Resiliency The Podcast

Welcome to today's episode of Resiliency the Podcast. Today's guest is a senior executive with more than twenty five years of sales leadership. He's helped companies like Oracle, PayPal, AT and T, and Salesforce, just to name a few. Now he's an award winning keynote speaker, and he's a consultant in the sales transformation space. And listen, guys.

His list of accolades is really impressive. He's been named one of the top innovators and entrepreneurs. He's been named one of black leaders worldwide. He was, in 2023, '1 of America's best speakers from Selling Power magazine, and he received a lifetime achievement award for sales enablement. And that's from Selling Power magazine as well.

Now the list really goes on and on. This is a man who understands sales. Okay? And that's really important to business. It's important important to personal brand.

But look. He has an he's also an author. He's got a a book out called Sales Enablement three point o, and that is an Amazon bestseller. He keeps succeeding. His resilience is so impressive.

He really embodies this from a business perspective. And then I'm gonna come out of left field for you guys listeners because this episode's not even about all of this wonderful sales success and resiliency. Because you see, my dear listeners, today's guest has a new book that's about to come out, and it's called Stroke of Success. And in this book, today's guest is going to discuss his experiences of going through a stroke that nearly took his life. And really more appropriately, it did take his life, but he fought his way back, not only from death, but from the physical tolls that a stroke can have on the mind and the body.

And so I I I can't wait for you guys to meet him. Again, just through the lens of of human resilience and business resilience, what a master. Please welcome mister Roderick Jefferson. Roderick, welcome to Resilience

and the podcast. So much, Jen. I am incredibly honored and humbled to be here, and I'm taking you on the road with me. That's it. You're gonna be my hype lady from now on.

There's no way that I can open up a show without you. It just can't happen. I'm sorry, Seth. We're going on the road.

Listen. I am in on the gig, Roderick.

You I am Let's do it.

We let's let's partner up for life. Right before we started, he said he said, you guys wanna dance? He said, yes. I'll dance with you, Roderick.

Oh, let's dance.

Wow. Roderick, you know, in Jen's intro and and in getting to know you a little bit better, you really embody the the vision of bounce back. You know, resilience for us means a number of different things, but one of the core tenants is bounce back. And I think that you've really you're really we're gonna learn so much from you today. But I would like to ask you, what does resilience mean to you?

Oh, great kickoff question. You know, it it depends upon the situation. For me, resiliency means I refuse to give up and quit. And we've got a a standard statement and belief in my house. I've got two kids.

And our statement is Jeffersons don't quit. No matter what, it's not an option. Look, that doesn't mean that we don't fail. We just don't quit. So to me, resiliency means no matter what's going on, nothing's impossible.

Everything is possible. Some things are probable.

I really love that because you talk about we don't quit, but we also give our ourselves permission to fail. And so many people equate failure and quitting as one in the same, but they're so fundamentally different as we had, Jen, we have heard over and over and learned over and over again. So what a great takeaway for our audience.

It it also includes giving yourself and granting yourself grace because the problem is as humans, we're always striving for perfection, although we know perfection is impossible. So take that mindset and step back away from that and say, this is the best I've got. Some days, I'm standing here in sweats saying, oh, yeah. It's 02:00. I should probably brush my teeth.

That success on that day. Other days, and I put up my priorities on the wall right over next to me. My top three today that I'm gonna do before I turn off my laptop, and the fourth one is always something personal because we tend to forget about ourselves all too often.

I have to say that I I think that's profound because we we do forget about ourselves. And and more than that, even from a societal standpoint, we're almost expected to put ourselves last in so many ways. And I wanna delve into this because we're we're going to get to your book, Stroke of Success and and to this really harrowing and and and amazing experience that you have. But I I want for a minute because a lot of our listeners are in the the business community, whether they are leading corporations, they're they're leading their own self within their self companies. And and I wanna ask leading up to this, because I can only imagine the story you're about to tell us about this this this death experience is something that changed your life.

