Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Jen Bricker-Bauer On: Everything is Possible EP 107

Starting point is 00:00:00 Coming up next on the Passion Start podcast, but as I've gotten older and I look back on my life And I think about these things like that moment or those moments Like how different would I be right if they would have just listened to the first set of doctors? I trip out on that every time I say it because I'm like my life would have been dramatically different and Because of my parents decisions, right? It would have shaped the whole trajectory of my life would have been dramatically different. And because of my parents' decisions, right? It would have shaped the whole trajectory of my life. Welcome visionaries, creators, innovators, entrepreneurs, leaders, and growth seekers of all types

Starting point is 00:00:34 to the Passion Struck podcast. Hi, I'm John Miles, a peak performance coach, multi industry CEO, maybe veteran, and entrepreneur on a mission to make Passion co-viral for millions worldwide. And each week I do so by sharing with you an inspirational message and interviewing eye achievers from all walks of life who unlock their secrets and lessons

Starting point is 00:00:58 to become an action struck. The purpose of our show is to serve you the listener. By giving you tips, tasks, and activities, you can use to achieve peak performance and for two, a passion-driven life you have always wanted to have. Now, let's become PassionStruck. Hello everyone and welcome back to episode 107 of the PassionStruck podcast. And thank you to each and every one of you who comes back weekly to listen and learn, to live better, be better, and impact the world.

Starting point is 00:01:28 And if you're new to the show, or you would like to introduce it to a friend or family member, we now have episode starter packs. These are collections of your favorite episodes that we categorize by topic to give any new listener a great way to understand everything that we do here on the show. Just go to passionstruck.com slash starter packs to get started and we also

Starting point is 00:01:49 just introduced starter packs in the formal playlist on our Spotify channel. So they're there for you to consume as well. And if you haven't checked out our YouTube channel at John our Miles, we passed an incredible milestone this week by achieving over 500,000 views and And we now have over 230 videos, both long-form content like today's episode, as well as two to five-minute mindset moments, which give you a much shorter dose of inspiration. Just go to John Armiles and please subscribe. Today's episode is a truly remarkable one, and it's one that when I think about why I created Passion Struck, our guest today demonstrates everything that it's

Starting point is 00:02:31 meant to be Passion Struck in your life. Today's guest is no other than Jen Brickerbauer and if you're not familiar with Jen, she's an airlist, speaker, and New York Times best-selling author of the book Everything is possible. Although born with no legs, Jen lives by the simple role never say can't. Aspects of Jen's incredible story have been featured on HBO Real Sports ABC 2020 in Good Morning America. She traveled internationally with Brittany Spears World Tour, was a headliner at the prestigious Palazzo Hotel in Las Vegas, New York's Lincoln Center, and the Shangri-La Hotel in Dubai. In today's discussion, we go into how, after being born with no legs,

Starting point is 00:03:18 Jen was put up for adoption and then was adopted by a very loving family in Illinois. How she became the first disabled high school, tunneling champion in the state of Illinois, how her parents instilled in both her and her brothers, and never say can't attitude, which has become the very foundation for everything that she has done in her life. Her story of learning the startling news that her childhood idol, gymnastist Dominique Marciano,

Starting point is 00:03:47 was actually her sister. How she is spreading inspiration throughout the country, through her speaking at churches and children's events. We discuss her book and how much her life has changed since that Britney Spears world tour and so much more in this amazing interview. Thank you for choosing Passion Struct and choosing me to be your host and guide on your journey of living in intentional life. Before we begin, I would like to emphasize that this podcast is part of my desire and effort

Starting point is 00:04:17 to bring zero constant information to the general public regarding how to unlock an intentional, no regrets life. And keeping with that theme, I would like to thank the sponsors of today's episode. Our next sponsor is a product I literally use every day. I started taking athletic creams six months ago because I wanted to achieve optimum performance and better gut health. And I can tell you it does that and so much more. I've noticed an overall improvement in sleep quality recovery from my workouts and better mental clarity. I take it first

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Starting point is 00:06:52 Use the promo code passionstruck for 83% off and 3 extra months free. That's Surfshark.deals slash passionstruck. Thank you so much for listening to and supporting the show. All those codes and URLs can be difficult to remember, so we've put them in one convenience spot for you. Just go to passionstruck.com slash deals. Please consider supporting those who support the show and make it possible and free tour listeners. Now back to PassionStruck. So excited today to welcome Jen Brick or Bauer to the PassionStruck podcast. Jen, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks for having me. And I just wanted to give a call out to our fan, Brad Hudson, who was the person who approached me

Starting point is 00:07:46 to give a call out to our fan Brad Hudson who was the person who approached me about having you on the show. He's a huge fan of yours, so just wanted to give him a call out because we do love it when listeners of the show ask for the guests and more and more of them are that way. So I think you were a household name. I mean, you've been on 2020, you've been on Good Morning America, you've been on global platforms, but there may be some listeners who don't know your story. Well, thanks for having me, and thanks to your fan also for requesting me. That's so cool. I love that. Yeah, so kind of in a nutshell, I guess we could be on here for days talking about my life, but I was born without legs and left in the hospital, put up for adoption.

Starting point is 00:08:31 And I was adopted. I was taking in, let's say I was in a foster home for three months and then my family who eventually adopted me got got me three months old. My adoption became official at a year and a half. And I was raised in the middle of nowhere in southern Illinois, which is actually where I'm at now. And with my three older brothers, my mom and dad, and you know, again, like I could take so much time, just the beginning of my life into this family with their adoption story is such a miracle upon a miracle upon a miracle, you know, like they had every obstacle against them never adopted, never fostered and definitely didn't know anything about somebody with that legs and yet against all the odds they got me. And when they took me to the first team of doctors

Starting point is 00:09:28 at a really, really big hospital, a very prestigious hospital, and their diagnosis, I guess, was I would never sit up on my own and at all, like that was it, done deal. And that I would be stuck into this kind of device, actually, where because that, you know, and that I would be stuck into this kind of device, actually, where because, that, you know, because they said, well, she can't sit up on her own. So I was going to be sitting in this thing that was apparently going to make me sit up on my own. And, you know, at that moment, you, if you're my parents and you've adopted this girl and the legs and you don't really know you're on an expert certainly about any of

Starting point is 00:10:08 that stuff and that's what the doctors tell you you can really put yourself in that situation for a minute and you kind of have one of two major ways to go right like you can accept what they say as like that's it there's no other way man I guess her life's over. I guess our life is over. That's not what we wanted for her. Or, and thankfully, the other part is what my parents did. You can go and get a second opinion and believe

Starting point is 00:10:36 that there's more and refuse to accept that as your child's future. Thankfully, that's what my parents did. And they went to a different hospital. And the the doctor, my dad met him immediately at the other hospital and said, just answer me one question. Like, all I want to know is is she ever going to sit up on her own before we go any further? That's all I want to know. And this doctor looked at my dad and said, Mr. Bricker, she's going to do things that are beyond your wildest imagination.

