John Ryan has done the superhuman, deciding to say goodbye to his vehicle so that he could commute by bike or on foot to his job 10 miles away.
[00:00:16.895] – TAMAR:
Hey, everybody, I am so excited. I have John Ryan here. He is another guy that I met through the David Goggins Facebook group on which if you know and you’ve listened to the podcast before, David Goggins has, he’s not human and we’re all trying to be not human, just like him. I guess John will share his story. So, John, thank you so much for coming.
[00:00:41.535] – John Ryan:
It’s not a problem.
[00:00:42.765] – TAMAR:
Yeah, yeah, where are you physically in the world? Tell me about what you do.
[00:00:50.285] – John Ryan:
I’m Johnson County, Kansas, the United States.
[00:00:54.305] – TAMAR:
Nice.
[00:00:56.085] – John Ryan:
Yeah, and I’m currently off work, but four days a week, I work as a restaurant shift manager and lately I’ve been biking the 20 mile round trip down, four days a week to get to work.
[00:01:16.235] – TAMAR:
Yeah, was that inspired by David Goggins?
[00:01:18.595] – John Ryan:
Yeah, it’s it’s been a big part of my current routine, [which] has been inspired by David Goggins. I’ve pushed myself further than I would have otherwise.
[00:01:33.575] – TAMAR:
Yeah, that’s amazing. So for those who don’t know, he talks about in his book also and everybody has to read this book, it’s a crazy book, Can’t Hurt Me. And he talks about how he commuted, I forget. He commuted—he ran to work a couple, like a hundred miles or something like that, or he biked to work. He did all those things and it’s insanity. So kudos to you. I can’t say I have that option because my work is downstairs. I don’t have too much of a commute. Yeah. So that’s pretty cool. So did you did you take off the day because of the podcast?
[00:02:12.125] – John Ryan:
No.
[00:02:12.755] – TAMAR:
Oh, you’re just planning. It just worked out. Well, this is meant to be. So just out of curiosity, because these conversations are intended to flow naturally. I know we’ve talked about with the podcast is about. But how have you been faring in covid times? How’s how’s everything been going over there?
[00:02:32.895] – John Ryan:
Oh, we haven’t been affected a whole lot here in the Midwest. So it’s basically business as usual.
[00:02:41.405] – TAMAR:
So you haven’t had any specific issues with, the restaurants didn’t close or anything like that?
[00:02:47.465] – John Ryan:
No, my restaurant did not close, fortunately.
[00:02:51.165] – TAMAR:
Oh wow, good for you. Yeah. I’m right outside New York City and just going to the restaurants. It’s a sad view of everything. I mean there’s more staff than patrons. And when I say there’s more staff, there’s like two people in the restaurant. It’s really it’s devastating actually. I say that like, it’s it’s really, really depressing. And there’s lots of parking in the city, too. So it’s a good time to move to New York City if you’ve ever thought about it. That’s what I would say. But it is sad. Yeah. Well, good for you. You’re lucky. Very lucky.
[00:03:28.355] – John Ryan:
Yeah, I realize that. Yeah.
[00:03:30.415] – TAMAR:
Yeah. So I recruited people to be on the podcast really based on their story and how they’ve been able to overcome a lot. And you kind of touched upon that in your podcast journey just now in the beginning. And you wanted to join the podcast. So tell me a little bit about where you came from and where you are now. And I guess because of, the Goggins story and how that all ties in. Feel free to touch upon the book as well and touch upon him, his life based on what you know, it doesn’t have to only be me.
