From Grief to Greatness: How Andy Found Strength & Inspiration After Losing Jodi to Breast Cancer

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SPEAKER_02: It goes without saying that I wish the bad things in life never had to happen.

I wish that no one had to experience loss or heartache.

I just wish it didn't exist in this world.

But in fact, of course it does.

And so I pose the question though, just what if?

What if the hard times that you and me experience, they're not there meant to break us, but rather maybe they're meant to have us create something even more.

To pick up the pieces, not to rebuild what was, but to build something new, something bigger, something more impactful.

Today you're gonna meet Andrew Berger, a guy who's experienced unimaginable loss from that of his mother and his sister Jody to his wife's health.

But what's awesome about Andrew is instead of giving in or giving up, he created Jody's climb for hope.

And with over a million dollars raised for medical research, Andrew proves to us all that even in the darkest of times, we can choose hope.

Today you are about to hear a story that's gonna make you laugh, it's gonna make you cry, and ultimately leave you inspired by a conversation that proves that hope isn't something that happens to you, but is rather something we create one step at a time.

This, my friend, is episode 364.

But before you dive in, I want you to know this.

If you have a dream, if you have big plans for your life, I want you to realize that they are valid.

Because if nobody's told you yet lately, I want you to know that I believe in you.

You, my friend, because you're here today, choosing to listen to this very podcast, I know something about you.

And that is you were made for greatness.

You have greatness inside of you.

And maybe you've just needed a reminder, somebody to remind you that you know what?

He's right.

Kevin's right.

I'm capable, I'm able, and I am deserving of having all that I want in this life.

That is the truth, my friend.

And I hope that today you are reminded of that.

That no matter what dreams you have, no matter how big or far-fetched they may seem, that they are all indeed possible.

I believe in you.

So, with that, my friend, gain the inspiration you need from today's amazing conversation with today's amazing guest, Andrew Berger.

I welcome you to Grit Grace and Inspiration.

Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Malow, and you are listening to Grit Grace and Inspiration.

Andy, man, it is a pleasure to have you here.

Welcome to the podcast.

SPEAKER_03: Good morning, good morning.

It's great to be here.

Thanks for having me.

And I'm looking forward to our conversation.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, me too.

Well, well, Andy, I I figured the best place that I would love to start is asking you to kind of take me back and giving me a kind of snapshot overview into growing up and specifically relationship with your sister, Jody.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, well, we're going a few years back.

How much time do we have today, Kevin?

It's like my therapist all over again talking about my childhood.

A year after I was born, my mother died of a rare blood disease.

And so leaving behind my father, a widower at age 27, and my uh me and my sister, two kids in diapers.

She was just a year older uh than I was.

I was one, she was two, and you know, just from that moment on, super close.

You know, we were I couldn't go to a birthday party without her, you know.

We went to uh, you know, we stayed close in high school.

We had high school friends, we went to college near each other, not in the same school.

But then, you know, if I lived in Vancouver and she lived somewhere else, you know, we traveled to see each other quite often, just as close as a sibling can be.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, wow.

I mean, in in speaking to a tragedy at such an early age in life, I can only imagine that that would probably draw you guys closer together with the loss of your mother.

I mean, at such an early age.

SPEAKER_03: Yes, it would bring anybody closer together.

And I was very fortunate she's just an awesome human being, kind, generous, thoughtful.

And so, of course, we fought, you know, as all siblings do, but it was easy to be close to her.

It wasn't a lot of drama between the two of us.

There wasn't a lot of, you know, sibling rivalry.

So it made for a very healthy, strong, long-lasting relationship.

You know, then you know, when our our father died, uh, when I was 31, she was 32, we kind of also just had a leaned to lean into each other just a little bit more than we we already had.

We turned it from a 10 to an 11 in terms of a relationship, in terms of needing each other, being there for each other, and supporting each other.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

Now, as you guys grew older, were you able to stay?

Did you all still live near each other?

SPEAKER_03: No, we never had that luxury after high school.

You know, that I what that new statistic I heard after the age of 18, I think you you only spend, you know, basically one more year with your kids after they turn 18.

We didn't have the luxury.

So, you know, like she remained in Boston.

