0:00

This episode is brought to you by FlexDealer

0:02

.

0:03

I made the decision that

0:05

I was going to be the very first amputee

0:07

firefighter in the world . We are capable

0:09

of a lot more than what we could possibly imagine

0:11

, as long as we don't give up on ourselves , as long

0:14

as we don't quit . I am literally living

0:16

proof that you can make the impossible possible

0:18

, as long as you just keep moving forward

0:20

.

0:20

You just can't give up . Hey gang , welcome

0:22

to this episode of the Dealer Playbook Podcast

0:24

. Sitting down with my pal , gary Weiland , he's an

0:27

author , a motivational speaker , firefighter

0:29

, amputee , ninja warrior . We're going to

0:31

be talking about that , and he's going to be

0:33

sharing his inspiring story about

0:35

how to overcome adversity , something we

0:37

all need to learn more about , right

0:39

here on the Dealer Playbook . Stay tuned . The

0:43

car business is rapidly changing and

0:45

modern car dealers are meeting the demand

0:47

. I'm Michael Cirillo and together

0:49

we'll explore the best strategies , ideas

0:52

and tools to create a thriving life

0:54

in and out of the business . This

0:56

is the Dealer Playbook . Gary

1:01

, my man , thanks so much for joining me on the Dealer Playbook

1:03

. Yes , sir , thank you for having me , brother . So

1:06

I think let's just set the table

1:08

here so that everybody understands the context

1:11

. From what I understand , you

1:14

went in for just

1:16

knee surgery and

1:19

then you wake up and the doctors have some news for

1:21

you .

1:23

Yeah , not exactly like that , but

1:25

it was a process . You know 2011,

1:30

. I became a firefighter and

1:32

then , you know , years and

1:35

years of basketball wear and tear

1:37

on the old knees got

1:39

rid of all that cartilage so I had to have a partial

1:42

knee replacement in 2016

1:44

. So , five years

1:46

into my firefighting career , I had a partial

1:49

knee replacement and then

1:51

had some complications from that

1:53

. Over the next few months , my knee

1:55

would swell and go down and swell and go

1:57

down and couldn't quite figure out what was going on

1:59

. Eventually

2:01

it figured itself out Swelling , went

2:03

down , went , got back on the job no big deal

2:06

. And then , uh , 2018

2:08

actually is about two years later is

2:11

when , uh , when , tragedy struck

2:13

my life . So it was

2:15

actually playing football , uh , doing really

2:17

well with my family , running down the field

2:19

scoring a bunch of touchdowns , uh

2:22

, you know . And then my knee started to swell

2:24

up and I hadn't felt that for almost

2:26

two years at that point and I

2:28

knew exactly what it was it's like , oh man

2:30

, I felt this before . Unfortunately

2:33

, it got to the point within

2:35

minutes , swelling to

2:37

about the size of a bowling ball and

2:40

, yeah , it was pretty painful

2:42

. And that's when

2:44

I had to get rushed to the ER

2:46

and they knocked me out

2:48

and then went into the operating room and

2:51

that's when the magic happened

2:53

. Right , they finally

2:55

figured out what the problem was and ended

2:58

up part of that that hardware

3:00

was cutting into my popliteal artery

3:02

, so I actually cut off all the blood

3:04

flow to my foot . Yeah

3:07

, so the doctor spent about 13

3:09

hours trying to restore that blood flow

3:11

to my foot . Unfortunately

3:15

they couldn't , and

3:17

so they woke me up the next day

3:19

, kind of told me what was happening , did

3:23

some more surgery , tried to do

3:25

some bypasses and everything they could , and

3:28

then ultimately they said

3:30

look , this is not coming back , we

3:33

need to amputate your leg . And I don't

3:35

remember everything that happened during those couple

3:37

of days because I was on some pretty heavy pain

3:40

meds , but apparently

3:42

I told them to go ahead and and

3:45

take it from me , uh , and then I was

3:47

going to figure it out from there . But yeah , it

3:49

was , it was , uh , it was pretty rough

3:51

time in in my life and my family's life

3:53

, that's for sure .

