The Women On Top

Jamie MoCrazy: X-Games Competitor Climbs Alternative Peaks After Suffering a Traumatic Brain Injury

• Valerie Lynn

Share episode

Send us a text

WHAT A GUEST we have for you on the show today!  Seriously, this woman has overcome a wild series of events, and now is creating magic in the world as a result.
World-class, history-making skier, Jamie MoCrazy, has an awe-inspiring story.

Imagine going from setting world records to surviving a catastrophic accident while competing on the ski slopes.
 
In this episode, Jamie recounts her miraculous journey of resilience and hope, emphasizing the critical importance of support and awareness in overcoming such life-altering events.
Her story is a powerful testament to the human spirit's ability to turn despair into a transformative force for good.

Jamie shares her experiences with neuroplasticity, highlighting how short, repetitive reading sessions helped her regain the joy of reading.

She dispels the misconceptions surrounding brain injuries, showing us that recovery can lead to increased competence.

Jamie is now speaking on large stages, she is a company owner of the MoCrazy Strong Foundation, she is an advocate for those with traumatic brain injuries, and she now is the film producer of an award-winning documentary!

This is truly an episode that will FILL your soul and give you inspiration and insight that you can use in your life, business and relationships.

Connect with Jamie MoCrazy:
Website: https://www.mocrazystrong.org/
Film: https://www.mocrazystrong.org/film/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/%F0%9F%8F%94-jamie-mocrazy-07b58131/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jamiemocrazy/

Connect with Us:



Speaker 1:

Hello, gorgeous, and welcome to the Women on Top podcast. I'm your host, valerie Lynn, and, with over 15 years of business experience, I became truly passionate about finding ways to support and hear from way more women, and what we know to be true is that women thrive when they are in their favorite position on top. On top in business, in relationships, in personal growth and on top in being real and authentic to who the hell they are. So I invite you to sit back and enjoy the Women on Top podcast. All right, everyone. Well, welcome back to another episode of the women on top, and today I have an incredible guest and I am so, so excited to welcome her back. I've actually connected with her before and, um, it was when I first started my podcast, before it became the women on top, and we just had such a good conversation and she is really like one of the most remarkable women I think I know.

Speaker 1:

Um, so today I have with me Jamie Mo crazy, who is a woman who grew up on the ski slopes. Um, she's always had big dreams. She started out becoming the first woman in the world to flip off a rail in a ski competition oh, my goodness. And then she became the first woman in the world to double flip at the X games, until she encountered a situation that almost took her life in the blink of an eye, and we will get into that journey in this conversation. Um, but essentially, jamie today has become an incredible force for good and really is this powerful speaker who has spoken to huge audiences, very large groups and just really powerful businesses. She has created her own powerful business that supports people with traumatic brain injuries and now has a multi award-winning documentary. So you have done a ton of work. I am just always blown away every time I think about you and look at your story, and so I just want to give you the warmest welcome and say thank you so much for coming to the show today, jamie.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here and, wow, listening to that, I'm like, wow, that sounds so cool, and I was actually just thinking I'm sitting and there's some thunder happening and it reminds me that I was actually born in a thunderstorm and that part of my personality has never gone away. Things happen with a boom and a kabang and it it just happens like that. So I've had some pretty phenomenal phenomenal things happen in my life and, um, I've also had some moments of despair and and anguish and confusion. Yeah, and I've had some sorrow that wasn't even directed about me, but I lost my older sister due to cancer two years ago, right before I had a wedding back on the mountain that almost took my life to the love of my life, like talk about big thunder moments, and so I'm glad to be here and talk about those moments.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, wow, what an analogy. And it's kind of, like you said, like life happens with those instantaneous, like booms and claps and things that we just can't predict. You can never have predicted these things that have occurred and, man, you have been through some, some serious situations, so let's kind of get into it. Let's just like get into the juice the story. The story goes that you were doing all of these incredible competitions and really setting records and like setting your sights so high and dreaming really big, and then you go to do a ski jump and it goes incredibly wrong, and can you kind of share, like what happens in that moment.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I would love to, and it's interesting because I actually land the ski jump on my feet, so it's really minuscule wrong because I landed on my feet but I caught an edge and whiplash my head onto the snow so hard that my brain started bleeding in eight spots and I hurt where my right brain stem, which instantly paralyzed the whole right side of my body. I started convulsing and I immediately went into a natural coma. Instantly, oh my gosh, my little sister was at this competition. It was her first world tour finals genie and she watched me and she saw that I didn't hit the next jump but didn't think that much of it because in in freestyle you fall a lot. So then she heard the ski patrol radio crackle to life saying we need all hands on deck and a helicopter on standby, and instantly she put on her skis and ski down to me and she saw me convulsing and spewing blood and my eyes were rolled back in my head and that's an intensive boom clap moment when instantly I went from being a world-class athlete to honestly having virtually no chance of survival. They actually wrote my fatality report as I was airlifted to the hospital because the statistics for my recovery were so low and within that first year of recovery, when my mind started coming back because in the hospital, when I woke up from the coma, I had serious amnesia, so no short-term or long-term memory.