So I went to college in Vermont and three hours away, and she went to college in Boston.

She stayed there.

So I lived in a lot of different places uh Vancouver, Aspen, Boulder, Detroit, and then we'd see each other.

We were never physically close, but but then I moved to Baltimore.

So we'd I'd see each other, but no, we were never in the same city.

SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay.

Well, I know obviously a big part of our conversation today really revolves around your your sister Jody's diagnosis with cancer.

Would you kind of go ahead and talk to me about this whole kind of chapter of the story?

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, sure.

You gotta get the backstory in terms of our relationship where we were there for each other to support each other through good times and bad, danced at her wedding, uh, you know, and we're there for obviously the the birth of her children.

So you know, it wasn't just the challenging times.

We had amazing times.

And as I said, I lived in Vancouver, we had some amazing experiences there.

And then when I was basically 40 years old, she was 41, she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic breast cancer, for which there's no cure.

Um, unfortunately, they have not found a cure for that when it's stage four yet, when it's involves various parts of the body, from the brain to the lungs and the liver.

And so I've been uh given a gift in life, which is I have to filter my brain.

No bad news goes in there.

So every time something I get this news, I don't see the bad news.

I can only see an opportunity.

And I didn't I didn't think she was gonna die.

I heard that she had cancer, but I I didn't think it would it would eventually kill her because that's just about where my brain goes.

And so I something switched in my brain and said, I've got to do something.

So we started raising money for a very promising treatment here.

It happens to be in Baltimore.

I look for where the best treatment was being done.

And it was a woman named Dr.

Alicia Emmons here in Baltimore that was doing really cool research where they would take a woman's tumor cell, turn off the DNA, chop it up into a million pieces, and then put it back into the woman's body with a low dose of chemotherapy that woke up the immune system to fight that.

And I'm like, wow, that is really cool.

And so, what can I do to help you?

She said, I need money.

So we started a nonprofit.

At that time, we called it Climb for Hope to raise money for that.

And so we, you know, we raised a lot of money and we advanced her research pretty quickly, but we didn't do it in time, unfortunately, to save my sister's life.

She died at age 45, leaving behind three of the most gorgeous kids in the world and an amazing, loving husband.

So, you know, it was hard to go through that with her and lose, you know, basically my best friend after having gone through that fight with her and tremendous loss.

But what remains is her memory, and an organization that's raised over a million dollars for breast cancer research at Johns Hopkins.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

So just to recap what we just heard, is you lost your mother when you were only a year old.

Right.

You lost your father when I think you said you were 31.

Yes.

And now you just told us that you lost your sister.

Yes.

Yes.

That seems for a man who doesn't take in the bad news and and finds opportunity, it seems like anybody would say, wow, that was a lot.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, I could see I could see where you'd say that.

It's a lot.

And, you know, there's a an amazing quote from um Marcus Aurelius, who was um the last of the great Roman emperors and uh a student of Stoic philosophy.

And he once said, It is fortunate that this happened to me.

It is fortunate that this happens to me.

So I embrace that philosophy.

You know, when I get to the top of a mountain or I have a good event at work, or something positive happens in my life, it is fortunate that this happens to me.

And then when something negative happens in my life, I also say that it is fortunate this happens to me because I know that there's a silver lining on the other side of that tragedy.

And all those losses turned out to be a gift to me in that I know why I'm on this earth.

I'm here to use all my creativity and energy to help take a bite out of disease so that other families can live more fulfilling lives.

So my life for the past 20 years has been in this area.

As I said, we started a nonprofit that we've renamed from Climb for Hope to Jody's Climb for Hope.

And we've made a difference.

We've sped up research on that vaccine, which now is not necessarily treating breast cancer, but now you're seeing immunology working for other forms of cancer like skin cancer.

So not that that was all of our doing, but we were a tiny cog in the wheel that sped it up.

It may have saved some lives.

We've given hope to thousands of others that we can continue to advance cancer research.

And we we skipped over one small detail in that I married this beautiful woman, Jennifer, and six months after we were married, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

And so we've now also raising money for multiple sclerosis research.

