Latest / Profitable Christian Business / Finding Joy in Adversity: Faith, Resilience & the Secret to Happiness with Matt Blanchard

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Finding Joy in Adversity: Faith, Resilience & the Secret to Happiness with Matt Blanchard · Profitable Christian Business

• 0:00
  Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Profitable Christian Business Podcast.
• 0:05
  I am your host Doug Greathouse and I am so pleased to finally have Matt Blanchard on the podcast.
• 0:12
  It seems like I've been chasing him down a little bit.
• 0:14
  I think I might have reached out to him like months and months ago to be on the podcast, but we finally get to share his story.
• 0:21
  I think it's going to inspire a lot of you.
• 0:23
  It's going to encourage a lot of you.
• 0:25
  It's...
• 0:25
  oh
• 0:27
  I, without further ado, Matt, I'm going to let you do a brief introduction before I just, um I'm all hyped about it.
• 0:34
  Let's just put it that way.
• 0:35
  So go ahead and introduce yourself, Matt.
• 0:36
  Well, thanks for having me on.
• 0:38
  I appreciate it a lot.
• 0:40
  Yeah, Matt Blanchard.
• 0:41
  I am, boy, I just turned 50 this year and I feel born again.
• 0:46
  I really do.
• 0:47
  I feel I've purpose.
• 0:49
  And anyway, I live in southern Utah and I married my high school sweetheart.
• 0:53
  I've had the same girlfriends and so I was 15 years old.
• 0:57
  My I've got three amazing children.
• 1:00
  Let's see.
• 1:01
  Twenty nine, twenty seven, twenty five.
• 1:04
  And
• 1:05
  an amazing grandchild.
• 1:07
  So life is good.
• 1:09
  We've had some challenges.
• 1:11
  I welcome challenges and we'll talk about how I, how I address my challenges throughout my life.
• 1:16
  But yeah, that's me.
• 1:17
  Southern Utah.
• 1:18
  think this is a little slice of heaven.
• 1:20
  So people are finding out about it Doug, unfortunately, and they're moving in here like crazy.
• 1:25
  Wow.
• 1:25
  So I have something about that.
• 1:28
  Like, so I used to live in Charleston, South Carolina, and it got, it was a nice little oasis.
• 1:34
  a lot of people knew about it.
• 1:35
  And then travel and leisure, all the magazines, Southern Home, all got a hold of it and said, everybody move here, vacation here.
• 1:42
  And it wasn't long after that I moved from Charleston, South Carolina.
• 1:50
  So I imagine it's starting to feel that way where you are.
• 1:53
  Yeah, I mean we started with 80 when I moved down here, but right around 80,000 people and we're we're over a quarter million now or something like that.
• 2:00
  It's just nuts.
• 2:01
  But hey, that's a little for some people big for me.
• 2:05
  I've got to get there.
• 2:05
  It's on my bucket list to get to Utah.
• 2:07
  I love out West.
• 2:09
  I've been to Colorado, Oregon.
• 2:11
  oh God's beauty is on display out there.
• 2:15
  You know what, get out here and bro, and I will go show you all the hidden gems, all the little secrets that everybody in our podcast doesn't know about.
• 2:24
  Nice.
• 2:24
  Yeah, yeah, we're going to just drive more people there.
• 2:27
  Yeah, that's right.
• 2:28
  That's right.
• 2:29
  It's horrible.
• 2:30
  It's hot.
• 2:30
  No, don't go.
• 2:33
  I have some, I always like to open the interview with just some fun questions.
• 2:37
  We're going to get into your story, but what's something that might surprise people other than your story outside of your story to know about you?
• 2:46
  I am as competitive as you can get.
• 2:49
  Like I, I love every single sport there is.
• 2:52
  uh I want to brush my teeth faster than other people, you know?
• 2:56
  So I'm extremely competitive.
• 3:00
  And I'm also an anatomy teacher, believe it or not.
• 3:03
  teach anatomy over at Utah Tech University.
• 3:06
  And I've done that for the past 10 years.
• 3:09
  And I love that.
• 3:10
  I love that.
• 3:11
  So I applied to a medical school, got accepted medical school.
• 3:16
  on vac and then mama said, uh-uh, nope, you're not going to medical school.
• 3:20
  So now I teach anatomy.
• 3:22
  So that's something a little on the side that I do, just get in front of kids and, you know, spread my message.
• 3:29
  Nice, nice.
• 3:30
  um Next question, if you're hosting a dinner with three guests, living or past, who's at the table?
• 3:39
  All right, now the first person with no affiliation on the red or the blue would be Donald Trump.
• 3:48
  because he's a God fearing man and he's a businessman and boy, whether you agree or disagree, that guy is...
• 3:58
  That guy's impressive.
• 3:59
  So I'd love to take his brain and you know, have half of the country or a third of the country dislike you.
• 4:06
  How do you deal with that pressure?
• 4:08
  You know what I mean?
• 4:09
  And making you think he's made some very difficult decisions.
• 4:15
  And I don't agree with all of them, but hey, at least somebody had the guts to do it.
• 4:22
  Second would be my father.
• 4:24
  So I lost my father in 2019.
• 4:28
  just before COVID got here.
• 4:29
  And I would love to have one more talk with my old man.
• 4:36
  And if anybody's lost their dad or I think or your mom, that's something, you I would love to spend the evening with my pops.
• 4:46
  And the third, and not because this is a Christian based podcast for real, it would be Jesus Christ.
• 4:53
  And not to learn.
• 4:56
  more about faith or but to learn about the man and his trials that he went through and maybe there were doubts or did you know the whole time bro you know and like that would be
• 5:11
  something to bring to look you right in the face like I knew the whole time and then okay if you knew that how did the resolve how did you build up to that moment in time where
• 5:24
  you would be utterly alone, you know, and I've been there, truly, and we'll talk about that, but that would be...
• 5:32
  I love those answers and I want to ask some follow ups on that and kind of.
• 5:37
  So Donald Trump recently said he's trying to get to heaven, right?
• 5:41
  And he thought stopping the Ukraine and Russia war would help him get to heaven.
• 5:45
  And I heard someone else and this is the same way I believe.
• 5:48
  I don't think he totally understands the gospel.
• 5:52
  You know, just doing good deeds and doing good things is not the path to heaven.
• 5:56
  Right.
• 5:57
  gave me chills, Yeah.
• 6:01
  I would think that living up to your full potential, I think we're all given gifts, specific gifts that we can either, you know, there's the parable of you give the tokens,
• 6:15
  went out, spent the tokens, somebody hid the tokens, somebody came back with and earned more tokens.
• 6:21
  And I think we all need to live up to our full potential and living up to your full potential is failing over, over and over and over, man.
• 6:31
  Yeah.
• 6:31
  Yeah.
• 6:32
  like a walk in a tumbler to get that thing polished.
• 6:35
  It's got to have those edges chipped off and I think that's what we are.
• 6:40
  Yeah, oh
• 6:44
  And Jesus, of course, I think almost everybody that is a believer would have Jesus at the table.
• 6:51
  There's just so much that you could ask him.
• 6:53
  I think my belief is that he did know what was coming and he anguished over it.
• 6:59
  But he knew it was something that he had to do.
• 7:01
  uh And that you talk about resolve.
• 7:03
  I don't know if anyone could have greater resolve than that.
• 7:07
  It was.
• 7:08
  It's just incredible.
• 7:09
  You know, there's a moment in Christ's life that hits me the hardest, and that is when he's on the cross.
• 7:18
  And I'm just gonna let it go, man.
• 7:20
  My superpower is vulnerability.
• 7:22
  And when he uh speaks out in Father, where art thou?
• 7:31
  And I understand now the love that God the Father had for Christ, because
• 7:38
  True love is watching your loved ones suffer and loving them enough to walk the road with them but not take that cup from them.
• 7:54
  And I understand that now, but boy, to be...
• 7:57
  I felt utterly alone and for Christ to feel utterly alone, boy, that's...
• 8:03
  I'd ask him, Mike, bro, really?
• 8:05
  Like, how?
• 8:06
  yeah, yeah, man, powerful, powerful.
• 8:10
  uh I'm so anxious to get into your story, but I wanna cover uh a couple questions first.
• 8:17
  One is actually a fill in the blank.
• 8:18
  We do this on every episode.
• 8:21
  Your fill in the blank question is, a strong faith doesn't mean...
• 8:28
  Strong faith does not mean that it will be easy.
• 8:35
  mean, people with the strongest faiths have the hardest paths.
• 8:42
  And as you conquer and go down this path, your faith and your resolve becomes greater.
• 8:49
  uh
• 8:51
  And that's with any of us like if you do hard things on the other side of hard is self-confidence on the other side of hard is joy on the other side of You know, you know
• 9:01
  I'm saying so and a lot of times people are why is this happening to me and playing the victim card and I don't play the victim card and we'll get into that later, too.
• 9:13
  I think I believe life happens for us even
• 9:17
  just the most hellacious thing.
• 9:19
  The thing in my life that would probably be the most devastating would be the loss of a child.
• 9:25
  I know that there's people on this listening this podcast who have lost a child and As harsh or as hard as this might be to hear is it happened for you and depending on how much
• 9:36
  time has passed There may be some they'll say, know what?
• 9:40
  I I agree that haven't for me.
• 9:43
  There will be a situation in your life where you bite.
