Finding Light in the Dark: My Story, This Podcast, 20 Years in the Making

Because, well, we're celebrating my 20th anniversary.

Yes, it has been 20 years since the day that changed it all.

Since the day that started it all, that started this very podcast.

Because this podcast maybe started back in 2020, but it's only because of what happened 20 years ago today.

My actual anniversary is this Saturday, October 28th.

And that will be 20 years since the day that my life was saved.

And also the day that I became blind.

Yeah, it's been 20 years since I went into the operating room to have the recently discovered brain tumor removed, thinking that my life was going to be back to normal in just a couple of weeks, that it was a speed bump.

And instead, that speed bump turned into a life-changing event, something that would set me on a course I never saw coming.

I never asked for.

And for the longest time I prayed and I begged every day that it would change.

But sometimes sometimes God doesn't change our circumstances.

He changes the way we see them.

And over time, God helped me to see this world in a new way.

To realize that becoming blind, well, it just allowed me to see this world in a whole new, beautiful way.

And today, on this episode, I had intended to talk to you about it, to spell out the anniversary, to unpack for you the gifts that have come from it in hopes that it would have you looking at your own life, your own situation in a unique way.

But have you ever had that moment when you said, Man, I couldn't have said that better myself?

Well, that's what happened when I heard my interview on the podcast Unyielded, Thriving No Matter What, hosted by Bobby Kaler.

It came out last week.

And when I heard the episode, I got hold of Bobby and said, Oh my gosh, Bobby, would you mind if I played that on my podcast?

Because I want my listeners to get to hear it.

Because on this anniversary, I feel like this just captures the essence of my story so perfectly.

And so she agreed, and I said, Woo-hoo, we got the ticket for you.

So I'm about to introduce you to my interview on Unyielded, Thriving No Matter What, hosted by the amazing Bobby Kaler, somebody who, if you've been listening to this podcast for a while, you'll recognize her because she was a guest here on this very podcast.

If you want to check out her interview, please be sure to check out today's show notes where I'll leave a link to hers in case you would like to dive into her story.

Because I'll tell you what, Bobby Kaler is just as incredible as she tries to make me out to be.

So, with all of that said, happy anniversary, happy 20th anniversary.

Get out there and just enjoy the day.

Do me a favor.

When you see your family members, take a good long look at them.

Be sure you remember every feature of their face.

Be sure that when you walk outside, you look and you really pay attention to the sky and you appreciate that color blue, and you pay attention to the little things, like the birds chirping, that you smile at the people around you, that you laugh a little more.

Because I'm telling you, everything can change.

Nothing is forever.

Not a single breath we have is for certain.

And so it's up to us to take advantage of it, to make the most of it, to thrive no matter what.

SPEAKER_02: Welcome to Unyielded, Thriving No Matter What, where we talk about how to make your next chapter in life your best chapter.

I'm your host, Bobby Kaylor, and I believe that the best is yet to come.

Welcome back, everyone.

I am so excited that you are here for this conversation.

I think you're gonna like it.

My guest and I met several months ago when I was a guest on his podcast, Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.

And I think it's fair to say at that point, a friendship was born.

He has a remarkable story, and he lives it with the grit to keep going, the grace towards himself that is necessary, and he keeps providing inspiration for those around him.

He has risen after facing a seemingly insurmountable challenge, and he is enjoying success as a life and business coach as well as an awesome podcast host.

His name is Kevin Lowe.

Let's meet him.

Kevin, welcome to the show.

SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, thank you for having me.

I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_02: I know we've already been talking for 10 minutes.

Like we could talk all day.

Um, and for the listeners, Kevin and I know each other because he was gracious enough to have me on his podcast.

Uh, Grace, grit, grace, and inspiration.

I get that right, Kevin.

SPEAKER_00: You got it right.

You nailed it, yes.

SPEAKER_02: Okay, all right.

So, Kevin, um, let's just dive in because you've got a very interesting story.

