Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 0:05

Welcome to Transacting Value, where we talk about practical applications for personal values when dealing with each other and even within ourselves. Where we foster a podcast listening experience that lets you hear the power of a value system for managing burnout, establishing boundaries and finding belonging. My name is Josh Porthouse, I'm your host and we are your people. This is why values still hold value. This is Transacting Value.

Michael Herst: 0:33

We are all human beings. We are all individuals that we live on this planet together. Whether you think or not, we are still brothers and sisters and we need to take care of one another. Those are my values. I think we need to embark upon other individuals.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 0:49

Today on Transacting Value. What do you do when your identity is taken from you? Everything you know, your habits, your goals, ambition, direction, carriage, everything gone. The teenagers leaving home for the first time to first responders or military ending service Each involves nearly two decades of standing by an identity in a way of life. Who are you after that life ends? It's one thing to have a plan, but what about when you don't? Our newest contributor spent nearly 20 years in law enforcement. His name is Michael Hurst. After an early retirement, a life-changing trespassing call and a new life from a wheelchair, he now hosts a podcast called One More Thing Before you Go, what is the final lesson you could pull from your past self to rebuild stronger? Welcome to our March Core Values of Collaboration, connection and Belonging and folks, without further ado, I'm Porter, I'm your host, and this is Transacting Value. Michael, how you doing.

Michael Herst: 1:42

I'm doing outstanding, are you doing?

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 1:44

I'm doing well. Look, man. I really appreciate you taking the time to come onto the show, taking a break from your evening, or actually afternoon. You're on the West Coast right Afternoon for me.

Michael Herst: 1:53

Yeah, yes, I am.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 1:55

All right, okay. So I appreciate you taking a break from your afternoon to come on the show. So thanks for your time.

Michael Herst: 2:00

Absolutely. You've got a wonderful opportunity for people to be motivated and inspired and educated in your podcast, so I'm absolutely thrilled to be here.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 2:09

I appreciate it, man. And while we're talking about it, what is One More Thing Before you Go? What's the point? What do you cover?

Michael Herst: 2:16

Well, basically, one More Thing Before you Go is a unique conversation about life, from pop culture to metaphysical. We have intellectual stimulation, philosophical insights. Myself and a variety of guests are on each week. We offer thought-provoking discussions on a variety of topics. We talk about entertainment and we hope to inspire, educate and motivate, like I just said, yours does and we talk about life and culture and society and the fact that there's always One More Thing in life that you can do for yourself or do for somebody else, because life can change in an instant.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 2:50

What do you mean? One More Thing, like on a to-do list. So what are you talking about?

Michael Herst: 2:54

Well, one More Thing. You and I know this I'm not sure we're going to talk about it, but yeah, I'm a retired police sergeant and so my personal life and my professional life, I was always there, through traffic accidents or unattended deaths or deaths in particular, where I was the last person that individual had seen, I held somebody's hand before they died or I was with them when they took their last breath and the commonality between all that was always please tell my wife I love them. Please tell my husband I love them. Please tell my kids I'm proud of them, I love them. My mother, my grandmother, my grandfather, whoever happened to be within their life, that was that important to them. Please tell them something. Tell them I love them. I didn't get to do that before I walked out the door, or the many times that I knocked on somebody's door and they answered the door and I had to tell them that person wasn't coming home. And when they didn't come home, I didn't tell them. Well, I loved them. When they walked out the door, I didn't tell them how proud it was when they walked out the door. So I felt that I needed to give voice and remind people to understand that there's always as busy as we are in this life. Take a few moments, because there's always one more thing you can tell somebody you love them. You can tell somebody you're proud of them. You can tell somebody hey, have a good day, have a great day. You know that perspective. Keep in mind that there's always one more thing you can say or do to make somebody's life better.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 4:16

I like that a lot, actually, because it is common and it's easy to overlook and obviously speaking firsthand here, not for anybody else, but getting wrapped up in your life right, losing sight of what, I guess you could say stereotypically, everybody else says, right, well, it's what's more important in life than your family and in some cases maybe ensuring you've got five bucks in your pocket just in case. But between the two you know, it's easy to lose sight of them or at least take them for granted. I think it's powerful what you're bringing up and what we're talking about it. You said retired police sergeant, so let's rewind the story back a little bit, way back, way back. So this journey that you had throughout your career, which was how long?

