every day that I'm out on the road,
my wife and I jump on and we sink up.
(09:55):
What's going on? How are the kids? How are you?
What's going on with there? What's your schedule? Like? What
I heard was the words similar to what you hear
now inside of my head. With her, she heard gibberish
and that I could hear fear in her voice. And
she said, let's jump on face on FaceTime. I need
to see your face. But she didn't tell me why.
(10:18):
She said, I just want to see your face. I
was like, okay, fine, let's jump on face time. She
walked me through, thankfully, stroke protocol because a friend of
hers had had one previously, and she had had a
small tia also a minor stroke years back, and it
was essentially, what's what's your name? What's your middle name?
Speaker 5 (10:39):
I'm like, oh, I don't know. I should probably know
that you know. And this was only I dare I say?
All of this happened four years ago. This wasn't something
twenty years ago.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
And so she says count to ten, fine, one to
eighty seven, twelve, forty six thirteen, say you're for me, babe,
And I said, come on, seriously, ab XLQTWC why And
she said, babe, I need you to call and I
had one of the directors on my team. She said,
(11:13):
I need you to call Tim Carlson because you're having
a stroke. Now fast forward. We get to the emergency room.
They do a battery of tests, they check on me,
and now I'm stuttering uncontrollably, something called apheenia. Medically, I
can't get words out. We were there for ninety minutes
(11:33):
two hours max. They released me. Why I do not
know to this day. The worst part is it turns
out that there is a clot buster, if you will,
of medication that they could have given me to break
up the clot that created the stroke. Problem was and
(11:55):
this was miracle number one. I had my sleep my
stroke while I was asleep. Ninety eight percent of sleep
stroke victims never wake up. That is why it is
called the silent killer. So we fast forward to that.
We're at the airport, flying back to a bad move.
As it turns out, I land in Oakland. My wife
(12:19):
is there. They meet me. I'm in a wheelchair. Now
she's really worried that something's seriously wrong. And I don't
remember the first three days in the hospital at all.
So this is all based on information from my wife.
She takes me to our local hospital here in Walnut Creek.
The first thing they say to her is the main
(12:39):
is a miracle because between cabin pressure, altitude and midstroke,
he should be dead right now. So my turns out
my stroke was unusual. Although I was a high profile athlete,
I had been, excuse me, diagnosed with something called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,
which is and in large heart. So essentially, I've got
(13:02):
a really big heart, one of the worst kind. Because
of all the athletics, I had an excess layer of
muscle around my heart, so I didn't have any blockage
or anything of that sort. But what happens is the
average heart squeezes at about sixty five to seventy five
percent on average. When you get down to twenty percent,
(13:23):
cardiac arrest hits and you die. When they really excuse me,
when they wheeled me into the emergency room, I was
at twenty two percent heart function. It only gave me
a two percent chance to live well, and that's the
good part. So I'm there in the hospital for about
(13:46):
two weeks at this point, and I'm having a tough
time breathing. On a particular day. Now, bear in mind
four years ago, let's think about this. It's COVID, so
no one can come visit me other than my wife.
I'm in the ICU, so I really don't want her
there because we've got the sickest of the sick people.
And so I said, you know, just kind of come
when you can. That meant every day for her, of course, right.
(14:10):
But my kids couldn't come see me. My family couldn't
see me. So it was a lot of face timing.
But I stopped doing FaceTime because the less that I
used my words and the sicker I got, I got
weakness in my tongue. So it was a difficult time
swallowing more or less trying to speak. So one night
(14:30):
I hear flash, I see flash of the lights. I
hear code blue, code blue, and it's my room, and
I'm like, I know, I'm not feeling good. I think
I was this bad. And then suddenly I'm watching the machine.
It went from beep beep, beep beep to beep I'm flatlined. Now,
for those that are curious about indies and near death experiences,
(14:54):
now I did not see a white light, but what
I did see some of the most vibrant origes and blues, greens,
and grays inside that room. Because I floated up to
the corner of the room. I'm looking down on the
doctors and nurses. They're sucking out fluids, they're doing chest
compression on me, and I'm thinking, is this how it
(15:16):
all ends? This is it? There's no trumpets, there's no music,
no harps, nothing. I looked to my left and I
see my mom. That's the lady that's up over my
left shoulder right now for those watching. And I'm just
as stunned as you are probably right now you're in
(15:38):
this piece. And I said, okay, Mama, fine, I've done
everything I'm supposed to do. I'm ready to get home.