And I think it's well, the obviously it didn't start in 2003 because you weren't, you know, you were born before that.

But in 2003, you wrote that your life changed forever.

Um, do you want to tell us about that?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

So, yes, 2003 was was a big moment in my life.

I I actually say that that really that segmented my life as as a a point in time where everything would change.

And so, 17 years old, um, I was in my junior year of high school, um, at Seabreeze High School and uh go sand crabs.

SPEAKER_02: And um wait a minute, wait a minute.

Your mascot was sand crabs, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: We our our our school, our school was across the street from the beach.

Oh, you poor thing.

Uh yeah, you know, so it was it was terrible.

So yes, we had sand, we were the sand crabs.

Oh god, don't you know what don't try, don't try and think that the claw ain't gonna get you.

I I see where you're going with it.

And in the claw, don't don't under don't be underestimating the claw, you know.

SPEAKER_02: You know what?

That is a good point.

Just that image kind of scares me, I have to tell you.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, exactly.

I'm telling you, I know you're you're already getting down on me, you know.

SPEAKER_02: No, no, all right.

So you're a junior in high school.

I won't interrupt you again about the crabs or whatever.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, so so I am a junior in high school.

Um, really, like kind of life was going amazing.

I had been a kid who who hated school growing up.

I mean, I hated it.

Well, finally, finally coming up like that sophomore year now, junior year of high school.

School is no longer the worst thing in the world, and um, and I think a big part of that was I had finally found like a really cool group of friends.

I had started driving um in my sophomore year, had got my literally my dream truck, it was a 96 uh Forest Green Ford F-150 four by four.

Um yeah, had 38-inch super swamper mud tires with with eight inches of lift and dual flow master exhaust.

Oh, baby, and um, yeah, she was my baby, and uh so you know, school was going good, junior year rocking and rolling, um having a great time, um, until, as I say, things are going great until all of a sudden they weren't.

Yeah, and at this time, um, I had been having these, I'll call them health issues, but we didn't even classify them as such.

They were just some some things that didn't seem quite right to my mom and grandmother.

Um, I'm 17 years old, I still had not gone through puberty, had not hit my full growth spurt.

So I'm only five foot three.

Um, basically just this little dude.

And had had migraine headaches were pretty much just a part of life.

SPEAKER_01: Wow.

SPEAKER_00: Um, I had all these these weird things.

I drank.

My my mom would tell the the pediatrician, she's like, You don't understand.

He drinks more than any other human you've ever met.

And um, no, but the the pediatrician always just blew off all the the symptoms, always just blew it off.

Oh, he's a late bloomer, oh he's you know, this or he's that.

Well, finally, my mom and grandmother they had had enough.

And so we got me to a new doctor, a new family doctor.

And um he took one look at me, one look at my chart, immediately pulled my mom out into the hallway and said, Listen, he said there's something, something not right.

We've got to get him to a specialist immediately.

Wow.

So that would set forth a series of events.

I look at it like a like a set of dominoes.

And the first domino fell.

And as they would fall, they would continue to get faster and faster and faster into the climax.

So um, lo and behold, the the specialist, um, the endocrinologist, um, an hour away from my home, so over in Orlando, Florida, he would send me to have an MRI.

I would have the MRI, and my mom would get a call from him um on a Friday evening on her way home from work.

She was driving.

She was actually heading to meet um up with me and my stepdad and stepbrother at our boat um at the marina, where we are gonna take it for the weekend up to St.

Augustine, Florida.

Wow, one of one of my favorite, favorite uh weekend trips that we would do.

So my mom, though, she gets a call, um, and it's the endocrinologist, and he says, Listen, he said, um, I've got results of the MRI.

Um, and he asked, he's like, you know, are you driving?

He said, you know, yes.

And he's like, Well, listen, I need you to pull over.

SPEAKER_02: Oh, you know, right there it's not going to be good.

SPEAKER_00: Exactly.

He says the results come back.

He said, It's worse than I ever expected.

