Life Lessons With Bruce From Survivor-L,L,&L W Glenn Ambrose

In this special episode, I welcome my friend Bruce Perreault from the show Survivor to discuss his life lessons learned during his time in Fiji. When we are in extreme situations, it heightens our ability to learn what we need to learn and see what we need to see if we're open to it. Bruce's Survivor experience was no exception. He was open and learned some invaluable lessons that he was kind enough to share with the rest of us. Tune in for this special episode of Life, Lessons, & Laughter with Glenn Ambrose.

Transcript

Welcome to Life Lessons and Laughter with your host,

Glenn Ambrose.

Hey,

Everybody.

Welcome to the show.

So today we have a special guest.

My friend Bruce from Rhode Island who was on Survivor.

I believe it was 44 and 45.

So we're going to have him on and we're going to go over some life lessons,

Some things that he learned from his experience on the show Survivor.

All right,

And here he is.

Hey,

What's going on?

Magic.

Bruce is in the hizzy.

Right?

That's right.

I love magic.

Yeah.

So what's the name?

It's like Life Lessons and Laughter.

Like that's every part of what it is that I do all the time.

I'm always laughing.

I'm always learning something and there's always a lesson to be had.

So,

You know,

But this just makes sense.

It feels so nice.

Perfect.

And I agree with you,

You know,

Like we've we spent some time together when I lived in Rhode Island.

And I agree with you.

That is how you live your life.

You know,

It's you're definitely a student of life and you're definitely laughing all the time.

So it's like,

You know,

You're a fun guy to be around,

You know,

You're what do you call a mushroom that buys all the drinks?

This sounds like a great dad joke.

I don't know.

Please tell me.

A fun guy to be with.

Man,

Listen.

Had I said that joke while I was on Survivor,

They all would have walked away.

That would have been,

But I would have laughed my backside off like,

That was great.

And they would have been like,

Oh,

Yeah.

Yeah,

This is right.

I think this kind of happens at a certain age or something.

I think it's freaking hilarious,

But yeah,

Definitely a dad joke.

Nice.

Nice.

Hey,

You got an A plus for that one.

I appreciate it.

So,

So yeah,

I mean this is,

You know,

It was I had posted on social media.

Hey,

What do you guys want me to talk about?

And a mutual friend of ours,

Emily was like,

Hey,

You should talk to Bruce.

Oh,

Emily.

I love her.

She's amazing.

She's a great girl,

You know,

And and it's that's how we met through her.

So and like,

Yeah,

I was like,

Wow,

You know that that actually really is a great idea.

And I said,

So I reached out to you and I was like Bruce,

You know,

My podcast is called life lessons and laughter like and I know you're laughing all the time and you know,

And I know that you actually are a student of life and you just had this amazing experience on Survivor that like I had never watched the show before and you know,

I'm up here in the mountains of the DR.

So I'm streaming TV.

I literally went and got a subscription to Paramount Plus specifically to watch your show and dropped it as soon as your show is done.

A lot of a lot of my friends have done that.

Yeah,

You know because I wanted to see this experience and I had never seen the show before and you know to me being a life coach in the way that I live my life the real big profound takeaway that I had from watching that show was the transformation the life transformation that people went through on that show these amenities that they were having the how they really gained clarity on some things learn some things and I was like,

Wow,

This is now,

You know,

I mean,

I'm not interested in going on that show.

However,

What a beautiful experience for people who are drawn to that particular show to be able to go somewhere for you know,

Somewhat of a short period of time in the the life-altering epiphanies and changes that that are received there by just about everybody that goes probably everyone that goes I would imagine.

Yeah,

It's a you know,

When you you don't realize it,

You know,

The whole process that you go through take some time.

I started my journey with trying to get on Survivor,

You know mentally want to get on Survivor episode,

You know,

Three of season one.

Like I love the show from the very beginning,

But then you know when I actually put my tape in and well,

I say tape because I'm old I put my video in online.

I did my application that was back in 2019 and you know,

You did such a long long long process and you know,

You finally get on the show not myself person.

I took a different route than most people did like I got hurt.

So I'm season 44.

So I got mad at backed out and I wasn't even there for 12 hours and I'm like this is my life experience.

This is my experience of Survivor something that I wanted and I'm done.

And then I find out nine and a half months later that I'm being requested to come back on the show and offer the ability.

I'm like,

Yes,

I'll take it all day and I went and then I finally got there.

You know,

You you go through the process and then you go into the hotel in LA and you stay in LA for a couple of days and you fly out to Fiji and like,

Yes,

We're getting ready to go.

And then you have the whole process.

You're going to go through Fiji and you're waiting sit around waiting.

You go and do initial go taking a boat to take pictures.

You're taking a boat to go and do press,

You know,

And then you're sitting there and they set up a computer for zoom and you're doing,

You know,

Pre pregame interviews and all that stuff and it's not really real.

Like you're you're around everyone.

You're you're still technically around civilization if you will,

But then when you get your buff and then when I have my old buff over there when you get your buff and it's like,

Okay,

So I'm going to get started with this game and then you start and now you're only around six people and you get along with them,

But you don't get along with them because you're trying to win a million dollars and then you now are thrust into this like,

Okay,

I got to rely on these people.

And then when you get your alone time,

You start thinking about family and friends and things like that.

And then it's just it all starts hitting you that well,

My resources that keep me sane are gone.

So you kind of got to you have to learn to adapt at that point in time.

Yeah,

That's that's that's it.

