In this powerful episode of Live Parkinson's - Live an Exceptional Life, we sit down with Kijuan Amey, a US Air Force Staff Sergeant turned motivational speaker whose incredible story will transform how you view adversity and resilience.
At just 25 years old, Kijuan's life changed forever when a motorcycle accident left him blind while serving in the Air Force as an In-flight Refueling Specialist. Instead of asking "Why me?", he chose to ask "How can I use this?" - a mindset shift that led him from his darkest moment to becoming a bestselling author and founder of Amey Motivation LLC.
What You'll Discover in This Episode:
- The mindset shift that changes everything - How to move from victim mentality to empowerment when facing life's biggest challenges
- Practical resilience strategies - Real, actionable techniques for building mental toughness that you can implement today
- Redefining vision beyond sight - What true vision means and how to develop it regardless of your circumstances
- From military precision to motivational purpose - How Kijuan transformed his Air Force discipline into a mission to help others
- The power of not focusing on "Why Me" - Specific strategies for reframing adversity into opportunity
- Music as healing - How Kijuan's lifelong passion for drumming became part of his recovery journey
- Finding purpose in pain - How to turn your greatest struggles into your most meaningful contributions
- Practical daily habits - Simple practices that build resilience and maintain motivation during tough times
About Kijuan Amey:
Kijuan Amey is a US Air Force veteran (2011-2021), motivational speaker, drummer since age 7, and author of "Don't Focus on Why Me: From Motorcycle Accident to Miracle." His signature message: "I may have lost my sight, but I didn't lose my vision to help others" has inspired thousands to reframe their relationship with adversity.
Perfect For:
- Anyone facing unexpected life changes or health challenges
- People seeking practical resilience strategies
- Veterans and military families
- Those supporting loved ones through difficult times
- Anyone who feels stuck in a "Why me?" mindset
- Individuals looking to find purpose in their struggles
Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only is not intended to treat or diagnose Parkinson's Disease. Please ensure that you are following the treatment plan developed by your doctor. Please ensure before starting anything new you get approval from your doctor. The information being provided is based on my own personal experiences and does not guarantee that it will benefit everyone.
Disclosure: I discuss and promote products in this podcast that pay me a small commission at no cost to you. I use the commissions to help support this podcast and my website Liveparkinsons.com. I make you aware of any affiliate links by adding AFFLIATE Link right beside the link. Thank you for supporting this podcast.
To help support the podcast please visit me on my Ko-fi page and buy a cup of coffee if you feel that I am providing information that is relevant and actionable to help you live a better quality of life.
Please visit me at Liveparkinsons.com
Get my book - Spectacular Life - 4 Essential Strategies for Living with Parkinson's - My Journey to Happiness
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
Hello and welcome to Live Parkinson's Live an
Exceptional Life.
I'm your host, chrisKastenbader, and I've been
living an exceptional life withParkinson's for the past 15
years.
The mission of this podcast isto help as many people as
possible to live a great lifewith Parkinson's.
Today, I'm excited to introduceyou to someone whose story will
challenge you on how you thinkabout resilience, vision and
(00:30):
what it truly means to overcomethe impossible.
Meet Kiwan Amey, a Durham,north Carolina native, who has
lived what most of us wouldconsider multiple lifetimes of
experience.
Kiwan dedicated 10 years of hislife to serving our country in
the US Air Force, where heachieved the rank of Staff
Sergeant as an in-flightrefueling specialist and boom
(00:50):
operator.
For those who don't know,that's one of the most
technically demanding andcritical roles in aviation,
requiring precision, focus andnerves of steel, as you're
literally connecting aircraftmid-flight to keep missions
running.
But Kiwan's talents extend farbeyond the cockpit.
He's been a lifelong drummer,since the age of seven, and
(01:12):
music remains a cornerstone ofhis life, something that, as
you'll hear today, played acritical role in his journey of
healing and purpose.
In 2017, at just 25 years old,kiwan's life changed in an
instant.
A motorcycle accident left himblind and facing injuries that
would have broken many people'sspirits.
(01:33):
But here's what makes Kiwan'sstory so powerful Instead of
asking why me, he chose to askhow can I use this?
That mindset shift led him tofound Amy Motivation LLC, a
company whose mission is simplebut profound inspiring people to
achieve greatness and helpingthem find the motivation they
(01:56):
need to reach their goals andunlock their full potential.
Through his speaking, hiswriting and his personal example
, kiwan has turned his greatestchallenge into a great life.
So welcome Kiwan.
So what's been a highlight ofyour week so far?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Hey, thanks, chris, for having me.
I really appreciate you havingme on.
Man, this is awesome and youmake me sound amazing, by the
way.
I think I need to pay you forthis.
You make me sound amazing, bythe way.
I think I need to pay you forthis.
Thank you so far this week, man, just spending time with my
nephews.
They're in town and just lovingthe experience.
You know the growth you canactually see and witness the
growth of and how they'reinteracting with each other, but
(02:39):
also with you.
You know, you ask themquestions and you figure out
who's going to have the rightanswer or what kind of answer
you're going to get, because,man, you never know what's going
to come out of their mouth.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That nice looking drum set back in during the
introduction and it is a nicelooking unit back there.
So can can you tell me a littlebit more about your musical
journey?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
about your musical journey, man.
I mean, ever since I was likefive, I always kept my eyes on
something musically.
Now listening to music.
I'm sure I've always been thatgroovy little kid that wanted to
dance, but I knew I had a truelove for music when I would go
to church, because I grew up inthe church and I would just
watch the drummer.
(03:25):
That's all I wanted to see.
Not to say that I wasn't therefor other reasons, but as soon
as the music started up, I amlooking at nobody else, I'm only
looking at the drummer.
Shout out to my friend Travis.
But golly, I mean, at first itstarted out with my cousin Spunk
, but yeah, now.
Then it switched over becausehe left and went and played
(03:47):
drums for his mother's church.
And now, you know, I follow thefootsteps of him and as well as
travis, and now I'm on my own,kind of leading my and doing my
own thing now.
So, as you can see the drumsbehind me, man, those are my
babies there.
I actually bought those after myaccident.
It's kind of a birthday gift tome because it was around my
(04:09):
birthday and I bought them for abirthday gift to continue
celebrating life.
You know what I mean the factthat I can still play the drums
at a high level.
Not just play them, but I meanplay them in all different
places.
I've been all the way to SanAntonio playing.
I'm like you know people askingme, are you coming back?
(04:31):
And I'm like, yeah, if you flyme back out here, because I was
only there for a vacation.
You know, I wasn't there toplay.
They actually threw me on thedrums.
I was just there for a vacationman.
Next thing I know I'm on thedrums.
I was just there for vacationman.
Next thing I know I'm behindthe set.
Okay, so it's.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I know I've always loved music myself.
When I was in middle school Iplayed the drums.
Well, I got to play the rubberpad and a little bit of the
snare drum, but I always wantedto sit down and be able to wail
on the drum kit and I just nevergot to do that.
So I think that's why I movedon from the drums.
But after I was diagnosed withParkinson's, I really wanted to
learn how to play guitar,because when I was a kid, I
(05:18):
always loved listening to EddieVan Halen and Angus Young from
AC and they really inspired meto want to learn how to play the
guitar.
So over the last five to sixyears I've actually been
learning how to play guitar andit's really been an awesome
experience.
Being able to play some of thesongs that you love is a great
experience and it's alsochallenging.
(05:40):
So I know what you're saying interms of don't look at it as a
disability, but think of it asthe ability to still be able to
do what you love to do or trysomething new.
So that's really awesome.
So with the one job that youhad as a refueling agent, there
was a lot of technical skillinvolved.
Can you paint a little pictureof what your job was like back
(06:01):
then.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
If I were to sum it up and make it as simple as it
can be, because it's not.
It's basically like pulling upto a flying gas station.
This gas station does not stop,by the way.
It keeps going.
So you now have to get inposition the whole entire time
that the gas station is movingand that the pump or the nozzle
(06:30):
is now in the air.
So you have to get in positionso that I can put it in your gas
tank.
And you have to be close enough, because if you're too far away
, I'm not going to move, I'mjust going to sit there and wait
until you get closer, becausethere are certain limitations.
I don't just have unlimitedreach, you know, and so that's
to keep me safe as well as you.
You also don't want people tobe too close either, because
(06:52):
that's again a safety thing.
But that's the simple way ofputting it.
The knowledge, the studying sure, like you said, nerves of steel
that it takes to do this job at20,000 feet on average, it's
just nuts.
It's mind numbing sometimes,and I still remember the first
day that I saw the actual boom,because that's what we call it,
(07:16):
a boom.
That's what we were filled with.
And make the connection to theother aircraft.
When I first saw that thing inreal life now I mean we could
talk about the simulation allday long, there's that computer
compares nothing to the realthing, because when you really
(07:38):
see something in the air justhanging there like, ok, I'm
actually controlling this thing,you see it in the sim.
But when you're actuallycontrolling it and you can feel
the wind shake it, this isdifferent.
That does not happen in the sim.
The wind actually shakes it inthe sky.
(08:00):
When you're fighting againstthe wind to pull that thing left
and right, up and down, oh man,we can actually steer the
aircraft.
It's not like obnoxious, butyou can actually steer the
aircraft with it.
I can slow it down if I push itall the way down.
It's so cool because it's youknow the aerodynamics of it.
(08:22):
It's so much, I loved it somuch, man, it's just one of
those things that you can get sowrapped up in especially me,
because I was also an instructor.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That's awesome.
Now, to build on that, can youtake us back to what your life
was like when you were 25,before the accident?
What did you do?
For fun, tell us a little bitabout how you lived back then.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, yeah, we can.
That was yeah for sure.
That's what my story is allabout, man.
And so, 25, I am six and a halfyears into the military at this
point maybe just a little under, but yeah, military at this
point maybe just a little under,but yeah, in six and a half
(09:09):
years I've been on fourdeployments.
I have become an instructor.
I had numerous students youknow, many teachers seen
promoted all the way up to therank of staff sergeant and maybe
, I think, four years, was it?
Yeah, four years.
It took me four years to get tostaff sergeant.
I was listening out when I tellyou I was flying through
everything.
It took me, no, five years,five years.
It took me to get to StaffSergeant.
I was like, listen, when I tellyou I was flying through
(09:30):
everything, it took me, no, fiveyears, five years.
It took me to get there in fiveyears.
But when I tell you I wasflying through everything, it
was just like life was so.
Oh man, it was literally likeif you blinked I would have
missed it Because it washappening so fast.
And this is me being, you know,what they call a hard charger.
That's one of the labels theyput on it.
(09:50):
You're a hard charger, go gether.
You know everything.
I mean, I love that they wantto put labels like that on me.
But I was just doing what I wastold.
Simply put, I was doing what Iwas told and what I was supposed
to do.
Simply put, I was doing what Iwas told and what I was supposed
to do.
That's the other thing, becausesome people do it, get told
(10:13):
things they're doing but theydon't do it.
I mean, and then you speed lifeup from.
Because I went from active dutyto the reserves, I did four, you
know four years active.
And then I what we call palacechase.
That means if you don't finishyour full active duty commitment
, you go.
You can go over to the reserves, but you have to double what
(10:34):
you had left on your reservecommitment and put it on the
reserve side.
I said, well, that's fine, Idon't mind, because I do still
want to do the job.
I just don't want to do theactive duty part of it.
And so I went to the reserves.
They said welcome to the darkside.
That's what they told me.
Welcome to the dark side.
I said the dark side.
I thought this is where thecool guys come and hang out.
(10:55):
Well, I guess the dark sidemeans that is the cool guys, but
it was so amazing I had a blaston the reserve side.
Don't get me wrong.
I did have some great times onactive duty, but it was just the
pace that we were running at.
I did all of my deployments onactive duty Within the first
three years.
I had four deployments.
(11:16):
The first two came within sixmonths of each other.
The first two came within sixmonths of each other.
I went from June to August Iwas deployed, and then October
to December I was deployed, orthat same year.
Dude, that's what I mean.
I was like I don't know what.
(11:36):
Do I still live here?
Should I just be detached?
You know, it's one of thosethings and you really didn't
want to.
You know, say nothing, like youjust kind of tucked your tail
and like maybe this is how it'ssupposed to be.
You know that kind of thing andthat's that's just how I took
it.
