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Elevating Lives: Christina’s Mission from Coaching to Child Advocacy · Your Thoughts Your Reality

• 0:02
  Speaker 1: Welcome to your Thoughts, your Reality with Michael Cole, the podcast that shines a compassionate light on the journey of veterans battling through life's challenges.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Michael is a dual elite certified neuro encoding specialist in coaching and keynote training presentations dedicated to guiding military veterans as they navigate the intricate pathways of post-deployment life.
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: Join him as we delve into the profound realm of neuroencoding science, empowering these brave individuals to conquer universal battles procrastination, self-doubt, fear and more.
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: Together, let's uncover the strength within you to re-engage with families and society, forging a new path forward.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: Hello, hello, hello everybody.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: So today I have a very special guest.
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: You know, Christina is in the Neuron Coding Institute with us and just a phenomenal light and soul and I'm super excited to have her on here today.
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: So a little bit about Christina.
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: Christina is an accomplished dual elite, certified Neuroding specialist, entrepreneur coach, the founder of a foundation dedicated to helping children with cancer and other life-threatening illnesses.
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: We're going to talk about that.
• 1:14
  Speaker 2: She has a deep family history of military service, with her father and grandfather who are veterans, and many of her friends have served as well veterans and many of her friends have served as well.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Christina specializes in grief coaching, an entrepreneur coach, understanding the complexities of profound loss and building a successful business.
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: So, just before we get started, because I always forget this, on the top right corner of your screen there is a blue QR code.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Please scan that.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: There are lots of resources for veterans, some books that I've written and Facebook pages to join all that fun stuff.
• 1:46
  Speaker 2: So please scan that if you're listening to our podcast on Apple or Spotify, et cetera.
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: Later it's Empower Performance Strategies dot com.
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: Again, Empower Performance Strategies dot com.
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: So, with all of that said, Christina, welcome, so honored to have you.
• 2:04
  Speaker 3: Well, thank you, Michael.
• 2:05
  Speaker 3: It's really a pleasure and an honor to be here.
• 2:08
  Speaker 3: So thank you so much, Michael.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Please tell us a bit more about yourself.
• 2:14
  Speaker 3: Well, as you can probably tell, I'm originally British.
• 2:17
  Speaker 3: I was born in Oxford and my dad was actually there when Richard Bannister broke the four-minute mile.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: My dad used to run for Oxford City and Richard Bannister and his people ran for Oxford University, and so my dad was actually there when the four-minute mile was broken.
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: My dad was in the army, he was in the artillery, and that's also where he got a lot of his training for doing different sports.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: So running, cross-country boxing I think it also gave him his grit, his resilience.
• 2:55
  Speaker 3: So that that was.
• 2:59
  Speaker 3: It felt very special to hear the dad the stories about my dad.
• 3:02
  Speaker 3: It felt very special to hear the stories about my dad, and he was also a marathon runner and was actually chosen to represent England during the Olympics and carried the torch through Oxford.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Unfortunately, he pulled his Achilles tendon and so couldn't make the London Olympics, but he did represent England and he represented the army internationally and he won medals for it.
• 3:27
  Speaker 2: Oh, fantastic, and just to have been invited or earned that right to go there, that's fantastic.
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: So tell us a little bit more about what you do as far as your foundation.
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: Just some brief stuff.
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: We'll get again in some more detail but just I want to hear more about Christina and the amazing person and things you do.
• 3:51
  Speaker 3: Well, I've always loved children.
• 3:52
  Speaker 3: I've always worked with children in various capacities, as a coach in sports, but also academically and helping children that have had different types of behavioral issues and learning difficulties.
• 4:09
  Speaker 3: So children always absolutely touch my heart.
• 4:13
  Speaker 3: I have also been thank you.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: I've also been an entrepreneur, and I kind of joke saying it's because I don't know what I want to be when I grow up or I can't find anyone that would employ me.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: I love it.
