S2EP46-Roderick Jefferson-Reconnecting After a Stroke: Roderick's New Outlook on Family

Roderick Jefferson: 00:00:17

Oh yeah.

Herb: 00:00:20

I now have the pleasure of introducing Roderick Jefferson.

Roderick is an internationally recognized business focused speaker having given keynote presentations nationally and 10 plus countries globally over the past 20 years.

Roderick has shared his dynamic and energetic voice globally in a variety of events including keynotes, guest lectures and domain expertise panels with Companies including Oracle, salesforce.com, netApp, PayPal, AT&T and others.

In addition to a highly successful speaking career, Roderick is an acknowledged thought leader in the sales enablement space and author of the best selling book sales enablement 3.0 the blueprint to Success. Please welcome Roderick to the stage.

And actually it's kind of funny, before we go into this, all of that stuff I talked about, we're not really going to be talking about that today. We are going to be actually talking about him recovering from stroke and a new book that he has written. So welcome today.

Roderick, thank you for joining us here today. It is a pleasure to have you.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:01:28

My absolute pleasure. Thanks for having me on. I am looking forward to this one.

Kristina: 00:01:32

Me too. Because as we got introduced in one of our networking rooms, it's like, oh my gosh, what can we talk about?

And then he started talking about how connected he is to his family and how this impacted his family as well as explanation, career and everything else. So it's like, no, that's what we really want to talk about is how.

But so our first question is how did all of that stuff that we just talked about lead up to this new book and this new outlook on life that we want to dive into more today?

Roderick Jefferson: 00:01:59

Great question. To start with, let's go back to the future for a moment here.

So as, as Herb said, I was a corporate executive for 30 years at a number of great companies, lived the lifestyle of a senior vice president, flew around the world, hung out, corporate jets, corporate helicopters, all those things. And according to most people, it would be successful.

And while I was successful professionally, it literally took me away from my family more often than I wanted to. You know, I could have made myself believe that I'm providing, I'm protecting, I need to be out on the road.

And in hindsight, it was a lot of ego, to be quite honest. And I remember one time I had come back from Europe and my son, my daughter, my wife were there.

I was like, oh, I am craving pizza because I've been in Europe and they don't have great pizza other than Italy. And I wasn't in Italy, right? And so I remember my son, look at me, he goes, dad, it's Tuesday. That's Shaken bake day. And I went, oh, wait a minute.

I'm the guy that flies in, gets his lawn dry cleaning done, hangs out for a few minutes, and then flies out and fast forward. I realized while I was doing all of this, I missed my daughter's 8th grade graduation because I was in Paris. Great place to be, but not on that day.

I also missed activities with homework and sporting events, and my son was a competitive dancer. I missed all that. And speaking of the homework, this was a ways. Back when I first started traveling, there was no FaceTime.

So all I had was my little AT T calling card. Right. To call home. But we didn't see each other. Thankfully, later in my career, we were doing things over FaceTime. Literally.

My son would hold up his homework and I'd go, yeah, I. Okay, let's talk about this one. And we go through it.

But I realized that while I was becoming more successful, I was becoming more disconnected from the family. And that put a toll on me. Not only that, but I'm in multiple time zones. I'm eating poorly, I'm not sleeping well.

And it all took a toll because I'm an A person, and I'm the first to admit it.

And it got to the point to where I had become comfortable with living at that red line of stress on a whole different level that I didn't even know existed. Right. I'm working with the executive team, I'm working with boards.

We're putting together decks, we're talking about funding all those things which were very cool on the resume, but it was literally killing me.

Kristina: 00:04:49

Yeah. And, you know, everything you just said is like, oh, my gosh. That is what we want people, parents, to think about. Right.

Yes, you can be successful in business. You can be successful in so many different ways, but are you being successful in that family?

And that's one of the main missions of vibrant family education is like, how do we connect with the families? How do we make sure the families are growing and developing together?

Herb: 00:05:09

We do that through education.

Kristina: 00:05:11

Yeah.

Herb: 00:05:11

More specifically, we try and help people take their children out of school because so many people go into entrepreneurship and business for their family. You thought you were providing for your family, you were giving your family a good life, but at the same time, you were losing your family. And so.

