Latest / What Do You Call It? Podcast! / RILEY TEJCEK talks Military, Steve Harvey, Cool Runnings, Bobsleigh, Ronda Rousey, books & more

Transcript

RILEY TEJCEK talks Military, Steve Harvey, Cool Runnings, Bobsleigh, Ronda Rousey, books & more · What Do You Call It? Podcast!

• 0:06
  Hello and welcome to a very special episode of What Do You
• 0:10
  Call It podcast. I'm your host GB.
• 0:15
  Today's guest is Riley T Jack, AUS Marine Corps officer, elite
• 0:21
  bobsled athlete, game show winner, author and now a guest
• 0:26
  of my podcast. Riley, welcome to the show.
• 0:28
  How you been? I'm doing good.
• 0:30
  Thanks so much for having me. Awesome, awesome.
• 0:33
  We should have a good chat for the next 20-30 minutes or so.
• 0:36
  What I'm going to ask you, first of all, is what inspired you to
• 0:39
  join the military. So Full disclosure, I had no
• 0:44
  background in the military. My dad was a professional
• 0:47
  baseball player, my mom was a successful businesswoman.
• 0:50
  So the military was never something I was thinking about.
• 0:53
  It really wasn't until I got to college and I was a Division One
• 0:56
  softball player as an athlete. But I met a Marine recruiter and
• 1:00
  it he absolutely changed my mind on the whole military route.
• 1:04
  He was strong and handsome and well spoken and talked about
• 1:07
  what it meant to be a leader and to serve your country and do
• 1:10
  something within yourself and then do it in the Marine Corps.
• 1:13
  Of all branches, that was arguably the hardest branch to
• 1:17
  be able to get your foot in the door based off of physical
• 1:20
  requirements. And I love a challenge.
• 1:23
  What were your parents reaction when you did join the military
• 1:26
  by the way? Oh, well, initially they weren't
• 1:31
  great. I think my mom cried a bit and
• 1:34
  my dad was just like, it's a phase, honey.
• 1:36
  Like she's only 18. This won't actually happen.
• 1:39
  But I think once they saw me after I came back from training
• 1:43
  and just the progress that I made and the person that I was
• 1:46
  and how I was this great athlete.
• 1:49
  But then I was able to transform into this like sharp,
• 1:53
  intelligent leader as a military member.
• 1:56
  My parents now like full 360 are like so invested.
• 2:01
  My mom has like a Marine mom bumper sticker, which I still
• 2:05
  try to tell her to take off to this day.
• 2:08
  But they couldn't be more proud. But initially there was some
• 2:11
  concerns for sure. That's great, that's great.
• 2:14
  What does serving mean to you on a personal level?
• 2:18
  So for me, everything ties back to my Christian faith, which is
• 2:21
  my foundation, and believing that my calling is to be a
• 2:25
  servant leader, which means I live my life in order to serve
• 2:29
  others just as like Jesus did. And so it's really unique how
• 2:32
  you can turn that into the military.
• 2:34
  And I believe that my job in the military and my goal is to make
• 2:38
  the lives of the people around me better, but ultimately
• 2:40
  protect basic freedoms and rights that we all deserve.
• 2:44
  And So what really motivates me to keep going honestly, is
• 2:47
  seeing the impact that I get to make, not only on a small scale
• 2:51
  to the people that I serve with, but also in a big, in a bigger
• 2:55
  stage when I was able to deploy and go to Iraq and meet
• 2:58
  different people from different cultures and just really be able
• 3:01
  to use my skills in the military to make a difference for the
• 3:04
  best to impact people. Honestly, I, I have so much
• 3:08
  respect for people. That's all, you know, commit to
• 3:11
  the military and the sacrifice, you know, that you guys do.
• 3:15
  It's it's incredible, to be honest.
• 3:17
  You know, I absolutely admire it.
• 3:19
  Just one last question I do want to ask you is what's something
• 3:22
  that you can talk about that people might find very
• 3:26
  surprising about the military? So they'll be like, oh, that's
• 3:28
  quite interesting. That's quite cool.
