April 28, 2025 • 49 mins
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When life knocks you down, what makes the difference between staying down and rising stronger? Ann Marie Thrives shares a masterclass in resilience, shaped by her extraordinary journey from childhood immigration to America, a devastating car accident that left her temporarily paralyzed, multiple life-threatening accidents, breast cancer, and the loss of eighteen loved ones in just seventeen months. Rather than succumbing to fear, Ann Marie cultivated "mental agility," using visualization, gratitude, and self-care to rewire her brain and reclaim her life. Her powerful insights reveal that resilience isn't just about survival—it's about transforming trauma into growth, agency, and opportunity. "We're never really backed into a corner," she says, "because there's always a way out," offering practical wisdom for navigating life's unexpected turns with strength and hope.
Visit wethriveatlife.com to discover Ann Marie's books and free resources designed to help you navigate your own pivotal moments with courage and hope.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Josh Porthouse (00:00):
The views expressed in this podcast are
solely those of the podcast hostand guest and do not
necessarily represent those ofour distribution partners,
supporting businessrelationships or supported
audience.
Welcome to Transacting Value,where we talk about practical
(00:22):
applications for instigatingself-worth when dealing with
each other and even withinourselves, where we foster a
podcast listening experiencethat lets you hear the power of
a value system for managingburnout, establishing boundaries
, fostering community andfinding identity.
My name is Josh Porthouse, I'myour host and we are redefining
sovereignty of character.
(00:42):
This is why values still holdvalue.
This is Transacting Value.
Ann Marie Thrives (00:49):
It just felt like I was always going three
steps forward and two steps back, and after a while, if you
don't have the proper values andthe proper foundation and a
good belief system or hope orfaith or love, you know you
don't get through.
Josh Porthouse (01:06):
Today on Transacting Value how to pivot
when you need to.
How can traveling andimmigrating to a new country or
even a new culture help tonavigate uncharted life
circumstances, and what role dothose experiences have on our
own self-worth for lasting,life-transforming habits?
Those experiences have on ourown self-worth for lasting,
life-transforming habits.
Alongside human behaviorspecialist and entrepreneur
(01:29):
coach, anne-marie Thrives, we'regetting unstuck through value
systems that resonate inside andout.
I'm Josh Porthouse, I'm yourhost and from SDYT Media, this
is Transacting Value.
Anne-marie, how are you doing?
Ann Marie Thrives (01:45):
Great Thanks for having me.
Josh Porthouse (01:47):
It's great to meet you Absolutely.
Oh, you as well.
You've got such a wild story.
It's hard to believe thatyou're one person of all the
things you've been through, andI want to hit as much of it as
we can, but I think thesmoothest way to do this is to
let you open us up.
So just take a couple minutesbefore me.
(02:09):
You know who are you, where areyou from, those kinds of things
, but what kinds of things inlife are shaping your
perspective now?
Who are you?
Ann Marie Thrives (02:19):
So my name is Ann Marie and I was born in in
Italy, and we immigrated herewhen I was seven and you know it
was really tough when we gothere because everything was
different, you know the food,the people, the environment.
I lived in a very coastal town,right on the water, and we
(02:41):
weren't landlocked but we were,way you know, five minutes from
the ocean versus 25 minutes fromthe ocean, um, geez.
I just remember one time when Iwas little you know how
Italians sometimes they takethey'll do like a little siesta
in the afternoon and I rememberum grabbing a bag, you know,
like one of those bags that youput, uh, groceries in the
(03:03):
plastic bags, one of those bagsthat you put groceries in the
plastic bags.
And it was like two o'clock inthe afternoon.
I put a knife in there, put onmy jellies and walked down to
the ocean, started cutting upthe sea urchins on the rocks and
I just sat there with my lemonand I ate them.
And I went back home and nobodyeven knew I was gone.
Josh Porthouse (03:21):
Oh wow, that's how close to the ocean.
Ann Marie Thrives (03:23):
We were.
Anyway, I don't know why thatcame up, but different days now
and just having to be in schooland not knowing anything,
sitting in the back of theclassroom, like I would be in
the classroom as part of thegroup during parts of the day
and then other parts of the daystill in the classroom, but in
(03:44):
the back, um, being uh, tutoredwith flashcards, and so, um, you
know, when kids don'tunderstand things or we don't
understand things, you knowthere was a lot of bullying
going on because obviously myparents don't speak the language
either.
Then, when they did, they hadthis wicked accent, you know,
and um, and then the wholeculture being different, you
(04:05):
know, we didn't celebrate thesame holidays that that we did
here and um, Thanksgiving is oneof my favorite holidays now,
and, uh, and so we, we didn'thave that, so trying to be like
everybody else and making aTurkey and pumpkin pie and stuff
like that, you know um but justgenerally not fitting in
because we were just sodifferent, but trying to fit in
(04:27):
at the same time.
So, you know, it's just all ofthese.
So then you go from one schoolto another, to another, and it's
just constantly trying to findthe people that you know.
Water finds its own level, justfinding the people, and for me
it was one and two.
You know, and, and that's it.
I, I, those are, those were mybuddies for life.
(04:50):
Um one of them passed away um afew years ago and, um, you know
it's, it's just as you gothrough life.
People are there, then they'renot, and you have to have those
pivots.
Um then, you know, then they'renot and you have to have those
pivots.
And you know, in my early 20s Igot into a very bad accident.
I just finished, I got mydegree in business
(05:12):
administration and managementand I, you know, I just got this
new job I'd been a temp andthey were going to, you know,
take me on full time, myinsurance and everything, all my
benefits kicked in October 1stand October 20th slam.
I am paralyzed for quite sometime, have a traumatic brain
injury, have to learn how totalk, how to, you know, just
(05:33):
live life again.
But the neat thing was cause Ilike to look at the silver
lining through everything was,you know, having that insurance
that was way better than what Ihad before.
I was able to be in a privateroom because sometimes, when you
know, having that insurance,that was way better than what I
had before.
I was able to be in a privateroom because sometimes, when you
know when you're in that amountof pain or you have a brain
injury, for me it was a lot ofheadaches, migraine, not being
(05:55):
able to handle noise and sensorythings around me, and so I was
able to be put in a private roomas part of my insurance.
So those are the things I kindof look at.
You know, a few years later gotback on my feet and it happened
again.
I think somebody ran a stopsign or something and so
(06:19):
different parts got injured andjust kind of moving through life
, you know, taking care of mydad, having my friend that I
spoke of her name was Chris, shewas a physician's assistant and
while he was here with thedisease that he had, it was like
having a 24 seven nurse becauseshe, she had hurt her elbow and
(06:39):
was convalescing and so she,her sleep pattern pattern was a
little crazy, so I had heraround the whole time and then
my dad passed and a couplemonths later I got diagnosed
with breast cancer.
So, um, you know, yeah, Iactually was on a podcast
because somebody had heard aboutwhat.
You know, what I've beenthrough life.
(07:00):
Yeah, it was.
You can't make this shit, I T up.
She's like I think you're mygal, I know and and so, but I I
just look at them, at thingsthat that happened for me.
You know, instead of thingsthat happened to me, there were
their periods of anger and youknow, like, where's God in my
pain?
Where's God period?
(07:21):
you know, just going throughthose emotions because it just
felt like I was always goingthree steps forward and two
steps back and after a while, ifyou don't have the proper
values and the proper foundationand a good belief system or
hope, or faith or love, you knowyou don't get through.
And.
I feel like those were thethings that got me through,
(07:42):
those values that got instilledin me when I was little.
Sometimes they were distorted,but, you know, as you grow in
life you start to grasp onto thethings that matter and it helps
you to live a fuller life.
And I, through all of thesethings, wanted to teach other
people how to.
You know, go through these.
It's not the end of the world.
(08:03):
Go through these.
It's not the end of the world,even through death.
You know, having lost I thinkone year we lost seven, no, 18
people in 17 months, includingmy father, his brother, you know
just a lot of key people myfriend Chris, who was the
(08:23):
physician's assistant, and myhigh school buddy, yeah, so it's
like all of these key peoplethat you know you go to for
life's help are now gone andthey're not there anymore.
And then, with COVID, I noticedeven for myself, a lot of
people were had to pivot.
Whether they wanted to or not,you know they had to they found
(08:43):
themselves in a differentposition.
Um, maybe their police positionwas eliminated, maybe they lost
people that they cared for?
Um, and just the whole crisisin general, I think, left a lot
of people stuck and unable to toreally move, just out of fear.
Um, you know, because none ofus knew what was going to happen
(09:03):
or or how things were going toturn out, and we had to turn to
other things and maybe try totrust other things that we
normally wouldn't trust before.
It's like for a lot of people,being online is a big deal, you
know.
So, learning, technologies andcommunity I think there's a lot
of controversial stuff that goeswith COVID, but I, you know,
(09:28):
again, I'm always looking forthat silver lining.
So I'm looking at the fact that,you know, maybe your
grandmother couldn't talk to youbefore, but now she, you know,
just talk to her, but now youcould talk to her and see her
because you know she figured outhow to get on Zoom or something
you know.
So I like to help people thathave been through you know, big,
figured out how to get on zoomor something you know, um.
so I like to help people thathave been through, you know, big
(09:48):
traumas, big shifts in life.
You know, constant.
I feel that there's there's acertain mindset that we need to
have to go through life, youknow, like a thriving mindset
that no matter what happens, I'mgoing to be okay, and to have
that hope.
And when you don't have it, youdon't have that mental agility
(10:08):
to.
You know, kind of be like Gumbyand just bend, you know, so
that you can do the things youneed to do to get out of that
place.
Like when I got into my accident, it was like, all right, this
is where I am right now.
Where do I want to be?
How am I going to get there?
What steps do I want to be?
How am I going to get there?
What steps do I need to take toget there?
And so throughout my life Ifeel like I've been asking
myself the same questions asthings happen, and so I want to
(10:32):
be able to help people to.
You know, if they're in thatspot or they can't figure out,
you know, maybe you just gotdivorced, maybe you lost your
husband or significant other orwhatever, or your job is gone
now and you have to reinvent.
So those are the things that Ilike to help people with.
It's just kind of jumping overthat hurdle that it's not as bad
(10:53):
as it looks, is there?
going to be work.
