Living The Red Life - From Flatlining at 11 to Building Businesses

Episode Date: June 24, 2026

At just 11 years old, Emilee Wilks experienced something most people never will. After a devastating car accident left her clinically dead, she returned with a completely different perspective on life, fear, and purpose. In this powerful episode of Living The Red Life, Emilee reveals how a near-death experience shaped her mindset, strengthened her faith, and fueled her mission to help business owners unlock their limitless potential.Today, she is the founder of Limitless Consulting, co-creator of Next Level Shop Owners, and a leader helping automotive business owners scale through leadership, systems, and strategy. She shares the lessons she learned about overcoming fear, building resilience, developing a solution-focused mindset, and creating businesses rooted in strong values. This conversation explores entrepreneurship, leadership, faith, personal growth, consulting, and what it truly takes to build a life without limits.Key Takeaways• Your greatest setbacks can become the foundation of your biggest breakthroughs.• Fear loses its power when you confront it instead of avoiding it.• Entrepreneurs spend more time focused on solutions than problems.• Strong company cultures are built on clearly defined values.• Continuous learning is one of the greatest competitive advantages in business.Notable Quotes• "If God is for me, then who can stand against me?"• "The only way out is through."• "If you can confront it, you can conquer it."• "We have limitless potential."• "The connection with others and with God keeps you from being overrun."Connect with Rudy Mawer:LinkedInInstagramFacebookTwitter

When you feel isolated and alone and like you're the only one this is happening to like a victim, then that's when you can become overpowered. Oh, yeah. You know, the connection with God keeps you from being overrun. Emily Wilkes is a resilient, visionary, and empowering entrepreneur, consultant, and the founder of Limitless Consulting and co-creator of next level shop owners. She helps automotive business owners grow through leadership, strategy, and mentorship.

I was in a pretty traumatic accident, actually died, came back to life. I had to overcome a mental battle with what I feel like was demons. Now my mind is stronger than ever, and I had that at a very young age happened to me. Now, you know, like I said, I feel limitless.

I experienced something when I passed one of my first experiences with God, that kind of the afterlife. My name's Rudy Moore, host of Living the Red Life. podcast and I'm here to change the way you see your life in your earpiece every single week. If you're ready to start living the red life, ditch the blue pill, take the red pill, join me in Wonderland and change your life.

Welcome back to another amazing episode of the Living Your Legacy podcast, The Red Life Edition. For Insight Success, I am Regutierrez. Joining me today as I scroll through my notes is Emily Wilkes. You're very welcome. Our women in power of today, Emily, we just finished. filmed your episode? Well, actually Jason did. How do you feel? I feel good. I've never been filmed before, so I was a little nervous. Right on. Yeah. Is this your first podcast? This is also my first podcast. Right on. How does it feel? It feels good. I mean, I feel special. Do you want to sit in

awkward silence for a moment? No, I mean, I can if you want to. I was just going to say that's just the cardinal saying. I'm pretty good at like just staring at people, which some people find intimidating. No, I'm not intimidated at all. We can stare at each other in silence in this podcast for 20 minutes. Yeah. It's called the confront drill. You just like confront a person by just staring at them. All right.

How am I doing so far? Are we confronting each other? We're good. We're connecting really well. Right on. Cool. Love, what are we going to learn about you in your episode for Women in Power?

What you can learn is that you're limitless. That's my company name. And that's what I believe about people is that we have limitless potential. And even if you come from a family like mine or a background like mine or something better or worse, like you can get where you want to go. So limitless potential. Where does that begin? I'm sure where you began was very constraint and not very limitless.

Yeah, no, I definitely came from a place of fear, actually, really young age. I was in a pretty traumatic accident, actually died, came back to life, flatlined several times. And that fear kind of consumed me for a little while. I felt afraid of a lot of the world. And then one day I just was healed. And I realized that, you know, this world is what I wanted to be. And I guess I do, you know, quote scripture sometimes and say, you know, if God is for me, then who can stand against me.

Yeah. So it makes me feel limitless. Absolutely. Amen to that. Let's rewind a little bit and talk about this near death experience or some would say near life experience. Yeah. Do you mind walking us through that? What's it like experiencing this?

