Latest / Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess / Leadership with Betty Ogiel - Part 1 | Episode #355

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Leadership with Betty Ogiel - Part 1 | Episode #355 · Legacy Living with Dr. Gloria Burgess

• 0:21
  Hello, and welcome to today's show, Legacy Living, Make Your Life Count.
• 0:28
  I'm your host, Doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess, international leadership expert and trusted
• 0:37
  adviser. Welcome to Legacy Living, Make Your Life Count. I'm so delighted
• 0:46
  that you joined me today. I have a very special guest on our show
• 0:51
  today. Her name is Betty Ogier. She lives in her home country of
• 0:58
  Uganda. Betty is an author, an inspiring speaker, and most importantly,
• 1:06
  she is an advocate for hope and resilience. I can't wait for Betty to
• 1:12
  share her remarkable journey and story with you. Let me just give you a
• 1:19
  small glimpse for now. A number of years ago, Betty was in a
• 1:26
  horrible car accident which resulted in paralysis and speech loss. By God's mercy and
• 1:34
  grace, she overcame her paralysis, speech loss, and speech impairment. Betty
• 1:44
  will share more about her story in today's conversation. She also shares much more
• 1:51
  in her book Against All Odds. I'll tell you how to get a copy
• 1:56
  of her book later on in this episode. In addition to writing the book,
• 2:01
  Betty hosts a series of monthly forums which she calls Against All Odds talks.
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  These talks are absolutely and positively purpose driven, and Betty's purpose is to
• 2:17
  inspire hope and resilience and to transform lives. Betty is also the founder of
• 2:25
  the Betty o'yel Foundation in Uganda. Her foundation is a charity organization that educates
• 2:34
  destitute orphaned girls, especially from Karamoja, an impoverished region in Uganda. She's
• 2:42
  also a multiple award winning human resources professional and she is a John Maxwell Team
• 2:50
  certified coach. Today's topic is all about resilience and leadership, two topics that
• 2:59
  are near and dear to my heart, and I can't think of a better
• 3:04
  person, a better leader, a better human being to address this topic than
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  Betty. I met Betty several years ago when I was attending an International Maxwell
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  Certification conference in Orlando, Florida. When I met Betty, we just had
• 3:23
  this residence. We just clicked, and when I had an opportunity to hear
• 3:28
  her speak, she spoke so passionately about her life and her purpose. I
• 3:34
  mean, she was on fire. So I can't wait to host this incredible,
• 3:40
  amazing and lovely human being. My friend, my colleague and mentor,
• 3:47
  Betty Ogiel. Now, before I bring Betty on, I just want to
• 3:53
  take a moment to connect the dots between today's topic on resilience and leadership and
• 4:00
  legacy living. And there are many ways that resilience and leadership connect two legacy
• 4:06
  living, which you'll hear more about later. For now, let me just
• 4:12
  say that legacy living is a way of being and a way of living and
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  moving through the world so that we make the conscious choice to be the difference
• 4:23
  we want to see in the world. We make the conscious choice right here,
• 4:28
  right now, not in some distant future. We make that conscious choice
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  day in and day out, three sixty five, twenty four seven. Now,
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  more about that a little bit later. One more thing before I bring
• 4:44
  Betty on. Today's conversation will be aired in two parts. That's right,
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  Betty was so inspiring and shared so much great stuff. We're running our conversation
• 4:56
  in two parts. So now let me introduce you to my friend, my
• 5:01
  mentor, and my colleague, Betty. Thank you for joining me today,
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  Betty, I can't wait to have this conversation with you, As you know,
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  you're one of my favorite people on the planet and just love the work
• 5:18
  that you're doing so I want my listeners to hear from you and to hear
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  your story. And I'm going to begin by asking you just to say a
• 5:29
  little bit about who you are, where you're from, and this question and
• 5:34
  that is about resilience. Okay, So your name, where you're from,
• 5:42
  and if you can answer this question about who is a resilient person? Okay,
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  thank you, Gloria. It is all is an owner to speak with
• 5:59
  you and UH to just pick from your wise mine. My name is Betty
• 6:11
  o Gail Rubanger. Rubanger is my husband's name. And I am a Ugandan
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  living in Uganda, born and bred in Uganda and uh. I am also
• 6:34
  a mother of three and some boys. Of course, I am married to
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  a man, one man and uh in the market place, I am a
• 6:51
  human resource professional and also a coach with the John Maxwell team, so I
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  were many hearts. I am an author of the book Against All Odds,
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  and I founded a foundation which helps the education of often girls from the impoverished
• 7:32
  religions in Uganda. And to do that, I also established and it started
• 7:46
  Against All Odds Talks which aimed to inspire up and transform lives. So I
• 8:00
  am very happy to be here and just for my my listeners who are hearing
• 8:11
  me for the first time. I normally like putting the Westerns the Wander to
• 8:24
  Rest. Yes, I am an inspirational speaker who speaks majestically, not by
• 8:33
  choice, but by its circumstances beyond my control, which is why I'm more
• 8:43
  passionate about resilience. So, a resilient person is the one to me who
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  is able to rise against above their circumstances, to wear a smile on their
• 9:09
  face despite the fact that they are still in the tunnel in the process,
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  in the pre purification line, you know, So resilience, A resilient person
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  is one who is able to achieve their dreams despite the circumstances life will you
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  throw at them? Yes, thank you, Betty. So. I love
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  how you talk about being able to overcome, come and triumph over your circumstances.
