Brandon Johnson Talks About His Life Altered After A Car Crash

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:02

Hello, everybody, welcome to another episode of

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:05

Hope Without Sight with your host, Saylor Cooper,

Tyler Evans: 00:00:09

and this is your co host, Tyler ovens.

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:14

All right? We're episode 29. Yay, almost one

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:20

episode closer to 30. This time we have a man who has an

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:26

extraordinary story to tell because we like to feature

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:30

people who've overcome challenges in life. And Tyler,

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:34

you want to say Hope Without Sight is not a metaphor, but a

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:39

what?

Tyler Evans: 00:00:43

It is a metaphor.

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:46

It's a metaphor, the what? How you say?

Tyler Evans: 00:00:50

Well, it's not hope, necessarily hope without

Tyler Evans: 00:00:55

vision. It's hope without hope. Yeah. In other words, it's like,

Tyler Evans: 00:01:00

you know, sometimes you have dark situations and you don't

Tyler Evans: 00:01:05

feel that there's hope. Well, there's still hope.

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:08

Yeah. And so that's, that's a topic

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:11

surrounding this podcast out today. We have a man who has

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:18

been through a lot. He was in a car accident since he was at the

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:24

age of seven, and was told he would never be able to do

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:27

anything. And he has clearly done so much stuff, including

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:32

writing many books. Please welcome Brandon Johnson.

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:36

Brandon, how you doing?

Brandon Johnson: 00:01:38

I'm doing I know you're doing doing

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:41

well. Thanks for being on the Hope Without Sight.

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:44

So start us off. You were in a car accident as a little boy.

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:49

That changed your life. Forever. So start us off.

Brandon Johnson: 00:01:55

I was seven years old I was in a bad car

Brandon Johnson: 00:01:59

wreck babysitter was driving my little brother my middle brother

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:04

was in the backseat of the car and after reg a keep the window

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:10

out and walk down the road in the house. And they come again.

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:20

Oh us and babysit her dad, he cut her the car would Jaws of

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:26

Life. And doctors told me I will never be able to walk again. And

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:33

or I'll never be able to do anything again. I will be a

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:39

couch potato. Wow. Bye for now. I've graduated high school. I

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:46

sort of went to college but I did get a family on my own now.

Brandon Johnson: 00:02:53

A little girl and I'm writing books written at no I'm ready to

Brandon Johnson: 00:03:06

more now.

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:08

That's why you've sent me a whole lot of books I

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:11

have yet to you know take a look at them and indeed if I can help

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:14

promote them that would be fabulous. So wow, the accident

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:19

was so bad that clearly it it caused a lot of damage now, I

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:24

mean you survive but did was what did everybody survive it

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:29

was there someone that did not

Brandon Johnson: 00:03:32

everybody, everybody survived. It's just

Brandon Johnson: 00:03:36

disabled now and I'm walking with a game. If I go to Walmart

Brandon Johnson: 00:03:41

or a big store, I have to use the wheelchair after a while but

Brandon Johnson: 00:03:46

it takes a whole day. And like I said I've written 18 books, but

Brandon Johnson: 00:03:54

only six of them are out on Amazon and Kindle. The others

Brandon Johnson: 00:03:58

are being published now. So if you take a little while but I

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:03

got covers to all of them.

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:07

I am on Audible and I audio according to just

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:11

add text

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:13

there on Amazon and Kindle. They're all

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:17

paperback we don't want to try to get a few our bags and now my

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:22

next on the next one did are published.

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:26

And hopefully you can get someone to record them

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:28

to the audible. Yes, so people can listen to him as well.

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:33

I thought about doing that too. But right now,

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:37

I'm just writing them and having them published I got to get my

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:44

feet in the door and other places. Because in the summer.

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:50

I'm doing a documentary on my first book which is about me,

Brandon Johnson: 00:04:57

and how to rig happened and everything You overcome and

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:03

everything so far in my life.