Yeah.
Is it going to hurt?
Yeah, because you have to grow.
Anytime you grow, there'sgrowing pains, but it's not
impossible.
Josh Porthouse (11:06):
Alrighty, folks sit tight, We'll be right back
on Transacting Value.
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Ann Marie Thrives (12:11):
Is there going to be work?
Yeah.
Is it going to hurt?
Yeah, because you have to grow.
Anytime you grow, you knowthere's growing pains, but it's
not impossible.
Josh Porthouse (12:22):
Yeah, absolutely not.
And the interesting thing yousaid well, one of the
interesting things you said youknow about three steps forward
and two steps back is it'salways still one step forward.
So you know how you manage that, how you handle it may not be
at a pace you prefer, but it's apace nonetheless.
That's moving forward and thatcounts for a lot.
(12:42):
But the hope that you broughtup as well.
I think there's only one way toinstigate purpose and I think
it has to be grounded in hope,because without that it really
doesn't matter the good youcould do, because you don't see
it or you don't see it that way,and that changes a lot of
things Absolutely.
But so of all of theopportunities and of all of the
(13:02):
things you had to work through,so how do you think you came
about to identifying those pivotpoints or the need to pivot?
I mean, like you said, there'splenty of setbacks and mental
and emotional and behavioraltraumas that you have to work
through.
What do you think was a triggerfor you that helped you to
pivot?
Ann Marie Thrives (13:22):
I try to watch my first words because our
words matter, you know they.
You know I don't want to getall new agey or whatever.
Matter, you know they.
You know I don't want to getall new agey or whatever.
That's not what I'm about.
But I I believe that our, ourwords create our lives, and so,
um, we were talking earlierabout how you have children.
You know, and I feel that if achild is, let's say a child is
(13:45):
walking down the street andyou're right behind them, you
know, and they trip oversomething and they fall, I used
to work at kids church, at mychurch, and one thing that I
learned is that if you get intoa state of fear in front of that
child, right, it makeswhatever's going on with that
kid worse than it is.
It could be just the smallestof scrapes or it could be a big
(14:08):
gash that you have to take themto the hospital.
For how we react with them, youknow, getting down on their
level and saying I'm so sorrythis happened to you.
Let's figure out what we can doinstead of.
You know, I'm Italian, so whatfirst thing we do is probably
scream oh my God.
You know, and so I noticed thatyou know that might not be the
best way to handle the situation, and so it's OK to scream.
(14:31):
It's OK to do that, but incertain situations, because we
need our minds to accept what'shappened, to speak life into it,
even if it looks like death,because then there isn't that.
You know that closure thathappens, you know, kind of like
that tightness of the belt towhere, you know, one of the
worst words that our brains canhear is I can't, because as soon
(14:53):
as it hears that it stops.
You know, and you've got thehypothalamus back there that
believes anything that you tellit.
It's just constantly listening.
So, whether it's good or it'sbad, it's there and it's
listening, and it's going totake what your mind is going to
take what you say and try tobring reality to it, because it
believes that what you just saidis the truth.
(15:14):
So it starts to find ways tomake that happen right.
And so we need to be in thatstate of hope and not freak out
when things happen and I mean,I've had plenty of opportunities
to freak out and I did.
I learned that you know it's.
It doesn't help you or thesituation, if you, you know,
(15:37):
just come from a place of fearand a place of hopelessness,
because there's always someonethere that can help you.
Someone there, like when I had,you know, my rollover, where I
was paralyzed it was very earlyin the morning and a few days
later, because I lost control ofthe car.
Um, one of the wheels hadfallen off, I didn't know it,
(15:58):
and so the car was going, youknow, side to side and
eventually, you know, there wasa song back then, cause this was
uh, early nineties, I think,yeah, and uh, I love music.
It was playing on the radio wasCurie Lason, which is, you know
, I don't know if you know that,remember that song, but
basically it's, it's a Latinterm that means Lord, have mercy
, right.
(16:18):
And so it's like Lord, havemercy on the road that I must
travel.
But now the Lord that the roadthat I'm traveling is like
coming out from under me, youknow.
And I remember thinking tomyself I can't control the car
anymore, it's just goingeverywhere it wants.
No matter how I turn the wheel,it seems to go in the opposite
direction.
And I'm listening to this songand I'm thinking to myself this
(16:39):
is interesting.
And then I was like I think I'mgoing to die, because that's
how bad the car was just going.
And it was a big car because Ihad borrowed my dad's blazer
just to put more stuff in thecar to bring to my new apartment
that was right next to my newjob, you know, um.
And so I thought to myself I'mgonna die and I just closed my
eyes.
And then I remember hearing letgo of the wheel, because I was
(17:02):
trying to control the situation.
But when I let go of the wheel,what they told me?
There there was a guy behind mewho was he was a lawn keeper
and he was going.
He had his own lawn business,so he was going somewhere early
in the morning, and then therewere two guys on you know the
overpass where I was going, andso they told me how the car went
(17:24):
back and forth and back andforth and I was not wearing my
seatbelt that day.
Back and forth and back andforth and I was not wearing my
seatbelt that day.
Um, and I'm glad that I wasn't,because when the car went up on
the embankment it it hit a treeright in the driver's door and
it went in like this, and if Ihad my seatbelt on my head would
have been right there and Iwould have.
I would have been, it would havehit me right in the temple, you
know.
Um, so these are the thingsthat I look at and why did they
(17:47):
happen?
And and not, you know, not tothe point where you're like, why
did this happen to me?
Or, you know, when youinternalize things too much,
that's not a good thing for useither, but just looking back
and being grateful, you know isis one of the things that that
helped me.
So how can I get myself out?
And just you know, as you gothrough, things there's, there's
(18:09):
never.
You may feel like you're backedinto a corner.
That's one of the things that Ilearned, but we're never really
backed into a corner, becausethere's always a way out.
You know we may be in thatmystery room.
I don't know where the door is,but I promise you there's more
(18:32):
where the door is.
Josh Porthouse (18:32):
but I promise you there's more.
Even as a kid you think that Imean.
Obviously you got through thatas well.
But I mean, when you came tothe States in the beginning, the
language was different, theculture was different, the
people were different, thecustoms courtesies were
different.
That alone has to beoverwhelming and, you know,
curious and frightening, andeverything all at once.
How do you rationalize thatwhen you really don't have one
(18:55):
of your senses to try to reasonthrough the situation?
Ann Marie Thrives (19:00):
You know, school was very hard for me.
So then, coming home and beingwith my family, you know, helped
because we all shared the samestruggle.
So we kind of helped each otherout with those struggles, you
know, and and we'd talk aboutthe stuff that happened, you
know which, which was a neatthing.
And it became like I had liketwo comfort zones, because now
(19:24):
I'm integrating into the culturebut I'm also going back home
with that culture and so therewas great things that were going
on with that culture and thenother things happening in the
other culture.
So it's like you're betweenthese two places and they each
have their sweet spot, you know.
And the household was loud andI've never been a loud person,
(19:49):
with or without the brain injury, you know.
But the neat thing was therewas a library literally right
across the street.
So I would like go to thelibrary.
I got to study or whatever, andthat was, that was my piece.
So you look for places whereyou could find that piece.
Hopefully it's in a healthy,you know, in a healthy way, but
there's always a place to, youknow, go a healthy way, but
(20:10):
there's always a place to, youknow, go to, to regroup.
And I think there's a lot ofthings that we can, that you
know, a lot of resources that wehave now that we didn't have
before, and so I there's a lotof resources out there to help
us to get out of the funk thatwe're in were in.
For me it was.
It was either quiet or, youknow, sometimes those voices are
(20:31):
so barraging with the doubtthat, for you know, music is a
big thing for me, and sometimesI turn that music on so loud
that I can't even hear myselfthink, which is a good thing,
because vibrations our bodiesare, you know, we're, we're
energy, we're light, and sothere's that vibration there,
(20:51):
right?
Because doubt and unbelief andfear bring your vibration down,
and so by increasing thevibration, it starts to build
like the serotonin and thedopamine and the stuff that we
need to change our moodsserotonin and the dopamine and
the stuff that we need to changeour moods.
(21:13):
So I'm big on self-care,whether it's journaling, music,
you know, taking long walks,whatever it is that you need to
take care of yourself, you know,do that.
I take a lot of like fiveminute timeouts, you know,
sometimes it's a process andbalance.
Yeah, Because thinking is a is awonderful thing, and having a
vision for your life, even ifyou're not sure what it is.
(21:35):
You know, I teach, um, Istarted teaching a couple of
years ago.
Uh, not see this.
This is what happens once in awhile.
Vision board workshops yes.
And so you know, just to givepeople hope that you know
there's still life out there andstatistics show that people who
have goals and write them downor have them up are people who
(22:00):
succeed.
I think it's like 80 to 90percent very high, it's like 90
something but not only the onesthat write them down.
It's like a scale of increase.
So those who have them anddon't write them down, there's a
percentage.
Those who have them and do,it's a higher percentage.
(22:24):
And so the numbers keep goingup the more you revisit those
goals, because our minds see theimage like we were talking
about before and then it triesto make itself into that image.
Josh Porthouse (22:42):
All right, folks , sit tight and we'll be right
back on Transacting Value.
Join us for Transacting Value,where we discuss practical
applications of personal values,every Monday at 9 am on our
website,transactingvaluepodcastcom.
Wednesdays at 5 pm and Sundaysat noon on
wreathsacrossamericaorg slashradio.
Ann Marie Thrives (23:05):
The numbers keep going up, the more you
revisit those goals, because ourminds see the image like we
were talking about before andthen it tries to make itself
into that image.
Josh Porthouse (23:15):
That's sort of the key then too.
I suppose you either come upwith the image on your own
intuition, or whatever creativespark applies.
Right whatever creative sparkapplies, right.
Or you find the inspirationsomewhere in something else and
then create or recreatesomething similar, right.
(23:36):
So, in gaining the inspirationfor how you wanted to recover
and how you wanted your life tobe and what you want it to
become, I mean, even now, wheredo you like you've become an
inspiration for people and a wayfor people to gain a
perspective that you know?
No offense to yourcircumstances, but hopefully
(23:58):
they don't have to go through.
Ann Marie Thrives (23:59):
Yeah.
