An Army of Normal Folks - You Don’t Rise to the Moment — You Fall to Your Training

Episode Date: January 9, 2026

For Shop Talk, we reflect on a dead Greek poet's wisdom, how an alive Salvadoran immigrant is the perfect example of it, and what we need to do be the heroes we're meant to be. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney. Welcome to Shop Talk number 85. Oh, look, it's Alex. Hey, Alex. Oh, hey, Bill. How's it going today? It's going. Did you have a good New Year's?

It hasn't happened yet, but okay. We're recording these in a bunch before. Alex, you're supposed to... You just want me to lie to the listeners and say... Well, I mean, that's not really a lie. That's... A white lie? Whatever.

I hope you have a new good New Year's, and then we can report out. What's the power of positive thinking? I'm already projecting into the future. So ridiculous that you couldn't play along there. Okay. Everybody, shop talk number 85, I'm going to read you a quote, and then we're going to dive in because I think it's really interesting. Shop talk number 85 is this. We don't rise to the level of our expectations.

We fall to the level of our training. and that is from an ancient Greek poet from 7th century BC named Archilochus. Sure. Good. A.R. C.H. I.L.O. C.H. U.S. Arcalacas. You know, he's not around to correct us, so it's okay. That's a good point. He's been gone a long time. We don't rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.

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Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the ad council. All right, everybody, welcome back to the shop. Alex is over there checking out some widgets and gadgets in the corner of the shop, so I'm going to handle this one. Here we go. We don't rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training.

from an ancient Greek poet, Archidoculus, from 7th century BC. I may be butchering his name. It's the best I can do with Greek today. This is kind of inspired by my friend has always taught me, like another version of that quote, is we don't rise to heroism. We fall to the level of our conditioning.

Like you don't just magically become a hero in a moment where something happens to you and you need to save somebody's life, right? You actually fall to how you've trained yourself before that day. I like that. Actually, I'm not sure I don't like that better than this Archidoculus thing. Yeah, I like my friend's version better, but I'm sure it was inspired by his, though.

Yeah, all right. So we're going to talk about this Maxim through the lens of a great article in the Daily Memphean from my buddy, Jeff Cox. It's titled Cross Town CEO Todd Richardson was dying until Adrian Garcia showed up. So Crosstown is an interesting. thing in of itself. Back in the day, the entire southeast quadrant of Sears was based here in Memphis. And there's this huge building that sits in the center of Memphis that was the Sears and Roebuck Catalog Center.

If you remember the Sears catalogs that went out, whenever you called in a Sears catalog, you actually called Memphis. And there's this, gosh, what is it? or nine stories tall? Something like that, yeah. Eight or nine stories tall kind of, I think it's empire style architecture building that takes up an entire city block. This thing is massive.

And at one time, I think it employed 16,000 employees at Sears. It had tons of stuff in it. It housed lots of sea level folks. And two of the floors were the call center for the Sears and Roebuck. What was that thing called? The catalogs, right? Yeah. They used to be the biggest phone books.

Yeah. I mean, I wasn't alive really in that era, but it basically was the Amazon of its day. It was the Amazon of its day. And all that was based to Memphis. And then as the Amazons of the day took over, that building was vacated and left empty for many years. And that area of the city around it kind of dilapidated because that thing was the anchor. And then probably, five, six, seven, eight years ago.

Longer than that. Oh, really? Yeah. Anyway, the area of town that's in is called Cross Town. And some years ago, not too long ago, some businesses, business folks in Memphis and developers. 2017. 2007. Seven years.

Yeah, you're right. They actually took two years to rehab it. They took the thing, and they said this is a revitalization project of not only this. building but the entire crosstown area around it and it has worked and it is now called the cross town concourse and it houses businesses it houses a high school it houses the Memphis listening lab where we have recorded from before it has another podcast studio in it it has restaurants the parking garage is huge it has a brewery off the back side of it that people go to after a microbrewery you can live there it's got an art museum it's got a theater and church

health, a huge health clinic. It's unbelievable. It's a city unto itself. It is a city unto itself. It's massive and it's revitalized all area and it's really cool inside because when they redid it, they left a lot of, I mean, they brought in a bunch of new stuff in architecture, but they left a lot of the original interior of the building to do this kind of mixed use look and they redid the entire exterior of the building but left all of the original brick and that empire type architecture and it's just a cool place so um that's cross sound for those who don't that's cross town concourse and church health center is there which is i think the largest free clinic for the working poor of its kind in the united states i think faith uh faith based yeah faith working but it's for the working poor correct