I'm done. And she looks at me and she says,
and I remember the words like it was yesterday. She said, no, baby,
I was sent to tell you you have a new
purpose in life. And she explained to me what I
was supposed to do. And I'll talk about that in
a bit, but here's what you're supposed to do. And
(15:59):
I said, okay, fine, let's go. She said, no, you're
going back because there's still things for you to do.
Now I look to my left, she's gone. I get
sucked back into my body. Now I'm lying flat on
my back. I'm looking up at the doctors. I also
should notice that at this point I've got snowblindness, which
(16:21):
means it's bright all the time, like there's a light
in my eyes, so I have no concept of day
and night. My entire left side, my arm, and my
leg are paralyzed. It's the point to where they're not moving,
They're just kind of hanging. And now I feel the
most excruciating pain in my chest because they're doing these
chess compressions, and I feel like my sternum's about to snap.
(16:45):
And then I hear the two words that nobody ever
wants one word, I'm sorry that no one ever wants
to hear. Clear. I was like, no, no, no, please, no,
this cannot happen. I've seen enough TV now I know
this is not going to be good. I think, God,
he is on my right side, because remember my left
side is now paralyzed. I hear him rubbing the paddles
(17:08):
and he's starting to come down to hit me with
the electricity.
Speaker 6 (17:12):
I go from beep to beep, beep, beep, and I
grab his hand and now they're all running around and
the ert which is the emergency response team comes into
the room and takes over, and they start taking me
through a bunch of different battery of tests as well.
Speaker 4 (17:30):
But I will say this, while I was out, it's
kind of like when you go to the dentists and
you get twilight. You can hear all of the muffles
on top, but I couldn't tell what they were saying.
But when I came back, it was very clear and
I could feel literally the power of my we'll call
it my soul being snatched back into my body. And
(17:52):
after that is now in the hard work began because
now I've got physical therapy, I've got speech therapy, I've
got occupational therapy. I got to learn how to walk again,
start all over, do all the things that come natural
to us. I'll see this doctor least. The one thing
that it may sound crazy, but the one thing that
really caught my attention when I finally was out of
(18:12):
the hospital was I realized just how far my couch
is from the bathroom.
Speaker 3 (18:20):
On that note, let's take our first break because I
want our listeners and viewers just to really take in
the amazing story that you just shared before we go
on and talk about what it took to move away
from that hospital bend that brought you back to life.
I'm your host, doctor Relis Cortez, who went an air
with Roderick Jefferson and internationally recognized keynote and transformational speaker.
(18:40):
We've been talking a bit about his life changing story
and the details of it. After the way, we're going
to learn a bit about his recovery, what that entailed,
and where his recovery has taken him to today.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
We'll be right back.
Speaker 2 (19:09):
Doctor Elise Cortes is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning imfuse cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more, or to invite
a lease to speak to your organization, please visit her
(19:31):
at elisecortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get
your employees working on purpose. This is working on purpose
with doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or
to open a conversation with Elise, send an email to
Alise A Lisee at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to
(19:55):
Working on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (20:01):
Thanks for staying with us and welcome back to Working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor Elise Cortes, as I
am dedicated to help them create a world or organizations
thrive because they're people thrive and are lit by inspiration.
Leaders that help them find you contribute their greatness. And
we do business at Betters the World. I keep researching
and writing my own books. So one of my ladies
came out called The Great Revitalization, How activating meaning and
purpose can radically in liven your business. And I wrote
(20:23):
it to help leaders understand today's very diverse and discerning workforce.
What do they want to be able to perform their best?
Speaker 4 (20:29):
And stay with you?
Speaker 3 (20:30):
And then I provide you twenty two best practices to
equip you to create that in your leadership and your culture.
You can find my books on Amazon or mypersonal site
at Leiscorretes dot com. If you are just now joining us.
My guest is Stroke of Success, How climbing the ladder
of success may be detriult to your life, the author
of which is Roderick Jefferson. Okay, so you left us
(20:51):
hanging talking about what was like to be now awake
and back breathing in your heart, beating on that hospital bed,
journey forward from what recovery looks like there Now, I
know there's a couple of things that happened along the
way as well.
