IDL15 Season 1: Hope is a Verb with Amy Downs
What is the power behind envisioning your ideal self? How do successful processes come out of small daily practices? Can community unlock different aspects of your potential?
With an absolutely amazing story to share today, Amy Downs, a survivor of the Oklahoma City bombing talks to me about perseverance, her ability to push through when times got tough. Her near-death experience shed light on the life she had lived thus far and she realized how fortunate she was to get a second chance, and she is now living her best life, filled with hope.
Meet Amy Downs
Amy Downs is a miracle story. At 28 years of age, she was a self-described lazy, college dropout who had recently put on 100 extra pounds. On April 19, 1995, she was working as a credit card loan officer at the Federal Employees Credit Union located in the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City when she found herself buried alive, upside down in the basement of a nine-story building. With 168 people killed and more than half of her colleagues dying from the deadliest act of domestic violence in American history, Downs was one of the last people to be pulled out of the rubble alive. She shares her story in her new book, Hope Is a Verb: My Journey of Impossible Transformation.
Visit her website. Connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
In this episode we discuss:
How important community is to personal transformation
Focus on the process of continuing to move forward
HOW IMPORTANT COMMUNITY IS TO PERSONAL TRANSFORMATION
For Amy, a community is essential to reaching, achieving, and surpassing her goals because they add to her accountability.
“That’s where community really helps me because it’s about accountability. It’s encouragement, because having people around me who are succeeding in the thing you are also wanting to succeed in, [they] bring you along with them, and [to] me there’s a power in that. ”
FOCUS ON THE PROCESS OF CONTINUING TO MOVE FORWARD
For Amy, this process started as an intentional practice, a choice.
“You have to design your future self. You have to stop and write down what you want your future self to look like as if it’s already happened. You have to look at that and reflect on that. So I began a practice in the morning of reviewing [my] future self, and I believe that it’s because I kept it continually in front of me, that I stayed the course and kept going in that direction. ”
By creating a practice of reviewing your goals on a daily or weekly level, you are able to challenge yourself to always make choices that will take you in the direction of your goals instead of ambling away from them by not being focused, or self-aware.
You then begin leaving these notes and building blocks for yourself by reminding yourself what it is you want to achieve and succeed in.
Resources, books, and links mentioned in this episode:
Visit Amy’s website. Connect on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and Instagram.
The Impact Driven Leader YouTube Channel
Join the Impact Driven Leader Community
Connect with Tyler on Instagram and LinkedIn
BOOK | Hope Is a Verb: My Journey of Impossible Transformation by Amy Downs
About the Impact Driven Leader Podcast
The Impact Driven Leader Podcast, hosted by Tyler Dickerhoof, is for Xillennial leaders who have felt alone and ill-equipped to lead in today's world. Through inspiring interviews with authors from around the world, Tyler uncovers how unique leadership strengths can empower others to achieve so much more, with real impact.
Rate, review and subscribe here on Apple Podcasts or subscribe on Stitcher and Spotify.
Instead of focusing on what you can’t, focus on what you can.
Amy Downs
Podcast Transcription
[TYLER DICKERHOOF]
Hey there. Welcome back to the Impact Driven Leader podcast. This is Tyler Dickerhoof. Glad to be here with you today. Glad to be sharing time and thankful for that. You took the opportunity to listen. That means a lot to me and I am thankful for that, but I also hope and know that it means a lot to the guest we have today, Amy Downs. Amy is a survivor of the Oklahoma city bombing. This week, as this is releasing is the 26th anniversary and it's amazing stories like hers that here almost decades later, 26 years later, we hear the story about Amy and her perseverance, her ability to really continue to push on, even when it was dire, even when it was extremely tough. You'll hear stories about that circumstance when she was laying underneath the rubble and what the thoughts were going through her mind, how she processed that, how she let those stories and then created a new narrative.
That's what I got out of this. And with her book Hope is a Verb, she really unlocks that and that idea that we all can have hope for something better, bigger and more exciting and if we continue to push on. Oh, did I mention Amy's also an Ironman? She lost 200 pounds, she competed as an Ironman, completed the rapes. That is an amazing accomplishment and amazing amount of perseverance. You know, there's tremendous resilience there. I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak with her. I know you guys are going to get value out of this. I know you're going to take great notes. So whatever you use, if you use your notepad on your phone, like I do, or you're sitting down at your desk, you're taking notes, take notes because you're going to learn. I promise. I know you're going to learn something today, especially if you go in with the intention to learn.
