Latest / Imagine Media Podcast Network / Hope Unlocked | Christian Testimonies, Hope &... - A Skydiving Accident Nearly Killed Him—But God Had Other Plans with Jason Dennen

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Hope Unlocked | Christian Testimonies, Hope &... - A Skydiving Accident Nearly Killed Him—But God Had Other Plans with Jason Dennen · Imagine Media Podcast Network

• 0:16
  SPEAKER_02: I've been speaking with more coaches lately, and one thing I know is that being a good coach is only part of running a successful coaching business.
• 0:23
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• 0:30
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• 0:33
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• 0:36
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• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: The link is in the show notes and you will get a lifetime 20% discount on your subscription with code CV-20.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: And now let's unlock some hope together.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome to the Hope Unlocked podcast.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_02: I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Please help me welcome Jason Denon to the show.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm excited to have him here today.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: I was actually, he was he was shared with me by another guest that I had on Bob Rouge previously.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I knew like anytime I have a referral, I'm like, yeah, let's let's check out this person.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: So based on what I remember, he has quite a story, and I know that you are going to be just inspired and blown away.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: So, Jason, before we get into that story, would you be open to sharing just a little bit about yourself?
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to say a little, but yeah, sure.
• 1:30
  SPEAKER_00: So my name is Jason Denon.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: I I live in Boulder, Colorado.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: Grew up going to church, and you know, my story as as we'll go along is is kind of moved away from it a little bit and then came back to it at a time that I was kind of lost in my life, outside of you know, faith, adventure sports, mountain climbing, skydiving.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: So uh, and I work in the financial industry.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of a a lot of different things that I've done over the the course of my life, and it all those things shape you.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, I'm happy to be here today, and thanks for having me on.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you're welcome.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_02: I I know there's some things I want to ask later, and I'm I'm putting them in on the bookshelf.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_02: But so kind of take us back to did you grow up in Colorado as well?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: No, grew up in New Jersey, and so grew up there, went to college there, worked a couple years, and then I was just kind of tired of the traffic, wanted something new, and I always do it starting to do a lot of outdoor activities and had been to Colorado during college for a conference, and I I would first time I was in the western United States, I was like, wow, this place is amazing, and put that in the back of my mind, and you know, went back to college, finished up and worked a couple years.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, man, I'd really like to move there.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of quit my job, moved out here for for lifestyle purposes, and said if I like it, I could stay.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: If not, then then I could always move back.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But if I if I don't at least try it, then I'll regret it for the rest of my life.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Moved out here in the first for the six first six months.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: I watched the the sun the sunset every single day over the mountains, and I would like pinch myself.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, I can't believe I live here.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And 25 years later, I'm still here.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's so cool.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I have to ask you a question.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: Did you go to school for like financial industry?
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, business human resources.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: So a little finance was a little bit part of it, but yeah.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: I always want to know, you know, some people end up going to school for something and then they like go completely the other way, right?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so tell us about you, you're you're doing like business, financial at you know, at this point in your life, but take us back to you know, you're in New Jersey growing up.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what did you have like this adventure like DNA in you since you were really young?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I would I would say no, just because where I grew up is very I mean suburbs over about 40 miles from New York City.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't say I had a very adventurous family in terms of they didn't even like camping.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I would go camping with like Boy Scouts and things like that, and and they would avoid going camping like with me.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: They didn't like camping.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: So like they have fun, yeah.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So so where I grew up was is there wasn't a ton of open space, meaning that you know, very residential.
• 4:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like where I live here, where there's a trail across the street, and you could, you know, do all those things.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't really that accessible, or at least I wasn't exposed to it a ton, other than Boy Scouts and camping and backpacking and some of that.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_00: Um so it's kind of limited.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh one of my friends actually, who's a couple years older than I went to college with her.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: She hiked the whole Appalachian Trail, so Georgia all the way to Maine.
• 4:40
  unknown: Oh, yeah.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like whatever, 2,100 miles.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: And she, I was like, that was like one of my first friends that ever did something that was outside of like the normal East Coast uh, you know, adventure life.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was just completely different.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I and so we talked about it, and then she turned me onto a book, which it was into thin air.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if you've ever read that by John Cracker or 1996 Everest, well, disaster, I guess, where a bunch of people died.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: So she's like, Oh, you should read this book, and I start reading that, and it leads to another book and another book and another book, outside in adventures, whether it's in the Himalayas.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, wow, I was like, maybe I should try climbing sometime in the outdoors.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: And at the time I was doing triathlon, so it's kind of outdoors, but you're mostly on roads and things like that.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I kind of moved out to Colorado with the with triathlon being in time in in mind because Boulder is a hotbed of triathlon.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: And right before I went out there, I was like, well, maybe I should learn how to climb first.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I did a a climbing course out in the Cascades in Washington, learned how to climb rock and and glaciers and things like that.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of a base of understanding it.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then once I moved to Colorado, I just kind of took off and started climbing and figuring out and meeting other people who climbed and kind of went from there.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: No, I have to ask because I always tell people there's I've watched like Everest Expeditions.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: I've I think wasn't it Into Thin Air was a movie that was made as well.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I watched a movie.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they made it into a couple movies also.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's IMAX movie back in the in the late 90s.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I love I love watching people do these I I say it wild and crazy things.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: So when you had this, you know, nudge to go out to you know, Washington to learn, like what was it like for you to do it the first time?
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_02: Were you scared?
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_02: Did you have any fear, or were you just like, yeah, I'm doing this thing?
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_02: I just have to know.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like oh no, I was terrified.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: Were you?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I remember so it was a 13-day course.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm hiking up for the first time, and I mean the only snow I had really I mean, New Jersey has plenty of snow, and you say you shovel a lot of it, and maybe you I I've I've gone skiing before, but certainly not hiking up in with a huge backpack on glaciers and things like that.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it was all new to me.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: And it and and uh I think it was like day three, we're coming down from the first mountain, and we're on this huge snow field that's really steep, and you can't see the bottom because it's enveloped in clouds.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, is there a cliff on the bottom of that?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: If I slip, am I gonna be able to stop myself?
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: And and I'm just standing there terrified.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't know if this, I'm not, I'm not sure I'm made for this.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean at one point the guide comes over, he goes, Are you okay?
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I was like, I'm I was like, I'm pretty terrified right now.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I was like, I don't feel very confident that that something bad's not gonna happen to me.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, I finish up and we get off the the the snow and the ice and we're back on a regular trail and kind of finish up.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you kind of check gut check yourself, you're like, am I made for this or not?
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Or or I'm just scared, and and and it was it was kind of just a check to see if I was gonna overcome fear or not.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then I kind of said, Okay, just keep going.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's you're gonna be fine.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and then, you know, we rock climbed, and then we went back on glaciers, and you know, that was still completely scary.