Michael Herst: 4:57

I was a police officer for in law enforcement for almost 17 years. Yeah, that is a long time.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 5:02

Okay, so over those 17 years, as you were working primarily in law enforcement, that's what's sort of fueling your podcast now and ultimately, I assume, your message perspective in life everything.

Michael Herst: 5:15

I would say that was my purpose originally in life was I was a police officer. I went to school to become a cop. I came from a very dysfunctional family and I felt that by getting into law enforcement that I could make a difference in people's lives. I can change some things that I grew up with, the environments that I grew up with, and I can make a difference. So a police officer was who I am, is who I was and I still am. To a certain extent it's one of those things that the soldier does it, doctors do it, nurses do it, paramedics do it, firefighters do it. It is more than just the job. To us it's who you are, the honesty, the integrity of the job. I wanted protection to serve, but I also have a family. So my main motivations in life were being a police officer, being a law enforcement. I say I crossed between those because I started my adventure in law enforcement as the deputy sheriff in El Paso County and then I moved into a city police officer, which is the same job. You're still in law enforcement, you're still a cop, it's just the jurisdictions are different. I started my journey with this and I got married and then we had kids and then that kind of adds something to purpose. And we all had purpose in my life. My purpose was to be a police officer, to protect and serve, and then my purpose became to be a good husband and to be a great father. In case you're listening, a great husband and a great father. I'll clarify so. It changed my purpose in life. It added to my purpose in life and nobody changed it, but it added to it. So my purpose then became to do my job as a cop, to do what I needed to do each and every day. But it also was to come home to my wife and my kids.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 7:01

Okay. Well, you said dysfunctional no, it definitely does. You said dysfunctional in the beginning, okay, and then you said family, man, wife and kids better priorities in the end. So how do you go from one to the other? Where did it all start? What was the dysfunction you're talking about?

Michael Herst: 7:15

My dysfunction is I grew up with two alcoholic parents, and when you grew up with two alcoholic parents, it changes your perspective on life. I was a middle child. I have a brother and a sister. I got a younger brother and an older sister and that put me right in the middle, so to speak. Middle children always have this opportunity to be the caretaker quote. I can't do quotes but listening. Can't see them, but we're doing air quotes. Right, you become the caretaker of course, so to speak. So when my parents were two who intoxicated to go to work the next day, I was the one that made the phone call they say they were sick and pick up after them. And then my father. When I was about 15 years old, my parents got divorced at an early age. I was probably around 12 when I got divorced. I went to live with my father for a few years. He was still an alcoholic, he was still very dysfunctional. He was bringing me back up to Colorado Springs because I grew up in Colorado. He was living down south in Trinidad. He was bringing me back one day. We were coming back. He was drunk and he rolled the car. So at that time they arrested him. We went down to. That's why it wanted to be a cop. Actually, the state patrol officer that arrested him. The first thing I just checked out, of course, medically, and then they booked him into jail in Pueblo and then called my mother to come down and pick me up. Wow, and I sat in dispatch waiting for my mother to come pick me up. So I look back on my life from that perspective and obviously I recognize that both my parents were extremely dysfunctional. They continued to be dysfunctional even when they were separated. So I was subject to my mother, my father, fighting each other but using the children as tools against each other.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 9:01

That's common too, yeah.