Speaker 4 (21:07):
There was, And one of the interesting things is and
then I said earlier that I had a strong case
of aphasia, or as we commonly know it as stuttering.
I found that the oddest way of talking to one
of my family members, and I couldn't get words out,
and it just started to frustrating me to the point
(21:28):
to where literally for about two weeks, I stopped talking.
I just kind of I pointed and I grunted a lot,
until my wife and her infinite wisdom said, if you
don't start using your words, you will lose them. And
so something came on one of the commercials that I
started singing with it, and I realized, when I sing,
(21:50):
I don't have a stutter. Now, I'm not going to
make a promise that the singing was good or even
remotely close to something that resembled good, because it was horrible, right,
But what I had is a new way of communicating
because my stroke actually happened dead center in the middle
(22:11):
of my speed center. Yes, for a person that gets
paid to talk, I couldn't die off. And what I
found out is the emotional center is directly next to
the speed center, which meant every time someone would ask
me a question, how are you doing? How are how
are you doing? Bouncing back tell me the story of
the stroke, I'd sing it for them, but then I'd
(22:33):
instantly break into tears. Now I have no problem sharing
and showing emotion, but I never was that level of
emotion filled because the brain had swollen. So now my
speech center was it next to it was overlapping my
emotional center. So that was something that was new to me.
(22:57):
So and the second piece was I just started singing
all the time and I would have conversations and I
just found it to be added. So I asked my neurolators.
He says, oh, it happens all the time because it's
too completely different parts of the brain that you're using
for these So and I thought, oh, this is cool.
I bet you've never seen this. He's going, yeah, that's
pretty odd, pretty basic. What else can you show me
(23:17):
that you can do kind of thing. The other piece
was and I said earlier that my mom had given
me my new and I'll call it marching orders of
where I was going to go. And my new focus
is what I call my fore f's of pillars, and
(23:40):
that is faith, family, friends, and fun. Now the foundation
of that and my anchor being faith. Because I've learned
and I grew up and I should probably share it
with your audience that my dad was a minister before
he passed, so I grew up as a PK a preacher. Yep.
(24:00):
That means I was good and bad on both sides
of the street. And I had both sides of stories
that I couldn't tell anybody. So what I found out
is it was a new definition of faith. It was
less about blindly believing what you're told, and it was
more about radical trusts. Because it was the first time
that and I remember when I was younger, my mom
(24:26):
used to say that two things. One faith is never
tested in good times, and I didn't understand what that
meant until I went through this piece. And the second
thing I realized is faith definition changes because we assume, oh, okay,
maybe nobody's promised tomorrow. Well how about that when you
(24:48):
don't have it tomorrow, you think that you can make
your body respond to whatever you wanted to do until
you can't. And so this whole thing was all about trust,
and I had to say, God, it's yours. All I'm
going to do is listen and let you lead, and
(25:08):
I'm going to follow. So it was about trusting that
the struggle I was going on was not just shaping me,
but it was changing me completely. Now it's believing that
people have lost I've lost her still somehow with me
because my mom showed that. And I don't mean just
(25:30):
in a dream that seems impossible, but I started to
relate that to real life. What am I going? How
am I going to walk again? I had to literally think,
bend your knees, put one foot in front of you,
move the next one, shift your weight, turn your shoulders,
and things that, just as children, we naturally do until,
(25:53):
like I said, you can't. And then I realized that
there were other people that were watching what was going on.
I was in a number of support groups, and my
recovery started to accelerate to the point to where I
actually started to have survivors guilt because I'd be on
(26:16):
one of the groups and soon said it's been ten days,
and I just walked across the street, across the room,
or I can use a real spoon again, and I'd
be like, man, I got a keynote coming up in
San Diego. I'm not tell these people that. I also
(26:36):
realized that, just like everything else, you can't compare yourself.
Your chapter twelve, maybe their chapter fifty right, or my
chapter two, maybe their chapter thirty seven. And I was
going to Stanford University and I had about eleven neurologists
that were poking and prodding me because they had never
(26:57):
seen anybody bounce back as far as fast as I
had before. And to me, it was all I knew
as an athlete, as an executive, as a salesperson, and
I don't say this when an ego. I expected to win.