Speaker 2:

The coma, I had serious amnesia, so no short term or long term memory. And when my memory started to come back, my mom would say you're a miracle. And I would say that's my mom being a mom. And then I went back actually for my one year anniversary to the hospital I was treated at. I met the doctor who's head of my neuro care and I've stayed in close contact with him and I also met my first responders and I realized how intensive my accident had been and the platform that had been created through this accident and my recovery to share the opportunities that I received and how those opportunities led to my recovery. So other individuals can have miracles as well, because it was a miraculous opportunity. However, it's not a miraculous opportunity that only I can experience. It's a miraculous opportunity that can be repeatable and the more awareness is out there on how to repeat it, the more individuals get to experience the same recovery and miracle as me.

Speaker 1:

Wow, I love that. Okay, oh, my goodness. So they wrote your fatality report. Your family's probably losing their minds. You're airlifted to a hospital. Do you remember any of this Like, do you have current?

Speaker 2:

No, oh, my God, I have no memories.

Speaker 2:

I have no memories for about. So I have no memories of the accident. Um, when I was in the coma and I have no memories of when I woke up. I had serious amnesia at the time. When I woke up I did have. I was telling my family some memories I had from in the coma, because there's more and more studies that are showing that people do have a certain amount of ability to receive information while they're in comas, like they're still alive. So I did hear that I was never going to become normal again because one of the doctors said that multiple times I wanted to just become normal and as someone who legally changed their last name to Mo Crazy, that's somebody who never wanted to be normal. So it was very surprising to my family why I kept all I want to be is normal, all I want to be is normal. And they were like why?

Speaker 2:

And I was like because he said I would never be normal and that was something that happened while I was in the coma, that I had an understanding of that communication that was done around me and it's interesting because my older sister, the one who actually passed away from cancer she was an anesthesiologist and she went to the hospital and became my primary care physician so she could make rounds with the doctors, and one of the things that she and my mom did was when the doctor was.

Speaker 2:

It was actually a young man who was in his residency, so trying to show that he knew his stuff and giving me these outcome predictions in front of me when I was lying there in the coma, and they were like you need to get out of her room, like we cannot have these conversations, and he was like but she's in a coma. And they were like no, absolutely not. And that's something that's really important, because individuals who are in a coma like now if you ask me about that story, I don't have memory of it, but when I woke up, I had that understanding that I was never going to be normal, and so if I had kept that belief, I would have lived up to those expectations that I was creating in my mind, and so many individuals actually are told things similar to like when you're a baby, like what you're told as a child helps create your confidence and what you believe as you're growing up, even though you can't like directly remember.

Speaker 1:

Right, yeah, that's so big. I mean that's huge, right, because I feel like this new research, kind of that's coming out is really pivotal for people who are maybe experiencing something similar and or even just people in general, that we, like, our thoughts are so powerful and what we hear around us is so powerful, and I think we don't even realize that sometimes.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and and it's your thoughts are so powerful and it's really incredible that with the understanding of neuroplasticity, which has kind of become a buzzword recently and 20 years ago we were under the belief that you had about two years to recover from your brain injury, or neuroplasticity only happened in the cortical stages of development, which are the first two years of life. So we kind of all had the belief that, like after two years of brain injury, whatever deficits you had two years out were permanent for the rest of your life. And now we know that you can continue healing and rewire your brain. So anyone at any stage after a brain injury can continue healing and some of those things that you think you will never experience again you might be able to. So an example I have of that is I was a really avid reader prior to my brain injury.

