Jeremiah Robenolt
Episode 207

Narrator:

Welcome friends, to another episode of the Story & Experience Podcast. Join your host, Japhet De Oliveira, with his guest today, and discover the moments that shape us, our families, and communities.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Hey, welcome friends, to another episode of the Story & Experience Podcast. I'm delighted to be able to have the guest with me today who's wearing the most amazing shirt that I hope they will describe. You get an idea of their style and joy as well. If you're brand new to the podcast, we have a hundred questions, and they progressively become more complex and more vulnerable, closer to 100, but they're really about stories and experiences that help this individual become the leader that they are today. So I'm going to ask the first 10, then they get to pick numbers and we'll see where we go. So let's begin with the first one. Could you tell us your name?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And does anybody ever mispronounce it?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Absolutely. It's Jeremiah Robenolt.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

The last name often gets-

Japhet De Oliveira:

Robenolt, okay.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah, it's a tough one. It often gets mispronounced. We get an H in there somewhere. Sometimes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You're welcome.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So Jeremiah, do people have a nickname for you, or you just go by full Jeremiah?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Well, I have a couple. Yeah, it's usually the half of my name is cut down. So I get Jer.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Jer.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And then I get Miah. My brother calls me Miah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's perfect. That's great. I'll call you Jeremiah for.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Perfect.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's great.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You're welcome. Could you share with us what you do for a living?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. I am the supervisor of the learning management system for the organization.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay. For which organization is this one?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

For our organization, for Adventist Health.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Great.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, you actually are. So this means that you're the person who does what for us? You send us things that are required?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Correct. Yeah, so I am the messenger, I guess is how you would put it. So I do like to put out there, don't shoot the messenger. These are things that are given to me on a regular basis from different business teams. And education, we're dealing a lot with Epic right now. And so we've got a little bit of that on our plate, and other clinical and nonclinical education that has to go out every year.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So do you actually create the courses, or you design them, or?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

No, we have a team. I work on the broader clinical practice and education team, and I love my team. They're great people. It's been really, really fulfilling to get to know them over the last seven years that I've been here. And we do have a couple of folks that are more into the instructional design, and so they handle that. I really just the, I call myself the moving company. You pack the boxes, I'll move them to what room you want me to move them to. And so I put stuff out there and I really deal more on the technical side is how do these things go? And when I got here seven years ago, there was, I think, a queue of 300 tickets that needed to be taken care of and all sorts of fun stuff.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And what I found, I do a lot more technical support than anything is helping people because these things nobody wants to do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I understand. It's not fun, right? You come into work and you got this big queue, but we do need to have that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

We need them.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. There's a lot of compliance things. There's a lot of laws in California and in Oregon and Hawaii that say we need to learn this. And there's clinical roles that have special competencies and other items that they need to get to understand and know. And so I'm just a delivery guy. I'm here delivering that package to you, and making sure you've got what you need. And oftentimes, a lot of my day-to-day is working. I do have associates that work for me here, one here at corporate, and then a few out in the markets, so there's a shift going on right now where a lot of our LMS was decentralized, a lot of different processes, a lot of different things.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's great.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I'm working on a governance policy. I love governance. I didn't think that that would be my thing. I grew up a lot not necessarily following the rules. And I learned that, for me, God disciplines me in the way I need to be disciplined. And when I say that, it's never a punitive thing. It's always a learning lesson.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's good.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. I've had a lot of fun doing what I'm doing and I've gotten more into managing now at this point. And man, I just have the coolest team. I tell everybody it's the Justice League.

