← The School of Greatness
The School of Greatness
The Mindset That Took Her From 2% Survival Odds to the Paralympics | Amy Purdy
01:12:58
At 19, Amy Purdy was given less than a 2% chance of living and woke up without her legs. What she built from that moment will change how you think about limitations, loss, and what you're actually capable of.
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- [00:01]
A
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B
Back to school. Greatest podcast. Very excited about our guest today. Her name is Amy Purdy. Good to see you. Thanks for coming. I appreciate it.
- [01:33]
C
Absolutely.
- [01:33]
B
I've been trying to get you on for like three years now. And I know we made it happen thanks to my persistence and Julianne Hough making the introduction and all these other things. So I'm glad you're here. And you've been traveling a lot and you've got a lot going on. And I told you a story just before we started on camera, Amy stole $25,000. Ripped it from my wallet. She took it from my heart. I was to tell the story. I was, you know, I do speaking just like you do a lot of speaking. It's part of your business, your brand. And this, this conference asked me to speak and they were like, it's down to you and one other person. And then they didn't give it to me, they gave it. And I was like, who is it? And they're like, it's Amy Purdy. I was like, ah, it's tough to. It's tough to beat her up, you know? Yeah, yeah, it's all good.
- [02:18]
C
Well, that makes me that I'M actually honored to know. Well, this sounds bad, but they chose me over you because you're so amazing, though, you know, like it was between the two of us.
- [02:27]
B
It's all good. There's a world of abundance. There's many speaking opportunities. I'm not worried if we miss one each.
- [02:33]
C
But, you know, that is kind of funny. You can put a dollar sign on it.
- [02:36]
A
Exactly.
- [02:37]
C
You stole $25,000 from me.
- [02:39]
B
It's all good. Yeah. One day we'll be speaking on the same stage.
- [02:42]
C
Yeah. Oh, that would be amazing. Let's do it.
- [02:44]
B
We'll make it happen. For those that don't know about your story, you have an incredible story, and I want to dive into it, but Oprah essentially said you're, like, the most inspiring person in the world.
- [02:55]
C
That's crazy.
- [02:55]
B
Which is pretty cool, right? I don't know if that's the exact quote, but it's something like that. I have it down here somewhere. So, like, the person I look up to. Someone you're inspired by for her.
- [03:03]
C
Yeah.
- [03:04]
B
Which is pretty cool. It's pretty real with all the people that she meets. I know you're her inspiration.
- [03:10]
C
You know, it's. It's really, really surreal because she was my inspiration.
- [03:15]
A
Right.
- [03:15]
C
You know, going through everything that I went through with losing my legs and, you know, we'll get into that a bit too, but just losing my legs and everything I went through, I mean, I spent a lot of down days recovering and watching Oprah and the people that she had on the show. And, you know, you think, oh, my gosh, if those people can get through what they went through, I can get through what I'm going through. And then to be sharing the stage with her and actually that the fact that Oprah knows who I am, says my name and knows who I am, I mean, I just feel it's so surreal. And she's just incredible. I mean, you know, she's just a very real, human, down to earth person, which I love even more.
- [03:55]
B
So that's cool.
- [03:56]
C
Yeah.
- [03:57]
B
Well, let's break it down for those that don't know your story. You're 19. You're a regular girl, right? Living in Vegas.
- [04:04]
C
Vegas girl.
- [04:05]
B
Vegas, yeah. You love to snowboard. You had a regular life. Nothing like too crazy, nothing too bad, nothing too out of the world, exciting, just like you were living your life.
- [04:13]
C
Yeah.
- [04:14]
B
And then one day. What happened?
- [04:15]
C
Yeah. So I have to back up real fast. You said I was a snowboarder in Vegas, and people question that often, but I grew up skiing in Vegas, because there's ski resorts outside of Vegas. And my family skied. And then I fell in love with snowboarding when I was. And just knew that it would be a part of my life forever. And I actually. It kind of shaped what I did. After high school, I went to Salt Lake City to become a massage therapist because my thought was I could travel the world and snowboard and have this job that would travel with me.
- [04:46]
B
Amazing.
- [04:47]
C
I could live in resort towns and, you know, on cruise ships and just see the world with this job, but also snowboard. And so I ended up going back to Vegas after massage school because I got a job out there. I was saving money to be able to travel and kind of do all that fun stuff. And that's when really, my, you know, plans changed. I completely went on a detour when I got sick with something called meningococcal meningitis. And we have no idea how I got it. All we know is that they say 25% of the population carries it, and it's just a form of meningitis. So there's spinal meningitis, then there's bacterial meningitis. Spinal's not as deadly or bad as bacterial. Bacterial. You have bacterial, and bacterial is really deadly. We really don't know how I got it. It's airborne. So I could have been in an elevator at work and somebody sneezed on me. And my body just didn't fight it off because they say it lives on your nose and your mouth, and it's something we're in contact with all the time, but our immune systems know to fight off. And so, you know, otherwise everybody would be sick from it. And I just happened to be one of those people that, for whatever reason, my immune system didn't fight at. And within 24 hours of my first flu, like, symptom and was just, you know, I just didn't feel good. Had a slight fever. Just thinking I had the flu. Within 24 hours of that, I was in the hospital on life support, given less than a 2% chance of living. So fought for my life for, you know, weeks to months after that.
- [06:23]
B
And in the hospital still for.
- [06:25]
C
Yeah, so I was in the hospital for about two and a half months.
- [06:28]
A
Wow.
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C
The first.
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B
This is in Vegas.
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C
This is in Vegas. And I just. I honestly just entered the hospital feeling really sick and had no idea that I'd be. I mean, I was on my DeathBed. Like, within 24 hours, I was absolutely fighting for my life and put into an induced coma because they didn't Know what I had at this point? So I entered the hospital. They had no idea what I had except that I was in septic shock. All my organs were failing and hemorrhaging. Everything but my heart and my brain. So all my other organs were hemorrhaging and not working. And so they put me on life support right away and told my parents I had less than a 2% chance of living.
- [07:07]
B
This is in 24 hours, right? Within those next day.
- [07:10]
C
Yes, within the next day. And. And then I was immediately put on. Put into an induced coma because my body was completely shutting down. And that's how they try to kind of stabilize you a little bit.
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B
Calms you down a little bit.
- [07:26]
C
Yeah. So hard. Yeah.
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B
Interesting.
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C
Yep. And what does that mean?
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B
They just give you a drug or.
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A
What do they do?
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C
Yeah.
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B
How do you go in and they do.
- [07:33]
C
They give you some kind of. I forget what it's. But they do. They give you some kind of thing in your iv And I remember my. It was a really good deal.
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B
You just go to sleep.
- [07:42]
C
Yeah. My. It was really hard for my parents. You can imagine, because, you know, they didn't know if they'd see me again. So this was like. I remember I actually was awake when my dad signed the papers to, like, basically put me on life support.
- [07:57]
B
So you may not wake up. This is the only option.
- [07:59]
C
Essentially, you're going to. You'll die if we don't do this.
- [08:02]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [08:03]
C
Yeah. So. Because I wasn't breathing. Not that I wasn't breathing good. I was. I was gasping for air because my lungs had failed so had collapsed. So I just remember, you know, gasping for air and that my dad was signing this paperwork and everyone was crying, and that was, like, my last memory.
- [08:25]
B
See, you guys never. Oh, my God.
- [08:27]
C
Yeah.
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A
And freaking out.
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B
Were you scared?
- [08:30]
C
You know what? There's always humor and tragedy, of course. And I remember it feeling so surreal, like an outer body experience and thinking, you guys, aren't we taking this a little seriously? You know, Even though I was. I didn't. But it was in. It was kind of in the back of my head, even though I was, like, gasping for air, and I'm like, I'm dying. I'm dying. You know, but in the back of my mind, somehow there was this disconnect of, like, everybody here thinks I'm going to die. And isn't that a little, I don't know, serious for the situation? There's something. And maybe it was like a separation of, you know, like, you're. I Don't know. It's like a survival thing of not thinking that.
- [09:16]
B
You think you feel like it, right?
- [09:19]
C
You feel like you're dying, but then you're questioning, am I really dying? You know? So, yeah, it was. So I remember that. And actually, my feet were really, really cold because I had septic shock. So you go into septic shock when your body pulls blood from your extremities to save your organs. And that's what was happening. So I was losing circulation to my hands, to my feet, to my nose, my ears, and my chin.
- [09:45]
B
Like, tingly feeling or, like, numbing.