And so the money we raised goes to breast cancer research at Hopkins, as well as their amazing multiple sclerosis research center.

And so again, we're helping move the needle there to find the next viable treatment for MS.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

I think that is one of the most amazing life purposes I've ever heard.

Thanks.

Thanks.

The name of Jody's Climb for Hope.

Talk to me about the name Climb for Hope.

What what is that in reference to?

SPEAKER_03: You know, we started it when she was still alive, and uh we wanted to give her hope to live one more day, one more week, one more month with her kids.

We want to hope that hopefully we could find a cure or treatment that would keep her alive longer.

As it turned out, you know, we gave her hope, hopefully advanced her life a little bit to be with her family.

But as it turns out, we've discovered this interesting uh byproduct of our organization where we go mountain climbing.

So we started this, you know, most most places were doing 5Ks, 10Ks to raise money for for breast cancer.

Well, we started our first first fundraiser was climbing a 19,400-foot mountain in Ecuador.

So we didn't we didn't start small.

And so what we discovered by accident is that uh those of us carrying a backpack, a weighted pack up that mountain, we got altitude sickness.

Some of us were literally vomiting, headaches, pain, fatigue, overwhelming exhaustion of climbing for 12, 13 hours.

You know something?

My sister went through that every single day for five years.

We could push through that pain.

We could vomit and keep moving on that mountain for 12, 13 hours because then we got to go home and rest.

Where those undergoing breast cancer treatment don't get that luxury.

People with multiple sclerosis carry a heavy pack every single day.

It's difficult for my wife to walk around the block, walk the dog.

So we figured it'll be walking her shoes when we have these expeditions.

And so we're understanding what these people are going through.

And we're giving hope to people back home that we can continue to raise money and continue to make a difference.

Another thing that we stumbled upon was that we discovered this doctor early and we found some other doctors very early on.

And we were able to give them, you know,$50,000,$100,000, $150,000 very quickly.

Didn't have to write grants, they didn't have to fill out paperwork, they didn't have to do a lot of red tape.

Here's your check.

And so they were able to get proof of concept of their research.

And then once they raised money, like, stop giving me money.

Now the government's giving me millions.

Go give it to somebody else.

And so we've discovered that we decline for hope can be a sort of a VC, an early funder for people doing promising research.

Because you can't get money until you have some kind of proof of concept, and we allow them to do that.

And so again, we're giving hope that we can find a unique approach to disease research.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Where did the whole concept even come from about the idea to even start such an organization and then though to do it not like everybody else with a 5K, but instead, instead, we're climbing mountains.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, dude, yeah, I tend to swim upstream a little bit.

I've got a couple gifts.

One is that, you know, that filter that we talked about where nothing bad enters my brain, drives my wife crazy.

I think that other things, I triangulate things.

You know, I see when three things kind of appear to me, I'm like, oh, that's something.

And so, you know, my sister getting sick, meeting that that doctor, I happened to be climbing with a buddy of mine on Pico d'Orizaba, which is the highest mountain in Mexico, uh, at about 18,400 feet.

And we were climbing that mountain, and I'm a horrible climber.

It's not like, oh, I'm a world-class climber who does this.

I'm a horrible climber.

But I'm like, wait a minute, Crony, what if uh, you know, we got a bunch of friends together and made them raise$5,000 to go climbing with us?

And so I happen to get, again, lucky that the guy who ran the local climbing gym happens to be one of the foremost climbers in the world, a guy named Chris Warner, who now became the second American ever to climb all the 8,000 meter peaks.

So he said, Yeah, I'll take you.

I won't make any money on you, and let's go climb the world's highest active volcano down in Ecuador.

And so off we went.

You know, we just I wanted to take a little different approach.

She needed the money, and I like climbing.

And so we got a bunch of my friends together, and it turns out we raised like$150,000 the first year.

We're like, well, let's try that again.

Went to Kilimanjaro and raised another$150,000 and uh just kept going.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

I think that's amazing.

I love not only I mean the mission behind it, of course, but I love the creativity and stepping outside of the box.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Yeah, that's amazing.

Well, talk to me more about your wife.

How did the two of you meet in the first place?

SPEAKER_03: I hate this story.