Starting point is 00:11:08 She's going to do things that you never thought possible. But as I've gotten older, I look back at my life and I think about these things, like that moment or those moments, like how different would I be, right? If they would have just listened to the first set of doctors, I trip out on that every time I say it because I'm like, my life would have been dramatically different. And because of my parents' decisions, right?

Starting point is 00:11:34 It would have shaped the whole trajectory of my life. And I know I'm getting pinpointed on that area, but it's such a big part of my story. The beginning of my story is really, you have to understand that and my family and how it was raised to kind of understand like the rest of it, you know. And so they were like that with everything.

Starting point is 00:11:56 I mean, I wanted to do all the things. I want to play softball, basketball, volleyball, even power tumbling. And I did all of the sports with Abel Body Dathleads, so because I grew up in the middle of nowhere and I didn't even know anything Paralympic, like, what? What does that mean? Or, you know, I didn't really grasp, like, I knew I didn't have legs, obviously, but I wasn't treated differently at home or at school. It just kind of wasn't a big deal.

Starting point is 00:12:31 That's so hard to people to grasp, but that's just how it is. I heard you on another podcast say that you learn that no one cares. And you were lucky to learn that at a young age. And I just bring it up because a number of weeks ago, I interviewed an Asgard driver, Jesse Ouyji, who played football at the Naval Academy, and the coaches at the Naval Academy told all the players, no one cares

Starting point is 00:12:59 that you're not a first-round NFL potential draftback. No one cares that you're a smaller lineman. No one cares that we don't have the speed of Notre Dame or someone else. You go, they're expecting you to show up and be able to play toe to toe with these teams. And so I think it's an important message. It's very true.

Starting point is 00:13:21 I mean, it definitely takes all of us a long time to kind of get through that more younger and even in our, you know, just in our lives as adults, but that's true. I mean, people, you care so much more than other people care. Like you think, you know, you make up these things in your mind and you think everybody's paying attention and you're like, everybody has so much else going on that they don't usually have time to put that much focus on your lives, you know, or these like, my new things that we make so big in our minds. I did make things bigger in my mind, plenty of things, but not having legs was just how

Starting point is 00:13:59 it was supposed to be. And there was that something that I just really accepted fully and completely. You know, when I was younger, it was that my parents said, God doesn't make mistakes. You were born like this for a reason. And as a good older, I believed that. It wasn't just been saying that. I saw that start to play out like, yeah, this is being used to help other people and like you start seeing that enough and I started realizing that you know it was much later I mean it more like you know 19 20 to 20 like 20 to 25 is when I really started to grasp like whoa you know this is really so much bigger than me and but when I was, there was just this acceptance of like,

Starting point is 00:14:47 that's just how it's supposed to be, you know? That's kind of how my family is too. Like they're pretty black and white with certain things and like, it just is what it is, you know? Don't complain that much, don't make excuses, you know? And so that all kind of ties hand in hand with the whole mentality and I think the way that I see, that I saw myself, or with the whole mentality and I think the way that

Starting point is 00:15:05 I see that I saw myself or that I see myself in a great community tomb. I'm big on community because I'm a product of it. So that's kind of early years. We'll be right back to the Passion Struck podcast. I'd love to introduce my audience to Magic Mind, the little magical Alexa that makes your body hum. They are also sponsoring this episode. Magic Mind is the world's first productivity drink, and it's like coffee, but the good kind of coffee. It consists of 12 functional ingredients, including machete, new tropics that help you focus, and aptogens that help you fight off stress.

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Starting point is 00:16:46 and make it possible and free for our listeners. Now back to passion struck. Well, I am curious when you went to your parents and said, I wanna play basketball or I wanna play softball, what did they and your brothers say to you? Was there ever anything about how are you going to do that or you can't do that or was it always, you know, I'd love to hear that perspective.

Starting point is 00:17:13 Yeah, yeah, I mean, there would, I guess, technically be, certainly be reasons why they would say that. Like, well, how would would you do that and you don't have legs and on and on and on right and they just didn't that's just I don't know that's just not them or not the way they think they were so excited about I always say that when I was adopted my brothers it was like I was their new shiny pet you know kind of like of like, oh, what else can she do? What can she do next, you know, they were always experimenting with me and seeing and they were so fascinated by all the things that I can do and they would teach me like more and more and more. And so I think they were just

Starting point is 00:18:00 excited, you know, and they're like, oh, you want to do that? Okay, well, then you'll figure out a way to do it. It was just that was kind of it, you know, and they would work with me, you know, throwing the ball and hitting the ball and just things like that that they could work with me on, you know, normal stuff like that, there was not an ounce of discouragement. And by discouragement, I don't just mean like a flat out. No, you shouldn't do that, but I mean, there wasn't that questioning or that hesitating or, you know, it just, that's just not them. And I'm really grateful that they, they just kind of allowed me to follow the things that I was passionate about, things that I loved. And so I didn't be sports or these things to prove all the naysayers wrong or you know I

Starting point is 00:18:49 also didn't do it like for those reasons. I just did them because I loved it. I just was naturally an athlete. I just loved being I love being on team sports. I love being with everybody. I like doing physical things. I'm really good at it. Like I was naturally good at those things. And so it was just kind of all around stuff that I enjoyed. Okay, and what would your advice be to a listener who maybe has something they want to accomplish, but that inner voice keeps telling them I can't. They're kind of just sitting in this loop where they're doing nothing, but have this aspiration.

Starting point is 00:19:26 What would be your advice to them? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot in that. I normally kind of have my ending message wrapped up with all these things, but I'd say, if anyone has seen stuff online or anything, a lot of headlines or titles have been, can't isn't part of your vocabulary or can as a four-letter word and things like that It's from my book and just from headlines that people have made and So that's comes from my childhood where my parents said can't isn't part of your vocabulary and but it's

Starting point is 00:20:02 Where that comes into play is is kind of tied into your question. but it's where that comes into play is kind of tied into your question. So it's more than just like saying that as a sentence. It's removing that from your thought process and from your life and not in just some philosophical way, but in like a reality kind of day to day things. And so it's actually tied in. So the title of my book is everything is possible. And but it's tied in with the whole can't is it I didn't like do this. I didn't try to make up some master plan. I just as the book came out and as I talked more like

Starting point is 00:20:39 this actually hand in hand. So the taking the can out of your vocabulary and everything is possible It the way it comes out practically It's like the one thing that every that all of us have in common. There's one thing Everybody in the whole world and why do I worry if I'm hasn't commented and that's obstacles and struggles Because nobody is free from those nobody gets a free pass in life from now Nobody so it's kind of like a, it's a nice equalizer. Levels the playing field. And the way I think that it plays out practically

