[EP 12] From Grounding to Glory: Rising Above Adversity with June Ryan

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Welcome to the Jack Canfield Podcast and today get ready to meet an amazing person who holds a special place in my heart and whose life is an amazing story of determination and drive that I know will inspire you to make a deeper commitment to your own heartfelt dreams and goals. And her story also illustrates the power of one of my favorite principles of success and how she used it to overcome what she thought was going to end her career and it didn't, but which actually became the source of an incredibly successful one, which you'll hear about. So today I'll be talking with June Ryan, who's one of the most interesting women I've had the privilege of knowing. And there are a number of things that make her stand out. First is her extraordinary 36 year military career, I should say 35 year military career where she shattered a number of glass ceilings along the way, including becoming the the first enlisted woman to reach the rank of rear admiral. And when she served as a military aide of the President, President Clinton, I believe it was, she made history as only the third woman to hold that position, which we'll talk about today. Also, in addition to being one of my friends and a well loved certified senior trainer of the Success principles, June Ryan is also a world class speaker, a leader, a trainer and a coach who knows how to captivate any audience with her extensive knowledge, her highly engaging interactive exercises and her unique blender of humor and storytelling. So with that being said, join me in conversation with June Ryan. Welcome, June.

Hello, Jack. I want to meet that person you just introduced.

Well, I've been lucky to know her for several years.

That's awesome. Thank you.

Sometimes I get introduced and it's kind of overwhelming to think of all. So anyway, so we've known each other since what, 2018 when you became a Certified Success Principles trainer, right? Yep. And I just fell in love with your story because you achieved so many remarkable things, including numerous historical firsts for women. So can you start by giving us a little more background about yourself, where you grew up and how you came to be in the Coast Guard as an enlisted woman rather than as a graduate of the Coast Guard Academy, which normally you would expect to become a rear admiral?

Yeah, sure. So great to be here, Jack. And it's such an exciting opportunity. I grew up in Bettendorf, Iowa, which is right on the Mississippi River. I am number 5 of 6 in our birth order. I'm an identical twin. So my identical twin is number six. So. And growing up in Iowa, where like most people say, I have to keep up with the Joneses or I have to keep up with my neighbors. I had to keep up with my siblings. So my siblings, you know, people think I'm an extraordinary person. I'm like, you have not met my brothers and sisters. So one brother went to the Air Force Academy. Another brother went to, you know, Notre Dame. One of my brothers actually competed in, in the Olympic trials for pentathlon. He was actually the European champion for multiple years in pentathlon. And my sisters all were very successful horseback riders. We had trophies and ribbons that filled rooms. And so then here's me, so living in the shadows of these amazing people. Both academically, they were very superior. So as I would go to high school, the teachers would say, oh, why aren't you as smart as your brother or your sister? Or something like that. So it was a bit overwhelming. And that's probably where a little bit of my lower self esteem first started, was in that kind of an environment. My parents were always very supportive. We grew up in a very loving home. So all of that had lots of sports in, in my background. And I loved inspirational quotes and reading inspirational stories like Think and Grow Rich and the power, you know, the power of positive thinking, those kind of things. So my brother, who competed for the Olympics was really into visualization and was really the first person who kind of introduced me to that particular concept. But while I was sitting watching TV about 2 o' clock in the morning, because that's the only time the Coast Guard can afford commercials, I saw a Coast Guard commercial that came on. That came on. Not really. Jack, have you ever seen any Coast Guard commercial, Any Coast Guard commercial during a regular.

No. And you're right, it was late at night.