• 9:45
  Oh that's why this happened and so I think our challenges our trials happen for us and I'm just the guy that
• 9:56
  wants to learn, wants to progress, continually fail and get up again.
• 10:01
  So yeah, that's I think that's the thing with faith.
• 10:07
  I mean, look at Job.
• 10:09
  mean, look, you don't sing.
• 10:11
  Yo.
• 10:12
  so the stronger the faith, the stronger the challenges.
• 10:15
  So if you're going through some challenges, like some challenges right now, boy, God loves you, And it's hard to see, but boy, it's happening for you.
• 10:24
  Yeah, the refinement.
• 10:26
  think one of the hardest things, like people, I don't think they know if they pray for more faith, they're actually asking for more, more challenge.
• 10:38
  It is a wonderful thing to pray for and to want, because we all want to have more faith, but just know that you're asking God, okay, you sure about that?
• 10:47
  God said, you sure about that?
• 10:48
  Because I'm going to bring it.
• 10:50
  Right, and believe me, he brings it you guys.
• 10:54
  So, yeah, be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.
• 10:58
  Yeah.
• 11:00
  So I'm almost hesitant to ask this question because I think it's going to, I think I'm actually going to interrupt my own process here.
• 11:08
  And I'm going to save the secret question till after you share your story, because I think it's going to play its role into there.
• 11:16
  uh And I'm not going to ask the next question.
• 11:21
  I'm actually going to ask you to just kind of tell us your story, kind of all that you've been through.
• 11:28
  And then I'll ask some follow up questions based on what you tell us about your story.
• 11:32
  Okay, cool.
• 11:34
  Yeah, so in 2006, I got in a car accident.
• 11:39
  And I was an electrical contractor at the time.
• 11:43
  I picked up one of my employees, and this 19 year old kid told me three times to put my seatbelt on.
• 11:50
  And three times I turned to him and said no.
• 11:53
  And I gave him all the reasons why I didn't need to wear a seatbelt.
• 11:57
  And
• 11:58
  Pride and arrogance.
• 11:59
  And then seconds later, I rolled my truck and I ended up with a spinal cord injury.
• 12:04
  I snapped myself right in two.
• 12:07
  And I was held in that truck for two hours while emergency crews drove down and cut my employee and myself out of the car.
• 12:16
  put me on a gurney, me in a helicopter and airlifted me into the hospital where I had CTs, MRIs, all the things and come to find out my back went into the steering wheel and I
• 12:31
  snapped myself right in two, but not like a pencil.
• 12:34
  It's a compression burst.
• 12:35
  There was so much pressure that my 12th vertebrae granated in my back and a piece of that bone went in my spinal cord and at 30 years old I lost
• 12:46
  everything below the waist and I was in the best shape of my life.
• 12:50
  um I'm six foot two at the time I was 215 pounds I'd just run the St.
• 12:55
  George Marathon and I told my employee all this I'd say hey look nothing could hurt me and that was that's the way I felt and seconds later I couldn't feel my legs.
• 13:08
  So I'm in the ICU and I don't quite understand what's happened.
• 13:13
  I spent 10 days, two surgeries, and I remember wanting to sit up.
• 13:18
  I had sat up in 10 days and anytime I tried, it felt like something was holding me down, like I was strapped down.
• 13:26
  And...
• 13:27
  um
• 13:28
  My goal was, thought, you know, I'm gonna just grab my quads and pull myself to a sitting position.
• 13:32
  But I had electrodes and tubes and all the things coming out of one arm, but the other hand was free.
• 13:37
  And as I reached down and grabbed my quad, I couldn't feel the touch of my own hand.
• 13:43
  And that's when it all set in.
• 13:45
  I was like, my gosh, this has really happened.
• 13:48
  And at that point, I didn't wanna live anymore.
• 13:53
  If I couldn't run marathons,
• 13:55
  If I couldn't, I didn't want to face a life of paralysis.
• 13:58
  Are you kidding me?
• 13:58
  um So I was in the ICU and I was in bad shape and it was all coming.
• 14:06
  I mean, I was, what was I?
• 14:09
  I thought that I was the six foot to 215 pound man.
• 14:14
  and now from the waist down had been taken.
• 14:17
  So the reason why I couldn't sit up is I didn't know how to anymore.
• 14:21
  Like my abdominal muscles had been taken, my glute, everything.
• 14:25
  So I didn't know how to sit up, but I didn't know that I didn't know how to sit up.
• 14:31
  Well, after these surgeries, I went through two surgeries, lot of pain meds, and the pain meds had backed up my bowels and I hadn't had a...
• 14:41
  bowel movement in those 10 days either.
• 14:43
  But finally I'm done with surgeries, they moved me out of ICU.
• 14:46
  Now this was back in 06 before anything was electronic.
• 14:49
  They moved me into my own hospital room and six o'clock at night I remember it and they'd given me enemas and suppositories, all these things to get my bowels going.
• 15:00
  And I kid you not, as soon as those nurses closed that door, my bowels released, man.
• 15:05
  And it was amazing.
• 15:07
  No more pain.
• 15:08
  Like it's crazy that the pain medication was causing me so much pain.
• 15:13
  But finally, it did release and I'm laying there in that room, dark, and I'm hitting my nurse call button.
• 15:21
  And I'm just so grateful, you know, at this moment that I'm not in pain anymore.
• 15:26
  But nobody's coming.
• 15:28
  And...
• 15:28
  this stuff just keeps coming and I can hear it creeping up my sides and I'm hitting that nurse call button and my lungs were so weak I couldn't yell yet um I was trying but the
• 15:41
  the nurse call button wasn't plugged into the wall well if this stuff comes up and it got in my hair it would be in my new incisions it and I tell you what I prayed to God
• 15:56
  that he would come and save me.
• 15:57
  That he would send somebody in to save me.
• 16:01
  And no one came.
• 16:04
  And I felt abandoned by my wife.
• 16:07
  I felt abandoned by my family.
• 16:09
  I abandoned by God.
• 16:12
  And I don't know if anybody listening has been utterly just shattered, destroyed, no more will to live, to go on.
• 16:23
  nothing there anymore.
• 16:24
  You just want this nightmare over.
• 16:28
  And I sat in that, well, laid in that stuff until the following shift changed 6 a.m.
• 16:34
  the next morning, so right around 12 hours.
• 16:37
  I'd gotten into some of my incisions.
• 16:39
  I got infected.
• 16:40
  I started to my incision packed.
• 16:45
  And these cute girls came in, these CNAs, to clean me up, you know?
• 16:51
  And they'd done this a million times.
• 16:54
  And they'd probably done it a million more.
• 16:56
  But this was my first time.
• 16:58
  And I was so ashamed.
• 17:00
  Like, I so embarrassed.
• 17:02
  And they would roll me to one side and clean me up and then tuck that sheet, that dirty sheet under me and roll me to the other side and clean me up until I was all clean again.
• 17:11
  And that I was broken.
• 17:13
  Like...
• 17:14
  mentally, spiritually, physically, broken, shattered, destroyed.
• 17:24
  And I was airlifted to Salt Lake City, Utah, where I grew up.
• 17:30
  And people had waited these 10 days, my friends, people I'd known my whole life.
• 17:35
  So they'd come and give me their love and support, because they'd only let two people in at a time in the ICU.
• 17:41
  And as my friends would come in to my room,
• 17:44
  after these CNAs just cleaned me up, I wouldn't acknowledge anybody.
• 17:50
  I wouldn't engage in any conversations.
• 17:52
  I wouldn't open my eyes.
• 17:55
  And it went all day long.
• 17:57
  My wife says about 300 to 400 people.
• 18:00
  People from my elementary school, all the way up to the University of Utah, from my faith, hundreds of people.
• 18:07
  And I wouldn't engage in any conversation.
• 18:10
  I wanted this over.
• 18:13
  I didn't want to do it.
• 18:15
  And then at the end of the first day, everybody left my room except my dad, my old man.
• 18:22
  And he pulled a chair over the side of my bed.
• 18:26
  And I wouldn't even acknowledge my dad.
• 18:28
  I wouldn't talk to my dad.
• 18:30
  And he sat down and said, look, this is big.
• 18:35
  This is paralysis.
• 18:40
  You can quit.
• 18:42
  And when he said that, was like, finally somebody understands.
• 18:48
  And then he said, Matt, we can all quit.
• 18:51
  But you have it in you to dig in, dig deep and get it done.
• 18:55
  Matt, dig in, dig deep and get it done.
• 18:58
  And he left the room and instantly I saw red triggered me because dad didn't know.
• 19:04
  No one knew how rubbery.
• 19:07
  and foreign, my entire body felt to me.
• 19:11
  Like to come down and touch and there's literally nothing there.
• 19:15
  So I was really angry and I wrestled with my dad's words all night.
• 19:20
  He's telling me to dig in.
• 19:22
  He doesn't understand.
• 19:23
  This is a wheelchair.
• 19:24
  I'm not gonna run marathons.
• 19:27
  Dig deep.
• 19:28
  Well, paralysis, man.
• 19:31
  And then get it done.
• 19:32
  So I wrestled with what am I gonna do?
• 19:33
  What am I gonna get done?
• 19:34
  What am I gonna get done?
• 19:36
  and I decided I was going to walk again.
• 19:38
  just, you know, I'm Matt Blanchard.
• 19:40
  I'm bigger than paralysis, very ignorant when it comes to injury.
