Triumph Over Cerebral Palsy: Win Charles’ Inspiring Journey

Transcript

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Hey, welcome to the next episode of Life Changing Challengers, and we're very lucky today to have Win Charles with us today.

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Hey, Win.

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Hi, how are you guys?

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Oh, I'm sure everybody's doing better now that they get to see you.

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Wow.

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So Win is an author.

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She has a few books out right.

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She has I W out right, she has I Win and the novel the View From the Hills.

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And the View From the Hills.

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She's also a motivational speaker.

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She and very close to my heart.

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She is an Ironman.

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She competed in the Kona Ironman and you know what?

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Ladies and gentlemen, I haven't even heard this story yet.

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So we're going to get to that as well, because obviously that's my bread and butter.

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But, wyn, so good to see you, thank you for joining us.

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Can you tell us a little bit about your childhood, how you grew up, where you grew up?

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What was the complement of your family and kind of the story of how you grew up, okay, the compliment of your family and kind of the story of how you grew up.

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Okay, brad, first of all, I'm feeling that number one question for my podcast because I like the way you say that.

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Second of all, I grew up I'm located right now in lovely Phoenix Arizona.

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Yes, we get the heat in the lovely Phoenix Arizona, but that's only in the summer, and hence the reason why I moved down to Phoenix Arizona is because I grew up in cold and cold and more cold, as much asthma which was beautiful, mind you Only child with a disability, and you can only imagine using a system that says you must know Thank you very much, not good.

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And so I lost my dad when I was 32, going on 33, one month before my 33rd birthday, and then I lost my mom in 2010, when I was 23.

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And so I, accidentally, I have all been there.

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I see myself like that, and hence the reason for the move in Phoenix Arizona to Phoenix Arizona is because, even though Colorado's great for triathlete, triathlon, training for triathletes, it's not so great to live and it's not so great to function, especially in the winter.

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Summers are beautiful, but summers they only last, so so on.

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So it's not so great to be functioning, especially with a disability, in Aspen and Aspen is.

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Just Google the word Aspen, colorado, you'll find it and you'll see that Aspen is a plain island of the legend, famous, and the locals are being kicked out of Aspen, colorado, because Colorado is so expensive.

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Colorado was expensive before the up in the Gulf of Woodland.

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Wow, so you left.

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When did you actually make the move?

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I made the move of March of 2020.

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Okay, so you've been in Phoenix a couple of years.

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Yeah.

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All right.

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So what was a day like growing up?

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Just to give everybody a sense of what a day in the life of a child with a parent is when you have a disability like cerebral palsy.

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Okay, well, first of all, this is Don't Make Me Cry, and I apologize right now if you need to pull the tissues out or if I need to pull the tissues out, but I'm going to cry, not to cry.

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But my mom was a champion of disabilities because before she had me she had eight miscarriages.

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So I'm a magical baby, and more ways than one, and she had struggles even having me.

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I was born at 27 weeks, 1 pound 13 ounces, and you people fail to forget that she had asthma on top of having me on top.

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She was pregnant with Ezra, goes into labor, which whereupon they thought she was having blacks and hicks, which blacks and hicks and forced labor, and so they thought she was having blacks and hicks.

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Turns out she was going into a forced labor with me, and this was June 22nd, and so they raised her to the hospital she was supposed to.

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She had a C-section, lands up getting pneumonia after that C-section, and I have to be airlifted out to a children's hospital in Neiman Colorado, whereupon they diagnosed me with cerebral palsy, whereupon my brain slicks out enough to have a brain bleed, a TBI on top of cerebral palsy.

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And I don't talk about my TBI quite much as I should, because my TBI doesn't affect and brain injuries will be brain injuries.

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Cerebral palsy is a lack of oxygen at birth.

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So on top of cerebral palsy I have a TBI.

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Don't know how he got that TBI.

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Don't know how I got that, don't want to know how I got that.

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But yeah, so imagine your mom and you're lying in the hospital bed because you're trying to recover from pneumonia after having a C-section and your daughter is ripped away from you because your daughter's now medically correct.

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And so I was lucky in the sense that I got diagnosed at a very young age, as a baby, because a lot of kids don't get diagnosed until they don't meet their milestones and of course the parents send them to school and they don't meet their milestones and of course the teachers don't know how to deal with them.

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So, getting back to your original question, my mom would get up every single day and she even did this even when she had a brain aneurysm.

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Thank you very much.

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I don't know why she was trying to be a lobby, even when she was deathly ill and had a brain aneurysm.

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But my mom would get up every single day and get me dressed, get me ready for school and make me watch the news, just so I wasn't dumb and knew what was going on news-wise.