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:07

Wow. So tell us more about the lack. Like I

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:10

imagine it the wreck was so bad that you were in the hospital

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:13

for several days you probably were in a coma you had to have

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:18

multiple surgeries, I imagine like

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:22

it was more than a couple of days. Yes, it

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:25

was three months here and then the doctor, the head doctor

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:32

really never did anything that he's supposed to do. And he

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:38

pulled his head in the door. Colin is self checking on me but

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:42

I greased up running out my head. So I was transferred to

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:48

Atlanta, Georgia to Scottish Rite and they told me straight

Brandon Johnson: 00:05:55

in and did surgery and everything had to do get dead

Brandon Johnson: 00:06:00

cleaned up and then stayed up air for three more months. And I

Brandon Johnson: 00:06:07

didn't get to honour present and I'm still not at all under

Brandon Johnson: 00:06:12

present but a more moving oh mom

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:16

that's good. So you you move it you use it you

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:20

can walk but you use a walker Right? Right. Wow. And I noticed

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:25

that you had to yet I obviously like the accident was so bad

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:32

that it even cost him brain damage because you had to walk

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:37

and talk again because before the accident you were just

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:40

perfectly normal right?

Brandon Johnson: 00:06:42

Right I was a normal good playing little

Brandon Johnson: 00:06:45

league ball loved Good morning you were good dream was to be a

Brandon Johnson: 00:06:52

professional ballplayer. But that oh, god stood out when I

Brandon Johnson: 00:06:57

had to read because like I said, when the rake happened, she ran

Brandon Johnson: 00:07:02

out the road repeatedly and needed to re upload the front

Brandon Johnson: 00:07:06

window into three hit on traumatic brain injury.

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:12

Wow. So you will wow. So when the car so it

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:16

wasn't you didn't hit any of the cars the car hit the tree and

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:20

you will eject it from the vehicle. Wow. And you survived.

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:24

Right? Because I've heard stories that people who are in

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:30

those accidents when they especially if a car even if a

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:33

car flips ejected. They don't they don't survive.

Brandon Johnson: 00:07:40

Most of them don't. But our outlook you know,

Brandon Johnson: 00:07:43

buddy,

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:44

yeah. And you're very blessed. Because, you know,

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:48

even though you know you had other plans in life. You know,

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:55

obviously after the accident, the lawyer, whoever your higher

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:03

self is, whoever you believe in, he made a way and gave you

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:09

another chance in life.

Brandon Johnson: 00:08:11

Right. And now I'm writing books. I know, I'm

Brandon Johnson: 00:08:16

not the only disabled person out there. That's why I wrote my

Brandon Johnson: 00:08:20

book. Wow. I hope it helps others to

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:29

say you are helping others because we're

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:31

helping others to you know, Tyler, you and other blind and

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:36

we have very similar stories. Yes, we work together.

Tyler Evans: 00:08:42

You know, my mom she had a major accident in the

Tyler Evans: 00:08:45

70s 19/79.

Brandon Johnson: 00:08:48

March March 7 and 93.

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:51

I was born in 93 in June. Yeah,

Brandon Johnson: 00:08:55

he was. My little brother was to just six

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:00

months old and when this happened,

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:03

and how was your brother? Is he is he okay, was

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:05

he who was hurt worse you or your brother?

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:08

Me? My brother kicked out the back window. And

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:14

all we had was a few scratches on him. That's all Oh yeah.

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:20

I don't know. I mean, maybe I guess because he

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:23

was smaller. I don't know. I mean, I don't know that. I

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:26

guess. Maybe because he had he probably must have hit the

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:29

ground. Maybe he didn't hit the tree like you did.

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:33

You didn't get a Jacob from a car. Oh,

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:36

I see. He did. Oh, he didn't get ejected from

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:38

the car. I see.

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:40

You kick that back window. Julie. Good. Get

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:43

out. To go get ill.

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:45

Oh, so he he was six months. Oh, wow. Oh, no, no,

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:51

wait.

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:51

That one was five years old. State month Oh

Brandon Johnson: 00:09:55

with at home and the baby crib. Take a

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:58

baby. Oh, I see the five year five. Have you

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:00

have levelled? Oh, yeah, she he was the one he was the one that

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:06

so he never got ejected. He was still in the car and got. And he

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:13

just got out the back window and got help.

Brandon Johnson: 00:10:15

Right

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:17

Wow. nWow, that's great

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:25

wow all right.

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:29

Wow, your your brother, your brother, he was a hero. And I

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:36

mean he helped y'all get to the hospital in time and right. And

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:41

the baby said what was she all right

Brandon Johnson: 00:10:44

after a good round of afternoon because she

Brandon Johnson: 00:10:48

had to go. She I mean, she went to the doctor too, but she had

Brandon Johnson: 00:10:54

to go to rehab or learn to talk again and walk again. So they

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:00

messed her up to say she was

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:03

now was that was the accident. Her fault. Like

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:06

was it weather? Right?