So we. We talk.

When we talk about bringing your kids home and homeschooling, it's like, imagine if your family had gone with you on those trips to Europe, what kind of education they could have had, what kind of family building they could have had.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:05:40

Absolutely.

Herb: 00:05:41

And so people do all of this amazing work for their family, but then they lose it. They lose their family along the way, thinking, oh, when we get to the end of this, then we'll fix the family.

But then you've missed the birthdays, you miss the graduations. How do you fix not having those memories? So by homeschooling your kids, you get to. You get to take them with you. You get to.

So anyway, that's just part of it.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:06:08

That's.

Herb: 00:06:08

We're not. We're not talking about. We're talking about you. So, yes. What you're talking about, how. How it.

How you're doing so much for your family, but drifting away from them. That is exactly why we're here. That is. That's exactly what this podcast is about. So you realize this.

Kristina: 00:06:26

And what was the next step? How did we.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:06:29

Well, the next step was, while that was horrible that I was away, what I also realized is as they were growing up, I didn't go through those maturation cycles with them from early years all the way through middle school, high school. So the way I talked to them was the way I talked to people corporately.

That doesn't work so well with kids, especially in the teenage years, not what they want to hear. And so I had to learn how to, literally, and it sounds silly, but how to talk to them, not talk at them.

Herb: 00:07:06

Right.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:07:06

And so along with that, and if that was the worst, I'd be okay because we could get through that. I think the worst was because I felt so disconnected and so outside of the family unit. What I wound up having was a really short temper. Right.

And so I have a bad day, I'm home, something's wrong. Who do you take it out on? The people that are closest to you.

And so I literally had to learn how to compartmentalize these pieces so that I didn't come home one day and all the locks were changed. Right. And I say that half joking.

,: 2021

You know, I did my thing on the stage and prepared for it. We dinner, like every other night, except for it wasn't. I realized I was extremely tired.

And not like tired I had worked out or I'd, you know, run a marathon or something. It was a different level of tired. I remember waking Up. And they were.

Herb: 00:08:26

The.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:08:26

The group said, are you okay? Because we're in the middle of a conversation, and you just fell asleep. It's like narcolepsy or something. I mean, out cold.

But I was literally knocked out because my head hit the table. So we knew something was wrong. It's like, you know what? I'm exhausted. I'm going to go back to my room. I'm going to get some sleep.

I'll see you guys in the morning. I wake up in the morning, and every time I'm on the road, my wife and I get together over FaceTime. Hey, what's going on at home? How are the kids?

What's going on with the family? Reconnecting now. Problem was, what I heard was my voice sounding like this.

What she heard was absolute gibberish, because I had had a stroke while I was asleep, and 98% of sleep stroke victims never wake up. So I'm blessed enough to be in the 2% club. Thankfully, my wife's friend had recently had a stroke. She knew the stroke protocol, walked me through it.

What's your name? Count to 10, say your ABCs. None of that worked. And so I had some folks that were on my team, and my wife said, you know, let me see.

Let me see your face. Is it drooping? No, it wasn't. Classic symptoms. And so she said, I'm gonna call Tim Carlson, who's my director, and called Tim.

He jumped in the ambulance with me and spent the entire day with me at the. At the emergency room. Now, unfortunately, that was also the day that I was flying home. I flew home from LA to Oakland mid stroke.

And I don't remember the first three days of being in the hospital at all. But I do remember a couple of things.

One is, my wife said the first thing the doctor, the neurologist, and the cardiologist both said was, your husband's a miracle. There's no way he should be alive.

Kristina: 00:10:13

Wow.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:10:14

Because between altitude, cabin pressure, and mid stroke, high likelihood, I was never going to actually test the ground again.

Herb: 00:10:22

Having a sleeping stroke and then getting on a plane and getting on.

Kristina: 00:10:26

Yeah.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:10:27

I never claimed to be a road scholar.

Herb: 00:10:29

I was gonna say the doctor let you on a plane. I thought you got in an ambulance. Or did you fly home and then.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:10:33

No, I went to the ambulance, went back to the hotel, and I flew home that same day. I was only in the hospital for an hour and a half.

