Show Transcript

0:00:01 - (Kevin Lowe): It was the dead of winter and his heater had just quit. Rich Ingram, he was homeless, living in a tent beside a river in north Georgia. After about six weeks, well, he switched his mindset from surviving to thriving. Fast forward to today. Rich Ingram has served our country. Matter of fact, while in Afghanistan, he would lose his arm, but that did not stop him. No, he would go on to compete in triathlons, continuing to do amazing things, pushing his body to the limit.

0:00:39 - (Kevin Lowe): And that wasnt enough. No, he actually went back into service as an amputee. This guy is remarkable. He exhibits what it means to have raw resilience. My friend, you are about to be pumped up, encouraged and energized by my interview with Rich Ingram. This is episode 303.

0:01:06 - (Rich Ingram): Yo, are you ready to flip the script on life? Cause those bad days, they're just doors to better days. And that's exactly what we do here at grit, grace and inspiration. Your host, Kevin Lowe, he's been flipping the script on his own life, turning over 20 years of being completely blind into straight up inspiration, motivation and encouragement just for you. So kick back, relax, and let me introduce you to your host, Kevin Lowe.

0:01:34 - (Kevin Lowe): What is up, my friend? Welcome back to great Grayson Inspiration. Today, I am excited beyond belief to be in the studio with a guy who has the most insane story, matter of fact, a bunch of stories, each one of them insane in their own way. But whats awesome is his personality. Rich Ingram, hes an awesome guy here to motivate you to more or less get out there and take on this day, no matter what obstacles are standing in your way.

0:02:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Now, before you dive into all of that goodness, I do want to remind you that if you are somebody at a point in your life where you're wanting a little bit more, you want to be sure that you're making the most out of every day, every second you have, and you want to be sure that the rest of 2024 is a true success. Well, this is your opportunity. I'm offering free coaching all summer long. All you have to do to sign up is text.

0:02:39 - (Kevin Lowe): Summer 2024. All one word, no spaces. Summer 2024 to the phone number 33 triple seven. That is 33 seven seven. And you will get a link to my calendar to book that free session right away. Now, before I turn it over to Rich Ingram, I do just want to give you a heads up. If you are somebody listening to this podcast, maybe in your car coming of the speakers, or maybe you got one of those Bluetooth speakers and it is being heard by everyone around you, if you have children with you.

0:03:18 - (Kevin Lowe): I do want you to understand that today's conversation does involve some adult content, especially around language. Yes, I'm talking about bad words that you probably don't want your kids to repeat. So I hope you'll keep listening, because the story he has to share is incredible. But I just wanted to give you a heads up so you're not caught off guard that there is some colorful language used in today's interview.

0:03:50 - (Kevin Lowe): With that said and that disclosure out of the way, I turn it over to the man of the hour, rich Ingram.

0:03:58 - (Rich Ingram): Raw resilience is what. So, first off, I needed, like, a framework to kind of brand what I was working on, and that's what I came up with. And the reason why is because, first and foremost, before you do anything, you have to be true to yourself. Not to sound cliche, but the first part of that framework is purpose. Finding your purpose. Because, you know, in what I do, especially in endurance sports, purpose is the true motivator when. When you're hitting a wall and literally think you have nothing left to give, purpose is what is going to make you keep going. Not willpower or any of the other executive functions in your brain, but its purpose. You know, the why.

0:04:46 - (Rich Ingram): In order to find that, you got to get raw. Because too often, we find ourselves in this culture that we're in, keeping up with the Joneses, and, you know, we're not true to ourselves. And so when we really do a dive into who we are, who, you know, taking stock of inventory of what we have, where we're at, and who we want to be, the only way that you can really get a good answer to that is by being true. And then. So that's the raw portion of it. But also, it's raw because, man, I like to think of myself as just a one layered individual, right?

0:05:22 - (Rich Ingram): Maybe it's the military and me, but I don't like to beat around the bush. I like being direct. I think that what's the point in talking or speaking or saying anything if. If what's coming out of your mouth isn't true? And I think I can read through, you know, bullshit pretty quick. So that's the raw portion. And then resilience is, you know, the framework of how do we get there? How do we become resilience? Because perseverance and resilience are not the same thing. Like, dude, I'll tell you, I'm really good at taking some punches and persevering through some stuff, but resilience is coming out better on the other side, you know, and doing something.

0:06:01 - (Rich Ingram): Okay. It's great that you're getting up every time you get knocked down, but what are you doing about it to not get knocked down anymore? Right? And so that's what raw resilience is, man. It's based off of purpose, mindset, and process.

0:06:13 - (Kevin Lowe): I love it. So much more depth to that than I ever could have imagined. I love it, Mandy. So now we have a little insight into this mindset that you have today. I'm curious to figure out how you even got here to. To this one layered individual of cutting through the b's. Take me back to kind of growing up. I mean, where did you grow up? What was childhood like for you? Was it good? Was it bad? Was it something you'd care to forget?

0:06:44 - (Kevin Lowe): I would, you know, just kind of love to hear that story. Yeah.

0:06:47 - (Rich Ingram): So I had a great childhood. I actually, obviously, there's a story there. We wouldn't be talking, but, uh, you know, I was raised in a pretty affluent family. My parents met a medical school in Birmingham, Alabama. My dad started his practice in a town called Lagrange, Georgia, right on the Alabama Georgia border. But my dad, he was an outlier, and this is before that term really got popular. But he was gone when I woke up in the morning and gone when I went to bed at night.

0:07:18 - (Rich Ingram): He works seven days a week. And as I started to get into adolescent years, I started to loathe him for it, because I saw what all my other friends were doing with their fathers. You know, they were taking them to football games or tailgates or whatever, like, they drank beer, never saw my dad drink. And they took him hunting and fishing, and I didn't have access to any of that. And so as I got into my teenage years, one thing that I did have access to was booze, right? And so I became, because I was trying to, I had all this energy, like the energy of a supernova. But I just had no direction and no guidance. And so for me, and I call it chasing air, a great way to fit in or be put on a pedestal was, man, I would be a partier, and that's what I became known for, drinking and fighting, man. And that is not how I was raised. I mean, my dad, instead of buying me a baseball bat, I remember when I was, like, seven years old, he bought me the book of virtues, and.

0:08:20 - (Rich Ingram): Which is a great book for youngsters, you know, but it was not. I mean, that kind of, you know, tells you a little bit about how he was. And I got into a lot of trouble. You know, I was never into, like, drugs or anything like that. No judgment to anybody. That was. I just, you know, wasn't. And so when it came time to go to college, my parents would only let me go to one school. They would not let me go to university or anything like that because they were like, that's gonna be a waste of time, and you're gonna get in trouble. So I went to one of six senior military colleges in the country, and the one that I went to is the one that no one's ever heard of is the University of North Georgia.

0:09:00 - (Rich Ingram): And I started to get a little bit of. Of a taste of the military at that point, and I really. That's where the seed was planted of the structure and the guidance and the story there is. I quit after the first semester. I called my dad, and I was like, hey, I'm coming home. And he said, no, you're not. So I was like, I didn't really think that went through. You know, I had a whomp. We had a 1.7 gpa.

0:09:32 - (Rich Ingram): And, you know, I was majoring in physics and engineering. I was dual majoring, which. You don't take a lot of those courses in the beginning, but we had to, I guess, because we're. We would graduate with physics in three years and then engineering, too. So, nonetheless, I had a 1.7 gpa. And little did I know, a lot of kids in the dual major program had a 1.7 gpa. But I was the one that quit. And I found myself living in a tent on a creek in the North Georgia mountains in the middle of the wintertime. So cold, my heater froze.

0:10:05 - (Rich Ingram): I had a little, like, Coleman heater.

0:10:07 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, wow.

0:10:08 - (Rich Ingram): And, yeah, yeah. And, man, after about six weeks, I can't even remember, but, you know, brushing my teeth in a creek and taking showers and gas station sinks, I was like, dude, what am I doing, man? And so I went. I went to a national Guard recruiter, and I signed up. They had a program where you could enlist and then become an officer in the active duty after you graduated. And so that's what I did. And I called my dad. I'm like, dad, here's what I did.

0:10:37 - (Rich Ingram): This is January, I think I'd like to come home. And he let me, but he said, under conditions, and he said, you will read a book and write a book report every week. No television, no alcohol. You'll be in by 07:00 p.m. and you will work out and run every single day until you go to basic training in March, and he made me write out a plan. So a daily plan for the week. And at the end of every day, I'd had to write what I did, and he would initial next to us saying the plan was executed, literally.