Josh Porthouse (24:00):
And so, where do you find inspiration?
Where do you get your visionfrom?
What do you draw from?
Ann Marie Thrives (24:09):
Well, I draw from the Bible.
That's my biggest inspiration,because there's so many uh
stories of people that haveovercome adversity.
One of the books that I wrotewas about Esther, and she's one
of the heroines that saved theJewish people.
Uh, when they were inBabylonian captivity, and so she
turned the fear of you know heruncle Mordecai they were she
(24:34):
was taken into the harem.
He was working for the king,you know, he was one of the
people at the palace, and sowhen they found out about this
edict, which is a law that thepeople were going to be, you
know, he said to her you know,how do you know, if God didn't
put you here in this place forsuch a time as this?
And she was like, well, youdon't understand, if I don't get
(24:56):
called in by him, calling me in, right, and I go in there by
myself without being invited, Icould die.
That's a law.
And so she decided she wasgoing to fast, she was going to
pray.
She did that for three days.
(25:16):
She asked him for do this, todo the same thing, and she put
her fear aside and went forwardand, you know, made up a plan
that you know she was going totell him what was happening and
you know, she was accepted intothe room.
She wasn't killed and she wasable to, you know, save her
people.
And so that that moment ofputting aside our fear because
for me, when I was laying in thehospital bed, right, it's like
(25:38):
I had to go to the bathroom,really bad when they took me to
the hospital and I remember thenurse saying to me you know, she
put her hand on my shoulder andI'm like I really gotta pee and
she goes, and she goes justlike because they hadn't told me
anything yet.
You know, she put her hand onmy shoulder and I'm like I
really gotta pee and she goes,and she goes just like cause I
hadn't told me anything yet, youknow, um, I just I'm on
(26:01):
adrenaline, but I haven't triedto get up and walk yet, you know
.
And so I'm not really feelinganything just yet.
And so she put her hand on myshoulder and she said to me she
said, honey, she goes.
I don't want to scare you, shegoes, but you can't move a
muscle because you're going tobe completely paralyzed if you
do.
And I'm like, what do you mean?
Completely?
What are you talking about?
And the funny thing is is thatGod will I choose it to call it
(26:22):
God, you can call it theuniverse or whatever you want
but I feel like people come inat just the right time, you know
, and the the first doctor thatcame in, he was like, oh, you're
doing OK, you just got a fewcuts or whatever, and you know
we're going to release you in afew minutes and you should be
all right, ok, so, still onadrenaline, not feeling it much,
just at the time that I wasabout to get up to to you know,
(26:45):
like he said, you're going to bedischarged.
I was about to get up to to,you know, like he said, you're
going to be discharged.
My brother comes walking throughthe room.
He comes walking in and theguy's like, okay, you can get up
now and leave.
And I and I tried to get up andI could move my shoulders but
and I can move my hands, but Ican't move my legs and I can't
(27:06):
move my legs, my shoulders andmy whole body together.
You know how you try to get outof bed and your whole body just
kind of with you.
That wasn't happening and I waslike this and my brother was
like you get out of here and getanother freaking doctor those
his words, right and you laythere until somebody else comes.
So the guy left and he gotanother doctor and they took me
(27:26):
because I hadn't even beenx-rayed at that point.
So when the x-ray came back,there was a vertebrae in the
middle of my spine that had hadcracked all the way, like
straight, like this, and it hadbent in and the spinal cord was
an eighth of an inch from beingsevered.
(27:47):
Good thing was, you know, thethe break was clean and there
were no fragments anywhere,right, and so I was flat on my
hiney for months on end becausethey did not want to flip me
over, because flipping me overwould dip me, which would make
the bone dip, which would cutthe spinal cord, and so they
didn't want to do surgery, theywanted me to lay flat.
(28:09):
So here I am, laying, here, youknow, and I prayed a lot and I
did what I was talking aboutwhere?
Where do I want to be?
What do I want to be, how doyou know?
And so I started envisioningmyself walking and I'm like, how
do I make this happen?
And then, you know, I just feltlike God's saying to me how
powerful my brain was and thatwith my brain, I could start to.
(28:30):
So the first thing I heard wastell your toes to wiggle.
So, I remember, after,eventually, the toes started to
wiggle and then from there itwas like you know, doing your,
stretching with, with your, withyour feet back and forth, then
circling my, my, my ankles, uh,my ankles, and then trying to
lift my leg, which was really,really hard.
(28:52):
That took a long time, but itjust was a long process.
But I kept seeing myselfwalking.
I wasn't gonna, you know, um,and even to the nurse, when you
know, after they did the x-ray,and I told her, I says I have to
go to the bathroom, and shesaid that to me and I said, well
, maybe I shouldn't have hadthat second cup of coffee this
(29:12):
morning.
Huh, and she started laughingand you know, um, but you know,
once they knew what was going on, then she was able to help me.
But, um, it was just a longprocess and you have to
sometimes go through thatprocess, but the good thing is
is that we go through, you know.
Josh Porthouse (29:29):
So we get to the other side and it sounds to me
like of all of these experiencesyou've had, you've been
traveling into these unknownspaces.
You know where we're at seven,you're figuring out, you know,
new culture, new you.
And at 20, you're figuring outnew job, new you.
And and then a few years lateryou're figuring out new you, new
(29:52):
you, you know, and all of thesethings to try to relearn and
reinvent.
I mean well, first off,congratulations.
I assume that means you'rewalking now or able to walk now.
Dude.
That's crazy in and itself.
But then you write books now aswell, which I guess it was a
matter of time.
(30:12):
Of all the thought and visionyou put into this, it had to
come out somewhere.
So okay, so you have one book.
Ann Marie Thrives (30:19):
I have three that I wrote myself, two that I
edited for um, there are twodevotionals, uh and uh, so four
of them are uh bestsellers.
So really yeah so now I'mteaching other people how to.
That's.
That's another thing that wejust took on after we did?
(30:39):
uh, my partner and I, we weedited those two devotionals and
we were like, hey, we want toget other people, who people
just started coming out of thewoodwork?
You, you know for her and forme, hey, can you help me write
my book?
And so now we're helpingaspiring authors to get their
words out.
So that's an example that wejust added yeah, cause everybody
has.
Josh Porthouse (31:01):
Absolutely, and there's something to be said for
that, because, I mean, thinkabout it, had you been able to
go up, or just think you couldget up and go pee you wouldn't
have been able to help as manypeople as you have so far and,
indirectly, the amount of peoplethat they've been able to reach
based on their books, theirstories, right, jeez, okay, all
(31:21):
right, I'm getting ahead ofmyself.
That's ridiculous, okay, okay.
So then now you, I assume, havesome degree of gratitude that's
carrying through all of thesethings, or you wouldn't be
giving back to help other peopleand you'd be storing all that
for yourself and the goodwilland whatever else.
So what, I guess, outlets, doyou have to communicate these
(31:49):
things, your story in your book?
And then, obviously, when youtalk to people, but but you know
the, the unwritten things, thethings you can't see, the
intrinsic qualities, values, Isuppose how do you convey that
to other people?
Is it behavior?
Is it conversation?
Ann Marie Thrives (32:06):
For me, gratitude is a big thing.
I'm actually writing a thesisbecause I'm one thesis short of
my MBA from a business andministry.
It's a business and ministrydegree program that I signed up
for.
I came across my lap, so Ifigured okay, so I did
(32:29):
everything and now I just havethis one piece.
And writing a thesis is totallydifferent than writing a book.
But the topic I chose is howgratefulness and self-care bring
about mental agility, and thatmental agility helps us,
increases the dopamine um, theserotonin, in our brains, like I
(32:51):
said before, and so that helpsus be more successful so
gratitude you I'm sorry becauseyou're saying gratitude or your
theory, I guess self-care yeahgratitude and self-care help you
be more mentally agile yeah howis that?
Josh Porthouse (33:06):
what is your theory?
Ann Marie Thrives (33:08):
because when you're in a state of
gratefulness and you're takingcare of yourself and you're
exercising and journaling anddoing these things that increase
the rhythm in your body, thenyou're working at a different
level mentally, make betterdecisions, you're able to see
things more clearly becausethere's more focus, and so when
(33:30):
something like this happens,it's not the end of the world.
Or when something happens, it'snot the end of the world
because you, your mind, istrained that there's hope.
And one of the things that thatthey told me is that I was very
active when this accidenthappened and I had just gotten
my I don't know it was one of mybelts.
(33:52):
I took Kung Fu with one of myfriends.
It was a thing that we thoughtwe'd try and we were the only
two girls in the class.
And so when this happenedbecause I had been in that state
of, you know, keeping my spinestraight, keeping my posture
straight, you know and I had atalk with my doctor about this
(34:14):
and he said if you hadn't beendoing X, y and Z, because I also
did aerobics and I did weightsNautilus was big at the time, I
don't know if anybody remembersthat so we were using the
machines at the gym before ourworkouts and stuff, and so that
was strengthening my body andbuilding up the muscles around
(34:34):
the spine and and in my you knowwhat I mean so in, in, even my
legs and everywhere else, and sobeing in that state of fitness
made things not be as you know.
If you will, yeah, it is.
Josh Porthouse (34:48):
It is pretty wild, you know, sometimes well,
I think all the time.
But let's just say sometimesfor the sake of argument, that
we don't know how what we'redoing is going to set us up for
some degree of success in thefuture, to to live through some,
you know, transition or orcrisis or or excellence or
(35:08):
whatever the outcome happens tobe.
But usually, at least, the moreamazing instances to me are the
ones where whatever we've beendoing that we think is going to
get us to point A actually helpsus succeed through point B,
when we didn't even know thatwas a possibility.
(35:29):
They didn't register on theradar, for example.
I think values are a shortcutto identity and conversation and
relationship, even withyourself or with other people,
and so this is a good point.
This is a segment of the showcalled Developing Character
D-D-D-Developing Character.
It's two questions as in-depthand as vulnerable as you prefer
(35:52):
to answer.
It's up to you.
But because of those things andyour degree of self-awareness
you've built, now I'm curiousabout some of your values, and
we've talked about gratitude anda few to this point, but
specifically in the beginning, Imean that had to start from
somewhere.
So my first question is whatwere some of your values growing
up or that you remember beingexposed to?
