Latest / Something Extra / Family, Faith, and Miracles w/ Sam Goodwin

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Family, Faith, and Miracles w/ Sam Goodwin · Something Extra

• 0:02
  Lisa Nichols: Chromosomes.
• 0:03
  Lisa Nichols: Little strands of nucleic acids and proteins are the fundamental genetic instructions
• 0:08
  Lisa Nichols: that tell us who we are at birth.
• 0:10
  Lisa Nichols: Most people are born with forty six chromosomes, but each year in the United
• 0:14
  Lisa Nichols: States, about six thousand people are born with an extra chromosome, making them a
• 0:18
  Lisa Nichols: person with Down syndrome.
• 0:20
  Lisa Nichols: If you've ever encountered someone with Down syndrome, you know that they are some
• 0:24
  Lisa Nichols: of the kindest, most joyful people you will ever meet.
• 0:27
  Lisa Nichols: They truly have something extra.
• 0:30
  Lisa Nichols: My name is Lisa Nichols, and for thirty years, I have been both the
• 0:34
  Lisa Nichols: CEO of Technology Partners and the mother to Ally.
• 0:38
  Lisa Nichols: Ally has something extra in every sense of the word.
• 0:41
  Lisa Nichols: I have been blessed to be by her side as she impacts everyone she
• 0:45
  Lisa Nichols: meets.
• 0:46
  Lisa Nichols: Through these two important roles as CEO and mother to Ally, I have
• 0:50
  Lisa Nichols: witnessed countless life lessons that have fundamentally changed the way I look at the
• 0:54
  Lisa Nichols: world.
• 0:55
  Lisa Nichols: While you may not have an extra chromosome, every leader has something extra that
• 0:59
  Lisa Nichols: defines who you are.
• 1:00
  Lisa Nichols: Join me as I explore the something extra in leaders from all walks of
• 1:04
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• 1:20
  Lisa Nichols: Before we get started, I'm excited to share that my book Something Extra is
• 1:23
  Lisa Nichols: now available.
• 1:25
  Lisa Nichols: It is rooted in the remarkable spirit of our daughter, Ally, and the heartfelt
• 1:29
  Lisa Nichols: conversations we've had on the podcast.
• 1:31
  Lisa Nichols: You'll find wisdom and practical tools to ignite the leader within you and
• 1:35
  Lisa Nichols: uncover your own something extra.
• 1:37
  Lisa Nichols: Visit something extra book dot com or find it at Amazon or in all
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  Lisa Nichols: major bookstores to order your copy today.
• 1:44
  Lisa Nichols: I'm excited to have Sam Goodwin on the show today.
• 1:47
  Lisa Nichols: Sam is a national speaker and best selling author.
• 1:50
  Lisa Nichols: Well, Sam Goodwin, I am so excited.
• 1:53
  Lisa Nichols: I've been so excited about this interview with you today, this podcast episode.
• 1:57
  Lisa Nichols: Thank you so much for making the time to be on the show today.
• 2:01
  Lisa Nichols: I am very grateful for you, and I cannot wait to introduce you to
• 2:05
  Lisa Nichols: our listeners.
• 2:07
  Sam Goodwin: It's my pleasure.
• 2:08
  Sam Goodwin: So happy to be here on something extra with you, Lisa.
• 2:11
  Lisa Nichols: And I have to give a shout out to our mutual friend, Laura Herring.
• 2:16
  Sam Goodwin: That's right.
• 2:17
  Lisa Nichols: Is the one that connected us, and I am so grateful.
• 2:20
  Lisa Nichols: But now we've had some sidebar conversations, Sam, and we know a lot of
• 2:24
  Lisa Nichols: the same people, which is really always fun, you know, to see that we've
• 2:28
  Lisa Nichols: got lots more connections.
• 2:29
  Lisa Nichols: But
• 2:30
  Sam Goodwin: Absolutely.
• 2:30
  Sam Goodwin: It's small world and getting smaller.
• 2:32
  Lisa Nichols: It is.
• 2:33
  Lisa Nichols: And so there's just so much that I wanna talk to you about.
• 2:37
  Lisa Nichols: I told you also in a sidebar conversation where you've got a book called
• 2:40
  Lisa Nichols: Saving Sam, and it's your story.
• 2:43
  Lisa Nichols: And I told you on my trip to California to and from, I mean,
• 2:47
  Lisa Nichols: I literally could not put it down.
• 2:49
  Lisa Nichols: So I'm hoping that our listeners will go out and get the book and
• 2:51
  Lisa Nichols: start following you.
• 2:53
  Lisa Nichols: We're gonna dig into that a lot more.
• 2:55
  Lisa Nichols: But I would love for you to tell me, like, if you were to
• 2:57
  Lisa Nichols: introduce yourself and I mean, you've introduced yourself to people all over the world,
• 3:02
  Lisa Nichols: and we're gonna talk about that.
• 3:03
  Lisa Nichols: How do you introduce yourself just by beyond the headlines?
• 3:07
  Sam Goodwin: Oh, yeah.
• 3:08
  Sam Goodwin: I guess it kinda depends on the setting, but I'm Sam Goodwin originally from
• 3:12
  Sam Goodwin: and grew up in Saint Louis, Missouri near the geographic center of
• 3:16
  Sam Goodwin: the United States.
• 3:17
  Sam Goodwin: Today, I'm a a speaker and author and, still enjoy.
• 3:21
  Sam Goodwin: I live in DC now, but still love coming back to Saint Louis where
• 3:24
  Sam Goodwin: my parents are and, and I'll always enjoy making it back there.
• 3:29
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 3:29
  Lisa Nichols: Very much.
• 3:30
  Lisa Nichols: And so that that's a good segue because I do wanna talk to you
• 3:33
  Lisa Nichols: about your family.
• 3:34
  Lisa Nichols: And I know your family now.
• 3:36
  Lisa Nichols: You you grew up in a in a fairly large, faith filled family.
• 3:40
  Lisa Nichols: You've got four siblings.
• 3:42
  Lisa Nichols: I I know a little bit about each of them now, Paul, David, Stephanie,
• 3:45
  Lisa Nichols: and Betty.
• 3:46
  Lisa Nichols: Is that right?
• 3:46
  Sam Goodwin: That's right.
• 3:47
  Sam Goodwin: That's right.
• 3:48
  Sam Goodwin: You were paying attention.
• 3:50
  Lisa Nichols: I was paying attention.
• 3:52
  Lisa Nichols: So, I know you just grew up.
• 3:54
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you guys, incredibly strong bonds between
• 3:58
  Lisa Nichols: you all.
• 3:59
  Lisa Nichols: You guys are, like, your siblings, your best friends.
• 4:03
  Lisa Nichols: You and your your brother played hockey together.
• 4:05
  Lisa Nichols: Just all kinds of stuff.
• 4:06
  Lisa Nichols: But tell me, like, what values did your parents instill
• 4:10
  Lisa Nichols: in you, Sam, that have still shaped how you live
• 4:14
  Lisa Nichols: and and work today?
• 4:16
  Sam Goodwin: Absolutely.
• 4:17
  Sam Goodwin: I'm so grateful to my parents for instilling a strong Catholic faith into
• 4:21
  Sam Goodwin: my four younger siblings and I, something that we've carried with us through our
• 4:25
  Sam Goodwin: whole lives.
• 4:25
  Sam Goodwin: And another thing I'll mention is today,
• 4:29
  Sam Goodwin: so the five of us, we all live in different places.
• 4:33
  Sam Goodwin: But what I found is actually that that geographic separation, in in
• 4:37
  Sam Goodwin: my opinion, has actually made us closer
• 4:41
  Sam Goodwin: in a way.
• 4:41
  Sam Goodwin: And and I think some of that is because it makes the time that
• 4:45
  Sam Goodwin: we are together that much more special when you're really, like, you really focus
• 4:49
  Sam Goodwin: and and and put in the effort to to make that time to to
• 4:52
  Sam Goodwin: be together.
• 4:53
  Sam Goodwin: So in a way, it's like the geographic separation has actually made us, like,
• 4:56
  Sam Goodwin: relationally closer.
• 4:58
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 4:59
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 5:01
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 5:01
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, I just I think about your family, and we're gonna talk more
• 5:04
  Lisa Nichols: about this, but it's kinda like all for one and one for all.
• 5:08
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you guys and we're gonna talk about the story, but your family
• 5:11
  Lisa Nichols: was all in, and I think your family was really the secret
• 5:15
  Lisa Nichols: sauce,
• 5:17
  Lisa Nichols: to to what you went through and how you got out of what what
• 5:20
  Lisa Nichols: you went through.
• 5:21
  Lisa Nichols: But, you know, I read that you love geography, even starting,
• 5:25
  Lisa Nichols: like, at a young age.
• 5:26
  Lisa Nichols: Your parents, I think, bought you a globe.
• 5:29
  Lisa Nichols: Was it one of those talking globes, Sam?
• 5:31
  Sam Goodwin: You know, I don't know if I don't know if it was one of
• 5:34
  Sam Goodwin: the talking ones, and and I'm not I I'm not even sure, like, where
• 5:37
  Sam Goodwin: that kind of curiosity interest in geography, like, really came
• 5:41
  Sam Goodwin: from, but I do remember having that globe.
• 5:43
  Sam Goodwin: And then, in in third grade, I won
• 5:47
  Sam Goodwin: my class's geography b, which, you know, I was not very
• 5:51
  Sam Goodwin: good in school.
• 5:52
  Sam Goodwin: So for me to win anything academically was just really strange,
• 5:57
  Sam Goodwin: but I had this kind of underlying curiosity from a young age around, like,
• 6:01
  Sam Goodwin: the world and its people.
• 6:03
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 6:04
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 6:06
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 6:06
  Lisa Nichols: So, I mean, you I love that you just said this, this lifelong curiosity
• 6:10
  Lisa Nichols: about people around the world.
• 6:11
  Lisa Nichols: And so that kind of, you know, led you into all kinds of,
• 6:16
  Lisa Nichols: adventures that we will talk about.
• 6:18
  Lisa Nichols: But I also know that you were division one hockey player.
• 6:20
  Lisa Nichols: You went to Niagara University.