• 8:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you have these big crevasses where you see, you know, you can't see the bottom, it's just basically, you know, cracks in the ice that you could be swallowed into.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: And you, you know, you kind of got used to a little bit, but I was still scared, and then kind of I said, I finished up and I was happy I finished, and I said, okay, I can get over fear and I can do this.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I I would see, well, what else am I capable of?
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then when I moved to Colorado shortly after, I kind of just went full force into it.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, there there's there's times even after a while, you know, you're still scared because there's situations where you know a slip or a mistake could kill you at any time.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_00: I've been on mountains where people have died, not necessarily they were climbing directly with me as a partner, but and uh you know, finished up a mountain and I was on the way home the in the same route that I was climbing.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: A father and son, you know, the father died because of ice fall that hit him and killed him and wound up getting rescued.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it was just a day before that I was climbing that same exact route.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you see you see things where where people don't make it, and it's it it can be scary, but yeah, that's kind of part of the the game.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, you know, I I remember my my mother I was on Mount Rainier.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: That was something that came to mind earlier.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: How did your mom feel about all this?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: I mean non-camper, non-adventurist.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nervous, nervous, yeah.
• 9:30
  SPEAKER_00: She uh we were I was on Mount Rainier in Washington, and and we climbed to the top, and and someone died while we were climbing it.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: We saw the helicopter rescue them.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: They were they were like thousands of feet below us, and we found out really what happened after we finished the climb and got down.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't see the accident when it happened, we didn't realize it because we actually passed the people during the day, and then they wound up falling, and we had no idea what was going on.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: And so it went nationwide news that someone had died, and my my mom is is uh at the time was a pre director of a preschool, and it was in the church that I grew up in, and she goes up to the to the minister's office and they start praying because they're not sure it's me or not, and it's not like you could just you know get in contact with someone, and then I came down and you know, on the way home or on the way back to the hotel after we got off the mountain, you know, I called her and said she's she's like, I didn't know if this was you or not.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: And and I said, No, it wasn't me, it was you know, unfortunately, someone that we passed on the way and and and they passed away.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so she yeah, she was absolutely nervous, and and I don't know, maybe that's some of the motivation to make sure I come back and don't put her through you know, me dying on the side of the mountain, because you have a if you have a strong why that that puts you through situations that you you know you might not ordinarily be to get through without having that you know important why to keep pushing forward.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_02: And you can actually like take that.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_02: I say I tell that to a lot of people as well.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you have to have a strong why to keep going.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm sure you brought that into much.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_02: Now, was this your first climb?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, no.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, it wasn't.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: No, I was like, What did she feel about your first?
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_02: I was curious also curious.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what did she feel about that first time you like went out and and did something really wild and crazy?
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, uh nervous.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: She she didn't always let on to it because I don't think she wanted to put that additional pressure on me.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_00: But yeah, yeah, she was nervous that that I was going out and doing this, and also she's unfamiliar with it from her perspective.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it so it's even more nerve-wracking because she doesn't know what's what should happen, shouldn't happen, you know, that it might take you a lot longer than you're expecting.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: That doesn't necessarily mean something's wrong.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: But there is a there were certainly a lot of times that I didn't share everything that happened on climbs because I didn't want to put that back on her that that you know there was a potentially deadly situation that occurred on the climb.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I would keep a lot to myself just because I didn't want to make her more nervous.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's good.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm just kind of curious, you know, like locally we have a place that you can just go do like a a climb on a you know, little I think REI has something, there's some other things here.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: Did you practice doing that kind of thing first, or did you just go straight to like 13 days of or just doing this thing?
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: No, straight to 13 days.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: There were there was a a guy that I worked with that he'd climb, he'd climb a couple times, and before I got went to the the trip, he said, well, let me just bring you out for a day, and we kind of were like scrambling around on rocks and things like that.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: But his his knowledge was sort of limited as well.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: He had never gone to big mountains, and so yeah, it was pretty much throw yourself in into the 13 days and figure it out.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_00: I you know, I didn't know how to you know how you go halfway in or figure out because I didn't really know anybody that could introduce me to it.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it was like, you know, here's what it is, you know, sink or swim.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's good.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_02: So you conquer this, then then what came next?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: What what what other wild bone did you have in you that you were surprised by, maybe?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Oh well, yeah, climbing lasted for a while.
• 13:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, soloing, you see that movie like free solo with Alex Hunnold.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: So climbing a lot without ropes.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm certainly not Alex Hunnold, I can't climb as difficult rock faces to the exit, but you know, if you fall, you're done, you know, when you're free soloing.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, that was another step because you're always, I guess, looking for a different more difficult challenge.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, a lot of different climbing.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: Did a lot of triathlon over those years as well.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that was you know, similar challenge, less less I I would say dangerous, but you're pressing your body to its limits of of what's possible and continue to go faster.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: I did the five Iron Man triathlons, but then I got into a lot of world travel, so Nepal, New Zealand, down South America, and Patagonia.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: So did a lot of backpacking and down there and across the world.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then I got into skydiving because that was the next next challenge kind of in my mind.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, like, why not?
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_02: Why not?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_02: Well, how did you go from that to that?
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_02: Tell like what what motivated, like, did somebody invite you into it, or were you like No, I think this sounds good.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: No one ever invited me to any of these adventures.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: I would usually go in blind, not knowing a person.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of things for me start with a challenge.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: You'll see someone else doing it, you know, whether it was the book for climbing, before Iron Man's.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: I saw the Hawaii Iron Man on TV in college, and I said, I wonder if I could do that.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: Not sure.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's see if I could.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: And same thing with skydiving.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was riding my bike and the road past the airport when you see this the parachutes in the air, and you're kind of like, huh, that seems difficult and challenging.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: I wonder if I could do it.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's a lot of big difference between saying, you know, lots of people say they're gonna do things and actually executing it.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I was like, if I'm falling to the ground, can I hold it together enough to pull the parachute and it be over my head and do all the things you need to do to safely land?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so a lot of adventures started like that with that, with that with me, where you're scared, you're not sure you can do it, and sort of that fear is what drives you towards it, or drives me at least towards it, to see if I can do it.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it kind of develops from there.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and like for a lot of the the challenges, like I didn't necessarily like it at first, because I think you're so you're you're you're so caught in fear sometimes that you're not in enjoyment, it's self-preservation for a while, and then eventually you can enjoy it once you kind of get you that it when it starts to become your more your normal, it becomes far more enjoyable.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: But you're always trying to push ahead and push yourself further and figure out what other things you could do within that realm.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to hear your first time skydiving.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what was that like for you?
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I would say there's two different kinds.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: There was one where I I did a tandem, right?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it was about a week before I did an Iron Man, and I I was I was at work, I was just like, uh, this is I was just kind of stressed.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I need to do something.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I just called out of nowhere, gave my credit card and said, I'll show up tomorrow.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_00: And they they, you know, that so a tandem's when someone's attached to your back and they do all of the the technical pieces.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: So you're just kind of a little bit screened in.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're just show up and they take you out.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you're just along for the ride.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_00: So the hardest part was calling and giving a credit card and say, Oh, I just committed to this.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then I remember the the plane ride up there.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: So once the plane goes up, you're you're you're going to the ground, so you're ready?