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And then my aide would come and get me.

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Aides would come and get me, aids would come and get me.

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We would go to school.

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I would go to school.

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I had aid support through my family because I was very blessed to go to private school and have teachers that were trained in disabilities before they met me.

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So they pretty much knew.

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Once I came walking to the door they pretty much knew that I had CP in it.

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My mom would meet with teachers and my dad would meet with teachers and say, look, our daughter has cerebral palsy.

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What do we do?

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How are we going to educate her?

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And I didn't get PM to the July's education plan until I was in high school.

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I didn't even know what a special ed classroom was until I was in high school because I was mainstreamed, very lucky to go to a private school without a scholarship and my dad was an entrepreneur.

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That's where I get my entrepreneurial spirit.

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And my dad worked on the road doing sound mixing and then he opened up his own home entertainment company without social media, without Facebook, without anything.

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He barely took an ad out of the Yellow Painter.

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So at one point in a small town of Aspen, colorado, he was the only one doing it, and then, when the other competition came in, he trained the other competition on how to do it.

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So and he landed up closing Aspen on the OE in 2010 after my mom died.

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I'm very proud of him, and since then we had lost him.

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We lost him in 2019.

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And so, basically, I had the child, the all child, and I didn't even know I had a disability until I was in seventh grade.

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I figured it out when I was on the soccer team, though how I figured it out was I was watching all my friends kick the soccer ball and I was trying to kick the soccer ball.

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The soccer ball goes sideways.

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I almost falls forward because I'm trying to keep myself up, and typically, when you watch the able-bodied kids, I was the smart kid that watched the able-bodied kids do it too.

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So typically I was like, well, I'm starting to not fall in love when the soccer ball comes sideways and the soccer ball keeps going straight when they kick it.

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And this was in seventh grade, and so I knew in my heart that something was wrong with me.

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In my heart that something was wrong with me.

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But it wasn't until seventh grade that I learned the call letters for cerebral palsy, what is known as cerebral palsy and I knew that an SCP was a hurt.

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My mom drove me to school that morning.

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Then that's the time I got rid of my age, which, by the way, when you're in private school settings, they expect the families to pay for the age.

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That's why public school, where the age are provided, the IEPs are provided.

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Now they expect you to share the dollars for the one-on-one age and slash the tuition for the school.

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So we got rid of the aids that year.

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Seventh and eighth grade, I had no aids.

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My mom thought I was ready to do it on my own, which I was, but my mom failed to tell me that I had cerebral palsy.

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And so she drives me to school one day and she stops at the top of the driveway of my private school and she looks at me straight in the face and she goes when you have a disability called CP, it's going to impact you for the rest of your life.

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Now she drives forward into the parking lot and the next thing she goes to me.

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You have a great day, I'll see you later.

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To me, you have a great day, I'll see you later.

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And I'm like God beloved, I'd like not just imagine my wife and you're like now get out of the car, go to school and go hang out with your friends, and I'm like I'd love to Mom, but don't put that stuff on me, your kid, and so still all the day.

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Why not have a serious me, your kid, and it's real.

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Do all the damage after that.

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Why not have a serious conversation with your kid?

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Take them out of school or take them out to ice cream before you have a serious conversation?

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Don't do it at the top of the driveway, especially at the driveway where your school parking lot begins.

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Thank you very much.

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And so that's how my mom presented me.

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I'm like I love you, mom, but that's the way I presented me and I was a curious kid.

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I knew that something was wrong with me and people will tell you.

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I tried to speak, even in preschool, even when I couldn't speak, and so yeah, but that's the short version, hence the longer version.

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When I had to do my own research on, I had to Google what CP stood for and what CP actually was.

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So I had been Googling in high school what is CP.

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And then Google pops up, before AI.

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Mind you, this was normal Google and this was in about 2002.

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And so I Googled what is, and it pops up the words self-palsy.

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And it pops up 80,000 babies are diagnosed with it, 80,000 babies born with it, and the national color is green and CP is on bulletin.

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It could affect you in 11 ways.

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80,000 babies are born with it.

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And so I'm like, oh boy, here's the complexities.

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But all I knew is I had CP Moving on, and then I get fast-forward to 2010.

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I lose my mom, I start the podcast because I'm like I want to write a book.

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How the heck am I going to write a book?

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And the purple button on my iPhone would answer to my prayers of writing a book.

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And so I typed in Lightning Buck to the purple button on my iPhone and it was iTunes at the time, and purple button happened to be my.

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Purple happens to be my favorite color.

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So I wanted to make the purple button dance.

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And so what did I do?

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Tap on the purple button.