• 4:29
  Speaker 3: It's been many, many different types of businesses, mostly real estate development.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: I love building houses, which people think really strange, but I love being on the construction site.
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: I like designing them.
• 4:42
  Speaker 3: I've also had I was a partner in a hot air balloon company where we actually did hot air balloon rides but also built them and things, oh wow.
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: So you know, I'm quite familiar with Richard Branson and we also had a team that tried to go around the world which consisted of a Belgian pilot and a British pilot to go around the world, which consisted of a Belgian pilot and a British pilot.
• 5:15
  Speaker 3: I also was a founding partner for a football team and everyone goes soccer and I go, like heck, no American football.
• 5:19
  Speaker 3: And that was astounding because you I have this like quiet British demeanor and they're like how did you get into American football?
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: And it was something like arena football.
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: So it was the indoor NFL.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: We were in Lakeland, florida, which is where Ray Lewis originally came from, and how he started in football was Lakeland High School from, and how he started in football was Lakeland High School and then he went to Miami, which you know I'm I'm usually based in Miami, so that has my heart.
• 5:53
  Speaker 3: So Ray Lewis was a big part of our team.
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: He's, he was a sponsor and because I'm slightly competitive, just very slightly, you understand, but in our third year we won the national championship.
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: That's fantastic.
• 6:13
  Speaker 2: You know, I didn't know some of these stories.
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: So, everybody, we're done.
• 6:17
  Speaker 3: We're going to go off air and just talk for a while again Now, fantastic, and thank you for sharing all that You've, you've done a lot, yes, and personally I won an international competition for squash and I lived in Belgium for a while, in Antwerp in 1979.
• 6:41
  Speaker 3: I was the women's international squash champion of Antwerp, so that's where you know I'm able to coach sports people and teams because I understand a lot of it is really mindset and psychology, Absolutely, Absolutely.
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: So thank you for sharing all that Great, great stuff to learn about you.
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: Again, a lot of that I didn't even know, so thank you for sharing.
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: So, Christina, tell me you know your story is inspiring.
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: So tell me, if you will, let's kind of get started with what brought you to or what was that pivotal point that made you say you know what?
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: I want to help people and I want to coach and I want to help people with trauma.
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: I want to help people and I want to, I want to coach and I want to help people with trauma.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: And, of course, you know, with your I forgot the term, sorry your foundation.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: Yeah, foundation.
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: So why don't you tell us a little bit about that pivotal moment and kind of what brought you to your foundation?
• 7:50
  Speaker 3: There was, there was a few steps along the way.
• 7:52
  Speaker 3: So my grandparents who I was extremely close to my grandfather had been in World War I.
• 8:01
  Speaker 3: They had two children, my father and they had a daughter, and the daughter passed away at a young age.
• 8:09
  Speaker 3: I'm not sure if it was cancer, but it was some sort of illness that came on very quickly and she only survived about a week.
• 8:17
  Speaker 3: So I grew up seeing what a bereaved mom my grandmother looked like, even though she was a really happy person, but every day there was a few tears in her eyes and I saw how she cherished the memories of her daughter and that always touched me, and I also saw how it affected my father losing his sibling, losing his sister.
• 8:40
  Speaker 3: So that's always been on my heart.
• 8:45
  Speaker 3: And then, as I mentioned before, we were living in Antwerp in Belgium, and one of my best friends in Antwerp, her daughter, was around the same age as my two daughters and the children played together, they went to school together and her daughter suddenly developed cancer at an early age and Even though the family could go to the best treatments wherever.
• 9:12
  Speaker 3: Her daughter passed in nine months and that really affected me deeply and her mom started to follow some of the other children on Facebook that had cancer and invited me to follow them and I'd never realized that there was something as awful out there as childhood counselor and I.
• 9:35
  Speaker 3: It touched my heart and I just felt I wanted to do something.
