May 16, 2024 • 51 mins
When life throws a curveball, it's the strength within us that determines our next move. Ryan Gonzales, a wrestling coach grappling with stage four pancreatic neuroendocrine cancer, joins us to share his remarkable story of resilience and the profound lessons learned through his struggle. With the heart of a fighter and the soul of a dedicated father, Ryan's journey encapsulates the very ethos of what it means to wrestle with life's toughest challenges, both on the mat and off.
Our conversation with Ryan is a powerful one, exploring how the principles of wrestling—toughness, determination, and facing exhaustion with courage—become pivotal when life presents its most daunting battles. His ability to maintain a positive outlook in the midst of cancer treatment is a testament to his incredible spirit, and his commitment to living in the present moment, with family at the forefront, offers inspiration to us all. Ryan's story is a poignant reminder of the importance of mindset, the value of cherishing every moment, and the strength that comes from a support system rooted in love and faith.
As Ryan opens up about his journey, he brings to light the transformative power of vulnerability and the impact of community support during our darkest times. He discusses how his experience has not only been an educational journey for his family, teaching them about empathy, service, and the importance of making a positive impact, but also how it has served as a rallying call for change and empowerment. Join us in this deeply moving episode as we uncover the human capacity to inspire and empower through personal adversity, and how one man's fight can ignite a fire within us all to face our own challenges with unwavering determination.
Follow Ryan:
- LinkedIn
- Facebook
Instagram Pages:
- @bowhunteroutdoor
- @headlock_pnc
Follow Playing Injured on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/playinginjured/
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to another episode of Playing Injured.
I'm really excited abouttoday's episode.
I have a really good friend ofthe show, ryan Gonzalez, all the
way out in Utah Me and Ryan.
We got a chance to chat overthe phone a few weeks ago, right
, ryan?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, yeah, roughly Yep two weeks.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yep two weeks ago and obviously you got kind of your
contact for Mason, who is a biginspiration in my life and a big
influence in my life, and so Itook it with a high regard.
I had to get on the phone withyou and the conversation that we
had we probably talked forabout an hour so that could have
(00:40):
been the podcast right there.
So that could have been thepodcast right there.
But, man, your story was soinspiring I walked away from
that conversation feeling reallyrefreshed and I could not wait
to get you on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So I appreciate you for joining us man.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh, thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
Well, I always start the showwith who is Ryan and how does he
spend his time today, what doesthat look?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
like, who is Ryan?
Oh man, that's a good question.
If you ask my wife on a givenday, it'd be different, Right?
But as far as Ryan, I am afather of four.
I have four kids.
Ages vary all the way fromeight down to 18 months old.
(01:31):
So crazy, there, just a father,and I just do a lot with sports
wrestling.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I love going on a regular daily basis with my son
a couple of times a week helpinghim in wrestling and then, as
well as coaching him on thephone.
You've always been a bigwrestler, right.
You've always kind of instilledthat into your family as well,
right.
But also, too, you've hadchallenges in your life
currently going throughchallenges, right, and the
(02:31):
wrestler's mentality, right.
Whenever I've thought aboutwrestlers, they were crazy, they
were nuts, right, starvingthemselves to make weight, you
know just the fact of fightingand wrestling to exhaustion, the
cauliflower ears, everything.
(02:52):
I've always thought aboutwrestlers as being kind of nuts,
kind of crazy, but it wassomething that I admired.
Talk about that the wrestler'smentality, and then how you've
used it in your life and whatyou're currently going through
today yeah, no, uh, I agree withyou, we are kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
um, if you meet us right, we might have that
cauliflower ear that you'retalking about, which I did have
at one point but drained it allout, so looks somewhat normal
there.
Um, no, but uh know, thementality of a wrestler, I'll
tell you, is something that youkind of train yourself to be
different in the mindset of howabout you go with things in life
(03:32):
Right, and I didn't?
I didn't understand that when Iwas actually wrestling as a
young then had not only a kneeissue but other issues arise
that didn't allow me to wrestlein the college platform or stage
, you would say.
(03:52):
But you know, I didn't realizethat there was more to that
sport on the mental side thanthere was when I was wrestling.
What I mean by that is, uh, aswe kind of discussed a little
bit, uh, I battled, I've beenwell, I am currently still
(04:14):
battling pancreatic cancer stagefour that I was diagnosed with
in 2002.
I was sorry to to that, not 2002.
That'd been a long time ago, uh, 2022, where, you know, I
received right before Christmasthe information from my doctor
saying hey, you're you, you havestage four pancreatic cancer,
(04:36):
which came as a shock to me andto my family.
It was a good Christmas, but avery sad Christmas at the same
time.
But you know, as that, like how, I told you how and I'm going
to circle back to how thismindset all kind of comes in
(04:56):
here.
But it came, you know, all of asudden, you know saying, hey,
this is what, it is this whatwe're gonna have to do.
We're gonna have to doemergency surgery.
However, they can't do,essentially, emergency surgeries
on individuals, uh, like opensurgery, like they were gonna do
on me.
Uh, they have to likeimmediately, uh, at that given
(05:19):
point in time, right, they gotto prep your body and make it so
you're good to go.
Uh, so when they get in there,your body can actually handle,
um, the surgery that they'regoing to be performing, right,
so they had to go in um and giveme a lot of different, uh, you
know, medications, injections,shot, wise, um, and prep my body
(05:42):
for it.
So that took about a month andon February 2nd they rolled me
in to have the surgery.
I had three, fourths.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And this is February 2023?
.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, exactly, and they pulled out three fourths of
my pancreas, my spleen, mygallbladder and then two thirds
of one of the lobes of my liver,because it was all infected
with everything.
And anyway, after that theytook me back to my room and I
(06:19):
woke up and spent about a weekor so there and then I ended up
going, you know, home and thensix weeks later I started doing
oral chemo, uh on a clinicaltrial, uh study here at the
university of utah huntsmancancer center people are very
aware of um anyway, basically,I'm kind of giving.
(06:39):
That whole context is because I, you know, we speak of the
mentality of wrestlers and, andyou know what that has done for
me in my life is one I neverknew I was going to ever come up
against the battle againstcancer, never thought I was
(07:01):
right.
I mean, I provided before allthis I was supporting other
cancer individuals saying, hey,let me help you, let me do
fundraisers.
I had an old wrestling coach Iactually helped out as well, him
and his daughters, who ended upall eventually passing away
(07:21):
from cancer, but never thoughtI'd be in those shoes.
And so now I'm in this positionwhere I'm staring down the
barrel uh, you know, staringdown the barrel with a shotgun,
saying, wow, like we don't knowhow much time I have, we don't
know if I'm gonna live.
What's going on?
Uh, just a lot of differentthings.
And so, uh, you can kind ofunderstand how the mental game
would kind of come into playthere.
(07:42):
Right, you start thinking ofmultiple things and in ways that
you're like what, what's theend all be all gonna be here?
Uh, we don't like the unknowns,right, we like to know what's
gonna happen, what's gonna takeplace.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Uh, I'm a very you know engaged person yeah, it's
you know, you lose control,right?
Oh yeah, you don't have controlyes, yes and yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
When you don't have control, man, it's not a good
feeling at all.
Um and uh, and it was very hardfor me to grasp that, but I
kind of started taking it backto the mentality of how I was
wrestling and how I was, youknow, in the sport prior to this
and what I did and how Itrained effectively and putting
(08:30):
my mind to like, hey, I'm goingto beat my next opponent, I
don't care who it is who I comeup against, I'm going to beat
this individual, I don't carewhat his track record is,
nothing, right.
That's kind of my mindset whenI was wrestling.
And so then also, I startedpositioning it to the same
situation with the cancer that Iwas having, and that was, you
(08:51):
know, this is probably not goingto be my biggest match, ryan,
talking to myself of, hey, I gotto take this on.
I got to find a way to win this.
I got to find a way to battlethrough and to make sure that I
win, because I have a fullfamily waiting for me.
As you asked the beginning ofthis call.
Who's?
Ryan, father of four, wife,right?
(09:13):
Um, I need to win this matchfor my kids and for my wife.
And so I just uh put my headdown in a in a good way, uh, you
know, battling it as far aslike, hey, you know, mentality,
positive positivity, thinking,hey, I'm gonna win this, no
matter what, I don't care whatthe odds are, I don't care
(09:34):
people are saying about, hey,this is your chances.
Um, all those things I.
I just kind of left thosethings aside and just focused on
it heavily and again had thatpositive attitude of I'm going
to win this.
And then, what was kind ofinteresting when it comes down
to it, josh, I went into myoncologist a few weeks after I
(09:58):
started chemo and so forth, andas I was actually doing really
well, uh, she was, she wasshocked Really.
She kind of.
She told me that straightforward.
She's like man, right, I'm likeyou're doing, you're doing
great, this is, this is crazy.
I didn't expect to see thistype of progress Like you're.
(10:20):
You're going way beyond what myexpectations were.
And prior to this conversation,some context she knows about my
wrestling background, she knowsabout my beliefs, she knows
about everything, and so shebrought up a couple of different
things.
She's like Ryan, I know whyyou're doing good.
And she's like one is you have,you know, positive thinking.
(10:47):
You have the mentality toovercome everything, even though
when I told you things may notbe looking very good, you were
still very, no, like it's goingto be OK.
And she's like you got thatfrom wrestling I can tell that
you have a wrestler's type ofmindset.
And then, uh, the other thingis too.
She didn't really address, um,you know, uh, god or anything,
(11:10):
but she did bring up the contextof there has to be some other
hand at play, right, yeah and um, and I was like, absolutely
that that's 100.
You know what?
