Episode Rerun: Battlefield Trauma Survivor to Anti-Bullying Advocate: Rick Yarosh’s Mission to Provide Purpose

This episode is awesome. Rick Yarsch, is a motivational speaker. He is a retired US army sergeant and a husband and father of 2. He served in Iraq for 9 months before he was severely injured and burned, badly in the Abu Ghraib area in September of 2006. So, man, he's got some incredible perspective on hardship and, you know, embracing your hardship, bringing a sense of purpose and serving others, and a sense of levity as well.

He's got a really good sense of humor. So, man, this was an awesome episode. Rick is a a part of sweethearts and heroes, and they go around and they speak with, largely schools. A lot of times, it sounds like middle schools. They're very busy.

He's flying around the country, you know, the better part of the year, most weeks, doing public speaking. And, it it's just a an inspirational story. We talk about how no one is is really self made, if we're honest, and how you need to be willing to ask for help when you're at rock bottom. But that you know, he talks about another gold nugget he dropped was that people say everything happens for a reason, and he pushes back a little bit on that. I'm not gonna spoil it.

You're gonna have to list listen for it. But he's got an interesting take on that and whether everything actually does happen for a reason or not. So fantastic episode. Buckle up. 

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Welcome everybody to another episode of the From Adversity to Abundance podcast.

I'm your host, Jamie Bateman, and I'm thrilled today we have with us a special guest, Rick Yerush. Rick is with, Sweethearts and Heroes. We're gonna dive into his story in a little bit. Rick, how are you doing today? I am doing amazing, Jamie, and I am actually thrilled to be here, with you as well.

Awesome. Now where are you, where are you joining us from? I am in Vestal, New York, little town outside of Binghamton, New York. Got it. Okay.

And for the for the listener out there, know, what are you up to today? What is your give us a little more of a snapshot of your your life as it is today. Yeah. Sure. So, you know, injured 17 years ago in Iraq, but today, that, really, what that had done for me was lead me to a lot of amazing things in my life.

And, today, I'm married. I have, children. I have 2 daughters, Grace and Tenley. And my life makes me travel. You know, I'm around New York State, really the northeast speaking to students about hope.

And, I know a lot about hope because I also know a lot about hopelessness. The times in my life that I felt hopeless, I learned a lot from them. And, you know, through what happened to me, I can tell you today that what happened to me was the best thing that ever happened to me. And, that's just powerful to know for somebody who's really struggling through something, and then someday they can maybe look at it as one of the best things that's ever happened to them. So that's where I'm at today.

I'm I never thought I'd be in this spot and this position with this mindset, but here I am, and I'm blessed. Extremely blessed. That's fantastic. Yeah. I know, I'm excited to to dive in now.

Not that I wasn't before, but I'm even more excited now. And and, I know you also mentioned before we hit record that you also own a restaurant, so we're gonna dive into that a little bit as well. So, you know, this our podcast is all about adversity and overcoming adversity and mindset and how how you handle that and the lessons, that you we can all learn from adversity that we can learn from our own adversity and the adversity of others, applying those lessons in our own lives and getting to a level of abundance. And, obviously, everyone's story is different with regard to what does that adversity look like, what does that abundance look like. In your case, I mean, is this this is obviously very, very apparent and and serious adversity that you went through.

So let's let's, let's dive in. It sounds like you and I were actually had a little bit of crossover in 2006, that we were both in in Iraq at the same time. So let let's jump back. Where would you like to start? 2006?

Yeah. I mean, that's the day everything changed. You know? It's, I mean, there was a big decision before that, and that was joining the military in, 2004. And I tell people today that it was the best decision that I've ever made, because it led to the best thing that ever happened to me, like I had told you.

The best thing that ever happened to me. That's awesome perspective. So talk talk about that decision. Why did you join the military? I know.

You you walk through a barracks of, army soldiers, enlisted men, e ones, who, when you walk into that barracks and you're seeing those bunks and you're meeting these guys, most of them didn't know where to fit in elsewhere. I'd say that's most of the reason people join in. You know, you got the big other ones. I have my big reasons. 911, absolutely a part of that.

But I think a lot of it is, like, I don't know what else I wanna do, and I don't know where I'm at. I need something. And the military was that thing for me. I needed a change in my life. You know, I graduated high school in 2000.

I did a lot of odd cooking jobs. I worked at a Pizza Hut Uno, a Subway, a bunch of different pizza places, bar and grills. And that's not what I wanted to do the rest of my life. Mhmm. I did college, and it wasn't for me.

I think I went twice. Like, and then that not not very good. But the like, when I graduated high school, I thought that diploma was gonna change my life. Like, the diploma was handed to me, and everything changed. And, yeah, it's just not how it works.

As we know as adults, like, nothing changes unless we decide to make a change. Absolutely. I didn't. I love that. But that was one of the reasons was, I just needed a place to go.

I needed to make a change in my life. 911, like I said. Yeah. But a pride that I had from 911, you know, anger, for sure, but that's not the the reason I joined. Yeah.

It was the pride of people coming together. Yeah. That's, what drove me to it. Yeah. That's interesting.

I I certainly don't hope for another 911. Please don't. You know, hope hopefully, no one no one missed, quotes me on this. But No. I'm living.

I already know what you're gonna say. Yeah, man. It's just I was talking with, some friends a couple weeks ago, and and it's like our nation is so divided and so polarized and just everything's a hot button issue, and everyone's offended. And, you know, I don't wanna go too far on this, but, basically, you know, I I thought I'd had the thought, and I said it out loud. It's almost like we need another, you know, tragedy like that to bring us together.

Waiting for it. We're waiting for another tragedy, and that's so silly. Why do we wait for I would I would even tell you that tragedy could be avoided by coming together. You know? Like, let's not even just come together before the tragedy.

Let's avoid the tragedy by coming there. Like, come on. It's ridiculous. Yeah. But I'm with you.