0:11:10 - (Rich Ingram): He's that intense. And he would grade my book reports. A few weeks, like, the first few weeks are tough because I was back home in a party scene, and, you know, I had some of my friends, like, I couldn't. I can't go out, you know? But after a while, like, after a few weeks, I started loving it. I mean, I was reading way more than a book a week. And when I got to basic training, I realized without my dad ever telling me, to be successful, you have to become an outlier yourself, and you have to sacrifice.

0:11:44 - (Rich Ingram): And what he did for me for that, you know, two month period or whatever it was, was invaluable. I mean, the lesson that he taught me and how he prepared me was just. And now my dad's one of my heroes. You know, he could have done some things differently, right? But that was just his way. He didn't. He didn't know anything else. And he was willing to let me sleep in a tent next to a creek for however long to learn that lesson. And I can't thank him enough for it.

0:12:14 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Crazy story. I want to ask you, when you describe your dad as an outlier, talk to me about what that means.

0:12:25 - (Rich Ingram): So, to me, I mean, you know, statistically, it can be anything that's outside of our normal bell curve. But he was different. And the things that he did were not the norm. They weren't lie. And. But he was. Rever is revered in that town. He is known for. He will do anything for his patients. He is known for being an expert in his field. If he is not at work directly practicing medicine with patients, he's at home studying, looking at scholarly journals, making sure that he hones his craft and his.

0:13:06 - (Rich Ingram): And so to me, if we're talking about positive outliers. Cause there are negative outliers as well. That, to me, is being strong enough and courageous enough to stand up to the status quo in our society and our culture and do what you know is the right thing. And what is going to take you to be successful, that is. That, to me, is an outlier. And, you know, a lot of people can say that, but actually, you know, when you. When you look at the real execution of what they're trying to do, you know, we end up on Netflix or whatever else, and not, you know, it's just fluff. So, you know, that's what my dad did not. He didn't come to games. He didn't come to. I mean, I was. I loved baseball more than anything. He never came to a game, I don't think, ever.

0:14:02 - (Rich Ingram): And so. But you get used to that, right? Like, again, I had a great job. My mom was at everything, and I knew that what my dad was doing was, you know, he was providing for his family. But I do see a lot of him and me now, I'm a light switch, right? I'm either all in or I'm not at all.

0:14:20 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:14:21 - (Rich Ingram): And, you know, that. That was when I got out of the military the second time. That was one of the reasons I went into oil and gas, but that was why I left oil and gas, because I was working so much. And when I got engaged, my wife saw, look, you can't be in a salary position working as much as you do. You know, if you put the same amount of effort into sales or whatever it is, I mean, your revenue is just, you know, going to quadruple.

0:14:49 - (Rich Ingram): And so that's why. That's why I left oil and gas. But. But anyways. Yeah, man. That's what kind of planted the seed with everything and my rearing. Yeah.

0:14:59 - (Kevin Lowe): Okay.

0:15:00 - (Rich Ingram): Wow.

0:15:00 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. So powerful. So kind of going back to this story you were sharing, you're. You're winding down on at home boot camp before actual boot camp and.

0:15:14 - (Rich Ingram): Right, right.

0:15:15 - (Kevin Lowe): And so talk to me about when you actually went away to boot camp. How old were you at that point?

0:15:21 - (Rich Ingram): 20. No, I would have been 19. I was 19.

0:15:24 - (Kevin Lowe): Okay. Okay. Wow. So we went from living by creek in the middle of winter to going back home, being in a kind of makeshift boot camp. Now you're in boot camp. Talk to me about that experience, because from what I've seen about it on tv, on the Discovery Channel, it sounds like pure hell. But, um, I would love to. Love to hear it from you.

0:15:50 - (Rich Ingram): To me, that was one of the most amazing experiences. And I don't know how many people told me when I said I was going to base training that just blend in with everyone, don't volunteer for anything. I went the complete opposite route. I volunteered for everything. And because I was. I was physically fit and I loved it. I already kind of knew a little bit about the military because of my north Georgia experience. Like, I dipped my toes in the water, and I knew that I loved it, and I wanted the full experience.

0:16:21 - (Rich Ingram): And so, you know, coming from what I just come from, from looking from. For direction and purpose in life to now completely being in this environment that I loved. Oh, man. Dude, I was all in. And I'll tell you, I guess they call it hazing now. I don't know what basic training is like now, but, like, we. We got smoked. I mean, you know, every day they're dropping you for push ups or whatever, and my goal was to never put my knees down during a push up, to never miss any rep, to just never quit on anything. And I did it, man. I never did.

0:16:57 - (Rich Ingram): And we had the best platoons. Me and a couple other guys kind of banded together, and we led that platoon. I mean, nobody. We were the only platoon that never had anyone go to sick call. Wow. Because we. We just kind of, you know, made this environment where that was looked down upon. Like, you know, you're being soft. You're gonna miss out on training to go. To go do what? You're gonna let the team down.

0:17:21 - (Rich Ingram): To go do what? To go get band aids. And so it was really shunned, and we created. Created that. And, look, man, we did some nasty stuff. You know, one story, I had this kid. He was in the bunk, and I say, kid? He had to get, like, a waiver because he was so old. And I say, old? I'm older than he is now, but he was, like, 34, okay? And I think that's, like, the max age. You can come in, but, man, he just wants so much. And so one day, we got done with a ruck march. This is in the infantry. You know, walked everywhere. And he's like, oh, my gosh. Ingram.

0:17:55 - (Rich Ingram): Five blisters on my feet. Count them. Five. So, in the middle of the night, he was asleep. I filled up both perks. You get two boots. Two pair of boots. I filled up both boots with shaving cream. And, uh. And, you know, of course she was whining, and I was like, well, next time, you'll learn to complain about your feet. We were brutal, man. We were brutal. We. We were making some hard charging killers, for sure.

0:18:19 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely. Now, how long was basic training for, man?

0:18:23 - (Rich Ingram): I think it was 14 weeks back then, maybe, but it was all. So an infantry is all the same. So it's like, most people go to nine weeks of basic training, and then you have your whatever your specialty training is. So ours was just advanced basic training. You did more maneuvering, like tactical ground maneuvering and weapons training. The remaining, like, five weeks or six weeks, whatever it was.

0:18:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Okay. Okay. Now, when you joined the military, you're in basic training. Like, when was this, like, in comparison, like, I'm thinking, like, 911 when. When things really heated up.

0:19:00 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. So I think I signed up. I don't. I don't need to remember the exact time, but March of 2003 was when I went to basic training. Okay. So something like that.

0:19:17 - (Kevin Lowe): You went in pretty much knowing that you would be deployed?

0:19:21 - (Rich Ingram): Oh, yeah, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Cause I remember being in it in north Georgia, and one of my buddies, like, so September 11 happened, and within two weeks, he was in the national Guard. He was actually. He was in the reserves. I'll tell you that. He was in the reserves. And he got deployed to Afghanistan. I mean, like, immediately. And I want to say we declared war on Iraq in March of 2003. Some. Somewhere around there. So, yeah, everybody. Everybody knew my drill sergeant, Kyle, he was an amazing mandeh and an amazing soldier.

0:19:54 - (Rich Ingram): So loyal. But, I mean, he was so angry because he was. He was in a senior e seven. You know, he was up for e eight. And he'd been in the 101st airborne most of his career, and he had just gotten extended for his third year of. I don't know what the term would be, drill sergeant C. And then war was declared in 101st gone. Right. And he was so mad that he couldn't go back with his guys, you know, like he had trained, because that generation, they didn't really see anything. Right. You know, you have Panama and a couple other things, I guess, but.

0:20:31 - (Rich Ingram): And I just remember admiring him so much for that. And so he. I picked him off quickly as just being a guy to emulate, you know, and follow and tell me a lot. And so I'm proud for that experience. But, yeah, everybody knew they were gone.

0:20:45 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Wow. So talk to me then about deploying overseas. Where did you go? Just talk to me about that. The whole entire experience.

0:20:57 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. So I. You know, I was in the. In the National Guard, Georgia National Guard, and we came down for orders, and sometime in 2004. So I went back to school after basic training, and we got orders. I don't know. But we reported to Fort Stewart to start training January zero five. And we had probably. I think we ended up actually deploying to Iraq beginning of May. So we had about a four month train up leading to that.