What was my thinking too atthat moment?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
yeah, 100 and so few things you mentioned, right, we
talked about losing control,right, and so you let go let God
right, we hear that all thetime.
Let go, let God right.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
And so, having another hand at play, you had no
other choice, right?
I mean you had to let go, youhad to kind of, you didn't have
control of the situation anymore.
And so that's a piece of it,right?
That's the thing.
You can't control.
Whatever you can't control, yougive it to God and then you
(12:03):
have this piece that you are incontrol of, which is your
mindset, your mentality that youtalked about.
Obviously, having another handat play definitely helps with
the mindset, definitely helpsyou keep going forward.
But you talked about stayingpositive, and then not only not
(12:24):
only staying positive.
What I heard was like youstaying like in the moment, just
hey, next opponent, this iswhat we're doing, Next opponent
this is what we're doing.
We're going to continue tobattle and just focus at what's
at hand.
And you know, I think a lot oftimes, right, it's very hard to
sit there, you know, with cancer, and be positive 24-7.
(12:48):
I mean, even in life period.
It's just hard to be positive24-7.
It is a choice, right, and atsome point in time, you know
you're probably going through alot of pain it's hard for you to
sit there like I got it, it'sall good, you know, I'm fine.
You know, when it's not, foryou to sit there like I got it,
it's all good, you know, I'mfine.
You know when it's not right.
But what you can do is not benegative, right, um, and just
(13:13):
stay in the moment, stay present, and that's what it sounds like
you've done, and those are thetwo things at play of how you're
sitting here on this call, youknow, smiling with me and
sharing your story.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, you nailed it straightdown from, on the other hand,
being involved right toremaining on the positive side
of things.
It's definitely.
I can tell you.
I have had the experience oftalking with other individuals
who have decided not to have apositive outlook on and I can't
(13:51):
speak for everybody.
You know, every form of cancerI've seen is different, right,
it goes different ways, meaningone person might have X, Y, z,
and anyway they're all different, and so I can't speak for
everybody, saying like, hey, youhave to have a positive mindset
, you have to have a positivemindset, right, but I can tell
(14:12):
you, the people that did meet,though, that did have positive
mindsets, uh, they either cameout on top of it or they went
out fighting it with a smile,right, and that's kind of like
how I want to be too, and thataspect of I won't want to be
battling it, showing my kidslike, hey, don't let cancer stop
you, don't let it bring youknow, slow you down, uh, really,
(14:35):
like you know, progress forwardand make sure that you know
you're doing everything that youwant to do in life.
Don't let something else likecontrol you and and bog you down
, right, um, and so I think it'sa key.
That's a key concept is keepingyour mind focused in those
areas of positivity and makingsure that you're drumming up,
(14:57):
you know the good things in lifebecause, again, you and I both
on this call today, one of uscould not even be here tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, so it's important to kind of keep that
positive mindset even if you'renot battling something.
Yeah, 100 percent.
And you and I talked about thaton the phone, right, you like,
hey, it's unknown.
You like I don't know if I gotfive years, 10 years, 15 years,
and I was like, hey, a lot ofpeople don't know.
Yeah, right, that's why youtalked about kind of living
(15:32):
every day Like it's your lastand you and I we talked about it
.
You know, not taking a raincheck on the things you value
most.
Right, yeah, you know whetherit's.
You know you talked aboutfamily.
You say, hey, family, I neverrain check family anymore, never
, right, you know you talkedabout God.
You never, right, you know youtalked about God.
(15:53):
Never rain check on that.
And it sounds like you know,hey, like, the things that you
value most, the things that youprioritize now, are the things
that you value the most.
A lot of other things you kindof said, hey, you know, that's
great, but I need to make surethat the things that are most
(16:14):
important to me, I don't missout on it, and I think a lot of
folks, even folks who don't havea cancer diagnosis, who are
living this life, a lot ofthings we can't control A lot of
(16:46):
things are unknown and so wecan't continue to rain check on
the things that matter the most.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
When you said there is definitely, you know exactly
like how I felt.
I, I mentioned to you at thattime frame too, there was I
can't remember the countrysinger, but I'd heard that song
and it says um, how's it go?
Uh, you can always take a raincheck until you can't, right,
(17:12):
and I kind of came up with thatin my cancer fighting battle,
because I had moments, man,where I was sitting there
looking at my kids, like, beinglike, am I going to, am I going
to see my kids, like here in a,in a week or two, or is tomorrow
my last?
(17:33):
You know, I, I, I was consumedby the thoughts of this could be
the end of me, um, and so Istarted reflecting back on life,
thinking of everything that I,I, I've done and and and, uh,
and you know, I, I thought is ismyself.
I thought I was being a greatfather, um, and my wife said I
(17:53):
was, I was being a great father,but there was some little areas
where I kind of started torealize that I needed to tweak a
little bit, and that was makingit to.
You know, the small things inlife, uh, with family, uh,
making it to you know, my, uh,my daughter had like a school
lunch thing today at at herschool.
(18:14):
Um, it's kind of prior to them,you know, being let out for
school.
Uh, easily, probably in thepast I'd say, hey, I'm too busy,
I can't make that Um, but youknow I get I'll catch up on
other things, uh, but now it'smore or less like no, like I
have to be at that thing, right,and um, I can't tell you, man,
(18:36):
like she, she gave me a big hugand looked up at me and just
said dad, I love you, thank youfor being here.
And I look at that and I thinkto myself like, wow, what if
something were to happen?
My daughter's going to rememberthis moment, though, right.
And so I look at that from theperspective of that rain check
(18:58):
situation.
Right, like you said, don'ttake a rain check on family.
Always be there for family, evenif it is like for me missing
out on something at work that Igot to do, or I have to stay
late at work, or I have to, orthere's there's hunting, fishing
.
Everything that I did do now isthis kind of to the side, um
(19:21):
and uh, and that's even, youknow, with God, the same thing.
I I've made sure that I havealways put him in my life first
too, and I thought to myself wasI truly putting him first in
everything that I do as well?
And I found out that thatwasn't the case.
Doing you know that.
So I can tell you, though, it'schanged me, though, by having
(19:46):
that type of concept and puttingfamily first.
Well, family and God first,before anything else.
And don't take those rain checks, because, man, you know, you
see this smile on my face.
It's not.
It's not because, like you know, that I'm on this podcast today
.
The smile is because, truly,I'm living kind of the best life
(20:09):
that I'm living right now,because something that changed
me a while back in cancer, right, I'm now having moments with my
family, with my friends, withGod, and it's creating a smile,
man Like, and it's justsomething that I wish everybody
could kind of do themselves,just kind of understand that if
(20:32):
they were to kind of put thosethings first in life in general,
it just creates a happy type ofsituation for you, happy
environment, right, um, you knowthe uh, uh, the concept I
brought up to you at one moment,um, looking down through like a
spyglass, right, and uh, or yousay like a spotting scope, uh,
(20:55):
for hunters like myself, uh,we'll look down those scopes and
uh, obviously it's a very likesmall, like driven line, uh that
you can see.
But then it opens up to like ahuge big picture right as you're
looking down into like a canyonor hunt you know hunting wise
and um, I kind of was able tokind of look down my own like
(21:21):
spyglass or my own spottingscope per se, to kind of see
like how narrow it was before,and then having it open up to
that bigger picture once Istarted living life this way,
right, and I wish, like, theonly way that I was actually
able to look down my own isbecause I was looking at the you
(21:45):
know, the battle against cancer, like, and so I saw that and I
acknowledged it and I startedlooking at, hey, what can I
change, what can I do?
And it definitely changedeverything, um, and and like I
told you, I wouldn't want you,josh, uh, to ever have cancer.
I would never wish cancer onanybody, never, ever, um, but I
(22:07):
would love it if there wassomehow some way in the world
today, in society, that peoplecould just have that little
glimpse, to look down their ownspyglass or spying scope,
whichever it may be, and seethat bigger picture at the end,
man dude, the world would bejust a better place.
I think everybody would findtheir own happiness somewhere.
(22:30):
Some shape, some way, some way,some form, um, and.
But I just wish it didn't haveto kind of end up this way, for
for me and, you know, possiblyothers down the road that have
to actually have a bad situationhappen to, to look through it,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
No 100%.
And you know what.
You're on the phone with meyou're like hey, I'm in some
cases I'm glad that I, that Ihad, that I have cancer.
And you know, obviously I'veI've done over a hundred
episodes of folks who have toldme their story of different
(23:05):
things that have happened tothem and so I understood where
you were coming from.
But most folks they would say,like, what do you mean by that?
Right, so what do you mean bythat?
Like, what do you mean by hey,and you know you're glad that
you have cancer, like how hasthat kind of changed?
You talk about that outlook.
How has it changed you?
You know we talked about it alittle bit.
But like, if you could sharewith folks how it's kind of
(23:28):
changed your perspective, youknow, obviously outside of not
rain, checking on family,obviously on yourself, um, you
know, uh, you know actuallytaking action on different
things that you probablywouldn't have done, getting out
of your comfort zone, likeprobably you didn't do before.
But what else can you think of?
(23:50):
That is kind of like changeyour perspective on life period
and reason why you would say,hey, I'm actually glad in some
cases that I do have cancer.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
That's a heavy loaded question there.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, because you know, and as you think about
that, it's this phrase that theStoics came up with and
obviously I heard about it a fewyears ago.
It's called a more faulty right, meaning lover of fate, right,
challenges or the adversity thatyou meet in life, but actually
(24:33):
embracing it, understanding thatlike, yes, I'm actually glad
this happened to me, and becauseyou know it's going to be a
reward.
Obviously you can't see it yet.
