The School of Greatness - 336 Amy Purdy: Turn Life's Tragedy Into Triumph

Episode Date: June 1, 2016

"There's endless possibilities if you're willing to work for it." - Amy Purdy If you enjoyed this episode, check out show notes, video and more at http://lewishowes.com/336

This is episode number 336 with Amy Purdy. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin. About a week from today, I'll be going on a journey to Argentina, Buenos Aires actually,

to compete with the USA Men's National Handball Team in the Pan American Championships. And I'm so fired up because many years ago, I had a dream to go to the Olympics and represent the United States of America in a sport and of team handball. And we didn't qualify this year, but this will be my third Pan American championships. So I am so fired up and make sure to follow over on social media at Lewis house,

pretty much everywhere. And I'll be on Snapchat, Lewis underscore Howes, kind of documenting the journey of all my teammates and heading down from the U.S. to Buenos Aires and the seven games that we'll be competing in against a couple of Olympic teams in all the other countries from North and South America. So I'm so jazzed up and I'm so excited. Now, we have an incredible guest today. Her name is Amy Purdy. And man, this woman blows me away. I'm so inspired by this human being. She is a top-ranked female adaptive snowboarder in the U.S. and a three-time World Cup para

snowboard gold medalist and also the 2014 Paralympic Bronze Medalist. She had to amputate both of her legs below the knee when she was a young woman and overcame so many obstacles. Then later, she recently was on Dancing with the Stars and took runner-up after inspiring the nation by all of her incredible dance routines that she did. She also went on tour with Oprah and Oprah calls her her hero. She is such an inspiring person. And man, this conversation, I did not want it to end.

Some of the things we covered were at the 1402 minute mark, what survival mode really feels like when you are facing death. Also in 1605 mark, Amy's near death vision when she was in her coma. And she had this moment where she was called to call it in essentially to end her life or to come back into the real world. And what a crazy story there. Also, the three goals she set for herself going into her amputation surgery at the 2830 minute mark. And so much more that we covered about overcoming obstacles, overcoming fears, and creating a powerful vision for yourself in the future. I am so excited about this one. If

you guys enjoyed this one, then make sure to share the love. Say hi to Amy. Check out all of her information. She's also an author, got a great book out. Check out the show notes with all the links and resources in the full video interview that we talk about at lewishouse.com slash three, three, six. Make sure to click on the share button if you're listening on your podcast app right now, or just post it over on social media with your friends so they can listen or follow along. Again, lewishouse.com slash three, three, six. And without further ado, let me introduce to you the one the only amy purdy welcome everyone back to school greatest podcast very excited about our guest today her name is

amy purdy good to see you thanks for coming i appreciate it appreciate it absolutely i've been trying to get you on for like three years now and we know we made it happen uh thanks to my persistence and julianne Hough making the introduction. Yes. And all these other things. So I'm glad you're here. Thank you. And you've been traveling a lot and you've got a lot going on.

And I told you a story just before we started on camera. Amy stole $25,000. Yeah, that's my story. She ripped it from my wallet. She took it from my heart. And I was – to tell the story, I was – I do speaking just like you do a lot of speaking. It's part of your business, your brand. And this conference asked me to speak.

And they were like, it's down to you and one other person. And then they didn't give it to me. They gave it. And I was like, who is it? And they were like, Amy Purdy. I was like, ah, it's tough to beat her up. Yeah, it's all good. Well, that makes me, I'm actually honored to know – well, this sounds bad, but they chose me over you because you're so amazing though.

It was between the two of us. It's all good. Sorry about that. There's a world of abundance. There's many speaking opportunities. I'm not worried if we miss one each. But that is kind of funny. You can put a dollar sign on it.

Exactly. You stole $25,000 from me. It's all good. Yeah. One day we'll be speaking on the same stage. Yeah. That would be amazing. We'll make it happen.

Let's do it. We'll make it happen. For those that don't know about your story, you have an incredible story. And I want to dive into it. But Oprah essentially said you're like the most inspiring person in the world. That's crazy. Which is pretty cool, right? It is.

I don't know if that's the exact quote, but it's something like that. I have it down here somewhere. She's like the person I look up to, someone you're inspired by for her. Yeah. Which is pretty cool. It's pretty surreal. With all the people that she meets and connects with, you're her inspiration. It's really, really surreal because she was my inspiration.

Right. Going through everything that I went through with losing my legs. And, you know, we'll get into that a bit too, but just losing my legs and everything I went through. I mean, I spent a lot of down days recovering and watching Oprah and the people that she had on the show. And, you know, you think, oh my gosh, if those people can get through what they went through,

I can get through what I'm going through. And then to be sharing the stage with her and actually the fact that Oprah knows who I am, says my name and knows who I am. I mean, I just feel it's so surreal. And she's just incredible. I mean, you know, she's just a very real human down to earth person, which I love even more. That's cool. Yeah. Let's break it down for those that don't know your story.

You're 19. You're a regular girl, right? Living in Vegas. Vegas girl. Vegas. Yeah. You loved to snowboard. You had a regular life.

Nothing like too crazy, nothing too bad, nothing too out of the world. Exciting. Just like you were living your life. Yeah. And then one day, what happened? Yeah. So I have to back up real fast. Sure.

You said I was a snowboarder in Vegas, and people question that often. But I grew up skiing in Vegas because there's ski resorts outside of Vegas, and my family skied. And then I fell in love with snowboarding when I was 15 and just knew that it would be a part of my life forever. And I actually – it kind of shaped what I did after high school. And I actually, it kind of shaped what I did after high school. I went to Salt Lake City to become a massage therapist because my thought was I could travel the world and snowboard and have this job that would travel with me. I could live in resort towns and, you know, on cruise ships and just see the world with this job, but also snowboard. And so I ended up going back to Vegas after massage school because I got a job out there there i was saving money to be able to travel and kind of do all that fun stuff and that's when really

my you know plans changed i completely went on a detour uh when i got sick with something called meningococcal meningitis and we have no idea how I got it. All we know is that they say 25% of the population carries it. And it's just a form of meningitis. So there's spinal meningitis, then there's bacterial meningitis. Spinal's not as deadly or bad as bacterial. You have bacterial. Okay. And bacterial's really deadly. We really don't know how I got it. It's airborne. So I could have been in an elevator at work and somebody sneezed on me and my body just didn't fight it off because they say it lives on your nose and your mouth. Um, and it's something we're

in contact with all the time, but our immune systems know to fight off. And so, you know, otherwise everybody would be sick from it. Um, And I just happened to be one of those people that for whatever reason, my immune system didn't fight it off. And within 24 hours of my first flu-like symptom, and I was just, you know, I just didn't feel good, had a slight fever, just thinking I had the flu. Within 24 hours of that, I was in the hospital on life support, given less than a 2% chance of living. So fought for my life for, you life for weeks to months after that. In the hospital still? Yeah. So I was in the hospital for about two and a half months.

Wow. The first- This is in Vegas? This is in Vegas. And I honestly just entered the hospital feeling really sick and had no idea that I'd be – I mean, I was on my deathbed. Like within 24 hours, I was absolutely fighting for my life. And put into an induced coma because they didn't know what I had at this point. So I entered the hospital.

They had no idea what I had except that I was in septic shock. All my organs were failing and hemorrhaging. Everything but my heart and my brain. So all my other organs were hemorrhaging and not working. And so they put me on life support right away, told my parents I had less than a 2% chance of living. This is in 24 hours, within those next day. Yes, within the next day. And then I was immediately put into an induced coma because my body was completely shutting down.

And that's how they try to kind of stabilize you a little bit. It calms you down a little bit. Yeah. So you're not fighting so hard. Yeah. Interesting. Yep. What does that mean?

They just give you a drug or what do they do? Yeah. How do you go in and – They do. They give you some kind of – I forget what it's called. But they give you some kind of thing in your IV. And I remember my – You just go to sleep. It was a really big deal. You just go to sleep. Yeah. My, it was really hard for my parents. You can imagine because, uh, you know, they didn't know if they'd see me again. So this was like, I remember I actually was awake when my dad signed the papers to like,

basically put me on life support. So you may not wake up, but this is the only option essentially. You're going to – you'll die if we don't do this. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. So because I wasn't breathing – not that I wasn't breathing good. I was gasping for air because my lungs had failed or had collapsed. So I just remember gasping for air and that my dad was signing this paperwork and everyone was crying. And that was like my last memory.