0:21:25 - (Rich Ingram): And we were in an area known as the triangle of death.

0:21:30 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, lovely.

0:21:31 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah, yeah. And so it was named for, its just. It's intense violence. Right. So from the beginning of the war to around 2007, I think after the, you know, we had the huge push in Iraq. It's Yusufiya Mamadea and Ludafia area. And that's southwest of Baghdad, maybe 30 minutes. And so we. Cause, you know, we said 30 clicks. So we were in a chicken coop in Mamadea. That's where we, what we had occupied.

0:22:01 - (Rich Ingram): And it's funny because we only had like, two females in the entire battalion, and one of them we were driving back and this is in like the first couple weeks. We're driving back to our base and we see just smoke everywhere. And we're calling, we're like, hey, you know, what's up? Do you need assistance or like, whatever. They're like, no, we're good. You know, this female had, like, somehow her hair straightener had burned down the chicken coop.

0:22:36 - (Rich Ingram): And we're like, this is why you don't have females. Which I am completely, I want everyone to know I am completely okay with females fighting for their country. That should have never been a thing. If a female male in between, I don't care. You want to go fight for what you believe in and everybody else's freedom, man, you should. I'll give you a weapon. But this particular one burned down our base. So, um, you know, wow. What, whatever.

0:23:10 - (Rich Ingram): But yeah, man, we, we, uh. I never got to live in the chicken coop anyways. Um, that's where I think the battalion commander was in there. And, and, like, the staff, his staff. So I was in a, I was in a tent when we first got there, and we're in these tents that are made for, like eight people, and there were 14 in there. We were smushed in there like sardines, man. Within the. I don't remember what day it was, but it was like within the first week, we called a five before the operating base. So it wasn't anything big, you know, like what they have in the major cities, but we, we got shelled by mortars. And it's really hard to distinguish, especially when you first get there, the difference in the sounds of an incoming round and an outgoing round, but you can tell because as soon as you hear that sound and what they do is they try and, you know, let you know when they're going to be firing, like when they're going to be firing that day or whatever it is. So you kind of know. But when that first round hits, you see everybody look at each other with wide eyes, and all it takes is one guy to grab his stuff and, I mean, you clear out of there and.

0:24:17 - (Rich Ingram): And so first round hit. We ran to a bunker. You know, it's just like this biggest upside down you. The concrete with sandbags all over it. Second round hits, and we just hear screams and that. I don't know if these guys, like, a couple of these guys had on, you know. Cause back then, we had, like, DVD players. Maybe they were listening to music. I don't know. But, you know, one of the toughest things to do is to stay put in that bunker when you're hearing screaming, and.

0:24:48 - (Rich Ingram): Because you could just be another casualty, right? So we waited there and for the all clear, and as soon as we got all clear, we knew my platoon's job was to go get these guys. You know, we had the technology that would tell us where. Where the rounds came from, and so everybody ran, picked up their gear, and we took off to our vehicles, jumping over the carnage from that round that hit that tent two tenths away from ours. Just. I mean, blood is on the ground, the canvas of the tent.

0:25:21 - (Rich Ingram): One casualty was killed, and we run to our vehicles, we get in our Humvees, and we get to the location, and I hear Ingram take point. And this was, like, our first real deal, right, without the other unit helping us and stuff. And so I had waited, like, my entire life for that moment, right? And it was exhilarating, and I can't describe the feelings, but we're in this open field. I'm the point man, and it's nothing but 18, 1921, 20 year old guys, kids, everybody falls in line after everything we had just seen, and now we're walking through this field, wondering if we're going to take more fire, direct or indirect, step on a mine, get into a firefight, whatever it is.

0:26:11 - (Rich Ingram): Everybody executed just exactly as we had trained. And I know what. What was going on in everyone's mind. You know, no one had ever seen blood like we had just seen. Nobody had ever been in this situation up to this point of, hey, like, I could literally die in the next 2 seconds. But we. We found these dudes, and now, I don't know if they were the ones that did it or not, because they're pretty stupid to sit around that long, but, um, you know, I found some guys, and we are our first team. We laid it down, what's called a support by fire position, and the team that's behind us came around, enveloped them, and then we. We created a, you know, a security perimeter around these dudes, and we captured them and took them back, and. But the reason I tell that story is, is because it was a battle drill that had been rehearsed not until it was gotten right, but it was rehearsed until we couldn't get it wrong.

0:27:07 - (Rich Ingram): And from everything that we had just seen in all that, whether it be anxiety or whatever other emotions were going on, thoughts in our heads, everyone executed that battle drill flawlessly. They were in the right positions at the right time. They knew how to move. And that gave us, that gave my unit the validation that we needed to know that we were going to be okay in this deployment. It gave us the validation we needed to know that we could trust in our leaders to lead us to going back home.

0:27:42 - (Rich Ingram): And it's no different in the civilian world and how we can posture ourselves to live resilient lives, but we have to work at it and we have to. We have to train what I call our battle drills to get there. But that, that was, that was our 1st. 1st, like, few days in Iraq was, hey, welcome. And so, you know, it was just kind of an indication of what was going to come. But it emboldened my love for soldiering. I had an amazing time. I volunteered for every single mission I could, and I just, I loved it. I loved it.

0:28:21 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Tell me, what is the difference, or if there even is a difference between you were in the National Guard versus, say, somebody who's in the army?

0:28:32 - (Rich Ingram): So, you know, I mean, the National Guard, we were. The first unit that was added is so Rumsfeld, back at that time, he started what is called an r four gen cycle. And so it's a cycle to where all the units. So let's say 82nd active duty unit at the time, these units deploy in brigades. And so in the 82nd, okay, you're going to deploy one year, twelve months. You get twelve months back home, but then you're going to go again in twelve months.

0:29:04 - (Rich Ingram): And so for multiple years, active duty army was on a twelve month, basically a two year cycle. Well, during that time, Rumsfeld added the National Guard to that cycle to where it was every four years. And so what ended up happening after? So my brigade was the first one to kind of start that. But you still had some cherry guys in there because up to that point, they, nobody wanted really deployed before. But after that deployment, that was in 2005.

0:29:35 - (Rich Ingram): Those guys, the same guys that I was with, they deployed again in 2009. So now you have a lot more experienced and, you know, just a lot more war veterans to, you know, lead your people. But the National Guard, I mean, look, National Guard is tough, man, especially nowadays. I mean, my buddy's on his fourth deployment with the National Guard. Now, granted, it's not a combat deployment. I think they're in Kosovo.

0:30:00 - (Rich Ingram): But, you know, those guys, they're used to this life of being with their. Their soldiers and everything in this environment, and then they go back home and they go work at. Go back to work at the pharmacy, you know, and it's completely different than. And look, don't get me wrong. The active duty has it difficult as well. And I'm not taking anything away from it because I've been on both sides. I was in active duty when I went back in as an officer.

0:30:25 - (Rich Ingram): But with active duty, you're still with your same people, you know? Cause you're in the Georgia National Guard, and a lot of those people are around where you are, but they're not in your everyday lives. When you go back home in active duty, you're still in the everyday lives of all those people for the most part. Now, you do start to cycle out, but I won't get into that. So. But that's the main difference, you know, Matt, at the time, active duty was way more trained than we were. That's why we had a five month, four month train up before we left.

0:30:54 - (Rich Ingram): And because apparently in the Gulf, in the first Gulf war, whenever that was in the nineties, the 48th brigade failed and did not deploy. So you have to go to the national training center. And basically you get signed off on that. Hey, you are ready to go to a combat zone. And the 48th Georgia National Guard Brigade went out to the National Training center, and they did not pass. They were that jacked up where they weren't even allowed to deploy.

0:31:25 - (Rich Ingram): That's gotta be pretty bad, man, because when you're at war, it's like, hey, give us bodies, dude. Oh, yeah. So, wow.

0:31:35 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. Okay. Wow. Okay. So thank you for kind of diving into that little, you know, offshoot there just to clear up my confusion and to kind of make that all make sense. So, of course, there obviously came a point in your deployment when things didn't go right for you, and that's obviously a big part of our story today, is kind of this pivot point. Will you walk me through that day?