Obviously, um, you can't umunderstand why this has happened
to you in life and don't waitfor the reward.
(24:55):
Understand that it's somethinghere, on the opposite end of it,
that's going to be a greatreward.
And so embrace the challenge,embrace the season, embrace the
darkness that you are in lifecurrently, or whatever adversity
and challenges, because youknow something great is gonna
(25:16):
come out of it.
So embracing it right.
And so it sounds like that'skind of the mindset that you've
taken is embracing it and not,um, having a negative attitude
towards it yeah, no, yeah, thatthat's 100.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Um, josh, it's uh, you know it, it was.
It was hard to embrace, like,yeah, very, very, very beginning
, um, I mean, they're, um, youknow, embracing it like, uh, it
took it wasn't just a couple ofdays, wasn't a couple of weeks,
(25:58):
it was, it was months, I think.
Even still today, I kind of runinto the embracing moments of
like, how has it?
You know, how am I stillembracing this today?
And you know, one thing that Ican reflect back on that with
the embracing portion that Iwould heavily kind of just
(26:20):
mention, is one, by embracingeverything, I've kind of gone
through and seen and done andseeing other people's lives in a
whole different shape, way orform.
Meaning, you know, when you seesomebody that you're talking to
(26:42):
or you're, you're associatingwith, and they might be somewhat
different or they might be aperson that, uh, how would you
say this?
You just don't understand themthat well, right, or they have
issues in life and you justdon't, you don't, you don't, you
don't, you don't comprehend whythey are the way that they are
(27:02):
Right.
And that is something that hasdefinitely changed kind of with
me on the embracing part of thesituation that I'm going through
because it's helping meunderstand a lot other, a lot of
other individuals and and whatthey're taking on in their lives
and how their lives are beingaffected, right, and me kind of
(27:25):
being able to, you know, step inthere and be like, okay, hey,
you know, like there's asituation here that I don't
fully understand, but I want tobe able to help understand and
for some reason I don't know Idon't know how to explain or
wrap this up to what I'm meaningessentially, but it just gives
you some context around how tounderstand other people more and
(27:49):
I think that I'm doing a lotmore with other individuals and
helping them out in differentways than I ever have before,
because there's something that'skind of been built within me to
do that.
Right, yeah, so that embracingit has definitely changed me on
that that.
And then, man dude, trying toget over those day-to-day of not
(28:12):
the unknowns and all that, andpeople coming back and saying,
hey, we're gonna do xyz scan onyou now and we're gonna see if
you know, possibly there was onemoment I was laying in the band
.
They were like, hey, is your?
There's a possibility you mayhave passed this on to your kids
.
I mean, what?
What do you do?
Your jaw drops right, you go,what, like I could have possibly
(28:35):
passed this on to my kids.
So things just went frompossible dire situations I'm
dying to now my kids might havethis, and so you know, in those
moments like that you just kindof have to choose how you're
going to accept it and howyou're going to go about it.
And that was one of those mostchallenging times was kind of
(28:57):
hearing that from a doctor.
But now when I hear thesethings, I just say, okay, well,
how are we going to beat thisopponent right?
How are we going to go aboutcharging down the wall?
How are we going to make surethat we win this battle?
And it it isn't.
You know, josh, it isn't winningit by saying I'm the guy that
comes out on top right.
(29:19):
It's not saying that everysingle thing that I'm going to
go through from now until thisor something else ends up taking
my life.
It's not about saying that I'mgoing to beat that all the time
right, that's not the case.
We can't prove that that's goingto actually be what the time
right.
That's not the case.
We can't prove that that'sgoing to actually be what
happens here in the future.
But I can tell you this thoughyou are winning the way that you
(29:41):
approach it, with the mindsetand how you embrace it, of
understanding.
Okay, this is what I have todeal with, so I'm going to take
the best out of it and applythat to my life and I'm going to
live life the way that I wantto live it, and if I continue to
do that, I'm going to be ahappy guy.
If I decide to let that over,control me and run with my life
(30:02):
and control me and make medecide I'm going to do X, y, z
versus doing other things, thenyeah, it's not going to be a
happy run and go right, you'regoing to end up losing that
match versus winning it, and soit's just important to kind of
always embrace those momentsthat, even with difficulties,
(30:24):
there is light there, right, andyou got to find that light and
you got to apply it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you said something about
not understanding orcomprehending why somebody is
the way they are.
And you know, until you gothrough things on your own,
until you experience your ownpain, then you sit back and you
(30:52):
realize, realize, oh, that's whythis person is the way they are
, right.
And then you talk about, youknow, serving, being able to
actually serve people because ofthe pain you went through right
, um, and, and that's how you'vebeen able to kind of take the
(31:13):
eyes off of yourself and theissues and that you've gone
through, right, being able toserve others.
Through this newfoundperspective, you're able to
serve more people.
This story now, right, thatyou're able to share, obviously
it's affected me, you know,after we got off the phone,
right, and I was like, well,okay, and folks are going to
(31:36):
hear his story and now it'sgoing to be able to affect them
as well and then they might beable to spread this.
You know, a lot of people shareknowledge that has come from
people that they don't evenrealize it came from, um, and so
spreads, and the things thatyou're sharing here is going to
(32:00):
be able to help folks have amore fulfilled life without
going through the same issues.
And then also to the folks whoare going through the things
that you're going through, folkswho are going through the
things that you're going through.
You're giving them the tools,the inspiration to be able to
grow and face their challengeswith a better mindset and equip
(32:25):
them with better tools.
And so it's something about yougoing through your own issues
and how you can help serveothers.
That actually kind of ishealing for your own diagnosis,
for your own situation that yougo through right.
Talk about that, because youand I talked about that on the
(32:48):
phone too and I was like man,when folks go through a hard
time and you take the eyes offyourself and you don't really
necessarily focus on your ownpain, you actually help
alleviate others pain.
For some reason, the pain is ishealed on your end as well.
Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
No, I fully agree with you.
I don't know, I mean, I've beenbrought up as a kid in a
religious belief where it'sabout serving others, right, and
I didn't fully comprehend allthat until you know, with all
this, and it's kind of like when, when you're in the service of
(33:29):
others, you're in the service ofyour own God, right, yeah, and
um, and I kind of look, uh, youknow whether people are
religious or not?
Uh, you know, there you look atChrist.
Right, christ was a man whowent around and he healed the
sick, he healed the blind, he,he, he did different things, but
(33:50):
you know, whether you're abeliever or not, jesus Christ
was a man who was here on theearth at one given time, correct
, and what he was always doingwas serving others, serving,
serving, serving, serving.
And then you know he knew whathis kind of objective was was to
, uh, you know, go to the gardenof Gethsemane and then he was
(34:11):
hung on the cross for the sinsof the world, right, and so if
you think about it, if you takea glance at his life and you
think, man, I mean, this isn'tscriptural doctrine or anything
but you look at it and you go,okay, what he did in his life
(34:31):
and his service?
Did it make his burden, what hewas going to carry out in life,
easier or not?
Right?
Was he able to reflect on thosemoments when it was going to be
more challenging and more hardto go through?
Was he reflecting on those, atthose times of need, that he was
suffering as well?
Right, and then he was able togo through that a lot easier.
(34:55):
And, honestly, as I've kind ofapplied that little portion of
my life again, that's notscripture, but this is kind of
something that I've thought of alot and as I've applied that to
my life, when I get in thedarkest hours of my situations
and trust me, they still happen,and trust me, they still happen
I reflect back about things Idid to help others.
(35:18):
But then also, when I wasserving to help others, though,
helped me understand even moreabout myself, but then it made
me also build happy memories,happy thoughts right, so I can
reflect back and then put asmile on, because I'm like man
dude, I don't have it as bad asthe other individuals do, right.
(35:38):
Right, there's somethingeverybody, I think, tends to
hone in and harness their ownemotions and think that they
have it the worst, when youactually don't have it the worst
Like you don't.
And if you, just if you try tolook through that, find that
it's going to make a hugedifference in your own life.
And what I found out.
(36:00):
Josh, I'm just one of those guysI don't know, I kind of sit
behind the scenes.
I'm a guy that I mean I'll getout there and I'll talk with
people.
I'll you know, I'll do all that.
I work in sales, so I have todo it on a regular basis, but
I'm not one that I'm like hey,put the spotlight on me, check
me out, right, right, that's notlike what I'm doing and why I'm
(36:31):
saying that is because I Ilearned that by my actions and
what I'm doing.
On the side of things like howI'm living out my life and going
about things, people arewatching, people are knowing and
noticing what I'm doing as anindividual and I can reference
(36:53):
back to individual and, uh, Ican, you know, reference back to
the moment I told you about thewrestling tournament, right, um
it just to kind of lay it out.
Uh, for everybody to kind ofknow, uh, there's open
tournaments where you can, youcan go and you can compete on
your own as a, as an adult, uh,uh.
So when they open it up, it'sages.
(37:14):
It could range from these, youknow, 20 to actually 18, out of
high school, all the way up tohowever old you want to Um.
And, and I was honestly with mywrestling career, I w I was done
, especially at the end of, likecancer.
I was not going to try andpursue anything and uh, my son
(37:36):
begged me.
He said hey, dad, please,please, please, come wrestle
this tournament with me.
This is an open tournament, dad, you can do it.
And you know, and he's talkingto me about like, uh, hey, they
have your, your weight class,they have, um, your age too,
because they have, like you, uh,you six, you six is what he
(37:57):
wrestles.
So he's six years old.
And uh, one of them they said,uh, uh, you um 35 and above.
And he's like dad, it's perfect, you're 36, you can make it,
you're good.