See, you guys never. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. Were you freaking out? Were you scared? You know what? There's always humor in tragedy. Yeah, of course.

And I remember it feeling so surreal surreal like an outer body experience and thinking you guys aren't we taking this a little seriously you know even though i was i didn't but it was in it was kind of in the back of my head even though i was like gasping for air and i'm like i'm dying i'm dying i'm you know but in the back of my, somehow there was this disconnect of like everybody here thinks I'm going to die. And isn't that a little, I don't know, serious for the situation? There's something – and maybe it was like a separation of like your – I don't know. It's like a survival thing of not thinking that – you think – You feel like it, right? You feel like you're dying, but then you're questioning, am I really dying?

So I remember that. And actually, my feet were really, really cold because I had septic shock. So you go into septic shock when your body pulls blood from your extremities to save your organs. And that's what was happening. So I was losing circulation to my hands, to my feet, to my nose, my ears, and my chin. It was like tingly feeling or like numbing? I mean, I had no feeling. Freezing cold and purple. Wow. Like just literally overnight. Like it happened really, really fast. But my feet hurt so bad. So right before they put me into this induced coma, I asked my dad or I demanded to see my feet.

Because I remember saying, my feet hurt so bad. Can I see what's going on? And my dad was like, your feet are the least of our worries here. But I demanded to see my feet. And so my dad pulled the sheets back and my feet were literally purple. Oh, wow. And… Why do they hurt?

Yeah, right. They were losing all circulation. And then I went into the induced coma. And so that's my very last memory before. Oh, my gosh. I'm surprised you can even remember that. You know, I remember so much of that time. You know, you would think that you would kind of black it out because it's a traumatic time.

I remember so many details. It's really interesting. So, yeah, I ended up in that induced coma for about two and a half weeks. And then you're kind of in and out, you know, like I was awake. And then all of a sudden you kind of slip back into it. You're in and out for a little bit for, say, another like week or so. But I still was on life support when I woke up. into it. You're in and out for a little bit for say another like week or so. And then, um, but I still was on life support when I woke up. I still, um, because I was in kidney failure, my spleen had

burst and was removed. Um, my kind of everything was out of whack. And so I was still hooked up to machines when I awoke from the coma. I still had tubes down my throat because my lungs had collapsed and needed help breathing. And so I was awake during a period of time where I was hooked up to like a whole room of machines, but aware of what was going on. And I, yeah, then I ultimately ended up losing both my legs below the knees, almost lost my hands. And that was from the septic shock. So they did everything they could to try to bring me out of that septic shock to try to get more circulation to my feet because that's just a natural. It's pretty amazing. It's a natural response to your body trying to save itself is

your organs are failing. So let's pull blood from your extremities to save your organs. And that's just the body's natural response, which is pretty amazing. But because of that, I lost circulation to my legs and my hands. So when you woke up the first time, did you already lose your legs? No. So I woke up and my feet at this point were, the bottoms of my feet were black. I mean, like at my toes, like kind of mummy. It's like snowboarding i know but too extreme but yeah i mean like frostbite really like you just i mean yeah they're the balls of my feet or the the soles of my feet oh my goodness and my toes had just i mean zero circulation the tops of my feet, they were dead. Absolutely. The tops of my feet were purple-ish.

At that point, it actually wasn't. It was really weird. It was painful before, you know, when I first entered the hospital, but when I woke up from the coma, it wasn't painful. It was just confining. I just wanted to move my toes. I wanted to like feel the air between my toes and just felt like, you know, like I couldn't, I could, I could kind of move my feet. I could kind of move my toes, but I was every day losing the ability to do that. And so then I, it was a couple of weeks after I woke up from that coma. First of all, they tried to save my feet. It was pretty much my feet. It's above the ankle about two inches is where I was affected. And so they tried to save, I always say my legs because now I'm in actual prosthetic legs, but they wanted

to bring me to a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to try to infuse my tissues with oxygen, but I was too unstable. They couldn't move me from my hospital bed or anything. And then they would, you know, they'd bring in physical therapists and massage and rub creams that are really bad for you, but that like bring blood flow. They were doing everything they could. ultimately just they knew that if they didn't amputate my feet that it would spread. Yes, because it turns into gangrene basically. And gangrene can spread really, really fast within minutes to hours. It's just suddenly once it hits, you're kind of trying to, you're amputating higher and higher. So I have to say though, I got lucky. I know a lot of people who either died from meningococcal meningitis or survived it, but lost their legs to their hips, you know, their arms and their legs.

And it's because that gangrene set in really fast for them. I, for whatever reason, had five weeks where it didn't set in. And so that was they were, so they were doing everything they could. But then they knew by blood tests that it was about ready to. So I just remember the doctor coming in and saying, we have to do this tomorrow. We have to amputate your legs tomorrow. They told you then.

Wow. Yeah. And, you know, it's amazing where the strength comes from because I didn't cry. I just said, okay, do it. Do what you have to do so I can get out of here and move on with my life. Wow. I was just ready.

There's certain things that you – there's no debate. This is what has to happen to survive, so let's do it. Cut my legs off. Right. Oh, my gosh. I can't imagine what that would be like. You can't. I could have never imagined.

But when you're in that moment and the pain, you're surviving for your life. And there wasn't a lot of pain. That's good. But there was survival. I mean, I was absolutely in survival mode. You're going a different mode probably. Totally different. Your whole mind, everything.

Yeah. Interesting. Wow. And here, I'm an emotional person just by nature. Like, I mean, I could look at a sunset and cry. You said you looked at the photo with the American flag. And I want to cry. So you would think that I would be the biggest baby in that situation.

But somehow I was probably stronger than the majority of my family. They were the ones who were so heartbroken and crying. And I was kind of like, do what you got to do so I can move on with my life. Everything's going to be fine. I'll figure it out. Wow. I just had that some kind of faith and confidence that that was going to be the case. But, you know, it's weird.

You just survival mode is an interesting thing. You cut the emotion out of it. That's what it is. You know, you're not like, oh, you know, it's weird. You just, survival mode is an interesting thing. You cut the emotion out of it. That's what it is. You know, you're not like, oh, you know, it's sad. You're not crying about your legs. You're like, I got to move on. Yeah, you're like, I got to do whatever I have to do in this moment to survive and get through the day. Yeah, if you were probably like in the wilderness and for a month or whatever, you would, whatever, eat a bunny rabbit if you had to.

You would just be like, well, I got to eat it. Right. I can't cook it or you know whatever and you probably have a period of time of the emotional like because it's the attachment of things like not have to survive exactly then you go into like survival like beast mode and that's rip a salmon whatever it's like right uh bear grill stuff crazy and i and i read somewhere that you kind of had like a moment when you were either in your coma where you like saw – you were either going to go into like death or come back to life.

Was it like a thing? You saw people. There was three people or something. Yeah. So, you know, I really don't tell this story very much. I've never met anyone who has had a story like this. Where they've like seen the light essentially. Had a near-death experience, yeah.

So I'm interested. It shaped my life, so that's why it's so important for me. So when I was in the coma that I was in, and it was that first week, which was the most critical when I was in the hospital, so it was really kind of touch and go as far as I was hooked up to all these machines. And this is just, you know, I heard this from my nurses, doctors, and parents because I was out of it, obviously. But my blood pressure would crash and my heart rate would shoot up. It was 244 beats per minute. And I actually stayed that way for about a week and a half, just fluttering in my chest. And for one, they said if I wasn't as young as I was or as strong as I was, because I

was working out a lot at that time, that my heart probably wouldn't have been able to sustain that. But so my blood pressure would crash, my heart rate would go up, then my heart rate would crash, my blood pressure would go up. And it was just this constant all day for, you know, a couple days there of just being on the edge that they think that I was going bring my whole family and everybody would start praying. All of a sudden I'd come back. Yeah, there was a lot of that that happened. And then they had to come in with the chest shockers and shock my heart back into the rhythm. And so the first few days for my family was just, I mean, every five minutes was a kind of a different story for those few days. And so at the same time, apparently my stomach started to get kind of bigger. And they were taking my blood and realizing that my red blood count was low.