• 19:45
  And I thought, you know, I'm just going to outwork this paralysis thing and I'm going get walking again.
• 19:51
  So then I don't have to deal with the loss of that six foot two, 215 pound back.
• 19:57
  So if you can, for a second, I am competing with myself.
• 20:04
  who I would never be able to be ever, ever in.
• 20:07
  And that started, I started to go crazy trying to be who I used to be.
• 20:12
  Cause anybody who suffers a deficit like that, all they want is the moment, they want to be the person the moment before that deficit hit.
• 20:19
  And that's all I wanted.
• 20:23
  So the following morning, the occupational therapist comes into my room and asks me what I want to do.
• 20:28
  And I'm, hey, yo, I want to walk.
• 20:31
  And he's brilliant.
• 20:32
  He's like, okay, we'll walk right on.
• 20:34
  And I'm like, this is my guy.
• 20:36
  But first I want you to get your socks on.
• 20:39
  And I laughed at it.
• 20:40
  His name is Casey.
• 20:41
  I'm like, Casey, for real?
• 20:42
  I get my socks on?
• 20:43
  He's like, yeah, your socks on.
• 20:45
  We'll walk.
• 20:47
  And it took me, over an hour to get two socks on.
• 20:53
  um Casey come in and ask if I needed help.
• 20:58
  And I would.
• 20:59
  cuss and yell and scream and I don't need help getting my, who needs help getting their socks on?
• 21:05
  And today I realized that we all need help getting our socks on.
• 21:11
  It's just that my socks look a little different than yours.
• 21:14
  And I'm different now that I will accept help from anybody for a lot of different reasons.
• 21:20
  Before I was, I'm Matt, I don't need help.
• 21:23
  I'm a man, know, I burn my mouth.
• 21:25
  It was myself.
• 21:27
  When I first came home from getting hurt, my dad, I went back to school to become a doctor.
• 21:32
  And there was a young lady at the school that said, hey, can I get that door for you?
• 21:36
  And I'm like, no, I'm straight.
• 21:37
  know, because I want to show off.
• 21:38
  I can get my own door.
• 21:39
  And so she went in and I go to pull that door and my dad slams that door shut.
• 21:44
  And he says, who are you?
• 21:47
  Who are you?
• 21:48
  I know you can get your door.
• 21:49
  Who are you to take away the blessings and helping others feel like they did something positive?
• 21:56
  Like my old man give to me straight all the time.
• 21:58
  All the time.
• 22:00
  And now today I will let anybody do any type of anything for me because I know that it helped.
• 22:07
  It's I can do it, but it's helping them feel better about what.
• 22:12
  they can do and they serve others.
• 22:14
  And that's where Joy's at is serving up and getting things done.
• 22:19
  So I went to work on walking, bro.
• 22:21
  And,
• 22:23
  I finally, every day Casey would come in and say, hey, what do want to do?
• 22:27
  I want to walk.
• 22:27
  Okay, get your socks on.
• 22:29
  And I got down to where I get my socks on in about 20 minutes.
• 22:32
  And I thought, you know, I'm going to wake up early, I'm going to get sweatpants on, socks on, so when Casey comes in, I'm ready to walk.
• 22:39
  Like I want to walk, let's do this thing.
• 22:42
  Casey comes in, I'm ready to rock and roll, leaves the room.
• 22:45
  Comes back with my surgeon.
• 22:48
  and they're both standing at the foot of my bed and my surgeon says, Mr.
• 22:52
  Blanchard, I understand you want to walk.
• 22:55
  And I look right at him and said, no, you got it wrong, This is how I speak.
• 22:58
  You got it wrong, bro.
• 22:59
  I'm going to walk.
• 23:01
  I said, no, wait, wait, wait, hold on.
• 23:03
  And he pulls up my x-rays, you know, before.
• 23:05
  He's like, you've suffered a very severe spinal cord injury and I've treated thousands of them just like yours.
• 23:11
  You're not going to walk.
• 23:13
  It's impossible.
• 23:14
  You are a T12.
• 23:15
  So my chart says I'm a T12 complete spinal cord injury.
• 23:19
  So two inches above my belly button.
• 23:21
  Boom.
• 23:22
  Done.
• 23:24
  He labeled me, I'm not big on labels.
• 23:27
  So what I did saved my life.
• 23:30
  I got rid of all negative criticizing people, all of them.
• 23:34
  All of them.
• 23:37
  Which was difficult, it really was.
• 23:39
  Because one of them was my mom.
• 23:41
  I love my mom, but my mom and my dad both wanted me to come home and then coddle me like any parent would wanna do with their child.
• 23:47
  Mm-hmm.
• 23:48
  a 30 year old with a company and I've got to get things done.
• 23:52
  So if I would have allowed them to coddle me, I wouldn't be who I am today.
• 23:58
  I wouldn't be where I'm at.
• 23:59
  So I chose the harder road and I surround myself with people who thought maybe, maybe with the right attitude and effort, I'm at a walk again.
• 24:09
  So that doctor who labeled me said I was never gonna walk again said it was impossible never been done before I Got rid of him.
• 24:16
  I had nothing to do with him.
• 24:18
  I found therapists friends family and went to work well for 15 years on this goal of walking and um I Knew I was gonna walk out of LDS Hospital.
• 24:31
  I knew that like I'd had um I had had specific
• 24:37
  blessings and all these just aligned with everything.
• 24:44
  And then the day came that I was discharged and I wasn't walking.
• 24:47
  And I came home, boy I don't tell this very often.
• 24:51
  I came home and tried to destroy my marriage.
• 24:58
  Because I didn't want my wife married to a cripple.
• 25:00
  She hit, in my mind, she had married a six foot to 215 pound man that.
• 25:06
  takes care of the yard and the cars and brings in the money.
• 25:10
  And my wife stayed at home and read the kids and like that was, I was a very different man.
• 25:16
  um So since she wasn't married to this guy anymore, she was married to this broken, didn't know what I was.
• 25:26
  um I said all the mean things to get my wife to leave me and every mean thing.
• 25:34
  And she's balling, I'm in the bathtub.
• 25:37
  And I'm not crying, but I'm dying on the inside.
• 25:39
  So scared, scared of everything.
• 25:42
  And she turned to me and said, I didn't marry your legs.
• 25:48
  I love you.
• 25:50
  I'm not going anywhere.
• 25:52
  And she turned around and took out of her purse a permanent marker and on our mirror.
• 25:57
  So we've got double sinks in our bathroom.
• 26:00
  on my side and is still there today.
• 26:02
  It says, what kind of day will it be today?
• 26:05
  You decide.
• 26:06
  Mm.
• 26:07
  And that's what kind of woman I'm married to.
• 26:10
  And um at that point I knew, okay, I've got somebody in my corner.
• 26:15
  Somebody that's not gonna leave me.
• 26:17
  And that's all I needed.
• 26:20
  And I went to work, man.
• 26:22
  And I had such um support.
• 26:26
  Like my friends, like all those hundreds of people.
• 26:29
  Like my network is my net worth and I have relationships with the people I went to elementary school.
• 26:36
  Still, I talk with them.
• 26:38
  It's important to me.
• 26:39
  I don't know why, but in my entire life, it's been important to me.
• 26:42
  And um they surrounded me.
• 26:46
  And on the days that I was two weeks ago, they helped me, man.
• 26:51
  They pushed, they pulled, they, hey, let's do this.
• 26:54
  And then also on the days that uh I didn't want to do it.
• 26:59
  I have one really good friend, name is Larry Sorton.
• 27:02
  And he lived a couple houses away from me and I was in bad shape.
• 27:05
  Didn't want to get out of bed, hadn't gotten out of bed in days.
• 27:08
  And he came over and said, Matt, I'll give you the rest of today.
• 27:13
  But tomorrow morning at 6 a.m., I will be here.
• 27:16
  We're going to get you showered.
• 27:17
  going to get your your bowel care, all your everything taken care of, get you dressed.
• 27:22
  And enough of this pity party thing, man.
• 27:25
  And he did that daily and showed up and.
• 27:30
  Yeah, people showed up for me.
• 27:33
  And I think it's a lost.
• 27:36
  People think they need to ask permission or just show up.
• 27:40
  Just show up.
• 27:40
  You know when you need to show up, show up, make a phone call.
• 27:45
  And so from there I knew, okay, I'm not going to be able to just sit here and have a pity party because Larry is going to come and get me and my brother or my dad, whoever is going
• 27:54
  to come get me.
• 27:56
  So that's, that's how I got through.
• 27:59
  the first five years of paralysis, not dealing with it.
• 28:04
  And truth be told, I've not dealt with it to this day.
• 28:07
  oh I don't know what's in there.
• 28:11
  Kind of scary, but I love who I am and what it's turned me into.
• 28:19
  So I came home and I found doctors and therapists and we went to work every single day battling paralysis.
• 28:29
  with biofeedback, with e-STEM on my muscles, with physical therapy, occupational therapy, and then at home, and then gym, and forcing my legs, and visually telling my body, I'm
• 28:41
  whole, I'm healthy, I'm whole.
• 28:43
  Whatever that means, because I'm more whole today than I've ever been in my whole life.
• 28:46
  That's a fact.
• 28:47
  um So as I do that...
• 28:52
  You know, I've got all these rods and screws.
• 28:54
  I've got two rods that run the full length of my spine.
• 28:56
  I've got 12 titanium screws holding me together and I hurt man.