I joined after 911. I joined in 2003 and, you know, and and absolutely one of the themes of of our podcast that's in hindsight looking back that that that, it really has been a a pattern or a thread through many of the episodes, I would say probably every episode, really, is that people need a sense of purpose. They need a sense of connection, a sense of being a part of something bigger than themselves. And so, you know, I know for me, I was I had athletics going on, then that was gone. And now it's you know, so it's then it was now what?

What am I what am I plugged into? What am I serving? You know? So for me, it was similar to you in that sense that it was I needed to be a part of something bigger than myself. And and, so those are you know, I I can totally identify, and I know our listener can identify, maybe not on the military front, but, everyone needs to be connected and serving a greater cause, a greater purpose.

So kudos to you for making that decision. So you you you get deployed. You're you're in Iraq in 2006. Take it from there. Yeah.

So, 9 months into my deployment, I was there I was in Iraq for, 9 months. We had moved around, Baghdad area. We were never directly in the center of the city, but we were on the outskirts of the city. And, 9 months into the deployment, I was in the area of Abu Ghraib. Uh-huh.

The in the infamous Abu Ghraib. We act we actually lived inside of the prison, when we hand when we handed it back over to, the Iraqis. Now we didn't work in the prison. That was just our barracks. We lived in the prison cells.

So we were not there when all of that bad bad awful stuff happened. So you you were but you had a lot of interaction with the Iraqis themselves, it sounds like. Right? Yeah. We did.

Yeah. We had you know, some of the, the little tiny bases that we lived on, the patrol bases that we lived on had Iraqi army living on them as well. So, yeah, I had a lot of inter interactions in the sense that I spoke none of their language and they spoke none of mine. Sure. But we saw each other all the time.

Got it. No. I was just curious because I I was on a MIT team, and we were Yeah. Living with the Iraqi army essentially and training them. And, those interpreters that you alluded to are critical, you know, so but, yeah, it's, man, it's it's an experience for sure.

So you're there for 9 months, and then Yeah. On September 1st, everything changed for you. Talk about that. You know what? Almost say it's the day my life turned upside down, but I guess maybe that's what my life needed to do was turn upside down.

But yeah. So September 1st, 2006. Just 6. Yep. 2006.

I was in a a convoy, you know, going out on a mission, and I can't even tell you exactly what the mission was today. I think we're going to meet somebody in one of the little villages there. Mhmm. One of the sheikhs that was there, and we were going to, we were going to, you know, just is it every day, the the same kind of thing every day. You know, we don't we say we don't do presence patrols, but there were presence patrols, and that's kind of the stuff we were doing.

But we were the 5th vehicle in our convoy. We had 5 vehicles, 3 Humvees, 2 Bradleys. We were the rear vehicle, which means rear security, which also means all you can see is the dust that's being kicked up from the vehicles in front of you. So not ideal position to be in. So we decided to move up to the 4th, vehicle.

And, not even 2 minutes after we moved up to being the 4th vehicle, our Bradley was hit with an IED, improvised explosive device for those that don't know. And, the explosion went through the bottom of the vehicle up into the turret where I was sitting. I was the gunner in the vehicle. And, for those that don't know anything about the Bradley, in the turret of the Bradley is also where we have our fuel tank and, hit the fuel tank, causing, you know, bigger fire. And, instantly, I was on fire and knew the first thing I had to do.

If I had any chance to survive any of this, I had to get out of the vehicle. I couldn't think about tomorrow. I couldn't even think about being outside of the vehicle. I just had to get out. And that's what I did.

I climbed through the top hatch, which I left open that day, which normally we do not because of chemical attacks. We keep all the hatches closed. I left it open. And I'm so so thankful and, so so blessed that I did because I wouldn't have gotten out otherwise. Top.

Yeah. It's crazy that I did. And I think it's because my buddy, Montez, who was, the commander standing next to me, he actually was standing on his seat that day, which meant he was outside of the vehicle as well, which means he left his hatch open. So I think that's why he left it open. The hatch being open or closed is is kind of an option you have because I'm I'm not familiar with Brad.

I mean, I under I know what they are, but I I I didn't have firsthand knowledge of Bradley. So it's just an option, but for the most part, you were you generally kept them closed. Right? Yeah. We kept them closed.

We had a movie called it being buttoned up. We wouldn't shut everything down. That way nothing could get so if we were in, like, a combat situation, you know, Montez would have hopped down in, and we would have closed all the hatches. Sure. But a lot of times, we just rolled out that way.

But as you know, in Iraq, it's not cool and, it's extremely hot. No. Any kind of breeze at all was helpful in the Bradley. I mean, it was a 120 degrees outside anyways, and then inside the Bradley, it was so hot. So we tried to leave them open when we could, but not often.

Makes sense. And and, yeah, there's a lot of discretion in those kind of details as far as day to day. You're you're doing this every day, like you said, over and over and over. So alright. So the hatch is open, and so there's a huge explosion, sounds like, and you're literally on fire, and you you you've gotta get out of the vehicle, and then what happens?

Yeah. I'm engulfed. Every single, you know, part of my body was on fire. I can remember wearing my CBC, you know, with the, rubber pieces over the ears, for the to hear the, rust from the radio. And I can remember getting outside of the vehicle.

And when I got to the top of the vehicle, I can remember, like, melting, and it was still connected inside of the vehicle. So I had to get it off and, and, well, I can remember it was melting to my in my my face, but I couldn't see. I could only feel that. I couldn't see anything because my face was on fire, and the fire was covering my eyes. But I knew I had to jump off of the vehicle.

Like, it didn't matter Sure. How high it was off of the ground, 10 feet. That's why the turret is on the ground. It's all bad options at this point. I mean, let's see.

Yeah. I'm not taking time I'm not taking time to climb down the vehicle. I don't even know where the vehicle is, the edges. I'm just gonna jump and pray I'm off of the vehicle, and that's what I did. And there were no options.

It was jump. Sure. Sure. So I did jump. I took that leap of faith, and, I did make it to the ground.