3:55

Wow . At what

3:57

point ? And

4:01

and I say obviously everything

4:03

with reverence and respect to the situation

4:05

, but I'm curious at what point ? From

4:07

there , do you make

4:10

the decision that this

4:12

experience will not

4:15

overtake my life ? I

4:17

will use it as rocket fuel .

4:20

Yeah , yeah . So that's a

4:22

whole process , right , like

4:24

, none of that happens quickly . You

4:27

know , losing a limb , honestly

4:30

, is like losing a close family

4:32

member , like a spouse . So there's a grieving

4:34

period , there's loss , there's

4:38

uh

4:41

, for me

4:43

it was short Uh , a

4:45

lot of people it's a lot longer , no matter kind

4:48

of what they're grieving . Um

4:57

, something that , uh , my kids actually kind of broke me one day , because , you know , growing up , you know teaching

5:00

my kids that everything happens for a reason . You know , we're

5:02

a , we're a very faithful family . We're like , yes , everything

5:04

happens for a reason . There's a purpose for things

5:06

, good or bad . And , uh , you

5:08

know , and and after my leg

5:10

was amputated , I couldn't be

5:12

a firefighter anymore . Um

5:15

, I couldn't even walk Right

5:17

. So so my athleticism

5:20

, my , um , firefighting

5:22

career , my entire life was

5:25

flipped completely upside down

5:27

in a moment , and so

5:29

I was trying to process a lot of things

5:31

and and

5:33

so I was pretty miserable , I was depressed

5:35

, I was angry , frustrated

5:37

, you know , and so hated

5:40

a lot of things and people and God , and

5:42

you better believe it , you know why did this happen to

5:44

me ? Uh , you know , I'm a firefighter

5:46

. I put myself through fire academy and ENT school

5:49

. Uh , because I wanted to serve

5:51

my you know my community

5:53

. I wanted to help people . I've been given certain

5:56

gifts in my life , uh , physically

5:58

and mentally . I really thought that this was what

6:00

I was born to do , and now it's taken

6:02

from me . So it was

6:04

. It was really rough , you know , those first

6:07

first few weeks , like

6:10

I said , it happened quicker for me than it did a lot

6:12

of people because of my

6:14

children . They , I guess they had

6:16

enough of my , my attitude one day

6:18

, and they're like you know , dad , you always

6:20

preached to us that everything happens for a reason

6:23

. And and now this

6:25

has happened to you . So so why did

6:27

this happen , you know ? And so it kind

6:29

of you know it forced me

6:31

to preach word dude .

6:32

They use the . They're you preaching to us

6:35

and you're like dang ?

6:36

it Right , you know , and I thought

6:38

why did I tell you that

6:40

Right Now

6:42

? You know , they put it back on me . Um

6:45

, and so I did some self-reflection

6:47

and , uh , I realized that

6:50

they were right . And

6:52

, um , this was an

6:54

opportunity for me to

6:56

walk the walk and not

6:58

just talk the talk . And so

7:01

, um , once I kind of shifted

7:03

my whole mindset and started

7:06

thinking more positively and realizing

7:08

that , yes , god has a reason for

7:10

this , a purpose for everything , and

7:12

so that that

7:14

really kind of changed my trajectory

7:17

mentally . And so

7:19

so I made a decision

7:21

and it's important to realize that

7:23

we have choices that we make every day

7:25

, and they all have consequences . And so I

7:27

made the decision that

7:29

I was going to be

7:31

the very first amputee firefighter

7:33

in the world . And

7:36

so , you know , once I kind of made that decision

7:38

, I put all of my energies towards

7:40

that , and , you

7:43

know , that's when some , some more magic started

7:45

to happen in my life . I found out

7:47

that we are capable of a lot

7:49

more than what we could possibly imagine

7:51

, as long as we don't give

7:54

up on ourselves , as long as we don't quit , truly

7:57

believe it and make it happen

7:59

. And you

8:02

know , I am literally living

8:04

proof that you can make the impossible possible

8:06

, as long as

8:08

you just keep moving forward . You just , you just can't

8:10

give up .