Well, at 11 years old, it was a huge shock, obviously. It happened on the 4th of July. We were hit by a drunk driver going 80 miles an hour in his Porsche. And needless to say, wrecked me. I had massive internal bleeding. I took the brunt of the force. My family was injured, but not as severely. and my sister who was sitting closest to me,

her pelvic bone actually snapped in half due to the pressure that was on the side of the vehicle that I was on. Wow. So yeah, I had my spleen exploded. My liver and intestine had to be reattached. I lost my spleen permanently. I don't have it. So after that, I battled really a lot with my health

because spleen is kind of important when it comes to fighting infection and bacteria and things. But, you know, the grace of God, I live. In fact, there was an off-duty paramedic and MP that just happened to be right there during the accident. And they called in lifelight. And that's, you know, ultimately that saved me because without that, I would have died. So do you remember all of this? Were you unconscious?

Were you knocked out cold? During when the accident first happened, I was asleep. Luckily, they say that when you get impact, if you can see something coming, you actually tends more. Yep. And can actually exaggerate your injuries. And time slows down, right? Yes, I luckily was asleep and my injuries were still very severe. I do remember waking up.

I do remember being pulled out of the vehicle and I was vomiting blood. And then I do remember being in the hospital, waking up. The first time I actually woke fully, I was actually sleepwalking. I was trying to find my little sister and brother. I'm the oldest. So like kind of the caregiver. And for some reason, I thought my sister was needing my help. So I got up out of bed, out of a hospital bed.

I had tubes all in me. And I ripped them out and was sleepwalking and just was trying to get to my sister. And the next thing I knew, like my grandmother was there in front of me and waking me. And the nurses were like, you know, putting me back to bed and like sedating me. And that was my first like conscious moment, like fully conscious after the accident. And the next morning, of course, they were like, well, you know, these tubes you pulled out, those have to go back in. So that was a little unpleasant. But it was a long journey after that to recovery.

I was in the hospital for a little over two weeks. And when I left, I couldn't walk. I had to be wheelchared. I had to sleep on the couch downstairs because I couldn't go up and down the stairs or anything. And, you know, I have a massive scar. People were like, is that a C-section? And I'm like, no, that's not. Not normally where that would be, but, yeah, I, you know, something that I overcame.

And physically, the mental toll, that took many more years, the anxiety and stress and worry of, like, even being in a car. Oh, for sure. Was, for me, like, I would freeze, like panic, panic attacks. You said you flatline several times. Yeah. What was that like? Does the vessel ever feel the heart? stopped? Does the soul know that the vessel's not clicking? You know, I experienced something

when I passed and I, you know, talked about it when I first came to and that was a lot of the times explained away, you know, oh, you're experiencing the side of the side effects of medication. heavily medicated. And, you know, you are experiencing trauma, people who have trauma, like see things. And it was kind of explained away to me. But I feel like that was like for me, one of my first experiences with God. And that kind of the afterlife. And I was a little embarrassed to admit it for a long time.

No, no way. But, yeah, I know that God saved my life for a purpose. And he basically been chased an after me. ever since. And I didn't become, I didn't become a Christian, actually, until about nine years ago. And that's when my life got really good. So, yeah. Was there a moment a doctor walked in and gave you the statistics and go, if it wasn't for you sitting here, your entire family would not be, like, you took the blunt of this force. Something tells me that if it wasn't for you calculated sitting in that moment, take that impact. Your entire family would not be.

here? You know, if I was in the seat or not in the seat, I don't know statistically what would have come of my family. You know, my sister maybe would have been a little more injured. She was the one directly next to me. Um, but I'm guess what I'm trying to rely on, what I'm trying to land on is that you took the blunt force for a reason. You were divinely put there. I think that I had to die before I could live. If that's, that's, you know, kind of what you're getting at is like, who knows who I would have been as a person or been shaped into. Sure. Um, I had to overcome a mental battle with what I feel like was demons. And now my mind is stronger than ever.

And I had that at a very young age happened to me. And now, you know, like I said, I feel limitless. Oh, that's great. My fear, my worry, I don't worry. I haven't had panic. I haven't had a panic attack in like probably 12 years or longer. Like, it used, it was bad, like, every day kind of thing. Sure.

How would you describe bad? Was it just very noisy in your head? No. Were you always anxiety-ridden? As a child, I would reference it as, like, the devil whispers. Like, I would just feel like everyone was out to get me that I was going to die, basically. Like, everything was scary, and I was triggered by a lot of things, even fireworks. I couldn't watch fireworks.

for years because it would remind me of that night. And it wasn't just an accident. This man, he deliberately got drunk, got in his car and wanted to kill himself, and he wanted to take people with him. Wow. So to have that, like, there are evil people that want to hurt you as a child. It's, you know, a little unearthing. You just feel like you don't know anything anymore.