- [09:47]
C
I mean, I had no feeling. Freezing cold and purple. Like, just literally overnight. Like, it happened really, really fast. So. But my feet hurt so bad. So right before they put me into this induced coma, I asked my dad, or I, like, demanded to see my feet, because I remember saying, my feet hurt so bad. Can I see what's going on? And my dad was like, your feet are the least of our worries here. But I demanded to see my feet. And so my dad pulled the sheets back, and my feet were literally purple.
- [10:19]
A
Oh, wow.
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C
And what?
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B
Do they hurt?
- [10:21]
C
Yeah, Right. They were losing all circulation. And then I. I went into the induced coma. And so that's my very last memory before.
- [10:30]
B
I'm surprised you can even remember that.
- [10:31]
C
You know, I remember so much of that time. You know, you would think that you would kind of black it out because it's a traumatic time. I remember so many details. It's really interesting. So, yeah, I ended up in that induced coma for about two and a half weeks. And then you're kind of in and out, you know, like, I was awake, and then all of a sudden, you kind of slip back into it. You're in and out for a little bit for, say, another, like, week or so, and then. But I still was on life support. When I woke up, I still. Because I was in kidney failure, my spleen had burst and was removed. My kind of everything was out of whack. And so I was still hooked up to machines. When I awoke from the coma, I still had tubes down my throat because my lungs had collapsed and needed help breathing. And so I was awake during a period of time where I was hooked up to, like, a whole room of machines, but aware of what was going on.
- [11:26]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [11:27]
C
And I. Yeah. Then I ultimately ended up losing both my legs below the knees. Almost lost my hands. And that was from the septic shock. So they did everything they could to try to bring me out of that septic shock. To try to get more circulation to my feet, because that's just a natural. It's pretty amazing. It's a natural response to your body trying to save itself is your organs are failing, so let's pull blood from your extremities to save your organs. And that's just the body's natural response, which is pretty amazing. But because of that, I lost circulation to my. My legs and my hands.
- [12:03]
B
So when you woke up the first time, did you already lose your legs or.
- [12:06]
C
No. So I woke up, and my feet at this point were the. The bottoms of my feet were black. I mean, like. And my toes, like kind of mummy.
- [12:18]
B
Like snowboarding.
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C
I know, but to the extreme. But, yeah, I mean, like, frostbite, really, like, you just. I mean. Yeah, they're the balls of my feet or the. The soles of my feet.
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B
Oh, my goodness.
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C
And my toes had just. I mean, zero circulation. The tops of my feet, they were dead. Absolutely. The tops of my feet were purple. Ish. And, you know, they were. At that point, it actually wasn't. It was really weird. It's painful before, you know, when I first entered the hospital, but when I woke up from the coma, it wasn't painful. It was just confining. I just wanted to move my toes. I wanted to, like, feel the air between my toes and just felt like, you know, like I couldn't. I could. I could kind of move my feet. I could kind of move my toes, but I was every day losing the ability to do that.
- [13:09]
B
Wow.
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C
And so then I. It was a couple weeks after I woke up from that coma. First of all, they tried to save my feet. It was pretty much my feet. It's above the ankle, about 2 inches is where I was affected. And so they tried to save, I always say, my legs because now I'm in actual prosthetic legs. But they. They wanted to bring me to a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to try to infuse my tissues with oxygen, but I was too unstable. They couldn't move me from hospital bed or anything. And. And then they would, you know, do they bring in physical therapists and massage and rub creams that are really bad for you but that, like, bring blood flow? They were doing everything they could, and ultimately just. They knew that if they didn't amputate. If they didn't amputate my feet that spread.
- [14:03]
B
It would go.
- [14:04]
C
It would spread, yes, because it turns into gangrene, basically. And gangrene can spread really, really fast within minutes to hours. It's just suddenly, once it Hits you're to. You're amputating higher and higher. So I have to say, though, I got lucky. I know a lot of people who either died from meningococcal meningitis or survived it, but lost their legs to their hips, you know, their arms and their legs. And it's because that gangrene set in really fast for them. I, for whatever reason, had five weeks where it didn't set in. And so that was. They were, you know, doing everything they could, but then they knew by blood test that it was about ready to. So I just remember the doctor coming in and saying, we have to do this tomorrow. We have to amputate your legs tomorrow.
- [14:50]
B
They told you then. Wow.
- [14:51]
C
Yeah. And, you know, it's amazing where the strength comes from because I didn't cry. I just said, okay, do it. Like, do what you have to do so I can get out of here and move on with my life.
- [15:04]
B
Wow.
- [15:05]
C
I was just ready. You know, there's certain things that you. There's no debate, like, this is what has to happen to survive. So let's make.
- [15:13]
B
Let's cut my legs off.
- [15:14]
C
Right.
- [15:15]
B
Oh, my gosh. Imagine what that'd be like.
- [15:18]
C
You can't. And I could have never imagined.
- [15:20]
B
But when you're in that moment and the pain, you know, surviving for your
- [15:24]
C
life, and there wasn't a lot of pain, but there was survival. I mean, I was absolutely in survival,
- [15:30]
B
going a different mode, probably totally different. Everything.
- [15:33]
C
Yeah.
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B
Interesting.
- [15:34]
C
And here I'm an emotional person just by nature. Like, I. I mean, I could look at a sunset and cry. Like I said.
- [15:42]
B
You looked at the photo on you.
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C
Yeah.
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B
I look at that photo, American flag, and you're. Yeah.
- [15:45]
C
And I want to cry. So you would think that I would be the biggest baby in that situation, but somehow I was probably stronger than, you know, the majority of my family, even they were the ones who were so heartbroken and crying, and I was kind of like, do what you got to do so I can move on with my life. Everything's gonna be fine. I'll figure it out. Wow. I just had that. Some kind of faith and conference confidence that that holy cow was going to be the case. But, you know, it's weird. You just. Survival mode is an interesting thing. You cut the emotion out of it. That's what it is. You know, you're not like, oh, you
- [16:22]
B
know, it's sad crying about your legs. Like, I gotta move on.
- [16:25]
C
Yeah. You're like, I gotta do whatever I have to do in this moment to survive. And get through the day.
- [16:30]
B
Yeah. If you were probably like, in the wilderness and for a month or whatever, you would, whatever, eat a bunny rabbit. If you had to, you would just be like, well, I gotta eat it, right? I can't cook it.
- [16:39]
A
Or, you know, whatever.
- [16:40]
C
And you probably have a period of time of the emotional, like, because it's the attachment of things.
- [16:44]
B
Like nine.
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C
Exactly. Then you go into, like, survival, like, beast mode.
- [16:49]
B
And that's rip a salmon or whatever. It's like Bear Grylls.
- [16:59]
A
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- [19:35]
B
And I, and I read somewhere that you kind of had like a moment when you were either in your coma where you like saw you were either going to go until like death or
- [19:45]
A
come back to life.
- [19:45]
B
Was it like a thing you saw people? There was three people or something.
- [19:48]
C
Yeah. So, you know, I really don't tell the story very much.
- [19:52]
B
I've never met anyone who's had a story like this.
- [19:54]
C
Yeah.
- [19:54]
B
Who they've like seen the light experience.
- [19:57]
C
Yeah. So I'm interested, shaped my life. So that's why it's, it's so important for me. So when I was, when I was in the coma that I was in and I was, it was that first week which was the most critical when I was in the hospital. So it was really kind of touch and go as far as I was hooked up to all these machines. And this is just, you know, I heard this from my nurses, doctors and parents because I was out of it, obviously. But my blood pressure would crash and my heart rate would shoot up. It was 244 beats per minute and actually stayed that way for about a week and a half, just fluttering in my chest and said for one, they said if I wasn't as young as I was or as strong as I was because I was working out a lot at that time, that my heart probably wouldn't have been able to sustain that. But so my blood pressure would crash, my heart rate would go up, then my heart rate would crash, my blood pressure would go up and it was just this constant all day for, you know, a couple days there of just being on the edge that they think that I was going bring my whole family in, everybody would start praying, all of a sudden I'd come back. Yet there was a lot of that that happened. And then they had to come in with the chest shockers and shock my heart back into the rhythm. And so the first few days for my family was just, I mean every, yeah, every five minutes was A kind of a different story for those few days. And so at the same time, apparently my stomach started to get kind of bigger, and they were taking my blood and realizing that my red blood count was low, so they realized I was internally bleeding. And here I was, so unstable as it was. I was hooked up to all these machines, and they couldn't even. I actually remember this at one point, for some reason, I remember this. I remember, like, you know when you. Okay. You know when you're falling asleep and you. You dream that you fell off a cliff or something, you jumped, you wake up or whatever.