• 6:23
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 6:23
  Lisa Nichols: What lessons and I I bet you there's a lot.
• 6:26
  Lisa Nichols: What lessons did hockey teach you about teamwork
• 6:30
  Lisa Nichols: and resilience and grit and discipline?
• 6:34
  Lisa Nichols: I'm sure there's a lot.
• 6:35
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 6:36
  Sam Goodwin: Absolutely.
• 6:36
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, a com a career as a competitive athlete,
• 6:40
  Sam Goodwin: I I didn't even realize at the time the things that I was that
• 6:43
  Sam Goodwin: I was learning.
• 6:44
  Sam Goodwin: But those skills and traits have helped me in so many ways beyond
• 6:49
  Sam Goodwin: my playing career, the mental toughness, critical thinking, resilience,
• 6:54
  Sam Goodwin: how many times that we had a boss or a coach tell us control
• 6:57
  Sam Goodwin: what you can control.
• 6:58
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, we hear CEOs say all the time that they like to hire
• 7:01
  Sam Goodwin: athletes, and I think that a lot of that is because of the skills
• 7:04
  Sam Goodwin: and traits that are developed, through those types of careers.
• 7:08
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 7:08
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 7:09
  Lisa Nichols: I know at one time, I don't know if this is still the case,
• 7:12
  Lisa Nichols: but Enterprise Rent A Car, which you know is an iconic brand here in
• 7:15
  Lisa Nichols: St.
• 7:15
  Lisa Nichols: Louis, born born in in St.
• 7:18
  Lisa Nichols: Louis, St.
• 7:18
  Lisa Nichols: Louis made.
• 7:20
  Lisa Nichols: I know at one time, they always looked for, you know, people that had
• 7:24
  Lisa Nichols: played competitive sports, you know, or Eagle Scouts, you know, was
• 7:28
  Lisa Nichols: another thing that they would look for.
• 7:30
  Lisa Nichols: And I think it's just those those character traits that you learn
• 7:34
  Lisa Nichols: that truly are transferable into the business world.
• 7:37
  Sam Goodwin: For sure.
• 7:38
  Sam Goodwin: And sometimes those can be a little bit unteachable.
• 7:42
  Sam Goodwin: So I think the idea is often bring someone who has those and then
• 7:45
  Sam Goodwin: we can teach them the rest.
• 7:46
  Sam Goodwin: Right?
• 7:47
  Sam Goodwin: So that, like, performance under pressure, teamwork thing I think athletes have
• 7:51
  Sam Goodwin: this unusual ability to deal with failure.
• 7:53
  Sam Goodwin: And so all these things that just go into, you know, to our personal
• 7:57
  Sam Goodwin: professional lives.
• 7:59
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 7:59
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 8:00
  Lisa Nichols: Very good.
• 8:01
  Lisa Nichols: Well, unfortunately, you you suffered several concussions, I think,
• 8:05
  Lisa Nichols: that are you know, I I'm sure you wanted to go on and play
• 8:08
  Lisa Nichols: for the blues.
• 8:09
  Sam Goodwin: That would've been great.
• 8:10
  Sam Goodwin: That would've been great.
• 8:12
  Sam Goodwin: Took a different path.
• 8:13
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 8:14
  Lisa Nichols: It took you on a different path and a good path.
• 8:17
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you've got a great story.
• 8:18
  Lisa Nichols: So, you know, but, I mean, those you you talked about dealing with
• 8:23
  Lisa Nichols: failure.
• 8:23
  Lisa Nichols: So how did that setback I mean, how did you how did you get
• 8:27
  Lisa Nichols: through that setback?
• 8:28
  Lisa Nichols: Because I'm sure that was disappointing for you.
• 8:30
  Sam Goodwin: For sure.
• 8:31
  Sam Goodwin: So, concussion injuries were something that I battled my entire career.
• 8:36
  Sam Goodwin: It ended up kind of ending my my formal playing career.
• 8:39
  Sam Goodwin: And at the time, you know, my early twenties, kind of in my last
• 8:42
  Sam Goodwin: couple years of college, that was that was heartbreaking.
• 8:46
  Sam Goodwin: It was if the floor of my life was being ripped out from underneath
• 8:49
  Sam Goodwin: me.
• 8:49
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, I I had never
• 8:52
  Sam Goodwin: considered doing anything else other than playing hockey.
• 8:55
  Sam Goodwin: That's all that's all I wanted to do.
• 8:56
  Sam Goodwin: And and then that was essentially taken from me because the doctors told me
• 9:00
  Sam Goodwin: that another, you know, head injury could do permanent damage
• 9:04
  Sam Goodwin: to my brain and and, you know, I was just it just didn't make
• 9:08
  Sam Goodwin: sense to to continue, unfortunately.
• 9:10
  Sam Goodwin: And so it was it was a challenging time and and, you
• 9:14
  Sam Goodwin: know, now with, like, you know, hindsight and everything, I see
• 9:18
  Sam Goodwin: that, you know, that led me down a path that, you know, has brought
• 9:22
  Sam Goodwin: so many other opportunities and experiences.
• 9:26
  Sam Goodwin: I didn't know that at the time.
• 9:27
  Sam Goodwin: It was a lot younger.
• 9:28
  Sam Goodwin: It's it it was frustrating.
• 9:30
  Sam Goodwin: It it it was really tough.
• 9:32
  Sam Goodwin: So,
• 9:34
  Sam Goodwin: you know, looking back on it, that's just kind of how it
• 9:37
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 9:38
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 9:39
  Lisa Nichols: You and I, both know John O'Leary and John O'Leary's story, and
• 9:44
  Lisa Nichols: Soul on Fire just came out.
• 9:45
  Lisa Nichols: And, you know, he loved baseball.
• 9:47
  Lisa Nichols: I'm sure John dreamed of being a Cardinals player.
• 9:51
  Lisa Nichols: You know, Sam, he he and and, you know,
• 9:55
  Lisa Nichols: in the movie, I don't wanna spoil it, but, you know, when at one
• 9:58
  Lisa Nichols: point, somebody said, would you go back and do it differently?
• 10:01
  Lisa Nichols: And at first, he said, yes.
• 10:02
  Lisa Nichols: I would.
• 10:02
  Lisa Nichols: And then, you know, he realized that, wow, this has brought me on a
• 10:06
  Lisa Nichols: path and meeting people and having experiences that I would not have had
• 10:10
  Lisa Nichols: otherwise.
• 10:11
  Lisa Nichols: So it's it doesn't mean it's not hard.
• 10:14
  Lisa Nichols: Adversity is hard.
• 10:15
  Lisa Nichols: And when we had those setbacks, it's hard, and it's okay to grieve
• 10:20
  Lisa Nichols: about it.
• 10:21
  Sam Goodwin: Absolutely.
• 10:21
  Sam Goodwin: I a lot that I could say, I would just say I think that,
• 10:24
  Sam Goodwin: we're all I think we're all stronger and more resilient than we can imagine
• 10:28
  Sam Goodwin: in in those uncertain times are exactly what we need in order to
• 10:32
  Sam Goodwin: grow.
• 10:33
  Sam Goodwin: And and I'll I'll also take this opportunity to just mention John,
• 10:37
  Sam Goodwin: and I think he's just, salt of the earth, incredible person.
• 10:41
  Sam Goodwin: He's helped me so much over the past several years, with kind
• 10:45
  Sam Goodwin: of my business, and he's helped so many people.
• 10:49
  Sam Goodwin: And, he had me on his podcast.
• 10:51
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, he he he he's just been fantastic and can't say enough nice
• 10:54
  Sam Goodwin: things about him.
• 10:55
  Sam Goodwin: I'm so happy for for his film that came out.
• 10:56
  Sam Goodwin: I I was telling you before this that I I I saw it last
• 10:59
  Sam Goodwin: week, and I left the theater just thinking, like, we need
• 11:04
  Sam Goodwin: in my opinion, we need more movies like this.
• 11:07
  Sam Goodwin: I I mean, there's just so much, like, negativity and and disagreements and all
• 11:10
  Sam Goodwin: these things.
• 11:11
  Sam Goodwin: Why don't we focus on the positives?
• 11:12
  Sam Goodwin: Because there are so many positives.
• 11:14
  Sam Goodwin: And and I just I just I I I think we need more movies
• 11:17
  Sam Goodwin: like that.
• 11:18
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 11:19
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 11:20
  Lisa Nichols: I I could not agree more.
• 11:21
  Lisa Nichols: And, you know, we hosted, like, a couple hundred people, you know,
• 11:25
  Lisa Nichols: for the film.
• 11:26
  Lisa Nichols: And the feedback that we got back, Sam, was just incredible.
• 11:31
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, young people that came to the film and left,
• 11:35
  Lisa Nichols: you know, saying, you know, one one young woman said that, mom, that was
• 11:38
  Lisa Nichols: a coming of age movie.
• 11:40
  Lisa Nichols: And the mom said, what what do you mean by that?
• 11:43
  Lisa Nichols: She goes, I grew up in that movie.
• 11:45
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 11:45
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, that is, you know, to affect positive transformation
• 11:50
  Lisa Nichols: in people.
• 11:50
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 11:51
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, stories like that certainly can do it, and I think your story
• 11:54
  Lisa Nichols: is the same way, Sam.
• 11:55
  Lisa Nichols: But, you know, you had this insatiable desire to travel.
• 11:59
  Lisa Nichols: In fact, go ahead and tell our listeners, what was your mission?
• 12:03
  Sam Goodwin: So right.
• 12:04
  Sam Goodwin: So after after college, kinda go back to the concussion thing.
• 12:07
  Sam Goodwin: I wasn't sure what I was gonna do.
• 12:08
  Sam Goodwin: Long story short, I had the opportunity to, to go overseas to to
• 12:12
  Sam Goodwin: Singapore and and work for a a tech startup business.
• 12:15
  Sam Goodwin: And actually originally only planned to be there for about three months,
• 12:19
  Sam Goodwin: but I ended up staying for six years.
• 12:21
  Sam Goodwin: And and it was a fantastic opportunity, a a great way to begin
• 12:25
  Sam Goodwin: my professional career.