But prior to that yeah. I mean, I can't imagine. But prior to that, you said Jeffersons don't quit. You've got two kids and you taught them that. So I wanna know before your life changing transformation as a sales leader, how did you teach them or or yourself to handle that failure and and and look at yourself with grace?

That's that's an impressive resilient skill.

Thank you.

And I wanna know, did you have it before this thing you're gonna tell us about?

Yeah. It's always been a part of me. And, again, I I wanna give an asterisk. There is a time in life where it's okay and as a matter of fact, for self perseverance to quit. People look at quitting as negative.

I don't. Sometimes you have to do it for self care and for self preservation or perseverance. Excuse me. So to answer your question, yeah, it's always been there. How did I teach them?

The best way that I know, show them. We've always had a very, very open relationship with the kids. Right? We're not the ones that don't argue in front of the kids, don't talk about finances. My my thing has always been, if I don't show them, how will they ever learn?

Right? And and we all know my mom had and you'll hear me quote her quite a bit and you'll see why later in the story. But she had a a statement that sticks to my mind and it's goes this way. Little pictures have big eyes. They see a lot more than we give them credit for.

Mhmm.

And so the best way to say it was, yep, dad lost his job. So here's what's gonna happen, and here's how we're gonna work to get back. Yep. Dad got sick. Here's how we're gonna fight to get back.

Yep. Mom's having a rough day, and she's yelling at everybody. That's okay. But we're gonna get through this thing. And so part of that was making sure that no matter what goes on, it does not overshadow the connection that you have to each other and to life.

I wanna just repeat that. I think what I heard you say is no matter what's going on, it doesn't overshadow the connection you have to each other and the connection you have to life.

Absolutely. Wow.

Okay. I think that couldn't be a better opening too. Roderick, I I I think we're ready. We want to hear can you tell us and our listeners what happened on the day of your stroke?

Yes. Absolutely. So I was in LA on a business trip doing a keynote. And the night before, I felt a little off, kinda tired, but I thought, you know what? Oh, I've been working out.

I've been walking hills. We we've been, you know, preparing for the sales kickoff meeting. And that night, I went to bed like every other night. And it's a night like never before. 10/27/2021.

So I woke up and my wife stay at home mom. Every morning, we have a conversation. And what's going on with you? How are the kids? What's going on with your calendar?

Here's what I'm doing today. But that day, in my mind, I was still explaining to her as clear as you hear me. But with her, all she heard was gibberish. And thank God she knew the protocol to walk me through, and she actually diagnosed my stroke over FaceTime from Northern California, and I was in LA. The the the craziest part of all this is I had my stroke while I was asleep.

Ninety eight percent of sleep of sleep stroke victims never wake up. I'm in that two percent club that actually woke up. And thankfully, she knew the protocol to walk me through it.

You're in a bigger club than that. You're in the two percent club who woke up, and you're probably in the two and a half percent club whose significant partner knew what to do. Yes. Knew what to see, knew how to act. So the two percent becomes even smaller.

So aren't we you know, you grace us here, and aren't we lucky?

Thank you.

So you said you She's

gotta be up for sainthood by now. Not only putting up with me for fifty years, but now that she has walked me through and literally saved me through my life saved my life. How do I get upset about anything with her now? I'm like, no. Yeah.

But you saved my life. That's right. Okay. I just Yeah.

I know. You'll get over that. At some point in time, you'll get over that, and that leverage will lighten down. But at the moment, let's give her lots of accolades. So maybe for our listeners, something that could help them.

You said your wife saved your life by knowing the signs of a stroke, and we learn, that the sign you know, it's f a s t, that acronym, signs of a stroke. Could you explain that for our listeners to help them learn what that means?

Thank you for that. And and absolutely. And this is something that I hope that every one of your, listeners take because as I've found out now is one out of every four people over the age of 25 will experience a stroke either personally or someone in their circle. This was actually my second stroke, and I didn't realize it. The first one, I never even realized it happened.

Mhmm. Years ago. And it's why it's called the silent killer. So now for the fast acronym, f stands for facial drooping. Ask that person to do something as simple as smile.