And y'all, this place is as nice as any doctor's office you'd ever want to go to with dental, vision, premium health care, as well as rehab services, right? Yes, sir. Started by my buddy Scott Morris. He's mentioned in this article. Let's roll, baby. Okay. Adrian Garcia was putting up Christmas decorations at Cross Town Concourse when he heard the troubling news. We were getting ready to turn on the Christmas tree that night.

Garcia, who leads the maintenance department at Crosstown, came to the United States from El Salvador 17 years ago. It was just an unfinished knitting project. Here's why it brought them to tears. He was a take-charge guy, said Tim Cowens, the operation manager for the building. We're lucky to have him as part of our community. The Christmas event was one of the year's happiest celebrations at Crossdown.

Hundreds gather as the glorious light display and the central atrium is turned on. Garcia and his team were working on last-minute decorations. A member of the team asked if he could take a quick bathroom break. When he came back, he said that he heard that Todd Richardson was having some kind of issue, he said. He told me to change the channel on my radio to find out. Garcia, 38, flipped the channel on his radio.

I heard them say that when the ambulance comes, they should send it to Todd Richardson's apartment. he said, I don't know why, but I just felt something. I ran to the freight elevator and I took it to the 10th floor. Richardson, the co-founder and CEO of Crosstown, the former art history professor who, along with Staley Cates, McLean Wilson, and Christopher Minor, dreamed up the idea of turning an old Sears warehouse into a vertical community village.

He will be around to celebrate Christmas because Garcia happened to hear that Richardson was in trouble, and because Garcia switched channels on his radio, and because he then headed for the freight elevator, and because of everything that happened next. Speaking as a physician, I can tell you that Adrian saved his life, period, said Scott Morris, the founder of Church Health, the community health organization that moved across town when it first opened in 2017. Richardson, 52, had just returned to his 10th floor apartment after working out. His wife Lee, who just happened to be in the apartment before heading out herself, heard him shout her name as he fell.

By the time she got to him, he was already turning blue. This is the ultimate widow-maker heart attack. The most common presentation of heart disease is sudden death, which is exactly what was happening here, until Adrian came along. Garcia has been with Crosstown since the day it opened, but even that was something of an accident. The building is managed by Cushman and Wakefield, commercial advisors, which handles other buildings as well. I was supposed to go to another building that day, Garcia said, but the person who was supposed to be here didn't show up. In the years since, Garcia has become part of the Crosstown family, so when he heard Richardson was in trouble, he raced to the elevator to help.

When I got up to 10, I have two options, he said. Go left to his apartment or go back to the right to pick up one of the AED machines. AED stands for automated external defibrillator, a portable machine that can reset a heart attack with an electric shock. Crosscourse has an AED on every floor. Garcia hadn't been told that Richardson was suffering a heart attack or anything like that. He went to get the machine anyway. Garcia arrived at Richardson's apartment at the exact same time as Roosevelt Jones, Crosstown's head of security.

When we got there, his wife was on top of him trying to do CPR, Garcia said, but he was already purple. Said Jones, I tried to take his pulse. We didn't say anything because his wife was there, but Adrian and I exchanged a look like, this is really bad. At which point Garcia had a single thought. What is coming to my mind, you know, is that Todd has two daughters, he said. One is going to be married next year and the other is going to be graduated next year.

I have three daughters myself. So what is going on in my mind is? I need to do something because those daughters need to have their dad. Crossdown trains all its employees on the AED machines every year, but neither Garcia nor Roosevelt had ever used one before. It tells you what to do, Garcia said. We shocked them the way it said. When I started to do CPR, he coughed. Garcia and Jones then exchanged another look. This one held at least one small bit of hope. And then the ambulance arrived, and the MTs and Garcia and Jones could only pray that they had done enough to help. Richardson was taken the hospital and placed on a ventilator.