• 12:26
  Sam Goodwin: I was working for this tech startup and and and an NGO.
• 12:29
  Sam Goodwin: And and throughout that time, I I began to kind of travel
• 12:34
  Sam Goodwin: as much as I could.
• 12:34
  Sam Goodwin: I was in my early twenties in the heart of Southeast Asia.
• 12:37
  Sam Goodwin: I had, you know, a little bit of flexibility.
• 12:40
  Sam Goodwin: My work schedule had the world's best airport in my backyard, and and
• 12:44
  Sam Goodwin: and and it took advantage of that opportunity to explore as much of the
• 12:47
  Sam Goodwin: region and beyond as possible.
• 12:49
  Sam Goodwin: And just a personal preference when I traveled, I didn't
• 12:53
  Sam Goodwin: like to, to repeat places.
• 12:56
  Sam Goodwin: So even if I went somewhere and had a great experience, you know, the
• 12:59
  Sam Goodwin: next week and the next holiday, the next opportunity I had, I would just
• 13:03
  Sam Goodwin: go somewhere different.
• 13:05
  Sam Goodwin: And, so I put that formula into play for about six years.
• 13:08
  Sam Goodwin: And in early twenty eighteen, I I realized that I had
• 13:12
  Sam Goodwin: traveled to about a hundred and twenty countries in the world.
• 13:17
  Sam Goodwin: And it it was at that point when I remember thinking, well, like like,
• 13:21
  Sam Goodwin: how many are there?
• 13:23
  Sam Goodwin: I I I always travel because it was fun and I enjoyed it.
• 13:26
  Sam Goodwin: But most importantly, I learned from it.
• 13:27
  Sam Goodwin: Travel's the best education I've ever had.
• 13:30
  Sam Goodwin: It it it was never about ticking boxes or checking places off a
• 13:34
  Sam Goodwin: list.
• 13:34
  Sam Goodwin: And but I got to that point.
• 13:36
  Sam Goodwin: I did a little bit of research and learned that there are a hundred
• 13:39
  Sam Goodwin: and ninety three fully recognized UN
• 13:43
  Sam Goodwin: sovereign states.
• 13:44
  Sam Goodwin: And so I thought to myself, well, maybe I could go to all
• 13:48
  Sam Goodwin: of them.
• 13:49
  Sam Goodwin: And and that competitive athlete in me, like, setting goals and working toward achieving
• 13:53
  Sam Goodwin: them and so on.
• 13:53
  Sam Goodwin: So started doing some more research and and and decided to to
• 13:57
  Sam Goodwin: to to try and go to all the countries in the world.
• 14:01
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 14:02
  Lisa Nichols: And and to your point, you know, Sam, when you went to
• 14:06
  Lisa Nichols: these countries, you kind of immersed yourself a little bit.
• 14:08
  Lisa Nichols: But, you know, I love, you know, I love, like,
• 14:13
  Lisa Nichols: talking about the people and, you know, you would experience the food, you
• 14:17
  Lisa Nichols: would experience the culture.
• 14:18
  Lisa Nichols: What were some of the most surprising things that you learned at
• 14:22
  Lisa Nichols: some of the places that you visited?
• 14:25
  Sam Goodwin: Oh, I mean, travels in like, generally taught me
• 14:29
  Sam Goodwin: so much.
• 14:30
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, it's taught me how to become comfortable being uncomfortable about
• 14:34
  Sam Goodwin: the power of perspective.
• 14:35
  Sam Goodwin: It's it's taught me to to to never
• 14:39
  Sam Goodwin: judge people by the actions of their government.
• 14:43
  Sam Goodwin: I've learned that that people who have the least often
• 14:47
  Sam Goodwin: give the most, something that I found to be true in all corners of
• 14:50
  Sam Goodwin: the world.
• 14:51
  Sam Goodwin: More specifically, the one, like, just a a story that comes to mind
• 14:55
  Sam Goodwin: is I was in, I was in the Pacific island
• 14:59
  Sam Goodwin: nation of Samoa, and I had a friend of mine, a friend of
• 15:03
  Sam Goodwin: a friend who was showing me around.
• 15:05
  Sam Goodwin: Her name was Marissa.
• 15:06
  Sam Goodwin: And she took me around the island, had this great visit.
• 15:09
  Sam Goodwin: And that evening, we went to, actually an Italian restaurant,
• 15:13
  Sam Goodwin: and she brought actually her boyfriend with her to the dinner.
• 15:16
  Sam Goodwin: So it was the three of us.
• 15:18
  Sam Goodwin: And it turned out that her boyfriend, Paul, was one of the captains
• 15:22
  Sam Goodwin: of the Samoan national rugby team.
• 15:26
  Sam Goodwin: And, you you know, in that part of the world, rugby's a a big
• 15:29
  Sam Goodwin: deal.
• 15:29
  Sam Goodwin: Right?
• 15:30
  Sam Goodwin: But I I I didn't know quite how big of a deal it was
• 15:33
  Sam Goodwin: until we went to pay our bill.
• 15:36
  Sam Goodwin: And the the currency in Samoa is called the tala.
• 15:39
  Sam Goodwin: And Marissa, the waitress comes over, and Marissa pulls out
• 15:43
  Sam Goodwin: ten tala to pay the the waitress.
• 15:45
  Sam Goodwin: And before she gives it to the waitress, she shows it to me.
• 15:49
  Sam Goodwin: And Paul, along with the two other captains of
• 15:53
  Sam Goodwin: the rugby team, are on the note.
• 15:59
  Sam Goodwin: He and and I and I looked at him and was like, you're,
• 16:03
  Sam Goodwin: you think you're on the money of of this country?
• 16:07
  Sam Goodwin: And and and so it was just this very surprise.
• 16:09
  Sam Goodwin: Like, I think of people on money.
• 16:11
  Sam Goodwin: It's like
• 16:11
  Lisa Nichols: We put Presidents on them.
• 16:12
  Sam Goodwin: Washington or the Queen, r ight?
• 16:15
  Sam Goodwin: Or Nelson Mandela.
• 16:16
  Sam Goodwin: Or in this case, it was Paul, the captain of the rugby team that
• 16:20
  Sam Goodwin: was sitting.
• 16:20
  Sam Goodwin: So just a kind of a surprising thing that happened, and these kinda quirky
• 16:24
  Sam Goodwin: things happen in these these kind of remote parts of the world sometimes.
• 16:27
  Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness.
• 16:28
  Lisa Nichols: That is funny.
• 16:29
  Lisa Nichols: I'll remember that.
• 16:30
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 16:30
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 16:31
  Lisa Nichols: We put presidents on our money.
• 16:32
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 16:33
  Lisa Nichols: So that's really interesting, but that just shows you how much they value
• 16:36
  Sam Goodwin: Exactly.
• 16:37
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 16:37
  Lisa Nichols: Rugby.
• 16:38
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 16:40
  Lisa Nichols: So talk about this.
• 16:41
  Lisa Nichols: You got to, coach hockey in North Korea.
• 16:46
  Lisa Nichols: And then with other places, how did those experience how did that all
• 16:50
  Lisa Nichols: come about, and what did that teach you?
• 16:52
  Sam Goodwin: Yep.
• 16:53
  Sam Goodwin: So, in twenty sixteen, I was living in Singapore, and,
• 16:57
  Sam Goodwin: there was a Canadian man who was putting together this
• 17:01
  Sam Goodwin: opportunity to go and coach and and play against the
• 17:05
  Sam Goodwin: North Korean national ice hockey team.
• 17:08
  Sam Goodwin: And and, you know, I I was already living in Asia, and I was
• 17:11
  Sam Goodwin: playing some hockey there for fun and,
• 17:15
  Sam Goodwin: so got connected with him and was immediately
• 17:19
  Sam Goodwin: was immediately interested.
• 17:20
  Sam Goodwin: And so long story short, I went I spent a week there in, in
• 17:24
  Sam Goodwin: early twenty in March of twenty sixteen and had
• 17:28
  Sam Goodwin: a fantastic experience.
• 17:30
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, we were treated like royalty.
• 17:31
  Sam Goodwin: The food, the culture, everything was great.
• 17:35
  Sam Goodwin: Now I'm not I'm not oblivious to the fact that
• 17:39
  Sam Goodwin: I saw what they wanted me to see and getting off that tourist
• 17:43
  Sam Goodwin: track things can look can look different.
• 17:45
  Sam Goodwin: But it it was it was what it taught me was particularly
• 17:49
  Sam Goodwin: memorable was using
• 17:52
  Sam Goodwin: hockey as a way to build a cultural bridge with Right.
• 17:56
  Sam Goodwin: People.
• 17:57
  Sam Goodwin: And these guys on the team, they they they worked hard.
• 18:00
  Sam Goodwin: They listened.
• 18:01
  Sam Goodwin: They wanted to get better.
• 18:02
  Sam Goodwin: They wanted to be there.
• 18:03
  Sam Goodwin: And and it was really a privilege to be able to share some, you
• 18:06
  Sam Goodwin: know, some knowledge or some ideas with them.
• 18:09
  Sam Goodwin: And and and so I think, you know, another thing that travels taught me
• 18:12
  Sam Goodwin: more broad like, broadly and then also in this situation is just
• 18:16
  Sam Goodwin: the the we're we're all fundamentally the same.
• 18:20
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, everywhere I went, I went to every country in the world, and
• 18:22
  Sam Goodwin: I found people just like us.
• 18:23
  Sam Goodwin: We're all fundamentally the same.
• 18:25
  Sam Goodwin: And and and the overwhelming majority of people in the world
• 18:29
  Sam Goodwin: are are are well intentioned, proud of their country, happy to help others.
• 18:33
  Sam Goodwin: And it's unfortunate that there's often a small subset that gives
• 18:37
  Sam Goodwin: a much larger group a bad reputation, but most
• 18:41
  Sam Goodwin: people are are are good, and that was even the case in in North
• 18:45
  Sam Goodwin: Korea.
• 18:47
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 18:47
  Lisa Nichols: Hockey, that that's I I love that because you said, you know, hockey was
• 18:51
  Lisa Nichols: the bridge because these guys loved hockey and and it really
• 18:56
  Lisa Nichols: the the other differences really kinda faded away.