• 29:02
  I did hurt.
• 29:03
  And so they sent me home with pain medication with OxyContin and I didn't know what OxyContin was other than when I took this pill, I could push my broken body hard in
• 29:16
  therapies and do impossible things.
• 29:17
  um
• 29:20
  But very quickly I became dependent on pain medication.
• 29:23
  um Now listen to how I said that.
• 29:26
  I am not an addict.
• 29:28
  I am not a recovering addict.
• 29:31
  I will not hold those labels.
• 29:32
  I won't.
• 29:34
  I went through addiction.
• 29:36
  I went through addiction twice.
• 29:38
  And if you're going through something, well, there's a beginning and there's an end.
• 29:42
  But if I'm an addict, if I'm depressed, so I...
• 29:49
  Have I been depressed?
• 29:50
  You bet I've been depressed.
• 29:52
  I went through depression.
• 29:55
  But I'm not depressed.
• 29:57
  I'm not an addict.
• 29:58
  I, so I only wear labels that serve me, truly only wear labels that serve me.
• 30:04
  And I got rid of all those negative criticizing people and I became so mentally strong and positive that now we repel each other.
• 30:11
  We really do, can't be around each other because I am, I'm a big energy.
• 30:14
  I am, and I'm positive.
• 30:16
  I'm annoyingly positive and just repel each other now.
• 30:21
  So I become dependent on these pain meds.
• 30:25
  And five years after I'm not walking, at least not the way I want to walk, I'm walking around with forearm crutches and with a walker.
• 30:34
  I put my wheelchair away and I actually went back up to Salt Lake City, drove up there without a wheelchair and walked from the parking lot all the way to the 11th floor up to
• 30:44
  this physician's office.
• 30:45
  This was now, I think it was seven years later.
• 30:48
  And I'm standing in his doorway and he looks up at me from behind his desk and he says, can I help you?
• 30:55
  And I said, yeah, do you remember me?
• 30:57
  And he did.
• 30:58
  He's like David Blanchard.
• 31:00
  I'm like, yeah, because I was a pain.
• 31:01
  I was a pain as a patient.
• 31:03
  I'm like, yeah.
• 31:05
  And he said, well, what can I help you with?
• 31:07
  And I said, you told me I would never do this.
• 31:08
  And he said, well, what's that?
• 31:12
  I said, you told me I'd never walk again.
• 31:14
  And he looked right at me.
• 31:16
  And he says, you're not walking.
• 31:18
  Not without assisted devices.
• 31:20
  You're not.
• 31:21
  Got up from behind his desk, and he walked right past me.
• 31:26
  And I put my armor on because that crushed me again.
• 31:30
  And I walked back down to my car at 30, 37, 38 years old and bald and cried and cried.
• 31:40
  And I'm in Salt Lake City all by myself.
• 31:42
  And I've got that four hour drive back down to St.
• 31:45
  George.
• 31:46
  And I knew that I had a decision to make.
• 31:49
  I could either quit and this guy's right.
• 31:53
  Or I could go harder.
• 31:55
  And decided to go harder.
• 31:57
  And the way I went harder was in every single therapy, I would think of this position.
• 32:02
  And when my body didn't want to do it, would mentally, I'd be like, so he's right.
• 32:08
  So you can't do this.
• 32:09
  So you're really not going to respond to me.
• 32:12
  And I would force my body forward.
• 32:14
  And sometimes we measured it in millimeters, truly.
• 32:18
  And sometimes we measured it in yards, man.
• 32:21
  Some days were amazing.
• 32:22
  um
• 32:25
  So, and in life, a lot of the time, especially in coaching, know, a coach will get on your kid or whatever.
• 32:35
  And we take it so personal and because we love our kids.
• 32:40
  But that doctor, when he retired, he reached out to me and actually they asked me to come and speak at his retirement, believe this or not.
• 32:52
  And...
• 32:52
  He reached out to me and he followed me throughout my whole thing.
• 32:56
  Because I walked, man.
• 32:57
  I walked.
• 32:59
  And he reached out to me, he knew my kids names, he my wife's name still.
• 33:02
  He knew what I'd done, where I was going, all these things.
• 33:05
  And we had lunch.
• 33:07
  And he's like, Matt, I've never talked to a patient the way I talk to you, ever.
• 33:12
  And you have no idea how much it hurt just to tell you you can't do this.
• 33:16
  Mmm.
• 33:18
  It's impossible, but I knew to get the most out of you, you needed to hear that you can't do this.
• 33:24
  And so instantly those years of hatred, like that guy got the most out of me 300 miles away.
• 33:33
  was in every therapy with me, even though he was up in Salt Lake City, Utah.
• 33:37
  I love him.
• 33:38
  um So in your life, is your teacher, your mom, is your dad, are they saying something?
• 33:48
  to push a button, to get the most out of you, and you've got a decision to make.
• 33:52
  Like, which way am I gonna, am I gonna quit or am I gonna go harder?
• 33:57
  And I'm just designed, I don't know how to quit.
• 34:01
  I am relentless.
• 34:02
  ah So that's one of my super powers as well.
• 34:08
  Yeah.
• 34:09
  So much, so much in there.
• 34:11
  ah I've been writing some notes as you were talking just to ask you about.
• 34:16
  just to fast forward to back to the beginning, or not fast forward, rewind back to the beginning of that story.
• 34:23
  How much was pride and your identity, were like, like, can you can you contrast to compare where your pride level is now compared to
• 34:35
  where it was then and what your identity was wrapped up in then compared to where it is now.
• 34:40
  Yes.
• 34:41
  So my pride, was proud, man.
• 34:44
  I was proud to be Matt, the Lanchard.
• 34:48
  And I was right.
• 34:53
  If I was right, you were wrong.
• 34:55
  That was a big thing.
• 34:56
  then, well, it's asinine to talk about this, it really is, but before my accident, I would come into a gathering or whatever, and I would pick out whatever
• 35:08
  male I thought was an alpha male and I would go and dominate that person in any and every situation.
• 35:16
  And I was, you could either get on my team or get out of my way or get steamrolled.
• 35:24
  Those were your options.
• 35:26
  Just a very um no empathy, zero empathy.
• 35:32
  um More of a hey, rub some dirt on it, let's go.
• 35:37
  I don't want hear about it.
• 35:38
  Now, today, I don't have to be right.
• 35:44
  That's the first thing, is that my right doesn't have to be right for everybody.
• 35:53
  There can be two rights.
• 35:58
  I understand now how important my wife is.
• 36:06
  how I wouldn't be here without her.
• 36:09
  And before she was more of a trophy and um I was really into very nice things and a lot of, hey, look what the Joneses, look at the Blanchards.
• 36:23
  You know what mean?
• 36:25
  If I got one, let's get, if one of those is nice, let's get two.
• 36:28
  And now um I'm not about me.
• 36:36
  Well, let me, the way I feel my bucket is filling others buckets.
• 36:42
  I am in service all the time because I understand now that service pulls you out of any type of depressive state.
• 36:52
  Service automatically feels better.
• 36:56
  You get all the endorphins and you get all the things from service.
• 36:59
  Whereas if you just sit in your home stagnant, boy.
• 37:03
  um
• 37:05
  Depression there's things that you should have done or living in the past and then anxiety is too much in the future.
• 37:12
  So now this conversation this podcast is the most important thing in my life truly and I'm present because I don't know I might stroke out during the middle of this podcast So why
• 37:25
  the heck wouldn't I give you and your your audience my complete attention?
• 37:30
  Because this is the most important thing that's happening in my life right now.
• 37:34
  So
• 37:35
  I'm present.
• 37:38
  That's biggest difference is I'm present.
• 37:40
  Man I love that ah The other thing I really picked up is I feel like you Did you can correct me if I'm wrong?
• 37:50
  feel like you spent a lot of time investing in relationships and those relationships paid you back All right
• 37:58
  100%.
• 37:59
  I still to this day, in fact I talked to one of my buddies this morning from elementary school who were gonna go golfing.
• 38:06
  um Yeah, I've got a group of people around me that know me well enough.
• 38:14
  like my circle, my people, that if I'm down and out, that's the rule.
• 38:21
  I get today, or Doug, you get today, but tomorrow, Doug, I'm gonna be at your house at 6 a.m.
• 38:28
  and we're gonna get going.
• 38:30
  So everybody's allowed to feel and have bad days.
• 38:35
  And I also realize now that when somebody feels a certain way,
• 38:42
  That's true, it's true to them.
• 38:43
  And it doesn't matter what I think or if I think that that's silly that they feel that way or that's dumb or that whatever.
• 38:50
  Those are their feelings.
• 38:52
  Like how do you argue with the way somebody feels?
• 38:56
  And now I allow people to feel where before I was like, no, you gotta, that's silly.
• 39:03
  This is how you should be.
• 39:04
  So.
• 39:05
  Yeah, I think one of the other really valuable things that you said is labeling, right?
• 39:12
  And going through something rather than it being part of your identity.
• 39:16
  oh That I think can help so many people that are listening.
• 39:20
  oh We are not our current state, right?
• 39:23
  If we are in depression, it's a temporary thing, right?
• 39:29
  temporary.
• 39:30
  And if you're kicking butt, guess what?
• 39:31
  It's temporary.
• 39:33
  know, everything is temporary.
• 39:38
  you can't appreciate light without dark.