And again, when I went to thereserves, never deployed again.
Um, not because I didn't wantto, but it was because we had a
(11:59):
lot of guys who came over fromanother base that actually
closed down and turned into anArmy airfield that was near our
base.
So they took all ourdeployments, because they love
deploying.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
You definitely were a hard charger.
Now, if it's okay, I'd like toswitch gears and talk about that
fateful day back in May of2017,.
If it's okay, can you walk usthrough that day and what
happened, and then that'll kindof help us lead into what your
life's going to be like afterthat particular day.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Comes May 5th 2017, man, after being in the reserves
for two years and some change,yeah, yeah, two, two, two years.
Yeah, may 5th, 20, 20,.
May 5th, 2017 was the day of myaccident, my life altering
change, and it would come.
(13:04):
I was here in North Carolinaand I actually had a business
that I that I used to own,called Kiwi Enterprise, where I
did website design andmanagement, social media
marketing and photography.
Well, I was actually doing somephotography that day for one of
the websites that I managed,and the place that I had to go
to take the pictures it was onlylike 10 minutes away from my
apartment and I had jumped on mymotorcycle to go do it.
So I said let me go run overhere do this.
(13:25):
And now you know it'll be realquick, because it was a really
nice day in North Carolina in inthe month of May.
I love spring weather.
By the way, when it gets to thesummer, it's too hot for me,
even now that I don't ride.
I just don't like the heat.
But anyway, so I get donetaking the pictures and I'm like
I really don't feel like goingto put this motorcycle right
(13:47):
back up, because all I did wasride for 10 minutes, and if I
ride back it'll be 20.
And again, it's a great day outI mean beautiful day and so I
said where can I go?
So I went to one of my favoritespots to go relax, meditate,
unwind you know just really justsit there and just be able to
(14:08):
think, sit there with yourthoughts.
You know, and that is a lake inNorth Carolina called Jordan
Lake.
Now, on the cover of the bookthat I wrote, don't Focus on why
Me from Motorcycle Accident toMiracle.
That is the backdrop that yousee on the cover.
That was where I was sitting at.
That was Jordan Lake, and thatwas the exact spot that I was
(14:31):
sitting at.
Now, that motorcycle on thecover is the exact motorcycle
that I rode that day when I hadmy accident.
That was actually my bike.
That's on the cover.
Now, both of those pictureswere taken by yours truly.
I am the photographer of my ownpictures on my book.
As I get ready to head out,because I had to work that night
.
This was a Friday night, may5th.
(14:54):
That May 5th in 2017 was aFriday, and so I had to go to
work that night for the militaryin the Air Force.
I would be there all weekend.
I had to work that weekend onthe base, so it was now time for
me to head home so I can get mystuff and then shoot down to
the base.
Well, before I get home, I getto an intersection on Highway
(15:17):
751, which is a back road.
It's like a back what do youcall it highway on North
Carolina.
We got, you know, these littleback streets.
There are only two lanes andthey're pretty windy, but for
the most part you got straightshots.
Now this back road would alsohave driveways, like I said,
intersections, just sketchy BPgas station it was so small, it
(15:41):
was like what is this gasstation going to do, you know?
And then, uh, a nursery, likewhere they have produce, so a
produce farm.
So I'm riding along and I getto the intersection of where
said honda accord a silver hondaaccord would pull out in front
(16:02):
of me and I'm doing 55 miles anhour because that's the speed
limit.
Back here I'm not thinking acar is going to pull out in
front of me, though it didn'tmatter how fast I was going, I
didn't think a car was going topull out in front of me, you
know.
But he does and I say hebecause I do know it was a guy
from the police report he pullsout in front of me and all I
(16:30):
know is I wake up a month and aday later in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
What were you thinking at that particular
moment?
There you are, the last thingyou remember you're riding your
motorcycle.
And then the next thing youknow, you think you're waking up
in your bedroom and you'reprobably looking around thinking
what's going on here.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that looking around
thinking what's going?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
on here.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that?
So yeah, june the 6th, I wokeup out of my medically induced
coma.
Actually, first off, I wasactually when I was in there.
I just woke up.
I felt so calm, I felt sopeaceful coming out of that
sleep, but what I thought it wasbecause I thought it was sleep
I didn't know.
I was coming out of a comabecause I had no idea, no
recollection whatsoever, none.
(17:07):
And I am laying there in thehospital bed and then I hear
voices.
I'm like who the heck is in myroom and why?
And so now my military mind iskicking on to say do I need to,
you know, drop to the floor andgrab my pistol?
Like that's what I'm thinking.
See, some people don't know.
(17:27):
You don't want to just pop upin a military guy's room.
I'll tell you that right nowwe're trying to think of safety
first.
And so that's what I wasthinking first, initially, until
I sat there a little bit longerand I recognized the voices and
I said oh wait, that's my momand my ex-girlfriend.
(17:50):
Well, it's the ex-girlfriendnow.
But, at the time I'm like, okay,I understand why my girlfriend
would be here, but what the heckis my mom doing in here?
Why would she be in my roomthis early in the morning?
I'm not ready for this, and so,anywho, as I'm listening to
(18:11):
them talk, they are having aconversation about a motorcycle
accident.
I don't know it's about me,because they have not said any
names.
Everything is generalized likehe, they, that, this, all of
this stuff.
I've never heard so manypronouns in my life, you know.
And so, anyway, I was likethey're the worst storytellers
(18:34):
ever.
You're supposed to name drop orsomething.
So any who finally just get fedup with that.
The fact that they are, youknow, beating around the bush is
what I would think.
And I go to open my eyes to kindof tell them and let them know
that I am awake and listening tothem, only to open my eyes and
not be able to see anything.
So when I wake up in thehospital, it wasn't a gradual
(18:57):
eyesight loss, this was.
I already lost it, it was gonealready.
I already lost it, it was gonealready.
So I woke up.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
(19:18):
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.
I close them really hard andthen I reopen them.
I'm like, yeah, no, this is not, this is not working, so
something's off.
And so I go to speak to my momand girlfriend and nothing comes
out.
(19:38):
All you hear is I couldn't talkbecause my jaw had been broken
and they wired it shut.
Now we can hit the panic alarmbecause I can't see, I can't
talk.
I'm like I didn't even realizeI couldn't move that well,
because I hadn't really tried to.
I don't know, maybe my mind wastelling me I shouldn't move, I
(20:02):
don't know, I just hadn't tried.
And so now that they notice me,you know, trying to signal them
or talk to them, they're bothcoming to my bedside and trying
to get some information out ofme.
What are you doing?
What's wrong?
Are you okay?
You know everything like that,and I'm doing my best to
communicate it through a closedmouth, literally A closed mouth.
(20:28):
And so when they can't no longerunderstand me, my mom, she
hands me a notepad and a pencil.
Man, I don't know if you'veever given somebody a side eye?
But I did and I said reallyLike it was one of those things
Really, are you serious rightnow you want me to write on
something and you know I can'tsee?
And so she was like just doyour best, you know, try to
(20:50):
write it down and don't writeover top of anything.
These were the instructions Iwas given.
I said okay, so I tried to, Iwrote everything down the best I
could without seeing, and itwent a little something like
this what is this motorcycleaccident dream y'all are talking
about?
And she read it and she lookedat me and she said oh, oh, no,
(21:11):
that's not a dream, that's whathappened to you.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And I that had to be just devastating.
And you're probably thinking toyourself this isn't really
happening to me, is it so?
I don't know if you're thinking, if this is a dream or not.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, chris, I didn't , I didn't know what to do.
That was like the last thing Iwould say again, it can't.
It was more of a wait.
What Time out?
You know?
Like, start over, say thatagain.
You know, one of those I'mtrying to.
I'm trying to ask and answer myanswer questions to myself.
(21:53):
I'm not saying anything toanybody, I'm asking and
answering the questions to meright now because I'm in such a
state of shock I'm like wait aminute.
So all that stuff y'all weresaying was about me.
What the heck, there's no way.
That's all I could think.
And I mean, dude, I sat therewith my thoughts for the rest of
(22:13):
that day, even until, I think,the next day, if I'm not
mistaken.
I'm pretty sure even until thenext day, and I finally started,
you know, back communicating toask the right questions.
And that's when I, you know,came up with the story that I
told you already about whathappened to me, that always, you
know, kind of recapped andbrought to my, I guess you could
(22:37):
say, memory.
I can't really say memorybecause I literally don't
remember anything from theaccident.
I know about where I was beforeit, but I don't remember
anything from it.
You know that from what shesaid, what the police report
says, because there were twowitnesses there who saw the
accident and said they saw mecoming on the motorcycle and
(22:59):
they don't know why he didn't,because they were behind him.
They were actually behind himwhen, when the accident happened
.
So it was.
I'm great, I'm actuallygrateful that they were there,
because there's no telling youmight have any at any accident,
especially in what do you call arural, rural area, such as
where I was.
There's no telling.
People will leave you for deadman.
Those stories aboutmotorcyclists getting in
(23:23):
accidents and people willliterally leave them in a ditch,
don't call the police, don'teven look at their license plate
.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So you're laying there now and you've come to the
realization that, all right,I've been in this accident and
this is going to be my lifegoing forward.
Now, I'm sure at that point itwasn't all gumdrops and
lollipops.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you felt at that point and
and where you thought, where amI going to go from here?
Because I'm sure it wasn't.
(23:52):
Oh, I'm, I'm in positive landright now.
So can you walk us through that?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, yeah, heck.
No, it wasn't into the positiveyet, it was more of a.
So, as you mentioned, in the um, in the, in the introduction,
the why me did kick in at first.
Um, which is kind of where mymy book title came from.
Don't focus on why me.
So the why me, victimizedmentality did come in.
(24:23):
Why did this have to happen tome?
I was a CEO, going to schoolfull time, I was trying to
become a pilot, I'm in themilitary, I'm doing all these
different things.
I got a girlfriend, all thesethings that were coming to my
mind.
Man, and I'm sitting there likewhy, why'd you have to take
that from me?
And who am I questioning?
(24:44):
Like I told you, I believe inGod.
So that's who I'm questioninghere.
God, why did you take all ofthis from me?
Why did you allow this tohappen to me?
And the reason is not to saythat I don't trust what he's
doing.
It's to say that I need answerswhen you go through something,
when you were in school, whenyou were at work, anytime you
(25:05):
needed answers to a question,didn't you ask somebody?
So that's what I did I askedwho I knew to ask, because he's
the only one that knows theanswer to this question and I
needed him to reveal it to me.
And so it wasn't so much of mesaying right, take pity, in the
why me phrasing of this question, it was, I just want some
(25:28):
answers.
I need clarity, I need answers,I need direction, I need
guidance Because right now Idon't know what to do Absolutely
.
Once he he showed me what I canstill do, because that's the
biggest thing that we do me,what I can still do because
that's the biggest thing that wedo, as you know, the why me
victimize mentality.
We think about what we can't doinstead of what we can.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
How long was it from the time that you got through
the questioning phase andaccepted your new reality until
the time you said to yourselfwait a minute, I don't have to
isolate myself and become ahermit, I can actually live the
life that I wanted to live.
So can you walk us through thatchange, and roughly how long it
took and how you made thatdecision?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It was an up and down game.
Some days, you know, I'm upwith the positive, like yeah, I
can do this, let's go.
Some days I'm like God, ithurts.
You know, this really sucks.
I can't do this, I can't dothat.
And it was the reality that Icouldn't do certain things
because, you know, with theactual loss of eyesight there
(26:35):
are legitimate things you can'tdo, like I literally can't see
you right now.
That's a legitimate thing, youknow.
But I can hear you all day long.
So that's what I had to do.
I had to say I might not beable to see him, but I can, dang
sure, hear him.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yes, my grandmother was blind from diabetes, and she
always taught me that why worryabout things Because a lot of
times the things that we worryabout don't actually come true
and I really learned a lot fromher.
She was, even though shecouldn't see.
She could do pretty muchanything that anyone else could,
whatever she put her mind to.
She cooked, she spent time withus, she gardened, she did
anything that anybody with sightcould do, and her mindset was
(27:15):
I'm going to continue doing thethings that I want to do, and I
learned that from an early ageand that really changed my
mindset from an early age on howto approach life, and I kind of
took that same philosophy afterI got diagnosed with
Parkinson's.