0:32:07 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. So we were on a four vehicle reconnaissance patrol, and so we were a reconnaissance unit. So we were kind of the odds and ears of the battalion. We would set up. We call them Lpop's observation listening posts. Observation posts take a long gun, like sniper rifle. And so we're just reporting back. So that's our main objective. So we also did presence patrols and stuff. So up to that point, as I said, I volunteered for every. I mean, I love this. I mean, this was my jam. I was in my element. And so that day, I was the rear gunner on a four vehicle home v patrol. So this is before we had the large, mine resistant ambush protective vehicle. So, you know, half the gunner's body is outside of the vehicle.

0:32:54 - (Rich Ingram): And these are, you know, not heavily protected vehicles. And so I had a 50 caliber machine gun, man, so much firepower, I bet. Yeah, it is. I, oh, my gosh, I have. Anyways, won't get into that. And so, like, every time I'm on the gun, man, I'm just, you know, I'm thinking about what could go wrong, looking for gaps, whatever it may be, where things could happen. And I'm envisioning a fight, right? Like, hey, this is what I need to do here, here, there. What, what I'm going to do next if this happens.

0:33:30 - (Rich Ingram): And then my vehicle hits a roadside bomb. And, you know, this entire deployment, I'm wanting these fights that are almost like validation and proof for me, because all you look at history and the fights that these guys, our fathers and grandfathers were in in Vietnam and world War two, and, I mean, just the sheer perseverance of them to continue going, like, in Normandy just under extreme conditions, and they, they won.

0:34:01 - (Rich Ingram): And so I think part of that was what I wanted to prove to myself, that I want to be in that position. So the fact that I got hit by roadside bombs, just not how I envisioned. And so when that, when it happened, the Humvee was subsequently catapulted in the air and thrown into a roll. And I just remember dropping into the turret or through the turret into the vehicle, trying to grab the radio mount, just saying lights out, say a prayer.

0:34:31 - (Rich Ingram): And because I knew I was going to die because the gunners just don't generally survive, survived that. And I all of a sudden realize I'm sitting on the ground and I was awake through the whole thing. I got ejected out of the vehicle. I'm like, oh, my God. But it was, like, surreal that I was still alive. And I look up and I see my driver now unconscious in the passenger seat of our Humvee. And I went to move towards him. And when I did that, I felt what I thought was just a break in my arm.

0:35:03 - (Rich Ingram): And so I remember taking my right hand and feeling for the break like I could cradle my arm and my hand just hit nothing and my stomach just turned. And I kept trying to hit my arm because I could feel my hand still right, because of the nerves and my hand was just hitting nothing. And I looked down and just blood soaked uniform. And my forearm is laying on the ground, just hanging on by a piece of flesh no bigger than your pinky finger.

0:35:34 - (Rich Ingram): So I'm back into this. I'm gonna die. And I just remember saying, I am not fucking dying here.

0:35:41 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:35:42 - (Rich Ingram): And I picked my arm up and just started running with it over to the Humvee. And I'll just never forget that. But the driver, his name Spottiswood, had just joined the unit. When he came to, his eyes just huge. And he kind of shuffled around, and I jumped out the door. He got a tourniquet on me, and the medic came over, got an iv started. And, you know, that kid spottest wood saved my life. And he knew exactly what to do.

0:36:13 - (Rich Ingram): I mean, just training set in, and, I mean, golly. And need to find him a great, you know, buy him a beer. I remember one of my good buddies, Paul Saylor, came over and held my hand. Cause he and I. Cause again, this is a national guard, right? Like, you. You know, all these people. You know, like, I went to college with Paul, and we were good friends in college. And he held my hand because I was laying down, but I was staring up in the July sun.

0:36:44 - (Rich Ingram): It's like July 20, I think, when this happened. It's like a 115 degrees. I just didn't want to be staring at the sun. And he was thinking that I was going to pass out or whatever. And so he held my hand, and he held my hand the entire time until the medevac chopper came. And when they put me on the. On the helicopter, he let go my hand, and he said, you can be all right, man. I'll see you soon. And he was killed a month later.

0:37:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, wow.

0:37:12 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. And so, you know, that. That was the triangle of death, and that was. That was how our deployment went down. But that it was. That was. That was rough for a while, but I, you know, I stabilized well, and I arrived in the states at Walter Reed in Washington, DC. Walter Reed Hospital, like, two days later. I mean, I was.

0:37:33 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, wow.

0:37:34 - (Rich Ingram): Wow. Yeah. So, you know, if anybody's questioning the benefits of physical fitness, you know, that's why the doctor said that, because I stabilized so well. Just my body was very fit. So, yeah.

0:37:47 - (Kevin Lowe): Before we kind of continue, I would like to. Were any of your other guys really hurt bad in that bomb also?

0:37:55 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. My. My squad leader, such a great guy. His name is Joe Brown. He was also ejected out of the vehicle. So, you know, he's in the front passenger seat again. I'm a soldier, so I can have a sick sense of humor. But it was almost comical because everyone's attention. Well, I say everyone, like everybody. We had a security perimeter, right? But everyone that was around me was only focused on me. So our failure was that we should have done a head count.

0:38:25 - (Rich Ingram): But I'm laying down by the back, right tire. By the back, passion or tire, and all of a sudden we hear somebody, like, as if their mouth was closed, saying, would someone please get this humvee off me?

0:38:42 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, no.

0:38:43 - (Rich Ingram): So he had gotten ejected out of the vehicle, and then the vehicle landed on him. And his Kevlar helmet was holding up. I mean, his head would have gotten smashed had he not had that helmet on, but his helmet was, like, wedged between. I don't know. I'm not a mechanic, but, like, maybe the leaf springs or whatever of that back right wheel. And so he, you know, he, he sustained. I think he broke his back, and there were some other, you know, broke his jaw and some. Some other things. But I would venture to say that his rehabilitation physically, I don't know about mentally, was.

0:39:23 - (Rich Ingram): Could have been worse than mine. And the reason is because it's your back, man. Like you, that's the center of everything, you know? And so it's tough to lift things. It's tough to move your upper body, your lower body. And so that, that was really devastating for him. But. So we both got on the medevac chopper, and we were taken to Baghdad. And, you know, the first thing when I woke up, I woke up being wheeled into a hospital room on a gurney.

0:39:52 - (Rich Ingram): And that's when reality sink in. I looked overdose, and I see my nub now wrapped in bandages, and I just closed my eyes and tried not to cry.

0:40:04 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

0:40:04 - (Rich Ingram): Because everything that I identified with, everything up to that point in my life was all taken away from me and came crashing down at once. Everything, my entire. It was like, okay, I just spent my childhood figuring out what I wanted to do with my life, and I relied on that physical prowess to spend my life in a combat arms career, and that was just all gone. And the plus side of that story is that. And I don't tell this that often because it can take away from that moment, but about 10 seconds later, I look up and I see. Cause they're, you know, they. They have those little curtains where it's, you know, in the hospital rooms where you can't see your. Your neighbor.

0:40:48 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. They pull the curtain back and they. And it was Sergeant Brown. Joe Brown was next to me. And, I mean, his eyes are on shut and his. And I look at him and, you know, here I am missing an arm, and I got a couple other small bruises that I look at him like, man, you look like shit. And he. And he. But he had broken his jaw and some other places in the face, so his mouth was wired shut. And he's like, don't make me. Laughter.

0:41:21 - (Rich Ingram): So, you know, we sat there and kind of laughed at our current situations, but, you know, it didn't take away the fact my mental position at the time.

0:41:34 - (Kevin Lowe): No, of course, of course. You. You have to. In my opinion, you have to find moments to laugh at stuff, because if not, man, this life can be way too hard.

0:41:47 - (Rich Ingram): Well, it's also like, what was I gonna do? You know? Like, yeah, I mean, it's not like I'm not a lizard. The arm not growing back, you know? So, yeah, all right, this is new normal, right? And it took me a while to figure that out, but I think I was maybe in a little bit better spirits than a lot of people, because I do think that I was used to dealing with challenges, because I had put myself in challenges growing up, man. I was always, like, in trouble and then having to deal with whatever, you know, confront my parents about, got in a fight or whatever. Not advocating for someone to go that route, but, you know, I think there was just always something in me that gave me drive to, okay, all right, what's next?

0:42:31 - (Rich Ingram): What's next? And I can say very truthfully and raw, I had never been one to just think in the dwell in the past, ever. I thank God that, you know, because I think we're all about chemical. You know, the chemicals in our bodies make us feel and do certain things. They can't make us do things. They make us feel things. And so some people just might have to work at things more than other people because of, you know, the way that they're made. And so I was fortunate enough where, you know, I don't.

