Start With A Win - Turning Loss into Inspiration with RE/MAX Agent, Bruce Johnson

Episode Date: February 19, 2020

On this episode of Start with a Win, Bruce Johnson joins us to discuss his family’s story of losing a child and how the commitment to carrying out her legacy has led them on many adventures over the past 20+ years. Before they started their family, Bruce and his wife, Mary, spent 3 years riding their bikes from the Arctic Ocean to Argentina, camping on the side of the road and in people’s yards, and experiencing the best parts of humanity along the way. This planted in Bruce the love of people and a resilient spirit, preparing him and his wife for a future that was still unknown to them. A few years later, Bruce became a RE/MAX agent and the broker of his office told him that he was going to be a Miracle Agent, meaning that a portion of his commissions would be contributed to Children’s Miracle Network. At the time, he had never thought about hospitals where sick kids would go, but all too soon he found himself sitting in the waiting room, pacing the halls, and sleeping on the floor of just such a hospital. Bruce and Mary had a daughter named Alyssa, who was born with a condition that caused some of her organs to be outside of her body. She lived for about 3 weeks, and before he passed away, Bruce promised her that he would remember her always. Bruce started the Alyssa Rae Johnson Fund and Motorcycle for Miracles as a way of raising money for Children’s Miracle Network, the hospitals, and the families taking care of sick kids. Bruce and Mary now have two more daughters. When their daughter, Holly, was in the hospital having surgery, she asked her dad if they could go for a motorcycle trip when she was better. Bruce thought about it for a while and came up with the idea to make their motorcycle ride into a fundraising opportunity. They have faced many perils and obstacles during these rides, but they have also experienced so many kind people along the way. The Johnsons have now raised close to $500,000 for sick and injured children through these rides. Connect with Bruce:NAR video: https://youtu.be/6HMVL--DziA Bear video: https://youtu.be/t4BHbEQBvbo RE/MAX Trip video: https://youtu.be/8OgMQvgASxA Motorcycle for Miracles: http://www.motorcycleformiracles.com/Donation Page: https://www.sickkidsdonations.com/registrant/FundraisingPage.aspx?registrationID=3184197&langPref=en-CA#&panel1-2Connect with Adam:https://www.startwithawin.com/ https://www.facebook.com/REMAXAdamContoshttps://twitter.com/REMAXAdamContos https://www.instagram.com/REMAXadamcontos/ Leave us a voicemail:888-581-4430

Every day is filled with choices. You're here because you're choosing to start with a win. Get ready to be inspired, learn something new, and connect with the win nation. And coming to you from REMAX World Headquarters, top of the 12th floor at the lovely mothership here. 39 North is kind of what we call ourselves. Mark, how are you doing, buddy? I am so good. Producer Mark is at the weather window. That's right.

Backdrop to the beautiful Colorado Rockies outside here. You always just wake up and look out there. Even when the weather is crappy, you feel blessed. We do. We do. And I love your shirt today, man. Oh, thank you very much. My shirt says kindness is not weakness. That's right. Which is a message we're always trying to share with the world, right? Be kind. Do something nice for somebody. Right. What do you got to lose, right? That's right. Speaking of kind, we have one of the kindest people that I know, a very, very dear friend of ours, an amazing REMAX agent, all-around great human being who's done some incredible stuff, Bruce Johnson from Canada. How are you doing, buddy?

Wow, great. What an intro. That's the sweetest intro I think I've ever received. Thank you very much, Adam. It's great to be with you today. Hey, you're welcome. I mean, this is a human being that when I see him, we get a hug. So virtual hug, my friend. You're up in Canada, we're in Colorado, but look forward to seeing you again soon. But we've got some great stuff to talk about here.

I'm excited. All right. So Bruce, first of all, you've done so much in recently 2019 NAR Good Neighbor Award winner, which is really the kind of the foundation for why we're talking today, the reasoning behind that. Before that, you're a REMAX agent. You've been with REMAX for quite a few years. Can you kind of give us a little bit of an overview of who's Bruce and what are you about? Wow. Let's see. Mid-50s. How far back am I going here? Well, no, honestly, I joined Remax 23 years ago and it was the single greatest thing. And I was one of those people who lived a bit of life before coming to real estate. There's, there's two kinds, right? Right at a school,

going to real estate. And you look so young that nobody wants, nobody believes that you're old enough to sell a home, but you gain a lot of knowledge that way. Or you come to it with life knowledge. I was a journalist and a traveler for years and years and years. Then I realized that I had a lot of the skill set that makes a really good realtor. I love people. I love talking to people. I think that's probably the key for any good realtor. If you want to be in this business and survive, you have to really enjoy human beings because that's where all of the good sauces in this meal of real estate that we eat is.