There's two ways to look at it.
You can just curl up andisolate yourself, or you can say
(27:36):
, all right, what am I going todo about it and how am I going
to do the things that I stillwant to do and live the best
life that I can, and so I thinkshe had a real.
She played a really big role inthat when I was growing up, and
so I understand a little bitabout where you're coming from
and that you can do thingsbecause of the experiences I had
when I was growing up with her.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Absolutely, man.
That's an amazing story, by theway, and I'm glad you actually
I won't say glad, I'm encouragedthat you got to experience that
for your own, because when Ihear stories all the time about
people who even myself, who havehad encounters with others that
(28:17):
can see.
But where the problem lies is,they understand that they're the
majority and we're the minority, so they treat us like it and
they'll push us to the side likewe're the minority.
It's not fair that we have tobe treated that way, but yet we
live in that, that kind ofsociety.
So if we're not advocating forourselves, who's doing it for us
(28:40):
?
You know, because at some pointthey're going to want to and I
don't want to say thisincorrectly, but, for lack of
better terms, they're going towant to push us out of the way
and say that well, this isn'timportant, this is costing us
too much money, and it happens.
So, unless we stand up asvisually impaired people that's
what I call this VIPs up asvisually impaired people.
(29:02):
That's what I call this VIPsvisually impaired people.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
We have to do that so that we can show we still
matter.
Living with Parkinson's for thepast 15 years I've got a lot of
friends with Parkinson's and alot of caregivers, and I have
some of my friends come up andsay, you know?
People walk up and say youdon't look like you have
Parkinson's and it's like, well,what am I supposed to look like
?
And I think everybody has, nomatter what the condition,
preconceived notions in theirmind.
But I think it's important tojust realize that they're really
(29:33):
just trying to help.
But they maybe struggle alittle bit with how to do that,
and I think one of the thingsthat both you and I have a
similar belief in is that we cando anything that we put our
mind to, but ideally we're.
We want to help others live agreat quality of life too and be
the best they can, and and bydoing, by trying to be a good
(29:56):
example and helping others, andI think that goes a long way in
helping people realize that Imay have a disability but it's
not going to hold me back.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Exactly, and one of the best ways I put it is my
name is Kiwan Amy and I am blind, versus saying that's the blind
guy Kiwan Amy.
That's two different ways ofputting it.
I'm Kiwan first and then.
I have a disability.
I wasn't born this way.
(30:27):
And even the people who areborn this way, they were born as
a body first, and then youstart to develop other parts in
your mother's womb.
So I'm born the body of mefirst.
So don't focus on what I lackor the limitations that I have.
(30:49):
Focus on what I do have.
Do you mind if I talk to you,because I can do that?
Do you mind if we sit down andeat, Because I can do that too?
Do you mind if we sit down andeat, because I can do that too?
Do you mind if we sit down andjust have a thinker's
conversation, because I do havea brain?
So let's focus on thesimilarities.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yes, I think you need to look at people individually.
Whether you're blind or whetheryou're someone living with a
chronic disease, you look at theperson and what they were able
to do and you respect them forthat.
As an example, I told you mygrandmother was blind and people
would always come up and saythey would talk real loud and I
(31:32):
would say she's blind, but shecan hear, and a lot of people
would go oh, I'm so sorry.
And I think that people aretrying to be very helpful but
sometimes they don't know how todo it and it comes across as
being awkward because they feellike they've got to tiptoe
around and just treat the personlike you would treat anybody
(31:54):
else, and whether you have adisability or a chronic disease,
people just want to be treatedlike everybody else.
I know, I see.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And you know I was.
I started laughing because notnot to offend you or anything or
show any disrespect.
That was because it happens tovisually impaired people a lot.
They for some reason, when Itwo things I am, either talk too
loudly, some reason, when I twothings I am, either talk too
(32:24):
loudly it's for people thatdon't know me.
I'm talked to very loudly sothat I can they can understand
it.
I guess they need me tounderstand.
They're talking to me.
I'm like I know who you'reprojecting your voice at, lady
or man.
And then, secondly, it's likedoes he need help?
Who is he?
And they're talking to myfriend or my mom or someone.
(32:45):
Well, I mean, yes, but you cantalk to him about it, why are
you talking to my mother?
I'm a person like that.
That's the part.
Yeah, exactly, we all need help.
But that's the part that theyliterally, this literally
happens to blind people all thetime, when somebody else is with
(33:07):
us, they'll talk to them versustalking to us.
I still don't know why we'retrying to figure it out as a
blind community we really areand it's almost like getting
permission.
It's almost like you have toget permission to talk to
somebody visually impaired and Idon't know where that came from
.
I don't know what it stems from, whatever.
But regardless.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
You don't have to talk to the individual the same
way you would talk to anyoneelse.
Yeah, so I thought that wasinteresting.
So I guess then, how did you gofrom being in the hospital and
you made that decision, ratherthan why me?
To having that light bulbmoment and saying, hey, you know
what I really want to move onand I want to live my life.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, well, again, after God started giving me
those, the blueprint andguidance and you know,
encouragement to say you stillcan.
That's what I did.
I took that I still can and Iran with it.
I mean, it was first a slowwalk but eventually I got to a
point where I actually can run.
Now, man, I broke both of mylegs in this accident.
(34:19):
I broke my spinal cord.
They all have metal in them andI can now run again.
I couldn't even walk.
At one point.
I had to learn how to walkagain.
Yeah, I literally had to learnhow to walk again.
Man, I don't wish that onanybody.
Now, there's one thing to learnhow to walk when you're a kid
(34:40):
and I always say this as a childwhen you're learning how to
walk as a child, you aresomewhere around that 20 pound
mark, somewhere around that.
Yeah, try adding 100 to 120pounds to that.
It is not fun.
It is not fun at all, because Iwas like literally skin and
bones at that time and I hadbeen in a bed for a month having
(35:02):
countless surgeries, having newparts put inside of me.
These are no longer my bones.
These are metal rods, this istitanium.
Now, metal detectors see mecoming from a mile away.
I've set so many of them thingsoff myself.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Well, how long did it take you then to fully recover?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
I heard about it.
I heard about it, yeah, so, butyeah, it was one of those
things.
Man, like I'm a million dollarsby the way, I'm not quite as
expensive as he is, I'm amillion, but check that box.
I mean that's, that's a.
That's an interesting questionbecause of the simple fact that
Interesting, you know question,because of the simple fact that
(35:42):
what really is recovery?
You know what I mean.
Because there was a point intime where I was just setting
goals, what I wanted to get tothat first year man from in 2017
, after I got out of thehospital.
Well, even when I was in thehospital, I just wanted to be
able to walk.
(36:02):
I just wanted to be able totransport myself.
I just wanted to be able to getup out of the bed.
Like, these are little thingsI'm trying to do.
I want to sit myself up.
You know, I'm trying to move myleg.
These are little things, butevery step, I was checking off
goals and then, when I got outof the hospital, I said I want
(36:29):
to be walking without anysupport.
So that meant no wheelchair, nowalker, no support cane, none
of that.
I didn't want any of it.
I just wanted to be walking onmy own by my birthday of 2017.
My birthday is November 22nd,and so, from when I got out of
the hospital, I was dischargedfrom the hospital July 7th of
(36:51):
2017.
And I said, from that pointuntil November 22nd, I want to
be walking without any support.
Well, that goal wasaccomplished by almost a month.
Absolutely, man, and that's whatI continue to do, even in the
gym.
Today, I go to the gym.
(37:11):
Now I wasn't going to the gym.
I mean I was, but these arelike the physical therapy gyms,
so I wasn't, like I was liftingweights like heavyweight.
Now I'm lifting heavyweights.
I'm getting bigger for real now, like I was just at the gym
yesterday doing deadlifts andthings that add nature, leg
(37:32):
press doing well over 200 pounds, well over almost to.
I am 15 pounds away from deadlifting, uh, uh, 300 pounds,
right, five times 15 pounds away.
So I did two.
I did 285 yesterday, five timesall right.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
So let me ask you this then you oh, I was just
going to say you set the goal ofbeing able to walk again.
So when did you have the changethat you said hey, I really
want to help other people andyou start your, your, your
company and go out before that.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, yeah, no, no problem.
So with that, it's always beena goal of mine, that that's
always been something that Iwanted to do before I even had
the company.
So when I was in the military Iwas looking to help others
because I'm serving my country.
I mean, granted, yeah, we allknow what we're doing, we take
the oath, but it's more so like,wait a minute.
(38:30):
Every time I come back home.
I get to come back home and I'mnot seeing what I saw over
there.
And that's when you realize thefreedoms that you're fighting
for, because you come home andyou see, well, what the heck?
But then sometimes you comehome and you're like, what are
y'all doing?
Like I'm fighting for y'all notto act like this and yet y'all
(38:52):
are acting like this.
It's stuff like that thatreally bothers me in today's
society.
But then the other thing is,when I did even the first
business that I started in KiwiEnterprise, I was helping people
.
Then I was doing that for smallbusinesses and those alike.
And the reason I targeted Iguess you could say targeted, or
(39:13):
chose small businesses as aniche is because they get
overlooked the big companies orthese other people that are
supposed to be big, bigcompanies are hitting them over
the head with costs in theseparticular fields.
And the reason, I know, isbecause I was a small business
(39:37):
and I couldn't find anybody whowas affordable.
And I couldn't find anybody whowas affordable, I said, well,
what?
You know what?
That's a problem.
Let me be the solution, becauseI do know how to do these
things and that's why I did it.
So I was helping other smallbusinesses there.
So now fast forward to AmyMotivation.
(39:58):
I chose to pick this, or tobuild this business of keynote
speaking for motivation,inspiration, and then resilience
coaching and as well as trustedmentoring, because I understood
there is a, not just an avenuefor that, but there is a huge
gap in what we need in societytoday.
And you know what's evencrazier is people don't even
(40:20):
realize they need it.
And you know what's evencrazier is people don't even
realize they need it Until Iliterally say again I was going
to say, until I recently startedtalking to people about what I
do, they were like, wait, wow,that's, that's interesting.
You know, I know somebody whoneeds that and I'm like, yeah,
I'm sure you do.
A lot of people do.
(40:42):
They just don't know they dountil they talk to somebody
about it.
And why am I bringing this up?
You don't know what you don'tknow first off, right, well,
secondly is you don't know ifyou've never talked to the
person who actually does it.
I can judge you all day longand never talk to you, but as
soon as you open your mouth andtell me what it is I need to
know about you, it's like alight bulb comes on.
(41:03):
Oh, that's crazy.
If you would have just askedyeah, no, you are 100% right.
I played sports coming up and mybest coaches, as you said, were
the ones who challenged me.
It wasn't the ones who werelike, yeah, he's going to start
regardless.
No, no, they're going to betelling me hey, what's the name
(41:25):
on your so-and-so is on yourtail.
You better get right.
Oh, I'm going to start him thisweek.
Hey, that was on Tuesday.
We got till Thursday and Imight not be starting, and so
you know what I did for the restof that week I'm busting his
tail all week long.
You know what I'm saying?
(41:52):
So it was.
It was a performance based, andI appreciate performance
because of the simple fact thatit made me better, Not just them
.
It made me better too, becauseI didn't get complacent in the
position that I had.
So, yeah, no, you're absolutelyright.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
All right, so the position that I had.
So, yeah, no, you're absolutelyright.
All right, so back to your.
You know talking about coachingand mentoring as a as a coach
or mentor, as a motivationalspeaker, can you tell us a
little bit about what are the?
What are some of the thingsthat are involved in how you get
people to go beyond, to do thethings that, to get them to take
action so that they don'tstagnate or stay sad.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Well, some of the biggest things that I would tell
people I guess in the coachingrealm for sure is to find that
passion that you had and bringit back to the forefront.
Why do I say that?
So, for example, me being amusician and playing the drums,
(42:46):
I found that passion again.
I had to bring that back.
That fire is what got me backin, I guess you could say, back
into life.
It made me get back up and say,hey, I can still have something
to do here, I can still dothings you know.
And when you find what keepsyou going in life, it actually
(43:07):
helps you.
So what am I saying?
I'm saying when I'm saying notjust me not just me, but when
you find something that actuallykeeps you going, like the
energizing bunny.
It makes for a better life.
Something that you're notsitting around just saying you
know what am I doing here?
