October 9, 2024 • 41 mins
WHAT A GUEST we have for you on the show today! Seriously, this woman has overcome a wild series of events, and now is creating magic in the world as a result.
World-class, history-making skier, Jamie MoCrazy, has an awe-inspiring story.
Imagine going from setting world records to surviving a catastrophic accident while competing on the ski slopes.
In this episode, Jamie recounts her miraculous journey of resilience and hope, emphasizing the critical importance of support and awareness in overcoming such life-altering events.
Her story is a powerful testament to the human spirit's ability to turn despair into a transformative force for good.
Jamie shares her experiences with neuroplasticity, highlighting how short, repetitive reading sessions helped her regain the joy of reading.
She dispels the misconceptions surrounding brain injuries, showing us that recovery can lead to increased competence.
Jamie is now speaking on large stages, she is a company owner of the MoCrazy Strong Foundation, she is an advocate for those with traumatic brain injuries, and she now is the film producer of an award-winning documentary!
This is truly an episode that will FILL your soul and give you inspiration and insight that you can use in your life, business and relationships.
Connect with Jamie MoCrazy:
Website: https://www.mocrazystrong.org/
Film: https://www.mocrazystrong.org/film/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8F%94-jamie-mocrazy-07b58131/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiemocrazy/
Connect with Us:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
Hello, gorgeous, and welcome to the Women on Top
podcast.
I'm your host, valerie Lynn,and, with over 15 years of
business experience, I becametruly passionate about finding
ways to support and hear fromway more women, and what we know
to be true is that women thrivewhen they are in their favorite
position on top.
(00:25):
On top in business, inrelationships, in personal
growth and on top in being realand authentic to who the hell
they are.
So I invite you to sit back andenjoy the Women on Top podcast.
All right, everyone.
Well, welcome back to anotherepisode of the women on top, and
(00:47):
today I have an incredibleguest and I am so, so excited to
welcome her back.
I've actually connected withher before and, um, it was when
I first started my podcast,before it became the women on
top, and we just had such a goodconversation and she is really
like one of the most remarkablewomen I think I know.
Um, so today I have with meJamie Mo crazy, who is a woman
(01:12):
who grew up on the ski slopes.
Um, she's always had big dreams.
She started out becoming thefirst woman in the world to flip
off a rail in a ski competitionoh, my goodness.
And then she became the firstwoman in the world to double
flip at the X games, until sheencountered a situation that
almost took her life in theblink of an eye, and we will get
(01:34):
into that journey in thisconversation.
Um, but essentially, jamietoday has become an incredible
force for good and really isthis powerful speaker who has
spoken to huge audiences, verylarge groups and just really
powerful businesses.
She has created her ownpowerful business that supports
people with traumatic braininjuries and now has a multi
(01:57):
award-winning documentary.
So you have done a ton of work.
I am just always blown awayevery time I think about you and
look at your story, and so Ijust want to give you the
warmest welcome and say thankyou so much for coming to the
show today, jamie.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here and,wow, listening to that, I'm like
, wow, that sounds so cool, andI was actually just thinking I'm
sitting and there's somethunder happening and it reminds
me that I was actually born ina thunderstorm and that part of
(02:35):
my personality has never goneaway.
Things happen with a boom and akabang and it it just happens
like that.
So I've had some prettyphenomenal phenomenal things
happen in my life and, um, I'vealso had some moments of despair
(02:55):
and and anguish and confusion.
Yeah, and I've had some sorrowthat wasn't even directed about
me, but I lost my older sisterdue to cancer two years ago,
right before I had a weddingback on the mountain that almost
took my life to the love of mylife, like talk about big
(03:17):
thunder moments, and so I'm gladto be here and talk about those
moments.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, wow, what an analogy.
And it's kind of, like you said, like life happens with those
instantaneous, like booms andclaps and things that we just
can't predict.
You can never have predictedthese things that have occurred
and, man, you have been throughsome, some serious situations,
so let's kind of get into it.
Let's just like get into thejuice the story.
(03:44):
The story goes that you weredoing all of these incredible
competitions and really settingrecords and like setting your
sights so high and dreamingreally big, and then you go to
do a ski jump and it goesincredibly wrong, and can you
kind of share, like what happensin that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, I would love to, and it's interesting because I
actually land the ski jump on myfeet, so it's really minuscule
wrong because I landed on myfeet but I caught an edge and
whiplash my head onto the snowso hard that my brain started
bleeding in eight spots and Ihurt where my right brain stem,
which instantly paralyzed thewhole right side of my body.
(04:29):
I started convulsing and Iimmediately went into a natural
coma.
Instantly, oh my gosh, mylittle sister was at this
competition.
It was her first world tourfinals genie and she watched me
and she saw that I didn't hitthe next jump but didn't think
that much of it because in infreestyle you fall a lot.
(04:51):
So then she heard the skipatrol radio crackle to life
saying we need all hands on deckand a helicopter on standby,
and instantly she put on herskis and ski down to me and she
saw me convulsing and spewingblood and my eyes were rolled
back in my head and that's anintensive boom clap moment when
(05:14):
instantly I went from being aworld-class athlete to honestly
having virtually no chance ofsurvival.
They actually wrote my fatalityreport as I was airlifted to
the hospital because thestatistics for my recovery were
so low and within that firstyear of recovery, when my mind
(05:37):
started coming back because inthe hospital, when I woke up
from the coma, I had seriousamnesia, so no short-term or
long-term memory.
The coma, I had serious amnesia,so no short term or long term
memory.
And when my memory started tocome back, my mom would say
you're a miracle.
And I would say that's my mombeing a mom.
And then I went back actuallyfor my one year anniversary to
(05:57):
the hospital I was treated at.
I met the doctor who's head ofmy neuro care and I've stayed in
close contact with him and Ialso met my first responders and
I realized how intensive myaccident had been and the
platform that had been createdthrough this accident and my
(06:18):
recovery to share theopportunities that I received
and how those opportunities ledto my recovery.
So other individuals can havemiracles as well, because it was
a miraculous opportunity.
However, it's not a miraculousopportunity that only I can
(06:38):
experience.
It's a miraculous opportunitythat can be repeatable and the
more awareness is out there onhow to repeat it, the more
individuals get to experiencethe same recovery and miracle as
me.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Wow, I love that.
Okay, oh, my goodness.
So they wrote your fatalityreport.
Your family's probably losingtheir minds.
You're airlifted to a hospital.
Do you remember any of thisLike, do you have current?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
No, oh, my God, I have no memories.
I have no memories for about.
So I have no memories of theaccident.
Um, when I was in the coma andI have no memories of when I
woke up.
I had serious amnesia at thetime.
When I woke up I did have.
I was telling my family somememories I had from in the coma,
because there's more and morestudies that are showing that
(07:27):
people do have a certain amountof ability to receive
information while they're incomas, like they're still alive.
So I did hear that I was nevergoing to become normal again
because one of the doctors saidthat multiple times I wanted to
(07:48):
just become normal and assomeone who legally changed
their last name to Mo Crazy,that's somebody who never wanted
to be normal.
So it was very surprising to myfamily why I kept all I want to
be is normal, all I want to beis normal.
And they were like why?
And I was like because he said Iwould never be normal and that
was something that happenedwhile I was in the coma, that I
(08:10):
had an understanding of thatcommunication that was done
around me and it's interestingbecause my older sister, the one
who actually passed away fromcancer she was an
anesthesiologist and she went tothe hospital and became my
primary care physician so shecould make rounds with the
doctors, and one of the thingsthat she and my mom did was when
(08:33):
the doctor was.
It was actually a young man whowas in his residency, so trying
to show that he knew his stuffand giving me these outcome
predictions in front of me whenI was lying there in the coma,
and they were like you need toget out of her room, like we
cannot have these conversations,and he was like but she's in a
coma.
And they were like no,absolutely not.