• 39:42
  So if you're in absolute despair, if you are laying in a bed with waste, and you're broken, and you're alone, and there's nobody there,
• 39:56
  That's an amazing place to be.
• 39:59
  Because that depth, if you can get to that depth, can you imagine high?
• 40:06
  And I am a living proof of that.
• 40:09
  So if you are utterly broken, shattered, you thought you were on the ground floor, but it went even deeper, good.
• 40:18
  You're growing, you're learning.
• 40:20
  And.
• 40:23
  Take comfort in knowing your future self has already taken care of it.
• 40:31
  So, think of all the worries of today that you've got today.
• 40:35
  Well, think of the worries of the past.
• 40:37
  You're still here.
• 40:38
  So, when you worried about five years ago, three years ago, yesterday, your future self, your today self has taken care of it.
• 40:45
  So, if you trust yourself, and hopefully you do, all of your problems that you're going through right now,
• 40:52
  You've already taken care of it.
• 40:54
  It's temporary.
• 40:56
  So trust yourself.
• 40:58
  Feel.
• 40:59
  You have to feel it to heal it.
• 41:01
  um And feeling it.
• 41:06
  I cry a lot.
• 41:07
  I really do.
• 41:08
  I didn't cry before because that was the manly.
• 41:10
  That was the manly.
• 41:11
  um
• 41:15
  It is such a pressure release.
• 41:16
  cried yesterday.
• 41:17
  Life is hard, you guys.
• 41:19
  Life's hard.
• 41:20
  And if you can't, if you can't, I cry in the shower.
• 41:25
  No, because then nobody can see me cry.
• 41:27
  But it's a real thing, man.
• 41:28
  And it's a pressure release because life's hard and life's not fair and life's never going to be fair.
• 41:38
  So get over it and get on with it.
• 41:42
  Yeah, I feel like oh the sign behind me kind of might resonate with you too.
• 41:46
  You can have results or excuses.
• 41:48
  You cannot have both.
• 41:49
  uh You everything that you've said is like you don't make excuses for yourself.
• 41:57
  And one of the other things I'm thinking is when you label yourself, you're putting a limit on your potential.
• 42:02
  You're like, this is who I am.
• 42:04
  This is all I'm going to be.
• 42:06
  And you're a living living testament to.
• 42:10
  no matter what limitations come your way, you can always be so much more than what your limitations are.
• 42:15
  where focus goes, energy flows.
• 42:21
  So if you're listening right now and you are broke and all the bills and I don't have enough money and that's what your focus is every single day, well guess what?
• 42:30
  Congratulations, you're manifesting that to yourself.
• 42:34
  And congratulations, that should be proof that manifestations work.
• 42:40
  Oh, change your mindset.
• 42:42
  I am peace.
• 42:43
  I am love.
• 42:44
  I am joy.
• 42:45
  I am light in the dark place.
• 42:47
  I am abundant.
• 42:49
  I am strong.
• 42:50
  I am powerful.
• 42:51
  I am powerful beyond measure.
• 42:53
  These are some of the things that I tell myself daily.
• 42:56
  um I am extremely good looking.
• 43:02
  Look at me.
• 43:05
  That's one of my superpowers.
• 43:07
  I know this.
• 43:08
  I know that I'm handsome.
• 43:10
  I know that people are drawn to me.
• 43:11
  And I'm not saying this in an arrogant way.
• 43:14
  I know this about myself.
• 43:16
  And I speak it to you.
• 43:19
  If everybody listening can look at yourself in the mirror and start picking out the things that you love about yourself.
• 43:27
  I love my eyes.
• 43:27
  I got these beautiful blue eyes.
• 43:29
  I got a great smile.
• 43:30
  I got a personality on top of that.
• 43:32
  Wham, let's go.
• 43:34
  I work hard.
• 43:35
  So start telling you all the positive things.
• 43:37
  Get rid of
• 43:38
  negative criticizing thoughts and at first when I started my path to walk again of course those negative thoughts came in and this doctor I've seen it thousands of times you're not
• 43:50
  going to walk.
• 43:52
  I combated it for the men.
• 43:53
  I combated it with one thing.
• 43:55
  I would say, I'm the man.
• 43:57
  So a negative thought would come in.
• 43:59
  I'm the man.
• 43:59
  I would cut it off immediately.
• 44:01
  And I would tell myself, I'm the man thousands of times a day, thousands.
• 44:06
  And after six weeks of telling myself I'm the man and cutting off negative thoughts, guess what?
• 44:14
  I'm the man because I do hard things.
• 44:18
  But we all do hard things.
• 44:20
  Doug, you're the man.
• 44:22
  Seriously, and if we can step into that power, oh man, love yourself.
• 44:28
  um Let's kind of dive into the faith part of this a little bit.
• 44:33
  So how has your relationship with God changed from that point when you were 30 to where you are now?
• 44:42
  Okay.
• 44:43
  This has been a road.
• 44:45
  um I went from being Christian to being agnostic to being an atheist to now...
• 45:01
  What would I even call myself?
• 45:06
  friends with Jesus Christ.
• 45:09
  Jesus Christ is my boy.
• 45:11
  He's my brother.
• 45:12
  He's my freaking boy, And God the Father, wow.
• 45:17
  I mean, wow, right?
• 45:20
  Wow.
• 45:21
  Thank you.
• 45:22
  Thank you for this.
• 45:23
  um But I have a picture of Christ.
• 45:28
  So every morning as I sit up in my bed and oh there I am I'm still paralyzed it's been 20 years and I swing my legs over the side of the bed and I am face to face with picture of
• 45:38
  Christ.
• 45:40
  And in the beginning I would look at that picture and cry and cuss and yell and you want to talk about being a comforter?
• 45:47
  Yeah you bet.
• 45:49
  And I would look at that picture and like there is just no way.
• 45:52
  There's no way you know what this is like.
• 45:56
  No way.
• 45:57
  And that relationship, we grew together.
• 46:02
  And then I was angry.
• 46:04
  I was angry.
• 46:06
  And so I, if you want to call it rebel, whatever it is, I felt.
• 46:17
  I felt it wasn't fair and just give me my big toe.
• 46:23
  Prayed for just my big toe for decades.
• 46:30
  in the beginning, you know, I'd get blessings and different things that tell me I'd walk again.
• 46:35
  And that was my focus.
• 46:37
  I just wanted to walk.
• 46:39
  Now I've been hurt for 20 years and I can tell you now that this is the best thing that's ever happened to me.
• 46:47
  I hate being paralyzed with every fiber of my being.
• 46:54
  But it has given me my purpose.
• 46:56
  It's allowed me to become the human that I was always intended to be.
• 47:01
  I'm talking the father, husband, friend, brother, the human that I was intended to be.
• 47:09
  So my challenge is, I mean, we haven't even got to the second, but I'm a stubborn dude and I want it my way.
• 47:18
  And to be absolutely honest, I tried to corner God.
• 47:24
  And in my faith, there's a verse that says, the Lord am bound when you do what I say.
• 47:29
  When you do not what I say, you have no promise.
• 47:33
  So I took that verse and I thought, you know what?
• 47:35
  I'm going to corner God.
• 47:36
  I'm going to do all the things right.
• 47:38
  I'm going to do everything.
• 47:40
  And he owes me, man.
• 47:42
  He owes me.
• 47:44
  So I thought what more noble thing to do than to get this body strong enough to baptize my children, right?
• 47:56
  What a noble thing.
• 47:57
  But only God and I knew, hey, I got you, bro.
• 48:01
  I got you.
• 48:04
  And those things happened and they didn't happen the way I wanted them to.
• 48:10
  And not very often.
• 48:13
  things happen the way I want them to but now I understand that my way was the way I like I thought it was gonna be right here and it actually ended up way up here because I got out
• 48:24
  of the freaking way uh and I stay in flow now rather than let's do this no we gotta we gotta get this square peg in this round hole we've got it you know it's the only peg we've
• 48:37
  got let's just do it.
• 48:39
  I just understand now that there is absolutely a plan.
• 48:48
  Free agency is something else, mean, all you parents out there with kids, free agency is something else, isn't it?
• 48:56
  And can you imagine what the father thinks?
• 49:01
  Especially when some of the decisions I make, really, Yeah, that's my relationship with...
• 49:08
  with God and Christ right now.
• 49:10
  Wow.
• 49:10
  Yeah.
• 49:12
  I can hear also in your story, like as such a driven person, the impatience, you wanted things in your time, right?
• 49:22
  And God had the time.
• 49:23
  um And he does that so well, right?
• 49:27
  Because often if we get things in our time, they're not going to turn out, they're not going to bear the fruit that if they come out in his time.
• 49:35
  And we always have to look in retrospect at that and say,
• 49:39
  Wow, thank you God that you did not give it to me when I wanted it.
• 49:43
  Exactly.
• 49:44
  my gosh.
• 49:45
  So if my all the prayers in 2006 would have been answered and I would have been um Given my body back What a travesty man, I wouldn't be talking with you or any of your followers
• 49:59
  right now.
• 50:00
  I would be an electrician probably not married uh Maybe a strange for my kids um I don't know what that looks like but what I do is
• 50:13
  So I tried to corner, going back a little bit, I tried to corner God.
• 50:17
  Didn't work out the way I wanted it to.
• 50:20
  It worked out the way he wanted it to though, I'll tell you that.
• 50:23
  And it was powerful and I missed it.