What's the Anything like that?
(43:29):
It doesn't have you questioninglife.
It actually has you movingforward in life and thinking
about life.
And so when I think ofresilience, or motivation, or
inspiration inspiration I thinkin the manner of what can I keep
doing to keep me going?
And so that's why I continue toplay the drums.
(43:49):
I continue to learn new thingsin music because I learned the
keyboard in the pandemic.
So in October of 2020, I juststarted learning the keyboard.
I learned them drums back atthe age of seven.
I'm singing um, what else Imean?
I'm doing so much stuff likeplaying sports, so I do adaptive
(44:12):
sports.
Just recently went downhillskiing without sight man.
So know, like I find things todo.
Yeah, I find things to do thatwill keep me going, keep me
feeling alive.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Yeah, exactly that's one of the things I've talked
about on some of my otherpodcasts is doing things that
you're passionate about.
Because think back to when youwere younger and say you know, a
lot of times people say, well,I've got this condition, now I
can't do these things.
But you know, a lot of timespeople say, well, I've got this
condition, now I can't do thesethings.
But you know, a lot of times ifyou think back and say what are
some of the things that Ialways wanted to do but I never
tried before, and then go outand do it.
(44:51):
I'm like you.
I'm always trying to learn newthings.
I always whether it's adultlearning classes, it's learning
new things on the guitar.
I fly fish, so I tie flies andpeople say how do you tie flies?
Your hands shake.
Well, you just have to adapt toit.
But one of the things that Ialways wanted to do was go fly
fishing in Montana and I said tomy brother two summers ago I
(45:11):
said I want to go to Montana togo fly fishing.
Do you want to go?
And he said absolutely.
And we went out and we had thebest time out there.
And we do catch and release,but we.
We just had a great time, andit was something that I always
wanted to do, and and it makesyou feel good about yourself and
it makes you want to press onand do even more more.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm actually glad that you doget out and do things like that,
especially with family.
But sure enough, you just haveto find things to do, man.
It's too much for people to sitaround and just be like, oh,
like you said earlier, woe meand feel pity.
That was the first thing Ieliminated.
(45:50):
As soon as people started doingit in the hospital, I had a guy
come in my one of my friends.
I'll never forget it, dude.
He knocks on the door and hecomes in.
Hey, what's going on, bro, howyou doing and I'm like I'm good.
How are you?
He's like I'm doing pretty good.
(46:11):
He's like you know what?
Did somebody die?
I don't know.
I don't know if you're cominginto this but you come into a
hospital, not the morgue, notthe morgue.
There's two different things.
I'm still alive, sir, and I'mtalking to you.
I need you to act like I know.
Something happened to me.
(46:33):
I don't need you to come inhere and take a pity on me.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
That's the difference , you know.
So that was the biggest.
That was one of the things Iactually wrote about in my book,
so I call it.
I think that was sympathyversus empathy.
If I'm not mistaken, I thinkthat was the chapter for that
book.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Yeah, somebody could feel empathy for you and say not
.
You know, they don't have tosay, oh, I really feel sorry,
I'm so sorry and, and you know,kind of tippy toe around you or
don't want to be around youbecause you're, you have
whatever somebody has.
So I think that that that'simportant.
So I guess one of the thingsthat what's for people that are
(47:12):
listening, what's a simple thingthat they could start doing
today to help build their ownresilience.
Do you have any suggestions?
Speaker 2 (47:21):
What I would say is, first and foremost, we're
already building resilience.
The thing is, you have to tapinto it.
I didn't know for the longesttime that I was already building
the resilience that I alreadyhad, but now I had to activate
it for my.
What I can say from from whatthis accident brought, it
(47:46):
brought a lot through, a lot ofa lot at once, shall I say,
because, like I told you,already waking up without
eyesight, I could not talk atfirst.
Thank God I can.
I can't even smell anymore.
That's due to thereconstructive surgery they had
(48:06):
to do on my face when they putthe two metal plates in my head.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yeah, I can't smell anymore either with Parkinson's.
I know exactly what you'resaying.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yeah, yeah, thank God , I can still taste that.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
A traumatic brain injury, ptsd.
I told you the spinal cordmedical infusion.
I've got rods in both legs, ascrew in my right foot, and now
my right foot is not even thesame size as my left.
It's two different size feet.
(48:44):
So I live with this stuff everyday.
So when you talk aboutresilience, it's not so much as
building it, it's tapping intoit.
How do we tap into resilience?
Building it, it's tapping intoit.
How do we tap into resilience?
I'm glad everybody asked.
So what you have to do is youreally just have to say first
(49:06):
off, I'm not going to takeeither the pity or the
victimized route.
That's the first thing you haveto eliminate.
If you don't do that, you can'ttap into it.
That's the first thing.
Secondly, after you've clearedthat I call that clearing the
hurdle because I used to runtrack After you clear that
(49:30):
hurdle, man, the next thing youdo is is get your plan in place,
like I was doing with the goalsgoal setting.
That's a huge thing.
I think everybody should dogoal goal setting.
If you don't do a goal setting,yeah.
If you don't do goals, do goals, just do anything like, for
example, like me, I wanted toalso get back into sports.
(49:52):
I didn't know they had adaptivesports.
I didn't know nothing aboutthat.
I mean, I knew about thespecial olymp, but I'm not
talking to that.
I'm talking about adapting, forexample, archery, air rifle,
tandem cycling.
I told you about the skiing.
They're rock climbing, powerlifting, shot put, discus,
(50:17):
bowling.
You know what I'm saying.
They have swimming too, but Ididn't do that.
It's a little harder for me toswim now.
I could probably do better now,but at the time I was like no,
there's so many different things.
You just have to be willing.
Be willing to try things.
(50:38):
Be willing to, even if youdon't come up with a hobby that
you think you I won't even saycome up with, try something and
you might fall in love with it.
Man, I never thought I wouldshoot archery and I felt like I
was in the Hunger Games.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Yeah, because you gave it a try, you were willing
to give it a try, and and then,next thing you know, you say wow
, I really enjoyed this.
So I guess, I did.
Yeah, that's important.
I agree a hundred percent,Cause I do.
I tried to do that too.
It's like somebody said do youwant to play pickleball and I
(51:24):
said, well, I don't really knowanything about it and now I love
it, like we get together andjust have a great time.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So I got a great story about pickleball.
So before we move on for that,yeah, last year, november in
2024, I went to this.
I guess you say, oh, it was forwounded warriors project and we
had went to and we had went toa pickleball court in caroling.
(51:52):
Was it caroling texas?
Was it caroling texas?
Was it Carrollton Texas?
Was it Carrollton Texas?
Somewhere in Texas it was closeto Dallas.
I don't have much, but anyway,we went to this big old when I
say big old place withpickleball courts everywhere.
There's like nine courts.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Just pickleball.
And so we went in there, yougot your wristband and all that
stuff, and to the point wherethey even had, like, food for
sale.
This is how big this place was,yeah.
So, anyway, I'm just going tome personally, I was just going
to sit out because I had neverplayed pickleball in my life.
But again, this is where tryingthings not knowing that they're
(52:36):
going to be fun, and so I saidI don't know how to play a
pickleball, I can't see.
You know, the ball is comingback at me.
What you know?
No, you know what we're goingto play.
I guess pairs or whatever it'scalled.
You have two on one one side,so it's a team basically got two
and then two, and so I was theserver and whoever was my
(52:58):
partner had to hit the ball forme.
Well, let's talk about thishere real quick, because I I
remember I think they onlyscored two points, dude, and we
went to I don't even know whereto go to Like 10 or 11,
something like that, and so theyonly scored two and we scored
10.
We scored ten.
(53:18):
I was the server.
So you did pretty well then,underhanding and actually
winning.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah, dude, I'll never forget it, man.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
So just to switch gears how often do you go out
and do talks to groups?
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Well, it's all a situation-dependent one.
There's no set schedule, it'sall, hey, we need somebody to
come speak, or we got aconference.
Or next month in Dallas I'mgoing to a three-day conference,
october I'm going to a two-dayconference.
I got conferences and stufflike that and'm going to a
two-day conference.
You know like, I gotconferences and stuff like that,
(53:59):
and then churches might inviteme, you know, to their
conferences, Bible school, allthese different things.
I come speaking.
I was just speaking at mychurch on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
So what's one of the most?
Meaningful things maybe anybodycame back after hearing you
talk and said hey, you know,after listening to your story
I've really changed it.
Did you have any of those?
Can you think of maybe one ofthose?
Speaker 2 (54:26):
I actually saved somebody's life, man, and this
was not based off of a speech.
It was actually based off of mybook.
My book talks about my accident, talks about the motorcycle
accident, and it talks about themany different lessons that I,
that I talk about life teachingme.
And so the guy OK, first off,his sister DM me on Instagram
(54:53):
and she said you know, I caughtthat message, I don't know
because it was a request, so itdidn't come directly to my box
and I did read it and if I wasto surmise it, it went a little
something like this Thank you somuch for writing your book.
It really saved my brother'slife.
He was involved in a motorcycleaccident similar to yours,
(55:17):
where he lost his eyesight,ended up in the hospital, you
know, and thinking about takingit in his life because he didn't
know what he was going to donext.
And once I let him listen toyour book, it changed his
perspective on life and now hewants to stay here and find
(55:38):
things to do, you know, giveback and stuff like that.
So my book has oh, oh.
And then she said, uh, ps, hereached out to you but you never
responded.
I said, oh, shoot.
So I went back into the DMs andlooked for it and I responded
to him first and then Iresponded to her.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Good thinking.
That's an incredible story.
So that's I mean that had tomake you feel good.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Absolutely, and but the see the thing is that's that
was the whole purpose forwriting my book, not for you
know, saving lives, but formaking an impact, because not
only did it impact him, itimpact her life too because
that's his sister.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
Right, yeah, there's a snowball effect that goes
along with that Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Yeah, so if people wanted to connect with you, how
would they do that?
Speaker 2 (56:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, if you want to followme on social media social media
handle on all of theseplatforms, which is LinkedIn,
Facebook and Instagram, is KiwanAmy.
That's K-I-J-U-A-N-A-M-E-Y, andyou'll see a nice picture and
(56:56):
I'll have on some shades smiling.
So if you don't see me smilingwith a really nice face, it
wasn't me as other of you wouldlike to book me engagements such
as what I've already mentioned,or even something that you want
to create new.
Feel free to go to my websiteat amymotivationcom that's
A-M-E-Y, motivationcom, and youcan also find my book on there
(57:19):
as well.
Don't focus on why me frommotorcycle accident to miracle.
Or if you want to hear theaudio version, you can go to
audible or Apple books Applebooks and search the same title
and you'll get the book Awesome.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
Now I think one of your signature quotes is and
correct me if I'm wrong, I mayhave lost my sight, but I didn't
lose my vision to help othersthat is absolutely correct and
that's why I started my podcastto help others, and because,
growing up with, I told you thestory about my grandmother being
blinded.
But my grandfather was a countrydoctor and he made house calls,
(57:55):
and I learned from an early agethat you help people just
because it's the right thing todo, not because you're getting a
benefit from it, and that's thething we're both in the same
boat on, that is, that you tryto help others be their best and
live their best quality of life, and so I really wanted to
thank you for all the thingsthat you've done, and is there
(58:16):
any final thoughts that you havefor people?
That's something that you wantto leave them with.
Speaker 2 (58:23):
Yeah, I'll leave people with one of my favorite,
because you already mentioned myquote, so I'll leave you all
with a quote that helps me,keeps me from jumping down
people's throats sometimes, andthis is one that I picked up,
actually, from a TV show back inthe day, for those who aren't
familiar First Prince of Bel-Air.
Oh yeah, season one.
(58:44):
The quote goes something likethis my situation does not
define who I am.
I define who I am, and whatthat means to me is don't allow
people to put labels on you,because that's them reflecting
(59:05):
on themselves of what you are,versus you telling them who you
are.
So always define yourself.
Don't let anybody else defineyou.
Speaker 1 (59:17):
Yeah, one of my favorite quotes is from the
movie Jack with Robin Williams.
Jack was about uh, had, uh, uh,where you age really fast, and
he was giving his graduationspeech and he looked like he was
about 80 years old.
But the quote that always stuckwith me is he.
He says make your lifespectacular.
I know I did so.