[00:04:10.215] – John Ryan:
OK, well, so I grew up playing sports, but never—I didn’t play in high school for a team, but I still always enjoyed playing sports. But as I got older, I got more into the work routine and everything, so it took me away from being athletic. But then once I got older, I ended up being in a position where my car was failing me so for several years I was paying for a car that had been new a few years before. But this whole time for a five year period, I had been paying thousands for this car, and it was failing, so it led me to want to be independent, not to rely upon that, to actually get me to and from work or anywhere. So that’s when I got a bike and I haven’t driven since I got that bike. I let my car be picked up, like the bank got it back and I was happy for it because I didn’t owe anything and I was just going with it. So it was a financial thing that led me to my current lifestyle. But then discovering David Goggins on Joe Rogan’s podcast, I watched both podcasts that he was on. I watched those so many times that I have them memorized, especially the first podcast, with Joe Rogan. It made a really big impact on me, to say the least. That was the most impactful experience so far in my life to hear his story and understand what his perspective is and it totally changed the way that I look at life in general and it’s weakness is the biggest threat to my life, I know that, and I figure it’s the same for everyone. It’s just a matter of being willing to accept the fact that we’re all capable of more than we may have been led to believe. So that’s that’s good for now to summarize your question, my basic answer to that question you gave me.
[00:06:56.555] – TAMAR:
Yeah, did you do you actually read the book or you just heard about it on the podcast? Because I’m sure he’s presenting his content in many different ways in the spoken word and written word. I’m just curious if you’ve actually read the book.
[00:07:06.575] – John Ryan:
Unfortunately, I have not read the book. That’s not something I chose, to ignore the book. It’s just, you know, I dug hard for very long, actually. Separate story right there. But yeah. So anyway.
[00:07:25.955] – TAMAR:
Yeah, You could share that. You can. Go ahead.
[00:07:30.305] – John Ryan:
Oh, well no, I was just saying. Yeah I don’t have, it’s not a good story. I just didn’t know how to get a debit card until a couple weeks ago and it’s just another facet of my financial woes as a lot of us have had, especially if you’re still young, a young adult. We’re all making our way in this world. So anyway, I haven’t gotten around yet getting the book, unfortunately, and that’s something I’m really looking forward to.
[00:07:55.055] – TAMAR:
Yeah, I will tell you, I don’t own the book. I got from the library. I’ve been taking advantage of the library. You forget that that’s there.
[00:08:02.615] – John Ryan:
I know. Yeah. Yeah, that’s right.
[00:08:05.015] – TAMAR:
Yeah, yeah. So I will say that there’s a, I think in like chapter two and I don’t want to say it, I’ve talked about it before, but there’s this part where it’s really early in the book, maybe chapter three, and he talks about his his upbringing and his father abusing him, but he talks about this child on the school bus. I’m not going to go any further, but at like age six or something, he witnessed a trauma that you and I will never come close to witnessing, and it’s just like I read that and I’m like, holy crap. And it has nothing to do with his future, what he’s doing as an adult, where he really defies all odds and he does all these things that, like I say, are not human. You talk about the weakness. I’m trying really hard. It’s really difficult to do what he does. But I think what what happened to him as a child really shaped him into, of course, because that’s the early parts of the book and it’s terrifying. It’s really terrifying. But I mean, this guy is, he runs ultramarathons on broken legs. I don’t think any of us—I don’t know if that’s a weakness. I don’t know. I mean, he was died many, many times. It’s crazy. Yeah. But it’s it’s great that he provides that inspiration.
[00:09:23.125] – John Ryan:
Yeah, for him, it’s different because if you’re on that level of being a Navy SEAL and all the different stuff that he accomplished before he ever got on the 24 hour one mile track, the first time he ever did a significant race or trial, before that he was already a different kind of person. It was just it took the cardio to get him to a new level to where he was actually able to inspire other people, because other people, most people can’t relate to his time before that.
[00:10:10.495] – TAMAR:
Yeah, you can’t relate to most of his life. You can’t relate to what he’s doing. I mean, I’m sitting here and I’m like, now I have kids now, and my life is a little different than what it was when I might have been a little more [athletic]. I was definitely sports minded, but then I became sedentary when the computer kind of became a big thing and I shirked my responsibilities to my health and now I’m trying to get back into it, and I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been sitting on my ass for like 20 years (it makes me feel very, very old. I’m not that old), but, you know, I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been sitting on my ass for so long that I am at this point where I can’t do the things that other people are doing. But like I was saying in a previous podcast that I don’t know if I’ll ever get a sub 10-minute mile at this point. When I was younger, I was getting seven to eight minutes. But that was when I was a kid. And I don’t know, even if I push myself like the Goggins way, I love that he shows that humans can get to that point. But can all humans get to that point? And that’s the hard part. I hope the takeaway for most people is that they shouldn’t push themselves to do what he does because, again, he’s superhuman, but like to persevere and not to give up because we do have limitations and it is a lot of psychological barriers on ourselves, I think you can identify.