• 3:29
  Never expected that. Oh gosh, I think there's so much
• 3:35
  that people may not expect, but I think a fun thing is looking
• 3:39
  into our culture and traditions. I would say the military is
• 3:42
  known and you think of it just being really people that are
• 3:46
  like hard and like rough and rigid maybe, right.
• 3:49
  And while that exists, we also are like incredible, like gift
• 3:53
  givers and lovers and we form close bonds for people that we
• 3:57
  only get to interact with for a really short time.
• 4:00
  So I say that because just recently we've had several
• 4:03
  individuals retire after 20 plus years of service or are about to
• 4:08
  move. This summer is like a big moving
• 4:10
  cycle for people every two to three years.
• 4:12
  And we spend like our own personal money, like hundreds,
• 4:15
  hundreds of dollars to give going away gifts for people.
• 4:18
  And we, yeah, people don't really realize that like, we are
• 4:21
  big gift givers. And it's like a big tradition
• 4:23
  that you make almost like the shadow box where you put
• 4:27
  accomplishments and you write like a little blurb of like,
• 4:30
  funny story that they did and wishing them well for their next
• 4:34
  jobs. And then you carry these tokens,
• 4:37
  momentums with them and you hang them up in your office.
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  So every job that you go, you can tell who's been more senior
• 4:44
  because they have more gifts or plaques or stuff like that.
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  But most people I think don't realize that we have that
• 4:51
  sentimental value that we really cherish and value our people.
• 4:55
  Even though sometimes we only work with them for like 2 years
• 4:58
  and we just go above and beyond to make sure that they're seen,
• 5:01
  recognized and taken care of. And I know in comparative to
• 5:04
  like the civilian sector, people work for a company for 5/10/15
• 5:08
  years and not really get a whole lot.
• 5:11
  But we are a culture of like gift giving and like expected to
• 5:16
  really take care of your people but send them off with some kind
• 5:20
  of token of appreciation, which I think most people would be
• 5:22
  really surprised to find out. I'm quite surprised, to be fair.
• 5:26
  I mean, I've watched many films, you know, based on military.
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  I've got no military background. Not going to pretend I do.
• 5:31
  But all these films you see, it's just constant shouting and
• 5:33
  you know, you don't necessarily see the community side, like,
• 5:36
  you know, where you pick out for each other and put out, you
• 5:39
  know, the cards and gifts and you know, just a bit of TLC.
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  You know, it's, it's not just necessarily just, you know,
• 5:45
  training and military and that's it.
• 5:47
  It's it's nice to hear. It's quite, quite good.
• 5:49
  It's quite positive to hear that as well.
• 5:51
  Bobslede. First time I've ever, ever spoke
• 5:53
  about it on the podcast. I'm going to sort of have this
• 5:57
  opportunity to speak to you about it and it's great.
• 6:00
  First of all, how did you first get introduced to bobsled and
• 6:03
  what drew you to the sport? I would say my very first
• 6:07
  interaction ever was the movie Cool Runnings, 1990s film.
• 6:12
  So you wouldn't be able to get that.
• 6:13
  But I say that to people now that were born post 2000 and
• 6:17
  they look at me like, what's Cool Runnings?
• 6:19
  And I'm like a classic Disney movie.
• 6:22
  Yeah. So that was my very first
• 6:24
  interaction ever. OK, so this obviously as a kid
• 6:27
  and you can't help it, but like, joke and be like, Sonka, you're
• 6:30
  dead, man. You know, like, like the lies
• 6:32
  and stuff. So that was my first interaction
• 6:35
  ever, Full disclosure, but not one that would maybe be any
• 6:39
  different between you and I. My real, real interaction that I
• 6:43
  think got the ball rolling where the Lord kind of placed that
• 6:46
  little seat in my heart was when I was in college.
• 6:48
  I was playing Division One softball at George Washington
• 6:51
  University and we had one jersey that was retired and that was a
• 6:56
  retired athlete that was a softball player, yes, but was an
• 6:59
  Olympic bobsledder. So in 2018, I'm in college and
• 7:04
  she wins silver in Pyeongchang Olympics and comes to my
• 7:08
  university and she had a little Q&A special session just with
• 7:13
  the softball team. And so I presented her the small
• 7:16
  award on behalf of the softball team.