Oh, he said, um, we would come to find out that I had a plum-sized brain tumor, um, basically right in the center of my brain.

Oh, God.

It had um completely encased my pituitary gland.

It was in the crosshairs of the optic nerve and was pressing against my carotid artery.

Wow.

Um, thank goodness this type of tumor was non-cancerous, but without its removal, they gave me at most six months to live.

Oh my god.

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: And how so how long do they think that you had that?

SPEAKER_00: Um, they feel as though this tumor came literally from the the time that that I was was created.

It was a situation where whatever the technical issue, like a cell went to the wrong place.

Yeah, so literally, this tumor was a part of me my entire life.

And now we find out about it six months before it was gonna kill me.

Right.

And so um we we find out about it.

Luckily, we we get hooked up.

That doctor immediately on that phone call.

He actually told my mom, he said, listen, he said, I have the uh the pediatric neurosurgeon on the other line.

They're ready to schedule, you know, schedule Kevin Kevin for you know the first you know consult.

And so we did.

Um, that doctor was the leading pediatric neurosurgeon in the country.

Um, again, ironically, just in Orlando, Florida, an hour from my home.

Um, and so um, lo and behold, fast forward just a couple of weeks, and I find myself going into surgery.

Um, now at the time, um the the neurosurgeon, you know, was amazing, amazing, amazing man.

And he assured us, he's like, listen, I do these all the time.

He he told me that I would be back to school in about three to four weeks.

Um, the the biggest upset to me was that he told me that I could not ride my new four-wheeler that I had just gotten for my 17th birthday, that I could not ride it for about six months, um, which I felt to be a little bit excessive.

SPEAKER_02: Um six months feels like forever when you're 17.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, forever.

And so um, but but you know, I was good with it though.

I mean, after the initial shock of it, with the doctor's reassurance, it was a speed bump, and it was finally, it was finally an answer to all of these problems, and so I named my tumor Bob, Bob the Tumor.

Why Bob?

I think I I everybody asked that, and I'm like, I think it was because of like there was that children's like cartoon called like Bob the Builder.

Oh, I felt like just like Bob the Tumor, it kind of felt you know, just kind of fit.

And so, so we literally had a going away Bob party.

My family, yeah, yeah, it was a going away bob party, and yeah, and so so when I went to surgery, literally um I had to check into the hospital the day before surgery.

So surgery was set for October 28th, 2003.

So on the 27th, I checked in, had all day long to spend at the hospital, um, them doing all their tests and all their pre-op stuff.

Anyways, that night, I mean, that night, my hospital room was filled with my family.

I had family from out of town come in, everybody from my hometown, everybody was there.

And um, I remember my my sister and my aunt went out and picked up outback steakhouse for everybody.

And so I'm sitting in the hospital, hospital room bed in my little gown, eating outback, um, watching uh my favorite movie at the time was uh too fast, too furious, uh had it playing on the laptop.

Um, and just with my whole family.

And um the next day, what happened?

The doctor, the neurosurgeon, he would show up in the room bright and early.

Apparently, I cracked the joke about, you know, I hope you've uh, you know, had your weaties, you know, and and um and stuff.

And uh and so went into to surgery.

Um and I say that I uh rolled through the operating room doors, and my mom and dad had had followed me, and I never knew that that would be the last time I would ever see their face.

Yeah.

Because at that point, at that point, everything would change.

Um, as I tell people, my life died in that operating room, and a new life began.

And the new life that began would be different for a long time.

It would be absolutely horrible.

It was literally a living nightmare that I hated with every ounce of my being.

And it was only through my faith and my family that I got through the darkness and I began to see again because I was left completely blind.

I came out of that surgery, nothing went right.

Nothing went right during the surgery.

Um, nope, everything went fine during surgery.

Surgery was was a complete success.

Um, I came out of surgery, they had no worries, concerns whatsoever.

Um, everything was was gonna be perfect.