• 18:58
  Sam Goodwin: Oh, exactly.
• 18:59
  Sam Goodwin: Once that hockey.
• 19:00
  Sam Goodwin: Exactly.
• 19:01
  Sam Goodwin: Once that puck dropped, we didn't care about political discrepancies
• 19:05
  Sam Goodwin: or demarcation lines or nuclear weapons.
• 19:07
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, our our relationship ran like a Swiss watch
• 19:11
  Sam Goodwin: on the ice, and it was really a a fantastic experience.
• 19:14
  Lisa Nichols: Beautiful.
• 19:15
  Lisa Nichols: That's beautiful.
• 19:17
  Lisa Nichols: Well,
• 19:19
  Lisa Nichols: let's let's get into this a little bit.
• 19:21
  Lisa Nichols: And then just in a couple minutes, we're gonna take a quick break and
• 19:23
  Lisa Nichols: we'll come right back.
• 19:24
  Lisa Nichols: But by twenty nineteen, you had been to a hundred and eighty countries
• 19:29
  Lisa Nichols: and you were closing in on your goal, hundred ninety three being the goal.
• 19:34
  Lisa Nichols: Something drew you to Syria.
• 19:35
  Lisa Nichols: I know that you met, and I can't remember her name.
• 19:40
  Lisa Nichols: What was the really famous, singer that you met?
• 19:44
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 19:44
  Sam Goodwin: So in in in April, I, I I was in Fiji,
• 19:49
  Sam Goodwin: and I connected at the airport with Joss Stone, who's a
• 19:53
  Sam Goodwin: a British musician.
• 19:54
  Sam Goodwin: And we had like, I kinda knew she was doing the same
• 19:58
  Sam Goodwin: thing.
• 19:59
  Sam Goodwin: She was also going to every country, so we kinda bonded over over our,
• 20:03
  Sam Goodwin: you know, similar journeys.
• 20:04
  Lisa Nichols: So and I know that she had been to Syria, and you said, you
• 20:07
  Lisa Nichols: know, I'm I'm gonna go to Syria.
• 20:09
  Lisa Nichols: She gave you some some ideas of how, you know, to navigate.
• 20:14
  Lisa Nichols: What can you just walk us through?
• 20:16
  Lisa Nichols: And then we're gonna we're gonna take a quick break.
• 20:18
  Lisa Nichols: But can you walk us through a little bit about what happened that day
• 20:21
  Lisa Nichols: in Comishely?
• 20:22
  Lisa Nichols: Is that right?
• 20:23
  Lisa Nichols: Comishely?
• 20:23
  Lisa Nichols: Yep.
• 20:24
  Lisa Nichols: And everything changed that day for you.
• 20:27
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 20:28
  Sam Goodwin: So, as you mentioned, this was May of twenty nineteen.
• 20:31
  Sam Goodwin: I'd been to a hundred and eighty.
• 20:32
  Sam Goodwin: I have a hundred and ninety three countries.
• 20:35
  Sam Goodwin: And, you know, for for places like Syria or
• 20:39
  Sam Goodwin: other kind of countries facing instability, there's always,
• 20:43
  Sam Goodwin: you know, there's always a lot of different variables, things to consider when when
• 20:46
  Sam Goodwin: traveling there.
• 20:47
  Sam Goodwin: And and for me, on my entire journey, safety was always the top priority.
• 20:51
  Sam Goodwin: Like, as much as it can be, and I still say that today.
• 20:54
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, I I don't think it's cool to be in unsafe situations.
• 20:57
  Sam Goodwin: Like, I don't go looking for for trouble.
• 21:00
  Sam Goodwin: At the same time, I was committed to to completing my journey
• 21:04
  Sam Goodwin: and really that curiosity from my third grade, you know,
• 21:09
  Sam Goodwin: geography b in the globe that my parents got me was was really driving
• 21:12
  Sam Goodwin: all of this.
• 21:12
  Sam Goodwin: And so there was also a religious component to to Syria as well.
• 21:16
  Sam Goodwin: It's one of the this is cradle of civilization.
• 21:19
  Sam Goodwin: It's mentioned more than three hundred times in the Bible.
• 21:22
  Sam Goodwin: Mary Magdalene was of Syrian descent.
• 21:26
  Sam Goodwin: The Paul the apostle's conversion took place on the road to Damascus.
• 21:30
  Lisa Nichols: Damascus.
• 21:30
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 21:31
  Sam Goodwin: And and so my faith was a big part of my travel journey.
• 21:34
  Sam Goodwin: I've been so I'm Catholic.
• 21:35
  Sam Goodwin: I've been to mass in sixty five countries.
• 21:38
  Sam Goodwin: I've visited Catholic churches in a hundred and fifteen.
• 21:41
  Sam Goodwin: Anyways, there there was there's so much instability happening in Syria, one of
• 21:45
  Sam Goodwin: the most tragic humanitarian disasters of our lifetime.
• 21:48
  Sam Goodwin: At the same time, the it's one of the most culturally, historically, religiously
• 21:53
  Sam Goodwin: significant places in the world.
• 21:54
  Sam Goodwin: So I was really excited about that opportunity.
• 21:56
  Sam Goodwin: But on May twenty fifth, twenty nineteen, and I'm kind of,
• 22:01
  Sam Goodwin: you know, moving through some of these details.
• 22:03
  Sam Goodwin: A lot of this is is in the book as as as you can
• 22:06
  Sam Goodwin: imagine.
• 22:08
  Sam Goodwin: I was walking through a roundabout on the way to
• 22:12
  Sam Goodwin: meet up with my guide.
• 22:13
  Sam Goodwin: This was two hours after arriving in the country when all of a
• 22:17
  Sam Goodwin: sudden a black pickup truck
• 22:22
  Sam Goodwin: abruptly pulled up next to me.
• 22:25
  Sam Goodwin: Two armed men jumped out of the back seat and and instructed me
• 22:29
  Sam Goodwin: to get inside.
• 22:30
  Sam Goodwin: And, thankfully, they weren't violent, but I didn't
• 22:34
  Sam Goodwin: have a choice.
• 22:35
  Sam Goodwin: I I I was scared, confused.
• 22:36
  Sam Goodwin: I had no information or anyone to help.
• 22:39
  Sam Goodwin: I was I was desperately trying to understand what was happening, and and and
• 22:43
  Sam Goodwin: these men were loyal to the the then Syrian president,
• 22:47
  Sam Goodwin: Bashar al Assad, and told me that they were skeptical
• 22:52
  Sam Goodwin: about my travel history and my travel motives.
• 22:54
  Sam Goodwin: And as we sped down back alleys of the city, the officers
• 22:59
  Sam Goodwin: in the vehicle, they they accused me of of espionage, of being
• 23:03
  Sam Goodwin: an American spy and and collaborating with terrorists, and
• 23:07
  Sam Goodwin: nothing like this had ever happened to me before.
• 23:12
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 23:12
  Lisa Nichols: Gosh.
• 23:13
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, Sam.
• 23:15
  Lisa Nichols: And and they didn't speak good English.
• 23:17
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 23:17
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, they I don't yeah.
• 23:18
  Lisa Nichols: So you you're trying to figure out even what people were saying to you.
• 23:22
  Lisa Nichols: So, I mean, it's just really not knowing the language.
• 23:26
  Lisa Nichols: Let's let's take a break there, And then we'll come back, and I wanna
• 23:30
  Lisa Nichols: I've got lots of questions Yeah.
• 23:33
  Lisa Nichols: That we'll dig into.
• 23:34
  Lisa Nichols: But let's take a quick break, and we'll be right back on the Something
• 23:37
  Lisa Nichols: Extra podcast with Sam Goodwin.
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• 24:09
  Lisa Nichols: Welcome back, everyone, to the Something Extra podcast with Sam Goodwin.
• 24:13
  Lisa Nichols: So we just left off where
• 24:17
  Lisa Nichols: Sam was walking through a roundabout in Syria, and a black pickup
• 24:21
  Lisa Nichols: truck pulls up, and he's commanded to get into the back
• 24:25
  Lisa Nichols: of the pickup truck.
• 24:27
  Lisa Nichols: And, you know, so, I mean, lots of things had
• 24:31
  Lisa Nichols: to be going through your mind.
• 24:32
  Lisa Nichols: You're probably just in a state of confusion.
• 24:34
  Lisa Nichols: Right, Sam?
• 24:35
  Lisa Nichols: But when you know, some people might say, why take
• 24:39
  Lisa Nichols: a risk like that?
• 24:41
  Lisa Nichols: How do you answer that now with the benefit of hindsight?
• 24:45
  Lisa Nichols: How do you answer answer that question?
• 24:48
  Sam Goodwin: So, yeah, I'll say I I was I was scared, confused.
• 24:50
  Sam Goodwin: I had no information or anyone to help.
• 24:52
  Sam Goodwin: I was desperately trying to understand what was happening.
• 24:57
  Sam Goodwin: So take a risk.
• 24:58
  Sam Goodwin: Do you mean, like, traveling every country or going to, like, unstable places?
• 25:02
  Lisa Nichols: Unstable places.
• 25:03
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 25:04
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 25:05
  Lisa Nichols: It may have been like, that might have been one that I would have
• 25:08
  Lisa Nichols: left off my you know?
• 25:09
  Lisa Nichols: But how do you because, listen, there's some there's some
• 25:13
  Lisa Nichols: silver linings that really came out of this whole experience, and we'll
• 25:17
  Lisa Nichols: talk about that.
• 25:19
  Lisa Nichols: Some a release of another person.
• 25:21
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 25:22
  Lisa Nichols: So,
• 25:23
  Lisa Nichols: how do you answer that?
• 25:24
  Sam Goodwin: Talk about that one.
• 25:25
  Lisa Nichols: But Yes.
• 25:26
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 25:27
  Sam Goodwin: So,
• 25:29
  Sam Goodwin: so so as far as taking risks in general, in twenty twenty three,
• 25:33
  Sam Goodwin: I I was invited to Niagara University, my alma mater, to be their commencement
• 25:38
  Sam Goodwin: speaker.