0:43:03 - (Rich Ingram): I'm not like that, but I. Yeah, you know, I also had a great support network, which is just, you know, you always. I think Hollywood has kind of told us that all the hardest dudes, you know, they're. They're always out there isolated on an island by themselves, and that's horseshit, you know? But that's kind of how I thought, too. Like, I thought that's what made you hard and, you know, doing things on your own and.

0:43:31 - (Rich Ingram): And just, you know, sucking it up and. And it couldn't be further from the truth. Jesus, the world would be such a better place. If. If everyone were open about, you know, like, what's going on within again, like, getting raw. Like, you know, there's no reason why someone is suffering so much from whatever it may be, childhood trauma, you know, sexual abuse, whatever it is. I'm not saying, like, go. Go air your laundry out on top of the courtyard, you know, courthouse steps, but. But at the same time, like, dude, you know, grab a friend, whatever you think they are going to shun you for, think differently about you for if they are, man. But if we all just did a little more of that, oh, my God. I mean, we would just be in such better emotional positions.

0:44:14 - (Rich Ingram): So, anyways, I'll get off that tangent, but my support group was just phenomenal.

0:44:19 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, well, I mean, that's. That's amazing. How long did you end up being at Walter Reed?

0:44:26 - (Rich Ingram): And I am glad to say that at the time, I was the quickest amputee to ever leave Walter Reed.

0:44:32 - (Kevin Lowe): What?

0:44:33 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah, yeah, yeah. So. So pretty much so when I. When I first got there, when I arrived, my mom was there with my fly rod, my fly fishing rod. And that's not like a zebco, right? Like, he. It's not a one handed job. And so, you know, of course, I just, like, shook it off. Like, what am I going to do with this thing? But that was another thing that I had identified with. There were often times where I would skip school for days.

0:44:59 - (Rich Ingram): Maybe that's why I had a 1.7 gpa and go fly fishing, right? I would just set up a tent out in the mountains. And I. Man, I love being on a mountain trout stream. And, you know, that was really my mom's way of saying, life doesn't have to change for you. And a few days later, my cousin Lawrence took me out to the front lawn of the hospital, and people probably thought I was escaping, dude. I was like, you know, I was still attached to this iv tree with a wound vac and, you know, three tubes coming out of me.

0:45:38 - (Rich Ingram): And I'm excited cause I hadn't been outside. And so I'm like, well, I'm walking past. I'm like, yeah, let's get on this fly ride. Lawrence wanted to bring it out there and Charlotte casting, and, man, it wasn't long before I broke down and started crying because another thing that I identified with had been taken away, and I just. I couldn't. And so Lawrence came over, and he was like, look, we're gonna keep at this. We're gonna. We're not gonna leave until we can figure this out.

0:46:07 - (Rich Ingram): And so, you know, I just channeled all the frustration, all the anger, and I just kept at it, kept trying everything, tried to think of just outside of the box, how, forget the traditional way of doing this. Like, what other tools do I have? And so I figured out that I could strip line using my teeth. So I literally bite the line and pull it, like, really quick. And then I could manipulate the casts with two fingers, and by. By releasing line and.

0:46:41 - (Rich Ingram): And, man, like, every. My view on everything changed at that moment from what am I going to do now to whatever it takes, I will keep moving forward. And so I. It wasn't long before I went online and I signed up for college classes on, back at North Georgia, University of North Georgia starting in January. And I went to the doctor, and I said, hey, doc, look, I signed up for classes in January. Do you think I'll be able to get out of here in December?

0:47:10 - (Rich Ingram): And he's like, let's just get you healed first, all right? I was like, no, no, no, seriously. I paid for classes. He was like, look, if you leave here in December, you will be the quickest amputee to ever leave Walter Reed. And I looked at him, and I was like, challenges happened. And, man, I'm gonna tell you, I put in the work. I was in that. I was in that occupational therapy clinic every single day.

0:47:39 - (Rich Ingram): I loved it. I would time myself. They'd have all these different things. So, like, once you get your prosthetic, you have all these different tasks. Let's say you're. You have the hook. I don't know what it's called, but the body powered hook. And you have two boxes without lids on the top, and one of them has, you know, 20 cube small cubes in it. And so you have to pick up all the cubes, you know, one at a time and put them into the empty boxes right next to it. And so that was one of the biggest challenges. But what it does is it, you know, it teaches you finesse and just, you know, muscle and stuff like that. And so I would time myself how long it would take me and just.

0:48:15 - (Rich Ingram): Just tried to really immerse myself in all the tools and resources that they had. And that that's. That's really how I did it. And it really started off with, I signed up for the army ten mile, which I believe was maybe beginning of October or something like that. And I didn't do too poorly, especially for a guy that, you know, was rehabilitating from losing an arm and a guy, like, the next week comes into the prosthetic lab and he's like, dude, you didn't do too bad on the army, Tim Mod, or do you want to be on my triathlon team?

0:48:48 - (Rich Ingram): And I agreed to do that. And that was really the pivotal moment in my life because I've been asked that question. To be on this triathlon team, when I had two arms, I would have said no because I was in this fixed mindset of where I knew what I was good at and I wouldn't want anyone to see me fail or, you know, in my mind, to be knocked off a pedestal. I thought other people had me on the. And at this point, what did I have to lose? You know, I was trying to reinvent myself. One thing that I knew I was good at and that I loved was physical fitness.

0:49:27 - (Rich Ingram): Now, look, man, I'm not that smart, but if you just tell me to go, oh, dude, I'll go till I pass out, right? And so. But I hadn't swam real, you know, competitively since middle school, which I quit when I was in middle school. I was so bad. Everybody was always waiting for me at the end of the pool while I was still going. And I lied to myself by saying, these people will always be better than me. I will never be able to get there. So I didn't put in the work and I took the easy route out and I quit.

0:49:59 - (Rich Ingram): And biking was something that you did to your buddy's house when you're twelve, right? So when I agreed to do that, these races started coming up. Well, I had to train for these races. And, you know, I remember getting into the swimming pool and I couldn't even make it the entire length with a freestyle stroke, you know, without breaking into a breaststroke or dog paddling. And I saw right back where I was in middle school. But the difference at this point was that I never quit.

0:50:31 - (Rich Ingram): I kept going and I kept showing up every single day, no matter how hard it was, no matter how bad, I wanted to just say, dave, I can't do this. I kept showing up, and that's half the battle. And I'll tell you what, I never became a great swimmer. Never did. But the sport of triathlon and the camaraderie and the things that I learned taught me more about myself and where I wanted to go in life than anything else ever could have, especially in that moment.

0:51:02 - (Rich Ingram): And so, you know, cycling, it was the same everyone. When I started cycling, I was the guy that everyone waited on at the stop sign. And I was embarrassed because just several months ago, I was always one of the quickest at the two mile. The two mile. Right. The part of the PT test, I was always one of the best runners. I can bench press over 300 pounds. You know, I was just. I was just a physical beast in that sense.

0:51:28 - (Rich Ingram): And so it was embarrassing, but I kept showing up every single day. I kept asking people, hey, you know, how do you do this? How do you do that? I was very inquisitive. Anytime that something bad happened, when I try and figure out how to change it, this is reality. This is what it is. And so I adopted a growth mindset without even knowing that I had done that. And so that's why I say that that decision to join that triathlon team was a pivotal point in my life because it made my perspective and how I operated change forever.

0:52:08 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. And so, you know, just very fortunate that, that I was able to have that opportunity.

0:52:14 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely. So I'm going to ask a really simple and kind of maybe stupid question. I understand running, cycling, and especially swimming. How do you do it with one arm?

0:52:29 - (Rich Ingram): Man, you figure it out. There's no one way to do it. That's everything. How do you, how do you brush your teeth with one hand, literally. But it's a blessing in disguise because it makes me one of the best problem solvers in the world because I am similar to you, you know?

0:52:49 - (Kevin Lowe): Of course.

0:52:49 - (Rich Ingram): How do you. How do you do certain things? Well, every single day you were faced with a different challenge of figuring something else out that everyone else living their normal. Well, I don't want to call normal. I hate labeling things, but, but doing these simple daily living tasks, they just, they're, they're habitual. They're, they're innate in them. And so, you know, so to get off. To get off that, that I have a.