Um, until then not only did they on maybe about day two or three, I can't remember the timeline, um, is when they figured out it was actually my mom and the the head nurse figured out that I couldn't see.

Um apparently I was very compulsive, compulsive, and uh I kept ripping off the little pulse ox machine that they kept putting on my toe.

Well, apparently, apparently uh the nurse, he was talking to me and he's like, Kevin, and he's pointing to the pulse ox that I had a had a blinking red light on it.

And he's like, Kevin, do you see this this red light?

You don't touch this.

Do you do you see this?

And my mom said that I I said, No, it's just black.

Oh and with that, he he looked at my mom.

My mom looked at him, and he he walked over and he flipped on the light switch, and and he kept flipping it on and off, on and off.

And he said, Kevin, do you see this light?

No, no, it's it's just black, it's just black.

And that's when they found out.

Um, that was just one aspect though.

I had levels going crazy.

I guess they they they came to figure out it was my sodium levels.

Literally, it took my family shifts.

They would take shifts of I think they said like 15 minutes max in there, four of them at a time, just keeping me from pulling out my wires.

Like I was going crazy.

They literally said that I turned into like the incredible Hulk.

Yeah.

And and if it wasn't for them, the the staff would have had no other option but to strap me down.

That's right.

And and my family wouldn't have that happen.

They they stayed there with me.

SPEAKER_02: You know, Kevin, when my dad was in the hospital last October and November, well, the last week in November before he passed, when you're talking about that, like just trying to rip those the wires and and the and the tubes out, it was just my sister and I there.

And it was unless you've been through it, you don't understand how hard that is to keep someone from doing that.

Because he was 89 and you know, he was sick.

And my little sister and I are like, My God, we're pretty strong.

And it took it took everything we had.

I can't even imagine your family.

Like, yeah, oh thank god they were there.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, exactly, exactly.

And um and so um I came home now, now I have no memory of of of any of that whatsoever.

Um, my memory doesn't start until sometime later on, uh, being back home, um, is is when my memory starts to come back into place, um, which is kind of crazy.

Um, especially when especially when I hear my family talk about it, and it's like this monumental moment in in my family's whole kind of history in our in our life, and that I was the center point of, yeah, you don't remember it at all.

That's right, which is kind of weird.

It's kind of a weird feeling.

Um, but yeah, so I was left um completely blind, I was left unable to smell, I had short-term memory loss for six months, plus had um the um realization that um life would never be the same, even just from a medical standpoint.

So the tumor completely killed off my pituitary gland.

So I had to begin taking all these different medications and all to replace what the pituitary does.

So your pituitary handles all of your body's hormones, and so I start taking all these medications, all these shots, and um, some of them were good in the fact that I started growing.

I uh I uh started taking growth hormone, and I mean I went from five foot three, started growing like a quarter inch a month, up to now I'm almost six foot tall.

Wow.

Um yeah, and um, but you know, as I often say, is that as amazing as medications are, they are a poor alternative to what the body should do naturally.

SPEAKER_02: That's right.

SPEAKER_00: Because I'm sure there's side effects, there's side effects, and it's a constant balancing act.

with all of my medications where I honestly I've honestly come to realize um as time went by that this condition which they call being a pan hypopit is a far greater disability than being blind um what's the condition called again yeah it's called it's called panhypopit um so pan yeah I guess like pan hypopituitarism um yeah and so um it you know being blind um it was horrible and it took it took a really really long time um for me to to to learn to love life again um for the longest time my

life was spent buying time until the day that God would heal me because that was that was what I held on to and I prayed every day and I prayed every night that that's what God would do.

And um until one day which it took a long time it took probably about 10 years before I came to a point when I said you know what God I'm not gonna give up faith that you'll let me see again but I realize now that it might not be till I'm in heaven.