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  And could you just tell us a little bit about you know, you
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  have gone through so many changes in your life, Betty, you know and
• 10:13
  we all have, but your your changes have been brought about through external circumstances.
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  And I wonder if you can tell our listeners about you know, how
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  the accident that affects your your speech affected your resilience. Thank you, Gloria.
• 10:35
  That is a very good question. No. Jim's alone said that a
• 10:45
  diversity introduces a man to himsilf. But for me, a diversity of the
• 10:54
  accident reintroduced me to myself because it was not the first addiversity I went through,
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  and it was it was a man and it is still among the adversities
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  I went through. So my baby, to give a little background to it.
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  Fourteen years ago, I got a motor car accident which left me with
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  a brain injury, a broken neck. I was paralyzed from head to toe,
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  and I I lost my ability to speak because the side my but my
• 12:03
  speech center was bruised in the brain. So I became a very vegetable.
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  I was wheelchair bound. I could not say a thing or even make a
• 12:26
  sound. It was a prior rate quest for me to just make a sound,
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  things that we take for granted every day. So how the accident affected
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  my wrestillence. In fact that the accident almost made me to give up.
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  But I remembered what I had already gone through in life. I remembered how
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  I lost my father at the age of three. I remembered how I was
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  abandoned at the age of fourteen. I remembered how I was poisoned by a
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  neighbor who got tired of looking after and abandoned of an girl. I remembered
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  how I walked twenty one hundred and twenty kilometers with the A twenty league chargerichan
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  of local potent gin on my head, walking on bear feet, smuggling local
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  potent gene across the border to Kenya, the neighboring country, to Uganda to
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  look for school fish and to look for survival. Then I remembered how shortly
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  after going back to school, I was beaten by his poisoner's snake. I
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  remembered how several times, many times I almost became a school a school drop
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  out. I remembered how I slept on the benches of the sports ground changing
• 15:00
  room for three years while pursuing my degree cause. Then I remembered all that.
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  Then I looked at my medals, athletics medals. Then I looked at
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  the chair with the wheelchair I was on. Then I that gave me back
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  the resilience to fight on for my life, for my dreams, for my
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  future. So the accident read you may drive, juvenated my result to achieve
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  my dreams. Yet again it reminded me that I had to to take charge
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  over my life again. Thank you, Betty. Uh. You know,
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  you have been through so many, so many valleys and peaks, you know,
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  and they go together, right, and God puts them together in our
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  lives. And you know, praise the Lord that he was able to send
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  you into this place of remembrance of all of the places that you you know,
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  have triumphed, you know, the valleys that you were in, as
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  well as climbing back up into the mountaintop. Right. And so when I
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  think about resilience, you know, I think about many, many different qualities
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  and we'll get to that a little bit later. But you know, I
• 16:48
  wonder if you might share a little bit with our listeners about your COVID nineteen
• 16:55
  journey. You you know, just recently went through that with your husband,
• 17:02
  and could you tell us a little bit about that, because that seemed like
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  another you know valley, right the God the God put you in. Yes.
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  Actually, God works in a mysterious ways and through our pain, it
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  makes us realize our purpose. So the COVID nineteen was recent yet another challenging
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  obstacle that I had to wait to go through and uh it is. It
• 18:00
  was, I could say, one of the worst moment. It reminded me
• 18:14
  of the accident where your life just changes, uh in a in a blink
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  of and I so, yeah, the Stector's score changed for us. My
• 18:37
  husband and I were all diagnized with the COVID and my husband was a more
• 18:51
  serious serious stage. And we add two big picked by an ambulance from home.