(08:55):
And that's something that'sreally important, because
individuals who are in a comalike now if you ask me about
that story, I don't have memoryof it, but when I woke up, I had
that understanding that I wasnever going to be normal, and so
if I had kept that belief, Iwould have lived up to those
expectations that I was creatingin my mind, and so many
individuals actually are toldthings similar to like when
(09:19):
you're a baby, like what you'retold as a child helps create
your confidence and what youbelieve as you're growing up,
even though you can't likedirectly remember.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Right, yeah, that's so big.
I mean that's huge, right,because I feel like this new
research, kind of that's comingout is really pivotal for people
who are maybe experiencingsomething similar and or even
just people in general, that we,like, our thoughts are so
powerful and what we hear aroundus is so powerful, and I think
(09:50):
we don't even realize thatsometimes.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, and and it's your thoughts are so powerful
and it's really incredible thatwith the understanding of
neuroplasticity, which has kindof become a buzzword recently
and 20 years ago we were underthe belief that you had about
two years to recover from yourbrain injury, or neuroplasticity
(10:16):
only happened in the corticalstages of development, which are
the first two years of life.
So we kind of all had thebelief that, like after two
years of brain injury, whateverdeficits you had two years out
were permanent for the rest ofyour life.
And now we know that you cancontinue healing and rewire your
brain.
So anyone at any stage after abrain injury can continue
(10:39):
healing and some of those thingsthat you think you will never
experience again you might beable to.
So an example I have of that isI was a really avid reader
prior to my brain injury.
I loved reading.
However, after my brain injuryI would reread the lines and it
kind of gave me a headache and Iwould get confused on the page
(11:02):
and I was in complete denialabout all of this because I very
quickly wanted to get back tobeing okay and I went back to
college.
I went to university one yearafter my brain injury and I was
reading the textbooks and Ipassed with no disability
assistance and I got good grades, so I could push it and do it.
However, reading was no fun andit hurt my head and I didn't do
(11:25):
it.
However, reading was no fun andit hurt my head and I didn't
like it, and so I was thinkingwith my knowledge of
neuroplasticity and then ittakes repetitive habits in order
to rewire your brain I was like, all right, so in 2020, covid
hit.
I had a lot of extra time.
A lot of my things got canceled, so I used that time to force
(11:48):
myself to read for 20 minutesshort intermittent time slots on
repetition every other day.
So I started doing that and ittook about two and a half months
before I was reading and thetimer went off and I was like,
oh okay, that was so fun.
I didn't even realize that Iwas like reading and I just got
like engrossed in the book.
(12:08):
Yeah, and then I started.
I kept going and beyond that,and now I can honestly say I
enjoy reading again and I don'treread the lines and my head
doesn't hurt.
So some of the types of deficitsthat you have from brain injury
, even if you're 20 years downthe road and you're listening to
this.
You can heal and even if youcan live a successful life.
(12:32):
You can, like so many.
Even when people have visiblechanges in ability, they can
build a life they love afterbrain injury and they can
contribute back to society, evenif it means changing your type
of job, working remotely, thehours that you commit different
things but you can build a lifeyou love and even if you seem
(12:54):
visibly fine, if you're havingthese challenges, you can take
action to fix these challengesin life.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, what a good example of how you helped
yourself, kind of like be ableto do something you loved again,
and that neuroplasticityexample is so perfect.
So I'm feeling like this issomething that applies to folks
with, of course, like braininjury, but I'm also thinking of
myself honestly, like I feellike I could probably do
(13:22):
something better by justcreating some of those habits,
um, and being able to rewire mybrain in a certain way, if I
want to get better at something,and I think that that's really
also some of the message thatyou talk about.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yes, exactly, and it applies to everybody this
concept of rewiring your brain,neuroplasticity, building habits
.
And the other thing that'sinteresting is, since I've been
in the brain injury world, Ihave realized and we went on the
film festival tour every filmfestival we went to, people
(13:58):
would come up to us and tell ustheir direct brain injury
stories.
And acquired brain injury isour largest disability.
In the US there are millions ofAmericans that suffer from
different challenges that havebeen created from brain injury
and quite often they don't eventell anyone.
(14:18):
Like if you have had a six, astereotypically successful
recovery like mine, and you areable to live without any
disability help or anything likethat.
Many individuals don't sayanything.
I have spoken to top levelpolicymakers, senators, business
people.
(14:38):
I was actually speaking at amulti-billion dollar company
this past June and I gave thepresentation and afterwards
someone came up to me and wastelling me about her critical
traumatic brain injury when shewas in a coma and recovery and
nobody at work knew.
And she said well, I don't tellanyone because I'm scared of the
(15:00):
stigma tied to it, which is sotrue.
There's a stigma that if youhad a brain injury, you will
always be less competent andless able to perform.
So people feel like, if theyhave these headaches or these
issues, instead of acknowledgingthem and taking steps to fix
them, they should push them awayand pretend they don't exist,
(15:21):
if they can still perform at agood level, because they don't
want to feel like they'reincompetent.
So what I'm saying and what wehave learned and what our
foundation is all about is thatyou can fix these challenges and
still be competent.
And many of these individuals,even if they have changes in
(15:43):
ability from brain injury,become more competent because of
their brain injury instead ofless competent.
So that that mindset needs toshift, that you feel like you're
incompetent because you had abrain injury.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yes, wow, I didn't even realize or think about the
stigma behind that, but thenhearing you talk about it, it
makes me, like, feel even morefired up and again, I haven't
even experienced that.
I know of brain injury, but itmakes me think, like what you
just said, at the end, ifanything, I feel like those who
have recovered from somethinglike that are more competent,
(16:20):
like what you just illustrated,because of all of the effort and
just I mean probably numerousamounts of things.
But I feel like it's probablythe opposite of what the stigma
actually says.
Um, so this is reallyfascinating, like I, I just love
diving into your world and Iwant to hear a little bit, cause
I think it's leading up towhere we're talking about now,
(16:41):
but about recovery and, likewhat that you were talking about
, we can repeat the magic thatyou experienced for yourself of
complete recovery.
So what does that formula looklike?
What did you do differently andyour family do differently to
make sure that you were able torecover and go beyond even that?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, that's a great question and a lot of that is
taught on our Mo Crazy Methodsand you can look on our website
mocrazystrongorg and click onthe Mo Crazy Methods.
And you can look on our websitemocrazystrongorg and click on
the Mo Crazy Methods to readabout them and sign up for them.
But it's a complimentary,integrative approach.
So there's so many steps tobrain injury.
(17:23):
Brains have a lot of graymatter and we need to embrace it
all.
So there's there's researchadvancements, like the fact that
I was treated with a multimodalmonitoring system and I was the
first person in North Americato receive that and that
(17:44):
actually was discovered inCambridge, england.
The science that went behindthe multimodal and the different
modals between um, intracranialpressure and oxygen levels, um
and things like that.
So that's like the multimodalum.
So that's important to keepdoing science.
(18:07):
But then when you get after theacute care, which is where a
lot of research is focused onthe acute care stages you you
often feel like you kind of getdropped by the medical world
Like you're done with thedoctors, you're done with your
insurance.
Your insurance quite oftenoften private insurance actually
(18:28):
cuts you off at like 30 speechtherapy lessons and after 30 you
are not going to be done.
And so, um, there's actuallyfederal funding.
It's a very small amount offederal funding, um that we
actually went.
The more crazy strong team wentback to help with um, creating
(18:53):
it, to be reinitiated um, thetraumatic brain injury fund, um,
and so I was a recipient ofthat in the state of Utah, which
meant that they, the state,paid for some of my
rehabilitation.
And then, beyond that, there'syour family involvement, and
(19:14):
that is critical.
And by family involvement itmeans anyone who is not paid for
their services to a braininjury survivor.
So it might be family, it mightbe community programs it's just
under the term familyinvolvement.
But some of those habits thatyou can build make such a huge
(19:36):
difference in your long-termoutcome.