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: I said, Let's go.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: So the plane took off.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, in some ways it's nerve-wracking because you didn't even know what's normal and what's not.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: You're just along for the ride, and you fall out of the plane, and and I you I remember it being on the ground and go, Did we do a flip?
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: And he goes, Yeah, we did a flip.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I was just so you know, you're so overwhelmed sensory-wise that you didn't even know you did a flip.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then the real one, I would say the first one was when so it was about 10 years later, I decided I want to do training so I can, you know, get a skydiving license so I could essentially do it on my own without supervision.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I I did a second tandem because I was like, because it was 10 years later, I was like, well, maybe this is for me, maybe this is not.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Let me just see what it's like again.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: I land, I go, okay, this is this is nice.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I sat on it for a couple months because it was also the winter where you have a lot less skydiving.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so I was like, okay, am I signing up or am I not signing up?
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_00: And I so I sign up, and so you take about a four-hour course course during the morning, and that teaches you everything you need to know, at least the the beginning stages.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then they're like, Okay, now you're ready for your first jump.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: So you have two instructors, and they're not attached to you other than their hand on your harness.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: You go out together, and their job is if you really screw up to save your life and pull your parachute.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: And so you go out and you're just like, I remember being so tight.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: So the best way to skydive is you want to be loose and your muscles not be tight.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: Otherwise, you're kind of like pepcata chipping, they call it, and you're all over the place if you're really tight and stressed out.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I remember at first I'm all tight and I'm all over the place, and then they they give you a signal, they're just like, relax, and all of a sudden you loosen up, and all of a sudden you're like, oh, this is how we're supposed to fly.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and you're all these tasks you're doing to prove that you can pull the parachute so you practice touching the part where you where you're going to deploy it before you actually deploy it.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And then you're looking at your instructors, and there's all these kinds of commands they're giving you along the way, and then you pull the parachute, and then they can't hold on to you, so they keep on going, and eventually they pull lower than you do, and then you're in the air, your parachute's above your head, and they have a radio, but you can't hear a word they're saying.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: You're just it's just like crackle, crackle, crackle, and you're just like, uh, I could barely remember what we learned this morning because like because you're so high.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was wondering, do you remember anything?
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you miss like 80% of what you're supposed to know, and then all of a heard and you hear like turn left, and you're like, okay, oh yeah, that's the parrot, that's where the sky, that's where the airport is.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: Turn left, and then you're you're you're you know, you're turding, and then you land, and then I remember that first jump, like the adrenaline was so high.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: I I felt like for like like the next next eight hours, it was just like you're like kind of shaking a little bit from it.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: And then there's different levels you go through the and you basically prove that you have additional skills, they teach you something new each time, and then eventually when you go through enough steps, you know, they approve you, you take a written test, and they're like, Okay, now you can go by yourself.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, so oh, I was terrified the first time.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: I because when you look when the door opens and you're on the edge, and you have the instructor on the one side, instructor on the other side, and you look out, you know, it's like two and a half miles down or whatever exactly it is, and once you get out, there's no going back in.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: And you you know, you do your you're you do your count, and you're like, okay, guys, let's go.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: One, two, three, and you're and you're just like, and it's like you're in it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, climbing kind of yeah, it's like rock climbing or or climbing, you kind of slowly get into that of where it's into the super stressful situation usually.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: Skydim, it's like directly into it, and it's like there's no like rock climbing, you might be able to back down or you know, lower yourself if you if you can't climb it anymore.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: It's like there's none of that.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, skydiving, it's like it's full on right away.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: So, oh yeah, I was I was terrified.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_02: So you you get home and you're full of adrenaline, and and yet you're like, I I'm ready, I'm ready for more.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what did you he's like, well, I did one, so I I don't get a slices of unless I keep going.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: So so yeah, I remember signing up again, you know, right after either getting home or before leaving the airport.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, okay, let's go for jump two.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't ready to do jump two right away, and you could do that, but I was just so like my adrenaline was so high, I was like, I I need to like come back tomorrow, not not do one right now.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: And did you have other other students that were with you like doing this as well, like during the instruction?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Because I was curious like how many people made it through like phase one, like we're going back.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: Did did a lot of people come back to jump too?
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_02: Or did they weren't they were like, no, this is good, we're good.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: In in my class, there were three people, including me.
• 22:22
  SPEAKER_00: And the everyone did at least jump one, and I was the only person that got all the way through and and got the license.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: There was one person after two, they were just like, Well, it's not for me, and then the other person.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: I would see them once in a while, but I don't think they never got through training.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: So see, I don't know what the percentages of people who actually stop before they get the certificate or not.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: So based on this 33%, you were you were the the finisher.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: And it sounds like you you really have this finisher just blood in you that you're you're just gonna finish.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, all these races you've done, climbing, the jumping out of planes, and even going back to like when you're a kid, do you feel like you were a finisher?
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, do you have that in your blood that you've seen through your whole life?
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe even other in your family, you know?
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I would say pretty, pretty much.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: I like I was taught like you know, if you're gonna if you're gonna sign up for something, whether it was a sport or you know, football or baseball, it's like you might not have to do it forever, but it's like if you sign up for the season, you're finishing the season, was kind of what my wood parents would say.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: There's no quitting during the season, but if it's not for you afterwards, that's you know, that's okay.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_00: But I would say that mentality it can serve you, but some but there's times that it can destroy you because I I can be hyper-focused on what I'm doing.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: And well, as we get into the story of of kind of what happened in my greatest trial, you'll see how it that mentality served me, but before that trial, it it can it can it came close to destroying me.
• 24:02
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so you'd have to you have to know when it serves you to use that mentality and when not to.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: And it took me a long time in life to understand when to use that never give up mentality, and sometimes it's better to not do that.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: Well, take us take us down the path towards this greatest you know challenge that you faced.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that's a really good lesson because I feel like one of my middle names is tenacity.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Not that I skydiving, I'm like, I I don't think I could even be paid a million dollars.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe even my boys are 18 and 21 now.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: So like, mom, you should come downhill skiing with us.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I don't think I could even be paid a million dollars.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: And they said, You could donate that money, it could help so many people.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, I'm I'm good.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: So when it comes to that kind of stuff, I I'm not interested, but there's other things that I'm definitely like a keep going, don't give up tenacity kind of girl.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_02: But would love for you to kind of take us into this and just help some of the listeners, you know, what does that look like to know when it's time to lay something down and when to keep going?