Starting point is 00:21:13 is that we all are going to have like these mountains in our lives. And so when the mountain comes, it's because it's wind. And you see it, we see the mountain. And sometimes we're afraid and we're like, how am I going to get like, I don't even have all the answers. That's like, yeah, that's normal. I mean, I have certainly been there and I will be there again. All of us will. But I think where it practically makes a difference is that If we can look at the mountain and be like, okay, I don't have all the answers, I am afraid. Like, I don't know, I don't know, but if we believe that, okay,

Starting point is 00:21:52 I believe at least that I know I can somehow get to the other side, that I have to go around or over it or chisel through a little every day, day by day, believing that it's possible, I think that is where we win or lose the battle, just there. Like before we even go over it, or it's the difference of looking at it and being like paralyzed and then never moving,

Starting point is 00:22:20 or being terrified and then just running away from it. You know what I mean? And I think that is a, I like practical things and things that I can just make sense to me. And so for me, that whole taking can out of grip of vocabulary and everything is possible, that is to me how you can kind of break it down into this like, oh yeah, okay, that makes makes sense and it's also like a day by day thing

Starting point is 00:22:47 It doesn't have to be this huge unattainable Thing, you know, it's like out there somewhere in the wind, but it's just this okay today Yep, this situation sucks or it's overwhelming or it's whatever but I Believe or I don't that's kind of it. See there. We believe it or I don't, that's kind of it. See, we believe it or we don't, that it's possible to somehow get over there. And that doesn't mean that it's going to be fast, but at least you believe that you can. And that motivates you, you know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:23:17 Like, it gives us that that grid and that, just the beliefs that like, yeah, I can get through that. I can do it. just the beliefs that like yeah I can get through that I can do it. Yeah well I think the thing that differentiates us as a species from any other species on the planet is the power of choice and to me it really comes down to you know you've got to make that choice but then as you just pointed out you have to take deliberate actions in an intentional way, you know, every single day to get you closer to it. It's kind of this paradigm of deliberate action because after a while, you can just stack action upon action.

Starting point is 00:23:57 And before you know it, you're so much further along than you ever thought you possibly would be. And I think that gives you the momentum to keep going because, you know, as the second law of thermodynamics says, you know, with time comes entropy and less energy comes into the equation that changes that entropy from happening, which is what positive momentum and action will do. So I think that's very advice. momentum and action will do. So I think that's right advice. So you're a young girl, you're trying these things out and then you get fascinated with wanting to do tumbling and getting into overall gymnastics. Can you tell me like what spearheaded that for you? Was it a fascination about it

Starting point is 00:24:43 or was it someone that you saw that inspired you to get into it? As long as I can remember, I love watching gymnastics on TV. And then I started very young. I started beginner classes. I mean, cheese, like, first grade, so probably six. I'm almost as early as you can start, you know, almost. I'm sure you could start earlier, but yeah, I was always drawn to it and then I started doing it and then it kind of all almost happened at the same time. And then I was because I was watching it on TV, because I was interested in it, because I was doing it already. I saw Dominique Mochiano on TV. She was, was right before the Olympic. She wasn't on the Olympic team yet, but I think the national team.

Starting point is 00:25:38 And then, and then the Olympic team. And so I knew that, I always knew I was adopted, and I always knew that my biological family was from Romanian. And so I knew that Dominique was on Team USA, but I knew she was Romanian as well, like blood. And so I was always drawn to her because we looked alike and nobody looked like me, you know, was adopted. And I grew up in a very small town and I had like dark hair and dark skin and big dark eyes and for where I grew up that was you know, it was

Starting point is 00:26:12 just different. I always loved it, but it was it just nobody looked like me. And so then I finished here for a main unit and I was like, oh my gosh, so am I and we look alike and we do the same like we love the same sport, you know, and so I was so drawn to her as a seven eight year old, you know, those were just kind of the things that really drew me to her. And, and I, yeah, I just felt like a bond, yeah, it's just, it was really awesome. And that I eventually, you know, started and then ended up competing in power tumbling for four years. And if you don't know what power tumbling is, it is. So like in gymnastics, you have four events and women's had four events. And so in power tumbling, you have the floor. So in gymnastics is the big square floor, like the blitz, the big blue square floor that everybody does flips and backhand springs and twists and things like that.

Starting point is 00:27:08 So power tumbling is instead of a square. It's like a long one way and you're doing flips twists backhand springs and things like that. So, um, that is what I competed in for four years. And I was the first person without legs to ever do that, which is kind of on one hand, you're like, yeah, that makes sense. On the other hand, you're like, wow, really? The first, how is, how cute, you know, so, and I didn't really grasp how big of a deal that was. And, you know, I wanted to say championship one year, I wanted to do an Olympics. And at the time, I didn't think it was a big deal. I mean, that's kind of when all the TV started, people don't realize that because they just kind of know like the stuff is an adult.

Starting point is 00:27:52 But all the media and TV started when I was a kid because this started getting so much momentum from local to regional to national and then to international news. So I was flown to national and into international news. So I was flown to Germany when I was 12. I was flown to New York City. I was flown like all these like media outlets because I was doing this in the first person

Starting point is 00:28:16 to do this kind of thing. I still didn't understand why everybody was making, it was actually annoying. So why is everybody making such a big deal? This is so stupid. You know, like you want to follow me around with a camera doing nothing in my life. You know, like I just didn't grasp it. And I'm glad I didn't grasp it. You know, glad it was just kind of, but my mom told me, you know, if you help one person, and then that's it, then it's worth it, but it's all worth it, you know, doing these talk shows and stuff.

Starting point is 00:28:46 So I was like, okay, and yeah, that kind of was the beginning of that, and that transitioned into a career as performing as an acrobat and an aerialist. Aerialist is with like silk fabric from the ceilings or you have all different acrobatics. is you know the circle who called Lera you have straps you have silks and I've just prefer my favorite is silks because it's so beautiful it's much more difficult but it's just very pretty very pretty and that's a whole

Starting point is 00:29:20 other story of getting started into that world, which maybe we'll bounce into a little bit later. But yeah, we'll definitely go back to that. I have a good friend who was an all-American gymnast at Syracuse and the male event that has always boggled my mind has been the rings. And especially when they're up there doing the iron cross and I asked him, I'm like, was that the hardest event? And he said surprisingly no.