That's it. It's people. People to people all the time. You're just so deep into that because it's human being first anytime you ever talk to Bruce Johnson. It's so cool. Yeah. Business for you and me to talk in the hallway is always the 13th thing we get to.

I want to hear what your family's doing. You always ask about mine. I think that's the joy of life because business is happening around our lives. We're not living for the business. We're in business to enrich our lives. And that's the key. That's how my wife, Mary, and I look at this. And that's how we've grown our business. And it's been very successful from what we judge success as. That's having a very happy life. You interweave so much of the human aspect into your business. The tragedy that you went through in your life and the loss of a child and the direction you've taken that in order to give back to society, back to mankind, to help people has been woven into your business as well for no other reason but to give.

And that's what I want to talk about today, Bruce, is kind of the journey that you've taken. Very heartfelt journey, very personal journey, but it's one that you've been so giving to share with the rest of us and really make a huge dent in the universe with by helping so many other people. So if you don't mind, let's kind of jump into the late 90s, if that's all right with you. Yeah. Alyssa's story is the way we refer to it. I had just started in real estate in 1997. Mary and I had done a long journey together. We were traveling on bicycles for three years.

We actually went from the Arctic Ocean down to Argentina. And along the way, we went through everything together that a human being could possibly experience with another. So it was like we barely knew each other when we started this trip. And by the end of the trip, we'd been tested in almost every way a couple could be tested. So we got home. We flew back to Ontario, Canada, where we live, and Marys, Minnesota, by the way. And we got back here and decided to go into real estate. We got married.

And about a year, year and a half after getting married, we were pregnant with our first child. And we were so ecstatic. And I love how our story starts, because the very first day of my very first start of real estate ever was with Remax. My sister, Marilyn, is the broker owner here in town. And I signed my broker papers to join her brokerage as an agent. And she pushed another piece of paper across in front of me. And I said, what's this? And she said, you're going to be a miracle agent. I said, great. What's a miracle agent? She said, well, every time you sell a house, you're going to donate a portion of your commission

to the children's hospital nearby. Great. What's a children's hospital? I swear to God, at 32, 33 years old, I didn't even know what a children's hospital was. All my nephews and nieces, I never had any experience with the children's hospital. So I was a miracle agent from day one. And I can't tell you how grateful I am that we came to it. And that's the greatest gift that Remax ever gave me to this day in my life, was bringing the Children's Miracle Network into the lives of the agents because

you've brought us... There's so many things that a large real estate company could be involved with in communities. But what's more important, in my estimation at least, what's more important than children's health? Because it's Whitney Houston's song, They Are the Future. They really are. It's all about the kids. It's all about the kids. So we're working in real estate. A year and a half later, we have our first child, Alyssa. And we find out just before she's born that she has a significant issue. It's called an emphalocel, where part of her internal organs are born outside of her body. It's extremely rare. And part of her heart was actually outside too. So it made her condition even tougher to overcome. So we were whisked off to SickKids Hospital in Toronto.

And I went from not knowing a year earlier what a children's hospital was to sleeping on the floor of a children's hospital until we could get into the Ronald McDonald House nearby. So it was very intense. Alyssa was born on November 17th. And it was going very well until it wasn't going well. And we lost her on December 6th. And I think the bicycle trip was so incredibly tough because the universe was preparing us for what was about to come. Because I don't think we could have survived the level of loss that we

survived, Adam, by losing Alyssa. A loss of a child, your first child, your third, wherever in order it is, there's just no, it's out of the natural order of things, right? We don't outlive our children. No parent ever wants to outlive their child. So it's a devastating thing. It leveled us. And the community that picked me up, the community that really saved us, because we people, people, we wrote newsletters every month, and we shared our pregnancy, and we took pictures of Mary's tummy growing. So all the people, all the clients, the small group of clients I had starting out, they and my family, of course, but they all formed this protective circle around me. And it made me realize early on in my career that we don't have normal jobs.