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And of course, do Tap on the purple button.

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And of course there was nothing in the purple button.

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It just sort of dives on Magnified Glass, which is the search button, and I tapped on the little search button, typed it in right, and then I listened to a podcast which is still in existence today.

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It's called the Creative Pen P-E-N by Joanna Penn, and she's a world-renowned bestselling author and self-published too.

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And so one of the things she said was now, she taught me how to write a book, self-publish a book and then market the book.

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And one of the things she said was you're going to have marketer, and I was very lucky.

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I built a fan base as I was buying the book.

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Not only my friends and family were going to buy the book, and then I took the leadership course on how to be a better person with a disability.

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Well, they made me do a vision for it, and that's when I asked my mom Died and I said I want to write a book.

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So 11 people were looking at me like I was nuts.

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You want to write a book, asked me, and my mom Died.

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Be like my dad looked at me as if I went to the assignment.

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I'm like I'm going to do this.

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I was going to figure out a way.

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So I got my iPhone out and started using speech dictation, artificial intelligence, siri, and then I published that book a year later and everyone.

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I published that book a year later and everyone was so shocked and proud that I published the book, except for my gut, Give me a calendar and take me to head off, and so I decided to make it the public button after iTunes dance again and type it in there for all day.

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Well, when I typed it in, cerebral palsy crickets came up nothing as far as cerebral palsy and then I said, ah, this is only my niche.

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Well, I did not for hours and hours alone, but I wanted to give people hope.

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So I started interviewing people day one on my podcast, and that was in 2012.

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And 2011, after the book came out in October, and I have been known to be on writing podcasts, and so I've been doing that since 2011, maybe a little bit before that, and yeah, Wow, so that's like the podcast booming right Right around that point, right.

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Wow, so that's like the podcast booming right right around that point, right, because obviously, podcasting.

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No one seems to remember that the reason why it was called a podcast was because you could get it on an ipod.

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That's why it was called a podcast in the beginning.

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Yeah, because that's yeah, it was 2004 and when the ipod came out, it it was the idea that, oh well, look, there's this iPod, so let's put something together.

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So pod, ipod cast podcast.

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So that's how it all started.

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And we're still calling it a podcast, which means we're still, like giving Apple credit for all of this.

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Oh, yeah, yeah, which is fine, I don't have a problem with it, because they were the first ones to come up with a device that was able to store these audio files where you can listen to them later.

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They were basically the first ones.

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So, first of all, I have to tell you it sounds like you had two of the very best parents ever.

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Yeah, I did.

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Best parents, like, yeah, I did.

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They the ability, the, the fact that your parents went about it this way, where you didn't even know that you had a disability until middle school I think that's fantastic.

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I I mean you, I'm not in that space, but I can imagine how much more confidence you had at that point.

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And it's funny you make it sound funny, but it is actually brilliant the way your mom told you yeah, and quite frankly, she had the.

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I didn't even know what the name was until 2019, how it it happened to me until I asked.

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Dad got quite fun with it.

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I didn't even find out the huge piece of put all until 2019.

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Only because I got emotionally and physically abused by my mom's sister.

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Thank you very much.

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And then I only got emotional and physical abuse, and so I had to do more research on my own disability and why I need health care while I'm getting dressed.

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Wow, how did you come into contact with your mom's sister?

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My mom's sister was in my life when my mom died in 2010.

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By the way, my mom got diagnosed with brain aneurysm and they caught it.

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She picks up an infection in the hospital, died from an infection because her body was so weak, but all in all, she was functioning right up the corner.

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The brain aneurysm and for those of you that don't know what a brain aneurysm is, it's a blood vessel that bursts in the brain and you can get splitting headaches and be licensive and be nauseous and feel terrible, and a lot of doctors don't know how to catch it because they think it's the flu.

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And I have spoken about this.

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I'm about to interview a brain aneurysm survivor another one and I interviewed a husband of a person who lost her life to a brain aneurysm.

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She was a news reporter in New York.

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She was a news reporter in New York and if you look up Lisa Calagasi Foundation, they do brain aneurysm awareness and I have asked her husband twice.

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I said why didn't doctors catch my mom's brain aneurysm?

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He goes when and this was recorded publicly and he goes when.

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Doctors are not trained in brain aneurysm.

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They barely train in the throat, later on, brain aneurysm.

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Wow, so you go ahead and you write this book in 2011.

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You started a podcast in 2012.

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Yeah, that is crazy.

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And I think it's amazing because I mean, because you're you said, you're what 36 now 36, going on 37.

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So 36,.

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So you were 22.

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22, 23 when my mom died, 24 by the time I published the book.

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You at 24.