So like your sleep, the foodthat you eat, like your
nutrition, that you're taking insome of the habits that you
build on a daily basis, so howmuch TV you watch, or whether
you're going outside andrelearning to move, even if you
(19:57):
have changes in your physicalability there are ways to sit on
a porch and embrace thesunlight and some of those types
of things will actually makehuge changes.
And an example is when I was inthe hospital I said I was
paralyzed on the right side andthe return to mobility after
(20:17):
brainstem damage is still prettylimited because you have to do
things to force that part ofyour brain to rewire itself.
So my mom would tape down mystrong hand and I would utilize
my weak hand and have to dothings with my weak hand, which
was so hard and humiliating andfrustrating, and I was so angry.
(20:42):
And that happened for multipleyears, like even when I was
multiple years out.
I would be having aconversation and I would just be
talking with this hand and shewould put it down and make me
talk with this hand and tapethat hand down when I was still
doing things.
So the dexterity and themovements went back and I had
did so many exercises likepicking up coins and speeding
(21:05):
balls.
But so one of the big things anoverall idea is that you can
take steps and you can contactthe foundation and learn ways
that you can create habits foryourself that fix your
challenges and your deficits,because every brain injury is a
(21:28):
little bit different.
So it's not like there's asmooth, like one answer that
will work for everybody, butthere are ways to change and
heal.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yes, yes, I love, um, what you said about like your
mom helping out and really, uh,you know, I'm sure it was very
aggravating at certain moments,um, but I feel like she's been
such an advocate, as well asyour, the rest of your family,
to just everyone, has been kindof your champion.
Um is there, you know.
Were there certain things likehow did she, how did she know,
(22:01):
to do some of this?
Like you know, where does someof this information come from?
Because she was, it seems, likea big advocate too, of talking
positively to you, not wantingthat doctor in the room, like
making sure that she infused allof that um, that belief into
you.
Um, where did she learn to doall of these things that helped
your recovery?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Well before my recovery, my mom had studied
early childhood braindevelopment in the process of
getting her master's inpsychology Wow, okay, so that's
a big thing.
She had a federal.
During my childhood, she had afederal grant from the
government to teach self-esteemto women, which is why I became
(22:43):
the first woman to double flipat X Games, because I was raised
with the belief that I couldaccomplish whatever I wanted to
by performing at my own personalbest.
And prior to my brain injury, Iunderstood performing at my own
personal best was kind of beingthe best in everything.
I was very competitive and Iwas very good, and if I wasn't
(23:05):
good at it, I probably wouldn'tdo it good, and if I wasn't good
at it, I probably wouldn't doit.
And so I was always kind ofperforming as one of the best.
And then, after my brain injury, I really understood what that
concept meant.
Performing your own personalbest meant that when I could not
swallow water, I would alwayscough.
My own personal best wasgetting to the moment where I
(23:27):
could take a sip of water.
My own personal best waswalking up a flight of stairs.
My own personal best varieddramatically since.
Prior to my brain injury,however, if I did not keep
performing in my own personalbest, my own personal best would
not have ever become who I amtoday.
And so by performing your ownpersonal best in those little
(23:49):
incremental steps during thesetting of your attainable goals
that you can accomplish, likewalking upstairs.
Walking upstairs to runningupstairs, to running up 12
flights of stairs, allowed me toreturn to skiing.
And so if the goal was toreturn to skiing and that was a
huge goal when I couldn't walkup one flight of stairs by
(24:11):
myself you have to setincremental, sustainable goals
to reach those growth goals.
And that's how it is foranybody in anything they want to
do in life, and sometimes thosebig goals can seem so large
that they're intimidating andscary, and so quite often,
(24:32):
people just don't do anything.
They just have those goals andthey like stay away from them.
However, when the opportunityis right, you need to set those
attainable goals to reach thegrowth goals.
An example of that is when Iwanted to make a documentary so
did my whole family about mystory.
(24:52):
Since, basically, my mind cameback after my story, I actually,
in the hospital, thought that Iwas in a movie about a hospital
, because old people and sickpeople went to a hospital and I
wasn't old and I wasn't sick.
So I would tell the nurse thatI was in a movie about a
(25:12):
hospital and I wasn't.
I was actually living in thehospital at that time.
But I kept that want of beingin a movie about a hospital.
And it took me eight years laterfor me to get to the stage
where I could start settingattainable goals and take action
(25:33):
and take that jump in that leapand create the documentary with
the people I brought in to helpme make that.
And then, next thing I knew Iwent from a dream to setting
attainable goals, to premieringat Big Sky Documentary Film
Festival, which is one of thelargest documentary film
festivals in the world, and onlythe amount of people who apply
(25:56):
they get screened there is sosmall that it's phenomenal that
we were invited to screen thereand we went on a film festival
run and won multiple awards andscreened on Capitol Hill.
So all of a sudden we startedliving our dream because we had
set the steps to live it.
And so quite often, when youhave these large dreams, it
(26:21):
might not be the time that youcan set attainable goals and you
can start moving it.
But if you never take action,the dream will never happen.
So, even if you're you'refeeling like it's not the right
time sometimes it's not theright time Then when that that
window opens, you need to beready to jump in and start
taking steps.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, that's so applicable to so many people too
, cause, like you said,oftentimes like we have this
idea that something's going tohappen so fast and we're going
to be this overnight success,when really we just need to be
setting our own personal best toyour point and continue to make
those small action steps happenthat compound on top of each
other and aren't just, like youknow, we don't just take the
(27:03):
leap immediately.
We have to actually get good atwhatever we're doing.
So I really appreciate that youshared that and I'm so excited
about your film as well.
So I kind of want to, because Ifeel like you, you're so
positive, you've had thisamazing recovery.
You're now living a life ofyour dreams completely different
dreams, but a life of yourdreams.
(27:25):
What have you ever had a momentwhere you were really like
depressed or felt like giving upor just throw in the towel?
And what did you do at thatmoment?
Because I feel like you hadevery reason under the sun to
just quit at certain moments.
So what was it like?
You know, have you had that andwhat did you do in that time?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
That's a good question and the answer is yes,
I had that and I still have that.
I have moments where I feellike frustrated and pent up and
you know, I think every humanhas those moments.
That's something that we havebeen hearing a lot about in the
(28:10):
Olympics, and mental health isthat some of the top athletes
have those moments, and so oneof the things I would say to
start out with is, if you havethose moments, don't negate
yourself for having thosemoments, because that's one of
the things, like we punishourselves or we feel guilty and
(28:30):
we're like why are we havingthese moments?
That doesn't help anything, um,and what?
What I do, um, when I havethose moments is I.
I try to step out of thosemoments.
So when I feel myself havingthose moments or things
happening, I stop what I'm doingand quite often I'll go outside
(28:51):
, I'll go for a walk, or I willgo meditate, or I will do
something to get myself awayfrom that downward spiral that's
happening, or if I'm not reallycaught up in it, I will, or if
I'm not really caught up in it,I will let it happen.
I will talk about all like writedown what I'm miserable about
(29:14):
or what I'm frustrated about.
And quite often, when I'm likewriting down what I'm frustrated
about, I'll have thesebreakthrough moments and be like
oh, or sometimes, when I'm inyoga and I'm doing like
Shavasana, I'll have like thesebreakthrough moments and I'm
doing like Shavasana, I'll havelike these breakthrough moments.
But those only have theopportunity to happen if you let
yourself feel your emotions, sodon't stay stuck down in the
(29:39):
pit.
I always say, like I wasclimbing the mountain of life
and I was caught in ametaphorical avalanche that slid
me down to the bottom with mybrain injury, and I had two
choices stay stuck at the bottomor begin to climb again.
And so I chose to climb again.
And, like climbing any mountain,you go through ups and downs.
There's beautiful views,there's craggly points, there
(30:01):
might be some rain, there'smoments that are not all the
pretty picture, moments that arenot all the pretty picture.
You keep climbing and keeptaking steps to creating what is
truly important for you in yourlife, not necessarily what
society depicts of you or wantsyou to be, but what you truly
(30:22):
want in your life.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, Was it hard for you to redefine success for
yourself?