If you're a real estate agent, if you're doing it right, it's not a normal job because you're in the community, you're with these people, you're selling them these boxes that they keep their memories in. It's the most powerful thing out there. I think we have the most powerful job in the world. I don't think anybody gives back to their communities more than realtors. I think we're like 60% more than any other group of people. Realtors give back. So to have my clients, when I came back to work a month later, my desk was filled with presents and flowers. And that taught me something. We're always learning, but that was a huge life lesson this was my tribe these are my people and so we've always we've always involved them in everything we do and as we've moved along and we had holly and we had jocelyn after that so we've got two two daughters currently and then uh we're

done at two we're done you know we've always shared our life with all of our clients and it's made our lives so much richer because of it and And so we've since then involved our Remax family in that as well. And that's kind of the evolution of motorcycle for miracles, which I'm sure you're going to, you're going to probably want to talk about here with that. That's how we got to where we are. You know, it was the loss of Alyssa that's so early in my career that it just, it blew up our lives and what was rebuilt was so much more special. So Alyssa's short little blessed time on this planet was super, super impactful though in changing how you view you can do to help. You started doing some amazing things after that when

you saw the opportunity with Children's Miracle Hospitals, Children's Miracle Network Hospitals, and Sick Kids in Toronto. You said, I'm going to do something about this to give back and help the kids that we can continue to help on this planet. You started something in the name of ELISA, thessa Rae Johnson Fund. You wanted to contribute to that. So take us from there. How did you start creating impact in Alyssa's name and what did that look like? We began creating impact with Alyssa's name or in Alyssa's name. It was more for her memory because I promised her before she passed away. It might seem funny to some people or strange, but I remember vividly promising this 20-day-old child, she's squeezing my finger and looking me in the eye. There's a video that the

National Association of Realtors just made for the Good Neighbor Award. It's so beautifully put together. And it's the first time we've ever shared any of the actual video. We only have one little clip of video. And when people see Alyssa, they see that she was real, that we held her and touched her and changed her diapers. And again, squeezing my finger. Those moments when you promise a child that you'll never forget them, it was impossible to not follow through on that. So Holly has been through SickKids numerous times for eye surgeries. Jocelyn's been there for other issues years later. So to walk down those same halls and intersperse with that or remax events that we would go to the hospital.

So we'd have these celebratory events at SickKids and there were certain areas I couldn't wander because I would just get torn up. That's how Motorcycle and Miracles actually came to be. I was in the hospital with Holly. She was having an eye surgery in 2013 in June. She'd asked me a little earlier that year if we could take a motorcycle trip together. I said, where do you want to go? She said, Costa Rica. That's normal. Sure. Why not? Right. So we, we loosely planned this trip to Costa Rica and back on the motorcycle. And when she was having her surgery, there's a parent waiting room in Sickness Hospital. And I can't be in that room because that's where we got

devastating news about Alyssa. I just can't go back in that room. So I found myself in front of the room where Alyssa passed away. And a nurse walked along and just speed the story up a little bit. I went back in the room where she actually passed away in our arms and had this very cathartic release of emotion that probably had just been pent up for years. And I came downstairs and Holly was just waking up from the anesthesia. And I said to Mary and Holly, the motorcycle trip, why don't we make it a fundraising vehicle for CMN? Why don't we try and raise money more than what we donate annually? It's not enough.

I strongly felt that. I felt that what we're donating every year just isn't enough. We could do more. And I think that's, with anybody who gives back anything, there's that moment where you realize you're not doing enough. And once that switch gets thrown, you become a crazy person for wanting to do more. It's incredible. It's like a drug now.

When you realize how fulfilling it is and how, if people realized how selfish, truly selfish giving was, like that oxymoron it's true true giving is is the most selfish thing because it fills us with pure joy so everybody out there if you're not giving yet if you want in the little secret start giving you won't turn the faucet off it's it's it's just so incredibly fulfilling so we set up a foundation at sick kids hospital in alissa's name and we set off on the first trip, 2013, on a snowy day in November. And we were gone five months. And I think we reached $107,000.

And we did that through reaching out to our REMAX network, just asking for sponsorship. But we didn't know what we were doing. We would pull into Victoria, Texas, and open up the REMAX office door and walk in with our helmets, all the dirt on our faces, and just explain every time who we were. And it was a very hard way to fundraise because you're explaining every single day, 10 times a day. So the second trip we took, we went across Canada in 2016. We visited all 14 children's hospitals in 31 days, the month of miracles for REMAX. And we had champion agents on that journey. And that was the idea that kind of started everything for us.