Kristina: 00:10:41

Whoa.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:10:42

Because I let them know that I had a heart issue, something called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I have an enlarged heart. My heart's too big. And so I was a high level athlete. So it created an excess layer of muscle.

So the normal heart squeezes anywhere between 65 and 75. On average, it gets down to 20%. You die, cardiac arrest. When they rolled me into the hospital in San Francisco Bay Area, I was at 22%.

They gave me a 2% chance to live. Now let's take it back to and imagine how this impacted my family.

Bear in mind, four years ago, we're in the middle of COVID My kids can't come and see me. They can only see me over, over FaceTime. Only my wife can come see me.

And I don't really want her that much because I'm in not only just the emergency room, I'm in ICU with the sickest of the sickest people. So I was like, go easy on how much you're going to come in to see me. So now my kids are terrified.

And although my kids are older, they're 35 and 26 now. Right? But that's old enough to go. I don't want to lose my dad. And when my.

When mom says he, they gave him a 2% chance, imagine the impact that had on them emotionally.

So I'm trying to now keep them upbeat as much as I can, but at the same time, as a paid keynote speaker, I know God has a sense of humor and here's why. My stroke was dead smack dab in the middle of my speech center. Whoa.

My neurologist said if but stroke would have hit 1 millimeter northeast, south, or west, it would have exploded and I would have been gone. So you can imagine what my wife is feeling. She's like, I did not sign up to be a widow. She'd already been a semi.

You know, single mom, married single mom. As I was traveling, now she's like, I don't want to be a widow. Not ever. But not this early in life, especially. My kids are terrified.

They're both in school at that time. So I'm like, they can't focus, they can't function. They can't, you know, take on their, their homework.

They just, they're like, I got something bigger than this test. Like, my dad could be dead today. And so it changed everything for me. But before I go there, this was.

If that were the worst again, that would be okay. I remember one night, I'd been there for about two weeks in the hospital. They've moved me from ICU to a regular room now.

And all of a Sudden, I hear code blue. Code blue. And flashes, and machines are squawking. It's my room. So this is the night where I actually flatlined. I coded, and I died. Gone.

I didn't go off and see a white light. What I did see was I was floating up to the corner of the room. I'm looking down. They're working on me. They're pulling out fluids.

They're doing chest compressions. I look to my left. It's my mom. My mom died in 99. So I said, okay, mom, good and faithful servant. I've done everything I can.

It's time for me to go home. She said, no, baby, it's not time. I was sent here to tell you what your new purpose in life was going to be. And we had a long con.

I don't know how long. It felt like it was an hour, but I guarantee it wasn't that long. And so I'm zipped back into my body now, and I look over, and she's gone.

I'm zip back into my body, and I hear the one word that no one ever wants to hear clear. No, no, no, no. You can't do this. This is not gonna be good. Now, bear in mind, I'm still kind of groggy because I'm still flatlined at this point.

And I can hear. It's kind of like when you get Twilight at the dentist. You can hear everything. It's fuzzy, but you can't really moving. You're not coherent.

And so as he's rubbing the paddles and he's starting to come down to zap me, thankfully, he's on my right side, because, remember, my whole left side is paralyzed. I reach out, I hear beep, beep, beep, beep. I'm back. I grab his hand. And now it all goes in. Stroke protocol.

Now, Merritt, I'm kind of sharing things that I remember, bits and pieces. But most of this was my wife talking to my cardiologist and my neurologist, because I was kind of gone. And so now I. Let's fast forward.

I come home, and they've got me in this life vest thing because. And it's literally a mobile defibrillator. Imagine that. Because what I'm told is when the heart is that weak, it will stop. Not if, but it will stop.

I remember one night, we were watching. We're sitting on the couch watching espn, and I moved, and one of the wires popped out, and it was like, prepare to defibrillate. Then my son's. She's.

All choppy. My wife's like, what do you do? So now back to the two full circle. I have a new appreciation for my family because, one, I needed them just to exist.

And I had to learn how to do a zipper, how to tie a tie, how to use a spoon, do all of my physical therapy, the occupational therapy, speech therapy. And not that I didn't love them before, but I now have a new focus on life. And it is my four Fs.