• 50:26
  You want me to talk about that?
• 50:29
  So you're right, we might have to do two of these things, but you know, I've all these people who still support me and I'm...
• 50:40
  Baptizing my kids and doing things while my legs don't work period the end and We have to go down in this this body of water to do this ordinance and my physical therapist
• 50:57
  and myself had practiced and practiced coming down the stairs with the water and using it.
• 51:02
  It's called a hemi walker and using a walker to get over to and be able to do this thing.
• 51:07
  And we figured, okay, you need to wear shoes and we need to have weights on your feet so that it'll go down to the bottom of the well.
• 51:14
  They comes and they open up the doors and my therapist forgets the weights.
• 51:22
  So here's my feet, they're just floating.
• 51:26
  And he has to push my feet down, actually go under the water a little bit, and now he's standing on my feet.
• 51:32
  And I'm frustrated already because how the heck are we gonna do this thing when we've practiced for months and months and months?
• 51:38
  How is this gonna happen?
• 51:40
  And he gets me to a stand, and I take a step, I take another step, I go down under the water.
• 51:46
  He has to bring me up out of the water, and I struggle over to this hemi walker to do this or-
• 51:55
  not realizing the power of what people are witnessing.
• 52:01
  And I missed it because I didn't get to do it my way.
• 52:06
  Wow.
• 52:07
  And we were able to do the ordinance and they closed the curtains and as they're closing I go down again.
• 52:11
  And I was so frustrated and I missed it.
• 52:13
  Doug, I missed it.
• 52:15
  I wish I didn't miss it.
• 52:18
  And everybody told me how powerful all the things to watch this struggle.
• 52:21
  But I didn't see that because it was all about me.
• 52:24
  I couldn't do it my own way, bro.
• 52:27
  So I want people to hear that because so often we are so self-obsessed thinking about what it is for us that we're not realizing the impact that we're having on others.
• 52:40
  So sometimes we have to step away from ourselves and say, OK, I understand now, right?
• 52:48
  Right, the decisions, I understand now, I used to be so quick to decisions, because it's my way or the highway, either get on my team or get out my way.
• 52:59
  And now I realize, boy.
• 53:02
  If I choose A, this is gonna affect my family or my circle in a negative way, where before I had just done it and then dealt with the consequences.
• 53:14
  And now I realize that decisions I make daily, like not putting my seatbelt on, Doug, it's affected you, it's affected your listeners.
• 53:23
  um
• 53:25
  So for anybody listening, what decisions are you making?
• 53:27
  Are you wearing your seatbelt right now?
• 53:29
  If you're not, click the doggone thing.
• 53:31
  Don't pride and arrogance get you.
• 53:35
  I mean, yeah, so it's not about me.
• 53:38
  It's not about you.
• 53:40
  It's about us and who we can help and how the decisions we make throughout the day impact and affect humanity.
• 53:48
  So that's how I kind of approach life now.
• 53:53
  uh quick pause my earbuds are going out so I want to make sure so on the live people I'm changing my earbuds out and we're gonna edit this in post-production so that I can
• 54:02
  continue to hear
• 54:20
  Everybody's that's with us.
• 54:21
  Thanks for thanks for staying it.
• 54:22
  It gets a little crazier.
• 54:23
  Yeah, stick around it get technology.
• 54:29
  See Doug, that's why I was like, Hey, can you hear me?
• 54:31
  I'm not gonna even go that way.
• 54:32
  I can't hear you yet.
• 54:33
  Hold on.
• 54:34
  ah
• 54:59
  Connect, connect, Test one, two.
• 55:03
  You hear me?
• 55:04
  Yes, all right, awesome.
• 55:06
  All right, so we'll pick back up.
• 55:08
  I apologize for that.
• 55:09
  I thought I had enough juice in my headphones.
• 55:11
  You never, with me, brother, I tell you what, we never get it done in one.
• 55:16
  We never have, seriously.
• 55:17
  There's just so much, but.
• 55:19
  uh since we're kind of pausing this break right here, even though we're still live, uh do you mind scheduling?
• 55:26
  We'll schedule a part two after this?
• 55:29
  OK, awesome.
• 55:30
  Awesome.
• 55:31
  So here's the plan is I'm going to ask you a few more questions, and we'll kind of wrap up in the next 10 minutes.
• 55:37
  uh And then we'll plan on having a part two where you tell the rest of your story, kind of like Paul Harvey used to say.
• 55:47
  often I get honestly, it's crazy that came up yesterday as well.
• 55:51
  So funny.
• 55:52
  nice, nice.
• 55:53
  All right.
• 55:53
  I'm going to do a three, two, one countdown and we'll get back.
• 55:56
  uh Three, two, one.
• 56:01
  Matt, have, uh I think you mentioned earlier, you said something about you choose joy, right?
• 56:07
  uh What does choosing joy look like in your current state?
• 56:13
  Okay, focusing on the things that I can do.
• 56:18
  So I can focus on the things that have been taken.
• 56:22
  So if we've got 5,000 things that I want to do on my bucket list and 1,000 have been taken because I'm in a wheelchair now, I can focus on those 1,000 and all this, oh man, I'm
• 56:36
  never gonna wipe the narrows and I'm never gonna, it's hard for me to even talk like that to be honest.
• 56:43
  It sounded like you were like not another person.
• 56:46
  I wasn't off that day.
• 56:49
  Or I could focus on, yo, I'm a golfer.
• 56:51
  I surf.
• 56:52
  I cliff jump.
• 56:54
  I hike with my kids.
• 56:55
  How do I, you know, and a lot of the time, I would say people get hung up on the how.
• 57:03
  And I don't get hung up on the how.
• 57:04
  The how's where the fun is.
• 57:06
  So like, how am I going to surf?
• 57:09
  I don't know that, but we're going to do it.
• 57:12
  And that's where all the fun is.
• 57:14
  don't let how get in the way.
• 57:17
  just focus, like I've got a grandbaby, man.
• 57:21
  I've got a that's engaged to be married.
• 57:25
  I've got another son who is a assistant golf pro.
• 57:32
  Like life's not gone good.
• 57:33
  My wife of marriage of 30 years, relationship of 35, loves me.
• 57:40
  I mean...
• 57:41
  Or I can focus on negative things.
• 57:45
  I have to go to the bathroom different.
• 57:47
  I have to shower different.
• 57:48
  I have to get dressed different.
• 57:49
  have to, I get pressure sores now.
• 57:52
  You're an attractive person.
• 57:53
  know, what do you focus on?
• 57:56
  Again, where focus goes, energy flows.
• 58:02
  Stop saying you're broke.
• 58:05
  Start saying you live in abundance and watch what happens.
• 58:10
  Your mind...
• 58:12
  Your mind does not know the difference between a lie and the truth.
• 58:15
  It doesn't.
• 58:17
  So whatever you tell yourself, whatever you manifest, think of anything like this thing right here.
• 58:24
  In, I graduated high school in 93.
• 58:27
  And if you were to tell me one day we would have these, these things with no buttons, by the way, and you just look at it and you would say something to it and somebody in India
• 58:37
  would pick up and you would be talking face to face with somebody in India.
• 58:40
  You are smoking dope in 93.
• 58:43
  That's impossible.
• 58:44
  And now look what we do.
• 58:46
  started with a thought.
• 58:48
  That's how powerful thoughts are.
• 58:51
  And a lot of the times our thoughts, if they're negative, now we allow ourselves to feel the negative feelings that come with that thought.
• 58:59
  And we go through the entire, just this traumatic event, and then we actually talk, then Doug, you and I actually talk, and you're like, you know what?
• 59:09
  Don't worry, we've got it figured out.
• 59:11
  And I went through all of that, all of that.
• 59:13
  emotion and all and I felt it and it was real when I didn't need to do that.
• 59:19
  So focus on positive things.
• 59:22
  Tell yourself how awesome you are, um how unique you are.
• 59:27
  I'm the only, here you go.
• 59:30
  Did you know I'm perfect?
• 59:34
  I am, I'm perfect.
• 59:36
  No one can fail like me, no can succeed like me.
• 59:40
  um
• 59:42
  Doug, if I got another wheelchair, put it right next to me, and I tried to be you, I might get close, but I'd fail.
• 59:50
  Look, I got a head of hair, you know what saying?
• 59:52
  So, why, if I try to be anybody but Matt Blanchard, I will fail.
• 59:59
  So my goal is to be a better version of myself today than I was yesterday.
• 1:00:04
  I'm not in competition with Doug.
• 1:00:05
  If I try to compete with you, I'll fail.
• 1:00:08
  So why would I do that?
• 1:00:10
  Just focus on becoming a better you.
• 1:00:14
  Everybody else has taken just you.
• 1:00:17
  And you're unique.
• 1:00:18
  Doug, you're perfect.
• 1:00:20
  No one can fail the way you fail, bro.
• 1:00:22
  No one can succeed the way you succeed.
• 1:00:25
  So why not just focus on becoming the best Doug that there can be rather than trying to be, know what Matt Blanchard is doing this, that and the other, I'm gonna try to do, nah.
• 1:00:38
  Did you know that the most powerful emotion, the number one more than hate, more than love is authenticity?
• 1:00:46
  Authenticity.
• 1:00:47
  And when I speak to groups and like if I was a phony, if I was a fraud, they would snip me out just like that and I fought for all credibility.
• 1:00:55
  So just be the unique you and know that everybody else is grinding.