Ann Marie Thrives (36:15):
Well, I grew up in a Christian household and
so God was always there to adegree, right.
And then when I was on my own,as I got older, I did go through
a time where you know whenthese things happen to you in a
row, you know where youconsistently, you know, every
(36:38):
time it just seemed like everytime I was trying to move
forward, something stupid wouldhappen, and it wasn't
necessarily me doing it.
You know, every single caraccident that I've been in has
been some person who was notpaying attention, ran a stop
sign, ran a light.
You know, every single caraccident that I've been in has
been some person who was notpaying attention, ran a stop
sign, ran a light, you know, gottoo close and ended up smashing
into me, you know.
And so you start to wonderwhere is God, you know, but time
(37:02):
has gone by and it's and it'sonly been, you know, like I said
, the past few years where Ireally had to cling to that
Cause, even when I had breastcancer.
You know, they, they don't letyou stay in the hospital forever
.
You know, I w, I was, I hadmajor surgery, 10 hour surgery
and uh and and I, I got releasedlike two and a half days you're
(37:23):
in ICU.
For you know, then you're upand walking around and no grass
growing under those feet, andand so you know, they, they make
you go home.
And and I remember, that nightin bed it was terrible.
I mean, I ha, I had at least125 or 30, I don't even remember
how many stitches now.
You know may have been 150.
(37:44):
I don't know.
Anyway, um, my point is we hadhad my dad here, um, as I
mentioned before, he was with usfor quite a few months and we
ended up setting up room for himbecause we had just moved here.
We didn't know what we weregoing to do with that other room
yet, because I want a library.
But then I was like I don'tknow, you know.
So we went back and forth andthen the back and forth ended
(38:06):
because my dad came.
So here's your bed, here's yourdresser, here's your bed,
here's your dresser, here's yourlittle recliner.
You could stay here, and if youdon't want to watch TV with us,
you could, you know, be in yourown room and what have you, and
just try to make them feel athome.
So that morning, when I waslying in bed, I couldn't get up.
I had no core, I had no upperbody strength, you know Um, and
(38:27):
I remember I was like God.
Why did they release me?
You know that was doingeverything for me.
Now I can't even roll over, getout of bed, go eat whatever,
and and I remember I just heardin my head you have a hospital
bed in the other room go sit onthe recliner.
So what I remember from thattime is being in that room where
(38:48):
, where my dad passed, you knowmy husband's husband's sitting
laying on the bed because hetook FMLA and he's he's taking
care of me and I'm in the chair.
And then at night we werewatching Christmas movies
because my surgery was thebeginning of December, and so
those are the things I rememberis him sitting next to me, him
making breakfast, him making themeals, him helping me, me, you
know, but resourcefulness, we'renever without the things that
(39:12):
we need to help us in thatperiod of time, that's.
One thing that I've learned isthat the resources are already
there, even if we don't thinkthat they are um the resources
are within us.
You know they either come out ofus or they come to us, but
they're there.
Um, and I get the message outin whatever way.
(39:32):
You know, same either come outof us or they come to us, but
they're there.
And I get the message out inwhatever way.
You know, same thing it comesto me, the resources are there.
It's either word of mouth orFacebook or all of those medias
out there.
I just started doing podcastsbecause I really felt like it's
time to speak up.
It's not a time to be quietanymore.
Josh Porthouse (39:50):
All right, folks sit tight, We'll be right back
on Transacting Value.
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Ann Marie Thrives (40:42):
I just started doing podcasts because I
really felt like it's time tospeak up.
It's not a time to be quietanymore.
Josh Porthouse (40:51):
I'm glad you started talking.
I think your story is supercool, mostly, though, to me,
because you found somethingabout you that you could stand
on, not something about you thatyou didn't have to stand on,
and that's a powerful lesson.
But it's difficult.
It's not at least in myexperience, it's not something
that you come by easily.
(41:11):
It takes work, effort,refinement, and then your vision
shifts and changes, and then,eventually, you look back and
you're like well, actually, thisis the whole thing that I've
been building the whole time.
Right, it's very Bob Ross ofyou, if that means anything.
Yeah, yeah, that's wild, sookay.
(41:32):
So let me ask you this then andI guess, for the sake of time,
this is probably one of my lasttwo questions but of all of your
experiences, then, and theresourcefulness that you've
gained and the self-awarenessthat you've gained, like for you
individually as a person, allthe doubt and everything you had
along the way, what now,looking back, has it all
(41:53):
actually done for your ownself-worth?
Ann Marie Thrives (41:57):
Being an immigrant.
You know, when I was little,there was a lot of quietness
because you can't talk, right, Ihad hours at school where I
couldn't talk because I don'tknow how to communicate with you
.
I don't know how to communicatewith you, I don't know what to
say to you, and even if I do saysomething to you, you're not
going to understand that.
So that led me to, you know, areally quiet life.
(42:19):
I just didn't think that myvoice mattered.
And I remember one time a wholebunch of us were hanging out
and then my sister and I and acouple of our guy friends were
left and I said something.
I don't remember what it was, Idon't even think it was
important, but the point is thatI opened my mouth to say
something and he said um, hesaid something like go ahead and
(42:42):
keep talking so we could talkover you, and he was kidding
around.
But I took that.
You know people have been doingthat my whole life, you know, is
talking over me, and so, um, sothat's why I just kind of
stayed to myself and neverreally said anything.
But, um, you know, now I'molder and I'm wiser, and, and I
(43:02):
feel that, wouldn't it be neatif there was a world where we
could learn from other peoplewho have gone before us and made
those mistakes Cause then,after a learn from other people
who have gone before us and madethose mistakes Cause then,
after a while, other peoplewon't make their own mistakes
because they're learned fromother people.
They'll watch us and they'llsee what we did and you know
they'll wait before they dothings or they'll do things
without being fearful, in amoment that you know we can't
(43:26):
have fear right now because ourlife is on the line, Right, I
mean, maybe that's a littledramatic, but, um, you know,
just just to be out there andjust share what's happened so
that people know that there'sthere's hope for whatever you're
going through.
Josh Porthouse (43:41):
Well, um, I guess then let me be the first
to formally welcome you to thenew world.
Be the first to formallywelcome you to the new world.
I think it's a prettyauspicious journey.
You started midlife, but herewe are again in a new pivot, I
suppose.
So add that to your collectionFor the introvert over here.
Ann Marie Thrives (44:03):
Yeah, yeah, because after I went back to
work from my accident, Iliterally could go Monday
through Friday I would work, andthen I wouldn't talk to anybody
after I got home until it wastime to go back to work on
Monday.
That's how great I am being bymyself.
Josh Porthouse (44:18):
Well, but again, if you didn't have those
opportunities, imagine how muchintrospection you would have
sacrificed.
So again, you know, when youlook back, like you said,
there's a silver lining to allof it, even if you don't see it
in the moment.
Correct, anne-marie, for theamount of experience we've
gotten, I feel like you shouldhave been charging me for my
(44:38):
time, because what you've beenable to put into this
conversation and, I think, moreimportantly, what you are
seemingly starting to find a wayto communicate effectively, as
your story is extremely,extremely undervalued.
(44:58):
I'm glad I found out about youand your story and my team was
able to get you on the show whenwe did, because now we have
plenty of time to bring you backover the next few years and
decades and hear what otherkinds of cool things you've done
and more of your voice.
So in the meantime, though, foranybody that wants to get in
(45:18):
touch with you, track down yourbooks, find out more about your
stories at their own pace, ontheir own time.
Where do people go?
Ann Marie Thrives (45:27):
I have a website that has all of my books
and there's also a couple of um, a couple of free downloads, uh
, 10 key, vital keys to uh gofrom surviving to thriving.
Um and uh, how to be empowered,you know, in a business setting
, like five keys to do that.
So those are free, that peoplecan get my books around there.
31 days.
A stable christmas is like youknow, 31 days of you know, um,
(45:51):
how to be joyful, how to youknow things like that to help us
through the holidays, becausefor some people it could be
really toxic, you know, and, uh,you know it's a hard time, um,
for a lot of people.
So it's all on my website,which is we thrive at lifecom,
weriveatlifecomwethriveatlifecom.
Josh Porthouse (46:09):
I'm noticing a trend.
Yeah, there's a lot of thrivinggoing on in your life and,
again, I'm glad that it is andI'm glad that you are For
everybody who's new to this show.
Depending on the player you'restreaming this conversation or
watching this conversation on,you can click see more.
You can click show more andthen in the drop down
(46:30):
description for thisconversation you will see links
to we thrive at lifecom, whereyou can track down Anne-Marie
and find access to her books andmore of her story and
inspiration.
I love what you're doing, Ilove this conversation.
I love your energy.
It's it's super contagious.
(46:54):
And then, obviously, your storyis way, way intriguing.
There's way too much to eventie into, but I'm glad we found
a way to at least start.
And next time, when you findyourself with an opportunity and
a spare microphone, come backand we'll talk some more, but
for now, thank you for your time.
Ann Marie Thrives (47:15):
Thank you, Josh.
Josh Porthouse (47:17):
Absolutely Everybody else who tuned into
our conversation.
Thank you guys for hanging out,listening to us entertaining
Anne-Marie, letting herentertain you, whatever it was
that worked for you.
This go around and, like I said, if you want to hear more of
our conversations, you can go totransactingvaluepodcastcom On
our homepage.
Even on the top right side ofthe screen you'll see a leave a
(47:39):
voicemail button.
Here's what that can do for youTwo minutes of talk time all
yours.
What can you do with it?
Let us know what you think ofthe show, let us know what you
think of this conversation andin my opinion, it's up to you.
But, more importantly, leavecomments for Anne-Marie and we
can forward them to her too.
Let her know Feedback.
I think positive, constructivefeedback is hard to come by in
(48:01):
the world today and, like yousaid in the beginning, I suppose
in a manner of speaking,gratitude begets gratitude, so
on and so forth.
So I know all of us wouldappreciate it.
But until next time, that wasTransacting Value.
Thank you to our show partnersand folks.
Thank you for tuning in andappreciating our value as we all
(48:21):
grow through life together, tocheck out our other
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(48:43):
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(49:04):
tranquility and secure theblessings of liberty or
individual sovereignty ofcharacter for yourselves and
your posterity, we will continueinstigating self-worth and
we'll meet you there.