It is faith, family, friends, and the thing that most adults leave out, fun. That is my story.

Kristina: 00:16:19

Oh, wow. And all of that is just absolutely amazing. And I go back kind of to the beginning of that.

Whenever you were talking about how your kids were reacting, they were in college, I assume, at that time, or late high school, and it was like, oh, my gosh, they couldn't focus. They couldn't get, you know, a peer for test. All those things were going on.

And what I love to think about and talk about with families all the time is that when a big challenge like that hits your family, you need to make sure that you're speaking with your child's educators, the people who are around them, and let them know. A lot of people like to hide that, oh, we're going through family issues. No, they need that support as well.

So you definitely need to reach out to those people as if you're available to do that or have them as college age, they could do it themselves.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:17:05

Yeah, they have those conversations.

Kristina: 00:17:07

Make sure you let them know the educators know what's going on. And then, you know, this whole at the end, faith, family, friends, and fun. I love the fun part because guess what?

A lot of us get so stressed out, we forget about the fun.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:17:21

Yeah, absolutely.

Because we get in, you know, we get on the hamster wheel and we get into sometimes just the monotony of life and get into that routine, back to, you know, shaking bakes on Tuesdays, that kind of thing. And you have to make time because it doesn't come naturally for most of us, unfortunately. And now I. I am laser focused on having far more fun.

We actually have a bocce ball court in the backyard now, and we barbecue and we have friends over and we do Monday night footballs and those kind of things. Because if you don't intentionally do it with your family as a unit, I think two things happen. One, you again start to drift apart.

And second, you start unknowingly building memories as well as traditions with them. I can see now our kids doing some of the similar things that we're doing right because it became important after dad had a stroke.

Herb: 00:18:23

Yeah. Sometimes these really big hits are a true blessing in disguise.

It changes your whole life, changes your whole directory, and it really focuses you back on what's important, which is the relationship and the family, because you know, your job, your. You're, you know, most people, and, and especially nowadays, it's like you take a job to get a resume, to get a better job, to get a better job.

You don't have a job that you grow through anymore, that they.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:18:53

That.

Herb: 00:18:53

That's not really.

Kristina: 00:18:54

Absolutely corporate structure.

Herb: 00:18:55

So you have a job for two or three years, maybe five, maybe 10, but you have your children, hopefully for the rest of your life.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:19:03

Absolutely.

Herb: 00:19:04

Under your care for 18 years, and that's it. And you know, is. Is in those 18 years are so much more important than the two or three years for a job.

Now, again, making money to keep your family together is important. It really is that. But that family building, you have to be there with your family, too. Because if.

If it's all about the providing and not about the being with them, then you're just missing the point.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:19:35

Absolutely. The way I describe it now is you have to find a way to feed your family and your soul.

And when those are out of balance, that's when really crazy, wacky things start happening to your body. And in my case, in my brain.

Kristina: 00:19:51

Right? Yeah.

Herb: 00:19:53

Yeah. So I suffered some traumatic brain injuries. I've got a lot of brain damage.

My life got really, really dark for a lot of years because it went undiagnosed and I could. I thought I was going insane, and I. I forgot how to have fun. And now that I want to, and I'm building that back up.

It's not an easy thing if you lose having fun. It's. It's fun to build it back, but it's also not easy to build it back because it's like you build up blocks inside of you.

It's like, oh, that's fun. I don't need to do that. And that's. That's a wrong attitude. And so again, bring it back to the family. You know what?

I had a client once that I told him to start having pillow fights with his kids. And that was. That was the best advice he got in here.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:20:40

Love that. Nothing like a good filler fight.

And to your point, the problem with fun is it becomes secondary, then tertiary, then it becomes 51st on your list of things to do. So now, as I said earlier, you have to be diligent about it and you have to be laser focused on making sure. And it sounds crazy, right?

But I think that's the mindset here, at least in the United States. That's why I love going to Europe, especially in June, July when everybody. Or August when they're on holiday. I used to talk to my employees.

They're like, when do you guys work? You're always constantly on holiday. Now, in hindsight, I think they did it right. I really do. Right.

