The Peaceful Warrior: Navigating Resilience and Neo-Masculinity with John Krotec
How does a leader stand firm when modern culture feels increasingly fragmented and chaotic? In this powerful episode, we explore the core of the Bridge Builder persona through the lens of radical resilience and inner strength. Joining us is John Krotec—an author, speaker, and advocate who survived a traumatic brain injury and intense personal struggles—to share why the ultimate mantra for navigating adversity is simply to "keep going."
John introduces the profound concept of the "peaceful warrior," mapping out how a true Bridge Builder masters the art of restraint, etiquette, and ethical living in an age of reactive outrage. We dive deep into a heavily misconstrued cultural topic: the evolution of modern masculinity. John unpacks his blueprint for "neo-masculinity"—a collaborative, enlightened approach that bridges the gap between traditional responsibility and emotional intelligence. If you are an executive, mentor, or parent looking to exercise critical thinking amidst information overload and build supportive pathways for the next generation, this conversation provides an essential guide to leading with heart and conviction.
Key Takeaways
- The Bridge Builder’s Commitment to Perseverance: A defining trait of the Bridge Builder persona is an unyielding commitment to forward momentum. In moments of profound professional or personal crisis, true leaders anchor themselves in the discipline to keep going.
- The Power of Relational Restraint: Strength is not defined by aggression, but by thoughtful action. Embracing the mindset of a peaceful warrior allows leaders to use restraint, etiquette, and critical discernment to de-escalate conflict and build respect across cultural divides.
- Architecting Neo-Masculinity and Collaborative Roles: Modern identity requires a supportive upgrade. A Bridge Builder champions an enlightened approach to masculinity—one that honors the core values of protecting and providing while seamlessly integrating high emotional intelligence and mutual collaboration.
- Bridging Trauma and Personal Growth: Facing severe personal trials head-on is the exact catalyst needed for deep self-awareness. True leaders do not isolate themselves during hardship; they seek mentorship and support to transform their wounds into structural resilience.
- Navigating Chaos with Critical Thinking: In a world dominated by sensationalized news cycles and algorithmic noise, leaders must flex their critical thinking skills. Cultivating deep discernment ensures we are actively guiding our communities rather than being passively influenced by external chaos.
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Transcript
John, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh, Doc, that.
Speaker B:That was.
Speaker B:Thank you for having me here.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:That was an amazing introduction and that alone is worth being here, regardless of what we talk about.
Speaker B:Just that introduction.
Speaker B:I'm gonna be smiling the rest of the day, but there you go.
Speaker A:You could clip that and put that on your tombstone.
Speaker B:But, but, but, yeah, but thank you for that.
Speaker B:And you said a lot of.
Speaker B:A lot in a short period of time.
Speaker B:And hopefully your.
Speaker B:The listeners and you know, thank you for being here and hopefully you'll be able to glean a lot from the doctors and my conversation today.
Speaker B:We do have some things to talk about.
Speaker A:We do.
Speaker A:And I'm going to start out with my favorite question and ask all my guests what's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Speaker B:Great question.
Speaker B:Right off the bat.
Speaker B:You put me on the spot, but.
Speaker A:I think I got an answer.
Speaker B:But it's two words.
Speaker B:Keep going.
Speaker B:And the.
Speaker B:The real quick story behind that is I was in a low point in my life.
Speaker B:I was separated from my wife and things were unraveling.
Speaker B:It was right after my traumatic brain injury and this childhood trauma that had started to surface and all my assets were locked.
Speaker B:So I called a buddy of mine.
Speaker B:He actually is an owner of a professional football team, and I said, you know, I needed some help, and he helped me, and then he gave me some advice, and it was exactly that.
Speaker B:I know who you are, you know who you are, which is even more important.
Speaker B:Keep going.
Speaker B:So wherever you're at in your life, no matter how bad things seem at the time, and believe me, I know they can seem bad.
Speaker B:Believe in yourself.
Speaker B:Know where you're putting that next step, and just keep going.
Speaker B:Don't give up.
Speaker B:There are better days ahead.
Speaker A:It reminds me of the words that I saw at my son's finishing up boot camp.
Speaker A:And we were there for his.
Speaker A:His opening ceremony.
Speaker A:I remember there's one of those proudest moments of my life, watching him and all the soldiers march around and present themselves to who just finishing up, you know, basic training.
Speaker A:And on the back wall at Fort Jackson were the words always forward.
Speaker A:And it's kind of the same thing you just said.
Speaker A:It just.
Speaker A:It just kind of inspired me.
Speaker A:It's like when things are tough, you always keep going forward because you don't want to just stop and either wallow in whatever problems you're having or the situation you're in, but you always keep moving forward.
Speaker A:You keep pushing through.
Speaker A:And as Christians, we don't do that in our own power.
Speaker A:But we do it by the power of God, who gives us the strength, but we're always moving forward.
Speaker A:And so I just.
Speaker A:I love that, that.
Speaker A:That thing you shared with us, but it kind of reminded me of that, too.