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:09

It was her fault. put on makeup and don't

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:13

smoke a cigarette?

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:15

And oh, no, no, no, no, no, that's no good. I

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:18

mean, I'm glad honestly, the laws are enforced now.

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:22

Especially texting and driving, drinking and driving. It mean,

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:28

popsicle out there. They don't mess around, you know,

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:31

what she was trying to do already? Do and it

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:34

didn't work.

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:36

It didn't work. Well, I hope. I hope I hope she

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:39

got her licence suspended. Because of that, you know,

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:45

right. Oh, no. What, what came about all that.

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:49

But I know. Last time we talked to her, she moved to Missouri,

Brandon Johnson: 00:11:54

and married a rich man has less than we were from.

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:58

Wow. I mean, I hope she has regrets. And she's

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:04

thankful that all y'all are here. Because I mean, if if she

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:07

hadn't been doing that, y'all, you know, the accident wouldn't

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:11

have happened. Right? So I can imagine, like, the

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:18

transformation you had to go through? You know, I'm sure you

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:22

had your doubts. Oh, I'm never gonna be the same again. My life

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:26

is over.

Brandon Johnson: 00:12:27

You know, don't want to give Oh, but everybody

Brandon Johnson: 00:12:30

kept pushing me.

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:33

Yeah. And because you didn't give up. You're still

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:35

here. And we're not giving up our dream, right, Tyler? That's

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:40

right. Awesome. So you're an author. You're a book author.

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:46

You're an entrepreneur? Do you hope to become a speaker one

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:50

day? What are your future goals?

Brandon Johnson: 00:12:53

Um, right now I'm just one step at a time.

Brandon Johnson: 00:12:58

Right now. I'm writing books and wherever it leads me shall

Brandon Johnson: 00:13:02

follow.

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:04

Yeah, you go, wherever the wherever leads you,

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:08

you know, just trust the Lord. And He will lead you and I see

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:14

you now. 36. Right. Yeah. And so it's so cool. You're married.

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:24

You have kids, and it's just wonderful. And I mean, I'm sure

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:30

you have those doubts that you would never find anybody who

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:33

would support you and all that it would want to marry you.

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:35

Right? Right. And so who's your wife today like that? She

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:41

challenges herself? Is she normal?

Brandon Johnson: 00:13:45

She's normal. I mean, I went to school with her.

Brandon Johnson: 00:13:48

We didn't go by them but going to bed out whenever we got older

Brandon Johnson: 00:13:53

and started talking. And got together. She knew more about

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:00

people than she thought she did.

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:02

Yeah.

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:04

You don't really like public. At first,

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:11

yeah. Booze. So where we go, we run into somebody that we get

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:18

out. And

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:20

now, I cannot wait to check out your books.

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:24

And also, I'm hoping maybe one day you can become a speaker,

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:29

you know, to inspire the world along the podcast show because

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:33

that's what we're doing right? Yep. Yeah.

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:37

To be honest with y'all, like I said, I'm

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:39

writing moves but I took my daughter to the dentist one day

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:44

and I was talking about my books to some lady and gonna find out

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:52

was a publisher sale. So she gave me his number and I started

Brandon Johnson: 00:14:58

talking to him and now he Are we on word with him publishing

Brandon Johnson: 00:15:02

moves? I'm gonna see do with him and

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:14

go oh, I'm proud of you, man. It's so you use a

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:21

walker, your, your arms. Your arms are still so your arms

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:27

you're fine or what?

Brandon Johnson: 00:15:29

My right arm good my left arm gopay is not as

Brandon Johnson: 00:15:34

strong in my right arm but I could still use it.

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:37

You could so it's mainly what the accident data

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:40

is. lags are not as strong of course you had you had a TBI

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:47

traumatic brain injury in effect in my lives. Your left side was

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:52

made I see it was mainly affected. So you so I see you

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:57

can even drive now I'm sure like with a

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:00

probably good but I don't drive with my walk

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:05

around with somebody wherever I gotta go. Oh, good.

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:09

Yeah. We don't drive yet. One day, we hope we

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:12

will sell one. Of course you so I imagine your future goals for

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:17

now just to continue to write books and to publish them right?

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:21

out to the public.

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:23

Yeah. Awesome. Wonderful.