Does one side of the face droop? Are they asymmetrical? If not, move on to the next one, and that's arm weakness. So ask the person to raise both arms and then hold one up and drop the other because you're gonna find out now what side of the body is being affected by that stroke.

Okay.

The next is s, and that stands for speech difficulties. Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is it hard for you to understand them? Is it hard for them to understand you? My wife asked me to count to 10.

Oh, I've been doing that for fifty plus years. Here you go. One, two, seven, 20 eight, 50 three, 70 five. And she said, okay. Say the ABCs.

I'm like, are you kidding? Sure. A b f l t z w, and she's like, oh, not good. And at this point, she said, put me on FaceTime. I need to see you.

Because she wanted to see if my face was drooping. Now I didn't have the typical signs. I was not drooping. But now it leads to the last letter, which is t. And that's time to call emergency services right now.

And here's why. If we can get the individual or yourself to emergency quickly enough, they can actually infuse you with a shot that will break up the clot and probably save your life. My problem was, we didn't know what time my stroke was. It was outside of the window to be able to do that, so they were not able to administer that shot to me. What she did was at that point, she hung up, She called one of the folks I had part of my team there with me, and we were immediately call 911.

We were in the emergency room, and they started in stroke protocol right away. Oh, but I wish that were the simple piece. When I got there, for some reason now I've mine was based upon hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. I've got an enlarged heart. I was an athlete.

Now I've got an excess layer of muscle. I e I got in too good of shape over life. Who said gets to say that? Alright. But they wouldn't call for my heart, but they didn't for my brain.

I was in and out of the emergency room in less than two hours because that was the day I was supposed to be flying home back to San Francisco. I flew mid stroke from LA to Oakland. And the first thing now bear in mind, I don't remember the first three days of being in the hospital at all. I don't remember getting on the plane. My team says I got on the plane and I just passed out.

They kept literally checking to see if I was alive. And so I get to Oakland. They rushed me to the emergency room. The first thing the neurologist and the cardiologist says to my wife is, medically, there's no reason this man should be alive. Because of two things.

One, air pressure and altitude. But more importantly, the human heart normally squeezes at 65 to sixty sixty five to 75 on average. When it gets down to twenty percent cardiac arrest hits, you die. When they rolled me into the emergency room, I was at 22% heart function. And it just went down from there.

I was actually doing okay as stroke victims do. And then later, I'll tell you about what happened. I'd been there for weeks, and then suddenly, I heard code blue in my room. I saw flashing lights, and I heard beep beep beep and I heard beep and I was gone. Now, I could hear what was going on inside the room.

Think about when you go to the dentist and it feels kinda like twilight. You can hear everything but you can't really move or respond. So I heard the flat line. I heard the beep. Now I floated up to the corner of the room.

I'm looking down on the doctors and nurses. They're doing chest compression. They're sucking fluids out of me, and now suddenly they're rubbing the paddles. That is not anything you want for Christmas or birthday. Trust me.

And I look over to the left and I see my mom. Now bear in mind, my mom died in 1999. This was only three years ago. And I said, okay, mom. I guess I've done everything I was sent here to do.

I'm ready to go. And I remember her words. This is the only thing I remember of those three days is no, baby. I was sent here to tell you you're going to be okay, and you have to fight. Now I'm sucked back into my body.

I'm lying flat. I'm looking up at the doctors, but I'm still flatlined. And I hear beep beep beep beep. And now I hear clear. No.

No. No. We're not gonna do this. Please don't do this. At the same time, miraculously, I was able to lift one arm, and they happened to be on the side of my body that was not impacted by the stroke.

I reached out and I grabbed his hand on his way down to shocking me to let him know, please don't. I'm here. But now, fast forward, I'm still blind. Everything's white, not dark at this point. It looks like the sun's in my eyes all the time.

I can't speak. I can't use my left arm, my left leg, and so they take me into protocol now for rehab. I had to go to speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, learn how to do my button on my shirt, learn how to use a spoon, learn how to stand up, how to walk. You figure it out. I had to relearn it all over again.

