Latest / OneLegUpAlex Media / One Leg Up With Rahz 'The Motivator ' Slaughter On Helping YOU Become...Unstoppable 6-22-24

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One Leg Up With Rahz 'The Motivator ' Slaughter On Helping YOU Become...Unstoppable 6-22-24 · OneLegUpAlex Media

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Here's your host, Alex Garrett, and welcome inside to another edition of the
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Alex Scatt podcast Network, and again in partnership with podmatch dot Com. I
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have another great guest on. His name is Roz the Motivator Slaughter. That's
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our Ahz and Roz. I'm so glad you're joining me today on One Leg
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Up. Thank you so much, Alex. I'm excited to be here,
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looking forward to a great opportunity to connect with you. What drew me into
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your story is that you've had to overcome a lot in your lifetime and now
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you're sort of paying it forward to other to those that are teenagers, and
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you want to make quote Unbo the unstoppable teenager. But I want to start
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with your story because you're a motivator now. But I'm sure it was a
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long time to get there, being born with the disability and everything that you
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were dealing with growing up. Absolutely I grew up. I was born with
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my right leg shorter than the other. I have no quadrus supper hamstring on
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my right leg, and my right leg is three and a half inches different
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than the length of my left. So I have been dealing with a birth
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defect. My entire life, and I had several different doctors tell me that
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I'd be in a wheelchair by the time I'm eighteen, and I'd never be
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like the normal, like the other kids. I don't know what normal is,
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but that's really where I think my growth mindset set in when I started
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to hear people label me and tell me what I wasn't or couldn't do.
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And I instantly said, you know what, this disability isn't going to be
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a detriment to my life. Now one leg shorter than the other, obviously
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to me, I would love to know a little more about that because to
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the average person, it kind of looks still normal, right, Okay,
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one's a little shorter, but he's still walking. Okay, So what was
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the impact of that birth defect if you want, Yeah, I mean,
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so three and a half inch difference is a huge difference. I walk on
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my tippytoe on my right leg, so every time I take a step,
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I drop down. And so I'm five't two, I'm not a giant,
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but every time I do step down, you can see me lean to
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the right, and you know, it was at first, it was very
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tough because you see people look at you and they look at you differently.
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I grew up with a lot of self esteem challenges where I never wanted to
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wear shorts and I never I didn't want to allow people to see this leg
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because it looks so different than my left leg. My left leg has a
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normal quad hamstring cab, all of the traditional anatomy that you would have,
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and this right leg kind of just looks like a femur antibia and it's just
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bone because there's not a lot of meat to it. And you know,
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you get this normal staring of oh, he looks strange. Don't look at
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him when you see parents pulling their kids away. And over the years I
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developed more of a growth mindset and an acceptance of who I am, and
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I learned to embrace my uniqueness that made me special and really just say,
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hey, I'm smiling. We're all different. The difference is between me or
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you is that they can see our differences and we can't see theirs. All
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right, I want to talk about smashing stigmas because I love talking of that
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kind of approach where people with disabilities of all kinds always out there smashing stigmas.
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The difference is some don't know how to pay it forward. You do
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your smashing stigma and paying forward to the next generation. So can you maybe
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collaborate talk about that where you're smashing stigmas every day and then passing on to
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the next generation. Yeah, So it started one time I asked a question
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to some friends that said, what makes me different? And they said,
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Rob, you know, you're very motivating, you're inspiring, And I didn't
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understand what that meant. I was just being myself and the stigma of having
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a disability is that you're just You're not like everyone else. And so one
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of the first things that I was able to do that it was different is
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I went into a profession that able bodies usually go in. I became a
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personal trainer in New York City, very competitive industry, and I wanted to
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do it because I wanted to show people that outside of just being different,
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we all have our gifts, but the gifts are only going to be able
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to actually be seen and used as if you master the six inches between your
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ears. And that's where I started coaching and teaching people the power of your
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mindset, turning your negative beliefs into empowering ones. And now I get to
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pay it forward because the years of torment, the torment that I had to
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go through, whether it be in middle school, being bullied, pushed around,
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laugh that made fun of. Now I work with teens helping instill an
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unstoppable mindset into them, and I use specific tools and strategies to do this
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because it's so essential that we learn these skills at a younger age. I
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wish I would have known about them earlier. I could have done a lot
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more in high school. I could have did a lot more. But I'm
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happy that I was able to acquire them over the time. All Right,
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so let's say you're crossing. I love the word crossover, right, You're
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crossing over your disability story into the amble body community. Doesn't that mean a
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lot to you? I mean it's not just you know, we think people
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think of as it as inspiring, but we're just getting our message out there.