But before we get there, just take a moment to say hey. If you've like the episodes, if you enjoy listening to this podcast, please give me a rating, give me a review. Let me know how we're doing. Even if you don't like it, let me know, how can I get better? I mean, I'm doing this because I love doing, I love meeting people like Amy sharing her story. I love to find out how she has grown and developed as a leader and share that with you so you too can join in this community. I'll share some more about that at the end but thanks for being here with me today.
Amy, your story is exceptional. As someone I was, you know in my early forties, so I can remember the Oklahoma City bombing, but not as, as you know, probably there's other things like for example the World Trade Center and 9/11 was way more pivotal because it was closer to my age, but of course I remember not as dramatically as you, but all that aside, I love just the excitement, the zeal, the positivity that I have gotten to know is Amy so far. And I just can't wait to learn more about Amy and why, you know I believe this totally. When we understand that God has a purpose for us and we can get rid of all the junk and noise that we put in front of us and jump into that, we're not only the most confident, happy, empowering, empathetic people ever people want to be around us. And I see that in you.
[AMY DOWNS]
I love it. Thank you for saying that. I don't know. I'm all emotional. You're going to make me cry. Like, we just started. This is weird.
[TYLER]
Well, Amy, welcome to the podcast, the Impact Driven Leader podcast. I'm so glad to get to know you and the opportunity to sit down and be with you and chat for a little while here. And I want to know about you. I want to know about Amy. Of course, I got some questions, all that stuff, but I just like to start out by saying Amy, if you were to look back and everything that you've been through, why do you feel like God took you through the path that He took you? Can you look back and say, "I understand why I went through that to where I'm at now."
[AMY]
You know, I'm 54 years old. Well, in two weeks. I'm starting to say it so that I'm going to get [crosstalk] shocked but I'm almost 54. So I've got a lot of years to look back on. Not everything I look back on and say you know, oh yes, like I know why He took me through this because I don't know that things that we go through, especially really bad things that God causes those to happen. I don't really understand everything, but I do believe that He walks with us through those times. So I look back over a lot of the path that my life has taken and I can see what I've learned from those situations. And I can also see where as I have responded in as positive way as I know how that that led me to something else and that thing wouldn't have happened if I hadn't responded the way that I did.
So it's messy. You look at your life, it's really messy, but then you look back and you're like, "Well, this thing had to happen. Then maybe this other thing wouldn't have happened and then this wouldn't have." So you look at how it all works together for the good, I guess that's what I'm looking for here, all works together for the good. So I don't regret anything that I've gone through. I regret, obviously with the bombing, there was a lot of people that didn't make it and a lot of loss of life. I wouldn't have wanted that to happen and if I could trade it out, I would, but that's not the deal that we have on the table for us. So I look back and I've learned, and I've grown from everything that I've gone through. And even though it's been difficult and horrible and traumatic, it's who I am and it also has allowed me to really look at life differently and my life would not be the same had I not gone through what I've gone through?
[TYLER]
You made a comment in your Ted talk from last fall, "Instead of focusing on what you can't focus on, what you can." And to me kind of really summarizes what you just said is like, we can't look back and say, "Oh, I would do this or this or this." That ain't going to get you anywhere, but instead, what can you do?
[AMY]
Right.
[TYLER]
So I'd love you to take that a little bit farther.
[AMY]
Yes. Look at this past year. Here we are sitting, we're in 2021. 2020, we all know what that was like. So much of 2020, I think, put us in a place where we can't do this, we can't do that. Like we all became victims. And to me to say to yourself, okay, what is it you really want given your current situation and your current limitations, what can you do takes you from that place of being a victim? Because you can't be a victim when you're saying, what can you do? So that's recently in my life, what that has looked like; is okay, given our current situation with my business what are the things that we can do to move toward the direction of serving, like with my business, serving our customers or members virtually? Maybe we don't have a lot of money, maybe we can't do a lot, but there is something you can do and you have to figure out what that is. And to me, that's how you respond in the best way possible. To respond, going, throw your hands up in the air and I'm going to be a victim, that doesn't get you anywhere. And I saw that and learn that firsthand after the Oklahoma City bombing.