Speaker B:Well, think about this.
Speaker B:It's funny you mentioned that, because I graduated my boot camp, Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and my dad came.
Speaker B:My mom didn't make it, but my dad came to my graduation.
Speaker B:So think about that.
Speaker B:You were with your son recently.
Speaker B:Not too long ago.
Speaker B:And my dad, 25 years ago, was there on the same place watching his boy, and.
Speaker B:And, yeah, it's just.
Speaker A:It's.
Speaker B:It's a lineage that we can never forget.
Speaker B:And we.
Speaker B:And we will never stop.
Speaker B:We will never quit.
Speaker B:We will always do the right thing.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And that's.
Speaker B:We don't do that all on our own either, believe me.
Speaker B:You mentioned God.
Speaker B:Without God, nothing's possible.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:Love it.
Speaker B:True.
Speaker A:So I want to talk about.
Speaker A:I looked at your website.
Speaker A:You have a lot of great content there, and you've done a lot of presentations, a lot of conversations, the talks.
Speaker A:But I'm curious about this concept.
Speaker A:You talk about being a peaceful warrior.
Speaker A:That's a powerful paradox.
Speaker A:What does that exactly mean?
Speaker A:And why is that so important, especially in today's culture?
Speaker B:Peaceful warrior.
Speaker B: going to take us back to the: Speaker B:One of the shows I watched was Kung Fu.
Speaker B:I don't know if you remember, David.
Speaker B:And he was walking around the desert, right?
Speaker B:And people were always messing with him.
Speaker B:And he was the Shaolin monk, a Shaolin priest, and he was a kung fu expert.
Speaker B:And I. I loved that guy because he always just held back.
Speaker B:I mean, people would push him and push him and push him.
Speaker B:And then finally, when his back was against the wall and there was no other way to go, he would pull out some kung fu moves and he would leave all the guys laying around, right?
Speaker B:And I used to think to myself, man, that's the kind of guy I want to be.
Speaker B:A guy that will take it and take it and take it and take it and take it.
Speaker B:And until his back is against the wall, he won't become violent.
Speaker B:And we talk about toxic masculinity.
Speaker B:Everybody's capable of violence, but the real men are the guys that count to six when they feel really upset about something, they just count.
Speaker B:One, two.
Speaker B:Now imagine what could happen.
Speaker B:Three, four.
Speaker B:You settle down and you keep that violence on a shelf and you find a way out of it.
Speaker B:And I don't mean to skirt any responsibility.
Speaker B:A peaceful warrior is probably, it's just the strongest guy on the planet.
Speaker B:A man thinks before he reacts.
Speaker B:Because sometimes we'll say something that we don't mean to say, sometimes we'll do something that we don't mean to do.
Speaker B:And it's always when we're not thinking about what we're doing.
Speaker B:That's a peaceful warrior.
Speaker B:He's a thinker.
Speaker A:That's not something we see a lot of in today's culture.
Speaker A:We tend to see more people fly off the handle and lose control versus live life under control.
Speaker A:I can't get beyond in my head all the pictures I see of things like teen takeovers or someone who comes out of, of a store and somebody says the wrong thing and they end up punching an elderly person.
Speaker A:I'm going, whatever happened to the restraint that we were all taught to live life on?
Speaker A:So you mentioned that.
Speaker A:I'm thinking about all those situations we've been taught today in society.
Speaker A:No, just live in the moment, live in your feelings, live in your anger and how dangerous that has gotten us to the place we're at today.
Speaker B:Wow, Doc, I couldn't have said it any better.
Speaker B:You know, it is, it is like that.
Speaker B:People aren't thinking and they're reactionary.
Speaker B:And I think one of the best books I ever read in college, it was in a marketing class and I was like 18 year old kid, you know, I'm this and I'm that.
Speaker B:I'm, I'm going to be retired by the time I'm 30 and the next J. Paul Getty.
Speaker B:And it was a mar.
Speaker B:The instructor, she, One of our required reading was the Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And I'm like, come on man, I'm, I, what am I going to read this for anyhow?
Speaker B:You read the book because you know you got to finish the course and there's questions about it on the final.
Speaker B:So I'll have to tell you though that Amy Vanderbilt Complete Book of Etiquette, the times that I've relied on it, not only in my personal life but in my professional career, it was what gave me the edge over the competition or over other people.
Speaker B:And you're right, Doc, if we had to listen a little bit more etiquette and a little bit more personal dignity, we could extend to other people regardless of race or their sex or whatever, you know, their, their status in life.
Speaker B:You can get a lot more flies with honey than you can with vinegar.
Speaker B:And etiquette could go a long way.
Speaker B:And any young man or woman or girl that learn some etiquette, I gotta tell you, it can take you a long way.
Speaker B:We need more etiquette.
Speaker A:We do.
Speaker A:I really appreciate my southern upbringing because we were always taught to be respectful.
Speaker A:It was, yes, ma', am, no ma', am, yes sir, still do it.
Speaker B:I'm 67, I still do it.