That's you know,

That was I think a beautiful recap because it's like yeah,

I'm sure it's it's kind of surreal in the beginning because you're just caught up doing what you need to do and it's kind of a hurry up and wait situation and you just and then all of a sudden and then all of a sudden it's on and you're doing it and you're like,

Oh wow.

Okay,

You know now I have to actually do this and and it all probably,

You know from what you described just now.

It sounds like it kind of all hits at once.

It's kind of like,

Okay,

I need to I need to try to win a million dollars.

So I need to play a certain way,

But I these are human beings that I actually have to be with and kind of want to get along with to some degree to and everything that I've known all my securities all all the things that make life.

Habitual,

I guess,

You know,

This is I think this is I'm drawing a correlation now from what you said to my moving up to the mountains of Dr.

Yeah,

It's when I came over here.

It was it slowed me down so much because I was like I had to think about everything like I can't just go brush my teeth.

I have to think like,

Okay brush my teeth,

But don't use the water.

I want to make coffee.

Okay.

Well,

I have a coffee maker,

But I have to go over to a jug and start pumping the water to get it in there.

And then we're like everything you have to think about and you so it's not it's amazing how much of our lives I think especially in the United States and other developed countries that are so habitual and so we just don't think about you don't think about flipping a light switch on or starting your car or trying to figure out where to get food or like none of you don't have any of that.

It's just there and you have your habits and you know,

And it's like well,

Do you want to go to this place or that place for dinner tonight?

You know,

That's your big decision.

So all that stripped so that must have been like,

You know,

It was a little bit of a culture shock for me,

But I imagine it was even a larger culture shock for you because you really didn't have anything.

At least I was in a house,

You know with things around me.

It was,

You know,

You if you go back and you see episode one and you see our marooning and we have that first,

You know,

We're in the bars.

It's great.

And then we jump off and I do my little little jump a little iconic jump.

That was all over the broadcast and the commercials and stuff like that,

Which I loved and then they show us,

You know,

After that's all done.

We they show us getting to the beach.

I'm kind of like looking around like in knowing that we don't have anything.

There's nothing.

There's not that cup of coffee that you said that you made this again.

There's no lights,

Which is there's no hut.

There's nothing.

There's absolutely nothing.

We have to go out and we have to get bamboo.

Now bamboo is not,

You know,

It's not indigenous of Fiji.

It's just not they fly it in they throw it all over the place and we just have to go and you know,

Build a shelter from it,

Which is perfectly fine people didn't know that now,

You know,

So now what we do is,

You know,

We clear a spot,

You know,

You just start from the ground up and it's it's the premise from behind the show is is that if you're on an airplane and you know,

People would ask me questions like why are you in a button-down shirt and a pair of slacks?

Like,

Yeah,

That's what I would have normally worn to go to work.

So they they kind of look at it like what what are you going to wear if you are abandoned on an island like that?

So if you're on a plane plane crashes bunch of people live you end up on an island.

What would you be wearing?

And that's what I would be wearing.

So that's how they use that premise.

So,

You know,

Someone like like Austin,

You know,

Big big big big big muscles extremely smart and intelligent.

I can say he was in like pair like,

You know,

Almost almost like like sweats kind of with a muscle shirt and stuff like that like in like a fleece.

That's what he would normally wear.

So you you get thrown into that and I remember very distinctly like,

You know,

The questions that start started being asked those questions were being asked to me and also the group of they'll be asked to me because I'm at this point.

I'm 46 years old.

I'm with a bunch of kids that like,

You know,

I say kids affectionately,

But I'm with a bunch of people that are bare minimum 16 years younger than me.

So I've been camping at some ton of times,

You know,

I've you know,

I don't want to go without but I've learned how to just be able to eat certain things and you know,

Want to try to build a fire build a shelter to set me like scavenge for things because I'm older.

I've done it a million times because that's what I used to do and it's easy to me.

So when they're asking me questions,

I'm more than happy to answer the questions and also put it out to you know,

Everybody's thought on the show.

They just showed like I was being bossy.

I go get that and go get that while you're doing that.

Make sure you get that like I was watching some of the show and like,

You know,

I mean,

I'm not I know that reality shows they clip and they cut and they they try to play certain,

You know themes and stuff and you know,

I was like,

Yeah that knowing somebody that's on one of those shows,

You know,

I know you I mean,

So I'm like,

Yeah,

They're really they really do that.

You can tell that they're really kind of pushing a particular story with particular people.

Yeah,

Then my narrative my narrative was the dad narrative,

Even though I tried to see my name right there is Uncle Bruce,

You know,

I tried as hard as humanly possible to to and I think I did pretty well.

There was some points in that because you get somebody was said to me.

Well,

Why didn't you just pretend to be XY and Z?

Well when you pretend and then you start getting hungry,

You're thirsty,

You're tired people's personalities rub you the wrong way then when the real you comes out.

Oh man,

Like you that's a doomsday wish.

So I would have rather just been I was myself,

You know,

You see me dancing around having a good time like that was me plus I was on 44 and now I'm on 45 and I kept saying my phrase was I'm playing with house money.

I'm just going to have a good time.

I'll be like as much as I can.

I'm playing with house money.

I'm have a good time and I'm going to be unapologetic about it.

And that was it.

I danced a song,

You know,

Crack dad jokes and had some serious obviously,

You know conversations and things like that.

You have to but it's just you have to be and I would say this all the time to people like if you can unapologetically be yourself with everything you do your life is going to be so much easier.

