Real Estate Sessions Rewind -The John Bjorlie Die Happy Tour 2024

John Bjorlie, a stage four prostate cancer patient, epitomizes the notion of living life fully, even in the face of terminal illness. In this episode, we explore his remarkable initiative, the "John Bjorlie Die Happy Tour 2024," which serves as a celebration of life and an opportunity to reconnect with friends and loved ones across the country. John shares his profound insights about the importance of relationships, the liberating nature of letting go of material concerns, and the joy he finds in giving back to others during this pivotal time. His journey is not just a reflection on mortality but an inspiring narrative that encourages us to cherish our connections and experiences. Join us as we delve into John’s unique perspective on life, friendship, and the legacy he wishes to leave behind.

Takeaways:

• John Bjorlie shares his poignant realization that life should be celebrated while still alive, inspiring others to appreciate their connections with friends and family.
• Through social media, John reconnected with old friends, leading him to host a preemptive celebration of life in his hometown of Rome, New York.
• Despite facing terminal cancer, John emphasizes the importance of living fully, prioritizing relationships over material possessions as he embarks on his 'Die Happy Tour'.
• John reflects on the liberating feeling of relinquishing concerns about future plans, focusing instead on enjoying the present moment and fostering meaningful connections.
• His journey illustrates that even during challenging times, one can find joy and purpose in relationships and acts of kindness, such as generous tipping to service workers.
• The conversation underscores a profound shift in perspective; what was once deemed important has transformed into valuing experiences and the happiness of others.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
My hometown of Rome, New York.I've always kind of said, I mean,
I've lived in Phoenix over 30years now, however long, and I couldn't
get enough people to half filla room at a funeral here. I don't
think, I mean, I, I've gotfriends, the golf, but, you know,
people come and go. But Ialways knew if I ever wanted to actually
have a funeral that wasattended, it would be up in Rome,

(00:21):
my hometown. And I can thankFacebook a lot for that because,
you know, these are contactsthat I probably would have lost if
not for social media. So I'vegot a big bunch of friends who are
up in that area. So itoccurred to me, why don't I have
the funeral while I'm still alive?
You're listening to the RealEstate Sessions and I'm your host,

(00:43):
Bill risser. With nearly 25years in the real estate business,
I love to interview industryleaders, up and comers and really
anyone with a story to tell.It's the stories that led my guests
to a career in the real estateworld that drives me into my ninth
year and nearly 400 episodesof the podcast. And now I hope you
enjoy the next journey.

(01:04):
Hi everybody.
Welcome to episode 400 of theReal Estate Sessions podcast. As
always, thank you so much fortuning in. Thank you so much for
telling a friend. Yes, I said400. This is a huge milestone, probably
the last milestone of thispodcast as I have decided to kind
of wrap things up next July.I'm going to finish right at the
10 year mark. And so I wantedto have a special guest on episode

(01:27):
400. And this doesn't get anyspecialer than John Biorly. John
is the creator of the JohnBioreh die Happy Tour 2024. I've
talked about him before. Youprobably know who I'm talking about
when I talk about John. He's astage four prostate cancer patient.
It's terminal. He understandsthat and he's decided that he wants

(01:49):
to go out on his terms, whichmeans he is visiting a lot of people
around the country. He's donethings like thrown his own wake.
I'm sure we'll get him to talkabout that in this episode. And just
some of the other things he'sdoing are fantastic. And so we're
going to have a lot of funchatting with him today. You might
want to buckle up. It'll be,I'm sure with John, we don't know

(02:09):
where we're headed, but thisis going to be a lot of fun. So let's
get it going, John, welcome tothe podcast.
Hello.
Hello. I love it. You know,John, you're the very first person
to say hello and that's it onthe podcast. I like that. I think
that's very cool. I can't tellyou how excited I am to have this
conversation with you whereI'm actually in Phoenix, I'm at your

(02:33):
home, and we just got off thegolf course, had a great Mexican
dinner. The west coast kind ofMexican dinner. Right. You had. What
was yours?
Carne asada quesadilla. Yeah,it's a quesadilla with steak in it.
And I, I had my little kidmenu, the thing that I love, which
is roll tacos and. But youknow, everybody's got their own different
kind of foods they like. John,it was a no brainer for me to have

(02:56):
you as my guest on episode 400of the Real Estate.
Can I cut in on that?
Yeah, go ahead.
Congratulations on 400. I'mhonored to be the guest. Even. Even
if it just so happened thenumbers fell this way. But I remember
when it was just an idea, andI'm pretty sure it was encanto, third
or fourth hole. But I rememberone day we had time between shots

(03:18):
and you told me about beforethere really were podcasts. I mean,
podcasts weren't hardly athing yet. You know, Anyway, well
done.
Yeah, well, I appreciate that.You know. You know how we probably
got to this, that conversationwas. I loved listening to Howard
Stern interviews. People.People ask me. Right?
Yes.
And you do too. Right. And sothe, the ability to do the same thing,

(03:41):
to ask questions of people andto not have to worry.
About ending your industry,real estate, to go that direction.
Yeah. I thought it was a greatidea. Other than Bill came up with
another way to make his jobharder. You know, that's. You've
always seemed to have donethat. Everyone else is trying to
get it easier.
You've got a point there.
Yeah, I did do that.
Well, I know you've listenedto a few episodes, John. So I'm going

(04:04):
to start off the same way Ialways start off, which is generally
saying the thing I just said,but then I'm going to go, you're
an upstate New Yorker. Yougrew up in Rome, New York, which
is near Syracuse and Utica andall these other places that are from
Europe.
Yeah, well, particularly Italy.
Particularly Italy. Tell meabout growing up in Rome, New York.