• 7:19
  And that's really what started triggering in my head the little
• 7:23
  love that I started to grow for bobsledding as I hear her talk
• 7:26
  about it. And she's like, we go 90 plus
• 7:28
  miles an hour. We travel the world, you know,
• 7:31
  we crash AT5 GS. And I'm like, whoa, like this is
• 7:36
  awesome. I feel like with anything, once
• 7:39
  you meet someone that has a connection to something, you
• 7:42
  automatically maybe follow it a little bit more.
• 7:44
  So that's when I really started paying more attention because
• 7:47
  I'm like, well, I know her. I met her.
• 7:48
  Like, I have a photo with her, like, I need to follow this.
• 7:52
  And at the time, I had been on this trajectory for the
• 7:57
  military. And like we talked about
• 7:59
  earlier, the Marine Corps was very demanding, especially as a
• 8:02
  female. And so I knew that I had to give
• 8:04
  everything into that. So bobsled was nothing more at
• 8:07
  the time than a beautiful thought where I literally said
• 8:10
  out loud, in another life I'd be a bobsledder.
• 8:13
  But I have the Marine Corps that I need to focus on.
• 8:17
  So that was just that small seed in 2018, outside of of course,
• 8:21
  cool Runnings. I said glad to mention cool
• 8:23
  runners by the way. Just terrific film.
• 8:25
  One of my favorite Disney films. Because people do forget it's a
• 8:28
  Disney film. I know, but you make do a
• 8:31
  remake. If there is anyone that hasn't
• 8:33
  seen cool runs, by the way, after this interview, watch it.
• 8:37
  Comment below what you think of it.
• 8:39
  Just magnificent film, but it's amazing that you've sort of,
• 8:43
  you've got this Bob Say experience and then you've got
• 8:45
  the ministry experience. Most people wouldn't get either
• 8:48
  of them in a lifetime and you've done it.
• 8:51
  And that's remarkable when you really think about it.
• 8:53
  But for people who've never tried it, what does a Bob Say
• 8:56
  run actually feel like? It's, it's hard to tell you
• 9:01
  exactly. So I'll give you a mix.
• 9:03
  In a way it kind of feels like a water side in a sense of like
• 9:06
  you're going to ebbs and flow no matter where you go and you
• 9:09
  don't always have control over it.
• 9:11
  So kind of like a water side wants to pick you up and it kind
• 9:13
  of has a stream. But imagine that mixed with a
• 9:17
  motorcycle going that fast of like 89,000,000 miles an hour
• 9:21
  with the wind in your face, talked with a sleigh ride
• 9:24
  because it's absolutely freezing.
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  And somewhere in between there you'll get the equivalent of a
• 9:31
  bobsled race. Me and all my teammates, we
• 9:33
  talked about it. We're like, how can we describe
• 9:35
  this to an average person? And no, so far none of us have
• 9:38
  been able to accurately explain it.
• 9:41
  Because then when someone does go through it, they're like,
• 9:43
  yeah, I saw what I thought and I'm like, yeah, it never really
• 9:45
  is. But it's it's thrilling, it's
• 9:49
  exciting. But I will say it is not for
• 9:51
  everybody. And we learned that quite
• 9:53
  quickly. I will just stick with doing the
• 9:55
  podcast type in. I'm going to transition into
• 9:58
  bobsled any other time. Also Bob Slay and bobsled Went
• 10:03
  doing research for this. I don't know why but I've always
• 10:05
  said Bob Slay. Actual big difference between
• 10:08
  the two. This is where also my husband,
• 10:11
  who is British, gets on me all the time of what's proper
• 10:14
  English. And it would be bobsleigh.
• 10:17
  That is the European terminology.
• 10:18
  That's how it came, That's how it's written.
• 10:20
  But of course, in America we want to say something different
• 10:23
  and we say bobsled. But generally, especially when
• 10:26
  we're over in Europe or any we're talking, it's bobsleigh.
• 10:31
  So yeah, that's just like an US thing, you know, It's fun.