• 25:38
  Sam Goodwin: And I gave the students five key points, and one of
• 25:42
  Sam Goodwin: them was
• 25:44
  Sam Goodwin: to take risks.
• 25:46
  Sam Goodwin: And and so I I think about it.
• 25:48
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, a very quick story.
• 25:49
  Sam Goodwin: When I, going back to this point where I had concussions and wanted to
• 25:53
  Sam Goodwin: go to Singapore or had this opportunity, I wasn't sure whether
• 25:57
  Sam Goodwin: that made sense.
• 25:58
  Sam Goodwin: I I just didn't know.
• 25:59
  Sam Goodwin: And and, it seemed a little crazy.
• 26:02
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, I was twenty three years old.
• 26:03
  Sam Goodwin: Shouldn't I be finally kind of being a little bit more responsible and
• 26:07
  Sam Goodwin: and all that stuff?
• 26:08
  Sam Goodwin: And, kind of related to this, I remember discussing this with my
• 26:12
  Sam Goodwin: parents, and I said, you know, I don't know what I should do.
• 26:15
  Sam Goodwin: And my dad said to me, he said, Sam, if
• 26:19
  Sam Goodwin: you go to Singapore and and things don't work, the
• 26:23
  Sam Goodwin: the worst thing that happens is you just come home.
• 26:27
  Sam Goodwin: And and that kind of safety net, so to speak, was
• 26:31
  Sam Goodwin: kind of like the foundation of of my adulthood and really encouraged me
• 26:36
  Sam Goodwin: to to to take risks.
• 26:38
  Sam Goodwin: And then I went to Singapore and worked for a start up company and
• 26:42
  Sam Goodwin: with so much uncertainty.
• 26:44
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, most there's so much
• 26:46
  Lisa Nichols: Most start ups are.
• 26:47
  Sam Goodwin: Start ups are.
• 26:48
  Sam Goodwin: Right?
• 26:48
  Sam Goodwin: And and I remember I got and and for for six years
• 26:54
  Sam Goodwin: working for that company, you know, I'm in my early twenty like, six years,
• 26:58
  Sam Goodwin: every meeting that I went into, I was the
• 27:02
  Sam Goodwin: dumbest person in the room.
• 27:04
  Sam Goodwin: And and that was that was uncomfortable, but simultaneously, this
• 27:08
  Sam Goodwin: time of huge personal and professional growth.
• 27:12
  Sam Goodwin: And Mhmm.
• 27:13
  Sam Goodwin: So so much of the so many of the things that, you know,
• 27:17
  Sam Goodwin: I I I've enjoyed the experiences that I've had have been as a result
• 27:21
  Sam Goodwin: of of taking risks and and being being, you know, being uncomfortable.
• 27:25
  Sam Goodwin: And so with the travel journey, generally speaking,
• 27:30
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, at the time, there were only about a hundred people in history
• 27:34
  Sam Goodwin: when I finished who had been in every country in the world.
• 27:36
  Sam Goodwin: Now there there's a few more.
• 27:38
  Sam Goodwin: It it's pretty small group and, you know, that doesn't happen without taking risks
• 27:42
  Sam Goodwin: and having those experiences.
• 27:44
  Sam Goodwin: So,
• 27:45
  Sam Goodwin: generally speaking, it was kind of just this curiosity and wanting
• 27:49
  Sam Goodwin: to learn.
• 27:51
  Sam Goodwin: At the same time, as I was mentioning a minute ago, like, that was
• 27:55
  Sam Goodwin: always a balance with prioritizing safety and everything
• 27:59
  Sam Goodwin: that's happening in different places.
• 28:00
  Sam Goodwin: So, it it was all just kind of this constant balance.
• 28:04
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 28:05
  Lisa Nichols: Well, I mean, Sam, I think of the old adage.
• 28:07
  Lisa Nichols: We've all heard it.
• 28:08
  Lisa Nichols: No risk, no reward.
• 28:10
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 28:10
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 28:11
  Lisa Nichols: No risk, no reward.
• 28:12
  Lisa Nichols: And I I know for me I know for me, you know, now
• 28:16
  Lisa Nichols: here's what I say now.
• 28:17
  Lisa Nichols: You do have to protect your yes.
• 28:20
  Lisa Nichols: You have to protect your yes.
• 28:21
  Lisa Nichols: So you have to because, like, at the busier you get, you know,
• 28:25
  Lisa Nichols: everything comes at an expense of something else.
• 28:28
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 28:29
  Lisa Nichols: Your yes comes at an expense of something else that you could be doing.
• 28:33
  Lisa Nichols: But I know for myself, so many of the things
• 28:37
  Lisa Nichols: that have been good in my life have because I said yes.
• 28:42
  Sam Goodwin: A hundred percent.
• 28:43
  Sam Goodwin: And I I like to use the metaphor with the turtle.
• 28:45
  Sam Goodwin: So a turtle only moves forward when it
• 28:49
  Sam Goodwin: sticks its neck out.
• 28:51
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 28:51
  Lisa Nichols: That's good.
• 28:52
  Lisa Nichols: I like that.
• 28:53
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 28:55
  Lisa Nichols: Well, let's talk about this.
• 28:57
  Lisa Nichols: You spent sixty three days, I think, nine weeks in prison,
• 29:03
  Lisa Nichols: the first month, and I just cannot I'm reading this part,
• 29:07
  Lisa Nichols: Sam, and I'm just I'm I can't even imagine.
• 29:10
  Lisa Nichols: Especially, you're a very social person.
• 29:14
  Lisa Nichols: You get energy from people, And you spent the first month
• 29:18
  Lisa Nichols: in branch two fifteen in solitary confinement.
• 29:22
  Sam Goodwin: Yep.
• 29:22
  Sam Goodwin: I I spent I spent twenty seven days in in solitary confinement.
• 29:26
  Sam Goodwin: The only human interaction I had was was for a few seconds in the
• 29:30
  Sam Goodwin: morning and evening when the guards brought bread and boiled potatoes and water.
• 29:35
  Sam Goodwin: I I found, you know, I found strength in that situation in
• 29:39
  Sam Goodwin: in, you know, a range of ways from from
• 29:44
  Sam Goodwin: leaning in like, I I'd leaned in the to the perspective
• 29:48
  Sam Goodwin: that I developed from traveling to different corners of the world, which provoked gratitude
• 29:52
  Sam Goodwin: for just the basic food and water I was being given.
• 29:55
  Sam Goodwin: I I leaned on, as we were talking earlier, these skills and traits from
• 29:58
  Sam Goodwin: being a competitive athlete.
• 30:00
  Sam Goodwin: I leaned on this belief that that I had a purpose in life and
• 30:04
  Sam Goodwin: and a desire to see family and friends again.
• 30:07
  Sam Goodwin: And most importantly, you know, I leaned on my faith and prayer and
• 30:11
  Sam Goodwin: and, and and and the strength that that came from that, it was interesting
• 30:15
  Sam Goodwin: to, like, surrender to God while already being held captive.
• 30:19
  Sam Goodwin: And so there there there were a lot of different things in place, but
• 30:23
  Sam Goodwin: solitary confinement is torture.
• 30:24
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, it's a it's a cruel
• 30:28
  Sam Goodwin: captivity tactic that's been used by people for for centuries.
• 30:32
  Sam Goodwin: So it's it's torture, and and I wouldn't wouldn't wish it on anybody.
• 30:36
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 30:37
  Lisa Nichols: Well, a couple things.
• 30:38
  Lisa Nichols: I you probably felt a little like Paul.
• 30:41
  Lisa Nichols: You felt a little like Paul in in prison.
• 30:44
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 30:45
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 30:45
  Lisa Nichols: And he but he free in Christ, you know, even though he was captive.
• 30:49
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 30:49
  Sam Goodwin: Well, from a spiritual standpoint, sometimes I I felt like maybe
• 30:54
  Sam Goodwin: God was using prison to bring me closer to him as he did
• 30:58
  Sam Goodwin: with Paul.
• 30:59
  Lisa Nichols: Absolutely.
• 31:00
  Sam Goodwin: At that point, I often thought, well, like, you know, maybe could you, like,
• 31:04
  Sam Goodwin: choose a different method?
• 31:07
  Lisa Nichols: I'm sure Paul thought that a few times too.
• 31:10
  Lisa Nichols: But really and truly, it was like everything that you would normally
• 31:14
  Lisa Nichols: been dependent on, like your strong family ties,
• 31:18
  Lisa Nichols: friends, things like that, were stripped away and you had God.
• 31:22
  Lisa Nichols: But here's here's what I thought was really interesting.
• 31:26
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, I think you really your mindset,
• 31:30
  Lisa Nichols: Sam, to get through that.
• 31:32
  Lisa Nichols: You know, because you said, like, I remember you saying, like, you you had
• 31:36
  Lisa Nichols: a daily routine.
• 31:38
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you set yourself up a daily routine.
• 31:39
  Lisa Nichols: Now what was really difficult is there were no windows.
• 31:42
  Lisa Nichols: So you didn't know if it was morning or night or, you know, you
• 31:46
  Lisa Nichols: kind of came up with your own,
• 31:49
  Lisa Nichols: I guess, methodology to figure out if this morning or night and,
• 31:53
  Lisa Nichols: based on, like, the meals and things like that.
• 31:56
  Lisa Nichols: But,
• 31:57
  Lisa Nichols: yeah, I remember you saying you ran around you know, you would run around
• 32:01
  Lisa Nichols: the the the cell twenty five times one direction and then turn
• 32:05
  Lisa Nichols: around and go the other direction.
• 32:07
  Sam Goodwin: That that's right.
• 32:08
  Sam Goodwin: And and something I'll mention on that is is
• 32:11
  Sam Goodwin: about six months after I came home, I was invited to,
• 32:15
  Sam Goodwin: to North Carolina by the US SEER team, so
• 32:19
  Sam Goodwin: survival evasion resistance and escape.
• 32:21
  Sam Goodwin: And these are
• 32:24
  Sam Goodwin: members of our military who are put on missions where they're at risk of
• 32:28
  Sam Goodwin: being captured.