(04:29):
I've often told people, myfather was Norwegian, my mother was
Polish, but I was raisedItalian. And. And that's. That's
how it was a very Italiancity. That if there was any diversity.
Well, not that there was nodiversity, but there was a big Air
Force base there, and thatbrought in that population. But otherwise,
I mean, the name of the citytells you how it is, you know, and

(04:51):
it was a. A small city up infarm country, central New York, and
a great place to grow up. Youremember the show Unsolved Mysteries?
Yeah.
One time, the host, I can'tremember his name, but he once described
Rome, New York, as a cityright out of a Norman Rockwell painting.
Okay.
But at the same time, he wasdescribing a case where two people

(05:12):
were murdered in their housemercilessly. So it's a city, like,
of a lot of. But it was agreat place to grow up.
Yeah. What's one thing weshould know about Rome? Is it the
Air Force base? And you.You've talked about it before that
the bombers, like, did theyhave the B52s?
It was a B52 base duringVietnam. And missions began and ended
in Rome. I mean, they wouldleave from Rome, bomb Vietnam, fly

(05:34):
back to Rome without everlanding. You know, that's over the
North Pole. That's one of thereasons. All interesting stuff. And.
But those things were justpart of our life. I'm in the biggest,
loudest jets you ever heard.But it all started out military.
It was. Rome was a fort duringthe Revolutionary War and the American
Indian War. But after thewars, the fort was actually disassembled

(06:00):
and a town was built out ofit, out of a lot of the wood. Wow.
All right, tell me. You know,your dad has a very interesting backstory,
I think. I mean, it's.
You know, I guess I got usedto it. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't
that big a deal.
Yeah. Your dad was an educatorof the deaf. Of the deaf?
Yeah. His. His parents bothworked with the deaf. Educating.

(06:22):
My grandfather was a ministerto the deaf. There were a lot more
deaf people back then. Whenyou go back 100 years or so, and.
But my dad was his. He endedhis career as a superintendent of
a school for the deaf in New York.
Yeah. You also shared with mein one of our millions of conversations
that he had some work he woulddo for the Supreme Court.

(06:44):
Yes, tell me about that. Hewas a very well versed. Is that the
word for it? But in AmericanSign Language, he felt he had abilities
that a lot of other peopledidn't because he had moved around
the country a lot in hiscareer, from the Midwest to California
to New York. We had beenaround and he said that sign language
has dialects just like a lotof other. There's accents there that

(07:08):
you can move your hands alittle differently. But because of
that, my dad was chosen to bean interpreter for Supreme Court
cases that involved a deafperson. If. If they had to take testimony
from a deaf person, they wouldhave him do it. I. There might have
been a couple others, but Iknow that he was one in. Late in
his career, he did thatseveral times.

(07:28):
So if they were from a certainpart of the country, he could sign
in a way that was morecomfortable for them.
Right? Yeah. Wow. Yeah.
Wow. That's awesome.
Yeah. Yeah. Using slang thatthey use that. That they might not
use an organ, you know.
Yeah. There are a few things Ican't wait to get out of you in this
interview. One of them is youare, in my opinion, a fantastic piano

(07:51):
player. Now, you'll always gohumble on it, and you'll go, no,
no, no. I don't do what thesepeople do. But I know if I said to
you, john, could you play thissong for me? If you know it, you
will. And if you don't, youcan learn it. And you don't read
music.
Yes, that's how it's been.
So my first assumption is, andby the way, your sister Lisa, we

(08:16):
all see the videos that areout there now. You guys are playing
together. She's singingbeautifully. You're playing the piano
perfectly. Was the Biorlifamily musical growing up?
We were. We sang together likethe von Trapp family. I used to say
I was in middle school beforeI realized not all families sing
in five part harmony. That.That's. That Happy Birthday doesn't

(08:39):
have to be a whole bigproduction, but. But we always enjoyed
it. If we were on road tripsanywhere, we were always singing
and again, always in multipleparts. Like, by the time you were
five, you better be able topick a lane and, you know, learn
to sing it, you know, wow.But, yeah, everyone in my family
is musical and like, everyoneis good at something, you know, at

(09:01):
least one thing.
You know, your mom has a greatstory, right? She. She sang professionally.
Yes. She was a song stress inthe 1940s, a little bit of the 50s.
She definitely quit on the wayup, not the way down. It's kind of
an interesting story. She had.She. She met my father, got married
quickly, and that was it forsure. She did. He. They lived in

(09:24):
Washington, D.C. for a numberof years while my dad was finishing
up grad school. And she didcontinue singing in Washington for
a few because she had A namethat was recognized, but other than
that, she, she never went forthe big ring, you know, and, and
it was kind of out there, youknow that. But, you know, she, she
stopped before, and thislooked kind of interesting. She was,

(09:48):
we believe, we're not sure,but she was in the middle of a tour,
we believe, when she decidedto, to quit or at the end of a tour.
But at the end of the tour,the, the intention was to record
her first album, and it wasgoing to be with the Tex Benneke
Orchestra. That's who she hadbeen touring with. And if you don't
know that, that's GlennMiller's orchestra, after Glenn Miller
died.

(10:08):
Wow. Yeah.
And. But she was going torecord an album with them. She, you
know, it was going to be themaccompanying her singing. She quit
and she was replaced bysomeone nobody really knew of but
Edie Gourmet. Oh, so.
Wow.
So in some ways, you know, momalways thought that she saw Edie
Gourmet living out her therest of it. If I would have stayed

(10:28):
with it, what would havehappened, you know?
Yeah.
So, yeah, it was just kind ofan interesting thing.
But yeah, for you millennialsout there, go Google Edie Gourmet.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I want to talk about you andthe piano a little bit. So when did
you start taking lessons? It'sweird that you took lessons. You're
very skilled at what you do.But do I think, is it weird that

(10:51):
you don't read music? Do mostpeople read music?
None of the Beatles could read it.
Okay.
Well, yeah. George Martin wasthe only one that could read or write
music, and that's what he wasused for.
Okay.
So that they came up with asong, he could actually write it
down so that they had it and.
Okay.
You know, and, and work fromthat. Or when they had symphony.
Yeah. But it started with, wegot a piano when I was maybe six

(11:12):
or seven years old because myolder sister was taking lessons,
and this thing turned up inthe living room, and I immediately
was kind of gravitated to it.I heard my sister practicing, and
I'm thinking, I think I coulddo that, you know, And I kind of
figured things out quickly. I,I, the, I started out with one finger,
and I can still remember veryquickly learning to play the Star