I think it's just a lot cheaper anyway, so I saw this Coast Guard commercial and it came up with this, start a tradition or start a legacy. And I said, well, this is it. You know, my. Nobody's in my family has ever been in the Coast Guard. My brothers and sisters aren't. So I can finally like be my own person. I'm not going to be somebody's little sister. So I really thought about that. I ran upstairs to our encyclopedias. Remember encyclopedias? Back then there was no Google. And I looked up and found out they actually had a Coast Guard Academy. Now knowing that my brother was actually in the Air Force Academy at this time, I thought, oh, this is awesome. I'll just go to the Coast Guard Academy. Well, well, I was, I actually applied and I think. I'm not even sure that the letter hit their desk before it got rebounded back with a pretty strong rejection letter. I had not been academically preparing myself to go to an academy, so it was a pretty easy no for them. But I did get the opportunity to attend a great university, Bowling Green State University. Still struggling a little bit academically. And in fact my, my mom was like, you might be the first person in our family not to graduate college. Like everybody graduates college. I was getting ready to fail out my second semester. I think I was sporting two Fs, one in chemistry and one in calculus. But anyway, so I thought I better have a plan B. So I enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserve. So still going to school full time and then enlisted in the Coast Guard Reserves, so doing the weekend thing and I finally graduated Bowling Green State University. I was able to retake those classes, had very, very great instructors who were able to get me through that. I applied for officer candidate school and was rejected. So you know, I'm a little persistent. Applied again, was rejected a second time, applied a third time, and got picked up the third time, but only on the alternates list. And so what I had to do was, you know, it was funny, one of my friends go, do you need us to take out a couple people on the alternate list so you can get like, don't take anybody out. That's probably not a good way to start my Coast Guard career. So at that time there were about four or five people. I was number six and a couple of the people had found other jobs so they declined the promotions or the appointment. So I was able to go to officer candidate school. And I thought, Jack, again, my like low self esteem, right? I'm like, I am not going to tell anybody. It took me three times to get in there. I got to ocs, and one guy goes, it took me nine times to get here. I'm like, I'm a genius. So it was so funny. So after ocs, I went aboard my first Coast Guard cutter is actually out of downtown New York. Little girl from Iowa going to downtown New York. So the, the good news was I never didn't see much of New York. We were on a high endurance cutter. So we spent most of our time down in the Caribbean doing counter drug patrols and counter migrant patrols. And I thought, boy, you know, all these other guys that are on the ship, there were 16 other officers and you know, they're all, you know, big academy graduates. Like I couldn't even make it into the academy. So again, I'm thinking I have to work twice as hard Twice as fast. And it worked, apparently, because I was able to get on my first patrol boat. I got selected for a patrol boat out of Portland, Maine. Very, very excited about that. Got on there. I was 24 years old, Jack, in charge of, I think, nine people. And, you know, as a captain, you're supposed to, like, you know, you see always in the movies, like, the captain knows everything right there. These old salts of the se. And everybody knew everything more than I did on the ship. So I was really kind of getting low on myself. And until my brother, the one who competed for the Olympics, he goes, june, you know, only you. And a crazy person thinks that you are supposed to know everything. You're 24 years old. The other people have been in The Coast Guard 15, 16, 17 years. They know you don't know anything. Just ask them. It's okay. They know you're stupid. I said, okay, good. Well, that. That helped me. But while I was there, I also thought, well, I still need to kind of boost myself up. I still need to figure out what I'm. What I'm doing and where this is all coming from. So I found myself in a familiar. In a familiar store, the bookstore, looking for more quote, books, more. Looking for more inspirational books. And I came across this. This album, if you will, of four tapes called Self Esteem and Peak Performance. And I thought, that's what I need to do. I. It's probably my self esteem, and then I can flip it into peak performance because I clearly was doing okay performance wise. I'm, you know, one of the. One of only 10 people that got patrol boats that particular year. So I knew I was doing okay performance wise. And it was just my kind of internal work. And that tape that I listened to and just consumed, completely absorbed everything I could was the tape that you were. That you were speaking on way back in the day. And I think they later became. Yeah, they later became the success principles.

Yeah, all the stuff that was in those tapes ended up in that book. So I'm curious, what were some of the guiding principles you took away from the tapes or any of the other inspirational readings you were doing?

Well, I think so. A couple of them really struck me right away. One of them was, I'm lovable and capable. And you kind of said, just by you being on the planet, you know, no matter who you are, you're lovable and capable. You're capable of doing anything. So that really kind of like, oh, okay, yeah, I am lovable and capable. And then the one that I used actually throughout my Coast Guard career as a. As a woman in the military was, no matter what you do or say to me, I'm still a worthwhile person. Because in the military, we would get, you know, jabs or barbs. You know, sometimes it was to try to get a rise out of the women. Sometimes it was flat out to try and get us to quit in the military. And there wasn't. It wasn't a very welcoming environment back in those days. And so people were trying to get your ire up. And so that those two phrases really became like my. My superpower, my body armor. I felt like I could go in any conversation and have any. Anyone talk to me. So that worked. That worked really, really well for me. I was also able to then take feedback. Of course, feeling like every time somebody gave me feedback, I'd be like, shh. Oh, Ow. That hurt. But when I came to, no matter what you do or say to me, I could. I'm still a worthwhile person. I could take that feedback and go, oh, it's just the actions. So that really helped the foundation. Obviously, E plus R equals O. The events in your life plus the response to those events equals the outcome. And we'll talk a little bit about how that came into play later in my career. And then I was always a very timid, somewhat shy person in trying to get out of my comfort zone. People always said, get out of your comfort zone, but I never knew how to do that. And you introduced me to a phrase, you know, feel the fear and do it anyway. Or even an actual mantra where you had people make a O, and you would say, oh, what the heck, Go for it anyway, whenever you're afraid to ask for something. And so with those two phrases, I was able to really get out of my comfort zone and use those particular principles. So after that first patrol boat, I then thought, well, I'd really like to go to the Maritime Law Enforcement Academy, where it's basically our law enforcement academy. How do you train boarding officers to go aboard? And I thought, I don't know. They'll ever pick me. And then I had you in my head, oh, what the heck, Go for it. Anyway, so I applied, I got the interview, and I got the job. And that's really where my bug for presentation and training and really seeing somebody who didn't know a lot of things, but to be able to become a very competent boarding officer in just five weeks, it just, like, made my heart sing. So that's when I really fell in love with adult education and training. And then from there I went on to a second cutter. So very few people, they, you know, you get one of 10 in the first cutter. I think there was 15 people selected that second year. So now I'm starting to be recognized and solidified as you know, one of the top cuttermen in the Coast Guard now being selected for a second straight cutter in a row.

So those of us not in the Coast Guard, what cutter? Like unpack that a little bit versus ship.

So a cutter is a, is a ship for us. So the first ship was a 95 foot patrol boat and then the second one was the coast. So that was called the Coast Guard cutter Kate Morgan. And then the second one was called the Coast Guard cutter Neah Bay. And Neah Bay is actually still in service. It's home ported right here in Cleveland. It's a 140 foot icebreaker.

Icebreaker.

Yeah.