0:53:16 - (Rich Ingram): An attachment. So I have a prosthetic, then I have an attachment. This kind of pops around the handlebars. And it's great for road cycling and it's good for mountain biking as well. But you have to think when they make all these prosthetic limbs, terminal devices is what we call them. Like, that's, you know, whether it be your hook or your push up arm, you know, whatever, they're just devices. You pop in and out of that prosthetic when they're making those things, they're not thinking of guys like me.

0:53:47 - (Rich Ingram): And so, you know, they'll say, oh, yeah, you just use this one and it locks into your handlebar. Well, hold on a second. So you're telling me if I'm bombing down a mountain dirt bike. And I'm still going to be connected to my bike. Like, that's a. Sounds horrible. So I chose to go the route of. And I use this thing. So, like, for bench press, I try and use a Smith machine. When I, when I bench press, I do dumbbells as well. And I don't use this for dumbbells, but if I'm doing heavyweight, I have to use a Smith machine because my residual limb is only like two inches long. So the, the dumbbell would just fall on my face, which has happened.

0:54:22 - (Rich Ingram): So that's another way. You know how it is, how we figure it out. And that's, that's true, man. You, you gotta, but you gotta be willing, you gotta be willing to put your self in a position to do that. Anyways, this attachment is so funny. And I don't mountain bike as much anymore because I've just, I'm getting, you know, I'm in my forties now. And so back in my twenties and even in my early thirties, dude, there's not a mountain bike ride that we go on where I'm not wrecking.

0:54:50 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. You know, and just because, like, for me to bunny hop stuff or to like, lift up the front wheel and do certain things, we're like, that little device might pop off the handlebar. Well, then my front wheel doesn't come up. I'm slamming into something. I'm head over. I mean, I had to go to Hobbs because I guess I take that back. A couple years ago, I did bomb pretty bad. I had to be taking the hospital.

0:55:12 - (Rich Ingram): But anyway, that's why I don't do it so much anymore. Swimming, dude, again, they're always coming out with these new techniques, and I say they challenge athletes. Foundation is pretty good. It posts in different, like, training videos for amputees to try and. But what I do is I just, I swim how you, how any other person will swim freestyle. I just, I throw my nub out there and I just go at it. That's it, dude.

0:55:36 - (Rich Ingram): That's it.

0:55:37 - (Kevin Lowe): Awesome. Okay, talk to me now about your triathlon out in California. I know. I want to hear that story because I know a brake cable broke all the stuff. Talk to me about that because I feel like that was a pretty monumental, monumental triathlon.

0:55:57 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So I was living in Georgia, and we were doing a relay team in San Francisco. Escape from Alcatraz. So we had a swimmer, a cyclist and a runner. And I was a cyclist at that time. So we're out in San Francisco and the swim is just. Our swimmers is so amazing. She did so well. But the boat takes you out to Alcatraz island, and you jump off the boat, swim across the bay, and then, you know, she comes in, and you're in the transition area. And so whoever is doing the leg before you, once they get into transition, you can take off. So once Melissa came in, it was my time to go.

0:56:39 - (Rich Ingram): And I hop on my bike, and right as I'm exiting the transition area, my brake cable snap. And I'm like, yeah, got to be kidding me. And I just remember looking at the volunteer at the transition exit, and she's just like, what are you going to do? I remember looking at her and I said, fuck it. And again, my two words, man, and my thoughts were, I have people counting on me. My swimmer just crushed the swim.

0:57:10 - (Rich Ingram): The runner's not going to be able to go, like, why did he fly out here if he can't run? I can't let them down. And I didn't come here to watch, so I took off, and I used my, as much as I could, my shoes to break, and I ended up beating, like, 30 cyclists. Now, granted, these are 30 professional cyclists. These cyclists, those professionals, they were doing the entire race. All I was doing was the bike. But I say that had my brake cables not snapped, I would not have beaten 30 professional cyclists.

0:57:45 - (Rich Ingram): And because what it did for me was it taught me so much about my abilities that I would have never learned had my brakes been operational. And so, I mean, it's a metaphor, right? Like, you know, if we can figure out what is limiting us in trying and remove those brakes, like, God, think about what we're capable of. Cause, I mean, San Francisco, I'm sure everybody knows, is, I mean, it's nothing but hills. So, I mean, literally, I'm going extremely fast, turning at high speeds next to other people, which I'm not comfortable with one arm, you know, finessing a bicycle between people.

0:58:33 - (Rich Ingram): But I had to get really. I had to do it. I didn't have a choice. And so I learned more about my cycling capabilities than I ever would have otherwise. And it threw me into just a different realm of cycling. And. And, I mean, dude, you know, so again, like, that's just another worldview or perspective that I like to have on things. It's like, you know, okay, if I'm not achieving what I want right now, like, what is. What is holding me back? And it's usually your, you know, whether you don't have the confidence or, you know, afraid of the failure. What. Whatever it is, is normally yourself.

0:59:16 - (Rich Ingram): There's something that is, is in you that is limiting your performance. You just got to figure out what that is and say, all right, man, how do I get rid of this? And you got to work at it. Yeah.

0:59:30 - (Kevin Lowe): Wow. I can't help but think it's like, I mean, I'll say it first off, I mean, I always hope things in life are going to go easy, always smooth sailing. But the fact is true, man, we don't build character. We don't become who we are. When it's smooth sailing, it takes the brakes not working for you to realize another version of you, another layer to you of this pure, raw resilience, grit to get through it.

1:00:00 - (Kevin Lowe): And, you know, probably if you had thought about it, you'd be like, no way. There's no way I could do that. But you were faced with it, and you did it. You crushed it, and you came out the other side growing more than you probably ever would had if the brake cable had worked.

1:00:17 - (Rich Ingram): Absolutely. And one of the biggest things is what you're kind of talking about is transformation. And people that want transformation have to do uncomfortable things, and that's how transformation works. The whole purpose behind basic training, one of the purposes behind basic training used to be we're going to break the individual down and build them back up. So how are we going to do that? Well, we're going to make them uncomfortable. That's the whole point of basic training.

1:00:52 - (Rich Ingram): That's kind of how we have to look at things. If anyone's looking for a lifestyle shift or some kind of change in performance, dude, you're going to have to get very uncomfortable, but you're going to have to figure out how to do it, you know, in a controlled environment. But that's why cold showers are so amazing, right? You know, daily cold showers or whatever it is. And a good way to think about it, just to get in the mindset of being uncomfortable, is every time you're faced with a decision, so a personal decision, am I going to eat this or am I going to eat that?

1:01:25 - (Rich Ingram): What do you not want to do? Do that? That's a good gauge of, you know, like, okay, there's an open parking spot right in front of Schlocksky's. Do you park there or do you go park ten spots away and walk? What would, do you want to watch tv or read a book? And it is difficult at first, but it does start to become innate.

1:01:50 - (Kevin Lowe): Yes.

1:01:51 - (Rich Ingram): And, you know, but I think that's. That's one of the biggest things, and that's how we can start to learn to posture ourselves for resilience, is by doing those uncomfortable things, because over and over again, what we're doing is we're kind of hardening ourselves to adversity, and we're starting to realize that these uncomfortable things are temporary. Right. And that's one of my biggest things, is that, you know, our pains and gains are equitable. All the pains that we are are faced with, or whatever it is, they're just a part of the journey, dude. Like, okay, you get a big deal in yourself. Okay, that's fine. But guess what?

1:02:35 - (Rich Ingram): That was a one time thing. Get back to work. Because if you sit there and rest on your laurels, well, then you're in a hyper state still the same way you're a hyper state. If you hadn't sold anything all month, you're just in a lower state that you got to pull yourself out of. So the higher you are, the larger you can fall. So we want to stay in that middle ground, and we do that by resiliently posturing it, and we got to work at it.

1:03:02 - (Rich Ingram): And it starts with discomfort. Yeah. You know, so.

1:03:06 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely, dude. So I have no idea when this comes in the timeline of what we're talking about, but you would end up going back into the service for three more combat missions.

1:03:22 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah, three. So three more tours. Yeah.

1:03:25 - (Kevin Lowe): Talk to me about that. Was. I mean, how did that even come about? I didn't even know, honestly, an amputee could go into the service.

1:03:37 - (Rich Ingram): Well, at the. So, at the time, amputees had returned to their units, or, you know, if you were. If you were an amputee and you were enlisted, you, you know, guys. Guys had gone back to enlisted units or officers that were amputees went back to being an officer, but no one had ever lost their arm as an enlisted soldier and then commissioned as an amputee. So, you know, commissioning is going back in as an officer. So I was the first. So, again, it was like, figure it out.