So they realized I was internally bleeding. And here I was so unstable as it was. I was hooked up to all these machines. They couldn't even – I actually remember this at one point. For some reason, I remember this. I remember like – you know when you're falling asleep and you dream that you fell off a cliff or something and you jump? You wake up. Yeah. I remember having a moment like that and my finger twitching and hearing all the machines in

the room go off and them slamming my hand down because just that motion made my whole body go out of whack. So that's why they had me in that induced coma was to kind of paralyze me to not move at all. But I was that unstable. And then they had to move me into CAT scan to see what was going on. And I guess it took an entire day and like eight doctors to move me from the hospital bed to the CAT scan bed because they had to move just finger, like fingertip by fingertip without, you know, disrupting my heart rate and all that stuff. And so once they got me to CAT scan, they found out that my spleen was about ready to burst. It was 10 times its normal size. And so they rushed me immediately into surgery. And I mean, at that point, my parents and my

family thought, you know, well, they, I mean, it was point, my parents and my family thought, you know, well, they, I mean, it was a good chance. I was absolutely going to die if I didn't do the surgery, but there was a huge chance I was going to die by doing the surgery because I was so unstable as it was. Wow. The amputee or? No, this for my spleen. Oh, wow. Okay. Sorry. So my- First surgery. Yes. This is a first surgery. First of many. Yeah, so my spleen was 10 times its normal size. And bleeding internally. And bleeding internally. Gosh, I'm just in pain hearing this. I know.

I know. Yeah, if you have any kind of weird like needle medical blood, you know, phobias, then it's probably not the story to listen to. But anyways, so I was rushed into emergency surgery so they could remove my spleen and I remember being in that surgery. So even though I was in a coma, I remember being in that surgery and I remember actually looking up even though my eyes were taped shut and everything. I remember it was, it was a bit of an outer body experience cause I remember looking up, seeing the doctor, um, hearing what the doctors and the nurses were talking about.

I remember the doctor, um, doctor, hearing what the doctors and the nurses were talking about. I remember the doctor, his name is Dr. Abbey. I write about him quite a bit in my book because he's just a really important part of my life. But I remember Dr. Abbey whispering in my ear, and he said, Amy, whatever it is you believe in, think about that now. This makes me want to cry. I don't talk about this very much. So he said, think about that now. Oh, this makes me want to cry. I don't talk about this very much, but, uh, so he said, think about that now, whatever religion, whatever it is you believe in, hang on to that right now. And I remember you're going under. Yeah. Wow. And I remember, well, I was under, I was already under, I was in a coma. Gotcha. This was kind of an outer body

thing. This was like a beginning of this-death experience thing. So I remember him whispering that to me. You know, he's not necessarily aware that I'm aware that he was saying that, but I remember him saying that. And I remember thinking, so he said, everything, you know, whatever it is you think, whatever it is you believe in, think about that right now. And I remember just the first thing that popped to my head is I thought, I believe in love. I believe in love. And I was raised, it was kind of interesting. I was raised kind of, um, kind of Mormon because my grandparents were Mormon. And so I'd go to church with them every other Sunday, but I wasn't really raised in a Mormon household. Um, but I knew a bit of that religion,

but I also knew that my friends had different religions and I, I never, um, But I also knew that my friends had different religions and I never felt religious, but I always felt spiritual. And it's just interesting in that moment when I was asked, what is it you believe in? Like, I believe in love. You know, I think love is the creator of everything and what it boils down to in the end. And so I thought of that, and then all of a sudden, so my heart was like beating out of my chest, and I could feel it. I could feel it fluttering in my chest. And I thought I was actually in open-heart surgery

because I remember feeling the doctor with no pain, but I remember the pressure. Feeling him cut me open from mynum down to my belly button. Oh, gosh. But there was no pain. It was just like I could feel the skin and everything kind of pull apart. The pressure, kind of like the tension or whatever. The tension.

And I thought I was in heart surgery because my aunt has the same scar. And she had heart surgery when she was young. And I could feel my heart beating in my chest. And I was thinking, okay, he's here to fix my heart. But, um, but anyways, as my heart was beating, it was beating faster and faster and faster. And I just, I felt like I was hanging on by my fingertips just on a cliff. And, you know, every time my heart, um, hit a beat, I felt like I was going closer and closer to the edge. I mean, I was absolutely hanging on for dear life. And then all of a sudden, I remember feeling my last

heartbeat. And it was incredibly powerful and just knocked the breath out of me. And suddenly, I was in this space, in this dark space, and I saw a, but it wasn't a bright light. It was kind of a dimmed green haze, but there was just enough of a light to see that there were three silhouettes. And I didn't recognize these silhouettes. They're very basic. You know, there wasn't any details, except I could see their hands going like this, like in a kind of come here motion. And they were saying to me, you can come with us or you can stay. And I remember getting so frustrated and thinking, I haven't lived my life yet. I haven't fallen in love yet.

I haven't traveled the world yet. I haven't, like, I love life. I haven't done all these things that I haven't, like, I love life. I haven't done all these things that I always thought that I would do. And I remember getting just so frustrated and screaming, no, like every cell in my body. I was like, I'm not going anywhere. And right then, this really bright light, so this I can say was the brightest white light I've ever seen, bright light. So this I can say was the brightest white light I've ever seen was sitting over my right shoulder. And it was basically saying, um, kind of like, okay, you chose to stay and, um, you know, your life is going to be challenging, but there's, there's basically there's, I'm putting

this in my own words, but cause I can't remember exactly the words, but basically there's going to be, um, mountaintops and valleys, you know basically there's going to be mountaintops and valleys. There's going to be constant up and downs, but just know that it will all make sense in the end. And that's so clear to me that it will all make sense in the end. And so when I woke up from the coma that I was in, that was my first thought of what I had gone through. That was my first thought of what I had gone through. And I think that faith of whatever it is, just knowing that no matter how challenging life gets, no matter what our circumstances are, that it is all going to make sense in the end. That is what helped to get me through the toughest days of my life.

Wow. Where do you think you'd be right now if this didn't happen to you or for you? You know, exactly. I love that. I don't know because I certainly didn't know how passionate or strong or motivated I was. I don't know if that all just engaged after I went through everything or if it was always kind of in, I know it was always in me. It's just bringing it out. But I mean, I wanted to be a massage therapist, travel the world. I'll tell you what, I wanted to travel the world. I wanted to snowboard. And now that is exactly what I'm doing, just in a completely different way than I ever expected. Without the massage.

Yeah. Now I get massages, which is even better, actually. But, you know, I think we all want to make a difference in the world somehow. Like we all have a drive to actually just to do something and live a fulfilling life and hopefully positively affect people. And now I'm doing that because of what I went through. Right. You know, I used to want to move to LA out here because I thought I want to act and I want to do all this stuff.

But I think what I was craving was I just wanted to do something. And I guess it's, I think some of it is being recognized for something. You know, I think maybe everybody feels that. And when I was younger, I used to think it's, oh, be on TV. And now I realized, no, it's actually connecting with people. Like that's what I want. You're sharing this love and encouragement and positivity and whatever that energy is between people. That's, I think something that we all want maybe without knowing it. And once you are able to do that, like we're able to do through speaking, um, you're like, that's what it is. So fulfilling. Yeah. So, okay. So after you had that experience and then you had to, you know, remove your legs, essentially

cut part of your legs. Is it above the knee, below the knee? Below the knee. It's right above the ankles. Above the ankles. Is that better if it's below the knee? Because then you have the joint to be able to still use. Yes.

If it was above the knee, it'd be much harder. Way harder. Okay. Yes. Below the knee is a blessing. Wow. That's good. Yeah.