Speaker A:If someone was older than you, it was always yes sir, no ma'.
Speaker A:Am.
Speaker A:And I just don't see that same level of etiquette in today's society, which to me begs a question.
Speaker A:We're living in a, in a very unsettled time, a very emotional time, even a spiritual desert time.
Speaker A:From your perspective, what do you think is driving so much chaos today?
Speaker B:Mathematical computations and algorithms, everything's contrived on in the online world.
Speaker B:Now we're using tools like this.com for something very valuable that's very personable where you, you're using them to help other people.
Speaker B:But so much of what's seen on not only mainstream media news stories or social media platform communities is, is, it's, it's just not real.
Speaker B:People feel that.
Speaker B:And so one of the things that my dad, probably my mom more than my dad taught me growing up was ask questions, don't believe everything you, you hear or you see or are you here, you know, So I think intellectual stagnation is what I would call it, or even intellectual laziness, which all it really means is ask questions, count to six, relax.
Speaker B:Not everything you hear or see is true.
Speaker B:And usually nowadays we have 72 hour news cycles.
Speaker B:You know how we get all riled up when we hear, oh my gosh, oh what?
Speaker B:You know, and then three days later you're off to the next thing.
Speaker B:So think about, think about that.
Speaker B:Think about what?
Speaker B:Dopamine.
Speaker B:We've heard this a lot.
Speaker B:Dopamine spikes to get that, that instant rush and that, that wanting to come back to hear more.
Speaker B:And then the cortisol slump where we've got to do something online to pick ourselves up again.
Speaker B:You know, you talk about growing up in the South.
Speaker B:You know, we, I grew up in Florida, my wife's a Virginian, she's probably more Southern than me.
Speaker B:But what did we do?
Speaker B:We, we did, we had 10 cent phone booths and we had woods and cow pastures and, and we, we went outside, we breathed, we didn't come home.
Speaker B:Well, dinner's on a table, you had to come home.
Speaker B:But we did things, we lived our lives.
Speaker B:And when, when the phones came, the flip phones, we were like Blown away.
Speaker B:I would say take a break every now and then.
Speaker B:You know, what can we do?
Speaker B:Think about what you're doing, but take a break from all this digital contrived nonsense that are driving kids to go downtown and riot in a, you know, department store.
Speaker B:Those are things, Doc, we just never saw.
Speaker B:I mean, stuff was going on, they were riding in during Vietnam War, but we didn't see some of this craziness where kids take over a whole block and, and just create mayhem.
Speaker B:I mean, my dad or my mom especially would have beat our rear ends for that kind of behavior.
Speaker B:Yeah, wake up, kids.
Speaker B:Go outside.
Speaker A:I think the other thing that you, you, you touched on that dawned on me as you were talking was we also, our lives are more contextualized.
Speaker A:So we had news, but it was news that was relevant to our community.
Speaker A:We have now the ability to know every problem in every corner of the world, whether it impacts us or not.
Speaker A:And that does continue to keep feeding us more dopamine.
Speaker A:I mean, I just saw a horrific story about a young man who was stabbed in Great Britain.
Speaker A:Now, I wouldn't have typically heard that story or seen the video, God forbid, of that situation in my normal life.
Speaker A:It might have taken me three or four months before that story ever hit the news over here.
Speaker A:And you didn't think about it because it wasn't in your backyard.
Speaker A:It was like my backyard might have had a couple incidences here or there, but typically, you know, the news was balanced with, here's the local, you know, here's the national news, but here's a local story of grandma who went down and grew up, has a bee farm, and, and she's, you know, so there was, there was always that balance of, of here's, here's something serious, but, you know, here's a, a special interest story that makes you feel good about the fact that you live here.
Speaker B:Yeah, you know, you raise a good point, Doc.
Speaker B:We had news and we had relevant news and we had, for the most part, reliable news.
Speaker B:Remember Paul Harvey?
Speaker B:And that's the story, and that's the rest of the story.
Speaker B:But, but we did.
Speaker B:I love the local newspaper because of exactly what you just said, you know, well, so and so just opened up a new shop today, or they're having some special down at the restaurant.
Speaker B:Go down there and get yourself some barbecue chicken or whatever you're doing.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And it was true and it meant something.
Speaker B:Journalism today is all about sensationalism and driving the rate of the ratings.
Speaker B:And what we've become is a societies especially that are connected, that have bombarded 24, 7, 365 days a year with information, most of which is unreliable.
Speaker B:And, and we are on sensory overload.
Speaker B:So human beings being what we are genetically DNA, we have this reptilian brain, right?
Speaker B:And we're always on the lookout.
Speaker B:This comes from when we were.
Speaker B:Whatever we were, you know, we're always on the lookout for threats.
Speaker B:And when we hear a story that sounds so.
Speaker B:Or like that sad story about that kid in England, I saw that our antennas go up.
Speaker B:And rather than use our intuition and start asking questions, we become reactionary.
Speaker B:A human being, a human mind, the brain.
Speaker B:And we've done the research.