Speaker 2:

I loved reading. However, after my brain injury I would reread the lines and it kind of gave me a headache and I would get confused on the page and I was in complete denial about all of this because I very quickly wanted to get back to being okay and I went back to college. I went to university one year after my brain injury and I was reading the textbooks and I passed with no disability assistance and I got good grades, so I could push it and do it. However, reading was no fun and it hurt my head and I didn't do it. However, reading was no fun and it hurt my head and I didn't like it, and so I was thinking with my knowledge of neuroplasticity and then it takes repetitive habits in order to rewire your brain I was like, all right, so in 2020, covid hit.

Speaker 2:

I had a lot of extra time. A lot of my things got canceled, so I used that time to force myself to read for 20 minutes short intermittent time slots on repetition every other day. So I started doing that and it took about two and a half months before I was reading and the timer went off and I was like, oh okay, that was so fun. I didn't even realize that I was like reading and I just got like engrossed in the book. Yeah, and then I started. I kept going and beyond that, and now I can honestly say I enjoy reading again and I don't reread the lines and my head doesn't hurt.

Speaker 2:

So some of the types of deficits that you have from brain injury, even if you're 20 years down the road and you're listening to this. You can heal and even if you can live a successful life. You can, like so many. Even when people have visible changes in ability, they can build a life they love after brain injury and they can contribute back to society, even if it means changing your type of job, working remotely, the hours that you commit different things but you can build a life you love and even if you seem visibly fine, if you're having these challenges, you can take action to fix these challenges in life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, what a good example of how you helped yourself, kind of like be able to do something you loved again, and that neuroplasticity example is so perfect. So I'm feeling like this is something that applies to folks with, of course, like brain injury, but I'm also thinking of myself honestly, like I feel like I could probably do something better by just creating some of those habits, um, and being able to rewire my brain in a certain way, if I want to get better at something, and I think that that's really also some of the message that you talk about.

Speaker 2:

Yes, exactly, and it applies to everybody this concept of rewiring your brain, neuroplasticity, building habits. And the other thing that's interesting is, since I've been in the brain injury world, I have realized and we went on the film festival tour every film festival we went to, people would come up to us and tell us their direct brain injury stories. And acquired brain injury is our largest disability. In the US there are millions of Americans that suffer from different challenges that have been created from brain injury and quite often they don't even tell anyone. Like if you have had a six, a stereotypically successful recovery like mine, and you are able to live without any disability help or anything like that. Many individuals don't say anything.

Speaker 2:

I have spoken to top level policymakers, senators, business people.

Speaker 2:

I was actually speaking at a multi-billion dollar company this past June and I gave the presentation and afterwards someone came up to me and was telling me about her critical traumatic brain injury when she was in a coma and recovery and nobody at work knew.

Speaker 2:

And she said well, I don't tell anyone because I'm scared of the stigma tied to it, which is so true. There's a stigma that if you had a brain injury, you will always be less competent and less able to perform. So people feel like, if they have these headaches or these issues, instead of acknowledging them and taking steps to fix them, they should push them away and pretend they don't exist, if they can still perform at a good level, because they don't want to feel like they're incompetent. So what I'm saying and what we have learned and what our foundation is all about is that you can fix these challenges and still be competent. And many of these individuals, even if they have changes in ability from brain injury, become more competent because of their brain injury instead of less competent. So that that mindset needs to shift, that you feel like you're incompetent because you had a brain injury.