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: Sure.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: So going back a bunch of years, I'm at this point, I I get a new job at work, I get a promotion.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So worked super hard to get to that and you know, more money, more responsibility.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality of having that is is I was working, you know, 13 to 14 hours a day.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: And and it wasn't like one day of 13, 40, it was a couple years of doing that.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes, you know, six days a week.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like I'm just stressed all the time.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, putting one step in front of the other, and I'm just like, okay, I I that's where I don't give up kind of took over and was is a bad thing because I mean all I was doing is work, that was it, really.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't happy, and I didn't want to quit because I'm like someone gave me this responsibility to to give me this position and this opportunity.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to I don't want to disappoint them, I don't want to disappoint me.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: What happens if I quit?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: Where like where am I?
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't want to fail.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like, who am I even too?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_02: Did that question even come in too?
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: Like, who am I then?
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't think I ever used work as an identity, okay, but I just didn't want to fail.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_00: And then like, what what what if I give up?
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_00: Who, yeah, the give up or or move but that was an identity for sure.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm going through this tough time, and like I could I couldn't sleep through the nights.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I would stare at the ceiling, I'd wait, I'd wake up at two o'clock every morning and like the stress, and just like, how am I gonna get all these things done?
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they kept pushing forward, and and you think you're going through the toughest trial in your life because you're just like, I don't I don't I don't I don't know how I can keep doing this, and I would just pray for strength and I'd say, Lord, give me strength to to get through tomorrow because because I don't keep I I can't keep doing this.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: And there's a history of of heart issues in my family on my mother's side where people would drop dead in their 40s.
• 27:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would wake up every night and I'd have this, I would always have this tightness in my chest.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, that's not good.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I went from so before this, I was I was super fit, you know, Iron Man triathlete, top 1% of all fit people in the world.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_00: And like I didn't, I I was working so many hours I couldn't do any of that.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_00: I just didn't have the time or the energy or the effort.
• 27:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I would start wasn't eating healthy, and so I go to the doctor and I get but get my blood tested because I'm like, something's just I don't feel right.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I go from like fittest 1% on earth to pre-diabetic and pre-hypertension.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, heading towards a heart attack.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew because my mom would tell me stories about you know her uncles passing away suddenly from heart issues in their 40s.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, is this what they felt like before?
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: I would think that at night when I'm staring at the ceiling and going, it's like, is this what they felt when they were you know about to to get that heart attack?
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so one day I was just like, Well, you're really not being honest.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're you're I was just like, Lord, I'm lost and I need help.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: If you lead me, I'll follow.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say it's the most powerful prayer I ever prayed.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: I had no idea.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_00: I assume I said, Lord, I'm lost.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: I need your help.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_00: Is you if you lead me, I'll follow.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I've been doing it way too long my way for way too long, it's not working, and I'm lost, and I need your help.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: And and you know, most power when you say that, you you don't know the gravity of what you just said, but I was kind of just at the end of like I I can't keep doing this at this pace, like I'm doing it, it's just it's killing me, and you know, it's killing me more than just physically.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: It was from all I was doing was working, and that was it.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_00: And so three weeks later, and I and to back up at that time I was skydiving, and and part of the the reason I I was skydiving, one it's a challenge, two, when I lost triathlon, it was kind of it was a stress reliever because it would get me away from my ordinary life and and and and allow me to do something I enjoyed.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't think about anything else while I was you know doing racing.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: But after a couple years, I I can't do that anymore.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: And all I'm doing is thinking about work every minute of the day, and and my brain is like trapped on it, I can't get away from it.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: So, skydiving, one, it was a challenge for sure.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was challenging myself to see if I was if I could do it, but two, it was also a coping mechanism where when I was at the airport skydiving, I didn't think about anything else but skydiving because you're so in the moment.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and that's how I was kind of dealing with things.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and so after I say this most powerful prayer, three weeks later I'm skydiving, I'm coming in for a landing on a field I landed on hundreds of times.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: I get to about 150 feet off the ground when suddenly a huge gust of wind comes off the mountains, picks me up, and slams me violently forward.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: And from 150 feet, which is the height I was when I get hit by the by the wind, you have about five seconds before you're gonna touch down.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: And when you're that low, you're you really can't make adjustments because turning would mean that basically a parachute turns first, it dives, then it turns.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: And if you do that at 150 feet, you won't get to the turn, you'll just dive directly into the ground, hit it at highway speeds, and it won't survive.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: So as I'm coming down, I see I see the end of the field, and then there's a fence and an airplane, a row of airplane hangers, big metal buildings.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I know, okay, don't turn, because the number one reason skydivers die is they turn inadvertently or mistakenly turn too low to the ground, and then they wind up hitting the ground at tremendous speed and they die.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: So the first thing is like, don't turn, that'll kill you.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't sure if I was gonna land before the fence or not, because I'm going much faster when I get hit by this wind.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I know I'm going closer and closer to the buildings, but I still potentially could land before the the fence or or not.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: And but I know I'm going much faster because I look between my legs and see the grass below my feet, and I'm going much faster than I was before that wind.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm counting down those five seconds, and with about one second left, I go, there's no way I'm landing before this fence.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: You're hitting it going, and I'm going by probably 30 miles an hour.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: As a life's about to change, and I was like, Good, I'm glad it did.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I hit the fence, and it's like a cattle fence.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_00: So it's wire strands, and so it hits me in the chest, hits me in the stomach, and it tensions immediately because I'm going so fast and it stretches and it breaks immediately.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't slow me down at all.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then 10 feet behind it is the airplane hangar, which I hit going pretty much the same speed, 30 miles an hour, and I make a huge dent in the building.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: I black out, I'm laying on the ground.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so the first people, so there's people packing their parachute about 50 yards away for the next ride to altitude.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: So they run over to me and they're just trying to figure out how I am, and there's blood coming out of my mouth, blood coming out of my nose.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: They see me gasping for breath because of it's so hard for me to breathe at that point, and I'm blacked out at this point.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_00: And they lean over me to try to figure out you know, how bad is this?
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: And they say, they say, Jason, how are you doing?
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I so don't call anyone, I'll be okay, just give me a minute.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, they they still have they told me about that months later, but I was blacked out and I was default mode, saying when something goes bad, you fight for your life.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I think that was the reaction my body automatically said, and that's what came out of my mouth because I was fighting for my life.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: I would say you default to your foundation in the most critical moments, most difficult moments of your life.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_00: Depending on how you built your foundation, that could be good or bad.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, I built a foundation of being resilient.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm my mind's like, hey, if you could breathe once, breathe twice, you could breathe twice, and my mind and my unconscious took took over because I wasn't mentally there to say breathe.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, they didn't listen to a word I said, and they called 911 and Flight for Life helicopter, picked me up, flew me 50 miles to the nearest level one trauma center.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_00: Kind of hospital takes care of the worst of the worst accidents, most traumatic accidents.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: So they immediately rushed me into life-saving surgery and made the major injury.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I broke about 20 bones and four organs had to be fixed.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_00: But the one that almost killed me was when I hit that building, I hit on the left side and it broke 10 of my 12 ribs on the left side, and then it hit my heart with such impact, my heart exploded out of where it normally sits, called the pericardial sac.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_00: It broke out of the sack, ended up on the right side of my chest, and was all twisted up.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the doctors at the hospital would later tell my family that they had never seen anybody make it in alive with that injury, because the same thing happens with car accidents with traumatic injuries, and it's basically blood force trauma to your to your upper body.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: That people die on the accident scene when your heart moves like that.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Like instantly, right?