Speaker B:And I'm not a physicist or quantum theory guy or anything, but we're not set up to digest that amount of information.
Speaker B:So if the information is unreliable and we're getting mainly stuff that's not truthful, what do you believe anymore?
Speaker B:And, and inherently or intuitively, we don't feel right.
Speaker B:Something's off.
Speaker B:Are you sure that happened?
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker B:That can happen?
Speaker B:Scientifically, it says it's impossible.
Speaker B:No, history says it was this way, it wasn't that way.
Speaker B:And so they're messing with our minds all, all the time.
Speaker B:And people are uncomfortable with it.
Speaker B:That's where the anger and frustration's coming from.
Speaker B:And we pick a scapegoat and we take it out on somebody that we shouldn't take it out on.
Speaker B:I don't like to label people.
Speaker B:I've always found whenever I've labeled anything, it leads to something not good.
Speaker B:These preconceived notions, you know, we need to heal the world without labels and quit labeling each other because they're just killing us is what they're doing.
Speaker B:Our brain cells.
Speaker A:Yeah, good point.
Speaker A:Speaking of brain, let's talk about your traumatic brain injury situation when you confront it.
Speaker A:Long term trauma.
Speaker A:I'm curious, what did that process teach you?
Speaker A:We just talked about dealing with resilience.
Speaker A:Tell us about how that taught you about resilience and truth.
Speaker B:Well, what I learned.
Speaker B:Great question.
Speaker B:Thanks, doc.
Speaker B:What I learned was that there's no.
Speaker B:Whatever issue you have in your life, whatever trauma you've been, it could be losing your dream job.
Speaker B:Didn't have to be what mine was, which was childhood violation of a sort that no kid should ever have to go through.
Speaker B:But there's no calvary coming to help you sooner or later.
Speaker B:Whatever you got going on in that head of yours from whatever emotional trauma that you've been exposed that you have, it's going to catch up to you.
Speaker B:It's going to raise its ugly head.
Speaker B:Mine happened to be with the DUI alcohol induced accident which gifted me with chronic insomnia, anger off the charts, and a near divorce.
Speaker B:And I finally realized that unless I got help for what I was dealing with, it was never going to happen.
Speaker B:I was going to continue to do this stupid stuff that I had done all my life, overachieve, get to a point of success and then feel comfortable with it and go, holy cow, I did this.
Speaker B:And then find a way to sabotage it.
Speaker B:So there's a disclaimer right here.
Speaker B:God, I am not a saint.
Speaker B:I don't claim sainthood.
Speaker B:I've made lots of terrible mistakes in my life.
Speaker B:But I will take the title of broken angel because my heart is always in the right place.
Speaker B:Some people might say, nah, but it's true.
Speaker B:And, and, and until you deal with your own stuff and do the hard work that it takes to pull yourself out of those dark places, it's never going to change.
Speaker B:You're going to continue that behavior.
Speaker B:And for me was, you know, 45 years of a hidden dark secret that I finally had to come to grips with.
Speaker B:And what I also learned was that there are people out there who will help you.
Speaker B:There are human beings out there, whether it's spiritual help that are really concerned for your welfare or it's physical or mental health.
Speaker B:There's doctors and there's therapists and there are trained professionals.
Speaker B:They do it because they love it.
Speaker B:And three months into my one on one cognitive behavioral therapy came in just like I normally did.
Speaker B:And my therapist is kind of smiling at me and I thought I had done something wrong.
Speaker B:And I said, cheryl, is everything okay?
Speaker B:And she just said, you make me happy because I've been doing this for three decades and you're a man that's trying to get it right.
Speaker B:You're trying to change your life for the better and you're doing the hard work that it takes to do that.
Speaker B:I had to learn how to put sentences together again and I had to learn how to deal with that trauma.
Speaker B:But I, you know, how to take thoughts from here and put them to here.
Speaker A:And.
Speaker B:She's just a phenomenal person and that, and there's a lot of people out there like her.
Speaker B:So no calvary coming.
Speaker B:Do the work.
Speaker B:There is light at the end of any dark tunnel.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:And that's an important message for us to keep in mind because it is about doing the hard work.
Speaker A:I'm dying to get into your neo masculinity solutions that you Founded to help reduce masculinity leadership.
Speaker A:Because I see that being a problem in society today is we have so misconstrued what masculinity is that it's either toxic masculinity or it's not masculinity at all.
Speaker A:Is masculinity mask as something else?
Speaker A:So tell us a little bit about what led you to find neo masculinity and tell us about what that is and what you do in that sphere.
Speaker B:Well, thank you very much for that question.
Speaker B:You know, it was about, I dunno, five, six years ago that we started hearing the word masculinity and it was starting to be paired with toxic, toxic masculinity.
Speaker B:And we started wondering, what is this all about?
Speaker B:Why are we lived all these years and we've never heard such a narrative, such a concept and questioning what masculinity is and guys in, you know, knuckle draggers and all this kind of crazy stuff.