[00:11:31.385] – John Ryan:
Definitely. I want to go as far as saying this superhuman. We all have our own ways to describe them and you read his book so maybe you’re more aware of everything that I am. But for me, what he’s inspired me to do, is just to not be so ready to accept defeat, you know, so that’s what it is. It’s your own personal battle. What are you going to do today? Not you. But what is the listener going to do today. There’s several options that you have and those are going to make you feel better tomorrow, next week, next month, or they’re going to be something that tomorrow, next week, next month, that you’re like, why did I do that? Right. So for me, it’s hard for me to digest certain stuff, so it’s like why did I eat that? Why did I even try? It’s just a waste of time and money. And so it’s a matter of self knowledge, and that’s the big thing these days. People are so involved in other people’s lives. People want to take inspiration from Goggins and they want Goggins audience to be their shepherd or whatever. So that’s not really, like I take inspiration from and it’s his voice is in my mind when I’m struggling through a workout, you know when I’m trying to get home, and I’ve been gone for 14, 15 hours and I’m walking on the snow. This happened just a month ago. I was through a foot of snow and ice and my fears and horrible pain, and it’s just one of those things where I’m not going to give up. It’s just bettering myself, just feeling better about what I can accomplish and improving upon yesterday’s gains.
[00:13:28.915] – TAMAR:
Yeah. Yeah, and it’s funny because it’s like there’s so many things and the philosophy of this incremental growth that that it’s important. Like the Atomic Habits movement by James Clear. As long as you’re just seeing, you’re pushing on that. I mean, kudos. You’re actually literally, you were in the ice, you’ve been walking in ice to work, too? Or that was just—
[00:13:52.035] – John Ryan:
Yeah. I usually bike, but for that time I had to walk because it was it was to the point where my bike was actually going to be able to go through it because it was so thick, yeah.
[00:14:09.375] – TAMAR:
Wow. Wow. And how long does that take? Ten, ten miles. It’s not it’s not a walk in the park.
[00:14:14.985] – John Ryan:
Yeah, yeah, it’s a 20-mile round trip though. I leave to work at 6:30 in the morning. I get home at 11:30 at night and while I’m at work, I’m not complaining and not trying to avoid doing stuff. It’s funny because I have somebody who rolled out and shows up for work a half hour late, tired, doesn’t do anything for the first three hours they’re there. And then they leave a couple hours after that. And meanwhile, I’ve been there for like 12 hours and I walk six hours on top of that and I don’t say a word about it. It’s different, completely different ways of life there. Me and my coworkers sometimes.
[00:14:51.505] – TAMAR:
That’s amazing. I am really, really, I’m inspired by YOU. Forget David Goggins. You got this like, that’s that’s awesome. Yeah. What do you listen to usually when you’re when you’re walking to work or biking to work, what is usually in your ears? Is it the Joe Rogan podcast or is it another podcast or is it something else? Because I have something, I have a recommendation for you.
[00:15:13.365] – John Ryan:
Oh, okay. Well, really, I don’t have data I can use my phone and the weather. My phone’s usually not what I use. I usually just use a radio or nothing.
[00:15:25.935] – TAMAR:
Oh, wow. Wow.
[00:15:28.725] – John Ryan:
Yeah, but radio sometimes.
[00:15:31.395] – TAMAR:
You should look into this. I don’t know if you can maybe download like offline or whatever, but I’ve been finding, the voice in my head that’s also helped me. And it kind of like when you were saying and I identified with this. There’s this podcast, not podcast, there’s an artist. I have them on Spotify. I guess you can get them anywhere called Fearless Motivation. And it’s really just the same voice in your head that “you can keep doing it, you can [start] pushing.” It’s all about the boundaries that we mentally put on ourselves. It’s totally the same. It’s very aligned, it’s not aligned with the story, the David Goggins story is very him. But it’s aligned specifically with this mindset. It’s all about mindset shift. And there’s a lot of really, really like, it’s not I don’t even know what genre of music I can call it. It’s like hip hop, but it’s not hip hop, because I’m not really a hip hop person, but it’s it’s weird, but it’s I like it, I really, really like it. I haven’t listened to it in a while. I usually do when I’m running and when running gets tough for me, that’s usually what I’m listening. And I’ve been on the treadmill watching The Expanse these days. That’s why my walking these days. So I will say, yeah, more and more inspired by you because I haven’t been able to get that but you should check that out and see if there’s a way to listen.