(59:40):
That's kind of where I got thename of the book that I wrote to
Spectacular, you know FourStrategies for Living with
Parkinson's, but it's the samething.
So I really appreciate yourtime and I want to thank you for
being on today.
I think you're going to help alot of people and hopefully
people will connect with you and, you know, learn to.
You know take that step and say, not why me, but you know why
(01:00:02):
not, why can't I do these things?
And you can go out and do thosethings.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Absolutely.
Again, I appreciate you havingme here, Chris, having me here,
Chris.
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Thank you very much and you have a spectacular day.
Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
You do the same.
Hello and welcome to Live Parkinson's Live an
Exceptional Life.
I'm your host, chrisKastenbader, and I've been
living an exceptional life withParkinson's for the past 15
years.
The mission of this podcast isto help as many people as
possible to live a great lifewith Parkinson's.
Today, I'm excited to introduceyou to someone whose story will
challenge you on how you thinkabout resilience, vision and
(00:30):
what it truly means to overcomethe impossible.
Meet Kiwan Amey, a Durham,north Carolina native, who has
lived what most of us wouldconsider multiple lifetimes of
experience.
Kiwan dedicated 10 years of hislife to serving our country in
the US Air Force, where heachieved the rank of Staff
Sergeant as an in-flightrefueling specialist and boom
(00:50):
operator.
For those who don't know,that's one of the most
technically demanding andcritical roles in aviation,
requiring precision, focus andnerves of steel, as you're
literally connecting aircraftmid-flight to keep missions
running.
But Kiwan's talents extend farbeyond the cockpit.
He's been a lifelong drummer,since the age of seven, and
(01:12):
music remains a cornerstone ofhis life, something that, as
you'll hear today, played acritical role in his journey of
healing and purpose.
In 2017, at just 25 years old,kiwan's life changed in an
instant.
A motorcycle accident left himblind and facing injuries that
would have broken many people'sspirits.
(01:33):
But here's what makes Kiwan'sstory so powerful Instead of
asking why me, he chose to askhow can I use this?
That mindset shift led him tofound Amy Motivation LLC, a
company whose mission is simplebut profound inspiring people to
achieve greatness and helpingthem find the motivation they
(01:56):
need to reach their goals andunlock their full potential.
Through his speaking, hiswriting and his personal example
, kiwan has turned his greatestchallenge into a great life.
So welcome Kiwan.
So what's been a highlight ofyour week so far?
Speaker 2 (02:15):
Hey, thanks, chris, for having me.
I really appreciate you havingme on.
Man, this is awesome and youmake me sound amazing, by the
way.
I think I need to pay you forthis.
You make me sound amazing, bythe way.
I think I need to pay you forthis.
Thank you so far this week, man, just spending time with my
nephews.
They're in town and just lovingthe experience.
You know the growth you canactually see and witness the
growth of and how they'reinteracting with each other, but
(02:39):
also with you.
You know, you ask themquestions and you figure out
who's going to have the rightanswer or what kind of answer
you're going to get, because,man, you never know what's going
to come out of their mouth.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That nice looking drum set back in during the
introduction and it is a nicelooking unit back there.
So can can you tell me a littlebit more about your musical
journey?
Speaker 2 (03:05):
about your musical journey, man.
I mean, ever since I was likefive, I always kept my eyes on
something musically.
Now listening to music.
I'm sure I've always been thatgroovy little kid that wanted to
dance, but I knew I had a truelove for music when I would go
to church, because I grew up inthe church and I would just
watch the drummer.
(03:25):
That's all I wanted to see.
Not to say that I wasn't therefor other reasons, but as soon
as the music started up, I amlooking at nobody else, I'm only
looking at the drummer.
Shout out to my friend Travis.
But golly, I mean, at first itstarted out with my cousin Spunk
, but yeah, now.
Then it switched over becausehe left and went and played
(03:47):
drums for his mother's church.
And now, you know, I follow thefootsteps of him and as well as
travis, and now I'm on my own,kind of leading my and doing my
own thing now.
So, as you can see the drumsbehind me, man, those are my
babies there.
I actually bought those after myaccident.
It's kind of a birthday gift tome because it was around my
(04:09):
birthday and I bought them for abirthday gift to continue
celebrating life.
You know what I mean the factthat I can still play the drums
at a high level.
Not just play them, but I meanplay them in all different
places.
I've been all the way to SanAntonio playing.
I'm like you know people askingme, are you coming back?
(04:31):
And I'm like, yeah, if you flyme back out here, because I was
only there for a vacation.
You know, I wasn't there toplay.
They actually threw me on thedrums.
I was just there for a vacationman.
Next thing I know I'm on thedrums.
I was just there for vacationman.
Next thing I know I'm behindthe set.
Okay, so it's.
Speaker 1 (04:57):
I know I've always loved music myself.
When I was in middle school Iplayed the drums.
Well, I got to play the rubberpad and a little bit of the
snare drum, but I always wantedto sit down and be able to wail
on the drum kit and I just nevergot to do that.
So I think that's why I movedon from the drums.
But after I was diagnosed withParkinson's, I really wanted to
learn how to play guitar,because when I was a kid, I
(05:18):
always loved listening to EddieVan Halen and Angus Young from
AC and they really inspired meto want to learn how to play the
guitar.
So over the last five to sixyears I've actually been
learning how to play guitar andit's really been an awesome
experience.
Being able to play some of thesongs that you love is a great
experience and it's alsochallenging.
(05:40):
So I know what you're saying interms of don't look at it as a
disability, but think of it asthe ability to still be able to
do what you love to do or trysomething new.
So that's really awesome.
So with the one job that youhad as a refueling agent, there
was a lot of technical skillinvolved.
Can you paint a little pictureof what your job was like back
(06:01):
then.
Speaker 2 (06:03):
If I were to sum it up and make it as simple as it
can be, because it's not.
It's basically like pulling upto a flying gas station.
This gas station does not stop,by the way.
It keeps going.
So you now have to get inposition the whole entire time
that the gas station is movingand that the pump or the nozzle
(06:30):
is now in the air.
So you have to get in positionso that I can put it in your gas
tank.
And you have to be close enough, because if you're too far away
, I'm not going to move, I'mjust going to sit there and wait
until you get closer, becausethere are certain limitations.
I don't just have unlimitedreach, you know, and so that's
to keep me safe as well as you.
You also don't want people tobe too close either, because
(06:52):
that's again a safety thing.
But that's the simple way ofputting it.
The knowledge, the studying sure, like you said, nerves of steel
that it takes to do this job at20,000 feet on average, it's
just nuts.
It's mind numbing sometimes,and I still remember the first
day that I saw the actual boom,because that's what we call it,
(07:16):
a boom.
That's what we were filled with.
And make the connection to theother aircraft.
When I first saw that thing inreal life now I mean we could
talk about the simulation allday long, there's that computer
compares nothing to the realthing, because when you really
(07:38):
see something in the air justhanging there like, ok, I'm
actually controlling this thing,you see it in the sim.
But when you're actuallycontrolling it and you can feel
the wind shake it, this isdifferent.
That does not happen in the sim.
The wind actually shakes it inthe sky.
(08:00):
When you're fighting againstthe wind to pull that thing left
and right, up and down, oh man,we can actually steer the
aircraft.
It's not like obnoxious, butyou can actually steer the
aircraft with it.
I can slow it down if I push itall the way down.
It's so cool because it's youknow the aerodynamics of it.
(08:22):
It's so much, I loved it somuch, man, it's just one of
those things that you can get sowrapped up in especially me,
because I was also an instructor.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
That's awesome.
Now, to build on that, can youtake us back to what your life
was like when you were 25,before the accident?
What did you do?
For fun, tell us a little bitabout how you lived back then.
Speaker 2 (08:48):
Yeah, yeah, we can.
That was yeah for sure.
That's what my story is allabout, man.
And so, 25, I am six and a halfyears into the military at this
point maybe just a little under, but yeah, military at this
point maybe just a little under,but yeah, in six and a half
(09:09):
years I've been on fourdeployments.
I have become an instructor.
I had numerous students youknow, many teachers seen
promoted all the way up to therank of staff sergeant and maybe
, I think, four years, was it?
Yeah, four years.
It took me four years to get tostaff sergeant.
I was listening out when I tellyou I was flying through
everything.
It took me, no, five years,five years.
It took me to get to StaffSergeant.
I was like, listen, when I tellyou I was flying through
(09:30):
everything, it took me, no, fiveyears, five years.
It took me to get there in fiveyears.
But when I tell you I wasflying through everything, it
was just like life was so.
Oh man, it was literally likeif you blinked I would have
missed it Because it washappening so fast.
And this is me being, you know,what they call a hard charger.
That's one of the labels theyput on it.
(09:50):
You're a hard charger, go gether.
You know everything.
I mean, I love that they wantto put labels like that on me.
But I was just doing what I wastold.
Simply put, I was doing what Iwas told and what I was supposed
to do.
Simply put, I was doing what Iwas told and what I was supposed
to do.
That's the other thing, becausesome people do it, get told
(10:13):
things they're doing but theydon't do it.
I mean, and then you speed lifeup from.
Because I went from active dutyto the reserves, I did four, you
know four years active.
And then I what we call palacechase.
That means if you don't finishyour full active duty commitment
, you go.
You can go over to the reserves, but you have to double what
(10:34):
you had left on your reservecommitment and put it on the
reserve side.
I said, well, that's fine, Idon't mind, because I do still
want to do the job.
I just don't want to do theactive duty part of it.
And so I went to the reserves.
They said welcome to the darkside.
That's what they told me.
Welcome to the dark side.
I said the dark side.
I thought this is where thecool guys come and hang out.
(10:55):
Well, I guess the dark sidemeans that is the cool guys, but
it was so amazing I had a blaston the reserve side.
Don't get me wrong.
I did have some great times onactive duty, but it was just the
pace that we were running at.
I did all of my deployments onactive duty Within the first
three years.
I had four deployments.
(11:16):
The first two came within sixmonths of each other.
The first two came within sixmonths of each other.
I went from June to August Iwas deployed, and then October
to December I was deployed, orthat same year.
Dude, that's what I mean.
I was like I don't know what.
(11:36):
Do I still live here?
Should I just be detached?
You know, it's one of thosethings and you really didn't
want to.
You know, say nothing, like youjust kind of tucked your tail
and like maybe this is how it'ssupposed to be.
You know that kind of thing andthat's that's just how I took
it.
And again, when I went to thereserves, never deployed again.
Um, not because I didn't wantto, but it was because we had a
(11:59):
lot of guys who came over fromanother base that actually
closed down and turned into anArmy airfield that was near our
base.
So they took all ourdeployments, because they love
deploying.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
You definitely were a hard charger.
Now, if it's okay, I'd like toswitch gears and talk about that
fateful day back in May of2017,.
If it's okay, can you walk usthrough that day and what
happened, and then that'll kindof help us lead into what your
life's going to be like afterthat particular day.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
Comes May 5th 2017, man, after being in the reserves
for two years and some change,yeah, yeah, two, two, two years.
Yeah, may 5th, 20, 20,.
May 5th, 2017 was the day of myaccident, my life altering
change, and it would come.
(13:04):
I was here in North Carolinaand I actually had a business
that I that I used to own,called Kiwi Enterprise, where I
did website design andmanagement, social media
marketing and photography.
Well, I was actually doing somephotography that day for one of
the websites that I managed,and the place that I had to go
to take the pictures it was onlylike 10 minutes away from my
apartment and I had jumped on mymotorcycle to go do it.
So I said let me go run overhere do this.
(13:25):
And now you know it'll be realquick, because it was a really
nice day in North Carolina in inthe month of May.
I love spring weather.
By the way, when it gets to thesummer, it's too hot for me,
even now that I don't ride.
I just don't like the heat.
But anyway, so I get donetaking the pictures and I'm like
I really don't feel like goingto put this motorcycle right
(13:47):
back up, because all I did wasride for 10 minutes, and if I
ride back it'll be 20.
And again, it's a great day outI mean beautiful day and so I
said where can I go?
So I went to one of my favoritespots to go relax, meditate,
unwind you know just really justsit there and just be able to
(14:08):
think, sit there with yourthoughts.
You know, and that is a lake inNorth Carolina called Jordan
Lake.
Now, on the cover of the bookthat I wrote, don't Focus on why
Me from Motorcycle Accident toMiracle.