On that second cutter, something happened. Go ahead and share that story with us.

Yeah, so as I said, I was a little, you know, just like going to maritime law enforcement. I had little trepidation. Should I try the second cutter? You know I, boy, I had a lot of self doubt on that first cutter. And I oh, what? Jack's in my head. Oh what the heck, go for it anyway, right? Feel the fear and do it anyway. Get out of your comfort zone. And I said I'm gonna do that. I'm gonna listen to Jack. I'm gonna use these principles. And on a snowy day in January, we were transiting from Cleveland going up to Detroit. We're actually going all the way up to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. January is still very, very cold up in the Upper Peninsula, so they had ice. But down in Cleveland we had not had, the lakes had not froze yet. So we were going up to get a little, put our toes in the water of the ice and get some ice missions done. And as we're going up the river that connects Lake Erie and Lake Huron together, we started to get into a snowstorm and it got heavier and heavier and all of a sudden we were blinded by a snowstorm. We came to a fork in the river and I became disoriented and the boat ran aground. So I was captain of the boat. Obviously it's always the captain's fault. But to make matters worse, on this particular watch I was also the one conning and navigating so the one driving the boat. So it was really bad. So my executive officer came up and, and took over the watch for me. And then why I went down and called my boss to Tell him what was happening. We moored up a couple hours later. Over the next couple months, big investigation as was happens when you run a Coast Guard cutter, a ground. There's going to be a huge investigation. And following the investigation, the admiral that was in charge of the 9th district decided to take me to Admiral's mast, which is huge. It's the highest mast. It's an Article 15, the highest mast you can go to. That's not a court martial. So it's one step below a court martial. And so here I am, I'm standing in front of his desk up on the 20th floor of the federal building. He's sitting at his desk, and it's all I can do. Jack, I'm. You went to military school, so I know what you mean, you know what it means to stand a detention. But you're very rigid and. And your eyes are what's called in the boat. You're looking straight forward, staring without. And it was all I could do not to cry. And my boss was standing right next to me. He's like, june, don't cry. Don't cry. That's a huge trigger for him if you want him to go off. Like I'm, like, I don't need him to get any more mad at me, you know, So I was just trying not to cry. I don't think I remembered very much what he said the whole time I was there, except at the very end, he said, I'm giving you a punitive letter of reprimand. And what that means is it will detail what the incident was. It will be in my medic, my personnel file forever. And so every assignment that I go up for, every interview, I go up for, every job I try to get, every promotion board will see this letter forever, for the rest of my career. It's permanent in your record forever. So I kind of knew that my career was over. Much to my surprise, he did not relieve me of command. So I was only six months into the two year tour, and so I was able to actually finish out the other. The other 18 months. So that worked out very well.

Wow. You must have felt a deep sense of loss. I mean, you go from a career that was on fire to the admiral's mast. Talk about that.

Yeah. So. Yeah. So if I had low self esteem before, this was kind of not helping me, so. And, well, you know, while I was in that darker place, Jack, I have to tell you, you know, you mentioned that the first time we Met was in 2018, but back after this happened, I was Cussing a storm like that. Damn Jack. Had I not listened to Jack, you know, get out of your comfort zone. Oh, what the heck, go for it anyway, Ask, ask, ask. I'm like, oh, are you kidding me? Why didn't I just go for an easy desk job and why did I have to just feel the fear and do it anyway? Because I did have a lot of fear about going on that second cutter. So I walloped in my self pity for quite a few months and that was just really hard. It was a dark time, you know, as people say, the lowest time in your life. That was probably it.

Yeah. What brought you out of that dark time?

Well, what happened was almost in a car accident, believe it or not. So I was driving to work and the car in front of me slammed on the brakes and I slammed on my brakes. I stopped before I hit them, thank goodness. And everything in my car absolutely went flying to include, you know, all, all what we call loose gear went flying. And that included those darn tapes. And I hadn't listened to tapes in a long time and I was still cussing you for getting me outside my comfort zone. And they had flown all over so they were all out of order. And I put them up on the, on the seat right next to me and I just picked a random tape and I'm like, you know, oh what the heck, go for it anyway, like you're still in my head. So I said I'd just shove a tape in there. And I shoved it and it got to a random part of the tape. It was actually in the middle part of the tape where you went into great detail about the events in your life. Plus the response to those events equal the outcome. And I thought, you know, the event is a grounding. That's an event. And the whole question that you posed to me or that you posed to the tape was what's the response? Because the response is going to dictate your outcome. And so I kind of had this big aha moment or you know, hand on my forehead moment. And then you went on and talked about, you know, the biggest idiot and green hair. And I didn't know if you wanted for your, for your listeners, if they are familiar with, with those or if you wanted to play those role, play those out a little bit. Jack, about what that looks like in, in a live training when you talk about the biggest idiot.

If, let's say we're in a room, there's a big group of people there as there were when I was recording a tape and I Pick Gene. I say, you know, Gene or June Rhetor, you're the biggest idiot I've ever met in my life. And then I would ask the audience, how many people think if I said that that June's self esteem would go down. And almost everyone in the audience raises their hand. And then I say, well, you just failed the first pop quiz on E plus R equals O. Because it's not what Jack says to June is what June says to June when Jack stops talking. She could have said, oh, my God, you know, everyone judges me. I guess I'm really bad. I'm an idiot. And you'd really feel bad. Or you could go, how do you figure it out so fast? He's only known me for half an hour, you know, or you could say, you know, Jack has a visual handicap. He doesn't recognize talent when he sees it. In which case June's self esteem would go up. So it's not what Jack says, it's what June says. So that would be the first little demo I would do. Then I'd pick someone in the audience, use Judy. I say, june, you have green hair. Would that upset you, June?