• 32:29
  Sam Goodwin: And I gave a presentation to seventy five Green Berets and SERE
• 32:33
  Sam Goodwin: team instructors, and what they wanted to know was basically this this exact
• 32:37
  Sam Goodwin: thing that you just mentioned.
• 32:38
  Sam Goodwin: Like, what what did I do in that situation
• 32:43
  Sam Goodwin: without any training?
• 32:45
  Sam Goodwin: And and it turned out that some of the things I instinctively
• 32:49
  Sam Goodwin: did were what they teach in their program, And one of those
• 32:54
  Sam Goodwin: was establishing a routine.
• 32:56
  Sam Goodwin: And and and it it it makes sense because I I just think about
• 33:01
  Sam Goodwin: think about how much more productive we are in our life, in our personal
• 33:05
  Sam Goodwin: professional lives when we have a routine.
• 33:07
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 33:08
  Sam Goodwin: When we have that process in place, that structure.
• 33:11
  Sam Goodwin: And so the same was actually the the case in,
• 33:15
  Sam Goodwin: you know, a a very tough situation in in solitary confinement.
• 33:19
  Sam Goodwin: And so I would do all these different things to pass time.
• 33:22
  Sam Goodwin: I would, and I had time in the day for all of them.
• 33:24
  Sam Goodwin: I would I would pretend the cell was full of people and tell stories.
• 33:28
  Sam Goodwin: I would sing songs.
• 33:29
  Sam Goodwin: I would remember hockey games that I played in in my
• 33:33
  Sam Goodwin: life from start to finish.
• 33:35
  Sam Goodwin: I had time to eat.
• 33:36
  Sam Goodwin: I had time to pray.
• 33:38
  Sam Goodwin: I had time to exercise, like you were saying, walking the the laps.
• 33:42
  Sam Goodwin: And all of that became so important for for that routine,
• 33:46
  Sam Goodwin: which was just, like, crucial for for for emotional and and and psychological
• 33:50
  Sam Goodwin: health.
• 33:51
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 33:53
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 33:53
  Lisa Nichols: But to your point, I mean, really, we're we're better when we've got a
• 33:57
  Lisa Nichols: routine and we've got discipline in our life.
• 33:59
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 33:59
  Lisa Nichols: So yeah.
• 34:02
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 34:02
  Lisa Nichols: You had this.
• 34:03
  Lisa Nichols: I I said prayer became an uninterrupted conversation with God,
• 34:08
  Lisa Nichols: and I just I love that.
• 34:10
  Lisa Nichols: I love that.
• 34:11
  Lisa Nichols: You would use the rosary, you know, with your using
• 34:15
  Lisa Nichols: your fingers as the beads.
• 34:18
  Lisa Nichols: I I love this.
• 34:20
  Lisa Nichols: You said, I was working to forgive people who weren't even
• 34:24
  Lisa Nichols: sorry.
• 34:26
  Lisa Nichols: They weren't even sorry.
• 34:27
  Lisa Nichols: How did you reach that level of forgiveness, Sam?
• 34:30
  Lisa Nichols: Because it's hard.
• 34:31
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, it's let's make no bones about it.
• 34:34
  Lisa Nichols: It's hard to forgive people that have hurt you.
• 34:38
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 34:38
  Sam Goodwin: Absolutely.
• 34:39
  Sam Goodwin: And and I
• 34:41
  Sam Goodwin: the the again, yes.
• 34:42
  Sam Goodwin: Some of my prayers, you you mentioned there were it was kind of this
• 34:45
  Sam Goodwin: this string of prayers, but I prayed very hard for the the courage to
• 34:49
  Sam Goodwin: to forgive these captors.
• 34:51
  Sam Goodwin: And and and and what I realized was, as you mentioned, I was working
• 34:55
  Sam Goodwin: to forgive people who they weren't even sorry, and and that's strength.
• 34:59
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, forgiveness I found is is is not a feeling.
• 35:04
  Sam Goodwin: It's a choice.
• 35:06
  Sam Goodwin: And that's that's what I discovered in that in that situation.
• 35:09
  Sam Goodwin: And for for me, and someone can probably articulate this better, but
• 35:13
  Sam Goodwin: what I imagine was I was going to do everything
• 35:17
  Sam Goodwin: I could to forgive these people, and I was gonna address kind of that
• 35:21
  Sam Goodwin: bond or or that kind of link between us, but then they still have
• 35:25
  Sam Goodwin: to to answer to God later.
• 35:27
  Sam Goodwin: And they they can deal with that, but I'm gonna do my part here
• 35:30
  Sam Goodwin: as best I can.
• 35:31
  Sam Goodwin: Mhmm.
• 35:32
  Sam Goodwin: And and I have to say, I'm also, like, speaking,
• 35:36
  Sam Goodwin: like, kind of, like, I I, like, it wasn't this
• 35:40
  Sam Goodwin: I maybe making it sound easier now than it was at the time because
• 35:43
  Sam Goodwin: it it was it was, you know, this I'm, like, six years out.
• 35:47
  Sam Goodwin: You know, I speak about this story for a living.
• 35:49
  Sam Goodwin: And, like, sometimes I feel like I'm maybe not, you know, communicating
• 35:54
  Sam Goodwin: how challenging it was.
• 35:55
  Lisa Nichols: How difficult it was.
• 35:56
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 35:56
  Sam Goodwin: So, like, there may be a little bit of that, but, basically, that was
• 35:59
  Sam Goodwin: kind of how I how I imagined the the forgiveness side of it.
• 36:03
  Sam Goodwin: And there came with that quite a bit of peace, actually.
• 36:06
  Sam Goodwin: It took it it was hard to get there, but after I got to
• 36:10
  Sam Goodwin: some level of forgiveness, there was there was there was some
• 36:14
  Sam Goodwin: peace because I could just put that aside.
• 36:17
  Sam Goodwin: Okay.
• 36:17
  Sam Goodwin: I've addressed that.
• 36:18
  Sam Goodwin: Now I can, you know, work on addressing other other things.
• 36:23
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 36:24
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 36:24
  Lisa Nichols: And not listen.
• 36:26
  Lisa Nichols: If there's listeners out there that, you know, are struggling
• 36:30
  Lisa Nichols: with this, it's it it's not easy.
• 36:33
  Lisa Nichols: It's not easy, but unforgiveness will keep you in bondage.
• 36:37
  Sam Goodwin: Unforgiveness was just more more
• 36:41
  Sam Goodwin: captivity.
• 36:42
  Lisa Nichols: Mhmm.
• 36:43
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 36:43
  Lisa Nichols: Exactly.
• 36:44
  Lisa Nichols: It's kind of an oxymoron, but, so true.
• 36:50
  Lisa Nichols: Well, let me ask you this.
• 36:53
  Lisa Nichols: Let's talk about your family and your family.
• 36:56
  Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness.
• 36:57
  Lisa Nichols: I absolutely fell in love with your family, Sam, because your family
• 37:02
  Lisa Nichols: was trying to move mountains to bring you home.
• 37:04
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 37:07
  Sam Goodwin: So so one of the most one of the most overwhelming things
• 37:11
  Sam Goodwin: for me when I was released was learning about
• 37:15
  Sam Goodwin: everything that happened on the outside while I was trapped on
• 37:19
  Sam Goodwin: the inside.
• 37:20
  Sam Goodwin: And and it was also it was also challenging for my family
• 37:24
  Sam Goodwin: to to learn about the details of me on the inside.
• 37:27
  Sam Goodwin: And and, actually, I was on, I was, on USA Today
• 37:31
  Sam Goodwin: last week talking about the hostages being released in Gaza and giving some
• 37:35
  Sam Goodwin: some them some advice.
• 37:37
  Sam Goodwin: And one of the things that I mentioned was this point, like, because the
• 37:40
  Sam Goodwin: people on the outside don't know the details about the inside and and vice
• 37:45
  Sam Goodwin: versa, and that can be so so when when someone's released, there's all
• 37:49
  Sam Goodwin: these different emotions.
• 37:49
  Sam Goodwin: Like, there's incredible happiness, there's excitement, but there's also, like,
• 37:53
  Sam Goodwin: it's disorienting and there's confusion.
• 37:56
  Sam Goodwin: And and so there's this whole, like, reintegration
• 37:59
  Sam Goodwin: process that happens, but it can be
• 38:03
  Sam Goodwin: pretty heavy for family members to learn
• 38:07
  Sam Goodwin: about about everything that happened.
• 38:09
  Sam Goodwin: And so in my case, it it was just it was overwhelming.
• 38:12
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, it's six years later today, Lisa, and and I'm I'm still
• 38:17
  Sam Goodwin: saying thank you to people.
• 38:18
  Sam Goodwin: I'm still learning about someone who made a phone call or
• 38:22
  Sam Goodwin: said a prayer or talked to a friend, whatever it might be.
• 38:25
  Sam Goodwin: And,
• 38:27
  Sam Goodwin: so when I went to write the book, what I realized
• 38:31
  Sam Goodwin: was that half the story wasn't even mine to tell.
• 38:35
  Sam Goodwin: It it it it was really my family's.
• 38:37
  Sam Goodwin: And as I learned more about what they did, there were there were times
• 38:41
  Sam Goodwin: where where I I would be learning these things about what they went through
• 38:44
  Sam Goodwin: and think, gosh.
• 38:45
  Sam Goodwin: In some ways, I feel like I had the easy part.
• 38:49
  Sam Goodwin: Like, I don't know if it was better or worse to be on the
• 38:51
  Sam Goodwin: inside or outside.
• 38:52
  Sam Goodwin: Because for every for every hostage or wrongful detainee around the world, there's also
• 38:57
  Sam Goodwin: a family that's going through the hardest thing that they've ever gone through.
• 39:00
  Lisa Nichols: That they've ever gone through.
• 39:01
  Lisa Nichols: Right.
• 39:01
  Sam Goodwin: In their life.
• 39:02
  Sam Goodwin: Something nothing can prepare them for.
• 39:04
  Sam Goodwin: Mhmm.
• 39:04
  Sam Goodwin: And and so anyways, I learned about it all in the aftermath,
• 39:08
  Sam Goodwin: and then that's why the book is is kind of told there's there's it's
• 39:12
  Sam Goodwin: like two stories.