Speaker 1:

Yes, wow, I didn't even realize or think about the stigma behind that, but then hearing you talk about it, it makes me, like, feel even more fired up and again, I haven't even experienced that. I know of brain injury, but it makes me think, like what you just said, at the end, if anything, I feel like those who have recovered from something like that are more competent, like what you just illustrated, because of all of the effort and just I mean probably numerous amounts of things. But I feel like it's probably the opposite of what the stigma actually says. Um, so this is really fascinating, like I, I just love diving into your world and I want to hear a little bit, cause I think it's leading up to where we're talking about now, but about recovery and, like what that you were talking about, we can repeat the magic that you experienced for yourself of complete recovery. So what does that formula look like? What did you do differently and your family do differently to make sure that you were able to recover and go beyond even that?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's a great question and a lot of that is taught on our Mo Crazy Methods and you can look on our website mocrazystrongorg and click on the Mo Crazy Methods. And you can look on our website mocrazystrongorg and click on the Mo Crazy Methods to read about them and sign up for them. But it's a complimentary, integrative approach. So there's so many steps to brain injury. Brains have a lot of gray matter and we need to embrace it all. So there's there's research advancements, like the fact that I was treated with a multimodal monitoring system and I was the first person in North America to receive that and that actually was discovered in Cambridge, england. The science that went behind the multimodal and the different modals between um, intracranial pressure and oxygen levels, um and things like that. So that's like the multimodal um. So that's important to keep doing science. But then when you get after the acute care, which is where a lot of research is focused on the acute care stages you you often feel like you kind of get dropped by the medical world Like you're done with the doctors, you're done with your insurance. Your insurance quite often often private insurance actually cuts you off at like 30 speech therapy lessons and after 30 you are not going to be done. And so, um, there's actually federal funding. It's a very small amount of federal funding, um that we actually went. The more crazy strong team went back to help with um, creating it, to be reinitiated um, the traumatic brain injury fund, um, and so I was a recipient of that in the state of Utah, which meant that they, the state, paid for some of my rehabilitation. And then, beyond that, there's your family involvement, and that is critical. And by family involvement it means anyone who is not paid for their services to a brain injury survivor. So it might be family, it might be community programs it's just under the term family involvement.

Speaker 2:

But some of those habits that you can build make such a huge difference in your long-term outcome. So like your sleep, the food that you eat, like your nutrition, that you're taking in some of the habits that you build on a daily basis, so how much TV you watch, or whether you're going outside and relearning to move, even if you have changes in your physical ability there are ways to sit on a porch and embrace the sunlight and some of those types of things will actually make huge changes. And an example is when I was in the hospital I said I was paralyzed on the right side and the return to mobility after brainstem damage is still pretty limited because you have to do things to force that part of your brain to rewire itself. So my mom would tape down my strong hand and I would utilize my weak hand and have to do things with my weak hand, which was so hard and humiliating and frustrating, and I was so angry.

Speaker 2:

And that happened for multiple years, like even when I was multiple years out. I would be having a conversation and I would just be talking with this hand and she would put it down and make me talk with this hand and tape that hand down when I was still doing things. So the dexterity and the movements went back and I had did so many exercises like picking up coins and speeding balls. But so one of the big things an overall idea is that you can take steps and you can contact the foundation and learn ways that you can create habits for yourself that fix your challenges and your deficits, because every brain injury is a little bit different. So it's not like there's a smooth, like one answer that will work for everybody, but there are ways to change and heal.

Speaker 1:

Yes, yes, I love, um, what you said about like your mom helping out and really, uh, you know, I'm sure it was very aggravating at certain moments, um, but I feel like she's been such an advocate, as well as your, the rest of your family, to just everyone, has been kind of your champion. Um is there, you know. Were there certain things like how did she, how did she know, to do some of this? Like you know, where does some of this information come from? Because she was, it seems, like a big advocate too, of talking positively to you, not wanting that doctor in the room, like making sure that she infused all of that um, that belief into you. Um, where did she learn to do all of these things that helped your recovery?