And so, anyway, I I called upmy oncologist and I said hey, I
think I'm making a dumb movehere, but I think I'm going to
(38:19):
do this.
And she's like well, you'regoing to feel afterwards, it's
not going to feel good, butshe's like I'll clear you, you
go, do what you want.
And so I went to this opentournament and man not in shape,
basically chemo all the way tothe top, right Injured already
(38:40):
knee issues, ankle issues,anyway, I went out there and I
did it, and did I win everymatch?
No.
Did I come out the way that Iwanted to come out?
No, like, obviously we all wantto win, right, josh?
That's how we are.
We want to be winners, but itwasn't that.
Uh, at the end of thetournament I was kind of a
(39:02):
little bit bummed, but then Irealized, though, that I was
being an actual true champion,though at that moment, because
one my son was so excited to seeme actually compete that he was
so stoked that that smilewouldn't leave his face, right,
he's like my dad's wrestlingwith me, and so I realized from
(39:23):
him that he was seeing meovercome obstacles in my way of
having, um, you know, achallenge like cancer in front
of me that I was still sayingyou know what, screw it, I'm
going to do this.
And I show them that I could.
I could beat that Right.
But then it came an influx ofpeople were reaching out to me
(39:46):
and saying, ryan, like thank youfor competing.
That's so inspiring.
Um, Ryan, thank you for doing X, Y, z, and I'm like no seeing
all these people everywheresaying these things.
And I'm like no, seeing allthese people everywhere saying
these things.
I'm like gosh, I didn't evenknow how many people are
actually even paying attentionto this thing.
Right, I think I know I have aguy that's from down that area
(40:06):
hitting me up about a newspaperarticle.
I mean people, folks can goonline and see it, but all these
people were watching man and itwas all about the way that I
just went in there just to help,just to do it for not only kind
of maybe build some.
You know some, you know little.
Hey, I'm an old guy, I canstill do this, but it it changed
(40:27):
a lot of people's perspectiveon different things and I mean
there's a lot of cool messagesthat came out of that.
But I'm just saying you know,make sure you're always doing.
You know like people are alwayswatching you and what you do
with your life and how you takeit.
If you're a type of a rolemodel or an example, you just
(40:49):
got to be doing the right thingsat all times.
Like when you talk about peoplethat inspire you, do you watch
them all the time, right, yeah,and they roll out things to
where you're like, hey, I wantto be like them, and so you're
always paying attention,somebody's always watching.
But uh, just to kind of finishup just this, this portion.
I think the most important thing, though, that I can tie this
(41:11):
into is I just proved to my kidsthat, whatever happens, dad
never gave up, right?
Dad was always a person thatwould and I'm kind of getting a
little teary eyed because thisis kind of the emotional part is
dad was always saying nevergive up.
(41:32):
You know, grit grinds, stay inthe fight.
As you've seen across my shirts, it's kind of what I put out
there, and if you tie this toyou know, I want them to look
back at this and put this intotheir lives and understand that,
no matter what comes up if it'sa health-related issue issue,
(41:54):
if it's a position that youmight just not be good at
something, I don't know anyroadblocks that come up if you
just grit grind, stay in thefight, you're going to find some
way to overcome that objectionand you're going to find a way
to win in life.
And you know, and that that'skind of like, my message is
always want to get that out topeople now, of just saying, hey,
(42:16):
you can overcome anything, butagain, especially for my kids
and my wife, right, yeah, yeah,and honestly, that was like the
last note that I had writtendown was being strong for your,
for your kids, your wife, andbeing an example.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
I promise, you promise, that's the last note on
my iPad and I didn't.
You took it there, I didn'tshow you this at all.
And so, yeah, being an example,right, and you know they talk
about I was just, you know,respect, having respect for
(42:54):
yourself.
We, like people, don't wantfame, they just want respect.
And then most people don't evenwant respect, they just want
self-respect.
And it's living to your standardand when you have standards for
yourself and that is not givingup and the fact that not only
(43:15):
your kids being inspired by yourstory, it's people out there
who are inspired by thestandards that you set for
yourself in the life that youlive.
And I can't wait for people tounderstand the fact that, hey,
(43:35):
you are a leader and people arewatching you, no matter what you
are doing.
It's somebody out therewatching you, and I even try to
tell myself that it's people outthere, that they see every
little thing you do, and eventhe leaders in my life.
I'm looking at everything theydo, from the way they dress to
the way they walk, talk, whatthey eat, what they don't eat,
(43:56):
how they operate, and you justnotice everything.
And so, no, you hit it right onthe head.
And, ryan, you know you share somuch value here and I know that
you, you know we talk aboutserving others, we talk about
being an example.
I know you and your wife, youguys are in the works of of
(44:18):
getting a fundraiser up andrunning.
I want to give you a little bitof opportunity to share a
little bit about that.
And then how can folks kind ofconnect with you, find you and
and and continue to uh, see youand your journey in life?
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Yeah, man, no, yeah, yeah.
So my wife and I, we've learnedover this course, this big
trial that we've been goingthrough by experiencing it, the
challenges that come up with it,right, that we know that
(44:57):
there's a lot of heartacheinvolved, there's a lot of
financial situations that occur,there are multiple things that
arise, and my wife and I thoughtto ourselves like, and I
thought to ourselves like, hey,how can we give back?
What can we actually do to helpother individuals out?
(45:19):
What can we do to change theworld?
Essentially, right, and aswe've talked you know, on this
podcast, we've brought it upmultiple times about, like, how
cancer can change people's livesin a dramatic fashion.
And so, as we thought toourselves, was it we can do?
(45:42):
We started, we startedpinpointing a lot of areas, and
that is, there's as small asthings as going and giving
donations to certain individuals, setting up scholarships.
Giving donations to certainindividuals, setting up
scholarships, giving what Ithink is the most important
thing is an opportunity forpeople to live a moment with the
(46:06):
individual who's ever sufferingfrom cancer, or even a person
who's already lost their youknow, to cancer, whichever it
may be.
Provide them with somethingthat's going to be kind of a
memorable act, memorable aspectto them to help them hold on to
for life.
Right, and and this actuallykind of came to me from a
(46:28):
situation that I had that I wentthrough myself is somebody
wrote in a letter to me saying,hey, use this for your, not for
bills, but to make a memory withyour family, to have them live
with it for the rest of theirlives, right?
And so, anyway, I know I'm kindof going off a little bit, I
(46:51):
have a lot of ambition aroundthis, but so my wife and I ended
up, we ended up making theseshirts.
I can't't, I don't know, greatgrind, stay in the fight, um,
and uh, on the back as survivor,um, and so we were.
We made these shirts that we'reselling now, um, online.
Uh, we are getting a websiteall put together and everything.
(47:14):
But for right now, people havebeen really happy to contribute
to to this movement, and so whatthey're doing is they're
sending us, uh, they're justreaching out to me and saying,
hey, can I purchase a shirt?
Uh, they're DMing me onFacebook, whichever it may be,
and for now that's kind of howI'm getting them out there is
through my own Facebook page, um, linkedin, stuff like that.
So, um, that's kind of how I'mgetting them out.
(47:35):
There is through my ownFacebook page, linkedin, stuff
like that.
So that's kind of what we'redoing now and taking some of the
you know, paying for, obviously, the cost of what the shirt's
being made, taking some of thefunds and putting those.
You know taking the funds,we're making off of it and
applying that to give back tosomebody Right of it and
(47:56):
applying that to to give back tosomebody right.
And we have people that we aregetting in contact with that
have special connections in thecancer industry I want to say
industry, but the cancer area,cancer world, right, that they
know of families that we can goback and we can give back to and
create these type of memorablemoments with individuals and
create these type of memorablemoments with individuals.
And so that's what we're doingessentially right now.
(48:17):
And so if people want topurchase products, I'm going to
have a website up and running atsome point here soon.
I'm not the tech savvy guy, Josh, maybe you are.
We can chat after this, but Iwill have something up and
running.
But for now, facebook Messenger, whatever it may be, you can
hit me up, I would say for thebiggest context around all of
(48:40):
this, josh, is really hop on myFacebook page.
It starts from when it started,all the way up till now, and I
will continue to keep that going.
I'm not a big social media guy,honestly, that's all right.
Yeah, but I actually am nowbecause I realize how much I can
(49:01):
influence another person bydoing it, by social media, right
, and so that's why I'm doing it.
My friend and dude, I'm readyto change a lot of things here,
man, and I just ask everybody tokind of help, pitch in, help
out and do anything they can.
If there's people out therethat know of other ways how to
do this, like reach out to me,like I want to be a part of
(49:23):
something big, I felt like Godput me you know, not put me but
left me here for another reason,and that's to help out with.
You know other individuals andtheir struggles, and so I want
to make the most of it.
So I'm here, I'm ready to fight, I'm ready to battle, I'm ready
to take things on.
And you know the other side ofthings too, josh.
(49:45):
You know, if you reflect onsomething I told my wife today
before we got on this call, Isaid, honey, you know what's?
Another cool aspect about whatwe're doing is not the fact that
we're giving back, but theopportunity that we're teaching
our kids what we're doing andwe're making the world a better
place.
But the other concept is thereare going to be dark times for
(50:09):
us, very dark times, very darktimes.
And as long as I stay in thisand doing what I'm doing right
now, it's going to help me getthrough those hard times, and
I'm going to have to have folkslike that already do have cancer
probably be lifting me up, man,I mean just be honest.
And so this is going to benefiteverybody on so many levels and
(50:34):
I hope people will really takethe initiative reaching out to
me or supporting me in any waypossible to help us get off the
ground.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
One hundred percent.
Yeah and hey, we got we'regoing to get some real good
content from this episode hereto get get you up and running
All right.