Japhet De Oliveira:

I love that, I like it.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I have all these people with different personalities and different special powers and different things. And they bring such a unique perspective to what we do. One thing we all have in common is we love people. And we also see, and I get to see what I do every day, how that translates to patient care. And I've done the type of work that I'm doing for a very long time. This is what I'm educated in and have degrees in. And I've worked in different industries and I don't necessarily see the tie. This was very clear from day one and it's just grown on me. I love it.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I love what I do. Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, it's great. I mean, in truth, I mean, that's exactly it. The stuff you require us to do.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

The courses you land up there from all the business partners, they're essential for us.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Correct.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. They may be like an alert for us, but at the end of the day, it's better.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Correct.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, thank you, Jeremiah. That's good.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So look, tell us, where were you born?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Oh, I was born, I think what I like to say is on the trip out from the East Coast to the West Coast. So both my parents are from the East Coast. My mom's from Delaware. My dad's from Pennsylvania. And they were both in the military together, met each other in the military. And I think they got married where I was born, but they relocated to Boulder, Colorado. And I was born out in Boulder, Colorado.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Aww.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Shortly after I was born, my mother's parents, my grandparents were out here in California, and they moved out here to be closer. Somewhere between myself and my brother were very close to what I've heard called Irish twins. We were a year and 12 weeks apart.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, really?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Year and two weeks. I'm sorry. Year and two weeks older than him. And so I think I was born there, and then the pause on the trip out to California, and so yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So you didn't grow up in Boulder?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I did not.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay. All right.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

So when you grew up as a child, you were in California?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I was, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Right. And what did you imagine you wouldn't grew up to be?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Oh, man. All sorts of things.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

It's funny, the things that you dream of when you're a kid. For me, I grew up in a fairly modest house with fairly modest parents, working class folks. And so for me, it was always about, oh, I'm going to be a doctor or a lawyer, I'm going to earn money and do all these things. And I remember having fun when I was a kid in elementary school, they would have us dress up as what those things, career days type of thing.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Sure.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

But yeah, I wasn't really sure. I think as I got older, my life, like I said, has taken some turns. And I decided at some point, I was in insurance sales for a really long time, and I moved over to the operations side and just immediately felt the impact of what that did for me.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I feel like what I do on a day-to-day when I'm doing the work that I can get myself involved in and I'm not managing people, I'm a detective.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. Something happened. Here's the result of what happened.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Solve it.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And Jeremiah, can you pull this apart and put it back together so that it's fixed for not just that one person that had the issue, but everybody that may run into that issue.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's a great metaphor, I like that.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. So I've grown into what I'm doing. And I found that there was a degree for this in school, and so I started back into school in my 30s. And yeah, it's been awesome.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow. What was that like going back to school in your 30s? I mean, that's brave and fantastic.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Sure, absolutely. Kind of referring back to that is I grew up, I have a really cool, I consider it a cool story.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Great, I'm sure. I believe you. I believe you, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

So it's one of those. I grew up, I was lost for a really long time. I grew up in a kind of a, I love my mom and my dad to death, but they struggled with addiction and other types of problems. When I was young, they got sober and stopped doing those things. But I do know that for me, I had parents that were still angry, and still, especially my dad. And it's funny, I avoided those things for a very long time, those things that got them sick because I could see that even as a kid.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Sure.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

What the effects of drugs and alcohol do to people. And I didn't want anything to do with that so I grew up, I was actually in youth group growing up. I grew up. Actually, and she's going to probably murder me for saying this on the show here, but Kristine Johnson. I grew up with Kristine Johnson.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Really?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, wow.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

We went to church together. Mostly junior high, high school age, not younger than that. And I was a lost kid that they brought to... My parents didn't attend that same church. My mom, after my parents divorced, relocated to Southern California. So I had my dad, and it was a good environment, but definitely I lacked structure and guidance. So church, youth group brought that to me.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Gave you that.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Oh, 100%. Yeah. And it was what I needed at the time. I did kind of fall away from that as I got a little bit older. I think there was some lost moments in there for me and some areas where there was a, I found later when I did the work, what I call the work, there was an element there where I felt like God worked for you guys, and He was in your guys' lives. And I knew there was something there, but He wasn't looking out for me. And that was such a theme.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Oh, yeah. And so I think I waited until I was about 18 and I graduated from high school and then I started doing my fair share of partying and things. And so I got lost. And for me, my birthdate's very important to me, but I just wake up. It's a date on the calendar type of thing. And I'm not trying to make it sound little, but I think the most important date for me, July 18th of 2007, I made a decision to get sober.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And my life completely started changing from there, and giving my life back to God. I was able to work through with tons of resources. There's a movie called Big Fish that Tim Burton, it was a Tim Burton directed movie. And if you haven't had a chance to see it, you need to.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, I haven't. Okay. All right.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