(11:34):
Spangled Banner with onefinger just standing in front of
the piano, but making fewmistakes, you know, and it just went
from there. At, at some point,I learned to add the second hand.
And then when, by the time Igot to around 10 years old, that's
when my mom wanted me to takelessons, but I was already pretty
good. I was already covering alot of songs that would surprise
you for a kid my age, thatkind of thing. It was a lot of old,

(11:57):
you know, Broadway hits, thatkind of stuff. And I started lessons
and it didn't go well. I,maybe five, six lessons and I wasn't
learning. I just have a mentalblock with reading music. I've really
tried and I can kind of figureout the notes, but I read music the
way like a four year old wouldread a novel. I mean, crawling through

(12:19):
it, one word I could, I cannever imagine. Just boom. So, you
know, and I have an oldersister who is a piano teacher. She's
a master on the piano andshe's the exact opposite of me. She
can't memorize anything, butshe can play anything you put in
front of her with music.
So, so I'm sure your, your,your piano teacher loved the fact
that you weren't learning howto read music.

(12:39):
Yeah, well, he just told mymother it, you're kind of wasting
your money on this kid. She,he said what he's doing is he's listening
to me play the song he'ssupposed to learn for next week and
he's memorizing it on the spotand not reading the notes. He, he
just practices what he thinksI played for a week. And then I,
but I can tell that he's notreading it. And so anyway, so yeah,

(13:02):
I dropped out. But I, I, I didlater. There's a couple people I
worked with along the way thatthere was when I got in high school,
a guy who was a year two olderthan me, but he was an accomplished
piano player who also playedby ear and he helped me develop that
direction by ear. How to.Here's what you need to know if you,
you know. And so I got a lot,a lot from him. And then along the

(13:26):
way, what, you know, otherpeople I've met and worked with,
there's, there's oneparticular woman named Robin that
I'll, I'll always wonder aboutbecause she taught me one of the
toughest things I can do. AndI always wonder, and I taught her
something, you know, but Ialways wonder where she is. Still
don't. Never knew her last name.
So is, as you get older, youknow, your, your piano playing skills

(13:49):
get better. You also decidethat you're going to be a diver.
So I'm again, I'm guessingthat started in high school.
No, junior high school.
Wow.
And I hardly decided to be adiver. I that the quickest story
is two of us were skippingclass on the day that they have signups
for winter sports. We camearound a corner. There's our guidance

(14:11):
counselor. We see him frombehind. So we ran because we knew
big trouble for being in thehalls. You know, this is during home
run period. So nobody's in thehalls. So we ran as fast as we could
to that winter sports signup,sat in the first bleachers available
so that if he came in, hewouldn't find it, you know. And it
happened to be swimming anddiving. If it was basketball, I would
have been signing up to get onthe basketball team, and I would

(14:34):
have bombed out of it quickly.But when my friend and I were sitting
there, he goes, we dive. Youknow, we like that. Why don't we
try that, you know? And. Andso we both signed up for the junior
high team. My friend went toabout two practices and quit. And
I stayed with it, you know, Ihad a little bit of a knack.
Not only stayed with it, butstayed with it through into college.

(14:54):
Oh, yeah. Yeah. By the time. Yeah.
And when you were asked byVirginia Tech, offered a full scholarship
to come.
Full sky, they said ascholarship. They never. They never
gave me a number. But yeah, mysenior year, they offered me. But
yeah, I was on a divingscholarship for two years. And I
was never that middle of theroad I'd call myself. I was never

(15:15):
a great diver, but enough toget a scholarship at a smaller school.
And that's what I got.
And the water seemed to havethis attraction for you, right? Because
not only were you diving incollege, but you decide that you're
gonna learn how to playanother instrument that I guess is
a relative of the piano, butcalled the calliope.
If all jobs paid the same,it's the job that I would still be

(15:38):
at. That I had in 1978. Itransferred from one college to another.
And in between, there was ariverboat in Charleston, West Virginia,
a stern wheeler like the DeltaQueen. One day I happened to be.
My mother that year had drivenme down to college, and she just
went back with me, and thenshe was flying back the next day.

(16:00):
So the next morning, I went tothe her hotel, and I was going to
bring her to the airport. Andwhile I'm waiting for her to get
ready, I'm looking downbecause her hotel is right over the
river. And I see this sternwheeler down there, this big, beautiful
red, white and blue, you know,riverboat. And there's somebody playing
an instrument I don't evenknow. If I knew it was called a calliope

(16:21):
at the time. But it was. I wasriveted. I'm watching this because
I could hear him. I'm 20floors up and I could hear him clear
as a bell through the window.And I'm watching him. And I said
to my, my mother, I said, mom,if I ever don't come home for a summer,
it's because I got a jobplaying that thing. And she said,
okay, I remember that. And thenext summer I got the job playing
that thing. And I did that fora whole season. Best job ever. Play

(16:45):
a crazy people who don't knowwhat a calliope is. You hear it in
the circus. One of those. It'san Oregon, but it had a six mile
range, so everybody heard mewhether they liked it or not. And
it was just a fun thing to do.
And you talked about theowners of that riverboat. Right?
They turned out to be almostlike family for you when you were

(17:07):
kind of doing that five monthstage stint, was that.
Well, yeah, the people at theCaptain and you know, the crew in
the boat, we were very closeto each other. We spent 100 hours
a week together, easy,especially if we were out of town.
That's 24 7.
Yeah.
But yeah, and the managementin the boat, we were all very tight.
There wasn't that many peopleinvolved in it, you know, to keep
it going.
Most requested song on acalliope. Did you take requests?

(17:30):
Yeah, and it's funny, theyused to always call it the quick
one. Play the quick one, playthe fast one. A lot of people couldn't
remember the name Zorba theGreek. Okay. But I, I used to play
that song starting very slow.Da da da da da. And it gets, I used
to get wildly fast on it, youknow, faster than I can sing it.