So, man, I appreciate you, ryan, for, first of all, being
vulnerable, because this is noteasy.
To kind of share your heart andbe vulnerable, it is tough, and
(51:07):
I really appreciate you beingwilling to open up your heart
and allow folks to get valuefrom you, from your
vulnerability.
So I appreciate you and I knowthis is going to add a lot of
value to folks.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Oh, man.
Well, thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it as well.
Man, You're good.
You're a good man, Josh.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
I appreciate it.
Welcome to another episode of Playing Injured.
I'm really excited abouttoday's episode.
I have a really good friend ofthe show, ryan Gonzalez, all the
way out in Utah Me and Ryan.
We got a chance to chat overthe phone a few weeks ago, right
, ryan?
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Yeah, yeah, roughly Yep two weeks.
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yep two weeks ago and obviously you got kind of your
contact for Mason, who is a biginspiration in my life and a big
influence in my life, and so Itook it with a high regard.
I had to get on the phone withyou and the conversation that we
had we probably talked forabout an hour so that could have
(00:40):
been the podcast right there.
So that could have been thepodcast right there.
But, man, your story was soinspiring I walked away from
that conversation feeling reallyrefreshed and I could not wait
to get you on the show.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
So I appreciate you for joining us man.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
Oh, thanks for having me.
I appreciate it.
Well, I always start the showwith who is Ryan and how does he
spend his time today, what doesthat look?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
like, who is Ryan?
Oh man, that's a good question.
If you ask my wife on a givenday, it'd be different, Right?
But as far as Ryan, I am afather of four.
I have four kids.
Ages vary all the way fromeight down to 18 months old.
(01:31):
So crazy, there, just a father,and I just do a lot with sports
wrestling.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
I love going on a regular daily basis with my son
a couple of times a week helpinghim in wrestling and then, as
well as coaching him on thephone.
You've always been a bigwrestler, right.
You've always kind of instilledthat into your family as well,
right.
But also, too, you've hadchallenges in your life
currently going throughchallenges, right, and the
(02:31):
wrestler's mentality, right.
Whenever I've thought aboutwrestlers, they were crazy, they
were nuts, right, starvingthemselves to make weight, you
know just the fact of fightingand wrestling to exhaustion, the
cauliflower ears, everything.
(02:52):
I've always thought aboutwrestlers as being kind of nuts,
kind of crazy, but it wassomething that I admired.
Talk about that the wrestler'smentality, and then how you've
used it in your life and whatyou're currently going through
today yeah, no, uh, I agree withyou, we are kind of crazy.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
um, if you meet us right, we might have that
cauliflower ear that you'retalking about, which I did have
at one point but drained it allout, so looks somewhat normal
there.
Um, no, but uh know, thementality of a wrestler, I'll
tell you, is something that youkind of train yourself to be
different in the mindset of howabout you go with things in life
(03:32):
Right, and I didn't?
I didn't understand that when Iwas actually wrestling as a
young then had not only a kneeissue but other issues arise
that didn't allow me to wrestlein the college platform or stage
, you would say.
(03:52):
But you know, I didn't realizethat there was more to that
sport on the mental side thanthere was when I was wrestling.
What I mean by that is, uh, aswe kind of discussed a little
bit, uh, I battled, I've beenwell, I am currently still
(04:14):
battling pancreatic cancer stagefour that I was diagnosed with
in 2002.
I was sorry to to that, not 2002.
That'd been a long time ago, uh, 2022, where, you know, I
received right before Christmasthe information from my doctor
saying hey, you're you, you havestage four pancreatic cancer,
(04:36):
which came as a shock to me andto my family.
It was a good Christmas, but avery sad Christmas at the same
time.
But you know, as that, like how, I told you how and I'm going
to circle back to how thismindset all kind of comes in
(04:56):
here.
But it came, you know, all of asudden, you know saying, hey,
this is what, it is this whatwe're gonna have to do.
We're gonna have to doemergency surgery.
However, they can't do,essentially, emergency surgeries
on individuals, uh, like opensurgery, like they were gonna do
on me.
Uh, they have to likeimmediately, uh, at that given
(05:19):
point in time, right, they gotto prep your body and make it so
you're good to go.
Uh, so when they get in there,your body can actually handle,
um, the surgery that they'regoing to be performing, right,
so they had to go in um and giveme a lot of different, uh, you
know, medications, injections,shot, wise, um, and prep my body
(05:42):
for it.
So that took about a month andon February 2nd they rolled me
in to have the surgery.
I had three, fourths.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
And this is February 2023?
.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
Yeah, exactly, and they pulled out three fourths of
my pancreas, my spleen, mygallbladder and then two thirds
of one of the lobes of my liver,because it was all infected
with everything.
And anyway, after that theytook me back to my room and I
(06:19):
woke up and spent about a weekor so there and then I ended up
going, you know, home and thensix weeks later I started doing
oral chemo, uh on a clinicaltrial, uh study here at the
university of utah huntsmancancer center people are very
aware of um anyway, basically,I'm kind of giving.
(06:39):
That whole context is because I, you know, we speak of the
mentality of wrestlers and, andyou know what that has done for
me in my life is one I neverknew I was going to ever come up
against the battle againstcancer, never thought I was
(07:01):
right.
I mean, I provided before allthis I was supporting other
cancer individuals saying, hey,let me help you, let me do
fundraisers.
I had an old wrestling coach Iactually helped out as well, him
and his daughters, who ended upall eventually passing away
(07:21):
from cancer, but never thoughtI'd be in those shoes.
And so now I'm in this positionwhere I'm staring down the
barrel uh, you know, staringdown the barrel with a shotgun,
saying, wow, like we don't knowhow much time I have, we don't
know if I'm gonna live.
What's going on?
Uh, just a lot of differentthings.
And so, uh, you can kind ofunderstand how the mental game
would kind of come into playthere.
(07:42):
Right, you start thinking ofmultiple things and in ways that
you're like what, what's theend all be all gonna be here?
Uh, we don't like the unknowns,right, we like to know what's
gonna happen, what's gonna takeplace.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
Uh, I'm a very you know engaged person yeah, it's
you know, you lose control,right?
Oh yeah, you don't have controlyes, yes and yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:07):
When you don't have control, man, it's not a good
feeling at all.
Um and uh, and it was very hardfor me to grasp that, but I
kind of started taking it backto the mentality of how I was
wrestling and how I was, youknow, in the sport prior to this
and what I did and how Itrained effectively and putting
(08:30):
my mind to like, hey, I'm goingto beat my next opponent, I
don't care who it is who I comeup against, I'm going to beat
this individual, I don't carewhat his track record is,
nothing, right.
That's kind of my mindset whenI was wrestling.
And so then also, I startedpositioning it to the same
situation with the cancer that Iwas having, and that was, you
(08:51):
know, this is probably not goingto be my biggest match, ryan,
talking to myself of, hey, I gotto take this on.
I got to find a way to win this.
I got to find a way to battlethrough and to make sure that I
win, because I have a fullfamily waiting for me.
As you asked the beginning ofthis call.
Who's?
Ryan, father of four, wife,right?
(09:13):
Um, I need to win this matchfor my kids and for my wife.
And so I just uh put my headdown in a in a good way, uh, you
know, battling it as far aslike, hey, you know, mentality,
positive positivity, thinking,hey, I'm gonna win this, no
matter what, I don't care whatthe odds are, I don't care
(09:34):
people are saying about, hey,this is your chances.
Um, all those things I.
I just kind of left thosethings aside and just focused on
it heavily and again had thatpositive attitude of I'm going
to win this.
And then, what was kind ofinteresting when it comes down
to it, josh, I went into myoncologist a few weeks after I
(09:58):
started chemo and so forth, andas I was actually doing really
well, uh, she was, she wasshocked Really.
She kind of.
She told me that straightforward.
She's like man, right, I'm likeyou're doing, you're doing
great, this is, this is crazy.
I didn't expect to see thistype of progress Like you're.
(10:20):
You're going way beyond what myexpectations were.
And prior to this conversation,some context she knows about my
wrestling background, she knowsabout my beliefs, she knows
about everything, and so shebrought up a couple of different
things.
She's like Ryan, I know whyyou're doing good.
And she's like one is you have,you know, positive thinking.
(10:47):
You have the mentality toovercome everything, even though
when I told you things may notbe looking very good, you were
still very, no, like it's goingto be OK.
And she's like you got thatfrom wrestling I can tell that
you have a wrestler's type ofmindset.
And then, uh, the other thingis too.
She didn't really address, um,you know, uh, god or anything,
(11:10):
but she did bring up the contextof there has to be some other
hand at play, right, yeah and um, and I was like, absolutely
that that's 100.
You know what?
What was my thinking too atthat moment?
Speaker 1 (11:23):
yeah, 100 and so few things you mentioned, right, we
talked about losing control,right, and so you let go let God
right, we hear that all thetime.
Let go, let God right.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
Yep.
Speaker 1 (11:42):
And so, having another hand at play, you had no
other choice, right?
I mean you had to let go, youhad to kind of, you didn't have
control of the situation anymore.
And so that's a piece of it,right?
That's the thing.
You can't control.
Whatever you can't control, yougive it to God and then you
(12:03):
have this piece that you are incontrol of, which is your
mindset, your mentality that youtalked about.
Obviously, having another handat play definitely helps with
the mindset, definitely helpsyou keep going forward.
But you talked about stayingpositive, and then not only not
(12:24):
only staying positive.
What I heard was like youstaying like in the moment, just
hey, next opponent, this iswhat we're doing, Next opponent
this is what we're doing.
We're going to continue tobattle and just focus at what's
at hand.