• 9:39
  Speaker 3: So I had just done a pretty lucrative business deal and I said some of this money, I want to use it and take a family on a cruise and take a family to Disney, which I did, and it was some twins that came and the little boy, richard, was nine years old and he had a brain tumor and the brain tumor is called DIPG Diffuse Intrinsic intrinsic pontine glioma, which is in the brainstem.
• 10:15
  Speaker 3: It affects children, usually between the ages of 3 to 11 years old.
• 10:19
  Speaker 3: The average survival time is 9 to 12 months.
• 10:24
  Speaker 3: There's zero, zero survivors, zero survivors.
• 10:41
  Speaker 3: And it was.
• 10:42
  Speaker 3: It was eye-opening, it was heartbreaking.
• 10:44
  Speaker 3: I had a smile on my face every day on the cruise and at night time I cried myself to sleep in the pillow and I made him a silent promise that I would do something to make a difference in the world of DIPG and if I make a promise I do not break a promise and so then I started helping other families and children and taking them to Disney or just visiting them and doing special things with these children, or just visiting them and doing special things with these children, and I used a lot of my own money and I realized that if I wanted to continue this, I could not use my own money all the time, and so I started a foundation which is a public charity and we're very well respected.
• 11:33
  Speaker 3: I've been doing it now for over 11 years and I don't raise money for research, even though I know research is hugely important.
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: But I go to medical conferences.
• 11:42
  Speaker 3: I get invited into universities like Harvard and Baylor and MIT and inlor and MIT and in the UK and kind of like internationally, and I get invited to go to international conferences Fantastic.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: Fantastic.
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: I love that you're spreading information, hope, just lightening the world.
• 12:11
  Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: I'm not finding the right words, but that's the best way I can say it.
• 12:17
  Speaker 2: It's not an easy place to be.
• 12:23
  Speaker 2: If you will and there are very few people that I've found and especially know that can do what you do- Well, thank you.
• 12:32
  Speaker 2: Thank you.
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: And what I find is that when I do find some research which has possibilities and I see that it gives hope, I can go to other foundations and just like network and put them in touch.
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: And I can put researchers and doctors in touch with each other that they can make a difference, even though I don't have to be doing the actual fundraising for it.
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: But through my reputation and my contacts with other foundations, when there's a research project which really has potential, I can get it funded through other means.
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: That's phenomenal.
• 13:16
  Speaker 2: That is phenomenal.
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: Can I ask you to tell us the name of your foundation, please, Because I think it's important for people to know it, speak about it and share the information so we can help.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: Thank you.
• 13:32
  Speaker 3: It's called All In To Win Foundation Excellent, excellent, thank you.
• 13:38
  Speaker 3: I like to say that, like you know, we're all in to win, but together we're winning, because if we all come together, as foundations come together, we can be so much more effective.
• 13:50
  Speaker 3: You're much stronger when you're holding hands or you know, come together, we can be so much more effective.
• 13:52
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, you're much stronger when you're holding hands or, you know, connected that way, than by yourself.
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: Absolutely yeah, okay.
• 14:01
  Speaker 3: And you know what I see is, I cannot change the destination of these children, but the journey, the pathway.
• 14:08
  Speaker 3: We can fill it with unicorns, with rainbows, with flowers, with ice cream, with sunshine, with joy.
• 14:16
  Speaker 3: A child, when they wake up in the morning, even though they're terminally ill, they don't think, oh, I'm going to die today.
• 14:24
  Speaker 3: They're like what can we do today?
• 14:26
  Speaker 3: Can we make peace?
• 14:27
  Speaker 3: You know?
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Absolutely, and I'm just going to say that's an angel out there.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: You and others, I'm sure you know that.
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I'm just going to say that's, that's an angel out there.
• 14:33
  Speaker 2: You and others I'm sure you know that do the same thing.
• 14:37
  Speaker 2: You do that, that that help facilitate and bring that, that joy and excitement to their lives.
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: So, um, I'm gonna again, I'm gonna applaud you and thank you truly, truly so it's.