I always ask people, do you want the the truth or the story that I like to tell?

Uh because my kids love it too.

So, you know, I I was getting out of a bad relationship.

We we tell people that we met at a coffee shop because we lived very close to each other.

And I used to like that story better.

But in truth, I was getting a bad relationship.

I'm like, oh, I need what I got, what am I gonna do now?

So I went on mats.com, looked up, and you know, I saw this beautiful woman who's well read, well traveled, well educated, master's degree.

She worked in an orphanage.

I'm like, oh my God, she's a saint.

And I'm like, well, I guess I gotta join this stupid thing.

And so I told the post up.

And then, you know, went on one date on mats.com and that was it.

Wow.

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: That's crazy awesome.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, so we met in February, and then I decided to start the nonprofit in April, and I had that meeting with um Dr.

Emmons, who's this amazing researcher, and uh Chris Warner, again, who I said is one of the foremost climbers in the world.

And we had this meeting, and we had like uh 20 people show up, and every one of the 20 people signed up.

And one of those people, and Jennifer, my kid's uh, you know, we just started dating two months.

Do you mind coming to this meeting with me?

And so she after the meeting, she tells all my friends, you're gonna have to tell Andy that his next girlfriend, that his ex-girlfriend is coming on this trip.

Because you really didn't know we'd be, you know, married, but or be still dating come January when the trip went off.

And so it's it was a big mountain and it was really challenging.

And uh, you know, it's it's hard and altitude, and so I she I don't remember this, but she said that if I got to the summit, we would get engaged.

So she made it up there.

We didn't not get engaged up there, but she made it somehow, and then we got engaged a few months later.

SPEAKER_02: Wow, that is absolutely amazing.

Yeah, I think that's an awesome story.

Yeah.

Now, now, did after that climb, did she continue to share that that love of yours of climbing?

SPEAKER_03: This interview reminds me of of my interview with for my life insurance.

It's like, uh tell me about your telling about your biological mother.

I'm like, Well, she died at 25.

Well, how about your father?

He died of heart disease.

How about your sister?

I'm like, do you really want to ask me these questions?

So I married this gorgeous woman.

So we we climbed uh Kotapaxi in January of 2007, you know, this 19,000 foot peak.

And we wanted to climb this other mountain because my buddy of mine, John Guth, he signed up and wound up breaking his leg, doing something stupid that he shouldn't have never done.

So I said, dude, I'll take you climbing in June on this mountain called Mount Shasta.

So I got uh Jennifer, who was then my fiancee, gunner, and then this other woman, Julie, to go climb Mount Shasta.

And Jennifer loved it.

It was this hippie town in Northern California, gorgeous.

You do this nice tough hike up to base camp, and uh, she was just loving every second.

She loved the town, she loved everything about it.

And she gets to camp and she's like, I don't feel 100%.

I'm really cold and I can't regulate my body, and I I'm just freezing.

And I'm just, do you mind if I don't go to the summit?

I'm like, hey, you know, we're not here to go to the summit, we're here for the experience.

So she really wasn't feeling well.

We went up, summited, and came back down.

And so that was June, and then we got married in September of uh 2007.

And then uh, you know, we decided to climb Kilimanjaro the following year.

That's what the mountain that she chose.

Wow.

And then February, she wasn't feeling well.

So we went to the doctor, and uh we knew because we know we had seen some MRIs, and February 26, 2008, six months, less than six months after our wedding date, we knew that the doctor was gonna give us bad news that day.

We knew because we saw a couple lesions on her spine by this point that the doctor was gonna tell us she had multiple sclerosis.

So we sat in that waiting room waiting for the doctor to call us in.

And I had the early BlackBerry back then, and sitting there, I couldn't focus or checking emails, and I got this email.

Congratulations, Mr.

Berger, your puppy has been born.

And we had put in paperwork to get a bull mass of the 140-pound dog that we'd bring home.

And so as soon as I got that email, the nurse said the doctor will see you now.

And of course, she confirmed our diagnosis that Jennifer had MS and that she'd never climb again.

So we went home, we cried our eyes out, and we woke up the next day and we named the dog Mount Shasta.