8:12

Wow , I'm writing down right now

8:14

something . Even that what

8:17

you're talking about is inspired . Our

8:19

circumstances don't rob us of

8:21

our freedom to make choices

8:24

. 100 percent . Don't rob us of our freedom to make choices 100%

8:28

. Hey

8:30

, does your marketing agency suck ? Listen

8:33

, before we hop back into this episode , I know

8:35

you know me as the host of the Dealer Playbook , but

8:37

did you also know that I'm the CEO of

8:39

FlexDealer , an agency that's helping

8:42

dealers capture better quality leads from local

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8:48

and finally have a partner that's in it with

8:50

you , that doesn't suck visit

8:52

FlexDealercom . Let's hop back into

8:54

this episode . There's

8:58

a lot of people out there who

9:01

, whatever their

9:03

adversity is , maybe they're who , whatever

9:05

their adversity is , maybe they're going through emotional

9:07

grief , physical grief , business

9:15

stress you name it . There's so many different circumstances , but what

9:17

you're talking about here this ability to make

9:19

a choice like

9:28

I lost my leg , but I didn't lose my ability to make choices , and I love that

9:30

you're not sugarcoating it either . Right Cause , sometimes these , these , like online influencers

9:32

and everything , they're like nah , man , never , never

9:35

crossed my mind . I was like , take that bad boy

9:37

and I got right back to it . I love that you're saying

9:39

no , I went through what

9:42

I needed to go through . Yeah

9:44

, how important is that now , looking

9:46

back from from your vantage point now , has

9:49

that changed ? Has it fueled

9:51

your desire to help others . Has

9:54

it increased your empathy , Like what are some of the things

9:56

you've noticed as a result of having to have

9:58

gone through it yourself ?

10:19

mentally same thing I'm going through . Something like this is is horrible , um , but