But when I landed on the ground, since I couldn't see it, I, didn't land safely. I broke my leg. I severed an artery in my leg when I broke it. And, you know, they amputated my leg, 4 days later in the, hospital. But now, I'm on the ground.

And, you know, so I did the 2 steps. I, you know, got out of the vehicle, and I got off of the vehicle. But now I gotta get the fire up. And just like we're all taught to do when we're 4 or 5 years old, stop, drop, and roll, and I'm Right. Was rolling around on the ground.

And when I think of stop, drop, and roll, I think of rolling back and forth and back and forth. It's not like rolling in one direction. So I was rolling back and forth. And, and I don't know if this is something they should teach, but, you know, stop, drop, and roll does not work when you're engulfed in flames and you're covered in fuel. It doesn't work.

There's other ways to put the fire out, but that's what I was taught to do and that's what I did. But it didn't work. And, when I realized it didn't work and it was the only thing I knew how to do it, and honestly, I couldn't stand up and run because my leg was already broken. And, I even if I could, where was I going? My my face is off.

I couldn't see. So, I gave up. I gave up. And, I say I talk about hope a lot, and, I know a lot about hope. But, I said I know a lot about hope because I know a lot about hopelessness.

And in that moment, I was hopeless. I didn't think I was gonna make it. I just did stop, drop, and roll. I couldn't put the fire out. I sat up into the sky, and I just accepted that I would die.

And, biggest regret of my life right there because, I will never give up again ever. I don't care how difficult it gets, and that doesn't mean I won't succumb to something someday. Obviously, I will. But I will fight till the very end. I don't care how hard it is.

I will never give up again. I will never have to hold that regret again in my life. And, you know, to sweethearts and heroes, the the organization that I work with, hope stands for hold on possibilities exist. Like, if you don't hold on, you're never gonna find out the amazing possibilities that exist for you. And I didn't know what they were that day.

Like, would I wrestle or play football again? That was kind of something. Would I, be a doctor someday? Probably not. I didn't get very good grades at school.

But, or would I be presenting to students and adults someday? You know? I didn't know. Mhmm. Sure.

It didn't matter. I was giving up on all of it that day. If you give up hope, then you you're definitely not doing any of that. Right? No.

So but just so tactically, I mean, this is there's, I mean, it's there's nothing I can say that's yeah. I don't know what that's what that's like. But tactically, you know, what could you have done if you had you not given up hope? What what should you have done in hindsight? Anything.

Mhmm. Got it. I don't I don't know the answer, but anything. I don't in the the the answer is never nothing, and that's kind of what I'm figuring. And sometimes you don't know what the right is, but doing anything will help you maybe find out what the answer is.

Doing nothing will certainly not. And that's what I did. But, I only gave up hope for a second. And, you know, the hopelessness that I'm talking about, it's not only me and life and death situations. We all deal with difficult things in our life and hopelessness and lack of hope.

And hold on, man. Come on. You're gonna find doubt that there's really amazing things. Even in something that's difficult that you've been doing for a long time that you love doing, and you say, I don't wanna do it anymore because it's gotten too hard in my life. Alright?

Well, I mean, that is giving up, and you will find out that you're never gonna see the results from getting through it. And, you're never gonna get to experience the reward that comes from getting through that difficult thing. It's difficult for a reason. That probably means there's a really big reward at the end, when you get through it. That's really that's really good.

Eventually So Yep. Go ahead. I rolled in one direction. I just kept rolling in one direction instead of rolling back and forth trying to put the fire out. Eventually, I rolled in one direction, and I actually fell into one of the canals, in Iraq.

Yeah. Wow. Yep. Okay. I Saved my life.

Put the fire out. Saved my life. You know, also almost killed me because of how dirty it was, how filthy the water was. I ended up extremely sick in the hospital from it. But it saved my life.

And if I was in the same situation again, I'd go into it again, knowing that it would almost kill me. So And that that was intentional, or that's just you just found yourself there? That's just where I found myself. I had no idea that there was even I mean, I knew there were canals all over the roads that we but Yeah. I when I was rolling, I wasn't thinking I'm gonna fall into a canal.

I was just rolling because it that was that scenario. Don't do nothing. Do something. And that was what I was doing. Just something.

And I ended up in that canal. Wow. Okay. So, obviously, you're you're still here. I mean, so so what happened?

Who got you out of the canal? What what happened after that? Yeah. So we had, we had our we had snipers. We were so I'm the scout, cavalry scout, and, we had snipers attached to us.

And, one of our, snipers found me, and one of the, actually, the the Bradley that ended up moving behind us, the commander of that vehicle, found me as well. So they came down. Before they found me, though, everybody thought I was still in the vehicle, which means they thought I was gone. Because if I wasn't out of that vehicle at that point, I was dead. So they thought they didn't even think I had gotten out of the vehicle because there was so much smoke and fire that everything was a mess.

So they thought I was still inside. Eventually, they heard me yelling, and, they came down and, found me. And one of them grabbed under my arms, and then the other one grabbed my legs. And as soon as they grabbed my leg, that's when I felt real pain, from the break of my leg. I said, hey.

My leg is broken. You know, grab them higher. So he grabbed up higher. They carried me out. And, when you know, they hung out with me and were helping me because, yeah, I was going through a lot, obviously, at that moment.

Not just me, but my buddies who are watching me, they're going through a lot too. And my other buddies who were in the vehicle with me, they're going through it's chaos. Sure. I mean, at that point, you can start hearing the rounds of the Bradley cooking off from the fire, and it's just chaos. So from a physical standpoint, was anyone else wounded or injured?

Yeah. So, sergeant Montes, who was the commander, who was the one standing next to me on his seat, he was burned very badly. And then, sergeant, or sorry, specialist Lowe, he was our driver, and, he was burned as well. He was in the front of the vehicle, so most of his burns were on his, on his back. But, sergeant Montez actually did not make it.

He ended up, pass yeah. So he made it to the hospital, but, 7 days later, he passed away. Wow. Yeah. Yeah.