The Christmas event went on as scheduled that night. The Cross Town Concourse-led Architects sought to build equality community. For those who knew what had happened, it was a bittersweet celebration filled with hope, as well as fears. Normally, every year, Todd is there, and he has a little triangle. He's in the symphony, Garcia said. One lady hugged me and started crying, saying, I don't know if my friend's going to make it. A lot of people came up to me and said, thank you, Adrian, for what you did. I told them we needed to wait 72 hours and wait and see what is real. The first 72 hours after art attack are critical in determining whether a victim will suffer brain damage. Did, Richardson,

get help in time. That was what I was waiting and praying, Garcia said. I wanted to see him for myself. Sure enough, Garcia and Jones were finally able to go visit Richardson in the hospital last Tuesday. He smiled. Garcia said he had color. After you see him purple, it's very different. It was wonderful. Richardson, who is expected to make a full recovery, sent the Daily Mimpean a message of gratitude for Garcia. Adrian is a special part. person, a good friend, and someone who Lee and I will be indebted to forever. He does everything with grace, humility, loyalty, and a love for the concourse. Yes, the building. It played a role in this too. As Cowans, the operation manager, put it,

I couldn't help but think that here's a man who breathed life into cross town the building, and it was in that building, that he himself was brought back to life. As for Garcia, he claims no credit for any of it. He said it's all God's good. work but he is looking forward to celebrating this Christmas with his wife and his daughters and the knowledge that Richard will be celebrating his as well what a great story normal person saving somebody's life a normal 17 year immigrant from al salvador from al sabador who is a maintenance manager for a building who ended up saving one of the guys who without whom the building wouldn't even exist what a cool what a great new year's christmas story and this just happened a few weeks

ago it's not some old story i thought it was a beautiful piece by your friend jeff jeff is a talented writer he's also a really good guy he's thoughtful and it's a really good piece and um so that's it It shows you how, I mean, Adrian just acted in the moment, too. It's not like he thought about it a lot about what to do and even that decision to go get that certain device. I mean, that he just made these instant decisions show what kind of character that the man had. And hence our kickoff of we fall to the level of our conditioning. And hopefully it's a good reflection on all of us about how are we conditioning ourselves every day. Yeah.

And I think that's the way to kind of trim the turkey here is that to make it all back to the beginning. which I think Alex aptly did with the quote is we don't rise to the level of our expectations. We fall to the level of our training, which is exactly what happened here. And it also speaks to the power of an army of normal folks because this lady would be a widow and her daughter getting married would not have her dad to walk her down the aisle. And there would be another tragedy amongst our midst if this normal guy among the army of normal folks didn't fall to the level of his training and act.

And so the truth is you never know when your opportunity is going to come along to make a massive difference in the world. And this is a great story illustrating it. The founder of Amway, I may have mentioned this before, but he had a great speech. He would say, like, people say, like, I'm just a garbage man or I'm just a maintenance man.

He's like, stop saying the word just. and he's like, hey, have your garbage man skip you a couple of times and see how important he is in your life. That's right. Have him skip you a double time and he ain't just a garbage man. We need that dude. And it's like how many of us have saved a person's life? Like, this maintenance man has done something more meaningful than most of us will ever do. Yeah, this is not just a maintenance man.

This guy's a hero. Yeah. Incredible. Very good story. I hope it brings a little thought to you guys. All right, that is shop talk number 85. And if you enjoyed the episode, please write it review it, subscribe to the podcast at normalfokes.us.

Write me anytime at Bill at normalfokes. With ideas for shop talks or guests for an army of normal folks. Don't be a stranger, reach out. I will respond. Alex will respond. And beyond that, do what you can. And we'll see you next week. Goodbye.

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Sign up for free at Lenovo.com slash pro. All right, son. Time to put out this campfire. Dad, we look at. learned about this in school. Oh, did you now? Okay. What's first? Smokey Bear said to. First, drown it with a bucket of water, then stirred with a shovel.

Wow, you sound just like him. Then he said, if it's still warm, then do it again. Where can I learn all this? It's all on smoky bear.com with other wildfire prevention tips, because only you can prevent wildfires. Brought to you by the USDA Forest Service, your state forester and the ad council. I didn't really have an interest of being on air. I kind of was up there to just.

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