It's other people.

I got to learn to adapt to who you are and that's kind of the thought process that I took well,

And I agree with you,

You know,

It's it's the it's one of the really the foundational principles when I started life coaching because it's you know,

Like when when I was getting into it,

I'm like you're so conscious of what you're creating.

It's like,

Okay.

What do you what do I want to create here?

You know,

So so like sometimes,

You know people would come in to two sessions and just want to complain about their lives and I'm like,

That's not what I do.

Like I help you fix yours.

I don't sit here and listen to you complain.

So you feel a little bit better and you go back out into your life.

You don't change anything you come back two weeks later and you and you pay me to listen to you complain.

Like I can't do that because like I couldn't have a business like that.

Yeah,

I you know,

And I want Longevity in the business.

So I was like I have to be myself.

I need to you know,

I need to coach people in what I believe to be true and I'm not one that can sit around listening to people complain.

It's just gonna drive me crazy,

You know,

Let's get the solution.

I mean,

So and I think you're you're similar in that way to your solution based guy.

Yeah,

I'm very empathetic,

You know,

I'm very empathetic like I can understand when someone's going through something fully and then but the other side of it is okay.

So what can we do to make this to make it a better situation?

So I listen.

I'm not sympathetic like oh my God,

Like I let's let's cry together.

No,

I don't want to cry with you.

You come to me for the problem.

Let's try to fix it,

You know,

So that's the principle.

I got myself with yeah,

And so it's solution based and it's you know,

And it's this podcast.

It's like like most of at least 90% of the feedback probably more probably 95% of the feedback I get on this podcast over the last nine ten years.

However long I've been doing it is positive,

But when I yeah,

Which which is cool,

Right?

You don't really like positive feedback,

But I don't live by it.

You know when I do see the negative feedback like usually what it is is people saying like,

Oh,

You should do this.

You should do this.

I don't like that.

You don't do this.

I don't like that.

You do do this and like as I'm reading it what I'm hearing is I shouldn't be listening to Glenn's podcast because blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah because I am not changing.

Yeah,

I'm not going to change how I do my podcast.

I'm not changing who I am.

I'm not changing how I think this is,

You know,

And the reason I don't is because it allows people who resonate with who I am and the way that I speak in a way that I teach to find me if I'm pretending to be somebody else the ones that actually resonate with me will never find me instead.

I'll have a bunch of people that shouldn't be working with me find me because they resonate with my representative and then that'll implode at some point anyway,

So it's like,

You know,

And I think that's just my work example,

But I believe life is like that the more we are with a you're never going to have a real connection with somebody if you're connecting with their representative if you're connecting with their authentic self,

That's where deep connections made.

Yeah,

I agree with that.

I like it.

Yeah.

So what are some of the what are some of the life lessons that you learned?

What were some of your big takeaways from Survivor?

You know,

It's um,

It's funny that question was asked in a somewhat of a different way,

But the same way so life lessons for myself like I had an epiphany when I was on the show like,

Yeah,

Am I that guy?

Am I you know,

The bossy blah blah blah and when one of the contestants Kelly was voted out that was when let's back up.

I played this game game beast.

I was willing to learn about people obviously have to and hear about what they're,

You know,

They're going through been through the lesson whatever they give to you,

But my game based mind was saying this is game based like how much of this is true come to find out there were truths and there were lies and there was elaborations.

So myself when I went out there,

I gave everything that I already had like I let everybody know exactly who I am what it is that I did and that I kind of had to do because it's season 45 season 44.

They already chronic chronicle eyes for their who I am and and what I do.

So now I can't lie.

I can't be like,

Yeah,

I'm I'm 35 years old.

I can't tell people I'm 35 years old.

They don't know that I'm in my 40s like and that would have been something that I would have done for season 44.

Like I don't know.

I don't look like I'm 47 years old today.

Like I I'm not being conceited and said I don't look like I'm 47 years old,

But sometimes you can drag those things on.

So my thing in the game was it was all game-based.

So my epiphany that I had with having conversation with people and I felt that I was very close with a few of the people that were there was that when one person was voted out,

Which is Kelly.

We came back from Tribal Council and people were mentioning that,

You know,

She felt like you were holding her neck or holding her back.

You're overbearing this and the other but like what like what because not at any point in time did anybody say anything about that.

Like I would catch the occasional like whatever roll of an eye,

But that was that's like me being upstairs with my kids like that you get the occasional roll on it.

Roll the eye all the time.

Sydney would give it to me all the time,

But you get it.

It's understandable.

So you don't really put it together with anybody feeling negative towards you.

And then on the show,

I had this epiphany that was like,

You know,

Like,

Oh man,

Like I remember very distinctly where I was walking to a confessional,

Which is when they sit with the camera.

They just kind of talk to us and,

You know,

Ask us questions.

I remember sitting down and,

You know,

I kind of felt bad thinking about it afterwards.

Not now.

I'm not really care,

But when they sat me down and started asking questions,

I said,

Nah,

Expletive.

I'm not talking about any of this game stuff.

I don't want to talk about the game.

I'm going to talk about my feelings right now.

Like I feel like I feel some kind of way and it was,

It was a genuine feeling because I was upset.

I was upset for,

You know,

The remainder of the night into the morning when I had that,

Um,

You know,

That,

That confessional it may like you're my epiphany at that point in time.

And the thing that I,

That I kind of grew and learned from is that I could be the person that they're talking about.