Speaker 2:

Well before my recovery, my mom had studied early childhood brain development in the process of getting her master's in psychology Wow, okay, so that's a big thing. She had a federal. During my childhood, she had a federal grant from the government to teach self-esteem to women, which is why I became the first woman to double flip at X Games, because I was raised with the belief that I could accomplish whatever I wanted to by performing at my own personal best. And prior to my brain injury, I understood performing at my own personal best was kind of being the best in everything. I was very competitive and I was very good, and if I wasn't good at it, I probably wouldn't do it good, and if I wasn't good at it, I probably wouldn't do it. And so I was always kind of performing as one of the best. And then, after my brain injury, I really understood what that concept meant. Performing your own personal best meant that when I could not swallow water, I would always cough. My own personal best was getting to the moment where I could take a sip of water. My own personal best was walking up a flight of stairs. My own personal best varied dramatically since. Prior to my brain injury, however, if I did not keep performing in my own personal best, my own personal best would not have ever become who I am today. And so by performing your own personal best in those little incremental steps during the setting of your attainable goals that you can accomplish, like walking upstairs. Walking upstairs to running upstairs, to running up 12 flights of stairs, allowed me to return to skiing. And so if the goal was to return to skiing and that was a huge goal when I couldn't walk up one flight of stairs by myself you have to set incremental, sustainable goals to reach those growth goals. And that's how it is for anybody in anything they want to do in life, and sometimes those big goals can seem so large that they're intimidating and scary, and so quite often, people just don't do anything. They just have those goals and they like stay away from them. However, when the opportunity is right, you need to set those attainable goals to reach the growth goals.

Speaker 2:

An example of that is when I wanted to make a documentary so did my whole family about my story. Since, basically, my mind came back after my story, I actually, in the hospital, thought that I was in a movie about a hospital, because old people and sick people went to a hospital and I wasn't old and I wasn't sick. So I would tell the nurse that I was in a movie about a hospital and I wasn't. I was actually living in the hospital at that time. But I kept that want of being in a movie about a hospital.

Speaker 2:

And it took me eight years later for me to get to the stage where I could start setting attainable goals and take action and take that jump in that leap and create the documentary with the people I brought in to help me make that.

Speaker 2:

And then, next thing I knew I went from a dream to setting attainable goals, to premiering at Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, which is one of the largest documentary film festivals in the world, and only the amount of people who apply they get screened there is so small that it's phenomenal that we were invited to screen there and we went on a film festival run and won multiple awards and screened on Capitol Hill. So all of a sudden we started living our dream because we had set the steps to live it. And so quite often, when you have these large dreams, it might not be the time that you can set attainable goals and you can start moving it. But if you never take action, the dream will never happen. So, even if you're you're feeling like it's not the right time sometimes it's not the right time Then when that that window opens, you need to be ready to jump in and start taking steps.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's so applicable to so many people too, cause, like you said, oftentimes like we have this idea that something's going to happen so fast and we're going to be this overnight success, when really we just need to be setting our own personal best to your point and continue to make those small action steps happen that compound on top of each other and aren't just, like you know, we don't just take the leap immediately. We have to actually get good at whatever we're doing. So I really appreciate that you shared that and I'm so excited about your film as well. So I kind of want to, because I feel like you, you're so positive, you've had this amazing recovery. You're now living a life of your dreams completely different dreams, but a life of your dreams.

Speaker 1:

What have you ever had a moment where you were really like depressed or felt like giving up or just throw in the towel? And what did you do at that moment? Because I feel like you had every reason under the sun to just quit at certain moments. So what was it like? You know, have you had that and what did you do in that time?

Speaker 2:

That's a good question and the answer is yes, I had that and I still have that. I have moments where I feel like frustrated and pent up and you know, I think every human has those moments.

Speaker 2:

That's something that we have been hearing a lot about in the Olympics, and mental health is that some of the top athletes have those moments, and so one of the things I would say to start out with is, if you have those moments, don't negate yourself for having those moments, because that's one of the things, like we punish ourselves or we feel guilty and we're like why are we having these moments? That doesn't help anything, um, and what? What I do, um, when I have those moments is I. I try to step out of those moments. So when I feel myself having those moments or things happening, I stop what I'm doing and quite often I'll go outside, I'll go for a walk, or I will go meditate, or I will do something to get myself away from that downward spiral that's happening, or if I'm not really caught up in it, I will, or if I'm not really caught up in it, I will let it happen.