And so until that day happens I've got more life to live what that and that is so beautiful Kevin in in 10 years I mean it is a long time was there something that you can point to that made you come to that if you want to call it an epiphany or realization yeah it was a book really it was a book it was a book with the exact quote that I basically just said is it was it was a book from a uh a guy named Eric Weinmeyer now Eric Weinmeyer is completely blind yes and yes and he is one of the

first blind people to ever summit Mount Everest yes um he was also a blind one of the first blind guys to ever kayak the entire grand canyon and and it was in Eric's book that was about him kayaking the Grand Canyon that at the very end of the book it didn't even have anything to do with Eric it actually was his guide and the guide who he had on the river that day was was at the end of the book they were literally done with the entire trip and that guide he he went out there and he was standing in the middle of the river and he was

facing upstream and the book describes that he had his hands outstretched his fingers splayed letting the current run through the fingers and he said to the river he said listen he said I'll be back someday but for now I've got more life to live and when I read that that's when it hit me I thought I don't have to ever give up my hope my faith my dream of seeing again but until that day I've got more life to live that is wonderful that is just wonderful you know what's what's what's curious here is uh

when I was in grad school Kevin we we did a uh a team project and our team chose we had to contrast two different teams and our team contrasted Eric's team that climbed Mount Everest okay because not only did he sum it they did not lose a single person from his team like every person made it to the top and back down and we contrasted that with a team it's known as one of the worst up until when we did the project it was one of the worst disasters in Mount Everest history and it was two highly

successful guides.

SPEAKER_02: They were incredibly experienced climbers and a number of the part like several people of the party died.

And I remember though reading Eric's book and also the movie that they made what is it uh Farther Than the Eye Can See I think is the name of it.

It's a movie about how they how Eric and his team got him to the top and back un for anyone who has not seen that movie or read that book unbelievable what they did.

Yeah it's so it's so inspiring.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah now wow now here's something else I'm gonna share about this that's that's very ironic because I've actually had Eric on my podcast oh um which was just awesome but I can't even imagine but here's what's funny though is because when I went blind I believe it was in 2003 the year that I went blind is the year that he summited Mount Everest if I'm not mistaken.

Yeah and so and so then he wrote a book well all I can remember is everybody I at the at the different blind services um or people talking giving us books is everybody keep kept talking about this guy Eric Weinmeyer who summoned Mount Everest I hated him I hated every mention of it i kept they kept ramming it they kept ramming it down down down my throat like he's some some blind superhero because at that point in time I wanted nothing to do with it that's right and and I and I and

it's so funny though because it was just at that point I had this whole picture in my mind made up of who he was of a person that I didn't like that he was some quote unquote blind superhero trying to make that this horrible life seem great and I hated it and I hated it until the day that when I actually listened to his audio book about the one of kayaking the Grand Canyon and it made me realize then oh he's just a cool guy yeah like me it's just that he can't see and um and so so

it's really it's really like this fascinating story with Eric um in my own journey of of this new life of being blind of going kind of full circle is is pretty cool.

SPEAKER_02: It is and you know what what I'm what I love about you mentioning that is sometimes I don't know the best way to say this like when we're going through something dark when we're going through a challenge people they mean well and they're trying to give us hope or whatever and it's like but if it's too soon it can come across wrong like I think about when uh in 2000 uh 2020 the big East Troublesome fire came through where we lived in Colorado and it took out 1980 acres um in the

space of you know well most of that was gone in the space of two or three days and we had it was an emergency evacuation it took two weeks to find out if we still had a house and people were like well you should feel so lucky that you made it out alive and it's like we do feel lucky that we made it out alive you know but but it was it felt preachy.

You know what I mean?

It just it was like ask me how I feel you know so I'm glad you mentioned that because I think that's really I think that's really real.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah absolutely I think I think that with anybody who's going through anything in life you got to meet them where they are you don't need to be the savior they don't need a cheerleader at that moment they need a shoulder to cry on right and and sometimes I think it's like we try to be the savior or the cheerleader number one I think people mean well and I I also think that sometimes it's like we can have so much discomfort because someone else is feeling bad or something bad has happened to someone else that we're trying to solve it so

we feel better.

SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?

Yeah exactly 100% yeah yeah you know on your on your website you wrote something um that you know when you found out you were blind the world quit spinning and it wasn't supposed to like you know happen like this and then you said but maybe I was wrong you know maybe maybe all along it was God's plan for you for this to happen.

Can you speak more about that?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah 100% um you know I feel really fortunate in the fact that I can look at my life from this point and I can fit it together like a puzzle.

Every single piece of my story fits together like a jigsaw puzzle.

The first 17 years of my life were preparing me for what was to come yeah God instilled in me characteristics of a person who would be better equipped to become blind he made me super organized.

I was a kid who loved to reorganize the kitchen pantry you know you're you're like my brother right yeah yeah there's nothing better than organizing stuff exactly now now cleaning cleaning's another story but organizing and being sure it looks good is all my game um you know to the fact that I also had a childhood where I got to do and see so much.

I was blessed to get to go on vacations.

We went snow skiing in West Virginia we went on a family vacation to Alaska we would go all the all the time down um you know uh lobstering in the Florida Keys to going dirt bike riding in the middle of the Ocala National Forest I got to do all kinds of cool stuff because God was preparing me for what was to come after I became blind um I can tell you that as tragic as it was the blessings that have happened have been never ending is that I can see just how it was all meant to be

yeah every piece of the puzzle it was all meant to be and I find such peace in that in knowing that this was all in God's plans that he was in control every step of the way and he still is to this day all the way up to what I'm doing today I can tell you I know it's in his plans yeah there's something really powerful when you recognize how our stories come together.

SPEAKER_02: Yes yes you know what it reminds me way way back in the day this was in the 90s I worked at a law firm in Chicago and one of my dear friends her name was Cindy and she she was pregnant and went full term and but when she delivered the baby was stillborn and you know I can't even and and she knew I th I think she knew a week or two prior to delivering that she'd lost the baby but at that point they induced labor so she had to deliver a baby that she knew was already gone.

Yes and I remember talking to her afterwards I'm like God I I can't imagine and and of course you know it was sad for her and everything and I remember she said something she's like you know what Bobby she goes I I never want it to happen to me or or to anyone but she said if it had to happen to someone she said I think I was better prepared than what another person might be and I remember just marveling at her strength and it there was no arrogance in that there wasn't it was like a

real humble like if God intended this to happen to someone I I I can handle this.

SPEAKER_00: And I thought wow and that's kind of what I'm hearing yeah like from you at this point yeah what 110 is that is that you know I I've realized that we can't control what happens in this life but we can control what we do with it.

And I believe in all of my being that God knew that I would serve a greater purpose on this earth having gone through what I did than if I had it.

Now would I have chosen this no the heartbreak has been unmeasurable yeah even so today 20 years later there's times when it gets to me thank goodness time is an amazing healer and that happens very rare but it does but at the same point I am so grateful that God chose me to get to be the one to do it.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah that's amazing it's such a beautiful place to get to yeah so question for you so so you went through a 10 year dark period and then and and you just said even now sometimes it still gets to you what what do you have like if someone's listening and because we all we all face right sometimes life is messy it's not just for you it's not just for me happens to everybody life can be messy we can face brick walls we can face our own dark periods what words of advice or wisdom do you have

for someone who might be facing something like that my biggest thing is is to embrace whatever you're feeling if you're sad just let yourself be sad don't start beating yourself up over the fact that you are sad.