Starting point is 00:29:54 He goes, it's all horse strength, once you're up there and it's kind of just repetition of the moves And it's kind of just repetition of the moves, but he said for him, that was not the hardest event for whatever reason, parallel bars for him were harder and he said it was more of a cadence and timing thing about getting his dismounts and other things correct. But do you find when you were doing the tumbling that did you have that core strength prior to that or did it magnify itself when you started getting into it. I think I had a natural good sense of a good core strength because when I was younger, I never used my wheelchair like my wheelchair was never in the house. I was always climbing things. I was always, you know, I was like a monkey from the beginning, you know. And, but I believe definitely that tumbling strengthened it

Starting point is 00:30:55 and then when I started doing acrobat and aerial performing like with the trampoline where I was going really high and the silks, that just sent it like through the roof. My core was already above average and it went like I don't know 10 levels above that. So yeah and it's I forget that not everybody is you know has that for a while. I was just only ever around gym mist and acrobats and and professional dancers and it was like kind of warped my sense of normal for a while, you know, like, oh, you don't have a six-pack and you can't just bend in half like that's kind of weird. And I'm like, oh no,

Starting point is 00:31:41 actually that's normal. Weird, weird. Okay, got it. Like, you know, it's kind of funny, but can do that here. Yeah. Well, I have a good friend who is adopted. And when she was around 18 years old and of age, she finally went to her adopted parents. She considers her real parents and said, do you happen to know who my adopted parents are?

Starting point is 00:32:14 And it turns out they did. And her mom for 18 years had lived a half a mile away from her unbeknownst to her. But now she's been reunited with her whole family. She found out she has, you know, four or five half brothers and sisters and she gets to see them all the time. When you were about the same age, a little bit younger, that same kind of fascination popped into your head. Did it just kind of come out of nowhere? Kind of. My friend was also adopted and she had found out what her biological last name would have been. I don't know why or how, but she did. And up, I was almost 16 16 we were the same age we were almost 16 and up into that point I never I wasn't really I didn't have a need to know anything

Starting point is 00:33:13 because I had known so much my parents were so open with my adoption and with like everything kind of you know about my biological family that they knew. And so I didn't really have a need, I didn't feel the need to like know, you know, I was good. And something just kind of went off when she, my friend had found out her biological SNM and then I was just kind of out of nowhere like, I wonder what my biological SNM would have been, you know? And um, which is really fascinating to me. And then even more fascinating that I went home and asked my mom, if there was anything she knew about my biological family that I didn't know about, which is like, but this doesn't even make sense. Like, why would I think that they would know something? It just seems so far fetched,

Starting point is 00:34:13 completely far fetched, that, and if they would have known something, they would have said it, because that's their character. Like, they're not these big secret kind of people. That's just not how they are. Well, so then she to my surprise, to my huge surprise, said, yeah, there is actually. What? No, you know, no, there's not. What do you, it just doesn't, it didn't compute, you know, and then, she tells me that my biological last name would have been Mochiano. And I knew immediately because it's not a common last name, you know, not here. And I watched her, you know, when I was younger. And so I knew the last name. And then like, And so I knew the last name and then like, like what? You know, how? I guess somewhere really deep down it made sense.

Starting point is 00:35:13 But there was a lot of other stuff on top that it was like, no way. That was all first, you know, like, how does that happen? This is like a, this just this like a one in a five million kind of situation or more. And yeah, it was just, it was exciting, you know, but shocking like, whoa, you know, when did you immediately want to reach out to them or did it take you a while to kind of sit on it before you decided to act? No, I immediately wanted to reach out and I did. I mean, my uncle at the time was a private investigator, oddly enough. And so I reached out to him to do it professionally, you know. And so he reached out to my biological parents and we all thought that they would just deny it.

Starting point is 00:36:08 You know, like, no, I don't know what you're talking about. You know, we never had a daughter in blah, blah. But I think they were so shocked that he found them that they just kind of, they didn't deny it. But then after the first conversation with my uncle, they didn't deny it, but then after, after the first conversation with my uncle, they didn't return his calls anymore, you know, they just kind of kept it buried. And so then I started trying to reach out to Dominique, and that was just a lot of failed attempts and a lot of planning, and it just took time because I wanted to do it the right way and didn't want them to think that I was just making it up or something.

Starting point is 00:36:47 So that all in all from beginning to end took about four years, which seems like insane, but it was just one thing after another, you know? That took a lot of, that was really discouraging, you know, for a while, because it was like, oh, this is going to work this time and then it didn't, you know, and because it was like, oh, this is gonna work this time, and then it didn't, you know, and then it was like, and then it started feeling impossible.

Starting point is 00:37:09 Like, is this, this is actually ever gonna happen? You know, like, is this real? Like, it just seems, again, so far fetched, so kind of enormous that, yeah, I just kind of seemed like, maybe it's not gonna happen, you know. And um, but then eventually I just started coming on my mind again. I was even like dreaming about it and um, so started again the last attempt. And that was successful at the end of 2007 and I wrote a letter and copied pictures because we I have a

Starting point is 00:37:49 younger sister also Christina and Christina and I look so much alike all of us it's like undeniable and so I said pictures letter and then you know my number and whatever so and copy of all of the adoption documents, the legal paper. So that way they knew everything was legal. And so then I waited forever. It seemed like and got a letter back from Dominique. And then we had our first phone conversation January of 2008, and then we all met

Starting point is 00:38:32 for the first time in person in May of 2008. What's an unbelievable story. And I'm just wondering when you sent her that letter, afterwards did you find out if she even knew you existed at that point? The first phone conversation, actually no. I don't, yeah, no, when she wrote the letter back, I believe she told me, which we were like 98% sure that they didn't know I existed. We just kind of thought, well, if they knew

Starting point is 00:39:05 they probably would have reached out or tried to or something. So yeah, we were right. They had no idea that they had another sister out there. And so that was a whole thing, you know, with their parents that they had to kind of go through the whole being mad at them and then eventually forgiving them. Yeah, mom and dad, what the heck? Yeah, exactly, exactly. Yeah, right. And so you finally get to meet your two sisters and did it like right when you met them,

Starting point is 00:39:41 did you feel a connection with them as siblings often do? Yeah, it was just kind of this like yeah that makes it like yeah that makes sense you're my sisters. I mean there I wouldn't say like there was this it was obvious but then like building something where you have a connection with somebody, that took a long, that just took a while. Like there were things that were so natural because we all had so much in common. And then there were things that were totally not natural where we absolutely had huge differences because we were raised so differently.