• 14:50
  Speaker 3: It's also because of so many of the children that come to our foundation have this brain tumor, dipg, which, as I said, is terminal, and so what we realized was that there's so many bereaved parents out there, parents out there, and there is grief counseling, but there's very few grief counselors that really understand the concept of um having lost a child.
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: Right, and it's also slightly different when it's going through cancer and um a long illness, because there's survivor's guilt.
• 15:29
  Speaker 3: There's guilt did I choose the right treatment?
• 15:33
  Speaker 3: Did I see it in time?
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: So we also spend a lot of time staying with the families, even after they've lost the child, and supporting the siblings, because of you know my knowledge with my father and even if the sibling has a birthday and they come to us, we try to make a special birthday celebration.
• 15:53
  Speaker 3: And one of the things that we do is we realize how important it is to have a beautiful celebration of life and a memorial celebration.
• 16:05
  Speaker 3: So the families come to us and we help them with all the funeral arrangements.
• 16:12
  Speaker 3: We talk to funeral homes, um we we see what the family needs to honor their child and we're able to make things very personal towards that child.
• 16:26
  Speaker 3: Helps the families and one of the things that we do as a foundation is we raise money to get the funerals paid for, because families do not.
• 16:35
  Speaker 3: You know you never contemplate having to pay for a funeral for your child and it's the worst thing ever in the world and especially in 9 to 12 months.
• 16:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not a, you know, five-year process, you know know for these families.
• 16:49
  Speaker 2: So Christina can.
• 16:51
  Speaker 2: So if somebody and we're not a, so understand this isn't a we're asking for a donation show, but I'm called to ask this for people that do want to, they can, just they can reach out to the All In To Win Foundation to do that if they're called.
• 17:09
  Speaker 3: Yes, yes, they can also find me on Instagram, or I have more of a presence on Facebook for the foundation, so they can also message me, and it's very easy to make a donation through PayPal or Venmo.
• 17:25
  Speaker 2: Fantastic.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: So, and please, if there's anything I can do in the future, we'll talk off camera for a minute when we're done here.
• 17:33
  Speaker 2: But you know, let's, let's talk about that as well.
• 17:35
  Speaker 2: I'd like to pivot a little bit and I know that you got your dad's grit you're talking about earlier.
• 17:42
  Speaker 2: That's how you can do all this and have accomplished all these amazing things in your life.
• 17:46
  Speaker 2: So I'd like to just, you know, kind of pivot this just a little bit into trauma and grief for veterans and their families, because of course, that's what this show is about and I wanted to bring your expertise in with this specifically on.
• 18:04
  Speaker 2: You know, a veteran or, again, a family member, whatever the case may be that's went through a trauma, whatever the case may be that's went through a trauma, whether that be a death of a military veteran or a family member, child, whatever the case may be.
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: But if you, what tips can you give?
• 18:22
  Speaker 2: And, of course, always bring in your own coding if it's there.
• 18:23
  Speaker 2: So what tips do you give?
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: Or can we talk about just more, what, what ways you found have have helped with, again, trauma and grief, et cetera.
• 18:38
  Speaker 3: Well, so let me just give you a little bit of a background.
• 18:41
  Speaker 3: In 2002, it was one year, one month, one day after 9-11.
• 18:48
  Speaker 3: One day after 9-11, there was a Al-Qaeda suicide bomb that was placed just outside a nightclub in Bali and one of my dearest friends, my soulmate, was sadly killed in that terrorist attack.
• 19:10
  Speaker 3: And the trauma from that is that it stays with you.
• 19:15
  Speaker 3: There has to be DNA, dna identification, because they can't identify the body in other ways.
• 19:22
  Speaker 3: Seeing the pictures of that, the fire, knowing that he was killed with a four by two piece of wood that went through his chest and body bag, number 39 stays in your mind.