[00:16:51.245] – John Ryan:
Okay. Yeah.
[00:16:51.845] – TAMAR:
Yeah. And another thing, I’m finishing a book right now by a woman named Gretchen Rubin. She wrote The Happiness Project. A second book, well, she’s written quite a few books and she talks about, it’s basically the same thing you were saying. I just finished this chapter. It’s basically the second to last chapter in the book about how like how other people’s stories, more than psychology, more than scientific research, other people’s stories are usually can be an impetus for people to improve their lives, like sort of like my perfume story has kind of helped people in improving their lives and using perfume for mental health, which is my story. But your—it’s sort of the same thing. Like you say, you’re validating the whole David Goggins story, [which] was was more powerful than anything else, you’ve heard it. I don’t know if there are scientific studies to this because it honestly pushes well beyond human limits. So there’s that. But you’re validating a lot of these things that I’ve been coming across lately, so it’s nice to hear, and it’s like I said, it’s inspiring because it’s like there’s this domino effect. It’s not just you. At the end of the day, you’re inspired by David, I’m inspired by you and by David, and I’m hoping people who listen to this are inspired as well by you, David, maybe me, but I’m going to put me like, like lowercase, you know? Yeah, it’s cool. Awesome.
[00:18:18.895] – John Ryan:
Definitely.
[00:18:20.205] – TAMAR:
Yeah, yeah, so I know you’re like working like these crazy hours and your self care might just be about that. I’m kind of curious to get from you, like how you focus on yourself. You’re very kind of like I’m assuming you’re like, I don’t know, I have to get I have to get your headshot when we actually put this online and all that or even like of running out of biking or something, I’m sure you got that covered. But just just curious, like what is self care? How do you how do you unwind? How are you taking care of yourself?
[00:18:52.015] – John Ryan:
Well, so I really I don’t work crazy hours. I only work four days a week. The company that I work for is really actually to a fault, considerate of their employees. So like I said, if somebody wants to show up late and not do anything and then leave early, that’s perfectly fine and we let them do that on a daily basis. There are people that work for my company that do very little and it’s just fine and dandy. So having said that, I don’t work very many hours, but I do put in a lot of time, almost as much time working as I do on the bike or whatever, not quite, like half the time, easy. So anyways, to your point, for self care: my routine. when I’m at work, I’m allowed to take my time and do things the way that I want them to be done and to create a healthy working environment for myself because I wouldn’t work there if that wasn’t the case. So in any way, to and from work, I can feel, I can unwind on my way home. It’s important for me to be relaxed, to gather my thoughts, to be by myself. I’m introverted in that way. I get a lot of my mental ability when I’m at work. I feel drained when I leave work. So I want to be able to have time to myself way that made feel very good about my self care on my way home. And on my way to work it just makes me feel good and ready to go so I’m so tired and not wanting to be there. I’m actually really excited to be there and just really happy that I’m not on the freakin road anymore, now I’m actually actually my destination. So then I do have three days per week. So I do stretching, and I was talking about that digestion. And that’s that’s been a big thing for me, along with my exercise routine was really hammering down exactly what benefits me and what doesn’t. It’s about money wisely, you know, blah, blah, blah. And in addition to what you’re saying about perfume, I’ve discovered aromatherapy. So I’ve been using peppermint spray, lots of it. I don’t use any other kind of like cologne or whatever. But anyway, aromatherapy is another self care type of thing that I could point out.
