In this episode, join Angie Austin and Jim Stovall as they engage in a heartfelt discussion about the importance of setting higher standards for ourselves. They explore how comparing ourselves to others can lead us astray and emphasize self-assessment and personal growth. Together, they share personal anecdotes about overcoming adversities, highlighting how these challenges shape who we are and prepare us for future success.
welcome to the good news with angie austin now with the good news here’s angie hey it’s angie austin and jim stovall with the good news thanks so much for joining us hello jim stovall well hello angie austin it is always a high point in my week to visit with you you know i think that i was you know i’ve been to most of the states right because actually as dysfunctional as my childhood was we actually did move around and travel a fair amount because my dad was a professor, you know, a high, a drinking professor, but we, you know, moved around anyway. And we took some vacations in our car, you know, six of us in like a Volkswagen hatchback, you know, shoved in there. I remember once I had to like kind of sleep across all of my brother’s laps because there was no room, you know, to, Who travels like that, right? Who travels like that? I was like seven. Anyway, so I think I went to Oklahoma, if I recall correctly, for the first time this weekend.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, great. I think everyone in life should have something to look forward to. And coming to Oklahoma is a good thing.
SPEAKER 03 :
There’s like a brick district or river district there in Oklahoma City where, you know, you can take a boat down the river and then there’s all these shives. Really, it was beautiful.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, Bricktown is there. Yes, that was it. And you’re lucky you came over the weekend. Were you there today and tomorrow? Oklahoma City’s in the NBA championship and the playoffs. And that area turns into, oh, it’s an amazing carnival atmosphere, but it’s a bit of a zoo.
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I don’t appreciate you putting salt in my wound because I was actually there at the end of the Oklahoma Nuggets game when the Nuggets were losing and we were the only Nuggets fans in sight.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, and that was not a pretty game, the one you were there, the previous one, because they lost by 50, but…
SPEAKER 03 :
No, I was there for the one where we just lost by a few. Okay, not so bad, not so bad. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, you’re right. So it wasn’t a home game. It was actually in Denver, and I was, oddly enough, in Oklahoma City. But, yeah, it was a cool experience. I’d like to come back when we’re not just there for a weekend. And my kids, my daughter made, oh, I’ll have to send it to you. She made a Caitlin Clark half-court shot. It was pretty funny.
SPEAKER 04 :
Wow, yeah, send me that.
SPEAKER 03 :
Yeah, yeah. It was funny because she just turned around like nothing happened, right? But then one of her teammates did a dance like that. I mean, like one of the best dances ever. But my daughter acted like she hadn’t even made the shot. You know, she’s funny. She’s like, there’s no time for celebration. You’ve got to move on to the next shot. But it was like the light came on, right? Because I think it was the end of the – it was halftime. So like the light went on like a second after she made the shot. So it was pretty funny. It kind of reminded me of Aaron Gordon’s shots that he makes or Jamal Murray. I’m not going to mention any of the Oklahoma guys. But I actually think your guy is probably going to get MVP for the NBA, don’t you? I do, yeah. Yeah, I think so, especially because our poor guy Jokic has been having a little bit of a hard time. All right. Right, so let’s forget about basketball for a minute. Let’s go back to your article titled Higher Standard. Tell us about this one.