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  So you can and you can imagine we were. We were bounced from
• 19:18
  hospitals because hospitals were full of COVID questions. The first hospital bounced us and
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  we had to go to the next. Thank god. My employer was footing
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  the bills, but the bills were quite uh huge. So you're being transported
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  by ambulance which is very expensive. Yes, yes, yes, from one
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  hospital to another. Yes, yes, yes. And and all this time
• 20:06
  my husband is h I could say, getting cetious convalancing every two minutes.
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  I was like a crazy mad woman in the hospital, in the ambulance and
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  not knowing what to do. So our the status core had they changed in
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  a matter of seconds from all the time. My husband started convalancing from a
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  comfortable home to a hospital bed and and being taken care of people who were
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  addressed like they are going to the moon, like all covered up, yes,
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  yes so, and and not knowing what could happen and at in the
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  same period I lost many clothes, uh people, including my former boats in
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  my former workplace. It passed away when I was on the day I was
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  declared COVID postive. Then while in the hospital, many other close friends,
• 22:08
  including members of parliament and the ministers, dying with something that is in your
• 22:19
  body that you in the hospital with. So the level of uncertainty required resilience,
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  yes, absolutely, and hope and hope and hope yes and so Betty,
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  my, just my deep condolences. I know that you're now through that
• 22:47
  episode where you had to be hospitalized with your husband. My condolences for your
• 22:52
  losses of your friends and people that you knew and very close to. And
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  you talk talk about not only resilience but hope, Betty, and so I'm
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  wondering if you can share with our listeners you know what the power of hope
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  is for you and for them. Hope is is a very crucial thing in
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  our lives because if you lose it, you have lost the will to live.
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  Who have lost all hope, and that is why you see people committing
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  suicide. A person who commits suicide has lost hope. YEA. So what
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  is hope? Hope is finding a reason to living. Hope is hoping for
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  something. Hope is maintaining a positive mindset. Even a minister challenges. Hope
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  is acknowledging that there is this situation which is huge, huge, and it
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  is not under my control. But I hope some some way that there is
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  a power which is greater than I can perceive. There is a God somewhere.
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  There is that that power which caused me to come to existent and that
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  power, yes, he is there, Yes, and and and and yes,
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  just knowing that, yes, there's a power greater than you live.
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  Yes, and hanging on that power, hanging of I'm talking about God,
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  the Almighty God. You know, I couldn't agree with you more, Betty.
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  Uh. You know, we often hear about hope and the popular media,
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  and uh. For for people who believe in God, we know that
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  the ultimate hope is believing in God's strength, right and his faithfulness. And
• 26:00
  so that's how I hear you talking about it as well. That if what
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  would you say to our listeners who maybe they don't believe in God, I
• 26:11
  don't know. But what might you say to them about the power of hope
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  connected with you know, shattered dreams. Some people's dreams are shattered by COVID,
• 26:22
  others, you know, circumstances in their life. But what would you
• 26:26
  say to them about the power of hope and resilience. Scripture says that even
• 26:37
  when you face it's fire, Uh, we should do big blood because there
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  is joy ahead of the fire. Yes, And I guess everybody has had
• 27:03
  the saying, the common saying that there is light at the end of the
• 27:11
  tunnel. Yes, who brings that light? It is God. It is
• 27:18
  God who walks you through the tunnel. It is God. Imagine what power
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  do you have to get yourself out of that tunnel? It is a power
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  beyond as Yes, even in the fire, you can flourish. Yes,
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  even in opposition. This COVID as opposed many of our dreams, and its
• 27:53
  shattered many of our dreams. But I can tell you that there are people
• 28:00
  and companies who have made a lot of money and success in COVID. Why
• 28:11
  because they focused on hope. They had hope for for for better tomorrow.
• 28:22
  But they they phone something that they could do in that situation they are in.
• 28:36
  They maneuvered around COVID and they did not let COVID define them. They
• 28:52
  defined what COVID could do to them. They took uh can't charge of what
• 29:03
  they can do. They focused on what is working. If you look around
• 29:11
  you, at least something is working in you alive. If you don't,
• 29:21
  If you you you you are listening to my voice and you think that all
• 29:29
  is shattered, all is gone, I am here to encourage you that because
• 29:38
  you are alive, there's something working around. At least you are able to
• 29:47
  breathe without oxygen support. Hang on that thread. I saw people in allspitle
• 30:00
  OVID isolation struggling to breathe. They could not breathe without help of oxygen.