(17:52):
And every note has acorresponding light that, that lights
up when you play the note. Sothe sky is just filling with this
light, going crazy because I'mplaying all these notes. But anyway,
that's a lot. Then there wasalways the West Virginia fight song
from wvu. Oh, West Virginia.Oh, West Virginia. Yeah, everyone
wanted that one.
That's awesome.
Yeah.

(18:12):
So, John, you graduate fromVirginia Tech. What's next? What
were you thinking? What wasthe plan for you?
My parents had moved to theNew York City area when I was in
college, so that's where I wasgoing to go back to. I had a degree
in marketing, so it. The mostobvious thing to do was to maybe

(18:32):
Madison Avenue was an hourcommute from their house. Get a job
in Manhattan in advertisingwould be cool. It's right in my major.
But at the time, it was 1980,the economy was horrible. Jobs were
almost impossible to get. And,you know, so I never went that direction.
I did, I mean, I, I did go toa few interviews in the city, but

(18:54):
I learned quickly. I didn'tlike the commute. I didn't like going
into New York. I, I mean, it'sfun for a day, but not for my job.
You know, that just seemedlike be a lot to do, so.
But you had another naturaltalent. I, you know, I know we've
talked about this on thousandsof fairways, but you're, you are
a sales guy. You can sell justabout anything.

(19:16):
That's what I found my way into.
Yeah.
Business to business telemarketing.
Yeah. Talk about that. How didthat first start? What was the first
gig?
Well, the first thing is theywere hiring. That was. And, And I
went to a place and I rememberit was a real nice office. You had
to wear a jacket and tie. Andalso, it was all very for. But as
I learned to do it, I mean, tome, not that we were cheating anybody.

(19:39):
It's. I mean, it's a, youknow, I don't want to, want to call
it a gray area business, butyou're definitely manipulating people.
People.
And, And I just got to enjoythat challenge of it. It to me. When
I was a kid, I used to likemaking prank phone calls. You know,
is your, your refrigeratorrunning better? Go get ahead. You
know, but people will pay youto do that, you know, to make prank

(20:01):
phone calls. And all you gottado is make someone say yes, you know.
Yep.
So that, that kind of became,you know, love it or hate it, but
that's what I ended up doing.
And it was a career in salesthat eventually gets you to Arizona.
There is, yes, that there wasa point. The company I was working
for in New York, four of usjust decided to open a satellite

(20:23):
office out here, three of thesalesmen and the owner of the company,
simply because we wanted tolive here. Houses were cheaper.
Yeah.
You know, New York was. I washaving a hard time finding a house
up there at the time. LongIsland's expensive and everything
was half the price here. Sothat's, that's how it started. That's
how we got here.
And then ultimately youcreated your own company, the company

(20:43):
that you retired from them.
Right. The company I wasworking for sold maintenance, chemicals,
cleaners, sanitizer,degreaser, patch for concrete, that
kind of stuff.
Yeah.
Stuff you would sell to themaintenance departments of companies,
and I switched to shipping supplies.
Okay.
And I was selling to theshipping departments of companies
around the country. Oh, yeah.All over the country.

(21:05):
Yeah. With your own systemsand processes in place. Because realtors.
It's funny, you know, becauseyou're not a realtor, but. No, but
we're going to. Real estatehas a. Real estate has Realtors.
Really?
Real estate has a link for us.That's how we met. Part of. Part
of it, right?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
So we'll come back to that.But so it. It. In some way, it had

(21:26):
to be a giant leap. I mean,you're leaving probably a fairly
comfortable job where you wereprobably doing okay, and you decided
you wanted to start your own.You were. You, you know, was there
a confidence there? Like, thisis not going to be a problem. I'm
going to do this, or did yougo into it going, well, we'll see
how this goes?
There was actually a lot ofconfidence going into it. And I don't

(21:50):
like the term, not to toot myown arm because I'm tooting my own
horn. But one thing I had wasme, which was one of the best people
in the country at doing this.So if nothing else, I had me. You
know, I could sell, and I hadtested it a little bit before I opened
the company. I. I went homesome afternoons and tried selling
tape. I tried. You know, Icalled people in the local area.

(22:13):
I got orders that I never evenshipped because I didn't have a company
at that time. I just wanted toknow I could get yeses, you know,
and once that worked enoughtimes, and I was ready to just open
up my own. And then I. And Idid work it alone for a good period
of time, a good year or sobefore I hired the next person. And
it never got more than likefive or six at a time.

(22:34):
Yeah. But very successful. Youknow, you did great in that gig,
and you were able to finallyretire from that.
Yeah. Successful enough thatthat industry got hard. Anybody who's
telemarketing has gotten tougher.
Absolutely.
And it was getting, you know,there's. And. And the competition.
You got Amazon. All thesethings happening.
Yeah. The Internet was.
It was getting. It was gettinghard to open accounts, to get new

(22:56):
accounts, and if you can't getnew accounts, you're in trouble.
Right. Let's. Let's talk aboutyou and I a little bit. We got connected
through a game. We both lovegolf. I have my version of how we
connected. I'd like to hear itfrom you. How did we meet? What was
it like? What did you think of me?

(23:17):
Okay. Oh, boy. I didn't knowthat was coming. Well, I. We had
a mutual friend. There was afriend of mine, John Dunn. But there
was a group of us that on anygiven Friday, two, three, four of
us would show up and meetsomewhere to play golf. And on one
of those weeks, it was threeof us, me and this friend John, who

(23:38):
called and said, would youmind if I bring a friend along? And
we knew John was a real estatebroker, probably somebody. It was
some work colleague. Andyou're the one he brought along.
And I remember liking youright away, if that's what you want
to hear. Well, that's the cuecard you're holding up.
I'll put the card down. Okay,here's the applause 1.

(24:00):
And your game was good. Youseem to have a lot of fun with us.
You got into the Skins Gameright off the bat, you know, it was
just a lot of fun.
You were big on nicknames inthe league, as I noticed that when
I got there, the league. Youhad long ball, which was Bill. Yeah,
Long ball. You had a pear heador Parrot head. Chris, you know,
he was. He was. John wasSmiling John.

