Thriving in the Storms of Life with Rod Knoerr

Certified Leadership Coach Rod Knoerr joins us on this episode to share his life and his journey of thriving in the storms of life. Rod is more than just a leadership coach. Rod is also a dentist, speaker, father of five, and grandpa of 13. Rod recently authored the book “Don't Waste This Storm.” During the episode, Rod shares the inspiration behind his book and dives into the difficulties of dealing with the terminal diagnosis of his wife, Beth, and the subsequent loss of her. He’s learned some impactful lessons along the way, including the power in focusing on being of service and the blessings you have rather than what you feel you have lacking. On this episode of the Live. Love. Engage. podcast: Why Rod decided to write his book. What the message “don’t waste this storm” means. How Rod felt influenced by the pandemic. The embarrassing thing Rod’s wife did and why. Examples of what your storm could look like and the best way to react. How a shift in perspective can be empowering in difficult times. The importance of counting your blessings no matter the situation. The way isolation influences people—in grief and in society. Why Rod started a “Be the Hope” Zoom group. The importance of community, gratitude, and service. The particular skill Rod brought to his career as a dentist. Why Rod says his book is not intended to be a love story. The role patience plays in creating change and growing community. The ways we talk ourselves into feeling bad and how to use it for good. How serving is less a burden, and more than anything it’s fulfilling. Connect with Rod Rod's website: dontwastethisstorm.com Rod’s email: rknoerr7 (at) gmail.com Resources: Interview with Guy Bavli about the power of smiling Quick Links: Join the Live. Love. Engage. Community Intuitive Business Coaching The Live. Love. Engage. Book Support the Podcast with BuyMeACoffee.com Enjoying what you're hearing on Live. Love. Engage.? Subscribe on Goodpods or your favorite podcast platform, and click here to leave a 5 STAR Review. You can also watch the conversation on YouTube. TRANSCRIPT You're listening to the Live Love Engage podcast on today's show. How to shift your perspective from victim to victor. Stay tuned. I am Gloria Grace Rand, founder of the Love Method, and author of the number one Amazon best seller, Live, Love, Engage, How to stop doubting yourself and start Being Yourself. In this podcast, we share practical advice from a spiritual perspective on how to live fully, love deeply, and engage authentically so you can create a life and business with more impact, influence and income. Welcome to Live. Love. Engage. namaste. I am Gloria Grace Rand and delighted to welcome you back to another addition of Live, love, engage. And I've got a guest with us today who has written a book and I'm very curious to know about his journey and, and what prompted it. And we're gonna hear all about that in a moment. But first, I want to welcome Rod Knoerr to Live, love, engage. Good to be here. I'm excited to share my life and my journey. It's a, it can be a benefit to your followers. Awesome. Well, let me let all of you know, uh, a little bit about Rod so you have some idea, a little context of what we'll be uh, talking about today. Uh, so Rod is actually, he's a dentist. He's a certified leadership coach, a speaker and devoted husband, uh, to his wife Beth, for 40 years, the last three in the storm of cancer. Which we'll talk about. He's also a father of five and a grandpa of 13. That's awesome. And as I mentioned, he is an author. He has written a book called Don't Waste the Storm and the Founder of The Newly Formed Be The Hope Foundation. And, uh, soon to be open, Be the Hope Retreat and we'll have to talk about those a little bit later as well. So most would love to know more about that. But let's start. Today just sharing with our listeners and our viewers on YouTube a little bit about this book that you wrote. So what, what is it actually about and, and why did you decide to write it? Well, my wife and I, after, uh, almost 35 years of marriage, she, uh, had a, this kind of health storm, I'm not gonna get into it. It wasn't terminal and it was very kind of intense about, supposed to be about two years long. And about 18 months into it, we're seeing, end of the tunnel, a lot of insomnia and a lot of stuff that went with it, Malay and everything. She has weird blood tests and she's diagnosed with terminal cancer and the diagnosis was 18 to 24 months to live no cure. So yeah, so we went on that journey and, uh, it, uh, eventually and get into more of that, she did. You know, did, did pass away in, in 2019 and about, I mean, we had relocated to, uh, to Grand Rapids, the other side of Michigan for the last treatment. Our two married daughters lived here, and, uh, I chose to stay. Well, about eight months later, we're going through our first