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, you know, I think one of the biggest problems we have in our society today is comparing ourselves to everyone else. We get social media, we get everything else. But then when we’re not performing well or when we criticize, and particularly the political environment has created this, we have a tendency to blame other people, you know. And it’s almost endemic. You catch a politician not telling the truth in D.C. and you confront them with that. They say, well, they lied over there across the aisle. They lied worse than we did. But you lied before I lied. And, you know… I mean, you can always look good if you compare yourself to somebody. I mean, everybody’s better than Hitler. I mean, and if you’re not careful, it’s a race to the bottom. I mean, you know, okay, I didn’t do good, but I did better than that guy. Well, that’s not the standard we should hold ourselves to. We really need to, you know, have a higher standard. And really, when we come down to it, the only standard that really matters is comparing ourselves against… that which we know we should be. You know, look at our talents and abilities and how are we doing compared to, you know, what we’ve been given in this life.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, I… You and I have talked so much about losing your eyesight, and maybe I can compare in that I had a really difficult start with my family. We wouldn’t be who we are had we not faced these difficulties, and you develop the grit, et cetera, and you say your life is even better had you not gone through what you went through with losing your eyesight and being such a tremendous athlete and then having to really – completely pivot you know in your life and I think with me just having such appreciation for my post 18 years and in fact I said to my husband the other day I said oh I think this summer I’m going to get to see my foster sisters and my foster mom and he goes you had a foster sister because I was saying the wonderful I was really close to we were the same age and I’m like that’s how little Jim in the 20 some plus years I’ve been with my husband that’s how little I talk about the negative stuff that I went through That at 20-some, our kids are almost grown. And he said, you have a foster sister? You know, like he was just like dumbfounded. And I think I mentioned I was in foster care a couple of times, you know, not through my own doing. It was due to my parents doing per se. But anyway, so those difficulties make me so appreciative of my life now that not many days are bad days now.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, and opportunities come disguised as problems. When you find anybody that has succeeded in life, they found a problem and solved it. They found a need and filled it. That’s how we succeed in the marketplace. Rarely do you see somebody, they had an easy life, a great life, everything was handed to them, and then they built on top of that. Most times, people have overcome certain things, and Those things make you strong. I remember the last time I competed as an Olympic weightlifting champion. My coach knew I was going blind. I thanked him for training me. We were done. He said, look, I don’t know the challenges you’re going to face from here on as a blind guy. But always remember, a guy that can do what you just did can do anything. Yes. When I wrote The Ultimate Gift and when we made the movie, that great scene with Brian Dennehy when this young guy builds this fence that goes off into the distance and out of sight over the horizon. Brian Denny said, look, a man that can build a good fence can do anything. Just remember that. And I think sometimes we have to build those up in our little success library in our mind and remember, okay, someday when it gets tough, I’m going to remember this. And a man or a woman that can do this can do whatever I need to do. And so the challenges you went through,
SPEAKER 03 :
have made the angie that we all know and love you know um i think about the ultimate gift and it just popped in my head and i’m sure someone’s probably told you this a million times when i think about the movie and the success you had with that and how high that book ranks in the all-time christian you know booksellers or book you know inspirational books And then, you know, how successful the movie was and that some guy tried to take your movie rights and with your books and you’re like, no, no, let me have the movie rights. And then you laughed later because he didn’t think you’d make a dime off the movie rights. And you made millions with, I think, 20th Century Fox, if I recall correctly. All right. So I was thinking about you as an athlete. This is just a total sidebar. I’m going to take a complete right turn here and then we’ll get back to a higher standard. But I’m dying to tell you, because I know how bruised you were after your football games, right? Like you look like you were in a car accident, right? Yeah. Oh, yeah. So my daughter, Faith, a complete right turn here, had so many bruises and cut seven from a really rough game where I really truly believe this girl got angry and was trying to hurt her and was trying to hurt other players. And I can’t believe she didn’t get fouled out. But my daughter took so many spills and so many cuts that they were mocking her, saying, like, is that all you know how to do is flop? Cause she’s not that big. And so she does go down pretty easily. Anyway, she went to school the next day and the kid said, wow, what’d your parents beat you up? And she goes, oh yeah. And the teacher looked at her and she had seven bruises and cuts and she goes, oh great. Now I have to turn you in, you know, cause you have to be investigated by child social services now because you’re so beat up. And I was like, oh my gosh, I said, all my relatives, the picture I said, I want to go on the record. The social services might be visiting us. And I just want to show you what faith looks like. And this is all due to the game. Like it was ridiculous, Jim. But, you know, all this this grit that you get through, you’re going blind, which, you know, you can’t compare to a game. Me having that horrible childhood with all the drug use and abuse and the cursing and the dysfunction and the. murdered brother and the institutionalized brother and like all of that. Right. And then just the grit of being an athlete and getting through each game, not giving up. Cause I wanted to pull her and take her home. Cause I said, Mark, she’s got to get hurt. And she actually did get hurt on the very last play of the game. Not enough that she was out the next day, but the coach thought that she was going to be out for a while because of her knee and ankle. Anyway, these things that you go through, what did you say? Adversity is a chance to improve, to get better.