This is I mean, it's heavy, heavy stuff, man. So, you know, obviously, we we could spend, you know, the entire episode talking about your recovery and all that, and there's a there's a ton we're just gonna have to gloss right over, of course. Yeah. But but talk about your recovery specifically from a a mindset standpoint. I mean, what's, you know, what's going through your mind in in the ensuing, days weeks?

Yeah. The mental mess that I was there. I can't imagine. Physically, sorry. I was a mess.

But a lot of that recovery came in the hands of other people helping me do it, like the doctors and nurses, like, our physical therapists, occupational therapists. Like, a lot of that stuff was kind of out of my hands. Mhmm. Some of it was up to me, for sure, getting out of bed, but being pushed to get out of bed. Like, we talk about sweethearts and, the sweethearts in hero's world.

The sweethearts are the carriers of hope. But really so we speak anti bullying in schools. And, we can say we can we can take the word bullying right out of the presentation. It's the same message about taking care of each other. But if you look back in the 16th century when the word bully was invented, it actually meant sweetheart.

And yeah. It was somebody in your life who pushed you over and over and over again. And sometimes they did it and made you uncomfortable by doing it, which sounds like the bully of today, but they pushed you to make you better. Like, they knew what you were capable of and they saw your potential. So my physical therapist were into my room and, Rick, man, you gotta get up.

You gotta get out of that bed. I know you're dealing with a lot. I don't want you to have to do this, but you have to do this. So they were pushing me. That's, you know, some of the sweethearts in my life and hope hope they have given me.

So, that recovery was a mess because mentally, I was a mess. And the first time I saw my face, that was the biggest thing, one of the biggest things, recognizing that so I actually saw my face in, the reflection of my laptop by 4 months in. Yeah. So you weren't even you weren't even planning to see it. I mean, it wasn't No.

No. Nobody wanted me to see my face. They covered the mirror in my room. They they covered it with old pictures, so that if I ever went by my wheelchair, I couldn't see it. So, they didn't want me to see it.

My mom brought me my laptop one day and set it on my lap. Didn't think of anything about it. I didn't think anything about it. And opened it up, and there was my face in that, reflection. And as soon as I saw myself, it was like, do I even really want to get out of the hospital?

You know, my whole goal up until that point was I can't wait to leave this place. And then I saw myself, and it's like, do I even want to? Like, who's going to accept me? Who's going to give me opportunity? A big one that people don't wanna talk about.

And it's hard to talk about, but who's going to choose to love me? Like, that's part of it. So all that was flooding in. But, again, thankfully, I had amazing people that were surrounding me at that time with that in that hospital and giving me the hope that I needed and help me out through it. Mhmm.

But I'm telling you right now that the recovery, the mental part of it was extremely difficult. And, you know, I will take very little credit, for a lot of my mental well-being. A lot of it yeah. I had to want to get better. That's for sure.

I had to have that. But I needed other people to help me. And so so many people are so against accepting help from others because then they can't tell other people, I did it on my own. Or Yeah. Yeah.

Or, you know, 2 of the worst words that I I can't stand it. But I know people say it, and I just know they're misunderstanding it. But they can't say no longer that they're self made. Yeah. Yeah.

I I was actually literally just thinking of saying that about self made millionaires and, you know, all this stuff. Nobody's self made. No. Let's be honest. Not one single person.

Yeah. And I'm not Yeah. I'm not one to call people out. I'm not. I'm not that's not me.

That's not who I am. I'm not here to make anyone uncomfortable. But when I hear self made, this is a tough one for people to hear. What I really hear is somebody saying that they're selfishly made because they can't give anyone else credit. Like, dude, even the bad people in your life affected your life.

Even those bad people, they affected your life to help you get to where you are today. Absolutely. I mean yeah. No. I I couldn't agree more.

That's that's that's I mean, it's yes. We have a ton of influence over our own day to day life, generally speaking, in our in our future, and we should take control. We should take ownership of our own, you know, well-being and our own, actions, take responsibility for our lives, whether that's financial, whether that's, you know, anything else. But you're not none of us are, you know, god or, you know, it's it's like you you you're you're one person. You know, you being in the situation that you were to have this explosion happen wasn't all you're doing either.

I mean, there were, you know, there are a lot of other factors. And so so what are 1 or so it sounds like one of the lessons you learned through this, the the recovery process from a mental standpoint, is that you need help. You need other people, you know, to be a part of your own well-being. What other lessons did you learn through that recovery process? Yeah.

So in that same thing, you know, like, I've just realized that if I cannot do something on my own, which there are absolutely things I can't do on my own, there's things you can't do on your own, Jamie. There's things that everybody that's listening right now cannot do on their own. And if they don't ask for help, it will never get done. Like, that is silly. So, eat that pride for a second and ask for help if you can't do something that I've learned to do that.

So that's absolutely one thing that I've learned. And today, also, I've learned that, you know, that's when I hear that saying, you know, everything happens for a reason. I'm not a true buyer of that saying k. In itself. I don't wanna put quotes just around that sentence.

I wanna put quotes around everything happens for a reason if I make it for a reason. Because if I got blown up and I sat in my room the rest of my life, which people would have accepted because they were like, Rick, you know, the war veteran who was injured very badly, and he's dealing with a lot. So let's just leave him alone. Like, what is it for them? I don't know.

A really good point. Yeah. The the everything leaving it yeah. The you're you're a there's some nuance there, and I and I get what you're saying. It's it's, you know, everything happens for a reason can lead you to to play more of the victim mentality, the victim card, and, not be a part of your creating that that reason or creating purpose out of that adversity.

Right? Yeah. So that's that's really interesting. Yeah. I hadn't thought of it like that exactly.

So, what did your so walk us through kind of the next, you know, few years. How how did your life go, you know, from 2006 through, say, 2010? What did that look like? You know, so you you talked about it earlier, having a sense of purpose in this world and joining the military is such a big part of that, and now it was taken from me. Like, that purpose that I had and, you know, we talk about the number of suicides in veterans every day and how many there are, and I know the number was 22 for a long time.