[00:21:44.915] – TAMAR:
Yeah, yeah. So I want to talk about aromatherapy for me. I’ve had this conversation when I launched my perfume. So the story of my life is that I had children and then I got depressed and then my depression ended up hitting a rock bottom. And I discovered one day, I think because my mindset was in such a different place, I put on perfume that one day and it changed my life. All of a sudden I woke up. I think my fifth sense finally woke up. And most people take scent/smell for granted. I’ve known about aromatherapy. I’ve actually own aromatherapy
[00:25:19.345] – John Ryan:
There’s a couple different things that I do. But as far as like, I have some sort of underlying asthma and I used to smoke, and so anyway, I’m like very sensitive to smells whatsoever. So that’s why aromatherapy is about as far as I can go with what I feel comfortable with. But to your point, though, to reset, there’s lots of things that I use to get my mind back. A big thing that I use, I remember, I play [unintelligible], I sit down and watch something funny on YouTube, and I know that’s not really what you mean, but that’s what helps me here to reset. Any stressful time I kind of I find humor in.
[00:26:23.745] – TAMAR:
OK, yeah, yeah, and I mean, it’s there’s so much stuff out there, there’s so much content out there. I would love to, I guess, were you just randomly discovering stuff? Or…
[00:26:37.795] – John Ryan:
Well, the one thing that I rediscovered on YouTube that I grew up watching was Mystery Science Theater 3000, and they have it on YouTube. And it was a goofy show, but I think it’s funny, and I always liked it growing up. It’s one of the things that they was endless, seemingly endless content of that one show. And then there’s lots of stuff on YouTube to your point. Yeah, but that’s usually where I go.
[00:27:10.965] – TAMAR:
I was just gonna say awesome. Yeah, yeah. I’ve I’ve, I’ve heard about the MST3K. I didn’t quite follow it, but no, that’s cool. I didn’t realize all episodes were on YouTube. That’s pretty neat.
[00:27:25.125] – John Ryan:
Yeah. Most of them.
[00:27:27.305] – TAMAR:
Cool. All right. Awesome. I’m going to ask a question that I ask everybody and I usually don’t give them any prep. So if they listen to the podcast they know it, but otherwise they don’t. And that’s fine because I don’t expect you to know it. But if you can give an earlier version of yourself a piece of advice, what would you tell them?
[00:27:52.185] – John Ryan:
Oh. I, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t change anything.
[00:27:59.965] – TAMAR:
I like it. Yeah, everything we do right now, like I don’t think there’s any reason to regret, so I like that a lot.
[00:28:08.875] – John Ryan:
Yeah.
[00:28:09.805] – TAMAR:
Sweet, sweet, well, yeah, I mean, like I said, you got, where you are and doing things in the way you are, I mean, you are going to be inspiring a lot of people, so thank you for for being here and sharing that and all.
[00:28:26.185] – John Ryan:
Yeah, no problem. Glad to be a guest.
[00:28:28.415] – TAMAR:
Cool. Yeah, yeah, so one last thing, I don’t know if it’s possible, but I ask people this and sometimes they have a big online presence. But if people are potentially to follow you on social or to contact you, is there any means that they should do that? Is there a website or anything, anything you got right now?
[00:28:54.625] – John Ryan:
I have two YouTube channels.
[00:28:58.025] – TAMAR:
OK. What are the URLs? I’ll also put them in the notes.
[00:29:03.425] – John Ryan:
OK, well, the one the one that has most content is Johnny Suave Health, [and] there are 30 or so videos, just me doing different things that I discovered and I made a video of what it is all about, health products and whatnot.
[00:29:43.215] – TAMAR:
Cool. What’s the second one?
[00:29:44.025] – John Ryan:
Oh, it’s just my name, John Ryan.
[00:29:46.365] – TAMAR:
OK, awesome. Oh, so you’ve got your name. OK. Yeah. So you’ll send me those links and I’ll make sure I get them in the notes as well. And cool, cool, sweet. Well thank you so much again. If you have anything you want to add before we sign off, I’ll take that. But otherwise, you know, we’re good.
[00:30:05.555] – John Ryan:
No, nothing to add. Thank you for the interview.
[00:30:08.465] – TAMAR:
Yeah, yeah. All right, we’ll talk soon.
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