And so when you, this happened and you wake up and they're not there, what are you thinking? Yeah. So then I, I remember, um, the day the doctor came in and said, if we don't, it basically said, if we don't amputate here and he pointed and pointed to my ankles, then he said, we'll have to amputate up here next week. And he pointed to my knees. So he was like, we, you know, we have to do this. And so, um, I remember being, um, wheeled into the surgical room. I know. And it's so crazy. Cause how do you wrap your head around? And, um, you know, it's about to happen. Yeah. Not going to be there. Yep. And you have no idea what your life is going to be like,

you know, I actually visualize the only amputees I had ever seen were like, you know, and it's sad, were Vietnam vets on the corner in a wheelchair with a sign. And I thought that's the only vision I have in my head of what life is like as a leg amputee. And I was getting ready to have that happen to me. amputee and I was getting ready to have that happen to me. But I remember I gave myself, um, I gave myself kind of three goals as I was going into the, like literally as they were wheeling me from my room into the surgical room, I gave myself three goals. And I think I did this because I needed to feel some kind of control, you know? And, um, I knew that, uh, well, one of those goals was that I was going to snowboard that year. And I guess I, I've now I realized I'm just that type

of person where I'm like, I throw myself into things like I'm going to get in shape and I'm going to do it every single day until I'm there. I have 30 days to get in shape where, you know, for that, it was like, I'm snowboarding, but I'm snowboarding this year. Um, and then I knew that when I figured it out or I, the other goal is when I do figure it out, I want to somehow help other people, um, let them know that it's going to be okay. But I first have to figure that out. You have to figure out yourself how to be okay with it. Yeah. Yeah. And then, um, the third goal, you know, it's funny, all of a sudden I'm spacing the third goal as I'm sitting here. So it was, yeah, well,

you'll have to read my book and you'll see what the third one is. But I think, you know, the idea there is just that I needed something to feel in control of and to get me through that experience, something to look forward to. Like I said I would do this. I said I would snowboard this year, so I'm going to do that. And so I was wheeled in. They amputated my legs above the ankles, and then that was when I stepped into a whole new life and journey. Wow.

So did you snowboard then that year? I did. I snowboarded. So I snowboarded about, I'd say, seven months after I lost my legs. Amazing. That was about four months after I got my prosthetics. And it wasn't comfortable. There was, it was definitely, you know, my ankles didn't move because your ankles can move so much.

You know, if you can imagine you keep your feet flat and you can bend your knees to the floor, right? That's how you jump or that's how you, you know, get an athletic stance. But with prosthetic legs, our ankles don't bend. I mean, even really the best prosthetics, your ankles bend very, very little because if you have too much motion, then you're kind of all over the place. You can't control it. So my ankles were very stiff. And I actually remember the day that I tried to snowboard again. I went up with my sister and just put my normal gear on.

I remember everything felt so weird, trying to just even walk in the snow and not feel my feet. I was kind of slipping around. And then as we were on the chairlift going up, I think that's when it really hit me, kind of the fear of what if I can't do this? That's when it hit me. Because the whole time, that seven months, I kept thinking, I'm going to snowboard. I'm going to do this. I'm going to get my legs. I'm going to walk. I'm going to learn to snowboard. Whatever I need to do to snowboard. But then all of a sudden that moment was there. And you're like, no way.

Yeah. What if I can't? And so that was kind of a frightening chairlift ride to the top. But when I got off the lift, I was able to kind of cruise on my board. You know, you stop, you buckle in. So all that went okay. Then I got up and I was just able to kind of point my board, you know, you stop, you buckle in. So all that went okay. Then I got up and I was just able to kind of point my board and go straight. You know, felt completely different. Couldn't feel my feet at all. And then I remember I carved on my heel edge and everything felt okay. And then I went to carve on my toe edge. And that's when I realized, oh my gosh, my ankles don't bend. I can't really get to my toes. But I ended up hitting this bump. And my beanie went one way, my goggles went the other way. And I mean, I fell and my legs,

well, my legs still attached to my snowboard went flying down the mountain. No way. Oh my gosh. I kind of broke into pieces. And meanwhile, I'm sitting at the top of the mountain. No way. Oh my gosh. I kind of broke into pieces. And meanwhile, you know, I'm sitting at the top of the mountain, totally embarrassed, just like had no idea that, you know, I would worry about my legs actually coming off. Yeah. And my friend, um, hiked down the mountain and pick my legs up, attach this snowboard and hike them back up. And what's funny is somebody on the chairlift screamed because you know i'm sure it was no it was like oh my god she just broke her legs off yeah she was like oh my god and i'm

sure she racked up years of therapy bills you know after that she probably went home and was like i am never learning to ski and snowboard again because i saw a girl break into millions of pieces and it's funny because we we always say with skiers, if a skier falls, we usually call it a yard cell because their skis come off and then their beanie comes off and their poles. Yeah, they have all this stuff around them. And so this was kind of the ultimate yard cell because I had all that around me. Your body came off too. And feet flying down the mountain. So you're 20 years old this time, right?

Yeah. Wow. And I was really discouraged. I was also, I was still quite sick. I mean, I was 83 pounds when I left the hospital. I still at that point was probably under 100 pounds. And I hooked up to dialysis machines every night because my kidneys were in full kidney failure. So I was still quite weak, but I felt at least strong enough to get up and try to snowboard.

But it really, you know, that motivated me. I was definitely discouraged when that happened, when my legs didn't move the way I needed them to when they came off. But I remember thinking, okay, so if I can find a way to get my ankles to move the way they need to, if I can find a way to keep these legs attached to me, then I can do this. You know, it's just about kind of minimizing the overall emotion of, oh my God, I just can't to, wait a second, these are very tangible things. One step at a time. to, wait a second, these are very tangible things. One step at a time.

Yeah. And so, yeah, I ended up going home from there and kind of knowing what I needed to do. And I went on this mission to figure out what kind of feet to use for snowboarding. Wow. And came to find out that there were no snowboard feet out there. You know, it's not something that you can just go to a shop and buy a snowboard feet. This was what? Like how many years ago was this?

Gosh, this was like 14 years ago. Probably actually longer. This was 16 years ago. Wow. Okay. So it probably wasn't as advanced in prosthetics then either, right? I'm still – I'm in the exact same leg setup I was in 16 years ago. So yeah, I mean, even though there are, there have been advancements for sure with the military and you see a lot of these bionic prosthetics coming out. I mean, first of all, so far there's really, there's

nothing that mimics the human dynamic body, you know, and there's a lot of research that goes into arm prosthetics because, you know, people who lose their hands, you do so much with your hands that they are putting a lot of research into, you know, people being able to even feel, you know, hot and cold with their fingertips or hold a baby or you actually have some kind of feeling there. With leg prosthetics, there's, there actually has been a lot of advancements if you're above the knee. Just in the last probably 10 years, they developed computerized knees that think like a thousand times a second and know what movement you're going to do and want to do. So that's amazing. But when you're below the knee, it's pretty basic.

I mean, there is some computerized ankles out there. I've tried one. I went to MIT and tried these awesome biomechanical ankles. And I will say certain things were amazing that I missed and I didn't realize that I missed. Like, for example, when you're sitting, say you're sitting and your legs are crossed, normally your foot kind of drops a little bit, right? Like you don't point your toe, but it just kind of drops. But with prosthetics, I mean, your foot is just stuck. Like I'm in a 90-degree angle. It's the same shape all the time.

Right. And I never realized. It kind of looks like it's dropped a little bit almost. Well, I'm in a high heel. Maybe it's the shoe that makes it, yeah. I have three three inches heels on today so it looks that way right but you know it's not it's not going to drop anymore and if i was in tennis shoes then it's really at a 90 degree yeah yeah okay and there's little things like that that

do bother you um and you realize you know as a girl as a woman like there's feminine little things like that like you you know you point your toes that all of a sudden I couldn't do. But when I tried these amazing computerized ankles on, it did that. It's like automatically it knows your legs are crossed, so it drops. Or just walking upstairs, if you can imagine, you roll off the balls of your foot. That's a dynamic motion. Well, prosthetics don't do that. No, it's like I'm in ski boots all the time.