And I'm asking that partiallyselfishly because I'm in a
season where I'm kind ofrealizing that maybe I was
defining success not on my termsbut on society's terms or on
some sort of terms that Ithought I needed to get to.
And I'm curious for you, likeyou've had to read, you've had
(30:44):
to do that on a completelymassive level, so was that
challenging for you?
What was that process like?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, it was challenging and I think I'm
mostly okay with it, but it'sstill a little bit challenging
Because when I was, when I was achild, I wanted to be a famous
athlete, I wanted to break worldrecords, I wanted to win the
Olympics and I wanted to be afamous athlete.
I wanted to break world records, I wanted to win the Olympics
and I wanted to be famous.
(31:12):
And there's still a part of methat wants that recognition for
delivery on my talents, and sothat's one of the reasons why I
love speaking and crave speakingis because walking out on stage
(31:35):
um gives me that adrenalinethat I would get from um
performing, but it is.
It is still hard because I'm avery harsh critic on myself and
I never think I'm successfulenough.
So that is something that I'vehad to work on a lot.
Um and I went to therapy rightafter my brain injury for a year
(31:57):
and a half, and after my sisterpassed away from cancer, that
next summer so summer of 2022 Iwent back to therapy.
Um and I I still see mytherapist on and off, and that's
one of the main things that wework on is my whole life I've
had this interestingrelationship with success and
(32:19):
there's some benefits abouthaving an interesting
relationship because it hasallowed me to become successful
in a lot of people's eyes,allowed me to become successful
in a lot of people's eyes, but Istill never feel like I have
succeeded enough.
Yeah, and I'm not sure.
And I and I have a friends andcontacts that have gone and won
(32:43):
the Olympics and I and I I knowpeople who are kind of
celebrities in different realmsand like people now with all my
brain injury stuff, like willsee me on a CNN article or New
York Times, or I'll be in thehot tub with someone and they'll
recognize me from one of theposts I was in, or I'll be in a
(33:05):
meeting and introduced tosomeone and they'll recognize me
and they'll be like oh, Ididn't know that Reggie's wife
was famous, and so I am startingto hear that.
But I still think that I'm notsuccessful sometimes.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, I really appreciate the vulnerability
there because I feel like it'sbeen a struggle for me to to
kind of like there.
Because I feel like it's been astruggle for me to to kind of
like what does successful meanto me?
Um, instead of the whole fameand I don't know where that came
from, but I've been, you know,going with this thought that I'm
not somebody unless I'msomebody, and really that all is
(33:42):
from an old soundtrack in mymind, that's all from a certain
level of ego.
But breaking down that andreally redefining, like, what
does it mean?
Like, you know, if I get to theend of my life, what does that
success look like?
Like if you know, if really I'mlike having my last day, what
is that?
You know what's the definitionof success?
(34:03):
And so I think it's hard, aswomen who are ambitious and, you
know, really motivated and wantto take over the world, going
through that process is a littlehumbling and it's really
challenging.
So that's the nature of thequestion.
But I think there's a lot ofwomen who resonate.
So I really appreciate that.
You share that.
It's not.
It's not easy, right, andyou're still going through it.
(34:23):
So thank you for thatvulnerability.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, you're welcome, and it's hard being a woman
because we have so manyconflicting ideas about what is
successful.
Is it having that job?
Is that job meaning nine tofive or remote, or is it being a
mom?
My mom was a stay at home momwho homeschooled me and she
(34:49):
loved it and she put in so muchwork to that and I think that's
beautiful.
Um, however, I had so sochallenging because, um, my
husband's mom is a doctor, um,and, and those are different
career paths and they're bothbeautiful, but if they're what
you want to be doing, I thinkthere's too much pressure that
(35:10):
saying to women who have acareer they should be more of a
stay at home mom and women thatare stay at home moms, why don't
?
Why aren't they making?
enough money, so it's likethere's no win.
Yeah, exactly Like in theBarbie movie you can't.
It's it's so hard to be a woman.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yes, woman, yes yeah, I know it comes back to that
monologue that was so perfectlysaid about being a woman.
Um, so, for you and you know,this next era of your life and
the film and the speaking, whatare you looking forward to the
most?
Speaker 2 (35:45):
now we have started for this next year creating some
Alive to Thrive and ClimbingAlternative Peaks events.
So I'm really excited for thosethat are coming up and some of
them are speaking and awarenesswe're screening the film at all
of them and so for ourAlternative Peaks, it's about
(36:08):
how to reintegrate to societyand build a life 2.0 that you
love after brain injury.
Um, and then, with our alive tothrive, we have a couple coming
up this year, um, in differentareas of the us, where we are
going to be bringing back braininjury survivors who, um did not
(36:28):
think they could ski again,with adaptability programs to
get them back on snow and helpthem accomplish something they
thought was impossible aftertheir brain injury to open their
mind that there are many thingsthat are possible, just a
little bit different after abrain injury.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yeah, you have a ton going on and I just I always
feel like lit up after speakingwith you, but also really
inspired, because you just havesuch a story of triumph and you
continue to follow your ownadvice, which is to climb
alternative peaks, like when youknow when life throws you
(37:05):
something in avalanche, youclimb the alternative peak, and
I feel like you're a perfecttestament to that and you're
also just a really big beacon ofum, of hope and motivation for
women who want to show up in areally bold, authentic way and
share their story too, because Ifeel like you, sharing your
(37:25):
story is what's helping healother people.
I mean truly, like that'sreally the work that you're
doing.
Right, and so I just have tosay like thank you for sharing
all that you have today and Ihope you just continue to be
that pioneer that we all need,because I really do believe,
like the world needs fiercewomen leaders like you and um,
(37:47):
thank you.
So I have one last thing, aswe're kind of wrapping up our
conversation.
I know we can talk for hours um,but I've been asking all of my
guests to leave like a piece ofadvice or quote or something for
the next guest not knowing whoit is.
So I want to share what ourlast guest shared for you and
then I'll give you theopportunity to do the same thing
for whoever I interview next.
(38:08):
So my last guest said keepputting your light into the
world.
The world needs each of us andnone of us are the same.
It needs authentic, real,vulnerable people and women that
are going out there, becausethe women are who are going to
change the world.
So I thought that was reallypertinent to the conversation
(38:32):
and everything that you'veshared honestly.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
So yeah, go ahead.
Our foundation is founded bymyself, my sister and my mom, so
it's women power, and we'vegrown now.
So we work with some differentcontracted individuals, but the
founders are women and we alwaystry to employ women who have
(38:55):
something to deliver.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yeah, I also just love supporting women-led
organizations.
So we're going to be droppingall the links in the show notes
where people can find you andlearn all about you, because I
know after listening everyone'sjust going to be so lit up and
just want to find and connectwith you.
So thank you for um again forsharing that, and I'm so glad
that you and your mom and yoursister have locked arms in this
(39:18):
venture.
Um, so, do you have anythingyou would like to leave for the
next guest that I interview, notknowing who it is?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yes, I would like to leave, knowing who it is.
Yes, I would like to leave.
Be your own personal best whileyou're climbing your
alternative peaks and, as youtalked about, your own personal
best might vary dramatically,but keep performing at your own
personal best as you climb youralternative peak.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I love that.
Thank you again for sharing it,Jamie.
I just, I just I love you somuch.
I just wish I could hug you.
I wish we could meet in reallife.
We might in the next upcomingmonths, but thank you again.
I can't say that enough and Ithink, just as a collective
again, like women really needother women like you who are
willing to go first and be braveand courageous.
(40:04):
So I just want to say thatyou're doing it and I appreciate
you so much.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well, thank you very much and I was excited to talk
with you, and I hope we do runinto each other in person in San
Diego soon.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Thank you for tuning into the show today and before
you go, I just have one quickfavor to ask of you.
There is a really simple waythat you can help support me and
help support the show, and thatis to hit that follow button on
whatever app you're listeningto the show on.