(24:23):
Smiling John, because he wasalways smiling. He always was John
Dunn. Yeah. Yeah.
And then I got a nickname. Doyou remember the nickname you guys
gave me on day one? Because Ihad a really good day that day.
Yes. Because. Because we said,well, before we're going to play
for money, what's yourhandicap? You know, we got to make
sure to be fair one way oranother. If you're way better or
worse than us, you know,that's what handicaps are for. And

(24:44):
you said a seven, which kindof falls right in ours, you know,
at the time. Yeah, yeah. So.So, you know, no problem. We'll,
you know, there's no need togive strokes or whatever. And you
went on to kind of clean us upthat day. You know, shot something
like under 75, and we had ourusual 80s and, you know. And so you
were called Lucky Seven Point.Yeah. You'll be lucky if he shoots

(25:06):
seven over par.
Yeah. It never happened again.So, yeah, so that's how we got to
meet. Right? So, yeah, foranyone listening, going, what does
it have to do with realestate? We've just tied real estate
into this conversation. Right,Good, good. But really. And we spent
a lot of time just sharingthese moments between us, you know,
you and I. I played with somenumbers. It's roughly between 850

(25:30):
and 900 rounds of golf weplayed together.
Do you think?
Oh, I've looked it up.
I'll bet you have played with it.
It's. It's thousands offairways we've walked together, and
we never walked in silence. Itwas always a conversation going on.
Right?
Absolutely.
We had a lot of fun, you know,through all those years. And so that's

(25:52):
the only silence comes.
When you say sh.
Well, I do have to. You have abooming voice, John. I think you
know that. So I have to calmit down. When we're walking by another
force, they can hear me. I wasalways your official shusher.
Yeah, sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
Yeah, that's fine. But look, Iwant to get to. I want to get to
what's going on now. And so,you know, you and I have had lots

(26:13):
of conversations about this,and you are dying. Dying.
Okay, There you go.
Way to be blunt.
Yeah. Right.
You're in. You're almost atthe end of year one. Of. Of what?
The.
Well, I don't know what you'relooking for.
Well, I'm looking at the JohnBiorley. Oh, the diary tour.
Yes.

(26:33):
2024.
That I started a year agobecause I was given a year to live,
actually, the first. I wastold last October that I probably
wouldn't make it through thissummer. And I've. I've done that.
And. And I'm feeling actuallypretty good.
So, John, you were diagnosed afew years ago with prostate cancer
that was caught kind of late, right?
Yes.

(26:54):
So. And that. That was theissue is that it already metastasized.
Right. Stage four. Whichmeans. Well, yeah, when I went into
the hospital, I just went tothe ER because I was having one problem
that I'd hope I would justleave with that fixed.
Yeah.
But the first thing they sawwas that I had spinal cancer. And
then they told me that nightbecause they. They put me in a room

(27:15):
right away and all, and theysaid, you better hope that. That.
That the spinal cancer camefrom your prostate, because spinal
cancer kind of doesn't everstart on its own. I think it came
from somewhere. And he said,it's usually the lungs, and if it
was the lungs, you're done.That there's nothing we can do for
you. You know, he was beingvery frank with me in the. But it

(27:37):
turned out to be the prostate,so there was my lucky. I'm doing
air quotes. Break.
You're. Is this 2019?
2020.
2020. Okay. So. And. And soyou've. You've gone through different
versions of Treatment?
Yeah, I have, I was in, I wason hormone therapy for two and a
half years and it had me inremission, which is about the average

(28:00):
amount of time that therapywill keep a stage four prostate cancer
in remission.
Okay.
And then when that ended, theonly choice left to stop the growth
of the cancer was chemo. Aslong as I kept getting chemo every
three weeks, the cancer wouldstay at a low level. And so that
was what I did for eighttreatments until I quit. And that

(28:23):
was it.
And why, why did you quit?
Because it was wrecking me. I,I mean the, the first couple is,
haha, your hair falls out. Youknow, I've, I got a runny nose today
and yesterday I slept all dayand there's different kind of symptoms,
but when the nausea hit myeight, it. The, like the sixth, seventh
and eighth cycle, it gotworse. Every symptom gets worse.

(28:44):
That's what. If you Googlechemo symptoms, they'll tell you
it gets worse every treatment,no matter what. No, you never get
used to it, you know, all the.You kind of did, you know, somehow.
No, it got worse.
Yeah, absolutely.
I just wasn't at that severelevel that you were.
Yeah.
But I started at a much higher level.
Right. And I reached a pointmy last cycle. I didn't eat for about

(29:04):
two weeks and that, that alonewas going to do me and I've couldn't
have been any more weak. I wasdepressed. I was, you know, going
out of my. And, and at thetime I was thinking, I'm done with
chemo. But I told myself Ihave to wait till I feel good again,
then decide if I'm done withchemo. Right. I did too. Easy decision
to make in under, you know, distress.

(29:25):
Yeah, absolutely.
I, I waited till thosesymptoms were gone and the cycle
was kind of through me. Andbefore I went for the next one, I
called him up, I said, I'mdone with chemo. I'm not. And I,
and haven't done it since andI won't again.
Right.
And nothing against people whostay on chemo forever, I, I don't
think they're making a wrongdecision, but that just wasn't my

(29:46):
decision.
It's absolutely a personaldecision for each person. It's. What,
what is it? What do I want outof this next. Whatever the time I
have left. What do I want?
My very first meeting with myoncologist who's, you know, he, he
can't tell you how long yougot, but he did say one thing that
I found interesting and Ididn't quite get it. But he said,
no telling how long you have,but I can probably keep you alive

(30:08):
longer than you'll want to belike, oh, what's that? You know.
And he said, well, it dependson how hard you want to fight. I
mean, if, if you're determinedto live to an old age, it's not going
to be easy, you know. And sothat turned out to be very true.
But I, so, I mean I could havegone more cycles and, and the cancer
would have stayed kind of inremission and a lot, but I couldn't

(30:30):
take it anymore. It was, thosetreatments were killing me.
That quality of life thing isincredibly important.
Oh, huge. Yeah.
And I, I've heard you say thisin the last, you know, we talk a
lot and it was just maybe amonth ago where you right now are
having the best year of your life.
Oh, absolutely. As soon as Iquit because I was still healthy

(30:54):
at the time. I mean the chemo,it was knocking me out. But once
I got through the cycle I wasstill me at my kind of normal weight
other than being bald andstuff. But I snapped out of it pretty
quick. It was just the nextcycle would do it again. But I decided
this is the time to quit. Whynot have the year of my life? I love
traveling. I got friends allover the country just by nature of.