Michael Herst: 9:03

During that time as well. So that was at 15 years old. At 17 years old my father died unexpectedly. He didn't know this, but he had cancer throat cancer, esophageal cancer and then he had sources of the liver which didn't allow him to really heal the way he needed to. So I lost my father at 17. Then my mother became a single mother. Of course she was a single mother, and now I mean to speak ill of my parents from that perspective, because I learned a lot from that. I learned what not to do. I learned what to do better as a parent. I learned what to do better as a husband, as a in a relationship. But at the same time it gave me an upbringing that there are certain things that I don't do. I don't drink. Occasionally on a holiday I'll have a little glass of wine or anything, but it's not because I'm afraid I'm going to be an alcoholic, is because I know what it does to me Not to me, to you, to everybody that's out there. I grew up in an environment where they lived on an alcohol. So to me it allowed me a different perspective from there Observing and growing up in a dysfunctional family, such as that Going from coming home one day and there's locks on the door because they didn't pay the bills. The utilities are cut off because they didn't pay the bills, denying enough food in the house to eat and having to go to my grandmothers to eat. I went from these kind of environment, these kind of situations, to coming out and going. I never want my children to feel that, to expect that, to experience that in any form whatsoever. So my values developed that family comes first. That launched me into wanting to go into a profession that I felt that I could contribute back to society. I took what I grew up with as being the middle child, being the individual that was the had to take care of everybody. I took care of my little brother Make sure you get to school. You know my sister, my older sister. She left the home early because of everything that was going on. So I tried to take the place of my father from my brother, if that makes sense. Yeah, that's tough. So from that perspective I thought you know what a better way to give back to society, to protect and to serve and to help people out of those situations is to be a cop. So I got into law enforcement to do that. I worked the UI task force for a number of years. I was very good at it and I worked domestic violence task force, which was a multi agency domestic violence task force that worked the worst that that any domestic violence is good, but it worked the worst of the domestic violence cases and I won't go into detail because it's very, some of it's very morbid, but I would tell you what's the worst of the worst. So I worked that for about four years on this task force. From that perspective I felt I was giving back, but it also emphasized my values that family comes first, no matter what I watched. These kids grew up that I grew up in these dysfunctional situations and I tried to take a proactive approach in order to remove them from that situation so they didn't have to go through what I went through as long as I went through it.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 12:01

You know, for as much drive as you brought into that position, I can't help but think it would be easy to get wrapped up in work, especially when you're younger. You got all this energy and vigor and vitality and I don't know what tenacity or something. In here I can totally do more, or I wish I could do more. So how did you balance that then against family?

Michael Herst: 12:22

first, Triple A personality for sure you have that label, the A personality where everybody's a do-do-do on success, success, succeed.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 12:30

Yeah.

Michael Herst: 12:31

And then you get a situation where, like in my particular case, I became a triple A, so I had to keep getting reminded by my family that I need to slow down and to be there. I only laugh at this because my stark reminder was when I get injured. And when I get injured I was in a situation again I told you I was a Sergeant and I had a team of individuals. At about two o'clock one morning they had a contact with an individual that was backed up on somebody's property and the individual would not come out of the vehicle and refused to answer the officers with anything other than yelling, screaming, holler. They knew he was intoxicated and or more in whether it be drugs and alcohol or both, and is the routine traffic stop. It wasn't a traffic stop. This in itself was. This guy was backed up on somebody else's property, so it was criminal trespass. Oh okay, backed up on somebody else's property and dude was sitting there in his vehicle. So they followed protocol and they called for supervisor. So, as a supervisor, I showed up and I made the mistake. I had this big "S ass on my chest just for Sergeant, but I thought it was Superman. Yeah, I had to do all this. I walked in front of my vehicle instead of behind my vehicle, something I told other officers to never, ever do and without thinking, I did it. And when I did, he floored it. He painted between his vehicle and my vehicle until he wouldn't be arrested, because the officer called the supervisor and he wanted to be arrested. So, rolling out of the way, he backed up, tried to run me over again, pushed my car out of the way brand new car, by the way, had 50 miles on. It had to answer to the Lieutenant. Yeah, first, question he asked wasn't how are you? The first question he asked was how much damage is on the car? Yeah, they caught him by a mile down the road. He was arrested, taken into custody and that changed my life drastically. Dramatically, because it gave me pause. I mean realistically pause. For so long 16 and a half years. I worked the street where I'd go into dark buildings, I'd come out of dark buildings, I'd go into situations. I'd come out of situations. I'd get guns up, I'd make knives pull on me. I've got my fingers broken arresting people. I've got my knees kicked out arresting people getting into fights. I've had water taken off my knees. I've had shoulder cortisone, shots in both shoulders after getting into situations. It was all part of the job, but in this particular case, this turned my journey as a law enforcement officer into a different direction and it wasn't something that was expected, because my intention was to. I was studying for the lieutenants test. I was going to take the lieutenants test. I was going to move up the line, just like my colleagues and people that worked under me now have done that. The people worked underneath me, beside me. They moved up the line and became lieutenants and captains and commanders and assistant chiefs and chiefs. Mine got stopped abruptly. So from that perspective, I found that I could not do my job anymore, so I had to put it for retirement, which was very difficult for me. I thought this is what I am, this is who I am. I'm a cop. That's what I do. That's what I am. If you walk down the street and I'm sure you know it in your profession you recognize who are the sheepherders. You recognize who you know. I walk into a restaurant, you can tell the ones that are cops or caretakers they're. They're back to the wall and they look at the door and they watch everybody coming in. That's who I was, and I got told by five doctors that I was going to be in a wheelchair eventually for the rest of my life and that I couldn't be a cop anymore. So in May of 1999, my wife and I left the Fire, police and Pension Association in Colorado and it changed our lives tremendously because I was no longer when I walked out of that building. I was no longer a police officer. My pay got cut down to like 50% of my pay. You know what I was making. So not only affected us physically, emotionally and financially, it really put a almost a question mark, because I'll tell you that my family rallied around the situation but it put into jeopardy how I could take care of my family. My wife became the main breadwinner and then, as I evolved in this, I ended up with severe rheumatoid arthritis because of the injuries and so forth that progressed at such a rapid rate that, yes, it did put me in a wheelchair and I still get a little emotional. So, forgive me, I sat in that wheelchair for a number of years, feeling sorry for myself and I was depressed, I was angry, I had PTSD. I thought about every call that I'd gone to, every death investigation I had gone to, which again allowed me to go back to create One More Thing Before You Go, every suicide. I had five suicide investigations during Christmas Eve and Christmas Day one year Five. So sitting in that chair made me reiterate and think about all of those kind of calls the domestic calls, domestic violence calls, the traffic accident calls, the unattended death calls, the death messages, the suicides, the murder, everything you know. You sat there and just reflect and reflect, and reflect and I almost lost my values from that perspective, to be honest with you, because I got down into a thing. I went from a guy that had a team of 13 people that looked up to him and took them into situations and came out of them with situations that having my wife have to put me in the toilet.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 18:04

