Dive into an inspiring episode as Chrysondra Brunson sits down with Justin Ruffling Chauffeur, a transformational leader who shares his journey from a career in the NHL to empowering others through health optimization. Justin reveals the profound moments in his life where he discovered his God-given purpose and learned to live it out with conviction, despite challenging times. His story is a testament to the power of listening to God’s voice in silence and allowing it to guide our lives and decisions.
Welcome, everyone, to The Calling’s radio show to all the dreamers. I’m your radio host, Chrysandra Brunson, founder and CEO of The Calling. It is such an honor to be with all of you today. You know, at The Calling, we have realized that so many people are afraid to go after the dreams that God has put inside of each one of our hearts because they are afraid to fail. And that’s just plain wrong because we do not want to die with regret. We love to inspire, empower, and equip people to live out God’s dream on their lives and have immediate impact on yourself and your family to fulfill your calling and to be able to live out God’s calling on your life wholeheartedly through conferences, workshops, seminars, and especially through this radio program to all the dreamers and having incredible guests like we do today and having the one and only Justin and… Justin, you have to help me with your last name. I should have asked this beforehand, but it’s an incredible one, but it is long. Can you just use yourself?
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
It just rolls off the tongue. It’s Roethlingshoefer.
CHRYSANDRA :
See, it rolls right off the tongue. Jess, we’re just so honored to have you today, just on our show and for you just to be a new beloved friend. And can you just share with us a little bit about the roles that you play in humanity right now? And you are, of course, a son of God and a fearless leader, as well as a husband. Can you just go into some of those other roles as well?
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
Yeah, absolutely. So I always say in any introduction, my name is Justin and I’m an energetic leader that empowers others to optimize their earthly vessels to realize their God-given purpose. In kind of my journey, the roles I play today, you mentioned a couple, a husband, dog dad, business owner, coach, son, encapsulates a lot of those, but really leading people in And how do they realize their God-given purpose through health optimization? Previously, I spent about 15 years in the National Hockey League and the NCAA as a performance director. And my education took me through my postgraduate doctoral work in sleep, HRV, and recovery science. that we can optimize our bodies. And obviously going through Romans 12, it talks about the greatest form of worship is looking after this earthly vessel that God’s been If we’re not optimizing how we show up, if we’re not leading into that vessel and it’s not in a place that can ultimately function at a high level, our impact on this world and our ability to realize our gift, realize our calling, lean into it in a strong way is going to be minimized and shunted a little bit. And so that’s been really the calling that was put on my heart, which was in 2020 and uh, stepped away from the NHL, left it behind. Um, really was able to shed that from my identity and knew that going in and taking, um, this opportunity to help 26 men realize their optimal performance in a sport to now realize it, helping millions realize their, uh, how to optimize their, uh, bodies to realize their God given purpose.
CHRYSANDRA :
Justin, that is just so profound. And for you, I mean, you just said it kind of at the tip of your tongue, but just being in the NHL, but also then you said doctoral work, which is no small mountain to overcome or to go through. This is so remarkable. And so Justin, you living out your calling so profoundly is such a testimony to all of us and such an example and inspiration that each one of us can be able to not only go after what we think our calling is in one season, but to know that God has so much more even in the seasons after that one. And so when you were little, Justin, how can you see God just beginning to put, you know, and shape your dreams even more so of what he wanted you to do in the future?
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
I mean, it’s, I’ll try to condense this story down a little bit but when i was 12 years old i was playing hockey uh with 16 17 year olds and obviously you’re playing with kids that are much bigger than you much more developed and it was the first time that i really didn’t stand out as a player and my dad told me he said some talent will get you noticed but consistency will get you paid and that consistency was like what i was then after it was like that sounds really cool how do i become the most consistent version of myself and so that really entered me into this space of like wanting to know everything that i could about what i was doing which was um at 13 14 years old i was reading every medical journal i could get my hand on i always had more heart rate monitor to sleep i wore a brain pulse oximeter to sleep or a heart rate monitor when i was playing every sport that like I was like in it, trying to figure this stuff out. And for about three years, I started to just like go deep, deep, deep into the weeds. And that obsessive nature took over because as kids, when you’re different, when you stand out in a certain way, you’re picked on and you’re bullied. And I wasn’t gifted in terms of the aesthetics. I was a little bit overweight, but I was extremely athletic. if you guys were to see justin you’d be like wait what so as i actually started to implement a lot of this stuff i started to shed the weight and i started to not only then as you can imagine your performance also increased which was already at a high level and so i still remember going to training camp one year I