• 39:13
  Lisa Nichols: There's different perspectives.
• 39:15
  Lisa Nichols: Right?
• 39:16
  Lisa Nichols: Your mom's perspective, your dad's perspective, Stephanie's perspective.
• 39:21
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 39:21
  Lisa Nichols: And I I love that because it's so true.
• 39:24
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, they were going through their own,
• 39:27
  Lisa Nichols: you know, their own hell, if you will.
• 39:29
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 39:29
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 39:30
  Lisa Nichols: Thinking about their son, thinking about their brother.
• 39:33
  Lisa Nichols: You know, your mom,
• 39:36
  Lisa Nichols: you know, she I mean, I know she's a prayer warrior.
• 39:40
  Lisa Nichols: But let's let's let's talk about this because, ultimately, obviously, your parents had
• 39:44
  Lisa Nichols: the FBI involved.
• 39:45
  Lisa Nichols: They had all kinds of folks involved, although they kept it very close,
• 39:50
  Lisa Nichols: you know, so they would not get out publicly because there could have been
• 39:54
  Lisa Nichols: risk in that.
• 39:55
  Lisa Nichols: But, ultimately, Sam, incredible, Stephanie,
• 39:59
  Lisa Nichols: your sister that lives in Nashville, remembered a classmate.
• 40:04
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, that was kind of the I think that was kind of the,
• 40:08
  Lisa Nichols: the breakthrough moment, really.
• 40:10
  Lisa Nichols: You know?
• 40:11
  Lisa Nichols: Can you just talk about that a little bit?
• 40:13
  Lisa Nichols: How did you it's on see, I I say it.
• 40:16
  Lisa Nichols: I don't believe it was a series of coincidences.
• 40:19
  Lisa Nichols: I think it was Mhmm.
• 40:20
  Lisa Nichols: You know, God putting that in her heart, you know, to call her her
• 40:24
  Lisa Nichols: roommate to say, hey.
• 40:26
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 40:27
  Sam Goodwin: Absolutely.
• 40:28
  Sam Goodwin: So
• 40:30
  Sam Goodwin: for me, there's only one explanation that makes any sense.
• 40:33
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, I believe that that God intervened here and, you know, it was
• 40:37
  Sam Goodwin: meant to to to to survive.
• 40:39
  Sam Goodwin: And so,
• 40:41
  Sam Goodwin: miraculously, and and I mean that word when I say it, it was
• 40:45
  Sam Goodwin: my my family who who found this route.
• 40:48
  Sam Goodwin: So, in a in in a nutshell, my family was working with
• 40:52
  Sam Goodwin: all of these different agencies, the FBI, CIA, the White House, the Pentagon.
• 40:56
  Sam Goodwin: Pope Francis was involved, Russian Yes.
• 41:00
  Sam Goodwin: Middle East NGOs, private sector security companies, the list goes on.
• 41:03
  Sam Goodwin: And and the the US government's incredible people
• 41:07
  Sam Goodwin: worked very close with my family.
• 41:10
  Sam Goodwin: They it it just it was a tough situation from just a geopolitical
• 41:15
  Sam Goodwin: situation.
• 41:16
  Sam Goodwin: It's not their fault.
• 41:17
  Sam Goodwin: It was just there's no diplomatic or economic ties between Washington and Damascus.
• 41:21
  Sam Goodwin: So
• 41:23
  Sam Goodwin: it made it it made it complex.
• 41:25
  Sam Goodwin: And so my my sister Stephanie
• 41:29
  Sam Goodwin: ended up talking to her former college roommate, who is coincidentally
• 41:33
  Sam Goodwin: also named Stephanie.
• 41:34
  Sam Goodwin: And it turns out that that she
• 41:37
  Sam Goodwin: is is Lebanese, and her uncle is good friends
• 41:42
  Sam Goodwin: with the head of Lebanon's internal security, which is kind of like the equivalent
• 41:46
  Sam Goodwin: of the FBI here in the US.
• 41:48
  Sam Goodwin: And he was able to go to his counterpart in Damascus
• 41:52
  Sam Goodwin: and and and mediate my release, when so many others were
• 41:56
  Sam Goodwin: struggling to to do anything.
• 41:58
  Sam Goodwin: And and and and so, you know, we were talking earlier about
• 42:03
  Sam Goodwin: the world being small and six degrees of separation and all of that.
• 42:06
  Sam Goodwin: So, you know, all all very connected, but it just,
• 42:11
  Sam Goodwin: you you know, it it puts a lot into perspective and and and just
• 42:14
  Sam Goodwin: just so so grateful of of course, but that was,
• 42:18
  Sam Goodwin: you know, when it was funny when when I was in when I was
• 42:22
  Sam Goodwin: released and I got into the office in Lebanon, my
• 42:26
  Sam Goodwin: parents were there and they had brought Joseph who was Stephanie's uncle.
• 42:29
  Sam Goodwin: And I remember my my mom said to me, she was like, Sam, do
• 42:33
  Sam Goodwin: you do you remember Stephanie's roommate from college?
• 42:38
  Sam Goodwin: And this is like this is like ten minutes after I've released.
• 42:41
  Sam Goodwin: And and I said to her, I was like I said two things.
• 42:44
  Sam Goodwin: I was like, one,
• 42:47
  Sam Goodwin: no, I don't.
• 42:48
  Sam Goodwin: I mean, I had been living in Asia at the time.
• 42:50
  Sam Goodwin: Like, I didn't know my sister's college roommae.
• 42:52
  Sam Goodwin: Like, it just it just you know?
• 42:54
  Sam Goodwin: So one, I said, no.
• 42:55
  Sam Goodwin: I don't.
• 42:56
  Sam Goodwin: And this my second point was, and why are we talking about
• 43:00
  Sam Goodwin: that?
• 43:00
  Lisa Nichols: Isn't that a strange question?
• 43:02
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 43:02
  Sam Goodwin: Like like, why is that being discussed right now?
• 43:05
  Sam Goodwin: And so I just couldn't even, like, have imagined Mhmm.
• 43:09
  Sam Goodwin: What had happened.
• 43:10
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 43:10
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 43:11
  Lisa Nichols: So amazing.
• 43:12
  Lisa Nichols: Your mom, attended mass on the feast of saint is
• 43:16
  Lisa Nichols: it Charbel?
• 43:17
  Sam Goodwin: Charbel.
• 43:17
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 43:18
  Lisa Nichols: Charbel, just hours before your release.
• 43:21
  Lisa Nichols: You know, and I did not realize this, but I looked it up, and
• 43:25
  Lisa Nichols: Saint Charbel is the saint of miracles.
• 43:28
  Sam Goodwin: Okay.
• 43:28
  Sam Goodwin: So just a very quick story on that.
• 43:30
  Sam Goodwin: And, again, I learned about all all of this.
• 43:33
  Sam Goodwin: So my family's working with all these different people, and then Stephanie's, you know,
• 43:37
  Sam Goodwin: have they have this phone call.
• 43:38
  Sam Goodwin: And so the Lebanese path, it's looking like that's kind of the most promising
• 43:43
  Sam Goodwin: lead.
• 43:43
  Sam Goodwin: And, the
• 43:46
  Sam Goodwin: so I I was released on on July twenty sixth.
• 43:49
  Sam Goodwin: So on the twenty fourth, my mom and my sister Betty
• 43:53
  Sam Goodwin: went to a daily mass at, for any of the Saint Louis listeners, it
• 43:57
  Sam Goodwin: was at Saint Mary Magdalene in Brentwood.
• 44:00
  Sam Goodwin: And at the time, Monsignor Ramakati, who is actually now at,
• 44:05
  Sam Goodwin: the school that I went to in grade school Saint Clement, but he was
• 44:07
  Sam Goodwin: at Saint Mary Magdalene.
• 44:09
  Sam Goodwin: And my mom and Betty go to this mass, and during
• 44:13
  Sam Goodwin: the homily, Monsignor Remicati says, today is
• 44:17
  Sam Goodwin: the feast of Saint Charbel.
• 44:20
  Sam Goodwin: And my mom and Betty, they they kind of admit they looked at each
• 44:23
  Sam Goodwin: other and say, well, look, we've actually, like, I don't know.
• 44:26
  Sam Goodwin: I've never heard of of Saint Charbel.
• 44:28
  Sam Goodwin: And so he goes on and tells the story.
• 44:30
  Sam Goodwin: He's a nineteenth century Lebanese monk.
• 44:31
  Sam Goodwin: He was a hermit, well known for working miracles and all stuff.
• 44:34
  Sam Goodwin: And
• 44:36
  Sam Goodwin: as the story goes, at the end of the homily, Monsignor Ramakati
• 44:40
  Sam Goodwin: says he kind of, like, makes a joke, essentially.
• 44:43
  Sam Goodwin: He's like, so if anybody here needs a
• 44:48
  Sam Goodwin: miracle in Lebanon, pray to Saint Charbel.
• 44:52
  Sam Goodwin: And my, you know, Beth Betty and my mom look at each other
• 44:56
  Sam Goodwin: and, like, oh my gosh.
• 44:57
  Sam Goodwin: This is this is crazy.
• 44:58
  Sam Goodwin: They leave, and three hours later, my my parents
• 45:03
  Sam Goodwin: get a message from Joseph, Stephanie Hajar's
• 45:07
  Sam Goodwin: uncle, saying that my release had been granted t hrough the Lebanese.
• 45:13
  Lisa Nichols: Makes me just teary eyed.
• 45:15
  Lisa Nichols: It makes me just teary eyed, Sam.
• 45:17
  Lisa Nichols: Yeah.
• 45:17
  Lisa Nichols: It was amazing.
• 45:19
  Lisa Nichols: You,
• 45:21
  Lisa Nichols: I'm sure it was just amazing being reunited with your mom and dad,
• 45:25
  Lisa Nichols: you know, in Beirut and that.
• 45:29
  Lisa Nichols: I think you even did you guys go visit?
• 45:32
  Lisa Nichols: Did you and your mom go visit the tomb of Saint Charbel?
• 45:36
  Lisa Nichols: I think you did. Right?