SPEAKER 04 :
Yeah, I mean, that which does not destroy us makes us stronger. And that can be anything. It’s you growing up in a dysfunctional family. It’s me being blind. It’s a kid getting beat up in a competition. You know, we’re all only as big as the smallest thing it takes to divert us from who we need to be.
SPEAKER 03 :
Someone I read the other day said, if you ask me who I’m going to hire, if I’m hiring and I ask if you were a student athlete and for how long, like if you made it as a student athlete through high school and then through college, are you kidding me? Like that’s the stuff I want in an employee. That’s somebody who doesn’t give up. That’s someone who can problem solve. That’s someone who can work with a team. Like all of these adversities just help build you and give us those skills to get through life where we don’t give up, where that rock is in the middle of the river and we figure out how to, you know, repel it or, you know, go around it or build a bridge over it.
SPEAKER 04 :
Oh, absolutely. You know, the people who have won in the past and have overcome in the past are the people that are going to do it in the future. And, you know, success leaves footprints and all you got to do is follow them. And the people who have been successful at little things will be successful at grand things in the future.
SPEAKER 03 :
I can’t believe how you met John Wooden, your great friend and mentor, the late great coach John Wooden, later in life and how you got to be like one of his friends. You got to talk to him so much and you talk about him in this article and you often talk about him. So what is it that you bring up in this article about John?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, I think the standard we need to look at is his standard, what would I do right now if I was amazing? Was that my best effort? Not adequate, not good. What would I do right now if I was amazing? Before you undertake any task, you do your radio show, you make a phone call, you go to a meeting, you do anything. What would I do right now if I were amazing? What would I do if I decided to make this day the focal point of my life? Something I’m going to do today is going to be transformational. And if you go out with that kind of attitude, and every time you have an opportunity to interact with somebody, you say, what would I do if I was amazing? Now, I’ve had people say, Jim, what if you’re just doing something that doesn’t matter? Then don’t do it at all. I mean, if it doesn’t matter, don’t do it. If it matters enough to do, to take your time, effort, and energy, go be amazing. Just be amazing. You know, right now the bar in our society is so low that, you know, I mean, I referred a guy the other day to a neighbor of mine, and I said, you know, the guy shows up on time, does a good work, and bills you what he said he would. And the guy said, isn’t it sad that that’s now a great recommendation? I mean, just to meet the expectation, just… Because most people don’t show up on time, they don’t do good work, and they try to charge you more than they said they would.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, you talk about your grandpa in this, too. Like, if I could come back in another life, which, of course, as a Christian, I’m not planning on that, I would want to be your sister and grow up in your family. What did your grandpa tell you about opinions?
SPEAKER 04 :
Well, nobody really wants your opinion, including those people that ask for it. Most people just want you to endorse what they’re doing right now. And before anybody asks me for my opinion, I always say, do you really want my opinion? Or do you want me to just congratulate you for doing what you’ve done and leave you alone? I get books, oh, three or four a week from aspiring authors, and They want me to review this. And I always tell them, you know, I don’t know any more than anyone else. I look at your book as I would if I were a reader, not a writer. And, you know, but if somebody sends me a book and cares that much, you know, we’ll go through a couple of pages. And I’ll tell them, you know, the writing seems good or, you know, or not. But, you know, and I generally tell them you need to find an editor and everything. You know, but so did Ernest Hemingway. He had to have an editor. So, I mean, it doesn’t mean you can’t write. But, you know, I am slow to give my opinion on anything unless I’m really asked.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, I want people to find you, jimstovall.com. So appreciate you, friend. Thank you. You’re the best.