10:21

yeah , I , I can't . I can't just sympathize with people . I can now empathize

10:23

with them and say , yes , I absolutely know what you are

10:25

going through and guess what ? It's going to be okay

10:28

, as long as you choose to

10:30

make it okay . And I know it's tough

10:33

, I know it's hard physically when

10:35

you're in pain , you don't want to move , you don't want

10:37

to get up and do things . You're mentally just

10:39

exhausted , you know . And then , when

10:41

you are mentally exhausted , then you start

10:44

making bad decisions and you start having negative

10:46

thoughts and it's just a whole downward

10:48

spiral . But

10:51

if we can step back

10:53

and do some self-reflection and

10:55

say I'm not the only one

10:57

going through this , or I'm not the only one who's ever

10:59

been through this , so how

11:01

did they get through it ? How am I

11:03

going to get through it ? What steps

11:06

do I need to take ? What goals do I need to make

11:08

? How do I put this plan together to

11:10

make sure that I am successful

11:12

? Because it is 100 percent

11:14

a choice . Every

11:18

action has a consequence consequence , good or bad . And so

11:20

if the trajectory

11:22

that you're on right now isn't producing

11:24

the results that you want , change

11:26

. It's just common

11:28

sense , like you know . You can't do

11:30

the same thing over and over again , expect different

11:33

results , right , and so you

11:35

don't have to reinvent the wheel , like Google's

11:38

out there , internet , youtube , like how do

11:40

other people get through these things ? How do other

11:42

people be happy , how

11:44

you know ? And so that's kind of where

11:47

I'm at . I

11:49

can , I can go in and I can help . I

11:51

go to hospitals , I go to school , I

11:53

go to business conferences and I talk about

11:56

this idea of overcoming

11:58

obstacles , overcoming challenges

12:00

, but we do that by keep

12:02

moving forward . You

12:05

know this . My brand

12:07

here A&O . This is me , this is I

12:09

designed this when I was getting

12:11

back to being a firefighter

12:14

, when I made that choice right , when

12:16

I decided that this was not going to

12:18

beat me , that I was going to be an amputee

12:20

firefighter . You

12:22

know there was a lot that went into that . So

12:25

guess what ? Now I had to pull

12:27

hose with one leg right

12:29

. I don't have any agility on

12:31

this ankle . I don't have an ankle right when I'm standing

12:34

on a a pitched roof right . I had to , I

12:36

had to adapt . I had to change the

12:38

way that I was doing things . But guess

12:40

what ? I could still do things . I could still

12:42

fight fire . I just had to change a

12:44

little bit . And so that's where the adapt

12:46

came in . And then I had to overcome

12:49

this unbelievable

12:52

challenge not only physical

12:54

but mental challenge of climbing

12:57

ladders and pulling , you know , 200

12:59

pound guys down , you know , off of

13:01

roofs , and you know as physically

13:04

challenging as it was , it is mentally challenging

13:06

too , because it's like do I give

13:08

this leg , you know , everything it deserves

13:10

? Is it going to hold me ? Am I going to be stable , you

13:12

know , and all that kind of stuff . So it takes lots and

13:15

lots of training , lots and lots of

13:17

practice , like hours

13:19

and hours and months . It was absolutely

13:22

unreal . But this , this adapt

13:24

and overcome mindset , became

13:26

who I am , not just a motto

13:28

, not just a slogan . But I realized

13:31

that , going through what I

13:33

went through , anything

13:35

is possible , right , you just have

13:38

to have the right mindset . And so Adapt

13:40

and Overcome became who I am and

13:42

what I do , and so I needed something

13:44

to visually

13:47

to see that every day . So I came up with this

13:49

and I got some T-shirts made and my

13:51

buddy started wearing them too , and it

13:53

became my tribe , you know , and

13:55

that's what we need when we go through life . We need

13:58

our tribe , we need people around

14:00

us to help us reach our goals

14:02

. You know that we need people to push

14:05

us and challenge us , to get us out of our

14:07

comfort zone so that we can grow

14:09

and accomplish these huge goals

14:11

and tasks that we set before ourselves . And

14:14

you can't do it alone , you know

14:16

. If you , you know you want to go fast , go

14:18

alone , you're going to go far . You know , go together

14:20

, and so get your tribe of people

14:22

that's going to say , hey , let's do this

14:24

together .

14:26

Wow , uh . One

14:30

quick side note question when ? Where do I get ? No

14:36

question , where do I get ? Where do I get adapt and overcome shirts like that ? Because I need , I need to

14:38

have one , and I think everybody in the dpb gang needs to have one of those . Where do I get that

14:41

?

14:41

yeah , um adapt

14:43

and overcome apparelcom yeah

14:45

lots of , lots of merch on

14:47

there you're gonna be .

14:48

I , I only wear my own stuff

14:50

. But that one's cool , I gotta wear to wear that one .

14:52

I like what it stands for . It resonates with

14:54

me .

15:05

Second thing is setting a goal to become the only

15:07

amputee firefighter . That

15:12

sounds like a lofty goal and it makes me think . You know , as you've been talking about adapt

15:14

and overcome and charting the course and setting the

15:16

goals there , there's a lot of people

15:18

out there that that struggle with this idea

15:20

of wait , be

15:23

the first at

15:25

this hard thing . That means

15:27

, oh no , I can't . There's probably regulations

15:30

around you know , needing

15:32

to have , you know , two legs in your example

15:35

, or or what , what like . They come up with all

15:37

of the excuses . So talk to me about you

15:40

set this goal to become the first amputee

15:42

firefighter in the world . What's

15:45

the next step ? What kind of obstacles

15:47

are you getting hit with and what did

15:49

it look like to actually achieve that , that

15:51

goal ?

16:00

that goal ? Yeah . So , first of all , anything you know anything worthy , right , anything worth

16:03

having . You know it's going to take a lot of work , right . Things just don't come