[TYLER]
Okay. So I wildly agree with that because of what I've experienced. And I actually was talking to someone yesterday and as we were talking that, as I've learned, that lesson kept coming up in that conversation. It's like, "Okay, it happened, whatever you got to move on from it?" How did you, and again, from working for the bank and being there and the bombing to now sitting in the leadership role that you are as CEO, how did that, obviously there's a, you were a victim in that case, you were a victim of the bombing, but now all of a sudden you're saying, "No, no, no, no, I can't use that as excuse." And how did you get from there to here? Because to me there's a lot of those lessons of leadership development and growth as a person that, to me, empathetically allowed you to be the wonderful, smiling, engaging leader that you are today.
[AMY]
Well, I wasn't always that way. So I do have to tell you, so going back in time to way back in time, like 1988, I was a victim. So I flunked out of college, I could not pass our remedial math class. Like that's the math class that's not even real. Like, you have to take that one before you can take the one you gave three hours for. Well, I flunked the remedial one. And so I was very much a victim, threw my hands in the air. Okay, well, let's just hope to get a job to pay bills. So I thought with my amazing skills, I would get this job at a credit union as a teller, because that made sense. And working at this credit union, there were, it was all women and a couple of them really mentored me and helped me see that this victim mentality doesn't work and that you need to really live your life with excellence and on purpose and all of these kinds of things.
Now, I saw that in them, but I didn't exactly do that myself. And it was when I had the near death experience in the bombing that I realized how short life was and that I needed to live it differently. So the person I am today truly developed over time, and with having that life flashing before your eyes experience, where I really had clarity over what wasn't formed. And so I think that journey has kind of gotten me to this place where I can say yes, live intentionally and respond to this way of not being a victim, but I wasn't always that person. So I just have to say that, like I came from a place of living life complacent and blaming everybody else and being a victim. So I've been there and I get that.
And I think naturally, even when COVID happened, there were a few times early in quarantine last year where I found myself slipping back into that role. You know, I think we all do sometimes. And I think it takes living your life with intention and really reviewing those goals, who you want to be, what your purpose is, and not allowing yourself to do that complacent thing, which might be to slip off into victimhood and saying, "No, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do this other thing. I'm going to be intentional." But it takes work. It takes a practice. I think it's a practice.
[TYLER]
Well, I'm going to share something I saw on Instagram and I want to reflect back. This is from a year and a half ago. You're smiling. It's okay, don't worry. That's why it's public, it's good stuff. This is from October 28th of 2019 and it was your before, before, after. And you wrote in the caption, "If anyone out there has gone off the rails in their own life, please know you can really turn things around. Don't give up on yourself, just start with an honest assessment, clarity, and then commit to the action steps and find community, accountability to ensure success." So I want to ask this from that. As you share in your Ted talk, and I know in your book, the big hair eighties, that was Amy and the big hair eighties, and then, you know 300 and some pounds, which you then lost and did an Ironman triathlon, which we'll get into. But one of the things, what I really gathered there, and you talked about it, how important is a community to personal transformation?
[AMY]
So for me, because that's really all I can speak to, for me, it's everything. Because if I don't have that community, then there's really no one, but me holding myself accountable. And I'm not that strong. So given to my own devices, there's no telling what I may go and do. But if I have people around me, particularly people who are on the same journey, you're now in a group and maybe I don't want to, maybe I'll let my own self down, but I don't want to let them down. So you know, as simple as, if I want to say, for example, when I wanted to begin running and I had a friend that I asked, would she meet me to run. Well, if left my own devices, I might just say, "Oh, I'll do it tomorrow." But I'm not going to let her down. So I'm going to meet her to run. So that kept me accountable. And so that's where community really helps me; is just, I think it's an accountability. And it's also an encouragement because when you see people around you succeeding in the thing that you're wanting to also succeed in, it brings you along with them. And there's just, to me, a power in that. And so that's just, for me, that works really well.
[TYLER]
Yes. Well, I mean, I think that's got to tie into, so last year you released a book, Hope is a Verb and to me, part of that idea of that transformation, that community, that accountability really, as the value of hope, it's got to tie together. Because if you only have hope for yourself, to me, that's pretty fleeting. But if you have hope for yourself and those that you care about love and believe the world can be better, that really ties it all together. It makes it worthwhile in my mind. I'd love to hear your thoughts on that.