That is the backdrop that yousee on the cover.
That was where I was sitting at.
That was Jordan Lake, and thatwas the exact spot that I was
(14:31):
sitting at.
Now, that motorcycle on thecover is the exact motorcycle
that I rode that day when I hadmy accident.
That was actually my bike.
That's on the cover.
Now, both of those pictureswere taken by yours truly.
I am the photographer of my ownpictures on my book.
As I get ready to head out,because I had to work that night
.
This was a Friday night, may5th.
(14:54):
That May 5th in 2017 was aFriday, and so I had to go to
work that night for the militaryin the Air Force.
I would be there all weekend.
I had to work that weekend onthe base, so it was now time for
me to head home so I can get mystuff and then shoot down to
the base.
Well, before I get home, I getto an intersection on Highway
(15:17):
751, which is a back road.
It's like a back what do youcall it highway on North
Carolina.
We got, you know, these littleback streets.
There are only two lanes andthey're pretty windy, but for
the most part you got straightshots.
Now this back road would alsohave driveways, like I said,
intersections, just sketchy BPgas station it was so small, it
(15:41):
was like what is this gasstation going to do, you know?
And then, uh, a nursery, likewhere they have produce, so a
produce farm.
So I'm riding along and I getto the intersection of where
said honda accord a silver hondaaccord would pull out in front
(16:02):
of me and I'm doing 55 miles anhour because that's the speed
limit.
Back here I'm not thinking acar is going to pull out in
front of me, though it didn'tmatter how fast I was going, I
didn't think a car was going topull out in front of me, you
know.
But he does and I say hebecause I do know it was a guy
from the police report he pullsout in front of me and all I
(16:30):
know is I wake up a month and aday later in the hospital.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
What were you thinking at that particular
moment?
There you are, the last thingyou remember you're riding your
motorcycle.
And then the next thing youknow, you think you're waking up
in your bedroom and you'reprobably looking around thinking
what's going on here.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that looking around
thinking what's going?
Speaker 2 (16:45):
on here.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that?
So yeah, june the 6th, I wokeup out of my medically induced
coma.
Actually, first off, I wasactually when I was in there.
I just woke up.
I felt so calm, I felt sopeaceful coming out of that
sleep, but what I thought it wasbecause I thought it was sleep
I didn't know.
I was coming out of a comabecause I had no idea, no
recollection whatsoever, none.
(17:07):
And I am laying there in thehospital bed and then I hear
voices.
I'm like who the heck is in myroom and why?
And so now my military mind iskicking on to say do I need to,
you know, drop to the floor andgrab my pistol?
Like that's what I'm thinking.
See, some people don't know.
(17:27):
You don't want to just pop upin a military guy's room.
I'll tell you that right nowwe're trying to think of safety
first.
And so that's what I wasthinking first, initially, until
I sat there a little bit longerand I recognized the voices and
I said oh wait, that's my momand my ex-girlfriend.
(17:50):
Well, it's the ex-girlfriendnow.
But, at the time I'm like, okay,I understand why my girlfriend
would be here, but what the heckis my mom doing in here?
Why would she be in my roomthis early in the morning?
I'm not ready for this, and so,anywho, as I'm listening to
(18:11):
them talk, they are having aconversation about a motorcycle
accident.
I don't know it's about me,because they have not said any
names.
Everything is generalized likehe, they, that, this, all of
this stuff.
I've never heard so manypronouns in my life, you know.
And so, anyway, I was likethey're the worst storytellers
(18:34):
ever.
You're supposed to name drop orsomething.
So any who finally just get fedup with that.
The fact that they are, youknow, beating around the bush is
what I would think.
And I go to open my eyes to kindof tell them and let them know
that I am awake and listening tothem, only to open my eyes and
not be able to see anything.
So when I wake up in thehospital, it wasn't a gradual
(18:57):
eyesight loss, this was.
I already lost it, it was gonealready.
I already lost it, it was gonealready.
So I woke up.
Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
(19:18):
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,
oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,oh, oh, oh, oh, oh oh.
I close them really hard andthen I reopen them.
I'm like, yeah, no, this is not, this is not working, so
something's off.
And so I go to speak to my momand girlfriend and nothing comes
out.
(19:38):
All you hear is I couldn't talkbecause my jaw had been broken
and they wired it shut.
Now we can hit the panic alarmbecause I can't see, I can't
talk.
I'm like I didn't even realizeI couldn't move that well,
because I hadn't really tried to.
I don't know, maybe my mind wastelling me I shouldn't move, I
(20:02):
don't know, I just hadn't tried.
And so now that they notice me,you know, trying to signal them
or talk to them, they're bothcoming to my bedside and trying
to get some information out ofme.
What are you doing?
What's wrong?
Are you okay?
You know everything like that,and I'm doing my best to
communicate it through a closedmouth, literally A closed mouth.
(20:28):
And so when they can't no longerunderstand me, my mom, she
hands me a notepad and a pencil.
Man, I don't know if you'veever given somebody a side eye?
But I did and I said reallyLike it was one of those things
Really, are you serious rightnow you want me to write on
something and you know I can'tsee?
And so she was like just doyour best, you know, try to
(20:50):
write it down and don't writeover top of anything.
These were the instructions Iwas given.
I said okay, so I tried to, Iwrote everything down the best I
could without seeing, and itwent a little something like
this what is this motorcycleaccident dream y'all are talking
about?
And she read it and she lookedat me and she said oh, oh, no,
(21:11):
that's not a dream, that's whathappened to you.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
And I that had to be just devastating.
And you're probably thinking toyourself this isn't really
happening to me, is it so?
I don't know if you're thinking, if this is a dream or not.
Can you tell us a little bitmore about that?
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Yeah, chris, I didn't , I didn't know what to do.
That was like the last thing Iwould say again, it can't.
It was more of a wait.
What Time out?
You know?
Like, start over, say thatagain.
You know, one of those I'mtrying to.
I'm trying to ask and answer myanswer questions to myself.
(21:53):
I'm not saying anything toanybody, I'm asking and
answering the questions to meright now because I'm in such a
state of shock I'm like wait aminute.
So all that stuff y'all weresaying was about me.
What the heck, there's no way.
That's all I could think.
And I mean, dude, I sat therewith my thoughts for the rest of
(22:13):
that day, even until, I think,the next day, if I'm not
mistaken.
I'm pretty sure even until thenext day, and I finally started,
you know, back communicating toask the right questions.
And that's when I, you know,came up with the story that I
told you already about whathappened to me, that always, you
know, kind of recapped andbrought to my, I guess you could
(22:37):
say, memory.
I can't really say memorybecause I literally don't
remember anything from theaccident.
I know about where I was beforeit, but I don't remember
anything from it.
You know that from what shesaid, what the police report
says, because there were twowitnesses there who saw the
accident and said they saw mecoming on the motorcycle and
(22:59):
they don't know why he didn't,because they were behind him.
They were actually behind himwhen, when the accident happened
.
So it was.
I'm great, I'm actuallygrateful that they were there,
because there's no telling youmight have any at any accident,
especially in what do you call arural, rural area, such as
where I was.
There's no telling.
People will leave you for deadman.
Those stories aboutmotorcyclists getting in
(23:23):
accidents and people willliterally leave them in a ditch,
don't call the police, don'teven look at their license plate
.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
So you're laying there now and you've come to the
realization that, all right,I've been in this accident and
this is going to be my lifegoing forward.
Now, I'm sure at that point itwasn't all gumdrops and
lollipops.
Can you talk a little bit abouthow you felt at that point and
and where you thought, where amI going to go from here?
Because I'm sure it wasn't.
(23:52):
Oh, I'm, I'm in positive landright now.
So can you walk us through that?
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Yeah, yeah, heck.
No, it wasn't into the positiveyet, it was more of a.
So, as you mentioned, in the um, in the, in the introduction,
the why me did kick in at first.
Um, which is kind of where mymy book title came from.
Don't focus on why me.
So the why me, victimizedmentality did come in.
(24:23):
Why did this have to happen tome?
I was a CEO, going to schoolfull time, I was trying to
become a pilot, I'm in themilitary, I'm doing all these
different things.
I got a girlfriend, all thesethings that were coming to my
mind.
Man, and I'm sitting there likewhy, why'd you have to take
that from me?
And who am I questioning?
(24:44):
Like I told you, I believe inGod.
So that's who I'm questioninghere.
God, why did you take all ofthis from me?
Why did you allow this tohappen to me?
And the reason is not to saythat I don't trust what he's
doing.
It's to say that I need answerswhen you go through something,
when you were in school, whenyou were at work, anytime you
(25:05):
needed answers to a question,didn't you ask somebody?
So that's what I did I askedwho I knew to ask, because he's
the only one that knows theanswer to this question and I
needed him to reveal it to me.
And so it wasn't so much of mesaying right, take pity, in the
why me phrasing of this question, it was, I just want some
(25:28):
answers.
I need clarity, I need answers,I need direction, I need
guidance Because right now Idon't know what to do Absolutely
.
Once he he showed me what I canstill do, because that's the
biggest thing that we do me,what I can still do because
that's the biggest thing that wedo, as you know, the why me
victimize mentality.
We think about what we can't doinstead of what we can.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
How long was it from the time that you got through
the questioning phase andaccepted your new reality until
the time you said to yourselfwait a minute, I don't have to
isolate myself and become ahermit, I can actually live the
life that I wanted to live.
So can you walk us through thatchange, and roughly how long it
took and how you made thatdecision?
Speaker 2 (26:15):
It was an up and down game.
Some days, you know, I'm upwith the positive, like yeah, I
can do this, let's go.
Some days I'm like God, ithurts.
You know, this really sucks.
I can't do this, I can't dothat.
And it was the reality that Icouldn't do certain things
because, you know, with theactual loss of eyesight there
(26:35):
are legitimate things you can'tdo, like I literally can't see
you right now.
That's a legitimate thing, youknow.
But I can hear you all day long.
So that's what I had to do.
I had to say I might not beable to see him, but I can, dang
sure, hear him.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Yes, my grandmother was blind from diabetes, and she
always taught me that why worryabout things Because a lot of
times the things that we worryabout don't actually come true
and I really learned a lot fromher.
She was, even though shecouldn't see.
She could do pretty muchanything that anyone else could,
whatever she put her mind to.
She cooked, she spent time withus, she gardened, she did
anything that anybody with sightcould do, and her mindset was
(27:15):
I'm going to continue doing thethings that I want to do, and I
learned that from an early ageand that really changed my
mindset from an early age on howto approach life, and I kind of
took that same philosophy afterI got diagnosed with
Parkinson's.
There's two ways to look at it.
You can just curl up andisolate yourself, or you can say
(27:36):
, all right, what am I going todo about it and how am I going
to do the things that I stillwant to do and live the best
life that I can, and so I thinkshe had a real.
She played a really big role inthat when I was growing up, and
so I understand a little bitabout where you're coming from
and that you can do thingsbecause of the experiences I had
when I was growing up with her.
Speaker 2 (27:57):
Absolutely, man.
That's an amazing story, by theway, and I'm glad you actually
I won't say glad, I'm encouragedthat you got to experience that
for your own, because when Ihear stories all the time about
people who even myself, who havehad encounters with others that
(28:17):
can see.
But where the problem lies is,they understand that they're the
majority and we're the minority, so they treat us like it and
they'll push us to the side likewe're the minority.
It's not fair that we have tobe treated that way, but yet we
live in that, that kind ofsociety.
So if we're not advocating forourselves, who's doing it for us
(28:40):
?
You know, because at some pointthey're going to want to and I
don't want to say thisincorrectly, but, for lack of
better terms, they're going towant to push us out of the way
and say that well, this isn'timportant, this is costing us
too much money, and it happens.
So, unless we stand up asvisually impaired people that's
what I call this VIPs up asvisually impaired people.
(29:02):
That's what I call this VIPsvisually impaired people.
Speaker 1 (29:10):
We have to do that so that we can show we still
matter.
Living with Parkinson's for thepast 15 years I've got a lot of
friends with Parkinson's and alot of caregivers, and I have
some of my friends come up andsay, you know?
People walk up and say youdon't look like you have
Parkinson's and it's like, well,what am I supposed to look like
?
And I think everybody has, nomatter what the condition,
preconceived notions in theirmind.