SPEAKER_00: That's right don't look don't listen to the quote unquote experts who tell you that oh you know you should be further along by now Kevin should be accepting of this by now Kevin needs to to you know learn to accept this and move on with his life that's what my mom would hear all the time oh and I'm here to tell you that this is your life this is your journey it is your ride and nobody knows it better than you and so I am here to tell you to embrace it but at the same point know this that the tunnel does not last forever that no tunnel

is forever that there is light at the end and when you get to a point when you're ready to see the light then get up and start running because you will you will you will it sometimes it doesn't seem like it but it is it's just when when it when it when you hurt when you're sad that's just what you want to be and that's what when we talked earlier when when you want a friend you want a friend not to help you you want a friend to just cry with that's right and you know in in in the I can tell

you for many times um I just needed people to cry with um and um they didn't try to fix anything because they couldn't fix anything we just cried together and and that's what a true friend is yeah they give you the space that you need absolutely not the space that they need in that time yeah exactly no exactly I love that though because it doesn't last it can feel like it's going to last forever you know I think about my my own health journey right like I had no idea what would it would I ever be well again I didn't know yeah and I I

recently did uh you know on on my pad podcast I have the interviews and then I also have the rise and thrives which are like short monologues 10 minutes or so and I just did one it was on one of the best decisions that Rick and I Rick's my husband we made during the time during that time was we didn't put our happiness on hold.

SPEAKER_02: We didn't say well we're gonna wait until we see if Bobby's gonna get well again and then we can be happy because it's like we didn't know if I'd yes at that point the doctors are saying you're probably gonna spend the rest of your life in bed.

Yeah you know well that's a long time to wait to be happy yes yeah but that didn't mean that we were happy that I was sick um no but it's you and you also said it it's your journey you've got to figure it out you'll know what's gonna work for you.

SPEAKER_00: Yes you know exactly so a minute ago Kevin you said you wouldn't be doing what you're doing now like God prepared you for that so that's a great segue what are you doing now yeah absolutely so I am right now host of my own podcast as well as a transformational life coach um and I'm only in this position in my life um you know thanks to you know the global pandemic um which which you know I I'm I'm a I'm a big firm believer that you know we we gotta find good and the bad and uh for me for me I had been I had started my own travel

agency in 2013 um it was my own home based travel agency called Better Days Travel and I literally I operated it up until 2020 which 2020 was going to be my best year ever I had some amazing trips on the books I even had a massive group cruise for um me my family for clients I think there was a total of close to 45 of us on a seven night Caribbean cruise to celebrate my 17th anniversary of the day that I had become blind but also the day that my life was saved.

And so that October 28th and so it was huge.

And then of course March came and the whole world ended and um and so my best year ever went to the worst year ever.

And um you know so now we're in quarantine and while in quarantine is when I started a podcast.

And um I say the only difference between me and everybody else is that I'm still podcasting.

And um but really you know when I was a travel agent I loved it um I enjoyed building a business creating a brand designing vacations but I really knew that it really wasn't what I was meant to do.

But I didn't know what else I was supposed to do.

And so when the March of 2020 came along and the business shut down um I still wasn't really sure so I started the podcast um as an idea to keep travel alive.

So that the podcast was going to be all about travel mixed in with a little bit about just my life as as somebody who's blind well quickly the podcast kind of took over and um I'm starting to to do these these episodes more and more these interviews more and more and I'm getting amazing feedback from from people listening and I'm starting to get amazing feedback from the guests that I have on the show.

And literally that led me to the point of totally just switching careers switching focus I had never even heard of the of being a coach before and and yet I'm having all my guests tell me they're like Kevin they're like you see parts of my story that no one else sees or they're like the way that you see the world they're like you should really be a coach and I'm like I don't understand what a coach is and so and so that led me down this whole path to finally totally giving up travel gladly at that

point I'm like God has me going down a different path and I you know the way that I knew I was headed the right way is that it was effortless.

As a travel agent I worked at it every day I grinded and I did everything to try and make it work to fit a square peg into a round hole through the podcast the podcast was effortless and it wasn't led into coaching coaching was effortless and I realized then that that's when you know you're on the right path in life is when you no longer have to paddle but instead you flip over and you float on down the stream.

Yeah and I and I'm like this is it I know I'm on the right path because I'm doing what I love the podcast I get to meet amazing people all over the world who I say if it wasn't for a podcast I never even would have known existed.