I've been crazy enough to come back from injuries and surgeries too fast. I remember right after my stroke, I believe it or not, right before I got out of the hospital, I took a team meeting on Zoom from the hospital.

And my team just wore me out. Get off now. We don't want to see you here. There's no reason. And I hung it up and I thought, what was I thinking?

Corporate America is here to make a profit, not friends. Had I actually died and not come back, they would have sent the distribution check to my wife.

They would have put up some really flowery things on social media. Then they would have opened a new wreck because they would need someone to replace me. And that was the last straw for me.

And actually following that, I actually left corporate completely and started my own consulting and keynote speaking.

Herb: 00:22:14

Yeah. Because corporate can easily replace you. Your job can easily replace you.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:22:17

We're just cogs.

Herb: 00:22:20

Cannot replace you.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:22:22

Cannot. And I'm, you know, I'm actually very thankful that I had the stroke because there's a couple things.

One, because my was heart related, my doctor said, and it was October, he said, you I would not have made it to Christmas. It was that week, maybe not even Thanksgiving.

And the other piece is, it gave me a new set of lenses and a second opportunity to reconnect with my family in a different way than I ever would have had I not had that stroke.

Herb: 00:22:51

And not just with your family, but just in life in general.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:22:54

Oh, absolutely.

Herb: 00:22:55

When, when a problem arises now, it's like, do you look at a problem the same way? It's like, I'm alive. It's not a problem, it's just that serious. Deal with.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:23:05

It's like I shrugged my shoulders a lot. Something like things that used to just burn me up don't even hit my radar anymore. It's not that important. Right.

Yeah, We've all heard the old adage of nobody's promised tomorrow. It's different with someone who didn't have it tomorrow.

Herb: 00:23:22

Yeah.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:23:23

And I realize now at this age, there are a lot more sunsets behind me than Sunrises in front of me and I want to enjoy every single one of them. Not to mention I've got an 18 month old granddaughter now. So now I get to be grandpa.

That is a whole and that's part of the pieces that my mom was telling me about. There's things where you need to go back. There are people that need you.

And it's not just family, it's friends, it's chosen family, it's former colleagues. I. I wrote my book not for myself because it literally created a lot of ptsd. And thank you to God for getting through this.

And also amazing therapist.

Herb: 00:24:03

Right.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:24:04

Which I'm a big fan of. But it got me.

Kristina: 00:24:06

I want to get practical here though.

Herb: 00:24:08

Can I say something first?

Roderick Jefferson: 00:24:09

No.

Kristina: 00:24:09

I would need to get practical here for all these parents who are listening. Right. You said that things changed after all of this and we want to get practical strategies to our families.

What did you do to start building those bridges back with your kids and start building these traditions? Because a lot of families are estranged right now.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:24:27

Yes.

Kristina: 00:24:27

Let's give them something that they can absolutely.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:24:29

Let me give them something to work with here. What I did was mine was now I spend individual time with them, not just in a group time. So my son and I are both big college football teams fans.

We go down to Texas every year and that's our boys weekend. It's just us. We stay at the same hotel, we see the same people, we ride the train at the same time.

We buy a big turkey leg at the Texas State Fair and we go watch Texas Oklahoma. That's our voice. The other is we've become and we have always were, but even more so we're the Kool Aid House, if you will.

All his friends want to come here and hang out. So I get to know his friends as well as as the kids with my daughter saying we get time, just us.

And because of the little one and wanted to spend time, I just found out yesterday that they got a home here in town. They're moving to our town, to our city now.

So that means Sunday night dinners again, that means that barbecuing again, that means, you know, Yahtzee night and playing bocce out back.

So getting through that, make sure that one I've always believed be open and transparent with kids because even if it hurts them, it'll hurt them more if you lie to them or omit information. So that's the one thing we did was I remember sitting in the bedroom on bedroom in the hospital on Facetime and we Were all on a joint.

And I said, I want to tell you where we are. I want to you to know if anything happened. And I gave each of them how much I love you, why I love you, and what I. I want.

I wish for you, for your lives. Right? And that was hard because we were all in tears. But they needed to know that stuff. Right? And then once I got out, it didn't stop. I FaceTime.