No.

Why not?

No, it wouldn't. Well, because I know I don't have green hair.

Yeah. So if someone says something to you and you know they're wrong, you don't get upset. But if someone says something to you and you get upset, it means inside you that self doubt, that not being certain already existed. I didn't create it. I just brought it into your awareness. I kind of triggered it. And so therefore, you're responsible for the upset. That's how I would explain the E plus. You know, E plus R equals okay. It is your response, not the event.

And so what that did for me, Jack, was really transform my thought about the grounding. Because I couldn't go around the world hoping nobody would talk about the grounding, hoping nobody would bring it up, hoping nobody would point their finger and go, she was the woman who went aground. And so then the question was, how do I clean it up? You know, I've got to start figuring out a way to not make it, you know, make it like green hair, you know, it. That it doesn't bother me anymore. And so then. Then you actually talked a little bit more and said, you should take it a step further that everything is happening for you or. Or to take on the. On the thought process that everything is happening for you, not against you or the universe is happening for you. Is that right? Am I getting that right?

Right. That events aren't, they're not, they're not against you. They're, they're, they actually every negative event creates the seed of an equal or greater benefit. But you have to look for it and you have to water it and nurture it and so forth. And so it's really, it's really up to you what you do with it.

Right. So I was able then to try and figure out how am I going to walk around the world knowing that there are some people. And again, for, for me at the time, there was only a very small amount of people in the Coast Guard who knew of the grounding. I, the admiral that actually followed the first admiral, he kind of saw that there were some inconsistencies in the way that perhaps I was treated. And actually, when I completed my command, I actually got the same ribbon, the same success symbol, if you will, that every other patrol boat captain got in that same year. So if you lined up all the peers who had boats that year, our uniforms, you know, the highest metal would still look the same. So I thought, you know, again, it's the inside work because externally nobody can tell the difference. And so I really had to change that mantra to, I'm lovable and capable no matter what you say or do to me. And everything is perfect. And I'm like, it doesn't feel perfect. Going aground certainly doesn't feel perfect. But. But I needed to start acting as if, which is another phrase you talked about, like, I'm a stellar performer. Because people, a lot of people, when they hit a bump in the road, particularly in the Coast Guard, and lots of people know, they almost take on this sense of a victim. And I just needed to start stepping out of that. And so I was just going to continue to act as if I'm still a stellar performer. I was going to pretend to act as if that day didn't happen. I was just going to pull that day out of my career. And where was I? I was still, you know, I was steaming hot on my performance. So I just kept doing that. And so it must have worked because the very next promotion after that tour, I actually got promoted on time. I was a little shocked as some of the people who knew of my incidences, they actually congratulated me. So I was very, very happy. About six months into my follow on tour, I got a call and they asked me to interview and to be one of the military aide to the president. And I'm like, well, that's crazy. And I'm like, I don't. I Can't do that. There's no way. You're in my head. Oh, what the heck, go for it anyway. And I said, you know, what's the worst that could happen? You know, I get to go in and see the inside of the White House. I've never seen the inside of the White House. So I entered the kind of interview knowing that, you know, that I was probably not going to be the person they selected. Oh, and to make matters even worse, they said, you don't have to go through when you're in the interview process, you don't have to give them a long dissertation of your career because they'll have your last five evaluations and sitting in front of them. And I'm like, are you kidding me? Like, the letters in the second evaluation that they would see. So I thought, okay, they clearly know of somebody else who's going to get picked. They just had the, you know, somebody dropped out. They needed an extra person. And I said, this is, this is going to be fun. I'm just going to have a great, a great time. So I went into the White House. I knew I wasn't going to get picked. I was just me, you know, like I am today. Like, I just, I was chatting with the admin assistant. I was chatting with the, you know, the driver and making jokes with the, with the military aides. And I said, there's. There's no way. And so because of that letter, just like you talked about, because of that letter, that became my actually greatest asset, where it used to be my greatest liability. Later, what I learned was they called me and said, we've picked you to be the military aide. And I said, you have? Are you. I said, I'm actually told them. I'm like, I'm the one with long hair. Do you mean the other gal who has the curly hair? Because you're probably making the wrong call. And they said, no, it's you. And later learned that they saw us all, even with my letter, saw us all as equal performers. And the difference was they said, we're not looking for performance because you wouldn't have been interviewed had that happened. We're looking for somebody who just fits in and somebody who's fun and easy to get along with. And so because I was joking around the whole time thinking I wasn't going to get the job, I actually ended up getting the job. So I felt like I was completely, you know, my red hot career was, like, right back on track. I was so excited.

That's great, because it gave you the Freedom to just be yourself because you didn't really think you were in contention and they loved who you are, which is not hard to do, right?