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: Usually, yeah, instant.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: So they couldn't figure out how I made it off the field alive, made it the helicopter ride to the hospital or or through the surgery.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_00: So none of the surgeons at that hospital had ever done the surgery before because no one had admitted it alive.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so for three days after they did the surgery, they weren't sure that it actually worked.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: So they kept on testing and testing and testing.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: They left, so they saw my sternum open when they fixed my heart.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they'd even close my chest up during that point.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: As one of my friends said, they had hospital grade saran wrapped over your chest where they could see your organs through it, because if they needed to get back in to save me again, they didn't want to have it all wired closed.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: And my friend of mine tells it tells the story that she was sitting in my room the day after the surgery, and so the doctor comes in and is just staring at me.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, she he and she's getting concerned and more concerned because he's just staring like intently at me and and not moving his head.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: And she thinks like something bad's about to happen, like I'm gonna, you know, something relapse or something with my heart or whatever.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_00: And she finally and she's freaked out because she couldn't even drive to the hospital after she got the call with the accident.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: Her sister had to drive her to the hospital.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so she's standing there and she's you know, getting really concerned and stressed out.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, Why are you staring at him?
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, what what's wrong?
• 35:39
  SPEAKER_00: Is he about to die?
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And and he just he finally looks back and she goes, No, I just can't believe he's alive.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, No one survives what what he just survived.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he starts he starts asking her questions, they're like, Well, like, what does this guy do?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: Like who is this guy?
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this like people don't survive things like that.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, later that I find out, you know, that story.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_00: But you you when you have nothing to compare it to it you be because he has something to compare it to, because he seems traumatic accidents, but like you don't you don't know how serious it is until somebody says something like that to you that they they can't believe you're alive and that you know it's the doctor.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_00: But but so when I when I get to the hospital, they put me into a coma to protect me against all the injuries, so they fix the heart and then the rest of my body.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: But but the the coma was a super dark place to be.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I was visited by hundreds and hundreds of nightmares, and they all kind of similar theme in that people were with me, unwilling to help me, and they were leaving me to die.
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew I was in a terrible place when I was in that in that coma.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_00: You don't really know you're in a coma when you're in a coma because like I hit the building and I'm out.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_00: I just know I'm in a terrible place, and I see all this negative imagery that no one wants to help me and they're they don't care, and I'm not worth saving.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_00: And you're indirectly being asked, do you really want to live?
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_00: And you got to answer that without knowing the consequences of the action of the accident, meaning, like, if I get out of this crazy place that I'm in, which I don't even know what it is, like, is this survivable?
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like, what'll I be like on the other side?
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: Or like, if you get out of this, do you really want to go back to the miserable life you were living before this accident?
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: So as I'm as I'm going through that, at first, you know, you're just kind of surviving and going, like, uh, no, I don't I don't believe that what they're saying is right.
• 37:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then you say, you know, you ask God to to lead you and I'll follow.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then he starts speaking to me through my heart, not out loud, in in scripture.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, you know, all it I won't let you be tempted beyond what you can bear, and there'd be a way out.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: So all of a sudden, in this really stressful situation, you you kind of calm comes over and go, okay, this is just temptation trying to get you to quit and give up.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, temptation doesn't come to you when you're strong, temptation comes to you when you're weak, and it comes to you in a way that it makes you feel like it's gonna make your life easier, meaning you don't have to deal with the pain if you give up and let yourself die.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: You won't have to deal with an uncertain future.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: No one cares about you, you're not worth saving.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Look at all these dreams, no one cares about you.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what you're kind of fighting against.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: And then he also says, you know, these trials we live through are here to test our faith and develop our perseverance.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: So kind of getting that news of what I'm supposed to be doing, and then you also can think of like Luke chapter four, where Jesus goes into the goes to the desert with no food for 40 days and comes out and gets tempted three more times.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: And if that's your ultimate example of how you're supposed to live your life, is to follow how Jesus lived his life, it's like, well, he didn't give up, and and he's been through something far worse than I did.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I it's I'm in no position to give up.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: So I just kept on fighting.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: And the the nightmares went from kind of not super violent, but we're we're leaving you to die.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_00: So for instance, the first dream was or nightmare, they had two hospital personnel and men and a nightgown, and they they're kind of carrying me like a log, like when I'm straight across.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm they bring me out to the desert, and they just put me down in the desert in the middle of nowhere, and they say, Sorry, we can't help you, and then they just turn around and leave.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: So that was kind of the the first one.
• 39:22
  SPEAKER_00: And as they go, they get worse and worse, and the test becomes bigger and bigger, where it becomes more violent, and we're gonna end your life instead of like we're just gonna leave you to die, and now we're gonna we're gonna, you know, actually end your life.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: And so it was it was almost like they thought or the thought behind it was I was getting weaker, but as I got through each one of these nightmares, I wasn't getting weaker, I was feigning weakness because I was getting stronger, and I was just saving it up.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: And as God says, there'll be a way out.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I I got to a point, I'm not like I'm not giving up, I'm not giving up, and then there's another nightmare that comes that say, We're we're gonna we're gonna end your life.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: And as as that's happening, I look up for the first time because I was always kind of in a fetal position, kind of the same broken place I was on the outside.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, and when I look up, I say, if you're gonna kill me, you better kill me now, because you're not gonna kill me now, you're not gonna be able to kill me later because I'm coming back from this and I'm coming back strong.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: And the temptation goes away, and the next thing I see is the bright light hitting my eyes, and I can't open my eyes at first, and it takes me a second.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: So before I open my eyes, it feels like someone's standing on my chest, like there's so much pressure on my chest, I could barely breathe.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I open my eyes, and there's a guy in a white coat on top of me, standing on top of me, like leaning over me.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I and I realize I'm in a hospital bed at that point.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, You're lucky to be alive.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: And that's that's my eyes opening up from the coma.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: And this is the eighth day after the coma starts.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: And this guy, I would later find out he was the guy who put my heart back in the right side of my in the correct side of my chest, and and he's waking me up.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, Thank you for helping me, because I assumed he's pretty important if he's the one waking me up like you're wanting to be alive, yeah, right?
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and then I reach out my hand and I give him a high five, and he looks at me like I'm a maniac.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: He's like, You just gave me a high five.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, apparently, he doesn't get a lot of high fives from people waking up from comas, but like this is his first.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, I was celebrating because that that coma was such a deep dark place that I was so happy to be out of it.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and I and I was like, Well, I guess I'm out, I'm back in the world, or or as I perceived it, I assumed.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, that was that was quite a way to wake up from a coma.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: So you're eight days out, and then you come back in.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh-huh.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_02: What was that like coming back?