I'm trying really hard to levelup the content and deliver
unique value and amazing guestsand just hitting that follow
button is the magic that willhelp continue to empower that
(40:44):
and remember that the worlddeserves to hear your voice and
your stories and you deserve aplace at the top.
Hello, gorgeous, and welcome to the Women on Top
podcast.
I'm your host, valerie Lynn,and, with over 15 years of
business experience, I becametruly passionate about finding
ways to support and hear fromway more women, and what we know
to be true is that women thrivewhen they are in their favorite
position on top.
(00:25):
On top in business, inrelationships, in personal
growth and on top in being realand authentic to who the hell
they are.
So I invite you to sit back andenjoy the Women on Top podcast.
All right, everyone.
Well, welcome back to anotherepisode of the women on top, and
(00:47):
today I have an incredibleguest and I am so, so excited to
welcome her back.
I've actually connected withher before and, um, it was when
I first started my podcast,before it became the women on
top, and we just had such a goodconversation and she is really
like one of the most remarkablewomen I think I know.
Um, so today I have with meJamie Mo crazy, who is a woman
(01:12):
who grew up on the ski slopes.
Um, she's always had big dreams.
She started out becoming thefirst woman in the world to flip
off a rail in a ski competitionoh, my goodness.
And then she became the firstwoman in the world to double
flip at the X games, until sheencountered a situation that
almost took her life in theblink of an eye, and we will get
(01:34):
into that journey in thisconversation.
Um, but essentially, jamietoday has become an incredible
force for good and really isthis powerful speaker who has
spoken to huge audiences, verylarge groups and just really
powerful businesses.
She has created her ownpowerful business that supports
people with traumatic braininjuries and now has a multi
(01:57):
award-winning documentary.
So you have done a ton of work.
I am just always blown awayevery time I think about you and
look at your story, and so Ijust want to give you the
warmest welcome and say thankyou so much for coming to the
show today, jamie.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
Well, thank you so much for having me.
I'm so excited to be here and,wow, listening to that, I'm like
, wow, that sounds so cool, andI was actually just thinking I'm
sitting and there's somethunder happening and it reminds
me that I was actually born ina thunderstorm and that part of
(02:35):
my personality has never goneaway.
Things happen with a boom and akabang and it it just happens
like that.
So I've had some prettyphenomenal phenomenal things
happen in my life and, um, I'vealso had some moments of despair
(02:55):
and and anguish and confusion.
Yeah, and I've had some sorrowthat wasn't even directed about
me, but I lost my older sisterdue to cancer two years ago,
right before I had a weddingback on the mountain that almost
took my life to the love of mylife, like talk about big
(03:17):
thunder moments, and so I'm gladto be here and talk about those
moments.
Speaker 1 (03:23):
Yeah, wow, what an analogy.
And it's kind of, like you said, like life happens with those
instantaneous, like booms andclaps and things that we just
can't predict.
You can never have predictedthese things that have occurred
and, man, you have been throughsome, some serious situations,
so let's kind of get into it.
Let's just like get into thejuice the story.
(03:44):
The story goes that you weredoing all of these incredible
competitions and really settingrecords and like setting your
sights so high and dreamingreally big, and then you go to
do a ski jump and it goesincredibly wrong, and can you
kind of share, like what happensin that moment.
Speaker 2 (04:08):
Yes, I would love to, and it's interesting because I
actually land the ski jump on myfeet, so it's really minuscule
wrong because I landed on myfeet but I caught an edge and
whiplash my head onto the snowso hard that my brain started
bleeding in eight spots and Ihurt where my right brain stem,
which instantly paralyzed thewhole right side of my body.
(04:29):
I started convulsing and Iimmediately went into a natural
coma.
Instantly, oh my gosh, mylittle sister was at this
competition.
It was her first world tourfinals genie and she watched me
and she saw that I didn't hitthe next jump but didn't think
that much of it because in infreestyle you fall a lot.
(04:51):
So then she heard the skipatrol radio crackle to life
saying we need all hands on deckand a helicopter on standby,
and instantly she put on herskis and ski down to me and she
saw me convulsing and spewingblood and my eyes were rolled
back in my head and that's anintensive boom clap moment when
(05:14):
instantly I went from being aworld-class athlete to honestly
having virtually no chance ofsurvival.
They actually wrote my fatalityreport as I was airlifted to
the hospital because thestatistics for my recovery were
so low and within that firstyear of recovery, when my mind
(05:37):
started coming back because inthe hospital, when I woke up
from the coma, I had seriousamnesia, so no short-term or
long-term memory.
The coma, I had serious amnesia,so no short term or long term
memory.
And when my memory started tocome back, my mom would say
you're a miracle.
And I would say that's my mombeing a mom.
And then I went back actuallyfor my one year anniversary to
(05:57):
the hospital I was treated at.
I met the doctor who's head ofmy neuro care and I've stayed in
close contact with him and Ialso met my first responders and
I realized how intensive myaccident had been and the
platform that had been createdthrough this accident and my
(06:18):
recovery to share theopportunities that I received
and how those opportunities ledto my recovery.
So other individuals can havemiracles as well, because it was
a miraculous opportunity.
However, it's not a miraculousopportunity that only I can
(06:38):
experience.
It's a miraculous opportunitythat can be repeatable and the
more awareness is out there onhow to repeat it, the more
individuals get to experiencethe same recovery and miracle as
me.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Wow, I love that.
Okay, oh, my goodness.
So they wrote your fatalityreport.
Your family's probably losingtheir minds.
You're airlifted to a hospital.
Do you remember any of thisLike, do you have current?
Speaker 2 (07:06):
No, oh, my God, I have no memories.
I have no memories for about.
So I have no memories of theaccident.
Um, when I was in the coma andI have no memories of when I
woke up.
I had serious amnesia at thetime.
When I woke up I did have.
I was telling my family somememories I had from in the coma,
because there's more and morestudies that are showing that
(07:27):
people do have a certain amountof ability to receive
information while they're incomas, like they're still alive.
So I did hear that I was nevergoing to become normal again
because one of the doctors saidthat multiple times I wanted to
(07:48):
just become normal and assomeone who legally changed
their last name to Mo Crazy,that's somebody who never wanted
to be normal.
So it was very surprising to myfamily why I kept all I want to
be is normal, all I want to beis normal.
And they were like why?
And I was like because he said Iwould never be normal and that
was something that happenedwhile I was in the coma, that I
(08:10):
had an understanding of thatcommunication that was done
around me and it's interestingbecause my older sister, the one
who actually passed away fromcancer she was an
anesthesiologist and she went tothe hospital and became my
primary care physician so shecould make rounds with the
doctors, and one of the thingsthat she and my mom did was when
(08:33):
the doctor was.
It was actually a young man whowas in his residency, so trying
to show that he knew his stuffand giving me these outcome
predictions in front of me whenI was lying there in the coma,
and they were like you need toget out of her room, like we
cannot have these conversations,and he was like but she's in a
coma.
And they were like no,absolutely not.
(08:55):
And that's something that'sreally important, because
individuals who are in a comalike now if you ask me about
that story, I don't have memoryof it, but when I woke up, I had
that understanding that I wasnever going to be normal, and so
if I had kept that belief, Iwould have lived up to those
expectations that I was creatingin my mind, and so many
individuals actually are toldthings similar to like when
(09:19):
you're a baby, like what you'retold as a child helps create
your confidence and what youbelieve as you're growing up,
even though you can't likedirectly remember.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
Right, yeah, that's so big.
I mean that's huge, right,because I feel like this new
research, kind of that's comingout is really pivotal for people
who are maybe experiencingsomething similar and or even
just people in general, that we,like, our thoughts are so
powerful and what we hear aroundus is so powerful, and I think
(09:50):
we don't even realize thatsometimes.
Speaker 2 (09:53):
Yeah, and and it's your thoughts are so powerful
and it's really incredible thatwith the understanding of
neuroplasticity, which has kindof become a buzzword recently
and 20 years ago we were underthe belief that you had about
two years to recover from yourbrain injury, or neuroplasticity
(10:16):
only happened in the corticalstages of development, which are
the first two years of life.