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Michael Herst: 19:15

I went from a guy that had a team of 13 people that looked up to him and took them into situations and came out of them with situations, to having my wife have to put me in the toilet and to help me with the shower, give me dressed, button my shirt situation.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 19:31

Do you have your legs now?

Michael Herst: 19:33

Yes, I do, okay. In 2010, my oldest daughter I had to smile so I don't cry. It brought to my attention the kind of values and the ability for a family to make sure that you stay together and that family means everything. I'm about with my youngest daughter having no hesitation pushing me in that wheelchair. By the way, when I needed to go somewhere to do something, I wasn't disabled, I was just dad. My oldest daughter, she was gonna get married and she came to me and we were preparing for her to get married. She married in Vegas and I says, okay, we're paying for your wedding, but what was you like for your wedding gift? And she puts each hand on my armrest and she leans down in front of me and she says I want you to walk me down the aisle. And she says it's still is emotional for me. It woke me up. Needless to say, it was a wake up call. She says I know you can do Stop feeling sorry for yourself and I want you to walk me. So that embarked me on a journey to find the surgeon to give me out of a wheelchair. So we made the decision to move from Colorado down here to Arizona my sister lived down here and we come in down here and visited. I found a doctor down here, Dr Robert Berghoff, brilliant orthopedic surgeon, amazing individual, and we went in to see him and he said what are your goals? What do you want to do? Both my daughters were with us. My wife was with us because this was a life changing decision we were about to embark on and I said I want to walk her down the aisle. He said okay, let's do it. So we started on some operations and my first operations were my foot, my ankle and my knee one of my knees and that got me enough to where I walked my daughter down the aisle. Oh man, congratulations, thank you. But that started. She said don't stop here, said you need to keep moving forward and with the love of my wife and my kids and my sister and my brother-in-law and colleagues of mine that I worked with and friends of mine, it inspired me to continue to go back. So I've been through eight operations, I've been through countless hours of physical therapy and it was painful, but to me it wasn't as painful as I was already experiencing. But today I walk at least two to three miles a day Unbelievable. And I still have bad days. I still have bad days, I still have a disease. I still have bad days, but I have mostly good days and I'm not in a wheelchair. So to me that emphasized and it gave me sincere love from my family to understand that my goal and I'm not saying this to be egotistical, my goal was to be forgive me, dad, to not be my father, to not be my mother, to show that I was, that family comes first, was reflected right back on me.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 22:35