My son lives here, so him and I have got a great relationship now. Teenage years, not so much. Right. But you know, boys. And now we've got a phenomenal relationship because we have an open conversation.

He came in yesterday and he said, hey, dad, what's going on with you? You've been a little tent and you've been kind of short. Don't tell me nothing's wrong. Let's talk. It's like, I'm not a little boy anymore.

Let's have the conversation. And we did. We sat down and I explained to him what was going on. We talked it through.

He's like, okay, now I know how to deal with that with my daughter. Every single day we FaceTime. So I can see the little one and also hang out with her. She now is an executive herself.

So she's now coming at 35 with a different set of conversation now of, hey, dad, when you went through this, how'd you handle this? I've got this situation, I've got to hire this, I've got to fire this person, whatever it may be.

And so now I've become the sounding board with my son. It's different because he's also a grown man. At 26, we joined a. A community focused organization called the 100 Black Men in the Bay Area.

He's the youngest in the. In the chapter. But he wanted to do this together with dad. Right. Also with my wife and I. We're back to date nights again.

Kristina: 00:27:43

Yeah.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:27:43

Because, you know, why not? And the one thing I always say is, while you can still date them, your partner, date them because it matters. And don't assume that they know. Right?

Always let them know. I say I love you to them every day. And not because it's tradition or routine. I say I love you, then I tell them why. And that's the other thing.

As a parent, when I give you, when you're giving information, tell the why. The what is great if you're an adult, because we get that the kids need to know why. I would tell my son, I'm so proud of you.

And he got me well trained. Early in life yet, dad. Why? What are you proud of? And so now I'll say, I'm so proud of you for fill in the blank.

I'm so proud of you because Fill in the blank. And that makes a huge difference to these kids because they need to hear this, because there's so much craziness going on, especially younger kids.

They've got to deal with bullying, cyberbullying. They've got to deal with social media, things that we didn't have to deal with, or I didn't.

With the older kids, but younger, it's important to have conversations. And parents, I'll say this clearly and succinctly. Stop giving presentations. Start having conversations. They don't need you to be talking at them.

What they need is conversations where they feel comfortable coming to you. I remember my kids when they were younger. We made sure that we talked about everything. We argued in front of them as well, which some don't do.

And we did it because we were teaching them one, how to argue fairly. Right. No yelling, no screaming, no calling each other out of names.

And the other piece was we needed to see how we worked through it and what happened, what was the outcome?

So if I can give that to parents, I hope that that's the practical pieces you were looking for and that you don't have to go through what I went through to actually put these things in the practical application that you can learn from my piece. Don't step in the same hole and break the same ankles. I did.

Herb: 00:29:48

Right.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:29:48

While you may not have a stroke, what I have learned from the American Stroke Society is one out of every four people, not just American, but people, will incur a stroke at some point in their life. I found out this was actually my second stroke. 25% of folks on the plane. So every one out of every four people you pass will incur a strike.

A stroke in their life.

Kristina: 00:30:11

So that's amazing because that. That's way more than I thought was possible. Yeah.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:30:16

It's actually very, very common phenomenon. And the last piece I want to live. Leave them with is when you're talking to kids and your children and you're having.

Having conversations with your significant other or your family, Remember that because someone looks healthy doesn't mean something's not going on under the surface.

Kristina: 00:30:38

Yeah. Thank you. Yes.

And that's some of the messages that we try to give as we're talking about our, you know, 34 years of marriage and raising two boys and things. They. So I was like, all of those things are so, so important.

Herb: 00:30:50

Our youngest son doesn't talk to us.

Kristina: 00:30:52

Anymore because we've made mistakes along this and we haven't been able to fix it yet.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:30:56

And that's okay. You know what? There's. There's. As long as you still got breath, you still got time. All right? And.

And I'm a firm believer that as parents, we're going to create some need for therapy in their lives. It's going to happen. Right. It's just. It's natural. We're human. Our job is to do one of two things.

One, minimize the amount of therapy that they'll require. And secondly is if that door is ever opened again, step gingerly and lightly rather than running in because you're so excited that it's open.