was 16 years old and parents who had seen me for five, six, seven years didn’t recognize me. And they were like, oh my God, you look great. For the first time in my life, I started to get positive reinforcement from how I look rather than getting made fun of. And so I actually went through a real bad anorexic phase where I had a deep fear of going back. Even though I knew what I needed to do, I was like, no, I’m not even going to like lean into that. And so anyways, I got a great coach that helped kind of navigate me through that. It also put me in front of a lot of the top level doctors who worked with me through this. And so I got, again, deeper in my education. I was able to turn things around at 18, went down to the US on a hockey scholarship, played all through there, had a cup of coffee as a pro, but very quickly realized that my gift and my gifting was in coaching. And so I back up my master’s degree in my postgraduate work and entered into my career and started at Miami, Miami, Ohio, with my first my first director role and that obsessive nature that I think I talked about earlier. Went in, I had a wife at the time and it was all about work. It was all about serving the players. It was all about being there for them. And she ultimately left me. It was a hard time of my life. I became addicted to pain pills, sent me down a pretty dark road that nobody knew about. I suffered in silence. Um, because on the outside new, and there was a night that I was actually up on a rooftop, ready to take my life, um, 18 stories up, had one foot on the edge, kick a step off. And I got to pull up my collar and I fell and I looked up and that was the first time that God actually spoke to me. And I saw his face. He looked down and said, I’m not done with you yet. and so that was really like that first like reincarnating it was the next day it was off the pills was done um cold turkey made a decision uh went back the next year and uh started to uh work with my first nhl team um I went from Columbus to Washington to Anaheim. And it was during this time that I really started to focus on a lot of personal development and how can I change who I am and continue to level myself up as a leader and invested in relationships and started to build this great network that… allowed me to see more of my identity outside of just in hockey, but rather in what my true calling was, which was to serve people and at scale and be able to tell their story and be able to optimize their bodies and their minds, knowing that, again, people that we all have hundreds of dreams, hundreds of goals. But when we’re unhealthy, we have one by being able to take that off the table and keep those hundreds of goals, hundreds of dreams on the table for people and make them attainable and then make them, uh, be able to be able to reach them and feeling great doing it just became, became that calling. And, uh, in 2020 stepped away from the NHL and was able to then now bring that to, uh, to millions of people, which has been just amazing.
CHRYSANDRA :
Justin, that is so profound. I love that Jesus was just able to make himself known at just the deepest pit. He was just like, nope, this is it. And you said that you actually saw his face in that moment.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
I’ve heard his, I’ve heard God’s voice four times in my life and I’ve seen his face twice. So it’s been, it’s a blessing. He is real.
CHRYSANDRA :
Yes. And Justin, what what teams have you played on?
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
Yeah. So when I was when I was playing, I played college at Westfield University in Massachusetts. And then from there was the Columbus Blue Jackets farm system in Springfield and then coached with the Columbus Blue Jackets, the Wildcats. Austrian capitals, and then the Anaheim Ducks.
CHRYSANDRA :
I love it. And then God had you all over.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
When I say I was all over the place, between the ages of 18 and 30, I lived at about 22 different addresses.
CHRYSANDRA :
So having a stable Christmas card, we’re coming in the midst of the holiday season. So that was a challenge. Probably everyone needed to follow up to see what it was.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
And to be honest with you, like going back into like some deeper work is, and this is something like actively, like even real day that I continue to work through personally is I always, I call my time in the NHL, my ultimate failure, because I saw worldly success without success. deep inner fulfillment. And I wasn’t fulfilling my calling, what I was built for. And so even though everybody on the outside is like, wow, this is amazing. You’re doing great work. You have a dream job. I was like, no, I’m miserable. I hate it. I have this inner discontent. I know there’s something bigger that I’m supposed to be fulfilling. But quite frankly, I don’t know what it is because I keep myself so busy that I I don’t actually sit into it and listen to what is actually meant to be there.
CHRYSANDRA :
And just, I’m going to pause you right there. We have to take a short break, but we are excited because it does, it lies in that discontent that we could have this dream career for so many men and I’m sure women too, but You know, you have this dream, but it isn’t fulfilled. So we’ll be right back to hear some of this. We are here with Justin. And we thank everyone for tuning in to all the Dreamers radio show. I’m your host, Chrysandra Brunson. Stay tuned. Twist and shout with Lee & Co. They are the premier oldies band delivering the rock and roll vibes you’ve been missing. Great songs, great memories. Book them at LeeAndCo.com. Hi guys, this is Chrysandra Brunson, host of To All The Dreamers. I am so happy to introduce personal training, nutritional guidance, and behavioral change coaching. Healthy, happy, and heavenly for your wellness, spirit, soul, and body. Contact Mimi Kroger at healthyhappyandheavenly.com.