• 19:37
  Speaker 3: So that's very, very traumatic to lose somebody in a terrorist attack, somebody who's totally innocent.
• 19:47
  Speaker 3: So what I feel is that with some sort of trauma like that, there's days that you know, there's certain anniversaries, there's certain days where, even if you don't think about it, your body, your cells actually remember it and feel it for you.
• 20:07
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 20:09
  Speaker 3: And you're just very emotional.
• 20:11
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's a happy emotion and sometimes it's sadness.
• 20:15
  Speaker 3: And what I felt is, on the days that it feels sad, just give yourself the gift of allowing yourself to feel sad.
• 20:25
  Speaker 3: Don't try to push, don't try to do things, don't make yourself feel guilty about it.
• 20:33
  Speaker 3: Your body just needs that.
• 20:35
  Speaker 3: And yes, you can do a pattern, interrupt or a stop technique.
• 20:39
  Speaker 3: But I feel, just be gentle with yourself and say tomorrow's another day.
• 20:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's beautiful, Thank you, and thank you for being vulnerable and sharing that personal experience.
• 20:52
  Speaker 2: Truly, I want to say this is save space for yourself and be kind to yourself.
• 21:02
  Speaker 2: I'm just going off what you're just talking about.
• 21:04
  Speaker 2: You know, be careful not to stay in it too long, and only you know when that's too long, because you'll feel it, you'll feel I've been here too long and be ready, and then techniques and pattern interrupts and the neuron coding skills, of course, come into play.
• 21:18
  Speaker 2: So thank you for saying that and you know, please continue.
• 21:24
  Speaker 3: Continue, I mean other tips, other other thoughts there and what I I find is sometimes I write a letter to him saying the things that I want to say, that weren't possible to say at the time, or things that I want to say now, or write a poem, or listen to certain music, and then celebrate, be you know, have gratitude that they were in your life, because would you give up the pain that you feel for not having even known them, not having spent a day with them, not having spent a few years with them?
• 22:04
  Speaker 2: I'm guessing very few people are going to say, yeah, I'd give it up.
• 22:07
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I haven't met anyone who says I would give it up.
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: And then the other thing I think about is would they want me to be living my life in tears and so sad because they're not here?
• 22:23
  Speaker 3: It's like I'm pretty sure they would say what we loved about you was was the fun part of you, the funny part of you, the crazy dancing part of you.
• 22:33
  Speaker 3: You know, and to my mind it's that's the way that you're honoring them by being the person and and enjoying the life that they loved you for when they knew you for.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: We had a veteran, danny O'Neill, on here.
• 22:49
  Speaker 2: He lost 24 of his veterans and seven sorry nine were in combat and 15 from suicide.
• 23:01
  Speaker 2: After the fact, when they returned home, um, he carries their dog tags, or dog tags that have all the names and everything on it, and you know his, his way of remembering, honoring, is literally the life he lives by helping other veterans and things.
• 23:21
  Speaker 2: So when you said that, it just totally, just totally brought it forward for me and I was called to talk about it.
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: So it is about how would they feel, just adding on to what you're saying, how would they feel?
• 23:34
  Speaker 2: Do they want you to be depressed and sad?
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: No, how many people and there's another story but because of time I'm not going to bring it up but how many people would say, no, I want you to be miserable, I want you to be unhappy?
• 23:53
  Speaker 2: It's just, it's not the reality.
• 23:54
  Speaker 2: So when you put that in perspective, like Christina just was talking about, it's literally live the life and live the memories that make you happy with them.
• 24:05
  Speaker 2: So that was just phenomenal.
• 24:10
  Speaker 3: And also I feel it's like honoring a little bit his legacy.
• 24:13
  Speaker 3: He was getting his PhD at Oxford University in education and he was actually head of high school studies at the American International School in Vietnam and they were at an educational conference on the island of Bali.
• 24:30
  Speaker 3: So he was there with other teachers and we'd always talked about helping children and teenagers and all that.