I don't know if that's still where we're at, but I know it's too high no matter how many peep how many, or how big that number is. Because that's it's a that's 22 22 service members every day. Every day. Lives. Yeah.

The veterans. Yep. Some a person that has served in the military, active duty, or veteran. And that number is obviously too high. And, but, you know, I don't think it's, too disproportionate to the rest of the world as well.

Like, not just veterans, it's people. But I would say with veterans, you know, you have you talked about it, having such a purpose in the military. Yeah. And then then you get out of military, willingly or not, whether you choose to or not. All of a sudden, it's hard to find the same kind of purpose when you're defending a nation.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I think people struggle with that. Like, they get out, and they're, like, trying to find a purpose that's equal, equivalent.

Sure. And it's hard to do. Yeah. I think your your entire identity is wrapped up in that. And and and for good reason.

Right? I mean, it's I'm not knocking that, but it's No. It should it should be a little bit. Yeah. And then well, and then it's and then it's gone.

And now who are you? Whether Yeah. Again, like you said, whether it's someone retiring from the military or even retiring from a civilian job. Yep. We had, I had a professional baseball player on on the show, and he got injured and and his career was over.

And Who am I? Who am I? Right? And so it's critical for all of us, and so that's that's gone now. So for you, in your case, so that's that's gone.

At least, you know, it's never gonna look the same as far as your career in the military. Right? So so now what's going through your mind, and what's what's happening in your in your world at that point? Well, I knew I needed to find something. I didn't know how long it would need to take to do that or if I had to do it instantly.

I didn't really I knew I had to recover first. That was kinda first and foremost. But, I also knew that, I needed a purpose in life and, you know, being a soldier was gone. Being a football player and wrestler, that was over. Being a leader in the military, that was not gonna happen.

So Mhmm. You know, again, you know, I talk about people in my life and the help that I've received along the way, and I'm not who I am today without them. But I went to an event, that my mom signed me up for and, you know, probably 3 months after I got out of the hospital. So 9 months after my injury, I'm still in my wheelchair. I'm a mess.

I can't use my hands at all. I'm just a disaster. But So this is early 2007 ish. Will this just Yep. Yep.

So it would have been probably around May or June o 7. And and how old were you at this point? Just for a little more context. Always get this one wrong. So I think I was 25.

I was 25 at that time. Got it. But, yeah, trying to figure out who I am. I go my mom signs me up for this event. So the hospital of San Antonio.

This event's in Houston, Sugar Land, Texas. And, I I go to the event and, you know, second day, the guy one of the guys that's putting the event on comes up to me, and he says some pretty amazing words to me. He says, what do you wanna do? Now those are amazing words because he didn't come up and say, hey, man. You should do this.

You should try this. He said, what do you wanna do? And I think all of us have a problem with telling people what they should do, what they what we want them to do, not what they wanna do. So he asked me. So what do you wanna do?

And, I, for some reason, I still cannot figure I think I have a little bit of an I idea why, but I said I wanna be a public speaker. Now when I said that yeah. I don't know why I said that because I was terrified of public speaking. I mean, more than terrified. I took it in high school, and I should have failed because I did one presentation in front of my class.

And that was the one where we had a partner, and we could do it with a partner. And I made fruit salad in front of my class. Like, that was the only public speech that I did. I tell him that. I wanna be a public speaker.

So he says it was to challenge yourself, or what why do you think you chose it? So when I was in that hospital, at night when I couldn't sleep because of everything I was dealing with, I'd watch TV, and one of the channels that was on was our chapel channel. And, it was like at night, they put a VHS tape in downstairs in the chapel, and it would play throughout the hospital on all the little TVs. And since it's not allowed on, I would watch that. It was reruns, but so I watched the same thing a lot.

And, there was a story about a Vietnam veteran named Dave Reaver. And Dave, was burned very badly in the Vietnam war. He actually went through Brooke Army Medical Center, you know, 30, 40 years before me, when he went was injured. And, Dave was a public speaker. Okay.

And, you know, just watching Dave coming from where he was as this burning guy, you know, so some similarities there. We're going through something similar. Not the same, but similar. You have a connection with him. Yep.

We connected. And then, you know, watching where he was, I wanted to be like him. We talk about heroes in our life and who are they. And heroes really are just people that we wanna be like and emulate and, you know, we look up to. And I wanted to be like him in a lot of ways.

He had a family. He had, a wife and children. He had a job that he loved. So I told that guy, I wanna be a public speaker. Okay.

I don't think I had really thought about that a whole lot, honestly, before I said it. But I told him that. And he said what people say. Alright. Why do you want?

No. I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna help you. Oh, nice. Yeah.

But you know what? That's just what people say. Sure. And then you never hear you never hear from them again. Sure.

You know, it's the easy way out of a conversation that's difficult because this guy's not a public speaker. How's he gonna help me be a public speaker? Yeah. So I'm at the event for 3 days. I go home, back to my, I had an apartment across the street from the, the hospital, still on base.

And, he calls me a week later, and he says, hey. I got your public speaking engagement. And I was like, oh, no. Yeah. Wow.

Like, he's calling your bluff now. Right. Yeah. The one guy that follows through with what he says he's gonna do. I tell him I wanna be a public speaker.

So he gave me that opportunity. He gave me the opportunity to be a public speaker. And 17 years later, here I am talking to over almost 2,000,000 students across the country. Yeah. So what does your kind of what what's a typical week or month look like for you with with regard to your public speaking?

Yeah. So September, October, November, you know, beginning of the school year, just, that's when every school wants a presenter to come in. If if you're gonna make a a change in your culture, you don't do it the last day of school. You do it the 1st day of school. So I'll be so so our the the start of school year is every single day.

I'm gone. I leave Sunday usually, and I don't come home until Friday. Once December hits, I usually am doing 2 weeks a month with, you know, that those weeks off, I'm still doing some stuff. Like, this is my week off, and I worked, yesterday, and I worked Thursday and Friday. So that's how a week off kinda looks.