I could be the person that's overbearing and the person that's,

You know,

Holding the thumb down on people.

But it was a young woman that this that's saying this.

So now I'm thinking about my wife and I'm thinking about,

You know,

My wife married to a man that's,

That's overbearing.

It's my daughter.

Does she have a father that's overbearing?

That's,

It's not going to allow her to grow who she wants to be.

I have a son and my teaching my son to be that way towards women.

Like those are the things that were going through my head,

You know,

And that ruined for a period of time.

It might seem,

You know,

It was probably for 16 hours and 16 hours might not seem like a long period of time where it kind of mentally ruined me.

But during the course of this 26 day game.

Oh,

Yeah,

That's it.

That's that's years if you really break it down.

So,

You know,

That was my thing and I had to come to grips with that.

I'd come to grips with a couple of different things that I know who I am.

I'd come to grips with that.

I'd come to grips with I can't control how this other person is thinking in regards to the scenario.

So that's kind of the life lesson that I that I probably don't like I'm going to be always be the adult.

There's no getting around.

I'm always going to be the adult in the room.

I'm going to have a good time.

I'm going to also think above and beyond like what people think my actions might be meaning if something's happening like I'll take a step back and then wait a minute.

Let's talk about that as opposed to just this role with it.

So that helped to pull me in a little bit more hearing that scenario.

As far as for the fun stuff,

That's the serious stuff.

Well,

That's some good stuff.

Yeah.

I mean,

I think that that's a I think that that's a really important especially like right now.

There's such a you know,

Kind of going out a little bit just on a spiritual wing.

I mean,

It's just such a rise in the divine feminine energy because we've been out of balance with this toxic masculine war acquisition mentality for too long and I think we're coming out of that or we're trying to anyway.

So there's this rise of the feminine energy coming up and and it affects both sides.

I mean the women are stepping into their power more and we as men,

You know,

It's like we've been conditioned to like even good guys like I don't you know,

I don't think that I don't think you or myself are you know,

Bad towards women in any way,

But there's there's also,

You know,

Tens of thousands of years of social conditioning behind us,

You know,

So I think it behooves us as men to stop hit the brakes for a moment and look and just question it doesn't mean we're doing anything wrong,

But it's a serious topic to sit there and go.

Hey,

Wait a minute now.

How am I behaving and being able to be honest with ourselves and make adjustments that are necessary where they are,

You know,

And I think I think that that's half of it and I think that that's our responsibility,

But I think the other half of it at the end of the day is understanding that everybody is functioning from their own perspective and we can't control how other people interpret our behaviors.

We can try to treat people with respect,

But you know,

And I'm not saying that this happened on the show.

I'm just talking about the bigger topic at the moment like when we can treat people with respect and I've had this happen to me where women said I was degrading and I went what and you know,

I went back and I looked and I'm like,

No,

I'm literally not.

I know that I'm not I've talked it out with other people.

They you know,

Like to get multiple perspectives.

I was definitely not degrading them.

They were projecting their stuff onto me.

They were feeling insecure and they're projecting it onto me and I need to be okay understanding that happens.

We have to be honest with ourselves because sometimes it's it is our behavior that needs adjusting.

Sometimes it's their perception and we have to understand both,

You know,

It's um,

It's funny that you mentioned that then it actually that you mentioned that scenario in general,

As we all know during the series,

The season 44,

45,

You know,

I was the bane of someone's existence on the show because aura could not stand me and you know,

I sat there and I struggled with it when when this show actually because everything that was going on.

I had no idea of during the taping of the show when I was voted out.

I came out of the game and I had my own struggles that I needed to deal with,

You know,

Just just hating that I was out of the game and like,

You know,

The personalities that I was dealing with at that point in time,

But then Katsura gets forwarded out and I try to have a conversation with her and conversation went nowhere because unbeknownst to me she had felt a certain way in regards to me that but I don't like I don't know.

I'm just trying to throw out the olive branch call it a day and one of the biggest things is,

You know,

We talk about perception.

I am a very like I love to chat with people and have fun and it's I don't care how old you are.

I'm going to say something and it's a it's a term of endearment in my mind and if you tell me you don't like it say it to me because then at that point I'm like,

Oh my bad like all right cool Glen like we're fine.

But what I would say is I say kid.

Hey,

What's going on kid?

Like,

You know,

Like that's fun like like somebody saying to somebody else.

Hey guy,

How are you or you know,

A woman saying to another woman.

Hey girl,

Right?

So that I say,

Hey kid,

What's going on kid to get very personal.

Like I was now I'm degrading and I'm demeaning her because no,

That's not what it is.

Your perception is that but if you come around to say to me and this is what I implore a lot of people to do it.

There's something that is that you don't feel comfortable with just say and give the other person the benefit of the doubt that go.

Oh my bad.

Like I like my fault which you don't like with a tie,

You know toxic masculinity and all this other stuff if you feel a certain way like either just say something and then walk away from the scenario because if you do that you at least putting an imprint in someone's mind.

If the person's a complete scumbag,

They're going to be a scumbag.

You don't need to deal with it.

But if they're like like myself like if you if I was told that but whoa,

Wait a minute.

Hold on.

I'm sorry.

Not at any point in time that I mean any disrespect but then throughout the course of watching the show.

I'm like week one and week two my God's funny.

We three four five six seven.

I'm like what the hell is going on and then eat and I'm like,

Oh,

Okay.