Now I will say this. I'm incredibly, incredibly blessed to not have the typical strokes because most people think stroke, stroke. Oh, this person is now incapacitated. They're never gonna be able to move. I never downplay my stroke, but I will say this.

Over the last three years now, I have been able to get as you can hear, I can speak again. I can use all full function. I'm able to see. And if I don't tell anyone that I've had a stroke, no one would ever know. But what you don't know is I take eighteen pills a day just to stay balanced and be the guy that I am.

And I will take them as long as it keeps me at this point. So to your listeners, I hope I've given you something that will either save your life or your loved ones or friends or someone in your network. Again, f a s t. Please learn it. Please live it.

Please love it.

Beautiful, life altering. And and really, I feel like I'm with you, you know, as you as you talk through it. I have a question. I have two, and they're kind of off script questions, Roderick, but I wanna ask. I felt it as you talked about.

You heard the the line go flat. You saw yourself. You floated up, and you looked over, and you saw your mother. I wanna know how you felt when you saw him.

The word that I always say is peaceful. I'll say it. I'm a mama's boy. No question. And for her to be the one of all of of the ancestor ancestors that I've lost, For her to be the one that was sent to me was special.

And it is a level of peace that I've never heard. Look. At 50, we we've got the glasses. We we're not as clear as we used to be. I didn't have any glasses on.

I saw the most vibrant blues, greens, yellows, reds, oranges in that room that I have ever seen in my life. And I looked over and she had the same purple muumuu that she always wore. She looked like my mom before she passed. And so for her to come at that time, it was it was peaceful. It was calming.

I wasn't scared. I was ready. My only concern was how my family would be once I was gone. But I knew that I've got enough faith to know that they would be okay.

I think it's peaceful and safe. Absolutely. You felt safe for whatever was gonna happen next.

Whatever was gonna happen. I was with my mama. I'm whatever happened, I was gonna be okay.

Yeah. Wow. And then what she said was really amazing because she said you have to fight. And I wanna ask you if you'll talk to our listeners for just a moment about because I can imagine that in that moment where you felt peaceful and safe and you see your mama in that beautiful purple moo moo and you know her and she tells you you have to fight, I can imagine that you could fight your way back. But then when you talk about that rehab, learning how to use a spoon, how did you use your mom's words, you have to fight back, when it came to the day to day mundane, hard, difficult task of rehab?

I didn't have a choice. I know that I I knew at the time I've gotta get back. I knew that I wasn't going to give up, and I refused to let this win. And there were too many people that were watching. I had people calling on a daily basis, checking on me, FaceTiming me.

And I've always believed that no matter what happens, there's a lesson. And I didn't know if the lesson was for me or for folks that were in my circle that were riding this journey with me. But I will say this, Jen, never once in my life have I ever said why me. Never questioned why. I just know it was supposed to happen.

So, okay, it's done now. I get two options. I either get to crawl up and and a ball in the fetal position, or I say, this will not win. Number one wasn't an option. And I don't think I'm a superhero.

So don't let's not make it sound like, oh, this guy's come so far and he's done this. You know what? I did what needed to be done.

You know what you say? I I gotta I gotta comment on that though because because doctor Kelly and I talk a lot about superheroes and superpowers. We love the supers. And I and I agree with you because I think and doctor Kelly, tell me what you think on this. But resilience you may be a superhero and have your superhero costume, but really, resilience is the power.

It is the superpower. And what I'm hearing

I agree.

Roderick yeah. And I'm hearing that Roderick Jefferson knows how to tap in. You know? Like, you know and and not only did you tap in in that room, but then you tapped in every day while you were learning to speak again and learn and not only learning to speak again, Robert. Let's talk about this for a minute.

You didn't just learn to speak again. You became a keynote speaker. Okay? That's like someone who loses their leg and becomes a runner. Right?

They're kind of from stroke from stroke to stage.