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I I tell us like what was that journey like coming back into this in essence?
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_00: So I wake up and the doctor quickly leaves, and they tell me not nurse comes in, she's like, Don't move.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, yeah, that's not gonna be a good thing.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: No more high-fives.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: No more high fives.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_00: And and so I'm laying there, and like, so when I hit the building, I blacked out.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know what was wrong with me.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't even know what my injuries were.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I all of a sudden I wake up and I see cast on both my arms, I see gauze on my chest and my stomach, you know, and all these tubes coming out of my chest and stomach, draining blood, and then there's like five IV bags hanging up and connected to me, and then I'm surrounded by machines.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so you're kind of in shock, really, when you wake up, and and and I would say the first thing I did was pray because that's what I knew how to do.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: And and and I basically said, because I didn't know what to say, I didn't know what to ask.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, okay, pray.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I say, Lord, thank you for getting me through that.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for never leaving my side, thank you for telling me exactly what I needed to do when I exactly when I needed to do it.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: And I I said, you know, I don't know where you're taking me, but I trust you, so keep leading me because you must have saved me for a reason.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: And because in those early days in that in that hospital, they would uh, you know, everyone would come in, and I mean hospital personnel, and they would just like, I can't believe you're alive.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't, you know, I can't tell you how many times I would hear that from different person, and I'm like, we can't believe you're talking, we can't believe you're you know, and so that that's when it kind of hits you how uh what amazing you know miracle just happened because you know, if hospital personnel keep on telling you repeatedly you shouldn't be alive, you're like, Well, I mean, I I guess it was it was unlikely that I should have lived through any of that.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't and and as far as waking up, you're like, well, you don't want to waste a minute because you're you're just like, Well, I got saved for a reason, so I better do something with this.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_00: And you don't know exactly what to do with it yet.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a journey to figure out what am I supposed to do, you know, with it.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: And and I wasn't ready at that time when I woke up.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say also, so for the next three months, I basically have to lay in bed and not move.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I never thought about the great things that happened in my life because there were lots of great things.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: I thought about all the things that I fell short on, and I wasn't I was working all those hours, I wasn't spending time with family and friends, and I'm like, I almost died, and I would have left it like that, and that would have been terrible.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then as I'm laying in that bed, you know, for for three months, eventually.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: I must have told a story like 50 times of the accent because every time someone new from the hospital would come in, it's like, hey, can't believe you're alive.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: Please tell us the story.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I would tell them, and after a while, you're like, you're reliving it over and over again.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: And it kind of feels like a burden because you're you have PTSD.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's like this is the hardest thing I ever went through.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and and and some I'm thinking about during the day.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: And so that night I'm laying there and and I go, but what was the reaction every time that I told the story?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I get always get finished, and the person asking the story starts sharing their life with me in terms of you know, trouble with kids, trouble with marriages, the fact that they're in this hospital treating people all the time, and not everybody makes it out alive, no matter what they they put forth, and fears and doubts they have in our life.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of like, huh.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: That person would have never shared that with me unless one, this accident happened to me.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_00: Two, I was willing to tell them what happened, and the fact that I had fears and doubts that I wasn't sure what was going to happen.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I connected with in a way that I could have never connected with before unless I got in this accident.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, I think this is what I'm supposed to be doing.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: I think I'm supposed to be sharing about the accident to help people in a way I could have never helped before.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Because unless I went through the toughest time in my own life, I wouldn't have understood someone else going through the toughest time in their lives in quite that way.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: And people trust you in a way that they ordinarily wouldn't trust when you open up and tell them the toughest thing about what you went through and the fears and doubts that you have about your life.
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, oh, this story isn't a burden.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: This is a gift given to me.
• 46:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is how I'm supposed to connect with people, and this is how I'm supposed to help people.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say, when you have purpose beyond your own purpose, you have strength beyond your own strength.
• 46:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not sure I could go through this all by myself or get through the pain because I was in tremendous pain at that point with every time they moved me.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of cycle pain.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, tremendous pain like overtook my body.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, okay, if I have a purpose beyond myself, I can it unless I fix me first, I can't help anybody else.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_00: So you first have to get through this pain yourself.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: Fix yourself or help, and lots of people were helping me as well before I could help somebody else.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that became how I could get a reason to get through the pain to get to the other side to help someone else.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: And like when that happened, pain was just as bad the net, you know, because I was like, that night changed everything, and the therapist came in and started working on me, and I yelled just as loud.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: I my I would sweat through my gown just as fast.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the difference was I was like, I have a purpose.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: So we'd get through that hour-long, you know, pain session, and I would give my therapist a high five, and she would look at me like the doctor did when I woke up from the coma, like, what's wrong with this person?
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, but listen, if you help me and I can get through today and got get through tomorrow, we could we could help other people.
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I get her to buy into like this is about more than just me.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I would go, we're gonna help other people, but I need your help to get me through this.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: So as loud as I yell, don't pay attention.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Just keep on going as hard as you need to go on me and we'll get through this.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh yeah.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_00: So that was very unusual.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: This is very unusual for people, I'm I'm guessing for even physical therapists, right?
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_02: Did they say this was very unusual or not?
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I I learned more about physical therapy when I when I did eight eight and a half months of outpatient physical therapy because I saw how many people that would resist the therapist and not want to do what they did.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: I had a I will say yes to anything you tell me to do because I'm assuming you're not hurting me, you're trying to get me better, and there's a probably a margin of error there that they're not, you know.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I was just whatever they say, say yes.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_00: And because so many people say no to them, they love you when you say yes, because they know you're there because you want to get better, and you'll take every little thing they do and you'll magnify it because you like when I was in outpatient therapy, I was just like, What can I do when I'm not here so I can get better?
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_00: So the next time you see me, I'm that far along.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they get worksheets out, they would tell you things, and they would spend more time with me.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_00: I would there was one therapist, my session would last an hour, and this is when I was outpatient, and she knew I was there to work.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: So she would say, Go and do whatever you want after I'm done with you, I'll watch you.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would go and do exercises on my own.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would come back and she said, Okay, do this, do this, do this.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I'd be like there for like three and a half hours a day because she wanted to see me succeed and she wanted me to be better, and she basically said, You're you're my pet patient.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: We're and I was like, Good.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I still talk to her to this day, years later.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: And she took such great care of me and and and went beyond, you know.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when I was so that the kind of after all this, one day short of the one-year anniversary, I raced in a triathlon to prove that my legs worked, not as fast as I did before, but my heart worked and all those things.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: So leading up to that, she it wasn't her expertise.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_00: One day she was just like, I I finally broke it to her.
• 49:52
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm gonna race in a triathlon.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: She's like, When?