Mount Shasta was the last mountain that Jennifer's been able to climb.

And his initials were MS.

Because goddamn, MS was going to be something positive in our lives.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Wow.

Talk to me about the effects of MS on somebody.

What does this disease do?

SPEAKER_03: It's unlike cancer, where you can kind of, I don't want to say predict it, but you know, everyone has very similar journeys with cancer.

With MS, multiple sclerosis is multiple sclerosis or lesions.

You're getting lesions on your myelin sheath, which is the protective coating on your spinal cord in your brain.

And so people get them, some people get them more in your brain, you get cognitive challenges, some people get them more on their spine, which correlates to, you know, it's kind of like a computer cord.

If you're cutting up that plastic, you know, that outer coating, you're gonna get your computers in your haywire because the cuts cords can cut.

So people get weakness, fatigue, pain, difficulty walking, difficult using your hands, losing feeling in your fingers, a lot of mobility issues.

Some people wind up in a wheelchair.

Again, it's very dependent on the individual.

And so, you know, there's a lot.

Great medications now that will stop the progression.

So if you've got several lesions, you get diagnosed, you go on a medication, then that'll hopefully stop the progression.

And so we're fortunate that she was diagnosed, you know, now we're in the last 15, 18 years that medications have stopped it, but it still presents challenges every day.

And I think the worst symptom that she got was when we sat down, the doctor says, Whoo, this is kind of aggressive.

So I need to put you on this drug and hopefully keep you out of a wheelchair, but it means you can't have kids.

So I know my mission to help take about a disease.

Jen's known her mission since she was five years old, which is to be a mother to create healthy kids, mentally healthy kids.

She's a psychotherapist.

And now the doctor's telling us five months after we're married that we can't have kids.

That was the worst of the symptoms.

It is fortunate that this happened to me.

It is fortunate this happened to me.

Because what we decided to do was to go to Ethiopia, one of the poorest parts of the world, and adopt two of the most gorgeous kids on the face of this earth.

So now she lives her life mission every single day to raise these healthy kids.

I'm I'm a motivational speaker, so it's perfect.

I get to travel and she gets to I I I don't have any bad effects on the kids.

She does a great job of raising these two kids that are now, now 14.

But it's you know, life's challenging in terms uh physically for her.

Mobility, pain, fatigue on a daily basis.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

What a story.

Your your kids.

I I heard something, I think it was in one of the talks she did.

And I would love for you to tell me the story that you you wrote their names on water bottles that you carried.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

Yeah.

What is that story?

That story, we were climbing Mount Whitney, which is the highest point in a lower 48 at uh 14,500 feet.

And that point, you know, we had our kids were were little and I had this startup going, and Jennifer obviously could no longer hike with me, and so training became an issue.

I was getting older, and so it was a challenging climb.

We had to carry heavy packs, not just to one camp, but to the second camp too.

And so I don't sleep well in a tent.

So I had two nights of little sleep, we're sleep deprived, carrying a heavy pack up this mountain, altitude challenges.

And so I spent all my gas getting to the summit, which is a mistake because 80% of the accidents happen on the way down.

And you need more than 50% of your gas tank left to get back down.

And I didn't do that.

So I was having a real tough time climbing back down.

And so, you know, I my buddies, I'm like, guys, I'm I'm I'm having a tough time.

Like, oh, the base camp is just around the corner to the right.

I'm like, okay, thanks.

And I get, you know, sum up all my energy.

I go around that corner and it's not there.

And Danny's like, no, no, it's it's down a little bit around the corner to the left.

I'm like, okay, put one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, and this camp was still wasn't there.

There I found out they were lying to me.

We still had hours to go.

And uh, I just want to lay down in the snow.

But laying down in the snow and dying just wasn't an option because I had two water bottles, two analogene bottles, and I had written my son's name on one water bottle and my daughter's name on the other water bottle to know why I was climbing was to get back down safely to them and not not just get to the summit, but get back safely to see my kids again.

And every time I took a sip of water, I saw their names.

And I knew at that point how far my mind could push my body, and I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other until I was back at camp.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

You know, you you you spoke about your your life's purpose.