Yeah. And and, I mean, so so so really, there's a beat the odds kinda thing. So that really leads to the next question, I think, which is, what's the purpose? What's the purpose in your survival? We've heard your fight, but there's gotta be more coming.

What is what's your purpose in this survival?

My four f's, Jen. Faith, family, friends, and fun. Everything else outside of that doesn't even impact me. The whole now I'm human. Of course, I get upset.

But the whole road rage thing or someone said this or they didn't follow-up on this, I kinda go, there's probably a reason why. Alright. I'll move on. But those four things, faith, family, friends, and fun. That's my priorities right now.

That is hashtag my tribe.

It's it's really interesting that you say that because I think sometimes people have to come through some kind of life altering experience. You have had it. Jen and Asif as a couple have had it. I have had it as well where you can, cut through the crap.

Oh, yeah. I'm gonna

say this this is a family podcast, so I won't say what I would normally say.

It is? It's a family podcast, Doctor. Kelly? Pretty sure I probably have problems.

Alright. Okay. So you cut through the bullshit. And it's really easy to be able to cut through the bullshit, speak like a Canadian very directly. You just cut through it because you you know, there that you need to focus your attention on.

And I think it gives us not only a gravitas, but come back to that sense of peace you talked about. And come back to that you were safe and you had courage to be able to to get through whatever it is. And you know that things you almost have an intuition that people think is eerie.

I I've been told that. Yes.

Right? I'll

call and check on people and go, how did I know that? Yeah. How'd you know that I needed you to call or I was having a tough day? And I'm like, I can't explain it. I just ride with it now.

Yeah. I know. Because the universe the universe comes into your life in a way that you can't really explain. Yes. I think the universe brings people and situations into your life at a time when either you need it the most or someone else does.

It's just me thinking. But you when you say faith, family, fun, friends, it's really easy to contextualize everything else that's going on. You still wanna be successful. You still wanna provide for your family. You still wanna run a really good business.

You still wanna help change people's lives. That didn't go away. But the stress that you put on it, and I don't mean I have stress, but the stress or importance that you put on it, it shifts.

Oh, absolutely. %. And and especially that last fun. Because as we get older as adults, we tend to forget how to have fun and how to be fun. So So I got one really quick story for you.

My son was about a year, year and a half, and he was at the park with my wife playing with a little kid, Tonka trucks, boys, dirt, all that. They played for about an hour. My wife said, okay. It's time to go home. Go say goodbye to your friend.

Right? And comes back, and she goes, so what's your friend's name? And here was the quintessential perfect response that I wish as adults we all take on now. You know what his answer was? Blue shirt.

Blue shirt.

He didn't care about his name. He what do we do as adults? We we extend a hand. We said, this is my name. This is my title.

This is my company. This is what we do. He said blue shirt. He did not give a damn about that kid's name. All he cared about was he wants to play in the dirt.

He wants to share his talk of trucks. I'll share mine, and we did this. I may never see this kid again. But for right now, my best friend on the planet is blue shirt.

I love that. Oh my god.

Blue shirt. I I I really like that. Right? It's just giving me a thought because what what I'm thinking about is how as people we qualify everyone, and I really think about this in business, but it happens in life. Let's just be honest.

You know, you meet someone, you you ask you learn their name, you look at what they're wearing, you look and and you begin to qualify

them. Then

Yeah. Where?

What do they do? What level are they at? Are they worth following up with? How much respect am I supposed to show them? What's their ZIP code?

Nobody cares about that. What I've really realized, Jen, is I have far more sunsets behind me than sunrises in front of me, and I want to enjoy every second of every one of them.

Well and you're doing it in such a smart way because when I think about, for example, you being after your wife saw those those, recognized FAST, got you into the hospital, those people also you were blue shirt to them too. You know what I mean? They didn't ask you. I need to know your name and who you are. They helped you.

And I think that this brings us, you know, whether it's in health care, whether it's then you talked about people were watching later on. Those are people helping you. So this brings us to this this this communal resilience, which is something that we talk about a heck of a lot here on Resilience of the Podcast and is why we're doing this. Okay? Because why else would we do it?