Speaker 2:

I will talk about all like write down what I'm miserable about or what I'm frustrated about. And quite often, when I'm like writing down what I'm frustrated about, I'll have these breakthrough moments and be like oh, or sometimes, when I'm in yoga and I'm doing like Shavasana, I'll have like these breakthrough moments and I'm doing like Shavasana, I'll have like these breakthrough moments. But those only have the opportunity to happen if you let yourself feel your emotions, so don't stay stuck down in the pit. I always say, like I was climbing the mountain of life and I was caught in a metaphorical avalanche that slid me down to the bottom with my brain injury, and I had two choices stay stuck at the bottom or begin to climb again. And so I chose to climb again.

Speaker 2:

And, like climbing any mountain, you go through ups and downs. There's beautiful views, there's craggly points, there might be some rain, there's moments that are not all the pretty picture, moments that are not all the pretty picture. You keep climbing and keep taking steps to creating what is truly important for you in your life, not necessarily what society depicts of you or wants you to be, but what you truly want in your life.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, Was it hard for you to redefine success for yourself? And I'm asking that partially selfishly because I'm in a season where I'm kind of realizing that maybe I was defining success not on my terms but on society's terms or on some sort of terms that I thought I needed to get to. And I'm curious for you, like you've had to read, you've had to do that on a completely massive level, so was that challenging for you? What was that process like?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it was challenging and I think I'm mostly okay with it, but it's still a little bit challenging Because when I was, when I was a child, I wanted to be a famous athlete, I wanted to break world records, I wanted to win the Olympics and I wanted to be a famous athlete. I wanted to break world records, I wanted to win the Olympics and I wanted to be famous. And there's still a part of me that wants that recognition for delivery on my talents, and so that's one of the reasons why I love speaking and crave speaking is because walking out on stage um gives me that adrenaline that I would get from um performing, but it is. It is still hard because I'm a very harsh critic on myself and I never think I'm successful enough. So that is something that I've had to work on a lot.

Speaker 2:

Um and I went to therapy right after my brain injury for a year and a half, and after my sister passed away from cancer, that next summer so summer of 2022 I went back to therapy.

Speaker 2:

Um and I I still see my therapist on and off, and that's one of the main things that we work on is my whole life I've had this interesting relationship with success and there's some benefits about having an interesting relationship because it has allowed me to become successful in a lot of people's eyes, allowed me to become successful in a lot of people's eyes, but I still never feel like I have succeeded enough.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and I'm not sure. And I and I have a friends and contacts that have gone and won the Olympics and I and I I know people who are kind of celebrities in different realms and like people now with all my brain injury stuff, like will see me on a CNN article or New York Times, or I'll be in the hot tub with someone and they'll recognize me from one of the posts I was in, or I'll be in a meeting and introduced to someone and they'll recognize me and they'll be like oh, I didn't know that Reggie's wife was famous, and so I am starting to hear that. But I still think that I'm not successful sometimes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I really appreciate the vulnerability there because I feel like it's been a struggle for me to to kind of like there. Because I feel like it's been a struggle for me to to kind of like what does successful mean to me? Um, instead of the whole fame and I don't know where that came from, but I've been, you know, going with this thought that I'm not somebody unless I'm somebody, and really that all is from an old soundtrack in my mind, that's all from a certain level of ego. But breaking down that and really redefining, like, what does it mean? Like, you know, if I get to the end of my life, what does that success look like? Like if you know, if really I'm like having my last day, what is that? You know what's the definition of success?

Speaker 1:

And so I think it's hard, as women who are ambitious and, you know, really motivated and want to take over the world, going through that process is a little humbling and it's really challenging. So that's the nature of the question. But I think there's a lot of women who resonate. So I really appreciate that. You share that. It's not. It's not easy, right, and you're still going through it. So thank you for that vulnerability.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you're welcome, and it's hard being a woman because we have so many conflicting ideas about what is successful. Is it having that job? Is that job meaning nine to five or remote, or is it being a mom? My mom was a stay at home mom who homeschooled me and she loved it and she put in so much work to that and I think that's beautiful. Um, however, I had so so challenging because, um, my husband's mom is a doctor, um, and, and those are different career paths and they're both beautiful, but if they're what you want to be doing, I think there's too much pressure that saying to women who have a career they should be more of a stay at home mom and women that are stay at home moms, why don't? Why aren't they making?