And I look at this as, you know, giving even purpose to that single climb of your children's names, of giving that reason why, like you said, why you couldn't give up, why you had to get down that mountain.

I think that's pretty powerful.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah.

Yeah.

I I I learned the power of purpose when we were climbing Kilimanjaro when you know we had gotten all of our climbers to the summit and then safely back down over eight days.

It was a brutal, tough, cold, challenging expedition.

And uh we had seen this one other group on the mountain, and uh, and I had talked to them.

Finally, we got back down to the bottom.

We celebrated reaching the highest point of Africa and raising$150,000.

And I was tracking with them that only half their team made it.

I'm like, what it what happened?

You know, 12 of them, the 24 of them like, well, Billy's feet got cold, so Tracy took them down, and Eric got tired, so Stacy took him down.

You know, something I hadn't my sister was still alive, I had a flag that said, Stay strong, JB, Jodie Berger.

I wanted to give her hope, as we talked about.

We had people's names that were undergoing treatment.

We promised we'd get their names to the summit.

We had names of people who lost their loved ones, we promised we'd get their names to the highest point in Tanzania.

We weren't going to turn around when our feet got cold and or someone was vomiting from altitude sickness.

We had a mission to get those flags to the summit.

And that's when I realized the value of purpose.

In my own life and in my business life, purpose helps you climb your figurative Mount Everest.

One of my favorite books is Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel, who is a psychiatrist who survived the Holocaust, one of the worst things ever in the history of humanity.

And there's a quote from Nietzsche: He who has a why to live can overcome anyhow.

And so we can all climb our figurative Mount Everest if we have that mission.

And so, you know, my mission is to help take a bite of disease so other families can live them a fulfilling lives.

But that doesn't mean that an expedition, a day, something else, you can't put your mission, a different mission statement, on your water bottle.

You may carry that flag around with you of your life's mission, but you know something?

When you're on an expedition, what's the purpose of this mission?

Not to get to the summit, but to get back down safely to see my family.

And I wrote my mission of that journey on my water bottles that day.

SPEAKER_02: Wow, what a valuable lesson for us all.

I I absolutely love the organization, Jody's Climb for Hope.

At what point did you also expand it to help with raising money for MS in support of your wife?

SPEAKER_03: So we think we our first expedition was in January 2007, and she was diagnosed a year later in February of 2008.

And so within a year, I looked at Jenna said, I guess we're raising money for MS now too.

So we do both, and we tend to you know basically split our that you know, if we raise 100,000, we'll give 50 to each researcher on each side.

It's uh it's a bit weird to lump the two together.

We're raising money for breast cancer and MS, but people appreciate it, people understand it, and uh people embrace it.

But yeah, we've been doing it both of them for a while.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's absolutely amazing.

Now, kind of shifting gears.

I'm I'm very curious to learn.

You also had some type of discovery, I guess, while while hiking in Iceland that led to you inventing some type of drink.

SPEAKER_03: Right.

So we talked about my triangulation, right?

So again, I've been very fortunate that I I'm like that kid in the sixth sense.

I see things that aren't there, right?

You know, so I when I triangulate things, I'm able to see, you know, things that aren't there.

And so, you know, I've been up, I've been a health nut for a long time, and I couldn't find a convenient source of protein.

And uh this is you know, going way back to the late 90s that I tried to consume a lot of protein without any sugar, and obviously good fat and not bad fat.

So I've been this eating this lifestyle for a long time, but I couldn't find a convenient source of protein.

So we're on this mountain, and Jen was actually able to come to base camp when this could be just, you know, he was just car camping.

So we were climbing the highest mountain in Iceland, and they served this this like yogurt thing for breakfast.

And I'm like, uh-oh, I'm lactose intolerant.

This is not gonna be pretty, you know.

But we're gonna consume like 6,000 calories that day.

So, you know, I ate it and I was fine.

And I ate some more the next day, and I was still fine.

And I said to the guy, Devar, what is this stuff?

He said, it's not yogurt, it's skir.

It's technically a form of cheese, and all the lactose gets consumed by their probiotics.

It's basically it's very similar to Greek yogurt.

And so it's super high in protein and tastes delicious without sugar.