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CHRYSANDRA :
At Ignite Brilliance Coaching, you will get 34 years of science teaching, a decade of university-level instruction, and over 10 years of instructional coaching to empower educators with the tools, mindset, and confidence to thrive. Contact Ignite Brilliance Coaching on Facebook. This is The Calling on Crawford Broadcasting, the show where marketplace leaders share their stories of faith, bridging the gap between your career and your God-given calling. Listen every weekday or become a sponsor and help other people live out their God-given calling. We are back. Thank you for tuning in to all the Dreamers radio show. We are on with Justin, and I’m going to let him say his last name one more time because it’s an amazing last name. It’s just a little bit difficult.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
You hear it once and you won’t forget it. So it’s Justin Roethlingshoefer.
CHRYSANDRA :
And Justin, you were just captivating our hearts so intently with, you know, you were in the NHL for 13 plus years in a whole bunch of different capacities. And you were just sharing that there was just this inner discontent, just knowing that there was so much more. And people were coming up to you saying, oh, you’re living the dream job, the dream life. This is what you’ve always wanted. And you just knew that it wasn’t fulfilling. So take us back into that memory.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
Yeah. So I just, so I knew that there was something more. I knew that there was, like I said, that time in the NHL, I just called my ultimate failure because there was worldly success with a deep inner spiritual fulfillment. And it left me conflicted all the time. And in my upbringing, being that constantly with hockey, it was constantly moving in different addresses, different places, constantly on the go, whether it was my playing career or my coaching career. The only way that I knew or trusted that I was able to be successful was being tied to movement, was being tied to chaos, if you will. And that’s what I constantly felt that I needed to be in in order to realize or have any level of success. a little bit solid and be grounded in where I was, it actually put up this big fear of like, Oh, I’ve got to start moving. Otherwise like I’m not going to be successful anymore. I’m not going to be able to achieve anything. And the deep work that I was able to do allowed me to start to realize, no, I was actually successful in spite of all of that. And, actually stopping, slowing down, listening to what was going on, listening to what God was saying to me, listening and being aware of the different opportunities that were being placed at my feet. Not every door was one that God was blessing that I should open, but rather being more attentive to which ones those were that I could open that door and step through powerfully knowing that when I was rooted, I was able to be a better version of who I wanted to be. I was able to step through in a more solid, energetic and spiritually guided place that allowed success not to just be worldly, but to be supernatural. on what it would have been otherwise.
CHRYSANDRA :
So just you, so you came out of this 13 year career. How did you, cause I think a lot of times in pursuing our callings and God is shifting or twisting, pivoting us to the next season. How are you able to profoundly in that moment, shift and change and realize what he had in store for you in this next season?
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
Yeah, it wasn’t overnight. There was about six months of, and you can imagine, leaving the NHL, going into COVID, having this lockdown component where my wife, who in her own right is extremely successful, executive vice president of a major fashion company, Christian Louboutin, and knew exactly what she was doing. She was in a great career. And now I’m not working and trying to figure out what it is that’s next for me and having my identity tied to a name, three letters actually. And it wasn’t until, I’ll never forget, it was July. And I had been probably three, four months of like highs and lows, like big ebbs and flows in terms of what was going on internally with what I was struggling with. And My wife said to me, she said, just go out. And we lived in, uh, live in Miami and she’s just go out, grab the, the kayak and just go paddle around the bay. And I was like, okay. So disgruntled, I pull this kayak out and I start kayaking, kayaking around and I’m out there. And all of a sudden, probably I’m out there for probably 45 minutes. And I get this like little whisper. And when I looked up, if you have ever seen like a bullet hole in class, it’s almost like if you put your finger in the bullet hole, like the whole thing would shatter. I looked up and I just out of curiosity, I was like, you know what? Let’s just keep leaning into this voice. And all of a sudden it was like I put my finger in it and everything shattered and I got this major download and I just started to write and I started to write and I started to write and I started to write. And I was out there for about two hours and I came inside. I ended up typing it out on what I put on my phone. I typed it out on a computer. It ended up being about 30 pages deep. And that was the founding basically outline for what is now Onet. That ended up being the fourth time that I heard God’s voice. And the third time was when I met my wife.
CHRYSANDRA :
Oh, your life is now pretty amazing. I love that she encouraged you to like go adventure and hear God and just go.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
Yeah, it’s unique in the way that God’s worked in our lives. It’s been very organic and very purposeful and intentional. And just being willing to lean into what is there, I think is… And it’s just exceptional, not to mention just the way that God works, because even though I had the vision for what Onet was to become, what Onet was meant to be, he was also working simultaneously at Elise’s heart. And off of what I had put together, seven months later, Elise left her job and came and scaled our team and scaled our impact. And now we do get to do this together. And so that’s, I think, something very unique as well.