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:27

Because during your, the woman I met at the

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:31

dentist's office, or husband, the publisher, now I'm working

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:35

with him. He Gozzo wanted me to help him write their 20th book.

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:43

So man, he'll write that book together.

Tyler Evans: 00:16:46

Beautiful, So do you publish other people's

Tyler Evans: 00:16:49

books?

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:51

I do now that I'm working with him. Yeah.

Brandon Johnson: 00:16:55

Okay. There's no published but I tried to go through the book

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:00

companies to have them published around the world. And they

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:04

dragged a screw me over but I got my reporting back from them

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:10

and having a beer club this because they wanted me to change

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:19

everything in my autobiography that happened to me and

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:23

everybody else I put in. And I told him, I cannot change any of

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:28

it. Because I can't change what happened to me. Now you

Saylor Cooper: 00:17:33

can't know you, are you? And people don't want

Saylor Cooper: 00:17:38

to accept you that's on them. Right, Tyler?

Tyler Evans: 00:17:41

Yeah. Well, I think that publisher was probably not

Tyler Evans: 00:17:44

a legit publisher. They're

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:49

supposed to man, a legit publisher. waited

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:54

to take the name of it. But I went through so many of them.

Brandon Johnson: 00:17:57

No, no more.

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:00

Yeah, I hear you.

Tyler Evans: 00:18:03

Well, self publishing is much harder.

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:05

Because yeah, like I'm working on finding a

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:08

great group of publishers and the entrepreneurial journey I'm

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:11

on now and we got we're writing the book

Brandon Johnson: 00:18:14

together. Me and him are still publishers. We

Brandon Johnson: 00:18:23

can help y'all get it published. But it wouldn't be in the

Brandon Johnson: 00:18:28

bookstore to just be on our website.

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:32

Yeah, Amazon. Yeah.

Tyler Evans: 00:18:34

We don't want it we want it everywhere.

Brandon Johnson: 00:18:38

I mean, I know that I do but it'll be on all of

Brandon Johnson: 00:18:43

the websites they won't just be on Amazon wow. Oh, right. Yeah,

Brandon Johnson: 00:18:52

he is on Amazon Barnes and Noble Target and Walmart website do

Brandon Johnson: 00:19:01

unto others.

Tyler Evans: 00:19:04

Well, hopefully we can find a good publisher far

Tyler Evans: 00:19:06

book in the future and we can just get it published everywhere

Tyler Evans: 00:19:11

online enough. Well,

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:20

when and I like what you're doing. You have you

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:23

always have a positive attitude, a smile. You didn't give up. You

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:27

didn't let that that day of the accident define you, you and

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:32

spouse. And so, I mean, so do you have any questions for us?

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:43

And of course, Tyler, if you don't have any questions, I

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:46

guess. We can do a customary ending. How's that sound? Oh,

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:52

yeah.

Brandon Johnson: 00:19:55

I'm good. But I mean, if y'all need help, just

Brandon Johnson: 00:19:59

let me No, we can help y'all do. Wonderful brand.

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:04

Yeah. And so before before we go on to the

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:11

Kashmiri ending. What advice would you give anybody who's

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:15

struggling right now and doesn't see help way out

Brandon Johnson: 00:20:22

in the same boat as everybody else, you

Brandon Johnson: 00:20:24

know, struggling to and wanted to give up, but everybody told

Brandon Johnson: 00:20:28

me not do you lower Bucha here for some reason. Yes.

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:36

That's right. That's right. Yeah.

Brandon Johnson: 00:20:39

There's no partner everybody can do. You

Brandon Johnson: 00:20:42

might just have to do it. A little different than others,

Brandon Johnson: 00:20:46

but he can be doing. That's

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:48

yeah, that's the way to go. Yeah.

Tyler Evans: 00:20:51

And everyone has a disability. It's called

Tyler Evans: 00:20:54

competition. Everyone's limited in some capacity. Right.

Tyler Evans: 00:20:58

Exactly. can't fly. You can't, you know. Well, you can fly on

Tyler Evans: 00:21:03

an aeroplane but you can't actually fly like independently

Tyler Evans: 00:21:05

like a bird. Right? Right. Yeah. Things like that.

Saylor Cooper: 00:21:11

Wow. Yeah. If nothing else, thank you so much,

Saylor Cooper: 00:21:17

Brandon, for being on the hook without sight.

Brandon Johnson: 00:21:22

You're welcome.

Tyler Evans: 00:21:24

All right.