Congratulations. Thank you, congratulations. There's a book. I'm pretty sure it's called the Hero with a Thousand Faces. Are you familiar? I am not, but I'll look it up, please do, and if I butcher the name, I'll email it to you later. I also can't remember the author, but I'm pretty sure it's the Hero with a Thousand Faces. It's about these journeys that we go through as people, the human condition, and it's sort of always evolving and always a new, something to push through and work through. But this journey that he talks about, that's the Thousand Faces. It's always the new you that you transcend and turn into as you grow through. Life is going to run into a new challenge later, and then you have to grow further and push through and whatnot. But in there he talks about this progression where you go from essentially the reality that you were in your everyday life, whatever was common to you at that point, as a baseline, and then there's some sort of a pool, not like Olympic size but like directional, and it moves you into a position where you start to question am I actually in the right place anymore? Do I need to change something? Is this an opportunity for growth or, conversely, is this the lead weight and it's a moment to question. And then you move into this position where you find your Yoda, the mentor, the role of that person or the thing or the article or the painting or whatever fills that role, and when you do, it sort of serves as your Virgil de Dante and you move through this trial or series of right Herculane or whatever you want to put to it, until you finally get to that cave where the dragon sleeps. And you've got to figure out. Now you're in your head because all the adversaries, all the enemies, everything you've got to battle and deal with. Maybe there's some physical things, like you obviously brought up as well, physical therapy, and you know just the things that come with that, but a lot of it's not and in my opinion and in my case, a lot of it was more mental than physical and you start questioning what is there to live for? I don't want to do this, but I don't know how to fix this. And then you start relying or finding or building on a support network and then back to your mentor and you know, come out better and stronger physically, mentally, emotionally, whatever. And eventually you bring that back and it reciprocates itself till the next challenge, right? So that's what the book's about. Long story short. But as you were describing that, you know, in the beginning I thought to myself okay, well, a cop, 17 years, you started there, you know, let's just say, a regular kid for all intents and purposes. And then you've got an inspiration to become a cop. Then, all right, all right, and I kind of see where this is going, and maybe some of the listeners did too. No, okay, you know, you become a cop, you get out and I'll tell you this firsthand as well, because my active contract in the Marine Corps is closing out shortly. And so what is that fear? What is that anxiety? What does that stress level look like? I'm willing to bet it's the same thing for high schoolers leaving home for the first time as it is for law enforcement leaving a 20 year career or give or take military leaving their lengthy careers. Right, it becomes your identity, it becomes your thing, usually unwittingly. It just is who you've grown into, and so we assume the role as the identity. But really, as you've obviously discovered and rediscovered multiple times, it's not right. It's just the sort of the training to get you to that level. And then there's the next level, and you said something that I think I've thought about. Oh man, I can't even tell you countless times. Over the last now almost two years of doing this podcast, this has been my primary means of therapy. I've been to behavioral health and anger management a few other places In my opinion I don't know total waste of time. I wasn't ready to learn. This became more of my passion in communicating with people and hearing stories like yours. This podcast became my therapy, and I think one of the points that I kept running into was I don't want to become my parents. I didn't, I guess I didn't want to become my parents and over the last couple of years of doing this, and now over a hundred or so people on the show, I'm exactly my parents. You know mannerisms maybe, words and slang maybe, but I mean more how I view the world, my preferences, my temptations, my vices, my whatever. I've exactly become my parents, but I'll tell you, the stronger thing that I've come to realize is I've become who they couldn't sustain, not who they fell into. You understand that, yeah, I've learned a lot of things that they do that I don't agree with or that they did that I don't agree with. I don't have any care to emulate, but there's a lot of things about them that I do and almost unwittingly carry with me, and maybe it's a lack of an ability to cope with certain stressors, and so I've changed how I deal with that. But it's existing right, like we can't get rid of the baggage that affects us. We just find ways to manage it. And I think you know, when you talk about one more thing, even for your show, but just as a general point of reference, you talk about one more thing, and I think for me that's the thing that I keep chasing, not perfection, not attainment, not any of that sort of transcendence, but just how do I improve on the aspects of my parents that are a part of me that I want to do something positive with? And then how do I accept the things that in my opinion, are more negative aspects in their behaviors that I recognize in me that I can avoid or move from? And I think that degree of awareness is the thing. And in your case, unreal, dude, like the amount of things that you've got a battle in a wheelchair because you have no other options, you can't go anywhere. So in some cases, I'm assuming there were even days where you couldn't move yourself.