And you know, I think a lot oftimes, right, it's very hard to
sit there, you know, with cancer, and be positive 24-7.
(12:48):
I mean, even in life period.
It's just hard to be positive24-7.
It is a choice, right, and atsome point in time, you know
you're probably going through alot of pain it's hard for you to
sit there like I got it, it'sall good, you know, I'm fine.
You know, when it's not, foryou to sit there like I got it,
it's all good, you know, I'mfine.
You know when it's not right.
But what you can do is not benegative, right, um, and just
(13:13):
stay in the moment, stay present, and that's what it sounds like
you've done, and those are thetwo things at play of how you're
sitting here on this call, youknow, smiling with me and
sharing your story.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Yeah, definitely.
I mean, you nailed it straightdown from, on the other hand,
being involved right toremaining on the positive side
of things.
It's definitely.
I can tell you.
I have had the experience oftalking with other individuals
who have decided not to have apositive outlook on and I can't
(13:51):
speak for everybody.
You know, every form of cancerI've seen is different, right,
it goes different ways, meaningone person might have X, Y, z,
and anyway they're all different, and so I can't speak for
everybody, saying like, hey, youhave to have a positive mindset
, you have to have a positivemindset, right, but I can tell
(14:12):
you, the people that did meet,though, that did have positive
mindsets, uh, they either cameout on top of it or they went
out fighting it with a smile,right, and that's kind of like
how I want to be too, and thataspect of I won't want to be
battling it, showing my kidslike, hey, don't let cancer stop
you, don't let it bring youknow, slow you down, uh, really,
(14:35):
like you know, progress forwardand make sure that you know
you're doing everything that youwant to do in life.
Don't let something else likecontrol you and and bog you down
, right, um, and so I think it'sa key.
That's a key concept is keepingyour mind focused in those
areas of positivity and makingsure that you're drumming up,
(14:57):
you know the good things in lifebecause, again, you and I both
on this call today, one of uscould not even be here tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
Yeah, so it's important to kind of keep that
positive mindset even if you'renot battling something.
Yeah, 100 percent.
And you and I talked about thaton the phone, right, you like,
hey, it's unknown.
You like I don't know if I gotfive years, 10 years, 15 years,
and I was like, hey, a lot ofpeople don't know.
Yeah, right, that's why youtalked about kind of living
(15:32):
every day Like it's your lastand you and I we talked about it
.
You know, not taking a raincheck on the things you value
most.
Right, yeah, you know whetherit's.
You know you talked aboutfamily.
You say, hey, family, I neverrain check family anymore, never
, right, you know you talkedabout God.
You never, right, you know youtalked about God.
(15:53):
Never rain check on that.
And it sounds like you know,hey, like, the things that you
value most, the things that youprioritize now, are the things
that you value the most.
A lot of other things you kindof said, hey, you know, that's
great, but I need to make surethat the things that are most
(16:14):
important to me, I don't missout on it, and I think a lot of
folks, even folks who don't havea cancer diagnosis, who are
living this life, a lot ofthings we can't control A lot of
(16:46):
things are unknown and so wecan't continue to rain check on
the things that matter the most.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
When you said there is definitely, you know exactly
like how I felt.
I, I mentioned to you at thattime frame too, there was I
can't remember the countrysinger, but I'd heard that song
and it says um, how's it go?
Uh, you can always take a raincheck until you can't, right,
(17:12):
and I kind of came up with thatin my cancer fighting battle,
because I had moments, man,where I was sitting there
looking at my kids, like, beinglike, am I going to, am I going
to see my kids, like here in a,in a week or two, or is tomorrow
my last?
(17:33):
You know, I, I, I was consumedby the thoughts of this could be
the end of me, um, and so Istarted reflecting back on life,
thinking of everything that I,I, I've done and and and, uh,
and you know, I, I thought is ismyself.
I thought I was being a greatfather, um, and my wife said I
(17:53):
was, I was being a great father,but there was some little areas
where I kind of started torealize that I needed to tweak a
little bit, and that was makingit to.
You know, the small things inlife, uh, with family, uh,
making it to you know, my, uh,my daughter had like a school
lunch thing today at at herschool.
(18:14):
Um, it's kind of prior to them,you know, being let out for
school.
Uh, easily, probably in thepast I'd say, hey, I'm too busy,
I can't make that Um, but youknow I get I'll catch up on
other things, uh, but now it'smore or less like no, like I
have to be at that thing, right,and um, I can't tell you, man,
(18:36):
like she, she gave me a big hugand looked up at me and just
said dad, I love you, thank youfor being here.
And I look at that and I thinkto myself like, wow, what if
something were to happen?
My daughter's going to rememberthis moment, though, right.
And so I look at that from theperspective of that rain check
(18:58):
situation.
Right, like you said, don'ttake a rain check on family.
Always be there for family, evenif it is like for me missing
out on something at work that Igot to do, or I have to stay
late at work, or I have to, orthere's there's hunting, fishing
.
Everything that I did do now isthis kind of to the side, um
(19:21):
and uh, and that's even, youknow, with God, the same thing.
I I've made sure that I havealways put him in my life first
too, and I thought to myself wasI truly putting him first in
everything that I do as well?
And I found out that thatwasn't the case.
Doing you know that.
So I can tell you, though, it'schanged me, though, by having
(19:46):
that type of concept and puttingfamily first.
Well, family and God first,before anything else.
And don't take those rain checks, because, man, you know, you
see this smile on my face.
It's not.
It's not because, like you know, that I'm on this podcast today
.
The smile is because, truly,I'm living kind of the best life
(20:09):
that I'm living right now,because something that changed
me a while back in cancer, right, I'm now having moments with my
family, with my friends, withGod, and it's creating a smile,
man Like, and it's justsomething that I wish everybody
could kind of do themselves,just kind of understand that if
(20:32):
they were to kind of put thosethings first in life in general,
it just creates a happy type ofsituation for you, happy
environment, right, um, you knowthe uh, uh, the concept I
brought up to you at one moment,um, looking down through like a
spyglass, right, and uh, or yousay like a spotting scope, uh,
(20:55):
for hunters like myself, uh,we'll look down those scopes and
uh, obviously it's a very likesmall, like driven line, uh that
you can see.
But then it opens up to like ahuge big picture right as you're
looking down into like a canyonor hunt you know hunting wise
and um, I kind of was able tokind of look down my own like
(21:21):
spyglass or my own spottingscope per se, to kind of see
like how narrow it was before,and then having it open up to
that bigger picture once Istarted living life this way,
right, and I wish, like, theonly way that I was actually
able to look down my own isbecause I was looking at the you
(21:45):
know, the battle against cancer, like, and so I saw that and I
acknowledged it and I startedlooking at, hey, what can I
change, what can I do?
And it definitely changedeverything, um, and and like I
told you, I wouldn't want you,josh, uh, to ever have cancer.
I would never wish cancer onanybody, never, ever, um, but I
(22:07):
would love it if there wassomehow some way in the world
today, in society, that peoplecould just have that little
glimpse, to look down their ownspyglass or spying scope,
whichever it may be, and seethat bigger picture at the end,
man dude, the world would bejust a better place.
I think everybody would findtheir own happiness somewhere.
(22:30):
Some shape, some way, some way,some form, um, and.
But I just wish it didn't haveto kind of end up this way, for
for me and, you know, possiblyothers down the road that have
to actually have a bad situationhappen to, to look through it,
if that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
No 100%.
And you know what.
You're on the phone with meyou're like hey, I'm in some
cases I'm glad that I, that Ihad, that I have cancer.
And you know, obviously I'veI've done over a hundred
episodes of folks who have toldme their story of different
(23:05):
things that have happened tothem and so I understood where
you were coming from.
But most folks they would say,like, what do you mean by that?
Right, so what do you mean bythat?
Like, what do you mean by hey,and you know you're glad that
you have cancer, like how hasthat kind of changed?
You talk about that outlook.
How has it changed you?
You know we talked about it alittle bit.
But like, if you could sharewith folks how it's kind of
(23:28):
changed your perspective, youknow, obviously outside of not
rain, checking on family,obviously on yourself, um, you
know, uh, you know actuallytaking action on different
things that you probablywouldn't have done, getting out
of your comfort zone, likeprobably you didn't do before.
But what else can you think of?
(23:50):
That is kind of like changeyour perspective on life period
and reason why you would say,hey, I'm actually glad in some
cases that I do have cancer.
Speaker 2 (24:06):
That's a heavy loaded question there.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
Yeah, because you know, and as you think about
that, it's this phrase that theStoics came up with and
obviously I heard about it a fewyears ago.
It's called a more faulty right, meaning lover of fate, right,
challenges or the adversity thatyou meet in life, but actually
(24:33):
embracing it, understanding thatlike, yes, I'm actually glad
this happened to me, and becauseyou know it's going to be a
reward.
Obviously you can't see it yet.
Obviously, um, you can't umunderstand why this has happened
to you in life and don't waitfor the reward.
(24:55):
Understand that it's somethinghere, on the opposite end of it,
that's going to be a greatreward.
And so embrace the challenge,embrace the season, embrace the
darkness that you are in lifecurrently, or whatever adversity
and challenges, because youknow something great is gonna
(25:16):
come out of it.
So embracing it right.
And so it sounds like that'skind of the mindset that you've
taken is embracing it and not,um, having a negative attitude
towards it yeah, no, yeah, thatthat's 100.
Speaker 2 (25:36):
Um, josh, it's uh, you know it, it was.
It was hard to embrace, like,yeah, very, very, very beginning
, um, I mean, they're, um, youknow, embracing it like, uh, it
took it wasn't just a couple ofdays, wasn't a couple of weeks,
(25:58):
it was, it was months, I think.