It's great. And it tells a story about a man's life that at the end, you see all the characters that were a part. He's in his, I think on his deathbed, and he sees all these people that showed up at different parts of his life. I had that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You had that.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. I just have these integral people that-

Japhet De Oliveira:

The power of others in your life.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And that's God to me.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, exactly.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I always confuse the fact that I thought the heavens needed to part and God would ride down on this unicorn, this steed, and be this big moment, but it wasn't. It was God speaks to me through you guys. And if I'm on the beam, if I'm in the right spot, I can hear it. Sometimes I don't. Sometimes I have a hard time. I get through the clutter and I do Jeremiah's will versus God's will, and that battle sometimes happens. But yeah, July 18th of 2007. So I just, this past month, celebrated 19 years of taking care of myself.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fantastic, man. That's beautiful. Congratulations.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I have children. Thank you. I have children that never saw their dad do those things.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's a blessing as well.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And yeah, they're like, "I don't even know what that would look like."

And I'm like, "You don't want to." And here's the thing-

Japhet De Oliveira:

Look at that generational shift you've done, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

100%. Yeah. 100% is breaking that cycle. I think we all can relate to that in some way or another is we've got to do it. You talked about it.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, exactly.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

With your dad.

Japhet De Oliveira:

With my dad. Yeah, exactly.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And it's those little things, right? It's maybe that wasn't on the level of what I went through, but it's its own level. It's like, "Man, I just fixed this watch for you. I just did these things." Those stories are important to me. I think the theme of your podcast is important to me. I think experience is the utmost teacher.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I learn a lot from books. I've been to school. At this point, I just recently in May graduated with my master's degree.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Congratulations, man. Look at you.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I'm not stopping. I'm doing certifications right now, and I'm like, "When are you going to stop?" I love learning.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You're leading the learning area.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. So I'm probably not going to stop doing that, but books are great, but listening, and I think you and I had a moment before the thing where it's, when I get to know you, I know how to-

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's a game.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

It's a game changer.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, absolutely.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I know how to help you.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's true.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I know how to have a conversation with you, and you with me. And I'm finding, it's funny, that happened here at work too with a lot of different things. I inherited a team of folks that are, like I said, they were LMS administrators. We had this decentralized system. They worked for the markets, and now they've come onto my team. And Brendan Collins talked about it too. And by the way, I have the same book that he was talking about.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Really?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah, yeah. About Abraham Lincoln and his team of rivals. And I wouldn't say that I ever came into it with the spirit, nor did they that we were rivals, but there was an idea that there's these folks at corporate, and then us out here at the markets. And there's always been separation. And I have absolutely embraced these folks and we've become a family. I know about their kids and their nieces and nephews and their husbands and wives and their struggles and the things that they go through because that stuff matters. That stuff impacts us whether we want to believe that or not. And I had a good lesson during COVID. I decided when the program was still kind of active and moving to do the Helping Heroes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I volunteered for two years at Ride Out. And it wasn't all volunteer, ended up not being volunteer time the whole time. I think I volunteered for a month or two and then they were like, "Dude, we need you."