16:05

easy . Things that come easy aren't really worth a

16:07

whole lot , right . And so whenever

16:09

you put some big , lofty goals like that in front

16:11

of people human nature , just

16:13

like you question yourself and

16:15

myself about , about things , when

16:17

people hear big things , they're

16:20

going to be negative and question it . And so I was

16:22

hit with some resistance . Uh

16:24

, you know , I had to talk to my chief

16:27

, my fire chief , uh , end up having

16:29

to talk to city manager

16:31

, uh , the city council , uh

16:33

, the mayor , like , uh , city council

16:36

, the mayor . This was a lot

16:38

of meetings , you know , and

16:41

I wouldn't say , you know it

16:44

wasn't resistance . And you

16:46

know , honestly , I think part of that was

16:48

because of my character . You

16:51

know I'd been a firefighter for seven years

16:53

before this happened and during those seven

16:55

years , you know I

16:58

was an upstanding , you know

17:00

, firefighter and cause any problems

17:02

, helped , volunteer to different things

17:04

. And you know , I think that if

17:06

I was the opposite

17:08

, maybe there wouldn't be

17:10

so much support . But

17:13

in Denton everyone

17:15

was super supportive and

17:17

there's lots of questions how are we going

17:19

to do this ? Has this happened before ? How do we

17:21

move forward ? What are the limitations ? What

17:24

are liabilities ? You name

17:26

it . I was hit with it and I didn't know . And

17:28

what was amazing

17:31

was I set this goal for myself

17:33

and I wasn't going to take no for an answer . Was

17:37

I set this goal for myself and I wasn't going to take

17:39

no for an answer ? But along the way , I found out that I wasn't going to be the

17:41

very first firefighter amputee . There were about four other

17:43

ones around the world . And

17:45

so I started tapping into

17:47

their knowledge , their resources , contacted

17:49

them and said how did you do it ? You

17:52

know , a couple of them were volunteers , but

17:54

did you do

17:56

it ? You know , a couple of them were volunteers , but , uh , you know , two

17:58

of them were city , worked for a city . Uh , so I thought , okay , you've been

18:00

through it . So how did you go through

18:02

it ? What do I need to do ? And so we worked together

18:04

and and , uh , it

18:07

was a little bit of a lengthy process , um

18:09

, but I'm very

18:11

happy to say that , um

18:14

, 10 months and six days

18:16

but who's counting right

18:18

? 10 months and six days

18:20

following my leg amputation , I

18:23

was back on the fire truck , full duty firefighter

18:26

, with no restrictions .

18:28

Unreal , unreal

18:30

, that is incredible . I love it . I mean

18:32

it coincides with you

18:35

know just who I know you

18:37

are . I mean , we don't know each other incredibly

18:39

well , but I know of you , I know your

18:42

faith system , I know you know some

18:44

of the things that make true . We

18:46

know we all do . How you respond to

18:48

that adversity determines your character . Like

19:01

, the adversity doesn't define you . How you go

19:04

through the adversity , how you adapt and overcome to

19:06

the adversity , is what defines who you are . Sir

19:08

, yes , sir , and to

19:10

me , that always brings that pivotal , pivotal

19:12

daily question Like who ? Who

19:16

do I choose to be today ? Like , who am I ? Am I

19:18

just Michael ? No , that always brings that pivotal , pivotal daily question Like who ? Who

19:20

do I choose to be today ? Like , who am I ? Am I just Michael ? No , that's a name that was assigned to me . But

19:22

who am I ? You know , and I think that that

19:24

is what resonates

19:26

with me about your message . It's like well , who are you

19:28

?

19:29

Yeah , you were born for greatness

19:31

. You know find your purpose . You've

19:33

got talents and gifts that you've been given

19:36

. You were born with couple that with

19:38

your passion and you can accomplish

19:40

literally anything you

19:42

set out to do . Like there is no

19:44

one stopping you , except for you , right

19:47

.

19:48

Yeah , now we fast forward

19:50

. Just a few months ago , uh

19:53

, as if , as if being

19:55

a full-fledged firefighter again

19:57

in 10 months and

19:59

6 days who's counting isn't

20:03

enough for next

20:06

thing I see on your , on your Facebook

20:08

, you're posting about how you're an American

20:10

Ninja warrior and I'm like what

20:13

? And it was dude . It was inspiring

20:16

and awesome to see not

20:20

only you doing that thing

20:22

Cause , by the way

20:24

, side note it it helped . It

20:26

was an influence point for me of

20:29

can I do

20:31

that right now ? No , I can't , I need

20:33

to get in shape . You

20:35

know so hitting the gym six days a week and

20:37

changing the way I eat and feeling better and all these

20:39

sorts of things . You never really know the impact

20:42

you have on somebody else's life

20:44

until something like this happens , where I get

20:46

to verbalize it and say , hey , 100%

20:49

of the credit maybe not , but there was definitely an impact

20:51

point there watching you do that . But the other inspiring

20:53

thing was seeing I

20:57

think it might've been your oldest boy or your second oldest somebody was with you

20:59

and watching them like just so

21:02

overjoyed on TV , yeah

21:04

, with you absolutely crushing

21:06

it . Tell me about that

21:09

process , cause it sounds like you if

21:11

maybe I got it wrong , but it sounds like you

21:13

just set a goal and then you did it .