Everything is just set. So I'm really just like stepping in the middle of my foot the whole time. But with those computerized ankles, it actually pushes off the ball of the foot. And it's like you get up the stairs so fast. Why don't you use those? Because they made me like six feet tall. Yeah. They made me way too tall because they haven't figured out how to shrink the computer down to be for somebody like me. They were just too tall and made me too tall. And I will say this too, they were fun, but there's something about,

I like being able to control my feet instead of my feet control me. And so actually now when I snowboard, I actually snowboard in quite, I don't want to say basic feet. I kind of created these feet to snowboard in, to move the way I need them to, but they're quite dead. They're not like shocks and springs and like super high-tech. Your knees and everything else is shock and spring, right? Well, the thing is though, so even though I have my knees, if your ankles don't bend, your knees don't bend. Because try, like if you were to stand up right now, you know, yeah, like it all works together. So even though I have my knees, the motion's limited because my ankle motion is

limited. But I tried actually, the next time I snowboarded, I went up with these feet that had shocks and springs. They're these high athletic feet and I bounced all over the place. I'd hit chatter and I'd bounce all around. Yeah. And I thought, okay, it's actually better to go back to the basic feet so that I can control them. And I find that just with day-to-day walking and other activities, I kind of like being in control and making them do what I want them to do instead of all of a sudden them getting a glitch and like, okay, we're running. I guess we're running.

Right, right. So when did you decide that, okay, maybe I can go to the Olympics, the Paralympics and compete? When did that dream happen? Funny that it didn't happen until after I lost my legs. I never had a dream to go to the Olympics, and I think part of it is because snowboarding wasn't an Olympic sport when I first started doing it.

It didn't become an Olympic sport until really until around the time that I lost my legs. And I think so after I lost my legs, I was aware that snowboarding was in the Paralympic. I can't talk, but snowboarding was in the Olympic Games. And once I realized that I could do it, I thought, well, why isn't snowboarding in the Paralympic Games? It wasn't yet. No. And so my now husband, but he was my boyfriend at the time, Daniel, we started a nonprofit organization called Adaptive Action Sports. We get youth, young adults, and wounded vets all with permanent physical disabilities into action sports. So snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, we even do rally car racing, motocross, all types of, you know, the action sports that I always loved. We kind of just

figured out, you know, I can do all of these things. So why aren't more people doing these things? Yet there were a lot of people, a lot of amputees that were skiing and swimming, Yet there were a lot of people, a lot of amputees that were skiing and swimming, doing more classic sports. So we wanted to bring these opportunities to people with disabilities so they can do these other types of sports. And part of what we had a goal of was trying to get snowboarding into the Paralympic Games. And so we kind of went on this mission teaching snowboard lessons to people who have, you know, never snowboarded before, but then also trying to find the snowboarders out there. Over the years, I had created kind of this, not that I created it, but, you know, you kind of attract people around you. I had this like community of people who all snowboarded and had prosthetics and everybody was riding.

Amazing. But individually in their own like little mountain town or in Canada, there would be somebody with a prosthetic who snowboard. So we all started coming together and, um, hitting up every single snowboard competition with our organization, adaptive action sports. We would create adaptive divisions to, um, snowboard competitions, USA, say national snowboard competition. We created an adaptive division with that, that ESPN X games, we created an adaptive skateboard division. And then we did an adaptive, um, snowboard division to the ESPN, uh, winter X games, which we still run the border cross. And so we started, yeah. So my husband runs that. And, um, and so we started,

um, you know, helping to create this community of people who rode incredibly well and wanted to see it in the games. I mean, it's amazing for years on our own dollar with literally barely any money in our pocket, we'd fly to New Zealand and compete out there and fly to Europe and compete out there. And we had zero sponsors, no idea if this would ever be a Paralympic sport. There was kind of a core group of probably maybe 20 of us that made it happen. And we were successful ultimately in getting snowboarding. Our first games was the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi. And that's the one you competed in?

Yes. And you got a bronze medal? Yes. What was the event? It's border cross. Border cross. What was it? Halfpipe? It wasn't like you're doing tricks? No. I used to love to do that kind of stuff when I had legs. It's definitely a lot more complicated now. But I'll tell you, even I'm in border cross is one of the most complicated sports I probably any an amputee could ever do because you need to be so dynamic.

You need your ankles. You need ankles. You need ankles for multiple reasons. So border cross, it's almost like motocross but down snow because there's four to six people who come out of the start gate at the same time. You immediately go over these jumps as separation features. Man, that's tough. Yeah.

And then you're around berms and more jumps and berms and more jumps and you're just weeding each other out. You know, whoever crosses the finish line first wins, moves on to the next round. And it's an all day kind of thing of competing against each other until you get the winner. And I'm the only double leg amputee competitive snowboarder worldwide right now at that level. This year, we actually met a couple new double-leg amputee guys who are starting to train and hopefully work their way up. But for all these years, it's just been me with two prosthetic legs.

their way up. But for all these years, it's just been me with two prosthetic legs. And so I race against girls who have their legs or who have one prosthetic leg. And, you know, just that- They're missing an arm. Some are missing an arm. They have their own category. So now if you're an arm, if you're kind of an upper limb impairment, you're in one category. If you're a lower limb impairment, you're in another category. Gotcha. Mostly it're a lower limb impairment, you're another category. Mostly it's one limb. Mostly it's one limb. Very few people are double and actually have figured out their equipment

and had the drive to actually make it to the point where you can compete. This was like 12 years of training for you. Yes. And just constant innovation. Constant creativity to try to figure out how to get my feet to move the way I want them to move. And to be honest, they're still not there.

They're not there. I mean, the other girls, you know, everybody is such incredible athletes training so hard and also have at least one good leg to really do all the dynamic stuff. And for me, I rely 100% on the mechanics of these feet, and they're very limited compared to what the human foot can do. So I do realize, though, that that's what my drive is. My drive is to figure it out. It's frustrating, but it's also rewarding, especially when I meet,

say, other young double leg amputees who say, oh my God, I want to go to the Paralympics for snowboarding. Yeah. Amazing. What was it like the final round? Because you made it to the championship race, right? Yes. So the final race to essentially like the medal race. Yeah. How many girls are in that final? So for us, um, since that was the first Paralympics, it was a much smaller field.

Yes. Um, our first snowboard event in the Paralympics, it was a much smaller field. And actually we didn't do the typical four by four or, um, yeah, that was more timed or it's,

it was timed. And the reason they hate each other, it's hard to get up sort of whatever, right? Well, they just, uh, they just, there was a kind of a safety thing that they just didn't know yet. Uh, we had trained quite a while, um, for two years doing time trials. They just decided let's just do the time trials and make it go off of that instead of doing head to head because they couldn't quite figure out the classifications. You know, I'm a double leg amputee and then I'm competing against an above the knee amputee and then there's a girl with legs who maybe has, you know, a bit of MS or something, impairment

in there. So they just decided, let's just do time runs and whoever has the best time wins you know for second third um now though going into the next games it is side by side it's actually really really exciting and crazy that way but um but yeah just just for one just being you know being in russia being at the o, being in the Olympic Village is – it makes me emotional because it's just so cool, you know. And then, gosh, I mean, just the day of the race, it's almost like your whole life sets you up to that moment, you know. I wouldn't have been there if I didn't lose my legs, you know. And then, yeah, I mean, it's – and we get a countdown.

We're in the gates and, you know, you hear the guy go three, two – like racers ready, you know, three, two, yeah, I mean, it's – and we get a countdown. We're in the gates and you hear the guy go three, two – like racers ready? Three, two, one, go. And I mean those moments are some of the most intense moments because once you pull out of that start gate as hard as you can. Oh, my God. My heart is like pounding just listening to this. Yeah. It's a dream. It's been my dream as a kid and I can only imagine how emotional it is.