And I was the guy that was checking the vaccine cards that people were not happy with, both employees and visitors. And I also held, I always say I held old ladies' hands. I was able to go in rooms where folks were isolated. Their families weren't able to be in there because they had COVID and watched TV with them. It was what was called a patient center.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Being a person, yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

It was beautiful. It was a beautiful experience. I never could handle the sight of blood, and I mean, some of the mess that comes with the job that those folks do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's incredible.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And they're heroes for what they do. But I was able to do the next best thing. And it felt awesome. It was a really, really great experience. It's a beautiful hospital, I'm sure you visited it before.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I always have fun with it. It's like walking through time when you walk through that hospital because they have three different buildings that were mashed together.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's true.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And so it's like walking through time when you walk through the hallways.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Actually, I never thought about that, but you're right.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. And they even have it on the wall, but oh man, it's just our community. The communities that we serve are beautiful and they're all in their own way. And this experience, this has been the. I want to make a career here. And that's what I'm trying to do. And I want to get to know people, and I want people to get to know me. Sometimes I'm the guy that has to say no. And oh man, it's the worst.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Or follow the rule. Hey, here's the policy. I'm sorry that you have this and that you're doing this education over again, but it was required. And I got a lot of people that aren't super happy about those things, but I think doing this-

Japhet De Oliveira:

Sure.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

... is a testament to, I'm a human.

Japhet De Oliveira:

A little of grace for each other is good.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

100%, yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I am a human, I put my pants on just like you. And I'm not a robot, even though it feels that way sometimes. But yeah, beautiful. And at the end of this life, whatever that looks like, I've always wondered what, I never worried about a career. You asked that kind of towards the beginning. It's always been a legacy for me, how do I leave a legacy? And how do I leave this world better than I came into it? And I'm doing just little incremental things.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's really good, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I always thought I had to move mountains, but that's God's work.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's true.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

That's not Jeremiah's work. I'm just moving stones.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Part of the story, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's great. Jeremiah, clearly, it seems to me that you just naturally feel comfortable sharing your story with others.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Has that been your entire life or is that something that you learned to do, or?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

There's a principle in the program that I work and it talks. Well, it's actually not a principle, it's a promise. It's a promise from God. And there's a bunch of promises, but one of them says that no matter how far down the scale I've gone, I will see how that my experience will help others. And I'm part of a group called, we call ourselves Good for Nothing. And it's a bunch of guys, and our motto or theme is that I used to be good for nothing and now I do good for nothing.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, I like that. That's good, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And for me, I just put my hand out. I always thought that there need to be official, how to have a title, how to do this. I've had so many people come up to me in the last five years that have experienced some of the things that I've experienced and just asked for experience. And gosh, I mean, you're in a position like this, and I'm sure there's others out there where you feel, oh my goodness, am I going to be able to help this person enough to help save whatever they're going on, their marriage, their drug and alcohol problem, their this? And you feel this immense responsibility. But I've found that when I don't think about that, I just let it go and I just say, "Hey, when I went through this, this was what my experience was. And I'm willing to walk through this with you."

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. No, it's true, it's true.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I don't have to do anything else.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. I got to say this, Jeremiah, and for our listeners, you've kind of blown up the entire process here, which I love.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yes, I did. I'm sorry.

Japhet De Oliveira:

No, but I love it. I love it, because you have answered in many ways. And part of this entire process is that to encourage people to be able to share. You shared just eloquently and from the heart, and I loved every moment of it. So I'm not even going to go for my other nine questions with you, I'm just going to, let's just, is there a number you want to pick that's actually higher up that you want to?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Sure. Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And let's just go there because it's great, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I'm an open book.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And you know I love it, man. Tell me where you want to go.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

So let's-

Japhet De Oliveira:

Because people want to know about you, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah, let's start with 98.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah, let's get rid of it. Now you said these are harder the higher you get?

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Okay. Or more telling.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

That's all right.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. So this is great. 98. What is one great thing that you're capable of achieving?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

That's a tough one.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

The questions become tough. I think I had a script in my mind when I came in here, right? I think it's bringing people together.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, I like that.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I think it's bringing people together. I've been told that I have a natural ability to orate, to have that conversation. I actually text my wife before this and I said, "Honey, I'm really, really excited to tell my story, but I'm also a little scared."