Speaker B:And what we started to look at, what is masculinity and what is femininity?
Speaker B:And we were raised with the concept of the battle of the sexes, right?
Speaker B:So by the time we're a certain age, we're looking at the opposite sex as the enemy.
Speaker B:I'm saying this rhetorically.
Speaker B:Imagine if we had taught collaboration of the sexes.
Speaker B:Well, so the primary role of any man, and this is vintage, and, well, we need to move away from that, but I'll get to that in a second.
Speaker B:The primary mission of a man and purpose is to protect his family and his loved ones from threats.
Speaker B:It's that simple.
Speaker B:Means if he has a family, he gets a job and he takes care of his kids.
Speaker B:And if something happens, you know, it doesn't mean the wife can't protect the kids.
Speaker B:We know what mama bears are like.
Speaker B:My mom was one.
Speaker B:And so if you take a man off of his purpose in life, if you make him feel less than, if being masculine somehow is toxic and he starts believing that, what happens?
Speaker B:He becomes toxic.
Speaker B:You take any man off of his purpose in life, he becomes toxic.
Speaker B:Some people, I was asked one time, what do we do about guys like Andrew Tate, you know, with misogynist theories and all this?
Speaker B:And I said, nothing.
Speaker B:What?
Speaker B:Why do anything about Andrew Tate?
Speaker B:Karma will catch up to him, which being God in the universe, right?
Speaker B:You know, you get out of it what you put into it.
Speaker B:Keep treating women bad and something's bad's gonna happen.
Speaker B:So we went online and we started looking up this concept that we started to hear neomasculinity.
Speaker B:What is it started asking search engines, Google, oh, a man can only be masculine if he embraces the changing social norms.
Speaker B:So we're like, okay, sounds good in theory, but what happens if the changing social norm is not based on the truth?
Speaker B:Well, you know, you know where I'm going, right?
Speaker B:Men can't do that, right?
Speaker B:So that's just one thing.
Speaker B:So Google is actually the search engine and I don't want to get sued by Google, but Google's actually telling men that you can only be a man if you accept a lie.
Speaker B:That's just one narrative that's out there.
Speaker B:So you create.
Speaker B:So we said, okay, we're gonna, we're gonna change that.
Speaker B:We're gonna go to neomasculinity and rather do a dot com, we're gonna do a dot solutions and we're gonna create educational tools that a man and a woman, we're not exclusive of either sex or gender.
Speaker B:It's not about sexual identity.
Speaker B:It's about the roles that people play.
Speaker B:My mom had a masculine role at times.
Speaker B:Believe me, she did.
Speaker B:Didn't mean she wanted to be a man or she was a man.
Speaker B:That was just the role that they filled.
Speaker B:So we're developing tools and curricula to reignite human intuition.
Speaker B:And we know what intuition is.
Speaker B:That's.
Speaker B:That.
Speaker B:Does that sound right?
Speaker B:The hair on the back of your head goes up.
Speaker B:Oh, just a bold face lie, right?
Speaker B:Get people back on track with critical thinking, reintroduce, logic and reason.
Speaker B:Oh, and common sense, by the way.
Speaker B:So we finished a college curricula.
Speaker B:It's under the brainery umbrella, but the brainery, we train brains, not grains, you know, these silos of brains.
Speaker B:And then we've finished a high school curricula.
Speaker B:We got a mini course called Brain Freeze Breaking the Ice on critical thinking.
Speaker B:And we're working on a cartoon right now with a company In Ireland, a 20 minute cartoon for grade school rulers that go on this Tolkien like journey to Clear Haven.
Speaker B:The land of critical thinking and propaganda pops up and all these villains and the mom and dad, the mom and the dad with their children are going with the lady intuition and the man, critical thinking and common sense on this journey.
Speaker B:So we're doing that then.
Speaker B:And then we've got some master classes, but we're working on some things.
Speaker B:And what we really want to do with neomasculinity solutions is we want to protect our families and our children primarily from the threats of unreliable information.
Speaker B:So we've identified six types of information.
Speaker B:We get all types of them every day.
Speaker B:Five of them are reliable and causes problems and one of them is the truth.
Speaker B:And so we give tools where people can, viable tools that work, how they can analyze information for its veracity and, and help their kids.
Speaker B:But I just, I want to save the kids.
Speaker B:It's the kids who are suffering.
Speaker B:You know, if we can, the kids are the future.
Speaker B:You know, we need, we need kids that can discern the difference between a truth and a lie, a fantasy and a reality.
Speaker B:We need kids to be able to do that because if we can't do that, then humanity is doomed.
Speaker B:And, and, and I don't mean like it's the end of the world, but we're never going to thrive.
Speaker B:It's only going to be a survival type mode.
Speaker B:And we as men, we need to step up and we need to change that paradigm along with the women.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:And so what made you think about getting into doing this?
Speaker A:This is a great undertaking and it's necessary in our society.
Speaker A:What, what's, what led in your life to say?
Speaker A:Okay, I want to pour into this.
Speaker B:Well, great question.