Even still today, I kind of runinto the embracing moments of
like, how has it?
You know, how am I stillembracing this today?
And you know, one thing that Ican reflect back on that with
the embracing portion that Iwould heavily kind of just
(26:20):
mention, is one, by embracingeverything, I've kind of gone
through and seen and done andseeing other people's lives in a
whole different shape, way orform.
Meaning, you know, when you seesomebody that you're talking to
(26:42):
or you're, you're associatingwith, and they might be somewhat
different or they might be aperson that, uh, how would you
say this?
You just don't understand themthat well, right, or they have
issues in life and you justdon't, you don't, you don't, you
don't, you don't comprehend whythey are the way that they are
(27:02):
Right.
And that is something that hasdefinitely changed kind of with
me on the embracing part of thesituation that I'm going through
because it's helping meunderstand a lot other, a lot of
other individuals and and whatthey're taking on in their lives
and how their lives are beingaffected, right, and me kind of
(27:25):
being able to, you know, step inthere and be like, okay, hey,
you know, like there's asituation here that I don't
fully understand, but I want tobe able to help understand and
for some reason I don't know Idon't know how to explain or
wrap this up to what I'm meaningessentially, but it just gives
you some context around how tounderstand other people more and
(27:49):
I think that I'm doing a lotmore with other individuals and
helping them out in differentways than I ever have before,
because there's something that'skind of been built within me to
do that.
Right, yeah, so that embracingit has definitely changed me on
that that.
And then, man dude, trying toget over those day-to-day of not
(28:12):
the unknowns and all that, andpeople coming back and saying,
hey, we're gonna do xyz scan onyou now and we're gonna see if
you know, possibly there was onemoment I was laying in the band
.
They were like, hey, is your?
There's a possibility you mayhave passed this on to your kids
.
I mean, what?
What do you do?
Your jaw drops right, you go,what, like I could have possibly
(28:35):
passed this on to my kids.
So things just went frompossible dire situations I'm
dying to now my kids might havethis, and so you know, in those
moments like that you just kindof have to choose how you're
going to accept it and howyou're going to go about it.
And that was one of those mostchallenging times was kind of
(28:57):
hearing that from a doctor.
But now when I hear thesethings, I just say, okay, well,
how are we going to beat thisopponent right?
How are we going to go aboutcharging down the wall?
How are we going to make surethat we win this battle?
And it it isn't.
You know, josh, it isn't winningit by saying I'm the guy that
comes out on top right.
(29:19):
It's not saying that everysingle thing that I'm going to
go through from now until thisor something else ends up taking
my life.
It's not about saying that I'mgoing to beat that all the time
right, that's not the case.
We can't prove that that's goingto actually be what the time
right.
That's not the case.
We can't prove that that'sgoing to actually be what
happens here in the future.
But I can tell you this thoughyou are winning the way that you
(29:41):
approach it, with the mindsetand how you embrace it, of
understanding.
Okay, this is what I have todeal with, so I'm going to take
the best out of it and applythat to my life and I'm going to
live life the way that I wantto live it, and if I continue to
do that, I'm going to be ahappy guy.
If I decide to let that over,control me and run with my life
(30:02):
and control me and make medecide I'm going to do X, y, z
versus doing other things, thenyeah, it's not going to be a
happy run and go right, you'regoing to end up losing that
match versus winning it, and soit's just important to kind of
always embrace those momentsthat, even with difficulties,
(30:24):
there is light there, right, andyou got to find that light and
you got to apply it.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know you said something about
not understanding orcomprehending why somebody is
the way they are.
And you know, until you gothrough things on your own,
until you experience your ownpain, then you sit back and you
(30:52):
realize, realize, oh, that's whythis person is the way they are
, right.
And then you talk about, youknow, serving, being able to
actually serve people because ofthe pain you went through right
, um, and, and that's how you'vebeen able to kind of take the
(31:13):
eyes off of yourself and theissues and that you've gone
through, right, being able toserve others.
Through this newfoundperspective, you're able to
serve more people.
This story now, right, thatyou're able to share, obviously
it's affected me, you know,after we got off the phone,
right, and I was like, well,okay, and folks are going to
(31:36):
hear his story and now it'sgoing to be able to affect them
as well and then they might beable to spread this.
You know, a lot of people shareknowledge that has come from
people that they don't evenrealize it came from, um, and so
spreads, and the things thatyou're sharing here is going to
(32:00):
be able to help folks have amore fulfilled life without
going through the same issues.
And then also to the folks whoare going through the things
that you're going through, folkswho are going through the
things that you're going through.
You're giving them the tools,the inspiration to be able to
grow and face their challengeswith a better mindset and equip
(32:25):
them with better tools.
And so it's something about yougoing through your own issues
and how you can help serveothers.
That actually kind of ishealing for your own diagnosis,
for your own situation that yougo through right.
Talk about that, because youand I talked about that on the
(32:48):
phone too and I was like man,when folks go through a hard
time and you take the eyes offyourself and you don't really
necessarily focus on your ownpain, you actually help
alleviate others pain.
For some reason, the pain is ishealed on your end as well.
Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (33:09):
No, I fully agree with you.
I don't know, I mean, I've beenbrought up as a kid in a
religious belief where it'sabout serving others, right, and
I didn't fully comprehend allthat until you know, with all
this, and it's kind of like when, when you're in the service of
(33:29):
others, you're in the service ofyour own God, right, yeah, and
um, and I kind of look, uh, youknow whether people are
religious or not?
Uh, you know, there you look atChrist.
Right, christ was a man whowent around and he healed the
sick, he healed the blind, he,he, he did different things, but
(33:50):
you know, whether you're abeliever or not, jesus Christ
was a man who was here on theearth at one given time, correct
, and what he was always doingwas serving others, serving,
serving, serving, serving.
And then you know he knew whathis kind of objective was was to
, uh, you know, go to the gardenof Gethsemane and then he was
(34:11):
hung on the cross for the sinsof the world, right, and so if
you think about it, if you takea glance at his life and you
think, man, I mean, this isn'tscriptural doctrine or anything
but you look at it and you go,okay, what he did in his life
(34:31):
and his service?
Did it make his burden, what hewas going to carry out in life,
easier or not?
Right?
Was he able to reflect on thosemoments when it was going to be
more challenging and more hardto go through?
Was he reflecting on those, atthose times of need, that he was
suffering as well?
Right, and then he was able togo through that a lot easier.
(34:55):
And, honestly, as I've kind ofapplied that little portion of
my life again, that's notscripture, but this is kind of
something that I've thought of alot and as I've applied that to
my life, when I get in thedarkest hours of my situations
and trust me, they still happen,and trust me, they still happen
I reflect back about things Idid to help others.
(35:18):
But then also, when I wasserving to help others, though,
helped me understand even moreabout myself, but then it made
me also build happy memories,happy thoughts right, so I can
reflect back and then put asmile on, because I'm like man
dude, I don't have it as bad asthe other individuals do, right.
(35:38):
Right, there's somethingeverybody, I think, tends to
hone in and harness their ownemotions and think that they
have it the worst, when youactually don't have it the worst
Like you don't.
And if you, just if you try tolook through that, find that
it's going to make a hugedifference in your own life.
And what I found out.
(36:00):
Josh, I'm just one of those guysI don't know, I kind of sit
behind the scenes.
I'm a guy that I mean I'll getout there and I'll talk with
people.
I'll you know, I'll do all that.
I work in sales, so I have todo it on a regular basis, but
I'm not one that I'm like hey,put the spotlight on me, check
me out, right, right, that's notlike what I'm doing and why I'm
(36:31):
saying that is because I Ilearned that by my actions and
what I'm doing.
On the side of things like howI'm living out my life and going
about things, people arewatching, people are knowing and
noticing what I'm doing as anindividual and I can reference
(36:53):
back to individual and, uh, Ican, you know, reference back to
the moment I told you about thewrestling tournament, right, um
it just to kind of lay it out.
Uh, for everybody to kind ofknow, uh, there's open
tournaments where you can, youcan go and you can compete on
your own as a, as an adult, uh,uh.
So when they open it up, it'sages.
(37:14):
It could range from these, youknow, 20 to actually 18, out of
high school, all the way up tohowever old you want to Um.
And, and I was honestly with mywrestling career, I w I was done
, especially at the end of, likecancer.
I was not going to try andpursue anything and uh, my son
(37:36):
begged me.
He said hey, dad, please,please, please, come wrestle
this tournament with me.
This is an open tournament, dad, you can do it.
And you know, and he's talkingto me about like, uh, hey, they
have your, your weight class,they have, um, your age too,
because they have, like you, uh,you six, you six is what he
(37:57):
wrestles.
So he's six years old.
And uh, one of them they said,uh, uh, you um 35 and above.
And he's like dad, it's perfect, you're 36, you can make it,
you're good.
And so, anyway, I I called upmy oncologist and I said hey, I
think I'm making a dumb movehere, but I think I'm going to
(38:19):
do this.
And she's like well, you'regoing to feel afterwards, it's
not going to feel good, butshe's like I'll clear you, you
go, do what you want.
And so I went to this opentournament and man not in shape,
basically chemo all the way tothe top, right Injured already
(38:40):
knee issues, ankle issues,anyway, I went out there and I
did it, and did I win everymatch?
No.
Did I come out the way that Iwanted to come out?
No, like, obviously we all wantto win, right, josh?
That's how we are.
We want to be winners, but itwasn't that.