Starting point is 00:40:25 You know, they were raised, they weren't raised like in normal American anyway, because they were raised by Romanians, and their parents grew up in communism. And so, you don't realize how much that affects somebody until you start kind of, you know, they had to tell me all these things, you know, because they had decked these strange things and I'm like, where does that come from? You know, and then they kind of break down like the culture and how everything was secretive and communism and you had to be afraid of everybody in your neighbor and like all these things and I'm like, I've never even heard of stuff like that, you know? And we were like open door policy kind of

Starting point is 00:41:04 everybody could come into our house, you know, so there were just these like stark night and day differences, and then it, but then on other hand, through everything I just said being raised polar opposite, then there were these like unbelievably undeniable similarities. I mean, so it was just really interesting. And that, you know, those things just took time to work through. And we're still, you know, we're all, we have like our similarities. And then our difference is you still see them

Starting point is 00:41:40 in how we raise, you know, it's really interesting. Yeah, and have you ever had an opportunity to do any tumbling with your sister? Or is that never come off? No, she's not performed in, you know, I don't know, 15 years or more, 10 at least, I think, don't quote me on the number. Yeah, I think maybe like 15 maybe. at least, I think, don't quote me on the number. Yeah, I think maybe like 15 maybe. And my performing is more, especially since I started doing more solo performing, well, before I got married, that's mainly been with silks.

Starting point is 00:42:15 And that's not what her thing is. She's been coaching and she's kids. It might sound like some natural fit, but it doesn't really, it's not really what she does or what, you know, kind of, is it what's going on right now, I guess, or make sense for her? No, no, I get it. I just thought I'd ask, because that would be kind of cool if you got to, if you got to, you know, work out with her and had that experience. So I then want to go into, So I then want to go into, so you find yourself at Disney. How did that come about?

Starting point is 00:42:49 So I got an internship through the Disney College program when I was 19 and moved just kind of immediately moved. The paper had gotten lost in the mail at my acceptance letter. And so by the time I actually got the confirmation of that I was actually accepted, I was, I moved just two weeks later. It was just two weeks at that point. So I moved from Illinois all the way to Orlando, Florida. And I never looked back actually. I was supposed to just be a five month program. I extended it to an eight month program when I met my old performing partner, and that's when everything started happening. Sone, go into fashion college, like that was it. And then I came to a crossroads where I met Nate, my own partner in Florida. And I had to make a decision, like continue down the fashion path, or take this totally new thing of trying out being an acrobatman

Starting point is 00:44:21 airless. And obviously I chose performing performing and clearly that was the right choice but at the time you know it was a big big big decision and so I started working with Nate first he was more like a coach he was training me teaching me he taught me everything with Ariel and Soaks and all that. It was a lot of experimenting because like you had mentioned earlier, a Soaks, I mean, Ariel in general, but definitely Soaks, you really use your legs like all the time for every skill, basically. And so he had been performing as an acrobat in an aerialist for 10 years and he was a gymnast before that. He was much older than me. And so he was teaching me all that stuff, and then we were

Starting point is 00:45:12 practicing on the trampoline, the professional trampolines where you go really high. And I still knew how to flip in Tumble, you know, but it was just needed to be cleaned up. I still knew how to flip and tumble, you know, but it was just needed to be cleaned up. And so he started teaching me some partner stuff and then he kind of, or we, he realized that there was so much that we could do together and there was actual advantages to, believe it or not, not having legs.

Starting point is 00:45:41 And I was strong, but I was light. And I knew how to do all these things, you know. And then he just kept teaching me how to do the more advanced stuff. And then the silks was a whole experimental like, wow, I was just so excited to learn that I would be working five days a week training five days a week Ferb two or three hours after work with him five days a week I was bruised and purple and black and blue and just Beyond the store and I was so excited like I I didn't care. I was just on fire and the passion. Yeah, that was like, couldn't have been bigger.

Starting point is 00:46:27 And that's what was driving me, you know? And I knew that I was supposed to do it. I prayed about it and I felt right about it. I felt peace about turning the whole entire five year plan that I had planned, like meticulously for fashion. And I also loved fashion. I had a whole plan for that too. But I felt peace about going down this new path. And it was first though, like, I was, I don't know, I guess I didn't think about people

Starting point is 00:46:55 thinking it was such a big deal that I was performing. But I didn't realize, again, it's kind of the same formula here, again, is as the tumbling sort of, but no one had ever done it. No one like me without legs had went down this acrobat and aerial path in the entertainment industry. And people didn't know what to do with me. It was so interesting. I mean, I guess obviously, when you think about it, you're like, oh yeah, because no one's ever seen somebody like me, there was nothing to compare it to. There was no box, there was no label, there was nothing. And so people like, it's cool, you can do it, but I don't know what to do with you.

Starting point is 00:47:41 And I don't know how an audience is going to feel about you. You know, like, okay, I mean, whatever, that's fine, but I know they're going to love it. Like, I just, I don't know, it didn't bother me as much as you would think it would have or maybe it should have. Um, but, but the thing that I think bothered me the most was my, what Nate, he came to me one time, it was way after the fact that it happened, but like his friends, his colleagues or whatever in the Acrobat and Aerial community had like sat him down and had like an intervention with him about me and that he was throwing his career away by being my partner. And that was like a hit, that was like a gut punch. It didn't like stop me or anything, but it made me mad. I was like,

Starting point is 00:48:37 how can you, because they were all nice to my face. And I was so naive and just so like, I just loved everybody and I didn't even know people thought like that. I just that's just not the way my brain worked and I thought. That is so weird like why did they care so much and why would it like I didn't to them and going with what he felt was the right thing to do yeah i mean that's that's true um of course i think it bothered him too but i guess not enough to stop so um so then we everything happened pretty fast i mean we had our first performance again only because somebody had canceled last minute. Like a performance and these people were so desperate and they were so scared to hire us but they didn't have any choice. And so it was like 5,000 people which is like so intimidating for me. And we crushed it, everybody loved it and they saw the audience loved it,

Starting point is 00:49:46 it was no video. I mean, not in that way, you know, everybody loved it, they were excited and they didn't freak out or whatever. And then that next year, we were on tour with Britney Spears as a featured act. That was the moment that was the change my whole career. That was the moment where I don't know if we should hire you to okay now everybody all over the world went to stick or form. It opened up it like broke those barriers that people were afraid of because on a tour sometimes we had 20,000 people in the audience, and they were going insane for our act. Sometimes I still can't believe that I lived that, and then I got to do that. I mean, even when you're in the Olympics, you don't get audiences live with that size. I mean, yeah, I've been on TV where millions of people are watching, but it is not the same at all.

Starting point is 00:50:45 As that in-house, the atmosphere of that many people is like something that very few people get to experience. And I am so grateful. And it pushed me. I mean, it was extremely intimidating, especially for a very brand new performer, very young, thrown into the fire, and everybody was already kind of like an any moment ready to fire me if we made a mistake, because it was so kind of like cutting edge, I guess, if you want to say. And so, yeah, that made me excel so much as a performer and under pressure, what I can do and my confidence level as a performer, my ability to, like, I walked away from 40 some shows with Brittany.