Yeah, and to actually try to keep those emotions at bay. Yeah, and focus on the goal. You've been working on this your whole life. Focus. Yeah, don't mess it up right now. But yeah, I mean, easily standing in those gates, I thought of everything that happened in my life that led me there. All the people who are rooting for me, all the people who supported me. And, um, I mean, we even had throughout the years because we race in a dangerous sport, we even had major, major injuries with some of the athletes. We had one

athlete who passed away in one of our races right before Sochi. So all of that though, it's what, you know, comes to you in the start gates it's like everything it took to get there you know and then um but then you know you have to use that as power versus like broke down emotional yeah and and yeah then pulled out of the start gates and um it was very challenging for us. We were in Sochi. The snow was very, very weird. Different.

Yeah. It was like quicksand. It was really interesting. They'd spray the stuff on it to try to harden it up, but it would make it like glue. It was really weird. So your time was slow compared to other places. Yeah. You'd like dig your edge in and it would actually – you'd kind of sink instead of cutting through.

You'd go slower. And so we had to be lighter on our edges and it was a whole different type of riding than we're used to. And yeah, and I ended up coming in third place and was absolutely – I mean so grateful. What was that like when they put the medal around your neck? Amazing. They don't play the national anthem unless you win, correct? How did we do that? Let me think.

I think we all, they did the national anthem. For each person? Third, second, then first? Yeah. Yeah, when we did the awards ceremony. Wow. They do an awards ceremony or they do a flower ceremony right after the race on the snow. So they bring up the top three and give you flowers.

And then I think they played our- And later that night is the medal. Yeah. Yeah, that night's the medal ceremony. And that was emotional. I can imagine. Yeah. Did you get the rings too, tattooed?

No, I didn't. I haven't. But I know a lot of people who have. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I know. I've kind of thought of it. But, you know, I do have – I have the rings ring.

I don't have it on me right now. But usually, you know, to have that Olympic, to be able to look down and see it is pretty – it's just crazy. I mean, it's so cool. And so I was so grateful because of everybody who supported me, everything that we went through. You know, to be able to be there, represent anybody with a disability or anybody who, you know, had an adversity and didn't think that they could do something, you know, powerful with their lives, to be able to be there and kind of represent that. And, yeah, I mean, and then just knowing that all your hard work paid off. There was a little bit of a relief, right? It was like, thank God. Thank God I

actually brought metal home because I really had my heart set on it. That's what your whole couple years leading up is just bringing home a metal. Every minute that I didn't work out, I knew somebody else was working out harder than me and you needed to be ahead of the game. And so it takes all of you. Congrats on getting the bronze. It's amazing. Thank you. Now, how did Dancing with the Stars come about then?

Yeah. That was interesting. So I'll tell you what. Everything happens for a reason. It really does. It's either that or you make do with what you're given and then it makes sense, right, in the end. But I – so that year leading up to the paralympics i actually got this random opportunity to um to do a movie with samuel

l jackson and it was and you didn't really have a platform before no right like well i had a ted talk um that i did in 2011 and apparently my my TED Talk is used by the TED organization to say this is how you do a TED Talk. Right, right, right. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty cool. Yeah. And I did that, I mean, when I first started speaking.

And I guess going back to that quickly, I mean, that was the most challenging thing I've ever done at that time in my life. Did you do a TED Talk? I've been asked to do many, but I'm waiting for the right time. Okay. Yeah, you'll know. I'm waiting. I've got the speech in mind and I've been practicing it and I'm like – You're practicing.

Just waiting. I've been waiting. You know – It's all about timing for me. Yeah. So I kind of just jumped in feet first and made myself create the best talk that I could create at that time. You know, I put so much work into it because I knew that with a TED Talk, you could just get through it.

That's fine. Or it can absolutely launch you into a whole different, you know, dimension of work and speaking and everything. And I remember I loved TED leading up to it. And so when I was asked, I remember I cried when I opened this email. And I said, oh, my God, I've been invited to speak at TED. And I had only spoke at very few places before that. But somehow the flyer for one of my speeches ended up on one of the TED organizers' desks.

And from that flyer, I was invited to speak. And I was given about three months. I worked harder than I've ever worked in my life because I thought, you know, how do you, I was 30. So how do you, how do you round 30 years into an eight minute talk? Yeah. And, and. Which stories to tell.

There's so many stories. There's so many. I mean, my talk started out like an hour and a half long and you're like, okay. Yeah. And I wanted every story in there, but then, um, something that helped me is the theme. So it's always, I don't know about you, but it's always easier for me if a company or a group says, okay, our theme is, um, company or a group says, okay, our theme is living beyond limitations or our theme is passion or I can wrap my head around that. But when people come and say, we just want to hear your story, that's a little bit harder for me. It's so general. I need to know who are the people I'm

speaking to? What are they looking for? What are they struggling with? Like, what kind of, where can I wrap my ideas around? And with TED, they gave me, they just said, beyond borders. That was the theme. And they had so many different speakers. You know, they had someone talk about actual physical borders and someone talk about emotional borders. And for me, those borders were the limitations in my life. And I was able to start thinking of, okay, you know, how does that play a role in my life? And how, for me, those limitations are actually how I got where I'm at today.

Like it's using those, you know. And for me, that's where my theme of kind of pushing off of those borders, pushing off of those limits came. And that talk went viral, you know, all that hard work. I mean, I didn't eat, sleep, anything for three months and it all paid off and it went viral and put me into a corporate speaking career. And so I had that going into the Paralympics and before doing Dancing with the Stars. And Dancing with the Stars, it actually came up about two weeks before I went to the Paralympics. No way. Yeah.

Crazy. I'll tell you what. They called me in November. The Paralympics were in March. They called me in November and just said, are you interested? Do you like dancing? And are you interested? And I said, well, I love dancing at the club.

I mean, I can go out and dance, but that doesn't mean that I can be a ballroom dancer. And that was it for our conversation, and I kind of moved on. And then about two weeks before, we got the official invitation to be on the show. And honestly, I was just like, sure. I mean, I really didn't watch the show. I knew about it, of course, but it's not like I religiously watched it. I had no idea what to expect. I honestly thought that I'd make it through like the first week.

Well, I hoped to make it through the first week, but certainly did not go in with any crazy expectations. Had no idea what to expect at all. You made it to the semis, right? I made it. So I came in second place. Run up, run up. Yeah, came in second place. You made it to the last show, right? I made it. So I came in second place. Yeah. Came in second place. The last show.

And that's all I could have asked for. I'm telling you to be able to experience every moment of that show. I feel so blessed. I mean, yeah, of course, you know, you want, we're competitive and you want to, you know, you want to win that close. You want to win, but it wasn't about that. It really wasn't. It was just every week was a discovery, trying to figure out how do I do this and how do we come

up with moves that I can do and that work and that, you know, we didn't want it to look like I had prosthetic legs. I never wanted anyone to say, oh, she's good for a girl with prosthetics. You know, I want to be, if I'm in there competing, I want to be looked at as any other dancer who wants to do well. And so Derek and I did everything we could. We worked our butts off to, you know, to, I guess, make it as far as we did. He's a great choreographer and he's amazing. He's amazing. Just seriously genius.

He's intense too. He's like focused, committed. Super intense. Yeah, super intense, but also hilarious at the same time. Just seriously genius. He's intense too. He's like focused, committed. Super intense. Yeah, super intense but also hilarious at the same time. Yeah, yeah. He's good dude. He's got the funniest personality. He's a good dude.

I've had a chance to hang out with him a few times. He's a nice guy. Yeah. But I watched a couple of you guys' performances and they're just mind-blowing. And you guys have the judges in tears like every time. So it's like you created an emotional connection to the heart of everyone. So it was really cool to see that you can continue to break the borders and the boundaries, right? Yeah. And that's what was interesting is every week we created something and had different feet

and it came out of necessity. I didn't use the feet just because they were cool. One week would be with running blades and next week would be with these tippy-toe feet. And we did it out of necessity. I needed to be able to get a certain look and shape and action out of the foot. So we had to get really creative with the feet. But I remember leading up to the semifinals, we had used up all my feet. We hadn't used my running blades yet. I never even thought of using my running blades. They were in Colorado and, you know, you film out here in LA. And, um, I remember Derek and I just thinking like, gosh, we like, you know, we've kind of figured, not figured it all out, but like, what are we going to do this week? That's, um, dynamic and different. And, and then we found out we had the quick step, which was something that Derek was worried about with me because you really have to travel.