CHRYSANDRA :
So we want to know how you guys met each other, how the Lord spoke that. And we would love to know then after that about Own It and what it is, what the purpose is, and what’s on the horizon.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
Yes. So at least I met in Florida. So I bought a home sight unseen because I wanted to start an NHL camp for guys that I could help to rehabilitate them and understand their bodies inside and out genetically, cellularly. So I had a big. story that was attached to that. And knowing that when we look at what’s happening cellularly and genetically, we can actually predict addictions, we can actually predict other things that are going on and be much more purposeful and intentional. So I bought this house sight unseen where I wanted to hold the camp. Elise’s parents had a home in the same community, a winter home because they’re from Buffalo, New York. Elise was living in New York City at the time. I went to and this is in this community, like Naples, Florida. Nobody’s there in the summer. And so we were there, obviously me and all the NHL guys. And then Elise had been asked to host a bachelorette party for one of her best friends. And the venue that they were supposed to go to kind of fell through. And so she was like, oh, well, let’s just go to my parents’ home in Naples. And so obviously they came down. We met at the pool. Then we did long distance for two and a half years. And then now we’ve been together for almost seven.
CHRYSANDRA :
God is such a great storyteller. And I think everyone just kind of resonates with, especially just love stories. God is such a romantic. So that’s fun to hear your guys’s story and then to be able to align your guys’s purposes and your callings in this season and to come into alignment for own it so tell us about own it justin we want to know all about it and what’s on the horizon
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
yeah so what we what we do at own it is when i talk about optimizing earthly vessels it’s both mind and body so mind in terms of how do you think cognitive behavior how do you process information how do you handle stress and then from a physical nature being able to take a look at cellular nutritional dysfunction dna epigenetic information and get really personalized in what you’re doing because this health and wellness space has ultimately just put a big brush over everything and said, you can treat everybody the same. You’ll get all the same results, which it actually isn’t true. And so the more that we can get personalized, understand what you need. We then actually assign a team of people just like we would in a sports team where you’ve got a nutritionist, a, uh, sports psychologist, a, um, uh, strength and conditioning coach somebody that works with you holistically to then create the best possible human being or athlete we’re doing now the same thing on the entrepreneurial side and so we focus on entrepreneurs and executives and the reason that we do that is because the entrepreneurs and executives are the people that have leaned into that god-given calling they know what it is they want but their bodies and minds often fail them from being able to push through to realize that gifting at the maximal level. So we get very personalized, create personalized solutions based off these testing strategies to understand deeply what’s going on in terms of each person and then being able to execute on it.
CHRYSANDRA :
Well, I think just everyone tuning in is like, I want that. I know that I am thinking that and everyone tuning in. So that’s so exciting that God has gifted you and own it to be able to see this moment in humanity that we each do need to be. We need to be running. as Jesus intended us to, to be able to see his return. It says that there’ll be signs and wonders, and that’s in us being able to walk by faith wholeheartedly in our mind, body, and soul in that unique purpose. And so many times we are off in alignment. So to have a team behind each person, Jesus must be coming back sooner than later. Right.
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
We talk about it all the time in terms of like our tagline is own your different each and every one of us differently. And we have to be able to own that and lean into that to create ownership over our bodies before we can ultimately go and serve others, which is what we’re called to do. So the better we’re able to be equipped to do that, the better we can impact.
CHRYSANDRA :
Justin, real quick, we’re coming up towards the end of our show, but if you could give people tuning in right now one piece of wisdom that you have for them to live out their calling, the biggest piece of advice that you would say, you have to know this in order to live out your calling, what would you say?
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
God speaks in silence, and every other form of communication is a poor interpretation. And if we can be able to give ourselves moments of silence throughout the day, moments of peace, it doesn’t need to be long. Five minutes in the middle of the day, five minutes in the morning, five minutes at night. Just being able to find and carve those times out just to be quiet and allow God to speak into you will be an amazing way in which you can ultimately realize that inner discontent. And once you feel it and once you sit on it, don’t ignore it, but rather allow it to bloom and blossom into something beautiful.
CHRYSANDRA :
So profound. Yeah, I just love it. I love it. It reminds me of Exodus 14, 14, just to be still and know that God’s going to fight for us. But it’s so hard for us to be able to be still and to really trust him. So thank you so much for that profound wisdom. And Justin, I know everyone wants to get in touch with you and to be able to get involved and own it in this next season. How what would be the best way to do that?
JUSTIN ROETHLINGSHOEFER :
Yeah. So I’m super active on social media. It’s just at Justin Roth on Instagram or just go to ownitcoaching.com and you can find all of our contact information there.
CHRYSANDRA :
Well, we are so thankful for you, Justin, and would love to have you back and on. Hopefully your bride can join us as well. And we’re just so honored and excited for this upcoming season and all that God has and all of us going after our God-given calling. We welcome everyone to get in touch with Justin and, uh, our other guests at the callings website, the calling nonprofit.org to be able to be inspired, empowered, and equipped to go after God’s calling on your life. And we just, we think everyone to know that you are here for such a time as this till next time. Dreamer keep dreaming big.