Starting point is 00:51:38 And I was like, after that, I can do anything. I literally, and I was 13 years ago, and I still, like, yep, and literally, the whole my whole career, I was like, nothing's going to be that bad. Like, nothing's going to be that intimidating. There was the most of the most of the most. Like, the music, the lighting, the way we entered, the most pressure you could have is that that was it. And it really benefited. Like there were so many times in my career, like I was performing maybe five years ago, six years ago, for LA Fashion Week on the runway. And my aerial rig went over the runway and there was water on both sides.

Starting point is 00:52:24 It was was really cool venue like a performance. And my music just stopped halfway through and never came back. And I was like, well, like, obviously I'm not going to stop. The show must go on. Yeah, I just finished my act in silence. I thought great all these like 2020 fancy LA fashion people a fashion week folks are gonna be like whatever but I'm like what else? What was I supposed to and afterwards? Oh my god people coming up you they love it even more like you just kept going Oh my god, that was unbelievable. You're an even stupid beat and I was like Well, obviously I kept going I was so like a happy if they're responding. It was like they loved it even more. It was so cool, but those are the kind of things.

Starting point is 00:53:07 And those kind of things have happened all throughout. And that pressure, all that extreme stuff happening on the Gritty tour years ago, that all prepared me for that kind of stuff to be like, whatever, music, no music, it's fine. You know, so what's it like? I'm going to say, you know, I'm going to say, you know, tour years ago that all prepared me for that kind of stuff to be like whatever music no music it's fine so what's it like going on the road like that was was it 40 shows around the world where they just in the United States um the so it was broken up into different legs the tour I came in on

Starting point is 00:53:41 the last two legs so I did North America and, and then we had a break, and then I did Australia. So they were each chunk of the tour, the leg of the tour was broken up. So the first two, one was North America, one was Europe, I didn't do those two. I came in halfway, and then I did the second North American leg and Australia. So that they were broken up, you know. And it was, well, I loved it. I mean, you know, it was like, whoa, everything was so new and it was the highest grossing tour in the world and it was Britney Spears and it was like the biggest of the biggest and every kind of way, you know, so it was just over the top, you know, everything for

Starting point is 00:54:29 me was over the top. And I love traveling. I love meeting new people. And so I love it. I mean, I still love, I mean, and since then, you know, it started out just performing, like what's I'm about now, and then eventually professional speaking came, then eventually my book came, and so all of those things together led to even more traveling, you know, even more events and even more, so I wasn't just performing, now I can also speak. And so that, obviously, you know, that automatically just opened up more doors because you're not just performing anymore.

Starting point is 00:55:04 Now you're also a speaker. And sometimes you do just perform and sometimes you only speak and sometimes I do both, you know, and then the book came and then that opened up even more opportunities. So over the years, I've been until the whole world shut down, I was traveling nonstop for about 12 years, 13 years, all over the world, speaking of performance. I have felt that exhilaration that you did, not nearly a fraction of the amount of times you did, but the biggest event I ever got to speak at

Starting point is 00:55:42 was Dream Force, which is the Salesforce made mecca conference that they do and there about 45,000 people in the audience. And I will never forget it because I was doing the keynote with the CEO of Salesforce Mark Benioff. And it's something we had rehearsed the day before. But proceeding that I had traveled around the world with them for about a year, doing smaller venues. Probably the biggest crowd we had been in was 10 to 20,000 before that. But Mark never followed a script.

Starting point is 00:56:19 So we practiced this whole thing the day before. I have the questions I know he's going to ask me. Everything is in line. I'm feeling confident. And then we go up there and he doesn't ask one question that's on the script. So we're completely ad living the whole thing in front of 45,000 people. And the worst thing is ironically, two of his best friends and they couldn't be any more different.

Starting point is 00:56:43 Are Neil Young and Will I am from the Black IPs and Will I am is in the front row making Google-y like things like this at the two of us. So I am here trying not to crack up to answering these questions that are coming out of nowhere that aren't following anything we're doing and it's like I'm was turning into a comedy routine. It was just crazy. But after a while the crowd just kind of like blurs away when you get into that zone and you don't realize that there are that many people there, but it is when you first look out, it is quite intimidating. I couldn't see where they stopped. So I that sounds awesome though. Well, speaking of public speaking, something I when I was doing research on you that came up, my name has been something you said in the TED talk is you didn't, I guess the question is, why didn't you want to be a public speaker? I was performing in Akrabat and Arialist, traveling all around the world, doing my thing. I love performing, I love the costumes, I love all the fun stuff, makeup, hair, all of

Starting point is 00:57:52 that, of course, with the fashion background, I love all that stuff. And speaking just, I guess my association with speakers, growing up, we didn't have almost any speakers come to our school because it was really very small where I grew up. And not only people I saw speaking, were older men dressed just boring, suit and tie, and they weren't interesting. And so that's kind of what I thought of

Starting point is 00:58:24 when I thought of being a speaker And I just thought it was like a downgrade from performing because Performing has all the fun stuff and speaking just you know like a microphone and it just seems very boring and And also I just thought well that's just something I'll do when I retire from performing like in my Late 40s or early 50s when I don't want to perform anymore. I'll just start speaking and from performing, like in my late 40s or early 50s, when I don't want to perform anymore, I'll just start speaking and write a book, you know. And yep, that came 25 years earlier than I thought it would. So I was very hesitant for a long time.

Starting point is 00:58:59 I totally ran away from it, like pushed away, didn't want it. And that was so stupid because it has been such a huge blessing in my life. And like I said, I've been able to travel to even more places because of speaking and the doors that speaking is open. And the people that I've met and I've been so blessed by that tremendously. And so I just had the wrong mindset about speaking. What the TEDx talk you did in the show notes,

Starting point is 00:59:29 it's a great presentation. Is there a favorite topic that you've ever given up a public speech on? I always talk about my life. And I change it around depending on the audience I'm speaking to. Like, if I'm, I've spoken to some adoption, like it's some adoption events, you know, so obviously I'm going to talk a little bit more about the adoption part of my life. I speak about

Starting point is 00:59:58 my faith at churches. I speak to women's groups sometimes. And so obviously I speak more to women, like women things and stuff like that. So so obviously I speak more to women, like women things and stuff like that. So, but I'm always speaking about my life and I always kind of leave with a message to, so I speak about my life and then share the things that I've learned to, you know, to share with other people. Not like, oh, I had it all figured out

Starting point is 01:00:22 and you need to do what I do. It's just I share my life, I share the things that I've learned and passed them along if somebody wants to learn. And the thing that I'm out to the most passionate about, kind of telling people is that, you know, everybody is here for a purpose and everybody has a purpose and they're not here by mistake, they're not here by accident, and that they have gifts and talents and abilities that they do offer something to the world and that they have them and not only do, because everybody have them, but they're equal value. And everybody can think of a couple of people that have so much influence or impact their followers

Starting point is 01:01:03 or they're on TV or they have a book or whatever. And it's so easy to naturally think that by default they are and their gifts are more valuable and more important because they have more reach or more impact. But that's just not true because they're different, different in giftings, different in abilities, absolutely. Thank God, because I'm boring, you know, we weren't different. But, and not just that, they're boring in the diversity part, but practically, we reach, you know, with the diversity of gifts and talents and personality and characters, that's how we reach different people through our different gifts and talents.