• 1:01:01
  Everybody else has problems and it's all how.
• 1:01:05
  uh
• 1:01:05
  I see problems as opportunities.
• 1:01:08
  Like I ran track in high school and I ran the 100 meter, the four by 100.
• 1:01:13
  Anyway, you've got these block things, right?
• 1:01:16
  So do you put the blocks in front of you or behind you?
• 1:01:21
  You push off the blocks.
• 1:01:22
  So if there's a block in front of you, figure it out.
• 1:01:26
  how that block serves you, because it serves you in some way.
• 1:01:29
  And learn how to get over it, under it, around it.
• 1:01:32
  I don't care so that you can push off of it.
• 1:01:34
  um It's happening for you.
• 1:01:36
  Yeah.
• 1:01:37
  So, so many questions and comments based on what you just said.
• 1:01:41
  I'm just do my best to recollect everything that because I wanted to be intently listening and not writing notes.
• 1:01:47
  I don't think he's the only one to set it, but Kobe Bryant once said, just get 1 % better every day.
• 1:01:53
  Right.
• 1:01:54
  1 % better every day.
• 1:01:55
  And you'll be surprised if you look back a year from now, two years from now, what the results will be.
• 1:02:01
  And also I love when you said, I'm going to surf.
• 1:02:05
  Right.
• 1:02:06
  It's beginning.
• 1:02:07
  having the end in mind.
• 1:02:08
  The process to get there, you'll figure it out.
• 1:02:12
  It's starting with the end in mind.
• 1:02:13
  uh So I love that.
• 1:02:16
  oh It seems like there's something else in there, too, that you said that I was.
• 1:02:19
  But again, I was intently listening.
• 1:02:22
  Bring up Kobe Bryant and you know, Kobe was on another level, man.
• 1:02:27
  And Mambo was on another level.
• 1:02:29
  And I was never a fan.
• 1:02:30
  I was the MJ fan.
• 1:02:33
  But now turning back, like I would, I love Kobe.
• 1:02:36
  I think he's much, and what Kobe, I do a lot of things that Kobe does, because he's awesome.
• 1:02:44
  I sign a contract with myself.
• 1:02:48
  So in my life, I have goals, like walking.
• 1:02:51
  I'm gonna walk.
• 1:02:52
  You know, how?
• 1:02:54
  I don't know, I'm on my third time doing it.
• 1:02:55
  But then I also have non-negotiables.
• 1:02:58
  So that's my contract.
• 1:03:00
  Every morning I'll be up at 6 a.m.
• 1:03:02
  I'll read a self-help book for at least 20 minutes.
• 1:03:06
  I go to the gym every single day, every day.
• 1:03:09
  And then I don't eat McDonald's at all.
• 1:03:12
  Why?
• 1:03:12
  Because I love McDonald's, man.
• 1:03:15
  I only had McDonald's in years.
• 1:03:17
  But boy, you've been thinking about that Mac sauce right now.
• 1:03:19
  oh
• 1:03:22
  So those are my non-negotiables.
• 1:03:24
  It doesn't matter how I feel.
• 1:03:27
  I'm going to the gym.
• 1:03:28
  I'm going to cold plunge.
• 1:03:29
  That's the other, the fifth one is I cold plunge every morning.
• 1:03:31
  And that's not fun.
• 1:03:33
  That sucks.
• 1:03:34
  But in that terrorist in your head, well, it's early.
• 1:03:39
  That water is going to be so cold.
• 1:03:41
  And now it's been so long that that voice is gone because it already knows what I'm going to do.
• 1:03:47
  It's my non-negotiable.
• 1:03:49
  So I would, I would.
• 1:03:53
  Start with one non-negotiable and do not fail yourself.
• 1:03:58
  Don't do it.
• 1:03:59
  Start with, don't care if it's food.
• 1:04:01
  I was 260 pounds.
• 1:04:04
  Right now I'm about a buck 60, so I lost about 100 pounds.
• 1:04:08
  Then I started with soda.
• 1:04:10
  I don't drink soda.
• 1:04:11
  So you don't have to do these drastic things, but so what are your non-negotiables?
• 1:04:16
  Soda used to be one of my non-negotiables, but it's it's not on the listing or but it's just not something I do.
• 1:04:22
  Alcohol, it's just not something I do.
• 1:04:24
  It doesn't serve me.
• 1:04:25
  It doesn't serve this vessel.
• 1:04:27
  So it doesn't matter how I feel with my non-negotiables that that's happening.
• 1:04:34
  My goals, those are the way or how.
• 1:04:37
  Well, how are you going to get to be?
• 1:04:39
  a multi-millionaire?
• 1:04:40
  How are you going to get your first book out?
• 1:04:43
  And the how's the fun part, man.
• 1:04:45
  So non-negotiables, I would challenge you to start with one.
• 1:04:50
  I stay with five.
• 1:04:51
  um Non-negotiable.
• 1:04:54
  Don't you dangly lie to yourself.
• 1:04:55
  Don't you let yourself down.
• 1:04:58
  And on the other side of those non-negotiables is self-confidence.
• 1:05:01
  I do hard things.
• 1:05:03
  I promise this to myself.
• 1:05:05
  Like, it's a good thing.
• 1:05:07
  It's a great thing.
• 1:05:09
  Nice.
• 1:05:09
  oh I tend go back into your story again, oh one thing that I've been talking to a lot of the people that follow me and some of my clients is habits and triggers, right?
• 1:05:21
  That doctor triggered you into building some really oh habits.
• 1:05:25
  But one of the things that I do to keep myself going to the gym on daily basis is I provide myself a trigger.
• 1:05:31
  set my clothes out for the gym right beside my bed.
• 1:05:35
  So as soon as I get up, that's the first thing I'm seeing.
• 1:05:37
  Right.
• 1:05:38
  So, and it has worked.
• 1:05:40
  I put on those clothes and I go to the gym because that's the first thing that triggers me.
• 1:05:46
  Yeah.
• 1:05:49
  I love positive triggers and then boy, I've got blind spots, Doug.
• 1:05:55
  I've got these blind spots that trigger me into this, whatever it is and...
• 1:06:00
  um
• 1:06:03
  my wife and I, I just, we have now decided that, babe, I instantly, I need to say, hey babe, that triggered me.
• 1:06:14
  This is not yours.
• 1:06:15
  I understand that you didn't mean to.
• 1:06:18
  This is an ish me, not an ish you.
• 1:06:23
  So, babe, it triggered me.
• 1:06:26
  I just need you to know so that I don't push this down, this trigger down, let it go for a couple of weeks, something else happens that you, and then I blow up on you.
• 1:06:35
  So I've now committed to my wife, hey, as soon as I get triggered, I'm gonna say, hey, babe, I'm triggered.
• 1:06:42
  Let's just talk.
• 1:06:43
  I just needed you to know I'm triggered.
• 1:06:45
  That's it.
• 1:06:46
  We don't even talk about it and she'll say, well, would you want to talk about whatever.
• 1:06:50
  So anyway, that's the newest step in my life is when blind spots come up, because we all have them to acknowledge that blind spot, feel it and then then heal it.
• 1:07:04
  Yeah.
• 1:07:05
  Wow.
• 1:07:06
  I never even thought about.
• 1:07:09
  I'm glad you flipped that around to the negative triggers because some negative triggers will be unavoidable.
• 1:07:15
  But I'm sure there's also ways that you can eliminate.
• 1:07:18
  Like, I'll just use an example.
• 1:07:20
  Like, if you're going to work every day and one of your things is you're eating McDonald's and you don't want to, if you're triggered by driving by McDonald's every day, maybe you
• 1:07:28
  take a different route.
• 1:07:30
  Bingo.
• 1:07:31
  Exactly right.
• 1:07:34
  My dad would always say kiss, K-I-S-S, keep it simple, stupid.
• 1:07:38
  say, yeah, you're exactly right.
• 1:07:42
  Something has to change.
• 1:07:44
  Well, the definition of that, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
• 1:07:52
  So change something.
• 1:07:55
  Man, uh there is so much for part two in this.
• 1:07:58
  So we're gonna have you back, but before we go, there's a couple things.
• 1:08:03
  First off, um how do people find out more about you?
• 1:08:06
  And do you go around and speak?
• 1:08:08
  Like, what do you do?
• 1:08:10
  Okay, so I am a public speaker.
• 1:08:12
  I'm a motivational inspirational speaker.
• 1:08:15
  I speak from anywhere from K to 12, all the way the Ford Motor Company, Coca-Cola.
• 1:08:22
  I'm speaking at the hospital in Colorado next week, uh the university.
• 1:08:28
  So I speak on grit, overcoming adversity.
• 1:08:34
  Teams how you provide your team?
• 1:08:37
  How you show up in the world?
• 1:08:39
  So I speak you speak on a lot of different principles and depending on my audience and who that is m And is always received so very well and it changes lives Immediately it changes
• 1:08:51
  corporations immediately like I give you tools and situations that Literally change instantly and it keeps people accountable Especially on teams when we talk about how you
• 1:09:03
  show up
• 1:09:04
  So how do you get a hold of me?
• 1:09:06
  um I've got my website.