So she was deflecting as you had said earlier this woman was deflecting on me what she had gone through like I reminded her of her father that put her into a cult and was going to marry her off to the elder like I am not that dude.

So are you looking at every black man and saying okay,

If he has a voice like mine and a face like mine eyes and ears like mine like you got to now say that they are someone that you can't get along with and you can't see eye to eye with and you can't have a relationship with friendly because you're going to depict what you've gone through in your life on somebody else and then try to put it on on me.

So I had to I had to squash it quickly and be like,

No,

I'm not doing this.

I'm not doing what you're requesting me to do because I didn't do anything wrong.

I can't you can't hold me at fault for existing,

You know,

And that's what we're talking about.

Like that's what this the shift in society is that there are a lot of people that hold people accountable for other people's actions and it's like,

You know,

The the most heinous crimes listen,

I would I can't put myself in those shoes.

But what I can do is say something in my scenarios that I the only thing I can do is remove myself from the situation express myself as to what I did you know,

Like how I felt about the situation and then be like,

Okay,

I'm good.

And since then I've actually come to peace with myself because now I'm not sitting there thinking.

Oh man,

What did I do?

When I realized I didn't do anything.

I was just like I said,

I just existed.

So what I would ever say to anybody is,

You know,

If there's ever a point in time where you feel it or you know,

If you are on the receiving end of someone's angst just ask the question like where's this coming from?

Right?

And then they can give you well,

You know,

Blah blah blah.

No,

Really.

Where's it coming from?

Because it just seemed a little hostile and then they'll give you the answer that you're looking for after the second or third question about how why they're treating you the way they are.

So yeah,

I agree.

I think we have to improve our communication because we don't really have communication anymore.

We have you know,

We're a lot of times are trying to prove points and you know,

Like,

You know,

Like most people in that situation quite honestly,

I think in society right now,

The reason that people don't say things in that scenario is because they think that it's going to start a fight,

You know,

Like like,

You know,

I'll put myself and by no means in my like,

I'm not trying to be her.

I'm not trying to climb into her body and say like this is what she would say,

You know,

I'm just kind of using this dynamic as a learning example.

It's like she might not have it's possible that maybe one of the reasons why she didn't say anything is maybe she thought that that like if she said,

Hey kid is demeaning,

You're going to go.

No,

It's not demeaning and screw and then all of a sudden it turns into an argument,

Which quite honestly,

A lot of times it does do that in society.

And this is I think what we need to start pulling back from and learn to just talk with one another without it being that big of a deal and understanding that we're going to disagree.

That's one of the biggest things right now.

We don't understand that we disagree with other people.

Like we don't think it's like okay to disagree with other people.

And I don't know when the hell that started.

You know,

I have my,

I have my thoughts on when it started.

Um,

You know,

I'm old school just like you are.

I'm like,

You know,

I'm 55 men.

So I get a few years on you.

But like,

You know,

It's back in the day when you would say something to your parents is because I said so type stuff.

And like anything else,

You need to kind of ease into things.

You need to ease into the relationships of people and childbearing and things like that.

And um,

I think we got to,

There was a point that we got to,

I'm not,

You know,

Uh,

College educated man with a PhD or anything like that.

I just like pretend I do.

Um,

But the,

You know,

When we started now becoming our kids,

Friends more than anything else.

Um,

That's how I feel about it.

And I'm very,

You know,

My kids are my,

Like I'm father,

But when it comes time to be a parent and to be a parent and you know,

There are a lot of my,

My friends,

Actually not really my friends because they're my age.

Like the next group of people that have kids,

You know,

Uh,

Kids out of control,

You know,

The kid is completely out of control and they're like,

I'll live your truth as it destroying your house.

Like,

Yeah,

I think it's the accountability piece.

It's like,

You know,

Like you can have a conversation if there's no accountability,

Like you got to be accountable for your actions.

Like if you,

You have to be,

You have to know you can't influence everyone.

You can give them your information.

You can accept their information,

Agree to disagree if you want to,

But have the ability to be like,

It makes sense.

You know,

Unless you're like,

You know,

The sky is purple.

Like what are you talking about?

Take those glasses off.

That's why it's purple.

But even then a lot of,

You know,

Especially if it's somebody outside of your inner circle,

Right?

If the sky's purple,

It's like,

Okay.

All right.

Like I went on a retreat,

No kidding.

This is weird,

Man.

I just had this flash.

Um,

I went on this retreat with Emily,

You know,

15 years ago or something.

And this is what happened at the retreat.

It was,

Uh,

It was with Michael Bernard Beckwith and he was explaining something.

It's so weird that it was at that retreat and he was explaining something and he said,

What would you like if you walked,

If you walked down a hall and you were trying to find a room with a bunch of people to hang out with and you walked into the first door and you said,

Hey,

What room is this?

And everybody said,

Oh,

This is the two plus two equals five room now.

And there's a bunch of other doors.

What would you do?

Would you go in shut the door behind you and try to convince everybody in that room that two plus two equals four,

Because you know,

You're right.

Or are you just going to go,

Oh,

Okay.

Shut the door and go try another door.

Now,

If you're asking me that question,

I'm going to be the guy that's going to walk in and say,

Okay,

Explain to you why it's two plus two is five.

Right.

I agree that you are that guy.

And you know what,

To be honest with you,

I'm that guy too.

Um,

But I found it not work so many times that as I age,

The less and less I do it.