And I know I would have gone into that interview, Jack, like, Like, who wouldn't have? If you really thought you were going to get the job and you're going to work at the White. I mean, I can imagine what my. I would have been tense. I would have, you know, my. I can tell you my questions would have been much different. Like, they, They. I was anticipating them to ask me, what was the last book you read? And I was going through some sample questions with my sister, and I said, oh, my gosh, Julie, what should I say? And she goes, you read Green Eggs and Ham with your nephew last night before he went to bed. I'm like, I'm going to totally say that they didn't ask me that question. But I. But, but that's kind of the quips that I was. I was prepared to answer, as. I'll give you one more example. When I was in the interview, they said, describe yourself in three words. They had different. There's one aide from every service, Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine, and Coast Guard. And so the marinated asked me, you all describe yourself in three words, and I'm like a team player. And he goes, okay, well, that's one. And I'm like a team player. You said three words. And I, like, turned. And I'm like, can the Marine not count? I'm not quite sure. And it just busted everybody up. And of course, what they wanted was three adjectives, right? So like, team play. I, you know, somebody's trying to tell you something and you weren't hearing it. It was. So anyway, they went on after that. They just kind of went on, and it was a very relaxed interview.

I'm sure the Marines gave you a hard time after that.

Yeah, he was my Marine brother. We actually got along very well.

Now, a few years later, that letter came back to haunt you again, didn't it?

Yeah, yeah. So I, you know, I thought it was all in my wake, as we say, all behind us and in a boat. And five years later, for my next. Now my next promotion, I made the last promotion completely on time. My next one, I got passed over. So this promotion in particular was both. Was both very professionally and personally embarrassing because now people in the Coast Guard who didn't know of the grounding actually found out, because in a promotion, what they do is they send out a list of everybody who's being considered for promotion, and then after the promotion board meets, they have the list of everybody who got promoted. Well, it doesn't take a rocket scientist. People just put one list next to the other and they see who didn't get promoted. Some people, you know, will do rumors and, you know, point fingers. Some people actually called me up. Why didn't you get promoted? Like, you're a top performer. I don't understand why you didn't get promoted. So, again, I'm like, you know, I'm back to this. It. It hurt a little bit, right, Reliving this incident. So I thought, well, no matter what you do or say to me, so I kind of went back to that. I really sulked on my couch for. For quite a long time. And I was flipping through channels on my tv, and I stopped at this hockey game where the announcers were, like, screaming at each other. And I didn't know anything about hockey, but I knew clearly there was a whistle and, you know, the referees were sending somebody to the. To the white penalty box. And. And as I saw that, I'm like, that's it. I'm in a penalty box. I'm just in a penalty box. And this was like, this. This was like Mario Lemieux or, you know, one of these very, you know, high. High performers in hockey. And then the other thing I saw when he was in that penalty box, Jack, was he was, like, following the puck all the way up and down. And as soon as that two minutes was up, he sprinted out of the box and actually went and made the very next goal. And I said, that's it. I need to keep my head in the game. I just need to follow the puck. And in a year, I'm sure I'll be right back on it again next year. Passed over a second time. Now, normally two passovers, you're dismissed from the Coast Guard, but when you have 18 years in, they allow you to finish those last two years, they still send you up for promotion boards, but most people don't make it. So it's kind of, you know, they just kind of let you do your time before you leave and retire. And I thought, well, you know what? I'm not going to just be one of those victims. So I was passed over once, passed over twice, and was actually picked up on that third time. So back on track then my very next promotion to captain, which was very odd, something happened. I continued to act as if I was this high performer. I asked for jobs that I shouldn't normally get. I. You know, and so then people who didn't know that I had a bump in my record, a speed bump in my record. I never saw that. So when I was promoted to captain, which was my next promotion, the very next promotion, they took an extraordinarily higher amount of people. They had more retirements than they expected. And I happened to be in that list. I was at the very bottom of the list, but happened to be in the list. And what happened when that list got published for the very first time? They did what's called a reorder. What had happened all the time previously is the Coast Guard officers are all counted all the way from Commandant all the way down. Commandant is number one, the Vice commandant is number two, number three, all the way back down to the very newest ensign that just graduated the Academy, or ocs. So everybody has a number, and you stay in that number, never to move. Never to move unless somebody retires. Then you just get bumped up one. But you're always in that relative same order. What happened on this list was they were allowed to. It was a personnel change, personnel policy change that allowed the board to reorder six people of exceptional performance. And they moved those six people to the top of the list for the first time in Coast Guard history. And I was number five on that list. And it almost erased all but 20 numbers. Almost erased the two years that I got passed over for commander. So all of those times where I was acting as if or not taking the victim mentality, I was right back on track. And of. Of those six people who ended up on that very first captain list reordered, all of us had made admiral or had gotten to the top 1% of the entire Coast Guard. So pretty amazing feat to be an admiral, to have a punitive letter of reprimand in your file and still be able to send to the. To the highest levels.

Now, when you were an admiral, you had a what I like to call full circle moment that brought you back to the Great Lakes. And can you tell us about that?