• 10:36
  Oh, that's great. I've talked to my missus before.
• 10:38
  Like in terms of prep, writing for this interview.
• 10:40
  I was like, I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna ask how I look.
• 10:43
  And it turns out I'm actually not an idiot, so I'm happy.
• 10:45
  So. You're not.
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  But what I will tell you fun facts for you and for anyone
• 10:49
  listening, the name originated not from a guy named Bob.
• 10:52
  Everyone's like, who's Bob? It actually was because way back
• 10:57
  when, when in Switzerland, when they would start, just like a
• 11:00
  sled, everyone would be seated and then you would Bob back and
• 11:04
  forth to get the sled started. So it was called bobsled because
• 11:09
  you there was no running start. You would sit and Bob back and
• 11:12
  forth in order to create the momentum.
• 11:14
  So there's a fun fact at least. I love that.
• 11:17
  That's wicked. I actually probably would have
• 11:19
  thought it was a guy called Bob and he just no, that's wicked.
• 11:23
  That is wicked. Family Feud.
• 11:26
  So you've also had more success. Like I said, anything you can't
• 11:29
  do, But you've also had success on the very, very famous game
• 11:33
  show Family Feud. What I want to know is how did
• 11:36
  this opportunity come about and what's going through your mind
• 11:39
  in the moment that you realized that you and your family won?
• 11:43
  Yeah, so I'm going to back it up just a little bit because most
• 11:45
  of you don't know this. That was actually my second game
• 11:47
  show. I was on a game show previous
• 11:50
  called Lingo with RuPaul. And that game show came about
• 11:55
  based off of social media. And I was just talking about my
• 11:58
  story online and just about how, you know, I'm this military
• 12:01
  member. I'm I'm in bobsledding.
• 12:03
  And at the time I was just named my first national team, so the
• 12:06
  highest ranking team for bobsled in the United States.
• 12:09
  But I was going to have to be primarily self funded, which
• 12:12
  means I needed a cough up $60,000.
• 12:17
  Yeah, in order to compete. And I prayed on it.
• 12:21
  And I was like, Lord, I don't know how I'm going to make this
• 12:22
  happen, but I need to find a way.
• 12:24
  And I was reached out to on social media to do this game
• 12:27
  show. And I thought it was a joke.
• 12:28
  Like I literally was like, I'm being punked, like I'm being
• 12:30
  pranked. And it happens to be my mom and
• 12:34
  I got accepted. We filmed it in Manchester of
• 12:38
  all places, even though it's a, it's a American show and my mom
• 12:43
  and I end up winning that. So we won $90,000.
• 12:47
  Now that money was split between the both of us after tax,
• 12:50
  whatever, but it was enough to cover my season.
• 12:54
  And so I was able to compete through that.
• 12:56
  So where Family Feud came into play was my family, who's very
• 13:00
  competitive, right? Told you my dad was a
• 13:01
  professional National Baseball player.
• 13:03
  I have a younger sister. She's in law school.
• 13:05
  Super underachiever too, right? And they were so excited for me
• 13:09
  and my mom. But we're like, gosh, like we
• 13:12
  wish we could have experienced that with you.
• 13:14
  And I'm just a big believer in like speaking things out loud
• 13:17
  and like being very articulate and intentional about what you
• 13:20
  want. And I said, well, why don't we
• 13:22
  do like a family feud? And everyone's like, yeah, that
• 13:24
  would be great. I'm like, me and my mom were
• 13:26
  like, no, we're going to apply. So me and my mom who have just
• 13:29
  went through the process were like, no, we're going to apply.
• 13:32
  And then Fast forward, yeah, two years later, literally 3 days
• 13:37
  before I deployed to Iraq, we were in Atlanta filming Family
• 13:41
  Feud and it was one of the best experiences of my life.
• 13:47
  We, you know, we're competitive. We're like, we're going to win
• 13:49
  like this. You know, we're the best.
• 13:51
  No competition. But that game is so difficult
• 13:55
  and a lot of it is just chance and what questions you get and
• 13:59
  you can't control other people. But we're hands down one of the
• 14:02
  best experiences of my life. I think the only one I saw was
• 14:05
  that you didn't get basket. Was it when they asked you about
• 14:07
  the basket? Yeah, that was us.