So we kind of all had thebelief that, like after two
years of brain injury, whateverdeficits you had two years out
were permanent for the rest ofyour life.
And now we know that you cancontinue healing and rewire your
brain.
So anyone at any stage after abrain injury can continue
(10:39):
healing and some of those thingsthat you think you will never
experience again you might beable to.
So an example I have of that isI was a really avid reader
prior to my brain injury.
I loved reading.
However, after my brain injuryI would reread the lines and it
kind of gave me a headache and Iwould get confused on the page
(11:02):
and I was in complete denialabout all of this because I very
quickly wanted to get back tobeing okay and I went back to
college.
I went to university one yearafter my brain injury and I was
reading the textbooks and Ipassed with no disability
assistance and I got good grades, so I could push it and do it.
However, reading was no fun andit hurt my head and I didn't do
(11:25):
it.
However, reading was no fun andit hurt my head and I didn't
like it, and so I was thinkingwith my knowledge of
neuroplasticity and then ittakes repetitive habits in order
to rewire your brain I was like, all right, so in 2020, covid
hit.
I had a lot of extra time.
A lot of my things got canceled, so I used that time to force
(11:48):
myself to read for 20 minutesshort intermittent time slots on
repetition every other day.
So I started doing that and ittook about two and a half months
before I was reading and thetimer went off and I was like,
oh okay, that was so fun.
I didn't even realize that Iwas like reading and I just got
like engrossed in the book.
(12:08):
Yeah, and then I started.
I kept going and beyond that,and now I can honestly say I
enjoy reading again and I don'treread the lines and my head
doesn't hurt.
So some of the types of deficitsthat you have from brain injury
, even if you're 20 years downthe road and you're listening to
this.
You can heal and even if youcan live a successful life.
(12:32):
You can, like so many.
Even when people have visiblechanges in ability, they can
build a life they love afterbrain injury and they can
contribute back to society, evenif it means changing your type
of job, working remotely, thehours that you commit different
things but you can build a lifeyou love and even if you seem
(12:54):
visibly fine, if you're havingthese challenges, you can take
action to fix these challengesin life.
Speaker 1 (13:02):
Yeah, what a good example of how you helped
yourself, kind of like be ableto do something you loved again,
and that neuroplasticityexample is so perfect.
So I'm feeling like this issomething that applies to folks
with, of course, like braininjury, but I'm also thinking of
myself honestly, like I feellike I could probably do
(13:22):
something better by justcreating some of those habits,
um, and being able to rewire mybrain in a certain way, if I
want to get better at something,and I think that that's really
also some of the message thatyou talk about.
Speaker 2 (13:35):
Yes, exactly, and it applies to everybody this
concept of rewiring your brain,neuroplasticity, building habits
.
And the other thing that'sinteresting is, since I've been
in the brain injury world, Ihave realized and we went on the
film festival tour every filmfestival we went to, people
(13:58):
would come up to us and tell ustheir direct brain injury
stories.
And acquired brain injury isour largest disability.
In the US there are millions ofAmericans that suffer from
different challenges that havebeen created from brain injury
and quite often they don't eventell anyone.
(14:18):
Like if you have had a six, astereotypically successful
recovery like mine, and you areable to live without any
disability help or anything likethat.
Many individuals don't sayanything.
I have spoken to top levelpolicymakers, senators, business
people.
(14:38):
I was actually speaking at amulti-billion dollar company
this past June and I gave thepresentation and afterwards
someone came up to me and wastelling me about her critical
traumatic brain injury when shewas in a coma and recovery and
nobody at work knew.
And she said well, I don't tellanyone because I'm scared of the
(15:00):
stigma tied to it, which is sotrue.
There's a stigma that if youhad a brain injury, you will
always be less competent andless able to perform.
So people feel like, if theyhave these headaches or these
issues, instead of acknowledgingthem and taking steps to fix
them, they should push them awayand pretend they don't exist,
(15:21):
if they can still perform at agood level, because they don't
want to feel like they'reincompetent.
So what I'm saying and what wehave learned and what our
foundation is all about is thatyou can fix these challenges and
still be competent.
And many of these individuals,even if they have changes in
(15:43):
ability from brain injury,become more competent because of
their brain injury instead ofless competent.
So that that mindset needs toshift, that you feel like you're
incompetent because you had abrain injury.
Speaker 1 (15:58):
Yes, wow, I didn't even realize or think about the
stigma behind that, but thenhearing you talk about it, it
makes me, like, feel even morefired up and again, I haven't
even experienced that.
I know of brain injury, but itmakes me think, like what you
just said, at the end, ifanything, I feel like those who
have recovered from somethinglike that are more competent,
(16:20):
like what you just illustrated,because of all of the effort and
just I mean probably numerousamounts of things.
But I feel like it's probablythe opposite of what the stigma
actually says.
Um, so this is reallyfascinating, like I, I just love
diving into your world and Iwant to hear a little bit, cause
I think it's leading up towhere we're talking about now,
(16:41):
but about recovery and, likewhat that you were talking about
, we can repeat the magic thatyou experienced for yourself of
complete recovery.
So what does that formula looklike?
What did you do differently andyour family do differently to
make sure that you were able torecover and go beyond even that?
Speaker 2 (17:00):
Yeah, that's a great question and a lot of that is
taught on our Mo Crazy Methodsand you can look on our website
mocrazystrongorg and click onthe Mo Crazy Methods.
And you can look on our websitemocrazystrongorg and click on
the Mo Crazy Methods to readabout them and sign up for them.
But it's a complimentary,integrative approach.
So there's so many steps tobrain injury.
(17:23):
Brains have a lot of graymatter and we need to embrace it
all.
So there's there's researchadvancements, like the fact that
I was treated with a multimodalmonitoring system and I was the
first person in North Americato receive that and that
(17:44):
actually was discovered inCambridge, england.
The science that went behindthe multimodal and the different
modals between um, intracranialpressure and oxygen levels, um
and things like that.
So that's like the multimodalum.
So that's important to keepdoing science.
(18:07):
But then when you get after theacute care, which is where a
lot of research is focused onthe acute care stages you you
often feel like you kind of getdropped by the medical world
Like you're done with thedoctors, you're done with your
insurance.
Your insurance quite oftenoften private insurance actually
(18:28):
cuts you off at like 30 speechtherapy lessons and after 30 you
are not going to be done.
And so, um, there's actuallyfederal funding.
It's a very small amount offederal funding, um that we
actually went.
The more crazy strong team wentback to help with um, creating
(18:53):
it, to be reinitiated um, thetraumatic brain injury fund, um,
and so I was a recipient ofthat in the state of Utah, which
meant that they, the state,paid for some of my
rehabilitation.
And then, beyond that, there'syour family involvement, and
(19:14):
that is critical.
And by family involvement itmeans anyone who is not paid for
their services to a braininjury survivor.
So it might be family, it mightbe community programs it's just
under the term familyinvolvement.
But some of those habits thatyou can build make such a huge
(19:36):
difference in your long-termoutcome.
So like your sleep, the foodthat you eat, like your
nutrition, that you're taking insome of the habits that you
build on a daily basis, so howmuch TV you watch, or whether
you're going outside andrelearning to move, even if you
(19:57):
have changes in your physicalability there are ways to sit on
a porch and embrace thesunlight and some of those types
of things will actually makehuge changes.
And an example is when I was inthe hospital I said I was
paralyzed on the right side andthe return to mobility after
(20:17):
brainstem damage is still prettylimited because you have to do
things to force that part ofyour brain to rewire itself.
So my mom would tape down mystrong hand and I would utilize
my weak hand and have to dothings with my weak hand, which
was so hard and humiliating andfrustrating, and I was so angry.
(20:42):
And that happened for multipleyears, like even when I was
multiple years out.