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That's crazy.

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24 years old, you published a book and then you start a podcast during pretty much when podcasts started to get more popular.

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People started understanding what podcasts were at that point not everybody you still.

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In 2012, you can still walk down the street and go hey, hey, I listened to this podcast, did you?

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And they're like what's a podcast at that point?

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Now, it's a household.

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It's a household definition.

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Oh, that's crazy.

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So what's all right, let's jump into the elephant in the room.

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When did you decide that you were going to do?

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When did you get into triathlon?

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And when did you decide you were going to do?

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Okay, let's jump into the elephant in the room, but but in better here than he's still excited to talk about.

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Yes, yes, just to let you know, triathletes come to Colorado to train because of the altitude.

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So I had the advantage there, because I live in Colorado, you'll see a lot of triathletes, primarily both of Colorado, not so much in Aspen, but both of them.

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You will see a lot of triathletes and a lot of coaches say go to Colorado for a month and train.

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So my teammate decides to say I'm going to surprise for you.

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I'm sitting at my desk and now this is after my mom died and my teammate goes, she calls me, my dad picks up the phone and she goes can I speak to it?

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So the next thing I know my intercom system is going off saying VA wants Boba and VA wants to speak to you.

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And VA says I have a surprise for you and I'm like I'm just so the kid that says don't slice, they cut directly to the trace.

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You know my mom had just died, your aunt had just died.

00:25:25.795 --> 00:25:30.651
So this better not be having to do with your aunt's death.

00:25:30.651 --> 00:25:36.907
This better not have to be doing with your aunt's death.

00:25:36.907 --> 00:25:38.632
It better be a bit of spice.

00:25:38.632 --> 00:25:40.516
But I didn't know what the spice was.

00:25:40.516 --> 00:25:43.563
And despite not having to be doing resilience, it better be a bit of spice.

00:25:43.563 --> 00:25:44.545
But I didn't know what the spice was.

00:25:44.545 --> 00:25:53.051
And you got to remember that I was in physical shape at the time to do Kona whether of any triathlon or anything I had lost weight.

00:25:53.051 --> 00:26:01.436
I mean, if you look at me now, I'm doing a lot better but I was skin and bones because I was bleeding lots of my mom.

00:26:01.436 --> 00:26:08.377
And so it's like, okay, how the heck am I supposed to do the surprise?

00:26:08.377 --> 00:26:16.070
And I'm putting Biden there, but your audio listeners can't see that, and so she goes.

00:26:16.070 --> 00:26:17.194
I have a surprise for you.

00:26:17.194 --> 00:26:20.535
I'm like cut to the chase and don't leave it.

00:26:20.535 --> 00:26:23.788
And I have a surprise for you, and she goes.

00:26:23.788 --> 00:26:41.861
I want to do the Conan Iron man again myself, but I need you to help, because the only way we can get in is under the Iron man foundation.

00:26:41.861 --> 00:26:46.636
The Iron man foundation is no longer in existence.

00:26:47.384 --> 00:26:54.829
I am, when I go back to Kona, which I, which again I'm going back to Kona I'm doing it in a different way.

00:26:54.829 --> 00:26:56.958
We're in the process of talking to Iron man about me doing doing it a different way.

00:26:56.958 --> 00:27:00.555
We're in the process of talking to Iron man about me doing it a different way.

00:27:00.555 --> 00:27:06.433
It's a similar way that I did it last time, and so I said okay.

00:27:06.433 --> 00:27:09.753
I said okay, let me think about this.

00:27:09.753 --> 00:27:19.993
And I got off the phone and said I thought in my mind, how the hell am I supposed to do a triathlon if I'm not in physical shape?

00:27:21.228 --> 00:27:24.311
My mom had just said how the heck am I supposed to do this?

00:27:24.311 --> 00:27:42.724
And you probably tell your clients this you don't say, decide one day on the count, I'm going to do a triathlon, and you don't decide today in your office that I'm going to do a triathlon either.

00:27:42.724 --> 00:27:52.077
You have to train like a man to woman, and that's why we have people like Brad, who's an endurance coach, to gain the strength.

00:27:52.077 --> 00:27:55.354
And so I'm like what am I supposed to do?

00:27:55.354 --> 00:27:57.402
And so I get like what am I supposed to do with?

00:27:57.402 --> 00:27:57.683
And so I gain.

00:27:57.683 --> 00:27:59.432
I get a personal trainer.

00:27:59.432 --> 00:28:15.412
She works with me, my teammate is across the country in the Bahamas training, and then we end up doing a year of triathlons leading up to Kona.