So we're busy. That that's why we were able to get you in, late May. That's right. That's right. But we're definitely happy to, you know, happy to have you on for sure.

So so how did that from that first speaking engagement, you know, through today, I know there's a lot that that happened, but Certainly. What was your journey like? It, you know, it's a it's a it's a tough journey, but it's a it it starts and ends like this. It started as something that I hated, public speaking. Became something that I needed.

That first public speaking engagement that I did, it was I needed that. I needed to talk about what happened to me. And I think too many times when we have something really awful that happens to us or we see it as really awful, We don't talk about it, and we gotta talk about it. We gotta become comfortable with it because what I know is I can't change what happened to me. But I can change how I look at it.

You know, if I talk about it more, that helps me change how I look at what happened. It makes me become comfortable with it. So it started as something I hated, became something I needed, then became something that I wanted to do. I I enjoyed it. And today, it's a love.

I love it. But it started with something I hated, and today, I love it. So, I mean, that exact journey simply put. Yeah. From hate to hate.

That's really good because a lot of people, you know, even, when they're making just career decisions, they they often think you know, a lot of the advice is follow your passion. Right? And that can be okay, and this is just my opinion, but, you might end up hating your passion if you make it a career. And, also, you're not really concerned with serving others. You're just concerned with kind of what do you like doing.

Right? So Right. Just kind of the converse where you started out doing something you didn't actually like it, and you saw it as a challenge and, it moved and changed into something that you got really good at and you you really enjoy. So that's that's fascinating. So, you know, I guess, how did your from a speaking actually, I'm curious from a speaking perspective, what did you have to work on and, you know, what have you gotten better with with regard to speaking and public speaking in particular?

Oh, man. When I first started, you know, I my speeches were maybe 10 minutes, 15 minutes. I didn't know how to make them longer. Like, I can tell you the injury of what happened to me in Iraq in 5 minutes. Sure.

And then I didn't know what else to talk about. Like, okay. So, you know, the people got a really good story of what happened to me in Iraq. Sure. Yeah.

What was I doing for them other than giving them a story? Sure. And that's what I had to figure out. What am I doing for these people? I have to because one thing that I realized after that first speaking engagement that I had that people were gonna listen to me because of the way I look and because of the story that I had.

So I got that part. Now if I'm gonna have people that are listening to me, I need to help them. I need to help them. I just to real quickly, that resonates with me quite a bit, in particular with this this podcast. You know, I started it, and it's it's been wonderful.

I love doing it. I love, you know, hearing stories and and learning and and expanding my own network, and there's all kinds of ways I benefit from it. But I've been going through some introspection just being a little vulnerable here with with the with podcast itself. You know, stories are fine, and and people listen to stories that are entertaining. And we love stories, and we remember them.

But what's the point? Right? And so Yeah. What is the value add of my podcast? You know?

And so I've intentionally been trying to get guests on who can add value in you know, some are more inspirational, others might bring, you know, a particular small business service. Right? So my my point is isn't to get too far in the weeds on that, but it's more of a mindset shift of what's the value that I'm bringing to the listener, and that's really what I'm what I'm focused on now. So I love that. That's that's awesome.

So how did your public speaking change once you were able to make that mindset, shift? So that's when I recognized the hopelessness that I felt and the hope that I got back. And today, I it's pretty powerful when you can tell somebody I will never give up hope again in my life. That doesn't mean I won't feel hopeless again in my life. Mhmm.

But I will never give up hope again in my life. I will hold on to it, and I will find it, and I will keep fighting for it, even through the difficult things that I deal with. So when I realized that and I when I and especially when I realized, especially middle schoolers who are struggling with so much. Absolutely. And, you know, as adults, a lot of adults look at it and, like, ah, they're just weak.

Man. Yeah. We're we're having a not true. No. My my my son's in 7th grade, and, this isn't well, I won't go too far into it, but he's Sure.

You know, it's really hard. It's a really difficult time. I mean, it was hard for us too. It was hard for us. We forget about how hard it was.

It's harder for them. We didn't have and, you know, I hate the oh, I'm gonna blame social media for a second here. No. It's true. Have that.

We could escape things. We could go home. We could walk out into the woods and forget about it. But now there's no escaping it with the social media and the phones and stuff like that. It's a lot harder for kids.

And then the amount of, decisions that kids can make today Yeah. It's information overload. There's the the pandemic, and there's all kinds of factors. But I think what you're really getting at is empathy and for certain. And just understanding where these middle schoolers are coming from in this in this case.

Absolutely. So, obviously, your public speaking in and of itself as far as your skill, you know, improved dramatically, it sounds like. And so and then how did how did the, you know, sweethearts and heroes come to be? Talk about the organization. What what is that all about?

Yeah. So sweethearts and heroes, like I said earlier, you know, anti bullying is kind of the flag that we waved, and that would get us into the schools. And like but I like I said, it's almost like a trick because you can take the bullying right out of the presentation. And in the end, it's about taking care of each other and treating each other right way. And also, you mentioned that word empathy.

Recognizing that everyone is dealing with something. Mhmm. And, you know, empathy, it's extremely difficult to be mean to somebody when you really know what their life is. When you really know what they're going through. So, that's sweethearts and heroes in a nutshell.

You know, we create sweethearts, we create heroes, sweethearts are the carriers of hope heroes and the people who jump into action and do things that other people aren't willing to do, especially in the bullying world to stop that bullying, from happening. So that's the that's sweethearts and heroes in a nutshell. But I came into it, 12 years ago when I they heard me speak. Spirits and heroes heard me present to a wrestling group in that early the early stage where I was just kinda telling my story. And, they said, well, you know, this would fit.

And I didn't know how, but I heard heroes and that scared me. I heard that scared me. I didn't want to be You didn't wanna be a hero. I do listen. I always appreciate when somebody else will call me a hero.

I will not be like, ah. Yeah. I don't see myself that way. Mhmm. But that's not up to me to tell somebody else how they see me.