And I think that's what helped me fight back from this.
In that stage that I was in was I realized
(27:21):
that I hated losing more than I loved winning, and
I was not going to let this thing beat me
because it became a U versus me situation. I also
realized that what it meant when people say no one
is an island. Remember I'm home, but I'm not back
(27:46):
if you will. And so I still need help moving around.
The paralysis has not completely come back. And so it
wasn't like, you know, people were feeding me, but they
were feeding my soul. And I realized how important the
(28:06):
smallest thing mattered. I started to put words together with
my use of my visual and auditory exercises, and then
they'd start to turn into a sentence. They were cheering,
like I won the Super Bowl, right, I could take
the first time. I remember the first time I went out,
(28:27):
and the whole family was terrified, trust me. So is
that the first time I got to drive my car
after this stroke. I didn't know if I'd be coming
back home or you know, I'd be going back to
the emergency room a kid. And also you realize the
definition of love changes. Families think that we love each
(28:49):
other because we're DNA and we just have to love
each other, well, not necessarily, and you realize the difference
between like and love love each other doesn't mean we
like each other all the time. We literally got to
becoming and we refer to ourselves as Team Jefferson, and
our family model has always been with Jefferson's we don't
(29:11):
quit no matter what. It's that last part that really
stuck with me right, because I will say this, I
started to wonder if I'd ever get back completely because
most of us see someone and they have and again
I try not to compare, but when we see, we
(29:33):
hear someone had a stroke. I listened to it, and
I think, stroke, stroke, They're not going to get back.
The arm is pinned against the body, they're dragging the
legs behind it. That wasn't the case for me. I
was actually I wasn't stuttering, but I was starting to
talk again, slowly, right until one day we were watching
(29:55):
I remember we were watching a college football game and
it was a day before my son's birthday coming up,
and he had gone to go get his car washed.
So that left my wife, my daughter, and myself here
at the house. And I felt this sharp pain in
my head. It felt like somebody was drilling nails into
(30:18):
my head, and I I mean, just excruciating me. I
look up at them and they're like, Dad, are you're okay?
What's going on? What happened? And I said, I'm not
sure what happened, but I feel like myself again. With
this voice that you hear today, now, you would think
(30:39):
everybody would be so excited. Oh my God, Dad can
talk again.
Speaker 2 (30:42):
No.
Speaker 4 (30:42):
First thing my wife said was get your shoes on.
We're going back to the emergency. She thought that maybe
I had an aneurysm that had burst, or something in
my brain that was temporary. We went to the emergency room,
take me back and red mrict. The doctors come in
and they take my original films. They put it up
(31:03):
and they take the films from that date on top
of each other, and they were mirror images. So physologically,
nothing had changed my brain. They couldn't explain why suddenly
I could talk when I couldn't, you know, just an
hour ago. I didn't care. I'm like, it's working. But
that wasn't enough. So back to the death march that
(31:25):
we were talking about. Crazy me. What do I do? Oh,
I'm fine. I go back to work as an executive
with a high level of stress that I have become
accustomed to working at. And I'll call it the red
line of stress. Like I'm sure some of you out
there can relate to. The problem is I wasn't as
(31:50):
healed as I thought I was. And guess what happened?
Oh no, not again, yes again, that I'd had a
second stroke. I started stuttering, again. My head was killing me.
I was feeling numbness in my limbs. Right back to
the same hospital, literally two rooms away from where I
(32:13):
was before. And at that point, and I know you
can believe what you choose to for me, God said,
you don't get a third time. Now. You either are
going to make a change now or I'm going to
(32:34):
take you out, because clearly you're not smart enough to
handle this by yourself. I stayed in the hospital a bit.
I went through the same regimen and routine that I
went to before, but this time I came home a
very different man. I was ready, I was prepared, and
(32:55):
I knew that how I continue doing things the way
I was going to or I was planning to, and
haid continue doing My cardiologist said, now I had my stroke.
We call my stroke adversary October twenty eighth, just a
couple of weeks ago, four years ago. And so you
(33:18):
know that we're all pushing towards Thanksgiving here in the US.
And then shortly after that Christmas, my cardialogier said, had
I not had my stroke, I would have never made
it to Christmas, may not have made it to Thanksgiving.