Until next time, that wasTransacting Value.
The views expressed in this podcast are
solely those of the podcast hostand guest and do not
necessarily represent those ofour distribution partners,
supporting businessrelationships or supported
audience.
Welcome to Transacting Value,where we talk about practical
(00:22):
applications for instigatingself-worth when dealing with
each other and even withinourselves, where we foster a
podcast listening experiencethat lets you hear the power of
a value system for managingburnout, establishing boundaries
, fostering community andfinding identity.
My name is Josh Porthouse, I'myour host and we are redefining
sovereignty of character.
(00:42):
This is why values still holdvalue.
This is Transacting Value.
Ann Marie Thrives (00:49):
It just felt like I was always going three
steps forward and two steps back, and after a while, if you
don't have the proper values andthe proper foundation and a
good belief system or hope orfaith or love, you know you
don't get through.
Josh Porthouse (01:06):
Today on Transacting Value how to pivot
when you need to.
How can traveling andimmigrating to a new country or
even a new culture help tonavigate uncharted life
circumstances, and what role dothose experiences have on our
own self-worth for lasting,life-transforming habits?
Those experiences have on ourown self-worth for lasting,
life-transforming habits.
Alongside human behaviorspecialist and entrepreneur
(01:29):
coach, anne-marie Thrives, we'regetting unstuck through value
systems that resonate inside andout.
I'm Josh Porthouse, I'm yourhost and from SDYT Media, this
is Transacting Value.
Anne-marie, how are you doing?
Ann Marie Thrives (01:45):
Great Thanks for having me.
Josh Porthouse (01:47):
It's great to meet you Absolutely.
Oh, you as well.
You've got such a wild story.
It's hard to believe thatyou're one person of all the
things you've been through, andI want to hit as much of it as
we can, but I think thesmoothest way to do this is to
let you open us up.
So just take a couple minutesbefore me.
(02:09):
You know who are you, where areyou from, those kinds of things
, but what kinds of things inlife are shaping your
perspective now?
Who are you?
Ann Marie Thrives (02:19):
So my name is Ann Marie and I was born in in
Italy, and we immigrated herewhen I was seven and you know it
was really tough when we gothere because everything was
different, you know the food,the people, the environment.
I lived in a very coastal town,right on the water, and we
(02:41):
weren't landlocked but we were,way you know, five minutes from
the ocean versus 25 minutes fromthe ocean, um, geez.
I just remember one time when Iwas little you know how
Italians sometimes they takethey'll do like a little siesta
in the afternoon and I rememberum grabbing a bag, you know,
like one of those bags that youput, uh, groceries in the
(03:03):
plastic bags, one of those bagsthat you put groceries in the
plastic bags.
And it was like two o'clock inthe afternoon.
I put a knife in there, put onmy jellies and walked down to
the ocean, started cutting upthe sea urchins on the rocks and
I just sat there with my lemonand I ate them.
And I went back home and nobodyeven knew I was gone.
Josh Porthouse (03:21):
Oh wow, that's how close to the ocean.
Ann Marie Thrives (03:23):
We were.
Anyway, I don't know why thatcame up, but different days now
and just having to be in schooland not knowing anything,
sitting in the back of theclassroom, like I would be in
the classroom as part of thegroup during parts of the day
and then other parts of the daystill in the classroom, but in
(03:44):
the back, um, being uh, tutoredwith flashcards, and so, um, you
know, when kids don'tunderstand things or we don't
understand things, you knowthere was a lot of bullying
going on because obviously myparents don't speak the language
either.
Then, when they did, they hadthis wicked accent, you know,
and um, and then the wholeculture being different, you
(04:05):
know, we didn't celebrate thesame holidays that that we did
here and um, Thanksgiving is oneof my favorite holidays now,
and, uh, and so we, we didn'thave that, so trying to be like
everybody else and making aTurkey and pumpkin pie and stuff
like that, you know um but justgenerally not fitting in
because we were just sodifferent, but trying to fit in
(04:27):
at the same time.
So, you know, it's just all ofthese.
So then you go from one schoolto another, to another, and it's
just constantly trying to findthe people that you know.
Water finds its own level, justfinding the people, and for me
it was one and two.
You know, and, and that's it.
I, I, those are, those were mybuddies for life.
(04:50):
Um one of them passed away um afew years ago and, um, you know
it's, it's just as you gothrough life.
People are there, then they'renot, and you have to have those
pivots.
Um then, you know, then they'renot and you have to have those
pivots.
And you know, in my early 20s Igot into a very bad accident.
I just finished, I got mydegree in business
(05:12):
administration and managementand I, you know, I just got this
new job I'd been a temp andthey were going to, you know,
take me on full time, myinsurance and everything, all my
benefits kicked in October 1stand October 20th slam.
I am paralyzed for quite sometime, have a traumatic brain
injury, have to learn how totalk, how to, you know, just
(05:33):
live life again.
But the neat thing was cause Ilike to look at the silver
lining through everything was,you know, having that insurance
that was way better than what Ihad before.
I was able to be in a privateroom because sometimes, when you
know, having that insurance,that was way better than what I
had before.
I was able to be in a privateroom because sometimes, when you
know when you're in that amountof pain or you have a brain
injury, for me it was a lot ofheadaches, migraine, not being
(05:55):
able to handle noise and sensorythings around me, and so I was
able to be put in a private roomas part of my insurance.
So those are the things I kindof look at.
You know, a few years later gotback on my feet and it happened
again.
I think somebody ran a stopsign or something and so
(06:19):
different parts got injured andjust kind of moving through life
, you know, taking care of mydad, having my friend that I
spoke of her name was Chris, shewas a physician's assistant and
while he was here with thedisease that he had, it was like
having a 24 seven nurse becauseshe, she had hurt her elbow and
(06:39):
was convalescing and so she,her sleep pattern pattern was a
little crazy, so I had heraround the whole time and then
my dad passed and a couplemonths later I got diagnosed
with breast cancer.
So, um, you know, yeah, Iactually was on a podcast
because somebody had heard aboutwhat.
You know, what I've beenthrough life.
(07:00):
Yeah, it was.
You can't make this shit, I T up.
She's like I think you're mygal, I know and and so, but I I
just look at them, at thingsthat that happened for me.
You know, instead of thingsthat happened to me, there were
their periods of anger and youknow, like, where's God in my
pain?
Where's God period?
(07:21):
you know, just going throughthose emotions because it just
felt like I was always goingthree steps forward and two
steps back and after a while, ifyou don't have the proper
values and the proper foundationand a good belief system or
hope, or faith or love, you knowyou don't get through.
And.
I feel like those were thethings that got me through,
(07:42):
those values that got instilledin me when I was little.
Sometimes they were distorted,but, you know, as you grow in
life you start to grasp onto thethings that matter and it helps
you to live a fuller life.
And I, through all of thesethings, wanted to teach other
people how to.
You know, go through these.
It's not the end of the world.
(08:03):
Go through these.
It's not the end of the world,even through death.
You know, having lost I thinkone year we lost seven, no, 18
people in 17 months, includingmy father, his brother, you know
just a lot of key people myfriend Chris, who was the
(08:23):
physician's assistant, and myhigh school buddy, yeah, so it's
like all of these key peoplethat you know you go to for
life's help are now gone andthey're not there anymore.
And then, with COVID, I noticedeven for myself, a lot of
people were had to pivot.
Whether they wanted to or not,you know they had to they found
(08:43):
themselves in a differentposition.
Um, maybe their police positionwas eliminated, maybe they lost
people that they cared for?
Um, and just the whole crisisin general, I think, left a lot
of people stuck and unable to toreally move, just out of fear.
Um, you know, because none ofus knew what was going to happen
(09:03):
or or how things were going toturn out, and we had to turn to
other things and maybe try totrust other things that we
normally wouldn't trust before.
It's like for a lot of people,being online is a big deal, you
know.
So, learning, technologies andcommunity I think there's a lot
of controversial stuff that goeswith COVID, but I, you know,
(09:28):
again, I'm always looking forthat silver lining.
So I'm looking at the fact that,you know, maybe your
grandmother couldn't talk to youbefore, but now she, you know,
just talk to her, but now youcould talk to her and see her
because you know she figured outhow to get on Zoom or something
you know.
So I like to help people thathave been through you know, big,
figured out how to get on zoomor something you know, um.
so I like to help people thathave been through, you know, big
(09:48):
traumas, big shifts in life.
You know, constant.
I feel that there's there's acertain mindset that we need to
have to go through life, youknow, like a thriving mindset
that no matter what happens, I'mgoing to be okay, and to have
that hope.
And when you don't have it, youdon't have that mental agility
(10:08):
to.
You know, kind of be like Gumbyand just bend, you know, so
that you can do the things youneed to do to get out of that
place.
Like when I got into my accident, it was like, all right, this
is where I am right now.
Where do I want to be?
How am I going to get there?
What steps do I want to be?
How am I going to get there?
What steps do I need to take toget there?
And so throughout my life Ifeel like I've been asking
myself the same questions asthings happen, and so I want to
(10:32):
be able to help people to.
You know, if they're in thatspot or they can't figure out,
you know, maybe you just gotdivorced, maybe you lost your
husband or significant other orwhatever, or your job is gone
now and you have to reinvent.
So those are the things that Ilike to help people with.
It's just kind of jumping overthat hurdle that it's not as bad
(10:53):
as it looks, is there?
going to be work.
Yeah.
Is it going to hurt?
Yeah, because you have to grow.
Anytime you grow, there'sgrowing pains, but it's not
impossible.
Josh Porthouse (11:06):
Alrighty, folks sit tight, We'll be right back
on Transacting Value.
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Ann Marie Thrives (12:11):
Is there going to be work?
Yeah.
Is it going to hurt?
Yeah, because you have to grow.
Anytime you grow, you knowthere's growing pains, but it's
not impossible.
Josh Porthouse (12:22):
Yeah, absolutely not.
And the interesting thing yousaid well, one of the
interesting things you said youknow about three steps forward
and two steps back is it'salways still one step forward.
So you know how you manage that, how you handle it may not be
at a pace you prefer, but it's apace nonetheless.
That's moving forward and thatcounts for a lot.