Speaker 2:

enough money, so it's like there's no win. Yeah, exactly Like in the Barbie movie you can't. It's it's so hard to be a woman.

Speaker 1:

Yes, woman, yes yeah, I know it comes back to that monologue that was so perfectly said about being a woman. Um, so, for you and you know, this next era of your life and the film and the speaking, what are you looking forward to the most?

Speaker 2:

now we have started for this next year creating some Alive to Thrive and Climbing Alternative Peaks events. So I'm really excited for those that are coming up and some of them are speaking and awareness we're screening the film at all of them and so for our Alternative Peaks, it's about how to reintegrate to society and build a life 2.0 that you love after brain injury. Um, and then, with our alive to thrive, we have a couple coming up this year, um, in different areas of the us, where we are going to be bringing back brain injury survivors who, um did not think they could ski again, with adaptability programs to get them back on snow and help them accomplish something they thought was impossible after their brain injury to open their mind that there are many things that are possible, just a little bit different after a brain injury.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have a ton going on and I just I always feel like lit up after speaking with you, but also really inspired, because you just have such a story of triumph and you continue to follow your own advice, which is to climb alternative peaks, like when you know when life throws you something in avalanche, you climb the alternative peak, and I feel like you're a perfect testament to that and you're also just a really big beacon of um, of hope and motivation for women who want to show up in a really bold, authentic way and share their story too, because I feel like you, sharing your story is what's helping heal other people. I mean truly, like that's really the work that you're doing. Right, and so I just have to say like thank you for sharing all that you have today and I hope you just continue to be that pioneer that we all need, because I really do believe, like the world needs fierce women leaders like you and um, thank you. So I have one last thing, as we're kind of wrapping up our conversation.

Speaker 1:

I know we can talk for hours um, but I've been asking all of my guests to leave like a piece of advice or quote or something for the next guest not knowing who it is. So I want to share what our last guest shared for you and then I'll give you the opportunity to do the same thing for whoever I interview next. So my last guest said keep putting your light into the world. The world needs each of us and none of us are the same. It needs authentic, real, vulnerable people and women that are going out there, because the women are who are going to change the world. So I thought that was really pertinent to the conversation and everything that you've shared honestly.

Speaker 2:

So yeah, go ahead. Our foundation is founded by myself, my sister and my mom, so it's women power, and we've grown now. So we work with some different contracted individuals, but the founders are women and we always try to employ women who have something to deliver.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I also just love supporting women-led organizations. So we're going to be dropping all the links in the show notes where people can find you and learn all about you, because I know after listening everyone's just going to be so lit up and just want to find and connect with you. So thank you for um again for sharing that, and I'm so glad that you and your mom and your sister have locked arms in this venture. Um, so, do you have anything you would like to leave for the next guest that I interview, not knowing who it is?

Speaker 2:

Yes, I would like to leave, knowing who it is. Yes, I would like to leave. Be your own personal best while you're climbing your alternative peaks and, as you talked about, your own personal best might vary dramatically, but keep performing at your own personal best as you climb your alternative peak.

Speaker 1:

I love that. Thank you again for sharing it, Jamie. I just, I just I love you so much. I just wish I could hug you. I wish we could meet in real life. We might in the next upcoming months, but thank you again. I can't say that enough and I think, just as a collective again, like women really need other women like you who are willing to go first and be brave and courageous. So I just want to say that you're doing it and I appreciate you so much.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you very much and I was excited to talk with you, and I hope we do run into each other in person in San Diego soon.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning into the show today and before you go, I just have one quick favor to ask of you. There is a really simple way that you can help support me and help support the show, and that is to hit that follow button on whatever app you're listening to the show on. I'm trying really hard to level up the content and deliver unique value and amazing guests and just hitting that follow button is the magic that will help continue to empower that and remember that the world deserves to hear your voice and your stories and you deserve a place at the top.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Valerie Lynn

Producer