Yeah. So. So my first tour as admiral, I worked at the Department of Homeland Security. And my second tour, I got assigned to a region, so I got assigned to the Great Lakes region. So right back where. Where the ship happened, where. Where the ship that I had grounded happened. And so I was on the 20th floor, and I was looking out the window, and I had this very shallow knock on the door. I must have been staring out the window, and my chief of staff came up behind me because I must not have been moving. And he goes, admiral, are you okay? And I said, yeah. And he goes, well, I was just wondering what's going on? And I said, john, the last time I was standing in this very spot overlooking out that window, I was at Admiral's Mast getting a punitive letter of reprimand 25 years earlier. So I actually occupied the very same office, the very same carpet. Actually, the. The furniture was arranged in the exact same way. When I arrived, I moved the desk around. But yeah. So 25 years later, I actually ended up to be that job, to get that same job, which was amazing. And so then I was reflecting back on all that you had talked about on those tapes that the universe is conspiring for me. And when I look back, you know, check, it's just. I'm gonna probably cry. Everything was just perfect. Like, had I not gone aground and gotten a punitive letter of reprimand, I probably would have never gotten that job at the White House. And without the job at the White House, I would not have had that self discipline and self worth, that I can do this, that I'm one of the top performers. And so it actually ended up to be. Everything was perfect. You know, the events in your life don't matter. It was that response, and people saw that my response was, I'm still a high performer. And. And I wasn't going to take on that victim mentality. So do it anyway. Feel the fear and do it anyway. Jack.

There you go. There you go. Well, now in 2017, you retire from the Coast Guard. Tell. Tell everyone what you're doing now.

Right. So. So in 2017, well, a year before that, I started getting really bad heart palpitations. And I can only describe it like what religious people get when they have a calling. And I was having these heart. I couldn't even sleep at night. And I had this sense that I needed to go out and teach these principles, that there's other people out there, there's other women out there, there's other Coast Guard, junior Coast Guard people out there who don't know these principles that could really use these and be successful in their career. So I told my husband I wanted to retire. And. And so he's always been very supportive. He's been with me the whole. Through the whole roller coaster ride of my career. So God bless him. And. And so as. As soon as that happened, I had been, you know, kind of talking to people about the principles, and I would tell people about green hair example, you know, as. As people would say, you know, they would get in their own funk or in their own doldrums you know, as a, as a senior person. And I thought, well, I can't go around and teach this stuff and get paid, you know, there's got to be copyright laws or something, you know about this. So I said, I wonder where that Jack Canfield guy is these days. So I googled you and found out you had the train the trainer program. And I said, oh my gosh, are you kidding me? I can go right into the trainer trainer program. And I couldn't believe it. I was able to jump right in. And within a year, I finally got a chance to meet you after all of the cussing I had done throughout the, throughout my Coast Guard career. So you said we met in 2017, I think when we started 2018, when I graduated the TTT program. But Jack, you have been in my head for many, many years, my friend.

Yeah. And I wasn't even paying rent. That's terrible.

But it's so much fun, Jack, and what a difference it has made in so many lives, you know, and I'm just. I' one person. I'm just one person. But.

Well, we got a few minutes left. Let's talk about a couple of things. Now that you're on the other side of all that, what are some of the other key principles that guide your life and you stress in your teaching? I'm just curious.

Well, I think one of the other key principles is, you know, some people get into this. You have to correct me if I don't get it exactly right, kind of this. Only if only I had a better boss. If only I had better parents. If only I had, you know, was born in, you know, a different country. And, and they get into this if only theory rather than looking at. I think the example that, that you often use is, you know, if you have a jerk for a boss and you know, if you have a jerk for a boss, you get the opportunity and the privilege to start mastering how to deal with a jerk. You know, a boss who's a jerk, because the world will probably fire that guy and they'll just hire another one. So you might as well get better at how to handle these people than it is to. Than it is to play kind of victim and, and wait for something else to come to come along. So I think that was one of, really one of them and, and then just trying to be that positive light and how to, you know, how to help people when they are in. When they do have difficult bosses, particularly women, you know, women in. Not even in the military, but I would call non Traditional roles or, you know, other people, you know, that men who are nurses, you know, kind of have that same, kind of have those same challenges as well. You know, you can't be a nurse. You're a guy kind of a thing. Of course, E plus R equals O. I talk to people all the time. And then the big one, ask, ask, ask. You cannot get, as you say, you cannot get anything if you do not ask.

Yeah, no, it's so true. It's so true. I actually have that quote on a plaque behind my desk from Gandhi. If you want a get, you have to ask. That's amazing.

Oh, I didn't, oh, I didn't even know it was from Gandhi. Wow.

Well, if you remember, he asked the British to leave India. That's a big ask. They were, they were the controlling, you know, country that was occupying India. And he didn't go to war with them. You know, it was a non violent situation. And they finally realized, you know, that we can't just keep beating these people up. It doesn't look good for the British Empire. And so they left. But it was an ask, not a demand, you know, and everything that most of us have, you know, we asked for. And I think most people are afraid of asking because they're afraid of rejection. And that's the thing that stops us from taking that next step. I was talking with someone recently where she was talking about the idea that we're the only people, we're the only species on the planet that resists growth. There's grass just grows. Dogs just become more dog like, you know, as they grow up. But people have all this internal self talk, you know, I'm not smart enough, I'm not bright enough, I don't know enough people, you know, I'm not attractive enough, whatever. And, and we get in our way. We don't express what we really want. And expressing what you want, starting with, you know, can I, will you, you know, give me, loan me, include me. You applying to your schools that you did and not getting in. You were asking and you kept asking, you didn't give up. That's so important, is that perseverance, right?