• 14:11
  That was, yeah, it was one of those things in fast money.
• 14:15
  You know, you see it on TV and there's no pressure, but you
• 14:18
  have a live audience and you have things and you're thinking.
• 14:21
  And he said, like, blank basket. And the way my brain was
• 14:24
  working, I had like 2025 seconds or so.
• 14:27
  I kept thinking basketball. Like, I couldn't like, reverse
• 14:31
  the words in my mind. And of course, afterwards I'm
• 14:34
  like Easter basket, fruit basket, you know, whatever.
• 14:38
  But yeah, I have to live with that.
• 14:40
  That one. It's harder than it looks when
• 14:42
  you're on TV. I just have to say, folks, it's
• 14:44
  harder than it. Looks I would have just turned
• 14:46
  to as I'm being gone blank for like, Yeah, but fair play to you
• 14:50
  for standing there with Steve Harvey.
• 14:52
  Just gotta quickly ask about him.
• 14:54
  What's he like Like on and off camera?
• 14:56
  Incredible, you know, they always say like don't meet your
• 14:59
  heroes and so, you know ahead of time, like he's funny, but
• 15:02
  you're like, OK, is that just TV, right?
• 15:04
  Is it scripted? And there is so much that you
• 15:07
  didn't know about? That show is like it's a 30
• 15:10
  minute episodes, but we filmed for maybe 2 hours per episode.
• 15:14
  And so there's a whole bunch that's cut out and he's just
• 15:16
  like slinging like words left and right at people like dishing
• 15:20
  on people, all this stuff. And I almost cried at one point
• 15:23
  I was laughing so hard. I was like, I focus makes it on
• 15:25
  the tape and it didn't. But he's incredible and he's
• 15:29
  someone that I would love to just have like a dinner with and
• 15:32
  just feel like I would laugh my absolute, like, brains out.
• 15:36
  I'm happy to hear Steve Harvey's call.
• 15:37
  I just remember a lot of people watch his show, The Steve Harvey
• 15:39
  Show. And then honestly, it's one of
• 15:41
  the people who just can't escape on search major and YouTube.
• 15:44
  But you've got to share a screen.
• 15:46
  That's wicked. The book is on your left.
• 15:52
  I'm going to ask you about that. So what inspired you to become
• 15:55
  an author and what was the hardest part of the writing
• 15:58
  process for you when it came to your book?
• 16:02
  For me, I I started getting more notice based off of my story
• 16:07
  through media outlets and stuff and a constant question that I
• 16:10
  was asked was, did you always want to be a Marine?
• 16:13
  Was that something that you wanted as a child?
• 16:16
  And the answer was no, because I never saw a female Marine.
• 16:20
  And I realized right then and there how critical that was for
• 16:23
  the future development, that I want young women to know that
• 16:26
  they're able to enter these male dominated roles or roles and
• 16:31
  opportunities that they never thought they would be able to
• 16:33
  come into. So I stated again, speak goals
• 16:36
  out loud. I said before I'm 30, I want to
• 16:38
  write a book. I had no idea it was going to be
• 16:41
  a children's book. Like that was not on my mind.
• 16:43
  I just said before I'm 30, I want to write a book.
• 16:45
  And I remember we were in the middle of season a week before
• 16:50
  our team trials, which is like very early season to select like
• 16:54
  who's on what level of team, like your ranking?
• 16:57
  And I broke my foot. I had a clean fracture in my
• 17:01
  foot and I was a week out. And instead of just feeling
• 17:04
  sorry for myself, which I did at least for an hour right, I cried
• 17:07
  and I felt. I get some sympathy, yeah.
• 17:09
  Yeah, yeah, I'm, I'm a person. So I realized I was like, Lord,
• 17:15
  maybe this is an opportunity for me to do something that I never
• 17:18
  want, that I wanted to do, that I haven't had the time.
• 17:21
  So I sat with my foot elevated and I just started writing.