[AMY]
So I was really inspired when I read this book called Hope Rising. It's actually sort of a research book about hope. The authors of this book defined hope as the idea of having a better and brighter future, and that you actually play a role in making it happen. And they go on to say that basically hope is having a goal and a pathway or agency over reaching that goal. Well, for me to have agency and a pathway to reaching a goal, having people around me that are helping move me toward that goal gives me more agency. And so it provides me more hope. It's like you're, you're going along an occurrence and things you can just achieve more with others than you can by yourself, and in my opinion.
[TYLER]
Well, again, I feel if it's just about me then it's not very special. But then when you could do so much more with others, and so I know that, I know I mentioned a little bit earlier, you know completed a triathlon, not triathlon, an Ironman. You are an iron woman. You have completed that. A lot of kudos because I'm not a runner. So I don't really like to run and so ---
[AMY]
I feel like we need to stop and define this. It's like somebody that doesn't know [crosstalk]. So it's an army. I know some people are like iron woman? I know Ironman.
[TYLER]
Ironman. Please, please, go ahead. I have not completed. So I have nothing to mention here. You please.
[AMY]
So this has been, it's crazy. It's crazy. So it's a 2.4 mile swim followed by ---
[TYLER]
I think that's enough to make you almost want to drown.
[AMY]
I know, right? 2.4 mile swim followed by 112 mile bike ride, then followed by a 26.2 marathon. And all of this has to be completed within 17 hours to be declared an Ironman finisher. So it's craziness right there. I'm just going to say. And yes, it's not like I woke up one day and said like, "Oh, I am going to do an Ironman." No, it started with me saying, "I'd like to get more physically fit because I want to be able to keep up with my son. I'd like to be able to just ride a bicycle." And that was heavy and I wasn't even sure if there was a bicycle that I could fit on. So it started very, very small, but then over time with that constant intention leveling up and having that community around me, that accountability, it turned into something great. And so, yes.
[TYLER]
So who is the one that planted the seed? "Hey, okay, you're riding a bike now. You're maybe doing a little running. Let's go do an Ironman." I want to know who that person was.
[AMY]
I know. Okay, so let me tell you. There is a, she works with me now. So this is really awesome, a girl named Ruth, and she has leukemia. She says, "Hey, I'm going to do an Ironman in Arizona. I think you should come with us. There's a bunch of [inaudible 00:19:26] and you should do it." How do you tell the woman with leukemia that, "Oh, I can't do it," when she's looking at you saying, "What's your problem? I'm doing it." So it sort of took away my excuse. And again, community. So you're looking around at other people going through it wow, like, "Okay, if she can do it, then I can do it." And so we begin training to go do our Ironman.
[TYLER]
I love it. I mean, it's, again, it's not an aspiration of mine yet, but hey you know, there's no finish line. So we'll see when we get there. I'd like to kind of, you completed the Ironman, you're on this journey of really kind of, as I look at it, trying to understand and comprehend what life is throwing at you, from going surviving to then becoming a mother, still working for the business of that, you know tragically, a lot of people perished, and you're trying to hold all this together. How did the process of saying," I just need to continue to focus on moving forward." How did that become a mantra of your every day in not leading yourself, but then in turn leading others?
[AMY]
I believe it's just a practice that started. Somewhere along the way I started, well, let me back up. Okay, so I was really blessed to have a mentor that was the CEO of my credit bank. She was hired after the bombing, amazing woman, and the reason I'm CEO today is because of her. So she would ask me often, "If you had a magic wand, what would you do?" And she's the one who would say, "Okay, now, given your current limitations, current situation, then what can you do?" So she's the one that kept kind of saying that to me. And she told me that your future self, you have to design your future self and you have to stop and write down what you want future self to look like as if it's already happened. And you have to look at that and reflect on that.
So I began a practice, in the morning of reviewing future self. And I believe it's because I kept it continually in front of me that I stayed the course and kept going in that direction, because I think if I didn't, life gets busy, things creep up in the way. It would be very easy to a month goes by, a year goes by, "Oh yes, well, who was my goal again?" And so I just had to keep it in front of me. And that was just a practice that develops that I think really helped me stay the course.
[TYLER]
Well, again, I come back to it. It didn't only help you stay the course, but you obviously modeled that for others.
[AMY]
Right.
[TYLER]
And to me that's, again, as you were modeling that, as you continue to challenge yourself, that's how you've been able to make the impact that you've made. And I think that all comes back to that community and that connection of, "Hey, I'm still in this with everyone else." It's kind of like when you're in the Ironman training, you're still in it with everyone else. "Hey, I'm doing this too. I'm just a part of the team, and I have that role and responsibility."
