Raw and Real Entrepreneurship

In this week’s podcast, I interview Lisa Wolny, a mother and survivor of a massive stroke.  She is truly a champion.  After her stroke, at the age of thirty, Lisa spent years coming back.  When she reached a place where she no longer required assistance for life’s simple tasks such as going to the restroom, she became complacent. She felt awful and yet years went by existing in this living coma of a life.

One day Lisa decided she had had enough.  She made a decision to get healthy no matter what.  From that day on she focused on a new outcome.  She would start exercising, change her nutrition and get ridiculously fit.  Inspired by an Oxygen Magazine cover, Lisa continued to focus on her goal.  She shared her desires with her family.  She scheduled in her workouts.  She also decided to embark on this journey by doing a good cleanse.  The results were almost immediate and that kept Lisa focused to the point where, in her forties, she became an IFBB Figure Pro. Transformation, like Lisa’s, does not come without willpower and determination.  In order to get results like these you have to want it badly enough and be willing to change your lifestyle.  So many people proclaim a desire to change and yet are resistant to actually making the changes required to live into the new goals.

A victor over life’s challenges since an early age; at 6 weeks old Dottie was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis and doctors told her parents not to expect her to live past 2 years of age. Then, when Dottie reached 2, doctors told her parents she would not make it to first grade. Now at 44, Dottie Lessard is one ferocious athlete with an insatiable appetite for life and she has every intention in competing in athletics and in life at the highest level possible. She credits her courage and strength to her strong and unwavering faith in God. In 1994, she was presented with the opportunity to step into the life she always envisioned for herself. The opportunity, according to her doctor was a 50/50 chance at surviving a relatively new procedure: a double-lung transplant. All she heard was a 50% chance of living the life she visualized herself thriving in. 17 years later Dottie is in the best shape of her life, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually.

I was fortunate to interview Dottie for this week’s Step Into Your Power Podcast and it is something I highly recommend listening to if you, or someone you know, is going through a challenge.  Dottie’s faith, will to live and desire to constantly improve herself, despite the odds, is something that everyone can benefit from listening to.  Dottie has truly triumphed against the odds.

Listen to Dottie’s most amazing journey and life of a true champion.

What do you do when you are homeless at 14, become paralyzed at 17, drop out of school and are the kid no one cares about? You dig in and become one of the richest men in America!  Bill Bartmann is known as The Comeback Kid and he knows all about overcoming life’s challenges to thrive.

Bill is an inspiration; someone who has managed to continue to get up when the majority of people would not.  Bill is truly a champion and someone who is also committed to balanced living.  

Listen to Part 1 of this amazing and very transparent interview.

Bill Bartmann was one of the wealthiest men in America.  Bill has graced the covers of Inc. Magazine, Forbes and more.  Bill came from extremely humble beginnings; growing up on welfare, food stamps and one of eight children.  Bill’s father, a janitor, worked but couldn’t make end’s meat.  The family shuffled around, sometimes living in derelict buildings and often going to sleep with rumbling stomachs.

At the age of fourteen, Bill, left home saying, ‘I am not sure if anyone actually noticed.’  By fifteen Bill was in a street gang, developing what he referred to as ‘bad behaviors.’  In a drunken stupor one night he fell down a flight of stairs and broke his back, losing all mobility in his legs.  The doctor told Bill he would never walk again.  Mysteriously, a copy of the infamous tome Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, appeared on Bill’s hospital bed.  Dismissing it as ‘garbage,’ Bill threw it across the room.  The next morning the book was on his bed again.  The weeks passed and eventually a bored Bill began to read the book.  He credits this with shifting his mind. 

Bill would go on to get his GED, go to college and eventually law school.  He spent the entire four years on probation but eventually passed.  Bill and his great love, Cathy, started in the oil and gas industry, quickly rose to success and then, with the OPEC crash, went into a million in debt.  Bill then started a new business and once more he and Cathy rose to meteoric heights.  When one of the partners committed fraud, everything was lost once more.

After numerous set-backs, Bill is once more building a new company; one that is destined to be a huge success.  Today Bill is also advocating for everyday folks who are upside down in consumer debt.  He is committed to reform the debt collection industry. 

LISTEN TO PART 2 Of Susan’s Amazing Interview.

Lori Harder came from a family of ‘hearty’ women who struggled with body image and weight.  Lori recalls that her mom and her sisters were continuously trying the latest diets; initially having some success and then rebounding back to their pre-diet ways.  Dieting was a normal part of life, one that was used to compensate for the sense that bad genetics were in play.  Lori didn’t realize that she, or her family, was different until she was one day teased for her size.  On this day she made a decision to change her destiny and would go from heavy to having one of the most enviable bodies in the world; gracing numerous covers of fitness magazines such as Oxygen ™.   Listen to this most inspirational interview.

(Janine Maxwell) “What am I leaving behind?”  This was the question haunting Janine Maxwell after 911.  Janine owned a very successful marketing company, working with top tier companies like Kellogg’s and Disney Videos.  She and her husband, Ian chose to walk away from it all.  After spending time in Africa and seeing the dire need, they created Heart for Africa, a humanitarian agency working in Swaziland and Kenya.  In 2012, she and her family moved to Swaziland to oversee the creation of Project Canaan, a 2500 acre large-scale land development project being designed by business people to come alongside Africans and bring expertise, resources and heart together to find a holistic solution to a complex set of issues.   Listen as Janine Maxwell shares from her heart about rescuing 26 abandoned infants and their new lives in El Roi Children’s Home.  Her story will inspire and challenge you.

So how do you design your life when your father is the most influential personal empowerment trainer in the world? The answer – any way you like. This week I had the opportunity to catch up with my friend, Jairek Robbins. I first met Jairek a few years ago at a large event and like his famous father, his energy is felt in the room. Jairek is humble, gregarious and exceptionally insightful. His wisdom transcends his twenty-eight year old mind.

(Lauren Warren) What would you do if every month you doubled over in pain, convulsed and ended up in the hospital for over two decades?  What if the doctors didn’t know what was wrong?  What if some people told you that this was all in your head?  Would you resign yourself to a life of despondency?  Would you live in anger, frustration and hopelessness?  Although many people would, Lauren Warren, decided she would compete in Ironman triathlons.  The first time Lauren menstruated she was hospitalized.  Her body broke down and she felt as though she was dying.  When it happened the next month and the month after that, her family suspected that something was severely wrong.  Doctors could not find out what was causing these flare-ups and a range of suggestions from anemia to psychological counseling left a young Lauren feeling confused, embarrassed and living in fear that she would have an episode while at school.  Entering into adulthood Lauren faced a tough decision – become a victim or decide to champion the monster that reared its ugly head.  Lauren chose the latter and dug in; Lauren decided to take on Ironman triathlons (2.2 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26.2 mile run).  Despite her health challenges she became surprisingly good at racing the distance even qualifying for the Ironman World Championships in Kona.  How could a woman, who became powerless for almost a week every month, compete and excel in one of the most grueling races on the planet?  Listen to this amazing journey.