So I looked at Jen and said, this is what I want to do the rest of my life.

Because, you know, as a as you as we talked about, my mission is to help take a bite out of disease.

And so I wanted to create a super healthy product that was convenient.

That, you know, you can go to a store, it's obviously a lot different here in 2024, but this is back in you know, 2009, where, you know, all you got was like pork rinds and places to for a kind of a grab and go protein source.

And so I looked at Jan, this is what I want to do the rest of my life.

So I came home, quit my day job.

Again, you know, I'm not real bright, but I'm I see things.

And so I went to the University of Vermont undergrad, and we've got a really good dairy science program there.

So I called up a dairy scientist, and he helped me came up with the recipe, and we created the first organic protein drink with no added sugar.

You know, stevia had just come into the market.

So we were basically the first drink in the market that used stevia.

And so we were able to create a drink that had 30 grams of protein.

You know, we mix it up with frozen fruit in home and like, wait a minute, you know, what if we did this commercially?

So we found someplace commercially to do it.

And we just took our skier that we made and mixed it up with fruit and put it in the bottle.

And next thing you know, we were in 40 states and largest supermarket chains, Publix, Kroger, Whole Foods, Wagmans, all over the country.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

Now, what is the what is the the brand name of the product?

SPEAKER_03: Be more organic.

B apostrophe M R E.

So in Baltimore, we call this town B More.

So uh I call the product called B More Organic.

It's kind of a play on words.

We had to close that during COVID, but for you know, for 10 years, we we had what I thought was one of the healthiest products on the market, all organic, so no hormones or pesticides, high in protein, and no added sugar.

So that was my life mission to help take about a disease.

And then when gave 1% of our sales to the nonprofit called of Jody's product.

So every day I was excited to go to work because, you know, I was living my life's mission every single day.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

Wow.

That is that is awesome, man.

And I um I have never heard of that product before.

And I that sounds amazing.

SPEAKER_03: Oh, well, unfortunately, yeah, we had to we had to discontinue it, but it was great for a long time.

SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay, interesting.

Wow.

Well, I guess the thing that I would love to ask you is how have you found a way to kind of balance it all from the emotional stress of of life to running a nonprofit to living out loud, hiking, to becoming a father.

You how how does one manage all of that?

Uh my wife or kids would probably say, I don't manage it well.

SPEAKER_03: It's a lot of work, time consuming.

But as you know, when I had my you know, the for-profit business, which was the protein drink and the nonprofit, it was just love.

You know what I mean?

It's like when you're a parent, it's the hardest job you ever love.

And it's the same thing.

You know, you love what you're doing, you're passionate about it.

It didn't feel like work, you know.

As I said, I got excited to go to bed every single day because I got to live my life mission.

You know, I have I I'm also, you know, it's a big believer in as a leader and having a great team.

So I've got amazing volunteers at Joey's Client for Hope who helped me organize all the missions.

And then, you know, when I run a business, there's an amazing team that always also supports me with that.

And then at home, you know, my team here is amazing.

My wife is an amazing life partner who does all the heavy lifting here.

So it's just, you know, a lot of great support.

One of the things I've learned, you know, was when I climbed, I told you I'm not a very good climber.

And so I always have a guide, you know, to keep me out of the crevass, to keep me on that when it's dark and I don't want to get lost on Mount Rainier in the cold.

We have a guide to help us.

You know, I had my for-profit, we made the first organic protein drink with no added sugar.

I called uh a guy named Seth Goldman, who created the first organic tea drink with no added sugar.

And so he was very generous with his time and mentored me.

And so I always had a guide in my for-profit business as well, that that guided me.

And so I would I realized that asking for help is a sign of strength, not a sign of business.

You know, when I do my motivational talks, I always ask the audience, I said, Who here likes asking for help?

You know, we have an audience of 300 people, maybe one.

Two people were raised their hand.

Nobody actually like, oh my God, I'm you know, I'm bothering somebody, I'm gonna bother Kevin.

I don't know what I don't want to do that.

And then I say, hey, raise your hand if you like helping people.

And all 300 hands go up, of course, because we all like helping people, right?

It makes us feel good.

Well, guess what?