I would be having aconversation and I would just be
talking with this hand and shewould put it down and make me
talk with this hand and tapethat hand down when I was still
doing things.
So the dexterity and themovements went back and I had
did so many exercises likepicking up coins and speeding
(21:05):
balls.
But so one of the big things anoverall idea is that you can
take steps and you can contactthe foundation and learn ways
that you can create habits foryourself that fix your
challenges and your deficits,because every brain injury is a
(21:28):
little bit different.
So it's not like there's asmooth, like one answer that
will work for everybody, butthere are ways to change and
heal.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yes, yes, I love, um, what you said about like your
mom helping out and really, uh,you know, I'm sure it was very
aggravating at certain moments,um, but I feel like she's been
such an advocate, as well asyour, the rest of your family,
to just everyone, has been kindof your champion.
Um is there, you know.
Were there certain things likehow did she, how did she know,
(22:01):
to do some of this?
Like you know, where does someof this information come from?
Because she was, it seems, likea big advocate too, of talking
positively to you, not wantingthat doctor in the room, like
making sure that she infused allof that um, that belief into
you.
Um, where did she learn to doall of these things that helped
your recovery?
Speaker 2 (22:20):
Well before my recovery, my mom had studied
early childhood braindevelopment in the process of
getting her master's inpsychology Wow, okay, so that's
a big thing.
She had a federal.
During my childhood, she had afederal grant from the
government to teach self-esteemto women, which is why I became
(22:43):
the first woman to double flipat X Games, because I was raised
with the belief that I couldaccomplish whatever I wanted to
by performing at my own personalbest.
And prior to my brain injury, Iunderstood performing at my own
personal best was kind of beingthe best in everything.
I was very competitive and Iwas very good, and if I wasn't
(23:05):
good at it, I probably wouldn'tdo it good, and if I wasn't good
at it, I probably wouldn't doit.
And so I was always kind ofperforming as one of the best.
And then, after my brain injury, I really understood what that
concept meant.
Performing your own personalbest meant that when I could not
swallow water, I would alwayscough.
My own personal best wasgetting to the moment where I
(23:27):
could take a sip of water.
My own personal best waswalking up a flight of stairs.
My own personal best varieddramatically since.
Prior to my brain injury,however, if I did not keep
performing in my own personalbest, my own personal best would
not have ever become who I amtoday.
And so by performing your ownpersonal best in those little
(23:49):
incremental steps during thesetting of your attainable goals
that you can accomplish, likewalking upstairs.
Walking upstairs to runningupstairs, to running up 12
flights of stairs, allowed me toreturn to skiing.
And so if the goal was toreturn to skiing and that was a
huge goal when I couldn't walkup one flight of stairs by
(24:11):
myself you have to setincremental, sustainable goals
to reach those growth goals.
And that's how it is foranybody in anything they want to
do in life, and sometimes thosebig goals can seem so large
that they're intimidating andscary, and so quite often,
(24:32):
people just don't do anything.
They just have those goals andthey like stay away from them.
However, when the opportunityis right, you need to set those
attainable goals to reach thegrowth goals.
An example of that is when Iwanted to make a documentary so
did my whole family about mystory.
(24:52):
Since, basically, my mind cameback after my story, I actually,
in the hospital, thought that Iwas in a movie about a hospital
, because old people and sickpeople went to a hospital and I
wasn't old and I wasn't sick.
So I would tell the nurse thatI was in a movie about a
(25:12):
hospital and I wasn't.
I was actually living in thehospital at that time.
But I kept that want of beingin a movie about a hospital.
And it took me eight years laterfor me to get to the stage
where I could start settingattainable goals and take action
(25:33):
and take that jump in that leapand create the documentary with
the people I brought in to helpme make that.
And then, next thing I knew Iwent from a dream to setting
attainable goals, to premieringat Big Sky Documentary Film
Festival, which is one of thelargest documentary film
festivals in the world, and onlythe amount of people who apply
(25:56):
they get screened there is sosmall that it's phenomenal that
we were invited to screen thereand we went on a film festival
run and won multiple awards andscreened on Capitol Hill.
So all of a sudden we startedliving our dream because we had
set the steps to live it.
And so quite often, when youhave these large dreams, it
(26:21):
might not be the time that youcan set attainable goals and you
can start moving it.
But if you never take action,the dream will never happen.
So, even if you're you'refeeling like it's not the right
time sometimes it's not theright time Then when that that
window opens, you need to beready to jump in and start
taking steps.
Speaker 1 (26:42):
Yeah, that's so applicable to so many people too
, cause, like you said,oftentimes like we have this
idea that something's going tohappen so fast and we're going
to be this overnight success,when really we just need to be
setting our own personal best toyour point and continue to make
those small action steps happenthat compound on top of each
other and aren't just, like youknow, we don't just take the
(27:03):
leap immediately.
We have to actually get good atwhatever we're doing.
So I really appreciate that youshared that and I'm so excited
about your film as well.
So I kind of want to, because Ifeel like you, you're so
positive, you've had thisamazing recovery.
You're now living a life ofyour dreams completely different
dreams, but a life of yourdreams.
(27:25):
What have you ever had a momentwhere you were really like
depressed or felt like giving upor just throw in the towel?
And what did you do at thatmoment?
Because I feel like you hadevery reason under the sun to
just quit at certain moments.
So what was it like?
You know, have you had that andwhat did you do in that time?
Speaker 2 (27:46):
That's a good question and the answer is yes,
I had that and I still have that.
I have moments where I feellike frustrated and pent up and
you know, I think every humanhas those moments.
That's something that we havebeen hearing a lot about in the
(28:10):
Olympics, and mental health isthat some of the top athletes
have those moments, and so oneof the things I would say to
start out with is, if you havethose moments, don't negate
yourself for having thosemoments, because that's one of
the things, like we punishourselves or we feel guilty and
(28:30):
we're like why are we havingthese moments?
That doesn't help anything, um,and what?
What I do, um, when I havethose moments is I.
I try to step out of thosemoments.
So when I feel myself havingthose moments or things
happening, I stop what I'm doingand quite often I'll go outside
(28:51):
, I'll go for a walk, or I willgo meditate, or I will do
something to get myself awayfrom that downward spiral that's
happening, or if I'm not reallycaught up in it, I will, or if
I'm not really caught up in it,I will let it happen.
I will talk about all like writedown what I'm miserable about
(29:14):
or what I'm frustrated about.
And quite often, when I'm likewriting down what I'm frustrated
about, I'll have thesebreakthrough moments and be like
oh, or sometimes, when I'm inyoga and I'm doing like
Shavasana, I'll have like thesebreakthrough moments and I'm
doing like Shavasana, I'll havelike these breakthrough moments.
But those only have theopportunity to happen if you let
yourself feel your emotions, sodon't stay stuck down in the
(29:39):
pit.
I always say, like I wasclimbing the mountain of life
and I was caught in ametaphorical avalanche that slid
me down to the bottom with mybrain injury, and I had two
choices stay stuck at the bottomor begin to climb again.
And so I chose to climb again.
And, like climbing any mountain,you go through ups and downs.
There's beautiful views,there's craggly points, there
(30:01):
might be some rain, there'smoments that are not all the
pretty picture, moments that arenot all the pretty picture.
You keep climbing and keeptaking steps to creating what is
truly important for you in yourlife, not necessarily what
society depicts of you or wantsyou to be, but what you truly
(30:22):
want in your life.
Speaker 1 (30:23):
Yeah, Was it hard for you to redefine success for
yourself?
And I'm asking that partiallyselfishly because I'm in a
season where I'm kind ofrealizing that maybe I was
defining success not on my termsbut on society's terms or on
some sort of terms that Ithought I needed to get to.
And I'm curious for you, likeyou've had to read, you've had
(30:44):
to do that on a completelymassive level, so was that
challenging for you?
What was that process like?
Speaker 2 (30:51):
Yeah, it was challenging and I think I'm
mostly okay with it, but it'sstill a little bit challenging
Because when I was, when I was achild, I wanted to be a famous
athlete, I wanted to break worldrecords, I wanted to win the
Olympics and I wanted to be afamous athlete.