- [21:57]
A
Yeah.
- [21:57]
C
I remember having a moment like that and my finger twitching and hearing all the machines in the room go off and them slamming my hand down, because just that motion made my whole body go out of whack. So that's why they had me in that induced coma, was to kind of paralyze me to not move at all, but I was that unstable. And then they had to move me into CAT scan to see what was going on. And I guess it took an entire day and, like, eight doctors to move me from the hospital bed to the CAT scan bed because they had to move just finger. Like, fingertip by fingertip without, you know, disrupting my heart rate and all that stuff. And so once they got me to CAT scan, they found out that my spleen was about ready to burst. It was 10 times its normal size. And so they rushed me immediately into. Into surgery. And, I mean, at that point, my parents and my family thought, you know, that. Well, they. I mean, it was a good chance I was absolutely going to die if I didn't do the surgery, but there was a huge chance I was going to die by doing the surgery because I was so unstable as it was. Wow.
- [23:07]
B
The amputee or this for my spleen. Oh, wow, okay.
- [23:10]
C
Sorry.
- [23:10]
B
So my first surgery.
- [23:12]
C
Yes. This is the first surgery. First of many. Yeah. So my spleen. Spleen was 10 times its normal size and bleeding internally. Bleeding internally.
- [23:22]
B
Hearing this.
- [23:23]
C
I know, I know. Yeah. If you have any kind of weird, like, needle medical blood, you know, phobias, then it's probably not the story to listen to. But. But anyways, so I was rushed into emergency surgery so they could remove my spleen. And I remember being in that surgery. So even though I was in a coma, I remember being in that surgery. And I remember actually looking up, even though my eyes were taped shut and everything, I remember it was. It was a bit of an outer body experience because I remember looking up, seeing the doctor hearing what the doctors and the nurses were talking about. I remember the doctor. His name is Dr. Abbey. I write about him quite a bit in my book because he's just a really important part of my life. But I remember Dr. Abbey whispering in my ear, and he said, amy, whatever it is you believe in, think about that now. This makes me want to cry. I don't talk about this very much, but so he said, think about that now. Whatever religion, whatever it is you believe, and hang on to that right now.
- [24:23]
B
And I'm going under.
- [24:25]
C
Yeah.
- [24:25]
B
Wow.
- [24:26]
C
And I remember. Well, I was under. I was already under. I was in a coma.
- [24:29]
B
Gotcha.
- [24:29]
C
This was kind of an outer body thing. This was like a beginning of this near death experience thing. So I remember him whispering that to me. You know, he's not necessarily aware that I'm aware that he was saying that, but I remember him saying that. And I remember thinking. So he said everything, you know, whatever it is you think, whatever it is you believe in, think about that right now. And I remember just the first thing that popped to my head as I thought, I believe in love. I believe in love. And I was raised. It's kind of interesting. I was raised kind of, kind of Mormon because my grandparents were Mormon, and so I'd go to church with them every other Sunday. But I wasn't really raised in a Mormon household. But I knew a bit of that relationship. But I also knew that my friends had different religions. And I never. I never felt religious, but I always felt spiritual. And. And it's just interesting in that moment when I was asked, what is it you believe in? Like, I believe in love. You know, I think love is the creator of everything and. And what it boils down to in the end. And so I thought of that. And then all of a sudden, so my heart was like beating out of my chest and I could feel it. I could feel it fluttering in my chest. And I thought I was actually in open heart surgery because I remember feeling the doctor with no pain, but I remember the pressure, feeling him cut me open from my sternum down to my belly button.
- [25:58]
B
Oh, gosh.
- [25:59]
C
But there was no pain. It was just like, I could feel the skin and everything.
- [26:03]
B
Pressure. Kind of like the tension or whatever.
- [26:05]
C
Yeah, the tension. And I thought I was in heart surgery because my aunt has the same scar and she had heart surgery when she was young. And I could feel my heart beating in my chest. And I was thinking, okay, he's here to fix my heart. But anyways, as my heart was beating, it was beating faster. And faster and faster. And I felt like I was hanging on by my fingertips, just on a cliff. And every time my heart hit a beat, I felt like I was going closer and closer to the edge. I mean, I was absolutely hanging on for dear life. And then all of a sudden, I remember feeling my last heartbeat. And it was incredibly powerful and just knocked the breath out of me. And suddenly I was in the space and in this dark space, and I saw a light. It wasn't a bright light, it was kind of a dimmed green haze, but there was just enough of a light to see that there are three silhouettes. And I didn't recognize these silhouettes. They're very basic, you know, there wasn't any details except I could see their hands going like this, like enough, in a kind of come here motion. And they were saying to me, you can come with us or you can stay. And I remember getting so frustrated and thinking, I haven't lived my life yet. I haven't fallen in love yet. I haven't traveled the world yet. I haven't, like, I love life. I haven't done all these things that I always thought that I would do. And I remember getting just so frustrated and screaming, no. Like, every cell in my body, I was like, I'm not going anywhere. And right then, this really bright light said, this I can say was the brightest white light I've ever seen was sitting over my right shoulder. And it was basically saying kind of like, okay, you chose to stay. And you know your life is going to be challenging, but there's. There's basically, there's. I'm putting this in my own words, but because I can't remember exactly the words, but basically there's going to be mountaintops and valleys, you know, there's going to be constant up and downs, but just know that it will all make sense in the end. And that's so clear to me that it will all make sense in the end. And so when I woke up from the coma that I was in, that was my first thought of what I had gone through. And I think that faith of whatever it is, just knowing that it will. No how no matter how challenging life gets, no matter what our circumstances are, that it is all going to make sense in the end. That is what helped to get me through the toughest days of my life.
- [28:53]
B
Wow. Where do you think you'd be right now if this didn't happen to you or for you?
- [29:01]
C
You know? Exactly. I love that. I. I don't know, because I certainly didn't know how, you know, like passionate or strong or motivated. I was. I don't know if that all just engaged after I went through everything or if it was always kind of in. I know it was always in me. It's just bringing it out. But I. I mean, I wanted to be a massage therapist, travel the world. I'll tell you what I want to. I wanted to travel the world, I wanted to snowboard. And now that is exactly what I'm doing. Just in a completely different way than I ever expected.
- [29:37]
B
Without the massage.
- [29:38]
C
Yeah, now I get massages, which is even better. But, you know, I think we all want to make a difference in the world somehow. Like, we all have a drive to actually just to do something and live a fulfilling life and hopefully positively affect people. And now I'm doing that because of what I went through. You know, I. I used to want to move to LA out here because I thought I want to act and I want to do all this stuff. But I think what I was craving was I just. I just wanted to do something. And I guess it's. I think some of it is being recognized for something. You know, I think maybe everybody feels that. And when I was younger, I used to think it's, oh, be on tv. And now I realize, no, it's actually connecting with people. Like, that's what. That's what I want. You're sharing this love and encouragement and positivity and whatever that energy is between people. That's, I think, something that we all want, maybe without knowing it. And once you are able to do that, like we're able to do through speaking, you're like, that's what it is. So fulfilling.
- [30:52]
B
Yeah. So, okay, so after you had that experience and then you had to, you know, remove your legs, essentially, part of your legs is above the knee. Below the knee.
- [31:02]
C
Below the knee. It's right above the ankles.
- [31:04]
B
Above the ankles. Is that better if it's below the knee? Because then you have the joint to be able to still use.
- [31:09]
C
Yes.
- [31:09]
B
If it was above the knee, it'd be much harder.
- [31:11]
C
Way harder.
- [31:12]
B
Okay.
- [31:12]
C
Yes. Below the knee is a blessing.
- [31:15]
B
Wow, that's good.
- [31:16]
C
Yeah.
- [31:16]
B
And so when you. This happened and you wake up and they're not there, what are you thinking?
- [31:21]
C
Yes. So then I remember the day the doctor came in and said, if we don't. Basically said, if we don't amputate here. And he pointed to my ankles, then he said, we'll have to amputate up here next week. And he pointed to my knees. So he Was like, we have to do this. And so I remember being wheeled into the surgical room.
- [31:44]
B
Oh, my God.
- [31:45]
C
I know. And it's so crazy, because how do you wrap your head. Your head around, oh, my gosh, you
- [31:51]
B
know, it's about to happen. You're not going to be there.