21:17

Man , uh , life , that's what life

21:20

is all about . Right , challenging yourself , setting

21:22

goals and seeing what happens . Just get

21:24

after it . Um , you

21:26

know , once I got back on the job , most

21:29

people would be excited and done

21:31

Right , I accomplished that great task . But for

21:33

me it kind of lit a fire . I thought , you

21:35

know , what else can I do ? Like I

21:38

accomplished this . I realized that we

21:40

have so much like power inside

21:42

of us that it just kind of you

21:44

just have to tap into it . And I thought , ok , what else

21:46

can I do ? And and so I

21:48

got into some volleyball with , with

21:51

USA stuff . And then that actually

21:53

led into some bobsledding . Believe it or not

21:55

, I've been to Norway a couple of times . Last

21:58

year I won the US national championship

22:00

for a pair of bobsledding , which

22:03

is wild , uh yeah

22:05

. And then I got involved with American

22:07

Ninja Warrior . I'd always seen the show and

22:09

I always thought , yeah , yeah , I could do that . And

22:12

, for whatever reason , a couple of years ago I was like you

22:14

know what , after I became an amputee

22:16

, I thought you know what I'm challenging myself

22:19

? I'm going to challenge myself that way and

22:21

of course , half the obstacles are balanced

22:23

, you know . So I'm like , oh , those are going to be tough . The

22:30

upper body . I'm good , I work out all the time and so if I can just get through those balance

22:32

obstacles , I'll get that buzzer . And so the first year that I did

22:34

it , which was a couple of years ago now

22:36

, I got through upper

22:38

body stuff and then I landed the

22:41

log runner . You have to run across these rolling

22:43

logs and I got to the last one

22:45

and where I thought I was stepping , I

22:47

wasn't . Then I came up a little short and

22:50

I was just . I ended up landing

22:52

on the on the log . I'm upside down

22:54

, I'm hanging on for dear life and

22:57

I'm thinking how in the world did

22:59

I get to this spot ? Right

23:01

, and you know what's

23:04

funny is I speak all

23:06

over the country and and in

23:08

moment I wasn't thinking about this , but

23:11

you know

23:13

, I was able to

23:15

. I didn't quit

23:17

, right , I was in a very bad spot

23:19

and I was like , no , this is not

23:21

beating me , I can get through this , which

23:24

basically is impossible . But I

23:26

thought , no , I can get through this . And so

23:28

I managed to get my foot back to

23:30

the log behind me and I twisted

23:33

myself back up on top and

23:35

then I pushed myself up and

23:38

that was it . I just all my energy was

23:40

gone , you know , and my son was excited

23:42

, he was happy , and everybody was like dude , that was crazy

23:45

to just get to that point . And

23:47

so after that I started speaking

23:49

. I show that clip at , you know

23:51

, whenever I went to conferences

23:54

and stuff , and I tell them I say you know , this

23:56

is just like life . We find ourselves

23:58

in a position where we're upside down

24:01

and we're hanging on for dear life . If

24:03

we let go , we're drowning , right

24:05

, we're done we're in the water . But I didn't

24:07

quit , I didn't give up . Same thing

24:09

no matter what you're going through in personal

24:11

life , work , it doesn't matter , you

24:17

just can't quit . You have to figure out a way to get through it , you have to adapt , you have

