Do you want to hear and learn from a first responder that is also a yogi? On today’s episode of Incorporating SuperPowers, host Justin Recla speaks with guest John Quirk all about being a first responder and a yogi, not only having the responsibility and importance of a first responder but also bringing peace and serenity as a yogi. John has transformed his life from being in the corporate world over into health and wellness to provide some really unique solutions to those in need. Tune in to this episode to hear from an extremely educated, and grounded, first responder.
Welcome to another episode of Incorporating SuperPowers. I’m your host, Justin Recla. Today, we are talking to John Quirk. I’m going to refer to John as the first responder Yogi and that’s really what we’re talking about today. We’re talking about the health and wellness of not just the first responders out there, but their families as well. John has transformed his life from being in the corporate world and he’s transferred over into the health and wellness healing space and really providing some really unique solutions to those in need.
You know, first responders are very close to my heart, being in the military and coming from that world, you just see a different side of the house, and the level of stress that those guys and gals go through, the stress that their families go through, is a lot. And John’s on a mission to help shape all of that differently and provide solutions to those that are first responders, their families and those that are just actually looking for new ways of tapping into their own health and wellbeing. So John, welcome to the show today.
Thanks Justin. I really appreciate you having me, pal. It’s a pleasure.
You, I think, are like so many. You’ve had this awakening of, “Wow, I can do things better.” First and foremost, let’s highlight what was the corporate job, and how did you transition?
I used to be a television producer in New York City. One of those jobs where you wake up every day and you go, “Oh no,” you know, your calendar looks full. You never know what the day is going to bring. I worked in breaking news, so you’re just kind of pins and needles all day waiting for the next thing to happen.
I can remember eating lunch and having a laptop, a computer and six screens, and being like, going to take a bite, and then news breaks and it’s this, you drop and you run.
So that was kind of my background and I touched a lot of different parts of the journalism sector. I was a writer, a producer. I took photographs for a while. So I got a little taste of everything and then found my niche in the television world. And towards the end, I was feeling that burnout where you wake up in the morning and you don’t want to go to work anymore, or you hate getting on the bus, you don’t want to ride on the subway and you’re waiting for Friday, and then Friday comes and then you’re dreading Monday. And that became the cycle for me for a long time.
And then the most amazing thing happened. I took a job at a startup and changed gears from the news sector. I was in sports and I was getting to wear jeans to work and I was watching football all day. So you’re like, “Oh my God, that must be so great!” And I was like, “It isn’t though.” And so something was really missing for me and I just felt like I wasn’t being of service to anybody. I had this real philanthropic itch to scratch and it just wasn’t happening. And then the most amazing thing that happened. I got fired.
And I walked out and I’ll never forget this. So I called my father and I said, “Hey, I just got fired.” And he goes, “How are you doing?” And I’m like, “Okay.” I’m like, “Like actually good maybe.” And I was like, “There’s a yoga class in a little while and I’m going to go do that. And then I might just go to the park and just have a day for myself.” And I hadn’t done that self-care in so long. And I took that yoga class and it was one of those where I’m sure many of your listeners have that experience where it just feels like it’s for you, like what the teacher is saying, the message, just the way I felt about myself in that moment. And that teacher in particular was a teacher I had had classes with for a long time. And I said, “Man, she’s making me feel so good and has helped me so much.” And I said, “I want to do that for other people.”
So I went on a mission. I didn’t apply to any corporate jobs. I went into a yoga teacher training and a really disciplined teacher who would have me come early to mop the floors and really kicked me in the butt. It was exactly what I needed at that point. And I needed to turn things around. And after I left that, I started teaching classes. And for a lot of yoga teachers we try to make a living doing that. It’s 20 classes a week and it’s running around. I’ll never forget my first yoga class, I made $7.85 teaching that class after the bagel and the subway fee. But I was hooked.
I knew I was making people feel better and that was the first goal. And then I said the money and everything else will follow. And it was sketchy there for a while. You start cutting away at your savings and you look up each month and that rent check keeps cutting you and cutting you and cutting you. And I got right down to the end of it and I was like, “Man, I don’t know if this is going to work.”
And I had this incredible vision. I was watching National Geographic one night and I saw this whole thing about Costa Rica and I was like, “Man, it would be really cool to go to Costa Rica and do a bunch of yoga and surf.” And I said, “Maybe I should bring people.”
I didn’t even know what a retreat was. I didn’t know what a yoga retreat was. And I just started telling people about it. And then the other craziest thing that’s ever happened to me was that people just started giving me money. And I didn’t have a venue, or a website, I didn’t have anything going on. And then over the years I have gone to Bali and I started to do bigger projects with more teachers and more moving parts. And we started to build programs and I’ve involved actual therapists, and I’ve learned a lot from that community.
And then I met a gentleman named Stephen Odom and he runs this program called Shift Wellness up in Orange County. And so that’s where I started to get into the first responder community. And I met a gentleman who’s a firefighter up in Anaheim and who teaches warrior meditation to firefighters. And what’s really cool about Stephen’s team is they’re all directly connected to the first responder community. So they’re either-
I want to dive in there. I want to pause right quick because this is really the meat and potatoes of what I want to get into here is understanding this. And so folks, if you know a firefighter, you know a first responder, if you interact with them, if there’s somebody in your life, you see and understand the level of stress that they’re getting into.
And the backstory that John just shared is one that so many people are coming into this with, having this awareness of like, “I’ve got to take better care of ourselves.” But we have to have these resources. And so John, before we go on break, where can people go find more information about you?
So you can find us at socalwellnessretreat.com, my website. That’ll link you into all the retreats that we do. For anybody that wants to get involved on the philanthropic side, crownedbuyerbellas.org is the organization that we crowdfund and we fundraise for these events. And then shiftwellness.com is if you actually know somebody that wants to go on these specific retreats, whether it’s a first responder or a spouse or a family member of a first responder.
Fantastic. Folks, go take a look at that. When we get back, we’re going to dive into the real meat and potatoes of this conversation, what that means, what it looks like for implementing that wellness into the first responder world. And if you haven’t downloaded the SuperPower Network app yet, go download it: superpowerexperts.com/thenet. We’ll be right back.
To listen to the entire show click on the player above or go to the SuperPower Up! podcast on iTunes.
Podcast: Play in new window