Everybody has a story. Right? But we do it because of this power you're talking about. There is a communal power. And in order to tap into it, all you have to do is open to it.

You have to be just like the kid, blue shirt. You have to to accept each person as they are. And I think that that you there's such a beautiful message within that. And then as you're projecting that forward, you're you're sharing that in a way that is digestible for others. So I, you know, I I I comment on that to say it's it it is resilience being resilient,

if

that makes sense, doctor Kelly. What do you think of that? Resilience being resilient.

I was just gonna say blue shirt from now on. I love it.

Blue shirt. I dig it.

Yeah. Yeah. It's just perfect. So I wanna ask you a question. You talked a bit about lessons and Jen asked you about your purpose and your survival.

But today, now going forward, what lessons are you imparting to others about the experience you've had? Like, how are you sharing that? How can people learn from you?

Thank you for that. I I appreciate that question so much. There there's a few things. One is as adults, especially, excuse me, as executives, etcetera, we gotta learn to take the mask off. I I've realized that the further I went up, I got to VP SVP in corporate.

And the further I went up, the tighter that mascot. There was an expectation of how I was supposed to speak, how I was supposed to comport myself, who I was supposed to entertain and social with. No. People are people. Right?

Titles are just something that you put on a business card and on LinkedIn. And you've gotta realize that people actually matter. And and I sincerely mean that in in no shade of politics in that. I'm just gonna say people matter because we're so focused on increasing our IQ. It's time now to start focusing more on EQ, building relationships.

And then I look at social media and I go, we've all gotten less social. Thanks to social media. Right? And so I am focused this year on less connections and more connecting with people.

Can I get an amen? I mean, please. Like, that's like

And the church said amen.

And the church said amen. Because that that's like every marketing meeting I'm in where I'm trying to say, guys, it the it's not just about the number of people. It's about the quality of the interaction. Absolutely. So we're talking about that quality.

And and so with that, I I wanna bring in, look. It's it's hard to write a book. It's even harder to make it an Amazon bestseller, man. That's like a maze of a world. And so I wanna give you a a quick platform because you are so giving and generous of spirit to come here and and and to share this.

I want to give you a platform to talk for a moment about your next book, stroke of success, and and what is it that our listeners need to be looking for in that, and what does it mean to you to be putting that out?

It it means the world because this, as my book doula says all the time, your book is not for you. It is in service of others. This book is not just about my stroke. Hey. It's a small component.

It's literally about resilience. It's about determination. It's about grit, but it's also about learning how and some tips and best practices of how to treat you well. I've realized over life is the things that we say to and how we treat ourselves, we would never do to others. Why?

Because we're taught to your point earlier to always put others first. No. No. No. No.

No. It's not about selfishness. It's about self care. And this book literally takes you about the journey of moving from being so focused. Look.

I was just no ego said. I I was an incredibly well positioned executive. I'm flying over the world. I've got a large team. I'm corporate jets, helicopters, blah blah blah blah.

But yet at the same time, I'm in Australia and everyone is enjoying themselves. I'm missing my kids. I'm in London. I'm in Germany. I'm in Paris, and I'm like, I should be out enjoying myself.

No. I'm here to work. I've gotta get this done. No. Take some time and enjoy life because tomorrow and everyone says tomorrow is not promised.

Oh, this is a guy that can tell you what it's like to not have a tomorrow. And so this book literally walks you through that entire experience and gives you all of the things we're doing now. I'll I'll give you a quick example. My daughter says that you do all this stuff and you're flying around. It's like, what do you do for fun?

I looked at her and said, what is this fun you speak of child? Right? But what it reminded me was I had no hobbies. And I also was not building a legacy. I was building a life for my family, but I was not building a legacy that they could walk away.

And and when I came out of the hospital, I told my wife, clear as day. I said, when I do go, whenever that is, I've got a simple rule. No one can ever talk about what they saw they did on the stage. Anything I talked about on a podcast, no one can talk about the book. They're only allowed to talk about one thing, how I made them feel.