- [31:53]
C
Yep. And you have no idea what your life is going to be like. You know, I actually visualized the only amputees I had ever seen were like, you know, and it's sad. Where Vietnam vets on the corner in a wheelchair with a sign. And I thought, that's the only vision I have in my head of what life is like as a leg amputee. And I was getting ready to have that happen to me. But I remember I gave myself. I gave myself kind of three goals as I was going into the emergency. Like, literally as they were wheeling me from my room into the surgical room, I gave myself three goals. And I think I did this because I needed to feel some kind of control, you know, And I knew that. Well, one of those goals was that I was going to snowboard that year. And I guess I. Now I realize I'm just that type of person where I'm like, I throw myself into things, like, I'm going to get in shape, and I'm going to do it every single day until I'm there. I have 30 days to get in shape or, you know, for that. It was like, I'm snowboarding, but I'm snowboarding this year. Wow. And then I knew that when I figured it out, or I. The other goal is when I do figure it out, I want to somehow help other people, let them know that it's going to be okay. But I first have to figure that out, you know, Figure out yourself how
- [33:13]
B
to be okay with it.
- [33:14]
A
Yeah.
- [33:14]
C
Yeah. And then the third goal, you know, it's funny, all of a sudden, I'm spacing the third goal as I'm sitting here. So it was. Yeah, well, you'll have to read my book and you'll see what the.
- [33:24]
B
We'll see it in there. Yeah, yeah.
- [33:26]
C
But I think, you know, the idea there is just that I needed something to feel in control of and to get me through that experience, something to look forward to. Like, I said I would do this. I said I would snowboard this year, so I'm going to do that. And so I. Yeah, it was wheeled in. They amputated my legs above the ankles. And then that was when a whole new. I stepped into a whole new life and journey.
- [33:52]
B
Wow. So did you snowboard then?
- [33:55]
C
That year I did. I snowboarded. So I snowboarded about, I'd say, seven months after I lost my legs.
- [34:01]
B
Amazing.
- [34:01]
C
That was about four months after I got my prosthetics. And it wasn't comfortable. There was. It was definitely, you know, my ankles didn't move. Because your ankles can move so much. You know, if you can imagine, you keep your feet flat and you can bend your knees to the floor, right? That's how you jump, or that's how you get an athletic stance. But with prosthetic legs, our ankles don't bend. I mean, even really, the best prosthetics, your ankles bend very, very little. Because if you have too much motion, then you're kind of all over the place. You can't control it. So my ankles were very stiff. And I actually remember the day that I tried to snowboard again. I went up with my sister and, you know, just put my normal gear on. Everything, I remember everything felt so weird. Trying to just even walk in the snow and not feel my feet, you know, it's kind of slipping around. And then as we were on the chairlift going up, I think that's when it really hit me. Kind of the fear of, what if I can't do this? That's when it hit me. Because the whole time that seven months, I kept thinking, I'm going to snowboard. I'm going to do this. I'm going to get my legs, I'm going to walk, I'm going to learn to snowboard, whatever I need to do to snowboard. But then all of a sudden, that moment was there.
- [35:20]
B
Now what?
- [35:20]
C
Yeah, what if I can't? And so that was kind of a frightening chairlift ride to the top. But when I got off the lift, I was able to kind of cruise on my board. You know, you stop, you buckle in. So all that went okay. Then I got up, and I was just able to kind of point my board and go straight, you know, Felt completely different. Couldn't feel my feet at all. And then I remember I carved on my heel edge and everything felt okay. And then I went to carve on my toe edge. And that's when I realized, oh, my gosh, my ankles don't bend. I can't really get to my toes, but I ended up hitting this bump, and my. My beanie went one way, my goggles went the other way, and, I mean, I fell, and my legs, well, my legs still attached to my snowboard, went flying down the mountain.
- [36:13]
B
No way. Oh, my gosh.
- [36:15]
C
I kind of broke into pieces. And meanwhile, you know, I'm sitting at the top of the mountain, totally embarrassed, just like had no idea that, you know, I would worry about my legs actually falling off. Yeah. And my friend hiked down the mountain and picked my legs up attached to this snowboard and hiked them back up. And what's funny is somebody on the chairlift screamed because, you know, I'm sure
- [36:38]
B
it was, didn't know, it was like, oh my God, she just broke her legs off.
- [36:41]
C
Yeah, she was like, oh my God. And I'm sure she racked up years of therapy bills. You know, after that she probably went home and was like, I am never learning to ski and snowboard again because I saw a girl break into millions of pieces. And it's funny because we, we always say with skiers, if a skier falls, we usually call it a yard cell because their skis come off and then their, you know, beanie comes off and their poles. Yeah, they have all this stuff around them. And so this was kind of the ultimate yard sale because I had all that around me. Body came off too, and feet flying down the mountain. Hahaha.
- [37:19]
A
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- [38:57]
B
So I was 20 years old at this time, right?
- [38:59]
C
Yeah. Wow. And I was really discouraged. I was also. I was still quite sick. I mean, I was £83 when I left the hospital. I still, at that point was probably under £100. And I hooked up to dialysis machines every night because my kidneys were in full kidney failure. So I was still quite weak, but I felt at least strong enough to get up and try to snowboard. But it really, you know, that motivated me. I was definitely discouraged when that happened, when my legs didn't move the way I needed them to when they came off. But I remember thinking, okay, so if I can find a way to get my ankles to move the way they need to, if I can find a way to keep these legs attached to me, then I can do this. You know, it's just about kind of minimizing the overall emotion of, oh, my God. I just can't to wait a second. These are very tangible things.
- [39:55]
B
One step at a time.
- [39:55]
C
Yeah. And so, yeah, so I ended up going. Going home from there and kind of knowing what I needed to do, and I went on this mission to figure out what kind of feet to. For snowboarding and came to find out that there were no snowboard feet out there. You know, it's not something that you can just go to shop and buy a snowboard feet.
- [40:21]
B
This is. What, like, how many years ago was this?
- [40:23]
C
Gosh, this was like 14 years ago. Probably actually longer. This was 16 years ago.
- [40:28]
B
Wow. So probably wasn't as advanced in prosthetics then either. Right.
- [40:32]
C
I'm still. I'm in the exact same leg setup I was in 16 years ago. So. Yeah, I mean, even though there are. There have been advancements, for sure with the military, and you see a lot of these bionic prosthetics coming out. I mean, first of all, so far, there's really. There's nothing that mimics the human dynamic body, you know, and there's a lot of research that goes into arm prosthetics because, you know, people who lose their hands, you do so much with your hands that. But they are putting a lot of research into, you know, people being able to even feel, you know, hot and cold with their fingertips or hold a baby or actually have some kind of feeling there. With leg prosthetics, there's. There actually has been a lot of advancements. If you're above the knee. Just in the last probably 10 years, they developed computerized knees that think like a thousand times a second and know what movement you're going to do and want to do. So that's amazing. But when you're below the knee, it's pretty basic. I mean, there, there is some computerized ankles out there. I've tried one I was in. I went to MIT and tried these awesome biomechanical ankles.
- [41:45]
B
Right.
- [41:46]
C
And I will say certain things were amazing that I missed and I didn't realize that I missed. Like, for example, when you're sitting, say you're sitting and your legs are crossed, normally your foot kind of drops a little bit, right? Like you can kind of. You don't point your toe, but it just kind of drops. But with prosthetics, I mean, your foot is just stuck. Like I'm in a 90 degree angle. It's the same shape all the time.
- [42:07]
B
Right.
- [42:08]
C
And I never realized.
- [42:10]
B
Kind of looks like it's dropped a little bit almost.
- [42:13]
C
Well, I'm in a high heel.
- [42:14]
B
Maybe it's the shoe that makes it.
- [42:15]
C
Yeah, I have 3 inches heels on today, so it looks that way, right. But you know, it's not, it's not going to drop anymore. And if I was in tennis shoes, then it's really at a 90 degree.
- [42:24]
B
Yeah, yeah, gotcha.
- [42:25]
C
And there's little things like that that do bother you. And you realize, you know, as a girl, as a woman, like there's feminine little things like that, like, you know, you point your toes that all of a sudden I couldn't do and do. But when I tried these amazing computerized ankles on it did that. It's like automatically it knows your legs are crossed, so it drops. Or walking and just walking upstairs, if you can imagine, you know, you roll off the balls of your foot. That's a dynamic motion. Well, prosthetics don't do that. No, it's like I'm in ski boots all the time. Everything is just set. So I'm really just like stepping in the middle of my foot the whole time. But with those computerized ankles, it actually pushes off the ball of the foot. And it's like you get up the stairs so fast.