So I look at it now and I think that
the best thing that ever happened to me physically. Of
(33:40):
course there's family and kids in all those things, but
physically the best thing that's ever happened to me because
I had a stroke, I died and they brought me back.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Oh my goodness. Let's grab our last break on that one,
so people can just chew on that. After the break,
I want to talk about where we are, where's the
direction next? Where did what did Mama tell us? And
where how we play in the game of life after
this this juncture. I'm Alice Cortes, your host, who've been
on the air with Roderick Jefferson, an internationally recognized keynote
(34:12):
and transformational speaker. We'll be right back to talk about
his direction from here.
Speaker 2 (34:32):
Doctor Elise Cortez is a management consultant specializing in meaning
and purpose. An inspirational speaker and author. She helps companies
visioneer for greater purpose among stakeholders and develop purpose inspired
leadership and meaning infused cultures that elevate fulfillment, performance, and
commitment within the workforce. To learn more or to invite
Elise to speak to your organization, please visit her at
(34:54):
Eliscortes dot com. Let's talk about how to get your
employees working on purpose. This is Working on Purpose with
doctor Elise Cortes. To reach our program today or to
open a conversation with Elise, send an email to Alise
A Lise at Elisecortes dot com. Now back to working
(35:18):
on Purpose.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
Thanks for staying with us, and welcome back to working
on Purpose. I'm your host, doctor release Cortes. As you
know by now, this program is dedicated to empowering and
inspiring you along your journey toialize more of your potential.
If you want to learn more about how we can
work together and learn about the gusta Now Academy for
leaders and individuals on various journeys alike, make your way
to gusto dashnow dot com and then navigate to the
training tap. You can find more information there if you
(35:46):
are just now joining us. My guest is Roderick Jefferson,
who is the author of Stroke of Success. How claiming
the ladder of success may be detrimental to your life,
So listener, Inquiring minds want to know what did mama
tell you were going to be doing?
Speaker 4 (36:01):
Next? Great question, she said, A couple of things. First,
is I need you to make sure that you're looking
out for, in her words, the invisible people. And I
think during COVID we called them what we call them again. Hmmm,
(36:23):
I'm gonna just flash sorry, but these are the folks
that are your waiters and waitresses. These are the people
that are.
Speaker 3 (36:32):
The essential people's essential yea, absolutely, thank you.
Speaker 4 (36:36):
These are flight attendants, the people at the gate, all
the people that you only notice when something's wrong. And
she said, your job is to make sure that every
one of them that you come in contact with, you
give them at least one smile today that they would
not have gotten they not come in contact with you.
(36:59):
That's the this easy thing. The other piece was you
need to go out and tell everybody that will listen
about what happened to you, in hopes that it never
happened to anyone else, and also giving them an opportunity
to do what I wish I would have done. And
(37:19):
that was Remember I said, my new four pillars were faith, family, friends,
and fun. That was the other piece. You need to
start enjoying lime. You're working all way too hard, son.
I remember, right before my stroke, I was talking to
my daughter and she said, Dad, you've done so much.
(37:40):
You mentor people, you help out in the community, you
give back, you volunteer, You've flown around the world. What
do you do just for you? What do you do
for fun? I looked at her and I said, what
is this fun you speak of? Child? And it was
a half joke, but at the time I realized I
really didn't do anything for me. Please, I implore you
(38:04):
that's watching and listening to this, don't be me. You
know we were when we were small, fun was just
a part of what we did. But it feels like
the older we get when we get this mass that
we put on because there's expectations of I've got a title,
or I'm with a company, or I've got a degree,
(38:24):
and I'm supposed to be fill in the blank according
to who are they? I've been trying to figure this
out for a long time, doctor lees, who exactly are they?
And clearly they are not having any fun? So I
don't want to be a part of them anymore. Every
day I write up my top four things on my
whiteboard that I'm going to do professionally before I turn
(38:46):
off my laptop. My fourth one is always one personal
thing just for me, and I just completely changed my
approach doesn't mean I work hard. I don't work nearly
as hard as I use. You're not going to find
me in here at ten o'clock at night still going.
