5 Oct 2026 · 2 min
Brian Johnson talks to a phlebotomist in a Walmart parking lot who has an angel tattoo honoring his great-grandmother. He uses the encounter to ask you to identify and reach out to the people who've shaped your life, the ones you'd call your angels.
Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another Heroic Plus One. I'm typing this from the parking lot outside of Walmart. I just got my blood drawn as part of a little experiment I'm running as I mix up my nutrition protocol. We'll chat about that another time. Today, I want to chat about the guy I met in our brief little Love 2.0 moment. So I'm in Quest. I check in 20 minutes early. Their systems are insanely efficient. They're very efficient. My guy cruises out to get me 10 minutes before my scheduled time. I celebrate him and how efficient they are. He says, yeah, you have an appointment and we're amazing. Otherwise, it can be a challenge. As he gets to work on my left forearm, he asks me about what my Heroic tattoo is all about. There's always a story with tattoos, he says. I say, yeah, Heroic is a company I created. He says, cool. Then I ask him about his tattoos as both his arms are covered with them. He laughs and says, well, I got almost all of my tattoos before I was 17. And he says, I was a rough kid. I said, well, which one is your favorite one? And he didn't hesitate. And he said, this one of an angel. It represents my great-grandmother who raised me. I got tears in my eyes typing that and saying that. And I had tears in my eyes when I said to him, wow, that's amazing. She must have been a really special person, an angel. And he said, yeah, she was. And that's today's plus one. Who's your angel? Pause. Think about it for a moment. Who comes to mind? Think about them. Celebrate them. If they're alive, call them. If they're not alive, beam them some love. If you're blessed to have more than one angel in your life, repeat the exercise. Here's to appreciating just how blessed we are to have those angels. In our lives. Hey, this is Brian. Thanks for spending a few minutes with me today. If you enjoyed it, please hit subscribe so that the best of the show keeps landing in your feed. Then head over to heroic.us. That's heroic.us, where you'll find the full library of wisdom I've created over the last 20 years, as well as the app, advanced training programs, coaching, and everything else we've built to help you optimize your life Actualize your potential and live heroically. It is day 1. We are all in. Let's go.
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