So you have to have that bounce to your feet. You can't like stay in one spot. And just last minute, I think actually I think it was my husband was like, why don't you try your running blades? And he overnighted them to me. We got them on like a Wednesday. You know, the show then airs the following Monday. So that Wednesday we started playing around and just, you know, the show then airs the following Monday. So that Wednesday we started playing around and just, you know, choreographed it quickly and it ended up being

so cool. I had no idea that I could run or dance in running blades. It's amazing. Yeah. And, um, we were just like, gosh, there's just, there's endless possibilities if you're really willing to work for it. Yeah. What did that do for you in general, being on that show and getting that far? And what was like the biggest thing that came from it or, you know, what did it create for you? You know, I think personally, it just, you know, just reinforced the idea that we're capable of so much because you're under so much pressure and every week you think you can't do it. Honestly, like every week I feel like, you know, two days before the show, it seems impossible. You can't remember the dance, you're making mistakes, you're just kind of praying that

you do well and then you do it and every week you do it and then you get injured and you push through that and you're still dancing even though you're in so much pain, but you're like still, you know, dancing it. And every week you do it and then you get injured and you push through that and you're still dancing, even though you're in so much pain, but you're like still, you know, dancing it. And by the end, I think you just realize like you're made of so much. I mean, you're so capable of getting, of pushing through injury and, um, fear and pressure. And just if you can push through all of that, what you're capable of doing is, you know, amazing. And so for me, just kind of personally to have that, to know I did that, I made it through that, I can make it through anything, was good. And then after that, I think what it did too is it kind of just brought my story and I guess what I do to the attention of others. So I went on after that and did a speaking tour with Oprah.

But that didn't even come from Dancing with the Stars. That came from a whole different direction. Even though I connected with Oprah on the show, which is interesting, but my sponsor Toyota was sponsoring her. She was doing this big speaking tour so it was kind of through toyota that i was able to what was this tour called it's called the life you want tour was this a couple summers ago or yeah it was the rob bell and liz gilbert were they on it oh yes i had rob's a good buddy of mine he's been on the podcast and liz gilbert's coming on this sunday she's gonna be in soon studio. Is she? Yeah. So I am doing an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert next month.

She's great. She's amazing. And how crazy is this? So during that time period when I lost my legs and I was kind of at my worst, I was watching Oprah. I was watching Elizabeth Gilbert. I was watching and listening to Deepak Chopra. And then all of a sudden, I was on a speaking tour with them. Crazy. Yeah. Isn't it nuts? And it was at the same time that my book was coming out. Oh, my gosh. And I literally just

knocked on all of their dressing room doors. We hung out kind of at that time anyways, but I knocked on all their doors, was able to hand them my book. Oh, my gosh. Deepak and Elizabeth endorsed my book. Oh, my gosh. And Deepak and Elizabeth endorsed my book. Oh, my gosh. Isn't that crazy? Incredible, right? And I just – those are the moments where it's just, you know, life is amazing. Oh, my gosh.

It's more than serendipitous. It's like this was an aligning of the stars that happened. Yeah. And without this obstacle, you wouldn't have these opportunities. Right. None of this would happen. No. But yet it doesn't just come out of the sky either.

Right. You can't have a challenge and decide to just lay in bed all day. Right. You have to go out there. You work for 14 years. Yeah. And then eventually things come together. Wow.

But really, it's the persistence of your passion that um it's amazing to succeed what's your biggest fear moving forward you've created so much do you have any fears what's what's ahead gosh um i don't know i i think do i have any major fears i'm sure i do and i'm sure i'll think about some when i walk out of here so certainly you know i think i'm just as fearful as anybody else but i'm trying to think of anything that coming up i think um'm just as fearful as anybody else, but I'm trying to think of anything that's coming up. I just don't want to waste the opportunity we have being here on this earth, learning what we're supposed to learn. I want to experience it. I want to experience what I'm supposed to experience here.

And so I don't want to waste time you know because it can you know our lives can end tomorrow i just want to make sure that i'm you know i'm doing everything i'm supposed to be doing here before it's over i guess what's the vision what's your mission then moving forward gosh this is all i i'm a motivational speaker i should i didn't prepare her so no not at all it's against her yeah no i um what is my mission moving forward i mean just to live a passionate inspired life honestly and i say that because yes it is a little general because i have so many different passions you know i i can't say i just want to come to la and be an actress but i would love to um be a superhero with running blades in a action movie action movie.

But that's just a fun, creative idea. But I would love to write another book, and I love that I get to travel the world and speak. Actually, this is the first year that I believe in the power of intention. I believe in putting your dreams and your goals out there. And at the beginning of this year, actually, I'll go back to last year. I said, I, um, this year I want to, I will be on the school of greatness podcast. But I said, I'm going to be an international speaker. I did a lot of speaking. I have spoken

internationally a little bit, but I did a lot of speaking, you know, here in the U S and this year I decided I want to see the world. I want to travel around the world. I want to experience it. And I want to get paid to do it. I'm putting it out there that from this interview, someone's going to be listening from Dubai or Australia. And they're going to email you.

And they're going to say, I heard you from the School of Brainness podcast. We want you to come to Australia. We want you to come here. It's going to happen. See how amazing that is? I mean, how that happens. So already this year, I've been to Japan. I've you to come here. It's going to happen. See how amazing that is? I mean, how that happens. So already this year, I've been to

Japan. I've been to Singapore. I've been to China, Europe. Next week, I'm going to Prague. And then I just got another speaking engagement in China. But it's amazing because you just put it, you know, you've got to say it. It's energetic, but it's also making those connections. You have to say,

this is not what I hope to do or what I'm going to try to do. This is what I'm doing. I'm creating this. Yeah. Yeah. And it's amazing how I think the universe and the people around you come together and make that become a reality. Yeah. Amazing. I want to ask you a couple final questions. I know we've got to get out of here in a second, but I'm so excited about your story and I'm so glad we could get here and do this. But for those that don't have your book, it's called On My Own Two Feet,

From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life. Make sure to go pick it up. I tried to get it in Barnes & Noble. It was out of stock. So go order it on Amazon or tell them to restock it if they don't have it. Final few questions that I have. What are you most grateful for in your life recently? Recently?

Oh, my gosh. I think this isn't just recently. I'm just going to say I'm always grateful for my health. Because so every three months I get my blood drawn to make sure that my kidneys are good because I have a kidney transplant. And every time I get my blood drawn and my numbers come back good, I feel like it's a new lease on life. I think I'm healthy. I can do anything. I'm not going to waste, you know, the moments that I have. I think that also keeps me on my toes because, you know, my kidney could fail at any time. Just they're not permanent.

They're not considered a permanent fix. It's a temporary fix that anytime your kidney could fail, you could, you know, be on machines again and on a transplant list. And so every day that I'm healthy, I'm grateful. It's a good day. Yeah, absolutely. And luckily every three months I kind of get that like reminder of like, oh my gosh, I'm healthy. And it's huge. It's precious. Every day is precious. You never know when yeah why did you decide we were talking before you said you're going to go back to the um paralympics why did you decide to go back uh it's in two years right yeah where is it going to be 2018 in south korea yeah why yeah it was a little bit challenging to decide if i was going back or not because i in a way kind of

checked that box you know went on to do many things after that, and then now kind of going back around and going back into training. It takes every part of you. But, you know, I think it has just a bigger meaning for me now. It has a bigger purpose. I actually this year was competing, So I took about two years off. To speak and do Dancing with the Stars. And after that, not that I was burned out, but I was tired.

I was like, I'm not going to compete this year. So I took actually like a year and a half off of snowboard. And then this year, I went back and started competing, doing the World Cups. And it was incredibly challenging because all the other competitors have been working for the last two years. And I took a break. You can't just step up there and still be great. No, exactly. Yeah. You don't become an Olympian by half-assing anything. You have to be 100% in. And so I came in as very much so an underdog this year. I struggled a lot with my legs.