• 24:37
  Speaker 3: And I really feel that I'm still honoring his legacy and what he wanted by doing the work that I do with the children and when I feel sad, when we have a child that passes away, I just feel that he's there saying Christina, don't worry, I'm on the other side, you know you take care of the children in this earthly world and when they pass, don't worry, because I'm waiting for them.
• 25:09
  Speaker 2: Christina, that's one of the most beautiful things I've.
• 25:10
  Speaker 2: I've heard in a very long time that that's, that's, that's a beautiful, beautiful and and to feel that and know that that's that's got to be a blessing for you, huh it is.
• 25:22
  Speaker 3: It is, and I have just a little kind of funny story to tell you, michael, that some of these children that I've been superly close with and some of them, sadly, I've been with them as they've passed, or just a few days or a few weeks just before they've passed, and they send me little signs.
• 25:42
  Speaker 3: So there's this little girl in in England called Princess Kira, who passed away about nine years ago, and her thing is she sends me glitter.
• 25:55
  Speaker 3: Now I don't have any glitter in my house and and this morning, just as we go on and I was putting on my makeup, I suddenly had these pieces of glitter like on my face and I couldn't like remove them.
• 26:10
  Speaker 3: And I'm like Kira, I see you, I feel you and I I was nervous about getting on this podcast and I felt her say Christina, be the voice for these children that no longer have a voice.
• 26:28
  Speaker 2: I just got chills.
• 26:31
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm a big believer in that as well.
• 26:34
  Speaker 2: You know, there are certain people that you have those connections, and whether that be a hummingbird, a butterfly glitter, whatever the case may be, it's nice to, because that keeps them, keeps them alive.
• 26:47
  Speaker 2: In my opinion, when the memories are there, the thoughts are there, they're still alive.
• 26:50
  Speaker 2: Yes, so I love that.
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: I truly do so.
• 26:56
  Speaker 2: I have to tell a quick little story.
• 26:57
  Speaker 2: So I love my 49ers.
• 27:03
  Speaker 2: I, you know Super Bowl, all that stuff against Kansas City Chiefs, and my aunt, just so you know, biggest Kansas City Chiefs fan ever.
• 27:09
  Speaker 2: So I also love Mahoney.
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: I mean, you know all that fun stuff.
• 27:16
  Speaker 2: So you know, I was, you know, of course, rooting for my 49ers.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: And after it was all said and done, christina talked to me about someone very important to her, jace, correct?
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: Yes, thank you.
• 27:29
  Speaker 2: And he was this Kansas City diehard fan, and she sent a picture of him in his Kansas City shirt jersey, city shirt, jersey, and it was so momentous and I was so happy that the Chiefs beat the 49ers at that point.
• 27:51
  Speaker 2: Next year, though, we'll see, but it really just the story and the way you talk about Jace and you know, all of these children and families.
• 28:01
  Speaker 2: It really just puts a different perspective.
• 28:12
  Speaker 3: You know of you know of these, these children and families.
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: It really just puts a different perspective.
• 28:14
  Speaker 3: You know of you know, be grateful, but live every, every damn moment, every damn moment, and don't sweat the small things in life.
• 28:16
  Speaker 3: If you're stuck in traffic, who cares?
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: At least you're alive to be in traffic.
• 28:19
  Speaker 3: If your flights get canceled, who cares?
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: It's not important, you'll get to where you're meant to be when you're meant to be, but at least you're alive, you know yeah, absolutely, and and when you find a place to be in in gratefulness, it changes every day and every minute when you when you look at something and think, well, this is just the way the universe wanted it, god or whatever you think spiritually, it really changes the game.
• 28:49
  Speaker 2: When you're like just that, I'm here, I brushed my teeth today, whatever the case may be, when you can switch it to gratefulness, it's a fantastic thing.
• 28:58
  Speaker 2: Christina, thank you so so much for sharing, being vulnerable, all of the things that we got to talk about.