• 1:09:08
  That's Blanchard inspires calm I guess we'll probably put that down in the notes You can get a hold of me on any of my social platforms I have
• 1:09:20
  On Instagram, it's Matti, M-A-T-T-Y Blanche, B-L-A-N-C-H, and then the number three, Matti Blanche three on Instagram, Matt Blanchard on TikTok, Facebook, and also on Facebook, I
• 1:09:34
  have my nonprofit, which is Today's First Step, where we help other people who have suffered deficits get back out in the world and be able to do any sport that they want.
• 1:09:46
  And also we provide a community of like-minded individuals.
• 1:09:52
  to help because if you can imagine you're you're this able bodied healthy person you get hurt well this community that you were in with all your friends you just got stripped from
• 1:10:01
  that community yeah they're still there but you don't that is different and you're you put into this community at the acute rehab with these doctors and therapists and cna's and to
• 1:10:10
  help you become independent in a wheelchair and as as soon as you are independent you're discharged and you are stripped from that community instantly just like the accident and
• 1:10:21
  then you come home
• 1:10:23
  and you have a tendency to go to dark places.
• 1:10:28
  And so we've developed Southern Utah Adaptive Sports, which is our nonprofit, and we will plug you right into that community.
• 1:10:37
  So if you know anybody who has suffered a deficit, any type of deficit, spinal cord injury, amputation, TBI, uh a stroke, reach out.
• 1:10:50
  please follow me on my socials and we will get them water skiing, golfing, riding horses, riding, you wanna do it?
• 1:10:59
  We will provide the opportunity to do that.
• 1:11:02
  So that's what our nonprofit does.
• 1:11:04
  um And I speak all over the nation and I would love the opportunity to speak in front of your organization.
• 1:11:11
  um
• 1:11:12
  my if you go to Maddie Blanche 3 on Instagram you can go to my link tree and that will take you to all my socials and things like that.
• 1:11:21
  So yeah.
• 1:11:23
  That is awesome.
• 1:11:23
  I can't wait till next time where we dive more into the sports side.
• 1:11:27
  I'd be remiss if I don't cover this topic because there's a couple of things that alluded to it.
• 1:11:34
  You spoke earlier about authenticity, and now you're speaking about community.
• 1:11:39
  It is my, I'm heavy into technology.
• 1:11:42
  We sell SaaS.
• 1:11:43
  uh So, and we do some stuff with AI, but I feel like the more the technology rises, the more these two things are important.
• 1:11:51
  the authenticity and the community.
• 1:11:53
  Because now you can clone yourself as an AI and you, how non-authentic is that, right?
• 1:12:01
  So.
• 1:12:02
  You hit it on heads.
• 1:12:04
  in your, I have absolutely zero fear of AI.
• 1:12:08
  I do use it as a tool and things, but AI, like I said earlier, Doug, you can't be me.
• 1:12:14
  I can't be you.
• 1:12:15
  AI can't be me.
• 1:12:17
  And so I will, I will be ahead of AI as far as any profession and a career always.
• 1:12:24
  they, cause I'm perfect in AI.
• 1:12:29
  Nice, nice.
• 1:12:30
  I love it.
• 1:12:30
  I love it.
• 1:12:30
  uh So we always close.
• 1:12:33
  I feel like we're going to do this twice, but every episode I close with because I feel like there's always something on someone's heart or something that they wanted to say that
• 1:12:42
  maybe I didn't ask you.
• 1:12:44
  So I freeform at the end, uh any parting words of wisdom or anything that you'd like to share with the audience.
• 1:12:53
  So what you're going through right now is temporary.
• 1:12:56
  are in, believe it or not, your mind is more powerful than AI, than any other supercomputer.
• 1:13:04
  um Your thoughts generate feelings.
• 1:13:08
  Your feelings generate actions.
• 1:13:11
  Your actions generate who you become and who you are.
• 1:13:14
  So that's how powerful thoughts are.
• 1:13:16
  I would encourage anyone listening to start with some affirmations.
• 1:13:21
  And if you want my affirmations, please DM me and I'll throw you my affirmations and you start with those and then you can kind of come into your own.
• 1:13:34
  The most powerful statement on the planet is I am and then what comes after.
• 1:13:39
  So I am a lot of things.
• 1:13:43
  I am a...
• 1:13:44
  I am an amazing father.
• 1:13:46
  An amazing...
• 1:13:47
  I could tell you all the amazing things I'm good at, but...
• 1:13:53
  Life is what we make it.
• 1:13:55
  Mmm.
• 1:13:56
  focusing on all of the drama.
• 1:13:58
  Get rid of the drama.
• 1:14:00
  Stop focusing on all the negative.
• 1:14:02
  Start focusing on the positive, the abundance, the...
• 1:14:05
  You're living somebody's dream life.
• 1:14:08
  Believe it or not, there is somebody out there saying, I wish I had that car, I wish I had that house, I wish my kids talked to me like they...
• 1:14:15
  You know what I'm saying?
• 1:14:15
  So you're living somebody's dream life.
• 1:14:18
  Be thankful, be appreciative, be humble.
• 1:14:21
  Yeah, gratitude.
• 1:14:24
  I mean, we continue going.
• 1:14:27
  A lot of verses about anxiety in the Bible come to me.
• 1:14:30
  oh God says, not be anxious because...
• 1:14:34
  Wow.
• 1:14:35
  You present man.
• 1:14:37
  Why are you worrying about that?
• 1:14:39
  mean, that's a good, another thing Doug is your vibe attracts your tribe.
• 1:14:45
  Like right now, but my positiveness, like negative people are truly, they think I'm obnoxious.
• 1:14:51
  I'm too much, too big.
• 1:14:53
  And.
• 1:14:55
  I am for them.
• 1:14:57
  but I vibe with and once you it's so true, the ether is true.
• 1:15:04
  We're using it right now.
• 1:15:06
  And if you don't understand the ether, would my rethinking grow rich thing.
• 1:15:12
  Pray be humble.
• 1:15:14
  um Be thankful for your challenges be thankful Thank God for your challenge and ask for the just the guidance the wisdom and the strength to get through it Because you got to go
• 1:15:28
  through it you got through it not God and and just Love love always
• 1:15:36
  Yeah.
• 1:15:37
  What I want to leave everybody with this because I'm just inspired by your by your story.
• 1:15:45
  Your breakthrough is often on the other end of a trial.
• 1:15:48
  Your success is on the other end of a trial.
• 1:15:51
  So if you're going through a trial right now, just have faith in that, that your breakthrough is on the other side.
• 1:15:58
  So.
• 1:15:59
  I'm saying your future self is already taking care of it.
• 1:16:02
  All your worries today, but think about that for just a second.
• 1:16:05
  All your, all the things you're worried about and everything.
• 1:16:08
  You're, already know you, I mean, you've taken care of everything up to this point.
• 1:16:11
  Are you really going to start letting yourself down now?
• 1:16:13
  No.
• 1:16:14
  So chill out, be present and trust yourself that you've already taken care of it.
• 1:16:21
  So uh audience, uh get Matt, no matter what, refer him to an organization.
• 1:16:28
  If you don't have an organization, you've already heard part of his story.
• 1:16:32
  That's only part one.
• 1:16:33
  uh Imagine what he could share uh with your audience.
• 1:16:37
  So uh go down, click the buttons, not the buttons, the links that we have below to get in touch with Matt.
• 1:16:44
  We'll have all his social links.
• 1:16:45
  We'll have his website.
• 1:16:46
  Every way that you can possibly get in touch with Matt, we'll have that below.
• 1:16:49
  And make sure that you do it because this story needs to expand beyond just my audience.
• 1:16:54
  It needs to expand as with as many people as possible because it's going to change lives.
• 1:16:59
  It 100 % it changes lives immediately.
• 1:17:02
  I'll share my my my probably most precious moment as speaker.
• 1:17:08
  I was speaking to a high school crowd and at the very end I always get mobbed by the kids because we physical touches bro.
• 1:17:17
  And we got people high fiving, and in anyway, there's this young lady and she's dressed in this gray outfit and she's rocking back and forth.
• 1:17:27
  And I can tell she has special needs.
• 1:17:30
  And the principal is sitting there and the teacher and she waits for all the students to leave and she comes up to me and she tells me her name and she's autistic and I don't like
• 1:17:40
  to be touched but I want to give you a hug.
• 1:17:42
  the...
• 1:17:45
  principal's mouth is open, the teacher's mouth is open.
• 1:17:47
  And so I just kind of looking at them and I just opened my arms up and she came over and named Jessica and she came in and she's super rigid.
• 1:17:55
  And I didn't know what to do.
• 1:17:56
  And I just whispered in her ear, I was like, Jessica, you are beautiful.
• 1:18:00
  And she melted into me and we embraced until she let go.
• 1:18:07
  And I look up the teachers falling.
• 1:18:11
  and they walk off and the principal comes up to me and says, I've known that young lady her entire life.
• 1:18:16
  She lives in my neighborhood.
• 1:18:18
  She goes to my faith and I have never seen anyone touch her.
• 1:18:24
  And that's the power of my presentation.
• 1:18:27
  Wow.
• 1:18:29
  Wow.
• 1:18:29
  Again, click the links, people.
• 1:18:31
  oh Thank you.
• 1:18:35
  Thank you so much, Matt.
• 1:18:36
  And until next time, keep moving forward.
• 1:18:39
  uh
• 1:18:41
  You bet, you bet.
• 1:18:42
  Hey, thanks Doug.
• 1:18:43
  It's been amazing and I can't wait for the next one.
• 1:18:46
  That's right.