• 45:37
  Sam Goodwin: That evening after it was released, we went to to Saint Charbel monastery just
• 45:41
  Sam Goodwin: outside of Beirut.
• 45:42
  Sam Goodwin: And Yeah.
• 45:43
  Sam Goodwin: And we prayed together there.
• 45:45
  Lisa Nichols: Amazing.
• 45:46
  Lisa Nichols: Amazing.
• 45:47
  Lisa Nichols: Okay.
• 45:47
  Lisa Nichols: So I've got more, but we're running out of time here.
• 45:51
  Lisa Nichols: So I'm going to ask you t
• 45:52
  Lisa Nichols: his question.
• 45:53
  Lisa Nichols: No.
• 45:53
  Lisa Nichols: No.
• 45:54
  Lisa Nichols: No.
• 45:54
  Lisa Nichols: I love it.
• 45:55
  Lisa Nichols: We could we could go on for hours and hours, but neither of us
• 45:57
  Lisa Nichols: have that kind of time.
• 45:58
  Lisa Nichols: And we don't wanna do that to our listeners.
• 46:00
  Lisa Nichols: I want our listeners to go buy your book, right, or go hear you
• 46:04
  Lisa Nichols: speak somewhere.
• 46:05
  Lisa Nichols: But this was cool.
• 46:06
  Lisa Nichols: This is about that silver lining that I talked about.
• 46:09
  Lisa Nichols: There is this story about this forty four year old
• 46:13
  Lisa Nichols: man,
• 46:15
  Lisa Nichols: that that had been captive captive as well and
• 46:19
  Lisa Nichols: imprisoned.
• 46:20
  Lisa Nichols: I can't remember.
• 46:21
  Lisa Nichols: I think he'd been in prison for at least a couple years.
• 46:26
  Lisa Nichols: Can you can you talk about your family and how you
• 46:30
  Lisa Nichols: guys god used you guys as an instrument to help him get released, which
• 46:34
  Lisa Nichols: was a miracle.
• 46:36
  Sam Goodwin: Lisa, you would get along very well with my mother.
• 46:39
  Sam Goodwin: I can I can tell you that?
• 46:40
  Sam Goodwin: But, so, yeah, quick story on that.
• 46:42
  Sam Goodwin: This was about two days after I came home.
• 46:45
  Sam Goodwin: My father got a phone call from a Canadian woman
• 46:49
  Sam Goodwin: who said that she had seen the news of my release, so forth,
• 46:54
  Sam Goodwin: and explained that her son, his name was Christian Baxter,
• 46:58
  Sam Goodwin: he had been missing in Syria, for it was actually
• 47:02
  Sam Goodwin: about nine months at the time.
• 47:04
  Sam Goodwin: And, she was saying that she was working with, like, the Canadian government
• 47:09
  Sam Goodwin: and and and a little bit, but, like, she didn't really have a lot
• 47:12
  Sam Goodwin: of kind of ideas or just ways.
• 47:15
  Sam Goodwin: She was really just kind of praying and and just, you know, hoping
• 47:19
  Sam Goodwin: that her son would come home.
• 47:21
  Sam Goodwin: So,
• 47:22
  Sam Goodwin: you know, my dad kind of gathered some information, and then we send it
• 47:26
  Sam Goodwin: to, to general Ibrahim in Lebanon.
• 47:29
  Sam Goodwin: And, exactly two weeks later after my release,
• 47:33
  Sam Goodwin: Christian was released through the intervention of of Abbas Abraham in
• 47:37
  Sam Goodwin: Lebanon.
• 47:38
  Sam Goodwin: And so,
• 47:40
  Sam Goodwin: you know, in in a way that that connection between my sister and
• 47:44
  Sam Goodwin: a roommate really led to the release of two people who were wrongfully
• 47:48
  Sam Goodwin: wrongfully detained.
• 47:49
  Sam Goodwin: And and and so my mother often says that she believes that
• 47:54
  Sam Goodwin: the entire reason that this happened to me was to answer the prayers
• 47:58
  Sam Goodwin: of Christian's mother.
• 47:59
  Lisa Nichols: Yes.
• 47:59
  Lisa Nichols: Who was a single mom.
• 48:01
  Sam Goodwin: A single mom.
• 48:02
  Lisa Nichols: He was he was her only son.
• 48:04
  Lisa Nichols: I mean, you know, the he was her life.
• 48:07
  Lisa Nichols: I mean
• 48:07
  Sam Goodwin: Exactly.
• 48:08
  Lisa Nichols: I just think the same thing, Sam, because she did not have the
• 48:12
  Lisa Nichols: connection.
• 48:13
  Lisa Nichols: She didn't have the even maybe the critical thinking, you know,
• 48:17
  Lisa Nichols: that your family had.
• 48:19
  Sam Goodwin: My my dad had put together an entire team and was working on everything
• 48:23
  Sam Goodwin: like that.
• 48:24
  Sam Goodwin: You know?
• 48:24
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 48:25
  Sam Goodwin: Didn't didn't, you know, in the situation, like, didn't have those those
• 48:29
  Sam Goodwin: reasons.
• 48:30
  Lisa Nichols: So cool.
• 48:31
  Lisa Nichols: Oh my goodness.
• 48:32
  Lisa Nichols: Well, it's just,
• 48:34
  Lisa Nichols: amazing.
• 48:35
  Lisa Nichols: I've so many different so many different questions still that
• 48:39
  Lisa Nichols: I have here, but your book is Saving Sam.
• 48:42
  Lisa Nichols: Listeners, go get the book.
• 48:44
  Lisa Nichols: You won't be able to put it down.
• 48:45
  Lisa Nichols: It truly is a testament to faith, family, and resilience.
• 48:48
  Lisa Nichols: And, you know, I love it.
• 48:50
  Lisa Nichols: And Sam is now a keynote speaker.
• 48:52
  Lisa Nichols: So if you need a keynote speaker for an event, you know, reach out
• 48:55
  Lisa Nichols: to him, and, we'll put all that in the show notes.
• 48:59
  Lisa Nichols: I know now that you've you've gone on to get a master's in international
• 49:03
  Lisa Nichols: affairs.
• 49:03
  Lisa Nichols: You got that from WashU.
• 49:06
  Lisa Nichols: I you I think you're you just finished did you just finish your doctorate
• 49:10
  Lisa Nichols: too from John Hopkins?
• 49:11
  Sam Goodwin: Yeah.
• 49:12
  Sam Goodwin: About a year and a half ago.
• 49:13
  Sam Goodwin: So I finished that, which was which was, I I enjoyed that as well.
• 49:17
  Lisa Nichols: I love it.
• 49:17
  Lisa Nichols: I love it.
• 49:18
  Lisa Nichols: Well, Sam, this is called something extra.
• 49:22
  Lisa Nichols: What do you believe is this something extra?
• 49:23
  Lisa Nichols: And I'll give you a couple if you if you need that that every
• 49:27
  Lisa Nichols: great leader needs.
• 49:30
  Sam Goodwin: So something that comes to mind with that is to, in addition to
• 49:34
  Sam Goodwin: everything that we have going on in our professional lives, something extra that
• 49:38
  Sam Goodwin: we can do is to continue to to grow outside of our work as
• 49:42
  Sam Goodwin: well.
• 49:42
  Sam Goodwin: So, over the past few years, you know, as you mentioned, I
• 49:47
  Sam Goodwin: continue to go to school.
• 49:48
  Sam Goodwin: Like, I went to WashU.
• 49:49
  Sam Goodwin: I did a doctorate at Johns Hopkins.
• 49:53
  Sam Goodwin: In the past year, I I got, my pilot
• 49:57
  Sam Goodwin: license.
• 49:58
  Sam Goodwin: It was something that I worked on really hard for for for for a
• 50:02
  Sam Goodwin: year.
• 50:02
  Sam Goodwin: Now I'm I'm training for an Ironman.
• 50:05
  Sam Goodwin: So it's something kind of outside of my of my kind of traditional
• 50:09
  Sam Goodwin: work that that, that I'm working on.
• 50:11
  Sam Goodwin: So I think that we continue to kind of grow and evolve and push
• 50:14
  Sam Goodwin: ourselves.
• 50:16
  Sam Goodwin: You know, I think the the the more that we that we take on
• 50:21
  Sam Goodwin: challenges on our own terms, the better we are, when they
• 50:25
  Sam Goodwin: at us when we're not expecting.
• 50:27
  Sam Goodwin: I think the the more that we sweat in peace, the less we bleed
• 50:31
  Sam Goodwin: in war.
• 50:32
  Sam Goodwin: And so I encourage people to, to do something extra and
• 50:36
  Sam Goodwin: and push themselves kind of outside of their professional life.
• 50:38
  Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
• 50:39
  Lisa Nichols: Those are the operative words taken on challenges on your own
• 50:44
  Lisa Nichols: terms.
• 50:44
  Sam Goodwin: Right.
• 50:44
  Sam Goodwin: Exactly.
• 50:45
  Lisa Nichols: Not something that's forced on you from somebody else.
• 50:48
  Lisa Nichols: Yep.
• 50:49
  Lisa Nichols: That's so good.
• 50:50
  Lisa Nichols: Well, Sam, I have absolutely loved getting to know you.
• 50:54
  Lisa Nichols: I'm so excited now for our listeners to hear your story, and it's
• 50:58
  Lisa Nichols: gonna be fun to sit back and watch what happens with, Sam Goodwin because
• 51:02
  Lisa Nichols: there's gonna be some really good stuff in the future, and you're gonna
• 51:06
  Lisa Nichols: be continue to be used, I know, to to make the world a better
• 51:09
  Lisa Nichols: place.
• 51:10
  Sam Goodwin: Thank you so much, Lisa, for helping to spread the word.
• 51:14
  Sam Goodwin: Congratulations on all of your success.
• 51:17
  Announcer: Thank you for listening to today's show.
• 51:19
  Announcer: Something extra with Lisa Nichols is a Technology Partners production.
• 51:23
  Announcer: Copyright Technology Partners Inc, two thousand and nineteen.
• 51:26
  Announcer: For show notes or to reach Lisa, visit tpi dot co
• 51:30
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• 51:32
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• 51:36
  Announcer: you listen.