SPEAKER 02 :
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SPEAKER 03 :
Crumbling your tune to KLTT, the mighty 670. Hello there, Angie Austin and Dr. Cheryl Lentz. Dr. Lentz and I recently were talking about an interesting investment book, Old Wealth, New Wealth, True Wealth. And we were talking about legacy because in the title, it says beyond dollars, the new currency of legacy. And you and I started talking about dating and being equally yoked and about my kids and what I’m teaching them. And you said that really struck you because you had read something recently. And please share it because we’re going to talk a little bit about this topic.
SPEAKER 07 :
It was bizarre. It’s something I heard two radio show hosts talking about, that there is an interesting idea that’s been floated that they’re flirting with for dating sites is to include the dating profile of your credit score as part of that so you don’t have someone who is mistakenly dating someone with an 800 credit score and they might have a credit score of 375, and that is going to be a challenging financial future. Right.
SPEAKER 03 :
Well, and the other reason I like this is that the person that has the low credit score can change it. You know what I mean? And that’s something that you – I would be patient with someone who was willing to do the work to improve their fiscal responsibility number, you know? And so –
SPEAKER 07 :
it’s just a technique and it can be taught. And I just think it’s something that instead of hiding that conversation, which research will tell you is predominant for either those about to get married or those who are married because they’re embarrassed about it or they’ve got hidden money, gambling debts, whatever it is, they spend too much shopping, whatever it may, but might be. But again, that literacy, which is Sharon’s trying to change in this book and others is how do you have those difficult conversations? And most people just hide it so they don’t have to.
SPEAKER 03 :
And is it a verified credit score or do they tell you their credit score? I don’t know. If you – a spender – we talked about this. If a spender marries a saver or you’re a real hard worker and you make a good living and you have a spouse that’s really not that interested that maybe just wants to work part-time or wants to pursue something that maybe doesn’t pay well because it’s their passion and they want to have the freedom to be themselves and – pursue something that maybe isn’t going to contribute that much to the household that’s fine if they have a spouse that’s cool with that but if you aren’t cool with that and you want to be with someone that’s just as responsible as you are with money that’s a very important thing to know before you get married or it will it can definitely ruin your marriage
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, and this is the part that you and I have talked about with where I am in my dating career. If I would have had half the dating skills I have since acquired with dating as an adult, if I would have had these in my 20s, I would have never gotten married and had the divorces I had because we weren’t on the same page. And I didn’t ask those because most of the time when you’re young, it’s all the, oh, I’m in love and they’re good looking and it feels wonderful. And you don’t talk about the important things until way too late. And when you’re there, that’s not the time to have that conversation.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, one of my cousins was dating a girl and I knew the girl. And when they broke up, I just said, you know, what happened? And she goes, well, I think he’s just he’s boring. And then she was with a biker, like a Harley Davidson guy. And I said, you know, what you see as boring, you know, being a married person, I see as responsibility and that, you know, he does the projects on the weekends at the house and that he’ll build, you know, a playhouse for his niece and that he will go over to his parents and do their blacktop driveway and that in the future he will go pick up your kids at daycare when they’re sick and and that he’s you know is going to be buying you know homes and paying cash for cars you may find that boring and you know when you’re younger and i i saw it completely differently than she did i have no idea what happened with the harley biker but i know that my um cousin uh in fact he just got married And he married someone who had owned her own home. He owned his own home. Now they’re building a new home. And they have a vacation home in Florida for the winter. And they are very financially secure. And so, yeah, the boring guy, I think, is probably doing a little bit different than the Harley guy. Not, hey, you could have a Harley. You could be very responsible. But in this case, she just thought that someone who really had it together was boring.