[AMY]
A hundred percent. Just this week at our all staff meeting, I had found a word document that I had done my very first, what my boss called a painted picture, which is where you take each life domain and you write a sentence describing, honestly, where you're at right now and then where you would like to be five or 10 years. And I was cleaning up my word documents, stumbled across this very first one and it gave me chills. Because every one on this list came true except for one. And it did come true. It just came true in another way. And I encouraged everybody there. I said, "This isn't going to be about business today. This is going to be about you personally." And I taught them what my mentor taught me and just said, "This is something that will help you in life if you will start doing that yourself."
[TYLER]
All right. So we're going to go complete off-ramp here. And again, but I think this is what's fun is to me, that is the opportunity of leadership today; is to say, "No, no, no, no, no." The nuts and bolts of the business, it'll take care of itself. If we're all in this place, we kind of have this competency, but if we're not caring for each other saying, "Hey, what do you want to become, Amy? How can you be fulfilled as a person?" You know, the magic wand, which I have the magic wand question here. So I'm glad you got to that. To me, that's when we become more empowering leaders, when it's not about the bottom line. And you know, as I've talked to people on this podcast and other times, like that's where we generationally move forward; is when we say what? If we got those P's and Q's down, if I know how to ride a bike, I could do 112 miles. I just have to put my mindset to it. So I'd love to hear how you in your leadership position, you just mentioned that, I'd love for you to just dive into your theory there.
[AMY]
I think for me, leadership is so much more than the bottom line and other leaders get so focused on that bottom line. And I understand why, because you have board members that ask what they're interested in and it is important and I get it, but you are surrounded by human beings every single day. To me, there is no such thing as your personal self and your work self. You are a self, you are a person, and these people that are working with you, that you have the opportunity to impact their life and leaders who are focused on bottom line, or just treating the employees as just work horses, get this done, get whatever. And I believe their impact, and we talk about leaving legacies. What better way to leave a legacy than the people you work with to truly care for them?
And if I can just look, I'm just going to say like, love them. Love them. And the thing is, what you don't realize is one day you may be sitting at that person's funeral filled with regret because you realize that you wasted an opportunity to either get to know them better or teach them or lead them or whatever. And that is something I don't, I've already had that regret of sitting at somebody's funeral with some of those thoughts. So what drives me is I want to make sure that I'm showing up in the best way possible for everyone there. Forget bottom line. I mean, just be there, love them, care for them, model for them when you can. I feel like what happens is, and I know it to be true because our business has been voted five years in a row, a best place to work, what happens is you actually end up creating a culture that people love and they enjoy coming to work. Then they actually have loyalty and they work harder. That's not why I do it, but it's weird. It comes back around to you and then it does impact your bottom line. Crazy thing is it actually does impact your bottom line.
[TYLER]
Well, I mean, it's an upside down viewpoint as opposed to what leadership has been for generations. It's been drive the bottom line, drive the bottom line, just be. As I like to call it, be an incinerator, just burn through people where, as my viewpoint is I'd much rather be an incubator. I'd much rather just grow people up and help people grow. And to me, as I've had to learn this and I know you've talked the value of mentorship and the value of modeling that you had an amazing mentor. It sounds like she really modeled that in your organization for you to kind of just continue to layer on an add on. For me, it was, I had to learn and I defined that mentor and I had to find that person that really exposed me to it.
And for me, it was learning out of my insecurities to free myself, my insecurities, be more empathetic. And to me, the epitome of leadership today is being empathetic. That is the solution of understanding true empathy, and really saying, "Hey, I don't have to be a doormat." You know, I have this theory, it's called an empathy spectrum. You're an a-hole on one, and I've been that, and then you're a doormat on the other side. That ain't helping anyone either. And a lot of times a victim can end up being that doormat and just thinking, "Oh, I'm the victim. Everyone's walking all over me, blaming me." It's like, "No, no, no stiffen up a little bit. Say, hey, I care about me. You care about me. We're all good." And to me, that's finding in the middle. And what I'm hearing from you, and maybe this is why I'm so excited to chat with you and build this really, because that's what I see you modeling in everything that you walk.