Mhmm. So I appreciate when but I'm not gonna roll into a school and be like Mhmm. Hey. I'm the hero of Sweethearts and Heroes. Yeah.

But that's not what Heroes was. I found that out. And, you know, after some really chance things that happened, I ended up joining up. And I said joining the army was the best one of the best decisions I've ever made. Sweethearts and Heroes was another one.

Because I was speaking on my own, but I would not have grown if it wasn't for, the people I got I met at Sweethearts and Heroes. I love that. I mean, it's and and one of the takeaways for me from that is you were doing your your best, putting your bet best, you know, foot forward as far as public speaking on your own, not worried about where it was gonna go long term. No. You were focused on delivering value at that time, and then, hey, circumstance this opportunity presented itself.

Yeah. And the value has grown so much because of that. That's awesome. Yeah. So to the listener out there, you know, if you are discouraged, if you like you said earlier, if you're grinding at your job and you feel hopelessness, we're not saying never think about a career change, but Right.

Do your best at what's presented, you know, today. Right? And you never know where that's gonna who's watching you and what opportunities are gonna present themselves because of your because of you, you know, doing your best today. So I love that. And so you've been with the organization for 12 years now?

Yeah. About 12 years. Yeah. Right around there. Around 12 years.

Awesome. So I do have some, some kind of rapid fire questions for you. Are you ready? Yes. I'm ready.

So, Rick, once what is one thing that people misunderstand about you? So I think when people first see me, they see me as, I'm not helpless. But, like, you know, there are certain things that I struggle with, and I don't see it as a struggle a lot of the times. I just see it as my life. Like, this is what I I drop something on the ground, I might it might take me a little time to pick it up.

But that's the way I look at it. Somebody looks at me and they see a struggle happening, something I just think it's a part of my day. So I think people misunderstand that I'm not helpless. I do a lot on my own. But, also, if I'm if I can't pick that thing up on the ground, I'm not gonna be afraid to ask you.

Kids, on the other hand, a lot of kids think of that I'm sad when they see me. You know? They would they they they see the original injury still. And Yeah. But once I'm done talking to them, they realize, oh, wow.

He's not sad at all. Yeah. But I am. I'm extremely happy. Extremely happy.

Awesome. That's a really very good answer. Looking back at at your life thus far, what would you say is one of your biggest failures or regrets? Man, it you know, it's one of my biggest failures and regrets, but if if I change it, I wouldn't be here today. And that's, you know, how I didn't when I was in high school.

My grades you know, I loved athletics. I was football, wrestler. But Sure. I put that on the back burner, and I didn't care. The the reason I regret it so much is because it's not it was something that was in my control Mhmm.

That I did nothing, to change, and that's a regret of mine. But, again, I change it, I'm not here. I probably wouldn't have joined the army. So Yeah. No.

That's understandable. If you could have coffee with any historical figure, who would it be? Oh, man. Jesus Christ. Nice.

Jesus Christ. Right? Yeah. And, you know, and and and it comes from, like I look up to the man, but I also have a ton of questions. Mhmm.

In in in faith in general, like, my faith is a roller coaster. It's a roller coaster ride, and, I would love to sit down and just have a conversation. It's a good one. Yeah. If you were given $10,000,000 tomorrow, Rick, what would you do with it?

Oh, man. Okay. I'll tell you what I would want to do with it. I would want to donate it. I've always wanted to make enough money to donate, a $1,000,000 to St.

Jude's. You know, when I see kids struggling, that hurts me more than anything else. I'm not having especially not having my own children. I would say that I would so I know I would donate some of it. Mhmm.

And then, you know, I would, give some to my family, you know, my wife's family and my family. And who knows what I would do with the rest? I don't know. I I don't have a lot of needs in my life. I have a lot of things that I I I'm happy with.

Nice. Now what's we we touched on we mentioned briefly that you own a restaurant. Talk about that. How's it did that come to fruition, and what does that look like today? I married somebody whose family owned a restaurant.

Okay. There you go. So That's the way to do it. I've always wanted to own a restaurant. I had this idea of the Purple Heart Steakhouse really early on.

You know, I wanted to name every item on the menu after somebody that had a Purple Heart. The name of the restaurant would be Luis' Purple Heart Steakhouse because that's Luis Montes who are lost. And if I ever opened the second one, that would be Anthony's or Tony's, Purple Heart Steakhouse because what I didn't mention earlier was my buddy who pulled me out of that canal who was standing over me and helping me. He was actually killed in Afghanistan a couple years later. So, I always had that idea.

And then, you know, I married my wife, Amy, and, her family owned the restaurant. So I knew we would own that restaurant someday. And I always make the joke, said I wanted to own a restaurant someday, just not that one. But when your wife wants you to own a restaurant, guess what? Guess what?

You own you own a restaurant. So how how is that? It it it sounds like you don't do too much of the day to day with the restaurant. What's that look like from an operational standpoint? Yeah.

So she runs the restaurant day to day. You know, when a big decision needs to be made, I get in there. When it's something needs to be ordered, like a new piece of equipment, something needs to be fixed. I set all that stuff up. I do all the books, the numbers.

If I see the numbers not doing what they should be doing, I Right. Will talk to my wife and hopefully get to make a change. That doesn't mean it is going to make a change. Yeah. So, yeah, I do that end of it.

And, you know, our our slogan are is a taste of the American dream. You know, this is a little bit of our American dream, an opportunity to be successful or not. Like, we have a lot of play on that. Like, if it's not working, it's because we're not doing something right. And if it is working, it's probably because we made a team that was able to make it work.

It's not just me. Right. So I have enjoyed the we bought it in the middle of COVID too, from my mother. And, we tore the place apart. We, there were 7 layers of flooring in it.

It's 70 years old, the building. It's a really small building, and Wow. We took 7 layers of floor out, and we made it ours. And, that's why I do love it so much. It's ours.

And if it fails, it's our fault. And if it succeeds, then we did something right. Sure. That's really a great perspective. With the restaurant, what's a particular, issue or challenge that you're having right now?