Michael Herst: 28:34

Yes, there were days that I would be sitting in a wheelchair for quite a while until somebody got here, or I would have to try to work out my way out of that to get to a walker, to you know the graphic, but to go to the bathroom. So yeah, everything that you just said at 100%, I absolutely 100% agree with you. Through my journey, I did the same thing. You know, my oldest daughter also turned me on to podcasting. That's how I got into podcasting.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 28:59

All right, folks, sit tight and we'll be right back on Transacting Value.

Speaker 3: 29:05

Imagine a little lady who wouldn't give up her seat on the bus, a TV host who wanted to be your neighbor, or an inventor whose 10,000 failures didn't stop them. These vivid images all share the same caption Inspiration. These people just did their best and they inspire us. Now, what will you do to inspire others? Inspiration is in you. From PassItOn. com.

Michael Herst: 29:33

You know, my oldest daughter also turned me on to podcasting. That's how I got into podcasting, because she came in and said hey, have you heard of a podcast? You're sitting here, you're doing your physical therapy, you're doing this, you're doing that. Yeah, you're something for you and I think you'd be good at it. So that's how I broke into podcasting. Myself was because she came to me with that as well. He said you feel you lost your purpose, but I think you may have found a new purpose and in reality she's right, because I've been able to talk to people from all over the world. I've been able to have conversations with people all over the world and it's given me an opportunity to. I like what you said earlier, but the podcast kind of gave you kind of therapy.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 30:17

Yeah.

Michael Herst: 30:18

It did the same thing for me. I would go to therapy, I would go to a therapist and I would start talking about those visions I told you about earlier that I sat and thought about and thought about and the first thing to do was stop me. Wait a minute. Whoa, that's not my specialty. I'm not sure how to deal with that. That was most of the answers that I got. Nowadays, they do have people that are specialized. There are opportunities for people that are first responders and for military personnel to be able to talk to therapists and counselors that understand from that perspective, and the majority of those counselors therapists come from the same environment. So it's easier when you go in and start talking about something that you saw, experienced or whatever. They give you the confidence to know that they've experienced it at one time or another within themselves, so they understand what you're going through from that perspective, which is great. My podcast gave me some free, gratefully, so gave me some free therapy as well, because everybody that I talked to that had gone through journeys that they have gone through. They overcame tragedy Tragedy is similar to mine, but in some cases way worse and came out on top. In their stories of triumph over tragedy Inspired me to say, hey, I need to get a voice to these people and I need to do it more often in my purpose than I redefined my purpose. My values are still the same. My values are I want to be able to inspire people, motivate people and educate people. I feel that we are all human beings, we are all individuals, that we live on this planet together. Whether you think or not, we are still brothers and sisters and we need to take care of one another. Those are my values. I think we need to embark upon other individuals, and there are a few of us that have been able to understand what others have gone through and what they're going through on a regular, daily basis. Those are those out there that don't or won't look in past, that All they see is somebody going through anger or depression or whatever the case may be, and not understanding that you don't know what happened to them in that day. So, in coming to podcasting, it allowed me to have those conversations across the world that I never ever would have been able to do as a police officer. It allowed me to reach a wider audience with messages like that messages of hope, understanding, empathy, compassion, inspiration, motivation that I never would have come close to if I'd have stayed in law enforcement. So I was able to kind of understand that, although I thought my purpose was being a cop as long as I was, that purpose was abruptly shut down. But that doesn't mean we have to stop striving for more. Like you said, there's always that one more thing, that one more thing can be doing what you're doing right now, having that one more conversation, having that one more. I had a great conversation and yesterday I want to have a better one. Tomorrow I want to have one just as good or better tomorrow. Yeah, if I can inspire one, one person, I can motivate one person.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 33:22

I can educate one person.

Michael Herst: 33:23

I can let one person know that they're not going to do what they're doing. I can educate one person. I can let one person know that they're not alone. To me, that redefined my purpose in life. So my purpose in life is now my voice, and my voice allows me to reach a wider audience than I ever did as a police officer. If anybody out there that's listening, I can't emphasize that enough. Whatever happens in your lifetime, whatever is going through your life at the moment whether you lost a job, you lost a spouse, you lost a best friend, your kid, your grandparents that doesn't mean you have to stop. That just means you have to pause. Don't forget that. Don't forget what's going on. Understand that and don't use it as a failure on your part in any particular way. Use it as a stepping stone to success in reimagining yourself, reevaluating yourself and understanding that you may have lost your purpose temporarily. That just means you can't find new purpose and use that purpose to the best of your ability to make you happy as well as those around you. That's where the values continue as well. Sure, bringing value to relationships and to communication. We have lost a lot of our ability to communicate because everybody's usually on the phone. We've lost our ability to sit down and communicate and I feel that to me if I express that to anybody listening out here, everybody listening out here take the time to put the phone down for a minute and have a conversation with those around you, because the value of that conversation is going to come back and pay you back when that person is no longer there.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 35:03