(31:16):
I've lived in several places.I went to two colleges, you know,
so I, I just have connectionsall over that. Why don't I go see
everybody I ever wanted tosee? I have money and that's kind
of funny. I mean I, I savedfor my retirement like everybody
does, but I really didn't dosuch a good job. If you compare it
with my income and what I had.Unless you're only going to live

(31:37):
another year. Then I savedlike a genius. I had enough to have
the year five years of mylife, you know, so that's what I
set out to do. I'm not goingto care what it cost me and I'll
just. I'm going on tour. I.And as you know, I even got the T
shirts and I've handed out 150of them so far.
T shirts that say they're thecool logo where it says the John

(32:00):
Biorley die Happy Tour 2024.It's a black T shirt, of course.
Yeah, for that. That's black.You know, that's usually the color
of death, right?
Yeah.
But let's talk about some ofthe stops you've made along the way.
You know, some of yourfavorite Ones, because there, I think
they're literally are too manyto go through in this, this conversation.
Oh, there are so many.
And let's start with the onein Rome, because.

(32:22):
Oh, that's. Let's start withthe biggest one because that, that.
Because I've had so many, somany experiences that have happened
to me in the past year, and Ialways follow it up with that. It
wouldn't have happened if Iwasn't in this situation, that I
would not have gone to seethis person. I wouldn't have done
that. I wouldn't have.Wouldn't have gone there, you know,
but I did because of thissituation. I, you know, but my hometown

(32:45):
of Rome, New York, I've alwayskind of said, I mean, I've lived
in Phoenix over 30 years now,however long, and I, I couldn't get
enough people to half fill aroom at a funeral here, I don't think.
I mean, I, I've got friends,the golf. But, you know, people come
and go, but I always knew if Iever wanted to actually have a funeral
that was attended, it would beup in Rome, my hometown. And I can

(33:08):
thank Facebook a lot for thatbecause, you know, these are contacts
that I probably would havelost if not for social media. So
I've got a big bunch offriends who are up in that area.
So it occurred to me, whydon't I have the funeral while I'm
still alive? So I.
Genius.
I. So I, I threw the. The JohnBiorley celebration of life. You

(33:31):
know, come, come see thecadaver while it's still walking
and talking. You know, and itcaught on. I. I mean, I. It all started
with, I told people, I'm goingto be at a certain bar. If you want
to stop in, I'll buy you adrink. You know, that turned into
one of the nicest restaurantsin town, their banquet hall, and
filled with. There was. Wewere charged that night for 50 people.

(33:54):
But I think more than thatcame and went throughout the night.
It was just. It was crowdedlike a wedding. And I've never. I'll
start crying if I starttalking about this. I mean, every
single person there meant theworld to me. And what was weird,
it wasn't just my room.Friends. People heard about it and

(34:15):
people came from around thecountry, People came from other states.
Yeah.
I had one friend who showedup. He was from Pennsylvania, an
attorney. And he said, becauseof that, he said, believe me, I had
10 reasons why I couldn't cometo this thing. And we weren't even
that great of friends back inHigh school, but a guy's throwing
his own celebration of life. Igot to see this. And that's why he.

(34:39):
You know, I know you have agreat friend, maybe once again, somebody
you weren't really tight within. In school, but Steve has reached
out and talk a little bitabout Steve. He's done some amazing.
Steve Marshwinsky.
Yeah. And. And what he's donefor you. And, and also how he was
a big. I think he was a bigpart of the event in Rome.

(34:59):
Huge. And now. So here you'retrying to make it come. Purposely,
Steve has been. Steve and Iwere friends. We were good friends
in junior high. Kind of wentdifferent ways in high school. I
mean, we. We said hello andall those things, but he had a girlfriend
he was with all the time andthat one of those deals. So. But
then we saw each other at areunion or two here and there along

(35:22):
the way, so we stayed in minortouch. But the moment I got sick,
I. Or I shouldn't say themoment I got sick, the moment I announced
I was sick, which is aboutsix, eight months after I actually
got sick. But I put it onFacebook, hey, everybody, guess what?
You know.
Yeah.
And. But Steve saw that. AndSteve said, first of all, he's a
retired hospitaladministrator. He started out his

(35:44):
medical career as a nurse. Andeven though he's retired, he still
holds his nursing license tothis day. And he said, john, I've
seen a thousand of you, and.And I'm here to make sure you. You
get through this. Anyquestions you have, anything you
need. So even though I havethis team of doctors, you know, I've
got a doctor for every, youknow, I was going to say for every

(36:07):
hole. You can. We can cut thatin post.
I might. I might not.
But. But of all the. Themedical people around me, he's really
the main one. He's the onewho's right. And we're great friends.
We sit, we talk, we make eachother laugh every day. But still

(36:27):
almost at the top of everyday, he wants to know how I am, how
I'm doing, how is this? How'syour weight? How's. You know.
Yeah.
And he's. And then, yes, theevent in Rome, I started organizing
it myself and I called the,the woman who owns this restaurant
that we wanted to go. It's.It's probably the most popular restaurant
in town. It's been thereforever and. But I was having a hard

(36:48):
time. I didn't know how many.She's. She wants to know how many
people are going to Be there.How many, you know, how much, you
know, what do you want toserve? And I, you know, it was hard
enough that I was doing this thing.
Yeah.
I, I backed out of it. AndSteve said, I'll take it from here.
And he arranged everything.You know, he. He asked me, you know,
a few things, like about whatdo you want to serve for food? And,
you know, but otherwise he didall. He, he took care of it. So all

(37:12):
I had to do was really show upand then pay the bill at the end.
Real quick, rattle off. Citieswith a tour has traveled to.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, LasVegas, Salt Lake City, Blyth, California,
of all places.
Nice.
I. I have a friend from the.The LA area. We met halfway, which

(37:33):
happened to be Blythe. And westill joke about what a horrible
town that is.
Sorry, people of Blythe.
I know, but what a funny placeto, you know.
Yeah.
Well, Tampa, you, coupletimes. Atlanta, South Carolina. It.
It goes on. Baltimore,Virginia. I've been pretty much all
over the Eastern seaboard.
Yeah.