And for myself that's what it's about it's about getting to bring to light the real life stories of the real superheroes in the world the people like you and me who are just living life who are overcoming stuff to keep thriving in life because we have a desire to live and enjoy this life and for me that's just what it's all about.

SPEAKER_02: That's so cool Kevin you know and your passion for your Podcast, like it just it just comes through, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I I I love it, absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_02: Tell me this the so the grit, grace, and inspiration.

I love that title.

Where did that come from?

SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, that came from literally.

I so that's not what it was originally called.

I rebranded it twice, um, as as I continued narrowing down on on kind of my niche and in what I wanted to be known for.

And so when I came up with this this third time, I knew because I had been called um the low down on life and travel.

Then I was the low down with Kevin Lowe.

And even though low down was a cool play on my last name, it didn't really speak to what the podcast was about.

Yeah, and so that's when I really got serious, and I'm like, what is it about?

What do I want to be known for?

And when I finally one day it hit me, I'm like, it's grit, grace, and inspiration.

It's having the grit to fight through the sad days, it's giving yourself grace when it is hard, and it's letting that inspiration light the way.

Love it, and and if you can be the inspiration, that's even better.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so because we all need it, we all need the inspiration, yes, exactly.

You know, so cool, and it's funny.

I started my podcast in 2020, and it was like, Hey, the world needs some good news, the world needs some positivity right now.

SPEAKER_00: Um, exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: And I think we we might be the a lot of people started a podcast and stopped.

Now you just hit 200 recently, didn't you?

SPEAKER_00: I did, yes, yes.

So I'm yep, yep.

So I'm up in my 200s and and and feeling good, and so I'm I'm kind of like you.

I finally have gotten in a in a in a spot where I do a interview episode every week and a solo episode every week.

And um the solo the solos were difficult at first, but I've almost come to really love doing the solo because I'm like, whoo, it lets you kind of like be creative, you know.

SPEAKER_02: It does, but at first they are kind of harder at first because it's like, okay, microphones on.

What am I supposed to talk about?

You know, exactly.

Wow.

So, Kevin, where can people find out more about you and and your podcast?

What's the best way?

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, absolutely.

So the best place is to head to my website.

Um, and that is gritgraceinspiration.com.

Um, is is the best place.

And um, that'll take you straight to the website, which you can find the podcast.

You can find more about me, my story, and my my coaching services.

But if you want even just a shortcut straight to the best place to listen to the podcast, you can literally just do gritgraceinspiration.com slash listen, and that will take you to uh to a uh a page that has links to all of your favorite uh podcast apps with uh you know kind of quick win to get you to where you want to be.

SPEAKER_02: Nice.

And you're and and I just say say this too: your website's absolutely beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, thank you.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, great pictures, it's really it's just a beautiful, it's a beautiful website.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, well, thank you.

So I feel like so I feel like when you're blind, you know, whether people want to do it or not, I feel like you're gonna get judged a little bit.

If it's ugly, people are gonna be like, oh, but he's blind, so we'll give him a break.

So instead, I chose to go to the totally different perspective and let's blow their socks off and let them be like, Man, I want a website as pretty as the blind guy, you know.

SPEAKER_02: So I love that.

I love it because it is, it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, well, thank you very much.

SPEAKER_02: Oh my goodness, Kevin.

It's been such a delight getting to get to talk with you again.

SPEAKER_00: Yes, you as well.

You're absolutely amazing, and and thank you so much for having me on your show.

SPEAKER_02: Oh man, we'll have to do it again sometime.

SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I agree, I would love it.

SPEAKER_02: I hope that you enjoyed hearing from Kevin and hearing his story.

Every time I talk with Kevin, I am uplifted by his presence and his perspective and just his overwhelming positivity.

And I hope that you're gonna check out his podcast as well as his website.

If you know of someone who is facing a dark tunnel, as Kevin called it, I hope that you'll uh consider sharing this podcast with them, as it just might be the inspiration that they need right now.

I hope that you have a wonderful week and that you keep thriving no matter what.