Starting point is 01:01:42 Like, people that you can reach, maybe I wouldn't reach and vice versa, things like that. So I really want to encourage people that the gifts and a talents are of equal value. Like this is so many people think that they don't have a life that matters or that they don't even have anything to bring to the table or that they don't have a platform or a stage. And I always encourage people or remind them that they do have a platform and they do have a stage and that's the people that are in their day-to-day life. The people that are paying attention whether they think they are or not. Their co-workers, their family, their friend, whoever is in their circle atmosphere, a circle group, whatever you want to say, those people, they're making an impact on them, whether they acknowledge

Starting point is 01:02:31 it or not, they notice, those are the people that you have to, you know, if you want to make a bigger change, you've got to start with, you know, here and then work your way out, right? And so I would just love to encourage people because I've just seen, you know, like all over the world, I've been over 23 countries and people everywhere, no matter small town, city, background, adopted, foster, whatever it is, that's all in everybody. But the key to that and the thing that is the difference and that's the hardest, I think, is that is the believing part, you know?

Starting point is 01:03:11 And like nobody can believe for you. That's the thing. It's not something someone can do for you. And that's really purely just us that we have to make that choice. Like you said, I'm firm believer in the choices every day. We have all kinds of choices. Being happy, being joyful is a choice,

Starting point is 01:03:29 having a good attitude is a choice. And so it's certainly the same about believing. It's just a choice. And I would love if more people could believe because then they would see how awesome that, like, not how awesome they can be because that sounds so cheesy, but how much they have inside them

Starting point is 01:03:48 also. Everybody I believe is made to motivate and inspire. I think some people think it's just like oh yeah she's just like one of those people that was made to inspire and she's just motivational. But I think everybody can and is made for that. I firmly believe it. If you don't believe it, then you never will be. That's also true. 100%. If you don't believe that about yourself and you just think that you're kind of a loser and you suck and you're whatever, that's how you're going to see yourself. And that's probably how other people are going to see you too. It just is what it is. You know, if I walked around like that too and was like, man, I'm so weird. And I don't have legs. I don't know. I would make people feel uncomfortable.

Starting point is 01:04:31 And they would be viewing me more towards that than if I just kind of was like, whatever, you know, so we do. And then people usually don't think it's a video. So we have a lot more control over the way people treat us than we think, you know. Yeah, I think those are all incredible points. My nephew, the one who was adopted, was here a couple of weekends ago, and it was the first time I'd had someone on one time with him in a while, and he's 18.

Starting point is 01:05:03 And I asked him what his thoughts were about going to college. And he has some learning disabilities with which lots of people have. But he was telling me, I don't know if college is my purpose because I don't think I'm smart enough. And I just said to him, your intelligence and where you start has no bearing on what you can learn and the skill sets that you can achieve if you put your mind to where you want to go.

Starting point is 01:05:34 Because what I have found, you know, I'm not the smartest, I'm not the most gifted, I'm not whatever, but if you put your heart and soul into something, I think the universe rewards your hard work and your dedication to it, and you find ways to overcome the obstacles that you face. So I think what you just said is a great one. So I did want to ask, speaking of motivation, you know, what motivation keeps you going? Or what is your biggest motivator? Yeah, I mean, I believe, like I mentioned earlier, I believe that I was born like this,

Starting point is 01:06:17 not just by like an accident. Faith is a big part of my life, so I believe that God uses me for other people. And I have to say, you know, it's a lot of responsibility, like all, you know, like you feel a responsibility when people ask me advice all the time, people who are older than me, people who have kids, people who are, you know, parents and people who know that I'm not a parent yet. And even before I was even married, you know, would ask me parental advice or these huge life things. And I'm like, oh my gosh, you know, and I don't take that lightly. And, and all these things, right? So if, if I was driven and motivated only by myself for me, I think I would have burnt out years ago

Starting point is 01:07:08 with all the traveling and all the pressure and all the, I put a lot of it on myself too. I mean, I always wanna be like the best of the best, you know, my body's gonna go to my health to be great. I want my, you know, just to be better and better and better all the time. So a lot of that I put on myself probably. But, the motive, what really has kept me going

Starting point is 01:07:28 like longevity is just knowing that it's not about me. Like it's such a relief, honestly. It's like they're freeing that it's not just about me. And then I've seen so many other people like people message to me from all over the world, I mean heavy stuff, like suicide stuff, you know, and like I watched your video and then I didn't commit suicide, I was like, what? I mean, I can't even, that hits me and it stops me dead in my tracks and it's credibly humbling and it's mind-blowing and I am just so honored and I just can't even believe that I'm being used in this kind of a way. It's just overwhelming and that is the fire. It's knowing that this is my purpose. Like this is really honestly why I'm here.

Starting point is 01:08:16 And to keep going, be excellent in what I do. And to be a great example for people in every single way that I can. And my husband and I have failed the same exact way about just our lives and our marriage, our health, our fitness, everything. And we speak together too. And we perform together as well. It's a great responsibility, but it's what keeps me going. It's just like, you know, hearing all the people's messages and being like, oh my gosh, like, this is what I'm supposed to do

Starting point is 01:08:45 I can't believe that you know and it's it's really an honor. It's really an honor. It really is like it's I don't know I think I don't think it'll ever stop being like what? Really, you know me? That's so wild, you know, but it's it's just what God's done through me and my life like that But it's just what God's done through me and my life. Like that my life, it was meant to be shared, you know, it's obvious. Like through through interview, through the book or through performance or through speech or whatever, you know, it's just meant to be shared. And that's that's why I share it. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:09:22 Well, that is such an incredible message. And it is truly amazing and a beautiful thing that you're reaching Yeah. Well, that is such an incredible message. And it is truly amazing and a beautiful thing that you're reaching so many people and that people come to you with those types of issues. Just on the suicide thing alone over the past couple of years, we've been averaging 800,000 to approaching 900,000 people globally who were taking their lives.

Starting point is 01:09:46 One person could be touched and they realize that there's hope for them out there what a difference you have made saving lives. I have four questions for you coming up that are just going to be very, very quick like one answer questions, but before I get to that, I did want to ask, because I'm sure the listeners would want to hear, you know, what's up next for you? What major plans do you have in your future? Yeah, so like I said, so I got married two and a half years ago, and we have been speaking together and forming together. We just created a brand new act that we were supposed to be in DC right now performing. And we had about 74 shows with this company and everything got shut down.