00:28:15.907 --> 00:28:28.704
We finally get to Kona, my teammate goes in the middle of Kona and, for those of you who watch Kona, they air it on NBC Sports and when it aired.

00:28:28.704 --> 00:28:38.214
And so, for those of you who watch Kona, you know the hobby Kona and you know where they take off.

00:28:38.214 --> 00:28:41.795
You know they do the swim, bike and run.

00:28:41.795 --> 00:28:44.574
They do the swim in the open waters.

00:28:44.574 --> 00:28:55.114
So, basically, how I do it is someone puts me in a boat or kayak and they swim underneath me.

00:28:55.114 --> 00:28:57.132
We do the swim that way.

00:28:57.132 --> 00:28:59.569
We do the bike.

00:28:59.569 --> 00:29:10.692
I hook up the back of a bike, which the last time I did it I was in the trailer adults like trailer which was a little bit easier than when I did the car I'm in.

00:29:10.692 --> 00:29:16.994
And then how we do the run, is they push me in a wheelchair, their wheelchair's designed for running.

00:29:16.994 --> 00:29:21.393
Is they push me in a wheelchair, their wheelchair's designed for running, and they push me in a wheelchair.

00:29:21.393 --> 00:29:33.173
So, in the middle of the car, my teammate goes this is hard because she's now pulling me- yeah, with a lot more resistance.

00:29:35.030 --> 00:29:58.127
And so of course they take us off the bike course because you have to make the bike and the swim and the run in a certain amount of time and of course the run is at the end, it's not in the middle, and so they take us off the bike course and she goes.

00:29:58.127 --> 00:29:59.573
This is hard.

00:29:59.573 --> 00:30:04.368
We go to the award ceremony and my aide looks at me.

00:30:04.368 --> 00:30:06.107
Who's my aide?

00:30:06.107 --> 00:30:09.594
Who was traveling with me at the time?

00:30:09.594 --> 00:30:13.092
I took a very good friend of mine to travel.

00:30:13.092 --> 00:30:15.890
It's also life-blooded, but my aide goes.

00:30:15.890 --> 00:30:22.692
Well, she did Bob and Megan in her age class and win the color Iron man.

00:30:22.692 --> 00:30:34.008
Originally I don't know, but she did, and now she was trying to use me to win her age class again.

00:30:34.008 --> 00:30:35.846
We finally figured that went out.

00:30:35.846 --> 00:30:37.854
My aide and nine, that's good.

00:30:38.806 --> 00:30:48.614
All I wanted, all I wanted after the Golden Iron man, was waffles, which my teammate, my cousin, which I will never do again.

00:30:48.614 --> 00:30:49.564
Who was with Emily?

00:30:49.564 --> 00:30:51.171
My cousin goes.

00:30:51.171 --> 00:30:53.451
You can't have those waffles.

00:30:53.451 --> 00:30:54.809
Which way is your boat?

00:30:54.809 --> 00:30:55.932
Which way is the Iron man?

00:30:55.932 --> 00:30:56.282
And I'm sitting at the Four Seasons Hotel.

00:30:56.282 --> 00:30:56.568
You can have those waffles.

00:30:56.568 --> 00:30:56.715
Which way you should vote?

00:30:56.715 --> 00:30:57.163
Which way you should find them?

00:30:57.163 --> 00:31:06.220
And I'm sitting at the Four Seasons Hotel in Konan, hawaii, and all I want is waffles.

00:31:06.724 --> 00:31:20.892
And so the next day after the Konan, when my teammate is so discouraged, my aide secretly goes to win, because that means I joke, now, do you want waffles?

00:31:20.892 --> 00:31:25.084
And I said yes, and she dips me on huge plate of waffles.

00:31:25.084 --> 00:31:37.452
My teenage is sitting there and the table gets worse and worse and I'm like, oh boy, there goes the work, which means they were all plate of waffles and, mind you, they were very good.

00:31:37.452 --> 00:31:42.795
And so, of course, my teammate decides to get married.

00:31:42.795 --> 00:31:46.108
My aide for posting, of course, posting.

00:31:46.108 --> 00:31:50.670
We had a Facebook page at the time and my aide posts.

00:31:50.670 --> 00:31:56.749
Well, team Wing had a defeat and Team Wing didn't make it and my aide got.

00:31:56.749 --> 00:32:03.731
My teammate got so mad at my aid that it was a whole big show.

00:32:03.731 --> 00:32:21.692
And so I decided well, if I ever get to do the cold iron man again, whether I'm triathlete, triathlons, I would never, ever, never, take a family member to do the cold iron van level of any triathlon.

00:32:22.244 --> 00:32:31.189
So in the meantime, I meet a triathlete called B-Tri.