[AMY]
I was challenged by someone last year, kind of going through some issues and challenged to, if you were not a CEO, if you were not a cyclist, who are you really? What are your core values? What do you stand for? I think that's an exercise everybody should do at some point; is strip away your titles, strip away your whatever. Actual core Tyler, who are you really, if you're not the podcast or you're not this, you're not that, who are you really? And I had to answer that. That was really difficult for me because I'm an Enneagram three, I'm an achiever, it's all about the achievement, and if you take all that away, then who are you really? And what I went to was the three things that are important to me is, and it was funny. It spells pie. I was like, of course it spells pie, yes, because I love pie. But anyway it's being positive, intentional, empathetic, was my third word was. I very much believe that.
[TYLER]
Can we take a step back to your experience because I think it ties into this. It's where, I wonder if this is where that feeling of empathy that empathy comes from. To give the listeners that maybe haven't had a chance to listen to your Ted talk yet, or, or hear this experience, after the bombing, you fell from the third floor to the first floor and the rescuers were trying to see if there's any survivors and there was actually children they were looking for and you scream out, they come to you, but then they had to leave. At that moment, you mentioned in your story that you started to sing to yourself and that peace came over you. How do you feel like that experience has been replicated throughout your life and using that as a tool when things have been challenging?
[AMY]
Is it okay for me to get a little preachy?
[TYLER]
Go for it.
[AMY]
Okay. So what happened was I was buried alive and getting ready to die. And of all the weird things to do a song we used to sing in church, a praise and worship song popped into my head and that's what I began to sing. And as I began to sing this praise and worship song, what happened was my eyes were no longer on myself and on my situation, but my eyes were now on God. When I took my eyes away from being self-centered and on myself and my situation and I put my eyes on God, everything changed. Nothing actually changed, but everything thing. And I was at peace with what was going to happen next, even though what I thought was going to happen next was that I was going to die. So I have remembered that.
That's a lesson that whenever things become overwhelming, when things start getting dark or a struggle, I just remember that, to get your eyes off yourself. And that may mean, for me, that may be getting alone and praying, it sometimes means doing something for someone else. Because if I do something for someone else, if I start serving other people, I think it's impossible to be self-centered. And some of that's self-centeredness, when you're just focused on you and your problems. I can't do that while I'm also trying to serve someone else and help somebody. So that's how that has kind of worked its way in my life all these years.
[TYLER]
I mean, that is something very grounding that I totally believe as well, is that you know, probably, my opinion, the greatest way to try to find humility, if you're struggling there is go serve someone out of sacrifice to yourself. It's not go serve someone to make yourself look good. It's go serve someone out of sacrifice. You kind of mentioned it. I'm not sure if I'm drawing parallels here, but again you've gone through some challenges in life. We all have. And I bring this up because I think one of the greatest testaments is people that continue to use tools through perseverance, even though stuff comes their way. I noticed a couple months ago you had a double knee replacement.
[AMY]
Yes. I have to go there [crosstalk]
[TYLER]
I was just, no, I'm not trying to like, but it's just, again, I look at this ---
[AMY]
Who does this? First of all, like, I'm sorry. What dummy decides to do both knees at the same time? Like you got to be a special kind of dull.
[TYLER]
I would say that, but this is what I've heard from people. I haven't had a knee replaced, but they're like, maybe this was you. It's like, why did I wait that long?
[AMY]
I'm not there yet, but just, okay, just to put this in perspective, like I was a slow runner. I could run like a 10-minute mile or 12-minute mile. That's my run pace today. Today I walked 1.3 miles. So like at least I can finally say I'm over a mile and my pace was 23 minutes a mile. I am three months post-op from the surgery. So just so listeners know like a knee replacement is yes, it's some serious stuff there. And anybody getting a knee replacement right now is nodding going, "Aha. Yes, yes. I'm with you." So anyway, I had both done. I figured, "Yu know what, this year has COVID, everything sucks this year. Anyway, let's just end it by doing both knees and just knocking it out."
[TYLER]
How much have you, again, to tie this in, that's a challenge. That's a challenge to continue to serve the people that you serve. How have you used those instances in life to say, "Hey, I've been through, I can get through this." How much have you had to remind yourself of that? And really I'm guessing you have been an example to others through that process..
[AMY]
Yes. I think, and people probably get tired of hearing this, but I'm like, okay, you know what? I was blown up at work, I was buried alive. Like what's the knee surgery? What's a whatever? You know once you've been through something really horrible, like everything else kind of pales. So my pain tolerance, they tell me is really high and I think it's just, I have this reference point of this horrible thing. So everything else is kind of easier than that.