1:04:08 - (Rich Ingram): But I was competing in these triathlon events, and I started, you know, wasn't that bad. And I was really good at cycling and running, but, you know, I started competing against these able by guys. I'm like, why can't I go back in? And so I was doing an internship with a state senator in Atlanta. I think it was in the 2007 session. And he asked me, he was like, you know, what do you want to do after you're done with school? And so, sir, I'd really like to go back into the military, and next thing I know, I am with him sitting in front of.

1:04:48 - (Rich Ingram): I'm not sure if it was inspector general. I'm not, but it was a general and President Bush's staff.

1:04:53 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, wow.

1:04:54 - (Rich Ingram): And, yeah. And so we're in DC talking to him, General Kicklider was his name, and he said, look, I want you to submit your commission pack as you normally would, if you can meet the standard. We're going to make this thing happen, and we're going to follow the progress. Wow. Roger that, sir. And so that got the wheels moving. I got back into ROTC because in North Georgia, the thing about that school is the largest ROTC program in the country, and a lot of people don't know that, but it's because, you know, we're a senior military college. So the other senior military colleges, just for contacts, are the Citadel, VMI, Texas A and M, Norwich, but they all had the other. All the other armed services branches. And so we only have army. That's why we're the largest. And.

1:05:41 - (Rich Ingram): But what that means is, as one of six, we have a lot of federal resources, more resources than a normal, you know, University of Texas ROTC is going to have. Once I got back into ROTC, I mean, I had the full backing of Fulberg colonels and sergeants major. I mean, it was just. I was so fortunate for that, and they had my back in it, but it was always known, like, you have to meet the standard to do this. So one thing that helped me was I was very physically fit. There is no way that they could say, you know, you can't do this when I'm getting one of the highest pt scores in the whole school as an amputee. Right?

1:06:23 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

1:06:23 - (Rich Ingram): And. And so I even remember at Ranger challenge, the Ranger challenge is, like, we call them, like, high speeds, but the high speed cadets. And so once a semester, you go out and you compete over two days with. With other schools and, you know, on just normal, you know, whether it's land, navigation, weapons, physical fitness, all these different. All these different things. And we did our pt test the first day, and for that first day, I held the record with 134 push ups in two minutes and with one arm.

1:07:00 - (Rich Ingram): Wow. And, you know, so it's kind of like, okay, well, we can't not let them in because of the PT test. And so. So, yeah, you know, look, it wasn't. It wasn't all easy. There were times where, because we had to. I was retired. Right? Like, I was receiving VA benefits, and so they didn't know what to do with that. They were like, well, if he goes back in, he can't continue getting Va benefits if he's on active duty.

1:07:30 - (Rich Ingram): Want to be like, well, why not? But, uh, you know, I wasn't greedy, and so. But there were times where they're like, hey, look, rich, we. You know, we don't. This may not happen. We would love to keep you in the program, but we understand, you know, if you. You want to get out, exit. And I just stuck with it. I was like, you know, what? Like, what. What else? My. What have I got to lose? I mean, like, I was kind of having fun, too, and so I just stuck it out. So, you know, you. You commission the same day that you graduate on commencement. And all my family was in town, and I did not know if I was going to commission. So. So we commissioned Saturday morning or in graduate Saturday morning, Friday night. I did not know if I was going to commission.

1:08:13 - (Rich Ingram): And I get a phone call from my sergeant major, and he's like, all right, Rich, we finally got the final sign off on your paperwork. You are good to go. And, you know, I was like, thank God. Cause I didn't tell anybody. I wasn't. This wasn't happening. You know, I was just gonna play it off. What's funny about it is probably two weeks before that, I get a phone call from a buddy, and he was like, dude, why didn't you tell me that you were doing this? I'm aide de camp to the general that has to sign your final waiver.

1:08:48 - (Rich Ingram): And that guy who called me, name was Dave Roselle. That's the same guy that asked me to be on his triathlon team.

1:08:58 - (Kevin Lowe): Oh, wow.

1:09:00 - (Rich Ingram): And I, like, every time I think about it, you know, or say it, I just. I get goosebumps. Cause it's like, wow. I mean, talk about the stars being aligned there. And again, I mean, a lot of life is just luck and timing, and, you know, so I was fortunate for that, and I was able to commission, and I always say I would have made a much better non commissioned officer than an officer. And I still agree with that to this day because I like being hands on. I like being in the battle, and I'm just. I don't know, like that.

1:09:37 - (Rich Ingram): But. And there were certain things that I wanted to accomplish during my officership that, you know, like, I'd always wanted to try to at least go to selection, Delta selection to be a direct action operator and, you know, certain things in Ranger battalion, and I just never. I never got the opportunity. And I'm not saying the military just wasn't ready. And you know what? Maybe I wasn't ready either.

1:10:06 - (Rich Ingram): It just never materialized. And I think I started really having some, you know, it started having a negative impact on me and. Cause I wanted to do that enlisted before I lost my arm. I was going to stay enlisted. That was my plan, was to go active duty, go to Ranger battalion as an enlisted soldier, you know, so who knows where I would be had that not happened but, or had that happened. But once I became an officer, I started chasing deployment, started chasing the fight, and it just wasn't materializing how high anticipated, you know, I think it started to wear on me a pretty good bit.

1:10:43 - (Rich Ingram): And, you know, after my, my lap, my fourth deployment, we, man, when I got home, I had no reintegration because normally you, you have a reintegrated process where, you know, it's like, okay, you just went from, like, shooting your gun at anything that moved or whatever to now stopping at traffic lights, right? And, and I didn't have that, but, and I don't know if it would have mattered, but, you know, I got into a pretty brutal bar fight.

1:11:10 - (Rich Ingram): And, I mean, it was bad. I say the bar fight was bad. The cops were on my side, man. They were like, dude, just walk away. I was like, I just want to go back to the bar, though. Look, man, we're not taking you in. We're telling you, like, everything is good. Just go to another bar. I turn around, like, headbutted this cop. Oh, no. Yeah. And then, you know, dude, I don't know where this, like, hulk strength came from, but it took like four cops to hold me down. They put me in the back of the cop car. I busted out the back window with my hook, and I hear him saying, like, we don't know how to handcuff.

1:11:49 - (Rich Ingram): And, uh, you know, and I'm, they're like, what do we, what do we do with that? And, and so again, fortunate that, like, all the charges got dropped. I went, talked to the officer, I had some other people talk to the police officer, and, you know, I was just hammer drunk. But I think at that point I realized, you know, and I wasn't court martialed or anything like that. I got a letter of reprimand, which, you know, that's whatever.

1:12:19 - (Rich Ingram): But, you know, it just kind of made me realize, like, this is nothing wouldn't want to do anymore, you know? I mean, it's like, again, you got, you gotta be raw. You gotta be true. Like, all right, man, I can either keep chasing this, and it never materializes. Look, man, you just gotta say, let's start something new, and let's go figure out what else is out there for us, right? And so that's what I did. And, you know, once I. Once I got out, it was. It was trial and error. Now, I love that oil and gas job, working for Kendra Morgan. I mean, I just.

1:12:49 - (Rich Ingram): I relished in. And had I never met anyone, I probably. I'd probably still be there had I never started a family just because I was able to work 14 hours days. Right. It was one of those jobs that was similar to the military. Hey, you got pipeline break. You know, whatever it is, in the middle of the night on a Saturday, like, you got to go. You got to be there. And I just. I love that quick, you know, atmosphere.

1:13:14 - (Rich Ingram): But. But my wife was right, you know, like, okay, now we got to start thinking about the other three mouths we have to feed. And so that's when, you know, I started up my own insurance agency, and it did really well, man. It was very profitable. But I realized that I'd rather cut off my right hand than continue to sell insurance. Coming from always just being in these fast paced environments to sell, it's like Bob Parr and that movie the incredibles is how I felt life wasting away behind a desk, and.

1:13:47 - (Rich Ingram): But I started, like, listening to what people were saying, and, like, people might ask me for advice, like, what are you doing this or that? And I say, somebody. Somebody's in my head. Several people ask me, like, dude, are you writing a book? And I started getting asked to speak, and that's when I realized, like, okay, we need to redefine purpose here and see what this journey is. And that's when I decided to do what I'm doing now.