And she said, "You're one of the most authentic men I know. And you have a great presence and you're funny." And no jokes on here, but she said, "You're funny and you're going to do fine."

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Oh, that's great. How long have you guys been married?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

We just got married last year so this is going to be-

Japhet De Oliveira:

Awe, congratulations.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I have a second round. I had a redo in this situation.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Congratulations, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Thank you. I appreciate it.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay. You got to tell us, how did you meet?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I met her online.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's brave.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Part of my journey, I got hired here December 2nd of 2019. And three months later, the world blew up. And it was like, "Hey." I was in office. I was actually right below you here on the fourth floor. And it was, "Hey, Jeremiah, you got to work from home now." And there were a lot of, I know our mission theme this year is light. And I love it because light is, it's the truth teller.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes, it is. Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I had a lot of things in my life blow up during this. I actually became separated and divorced from my first wife, who was the light that came to our situation. She was dealing with drug and alcohol issues, which is not a reason to leave anybody, and that's not the reason I left. I think for me, it became she was unwilling to do the work that involved getting better for our children.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Sure.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And so I lived for a couple years on the road.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

So I bought a travel trailer, and they said work from home. And so I took that very loosely. I was like, "As long as I have internet and things that I need, I'm going to be okay."

And I think this is why Carey called us back to work, he said, "Don't have too much fun. You're working, remember?"

But I met her while I was out adventuring. And it was a really, really cool experience. She was every bit of everything that I needed, everything that I think I had missed the first time around.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I thank God for that stuff every day is-

Japhet De Oliveira:

What a blessing.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

... that things fall apart to get back together. And she was very poignant upfront. She said, "If you want to date me, you're going to need to make time. And that means that you're going to tell me when you're going to call me and you're going to call me if you don't call me right on time. I'm not picking up the phone. And we're going to have, this is what our date," we did a lot of phone dating and getting to know each other.

And just through talking with you, I'm sure you can understand, I was like this with her. You talked about this, and I can relate to you. I think there are times in our lives or people in our lives that show us it's scary to be open. And I love being open, I love being vulnerable. I love being, I'm not scared by much.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It doesn't hold any power over you.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Holds no power. When I can just get it out there and say, "Here's this human experience." And so that's what I'm sharing with you guys today is, and however much of this makes it on there, we do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Oh, it all does, man. It all does. That's great.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

But yeah, I met her online and it was not something that I though I was doing. And in fact, I had a therapist that, and shout out to therapists out there. That was a real game changer during COVID and all the situations I was dealing with. And it was funny, my therapist said, "Hey, I don't know if you should be doing that yet. I don't think we're ready yet. Not the right step."

I said, "Okay, well, do you want me to shut down these accounts?"

And she said, "Yeah."

And Stacy had slipped in right as that was happening. And I had to tell my therapist, "Hey, I started dating someone."

She's like, "Well, here we go. Now we start the next adventure." But yeah, that's how I met my wife and gosh, man.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Well, congratulations, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

What a great person.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. That's beautiful. Beautiful. All right. Hey, I love your answer to 98. So where would you like to go next?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Well, I like the number eight. So let's go with number eight.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Number eight. All right. Number eight then. Are you a late night owl or early riser?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I think that's changed a little bit for me.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. I do like rising and getting up early. I do seize the day. I've had some health stuff pop up in the last six months that I've started to deal with that has changed my archetype in the sense that I think I'm a little bit more of a late night person. I don't know. I'm not sleeping well.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's fair enough.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

But yeah, so I think I really love the idea of getting up and charging at my day.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Okay.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

So that's where my heart is, is being an early riser.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right, that's good.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

And when you say early, what's early for you?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

So early for me is 5:30.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah, that's nice. All right.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

It's good. I love it. All right, we have time, I can't believe this, but we have time for two.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Okay.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right. So what are the two numbers? You can give me the first one and think about the last one.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Sure, how about 28?