- [43:17]
B
Why don't you use those?
- [43:19]
C
Because they made me like six feet tall. Yeah, they made me way too tall because there was. They haven't figured out how to shrink the computer down to be for somebody like me.
- [43:30]
B
Gotcha.
- [43:30]
C
They were just too tall and made me too tall. And I will say this too. They were fun. But there's something about I like being able to control my feet instead of my feet control me. And so actually now when I snowboard, I actually snowboard in quite a. I don't want to say basic feet. I kind of created these feet to snowboard in, to move the way I need them to, but they're, they're quite dead. They're not like shocks and springs and like super high tech knees and your.
- [43:58]
B
Everything else is shock and spring. Right.
- [44:00]
C
Well, the thing is, so, so even though I have my knees, if your ankles don't bend, your knees don't bend because try, like if you were to stand up right now, you know. Yeah. Like kind of, it all works together. So even though I have my knees, the motion's limited because my ankle motion is limited. But I tried actually, the next time I snowboarded, I went up with these feet that had shocks and springs. They're these high athletic feet. And I bounced all over the place. You know, I'd hit chatter and I'd, you know, bounce around. Yeah. And I thought, okay, it's actually better to go back to the basic feet so that I can control them. And I find that just with day to day walking and other activities, I kind of like being in control and making them do what I want them to do instead of all of a sudden them getting a glitch and like, okay, we're running, I guess we're running.
- [44:54]
A
Right?
- [44:54]
B
Right. So when did you decide that, okay, maybe I can go to the Olympics, Paralympics and compete? When did that dream happen?
- [45:03]
C
Funny that it didn't happen until after I lost my legs. You know, I never had, I never had a dream to go to the Olympics. And I think part of it is because snowboarding wasn't an Olympic sport when I first started doing didn't become an Olympic sport until really until around the time that I lost my legs. And I think so after I lost my legs, I was realized, I was aware that snowboarding was in the Paralympics. I can't talk, but snowboarding was in the Olympic Games. And once I realized that I could do it, I thought, well, why isn't snowboarding in the Paralympic Games?
- [45:40]
B
It wasn't yet.
- [45:40]
C
No. And so my now husband, but he was my boyfriend at the time, Daniel, we started a nonprofit organization called Adaptive Action Sports. We get youth, young adults and wounded vets, all with permanent physical disabilities into action sports. So snowboarding, skateboarding, wakeboarding, we even do rally car racing, motocross, all types of, you know, the action sports that I always loved. We kind of just figured out I can do all of these things. So why aren't more people doing these things yet? There are a lot of people, a lot of amputees that were skiing and swimming, doing more classic sports. So we wanted to bring these opportunities to people with disabilities so they can do these other types of sports. And part of what we had a goal of was trying to get snowboarding into the Paralympic Games. And so we kind of went on this mission teaching snowboard lessons to people who have never snowboarded before, but then also trying to find the snowboarders out there. Over the years, I had created kind of this. Not that I created it, but you kind of attract people around you. I had this community of people who all snowboarded and had prosthetics, and everybody was riding amazing. But individually, in their own little mountain town or in Canada, there would be somebody with a prosthetic who snowboarded. So we all started coming together and hitting up every single snowboard competition. With our organization, Adaptive Action Sports, we would create adaptive divisions to snowboard competitions. USAA National Snowboard Competition. We created an adaptive division with that, the ESPN X Games. We created an adaptive skateboard division, and then we did an adaptive snowboard division to the ESPN Winter X Games, which we still run the board across. And so we started.
- [47:34]
B
You guys, your organization runs it?
- [47:35]
C
Yes, so my husband runs that. And. And so we started, you know, helping to create this community of people who rode incredibly well and wanted to see it in the Games. I mean, it's amazing. For years on our own dollar, with literally barely any money in our pocket, we'd fly to New Zealand and compete out there and fly to Europe and compete out there. And we had zero sponsors. No idea if this would ever be a Paralympic sport.
- [48:03]
B
Wow.
- [48:03]
C
There was kind of a core group of probably maybe 20 of us that made it happen. And we were successful ultimately in getting snowboarding. Our first Games was the 2014 Paralympics in Sochi.
- [48:18]
B
And so that's the one you competed in?
- [48:19]
C
Yes.
- [48:20]
B
And got a bronze medal.
- [48:21]
C
Yes.
- [48:21]
B
What was the event? What was border cross? So it wasn't half pilot. It wasn't like you're doing tricks?
- [48:27]
C
No, no. I used to love to do that kind of stuff when I had legs. It's definitely a lot more complicated now, but I'll tell you, even. I mean, border cross is one of the most complicated sports I probably any an amputee could ever do. Because you need to be so dynamic.
- [48:43]
B
You need your ankles.
- [48:44]
C
You need ankles. You need ankles for multiple reasons. Because so Border cross. You know, it's almost like. It's almost like motocross, but down snow because there's four to six people who come out of the start gate at the same time. You immediately go over these jumps as separation features.
- [49:02]
B
Tough.
- [49:02]
C
Yeah. And then you're around berms and more jumps and berms and more jumps, and you're just weeding each other out. You know, whoever crosses the finish line first, wins, moves on to the next round. And it's an all day kind of thing of competing against each other until you get the winner. And I'm the only double lake amputee competitive snowboarder worldwide right now at that level. There's some. This year we. We actually met a couple new double leg amputee guys who are starting to train and hopefully get, you know, work their way up. But for all these years, it's just been me with two prosthetic legs. And so I race against girls who have their legs or who have one prosthetic leg and, you know, just missing an arm. Some are missing arm or they have their own category. So now if you're an arm, if you're kind of an upper limb impairment, you're in one category. If you're a lower limb impairment, you're another category.
- [49:55]
B
Gotcha. Mostly it's one limb.
- [49:57]
C
Mostly it's one limb. Very few people are double and actually have figured out their equipment and had the drive to actually make it to the point where you can compete.
- [50:07]
B
This was like 12 years of training for you.
- [50:09]
C
Yes. And just constant innovation, constant creativity to try to figure out how to get my feet to move the way I want them to move. And to be honest, they're still not there. They're not there. I mean, the other girls, you know, they. Everybody is such incredible athletes training so hard and also have at least one good leg to really do all the dynamic stuff. And for me, I rely 100% on the mechanics of these feet, and they just. They're very limited compared to what the human foot can do. So I do realize, though, that that's what my drive is. My drive is to figure it out. It's frustrating, but it's also rewarding, especially when I meet, say, other young double leg amputees who say, oh, my God, I want to go to the Paralympics for snowboarding. Yeah.
- [51:04]
B
Amazing. What was it like the final round because you made it to the championship race, right?
- [51:10]
C
Yes.
- [51:10]
B
So the final race to essentially like the metal race.
- [51:14]
C
Yeah.
- [51:15]
A
What was that?
- [51:15]
B
How many girls are in that final?
- [51:18]
C
So for us since that was the first Paralympics, it was a much smaller field.
- [51:23]
B
Yes.
- [51:24]
C
Our first snowboard event in the Paralympics, it was a much smaller field. And actually we didn't do the typical 4x4 or.
- [51:32]
B
Really? Yeah, that was more timed or.
- [51:35]
C
It was timed. And the reason they.
- [51:36]
B
If we hate each other, it's hard to get up, sort of, whatever. Right.
- [51:39]
C
Well, they just, they just. There was kind of a safety thing that they just didn't know yet. We had trained quite a while for two years doing time trials. They just decided, let's just do the time trials and make it go off of that instead of doing head to head, because they couldn't quite figure out the classifications. You know, I'm a double leg amputee and then I'm competing against an above the knee amputee and then there's a girl with legs who maybe has, you know, a bit of Ms. Or something, impairment in there. So they just decided, let's just do time run, and whoever has the best time wins for second, third. Now, though, going into the next Games, it is side by side. It's actually really, really exciting and crazy that way. But. But, yeah, just. Just for one, just being, you know, being in Russia, being at the Olympics, being in the Olympic village is. It makes me emotional because it's just so cool, you know, And. And then, gosh, I mean, just the day of the race, it's almost like your whole life sets you up to that moment. You know, I wouldn't have been there if I didn't lose my legs, you know, and then. Yeah, I mean, it's. And we get a countdown, we're in the gates and, you know, you hear the guy go, three, two, like, racers ready. You know, three, two, one, go. And I mean, those moments are some of the most intense moments because once you pull out of that start gate as hard as you can.