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So to you, what does that mean? To be able to get
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your message out there into the able body world that may not be used to
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something like that, or accustomed to it, or even exposed for it at
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a younger age. Oh man, I guess I don't see it as just
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getting my message out, you know out I really feel like I'm living my
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life. And when I started living my life, it just means that I
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get to share it. I mean, I just got off of an amazing
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vacation out in Mexico where I was wearing my swim trunks that are very short,
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and I'm proud of who I am. And every day when I was
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walking around the pool or on the beach, I'd see people look at me,
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but I smile. I let them know that it's okay to embrace your
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unique ability. Say hello to me, ask me what happened. I never
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shy away from sharing about my disability because it is who I am and I
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as I crossed over, I want to inspire other able body people to look
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inside themselves, reflect and say what makes me unique and special so that I
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can really know myself because the number one key to success is self awareness.
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Oh yeah, now, let me ask you this. Then. Did you
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find that when you were doing motivational speaking, you know, as you got
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older here into motivational speaking and you must about it resonated with teenagers and the
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younger generation. That's why you're working with them right now, right now,
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right absolutely. I've always had a connection with you know, the youth,
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and the main reason is that I had to grow up without a father,
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without a mentor. I didn't have anyone actually guiding me throughout my adolescence,
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youth, and into adulthood. And my story resonates with the youth because I'm
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always willing to say, hey, let's do this, Let's drop down and
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do some pushups, let's go do this. I'm bodybuilding, I'm riding my
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bike, but it's not about what I'm doing. I'm not trying to impress
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you. I want to impress upon you that you can do something different if
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you make a decision to be intentional about it. And that's what they're looking
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for. They're looking for that little bit to say, hey, you know
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what, I can find my identity through myself and embracing who I am because
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so often today we're looking at the social media and we're looking at outside these
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sports figures and they're saying they're so great, but we're already don't know that
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we're great inside as well, all right, And I feel like in today's
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world of schooling, right so a lot of kids are being pushed towards doing
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homeworker test level testing at every level possible, they're not really let giving them
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themselves chance to be kids. How do you help them be kids while growing
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up? That's a great question, and I agree with you. Yeah,
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we're getting tested at every different level, and those tests really kind of steers
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towards who we believe we are when that is not the truth. The first
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thing I teach any student that I'm working with is called the bas method and
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its beliefs, attitude, and self talk, and I explain to them that
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their beliefs are going to dictate their thoughts. Their thoughts are going to dictate
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their feelings and emotions, and their feelings and emotion will lead to their actions.
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And if they do the right things and they want to change what they
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don't like about themselves or they want to change their results, it starts with
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changing their beliefs. And when they change their beliefs, that's going to allow
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them to shift their attitude from an attitude of I'm not I'm a victim to
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an attitude of I'm a victor. I can And then once they learn that,
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it's the figuring out specifically, what is the negative self talk or record
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that they play in their mind every day that's holding them back and creating these
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limitations. When you help a youth understand that simple little framework, their mind
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opens, it expands, and it allows them to truly start to self reflect
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and become the person that we know they can be. And in teaching these
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kids, do you feel like you learn more about yourself every day as well?
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Oh? Absolutely? I mean and getting to work with the parents and
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teens that I get to work with each and every day, whether it's directly
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within my programs or that just through my content, I'm learning about myself every
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single day. I learned through working with teens about my own ADHD or my
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own neural diversities that were a little bit different, and it made learning different.
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I found out how strong of an auditory learner I was by focusing on
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trying to assist one of my clients, and so it happens. I have
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these aha moments every single day out and it's a blessing. All right.
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I see here that you won second place in the National Amateur Bodybuilding Association.
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Now deal with disabilities. Do go to the gym. That's just no secret,
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and I encourage more of them to do so, wouldn't you, By
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the way, Absolutely, I think that the gym is the first level of
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shifting or changing, and when we want to change our identity, we can
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change our bodies and no limitations. If you're in a wheelchair, you can
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do you can do bicep curls, you can do pull ups, you can
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do CrossFit. The gym is a place that I found that it was the
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equaling zone for me. It was the place that when I went in there,
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as long as I put some intentional effort, energy and focus, I
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could change my body, which allowed me to be inspired and confident about who
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I was. And that led me to going on stage and having trying out
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for my first bodybuilding show. I trained for sixteen weeks. I had people
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tell me I should be looking for a disabled bodybuilding show. I refused that
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belief and got on stage and I was able to capture the second place trophy
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in my first show ever. And let me ask you about your technique because
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it has to be a little different right in what you're dealing with. How
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does the gym accommodate? Do you take accommodations? How do you adapt your
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workout to make it comfortable for you? Oh? Wow, well, I
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mean that story I shared. I was a personal trainer so when you under
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I learned biomechanics, anatomy, physiology, I've mastered that. My main difference
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is that I had to train my right leg slightly difference with having no quadr
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supper hamstring. My knee is fixed at at a fixed position, so it
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doesn't flex or extend, So I had to train my right leg adaptively right
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the hit my glutes. I had to do single leg work. I did
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a lot of single leg squats, deadlifts, things like that just to really
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strengthen that left leg. But outside of that, I really try to do
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everything that everyone else would do is just basically figuring out what range of motion
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I can do. It's going to limit any injury or resistance within my body.