That's all that matters. And now I've realized that there are people that sometimes and and when I go out, I have one one goal. Whoever the waiter or waitresses, I'm gonna give them a big smile before I leave. Because that may be the only smile they get all day and the same in my life. So start thinking about how what impact you're having versus what influence you're having.

Start think about what impact you're having versus what influence you're have. Whoo. That's a that's a I hope that's in the book, Roderick.

I don't know where that came from, but that's going That's

some generation

of wisdom. Look. I gotta go add that in.

Seriously, because when you got a population of people who think, like, number one dream is to be an influencer, you're right. Impact is very different than influence, and I think that is a beautiful, beautiful distinction.

Thank you. I have

a deep question I wanna end on before we get to the fun stuff. We're gonna go real deep

Alright.

And then real fun. Because faith faith, family, friends, and fun. Okay? But we're gonna go to faith and then jump to fun. And so the faith part, I just I wanna ask.

You you floated up in a room and watched yourself. You saw your body. You saw your mother. You know? You have now you see this purpose, which is connecting with people in a really real way.

And and I wanna know, what is your what are your thoughts on the afterlife?

It's not what I thought it was gonna be. So I'll say this. I'm a PK. I'm a preacher's kid. My dad was a preacher before he passed.

Yep. And I've earned it on both sides, good and bad, of being a PK. Believe me. Golden I'm the poster child for both. Good and bad.

But there was a hell of a lot of fun in it. Right? Was it what I thought it was gonna be? I didn't see a white light. I didn't go meandering around.

I never saw my life flash before me. What it was was kind of recentering for me because, first of all, I got a chance to see something that most people never do. And that is, you are lifeless on a bed and you've got a team of professionals working on you, and you get a chance to see what that's like. And then you get to come back and say thank you to them for bringing me back. So that afterlife to me was recentering.

It's also was shocking to see my mom. Right? I I never expected that. I thought, okay. I'll go.

I'll get to the pearly gates. They'll say, yep. You've done what you're supposed to or you had a little too much fun, buddy. One way or the other. Right?

And then I would go in. That wasn't the case. I never left the room, But I also felt like it was a movie that I was watching that it wasn't really my life. I knew that was me lying there. But it's felt so surreal that I'm going, is this really happening?

And then it was clear as day. Now bear in mind, I can't remember anything else that's going on in the hospital, but I can certainly have a crystal clear recollection of that afterlife experience.

And what I remember you saying is you felt peaceful and safe.

Absolutely. There was no fear. There was no no assemblance of fear. Fear for what? What's gonna be is gonna be.

And, clearly, wherever my mom came from, I'm going with her. So as I said to you before we started, Jen, let's dance.

Let's dance. I dig it. Well, look. It's time to dance, Roderick. Are you ready to dance with doctor Kelly?

Oh, let's dance.

She listen. She's a Canadian. They dance a little different up there.

I I've been up there. I've been across the provinces. And I speaking of, I've realized you don't really know people until you travel with them or see them dance. Because one way or other, your mind's gonna change about them.

That's a that's an excellent you know, it's a good interview question. Give me a dance. Let's see. That's it.

That's it.

Doctor. Kelly, what do you think about our dance?

Well, I I like the dance, and and I'm I'm laughing about the until you travel with people. I think that's really prescient. You know, I found that as well. I do a lot of traveling. And until you really travel with someone, you think you know them.

But you see these other really we all have quirks.

Of course.

And, man, they come out when you travel.

Yeah. The real person comes out. You get a chance to see them.

Yeah. Yeah. I would I vouch for that. That's me. You know, if you wanna see the real Kelly travel with her.

Truly.

I don't know. I it's real, but it's also the real the real tired gin. So Yeah. Yeah. Schedule some alone time on your trips.

Yeah. Oh, that's

a must.

Exactly. Exactly. But, Roderick Roderick, wanna know. What's your favorite movie or TV show that makes you feel resilient?