Kristina: 00:31:27

Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Very much so. Awesome. Wow. Roderick, thank you. Thank you, thank you.

I knew whenever I said, you know, I really need you to come on the show, I knew that this was going to be exactly what happened. Thank you.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:31:39

Thank you for the opportunity.

Kristina: 00:31:41

Powerful stories, the wonderful insights and the genuineness. I can just feel it from your heart. I know that all of this is just coming through as a place of.

Let's just help this world get along and be so much better than where it was before.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:31:57

That's my job. And so I'll go back to. To the book and why I wrote it. I wrote it for other people. I didn't write it for me.

I certainly didn't want all that PTSD to come back.

Herb: 00:32:05

But what book?

Roderick Jefferson: 00:32:08

Let's.

Herb: 00:32:08

Let's. Let's talk about the book. Absolutely.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:32:12

The book is called Stroke of Success. It is currently in pre sale, which means you can actually go purchase it now.

And it is being sold on my website, which is roderickjefferson.com Now, October 28th, it will be on the website. It'll also. And unless you're international, then you'll have to wait till October 28th, when.

Which will actually be my four year strokeiversary and it will be on Amazon and all over. And then the next thing after that goes up is for me to do the audiobook. For those that are audio folks, I'm.

Kristina: 00:32:48

Yeah, I'm kind of an audio folk guy and just a little birdie told me that you might be doing that yourself, so that's pretty.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:32:54

I'm actually going to voice it because I don't believe that anybody can give the inflection or the passion that I can, because I kind of lived it.

Kristina: 00:33:03

Yeah. Yeah.

Herb: 00:33:05

And now let's go into a little bit about the book. Let's. Let's give people a reason. I want to go get it.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:33:11

Absolutely. So while I've talked a lot about the stroke, the stroke is actually just one component of the book. Right. When.

When I break it down to what it's about and why I wrote it. Excuse me. Stroke of Success is literally a blueprint for anyone that's currently navigating their journey towards success.

That means showing persistence, determination, and they can both be empowering, but they can also be dangerous when they're not balanced with self care and mindfulness. So it's literally about how do we incorporate ie +eq together and move forward. I also give a.

And just a ton of resources in the book as well, of folks that everything from American Heart Association, Stroke Society. I give breathing techniques.

I give as much as I could fit into this book because again, as the byline says, climbing that ladder of success is wonderful, but it can be detrimental to your life or even kill you. If I can help save one person. Mission accomplished.

Kristina: 00:34:22

Absolutely. Yes. Perfect, perfect, perfect. So now, audience, not only do you have some awesome parenting ideas and.

And success stories in there, now you even have corporate or entrepreneur ideas through this book. So, yeah. Thank you so much, so much for.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:34:37

Sharing all of that with my absolute honor. Thank you so much for having me.

Kristina: 00:34:41

Yeah. All right, audience, you know what to do.

It is time to go, like, share and let other people know about this because as we are trying to do our mission to help people move forward and help their kids and be happy and successful. It doesn't go anywhere if you don't share and help us out. Help Roderick, help us.

Let's make sure all of our kids, like he said, don't have less traumas. They have to go to therapy for. Set them up for success at the very, very beginning. Do all of that.

Like, share and review all the podcasts and all the posts around this.

Herb: 00:35:15

Yes. And I would also like to thank you for being here today. You know, there's so many people who, when they get hurt and they recover, they just.

They lay low. They.

They have a problems and they just talk about it and you're out helping the world not only get better, but specifically is like, hey, this happened to me. This is how you can get better quicker. And that's what a hero does.

They go out and they fight the dragon and then they come back and they tell their story to help other people. And so you are on a hero's journey and you are a hero. So thank you very much.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:35:48

Thank you so much.

Herb: 00:35:49

And thank you for sharing your story to help make the world a better place.

Roderick Jefferson: 00:35:54

I'm truly honored and humbled. Thank you so much for having me.

Kristina: 00:35:57

You are very welcome. Okay everybody, thank you so much for joining us today. And we will see you next week same time, same station.

Always dropped on Friday mornings early in the morning. So come find this podcast and many, many others that will help your families up level. Until next time. Bye for now.

Herb: 00:36:14

Bye for now.