- [53:08]
B
Oh, my God, my heart is like pounding just listening to this. Yeah, it's a dream. You know, it's like it's been my dream as a kid and I can only imagine how emotional it is.
- [53:17]
C
Yeah. And to actually try to keep those emotions at bay.
- [53:20]
B
Yeah. Because focus on the goal. You've been working on this your whole life.
- [53:24]
C
Yeah, don't mess it up right now. But, yeah, I mean, you know, easily standing in those gates, you know, I thought of everything that happened in my life that led me there. All the people who are rooting for me, all the people who supported me, and I mean, we even had throughout the years because we raced in a dangerous sport. We even had major, major injuries with some of the athletes. We had one athlete who passed away in one of our races right before Sochi. So all of that, though, is what, you know, comes to you in the Stargates. It's like everything it took to get there, you know, and then. But then, you know, you have to use that as power versus, like, broke down emotional. Yeah. And. And. Yeah. Then pulled out of Stargates, and it was very challenging for us. We were in Sochi. The snow was very, very weird.
- [54:20]
B
Different.
- [54:21]
C
Yeah, it was like quicksand. It was really interesting. They'd spray the stuff on it to try to harden it up, but it would make it like glue. It was really weird.
- [54:29]
B
So time was slow compared to other places.
- [54:31]
C
Yeah, you'd, like, dig your edge in, and it would actually. You'd kind of sink in. Sink. Instead of cutting through, you know, you'd go slower. And so we had to be lighter on our edges, and it was a whole different type of writing than we're used to, and. Yeah. And I ended up coming in third place and was absolutely. I mean, so grateful.
- [54:53]
B
What was that like when they put the medal around your neck?
- [54:56]
C
Amazing.
- [54:56]
B
They don't play the national anthem unless you win. Correct.
- [54:59]
C
How did we do that? Let me think. I think we all. They did the national anthem.
- [55:02]
B
Each person third, second, and first.
- [55:04]
C
Yeah. Yeah. When we did the awards ceremony, they do an award ceremony or they do a flower ceremony right after the race on the snow. So they bring up the top three and give you flowers, and then I think they play it in the metal. Yeah, yeah. That night's the medal ceremony, and that was emotional.
- [55:21]
B
I can imagine.
- [55:22]
C
Yeah.
- [55:22]
B
Did you get the rings, too, tattooed?
- [55:25]
C
No, I didn't. I haven't, but I know a lot of people who have. Yeah, Yeah, I. I know. I've. I've kind of thought of it, but, you know, I do have. I have the rings. Ring. I don't have it on me right now, but usually, you know, to have that Olympic ring, to be able to look down and see it, is pretty. You know, it's just crazy. I mean, it's so cool. And so I was so grateful because of everybody who supported me. Everything that we went through, you know, to be able to be there, represent anybody with a disability or anybody who, you know, had an adversity and didn't think that they could do something, you know, powerful with their lives, to be able to. To be there and kind of represent that and. Yeah. I mean, and then just knowing that all your hard Work paid off. There was a little bit of a beef. Right. It was like, thank God. Thank God I brought metal home because I really had my heart set on it. You know, that's what your whole couple years leading up is, just bringing home a metal. Like every minute that I didn't work out, I knew somebody else was working out harder than me. And you needed to be ahead of the game. And so crazy. Well, it takes all of you.
- [56:37]
B
Congrats on getting this the bronze. It's amazing.
- [56:39]
C
Thank you.
- [56:40]
B
Now, how did Dancing with the Stars come about then?
- [56:42]
C
Yeah, that was interesting. So. So I'll tell you what. Everything happens for a reason. It really does. Or it's either that or you make do with what you're given and then it makes sense. Right. In the end. But I. So that year leading up to the Paralympics, I actually got this random opportunity to do a movie with Samuel L. Jackson for the Paralympics.
- [57:06]
B
And you didn't really have a platform before.
- [57:08]
C
Correct. I had a TED Talk that I did in 2011.
- [57:13]
A
Amazing.
- [57:13]
C
And apparently my TED Talk is used by the TED organization to say, this is how you do it.
- [57:21]
B
Right, right, right.
- [57:21]
C
Yeah, it's pretty cool. Yeah. And I did that. I mean, when I first started speaking and I guess going back to that quickly, I mean, that was the most challenging thing I've ever done at that time in my life. Did you do a TED Talk?
- [57:36]
B
I've been asked to do many, but I'm waiting for the.
- [57:38]
C
Right.
- [57:39]
B
Yeah, I'm waiting. I've got the speech in mind and I've been practicing it and I'm like, you're practicing?
- [57:43]
C
Just waiting.
- [57:44]
B
I've been waiting.
- [57:44]
C
You know, it's all about timing for me. Yeah, I. So I kind of just jumped in feet first and made myself create the best talk that I could create at that time. You know, I put so much work into it because I knew that with a TED Talk you could just get through it. That's fine. Or it can absolutely launch you into a whole different dimension of work and speaking and everything. And I remember I loved TED leading up to it. And so when I was asked, I remember I cried when I opened this email and I said, oh, my God, I've been invited to speak at ted. And I had only spoke at very few places before that, but somehow the flyer for one of my speeches ended up on one of the TED organizers desks. And from that flyer I was invited to speak. And I was given about three months. I worked harder than I've ever worked in my life because I thought, you know, how do you, I was 30. So how do you, how do you round 30 years into an eight minute talk?
- [58:51]
B
Yeah.
- [58:51]
C
And, and which stories to tell?
- [58:54]
B
There's so many stories.
- [58:54]
C
There's so many. I mean, my talk, it started out like an hour and a half long.
- [59:00]
B
You're like, okay, yeah.
- [59:01]
C
And I wanted every story in there. But then something that helped me is the theme. So it's always, I don't know about you, but it's always easier for me if a company or a group says, okay, our theme is living beyond limitations, or our theme is passion, or I can wrap my head around that. But when people come and say, we just want to hear your story, that's a little bit harder for me, it's so general. I need to know who are the people I'm speaking to? Like, what are they looking for? What are they struggling with? Like, what kind of, where can I wrap my ideas around? And with ted, they gave me, they just said beyond borders. That was the theme. And they had so many different speakers. You know, they had someone talk about actual physical borders and someone talk about emotional borders. And for me, those borders were the limitations in my life. And I was able to start thinking of, okay, you know, how does that play a role in my life? And how for me, those limitations are actually how I got where I'm at today. Like, it's using those, you know. And for me, that's where my theme of kind of pushing off of those borders, pushing off of those limits came. And that talk went viral. You know, all that hard work, I mean, I didn't eat, sleep, anything for three months. And it all paid off. And it went viral and put me into a corporate speaking career. And so I had that going into the Paralympics and before doing Dancing with the Stars and Dancing with the Stars, just, it actually came up about two weeks before I went to the Paralympics. Yeah, I'll tell you what, they called me in November. The Paralympics were in March. They called me in November and just said, are you interested? Do you like dancing and are you interested? I said, well, I love dancing, like at the club. I mean, I can go out and dance, but that doesn't mean that I can be a ballroom dancer. And that was it for our conversation and I kind of moved on. And then about two weeks before we got the official invitation to be on the show, and honestly I was just like, sure. I mean, I really didn't watch the show. I knew about it, of course, but it's not like I religiously watched it. I had no idea what to expect. I honestly thought that I'd make it through, like, the first week. Well, I hoped to make it through the first week, but certainly did not go in with any crazy expectations. Had no idea what to expect at all.
- [61:31]
B
And you made it to the semis, right?
- [61:34]
C
I made it. So I came in second place? Yeah, came in second place. And that's all I could have asked for.
- [61:41]
B
I'm telling you, make it to the end.
- [61:43]
C
To be able to experience every moment of that show, I feel so blessed. I mean, yeah, of course, you know, you want. We're competitive and you want to, you know, get that close. You want to win. But it wasn't about that. It really wasn't. It was just every week was a discovery, trying to figure out how. How do I do this and how do we come up with moves that. That I can do and that work and that, you know, we didn't want it to look like I had prosthetic legs. I never wanted anyone to say, oh, she's good for a girl with prosthetics, you know, I want to be. If I'm in there competing, I want to be looked at as any other dancer who wants to do well. And so Derek and I did everything we could. We worked our butts off to, you know, to, I guess, make it as far as we did.
- [62:29]
B
He's great choreographer, and he's amazing.