But I think it's important tojust realize that they're really
(29:33):
just trying to help.
But they maybe struggle alittle bit with how to do that,
and I think one of the thingsthat both you and I have a
similar belief in is that we cando anything that we put our
mind to, but ideally we're.
We want to help others live agreat quality of life too and be
the best they can, and and bydoing, by trying to be a good
(29:56):
example and helping others, andI think that goes a long way in
helping people realize that Imay have a disability but it's
not going to hold me back.
Speaker 2 (30:05):
Exactly, and one of the best ways I put it is my
name is Kiwan Amy and I am blind, versus saying that's the blind
guy Kiwan Amy.
That's two different ways ofputting it.
I'm Kiwan first and then.
I have a disability.
I wasn't born this way.
(30:27):
And even the people who areborn this way, they were born as
a body first, and then youstart to develop other parts in
your mother's womb.
So I'm born the body of mefirst.
So don't focus on what I lackor the limitations that I have.
(30:49):
Focus on what I do have.
Do you mind if I talk to you,because I can do that?
Do you mind if we sit down andeat, Because I can do that too?
Do you mind if we sit down andeat, because I can do that too?
Do you mind if we sit down andjust have a thinker's
conversation, because I do havea brain?
So let's focus on thesimilarities.
Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yes, I think you need to look at people individually.
Whether you're blind or whetheryou're someone living with a
chronic disease, you look at theperson and what they were able
to do and you respect them forthat.
As an example, I told you mygrandmother was blind and people
would always come up and saythey would talk real loud and I
(31:32):
would say she's blind, but shecan hear, and a lot of people
would go oh, I'm so sorry.
And I think that people aretrying to be very helpful but
sometimes they don't know how todo it and it comes across as
being awkward because they feellike they've got to tiptoe
around and just treat the personlike you would treat anybody
(31:54):
else, and whether you have adisability or a chronic disease,
people just want to be treatedlike everybody else.
I know, I see.
Speaker 2 (32:02):
Absolutely, absolutely.
And you know I was.
I started laughing because notnot to offend you or anything or
show any disrespect.
That was because it happens tovisually impaired people a lot.
They for some reason, when Itwo things I am, either talk too
loudly, some reason, when I twothings I am, either talk too
(32:24):
loudly it's for people thatdon't know me.
I'm talked to very loudly sothat I can they can understand
it.
I guess they need me tounderstand.
They're talking to me.
I'm like I know who you'reprojecting your voice at, lady
or man.
And then, secondly, it's likedoes he need help?
Who is he?
And they're talking to myfriend or my mom or someone.
(32:45):
Well, I mean, yes, but you cantalk to him about it, why are
you talking to my mother?
I'm a person like that.
That's the part.
Yeah, exactly, we all need help.
But that's the part that theyliterally, this literally
happens to blind people all thetime, when somebody else is with
(33:07):
us, they'll talk to them versustalking to us.
I still don't know why we'retrying to figure it out as a
blind community we really areand it's almost like getting
permission.
It's almost like you have toget permission to talk to
somebody visually impaired and Idon't know where that came from
.
I don't know what it stems from, whatever.
But regardless.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
You don't have to talk to the individual the same
way you would talk to anyoneelse.
Yeah, so I thought that wasinteresting.
So I guess then, how did you gofrom being in the hospital and
you made that decision, ratherthan why me?
To having that light bulbmoment and saying, hey, you know
what I really want to move onand I want to live my life.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
Yeah, well, again, after God started giving me
those, the blueprint andguidance and you know,
encouragement to say you stillcan.
That's what I did.
I took that I still can and Iran with it.
I mean, it was first a slowwalk but eventually I got to a
point where I actually can run.
Now, man, I broke both of mylegs in this accident.
(34:19):
I broke my spinal cord.
They all have metal in them andI can now run again.
I couldn't even walk.
At one point.
I had to learn how to walkagain.
Yeah, I literally had to learnhow to walk again.
Man, I don't wish that onanybody.
Now, there's one thing to learnhow to walk when you're a kid
(34:40):
and I always say this as a childwhen you're learning how to
walk as a child, you aresomewhere around that 20 pound
mark, somewhere around that.
Yeah, try adding 100 to 120pounds to that.
It is not fun.
It is not fun at all, because Iwas like literally skin and
bones at that time and I hadbeen in a bed for a month having
(35:02):
countless surgeries, having newparts put inside of me.
These are no longer my bones.
These are metal rods, this istitanium.
Now, metal detectors see mecoming from a mile away.
I've set so many of them thingsoff myself.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Well, how long did it take you then to fully recover?
Speaker 2 (35:22):
I heard about it.
I heard about it, yeah, so, butyeah, it was one of those
things.
Man, like I'm a million dollarsby the way, I'm not quite as
expensive as he is, I'm amillion, but check that box.
I mean that's, that's a.
That's an interesting questionbecause of the simple fact that
Interesting, you know question,because of the simple fact that
(35:42):
what really is recovery?
You know what I mean.
Because there was a point intime where I was just setting
goals, what I wanted to get tothat first year man from in 2017
, after I got out of thehospital.
Well, even when I was in thehospital, I just wanted to be
able to walk.
(36:02):
I just wanted to be able totransport myself.
I just wanted to be able to getup out of the bed.
Like, these are little thingsI'm trying to do.
I want to sit myself up.
You know, I'm trying to move myleg.
These are little things, butevery step, I was checking off
goals and then, when I got outof the hospital, I said I want
(36:29):
to be walking without anysupport.
So that meant no wheelchair, nowalker, no support cane, none
of that.
I didn't want any of it.
I just wanted to be walking onmy own by my birthday of 2017.
My birthday is November 22nd,and so, from when I got out of
the hospital, I was dischargedfrom the hospital July 7th of
(36:51):
2017.
And I said, from that pointuntil November 22nd, I want to
be walking without any support.
Well, that goal wasaccomplished by almost a month.
Absolutely, man, and that's whatI continue to do, even in the
gym.
Today, I go to the gym.
(37:11):
Now I wasn't going to the gym.
I mean I was, but these arelike the physical therapy gyms,
so I wasn't, like I was liftingweights like heavyweight.
Now I'm lifting heavyweights.
I'm getting bigger for real now, like I was just at the gym
yesterday doing deadlifts andthings that add nature, leg
(37:32):
press doing well over 200 pounds, well over almost to.
I am 15 pounds away from deadlifting, uh, uh, 300 pounds,
right, five times 15 pounds away.
So I did two.
I did 285 yesterday, five timesall right.
Speaker 1 (37:54):
So let me ask you this then you oh, I was just
going to say you set the goal ofbeing able to walk again.
So when did you have the changethat you said hey, I really
want to help other people andyou start your, your, your
company and go out before that.
Speaker 2 (38:09):
Yeah, yeah, no, no problem.
So with that, it's always beena goal of mine, that that's
always been something that Iwanted to do before I even had
the company.
So when I was in the military Iwas looking to help others
because I'm serving my country.
I mean, granted, yeah, we allknow what we're doing, we take
the oath, but it's more so like,wait a minute.
(38:30):
Every time I come back home.
I get to come back home and I'mnot seeing what I saw over
there.
And that's when you realize thefreedoms that you're fighting
for, because you come home andyou see, well, what the heck?
But then sometimes you comehome and you're like, what are
y'all doing?
Like I'm fighting for y'all notto act like this and yet y'all
(38:52):
are acting like this.
It's stuff like that thatreally bothers me in today's
society.
But then the other thing is,when I did even the first
business that I started in KiwiEnterprise, I was helping people
.
Then I was doing that for smallbusinesses and those alike.
And the reason I targeted Iguess you could say targeted, or
(39:13):
chose small businesses as aniche is because they get
overlooked the big companies orthese other people that are
supposed to be big, bigcompanies are hitting them over
the head with costs in theseparticular fields.
And the reason, I know, isbecause I was a small business
(39:37):
and I couldn't find anybody whowas affordable.
And I couldn't find anybody whowas affordable, I said, well,
what?
You know what?
That's a problem.
Let me be the solution, becauseI do know how to do these
things and that's why I did it.
So I was helping other smallbusinesses there.
So now fast forward to AmyMotivation.
(39:58):
I chose to pick this, or tobuild this business of keynote
speaking for motivation,inspiration, and then resilience
coaching and as well as trustedmentoring, because I understood
there is a, not just an avenuefor that, but there is a huge
gap in what we need in societytoday.
And you know what's evencrazier is people don't even
(40:20):
realize they need it.
And you know what's evencrazier is people don't even
realize they need it Until Iliterally say again I was going
to say, until I recently startedtalking to people about what I
do, they were like, wait, wow,that's, that's interesting.
You know, I know somebody whoneeds that and I'm like, yeah,
I'm sure you do.
A lot of people do.
(40:42):
They just don't know they dountil they talk to somebody
about it.
And why am I bringing this up?
You don't know what you don'tknow first off, right, well,
secondly is you don't know ifyou've never talked to the
person who actually does it.
I can judge you all day longand never talk to you, but as
soon as you open your mouth andtell me what it is I need to
know about you, it's like alight bulb comes on.
(41:03):
Oh, that's crazy.
If you would have just askedyeah, no, you are 100% right.
I played sports coming up and mybest coaches, as you said, were
the ones who challenged me.
It wasn't the ones who werelike, yeah, he's going to start
regardless.
No, no, they're going to betelling me hey, what's the name
(41:25):
on your so-and-so is on yourtail.
You better get right.
Oh, I'm going to start him thisweek.
Hey, that was on Tuesday.
We got till Thursday and Imight not be starting, and so
you know what I did for the restof that week I'm busting his
tail all week long.
You know what I'm saying?
(41:52):
So it was.
It was a performance based, andI appreciate performance
because of the simple fact thatit made me better, Not just them
.
It made me better too, becauseI didn't get complacent in the
position that I had.
So, yeah, no, you're absolutelyright.
Speaker 1 (41:59):
All right, so the position that I had.
So, yeah, no, you're absolutelyright.
All right, so back to your.
You know talking about coachingand mentoring as a as a coach
or mentor, as a motivationalspeaker, can you tell us a
little bit about what are the?
What are some of the thingsthat are involved in how you get
people to go beyond, to do thethings that, to get them to take
action so that they don'tstagnate or stay sad.
Speaker 2 (42:25):
Well, some of the biggest things that I would tell
people I guess in the coachingrealm for sure is to find that
passion that you had and bringit back to the forefront.
Why do I say that?
So, for example, me being amusician and playing the drums,
(42:46):
I found that passion again.
I had to bring that back.
That fire is what got me backin, I guess you could say, back
into life.
It made me get back up and say,hey, I can still have something
to do here, I can still dothings you know.
And when you find what keepsyou going in life, it actually
(43:07):
helps you.
So what am I saying?
I'm saying when I'm saying notjust me not just me, but when
you find something that actuallykeeps you going, like the
energizing bunny.
It makes for a better life.
Something that you're notsitting around just saying you
know what am I doing here?
What's the Anything like that?
(43:29):
It doesn't have you questioninglife.
It actually has you movingforward in life and thinking
about life.
And so when I think ofresilience, or motivation, or
inspiration inspiration I thinkin the manner of what can I keep
doing to keep me going?
And so that's why I continue toplay the drums.
(43:49):
I continue to learn new thingsin music because I learned the
keyboard in the pandemic.
So in October of 2020, I juststarted learning the keyboard.
I learned them drums back atthe age of seven.
I'm singing um, what else Imean?
I'm doing so much stuff likeplaying sports, so I do adaptive
(44:12):
sports.
Just recently went downhillskiing without sight man.
So know, like I find things todo.
Yeah, I find things to do thatwill keep me going, keep me
feeling alive.
Speaker 1 (44:28):
Yeah, exactly that's one of the things I've talked
about on some of my otherpodcasts is doing things that
you're passionate about.
Because think back to when youwere younger and say you know, a
lot of times people say, well,I've got this condition, now I
can't do these things.
But you know, a lot of timespeople say, well, I've got this
condition, now I can't do thesethings.
But you know, a lot of times ifyou think back and say what are
some of the things that Ialways wanted to do but I never
tried before, and then go outand do it.
(44:51):
I'm like you.
I'm always trying to learn newthings.
I always whether it's adultlearning classes, it's learning
new things on the guitar.