00:32:31.189 --> 00:32:34.288
For us, they're based in San Soto, florida.

00:32:34.288 --> 00:32:36.614
They have always been based in San Soto Florida.

00:32:36.614 --> 00:32:37.578
They have always been based in San Salvador, florida.

00:32:37.578 --> 00:32:42.298
And what Be Try For Us does is they do?

00:32:42.298 --> 00:32:49.666
They put people in boats, they put people on back of bikes, they put people in chairs.

00:32:50.369 --> 00:33:00.176
And so in December of 2023, the team Be Try For follows me on Instagram.

00:33:00.176 --> 00:33:07.724
I didn't even know they were following me and they said hey, Win, you remember who we are right?

00:33:07.724 --> 00:33:18.155
And I had gotten a DM from Stephanie, who's the head of B-Tri-Fast, and she goes you still want to do a triathlon, don't you?

00:33:18.155 --> 00:33:21.670
And I've been calling to see if it's there.

00:33:21.670 --> 00:33:26.378
So I'm impressed and here we go.

00:33:26.378 --> 00:33:29.233
We'll go find you a triathlete buddy too.

00:33:29.233 --> 00:33:31.667
And this was you.

00:33:31.667 --> 00:33:33.852
And I'm like, okay, here we go.

00:33:33.852 --> 00:33:57.059
And so they found a triathlete buddy because one of their newborn members all he wanted to do was long distance triathlete and long distance triathlon, and most kids they work with don't have the capacity to do long distance triathlon.

00:33:57.059 --> 00:34:03.398
Only one person on the team has capacity to do long distance triathlon.

00:34:03.398 --> 00:34:15.715
They used to do spring triathlons and short distance triathlons, and so I'm like, okay, so B tried for us, I'm in the end zone.

00:34:15.715 --> 00:34:20.456
And so Steph goes okay, we're going to try this.

00:34:21.164 --> 00:34:24.655
And in December of 2023, I take my aid.

00:34:24.655 --> 00:34:29.534
We do Crash Daytona at Daytona Beach.

00:34:29.534 --> 00:34:33.411
Oh, wow, the Daytona Speedway.

00:34:33.411 --> 00:34:39.411
That was so cool and I still have pictures of it on my phone.

00:34:39.411 --> 00:34:47.293
And of course, you know that you have to get stupid up early to get to the swim store.

00:34:47.293 --> 00:34:54.469
And I had all those professional triathletes do it with me.

00:34:54.469 --> 00:34:56.465
We fast-forwarded and then, personally, I had to go to the airport.

00:34:56.465 --> 00:34:56.974
Professional triathlete do it with me.

00:34:56.974 --> 00:35:03.693
We fostered a line and then, personally, I had to go to the airport to fly back, and so it was a super long day.

00:35:03.693 --> 00:35:07.018
But I will not do that again.

00:35:07.018 --> 00:35:17.344
If I go to Kona and that's how we're going to do Kona I need to do a full triathlon with this person personally.

00:35:17.344 --> 00:35:23.858
Well, I know right now, as a matter of fact, I'm still in contact with VTRI.

00:35:23.858 --> 00:35:28.336
Well, I know right now something to do a full triathlon.

00:35:28.336 --> 00:35:33.114
And then Ironman knows that I'm bringing equipment in.

00:35:33.114 --> 00:35:34.978
Ironman is ready to go.

00:35:36.425 --> 00:35:38.965
That's awesome yeah.

00:35:39.266 --> 00:35:39.567
Yeah.

00:35:39.907 --> 00:35:46.018
My friend I have a good set of friends that they started a company called Best Damn Race.

00:35:46.759 --> 00:35:46.900
Yeah.

00:35:47.144 --> 00:35:50.431
Back many years ago, so they called it Best Damn Race.

00:35:50.431 --> 00:35:56.112
His name is Nick Zivlich Hopefully hey, nick, hopefully you're listening and his significant other, beth Shaw.

00:35:56.112 --> 00:36:00.253
I've known them both for years and they helped with the events.

00:36:00.253 --> 00:36:05.454
They helped with the crash, daytona, they helped with that, so they were out there.

00:36:05.454 --> 00:36:08.072
So that's a really crazy coincidence.

00:36:08.072 --> 00:36:08.753
That's awesome.

00:36:08.753 --> 00:36:15.532
Yeah, wow, that is unbelievable, and I hope that you're going to be able to get back to Kona, because it's something else.

00:36:15.532 --> 00:36:24.637
But now they're flip-flopping it, right, yeah, so the men they flip, they flip flop between France and and Kona.