Mother's Day, and our anniversary was in May, and I'm, I'm feeling a little, little down and, you know, probably grieving and then I, I realized, it wasn't grieving that what I was feeling. We were just going into Covid in 2020 and the George Floyd thing had happened in May and I was grieving for our country. Mm-hmm. And I wasn't, I didn't go through Covid the way everyone else did because of the way and what we learned going through the storms of my wife's terminal cancer for three and a half years, and I realized I need to write this and, uh, yeah. I, I think when you hear the word storm, you think negative. And I don't know where the name, somebody said, where did that name come from? And I, I, I think I read something, Don't waste this grief, don't waste something else. And I don't know. And then in the back of my head, it was there, but it, it really sums it up because what many would think is negative. The most intense trying five years of our life were the years we grew closest. And that doesn't make sense, but, and, and our impact too. So that, that was kind of the genesis of it. And I, I had started writing it in June of 2020 with the goal of getting the rough draft done by the anniversary of her passing August 6th. And that day, I, I finished the last chapter. I took another year or so to get it out then with Covid and publishers. But yeah. All that, all that fun stuff. Yeah. With trying to get a book published, I've, I've gone through that as well and also, experienced the, uh, uh, dealing with a loved one with cancer as well, and, and how now with, uh, the passage of time in really seeing that there was a lot of good that came out of it. But tell, tell us a little bit about, So, so you, you say, don't waste the storm. So what really do you mean by that? Well, and I, and I'll, I think the subtitle of the book unpacks it a little. It's hope filled, thriving, not just barely surviving the storms of life. And, you know, that's what I saw when Covid hit and we all were isolated. I mean, it’s not judgment, it's something we're living through. I just saw this, this hopelessness, this fear, and I can't tell you how many times did we hear, I can't wait to get back to normal. Yeah. So in essence, you're saying, I'm quit. I'm gonna quit living. I'm putting life on hold until I get back to normal. And you know, as we were going into the cancer, uh, we had been on some, uh, humanitarian mission trips to Romania for the two years prior to her, three years prior to her cancer. And we were supposed to go like a month after Beth was diagnosed. And I also had a class reunion in September. I hadn't been to one since my 10th and it was gonna be my, maybe my 40th and I was, you know, athlete, student council, all that stuff. And the first thing I did when she was diagnosed, we didn't know how the cancer treatment was. They said she's gonna do in, she's gonna do outpatient and then she's gonna go inpatient, University of Michigan. And I'm thinking, Oh, what if that's the weekend of the reunion? So I cancel going to the reunion. Well then we, now, we, we were a couple weeks into it, we start the chemo in June and we're supposed to go to Romania in July. And I don't know, we, we, we just thought about it, talked about it, and we said, You know, let's just go, we're going. And an oncologist said, Your cancer's gonna, your immunities, you can't fight infection, you can't go. And we went and, uh, Gonna laugh, but back in 2016, my wife, a very kind of more mild-mannered person, did something publicly that was very embarrassing for her so she could live life. Cause he said, Well, you can't go to, you know, you shouldn't go to big gatherings and let people hug you. You know, we, we, we do go to church. You can't do that. So can you imagine what my wife did in 2016 that just totally was embarrassing. I can't imagine. So please share. She wore a mask in public. Oh, is that joke. Listen, a year after she passes, everyone's wearing a mask, but everyone thought she had an infection. Was starting to give to someone else. But I mean, so that was that. So we did go to Romania and then after a lot of thought, I was active in a, in a men's uh, growth group and she was active in different things and you know. What responsible people do when a storm hits is they cancel their involvement cause they don't wanna let someone down. And we somehow said, You know what? We're gonna keep on keeping on and if we have to cancel, someone will step to the plate. My classroom reunion was the only thing we canceled in that last almost four years of her life. And, uh, so, but I, I think the biggest thing I, I talk about when I speak is, uh, it was when we went about nine months later, eight months later at the University of Michigan, she had to spend three weeks at the cancer ward there at ma. And uh, as we were getting there, understand we've been doing life for 30 some years, so, you know,...