Oh, I'll tell you. So we're a sub shop. K. And we we are a very small building. So we don't have the capability of, making our own bread.

So we buy we buy from a local bakery. And, 4 days ago, that bakery shut down. They made an announcement, and in a week, they will be closed. So we are switching, to a different sub role, which now we're gonna you know, people are gonna talk about. Like, hey.

You know, you changed your roles, but we had no choice. But, also, every role that we buy from now on is 20¢ more than what we were paying before. Mhmm. And that's the most that's the biggest thing that leaves our building. That's the thing that leaves our building the most.

So 20¢ on every role. We have to figure out how to now make up on that over $4,000 a year that we'll lose on that. So price change of, product has been a big, big thing. Turkey is our best seller. It's gone up a dollar 50 a pound Mhmm.

Since we first opened. A dollar 50 a pound. We buy a £160 a week. So when we're buying that much turkey and it's gone up that much, you can only make that money up in a price change. It's the only way to make it up.

It's not easy to change prices for me. I don't like doing that. So that's that's a battle. That is a battle. We're we are just as busy as we were the 1st year we opened.

That 1st year was great. I was like, wow. This is awesome. 2nd year, we made just as much money. Brought us just as much money in Mhmm.

But made half. Brought half half. Yeah. Just because expenses were that much higher. Expenses.

Minimum wage in New York goes up every year. And Sure. So we gotta battle all that stuff. Sure. But you know what?

It's a challenge, and I and I like it too. Well and, you know, that's what I was gonna say. Compared to what the challenges you've overcome already, you know, this is it it I I would see this I I you know, this is me, but sounds like this is more of a game. You know? It's important.

I'm not saying it's not important, but, look, you've you've overcome so much more before, so you can you and your wife are gonna navigate this one just fine. I'm sure. It is a game. I love how you said that because, honestly, it is. It's a game, man, and I get to play it and I get to win or lose.

And, the more I practice, the the more I will win. The less I get involved, the more we will lose. That's just how that works. And then That's what that's really what small business and and really serving others is all about is is solving problems. Right?

Yeah. Absolutely. So I love that. What is a book or 2 that you could recommend for our listener out there? My favorite book of all time, and honestly, it's super powerful, but it's also a very easy read, is The Last Lecture, by Randy Posh.

Okay. I've I've not read that. I believe I have heard of it. But, yeah, what what's that all about? So Randy Posh, is no longer with us today.

Randy Posh wrote his book, The Last Lecture, in the middle of him having pancreatic cancer. So he knew he was not going to live. And, he was a profess professor at Carnegie Mellon. But, when I first read the I've read it many times now. But when I first read the book, I stopped about halfway through, and I didn't read anymore because there was a sentence in it that just stopped me.

I read it and I was like, that is why I read this book. And I didn't even go past that. And then years later, I went through the whole thing again. But it was, when Randy who was dying of pancreatic cancer Mhmm. Was sitting at a red light in his car and lady pulled up next to him.

He didn't even see her, but he was singing and dancing in his car. Week later, he sees her or a couple weeks later, he sees her and she comes up to him and she says, hey. I saw you in your car the other day and you were, like, singing and dancing. How do you do that when you know you're not gonna live? And he said that was the day that he recognized that he was actually happy.

He wasn't just putting out a face for everyone else because in the beginning, that's what I did. I thought I did. I thought I was smiling because I was supposed to. It was making other people's day better. But guess what?

When there's no one else in the room and you're still singing and you're still smiling, you're not doing that for other people. Yeah. That means you're happy. So when I read that part, I was like, holy crap, man. I am happy.

Love that. That's really good. What's an occupation that you'd like to try, that's totally off the wall, not restaurant or public speaking related? Oh, man. I always wanted to be a police officer growing up.

That was part of the reason that military was in my, in my path, and I thought I would join the police force. Some kind of investigator of some sort. I love trying to solve a mystery. Like, that's just interesting to me. I feel like I can solve them all if I dedicate myself to them.

So some kind of investigator in the, in the police world. Awesome. Love it. What's a question that I have not asked that you wish I had? Oh, man.

Rick, how do you hear with no ears? Rick, how do you hear with no ears? What? That's my favorite question when a 5th grader asks. That's hilarious.

That's that's really good. I love it. The sense of humor there. You gotta have one, man. If you look like me, you gotta have a sense of humor or you're screwed.

I'm not gonna ask you how you like to serve others because it's pretty pretty evident with sweetheart sweethearts and heroes. Yeah. So it's fantastic. Where can our listeners find you online, Rick? Sweetheartsandheroes.com.

That's the way to connect our organization. My bio is on there, so if you wanna read more about myself, that's on there. I have a website as well, rickhairs.net. It's a terrible website, so don't check it out. I built it, and I have not touched it in a very long time, but you can find more information on there.

And then any of the, Instagram, we have a ton of stuff on YouTube. Just, you know, just search for sweethearts and heroes, and you'll find a lot of stuff on us. Awesome. I love that. I think I'm gonna start using that reverse psychology.

Don't check out my website. Yes. Yeah. Well, now people are gonna look at it, and they're like, oh, now I see why he said He was he was right. And I don't even own rick yerris.com.

Go figure. Okay. Somebody else owns that one. Maybe that's in in in your future. In your future.

Well, Rick Yerris, this has been fantastic, man. I've really thoroughly enjoyed this, and I know our listeners are gonna get a ton of value. So thank you so much for taking the time. We really appreciate it. Jamie, this was awesome.

Awesome. Awesome. That's all I can say. I've done a few podcasts in my life, and you know what? This is number 1.

Well, it's an it was an easy interview for me. That's for sure. So thanks a lot, Rick. Really appreciate it. Me.

I appreciate it. And to the listener out there, thank you for spending your most valuable resource with us, and that is your time. Don't forget to check out our website or, no, don't check out our website, adversity to abundance.com. It's the number 2, adversity to abundance.com. And certainly share this episode and this podcast in general.

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