SPEAKER 07 :
Well, I think we do judge a book by its cover. I would like to see, in addition to health classes taught in high school, investment classes. And that’s what Sharon Lecter is doing with her financial literacy across the country. She’s trying to put these financial, and I’ll put it into dating terms in there. Let’s not get all caught up with the mechanics of health. But the mechanics of financing, too, I will tell you, with all my fancy degrees, there were so many skills I needed I’ve only acquired in the last nine years.
SPEAKER 03 :
You know, my husband and I got to go to a Dave Ramsey conference, and Dave’s great. Don’t get me wrong when I say this, but we left because halfway through, I just looked at him, and he looked at me, and I’m like, we do all this. Like, we’re not learning anything. You know, and so we went home early and, you know, for a lot of people, his conferences are life changing. And, you know, and I love listening to his, you know, him on the radio, on podcasts. He’s very interesting and they have some great scenarios. But in that particular case, it was just so refreshing to kind of look at each other and go, oh, we do all this already. And I’m not saying we’re like gazillionaires. I’m just saying we’re responsible. And I came from low income housing, a mom who dropped out of school in 10th grade, who worked in a factory. We were just above the poverty line to completely changing the way my life is now. You know, it’s a complete change. And it’s all through, I guess, what he calls financial literacy. And you and I talk about this. all the time. Well, Dr. Cheryl, I want you to give people your website. You’re a professor, but you also help people who want to write books. So where can they find you?
SPEAKER 07 :
DrCherylLentz.com. Easy peasy.
SPEAKER 03 :
Excellent. Well, I sure appreciate you, my friend. Stick around because this actually applies to both you and me. If you are just joining us, this is Angie Austin with the good news. You know, we talk about health and well-being here on the program, and I’m my mom’s caregiver. I try to take really, really good care of my mother and myself, for that matter, and my family. We have two health experts joining us today, Dr. Leonard Friedland, Vice President and Director of Scientific Affairs and Public Health at GSK Vaccines, and Dr. Kelsey Godderwiss, Dr. Godderwiss is a pharmacy manager with Kroger, which we have here as King Soopers. Welcome to both of you. Thank you. Thank you for having us. Okay, let’s just start with the age 50 and older. Why are they at greater risk for shingles? And then I want to get into why they should care about shingles. So why is 50 an important age?
SPEAKER 05 :
Yeah, absolutely great questions. I’m Dr. Leonard Friedland, a vaccine research scientist at GSK. No matter how well we feel, our immune systems weaken as we age. And starting at age 50, the risk of shingles will sharply increase. Shingles or herpes zoster is a painful, blistering rash that’s caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox. And once you’ve had chickenpox, that virus remains dormant inside the body. Reactivate years later as shingles. 99% of adults over the age of 50 in the United States already have the virus that causes shingles inside their bodies. one in three people will develop shingles during their lifetime. And so age is the most important risk factor for shingles, and it’s age 50 when that risk begins to increase.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, for people who haven’t experienced it, and hopefully they haven’t, my mom did get what we thought was shingles because many of us have had chickenpox. And here’s the thing that I didn’t realize about it. I know about the painful blisters. I know it can be like three to five weeks and, you know, painful. But I wasn’t aware that, especially for older people, the pain can persist long after the blisters are gone. Or you can have some nerve issues long after the blisters are gone. So like chickenpox, you get it as gone. Shingles, you get it. It’s very painful. Three to five weeks, you’re dealing with these blisters. But then you may have after effects from it as well.
SPEAKER 06 :
You’re absolutely right. So shingles is more than just a rash as well. There are people that also have fevers, headaches, chills, upset stomachs. But that rash, it can last for weeks, months and up to years for some people. And that nerve pain can just be excruciating. It can affect your everyday life. Things like work, hobbies, spending time with family and friends and sleep can all be disrupted by that shingles rash. So shingles can happen at any time. It doesn’t discriminate based on the calendar events you’ve got coming up. You can have weddings, graduations, vacations planned. Shingles does not care. So it’s always important to talk to your health care provider about vaccine preventable diseases like shingles.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, I was reading that there may be some people that maybe age isn’t the only factor that some people under 50 may need to get shingles vaccinations as well. Can you talk about other risk factors for shingles?