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All right, I'm watching your video. I see you spoke in my
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modern Queen's college. Tell us about that experience. Oh wow, small world.
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Yeah. I had the opportunity to speak and do their graduation ceremony for
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a high school that was going that came there, and that was that was
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life changing because first and foremost I graduated high school with a one point six'
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two GPS, so I barely got out. And to have the ability to
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speak to a graduating class and share a little bit of my personal story and
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message for them. Sending them off to the next level for their academics was
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amazing and I was so thankful to have that opportunity. Very cool. I
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know, it just sounds like you're touched by this every day, and I
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love that you're learning from this. Now. Any fun stories that you could
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tell us, either in the motiracial speaking world or in the gym that maybe
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people want to know, Sure, absolutely, I mean I have to say
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that one of my favorite stories is like I got to work with a young
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man who had some disabilities and know, he just didn't believe in himself,
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and he didn't believe in himself, didn't think that he should be there.
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People were looking at him. And within about six months of training, this
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young man was like, you know what, Roz, I believe I can
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do a show. And he decided to do his his bodybuilding show and he
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got on stage and he crushed it. And the best part of the story
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is that it wasn't about him changing his body and winning a trophy or anything.
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It was so exciting and inspiring to see someone else take something that I
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love, which is the gym. Go up there and become something special.
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And then not only that, now that young man is inspiring other people.
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So it's just that whole paying it forward is just that's what we get to
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do. Because if you use your disability to become an ability, then the
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world is your oyster. All right. What's it like when you see people
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your training and helping out turn on their rocky if you will, like they
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become rocky, right then they get that motivation? What's that like to see
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from your perspective? Well, I can tell you that it's better than any
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reward, any amount of money that has ever been given to me for what
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I do in my career. Seeing someone go from this disempowered to a powered
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is what keeps me up late, gets me up early, inspires me to
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push forward even when I'm going through difficulties whereas my I'm in pain, my
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leg my back, something's hurting, just knowing that if I just push a
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little bit more, I'm going to have that opportunity to see someone else win.
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And that's what I love to see. All right. Obviously, I'm
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talking to you because you've got a great story and there are something out there
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that might need to hear The story right now that are nervous about adapting to
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a disability, or even someone who's grown up with a disability and still all
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off reading it out there in the world. What's your message then, right
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now, either those that are adapting, becoming disabled, or have had a
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life long what's your message that can resonate with people today? The message is
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that you know it's your attitude. You have to be intentional and make a
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decision that you're not going to allow yourself to just be what everyone thinks you
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can be. You're not gonna do what everyone thinks you should do. You're
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gonna go out there and you're gonna be the author of your own life story.
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You don't have any limitations. Those limitations are only in the sixth INSes
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between your ears, and when you decide to release them to the wild,
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you can become the person that I and Alex and everyone else knows you can
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become. And yes, I'm not gonna sit here and say that every day
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was rainbows and sunshine for me. There's days I have bad days. There's
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days that I have great days. There's days that I have set bats and
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failures, but that just leads to an amazing comeback as long as you never
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give up, you don't quit on yourself, you don't quit on your dreams.
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And the final part of that message is you got to sit down and
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become self aware with your why. Why do you want to do what you
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want to do? Why do you aspire to become something more than you are?
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And that will drive you to push forward. Whether you're in a wheelchair
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on crutches, you're an able body to struggle with your mental health. It
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doesn't matter. You can become anything you want. It's going to start with
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mastering your mindset in the six inches between your ears. Oh man, I'm
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going to share some of these video with you on my Instagram because this is
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some powerful stuff you're talking about. Ross, So thank you for sharing some
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insights today. I noticed in the video how you sort of walk around.
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Do you find that it could be painful at times or the way your gait
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is or have you mastered that great question, my friend? Yes, I
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mean without a doubt. I mean I know that you've had to overcome some
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of your challenges as well. And for me, I understood that I'm not
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running anymore. I used to do a lot of running when I wrestled in
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high school, and I wanted to do everything that everyone else does. But
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when you walk on your tippy toes, when you have a three and a
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half inch difference in your right in your left leg, my lower back tightens
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up at times. I used to play basketball a lot, so I had
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to modify some of the activities that I do today as a forty six year
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old male as opposed it when I was a teen. But the way I
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overcome any of those pains is that I realized that you only get one life,
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and I'm not gonna worry about the future today. That's going to inhibit
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me from living in the presence. So I try to do everything I can
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possibly do to be strong, eat healthy, workout, and most importantly,
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get the self care I need, whether it be listening other professionals, chiropractors,
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massage, therapists, whatever I need to make sure that I can give
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my body the best recovery and have the best quality of life. Amen to
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that. And did you ever have crutches growing up, or brages or any
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kind of mobility device? And I'm sure you were like when doctors recommended you
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might need a wheelchair, you were like, no, I'm going to prove
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that I could do this. Like, what what are those conversations like?