(37:53):
And then somewhat in the west,California. Took a road trip with
a friend. It's been every fewweeks. I've been kind of going somewhere.
On average, what does yourdoctor say to you when he sees you
at an appointment?
Well, depends which doctor, but.
Well, let's start with. Let'stalk about the doctors you have real
quick.
Well, I have an oncologist, aurologist. I have a heart doctor.

(38:18):
Because I had one issue thatthey wanted to make sure wasn't my
heart. Turns out I don't havea great heart, but I don't have to
worry about it. I knowprobably in about 10 years, there
might be time for a bypass. Idon't know if I told you that I have
the same thing with my eyes.I've got a problem with my eyes that
when I got a new prescription,the doctor said, look, I got some

(38:38):
bad news for you. Basically,you need surgery, you know, or you
could go blind. I'm like,question, you know, how long till
this blind thing? Because I'mat the end of life here. And she's
like, oh, you're good. Nevermind. I'm like, so you were just
trying to prevent me frombeing blind at 90? She goes, yeah,
that's pretty much it, youknow, but, yeah, I got some ocular
something going on, but don'thave to worry about it.

(39:00):
Okay.
I barely have to brush myteeth anymore. Kidding.
So. So other doctors you have.
You have. Yeah, but the, My.My main, now primary doctor is a
palliative care Doctor or ahospice doctor that I'm. I'm in a
hospice company, you know, andso I check in with them. I go in

(39:23):
there once in a while, but astime goes on, they're going to be
coming to me a lot. I alreadyhave a nurse who comes once a month,
and. But that. That willcontinue more. I mean, eventually
there will probably be hospicevolunteers in here, you know, cleaning.
If. I don't know, I. You know,but. But I. But I'm already hooked
up, you know, but you don'tget to actually get into a hospice
bed, like, in a place tillthey think you have five days left.

(39:46):
So. So I'll be payingattention to that.
That move.
Yeah. Right.
Yeah.
Where are you bringing me?
Tell me. Tell me what he saysto you when he sees you.
He loves it because his wholecareer is hospice, you know, helping
people die comfortably. Imean, that's really what it is. And.
But he says. He just saidrecently, the last time I saw him,

(40:08):
he goes, you know, all theother patients I have at your stage
are not like you. They're.They're crying, they're mad, they're
angry, they're scared, they'reclawing for any type of thing to
save them, you know. And hegoes, not you. You're just Mr. Happy
Face about the whole thing,you know, having the time of your
life. He said, whatever youare doing, keep doing it. Yeah, that's.

(40:30):
And that's what I've been doing.
That's awesome. So the tourwill continue as long as you can
continue it. There's.
I've made plans as far asDecember so far. Wow. So I'm planning
on being here. Yeah.
John, I'm going to ask you aquestion that you actually. You've
kind of proposed it to me. Itwas a really cool question that someone
had asked you.
Oh.
And I'm going to see if youhave an answer. I know it's. I hear

(40:53):
you over there. What issomething that used to be important
to you that no longer is? Andto follow up on that, what is important
to you now that didn't used to be?
And it's the friend who askedme. I said, that's such a great question,
because it really got methinking. And there's lots of little
things that could fall oneither side. Sure. Of that question.

(41:15):
You know, I'm. You know, I'mnot as. You know, I don't like Lucky
Charms as much as I used to.Whatever. But. But I said, I want
to answer the question in thebiggest possible way. You Know what
are the. And simply. Or assimply as I can make it. The. The
thing that used to be moreimportant to me before I was ever
diagnosed was me. Mypossessions, what I'm doing, how

(41:37):
much money I have, how muchmoney I've earned, what my plans
are. How can I have fun thismonth, where am I going next, how
new is my car? You know, that.That was a bigger concern to me.
Not that I was a com. Youknow, me, I wasn't a complete flashy
guy, but. But my future, meand my future was my biggest concern.
And that's become much lessimportant to me because I don't.

(42:00):
The way I see it, I don't havea future. And it's almost liberating
it, you know, in a way to knowthat I'm somewhere near the end and,
and material possessions seemto mean nothing to. In this whole
time. I've been blowing moneylike crazy this whole year and I've
got nothing to show for it.And I love that. I. Yeah, I have.
I have not. But I have atoaster oven that really needs to

(42:21):
be replaced yet I don't, youknow, because that's my bit. But
I've been having a blast doingall this other stuff. I don't remember
the question. I was.
Yeah, the question. Now youdo. Got that. But then how about
the question is what isimportant now? That didn't used to
be other people. Yeah, let's.I want you to dive into that a little
bit, what that means.
Like I said. Yeah. That meused to be a lot more important to

(42:41):
me. And back in the day, notthat I didn't think. Think of other
people, but I only had so manyfriends. I mean, you're certainly
one of, you know, but I, Ididn't have a big wide range of friends.
A lot of acquaintances.
Right.
But I wasn't so worried aboutmaking others happy maybe, you know,
and I did the normal thingsfriends do if someone needs a help
or, you know, whatever. But inthis. Since I was diagnosed, since

(43:06):
I knew I'm somewhere near theend, those relationships with other
people, I've. I've ner. I,I've. I've resurrected some that
were old, you know, and, andnow they're great friends again.
I've met people in the pastyear that I've gotten incredibly
close to. Yeah, that neverwould have happened, you know, just
we met by terror somewhere onone of my tours or something and

(43:31):
just that's what it's been.And I guess I can say that I, you
know, I'VE I've really enjoyedpassing out a lot of money and kind
of the easiest opportunity islike service workers in restaurants.
And I've been going nuts forlike the past year.
Give me, give me your largesttip you've left so far.