Speaker B:I, it really has to do with the kids.
Speaker B:I, I think about myself and how I was traumatized and if somebody had been astute enough to see that I was going through some emotional stuff at a young age.
Speaker B:And it's all about awareness.
Speaker B:And I really want parents, whether it's a single mom or a single dad or a mom and dad that's still together, whatever it is, however it looks, you know, I want to be able to empower them in the role that they play.
Speaker B:And even educators, you know, I, you know, doc, you got a doctorate and you could probably go back to first grade and remember some of your teachers.
Speaker B:You know, we need to empower educators to.
Speaker B:I had so many great teachers that were mentors along the way that whenever they saw me getting out of line, sometimes it was a coach they'd, you know, well, John Crotep, please come down to the office.
Speaker B:That happened once, right?
Speaker B:We were partying at a football game on a Friday night Lights.
Speaker B:And coach called me in there.
Speaker B:I was on the wrestling team, thought I was, you know, this and that and everything.
Speaker B:And he just looked at me and he said, you're going nowhere fast, son.
Speaker B:Quit the drinking at the college football games.
Speaker B:I think we were in 10th grade, you know, and that was it.
Speaker B:That's all it took.
Speaker B:So we can empower teachers too, to be the parents if there's, if the parents are too busy working a job or two or three jobs, and God bless those teachers man.
Speaker B:That care about the kids and they're out there and we would like to give them tools too.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker B:So it's about the kids.
Speaker B:That's what did it.
Speaker B:It's only about.
Speaker B:It's about the kids.
Speaker A:Love it.
Speaker A:So tell us about your Sentinel Handbook that you created for Self Agency.
Speaker B:Very.
Speaker B:Thank you for that question too, you know.
Speaker B:Very.
Speaker B:The Sentinel Handbook is a.
Speaker B:This is not to denigrate anybody, but we, we did some research about the educational level.
Speaker B:People around the world and the 8th grade level seems to like be right in there with it.
Speaker B:So this is no manual that you would get if you're studying for, you know, your finals in college.
Speaker B:This is written on an eighth grade level.
Speaker B:It's a little bitty handbook that, that outlines the issue of unreliable information.
Speaker B:It gives you what we call the human Information sniff test.
Speaker B:You know, where does the information come from?
Speaker B:Those kinds of things.
Speaker B:Very basic.
Speaker B:We've even got the, the anger litmus test.
Speaker B:You know, where they put the paper in the acid to figure out what.
Speaker B:But this is.
Speaker B:If you're angry within 15 seconds, turn it off.
Speaker B:You don't need it because anger is an emotional state that you don't need.
Speaker B:It's been written in nine languages.
Speaker B:We've got it in Chinese, Hebrew, we've got it in, I think Afrikaans.
Speaker B:We got it in a bunch of different languages.
Speaker B:And it's just a primer.
Speaker B:It's 10 bucks.
Speaker B:It's a PDF.
Speaker B:We're looking at having it printed as a, as a book, but it's only 30 something pages, so it would really just be a booklet.
Speaker B:And we just want to get into the hands as many people as we can all around the globe and help families primarily protect their families.
Speaker B:That's what the Sentinel Handbook is.
Speaker A:Awesome.
Speaker A:And you got it in multiple languages so you'd be able to impact multiple cultures.
Speaker A:That's really special.
Speaker B:Can you imagine if we could do like an airdrop over Beijing?
Speaker B:You know, just saying, you know, Xi Ping's listening to this.
Speaker B:Yeah, but.
Speaker A:I'm sure he's listening.
Speaker B:Yeah, but, but it's just, it's just, you know, it's, it's adding value to this human condition.
Speaker B:And it's so cliche, but it's not cliche.
Speaker B:Because the future of humanity depends on how we conduct ourselves today.
Speaker B:And, and we're being watched not by while we're being watched by each other, but there's higher powers that are watching everything that's going on.
Speaker B:We smoke and joke about it.
Speaker B:Some people don't take that for real.
Speaker B:But I'm passing through, you know, What I do here is what I do here.
Speaker B:And if I can affect it in a way that elevates people, then, then, then, boy, I'm blessed.
Speaker B:That's it.
Speaker B:I'm passing through and might as well make the best of it, right?
Speaker B:Document.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:So I'm going to ask you a series of lightning round questions.
Speaker B:Okay?
Speaker A:What's one habit that keeps you grounded?
Speaker B:Prayer.
Speaker B:Gotta have that downtime with the Creator, whatever that is, because what a magnificent universe.
Speaker B:So prayer.
Speaker B:Prayer keeps me grounded.
Speaker B:People can meditate, you call whatever you want, but it's a quiet.
Speaker B:It's a quiet time with something bigger than myself.
Speaker A:One book that changed your life.
Speaker B:The Complete Book of Etiquette.
Speaker B:Amy Vanderbilt's Complete Book of Etiquette.
Speaker B:It's like, wow, you know, now I know how to set up the table properly.
Speaker B:Imagine that.
Speaker B:Think about it, young men.