Japhet De Oliveira:

28. All right. Let's go there. Jeremiah, you have just been asked right now to give a 30-minute presentation impromptu. What would it be about?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

If it was work related, it would be about governance. It would be about the process. I think for me, I deal with that in my personal life as well as in business, but I've always thought that there was a destination to life. There's a beginning and an end to our lives. We know that. And for me, I always thought that there was this thing that I needed to get to or this point where I would find the pot of gold or the prize. And I have found that the beauty of this life is in the journey.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. Hey, I love that, man. I love that. That's true.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

So I probably talk a lot about that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

You enjoy the journey.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

I do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah, I do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Absolutely. All right. Last number. Where'd you want to go?

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Last number. 55.

Japhet De Oliveira:

55. All right. If you wouldn't mind, share about something that frightens you.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah. That's awesome. It's a great question because there was a time in my life where I could sit and express to you that I'm not afraid of a lot, and it's because I've grown up in very, very crazy environments. I tell people sometimes I listen to loud, heavy music to calm down. I feel like one of my skills is being able to be calm in the eye of a storm.

Japhet De Oliveira:

In chaos.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

In chaos. But that's changed. I have what I call skin in the game. I have children. I have a beautiful wife that I'm just beginning a life with that I just want to enjoy, I cannot get enough of her. And my kids, my kids, they're just such a great source of pride for me. And in the way that I have the most kind sons. And I don't mean more than yours or more than that.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's beautiful. No.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

My children, the heart that they have is just so different. And I just compare that to me at 15 and 17. And I've got one that's 25. I look and I'm like, "Man, this is awesome."

I've got a little spitfire at home as well. Marley, she's eight and she's going on 18 and very much so. But I think the thing, I mentioned briefly, I'm dealing with some health stuff. And I actually just sent something over to Christine about John 5, the story at the pools at Bethesda. And I'm dealing, and I've actually scheduling come up really, really, really quickly to open heart surgery. I've got to get a triple bypass at 46 years old.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Wow. Okay. All right.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And yes, I have talked-

Japhet De Oliveira:

You will do this.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yes.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes, you will.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And I've talked to Mike Peterson, you guys. So I've already had that conversation because I do like experience, right? And I think for me, I'm not afraid of dying. I think more for me it'd be missing out on the beautiful experiences my children have, probably more than anything is not being able to see that from this side. God has made promises, and I know what those promises are if we do His work and we do it well to where I know that I'll be able to see these things, but I just want them to know.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yes.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

And so for me, it's been this last six months of finding this stuff out and doing all the tests and doing all the things that go into it, that it's time to slow down because I'm a go, go, go guy, and enjoy. I heard something one time said that sometimes we lose the beauty of the forest through the ugliness of some of its trees. And when I'm moving through life too quick, that's really easy to do.

Japhet De Oliveira:

That's true. Slow it down.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. That's fantastic, man.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Yeah.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Jeremiah, your honesty and vulnerability, and I mean, it's beautiful, it's magical, it's inspiring. And I know God's with you, man. I know. He's got you, he's got your family, and it's the complexity of life that we don't get to choose and we can navigate through, but yeah, you're in there, man. That's fantastic.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Thank you for sharing. I want to encourage people to do the same thing. Some people you have to ask a lot of questions, but some people you meet like a Jeremiah who just are, they are living their story openly, and I appreciate that. It's just wonderful, and I encourage people to do the same thing-

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

... because we learn. I'm changed from this conversation. People will be changed from this conversation, and I think I'm going to encourage that to do as well.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Absolutely.

Japhet De Oliveira:

Yeah. God bless you, and we'll connect again, friends, with another episode soon.

Jeremiah Robenolt:

Thank you.

Japhet De Oliveira:

All right.

Narrator:

Thank you for joining us for the Story & Experience Podcast. We invite you to read, watch, and submit your Story & Experience at adventisthealth.org/story. The Story & Experience Podcast was brought to you by Adventist Health through the Office of Culture.