House. Why? Because he's the superhero that because he cares enough to think about the person in front of him, although he's an ass. Don't get me wrong. But because he cares enough about that person, he finds things that no one else did.

I look at my neurologist and my cardiologist as my version of house.

I like that.

And that's what you want. You want that curiosity. You want the tenacity, and you don't give a damn whether they've got a bedside manner because they're gonna solve the problem.

No. I just want house.

What you want.

But he didn't show up the other guys did, but I'll take it.

Okay. So

it was a reasonable facsimile of house is what you got. Reasonable facsimile. So that's not bad. That's not bad. Okay.

What's your favorite song that makes you feel resilient?

Thunder by Imagine Dragons.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. What's the last thing that made you laugh?

My granddaughter. We have a video of her tasting her first churro, which was supposed to be mine, that suddenly she just took over. And I was just dying crying because I saw my daughter, her mom, all over again in that moment. Oh,

I love it. Love it. Love it. My favorite part of that is it was supposed to be your churro.

It was supposed to be. I knew that. She didn't care.

Were you dipping it in chocolate?

No. No. We haven't made it that far. This was her first one. We wanted to see if she liked it first.

Oh, she likes it.

She likes it.

Chocolate's next.

So now chocolate's next.

Yeah. Absolutely.

That the face of a child, the first time they try chocolate Oh. Is Oh, she's tried chocolate. These things. Yeah.

Just not with a churro. Okay.

So it's gonna be that's gonna be extra special, grandpa. And what's one question you'd like to leave for future guests?

Oh, great question. What are you doing just for you today?

Oh, that's fabulous. So appropriate.

Beautiful. I love it. Roderick, I have a question for you that was left from a past guest here at Resiliency the podcast. So here it is. How much of where you are in life was by design, and how much of it was luck?

I don't believe in luck. I believe in faith, and I believe in preparation. And I think when those two come together, there comes your outcome.

Spoken like a preacher's kid who's gone through a big life and learned a lot and has a lot to share. Absolutely. Mhmm. Mhmm. Thank you.

You I I feel I feel the faith, the family, the fun, and the friends, and everything that you have shared. I wonder if you could please share with our listeners where can they find you, where can they find your book, where can they follow you for more?

Thank you so much for that. I appreciate it. I always say, if you can't find me on social media, you're not trying. That is one thing. Although, I I know how it feels, but it it's a necessary evil.

So I'll say you can find me on my company website, which also has my book as well as blogs and, podcasts previously and a bunch of freebie giveaways on there as well. And you'll find the link to my next book on there. You can find me on YouTube at Roderick Jefferson, on LinkedIn at Roderick Jefferson, on Instagram and threads on, Roderick underscore on j underscore associates. And, Jen, what I'll do is I'll give you a single link tree that actually has all of it in one location to make it easy.

That would be so beautiful. And listeners, please look for that in the show notes. And, please, I just encourage you follow Roderick as you've heard, just gems of wisdom in everyday life, and then couple that with a a a lifetime of sales knowledge. You just you can't get better. Right?

A a corporate and an everyday man. Roderick, thank you. And and listeners, thank you. Thank you for being here. If resiliency is something you're interested in, we ask that you like us.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Give us a like wherever you're listening today. It does help our effort. It keeps this movement going. You can find us at resiliencythepodcast.com or anywhere that you listen to podcasts.

This is the place to find stories and strategies and inspiration on how to embrace change and overcome challenges and really redefine resilience in today's ever evolving world. You can find me online at Jen Quader, j e n n q u a d e r, dot com at my company, The Smart Agency, or on all the socials as at Jenquader. And then our illustrious leader, doctor Kelly Culver, you can find her at CulverGroup.ca. That is .ca because she is the queen of Canada. You can also find her at doctor Kelly Culver on LinkedIn and Instagram.

And as always, my friends, thank you for listening. We wish you love. We wish you resilience in everything you do. We send you good and positive energy, and we hope that you'll tune in again for more stories about how you can stay resilient. Thanks for tuning in today.