• 17:24
  And it's really healthy for me to actually have an outlet and
• 17:26
  start writing. I started writing this book and
• 17:29
  I realized again, it was a children's book because I
• 17:32
  noticed that maybe there's other Rileys like me that don't
• 17:36
  realize that women can join the military or women can be a
• 17:40
  professional athlete while also winning pageants or women that
• 17:44
  they joke about Marines eating crowns can also be articulate
• 17:47
  and write a book. And so that's where the idea
• 17:50
  started. And I just started writing and I
• 17:52
  reached out to publishing companies and I end up getting
• 17:55
  picked up and, and now I just found out two months ago I won a
• 17:58
  small award for the book. So now I get to say it's
• 18:01
  award-winning book, which is incredible.
• 18:03
  But more than anything, I have had the ability to hear children
• 18:08
  tell me that they can do anything that they want in this
• 18:11
  world because Riley said so and because they read the book.
• 18:14
  And that's the message that I'm trying to get out to our youth
• 18:17
  is, you know, obviously there's a little bit of Joshua 19, my
• 18:21
  favorite Bible verse sprinkled in there, but it talks about
• 18:23
  being bold and courageous and chasing after your dreams.
• 18:26
  Basically, don't let anyone put you in a box.
• 18:29
  And I wanted you to know that now more than ever, because on
• 18:32
  our phones and online, you know, there's all these things that
• 18:35
  maybe tell people what they can and cannot do.
• 18:37
  And I just want to create that creativity and spark that again
• 18:41
  and children to let let them know that there's really no
• 18:44
  limit. And if I can do it, there's
• 18:45
  absolutely no reason why they can't as well.
• 18:48
  That's wicked. The fact that you get to inspire
• 18:50
  kids around the world that anything is possible.
• 18:55
  That's yeah, that's pretty cool. What advice would you give to
• 18:58
  young women just to follow up? Not even young women, but just
• 19:01
  anyone who want to pursue a career in military or being a
• 19:06
  writer or elite sports. So just any advice, maybe some
• 19:10
  that stuck with you, all these different journeys that you've
• 19:14
  got on in your life so far, but just any advice at the top of
• 19:18
  your head. There's so much I, I want to say
• 19:21
  and it, it always depends on, you know, basically where people
• 19:24
  are going on different. Maybe advice for someone
• 19:27
  pursuing the military verse verse not.
• 19:29
  But I think the overarching theme that I want to give people
• 19:32
  is that you have to start with speaking your goals out loud and
• 19:39
  by holding yourself accountable. And that's in all these things.
• 19:42
  And I say that because I can't tell you how many people have an
• 19:46
  idea in their mind and something on their heart that they want to
• 19:49
  do. Number one, they don't express
• 19:51
  it to people. Or two, they don't hold
• 19:53
  themselves accountable to that because they immediately dismiss
• 19:56
  whether they can do it or not, or someone else has dismissed
• 19:59
  that thought. So I will tell you in every
• 20:01
  single career, every single thing that I have done in the
• 20:03
  military, I had told people. Told me left and right, like you
• 20:07
  have no business being in the military.
• 20:08
  You're too pretty or you don't have a background or the bring
• 20:10
  corps out a place for you. Even collegiate softball, like,
• 20:13
  hey, you're growing up in Indiana.
• 20:15
  Like that's not what makes the best softball players.
• 20:17
  You got to play down South or you know this out and the other
• 20:19
  or I was told like, Hey, how, how are you possibly going to
• 20:22
  write a book? Like you say, y'all, you're a
• 20:25
  marine, you eat crowns. Like how are you going to be an
• 20:27
  author? Or when I want a pageant, I, I,
• 20:30
  I don't wear heels very often. I'm in my military boots.
• 20:33
  Like, I like to be feminine, but like, I don't wear makeup.
• 20:35
  I like to be very natural and people like, how are you going
• 20:38
  to win a pageant? I'm like, well, I don't know.
• 20:40
  And the same with the game shows.
• 20:41
  Oh, like Family Feud. Yeah.
• 20:42
  Like, yeah, that sounds great. Like a nice to have.
• 20:45
  And every single one of those things, there was a million
• 20:47
  excuses of why I shouldn't or I couldn't.