Yeah, what's interesting to me is what's the saying? You can take the man out of the cop force, but you can't take the servant protect out of the man. You know there's I'm paraphrasing but there's a. I don't know if that, but there's a certain public service. I think that you're feeling protecting our abilities to be I guess you could say free thinkers and experience life, but appreciate the gravity of it and the weight of what we actually have. You know what's 80 years or a lifetime may seem like a long time, but you know you compare it against a couple thousand years that some other countries have been here. It's nothing. Everything happens Exactly so fast. Let me look at your accident. Everything was fine until it wasn't Change in an instant. Man, that's it. Life can change in an instant. That's it. And you know, I think another sort of alternate, maybe even more nuanced aspect to your show is sort of a way to say goodbye to who you were before you leveled up. I got one more thing, one more lesson to pull before I can move forward and move past something, and I think that's an important distinction too, because I've heard a couple of your conversations on your show, and it's not all about death. There's an awful lot about moving through these low points. So what's the one more lesson you can pull to be able to get past something and put it behind you? And you got such a powerful opportunity and, I think, more importantly, the clarity and the presence to fulfill it. I think it's awesome what you're doing, Michael. For the sake of time, though, what are some opportunities? What are some outlets? Where can people find your show? How do people get in touch with you?

Michael Herst: 36:43

I'm really easy to get in touch with me. You can find me on any platform your favorite listening platform, or you can reach out to my website at BeforeYouGoPodcast. com it's one word BeforeYouGoPodcast. com. You can find me there. I'm on every platform, including YouTube.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 37:00

For everybody listening, especially if this is your first time listening to my show. Depending on the platform or player you're using, you can click See More, you can click Show More and it'll give you the notes, the description for this conversation. In there You'll also see links that'll take you to Michael's podcast and BeforeYouGo on YouTube and everywhere on social, so you'll be able to find it there as well. And, Michael, hopefully that helps you out too. But again, I really appreciate the opportunity. Man, this was a cool conversation, at least for me. It really brought a couple of things home that I hadn't really considered before. We talked about sort of questioning your identity and working through some of these low points, and then obviously this hero's journey idea that just sort of ended up framing our whole conversation. But everything about what you were describing, at least for me. I'm about the same point in my career length of time as you had been at that point and it's really taken me some work trying to figure out who I am in the process without that identity or where, I guess you could say, without that role. So I admire what you're doing, I admire what you've worked through, let alone all the other perseverance you've put in to work through physically these issues that you've run into. If I were wearing a hat, I'd take it off to you right now, man. Awesome job.

Michael Herst: 38:10

Thank you very much and I appreciate what you do and what you're providing to the world with Transacting Value Podcast. I think it's a wonderful opportunity for people to have a better understanding about life values and what we mean to each other. So thank you.

Josh "Porter" Porthouse: 38:25

I appreciate you saying that and, yeah, if anything else comes up or if anybody else reaches out, I'll be sure to let you know as far as your show's concerned. But I got to say thanks to a couple people before we actually close this out. Obviously, first and foremost, to you for giving me some of your time and talking and contributing to our audience as well. But, Robert, if you're listening, Doc Berghoff, if you're anywhere out there, thanks for your help, man. I don't know if you realize the impact that you've made on the world, but it was more than just one person. So thanks to you I didn't catch, I don't remember, I'm sorry, your family's names, but to your wife and daughters you're not the only one thankful for their presence. Like I said, the amount of impact that you've had, Michael, and influence that you're conveying, in my opinion, in large part is due to them as well, and I got to give credit where it's due, so I'd like to thank them as well. Thank you to our show partners and folks. Thank you for tuning in and appreciating our value as we all grow through life together, To check out our other conversations, merchandise or even to contribute through feedback. Follows time, money or talent, and let us know what you think of the show. Please reach out on our website, transactingvaluepodcast. com. We stream new episodes every Monday at 9am Eastern Standard Time through all of your favorite podcasting platforms, and we'll meet you there. Until next time, that was Transacting Value.