00:36:24.637 --> 00:36:31.271
So one year that the guys will do the guys will do Kona, the girls will do France, yeah, yeah.

00:36:31.431 --> 00:36:37.972
Like passport and class is yeah, it's exactly on my bucket list.

00:36:37.972 --> 00:36:42.231
So if I do the Kona I ran in France.

00:36:42.231 --> 00:37:03.119
Oh my God, it's going gonna make so much fun because, for those of you who have ever been a spectator and any triathlon, the hype from the audience is just out of this world, especially in columbia so I've done five and they're yeah, you're absolutely right.

00:37:03.298 --> 00:37:07.251
When you get to the red carpet it's incredible, like I even tell my clients.

00:37:07.251 --> 00:37:13.612
I tell my clients, I'm like at least your first one when you get to the red carpet, you need to make sure you're alone.

00:37:13.612 --> 00:37:16.686
If somebody's in front of you, pass them.

00:37:16.686 --> 00:37:27.891
If or either pass them or slow down, because when you cross that finish line, you want that finish line to yourself, not only for the picture and the video, but because of the cheering that's going on.

00:37:27.891 --> 00:37:29.596
You want to make sure that cheering is for you.

00:37:29.836 --> 00:37:30.018
Yeah.

00:37:30.204 --> 00:37:34.927
Yeah, especially the first one, Especially the first one, exactly Put it in my element.

00:37:34.927 --> 00:37:36.152
Yeah.

00:37:36.192 --> 00:37:36.532
Yeah.

00:37:37.135 --> 00:37:37.856
That's incredible.

00:37:37.856 --> 00:37:39.753
I really hope that you get to do that.

00:37:39.753 --> 00:37:43.606
That'll be amazing and I watch it.

00:37:43.606 --> 00:37:44.789
I watch it every year, but unfortunately they don't.

00:37:44.789 --> 00:37:46.373
They don't process the age group.

00:37:46.373 --> 00:37:54.088
Most of the time it's pro and then they'll let it go, but they'll turn off the sound and they'll just let the on, let it go.

00:37:54.088 --> 00:38:00.809
So last year, I think was the last year yeah, last year, I think was the last year that it was the iron nun was.

00:38:00.809 --> 00:38:04.496
I think last year was the last year that she did it when she's like 92.

00:38:05.699 --> 00:38:12.217
Yeah, we have some pretty inspirational triathletes out there.

00:38:12.217 --> 00:38:21.909
Those inspirational athletes, if you guys look up T-Plate yeah, the win is based off T-Pike.

00:38:21.909 --> 00:38:24.449
Yeah, the win is based off T-Pike.

00:38:24.449 --> 00:38:29.072
And if you look up, oh, what's the other one?

00:38:29.072 --> 00:38:31.237
Ansley's Angels.

00:38:31.806 --> 00:38:32.670
Ansley's Angels yeah.

00:38:33.065 --> 00:38:34.230
Ansley's Angels.

00:38:34.230 --> 00:38:40.315
They don't do triathlon so much as T-Pike did.

00:38:40.315 --> 00:38:48.458
I should say I almost had the opportunity to meet T White in Kona, but I missed that.

00:38:48.458 --> 00:39:03.579
I missed that they were doing a press event in Kona when we were there and then, unfortunately, dick died and then Vic died of complications from cerebral palsy, his lungs.

00:39:03.579 --> 00:39:10.525
But Vic and Dick were older to begin with and so.

00:39:10.525 --> 00:39:17.887
But Dick started all this when Vic was young and Vic just.

00:39:18.949 --> 00:39:22.393
You'll find out that people with ctr are done with junkies.

00:39:22.393 --> 00:39:28.369
So rick loves it and they did the boston marathon.

00:39:28.369 --> 00:39:41.875
And when the boston bobbins went off, they were in the middle of the boston marathon and dick said, oh, we're not doing this anymore doing it.

00:39:41.875 --> 00:39:45.721
So he re-evaluated what he was doing with the silent.

00:39:45.721 --> 00:39:52.494
Of course, the son, who was non-verbal, loved it so much he wanted to do it even more.

00:39:52.494 --> 00:39:59.458
So unfortunately, those two great legends had passed away.

00:40:00.244 --> 00:40:11.532
And if you also look up Walk With K-P-Z, walk With K-P-Z is Brent and Kyle Pease and they're still doing it.

00:40:11.532 --> 00:40:14.655
The boys won the Carolina man.

00:40:14.655 --> 00:40:17.753
Kyle has cerebral palsy.

00:40:17.753 --> 00:40:30.282
I fortunately met Kyle and he's a spin fire and a dog bite and Brent and Kyle has a foundation based in Atlanta.