- [62:31]
C
He's amazing. Just seriously genius.
- [62:34]
B
He's intense, too. He's, like, committed.
- [62:36]
C
Super intense. Yeah, super intense, but also hilarious at the same time.
- [62:40]
B
Yeah. Yeah.
- [62:41]
C
He's got the funniest personality.
- [62:42]
B
He's a good dude. I've got time. I've had a chance to hang out with him a few times.
- [62:45]
C
Time.
- [62:45]
B
He's a nice guy.
- [62:46]
C
Yeah.
- [62:49]
A
Sometimes greatness feels far ahead of you, but in reality, it's right in front of you. That's why Buick is here, to help you make the most of this moment, to show up at your best today, and to remember that now is exceptional. Whether you're making a statement in the Buick Envista with its sleek style that sets you apart on the road, or you're announcing your arrival in the Buick enclave, where purposeful technology and sophisticated spaciousness keeps you present and in command, Buick delivers a lineup of premium vehicles that enrich the life you're leading right now. So keep pursuing what's down the road, but remember that today is its own reward. Visit Buick.com to discover a design that inspires you to rise to any occasion. That's Buick.com Buick Exceptional by design, this show is sponsored by Better Help. And when it comes to love and relationships, most people are still figuring it out, even if it looks like they have it all together. February is the month of hearts, roses, chocolates and big expectations for love. But no matter where you are on your romance journey, journey, single dating, or just focusing on you, therapy can be a helpful way to sort through it all. BetterHelp is the world's largest online therapy platform and they make getting started simple. Just take a short questionnaire to share your needs and preferences. And thanks to BetterHelp's industry leading match fulfillment rates, they usually get your match right the first time. You can also feel confident knowing betterhelp therapists work according to a strict code of conduct and are fully licensed in the US Everyone is still finding their way. Find yours and feel lighter. Sign up and get 10% off@betterhelp.com greatness. That's better. H E L P.com greatness.
- [64:27]
B
I watched a couple of you guys performances and they're just mind blowing, you know. And you guys, you guys had the judges in tears like every time. So it's like you created, you created an emotional connection to the heart of everyone. So it was really cool to see that you can continue to break the borders and the boundaries. Right?
- [64:42]
C
Yeah. And that's what was interesting is every week we created something and had different feet and it came out of necessity. I didn't use the feet just because they were cool. You know, one week would be with running blades and next week would be with like these tippy toe feet. And we did it out of necessity. Like I needed to be able to get a certain look and shape and action out of the foot. So we had to get really creative with the feet. But I remember leading up to the semifinals, we had used up all my feet, kind of. We hadn't used my running blades yet. I never even thought of using my running blades. They were in Colorado and you know, you film out here in la and I remember Derek and I just thinking like, gosh, we like, you know, we've kind of figured, not figured it all out but like, what are we going to do this week that's different, dynamic and different. And then we found out we had the quick step, which was something that Derek was worried about with me because you really have to travel so you have to have that bounce to your feet. You can't like stay in one spot and just last minute. I think, actually I think it was my husband was like, why don't you try your running blades. And he overnighted them to me. We got them on, like, a Wednesday, you know, the show then airs the following Monday. So that Wednesday, we started playing around and just, you know, choreographed it quickly, and it ended up being so cool. I had no idea that I could run or dance. And running blades.
- [66:07]
B
It's amazing.
- [66:08]
C
Yeah. And we were just like, gosh, there's just. There's endless possibilities if you're really willing to work for it.
- [66:16]
B
Yeah. What did that do for your. For you in general, being on that show and getting that far and what was, like, the biggest thing that came from it, or, you know.
- [66:24]
C
Yeah, I just, you know, I think, personally, it just, you know, just reinforced the idea that we're capable of so much because you're under so much pressure, and every week you think you can't do it. Honestly, like, every week I feel like, you know, two days before the show, it seems impossible. You can't remember the dance. You're making mistakes. You're just kind of praying that you do well, and then you do it, and every week you do it, and then you get injured, and you push through that, and you're still dancing, even though you're in so much pain, but you're, like, still, you know, dancing it. And by the end, I think you just realize, like, you're made of so much. I mean, you're so capable of getting. Of pushing through injury and fear and pressure, and just if you can push through all of that, what you're capable of doing is, you know, amazing. And so for me, just kind of personally to have that, to know I did that, I made it through, that I can make it through anything was good. And then. And then after that, I think what it did, too, is it kind of just brought my story and I guess what I do to the attention of others. Right. So I went on after that and did a speaking tour with Oprah. But, you know, that didn't even come from Dancing with the Stars. That came from a whole different direction. Even though I connected with Oprah on the show, which is interesting, but my sponsor, Toyota, was sponsoring her. She was doing this big speaking tour. So it was kind of through Toyota that I was able to.
- [68:01]
B
What was this tour called?
- [68:02]
C
It's called the Life you want tour.
- [68:04]
B
Was this a couple summers ago or.
- [68:06]
C
Yeah, it was.
- [68:07]
B
Rob Bell and Liz Gilbert. Were they on it?
- [68:09]
C
Yes, I had.
- [68:09]
B
Rob's a good buddy of mine. He's been on the podcast, and Liz Gilbert's coming on this Sunday. She's gonna be in studio.
- [68:14]
C
Is she? So I am doing an interview with Elizabeth Gilbert next, next month.
- [68:20]
B
She's great.
- [68:21]
C
She's amazing. And how crazy is this? So during that time period when I lost my legs and I was kind of at my worst, you know, I was watching Oprah. I was watching Elizabeth Gilbert. I was watching and listening to Deepak Chopra, and then all of a sudden, I was on a speaking tour with them.
- [68:39]
B
Crazy.
- [68:39]
C
Yeah. And it was at the same time that my book was coming out.
- [68:43]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [68:44]
C
And I literally just knocked on all of their dressing room doors. You know, we kept it. We hung out kind of at that time anyways. But I knocked on all their doors, was able to hand them my book.
- [68:54]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [68:55]
C
Deepak and Elizabeth endorsed my book.
- [68:59]
B
Oh, my gosh.
- [69:00]
C
Isn't that crazy? And I just. That's. Those are the moments where it's just, you know, life is amazing.
- [69:06]
B
Oh, my God.
- [69:06]
C
It's more than serendipitous. It's like this was an aligning of the stars that happened.
- [69:13]
B
Without this obstacle, you wouldn't have these opportunities.
- [69:15]
C
Right.
- [69:16]
B
None of this would happen.
- [69:17]
C
No, but yet it doesn't just come out of the sky either. You can't, you know, you can't have a challenge and decide to, you know, just lay in bed all day.
- [69:27]
B
Right. You have to go out there, you work 14 years.
- [69:29]
C
Yeah. And then eventually things come together. But really, you know, it's the persistence of your passion that it's amazing.
- [69:38]
B
What's your biggest fear? Moving forward? You've created so much. Do you have any fears with what's ahead?
- [69:44]
C
Gosh, I don't know. I think. Do I have any major fears? I'm sure I do. And I'm sure I'll think about someone. I walk out of here. So certainly, you know, I think I'm just as fearful as anybody else, but I'm trying to think of anything that. Coming up. I think I just don't want to waste the opportunity we have being here on this earth, learning what we're supposed to learn. I want to. I want to experience it. I want to experience what I'm supposed to experience here. And so I. I don't want to waste. I don't want to waste time, you know, because it can, you know, our lives can end tomorrow. I just want to make sure that I'm, you know, I'm doing everything I'm supposed to be doing here before it's over, I guess.
- [70:25]
B
What's the vision? What's your mission then? Moving forward?
- [70:29]
C
Gosh, this is all. I'm a motivational speaker. I should.
- [70:32]
B
I didn't prepare her, so.
- [70:33]
C
No, not at all.
- [70:34]
B
Don't hold us against her.
- [70:35]
C
Yeah, no, I. What is my mission moving forward? I mean, just to live a passionate, inspired life, honestly. And I say that because, yes, it is a little general because I have so many different passions. You know, I. I can't say I just want to come to LA and be an actress, but I would love to be a superhero with running blades in action movie. Action movie. You know, I mean, but that's just a fun, creative idea. But. But I would love to write another book. And I love that I get to travel the world and speak. Actually, this is the first year that I. I believe in the power of intention. I believe in putting your dreams and your goals out there. And at the beginning of this year, actually, I'll go back to last year. I said, this year I want to.
- [71:22]
B
I will be on the School of Greatness podcast.