Uh, at the end of thetournament I was kind of a
(39:02):
little bit bummed, but then Irealized, though, that I was
being an actual true champion,though at that moment, because
one my son was so excited to seeme actually compete that he was
so stoked that that smilewouldn't leave his face, right,
he's like my dad's wrestlingwith me, and so I realized from
(39:23):
him that he was seeing meovercome obstacles in my way of
having, um, you know, achallenge like cancer in front
of me that I was still sayingyou know what, screw it, I'm
going to do this.
And I show them that I could.
I could beat that Right.
But then it came an influx ofpeople were reaching out to me
(39:46):
and saying, ryan, like thank youfor competing.
That's so inspiring.
Um, Ryan, thank you for doing X, Y, z, and I'm like no seeing
all these people everywheresaying these things.
And I'm like no, seeing allthese people everywhere saying
these things.
I'm like gosh, I didn't evenknow how many people are
actually even paying attentionto this thing.
Right, I think I know I have aguy that's from down that area
(40:06):
hitting me up about a newspaperarticle.
I mean people, folks can goonline and see it, but all these
people were watching man and itwas all about the way that I
just went in there just to help,just to do it for not only kind
of maybe build some.
You know some, you know little.
Hey, I'm an old guy, I canstill do this, but it it changed
(40:27):
a lot of people's perspectiveon different things and I mean
there's a lot of cool messagesthat came out of that.
But I'm just saying you know,make sure you're always doing.
You know like people are alwayswatching you and what you do
with your life and how you takeit.
If you're a type of a rolemodel or an example, you just
(40:49):
got to be doing the right thingsat all times.
Like when you talk about peoplethat inspire you, do you watch
them all the time, right, yeah,and they roll out things to
where you're like, hey, I wantto be like them, and so you're
always paying attention,somebody's always watching.
But uh, just to kind of finishup just this, this portion.
I think the most important thing, though, that I can tie this
(41:11):
into is I just proved to my kidsthat, whatever happens, dad
never gave up, right?
Dad was always a person thatwould and I'm kind of getting a
little teary eyed because thisis kind of the emotional part is
dad was always saying nevergive up.
(41:32):
You know, grit grinds, stay inthe fight.
As you've seen across my shirts, it's kind of what I put out
there, and if you tie this toyou know, I want them to look
back at this and put this intotheir lives and understand that,
no matter what comes up if it'sa health-related issue issue,
(41:54):
if it's a position that youmight just not be good at
something, I don't know anyroadblocks that come up if you
just grit grind, stay in thefight, you're going to find some
way to overcome that objectionand you're going to find a way
to win in life.
And you know, and that that'skind of like, my message is
always want to get that out topeople now, of just saying, hey,
(42:16):
you can overcome anything, butagain, especially for my kids
and my wife, right, yeah, yeah,and honestly, that was like the
last note that I had writtendown was being strong for your,
for your kids, your wife, andbeing an example.
Speaker 1 (42:33):
I promise, you promise, that's the last note on
my iPad and I didn't.
You took it there, I didn'tshow you this at all.
And so, yeah, being an example,right, and you know they talk
about I was just, you know,respect, having respect for
(42:54):
yourself.
We, like people, don't wantfame, they just want respect.
And then most people don't evenwant respect, they just want
self-respect.
And it's living to your standardand when you have standards for
yourself and that is not givingup and the fact that not only
(43:15):
your kids being inspired by yourstory, it's people out there
who are inspired by thestandards that you set for
yourself in the life that youlive.
And I can't wait for people tounderstand the fact that, hey,
(43:35):
you are a leader and people arewatching you, no matter what you
are doing.
It's somebody out therewatching you, and I even try to
tell myself that it's people outthere, that they see every
little thing you do, and eventhe leaders in my life.
I'm looking at everything theydo, from the way they dress to
the way they walk, talk, whatthey eat, what they don't eat,
(43:56):
how they operate, and you justnotice everything.
And so, no, you hit it right onthe head.
And, ryan, you know you share somuch value here and I know that
you, you know we talk aboutserving others, we talk about
being an example.
I know you and your wife, youguys are in the works of of
(44:18):
getting a fundraiser up andrunning.
I want to give you a little bitof opportunity to share a
little bit about that.
And then how can folks kind ofconnect with you, find you and
and and continue to uh, see youand your journey in life?
Speaker 2 (44:36):
Yeah, man, no, yeah, yeah.
So my wife and I, we've learnedover this course, this big
trial that we've been goingthrough by experiencing it, the
challenges that come up with it,right, that we know that
(44:57):
there's a lot of heartacheinvolved, there's a lot of
financial situations that occur,there are multiple things that
arise, and my wife and I thoughtto ourselves like, and I
thought to ourselves like, hey,how can we give back?
What can we actually do to helpother individuals out?
(45:19):
What can we do to change theworld?
Essentially, right, and aswe've talked you know, on this
podcast, we've brought it upmultiple times about, like, how
cancer can change people's livesin a dramatic fashion.
And so, as we thought toourselves, was it we can do?
(45:42):
We started, we startedpinpointing a lot of areas, and
that is, there's as small asthings as going and giving
donations to certain individuals, setting up scholarships.
Giving donations to certainindividuals, setting up
scholarships, giving what Ithink is the most important
thing is an opportunity forpeople to live a moment with the
(46:06):
individual who's ever sufferingfrom cancer, or even a person
who's already lost their youknow, to cancer, whichever it
may be.
Provide them with somethingthat's going to be kind of a
memorable act, memorable aspectto them to help them hold on to
for life.
Right, and and this actuallykind of came to me from a
(46:28):
situation that I had that I wentthrough myself is somebody
wrote in a letter to me saying,hey, use this for your, not for
bills, but to make a memory withyour family, to have them live
with it for the rest of theirlives, right?
And so, anyway, I know I'm kindof going off a little bit, I
(46:51):
have a lot of ambition aroundthis, but so my wife and I ended
up, we ended up making theseshirts.
I can't't, I don't know, greatgrind, stay in the fight, um,
and uh, on the back as survivor,um, and so we were.
We made these shirts that we'reselling now, um, online.
Uh, we are getting a websiteall put together and everything.
(47:14):
But for right now, people havebeen really happy to contribute
to to this movement, and so whatthey're doing is they're
sending us, uh, they're justreaching out to me and saying,
hey, can I purchase a shirt?
Uh, they're DMing me onFacebook, whichever it may be,
and for now that's kind of howI'm getting them out there is
through my own Facebook page, um, linkedin, stuff like that.
So, um, that's kind of how I'mgetting them out.
(47:35):
There is through my ownFacebook page, linkedin, stuff
like that.
So that's kind of what we'redoing now and taking some of the
you know, paying for, obviously, the cost of what the shirt's
being made, taking some of thefunds and putting those.
You know taking the funds,we're making off of it and
applying that to give back tosomebody Right of it and
(47:56):
applying that to to give back tosomebody right.
And we have people that we aregetting in contact with that
have special connections in thecancer industry I want to say
industry, but the cancer area,cancer world, right, that they
know of families that we can goback and we can give back to and
create these type of memorablemoments with individuals and
create these type of memorablemoments with individuals.
And so that's what we're doingessentially right now.
(48:17):
And so if people want topurchase products, I'm going to
have a website up and running atsome point here soon.
I'm not the tech savvy guy, Josh, maybe you are.
We can chat after this, but Iwill have something up and
running.
But for now, facebook Messenger, whatever it may be, you can
hit me up, I would say for thebiggest context around all of
(48:40):
this, josh, is really hop on myFacebook page.
It starts from when it started,all the way up till now, and I
will continue to keep that going.
I'm not a big social media guy,honestly, that's all right.
Yeah, but I actually am nowbecause I realize how much I can
(49:01):
influence another person bydoing it, by social media, right
, and so that's why I'm doing it.
My friend and dude, I'm readyto change a lot of things here,
man, and I just ask everybody tokind of help, pitch in, help
out and do anything they can.
If there's people out therethat know of other ways how to
do this, like reach out to me,like I want to be a part of
(49:23):
something big, I felt like Godput me you know, not put me but
left me here for another reason,and that's to help out with.
You know other individuals andtheir struggles, and so I want
to make the most of it.
So I'm here, I'm ready to fight, I'm ready to battle, I'm ready
to take things on.
And you know the other side ofthings too, josh.
(49:45):
You know, if you reflect onsomething I told my wife today
before we got on this call, Isaid, honey, you know what's?
Another cool aspect about whatwe're doing is not the fact that
we're giving back, but theopportunity that we're teaching
our kids what we're doing andwe're making the world a better
place.
But the other concept is thereare going to be dark times for
(50:09):
us, very dark times, very darktimes.
And as long as I stay in thisand doing what I'm doing right
now, it's going to help me getthrough those hard times, and
I'm going to have to have folkslike that already do have cancer
probably be lifting me up, man,I mean just be honest.
And so this is going to benefiteverybody on so many levels and
(50:34):
I hope people will really takethe initiative reaching out to
me or supporting me in any waypossible to help us get off the
ground.
Speaker 1 (50:42):
One hundred percent.
Yeah and hey, we got we'regoing to get some real good
content from this episode hereto get get you up and running
All right.
So, man, I appreciate you, ryan, for, first of all, being
vulnerable, because this is noteasy.
To kind of share your heart andbe vulnerable, it is tough, and
(51:07):
I really appreciate you beingwilling to open up your heart
and allow folks to get valuefrom you, from your
vulnerability.
So I appreciate you and I knowthis is going to add a lot of
value to folks.
Speaker 2 (51:24):
Oh, man.
Well, thank you for having me.
I really appreciate it as well.
Man, You're good.
You're a good man, Josh.
Speaker 1 (51:31):
I appreciate it.
Popular Podcasts
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.