I, I often say life's, I often say life's a team sport. But you bring up a really good point. Because the, the other danger I would tell people is be careful who you teach these to. So needless to say, my daughter, after, you know, being on Zoom so many times and listening to me teach these principles to do, you know, audiences remotely, you know, I've taught her, you Know, ask, ask, ask. And. And last Christmas, I was ordering from Harry and David, you know, because it's the easiest thing I can get people. And, you know, you don't have to store it, and you just eat it. And anyway, I like getting people food. So I hung up the phone. As soon as I hung the phone. Oh, crap. And my daughter turns me and she goes, what happened? I'm like, I have this 20% off coupon, and I forgot to ask. And then I looked at it. I'm like, ah, expired yesterday. Anyway, and she snapped her head around, and she goes, mom, ask, ask, ask. I'm like. She goes, call them back. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, are you doing this right now? So I called them back. Of course, when you call a big company like that, you know you're not going to get the same salesperson you got the first time. So I said, hi, my name's June Ryan. Just ordered, you know, here's my confirmation number. They go, oh, yeah, we see you just ordered. And I said, and I have this coupon, but it expired yesterday. They go, oh, we'll give you the 20% off. Save me $250, Jack.

That's great.

So I gave her the $250. I'm like, here you go, honey. As I say this. This stuff works.

A story that most people don't know is that when now he's selling Chicken Soup for the Soul to the publisher in New York. They have what's called an auction, where, like, you get five or six companies, and if they want the book, they bid it. They bid for it. Well, HarperCollins just offered this. And then they said, well, we'll offer you 50,000 more as a, you know, advance. And so then eventually, someone who says it stops. And the company that bought it, the woman, I asked her, you know, why she kept going. She said, you know, I wasn't going to bid on your book. And I. I left it on the. The dining room table. I brought it home, looked at the manuscript, left it on there. My daughter started to read it. High school kid. And the next morning, I was complaining about something, and she said, mom, e plus R equals O event plus response equals outcome. Come on, you know better than that. And she said, God, my daughter got it. I knew there was something here I should take a look at. That's what sold the book. We got an $800,000 advanced.

It's a good thing that was in chapter one then, huh?

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. Good point. Teenagers are paying attention.

I tell you. My. My daughter gets lots of compliments. She says, you know, I don't know what it is, mom, but everybody says, I have such really good advice. But I think the advice she's giving is what she's hearing me talk about and say. And I'll give you this one other quick, quick story about her. Every so often, you know, she'll say, I'm having this challenge, and I'm doing this and doing that, and what do you think I should do? And I would start, you know, she goes, stop. I do not want to talk to motivational mom. I just want to talk to my mom. So at our house, there's motivational mom, and then there's mom.

So my house, there's. I don't need a therapist right now. I need a husband.

So you're living the same thing. That's funny.

Exactly, exactly. I want to jump in and picture, you know, instead of saying, that has to be terrible. Anyway, I get it. So let's just talk about one more thing. Leadership. So you. You were a leader throughout your career, and now you help people be more effective leaders in the workplace and nonprofits and things like that. I'm curious, you know, what are some of the principal strategies that consistently guided you and leading teams to success?

Yeah, so I think one of the biggest. And it's part of the success principles, but something that I really learned was just to have that vision. And for us, we call it watchwords in the Coast Guard. And for me, a watchword is something that fits on a bumper sticker that helps people know what to do when they don't know what to do. And so for me, when I was the admiral in charge of the Great Lakes, my watchwords were honor the member, honor the Mariner, and honor the memory. And you can fit that on a bumper sticker. But the idea being honor the member, meaning be well trained, well prepared, and watch out for each other. I said, honor the Mariner. Of course, that's the heart of what we do. That's the whole reason why we exist. And that included, you know, you know, the water and the critters that live in the water, oil spills, things like that. And then honor the memory, which was really about, you know, when I go in and teach in corporate, I said, which is really honoring your brand. Right? So honor your team, honor your customers, and honor your brand. And I said, I told people when I was in charge as the Admiral, I said, if you're doing those three things in a positive, professional manner, I have your back. And so Fast forward. We had a small boat who responded to a really horrific boating accident. And there were several injuries, head injuries, you know, contusions on body parts. And. And so there was a lot of blood. They got them onto the small boat, and they were careening as fast as they could to get to the pier. And running completely parallel was a road was the ambulance. And the ambulance recognized that the small boat was the same small boat that was going to meet them at the pier. Well, of course, the ambulance goes much faster than a small boat. So the ambulance turned to a beach and started waving at our coxswain, meaning, you know, just go ahead and beach it here. We'll take them from here. And as you know, from my. From my story, running a boat aground, not a good thing in the Coast Guard. You will lose your career. The. The coxswains will get their coxswain pin taken away. It's like, you know, if you crash an airplane, you get your airplane wings taken away. And he said, I had to make a choice. I had to, you know, and I thought of honor the member, honor the Mariner, and honor the memory. And he said, honor the member. I look to my crew. Can we do this? Is this going to hurt anybody in the crew? No, it wasn't. It's not going to. He also looked at and recognized that it was a beach, so it was going to be a very soft grounding. It's an aluminum boat, so it was going to do virtually no damage. Honor the Mariner. What's the best thing for the Mariner? Well, the best thing for the Mariners, get them off the small boat and into an ambulance, because we don't have IVs or anything like that. You know, we're stopping the bleeding, but we're. We're not doing any of those. Those other deeper things so they can get to the hospital. And then honor the memory. Is this going to embarrass the Coast Guard in any way? Are we going to be, you know, having this huge grounding that, you know, it's going to be on the front page of the Washington Post? No, it was a very small little town and community. They would. They would ground the boat, transfer the people, and be gone before anybody even saw it. So we did it. He took 90 degrees and ran that boat right aground the next morning. I was in the brief, and of course, they always tell us, you know, what helicopters have broken overnight or what small boats or cutters have a casualty. So they said, hey, we had a grounding last night. And they explained the circumstance and I leaned forward, Jack, and I'm like, that is not a grounding. That is a landing. And so. And I said, and not only do I not want an investigation, because I know what those are like, not only do I not want investigation, the only investigation or look we should be seeing is whether or not that was a historic thing to do, a heroic thing to do, and whether or not they should be recognized, you know, whether with an award or, you know, a couple days off. And so we had actually done that. And then I said, you know, in the search and rescue manual, we ought to have that ability. We ought to have the coxswain have the ability to do that. You know, in the military, when you try to make a change to the manual, you have to go, what page would it be on? And what paragraph would follow? Within this paragraph, we recommend you insert this paragraph. So we were getting ready to prepare all of that. They opened up the book. It's in the manual. It was already there that you could take, you know, in extreme, extraordinary circumstances that you can actually, you know, hazard your vessel without consequence. And so those watchwords really help the coxswain to do the right thing when he didn't know what to do, what should he do when he didn't know what to do? And I think that also works for business because there's people who interface with customers who get asked a question who they don't know what to do. And if you have really strong watchwords, they can really help your customers and really service those customers in the manner and level of respect that you expect. So that's what I love.