Starting point is 01:10:31 Um, actually not due to COVID shopping. Lee, uh, but just other things that was like a perfect storm and the show is amazing. So we'll be back in February doing a couple shows there, not the full run yet. So we'll be back in February doing a couple shows there, not the full run yet. And in the meantime, we are going to be in the next few months. We will be traveling all around the Midwest and probably around more than just the Midwest, but speaking together in churches and in schools and just kind of and performing and whatever comes up where our places rented out in LA for the next couple of months. So we're just on the road.

Starting point is 01:11:08 And yeah, we're just kind of like excited of we're going wherever the door's open and we're speaking wherever we're called. And that's kind of what we're doing now. And it will eventually be putting our feelers out to where places that we would like to perform as well. So that's kind of current right now current what's going on. Okay great. Well I can't wait to see it in this new performance because as I've been doing the research on this and watching some of the videos you sent and

Starting point is 01:11:38 other ones I found, your performance truly is amazing. So, awesome job. Okay, so four fun questions. If I got to see you perform on the late, late show and you got in the car and you were going to do car karaoke, what song would you want to belt out? Oh, well, the song like my one karaoke song that I know every word too is the devil went down to Georgia. That song, yep, and that's thanks to my brothers singing it my whole childhood, so I know the whole, yeah, I can crush that song out. This is a fun question I like to ask. I've had a number of astronauts on the show. And what I ask is if you were selected to be one of the astronauts who went to a new planet and you could establish any rule or law or regulation for that new planet that would govern it, what would it be? Oh, man, that's an interesting question.

Starting point is 01:12:49 Huh. I'm not think about that. I mean, well, I don't know. I should make it a law, but I would love for it to be something with maybe exercise and fitness to, but I don't think wish I don't know if I should make that a law, you know, people should have a choice to exercise. That's a tough one. I don't know if I know any answers to that and I'm almost never don't have an answer for something.

Starting point is 01:13:22 Well, maybe, maybe you can think about it and tell me the answer. I'll put it in the show notes so people can go and see it. I got it. Maybe that everybody, every home can have their own garden. Like every yard, they have their own food source where they can grow their own food. I think that would be really nice. Okay. Cool. If there was someone that you have never met

Starting point is 01:13:47 and they could be living or deceased, who would it be? Oh, well, it would have to be Jesus. I would have to know so many things. There would be like so many questions that I have about. Yeah, that would be it. That would have to, yeah, that's an easy one. Okay, and then the last one is, what's your personal motto or advice that you live by?

Starting point is 01:14:18 Well, the, there's a reason that everything is possible is the title of the book, and the, the second part of that is just too long for a title is to the one who believes. So that's why I made it the title because if there is one motto or one way of thinking that I live by it, I really do believe that I really do believe that everything is possible, keyword, if you believe in that. And so that is why that's my title because it's truly honestly what I believe. And it is how I live my life. And I've seen that my whole life and things that just look impossible, but they are possible turns out, you know, so that is what I believe in definitely. Okay, and I will make sure that the book is in the show notes. I'm going to have, you know, all your social links and everything else. Interesting kind of

Starting point is 01:15:17 cool thing about my book is that it is in 11 languages. And to me, that's been like my book is in New York kind of a seller, but which is not as small. I'm not And to me, that's been, like my book is a New York kind of a seller, but, which is not as small. I'm not trying to make that a small thing, but for me, the, that it being in 11 languages is like the most cool thing to me because it is reaching people that I don't speak their language. And that is to me, like, one of the coolest things

Starting point is 01:15:45 that has happened in my career, actually. And it's not even a, has nothing to do with like a financial thing or whatever, but it's just like a pure reach that blew my mind, actually. And I think that I just had to share that. It's just such a cool, interesting thing that you can't really expect, or I didn't expect, you know? And it's been awesome.

Starting point is 01:16:05 I think that's awesome. One of the things I like about YouTube is I always put closed captions on all videos because they display them in the language that the person chooses to view them in. So it's great. I've, you know, so I have people in India, Malaysia, you know, Czechoslovakia, Russia, watching the videos, many of who, you know, English is not native language, and yet they're still able to get the message. Oh, that's great. I love that. So awesome. Well, Jen, thank you so much for coming on the show. What an amazing woman you are, life you've created, and so many hundreds of thousands of people, if not more of your touching,

Starting point is 01:16:54 with the gifts that God gave you. So thank you so much for being on the show. Thank you, I appreciate it. I can't say enough about that incredible interview. We just witnessed with Jen Brickerbauer and how inspirational she is. Since the interview, I've gotten to know Jen a lot better and have now been following her even more on Instagram and in her weekly inspirational speeches that she's giving to churches all throughout the country.

Starting point is 01:17:21 Such an amazing woman who God is using truly as an instrument to show people that we can do anything in our lives that we deem possible. Today's guest was suggested by a fan of the podcast and I'd invite all our guests. If there's someone that you would like to see me interview, please DM me on Instagram at JohnRMiles. We're good at LinkedIn. You can find me at JohnMiles there. We're good o LinkedIn. You can find me at John Miles there. We have just some amazing guests coming up on the podcast. I'm gonna just name a few of them. Greek actress, Katie Chinakis, Jordan

Starting point is 01:17:55 Harbringer, who you might know as being the host of the Jordan Harbringer podcast, astronaut Nicole Stott, we're Admiral Tim Gallaudet, the former undersecretary of commerce and NOAA administrator and Admiral James Stavridis. You will also find that in my solo episodes, I am trying a new technique and I hope you will check these episodes out and please give me your feedback on how they resonate and remember and if there's a topic you would like to see me do a momentum Friday episode on please also hit me up on Instagram or LinkedIn. Now go out there and live life passion struck. Thank you so much for joining us. The purpose of our show is to make passion go viral and we do that by sharing with

Starting point is 01:18:41 you the knowledge and skills that you need to unlock your hidden potential. If you want to hear more, please subscribe to the PassionStrike podcast on Spotify, iTunes, Stitcher or wherever you listen to your podcast ad. And if you absolutely love this episode, we'd appreciate a five-star rating on iTunes and you sharing it with three of your most growth-minded friends so they can post it as well to their social accounts and help us grow our passion-struck community. If you'd like to learn more about the show and our mission, you can go to passionstruck.com where you can sign up for our newsletter, look at our tools, and also download the show notes for today's episode. Additionally, you can listen to us every Tuesday and Friday, or even more inspiring content. And remember, make a choice, work hard,

Starting point is 01:19:32 and step into your sharp edges. Thank you again for joining us. you

Passion Struck with John R. Miles - Jen Bricker-Bauer On: Everything is Possible EP 107

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