Speaker B:If you're out there looking and you're a young man looking for a spouse, oh, yeah, that lady's gonna love that.
Speaker B:You could have all the muscles you want, but if you don't know how to set a table, you ain't a man.
Speaker B:Just saying.
Speaker A:Well, you also, when you go out to eat, you also got to know how to use the stuff that's put in front of you.
Speaker A:Because, like, why are there two forks if you're not aware that there's a.
Speaker B:Can you imagine?
Speaker B:Let me.
Speaker B:Yeah, it's true.
Speaker B:I mean, so enlighten yourselves.
Speaker B:That book will, you know, then the other one would be the Napoleon Hill book, Think and Grow Rich.
Speaker B:You know, whose lives hasn't that touched?
Speaker B:But there's so many.
Speaker B:But the Amy Vanderbilt book changed my life because it gave me a.
Speaker B:We were raised in the South.
Speaker B:Yeah, I get that.
Speaker B:But it gave us even more Southern exposure.
Speaker B:Really?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:A word that defines leadership.
Speaker B:Wow, that's a good one.
Speaker B:A word that strength.
Speaker B:Just strength and, And.
Speaker B:And leadership.
Speaker B:You have to be strong.
Speaker B:You have to know when to say no.
Speaker B:You have to know who to hang out with.
Speaker B:You have to make tough decisions.
Speaker B:And leadership is all about strength, and that's mental strength.
Speaker B:Man.
Speaker B:If I had listened to my dad growing up, some of the people I hung out with used to get.
Speaker B:He was.
Speaker B:I used to make me mad when I was young, telling me who I could see and who I couldn't see.
Speaker B:And yeah, leadership is strength.
Speaker B:Knowing when to say no.
Speaker A:Greatest lesson from the military.
Speaker B:The greatest lesson from the military.
Speaker B:Fellowship is everything.
Speaker B:And where I was at was in a unit, was Primarily man.
Speaker B:So we would say the brotherhood, but it's.
Speaker B:Fellowship is everything.
Speaker B:You can't be alone.
Speaker B:You can't be a man on your island.
Speaker B:On an island, you.
Speaker B:Sooner or later, you got to get off the island, and you got to embrace the real world, which is full of people.
Speaker B:So, you know, find a way.
Speaker B:It's not to say that you can isolate and you can be by yourself.
Speaker B:You don't have to be the life of the party.
Speaker B:Fellowship is everything.
Speaker A:Greatest lesson from business.
Speaker B:Don't sweat the small stuff.
Speaker B:You're going to make mistakes.
Speaker B:Everybody makes them.
Speaker B:That's so cliche, but it's true.
Speaker B:And you don't have to know everything.
Speaker B:There's experts out there.
Speaker B:But as an entrepreneur, you need to know a little bit about everything.
Speaker B:You need to know a little bit about marketing, a little bit about human psychology, hiring, merchandising.
Speaker B:You know, you need to know a little bit about everything.
Speaker B:So in business, being a jack of all trades when it comes to business is a good thing.
Speaker A:Yeah, somebody added to that.
Speaker A:Don't sweat the small stuff.
Speaker A:And it's all small stuff.
Speaker B:And it's all small stuff.
Speaker B:It really is.
Speaker B:It's like a news cycle.
Speaker B:Oh, what's.
Speaker B:What's the next challenge?
Speaker B:And don't.
Speaker B:And be careful of the language that we use, because you empower that.
Speaker B:There's no problems in life.
Speaker B:There isn't.
Speaker B:There's challenges.
Speaker B:Some are greater than others.
Speaker B:But, Doc, there's no problems.
Speaker B:How can you look at us, man?
Speaker B:We're healthy.
Speaker B:We still have our hair.
Speaker B:It's a little bit gray, but.
Speaker B:But we can walk, we can talk, we can think for ourselves.
Speaker B:The greatest gift God gave us is the freedom to critically think, and he wants us to do that.
Speaker A:Yep.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:What's your favorite way to reset after a tough day?
Speaker B:To spend time with my wife.
Speaker B:You know, her love language is spending time.
Speaker B:And she grounds me.
Speaker B:I'll tell you, man, if I didn't have.
Speaker B:I'm glad I saved this marriage, because if I didn't, you'd probably be interviewing me on a different show.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:The Wild and Crazy Life of Man.
Speaker B:Manhood.
Speaker B:You know, whatever.
Speaker B:But.
Speaker B:But it's just spending time with somebody that cares about me as a way to get grounded again.
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And that's what I'd have to say.
Speaker B:You know, you can watch TV in the news and all that.
Speaker B:That just hypes you up.
Speaker B:I'd rather spend time outside with her.
Speaker A:For someone listening to our show right now who feels overwhelmed, stuck or over or searching for Purpose, what would you tell them directly?
Speaker B:And you've probably heard this before, but you know, take a deep breath.
Speaker B:Just, just, just take a deep breath.