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I don't know, two months from now.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_00: And then she's like, Okay.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_00: She was the only person that doesn't look to me like I was a maniac and say that's not possible.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, Okay.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Come on.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_02: She's sort of on board with like you're gonna do the impossible, quote unquote.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I right, because I I would never tell doctors, because doctors all along the way said, You're gonna need to change how you live your life, you're not gonna be possible, none of this is gonna be possible.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I was just like, every time I would hear that and go, My job's to change the way you look at every patient for the rest of your career with what I'm about to do.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, and yes, so but she never said she never she she just like no no change in her voice in her face when I said I'm racing.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_00: She goes, Okay, she goes, Bring your bike in tomorrow.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see how you could sit on the bike because I had upper body injuries and things like that for sitting on the bike.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so so brought my bike in and all that, and and so so she was on board the whole way with whatever I would say.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: What's her name?
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_02: We have to like shout her.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, well, I'm not her whole name.
• 50:54
  SPEAKER_02: You don't have to be deserving thing.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: Lisa, I mean, we need those people, you know, it's almost like a tandem PT, you know, go back to the tandem and your first experience of being a skydiver.
• 51:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you couldn't have done this without her.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, for sure.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_00: There were so many people, there were so many people that helped me.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there were times I didn't feel like I deserved some of the help because like I crashed and I'm like, you know, the one of my therapists that was when I still couldn't move, and she was the one that I would give the high five to.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: She she one day she's like, You have so many injuries, I didn't I didn't even know how to treat you.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: And she goes, Last night I had a break out my books from physical therapy school to kind of try to figure out how to treat you.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, This person worked 12 hours a day, went home and took time out of their day to look into their books to try to better help me.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_00: I was just like, Man, I don't even I don't deserve someone being that kind to me.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: And but but that happened over and over again that that people would just like go beyond what their normal job was to help me.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I mean, I would say like thank you was never enough.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_00: So my thing was always if I could take what they taught me, not necessarily physical therapy, but all any anything, and and pass it on to someone else to help them going through their toughest time, like that's how I thank them, other than I went back and visited them and said thank you a million, you know, and visit them months after because I wanted to show them all the progress I made and go, if if if it wasn't for you, I could have never been where I am today.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, that's that's my way of thanking all the people that helped me along the way, is to try to help somebody else.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so you you have this focus that again, you know, we go back to your top 1% triathlons.
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like you're almost in that like upper echelon of people that would have that mindset in your greatest pain.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_02: I'm all I mean, I'm literally thinking of Jesus.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, I'm gonna go through this pain to help every, you know, to save people.
• 52:55
  SPEAKER_02: And you had that same mindset, and it kind of like makes me a little choked up because I don't think that many people think that way, honestly.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_02: It's very unusual and unique.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like maybe if somebody's listening in right now and they're going through a lot, you know, maybe they're not physically injured, they're not, you know, they're going through something painful.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: How can they kind of come up a little higher?
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of things that you've done have come up higher, you're on top of a mountain, you're in the sky, you're you're you're you're looking at things from an upper perspective.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_02: How can they come up higher in this time that they're walking through pain to even have that like thought process of I'm gonna get through this and I'm gonna turn around and help somebody else?
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like, what would you say to that person right now who's going through that right now?
• 53:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well, you know, before the accident, I I I felt a strong weight of I I had lost purpose.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was meant for more than what I was doing.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because all I was doing is working.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, I must be on this earth for more than I'm doing, and I'm not.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: And that was a heavy weight on me before the accident.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_00: I would say the hardest thing I ever went through, the best thing I ever went through was laying in that bed.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_00: And and part of that was it took away all the distractions that were in my life that were pulling me in all these directions, and and and I was because I lost focus on the things that were most important.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you ask me what the most important things in my life was, I could name it, but as I was living that, no, I wasn't.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_00: And having quiet time and just laying in bed was the best thing for me because it was there was a lot of beating myself up for sure, but taking all these other distractions that were taking me away from what I was supposed to be doing was amazingly therapeutic time.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_00: My there was a clear purpose of why I was there, what I was doing.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I said, I have to take advantage of this time that there's quiet where all distractions are taken away, because this is a gift that I get to lay in this bed and figure it out.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there was a time when that when a you know a therapist tried to kind of sedate me when I was going through the hardest time of those those weeks, and I was like, I'm not taking any medication, I'm not saying mental health drugs are bad, they help a lot of people.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't for me.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_00: I got the gift of laying there.
• 55:13
  SPEAKER_00: I want I needed the full pain and the full discomfort if I was gonna come back from this and figure things out.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_00: Because you don't you don't make changes when you're happy, you make changes when you don't want to keep on living the same day over and over and over again.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, quiet time.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_00: So if I give it to somebody else, not everybody gets to lay in bed for three months, but I would say quiet time is essential.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not always in and when I say quiet time, it's like for I think for a long time in the accent I was I was speaking, but I was not listening.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's good.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_00: So quiet time, you know, with God and praying and and and not being distracted by every little thing because it takes you away from what you're supposed to be doing.
• 55:55
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, I I didn't get an answer necessarily what when I what like on day one, I wasn't ready for it, and it wasn't wasn't the message wasn't ready for me, and I kind of had to go through a lot a lot of things and just re-examine myself and say, uh, you know, I don't want to be the same person I was before this accident, before I was ready to hear, and try to figure it out.
• 56:13
  SPEAKER_00: And then after you even figure it out, it it's a long process beyond that.
• 56:16
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like, you know, okay, now this is easy.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that the the the accident, I thought the accident was the hard part, and then helping people would be the easy part.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: And because I do a lot of you know public speaking as well, and I realized that wasn't true either.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_00: The hard hard part is sort of figuring out how to help people, and and that's a whole journey unto itself, and and and finding people that are that are open because there's a lot of people who are completely open to you speaking, and other people are just going, Well, what do you want about it?
• 56:46
  SPEAKER_00: What do you want from this?
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_00: Or or what what what's your ulterior motive?
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, there's not all any ulterior motive.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_00: The ulterior motive is I got saved by a miracle, now I get to help other people.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_02: Amen.
• 56:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, again, that's very unusual, right?
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, people like, well, how much money you want?
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_00: I said, I I didn't ask for money.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_00: How about that?
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: And it's like, what now what's your objection?
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my gosh.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so have you written a book?
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I have.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's called Eight Days Till Sunrise.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, that kind of that tells the story of what I went through and kind of the journey through it and re f finding purpose and and yeah.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_00: And when did that book come out?
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_00: It came out in November of 2022.
• 57:33
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 57:34
  SPEAKER_02: And how long ago was the accident?
• 57:36
  SPEAKER_00: The accident was June 23rd, 2018.
• 57:40
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_02: So you're over eight years since this has happened.
• 57:45
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to hear, you know, just personally, I I I went through a process of uh what I call unwinding from grinding back in 2017.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I was just conditioned to like go, go, go, all the things.