You're not going to find me here at five o'clock
in the morning going. Because someone said something the other
(39:08):
day that really caught my attention. I have never seen
a hearse whether a U haul connected to it. I
had to stop for a second after I laughed, like
you didn't win. You might be onto something. I used
to get upset with my team over in Europe, like
(39:29):
when you guys ever work, it's always a banker's holiday somewhere.
I think they might be onto something. I really do.
I think here we have this badge of courage of
I put in sixty hours, I worked, and I did this,
and I'm on this committee and my name is on this.
When you die, does it really matter? No from someone
(39:51):
that has died. I had someone else ask me something
the other day that stopped me in my tracks. If
you are doing something and you're the only person that
can be counted on to do it, is it really
that serious and that important? It really isn't. So take
your time and enjoy life. Because it's not a video game.
(40:16):
You don't get a do over, you don't get to restart,
and so the other to honor my mom and to
get this word out. As I said earlier, I'm a
keynote speaker. I've spoken in fourteen fifteen countries. Now, I
was talking about driving revenue, driving productivity, leveraging AI. Those
(40:37):
things are secondary to me. Now Now Stroke of success
is my new signature. KEW. Why is that? Because it's
about kind of highlighting that grit, that tenacity, that determination,
and all of that minus self care is a really
(40:58):
bad imbalance and a concoction for an early death. My
goal now is to try and inspire positivity and promoting
I'll say, a shift towards working to live rather than
living to the work like I was doing. If I
can impact and influence and inspire just one person to
prioritize mental health, emotional and physical well being and not
(41:23):
have to fight through the things that I had to
recover from, you know what, mission accomplished Because we don't
get enough emphasis on self care. And now everyone has
their definition of self care. My definition has changed. Self
care for me is not about just going to the
gym and going to get a massage. It's about thinking
(41:47):
about how this is going to impact everybody around me.
It's about thinking about my nineteen month old granddaughter and
the legacy in her. And I want to be able
to have memories that once I'm gone. She remembers that
I was talking to my wife not too long ago.
(42:07):
And it may sound a little more bit, but hear
me on is that there's a method to my madness. Here,
I said, when I do die and it's all over
with at my funeral, first of a lie, I don't
want it to be. I want you to have a party,
have a good time, and really celebrate, just like we
do down in Louisanna, where I'm from. We have a party,
(42:32):
We have Marty Grass every time somebody dies, and I
think that's the way it should be. I said here,
I have one rule. No one can talk about any
of my keynotes, any podcast I was on, any job
that I worked at, any award or accolade that I
ever won. They're only allowed to talk about how I
made them feel once I was in their presence and
(42:55):
when I walked away from them, and what part of
me I left them with. Miss just accomplished.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
That is so beautiful. In fact, by the way, I
would be amissrotic if I didn't tell you and celebrate
with you how beautifully written your book is. It's just
so beautiful. It just draws you in and you're just
in there, all nestled in it. It's beautiful. In fact,
I want to read a short little passage that really
spoke to me. It's quite different than what you were
just talking about, but still a big part of your message.
(43:25):
It reads like this, you say, I've learned that life's
obstacles are often our greatest teachers. They don't come to
break us. They come to reveal who we truly are.
They strip away everything we thought we needed to be
happy and show us that what we truly need to
be whole. They teach us about our resilience, our capacity
for love, and our ability to find meaning even in
the midst of suffering. It really speaks to me.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Thank you, thank you so much. If I might ask
what was it about that the.
Speaker 3 (43:54):
Graduate, Well, I've certainly navigated my own suffering. I haven't
died and been resurrected and come back to life, but
I you know, I've certainly navigated some some tough stuff
that has definitely catalyzed learning and transformation in me to
the to the to the tune that I literally have
(44:15):
become so much more competent and able to be attuned
to other people, to how they're feeling, to what they're thinking,
helping them find their words and to express them. And
that has only come through the suffering.