Speaker B:Turn off all the, the computer, the television, put your phone away, you know, stop your notifications, go into your bathroom, wherever you have a big mirror, maybe it's over your dresser, and take a look at that person in the mirror.
Speaker B:Just do it for like 30 seconds.
Speaker B:Look at them, think about who is that person, what makes that person tick, what does that person want out of life?
Speaker B:What's that person's purpose?
Speaker B:What's God telling me?
Speaker B:And then go up to that person and you do this, go, I love you.
Speaker B:And do that like every day for like a month.
Speaker B:And if that doesn't start to shift your mindset because you are worthy of love.
Speaker B:But if you can't love yourself first, you're.
Speaker B:Nobody on this planet is going to love you.
Speaker B:Jesus might still, but you got to start with yourself first.
Speaker B:Take a deep breath.
Speaker B:Then after you've looked at yourself in the mirror and it starts to get dark, you have dinner with your family or whatnot, and it's a clear night, go outside and look at that night sky and just look at the beauty of that night sky and the massiveness of this universe and think about what part and what role you play in it.
Speaker B:With as big as that universe is, trust me on this, you have a role to play in it.
Speaker B:Find it, pray on it, write it down in a journal.
Speaker B:You have a purpose and you're worthy of love.
Speaker B:That's what I'd tell them.
Speaker A:That's awesome.
Speaker A:So I'm gonna ask you my other favorite question, John, as we wrap this up.
Speaker A:What do you want your legacy to be?
Speaker B:I just want people to look back and think when they think about John Krotek, man, that guy was always thinking of solutions to make things better.
Speaker B:I think about being on a high altitude mountain at 19,000ft.
Speaker B:You have no appetite.
Speaker B:The wind's howling outside, 30 miles per hour.
Speaker B:It's 10 degrees below zero.
Speaker B:And you have to get up at 11 o' clock and you have a 15 hour summit day, right?
Speaker B:And you've trained for this.
Speaker B:And what are you going to do?
Speaker B:You're either going to get up and do it, you're going to reach the summit, God willing, if the mountain lets you, you're going to stand on terra firma and you're going to witness the curvature of the earth.
Speaker B:Earth.
Speaker B:And the only way that's ever going to happen is if you overcome your fear.
Speaker B:We're all scared of something, right?
Speaker B:And you just pull yourself together and you take the challenges head on because nobody else is going to get you up that mountain.
Speaker B:But if you're surrounded by the right people, I. E. A rope team, like minded people that have wishes and dreams to do something extraordinary, then they can help you too find your tribe.
Speaker B:Don't be scared.
Speaker B:One day at a time, you're going to be all right.
Speaker A:I love it.
Speaker A:So we have one other surprise thing on the show this year and that's a surprise question.
Speaker A:Pick a number between 1 and 10 for your surprise question.
Speaker B:10, 10.
Speaker A:Which band or artist dead or alive, do you want to play at your funeral?
Speaker B:Oh, my gosh, man.
Speaker B:There's so many James Brown.
Speaker B:I want him hollering and screaming.
Speaker A:That's the first James Brown I've gotten.
Speaker B:Yeah, that's who I want.
Speaker B:I want him screaming and hollering and crying and I want his voice so high that the people outside the funeral hall go, who are they remembering in there?
Speaker A:Yeah, that's right.
Speaker A:The last person I had at Elvis on there.
Speaker B:So, yeah, he's still alive somewhere, I heard.
Speaker A:That's right, he's still alive.
Speaker B:Yeah, Memphis.
Speaker B:But thank you for all the questions, doc, and thank the listeners, your audience, you've accumulated these great people and we just hope that we, that we can impart something of value to them, wisdom or something that they can bank on and you know, and then take some of that and pass it on.
Speaker A:Where can people find you, John, and connect with you on social media?
Speaker B:They can go to John T. Crotech K-R O-T E C.com, the Poetic Human website.
Speaker B:They can go to neomasculinity solutions.
Speaker B:We have a another program called greenzonehero.com they can go there.
Speaker B:I'm out there, I'm available.
Speaker B:And if you find a way to me my email is john k@neomask.solutions.
Speaker B:N e o m a s c dot solutions.
Speaker B:Drop me an email.
Speaker B:I'm open minded.
Speaker B:I try not to pass judgment and I'm just here to be a part of the solution.
Speaker B:So thank you for that opportunity and just thanks, doc for having me on your show.
Speaker A:Well, John, thank you for sharing your wisdom, your courage and your leadership to our listeners.
Speaker A:If today's conversation resonated with you, don't keep it to yourself.
Speaker A:Share it with someone who needs encouragement and clarity.
Speaker A:Take one step this week, just one, to become a peaceful warrior in your own life.
Speaker A:Choose truth, choose clarity.
Speaker A:Choose to build bridges instead of walls.
Speaker A:And if you haven't yet, please subscribe to Becoming Bridge Builders so you don't miss a future episode or future conversations that inspire, connect and transform.
Speaker A:Until next time, keep Building Bridges.
Speaker A:Thanks John so much for being on the show.
Speaker B:Thank you, Doc.