When somebody says two plus two equals five,

I'm usually like,

Okay,

This person and myself,

Like,

Like I've been at like parties and stuff where people,

You know,

That they,

They,

They're like,

Oh,

Here's somebody that doesn't believe in any of the stuff that Glenn teaches.

And Glenn can usually,

Uh,

Formulate words.

Well,

Which I'm not doing now,

But so I'm going to bring this person,

I'm going to bring this person over to Glenn and Glenn's going to put them in his place or her place or whatever,

You know?

So they bring this person over and they introduced me.

And the first thing out of their mouth is this guy,

This person's like,

Yeah,

You know,

I don't believe in any of that crap.

And I go,

Oh,

Okay.

Yeah.

Hey,

You have the right to your beliefs.

Yeah,

No problem.

And then we shake hands.

Everything's fine.

They walk away and the person's like,

What the hell,

Man,

I thought you were going to put them in a place.

I thought you were going to explain stuff to them and jam it down their throat sideways and get them to make them look like a fool.

So,

Cause you're right.

And they're wrong.

I'm like,

Why?

They showed me who they were as soon as they came over.

They said,

Hi,

My name is so-and-so.

I'm not interested in hearing your perspective.

I'm sure I'm right and screw you.

That's basically what they said as soon as I came over.

So I just let them have their space.

Why?

Why?

There's there's almost 8 billion people on the planet.

I don't need to be friends with them.

Yeah.

You don't need to be friends with me on either,

You know,

And that's,

You know,

And that's another,

You know,

We're talking about life lessons.

That's a life lesson that I give my kids.

You know,

It was tough.

It was increasingly agitating with my daughter in high school,

You know,

With these girls and girls are,

You know,

Treacherous to each other.

Boys will just fight and call it a day,

But girls like the psychological warfare.

And this is what I've,

I've experienced with my daughter.

Anybody else can have a different opinion on it.

But with my daughter,

It was like,

You know,

There were certain things and it was an escalation,

Escalation,

Escalation.

And,

You know,

For lack of,

You know,

Using a profanity,

But I said to him,

Like,

No one gives two S's in regards to when this is over,

When high school's over,

Like,

Nobody cares.

Like,

You're not going to see these people anymore.

You realize that?

And she's like,

But,

But like,

Seriously,

Like I want you to think about mom right now.

Think about her,

Her core friends that she was in high school with.

And she had a class of 300 and something people.

And of that,

Let's just say 150 of them were guys,

Were girls.

How many of them do you think she really sees into or talks to?

Like there's,

There's nobody.

So let's put it all into perspective.

That was her life lesson,

You know?

So it's,

I'm a firm believer in what you said.

There's a billion people in this world.

I would like to,

If I got one negative person that's in my face,

I'd like to meet two people that are not.

Yeah.

This is what it is.

Okay,

Man.

It,

And I think it goes,

But this is kind of cool.

I love when it goes full circle because it's,

It's like,

It goes right back to being your authentic self and confident in you.

If you're your authentic self and you're confident in yourself,

Then all that stuff bounces right off of you because you're not seeking external validation.

Yeah.

And our approval from someone else that does that.

They don't have the certificate to get my approval.

Right.

There you go.

Well,

This is good stuff.

So you were,

You were about to lean into the fun stuff.

So what's the fun stuff?

Oh,

Man.

Fun stuff is I am awesome at starting a fire.

Um,

And I'm not even just saying that to be funny.

Like there,

There were points in time when I would just,

I was sitting there and just watching people struggle with it.

And I know that I get to see in the back of my head,

Like go ahead,

Keep trying.

And they're doing that thing.

And I got,

You know,

Two people trying and they're beating up the Flint and they break the Flint and you know,

Brando broke the Flint.

Oh,

I was like,

That's like the worst thing you can do on survival.

You broke the Flint,

Bro.

Like,

What are you doing?

So we,

You know,

Tie a twine around the Flint because it's just like a,

It's like a piece of magnesium with like a little piece right on top right there.

It was a straight,

That's a striker.

The strike comes up.

Um,

And they just couldn't do it.

I couldn't do it.

They're trying and trying and trying.

I'm just like,

All right,

Well,

And,

And the funny thing about it is that,

You know,

I work backwards.

So you got to prepare the fire pit and get everything ready to go.

Then you get your materials to start and catch a fire and then you start and then you catch the fire and then you,

Then you go forward.

Um,

So I just sat there and watched,

You know,

I got my arms crossed.

I'm doing something else.

I'm just kind of hanging out and you see it in the show when I I'm sitting there and I'm going to go give it to me like this,

Right?

Because they're like,

Bruce,

We'll try.

I want to try really fricking bad right now.

I dismantled what they did.

And I was like,

All right,

Cool.

So I put them a little half coconut.

It's all hollowed out inside and it did all this stuff.

And then there it goes.

Roll it all up,

Put in the fire.

Boom.

We go fire.

Oh my God.

That was so quick.

I'm like,

I good thing.

Bad thing.

Because if I had made it a little bit further,

You know,

They wouldn't have wanted to go to fire with me because I wouldn't,

They would have known I would have made the fire.

Jake,

Jake did a great job of pretending.

I think because when he was in the final four fire making with Katara,

He,

He was rock steady.

He did a great job.

He did a really,

Really good job.

Um,

But that was one thing,

You know,

It was a fun little life lesson and knowing that I could do that if need be.

Um,

The other kind of thing that I got over a little bit,

Um,

I don't mind swimming in the ocean.