• 20:50
  And I just want all young women and men to search for the reason
• 20:54
  why you can understand that that desire is on your heart for a
• 20:58
  reason. It is not there an accident.
• 21:00
  We don't have the same desires. Speak it out loud and then hold
• 21:04
  yourself accountable. If that's something you actually
• 21:06
  want to do, communicate it with your spouse, your best friend.
• 21:09
  Hey, I had a voice in my book to the news outlet to hold me
• 21:12
  accountable because now it was out there and writing for the
• 21:16
  world. So then hold yourself
• 21:18
  accountable to that. If you say you're going to do
• 21:20
  it, follow through. It doesn't always mean that it
• 21:22
  works out. Trust me, I've been told no more
• 21:25
  times than I can tell you. And there was other ideas that
• 21:28
  were shot down like super quickly.
• 21:31
  But at least I put myself out there.
• 21:33
  And I think that's where so many people are getting stuck.
• 21:35
  And one statistic that I think backs us up.
• 21:38
  They say they, the Internet, all those things that, so I think
• 21:42
  it's about like 75% of people said they would be interested in
• 21:45
  writing or sharing a book, but only 5% of people actually write
• 21:50
  and see it through publishing. And there's a ton of people that
• 21:54
  I met that are like, oh, I'd love to write a book, but they
• 21:55
  would be like, well, who would read it?
• 21:56
  And it's too much effort and I don't know where to start and
• 21:59
  blah, blah. So they stopped that right away.
• 22:01
  And I'm like, well, if you want to write a book, tell people you
• 22:03
  want to write a book and hold yourself accountable.
• 22:06
  Who cares if one person reads or if no one else said it, That's
• 22:08
  something for you. It doesn't always have to be for
• 22:11
  other people. So wrapping that up to answer it
• 22:14
  again, my best advice would say, speak your goals out loud to
• 22:18
  people that you trust, that you love or shoot the news if you if
• 22:22
  you really want, and then hold yourself accountable to that
• 22:24
  goal. And you'd be really surprised of
• 22:26
  the doors that will open up for you.
• 22:28
  And I believe with faith and perseverance, really great
• 22:32
  things will happen. Awesome, awesome.
• 22:35
  I like that. That's a good way to sort of end
• 22:37
  this and lead to my last question for you.
• 22:39
  This doesn't have to be about bobsled or Bob Slay or military
• 22:43
  or books or anything like that. It's my signature question.
• 22:46
  Give me 3 dream dinner guests. Might be Steve Harvey.
• 22:49
  Actually, you mentioned it earlier, 3 dream dinner guests
• 22:52
  for your dream party. It can be fiction, non fiction,
• 22:56
  friends, family, celebrities, anyone, anyone you can think of.
• 23:01
  Three people and a quick reason as to why you want this
• 23:03
  individual at your dream party. Give me number to be alive.
• 23:08
  Nope, Dead alive. So that's easy.
• 23:10
  First one's going to be Jesus. I I want to sit with my homeboy
• 23:13
  Jesus and I want to be like bored.
• 23:15
  Like homeboy Jesus, I love it. All about this?
• 23:18
  Yeah, I'm like, tell me about what was going on.
• 23:21
  I got questions and I don't know if that's that's cheating, but
• 23:25
  obviously my Christian faith, I'm like, no, sorry.
• 23:28
  Honestly, I love it. It's your dream party.
• 23:29
  Absolutely. Yeah, second.
• 23:32
  So I'll hit a little bit of everything.
• 23:33
  Second would be from an athlete perspective, there's an athlete
• 23:36
  named Pat Tillman. Pat Tillman was an NFL football
• 23:40
  player that left the NFL to go and deploy in the Middle East,
• 23:44
  and he ended up dying in the Middle East.
• 23:46
  But he left his comfort lifestyle of being an NFL
• 23:51
  athlete, making all this money to go serve in the Army, to die
• 23:55
  and in combat. And so I would love to just pick
• 23:58
  his brain. He's an absolute hero of mine
• 24:02
  and someone that I would love to just pick apart.
• 24:06
  And then I'm trying to think the third one, there's so many
• 24:12
  people that I think are just absolutely incredible.