24:19

to overcome , right ? So I swung my legs back and I , every fiber of

24:21

my being , I'm fighting for this until

24:24

I just had nothing left

24:26

and that was it , you know , until I

24:28

kind of used that in my , in

24:31

my talks . And

24:33

then the following year , you

24:36

know , I got an opportunity

24:38

to face that obstacle again . Right

24:40

, and same thing in life , you never know when these opportunities

24:42

will come back around . You just can't give up . And so

24:45

, you know , this was last year

24:47

, I , we were walking through the course and

24:49

, sure enough , the third obstacle is

24:51

the log runner . I thought first

24:53

thing I thought was no way , you

24:55

know , because they usually change up the obstacles every year

24:57

. But no , it was the same one

24:59

. And I was like frustrated , I was like dang it , this

25:01

is tough , you know , because balance and everything

25:04

. And I thought , no

25:06

, no , this is not beating me . This year I thought , no , no , this

25:08

is not beating me . This year . And I was laser

25:10

focused and I got up there , got

25:12

through the first two obstacles , which those

25:15

were tough in and of themselves . But then

25:17

I got to that log runner . Again , I was

25:19

laser focused Boom

25:22

, boom , boom , boom and I found myself once again

25:24

hanging on to that log for dear

25:26

life and I thought , no

25:29

, how did I get here again

25:31

? This is not , this cannot be

25:33

happening . But

25:36

instantly I thought no , this

25:38

is not beating me again , I am getting

25:40

through this . And it took

25:42

me a few seconds to gather myself

25:44

and get myself mentally ready

25:46

for this . And you

25:49

know , to be honest , I did say a little prayer and

25:52

all of a sudden I find myself

25:54

doing some type of flying burpee

25:57

and I cleared the obstacle

25:59

and I don't know what

26:01

happened after that . It's almost like the world

26:03

just stopped spinning because the crowd

26:06

went nuts and I mean , it was just , it

26:08

was insane dude .

26:10

It was insane . You say flying burpee

26:12

you . You turned into a flying squirrel

26:14

dude .

26:15

You , you like flew , I cannot

26:17

imitate that

26:19

right now If I had to . You know , it was just

26:22

like one of those things . It was like , no

26:24

, I am getting through this . And , uh

26:26

, you know I pushed through and made it happen and , yeah

26:28

, I was super , super excited . And , uh , you know , I pushed through and made it happen and , yeah , I was

26:30

super , super excited . And , uh , you

26:32

know , I didn't get a buzzer . You know I was pretty

26:34

exhausted . So the next obstacle , of course

26:36

, I'm just like , oh , I'm tired and and

26:38

missed my grip or whatever , and so I fell , uh

26:41

, but but yeah , to say , from

26:43

this year compared to last year , right

26:45

, I fought , fought , fought and fell . But then

26:47

now I had that opportunity to beat

26:50

that obstacle and I and I did , you know

26:52

, and same thing in life , right , like you just can't

26:54

quit . You got to keep moving

26:56

forward and figure out a way . Um

26:59

, you know it might seem impossible

27:01

, but obviously it's not

27:03

. You know you can make it happen . Um

27:05

, and I'm happy to say , I get to go back on the

27:07

show again this year . So , yeah

27:10

, we will see what happens . You know it . Just that's awesome

27:12

.

27:14

Man , I I love this conversation . Thank

27:16

you so much for for sharing this with

27:18

with me , with the , the DPB

27:20

audience . It means a lot . It's

27:22

always awesome to be

27:25

around people who

27:27

understand what

27:29

you said earlier that we

27:32

were born for greatness and

27:34

there's so much power inside of us . So I

27:36

just want to thank you for being someone

27:38

who's out there sharing that message with

27:41

the world . How can those

27:44

listening or watching today , how

27:46

can they get in touch with you , learn more about

27:48

you and maybe have you come and speak to their organization

27:50

?

27:51

Sure , you can go to my website

27:53

, wwwgarywylandcom

27:56

. I'm on Facebook , instagram

27:59

, linkedin . Yeah , find me anywhere

28:01

on there , happy to come speak . Whatever

28:05

you need me to do , encourage , inspire

28:07

I just I

28:09

enjoy helping others go through

28:11

difficult times .

28:13

Love it , man . Gary Weiland . Thanks so much for joining

28:15

me on the Dealer Playbook Podcast . Yes

28:17

, sir , hey

28:20

, thanks for listening to the Dealer Playbook Podcast

28:22

. If you enjoyed tuning in , please subscribe

28:25

, share and hit that like button . You

28:27

can also join us and the DPB community

28:29

on social media . Check back next

28:31

week for a new Dealer Playbook episode . Thanks

28:33

so much for joining .