SPEAKER 05 :
Absolutely. So we’ve talked about age being one of the most important risk factors for shingles. And that’s because most cases of shingles occur in people 50 years of age and older. But, for example, stress can also increase your risk. Additionally, certain health conditions like diabetes, chronic kidney disease, and heart diseases, these have all been associated with an increased risk of shingles. So to sum it up, if you’re over the age of 50, particularly if you have one of these other health conditions like diabetes, chronic kidney disease, heart diseases… Ask your pharmacist about your risk for shingles and about prevention.
SPEAKER 03 :
Now, a lot of people are thinking, oh, you know, it’s hard to get into my doctor. It can take me a month to get in there. I don’t really want to wait. Well, a lot of people don’t realize you can just ask your pharmacist. In fact, to be honest with you, my pharmacist at King Soopers, Kroger, um handles a lot of that stuff for me in fact i’ll go in to pick up something and sometimes she’ll just check it and say hey you’re due for your flu or your pneumonia i already had my shingles like way back when um and and then you have to of course schedule the second one which you can explain to us But anyway, you don’t have to go to your doctor. Your pharmacist, you can ask them and they can look up your record and tell you exactly what you need if you’ve kept your vaccinations at one place. So why is now a good time for us to maybe discuss this with our pharmacist?
SPEAKER 06 :
You’re absolutely right. So we might feel amazing, healthy, happy well after our 50th birthday. But the truth is, is that our immune system does start to weaken. And that puts us more at risk of developing a vaccine preventable disease like shingles. So people might not think that shingles will affect them. They might think that only happens to older people. But shingles is way more common than most people anticipate. There are about a million cases of shingles in the U.S. every single year. So all of you Gen Xers out there born before 1976, you’re at increased risk. And now is the perfect time to go talk to your king super pharmacist about vaccine preventable diseases like shingles.
SPEAKER 03 :
OK, if we want to learn more about singles, like I obviously did my research before I talked to you guys and I’ve discussed this with you in prior years past. I just every year I take my mom and I get every single shot you can. It’s funny because I’ll say to my pharmacist like now. is it okay to get like these forward you know and she’s like it’s fine it’s fine you know some people like to spread them out but my feeling is i may not get back here right away so whatever i can get and get it once i’m just going to go for it because i don’t want to spread it out and take the chance of like missing out on one of the vaccinations that i need that year so where can people go to learn more yeah so it’s just so important and we recommend that you talk with your pharmacist to understand what your options are about vaccine preventable diseases
SPEAKER 05 :
and prevention. So make the appointment, go in, speak with your pharmacist or any other healthcare provider that you have. But a pharmacist is a fantastic opportunity given all the things that you spoke about earlier, the easier access. But also you can make an appointment with your pharmacist as well. So there’s a website that can be accessed. It’s easyvax.com, E-A-S-Y-V-A-X.com. where you can, on that website, find the pharmacy near you and make an appointment to go in and have that important conversation.
SPEAKER 03 :
Another thing that they do, too, they’re hooked up already with my insurance, so it’s so handy when I go in. Oftentimes, I don’t pay a dime. They just schedule everything for me right then and there, or maybe I can go on the app or whatever, but since they have my insurance info, I don’t have to pay and then get paid back later, so that’s really handy as well. Well, doctors, thank you so much for your information today. You’re helping a lot of people. And, you know, for you listening, take it seriously. It’s so easy to prevent some of these things that can really, you know, have long lasting, you know, health effects that are detrimental for you. And a vaccination is so simple. Thank you to both of you. Thank you.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you for listening to the good news with Angie Austin on AM 670 KLTT.