(12:42):
But the hope that you broughtup as well.
I think there's only one way toinstigate purpose and I think
it has to be grounded in hope,because without that it really
doesn't matter the good youcould do, because you don't see
it or you don't see it that way,and that changes a lot of
things Absolutely.
But so of all of theopportunities and of all of the
(13:02):
things you had to work through,so how do you think you came
about to identifying those pivotpoints or the need to pivot?
I mean, like you said, there'splenty of setbacks and mental
and emotional and behavioraltraumas that you have to work
through.
What do you think was a triggerfor you that helped you to
pivot?
Ann Marie Thrives (13:22):
I try to watch my first words because our
words matter, you know they.
You know I don't want to getall new agey or whatever.
Matter, you know they.
You know I don't want to getall new agey or whatever.
That's not what I'm about.
But I I believe that our, ourwords create our lives, and so,
um, we were talking earlierabout how you have children.
You know, and I feel that if achild is, let's say a child is
(13:45):
walking down the street andyou're right behind them, you
know, and they trip oversomething and they fall, I used
to work at kids church, at mychurch, and one thing that I
learned is that if you get intoa state of fear in front of that
child, right, it makeswhatever's going on with that
kid worse than it is.
It could be just the smallestof scrapes or it could be a big
(14:08):
gash that you have to take themto the hospital.
For how we react with them, youknow, getting down on their
level and saying I'm so sorrythis happened to you.
Let's figure out what we can doinstead of.
You know, I'm Italian, so whatfirst thing we do is probably
scream oh my God.
You know, and so I noticed thatyou know that might not be the
best way to handle the situation, and so it's OK to scream.
(14:31):
It's OK to do that, but incertain situations, because we
need our minds to accept what'shappened, to speak life into it,
even if it looks like death,because then there isn't that.
You know that closure thathappens, you know, kind of like
that tightness of the belt towhere, you know, one of the
worst words that our brains canhear is I can't, because as soon
(14:53):
as it hears that it stops.
You know, and you've got thehypothalamus back there that
believes anything that you tellit.
It's just constantly listening.
So, whether it's good or it'sbad, it's there and it's
listening, and it's going totake what your mind is going to
take what you say and try tobring reality to it, because it
believes that what you just saidis the truth.
(15:14):
So it starts to find ways tomake that happen right.
And so we need to be in thatstate of hope and not freak out
when things happen and I mean,I've had plenty of opportunities
to freak out and I did.
I learned that you know it's.
It doesn't help you or thesituation, if you, you know,
(15:37):
just come from a place of fearand a place of hopelessness,
because there's always someonethere that can help you.
Someone there, like when I had,you know, my rollover, where I
was paralyzed it was very earlyin the morning and a few days
later, because I lost control ofthe car.
Um, one of the wheels hadfallen off, I didn't know it,
(15:58):
and so the car was going, youknow, side to side and
eventually, you know, there wasa song back then, cause this was
uh, early nineties, I think,yeah, and uh, I love music.
It was playing on the radio wasCurie Lason, which is, you know
, I don't know if you know that,remember that song, but
basically it's, it's a Latinterm that means Lord, have mercy
, right.
(16:18):
And so it's like Lord, havemercy on the road that I must
travel.
But now the Lord that the roadthat I'm traveling is like
coming out from under me, youknow.
And I remember thinking tomyself I can't control the car
anymore, it's just goingeverywhere it wants.
No matter how I turn the wheel,it seems to go in the opposite
direction.
And I'm listening to this songand I'm thinking to myself this
(16:39):
is interesting.
And then I was like I think I'mgoing to die, because that's
how bad the car was just going.
And it was a big car because Ihad borrowed my dad's blazer
just to put more stuff in thecar to bring to my new apartment
that was right next to my newjob, you know, um.
And so I thought to myself I'mgonna die and I just closed my
eyes.
And then I remember hearing letgo of the wheel, because I was
(17:02):
trying to control the situation.
But when I let go of the wheel,what they told me?
There there was a guy behind mewho was he was a lawn keeper
and he was going.
He had his own lawn business,so he was going somewhere early
in the morning, and then therewere two guys on you know the
overpass where I was going, andso they told me how the car went
(17:24):
back and forth and back andforth and I was not wearing my
seatbelt that day.
Back and forth and back andforth and I was not wearing my
seatbelt that day.
Um, and I'm glad that I wasn't,because when the car went up on
the embankment it it hit a treeright in the driver's door and
it went in like this, and if Ihad my seatbelt on my head would
have been right there and Iwould have.
I would have been, it would havehit me right in the temple, you
know.
Um, so these are the thingsthat I look at and why did they
(17:47):
happen?
And and not, you know, not tothe point where you're like, why
did this happen to me?
Or, you know, when youinternalize things too much,
that's not a good thing for useither, but just looking back
and being grateful, you know isis one of the things that that
helped me.
So how can I get myself out?
And just you know, as you gothrough, things there's, there's
(18:09):
never.
You may feel like you're backedinto a corner.
That's one of the things that Ilearned, but we're never really
backed into a corner, becausethere's always a way out.
You know we may be in thatmystery room.
I don't know where the door is,but I promise you there's more
(18:32):
where the door is.
Josh Porthouse (18:32):
but I promise you there's more.
Even as a kid you think that Imean.
Obviously you got through thatas well.
But I mean, when you came tothe States in the beginning, the
language was different, theculture was different, the
people were different, thecustoms courtesies were
different.
That alone has to beoverwhelming and, you know,
curious and frightening, andeverything all at once.
How do you rationalize thatwhen you really don't have one
(18:55):
of your senses to try to reasonthrough the situation?
Ann Marie Thrives (19:00):
You know, school was very hard for me.
So then, coming home and beingwith my family, you know, helped
because we all shared the samestruggle.
So we kind of helped each otherout with those struggles, you
know, and and we'd talk aboutthe stuff that happened, you
know which, which was a neatthing.
And it became like I had liketwo comfort zones, because now
(19:24):
I'm integrating into the culturebut I'm also going back home
with that culture and so therewas great things that were going
on with that culture and thenother things happening in the
other culture.
So it's like you're betweenthese two places and they each
have their sweet spot, you know.
And the household was loud andI've never been a loud person,
(19:49):
with or without the brain injury, you know.
But the neat thing was therewas a library literally right
across the street.
So I would like go to thelibrary.
I got to study or whatever, andthat was, that was my piece.
So you look for places whereyou could find that piece.
Hopefully it's in a healthy,you know, in a healthy way, but
there's always a place to, youknow, go a healthy way, but
(20:10):
there's always a place to, youknow, go to, to regroup.
And I think there's a lot ofthings that we can, that you
know, a lot of resources that wehave now that we didn't have
before, and so I there's a lotof resources out there to help
us to get out of the funk thatwe're in were in.
For me it was.
It was either quiet or, youknow, sometimes those voices are
(20:31):
so barraging with the doubtthat, for you know, music is a
big thing for me, and sometimesI turn that music on so loud
that I can't even hear myselfthink, which is a good thing,
because vibrations our bodiesare, you know, we're, we're
energy, we're light, and sothere's that vibration there,
(20:51):
right?
Because doubt and unbelief andfear bring your vibration down,
and so by increasing thevibration, it starts to build
like the serotonin and thedopamine and the stuff that we
need to change our moodsserotonin and the dopamine and
the stuff that we need to changeour moods.
(21:13):
So I'm big on self-care,whether it's journaling, music,
you know, taking long walks,whatever it is that you need to
take care of yourself, you know,do that.
I take a lot of like fiveminute timeouts, you know,
sometimes it's a process andbalance.
Yeah, Because thinking is a is awonderful thing, and having a
vision for your life, even ifyou're not sure what it is.
(21:35):
You know, I teach, um, Istarted teaching a couple of
years ago.
Uh, not see this.
This is what happens once in awhile.
Vision board workshops yes.
And so you know, just to givepeople hope that you know
there's still life out there andstatistics show that people who
have goals and write them downor have them up are people who
(22:00):
succeed.
I think it's like 80 to 90percent very high, it's like 90
something but not only the onesthat write them down.
It's like a scale of increase.
So those who have them anddon't write them down, there's a
percentage.
Those who have them and do,it's a higher percentage.
(22:24):
And so the numbers keep goingup the more you revisit those
goals, because our minds see theimage like we were talking
about before and then it triesto make itself into that image.
Josh Porthouse (22:42):
All right, folks , sit tight and we'll be right
back on Transacting Value.
Join us for Transacting Value,where we discuss practical
applications of personal values,every Monday at 9 am on our
website,transactingvaluepodcastcom.
Wednesdays at 5 pm and Sundaysat noon on
wreathsacrossamericaorg slashradio.
Ann Marie Thrives (23:05):
The numbers keep going up, the more you
revisit those goals, because ourminds see the image like we
were talking about before andthen it tries to make itself
into that image.
Josh Porthouse (23:15):
That's sort of the key then too.
I suppose you either come upwith the image on your own
intuition, or whatever creativespark applies.
Right whatever creative sparkapplies, right.
Or you find the inspirationsomewhere in something else and
then create or recreatesomething similar, right.
(23:36):
So, in gaining the inspirationfor how you wanted to recover
and how you wanted your life tobe and what you want it to
become, I mean, even now, wheredo you like you've become an
inspiration for people and a wayfor people to gain a
perspective that you know?
No offense to yourcircumstances, but hopefully
(23:58):
they don't have to go through.
Ann Marie Thrives (23:59):
Yeah.
Josh Porthouse (24:00):
And so, where do you find inspiration?
Where do you get your visionfrom?
What do you draw from?
Ann Marie Thrives (24:09):
Well, I draw from the Bible.
That's my biggest inspiration,because there's so many uh
stories of people that haveovercome adversity.
One of the books that I wrotewas about Esther, and she's one
of the heroines that saved theJewish people.
Uh, when they were inBabylonian captivity, and so she
turned the fear of you know heruncle Mordecai they were she
(24:34):
was taken into the harem.
He was working for the king,you know, he was one of the
people at the palace, and sowhen they found out about this
edict, which is a law that thepeople were going to be, you
know, he said to her you know,how do you know, if God didn't
put you here in this place forsuch a time as this?