Like nothing is certain. And, yeah, I. I struggled with that for a really long time. Tell me about what's certain today. What's your day-to-day life today? Certainty today, you know, I have four beautiful children. Amazing. I've been married.

In fact, I've been married for almost seven years. My anniversary is coming up here very soon. I have a great husband who also is a business owner and just has, he's got a great work ethic. He's one of the hardest workers I know. I had to do a little training on like working hard versus working smart. Sure. So, you know, he's always been kind of more of a laborer. And now he's becoming an owner and he's learning a lot of the things that some of my new clients learn as business owners.

He's really transforming. And he went from like a one man show to like he has a whole team of people. Yeah, he's in the tech industry and he just loves a satellite. He does like satellite stuff and, you know, stuff that's beyond me. as far as the business aspect and knowing your product and knowing your promotion and having good people, that's where I step in. And I've really, you know, kind of helped him with that step one step at a time. And he really appreciates me for that.

Like we see each other's strengths and both in business and as parents. And that's, you know, really been helpful for us. So some folks that are entrepreneurs, solepreneurs, witchpreneurs, they all have their secret powers. Your power is seeing the other side or at least feeling the other side. What do you think you came back with? What knowledge, what divine download

I kind of gave you the upper hand to do what you do so well today? You know, I think God reveals his secrets to those that he trusts in and that trust in him. Sure. And he's always been there for me. Rather, you want to call it like an intuition

or some type of feeling or something. I feel like it's the guidance there, that connection. that I have. And not to say that you need to die to get that, but I think that, you know, coming from my life and I don't come from a religious background, none of my family is Christian.

So to go from that to where I am today, you know, like, not to say that that needed to happen, but God used it to become close to me. I was just going to say, yeah, I was just going to say either God's a magician, a musician, or a comedian, but there's always a divine path, a divine plan. Can you talk to folks that don't quite see through the darkness and they need to hear that some light for someone that has actually stepped into the darkness and pulled out?

Yeah, being in the darkness is hard. And things best are in the darkness. So, and that's, I think, the number one thing that keeps you there is not talking about it or sharing it with others. bringing things to the light is what will set you free. Like there's freedom in words and sharing and connecting with others. And when you feel isolated and alone and like you're the only one this is happening to or like a victim, then that's when you can become overpowered.

Oh, yeah. You know, the connection is what with others and with God keeps you from being overrun. For sure. So. What do you do? And what's your daily affirmations? Do you journal? Jump in an ice bath?

Actually, I do have an ice bath. Believe it or not. Do you really? I was a joking. I have an ice bath. I love it. It's great.

My husband goes a lot colder, which I guess scientifically, they say that's better. It's good for men to go really cold. Sure. I'm about a 40 degree person. I don't go to that 30 level. Right on. But,

and like right now I have a sauna that's being put into my house. Like, just because I'm a Christian. doesn't mean I don't believe in like mainstream medicine or you know some of these things that call our physical body yes so sauna I take my vitamins light therapy I'm sure like yeah light therapy I eat very healthy I you know workout I was telling Jason you know I used to compete just natural bikini shows and things like that you wouldn't know now because I just had a baby like 12 weeks ago so congrats so I got to lose a little that baby weight but

Um, yeah, I mean, I do go to church every Sunday. I do read scripture. I'm actually writing a book kind of about my life and, and how I basically am breaking it down into what I was feeling and going through at the time, how I perceived it then and how I perceive it now. And I also relate scripture to each of those phases of my life. Um, and, uh, I'm hoping that when I do release it, like there's other women or people in the world that can relate to that story. And again, feel connected because if you feel alone and in the darkness, like, that's, that's where bad things happen. Oh, yeah. No, for sure. What's your day to day like? Are you on social media? Are you live streaming? How are you getting your name out there? Like, how are you getting your message

across? You know, I'm bad about really promoting myself as an individual, which is why this is the first podcast I've ever had. I do promote, you know, my auto repair shop. I do promote, you know, my auto repair shop. my client's shops. I do have a social media. So I am on Instagram. I do post on there quite often or sometimes I'll go live on Instagram, Facebook. You know, I have a Twitter account. Right on.

So yeah, if you want to follow me, you sure can. It's an interesting, we do a lot of fun stuff. I live the farm life, though. Like I have an acre of land and I have chickens and goats and, you know, turkeys and my four children. children, sometimes they act like animals. They're great. They're real feral. But they're going to be unstoppable.