That's great. Well, sadly, we're running out of time, and I know there's just a ton of other stuff that you teach from your leadership experience in the Coast Guard, leaders in the corporate and the nonprofit world. We'll have to come back together, have you on again sometimes and share some of that. We'll talk more about just leadership in the present moment, what you're doing, as opposed to just for the Coast Guard. But I do have one last question, and then I'm going to ask how people can get in touch with you. But as you look at future generations, and you mentioned your daughter, I'd love to know what's one piece of advice you'd give to someone who's just beginning their career.

I think going back to what we talked about is just the ask, ask, ask. And I think that just helps people get out of their comfort zone and just to take action, just to be able to do that. I, I often tell people who I mentor, you know, life's a team sport. You didn't come into this planet by yourself. You're not gonna leave by yourself. And everything in between is a, is a team sport. And there are people who actually are out there that really want to help you. And if you ask those right people, you know, you can go far. And I had to ask a lot of people. I had to ask a lot of people and, and I think that's what really, what really contributed to my success.

Well, one of the things I heard you share once, because I teach people should keep a success journal, a victory log, like at night, write down what you achieved. And I heard you say once that in the military, you wear your victories on your chest. I assume that's all the ribbons and medals that you've won. But I think it's important that people acknowledge their successes. Can you speak to that for a moment?

Yeah. So I always tell everybody in the military, every day I put on my uniform, it reminds me what a success I am. I said, in the corporate world, you don't necessarily have that opportunity. And I want to say in probably 80%, 70 or 80% of my workshops, starting them, having them start doing a success journal is one of the very first activities. And what I have them do is write down your successes. And Jack, what's really sad is within two or three minutes, some of the people have already stopped. They've only written down four or five things. And then to help remind them, I'm like, do you have a driver's license? Oh, yeah, I have a driver's license. I'm like, did you write it down? They're like, no. I'm like, do you remember how happy you were when you got your driver's license? And so it helps them to remind themselves that they have way more successes. And in feedback, at the very end of my presentations, you know, if I say, what's one big takeaway almost every to a T, almost every single workshop, that's the number one thing. Like, I always forget that it's not just the big successes. It's I graduated first grade, I graduated second grade, I graduated third grade, and all of those are successes. And they lead to building up that self esteem. So gratitude, also that gratitude journal as well.

Yep, excellent. So people want to get in touch with you. You have a website. What is it?

Yep.

Juneryanspeaks.com juneryanspeaks.com okay, we'll put that up on the screen as well. Well, honestly, thanks for joining us today. June, this was really fun. I appreciate you so much.

Well, thank you so much, Jack. I. I appreciate you allowing me to tell my story, allowing me to let people know that I cussed you out many, many times, only to come full circle and to be your biggest fan. So.

I'm sure that's happened more than I know.

That's probably true. Anyway, thank. Thank you. And keep doing what you're doing, Jack, because you are changing lives. Thank you so much.

You're part of the legacy that I want to leave behind. People teaching other people all of this work so it doesn't die out.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah. And along those lines, if you're wanting to learn more about this important E R equals O formula June talked about, as well as the other success principles, I want to encourage you to get the book or the audiobook, which she had roaming through her car when she had that fast stop. You get the success principles, how to get from where you are to where you want to be. And make sure you get the 10th anniversary edition because it's updated. And you can also get it on Amazon.com or barnesandouble.com you can also find out more about our workshops, including Breakthrough to Success and our success principles. Train the trainer program@jackcamphill.com Interestingly, June was the team captain of our assistants at this last Train the Trainer program we did. She said I demoted her. She used to be an admiral. Now she's a team captain. So.

I hadn't been called captain in 10 years.

Anyway, thank you for joining us, everybody, on the Jack Can Film podcast. And if you enjoyed today's episode, please subscribe, rate it, and leave a review. And as always, keep applying the success principles and practices like E plus R equals O that you've learned about today. Bye, everybody. All right.