I really don't,

But we're in the South Pacific,

Like there are bigger things that eat people or make people kind of sick or,

You know,

Just want to come out and say hi.

Um,

So I kind of got over that a little bit by,

By going in the water and we got our fishing gear.

We had one,

Uh,

One of the,

One of the challenges we took second place.

Um,

And our reward was a fishing gear and it was the goggles and you know,

The,

The,

It's called the Hawaiian sling.

Um,

So we had one of those and,

You know,

Nets and this side and the other,

But it was me,

Jacob Randall,

We'd gone out and I'm like,

I'm rolling with Randall.

Like,

Oh,

Yeah.

Like you guys go in the water.

And I'm just like,

You know what?

I think I'm just going to go in.

I'm going to try it out.

And in the back of my mind,

It was gorgeous.

It was absolutely gorgeous.

You can see down,

You can see down,

You know,

30 feet.

Like it was just all the way to the bottom.

It was beautiful.

Coral everywhere.

A little fish is just staring at you like,

Hey,

Bud,

Where'd you come from?

They literally would come right up to your mask and be like,

They weren't even big enough to try to eat.

Like,

But they come to your mask and they were sitting there.

Look,

I tried you looking at them like kind of cross eyed because but you know,

I got my life lesson that I got from that.

And what I learned is that like I can go in the ocean and to kind of eliminate a little bit of that.

You know,

And impractical fear,

If you will,

Of wanting to,

You know,

Stay out of the ocean because there are sharks in the water and there are eels and this and the other.

Like there's yeah,

Yeah,

That was huge.

I hear you.

Yeah,

That's and I think it's good chipping away at that.

I mean,

You,

You know,

You strike me as a guy that doesn't,

You know,

Like you don't let fear hold you back that often in life,

You know,

Let's be honest.

But and neither am I.

But like,

You know,

There is little things like that.

And again,

Over here in the DR,

It's like that.

It's given me an opportunity to chip away at some of that stuff and just go and recognize it.

Like,

You know,

Like here you can walk the beach for hours and not see another human being.

Like the first time I did that,

I was scared.

I'm like,

What,

Like,

Are the locals friendly?

Am I going to stumble on somebody that's going to,

You know,

Roll me and steal my money?

Like,

Am I,

What,

You know,

And so I had that fear and it's like,

Whoa,

Whoa,

Glenn,

You know,

Just work through it,

Work through it,

Let it,

Let it go.

It's you're okay,

You're safe.

And it's so little weird fears that I didn't even know.

Like I'm good with the big life fears.

Generally,

I just kick the door open and go anyway,

But it's those little residual ones that I didn't even know where they are.

You know,

That,

That I don't have an opportunity to blast through when I came over here,

It gave me the opportunity to blast through.

And I think whenever in life we come across those,

It's important to blow through.

Yeah,

Because I remember my son Mateo and I,

Who you know,

Yeah,

When he was young,

We're in church one time and it comes time where to shake hands.

And I turn around,

Go to shake this guy's hand and it was this older gentleman and I,

You know,

I'm looking at him in the eyes to connect.

And I got my hand out.

And after a few seconds,

I realized that there's nothing reaching back.

And I looked down and he's got his hands by his side.

He doesn't,

He's not interested in shaking my hand.

And,

But he's looking pleasant at me.

Like it's not about me.

He just doesn't feel comfortable doing that,

You know?

So I just smile.

I turn around and then we,

We leave and Mateo's like,

What's that about?

You know,

What was that about?

And I said,

I don't,

I don't know.

You know,

I don't know what that was about.

I said,

You know,

It could be many of his own personal reasons,

But Mateo was dealing with some fear at that time.

And I said,

I says,

You know what that reminds me of though?

I said,

It's possible that he was scared to touch another person.

Maybe he's like a germaphobe,

You know,

Something like that.

So that's a possible reason.

And I said,

And you know,

How people get to that place is by letting fear take over them.

Like he didn't,

Like,

How do you think he got there where he's not willing to touch another human being that he doesn't know?

If that's a question that you're asking,

Not rhetorical,

It would be probably a scenario with,

Because he was older,

You know,

And he doesn't want to get sick.

Right.

Well,

Right,

Right.

But,

But I'm saying,

You know,

Like I said,

I was trying to use it to teach him something about fear and my,

What I was trying to use it to teach him was that fear expands if you allow it.

Yeah,

That's right.

And it shrinks if you don't.

So that's why whenever I see one of these little fears in me that bubble up like,

You know,

Getting in the ocean because I actually have that one too from a really negative experience.

I had scuba diving when I got certified.

I had a barracuda coming at me and I jumped,

Jumped in the water and I had jumped into a bunch of jellyfish and it was,

Plus I was seasick.

So I was puking through my regulator.

It was a nightmare.

So it was bad.

So I had these fears and it was like when I came over here getting in back in that ocean,

I had that same fear like what's down there.

I liked it better when I didn't know what was down there,

You know.

So I mean,

Those are amazing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So it's like,

But when those come up,

I think this is a really good life lesson for people because it's,

You know,

A lot of people I noticed that they'll be like,

Oh,

I'm scared of spiders or I'm scared of bugs or something like that and they just say it matter of factly and that's not how I see it.

I look at it like if I'm scared of something to me,

It's like,

Okay,

Is there something that I can do?

Maybe,

Maybe not.

Is there something that I can do to work through that?

Because I don't want fear to take over more of me a little at a time.

You know,

That's how people end up stuck in their house.