Like, I very much take that into my parenting life. Like, I don't want to stifle my children. Sometimes I have to tell them no for their own protection. But, like, my four-year-old, I feel like he knows how to do more than most 10-year-olds. Like, he's great. And my 14-year-old, like, he works with my husband and his business and has a lot of ambitions to be his own business owner one day. And yeah, they're great.

And my daughter, she's the kindest, you know, little cheerleader. She's just, you're the greatest mommy. They're the prettiest mommy. And I just, I love her. She's, she has a, she got the character award for kindness and love in school. So. Amazing. Yeah, I just, my day to day is them and, and helping as many people as I can,

whether that's, you know, day to day life helping somebody or even in business. because I really do feel like small business ownership is very important here in America and across the world. Like it helps us connect to each other and be proud and just have a sense of community. Yeah, I lived in Switzerland for a year. It takes about six months to start an LLC there. Oh, wow. It's like six minutes to start one. Yeah, yeah.

I can make one right now. Yeah, yeah. And Switzerland's like, if you don't belong here, get the hell out. Yeah. Yeah. Like six, seven seconds? Yeah, pretty much. So talk about your journey today.

What is the name of your company? Limitless Consulting is named my company. The Limitless, obviously, I'm passionate about that. I became a consultant because I want to help other businesses get to where they want to go. And having worked, you know, with some other really amazing business owners and being kind of a key instrument and where they were going and what they were doing and kind of seeing behind the scenes, that really helped me grow. and then that's why I was like, this is what I want to do. And, you know, it's great in grand being an executive assistant to, you know, a millionaire, a billionaire, who's a bunch of businesses.

But if I can help multiple owners and, you know, really just get out there, that's kind of like what I start. That's why I started limitless. That's awesome. What's your, what's the first day like when you onboard a client? You kick in the door and you're like, let me tell you the thing about death. Like, how does it work? No, it's really I'm watching. I'm doing a lot of observation.

I'm seeing their environment, their team, their product, kind of like what their customers would go through. And they always have their idea of what their problem is. They might think it's one thing. In reality, it's another. And kind of just getting immersed in that and then showing them, okay, this is where I'm seeing. Some pain points. And asking just the right questions too. well, have you ever had a problem with this or what do you think about that?

And then, you know, they sometimes manifest themselves. Oh, yeah, that would be better. Oh, yeah, no, we shouldn't do that. So it's more of a guidance rather than a like bust in there and like tell them like, you suck at this and you better do this different. And like that's, no one would want to work with somebody like that. No, for sure. Executive coaches are very much a thing.

You're speaking to someone that was very skeptical about it because I come from the traditional mad way of doing things where it's like you just yell at things and things happen coffee after close or yeah yeah yeah stop crying Peggy figure it out yeah stop being a little girl every time you gain a client you lose them

anyways and and I worked at Patreon I was a 22nd employee and all these fresh college kids are like execs yeah and they're in these private rooms with coaches that are much older and like peeking through jealous of shit of course going why do they get coaches and execs and I'm here kind of figuring

out on my own. And now that I'm sitting across the room, like, it's very much a thing and it's very helpful. Like, figuring shit on your own is great. And yeah, pat yourself in the back as I knock my mic. But having a coach to kind of like lead the way and kind of help you make mistakes and help you fall and rise is also fucking fantastic. Talk about what, what your approach is, how your approach is so unique. And why is it your approach? I think it's just the care factor. And it's also about not just giving solutions, but helping others so that they can eventually create their own solution. Right on. You know, that saying, like, you can lead a man to the water and give him a fish.

But if you teach him to fish, like, then he can eat the life. Yeah, there's a horse somewhere. Like, you know, lead a horse to water. It's a man. I don't remember. But, you know, you give a man to fish or you teach him to fish. And it's like, if you can get somebody in the mindset of, you know, problem solving. So on average, an average human being will spend one hour of the day thinking

about solutions or the future. The rest of it is present time or past problems. An entrepreneur or somebody with a solution mindset actually spends six to eight hours a day on that. That's six times more than the average person. So it is a way of thinking. It is something you can train somebody to do. So having somebody who knows how to do it, it's called yoking. Back in the day, they used to take an old ox that could plow the field and they'd put it with a young ox and they'd yoke them together so that the old bull could teach or the old ox could teach the new ox how to plow the field properly. And it's something that's a little bit lost in our culture. We think, again, I should just be able to figure it out by myself and trial and fail and, you know, and there can be a,

a lot of lost time and a lot of lost productivity and efficiency loss with that method. Whereas as a consultant, as somebody who has a solution mindset, a different way of thinking, we can help train somebody to do that. Even myself, like, I never stop learning. I still do training. I still, when I get back from here, back to Idaho, I'm flying in a coach to come see me to teach me how to do more things. Like how to be a better executive and how to get more results from my people and then train them and so on and so forth. So it's, um, that's kind of what's different about our approach. I definitely don't know everything. I definitely can't do everything but myself, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna keep learning and growing every single day until I can. For sure. Well, that's great.