And again, anybody looking to start any kind of philanthropic endeavor, there's right things to do and wrong things to do. We were doing all kinds of wrong things. We didn't know any better. So we've evolved into this machine now with this group of people behind us called champion agents. And Adam, we sincerely consider you a champion agent because of all the stuff you've done through your your platform as the ceo of remax llc like you've been so generous to us and so taking care of us and flying above us kind of like an angel over top

as we ride keeping stuff out of the way but by by gathering this group of champion agents it's given us and we have 100 champion agents now this group of people really, it's given us, and we have 100 champion agents now, this group of people, really, it's like a column. And when you go to battle, all the different, they're just a wedge in front of us, keeping stuff at bay. And they're also tremendous fundraising supporters. They've all each donated $2,000 or more. So it was finding the Remax tribe to help make this a bigger thing. But it all came from that seed moment of standing in the room where Alyssa passed away, having that thought of, oh my gosh, we need to do more. Let's talk about some of the huge obstacles that you faced in the ride or some of the dangers you faced in the ride because there were a lot of them. Yeah. Give us a little bit of rundown on

some of these things. I know you had a run-in with a bear. That was a great one. A really big one. I mean, was that like a grizzly bear or something like that? It was actually, it was a cinnamon brown bear. I always thought it was a grizzly until a friend of mine who's a hunter said, that's a cinnamon brown bear and they're squirrely. Because that bear, you've seen the video, that bear spun on us so fast. And in hindsight, I probably would have waited even longer but it wasn't leaving the road adam we had to go it was cold and kind of rainy and

yeah we watched that bear up the walk up the road and i finally said holly we're gonna pass the bear hold on tight put your camera away and she didn't of course yeah well at least you got video of it then you know and let's just be real here a brown bear is one of the largest predators on the planet, right? Yeah, it was a big bear. The fact that it turned so quickly and decided in that millisecond that we were food and not a danger to her was so incredible to me. I'll post a link after that. Whenever this appears on Start With A Win, I'll post a link just to that because if people are wondering what I'm talking about, it's a pretty remarkable spin.

It had the bear spun to the left instead of the right. We wouldn't be here having this chat. Oh, wow. Got to Edmonton. And this is one of my favorite stories, the trip. And you never tell the story because it's about you and you're so modest, but I'm going to tell it right now. When we got to Denver and we brought the motorcycle into LLC headquarters, which is always one of my favorite places to have the motorcycle and to visit because you guys are like remaxers around around the world hear me now we really are a big family if you if you don't understand or if you don't believe that go to llc headquarters one day go to your regional headquarters and feel the love so the motorcycle's in there you came down

to say hi you said how's the trip going and you're such a perceptive guy and i think that's back to your police years but you're such a perceptive guy i said great great and you said how's the trip going and you're such a perceptive guy and i think that's back to your police years but you're such a perceptive guy i said great great and you said how's the bike running i said super any problems other than edmonton no going good what was edmonton i said well the rear differential went and you said did you have it repaired or replaced and i said uh repaired you said how do you feel about that i said i don't know i guess it's not not great if i get to Bolivia and it breaks again. And you literally walked away from me on your phone. If you recall this moment, and you were talking to Dave Linegar Jr. already, you walked away. And I told you the story about

how they couldn't get the part because it would be three weeks or four weeks in Canada. Adam, you had that part overnight shipped to Dave Linegar seniors motorcycle shop. You had them come and take the motorcycle back out of the LLC headquarters and out to the motorcycle shop. They brought the bike back to where I was staying. It was, it was an incredible moment, but I remember standing there with you. And again, here's the support that you gave us on the trip. And I know you didn't want them to make this about you, but I love the story. You started looking at the bike while you're still on the phone with Dave Jr. And you're saying, okay, what about these lights? They're broken. I said, no, don't you

say, yeah, he needs new front running lights and tires. Good. Yeah. Tires. Like you just went through and the bike came back to us like a new machine. It made a massive, massive difference. Takes a village, my friend. And I'll tell you, you're the leader of the village, undisputedly, but, and we'll talk about Ecuador in a few minutes. But so that was one of those moments where the motorcycle really, she didn't let me down because it still made it to Edmonton

and would have made it, I'm sure, all the way. But just that fear in the back of my mind that had the differential gone in the mountains of Bolivia or somewhere where I was really in a dangerous spot with Holly, that would have been awful. Because always Holly's safety is the main thing, right? And you didn't have to say anything. I could see it in your face. Really? Yeah. When I

said, how do you feel about this? And you were, I mean, you're not a very good liar, Bruce. No poker game? No, no poker face, man. So I mean, I'm looking at it going, we got to do something. Let's do everything we can to make this thing work. And then you spent a couple of days here. Walter Schneider was out here and just blessed the whole thing with an amazing donation to the event. I mean, it was so cool to sit there and watch that happen. Yeah. Walter's one of my favorite humans. And he and the Schneider Family Foundation donated $25,000 on the spot. And then there's that great clip of you and Walter standing there as the fire trucks roll in behind full sirens. That was great.