• 30:17
  Yes, now you and me, who are able to breathe by our slaves,
• 30:26
  be complaining about what is not working. Okay, So hope, Hope
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  is acknowledging that even if this sickness is there, but it can't stop you.
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  Sickness as long as you are alive, cannot stop you. People not
• 30:56
  liking you is something you can do with handle as long as you are alife.
• 31:07
  Not everybody will like you. People are not believing in you. It's
• 31:15
  none of your business. I like, I like my My other mentor is
• 31:26
  Les Brown. I've never met him physically, but he says other people's opinion
• 31:38
  what other Yes, other people's opinion about you is none of your business.
• 31:48
  And he also he also goes ahead to say that it is a full time
• 31:56
  job to change yourself. So you can't change them. You can't change people
• 32:06
  from having opinion about you, either negative or positive. They are entitled to
• 32:15
  their opinion. Yes, so it is for us to realize that we have
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  a life to live as as long as we are still alive. That is
• 32:29
  hope. We have a purpose to feel, feel to feel feel as long
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  as we are alive. We have a destiny to to to look forward.
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  Two. So there's always there's always something working around us. Never lose hope.
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  Yes, you can, you can. You can. You can achieve
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  your dreams. They COVID might delay, Oh might I would delayed. You
• 33:14
  are a dream, but it has not shuttered. You are dreamy. Hang
• 33:20
  on to it and as long as you live a loose hope, you will
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  achieve your dream. Well. Thank you, Betty, you know you are
• 33:30
  you are a living testimony. And I truly believe that God puts us in
• 33:36
  these valley places, wilderness places to strengthen us and to equip us. And
• 33:44
  Les Brown is one of my mentors too so and I've had the pleasure of
• 33:47
  meeting him, so I you know, I love I love that he's one
• 33:52
  of your mentors as well. Betty, could you talk to us a little
• 33:55
  bit about you mentioned earlier against all Odds? And what is that for you?
• 34:02
  I mean, I know you have a wonderful book called Against All Odds.
• 34:07
  I know that your life has been about against all odds? But can
• 34:08
  you say in your own words? What is that about for you? Against
• 34:16
  all odds? Is about? For me? Against all odds? It's like
• 34:30
  the highway to greatness, like odds, odds the grounds upon which greatness is
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  brent, whether we like it or not. Because without some life defining challenges,
• 34:58
  obstacles, problem I don't think they are, will would be greatness for
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  anyone uh the whether it is an individual or an organization. There would be
• 35:15
  no greatness without heartache, without confusion, without deversitation. This life tests that
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  are breed as any prepare us to greatness. So without my obstacles. Without
• 35:45
  the things I went through, I don't think I would be able to to
• 35:51
  to encourage anyone to to to give hope to anyone, because I believe the
• 36:07
  power in not telling people what you have not you have gone through, This
• 36:16
  power in telling people what you have gone through as opposed to what you have
• 36:27
  had m h at. Actually, my friends tell me Andy, colleagues that
• 36:37
  there's a colleague who told me that. Betty. The truth is that you
• 36:45
  are not only a resilience coach, you are reslient it's self. Yes,
• 36:54
  you You you don't teach people, You don't tell people about resilience. You
• 37:01
  actually woke the resilience journey so exactly. Yes, the ability, the ability
• 37:10
  to to come to cross roads in life and years and and choose not to
• 37:22
  throw in the towel, the ability to phase and there the devil right,
• 37:36
  so inspiring, rock solid gold. Be sure to listen in for part two
• 37:44
  of my conversation with Betty, and that part of our conversation, she'll share
• 37:49
  more about resilience and about the charity organization she founded, the Betty Ogiel Foundation.
• 37:57
  Now I just adore Betty. Clearly, she is a leader's leader.
• 38:01
  She makes a difference in her own life and in the lives of so many
• 38:07
  others, in her own family, in Uganda and throughout the world, in
• 38:14
  her work as an author and speaker, and as a certified John Maxwell coach,
• 38:20
  and as the founder and leader of her very own foundation, the Betty
• 38:24
  o'giel Foundation. Now, as I mentioned earlier, Betty's purpose is to inspire,
• 38:31
  hope and transform lives. Now you know why. To learn more about
• 38:40
  Betty's inspiring story and to buy her book Against All Odds, be sure to
• 38:46
  go to this website that's www dot Against all Odds dot Life. Again www
• 38:58
  dot Against all Odds dot l I f E Life. To learn more about
• 39:05
  Betty's work, you can go to this site. That's the Betty Ogiel dot
• 39:09
  com site. That's www dot Betty b e t t y ogiel O g
• 39:16
  I e l dot com. I'm going to repeat that because I don't want
• 39:21
  you to miss Betty's work www dot Betty ogiel O g I e l dot
• 39:30
  com. Now, if you are just joining us, I'm doctor Gloria and
• 39:37
  this is Legacy Living. Make your life count. We just heard from my
• 39:43
  very special guest, Betty Ogiel, author inspiring speaker and John Maxwell coach.