And she was like, well, youdon't understand, if I don't get
(24:56):
called in by him, calling me in, right, and I go in there by
myself without being invited, Icould die.
That's a law.
And so she decided she wasgoing to fast, she was going to
pray.
She did that for three days.
(25:16):
She asked him for do this, todo the same thing, and she put
her fear aside and went forwardand, you know, made up a plan
that you know she was going totell him what was happening and
you know, she was accepted intothe room.
She wasn't killed and she wasable to, you know, save her
people.
And so that that moment ofputting aside our fear because
for me, when I was laying in thehospital bed, right, it's like
(25:38):
I had to go to the bathroom,really bad when they took me to
the hospital and I remember thenurse saying to me you know, she
put her hand on my shoulder andI'm like I really gotta pee and
she goes, and she goes justlike because they hadn't told me
anything yet.
You know, she put her hand onmy shoulder and I'm like I
really gotta pee and she goes,and she goes just like cause I
hadn't told me anything yet, youknow, um, I just I'm on
(26:01):
adrenaline, but I haven't triedto get up and walk yet, you know
.
And so I'm not really feelinganything just yet.
And so she put her hand on myshoulder and she said to me she
said, honey, she goes.
I don't want to scare you, shegoes, but you can't move a
muscle because you're going tobe completely paralyzed if you
do.
And I'm like, what do you mean?
Completely?
What are you talking about?
And the funny thing is is thatGod will I choose it to call it
(26:22):
God, you can call it theuniverse or whatever you want
but I feel like people come inat just the right time, you know
, and the the first doctor thatcame in, he was like, oh, you're
doing OK, you just got a fewcuts or whatever, and you know
we're going to release you in afew minutes and you should be
all right, ok, so, still onadrenaline, not feeling it much,
just at the time that I wasabout to get up to to you know,
(26:45):
like he said, you're going to bedischarged.
I was about to get up to to,you know, like he said, you're
going to be discharged.
My brother comes walking throughthe room.
He comes walking in and theguy's like, okay, you can get up
now and leave.
And I and I tried to get up andI could move my shoulders but
and I can move my hands, but Ican't move my legs and I can't
(27:06):
move my legs, my shoulders andmy whole body together.
You know how you try to get outof bed and your whole body just
kind of with you.
That wasn't happening and I waslike this and my brother was
like you get out of here and getanother freaking doctor those
his words, right and you laythere until somebody else comes.
So the guy left and he gotanother doctor and they took me
(27:26):
because I hadn't even beenx-rayed at that point.
So when the x-ray came back,there was a vertebrae in the
middle of my spine that had hadcracked all the way, like
straight, like this, and it hadbent in and the spinal cord was
an eighth of an inch from beingsevered.
(27:47):
Good thing was, you know, thethe break was clean and there
were no fragments anywhere,right, and so I was flat on my
hiney for months on end becausethey did not want to flip me
over, because flipping me overwould dip me, which would make
the bone dip, which would cutthe spinal cord, and so they
didn't want to do surgery, theywanted me to lay flat.
(28:09):
So here I am, laying, here, youknow, and I prayed a lot and I
did what I was talking aboutwhere?
Where do I want to be?
What do I want to be, how doyou know?
And so I started envisioningmyself walking and I'm like, how
do I make this happen?
And then, you know, I just feltlike God's saying to me how
powerful my brain was and thatwith my brain, I could start to.
(28:30):
So the first thing I heard wastell your toes to wiggle.
So, I remember, after,eventually, the toes started to
wiggle and then from there itwas like you know, doing your,
stretching with, with your, withyour feet back and forth, then
circling my, my, my ankles, uh,my ankles, and then trying to
lift my leg, which was really,really hard.
(28:52):
That took a long time, but itjust was a long process.
But I kept seeing myselfwalking.
I wasn't gonna, you know, um,and even to the nurse, when you
know, after they did the x-ray,and I told her, I says I have to
go to the bathroom, and shesaid that to me and I said, well
, maybe I shouldn't have hadthat second cup of coffee this
(29:12):
morning.
Huh, and she started laughingand you know, um, but you know,
once they knew what was going on, then she was able to help me.
But, um, it was just a longprocess and you have to
sometimes go through thatprocess, but the good thing is
is that we go through, you know.
Josh Porthouse (29:29):
So we get to the other side and it sounds to me
like of all of these experiencesyou've had, you've been
traveling into these unknownspaces.
You know where we're at seven,you're figuring out, you know,
new culture, new you.
And at 20, you're figuring outnew job, new you.
And and then a few years lateryou're figuring out new you, new
(29:52):
you, you know, and all of thesethings to try to relearn and
reinvent.
I mean well, first off,congratulations.
I assume that means you'rewalking now or able to walk now.
Dude.
That's crazy in and itself.
But then you write books now aswell, which I guess it was a
matter of time.
(30:12):
Of all the thought and visionyou put into this, it had to
come out somewhere.
So okay, so you have one book.
Ann Marie Thrives (30:19):
I have three that I wrote myself, two that I
edited for um, there are twodevotionals, uh and uh, so four
of them are uh bestsellers.
So really yeah so now I'mteaching other people how to.
That's.
That's another thing that wejust took on after we did?
(30:39):
uh, my partner and I, we weedited those two devotionals and
we were like, hey, we want toget other people, who people
just started coming out of thewoodwork?
You, you know for her and forme, hey, can you help me write
my book?
And so now we're helpingaspiring authors to get their
words out.
So that's an example that wejust added yeah, cause everybody
has.
Josh Porthouse (31:01):
Absolutely, and there's something to be said for
that, because, I mean, thinkabout it, had you been able to
go up, or just think you couldget up and go pee you wouldn't
have been able to help as manypeople as you have so far and,
indirectly, the amount of peoplethat they've been able to reach
based on their books, theirstories, right, jeez, okay, all
(31:21):
right, I'm getting ahead ofmyself.
That's ridiculous, okay, okay.
So then now you, I assume, havesome degree of gratitude that's
carrying through all of thesethings, or you wouldn't be
giving back to help other peopleand you'd be storing all that
for yourself and the goodwilland whatever else.
So what, I guess, outlets, doyou have to communicate these
(31:49):
things, your story in your book?
And then, obviously, when youtalk to people, but but you know
the, the unwritten things, thethings you can't see, the
intrinsic qualities, values, Isuppose how do you convey that
to other people?
Is it behavior?
Is it conversation?
Ann Marie Thrives (32:06):
For me, gratitude is a big thing.
I'm actually writing a thesisbecause I'm one thesis short of
my MBA from a business andministry.
It's a business and ministrydegree program that I signed up
for.
I came across my lap, so Ifigured okay, so I did
(32:29):
everything and now I just havethis one piece.
And writing a thesis is totallydifferent than writing a book.
But the topic I chose is howgratefulness and self-care bring
about mental agility, and thatmental agility helps us,
increases the dopamine um, theserotonin, in our brains, like I
(32:51):
said before, and so that helpsus be more successful so
gratitude you I'm sorry becauseyou're saying gratitude or your
theory, I guess self-care yeahgratitude and self-care help you
be more mentally agile yeah howis that?
Josh Porthouse (33:06):
what is your theory?
Ann Marie Thrives (33:08):
because when you're in a state of
gratefulness and you're takingcare of yourself and you're
exercising and journaling anddoing these things that increase
the rhythm in your body, thenyou're working at a different
level mentally, make betterdecisions, you're able to see
things more clearly becausethere's more focus, and so when
(33:30):
something like this happens,it's not the end of the world.
Or when something happens, it'snot the end of the world
because you, your mind, istrained that there's hope.
And one of the things that thatthey told me is that I was very
active when this accidenthappened and I had just gotten
my I don't know it was one of mybelts.
(33:52):
I took Kung Fu with one of myfriends.
It was a thing that we thoughtwe'd try and we were the only
two girls in the class.
And so when this happenedbecause I had been in that state
of, you know, keeping my spinestraight, keeping my posture
straight, you know and I had atalk with my doctor about this
(34:14):
and he said if you hadn't beendoing X, y and Z, because I also
did aerobics and I did weightsNautilus was big at the time, I
don't know if anybody remembersthat so we were using the
machines at the gym before ourworkouts and stuff, and so that
was strengthening my body andbuilding up the muscles around
(34:34):
the spine and and in my you knowwhat I mean so in, in, even my
legs and everywhere else, and sobeing in that state of fitness
made things not be as you know.
If you will, yeah, it is.
Josh Porthouse (34:48):
It is pretty wild, you know, sometimes well,
I think all the time.
But let's just say sometimesfor the sake of argument, that
we don't know how what we'redoing is going to set us up for
some degree of success in thefuture, to to live through some,
you know, transition or orcrisis or or excellence or
(35:08):
whatever the outcome happens tobe.
But usually, at least, the moreamazing instances to me are the
ones where whatever we've beendoing that we think is going to
get us to point A actually helpsus succeed through point B,
when we didn't even know thatwas a possibility.
(35:29):
They didn't register on theradar, for example.
I think values are a shortcutto identity and conversation and
relationship, even withyourself or with other people,
and so this is a good point.
This is a segment of the showcalled Developing Character
D-D-D-Developing Character.
It's two questions as in-depthand as vulnerable as you prefer
(35:52):
to answer.
It's up to you.
But because of those things andyour degree of self-awareness
you've built, now I'm curiousabout some of your values, and
we've talked about gratitude anda few to this point, but
specifically in the beginning, Imean that had to start from
somewhere.
So my first question is whatwere some of your values growing
up or that you remember beingexposed to?
Ann Marie Thrives (36:15):
Well, I grew up in a Christian household and
so God was always there to adegree, right.
And then when I was on my own,as I got older, I did go through
a time where you know whenthese things happen to you in a
row, you know where youconsistently, you know, every
(36:38):
time it just seemed like everytime I was trying to move
forward, something stupid wouldhappen, and it wasn't
necessarily me doing it.
You know, every single caraccident that I've been in has
been some person who was notpaying attention, ran a stop
sign, ran a light.
You know, every single caraccident that I've been in has
been some person who was notpaying attention, ran a stop
sign, ran a light, you know, gottoo close and ended up smashing
into me, you know.
And so you start to wonderwhere is God, you know, but time
(37:02):
has gone by and it's and it'sonly been, you know, like I said
, the past few years where Ireally had to cling to that
Cause, even when I had breastcancer.