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Growing up? Yeah, I had crutches. I used the traditional wood crutches
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from the time I was born. For you, I could walk till I
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was in the I think seventh grade. I got rid of those and I
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had a apparatus on my leg. I had a surgery called the Elizaroth,
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which had five different rings, had pens that went through the bone, and
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the goal of this surgery was to straighten my leg and then lengthen it.
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For six months, I went through pain. I lived at a hospital in
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Springfield, Massachusetts, and it was a night mirror because it really was just
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an experiment. They didn't have a clue at how that my leg was gonna
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stay straight. Once they got it that way, they told me I was
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gonna have to wear a brace the rest of my life, very similar to
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the brace that Forrest Gump was wearing. And I made a decision with my
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grandmother because of her faith. She says Danny, which is my nickname,
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She said to me, God made you this way, your need to stay
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this way, and he made you special. And I have never had a
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surgery since that date in that conversation because my grandmother empowered me to just embrace
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who I was and who I was born to be as someone who has been
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born a very unique body. Myself, I'm terrified of the knife, if
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you will, because I don't want them to change a thing. You know,
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if it's not broke. Don't you know, if it's not broke,
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don't fix that type of thing, right? So is it Amen? It's
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that kind of feeling I have as well. Do you when you do motivational
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speaking, do you bring the gym life into your conversation? Like do you
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do classes for kids in these schools in addition to speaking to them. I
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don't bring the gym into the kids, but I do often do some type
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of physical activity because I'm trying to shift their thinking, and so we'll do
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push up test, squad to burpye tests, things like that in my speech,
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which allows me to connect with them and get them physically charged up,
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which now I'm going to have their attention. It will allow my message to
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sink in and hit a little bit differently if I just came in as a
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traditional speaker and just trying to motivate them. Because we know that motivation wanes
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from the moment you start you stop thinking about it. So I'm trying to
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instill beliefs and principles and strategy that they can take out of that gymnasium,
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out of that stadium and actually utilize it in their lives to change their lives.
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Growing up where you were a talker. Is that how you became most
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motivational speaker or were you more of an introvert? Wow? So a great
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question again, Alex, I wasn't a talker, but because I struggled with
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attention in class, I started to kind of be disruptive. And I didn't
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know it at the time, but I just talked to people because I was
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like, didn't know how to concentrate and focus. And later in my life
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my grandmother told me, she says, you're going to be a preacher,
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and I definitely didn't want to go in that direction. And I was inspired
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by the great Tony Robbins. At eighteen years old, I got to hear
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a tape that he had and then I got to go to a seminar that
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he was at and I said, Wow, this man just understands how to
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move people. Because I was personally moved by his words and his delivery,
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and that inspired me to go on and say, I have to have a
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portion of my career in the realm of actually speaking directly to audiences and using
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the power of my voice story to inspire and motivate them to create a better
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life for themselves. Love it. Love it. And now you're kind of
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carrying that baton with you for twenty years. It seemed like you're forty six.
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Now. Tell us about the college days, because now I'm curious,
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did you do the bodybuilding in the college world or were you focused on studies?
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Tell us about that. Yeah, so I bodybuilt all throughout college,
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and I wrestled as well. I wrestled for NASA, and I got the
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opportunity to just kind of do the sports thing. And then after my sophomore
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year, I decided I no longer wanted to do that. It was there
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taking me away from the classroom where I needed to focus my energy and efforts.
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And college was a very interesting time for me because it's a time where
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you're supposed to be exploring and learning. But it was a very difficult time
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because I was struggling in the classroom as well, because I was undiagnosed with
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so many different neuro differences differences that it really made it difficult. Now I
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will, like this, give a happy end send that story. I have
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gone back to college and utilized so many of the lessons and principles that I've
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acquired from other thought leaders mentors over my life to become an amazing three point
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five GPA student as of current And I only share that is because your story
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doesn't have to end where you have your struggle. You just have to keep
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moving forward and having your eye on your why, as I shared, and
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my goal is to walk across the stage with my two amazing young boys who
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started college in twenty twenty two, So that's where we'll be doing it as
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a family. Well, congratulations. May I ask where you're getting your degree
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today. Yeah, I'm currently in the state of Florida at IRC and it's
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an amazing school where it allows me to kind of be a non traditional student,
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so I get to go in the classroom but do some of it online.