• 39:50
  Be sure to tune in for part two of my conversation with her. She
• 39:54
  will talk more about her charity organization, The Betty Oggiel Found. If you
• 40:02
  want to make your life count, if you want to be the change you
• 40:07
  seek, be sure to listen to this episode again and again, and hey,
• 40:14
  be sure to tell somebody. You can find me right here on iTunes,
• 40:20
  Audible, Alexa, SoundCloud, iHeart, tune in, sprigger dot com,
• 40:27
  Talk network radio, and sew many other places. Be sure to tune
• 40:32
  in again next time. Before I close today's show, I just want to
• 40:38
  give a shout out to all the women, men and are young people all
• 40:43
  around the world, because you know what, we are the ones. That's
• 40:49
  right, we are the ones we have been waiting for. Now. What
• 40:52
  do I mean by that, Well, I mean don't wait. Don't wait
• 40:59
  for somebody else to step up and make things happen, because guess what,
• 41:04
  they might not step up, They might not do it. In fact,
• 41:07
  they might not even know that you're there waiting for them to do something for
• 41:12
  you. But you can be the one. In fact, can I just
• 41:17
  tell you something? You are You are the one. You are the one
• 41:23
  who can make a difference in your own life so that you make a difference
• 41:29
  in the lives of others. Now, remember this how you live, the
• 41:37
  choices you make, your actions, your behaviors, your thoughts. How you
• 41:42
  live is how you lead. It's how you do everything. Okay, remember
• 41:49
  how you live is how you lead. Now, if you happen to miss
• 41:55
  any part of this week's show or last week's, you can simply download the
• 42:00
  recording and listen at your convenience. You can even listen on the go.
• 42:07
  Check us out at www dot Talk Network Radio dot com. Forward Slash Hosts,
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  Forward Slash Legacy Living. That's Talknetwork Radio dot com. Forward Slash Hosts,
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  Forward Slash Legacy Living. You can also learn more about my work and
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  Legacy Living. Make your life count by visiting the Gloria Burgess website. And
• 42:36
  as I've mentioned before, if you love to be inspired, you can actually
• 42:40
  subscribe to my inspirations right on my website. Just scroll down a little bit
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  look on the right sidebar until you see the place to add your email address
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  to subscribe to my weekly inspirations. It's that simple. Each week you get
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  here we go. Facebook dot com forward slash doctor Gloria Burgess, pH d.
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  And that's doctor with a dr. So that's Facebook dot com forward slash
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  Dr Gloria Burgess, pH D. You can also find me on the ted
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  x site and listen to one of my ted talks. Just type in my
• 43:31
  name to find me there. Before I close today, I want to thank
• 43:38
  each of you for tuning in to today's episode for allowing me to share a
• 43:44
  bit about my journey with what Legacy living is all about, not just living
• 43:49
  and learning, but living and learning and serving so that you make a difference
• 43:54
  in your own life and in the lives of others. It's about being on
• 44:00
  purpose every single day. Three sixty five twenty four seven. Legacy Living is
• 44:07
  a powerful way to make your life count. Thank you again for joining me
• 44:15
  for today's episode. I'm your host, doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess, and this
• 44:22
  is Legacy Living. Make your life count. Please join me again next time
• 44:29
  for another episode of Legacy Living. Make your life count. Remember, don't
• 44:37
  just count the days in your life, make the days in your life count.
• 44:44
  That's what legacy living is all about. Have a fantastic day and remember
• 44:51
  make the days in your life count. God bless you. That's our show
• 45:09
  today. I'm your host, doctor Gloria Gloria Burgess. I hope you'll join
• 45:16
  me again next time. Until then, don't just count the days in your
• 45:22
  life. Make the days in your life count. That's what legacy living is
• 45:29
  all about. Here's to you. Have a fantastic day and be sure to
• 45:34
  make it a yes kind of day. Remember to celebrate the music of your
• 45:42
  life. Make the days in your life count.