I wanted to break world records, I wanted to win the Olympics
and I wanted to be famous.
(31:12):
And there's still a part of methat wants that recognition for
delivery on my talents, and sothat's one of the reasons why I
love speaking and crave speakingis because walking out on stage
(31:35):
um gives me that adrenalinethat I would get from um
performing, but it is.
It is still hard because I'm avery harsh critic on myself and
I never think I'm successfulenough.
So that is something that I'vehad to work on a lot.
Um and I went to therapy rightafter my brain injury for a year
(31:57):
and a half, and after my sisterpassed away from cancer, that
next summer so summer of 2022 Iwent back to therapy.
Um and I I still see mytherapist on and off, and that's
one of the main things that wework on is my whole life I've
had this interestingrelationship with success and
(32:19):
there's some benefits abouthaving an interesting
relationship because it hasallowed me to become successful
in a lot of people's eyes,allowed me to become successful
in a lot of people's eyes, but Istill never feel like I have
succeeded enough.
Yeah, and I'm not sure.
And I and I have a friends andcontacts that have gone and won
(32:43):
the Olympics and I and I I knowpeople who are kind of
celebrities in different realmsand like people now with all my
brain injury stuff, like willsee me on a CNN article or New
York Times, or I'll be in thehot tub with someone and they'll
recognize me from one of theposts I was in, or I'll be in a
(33:05):
meeting and introduced tosomeone and they'll recognize me
and they'll be like oh, Ididn't know that Reggie's wife
was famous, and so I am startingto hear that.
But I still think that I'm notsuccessful sometimes.
Speaker 1 (33:22):
Yeah, I really appreciate the vulnerability
there because I feel like it'sbeen a struggle for me to to
kind of like there.
Because I feel like it's been astruggle for me to to kind of
like what does successful meanto me?
Um, instead of the whole fameand I don't know where that came
from, but I've been, you know,going with this thought that I'm
not somebody unless I'msomebody, and really that all is
(33:42):
from an old soundtrack in mymind, that's all from a certain
level of ego.
But breaking down that andreally redefining, like, what
does it mean?
Like, you know, if I get to theend of my life, what does that
success look like?
Like if you know, if really I'mlike having my last day, what
is that?
You know what's the definitionof success?
(34:03):
And so I think it's hard, aswomen who are ambitious and, you
know, really motivated and wantto take over the world, going
through that process is a littlehumbling and it's really
challenging.
So that's the nature of thequestion.
But I think there's a lot ofwomen who resonate.
So I really appreciate that.
You share that.
It's not.
It's not easy, right, andyou're still going through it.
(34:23):
So thank you for thatvulnerability.
Speaker 2 (34:26):
Yeah, you're welcome, and it's hard being a woman
because we have so manyconflicting ideas about what is
successful.
Is it having that job?
Is that job meaning nine tofive or remote, or is it being a
mom?
My mom was a stay at home momwho homeschooled me and she
(34:49):
loved it and she put in so muchwork to that and I think that's
beautiful.
Um, however, I had so sochallenging because, um, my
husband's mom is a doctor, um,and, and those are different
career paths and they're bothbeautiful, but if they're what
you want to be doing, I thinkthere's too much pressure that
(35:10):
saying to women who have acareer they should be more of a
stay at home mom and women thatare stay at home moms, why don't
?
Why aren't they making?
enough money, so it's likethere's no win.
Yeah, exactly Like in theBarbie movie you can't.
It's it's so hard to be a woman.
Speaker 1 (35:27):
Yes, woman, yes yeah, I know it comes back to that
monologue that was so perfectlysaid about being a woman.
Um, so, for you and you know,this next era of your life and
the film and the speaking, whatare you looking forward to the
most?
Speaker 2 (35:45):
now we have started for this next year creating some
Alive to Thrive and ClimbingAlternative Peaks events.
So I'm really excited for thosethat are coming up and some of
them are speaking and awarenesswe're screening the film at all
of them and so for ourAlternative Peaks, it's about
(36:08):
how to reintegrate to societyand build a life 2.0 that you
love after brain injury.
Um, and then, with our alive tothrive, we have a couple coming
up this year, um, in differentareas of the us, where we are
going to be bringing back braininjury survivors who, um did not
(36:28):
think they could ski again,with adaptability programs to
get them back on snow and helpthem accomplish something they
thought was impossible aftertheir brain injury to open their
mind that there are many thingsthat are possible, just a
little bit different after abrain injury.
Speaker 1 (36:44):
Yeah, you have a ton going on and I just I always
feel like lit up after speakingwith you, but also really
inspired, because you just havesuch a story of triumph and you
continue to follow your ownadvice, which is to climb
alternative peaks, like when youknow when life throws you
(37:05):
something in avalanche, youclimb the alternative peak, and
I feel like you're a perfecttestament to that and you're
also just a really big beacon ofum, of hope and motivation for
women who want to show up in areally bold, authentic way and
share their story too, because Ifeel like you, sharing your
(37:25):
story is what's helping healother people.
I mean truly, like that'sreally the work that you're
doing.
Right, and so I just have tosay like thank you for sharing
all that you have today and Ihope you just continue to be
that pioneer that we all need,because I really do believe,
like the world needs fiercewomen leaders like you and um,
(37:47):
thank you.
So I have one last thing, aswe're kind of wrapping up our
conversation.
I know we can talk for hours um,but I've been asking all of my
guests to leave like a piece ofadvice or quote or something for
the next guest not knowing whoit is.
So I want to share what ourlast guest shared for you and
then I'll give you theopportunity to do the same thing
for whoever I interview next.
(38:08):
So my last guest said keepputting your light into the
world.
The world needs each of us andnone of us are the same.
It needs authentic, real,vulnerable people and women that
are going out there, becausethe women are who are going to
change the world.
So I thought that was reallypertinent to the conversation
(38:32):
and everything that you'veshared honestly.
Speaker 2 (38:35):
So yeah, go ahead.
Our foundation is founded bymyself, my sister and my mom, so
it's women power, and we'vegrown now.
So we work with some differentcontracted individuals, but the
founders are women and we alwaystry to employ women who have
(38:55):
something to deliver.
Speaker 1 (38:57):
Yeah, I also just love supporting women-led
organizations.
So we're going to be droppingall the links in the show notes
where people can find you andlearn all about you, because I
know after listening everyone'sjust going to be so lit up and
just want to find and connectwith you.
So thank you for um again forsharing that, and I'm so glad
that you and your mom and yoursister have locked arms in this
(39:18):
venture.
Um, so, do you have anythingyou would like to leave for the
next guest that I interview, notknowing who it is?
Speaker 2 (39:26):
Yes, I would like to leave, knowing who it is.
Yes, I would like to leave.
Be your own personal best whileyou're climbing your
alternative peaks and, as youtalked about, your own personal
best might vary dramatically,but keep performing at your own
personal best as you climb youralternative peak.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
I love that.
Thank you again for sharing it,Jamie.
I just, I just I love you somuch.
I just wish I could hug you.
I wish we could meet in reallife.
We might in the next upcomingmonths, but thank you again.
I can't say that enough and Ithink, just as a collective
again, like women really needother women like you who are
willing to go first and be braveand courageous.
(40:04):
So I just want to say thatyou're doing it and I appreciate
you so much.
Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well, thank you very much and I was excited to talk
with you, and I hope we do runinto each other in person in San
Diego soon.
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Thank you for tuning into the show today and before
you go, I just have one quickfavor to ask of you.
There is a really simple waythat you can help support me and
help support the show, and thatis to hit that follow button on
whatever app you're listeningto the show on.
I'm trying really hard to levelup the content and deliver
unique value and amazing guestsand just hitting that follow
button is the magic that willhelp continue to empower that
(40:44):
and remember that the worlddeserves to hear your voice and
your stories and you deserve aplace at the top.
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