Speaker 4 (44:29):
I don't smile for your suffering. I smile because you
just made my soul smile. And the fact that it
is now through that difficult time, it has made you
far more empathetic others and what they're going through, which
says to me that you have learned or continue to learn,
(44:49):
to take those setbacks in life and turn them into
stepping stones and turn them into I'll say, the universe
has a way of being one of our best teachers
if we'll just listen right. A lot of times we're
(45:11):
so focused on moving so fast that we try and
drive and I'll say, drive the bus of life, if
you will. And I've realized every time I try and
drive that bus, I hit a tree or a wall
because I'm trying to moult multitask, and quite honestly, multitasking
(45:33):
doesn't actually exist because you're not focused on anything. You're
just kind of randomly taking bits and pieces. But if
you would take your your moment, if you will, and
just sit in that passenger side of life, it's amazing
how beautiful the view is. It takes a person that
(45:55):
is willing to take their hands off the steering wheel
and say I don't need to control everything. I don't
need to be in control all the time. And I
know it's tough because I've got a eight plus plus
plus plus plus personality as well that didn't go away
with the stroke. But what I've learned to do is
to temper that. And I've also learned to shift priorities.
(46:20):
I missed my daughter's eighth grade graduation because I was
in Paris, a great place to be, not by yourself.
I missed my son's football games, that's dance competitions. My wife,
for the longest, felt like she was a single mom.
I had made myself believe that my role as a
man is to provide and protect, and I revel in
(46:42):
that a bit too much because I believed it so
much that I let my ego drive it. Yeah, I
was providing for them. It didn't suck that I was
on corporate jets and helicopters and eating well and you know,
playing Black Jacket the monitor Carlo Casino until I got
back to my room when I'm by myself and I'm
crying myself to sleep. Everything that glitters ain't gold. And
(47:08):
just because you can does not mean you should. You
gotta figure out. I've got my fore f faith, family,
friends and fun. That may not work for you, but
you should have something a personal mantra. And maybe it's
something that only you know of what your priorities are.
Because the moment you take your eyes off of your
(47:31):
why really ugly horrible things happen. You may never have
a stroke, but what I'm about to say may actually
shock you. According to the American Stroke Society, every human
over the age of twenty five, one out of four
will incur a stroke in their life. Well, the one
(47:52):
that took me down was my second. I didn't even
realize I had had a stroke previously. Maybe it felt
like a migraine. Maybe it just felt like I was
tired because I was working hard. Let me rejigger what
I just said. You may never and I pray to
God that you never have a stroke. But doctor Lisa,
as you said, and I'll kind of prayer phrase life
(48:13):
is life and for all of us, we're all going
through something.
Speaker 3 (48:18):
Yeah, so true. Such a beautiful way to finish, Roderick.
What a beautiful So. I am so grateful to know you.
I loved your book, and I appreciate so much of
coming on my podcast to share this beautiful message in
your new way forward. In say twenty seconds, would you
let to leave lisers with anything.
Speaker 4 (48:34):
Else, I'll leave you with this, learn how to build
balance in your life before your life takes over and
takes all the balance away from you.
Speaker 3 (48:50):
Powerful Roderick. So beautiful listeners and viewers, you are going
to want to learn more about Roderick Jefferson, his books,
his speaking. So I would direct you first strutted this website.
It's Roderick Jefferson dot com. I'll spell it for you
in just a second. But you've got all kinds of
resources available to you on that site. So Roderick is
R O D E R I C K Jefferson standard
(49:12):
spelling j E F F E R S O N
Roderick Jefferson dot com. Last week, if you missed the
live show, you can always catch it via recorded podcast.
We are on air with doctor Jamie Goffe, the founder
of The Empathic Leader, where she specializes in helping leaders
unlock their full potential through executive coaching, insight for workshops,
and thought provoking keynotes. We talked about her new book,
(49:34):
The Secure Leader, Discover the Hidden Forces that shape your
leadership story and how to change them. We dove into
her research and expertise and relational attachment styles and how
they manifest in leadership effectiveness. Next week will be on
a with Cecily Mack talking about her new book Undimmed,
the Eight Awarenesses for Freedom from unwanted habits. See you then, together,
let's lean in and learn how to create destination workplaces
(49:56):
where people thrive grow to their higher potential, all while
doing business and ways. What better's the world? Let's work
on Purpose.
Speaker 2 (50:05):
We hope you've enjoyed this week's program. Be sure to
tune into Working on Purpose featuring your host, doctor Elise
Cortes each week on W four CY. Together, we'll create
a world where business operates conscientiously, leadership inspires and passion performance,
and employees are fulfilled in work that provides the meaning
and purpose they crave. See you there, Let's work on purpose,
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