[TYLER]
Awesome. Well, I'm glad you're recovering well. And is there another planned Ironman or any other events? Do you have that on the horizon to give yourself the self to work towards?
[AMY]
I haven't told my husband yet. I don't think he listens to this, so we're cool, but I haven't said it out loud yet. So now I'm going to be, now I feel like I've got community right now.
[TYLER]
Yes, let's do it.
[AMY]
So yes, I do have this idea that yes, I don't know, okay, this is, I sound like, okay, yes I've been plotting and planning secretly in the dark corners of my mind, Panama City, Florida, pretty flat bike course. It'll either be Panama City, Florida, or it'll be Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is way hilly, but Tulsa is near home, so it may be close. But I'm thinking maybe age 6. I turned 54, so I have a few years. But what I would like to do before that is ride my bike across the United States. That's kind of big in my big wishlist. That's the one I want to do next.
[TYLER]
Okay. Well that's awesome. And biking, as far as your knees, is going to be less impact as you work your way back up to that.
[AMY]
Right. Yes, I'm doing that in four weeks. My personal trainer said, "Wait a minute, you've already signed up for it?" And I'm like, "Yes, signed up for it and I'm just going to do it." I don't know how I'm going to do it, but I'm going to do an event called cycle [inaudible 00:38:13] in Louisiana, which is all about Vitacost music and Vitacost food and that's in four weeks.
[TYLER]
Well get it. That's awesome. Love it. Love it. Well, as we got to wrap up here, Amy, is there anything else that you would like to share that maybe the listeners to know a little bit more about you that I haven't shared, but I just give you that opportunity.
[AMY]
I would just like to say to anybody out there that feels a little lost or maybe like, "Well, I can't get to this level that I want to get to, or maybe I've got an addiction I can't break or the stream that has been squashed so many times I'm getting up on it," like whatever the thing is, I just want to encourage you. Don't give up because what if the next time is the time? I tried over and over again in a lot of things in my life and I think not giving up, that perseverance to not give up is what would get you to the next level, because that next time really might be that time. And all it takes is just letting yourself dream about it, again, getting clear on what it is you want and then making that list of those small steps. Don't over-complicate it. And then just go. If I can do it, you can do it. I promise you, you can do it.
[TYLER]
Oh, I love that. And thank you, Amy. Thank you for joining us. Appreciate your message and I'm glad to now call you a friend.
[AMY]
Thank you for having me. It's true a honor to me.
[TYLER]
All right. So what elements of what Amy shared really spoke to you? I'm going to share one that spoke to me and it was about having a community, having people around you. That's been a major facet of my personal transformation in life. If it wasn't for the people that I've been able to link my arms with and grow with, man, I wouldn't be where I'm at today. I wouldn't have been able to persevere through the challenges that I had in life. And now granted, there were days where I was a man on an Island. I was trying to do it on my own and it hurt, it was lonely, it was unenjoyable. And as Amy stressed in this piece that was a big catalyst for her, having that community, being able to go with others. I want to invite you right now to take part and be a part of the Impact Driven Leader community.
Now there's two ways you can do that. You can join our book club, is just an interacting part of the book club, or you can grow and part of, really grow together with our round table where we sit down once a week, we have a Zoom together, we talk about the books that we're reading. Right now here in April, it is the book Think Again. Next month, it's going to be a new book and you know, I know it has a tremendous impact on the leaders. You know, the people that are of that group really, I mean, it's, we all yearn to be a part of that every single week because we're growing together. If you're looking for that community, that's focused on leadership development, that's focused on transformation and maybe you don't even know what it's like to develop as a leader yet.
I have to take a breath. That was a lot, but that's where I was. And I want to encourage you. You don't have to do it alone. Even if it's just, hey, grab a book, take a part in the group, just kind of watch a little bit. I want to invite you to do that. Please check out the website, theimpactdrivenleader.com or my website, tylerdickerhoof.com. You'll be able to find all that information, but thank you for listening in. Can you do me a favor? Can you go rate this episode? What was it on a scale of one to five? You know, I'm victim of that too. I listen to a lot of episodes and I don't necessarily write them, but man, I love to know how we did on this episode. How did I do? How did the production team do on this episode? I'd love for you to rate. I'd love for you to give a review and let us know. Thank you for joining in today. Until next time, thanks.