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: I am so honored to call you a friend.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I truly am.
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: I truly am.
• 29:10
  Speaker 2: So we're at the end of the show and I just want to let you know I don't think we talked about one question that we talked about.
• 29:19
  Speaker 2: This is just organic, amazing conversations among friends.
• 29:22
  Speaker 2: So thank you, christina.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: And one of the things I would say is follow your dreams, follow your passion.
• 29:31
  Speaker 3: I'm passionate about being an entrepreneur because I love the way.
• 29:37
  Speaker 3: More successful I am, the more I'm able to give back to these children or to make another family happy, and so that's what drives me to do these crazy entrepreneurial projects.
• 29:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's a beautiful life mission.
• 29:54
  Speaker 2: So congratulations for finding it.
• 29:57
  Speaker 2: How many people don't find it?
• 29:59
  Speaker 2: So congratulations, my friend.
• 30:01
  Speaker 2: So with that said, christina, if you can give us three tips to get veterans further, faster with anxiety, trauma, grief, whatever you want to put out there, One of the things I would say is to veterans reach out.
• 30:19
  Speaker 3: I know there's a myriad of foundations that are there to help them.
• 30:23
  Speaker 3: Reach out to the foundations because they have the resources, they have the experience.
• 30:29
  Speaker 3: So reach out to the foundations, Reach out to your community of other veterans, because I think veterans understand each other much more than civilians who haven't been in those sort of situations or programmed in that way, and also for not just the veterans, but for their families, for the wives, for the girlfriends, for the children.
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: Reach out for a therapist or reach out for a coach.
• 31:02
  Speaker 3: Out for a therapist or reach out for a coach and also look on looking for help as being a strength.
• 31:12
  Speaker 3: I know that some people feel it's a weakness, but it's not.
• 31:13
  Speaker 3: It's an absolute strength when you say I need some help.
• 31:17
  Speaker 3: And so, michael, I know, like you and I, we both do coaching and mindset coaching and empowering people, and I do grief coaching, but also someone who wants to start a new business, and what I say is live an exceptional life.
• 31:40
  Speaker 3: So, reach out and find a coach who will help you go further, faster and get the vision and the goals that you want to do, but live it and do it with a passion.
• 31:52
  Speaker 2: Absolutely love it, love it.
• 31:53
  Speaker 2: And how do people reach you?
• 31:55
  Speaker 2: I know Susan had put in your organization.
• 31:58
  Speaker 2: Are there other ways to reach you directly?
• 32:02
  Speaker 3: are there other ways to reach you directly?
• 32:03
  Speaker 3: Again, to reach me is always through Facebook or Instagram or through you, Michael, because you can pass on messages and put people to match with me.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: Absolutely.
• 32:13
  Speaker 2: And Christina brought up Facebook groups and that kind of thing.
• 32:17
  Speaker 2: I just want to let people know again, on the Blue QR Code and Empower Performance Strategies, there's actually different Facebook groups that I've put together for veterans themselves and the family separately.
• 32:29
  Speaker 2: You can be in both of them, don't care, but we did create that intentionally for each group to have their group.
• 32:37
  Speaker 2: So, christina, thank you so much Again, honored to call you a friend.
• 32:42
  Speaker 2: Thank you so much for spending the most precious resource we have as humans time, because we don't get it back.
• 32:48
  Speaker 2: Thank you for spending this 33 plus minutes Been an absolute honor.
• 32:52
  Speaker 2: So, with that said, everybody, we are out of here.
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: Thank you for joining us on another insightful journey of your Thoughts your Reality podcast with your host, michael Cole.
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: We hope the conversation sparked some thoughts that resonate with you.
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: To dive deeper into empowering your thoughts and enhancing your reality, visit empowerperformancestrategiescom.
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: Remember your thoughts shape your reality, so make them count.
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: Until next time, stay inspired and keep creating the reality you desire.
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: Catch you on the next episode.