You know, they, they don't letyou stay in the hospital forever
.
You know, I w, I was, I hadmajor surgery, 10 hour surgery
and uh and and I, I got releasedlike two and a half days you're
(37:23):
in ICU.
For you know, then you're upand walking around and no grass
growing under those feet, andand so you know, they, they make
you go home.
And and I remember, that nightin bed it was terrible.
I mean, I ha, I had at least125 or 30, I don't even remember
how many stitches now.
You know may have been 150.
(37:44):
I don't know.
Anyway, um, my point is we hadhad my dad here, um, as I
mentioned before, he was with usfor quite a few months and we
ended up setting up room for himbecause we had just moved here.
We didn't know what we weregoing to do with that other room
yet, because I want a library.
But then I was like I don'tknow, you know.
So we went back and forth andthen the back and forth ended
(38:06):
because my dad came.
So here's your bed, here's yourdresser, here's your bed,
here's your dresser, here's yourlittle recliner.
You could stay here, and if youdon't want to watch TV with us,
you could, you know, be in yourown room and what have you, and
just try to make them feel athome.
So that morning, when I waslying in bed, I couldn't get up.
I had no core, I had no upperbody strength, you know Um, and
(38:27):
I remember I was like God.
Why did they release me?
You know that was doingeverything for me.
Now I can't even roll over, getout of bed, go eat whatever,
and and I remember I just heardin my head you have a hospital
bed in the other room go sit onthe recliner.
So what I remember from thattime is being in that room where
(38:48):
, where my dad passed, you knowmy husband's husband's sitting
laying on the bed because hetook FMLA and he's he's taking
care of me and I'm in the chair.
And then at night we werewatching Christmas movies
because my surgery was thebeginning of December, and so
those are the things I rememberis him sitting next to me, him
making breakfast, him making themeals, him helping me, me, you
know, but resourcefulness, we'renever without the things that
(39:12):
we need to help us in thatperiod of time, that's.
One thing that I've learned isthat the resources are already
there, even if we don't thinkthat they are um the resources
are within us.
You know they either come out ofus or they come to us, but
they're there.
Um, and I get the message outin whatever way.
(39:32):
You know, same either come outof us or they come to us, but
they're there.
And I get the message out inwhatever way.
You know, same thing it comesto me, the resources are there.
It's either word of mouth orFacebook or all of those medias
out there.
I just started doing podcastsbecause I really felt like it's
time to speak up.
It's not a time to be quietanymore.
Josh Porthouse (39:50):
All right, folks sit tight, We'll be right back
on Transacting Value.
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Ann Marie Thrives (40:42):
I just started doing podcasts because I
really felt like it's time tospeak up.
It's not a time to be quietanymore.
Josh Porthouse (40:51):
I'm glad you started talking.
I think your story is supercool, mostly, though, to me,
because you found somethingabout you that you could stand
on, not something about you thatyou didn't have to stand on,
and that's a powerful lesson.
But it's difficult.
It's not at least in myexperience, it's not something
that you come by easily.
(41:11):
It takes work, effort,refinement, and then your vision
shifts and changes, and then,eventually, you look back and
you're like well, actually, thisis the whole thing that I've
been building the whole time.
Right, it's very Bob Ross ofyou, if that means anything.
Yeah, yeah, that's wild, sookay.
(41:32):
So let me ask you this then andI guess, for the sake of time,
this is probably one of my lasttwo questions but of all of your
experiences, then, and theresourcefulness that you've
gained and the self-awarenessthat you've gained, like for you
individually as a person, allthe doubt and everything you had
along the way, what now,looking back, has it all
(41:53):
actually done for your ownself-worth?
Ann Marie Thrives (41:57):
Being an immigrant.
You know, when I was little,there was a lot of quietness
because you can't talk, right, Ihad hours at school where I
couldn't talk because I don'tknow how to communicate with you
.
I don't know how to communicatewith you, I don't know what to
say to you, and even if I do saysomething to you, you're not
going to understand that.
So that led me to, you know, areally quiet life.
(42:19):
I just didn't think that myvoice mattered.
And I remember one time a wholebunch of us were hanging out
and then my sister and I and acouple of our guy friends were
left and I said something.
I don't remember what it was, Idon't even think it was
important, but the point is thatI opened my mouth to say
something and he said um, hesaid something like go ahead and
(42:42):
keep talking so we could talkover you, and he was kidding
around.
But I took that.
You know people have been doingthat my whole life, you know, is
talking over me, and so, um, sothat's why I just kind of
stayed to myself and neverreally said anything.
But, um, you know, now I'molder and I'm wiser, and, and I
(43:02):
feel that, wouldn't it be neatif there was a world where we
could learn from other peoplewho have gone before us and made
those mistakes Cause then,after a learn from other people
who have gone before us and madethose mistakes Cause then,
after a while, other peoplewon't make their own mistakes
because they're learned fromother people.
They'll watch us and they'llsee what we did and you know
they'll wait before they dothings or they'll do things
without being fearful, in amoment that you know we can't
(43:26):
have fear right now because ourlife is on the line, Right, I
mean, maybe that's a littledramatic, but, um, you know,
just just to be out there andjust share what's happened so
that people know that there'sthere's hope for whatever you're
going through.
Josh Porthouse (43:41):
Well, um, I guess then let me be the first
to formally welcome you to thenew world.
Be the first to formallywelcome you to the new world.
I think it's a prettyauspicious journey.
You started midlife, but herewe are again in a new pivot, I
suppose.
So add that to your collectionFor the introvert over here.
Ann Marie Thrives (44:03):
Yeah, yeah, because after I went back to
work from my accident, Iliterally could go Monday
through Friday I would work, andthen I wouldn't talk to anybody
after I got home until it wastime to go back to work on
Monday.
That's how great I am being bymyself.
Josh Porthouse (44:18):
Well, but again, if you didn't have those
opportunities, imagine how muchintrospection you would have
sacrificed.
So again, you know, when youlook back, like you said,
there's a silver lining to allof it, even if you don't see it
in the moment.
Correct, anne-marie, for theamount of experience we've
gotten, I feel like you shouldhave been charging me for my
(44:38):
time, because what you've beenable to put into this
conversation and, I think, moreimportantly, what you are
seemingly starting to find a wayto communicate effectively, as
your story is extremely,extremely undervalued.
(44:58):
I'm glad I found out about youand your story and my team was
able to get you on the show whenwe did, because now we have
plenty of time to bring you backover the next few years and
decades and hear what otherkinds of cool things you've done
and more of your voice.
So in the meantime, though, foranybody that wants to get in
(45:18):
touch with you, track down yourbooks, find out more about your
stories at their own pace, ontheir own time.
Where do people go?
Ann Marie Thrives (45:27):
I have a website that has all of my books
and there's also a couple of um, a couple of free downloads, uh
, 10 key, vital keys to uh gofrom surviving to thriving.
Um and uh, how to be empowered,you know, in a business setting
, like five keys to do that.
So those are free, that peoplecan get my books around there.
31 days.
A stable christmas is like youknow, 31 days of you know, um,
(45:51):
how to be joyful, how to youknow things like that to help us
through the holidays, becausefor some people it could be
really toxic, you know, and, uh,you know it's a hard time, um,
for a lot of people.
So it's all on my website,which is we thrive at lifecom,
weriveatlifecomwethriveatlifecom.
Josh Porthouse (46:09):
I'm noticing a trend.
Yeah, there's a lot of thrivinggoing on in your life and,
again, I'm glad that it is andI'm glad that you are For
everybody who's new to this show.
Depending on the player you'restreaming this conversation or
watching this conversation on,you can click see more.
You can click show more andthen in the drop down
(46:30):
description for thisconversation you will see links
to we thrive at lifecom, whereyou can track down Anne-Marie
and find access to her books andmore of her story and
inspiration.
I love what you're doing, Ilove this conversation.
I love your energy.
It's it's super contagious.
(46:54):
And then, obviously, your storyis way, way intriguing.
There's way too much to eventie into, but I'm glad we found
a way to at least start.
And next time, when you findyourself with an opportunity and
a spare microphone, come backand we'll talk some more, but
for now, thank you for your time.
Ann Marie Thrives (47:15):
Thank you, Josh.
Josh Porthouse (47:17):
Absolutely Everybody else who tuned into
our conversation.
Thank you guys for hanging out,listening to us entertaining
Anne-Marie, letting herentertain you, whatever it was
that worked for you.
This go around and, like I said, if you want to hear more of
our conversations, you can go totransactingvaluepodcastcom On
our homepage.
Even on the top right side ofthe screen you'll see a leave a
(47:39):
voicemail button.
Here's what that can do for youTwo minutes of talk time all
yours.
What can you do with it?
Let us know what you think ofthe show, let us know what you
think of this conversation andin my opinion, it's up to you.
But, more importantly, leavecomments for Anne-Marie and we
can forward them to her too.
Let her know Feedback.
I think positive, constructivefeedback is hard to come by in
(48:01):
the world today and, like yousaid in the beginning, I suppose
in a manner of speaking,gratitude begets gratitude, so
on and so forth.
So I know all of us wouldappreciate it.
But until next time, that wasTransacting Value.
Thank you to our show partnersand folks.
Thank you for tuning in andappreciating our value as we all
(48:21):
grow through life together, tocheck out our other
conversations or even tocontribute through feedback
follows time, money or talent,and to let us know what you
think of the show.
Please leave a review on ourwebsite,
transactingvaluepodcastcom.
We also stream new episodesevery Monday at 9 am Eastern
Standard Time through all ofyour favorite podcasting
platforms like Spotify, iheartand TuneIn.
(48:43):
You can now hear TransactingValue on Wreaths Across America
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You can now hear TransactingValue on Wreaths Across America
Radio Head towreathsacrossamericaorg.
Slash transactingvalue tosponsor a wreath and remember,
honor and teach the value offreedom for future generations.
On behalf of our team and ourglobal ambassadors, as you all
strive to establish clarity andpurpose, ensure social
(49:04):
tranquility and secure theblessings of liberty or
individual sovereignty ofcharacter for yourselves and
your posterity, we will continueinstigating self-worth and
we'll meet you there.
Until next time, that wasTransacting Value.
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