00:40:30.282 --> 00:40:32.690
I went down there.

00:40:32.690 --> 00:40:51.233
We went down there to do a race with them and of course the boys were looking at the gold, VA was looking at Brent, I was looking at Kyle and someone took a picture of that and I'd be like, well, that should be good.

00:40:51.233 --> 00:40:57.233
And so, yeah, we had been done with that.

00:40:57.233 --> 00:41:04.632
And so Brent and Kyle do at the labor they still do, and I have to double check.

00:41:04.632 --> 00:41:05.856
Brent and Kyle Pease do at the later.

00:41:05.856 --> 00:41:06.677
They still do an ISW.

00:41:06.677 --> 00:41:09.005
But Brent and Kyle Pease do a road race in Atlanta.

00:41:09.005 --> 00:41:14.487
They gather all the teams and I fly in as the only one.

00:41:14.487 --> 00:41:25.010
I remember of Walk with KP and so, but walk with KPS marathons and they didn't sell.

00:41:25.030 --> 00:41:25.512
Road races.

00:41:26.652 --> 00:41:27.932
Dead carina.

00:41:27.932 --> 00:41:41.297
They didn't bring the whole entourage with them and their families involved, and so, yeah, those are a couple of legends that you guys need to look up.

00:41:42.498 --> 00:41:49.601
Definitely, and I'm going to post those links in the show notes so you'll be able to see that.

00:41:49.601 --> 00:41:51.041
So let's step back a minute.

00:41:51.041 --> 00:41:54.063
What keeps you going, Win?

00:41:54.063 --> 00:42:00.867
I mean I know that you had an incredible childhood growing up.

00:42:00.867 --> 00:42:06.076
I mean you had obviously some issues after your parent, after your mom died, but you got over it obviously.

00:42:06.076 --> 00:42:17.393
But with somebody that and I'm looking forward to as far as other people go, giving them some sort of inspiration what keeps I?

00:42:19.175 --> 00:42:40.432
don't know, I don't know and I people have been asking me that a lot lately and after five hours of that surgery, that's the only time people will see me grumpy because I'm having that surgery in a week and, yeah, a little of a week.

00:42:40.432 --> 00:43:04.389
I know, being my doctor again that's a long story and so that has something to do with cp, but I guess, I guess I have the winning spirit and I'm here to show people that they can live the best life possible despite their own disabilities yeah, and I see that and look at I mean people, you gotta.

00:43:04.730 --> 00:43:08.132
If you're not watching the video, it's on YouTube and I have a.

00:43:08.132 --> 00:43:09.733
The YouTube channel is in the show notes.

00:43:09.733 --> 00:43:12.836
But if you just see Wyn smiling, it's an incredible.

00:43:12.836 --> 00:43:14.418
It's an incredible thing that you see it.

00:43:14.418 --> 00:43:15.860
Just it lights up your frigging.

00:43:15.860 --> 00:43:18.141
It lights up your frigging life when you see her.

00:43:18.141 --> 00:43:20.528
She's amazing.

00:43:20.528 --> 00:43:27.155
So even if you only just watch a piece of this, go on to the YouTube and check out the video, but that's amazing.

00:43:27.155 --> 00:43:32.577
So you've written I Win, which is obviously what that is.

00:43:32.577 --> 00:43:34.269
That's more of a biography.

00:43:34.911 --> 00:43:49.313
Yes, and I've written a couple other books a novel entitled the View From my Heels Hills as in a high-yield shoe, which is about a fashion designer.

00:43:49.313 --> 00:44:07.039
All is a fictional novel about a fashion designer with a disability, and so that's out there, and then I'm working on my 13th book, my 14th book and my 15th book.

00:44:07.039 --> 00:44:40.324
The 13th book is going to be about podcasting how to do broadcasting and my person, beth the better woman, was a disability on that, and then the 14th book is going to be another novel, and then the 15th book is going to be a surprise book that no one knows about other than a couple people, and so it's going to shock people, because this is way out of my comfort zone being on 15 books, but I was told to do this in 2010.

00:44:40.324 --> 00:44:58.476
They started the person that told me to do this in 2010 was actually my mom, while she was dying, and she said you need to be in a safe place to do this and to write this 15th book.

00:44:58.476 --> 00:45:12.096
I'm going to start Eel Off Easy with I Come A Win, so you can write I Come A Win in your sleep, basically, and so then I want you to write another book, but it's not going to be.

00:45:12.096 --> 00:45:12.818
I Come A Win.

00:45:12.818 --> 00:45:26.211

Triumph Over Cerebral Palsy: Win Charles’ Inspiring Journey

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