Nobody,

You know,

People don't become shut-ins in a week.

They become a shut-in over years and what happens is they're scared of one thing and then they don't overcome it.

They allow it to control their lives and then they get scared of another thing and then another thing and another thing.

So that,

So the fear expands and takes over more of you if you allow it.

But if every time you see it,

You go,

No,

I'm not going to let this control me is there something that I can do to work through this?

Then it has less and less a hold over you.

That is correct.

I agree with you.

I agree.

There we go.

See another life lesson for the for the people.

All spawned off of your fear of of the ocean.

Yeah,

That's what I love.

It's I guess,

You know,

And I guess we got to wrap up at this point,

But you know,

One of the things that I've noticed over here and I,

You know,

I'm getting the feeling that you got the same impression is like I usually use the term travel to express this,

But I think it's your time on Survivor is included,

Is that it's just exposing yourself to difference,

You know,

That really it just opens up your perspective and it's like,

Oh my God,

That's why I love Mateo's over here living here.

You know,

He's thinking about going back to the States.

Maybe he will,

But who cares man?

He's been over here for like eight months,

Even when he came over here for one week to visit me.

He was different when he went back to the States and now he's been over here eight months.

He's lived in a different culture in a different way,

Seeing different things and he's impacted for life because of that in a positive way,

You know,

So do you feel that that you know,

Just being in that experience has just brought into your mind and your perspective?

Yeah,

And it has because for different different levels,

Different reasons,

But my biggest thing with it is that it's brought in my my my mindset towards what it is that I can accomplish,

What it is that I can do.

I put my mind to being on Survivor.

You know,

I put all my effort and all my energy towards it and it came to fruition.

You know,

And it don't get me wrong.

It's frustrating all throughout the entire process,

But it was the positivity that I kept because the fun fact that I have is that I put my tape in in 2019.

I went to LA for casting in 2019.

I was told I was on the show.

I was ready to go in 2020,

Four days before COVID hit and the whole world shut down.

That's when I was,

You know,

They called me up and said,

We're going to we're not doing it and we're putting to a halt because we don't know what's going on.

And then maybe 11 months later,

They said we're going in a different direction.

Even though they said they're going in a different direction.

I knew I was going to be on the show.

I still had that thing in my mind.

It was heartbreaking.

I still had that thing in my mind.

So time was by 10 months later.

Yeah,

They're calling me back.

They're like,

Bruce,

You want to,

You know,

You're still interested.

I'm like,

Yeah,

I am.

I knew you'd be calling me like your mistake first time and I haven't come back.

All is forgiven.

So now it's like,

You know,

As cocky as that might have sounded.

It was more of a sense for me.

It was more of a sense of relief that they called me back because then it just let me know that all the stuff that I put out there mentally out in the,

You know,

In the the universe.

It was not for nothing because I hadn't,

I knew that I had a feeling I was going to be on the show again.

Yeah,

And then I get hurt and I I still had this thing in the back of my mind.

Like,

You know,

I could play again because I never really played and sure enough,

You know,

The day that the day that I got hurt,

The day I got hurt and it was taking me off on the stretcher.

I don't know if you saw that episode.

Yeah,

I did.

There's only one.

It was actually halfway through one.

It's so funny.

I spoke to Jeff and Matt Jeff,

You know,

The showrunner and Matt,

You know,

Executive producer.

I spoke to them and they were like,

Bruce,

We I'm sorry,

Let's back up.

The day that I was leaving,

I was being carded out on the stretcher.

Jeff and Matt were talking about how they're going to get me back on the show that day,

Like that moment.

It wasn't like,

You know,

You know,

You do gave us a ride.

Like,

That's when they started talking about it.

And then when I got home and everything like that,

I'm like,

I have unfinished business.

So they're going to call me back.

I know they're going to call me back,

But I never really knew until they actually made the announcement and then it was such a huge release of like emotion because I was going to play the game that I love again.

Yeah,

So I take that very same thing with whatever it is that I what that I do like I,

You know,

I'm a realtor.

So,

You know,

At this point in time with the market,

The way that is,

You've got to wish and hope stuff's going to come out because you know,

You're not you're not selling nothing.

But it's like you want to be able to just keep that positive mindset,

The positive energy and everything's going to be thrown at you,

You know,

The lack of better words,

No pun intended,

You know,

When it comes to houses,

The kitchen sink,

You know,

The front door,

Mailbox,

Everything's going to be thrown at you.

So you're just going to be able to know how to,

You know,

Catch it in the air or dodge it and then go from there.

That's it.

That's it.

We can't control what happens,

But we can control our response to it.

That is correct.

Wow.

And that was that was perfect.

That was a perfect wrap-up perfect ending.

It really encompassed everything because that's that's it,

You know,

We got we can't control life,

But you know,

Keep moving towards what we want and it does come to fruition.

There you go.

Amen.

Beautiful.

All right.

Well,

Thank you very much,

Bruce.

This has been awesome.

Good to catch up and yeah,

We'll wrap up the recording and maybe we'll chat for a couple minutes after but but yeah,

Thanks a lot for being on.

It was awesome to share your experience and I think that this was I loved how it played out personally.

Like it just like,

You know,

You you gave such a nice account of your unique experience and and the life lessons that tied into it and it was just like I didn't know what I hoped for but I would have hoped for this so it worked out well.

I appreciate you.

All right,

Man.

Thanks everybody for watching and we will talk with you soon.

Peace.