But yeah, so many good moments. So if somebody, when people ask me, Bruce, tell me three things about the trip. It's impossible. It's impossible because the first three things would be people related. But there's 3,000 moments like that. Yeah. Let alone travel incidents. Let alone things that impressed me with Holly. first three things would be people related, but there's 3000 moments like that, let alone travel incidents, let alone things that impressed me with Holly. Just so much good. If Holly had a life hashtag, it would be so much good. She always says that as a teenager, it's a cool statement,

but it's got so much meaning too. It's so much good. These trips have been filled with so much good. The coolest thing that filled with so much good. The coolest thing that I always thought was you guys found love everywhere you went. I mean, there were REMAX agents, people who are not REMAX agents, just people on the side of the road, other riders. You hooked up with some riders that are a lady that's riding across Central America or something like that. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. the Peruvian-Ecuador border. I think when you look for love, you find love. I think when you put love out, love comes back to you.

And I'm a huge believer in that. I'm a believer in positive imagery. So I don't wake up every day being afraid of the world. That's never been a part of my life because I've traveled all my life. And I know a lot of people like this. They're always saying, Bruce, what was the worst part of Mexico?

I'd have to think really hard because Mexico is one of my favorite places. I've cycled through it. I've walked through it. Mexico, I could live there tomorrow. Oh, Bruce, was Nicaragua scary? No, it was phenomenal. That's where Gabby Castillo lives, a great Remax family. I've got so many.

And Mary and I pedaled and lived on the side of the road and pitched a tent every night for three years. 34 months we lived on the side of the road with Latin American families. We would knock on a door. We would walk up and knock on a door and ask people, is it safe to camp in your yard? How do you say no to that? If you're a human being and someone knocks on your door and they look like we did, like road dirt and diesel and wild-eyed because a truck almost hit you. And yeah, so our hearts are full of that. And now Holly's and Jocelyn, our youngest daughter too, she's traveled like that too. Their hearts are full of that. It was a big deal for me before we even had children, that we would raise our children knowing not to be afraid of the world,

to embrace the world. The people who inspire me are Nobel Prize winners, the people who do good, the people who give back, the people who aren't afraid. People need to stop living their lives afraid and embrace other human beings. It's a big part. So if you travel like that, if there's no fear in your heart, you're not going to attract fear. You're just going to attract all the good stuff. I think we find what we look for. 100%. 100%. not going to attract fear. You're just going to attract all the good stuff. I think we find what we look for. A hundred percent. A hundred percent. When you get out there and you want to give and be a good human being, I think it comes back to you so much. And you referenced that earlier. The list is always there. The Children's Miracle Network, the children, they're always there. They're always a part of this. When we're on a bad day, tough weather, bike problems,

I think of the kids. I'll tell you, the stuff they're going through, and because we've been involved with CMN for so long, we know a lot of families who've lost children, who have children going through chemo right now, have kids who have brain issues and epilepsy. The stuff that those kids go through on an hourly basis doesn't compare to our worst day. So again, people need to wake up in the morning and if they're having bad thoughts, think of that. Just think of that. We're so fortunate.

We're so blessed in our lives, aren't we? Oh, big time. Anybody watching this, you are lucky. If you're watching this, you are very lucky. Just to start, you're very lucky. It's hard for us to imagine. I mean, you go over 37,000 miles. You raise $700,000.

Yeah, we're there. Isn't that crazy? What an incredible adventure, an incredible way to give back. How can you not though? I know. It touches your heart. It demonstrates the goodness of mankind. Our friend Bruce Johnson, I mean, you're at the center of this, man. I mean, we can't do anything but say a huge thank you, big hug, tons of gratitude for what you do for everybody.

Thank you, Adam. Thank you very much. And thanks for having me on today. This has been a great gift. It's so fun to be able to share all the stuff that's been happening with Remax and the journeys and Motorcycle for Miracles and updating on Holly's life and everything else. Bruce, I always close the show by asking our guests, how do you start with a win? And I got to tell you, society gets a win every time you wake up, man, because I mean, you're just such a great human being and you know, we just,

we love you to death and thanks for what you do. Adam, thank you. Thank you so much for listening to start with a win. If you'd like to ask Adam any questions or potentially be on our next episode, give us a call and leave a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go onto iTunes and subscribe, write a review and leave a message at 888-581-4430. Don't forget to go on to iTunes and subscribe, write a review, and rate the show. For more great content, follow Adam on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

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