It's, it's awesome that you mentioned some modeling in there because a lot of on-camera coaching is very necessary. Like a lot of folks don't understand how to speak in sound bites, how to get their message across clearly and confidently in a proper way. Because the CEO is no, is much more than just pushing papers, it's really an image. You're really a superhero. There's the Bruce Wayne, Superman, CEOs, especially now. Everything you do is also magnified.

Absolutely. If you were in the front, if the spotlight is on you, the smallest mistake is now this huge catastrophe. Don't scratch your nose. Don't do anything. Just don't. Don't make it look like you're picking a bugger. Don't, no.

Happy accidents. Everything is meant to be. Exactly. So that's why it's so important to walk in some sort of divine route because you really can't just let the human psychology and the the 10% of what we are as humans can take control of this. It's very much a divine supernatural power to be an entrepreneur, to be a leader, to lead a tribe. It's, it takes, it takes. A good friend of mine calls me the unicorn. Yeah, no, that's like you're a unicorn. You're basically a make-believe preacher. Like,

you don't come up very often. It's very much a term used in my world. You're a unicorn. Like, Yeah, yeah. You find a unicorn, too, you just like, when you get one of those as an employee or you find out what their passions are and what they want and you help them get to it. Otherwise, they'll go somewhere where they can get to it. And folks need to understand that when you work with folks like you and I, we're not to tutor our own horn, but it's very much we're blessing the company with our energy because we are Christian. We come from a certain guideline of rules that define our surrounding. So when we enter into an establishment that lacks these rules and energies, we're blessing the environment. We start to, the frequency starts to shift and change.

We call it the Christian superpower, but you call it something greater. Yeah. And even with my clients, I come to them and talk to them about their values and their core values and what it is they want to represent to their company. And that's one of the exercises sometimes we'll do if they don't. have that already set in place. It's like your culture's lacking. Here's why no one knows what your core values are. Nobody knows what you stand for. How are they supposed to emulate that culture and what you are if they don't even know? So we do have their posted core values and like, no, it sounds silly, but it's like we're interviewing somebody. They walk in. They see that. It's like there they are.

If you can't abide by these things, you can't be a part of the group. Yeah. Core values are very important. Put that front and center in the lobby as you walk in. Yeah. It's almost like putting that third eye in my culture. It's like put it over your door. I want to keep that energy out there. Great room, training room, wherever. Yeah, wherever it is, it's very important. Once you realize we're really just these rooms on ground, you'll start understanding, like you can really create a, based on lighting, atmosphere, smell.

You can create a whole journey for not just yourself, but your clients to experience whatever you want them experiencing. Yep. It's simple. It's kind of like this room right here. I hope you feel powerful and confident. I do. I love it. My son would go crazy over this.

like the cotton LED light things. He wants to do that. He showed me just like recently on YouTube or something. He's like, this is how they do it, the tutorial. Yeah, yeah, YouTube University. Rudy is a fellow gamer and he's also a Counter Strike world champion.

So, video games. There is a feature in video games. Don't, don't. I believe it. My son, he makes people probably lots of money watching those YouTube video. It is a real thing. How can folks continue learning more about you and find out more about you? Well, I did write a book that is actually published.

It's called You'd Be Batshit Crazy if you didn't implement this in your business. And it just talks about some, it's a real quick read. You know, I don't, I feel like business owners need solutions and they don't need to waste 10 hours reading a book. Yep. So I made it, you know, very quick read. It's on Amazon. And it's just like six tips on how you can help your business grow and it's like basically establish a process. So if you want to know more about me, you can read that.

And you can also follow me on Instagram or Facebook or Twitter and also TikTok because apparently I'm on that too. Apparently. Emily Wilkes, it's Emily Wilkes. Thank you so much for your time and energy. Your legacy is literally crying out for you. Yes. I have a baby here in the studio. We got to prioritize here. This is Emily and I'm Ray and we are inside success.