1:14:13 - (Rich Ingram): Take it speaking full time and motivating people. And I truly believe that is what my purpose is. It was that way when I was in the military. You know, even as an enlisted soldier, motivating people has always been my thing. It just took me a while to figure it out and how to monetize it right outside of the military, and I truly believe that that's my purpose. And so with that redefined purpose, I can pull out of a gas station, get hit by a mack truck, and not be able to walk tomorrow.

1:14:45 - (Rich Ingram): But my purpose would still be the same.

1:14:48 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah.

1:14:48 - (Rich Ingram): You know, and that's why I love, you know, living. Living up to that standard, because I feel that I'm already resiliently postured because there are not many things that can take that away from me. So I can always continue to work towards that angle of, you know, helping people see, see brighter features in themselves and get on the right path.

1:15:10 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah. When we talk about your purpose and stuff, do you feel like people who you've known, do you feel like people are able to kind of identify that life's purpose who have gone through some type of traumatic event in their life more so than if, if everything had just gone, you know, as is?

1:15:36 - (Rich Ingram): I don't think it's that difficult to define your purpose. I think it's more difficult to execute on it when you had not been in a traumatic. Had not had a traumatic experience. And the reason is because, you know, I go back to saying after I lost my arm, it was, I didn't have any other choice. I was reinventing myself. When, you know, individuals just think that, okay, I'm not going down the road that I want.

1:16:07 - (Rich Ingram): I need to make a change. Unless you hit rock bottom, like your true rock bottom, it is much more difficult to transform yourself and it's going to take that much more discipline to do it. Is that that kind of what you're asking there?

1:16:25 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely.

1:16:26 - (Rich Ingram): But, but, you know, it's the, the first step, though, is peeling back the onion of what you find is your purpose. Who do you want to be? What tasks are going to help you get there? And what that's going to do is that kind of outlines your journey, but that defines who you really are. What are you passionate about? Where do you see yourself? Okay, well, let's now figure out how we can get there. And we learn from James clear and atomic habits. Like, you are your habits, right? And so our habits are what really define us, and we can change those.

1:17:10 - (Rich Ingram): We just, you know, we have to find an end state of where. What are we trying to achieve, where are we trying to get to? And then don't bite off more than you can chew and have some grace, man. Be kind to yourself. You're never going to hit the mark every single time if you miss a day. So what, man, you know, like, okay, I didn't get my meditation this morning. You know what, just put it in the night because, I mean, my schedule, I try and get mine down to like, okay, 04:00 a.m. this. 04:08. This four. Like, you know, when you try and get detailed, how often are you going to be successful at that? And many people might say you're setting yourself up for failure by being that detailed. Well, I'm just trying to take it to the next level.

1:17:50 - (Rich Ingram): As long as I don't let it bog me down, I'm not set myself up for failure. Right. So you have to be kind to yourself and know what you're capable of and set realistic expectations of where you're going on this journey. But that's. That's. That's what I think about purpose, man. If everything you're, you're doing is not taking you somewhere down that road, you're never going to be happy. Right. And none of us have ever arrived.

1:18:13 - (Rich Ingram): As soon as you think you've arrived somewhere, someone's going to knock you off that pedestal, you know? And that's why we always say that old cliche. It's not about the. The product, it's about the process. You know, it's the. The path that you're on this. The true, true road to happiness. Yeah. It's not. Not something you achieve. It's something that you live.

1:18:32 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, absolutely. Well, man, before I get to my last question, which is about a big, big event you got coming up, a big thing that you're raising money for, for somebody who's heard your story today, and they're looking for a motivational speaker. What kind of places do you speak at and where can they find you?

1:18:54 - (Rich Ingram): Yeah. So richingram.com is my. Is my website. You can check me out there. All kind of tools, some resources, but there's a contact form there. Love to have a conversation. So, generally, the types of audiences to whom I speak are either corporations looking for leadership leadership speeches. So I generally do keynote, keynote speeches. But motivational leadership, sales motivation is a big one. Nonprofits helping folks raise money. Just because I am a product of nonprofit organizations.

1:19:27 - (Rich Ingram): You know, I. My triathlon journey came through challenge Athletes foundation. And I wholeheartedly know that without that nonprofit organization, I would not be where I am today. So I know that, um, you know, good nonprofits have the ability to change lives. I am running lead Bill 100. Let's see, was that August 17? And so for that, I'm trying to raise money for this nonprofit. I called it warriors and quiet waters.

1:20:00 - (Rich Ingram): And this organization, you know, and oftentimes people ask me like, hey, well, you know, we. We raising money for veteran organization. Who's the best? These guys. These guys are amazing. And they directly align. What they try and do is reintegrate, you know, it's reintegration of soldiers back into society, but using the natural, natural elements. So trout streams and hunting and all these things to build that camaraderie and reintegration.

1:20:29 - (Rich Ingram): And it's therapeutic, right? And the difference between these guys and other folks is that they have an alumni program where these guys literally have, have some kind of support network forever for their life. And that is not common a lot of other organizations like, oh, hey, you want to go? We'll fly you out here to do this fly fishing trip. And then you do it and then it's like, all right, later.

1:20:55 - (Rich Ingram): So that's one of the biggest things with these guys. But if you go to my website@richingram.com, dot, there's a banner at the top of it. You click that and it'll take you to my fundraising page for these guys. And there's a pretty good explanation in text that tells you why I think it's a great organization, why you should donate to them. And I would appreciate it if you do.

1:21:13 - (Kevin Lowe): Yeah, man. Absolutely, dude. I will be sure that for anybody interested, I will be sure that all the links and your information stuff are inside of today's show. Notes for easy access, the Leadville 100. Talk to me a little bit about that because I want people to understand that what we're talking about here is absolutely ridiculous.

1:21:36 - (Rich Ingram): All right, so let's see. It's a hundred mile race in Liveville, Colorado, which has, it's about 18,000ft of climbing. But, you know, that's not the most difficult part of it. One of the most difficult part of ISDev, it starts at 10,000ft of altitude. And so I'm going out there. I'm going out there August 1 and I'm living in like a little co op housing. So literally I'm in a room with like six other people for two weeks just acclimatizing and getting some good runs in.

1:22:13 - (Rich Ingram): Go out and actually do segments of the course before I move into an actual house for the few days around the race. But yeah, man, it's an iconic, it's an iconic hundred mile. Or, you know, it's takes a lot of, a lot of training, a lot of prep work doing those kind of events. Again, you know, it's all about the process, man, because you're having to, you know, like tomorrow morning I'm waking up at 01:00 a.m.

1:22:37 - (Rich Ingram): to do a five and a half hour run. Gotta drive to the trail. I need to make sure I eat breakfast, gotta, you know, prep my turnaround spots. And then it's gonna be 95 degrees here in Austin, Texas by like 10:00 a.m. so that's why I wake up that early to get those done. But takes up so much time that you have to be intentional with everything that you do because it's not just a five and a half hour run, but now I have to make sure that I recover properly and eat well, sleep well.

1:23:08 - (Rich Ingram): You know, I have three kids, I have work, I have clients. So everything that I do now has got to line up. And so I'm just very intentional with everything. But, you know, I do those runs because, again, one, it is part of my purpose of motivating others, but to setting ambitious physical targets and trying to achieve them, it helps me maintain my emotional stability. So I try not to say I'm my purpose as a runner, but just because I'm one jacked up knee away from that not being the case, but I am a physical fitness enthusiast, so. And I love trying to see what my body can do.

1:23:52 - (Rich Ingram): Driving. I love it when my body tells itself, dude, you can't take any more of this. You can't keep going. Give me more. That just means that you're growing. Give me more growth, make me better. And so, you know, that's, that's why I do these, these races, man, and they are a lot of fun. Looking forward to it.

1:24:11 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely. Rich, man, I want to thank you, dude, so much, man, for being here today, just for sharing your story. And even more so than your story, honestly, just the insights, the takeaways that you have to offer, man, it's truly amazing and it's been a real gift getting to talk with you today.

1:24:35 - (Rich Ingram): Oh, man, I appreciate you having me on. Kevin, thank you so much. Been a pleasure.

1:24:40 - (Kevin Lowe): Absolutely. Well, thank you. And for you listening today, my hope is always is that you heard something today and probably a lot of things that can be an impact to your life. So take what you heard today and put it into action. Remember, check out those show notes. I'm also going to leave inside of today's show notes a couple of other episodes. If you are digging this one, you're going to be sure to like those as well.

1:25:06 - (Kevin Lowe): So, my friend, get out there, take on the day with grit, grace and inspiration.