- [71:23]
C
Yes. But I said I'm going to be an international speaker. I did a lot of speaking. I have spoken internationally a little bit, but I did a lot of speaking, you know, here in the US and this year I decided I want to see the world. I want to travel around the world, I want to experience it, and I want to get paid to do it.
- [71:43]
B
I'm putting it out there that from this interview, someone's going to be listening from Dubai or Australia, and they're going to email you and they're going to say, I heard you from the School of Greatness podcast. We want you to come to Australia. We want you to come here. It's going to happen.
- [71:54]
C
See how amazing that is? I mean, how that happens? So already this year, I've been to Japan, I've been to Singapore, I've been to China, Europe. Next week I'm going to Prague. And then. And then I just got another speaking engagement in China. But it's amazing because you just put, you know, you gotta say it. It's energetic, but it's also making those connections. You have to say, this is not what I hope to do or what I'm going to try to do. This is what I'm doing.
- [72:21]
B
Yeah.
- [72:21]
C
Yeah. And it's amazing how I think the universe and the people around you come together and make that reality.
- [72:28]
B
Yeah. Amazing. I want to ask you a couple final questions. I know we gotta get out of here in a second, but. But I'm so excited about your story and I'm so glad we could get here and do this, but for those that don't have your book, it's called On My Own Two Feet From Losing My Legs to Learning the Dance of Life. Make sure to go pick it up. I tried to get it in Barnes and Noble. It was out of stock. So go order it on Amazon or tell them to restock it if you don't have it. Final few questions that I have. What are you most grateful for in your life recently?
- [72:55]
C
Recently. Oh, my gosh. I think. I think this isn't just recently. I'm just going to say I'm always grateful for my health because. So every three months, I get my blood drawn to make sure that my kidneys are good because I have a kidney transplant. And every time I get my blood drawn and my numbers come back good, I feel like it's a new lease on life. I think I'm healthy. I can do anything. I am not going to waste the moments that I have. I think that also keeps me on my toes because, you know, my kidney could fail at any time. Just they're not permanent. They're not considered a permanent fix. It's a temporary fix that anytime your kidney could fail, you could, you know, be on machines again and on a transplant list. And so every day that I'm healthy, I'm grateful.
- [73:43]
B
It's a good day.
- [73:44]
C
Yeah, absolutely. And luckily, every three months, I kind of get that, like, reminder. I'm like, oh, my gosh, I'm healthy. That's huge.
- [73:54]
B
It's precious. Every day is precious. You never know when.
- [73:56]
C
Yeah.
- [73:58]
B
If you had to tattoo a word on your head or a phrase or a saying that was in reverse so that every time you looked in the mirror, only you could see it.
- [74:07]
C
Okay.
- [74:08]
B
A word or a phrase or saying. And every time you looked at it, it was just a reminder that you could read it.
- [74:13]
C
Yeah.
- [74:13]
B
What would that word or phrase be?
- [74:17]
C
Live Inspired. That's. I love that because it's just about living an inspired life. Like, I believe inspiration is contagious. When you see. And I actually. I'll go back to Derek Hough with this. He's so passionate, and he's so inspired when he's creating. It's. It rubs off on you. You see somebody who's passionate about what they're doing, it makes you feel like. Like you can do that too. Whatever it is, you know, you want that in your life to be excited and passionate. And so I think it's about keeping yourself inspired. And for me, I never set out to be inspiring. You know, I don't wake up in the morning and think that's my job, is to inspire people. That's what I want to do, is inspire people. I wake up and do the things that inspire me and I'm around the people who inspire me and. And that makes me want to do more. And then, you know, hopefully people kind of feed off of that and that makes them want to do more. So just living a completely inspired, passionate life.
- [75:19]
B
That's great. I love it. Okay, this is one of the questions I asked at the end for people. It's called the three truths. Okay, three truths question. And again, Amy's not prepared here, not at all. This is off the cuff, whatever comes to mind. But let's say it's many, many years down the road into your last day, day. And you know, it's the last day of my life. Last day. And they're actually saying, come here, we want you to come here. And you have to go this day.
- [75:42]
C
Yeah, right.
- [75:43]
B
And. And you know, it's happening and you have a, you know, your. Everyone there that loves you is there. And it's a harmonious, peaceful moment. And people say, okay, you have a piece of paper and a pen and you get to write down three simple truths or the three things you know to be true about everything you've experienced in your life. And this is essentially the three things that will be the lessons of our lives. Okay, what would be the message that you would write down those three truths of all your experiences on how your message to the world.
- [76:14]
C
Okay, quickly, are these words, are they phrases? Anything?
- [76:17]
B
Sentences, phrases, Three things. Okay, it could be a whole story, but it could be short.
- [76:22]
C
Okay, it's all about love, number one. Not just, you know, romantic love. I mean, love like loving yourself, putting love out there. Love is creativity, love is passion. It is sharing what you have with the world, that's love. It's all about love. Second thing is to use your limitations to push off of. I mean, they're not there necessarily to slow you down. They're there to hopefully build you up and to push off of them and see what amazing places you can go. And the third thing is that it will all make sense in the end.
- [77:00]
B
Those are powerful. I love those. Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you for a moment, Amy, for your incredible inspiration and your incredible love that you have for yourself, which I think is important that we have self love, no matter what. The challenge is that we love ourselves.
- [77:17]
C
You have to.
- [77:18]
B
And the love that you bring into the world. And it's an incredible example of what's possible when things maybe don't go the way we want them to go to see what you've created and all the inspiration you bring to the world. So I really acknowledge for your courage, your love and your inspiration.
- [77:36]
C
Thank you.
- [77:36]
B
Yeah, you're welcome.
- [77:37]
C
You're awesome.
- [77:38]
A
You're welcome.
- [77:39]
B
And before I ask the final question, I want to make sure everyone go get the book. It's called On My Own Two Feet.
- [77:44]
A
Pick it up.
- [77:45]
B
We'll have it linked up in the show notes here right afterwards. Where do you hang out on social media the most? Where should we connect with you?
- [77:53]
A
Watch.
- [77:53]
B
Are we on Snapchat? We got all that going.
- [77:55]
C
I got all that going for sure. Still learning about Snapchat, but it is funny. You do all your funny day to day things on there. But Instagram is my favorite. I'm a really visual person. I love photography. I love doing photography. So I post a lot of like, you know, just cool pictures of nature and you know, but also I do a lot of obviously like athletic things. So I do, I post, you know, some workout inspiration on there.
- [78:19]
B
I've seen some of your stuff with you're doing like crunches the other day with the straps or whatever, the TRX straps. What are they called?
- [78:26]
C
They were rings, actually.
- [78:27]
B
Rings? Yeah. You're bringing your knees in, right?
- [78:30]
C
And then. Yeah. So I just, I love Instagram and I love connecting with people on there as well.
- [78:37]
B
The Amy, Pretty girl.
- [78:39]
C
Amypurtygirl.
- [78:40]
B
Okay, cool.
- [78:41]
C
And it's G U R L Amy Pretty girl. And that's the same for Twitter, Snapchat, same username, and Facebook as well.
- [78:49]
B
Cool, cool, awesome. So we'll make sure to go follow you there.
- [78:52]
C
Yeah. Thank you.
- [78:53]
B
And the final question is, what's your definition of greatness?
- [78:56]
C
Oh my gosh. My definition of greatness. Oh, now I feel put on the spot because you're so amazing. You created the definition of greatness. Definition of great. It's just absolutely being the best that you can be. You know, we all have different circumstances. It is using what you have to get ahead.
- [79:18]
B
Amy, thank you so much for coming on.
- [79:20]
C
Thank you.
- [79:20]
B
Appreciate it.
- [79:21]
C
Thank you.
- [79:21]
B
Appreciate it.
- [79:22]
A
I hope you enjoyed today's episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness. Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today's episode with all the important links. And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness+channel exclusively on Apple Podcasts. Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple Podcasts as well. Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review. I really love hearing feedback from you and it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward. And I want to remind you of no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter. And now it's time to go out there and do something great.
- [80:19]
B
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- [80:48]
C
America, America, you used to be so fun but now you go to bed at night scrolling on your phone well l messing up America.
- [81:01]
B
Carnival is here. There's comedy and snorkeling and dining like everything from sea to shining sea.
- [81:09]
A
Find your fun again today. Carnival is calling. Save up to 40% off your cruise vacation offer plastic cruise barely restrictions of life. Visit carnival.com for details. Ships Registry the Bahamas in Panama.