(43:54):
Well, my event in Rome, she,there was like a three or four hundred
dollar tip built in and thenshe got tips from people throughout
the night as she broughtdrinks as well as there. We only
had one servant she was reallyworking, but I gave her 900 on top
of all that. So I think thatwas my biggest number to one person.

(44:14):
Yeah, yeah. I've been with youat a dinner before and I've watched
you on a $80 dinner tip.Somebody. $120.
Yeah, you know, 100% doing it,whatever it is.
Yeah, yeah.
I've, you know, and it's, Ienjoy it more every time.
You know, you bring in a tonof joy.
Oh, it does. You know, theones who realize it while I'm still

(44:35):
there, you don't know a thankyou like that. But a lot of times
I like to just slide, leave itand slide out. You know, it's a,
it could be a $100 dinner billand I might put 500 on it, you know,
on top of it and just vanishand, and wonder what happened. How
did that play out when theydiscovered it, you know. But yeah,
and other people. I'm notputting this out there. I'm not saying,

(44:58):
hey, anybody need money, hitme up. Because it's not that at all.
But other people who haveneeded it along the way. Sure. People
who are having a hard time. IfI hear about it and all, it's just,
and it's just been a fun. Andagain, I was not one for giving away
money back.
John. I, I know that very well.
Yeah, right. Yeah.

(45:19):
Thrifty was. I do. That's aSuper bowl bet. Okay.
No, no, no, the, the water bet.
Oh, damn it.
Yeah, the 18th hole.
Yeah, I owe him a dollar forthe 18th hole. Today we. Who can
hit it over the water but not,not hit the wall on the other side.
Okay, never mind. John, thisis, this has been amazing. I, I'm
going to give you the samefinal question I give every guest.

(45:42):
This will be really funbecause you've never been involved
in real estate other than yourown properties. But if you had one
piece of advice to give to anew agent just getting started, what
would you tell them?
Well, the answer that. Whenyou first mentioned me that you might
answer that question, the, thefirst answer that came to My mind

(46:02):
was a great. Potato salad isnothing more than potatoes, eggs,
and mayonnaise. If you knowthat you could be a superstar in
life. You never know when you.But that's my funny answer, if there
is a serious answer, becauseI. I don't. You know, I. I mean,
I. I know like I said earlier,I joked, aren't we all realtors,
really? I mean, it's. As longas you. You know, we're all involved

(46:24):
in property and, you know. Butif I was a realtor, I. I imagine
that I would. I mean, thissounds easier than it probably is,
but I would say keep gettinglistings. I would just the way I
was with my company with. Keepopening accounts. I never found that
point where I can just rest onthese 30 accounts for the next three

(46:47):
years.
Yeah.
You know, because they. Therewould have been attrition, and all
of a sudden, I'm sitting withnothing, you know, So I always, always
open accounts. And if I was abroker, I think I would want my name
attached to every listingthat's out there. If I could do it.
And then, you know, ratherthan always worrying about being
the, you know, the buyingbroker or whatever, especially with
the changes that have beenmade recently.

(47:09):
Yeah, yeah.
But that's what I would just.Yeah, I would always be doing that.
If I had eight minutes tospare in between this and that, I
would try to get a listing,you know?
Gotcha. Well, John, I'll tellyou, that's the first time that answer's
ever been given in 400 episodes.
Well, which one? I gave two ofthem. Well, yeah, okay.
Both.
Okay.

(47:29):
The salad and the listings,because listings is fairly advanced
for a new agent. But whatyou're telling them is this is your
goal. You want to get to thisplace where you are controlling more
of the transaction. Right.Where you're the listing agent, and
that's where all the goodagents want to go. So. It's a great
answer. Yeah, you did great.What I'm gonna do is usually at this

(47:49):
point, I say, people want toreach out to you. What's the best
way for them to do it? I thinkwhat I'm gonna do is I'm gonna put
your YouTube channel, withyour permission, on show notes.
Oh, yeah, that's fine.
As well as your name andFacebook so they can find you. I'll
put your URL there. So ifanyone's listened to this and they'd
like to get more of thesewords of wisdom and to watch what's
happening with you on thetour, they can go in the show. Notes

(48:10):
and they can connect with you.And they should probably say something
like, I loved you on thepodcast. That way you know who they
are and.
Yeah.
Where they came from. Andthey're not.
Yeah, that. That would be finewith me. I've. I've picked up some
friends along the way becauseyou've mentioned me before.
Right.
And I got a few. You know, afew come in that way.
You said something today onthe golf course that was pretty cool.
And you talked about the factthat even though your time here is.

(48:34):
Is measured and, you know, weknow it's. It's going to be sooner
rather than later, we'll callit. That makes you very happy to
think that there's someone youwere able to help in the last year.
40 years from now is going tobe talking to her grandchild and
sharing the story of JohnBiorly, what he did to help.

(48:56):
Yeah. Even if it's not JohnBiorley, just some guy. The guy who
left me a $400 tip for a Coke.You know, there's somebody that.
That.
It's very cool. Yeah.
Yeah. And. And to feel that Itouched the future in that way, that's
just something that occurredto me recently. Yeah.
That's very nice. It's. It's alegacy moment. It's kind of cool.
I think it's. I think it'samazing. So. You know how much I

(49:17):
love you. I want to thank youfor doing this episode because I
know it wasn't easy. Oh,you're welcome.
Well, you make it easy, and Ilove you, too. You know that.
So we'll. We will be at. Ifyou're listening to this and you're
in Phoenix, I'm gonna throwthis out there. You just missed us
because two weeks ago. We'reheading to Encano tomorrow for our
second round of golf as I makethis trip out here. So we're gonna

(49:38):
have a lot of fun. I'll seeyou tomorrow, buddy.
Okay. See you tomorrow. Thankyou, Bill.
Thank you for listening to thereal estate sessions. Please head
over to ratethispodcast.comrecessions to leave a review or a
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