I wanted them to do more and I was testing different legs out. And I did well in some competitions and horrible in other competitions. And really, it just felt like a bit of a struggle this year. And then I was in Italy and I was having a little bit of a rough day. And I got a phone call at about 11 o'clock at night. And meanwhile, I'm in a tiny, tiny village in Italy. I mean, up in this like little Italian Alp village. And at 11 o'clock at night,

I got a phone call from the front desk that somebody was there to see me. So I went downstairs and I mean, I was in my pajamas. I was already in bed. I went downstairs and this young Italian girl who was probably about 17 who had two prosthetic legs was standing there with her mom, her grandparents, her leg maker, and her snowboard coach. And they drove four hours. They heard I was in this little town. They drove four hours to meet me.

And really all they wanted to know is how she can do what I'm doing. Like, yeah. And they all had so many questions as far as, well, how do you get your ankles to move? How do you get that? How do you keep your legs on? How do you do this? How do you do that? And, you know, I was showing them my legs and how they work and everything we kind of figured out. And, um, just the fact that, I mean, she was obviously so determined to have her leg maker there, her snowboard coach, everything, her whole team, and that's what you need. And I just, you know, I walked away feeling so good thinking here, I'm in this little village in the Alps. You don't even, you know, you don't even know that people know you're there, would care that you're there. And then the fact that this one girl, just knowing that,

I guess my experience has shown or my journey has inspired her and given her hope that she can do that as well. It, for me, I thought that's why I'm doing this. It's not about me, you know, or, and it's not about you, you have to be into it. You have to be incredibly into it, right? You have to be completely passionate about it. But I think my reason for going back and training again for the next Paralympic team is different than it was before. Like this time, it's not about me. It's not about for you to win something or achieve something. It's to make a bigger impact. Exactly. Yeah. And who can, you know, that day was so rough for me because I didn't win and I was struggling and, you know, and I realized, but it's not about that.

Like I'm out here and I'm doing it and I'm figuring it out. And that's what it's about. It's about that journey. You know, it's not like, okay, we're going to fail constantly. So what keeps you going? You know, it's not like, okay, we're going to fail constantly. So what keeps you going? You know, it can't be about the medals. That's great. Uh, if you could, if you had to tattoo a word on your head or a phrase or a saying that was in reverse, so that every time you looked in the mirror, only you could see it. Okay. A word or a phrase or saying, and every time you looked at it, it was just a reminder that you could read it. Yeah.

What would that word or phrase be? Live inspired. That's – I love that because it's just about living an inspired life. Like I believe inspiration is contagious. When you see – and I actually – I'll go back to Derek Hough with this. He's so passionate. Yeah. And he's so inspired when he's creating. It rubs off on you.

You see somebody who's passionate about what they're doing. It makes you feel like you can do that too, whatever it is. You know, you want that in your life to be excited and passionate. And so I think it's about keeping yourself inspired. And for me, I never set out to be inspiring. You know, I don't wake up in the morning and think, that's my job is to inspire people. That's what I want to do is inspire people. I wake up and do the things that inspire me.

And I'm around the people who inspire me. And that makes me want to do more. And then, you know, hopefully people kind of feed off of that and that makes them want to do more. And then, you know, hopefully people kind of feed off of that and that makes them want to do more. So just living a completely inspired, passionate life. That's great. I love it. Okay. This is one of the questions I ask at the end for people.

It's called the three truths. Okay. Three truths question. And again, Amy's not prepared here. Not at all. This is off the cuff, whatever comes to mind. Okay. But let's say it's many, many years down the road and it's your last day. Okay. And you know it's the last day. Not at all. This is off the cuff, whatever comes to mind. But let's say it's many,

many years down the road and it's your last day. And you know it's the last day. Of my life. Last day. And they're actually saying, come here. We want you to come here and you have to go this day. Yeah, right. And you know it's happening. And you have, you know, everyone there that loves you is there. And it's a harmonious, peaceful moment. And people say, okay, you have a piece of paper and a pen and you get to write down three simple truths. So the three things you know to be true about everything you've experienced in your life. And this is essentially the three things that will, you know, be the lessons of our lives. Okay. What would be the message that you would write down? Those three truths of all your experiences on how your message to the world.

Okay. Quickly, are these words, are they phrases? Sentences, phrases. Okay. It could be a whole story, but it could be short. Okay. It's all about love. Number one. Not just romantic love. I mean, love, like loving yourself, putting love out there. Love is creativity. Love is passion. It is sharing what you have with the world. That's love. It's all about love. Second thing is to use your limitations to push off of.

I mean, they're not there necessarily to slow you down. They're there to hopefully build you up and to push off of them and see what amazing places you can go. And the third thing is that it will all make sense in the end. Those are powerful. I love those. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Amy, for your incredible inspiration and your incredible love that you have for yourself, which I think is important that we have self-love no matter what the challenge is that we love ourselves you have to and the love that you bring into the world oh thank you and it's an incredible example of what's possible

when things maybe don't go the way we want them to go to see what you've created and all the inspiration you bring to the world so So I really acknowledge for your courage, your love and your inspiration. Thank you. Yeah, you're welcome. You're awesome. You're welcome. And before I ask the final question,

I want to make sure everyone go get the book. It's called On My Own Two Feet. Pick it up. We'll have it linked up in the show notes here right afterwards. Where do you hang out on social media the most? Where should we connect with you? Watch.

I know we're on Snapchat. We got all that going. I got all that going for sure. Still learning about Snapchat, but it is funny. You do all your funny day-to-day things on there. But Instagram is my favorite. I'm a really visual person. I love photography.

I love doing photography, so I post a lot of like, you know, just cool pictures of nature and, you know, but also I do a lot of obviously like athletic things. So I do, I post, you know, some workout inspiration on there. I've seen some of your stuff with, uh, do you doing like crunches the other day with the straps or whatever the TRX straps were called? They were rings actually. They were, yeah. You're bringing your knees in. Right.

And then, um, yeah, so I just, I love, I love Instagram and I love connecting with people on there as well. The Amy Purdy Girl? It's at Amy Purdy Girl. Okay, cool. And it's, yeah, G-U-R-L, Amy Purdy Girl. And that's the same for Twitter, Snapchat, same username, and Facebook as well. Cool, awesome. So we'll make sure to go follow you there.

Yeah, thank you. And the final question is, what's your definition of greatness? Oh my gosh, my definition of greatness. Oh, now I feel put on the spot because you're so amazing. You've created the definition of greatness. Definition of great. It's just absolutely being the best that you can be. You know, we all have different circumstances. It is using what you have to get ahead. Amy, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you. Appreciate it. And there you have it, guys. I hope you enjoyed this episode with the talented, the inspiring, the lovely Amy Purdy. Again, I was so blown away by her. And I'm going to have to bring her back on at some point because I feel like there's more to share with her story and her lessons.

So make sure to share this out. If you guys enjoyed this one, leave a comment. Let me know what you thought about this one. lewishouse.com slash 336. Also share this out with your friends. We are continually to grow this movement of greatness and we can't do it without you. So every time you enjoy these episodes,

we'd love it if you share them out and get the word out because that's how we're going to grow together. That's how we're going to learn together. That's how we're going to be able to support these inspiring people that I bring on as well. So share it out, lewishouse.com slash 336 and let Amy know what you thought as well. Connect with her on Twitter and Instagram

and all that good stuff. And we've got some you thought as well. Connect with her on Twitter and Instagram and all that good stuff. And we've got some big interviews coming up. Man, they are some incredible human beings I'm having interviews with, guys. I just can't wait for you to meet these people that I get to connect with. I feel so grateful and blessed that they want to come in and share their stories and share their biggest secrets and lessons about what it means to be great and how to get there. So I am excited for who we've got coming up. We've got Rainn Wilson coming up from The Office. We've got Liz Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love author.

We've got Taye Diggs coming up. Some of you know the actor Taye Diggs. We've got some incredible people on the way. So stay tuned for some epic greatness. And if you haven't shared this episode out yet, make sure to share it right now. lewishouse.com slash 336. I love you guys so very much. You know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great. Outro Music