• 57:58
  SPEAKER_02: Like sitting still was God's like, be still and know that I'm God and you're not.
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, are you talking to me?
• 58:05
  SPEAKER_02: So since the accident, you know, you had your before of of kind of having that similar, like like I did.
• 58:12
  SPEAKER_02: How do you just continue to like honor that stillness, the quiet, the you know, doing the things that you really know your your purpose to call to?
• 58:23
  SPEAKER_02: Is it challenging for you to stay in that, you know, like path with the Lord?
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_02: Have you found since then?
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: Do you do you have struggles kind of getting back into like I'm good, I'm gonna keep going, you know, like push hard, work hard.
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_02: What does that look like for you?
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it can be hard because I have it's like a clock that's like that not I'm not doing enough, I'm I'm not going fast enough, not helping enough people, time is running out.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: I always have like a time is running out in my mind.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_00: And that can be good because it gets you up and doing things, but it also can work in the opposite direction where it's like you okay, you don't need to fill every second of the day, you need to be quiet, you need to, you like you, you the you know, and you can't be racing all the time because that's also what got me into that place in the first so it it's that controlling it of going.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: I I think there's times now that I'm much better at going, okay, you're going 100 miles an hour for too long.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, step back before it gets to a point of where it got to before, before the accident.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like you you need to step and and and be quiet and and and so I try not to be in a rush all the time, but but I definitely am in a rush a lot because I'm just like there's more, you know, who else can I help?
• 59:46
  SPEAKER_00: What who you know, like not doing what I'm because there there's also like you got this miracle, don't waste it.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: And and that's on on side of me too, where it's like you're wasting it unless you're using it, and so a lot of times it takes a lot in order to get to a place where you can help people.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_00: So it takes a it take it takes a lot of energy and work, but but I always say it's like if it was easy, then you would take it for granted.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_00: You realize how hard it is, and you value it so much greater, and than if you if it was just like it was given to you day one, like, oh, everyone's just gonna open your door and you're gonna speak to everyone, and that's like well, that maybe you wouldn't value it as much and realize how how special it is every time you're allowed to someone puts you in a position that allows you to help other people.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, so that's always a battle, but but yeah, I'm much better now at at saying, okay, you need to put that aside because you know what happens when you go 100 miles an hour all the time.
• 1:00:46
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it it's it's not serving you at some point, it's serving you to a certain point, but then it's not.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's good.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_02: And we live in such a fast-paced world, too, that it can be very challenging to slow down.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: So what I'm hearing is that you really love speaking.
• 1:01:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like, is that your favorite way to kind of get out there and and share your story and really help people on this journey?
• 1:01:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is that one of your favorite things to do?
• 1:01:13
  SPEAKER_02: Is to speak?
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, and and I think it in a world where we're sitting behind computer screens today, but uh but but the the fact that you know it's so much more personal.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I would say that my favorite part about speaking is when I stop speaking and I start talking to and and and I people start sharing with me.
• 1:01:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because if I find it amazing that people are so much more open to sharing what they're going through after you open up first and kind of bear your soul to it.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_00: So I I I like when I love when they have like receptions or something afterwards, and like I'll just I just sit there and go, and like now it's my time to listen.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: And and they and they they talk to me, and that's that's the most special part of it to me.
• 1:01:59
  SPEAKER_00: And so, so yeah, and that and and the speaking allows that to open up to people that you would have never met before and and help them with whatever they're going through.
• 1:02:10
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it's just about listening.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_00: It's not it's like for a speaker, he's like, Well, you talk a lot.
• 1:02:14
  SPEAKER_00: You're just like it's like, yeah, but the the best part for me is when I get to listen, I shut my mouth, and then it just you know, people start talking to me.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_00: And and I always find that the the the special most special part about it.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_02: Awesome.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_02: Well, for anybody who's listening, I feel like you know, are you open to like traveling?
• 1:02:32
  SPEAKER_02: Are you like worldwide traveling?
• 1:02:35
  SPEAKER_02: What do you what do you love?
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I guess my question is how can we help you?
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like if somebody's listening, are you open to like traveling?
• 1:02:43
  SPEAKER_02: Do you love, you know, where do you want to go?
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: What's your dream with this with this speaking?
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_00: I would say if you give me a pulpit, I'll preach.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, yeah, I I yeah, I travel and and you know, wherever wherever you know people get in contact me with different ways, and so yeah, I'm always looking for for new places to speak, new new people to help wherever that may be.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm open to to that.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, just uh if you're interested, just reach out and I'm happy to talk to you and figure it out and how to how to come and speak.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: Well, how can people reach you if they're interested in getting in touch?
• 1:03:20
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so my website is uh jasonden.com, so J-A-S-O-N-D-E-N-N-E-N.
• 1:03:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then send me a message through there and I'll get back to you as soon as I can and and and we could figure something out.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: Sounds great.
• 1:03:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I will be sure to have his contact information, the show notes, link to your book.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I I feel like this has just been incredible, and there's so much more for you.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like your heart behind purpose and helping others just walk it out is so important in this world, and I'm so thankful that God has spared you and He's got you on mission.
• 1:03:54
  SPEAKER_02: So as we wrap up today, as as we talked about before we got started, I really do this for the one.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_02: So if you can get in mind that one who's been listening in today, do you have any other words of wisdom or just encouragement, like short little bursts of encouragement that you'd want to leave somebody with today?
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_00: And fear can protect you or fear can prevent you from doing something you're absolutely capable of doing.
• 1:04:20
  SPEAKER_00: So and trusting God in even when things aren't going well, I would say it's it it's easy, it's easy to say you believe in things or or honor things when things are going great, but when the when the story's not the one you had exactly written yourself and you still trust in God, amazing things can happen.
• 1:04:39
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my gosh.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I'm gonna read something that I just put up on my on my window here today because it's so in alignment with what you just shared.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure you know James one, two through four.
• 1:04:51
  SPEAKER_02: Do you know that verse offhand?
• 1:04:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not good at quoting right off the top of my head, but I'm just gonna read it.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: It's the testing of your faith.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_02: So it's James 1, 2 through 4.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: Count it all joy.
• 1:05:04
  SPEAKER_02: And that's what I put on my post-it note.
• 1:05:06
  SPEAKER_02: Count it all joy.
• 1:05:07
  SPEAKER_02: When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.
• 1:05:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I feel like the the perseverance, the steadfastness, like this just encapsulates you.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_02: And and you did, you counted it all joy, and you continue to.
• 1:05:29
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you so much for being on today.
• 1:05:32
  SPEAKER_02: We might have another point.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_02: We'll see.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna close with the hope unlocked anchoring verse.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, you may abound in hope.
• 1:05:45
  SPEAKER_02: And that's Romans 15, 13.
• 1:05:47
  SPEAKER_02: So thank you for being a brave voice who's setting so many free.
• 1:05:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be back with another episode.
• 1:05:53
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks, Jason.
• 1:05:54
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.