• 24:17
  I think then from a female sports aspect, which might throw
• 24:20
  some people for a loop, but it'd be Ronda Rousey.
• 24:22
  I'm not sure if you've ever heard of her.
• 24:25
  Yeah. The reason being is Ronda Rousey
• 24:27
  was actually very influential in my life when I was growing up as
• 24:31
  a young woman because she was one of the first ones in the UFC
• 24:34
  to really, like, make a statement for herself and make
• 24:37
  herself known. Which gave me a lot of energy of
• 24:40
  realizing like, hey, if she can enter these roles and make it
• 24:44
  feminine while also like holding her own, that's some what I want
• 24:47
  to be like. I know she's done stuff since,
• 24:50
  but growing up, that was someone.
• 24:51
  So if you ask me another 10 minutes, I might change my
• 24:54
  answer. But that was one of the things
• 24:56
  that like straight cut on my mind for sure.
• 24:58
  Jesus packed tell 100%. And yeah, I want to throw a
• 25:01
  female in there. So I think it'd be a fun dinner
• 25:03
  party. I think we'd have a lot to talk
• 25:05
  about. I like it.
• 25:07
  As I said, they all they all mean something to you as well.
• 25:09
  And wonder if I asked me personally, I think did so much
• 25:12
  for women's MMA especially like, you know, where it is now and
• 25:17
  what she did that time and then the money she was making people
• 25:20
  realize, holy shit, like she's making more than the men.
• 25:23
  And she's really, really earned the place in the Hall of Fame.
• 25:26
  And big fan. Look forward to a fight next
• 25:28
  month as well. Should be good.
• 25:31
  So Riley, as we are going to sign off in this interview.
• 25:34
  Thank you very much for your time.
• 25:36
  But is there anything you'd like to share?
• 25:37
  Anything you want to promote? Yeah, the opportunity is yours.
• 25:41
  We're not the end of this interview.
• 25:43
  Yeah, couple things. Obviously, I have some two big
• 25:46
  things coming up. One, I'm 23 weeks pregnant with
• 25:50
  my first gravy. Thank you.
• 25:55
  So I just want us to give a shout out and just let people
• 25:58
  know that just because you're transitioning into maybe
• 26:01
  motherhood, which it's been tough for me, does not mean as
• 26:03
  women that we have to stop in pursuing our goals.
• 26:06
  So that's not really promoting that just a little soon.
• 26:08
  That's been on my heart and my mind recently that I just want
• 26:10
  to tell people. But also it's official.
• 26:14
  This fall there will be me back on your television, and you will
• 26:19
  hear more about that soon. But it's official.
• 26:22
  Sometime in the fall you will be seeing me again.
• 26:25
  So be on the lookout. If the listeners want to be on
• 26:29
  the lookout and keep up to date when they do eventually see you
• 26:32
  back on TV, how can they find you on social media?
• 26:35
  Yeah, great, so you I'm only on LinkedIn and Instagram, so
• 26:38
  anywhere else there fake accounts people, but you can
• 26:41
  find me Riley T Jack on LinkedIn and Riley dot T Jack on
• 26:45
  Instagram. And don't worry I will give you
• 26:47
  all the updates. You can stay tuned and follow
• 26:50
  along. But also just know listening to
• 26:52
  this, if you anything resonated with you.
• 26:55
  I always love to be a mentor and a partner with anybody that is
• 26:58
  going through anything, men, women, female, all ages.
• 27:01
  I just want to impact as many people as I can and I'll be the
• 27:05
  Kingdom of heaven. So any joy or love I can give
• 27:07
  upon any of you, please don't be a stranger to reach out.
• 27:10
  Awesome, give her a follow. This obviously feels very
• 27:13
  uplifting this episode. What a way to sign off.
• 27:15
  Honestly. That is absolutely a first
• 27:17
  that's ever happened. So Congrats to you and good luck
• 27:20
  to you and your family. Like this video?
• 27:22
  Subscribe to the channel and just yeah, be happy.
• 27:26
  Honestly I feel I feel good after this interview but take
• 27:29
  care everyone.