I fly fish, so I tie flies andpeople say how do you tie flies?
Your hands shake.
Well, you just have to adapt toit.
But one of the things that Ialways wanted to do was go fly
fishing in Montana and I said tomy brother two summers ago I
(45:11):
said I want to go to Montana togo fly fishing.
Do you want to go?
And he said absolutely.
And we went out and we had thebest time out there.
And we do catch and release,but we.
We just had a great time, andit was something that I always
wanted to do, and and it makesyou feel good about yourself and
it makes you want to press onand do even more more.
Speaker 2 (45:29):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
I'm actually glad that you doget out and do things like that,
especially with family.
But sure enough, you just haveto find things to do, man.
It's too much for people to sitaround and just be like, oh,
like you said earlier, woe meand feel pity.
That was the first thing Ieliminated.
(45:50):
As soon as people started doingit in the hospital, I had a guy
come in my one of my friends.
I'll never forget it, dude.
He knocks on the door and hecomes in.
Hey, what's going on, bro, howyou doing and I'm like I'm good.
How are you?
He's like I'm doing pretty good.
(46:11):
He's like you know what?
Did somebody die?
I don't know.
I don't know if you're cominginto this but you come into a
hospital, not the morgue, notthe morgue.
There's two different things.
I'm still alive, sir, and I'mtalking to you.
I need you to act like I know.
Something happened to me.
(46:33):
I don't need you to come inhere and take a pity on me.
Speaker 1 (46:36):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (46:37):
That's the difference , you know.
So that was the biggest.
That was one of the things Iactually wrote about in my book,
so I call it.
I think that was sympathyversus empathy.
If I'm not mistaken, I thinkthat was the chapter for that
book.
Speaker 1 (46:51):
Yeah, somebody could feel empathy for you and say not
.
You know, they don't have tosay, oh, I really feel sorry,
I'm so sorry and, and you know,kind of tippy toe around you or
don't want to be around youbecause you're, you have
whatever somebody has.
So I think that that that'simportant.
So I guess one of the thingsthat what's for people that are
(47:12):
listening, what's a simple thingthat they could start doing
today to help build their ownresilience.
Do you have any suggestions?
Speaker 2 (47:21):
What I would say is, first and foremost, we're
already building resilience.
The thing is, you have to tapinto it.
I didn't know for the longesttime that I was already building
the resilience that I alreadyhad, but now I had to activate
it for my.
What I can say from from whatthis accident brought, it
(47:46):
brought a lot through, a lot ofa lot at once, shall I say,
because, like I told you,already waking up without
eyesight, I could not talk atfirst.
Thank God I can.
I can't even smell anymore.
That's due to thereconstructive surgery they had
(48:06):
to do on my face when they putthe two metal plates in my head.
Speaker 1 (48:10):
Yeah, I can't smell anymore either with Parkinson's.
I know exactly what you'resaying.
Speaker 2 (48:16):
Yeah, yeah, thank God , I can still taste that.
Speaker 1 (48:18):
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (48:23):
A traumatic brain injury, ptsd.
I told you the spinal cordmedical infusion.
I've got rods in both legs, ascrew in my right foot, and now
my right foot is not even thesame size as my left.
It's two different size feet.
(48:44):
So I live with this stuff everyday.
So when you talk aboutresilience, it's not so much as
building it, it's tapping intoit.
How do we tap into resilience?
Building it, it's tapping intoit.
How do we tap into resilience?
I'm glad everybody asked.
So what you have to do is youreally just have to say first
(49:06):
off, I'm not going to takeeither the pity or the
victimized route.
That's the first thing you haveto eliminate.
If you don't do that, you can'ttap into it.
That's the first thing.
Secondly, after you've clearedthat I call that clearing the
hurdle because I used to runtrack After you clear that
(49:30):
hurdle, man, the next thing youdo is is get your plan in place,
like I was doing with the goalsgoal setting.
That's a huge thing.
I think everybody should dogoal goal setting.
If you don't do a goal setting,yeah.
If you don't do goals, do goals, just do anything like, for
example, like me, I wanted toalso get back into sports.
(49:52):
I didn't know they had adaptivesports.
I didn't know nothing aboutthat.
I mean, I knew about thespecial olymp, but I'm not
talking to that.
I'm talking about adapting, forexample, archery, air rifle,
tandem cycling.
I told you about the skiing.
They're rock climbing, powerlifting, shot put, discus,
(50:17):
bowling.
You know what I'm saying.
They have swimming too, but Ididn't do that.
It's a little harder for me toswim now.
I could probably do better now,but at the time I was like no,
there's so many different things.
You just have to be willing.
Be willing to try things.
(50:38):
Be willing to, even if youdon't come up with a hobby that
you think you I won't even saycome up with, try something and
you might fall in love with it.
Man, I never thought I wouldshoot archery and I felt like I
was in the Hunger Games.
Speaker 1 (50:55):
Yeah, because you gave it a try, you were willing
to give it a try, and and then,next thing you know, you say wow
, I really enjoyed this.
So I guess, I did.
Yeah, that's important.
I agree a hundred percent,Cause I do.
I tried to do that too.
It's like somebody said do youwant to play pickleball and I
(51:24):
said, well, I don't really knowanything about it and now I love
it, like we get together andjust have a great time.
Speaker 2 (51:31):
So I got a great story about pickleball.
So before we move on for that,yeah, last year, november in
2024, I went to this.
I guess you say, oh, it was forwounded warriors project and we
had went to and we had went toa pickleball court in caroling.
(51:52):
Was it caroling texas?
Was it caroling texas?
Was it Carrollton Texas?
Was it Carrollton Texas?
Somewhere in Texas it was closeto Dallas.
I don't have much, but anyway,we went to this big old when I
say big old place withpickleball courts everywhere.
There's like nine courts.
Speaker 1 (52:10):
Wow.
Speaker 2 (52:11):
Just pickleball.
And so we went in there, yougot your wristband and all that
stuff, and to the point wherethey even had, like, food for
sale.
This is how big this place was,yeah.
So, anyway, I'm just going tome personally, I was just going
to sit out because I had neverplayed pickleball in my life.
But again, this is where tryingthings not knowing that they're
(52:36):
going to be fun, and so I saidI don't know how to play a
pickleball, I can't see.
You know, the ball is comingback at me.
What you know?
No, you know what we're goingto play.
I guess pairs or whatever it'scalled.
You have two on one one side,so it's a team basically got two
and then two, and so I was theserver and whoever was my
(52:58):
partner had to hit the ball forme.
Well, let's talk about thishere real quick, because I I
remember I think they onlyscored two points, dude, and we
went to I don't even know whereto go to Like 10 or 11,
something like that, and so theyonly scored two and we scored
10.
We scored ten.
(53:18):
I was the server.
So you did pretty well then,underhanding and actually
winning.
Speaker 1 (53:24):
Wow, that's incredible.
Speaker 2 (53:26):
Yeah, dude, I'll never forget it, man.
Speaker 1 (53:29):
So just to switch gears how often do you go out
and do talks to groups?
Speaker 2 (53:39):
Well, it's all a situation-dependent one.
There's no set schedule, it'sall, hey, we need somebody to
come speak, or we got aconference.
Or next month in Dallas I'mgoing to a three-day conference,
october I'm going to a two-dayconference.
I got conferences and stufflike that and'm going to a
two-day conference.
You know like, I gotconferences and stuff like that,
(53:59):
and then churches might inviteme, you know, to their
conferences, Bible school, allthese different things.
I come speaking.
I was just speaking at mychurch on Sunday.
Speaker 1 (54:08):
So what's one of the most?
Meaningful things maybe anybodycame back after hearing you
talk and said hey, you know,after listening to your story
I've really changed it.
Did you have any of those?
Can you think of maybe one ofthose?
Speaker 2 (54:26):
I actually saved somebody's life, man, and this
was not based off of a speech.
It was actually based off of mybook.
My book talks about my accident, talks about the motorcycle
accident, and it talks about themany different lessons that I,
that I talk about life teachingme.
And so the guy OK, first off,his sister DM me on Instagram
(54:53):
and she said you know, I caughtthat message, I don't know
because it was a request, so itdidn't come directly to my box
and I did read it and if I wasto surmise it, it went a little
something like this Thank you somuch for writing your book.
It really saved my brother'slife.
He was involved in a motorcycleaccident similar to yours,
(55:17):
where he lost his eyesight,ended up in the hospital, you
know, and thinking about takingit in his life because he didn't
know what he was going to donext.
And once I let him listen toyour book, it changed his
perspective on life and now hewants to stay here and find
(55:38):
things to do, you know, giveback and stuff like that.
So my book has oh, oh.
And then she said, uh, ps, hereached out to you but you never
responded.
I said, oh, shoot.
So I went back into the DMs andlooked for it and I responded
to him first and then Iresponded to her.
Speaker 1 (56:00):
Good thinking.
That's an incredible story.
So that's I mean that had tomake you feel good.
Speaker 2 (56:07):
Absolutely, and but the see the thing is that's that
was the whole purpose forwriting my book, not for you
know, saving lives, but formaking an impact, because not
only did it impact him, itimpact her life too because
that's his sister.
Speaker 1 (56:25):
Right, yeah, there's a snowball effect that goes
along with that Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (56:30):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (56:31):
Yeah, so if people wanted to connect with you, how
would they do that?
Speaker 2 (56:36):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know, if you want to followme on social media social media
handle on all of theseplatforms, which is LinkedIn,
Facebook and Instagram, is KiwanAmy.
That's K-I-J-U-A-N-A-M-E-Y, andyou'll see a nice picture and
(56:56):
I'll have on some shades smiling.
So if you don't see me smilingwith a really nice face, it
wasn't me as other of you wouldlike to book me engagements such
as what I've already mentioned,or even something that you want
to create new.
Feel free to go to my websiteat amymotivationcom that's
A-M-E-Y, motivationcom, and youcan also find my book on there
(57:19):
as well.
Don't focus on why me frommotorcycle accident to miracle.
Or if you want to hear theaudio version, you can go to
audible or Apple books Applebooks and search the same title
and you'll get the book Awesome.
Speaker 1 (57:34):
Now I think one of your signature quotes is and
correct me if I'm wrong, I mayhave lost my sight, but I didn't
lose my vision to help othersthat is absolutely correct and
that's why I started my podcastto help others, and because,
growing up with, I told you thestory about my grandmother being
blinded.
But my grandfather was a countrydoctor and he made house calls,
(57:55):
and I learned from an early agethat you help people just
because it's the right thing todo, not because you're getting a
benefit from it, and that's thething we're both in the same
boat on, that is, that you tryto help others be their best and
live their best quality of life, and so I really wanted to
thank you for all the thingsthat you've done, and is there
(58:16):
any final thoughts that you havefor people?
That's something that you wantto leave them with.
Speaker 2 (58:23):
Yeah, I'll leave people with one of my favorite,
because you already mentioned myquote, so I'll leave you all
with a quote that helps me,keeps me from jumping down
people's throats sometimes, andthis is one that I picked up,
actually, from a TV show back inthe day, for those who aren't
familiar First Prince of Bel-Air.
Oh yeah, season one.
(58:44):
The quote goes something likethis my situation does not
define who I am.
I define who I am, and whatthat means to me is don't allow
people to put labels on you,because that's them reflecting
(59:05):
on themselves of what you are,versus you telling them who you
are.
So always define yourself.
Don't let anybody else defineyou.
Speaker 1 (59:17):
Yeah, one of my favorite quotes is from the
movie Jack with Robin Williams.
Jack was about uh, had, uh, uh,where you age really fast, and
he was giving his graduationspeech and he looked like he was
about 80 years old.
But the quote that always stuckwith me is he.
He says make your lifespectacular.
I know I did so.
(59:40):
That's kind of where I got thename of the book that I wrote to
Spectacular, you know FourStrategies for Living with
Parkinson's, but it's the samething.
So I really appreciate yourtime and I want to thank you for
being on today.
I think you're going to help alot of people and hopefully
people will connect with you and, you know, learn to.
You know take that step and say, not why me, but you know why
(01:00:02):
not, why can't I do these things?
And you can go out and do thosethings.
Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Absolutely.
Again, I appreciate you havingme here, Chris, having me here,
Chris.
Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Thank you very much and you have a spectacular day.
Speaker 2 (01:00:15):
You do the same.
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