I made Seth Goldman feel good.

Because, hey, dude, can you help me?

When I was having trouble raising my black son because I wasn't a very good black father.

You know, I didn't have a black father myself.

And so I I knew the Baltimore Ravens because our smoothies were in their locker room, and I called this six foot eight African-American man by name Carl Davis, who plays for the Dallas Cowboys now, but played for the Ravens at 350 pounds.

I said, Carl, can you help me mentor my black son?

So now I asked for help in all aspects of my life.

I have people helping me mentor me in business, people who mentor me with raising kids.

I have my friend who helps me with my diet and nutrition.

I asked, it's like a board of directors that I ask for help because it's a I feel it's a sign of strength and not a sign of weeks.

And I make those people feel good because they get to help me.

So that's a long answer to a short question of how I get through it.

I ask for a lot of help.

SPEAKER_02: Wow.

And I personally think that's the most amazing answer I could have expected for the simple fact that there's so much power in that, there's so much love in that.

And in this this idea of what you illustrated is we we hate to ask for help, but we love to help.

Yeah.

You know, I mean, it's such an ironic kind of predicament of this situation.

SPEAKER_03: Yeah, yeah.

And I'm sure somebody like you know like you probably struggles with it too.

I don't want to ask for help.

I I don't need help, right?

You know, it probably you feel like it might put some sort of stigma on you if you ask for help, but you know, people want to help.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, absolutely.

Well, today I know that you you mentioned you do motivational speaking.

Yes.

If I'm not mistaken, you also have a book as well, correct?

SPEAKER_03: I do.

It's out there somewhere.

Uh yes.

It's called Carrying a Flag from Pain to Passion.

It's kind of about how we get that flag to the summit.

That flag can help you overcome a lot of obstacles if you carry it in your pack every day.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

I I love it.

Well, well, listen, uh Andy, for for somebody who would love to learn more about you, to stay plugged in with your world, maybe to find your book or or to to look at hiring you as the motivational speaker, where's the best place for us to send them?

SPEAKER_03: I have a website, andrewberger.com.

Andrew has in my my first name and then burger, B-U-E-R-G-E-R.com.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, well, listen, I guess my last question for you is when I when I listen to you talk about this kind of life story, it's a story that it seems so amazing at your level of of giving back.

What do you hope at the end of the day, when all is said and done, what do you hope that that your your kids remember you for?

Jeez.

SPEAKER_03: You had to give the deucey at the end, huh?

Jeez.

Oh, we're out of time.

Look at that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, it's funny because um, you know, when I was a kid, you know, my dad used to put me in the car.

I used to drive around town collecting money for the community chest.

You know, I used to watch him, you know, go raise money for people less fortunate.

And now I'm on my computer.

I'm like, dad's on his computer again.

But, you know, I'm sending out emails raising money.

I'm sending out doing work for logistics on the computer to do stuff for the climb.

You know, I'm not on the phone talking to people.

Hey guys, so here's what's going on.

So they don't hear me and they don't see me doing it besides the computer.

So it's a real challenge for me.

My kids know what I'm doing.

I was very fortunate the other day that my daughter opened the mail and there was a$20,000 check in there.

And so she was able to see why oh, okay.

That's part of the why dad's on the computer, and I you can't see it, but there's a she put this little note finally on my wall and says, You're the reason that Client for Hope is the way it is, because all of your hard work.

So I hope that they're able to see that I'm using my my brain and my all my effort and my creativity to help take it by that disease so other people can live more fulfilling lives.

SPEAKER_02: Yeah.

I love it.

Andy, man, it's been a real pleasure having you today.

I I um have really enjoyed getting to to hear your story and and your perspective on the way in which you look at life.

And I believe it's something that we can all listen to your story, listen to your perspective, and take at least something you've said today and put it into action in our own life.

So I uh I thank you in the most sincere way possible.

SPEAKER_03: I appreciate you giving me the opportunity to share my story.

And hopefully, as you said, somebody will learn for it and just learn to take put one foot in front of the other to make it through the day.

SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.

For you listening today, my hope is always that, like me, you've come away feeling a little bit better than when we started.

You're left with so much words of wisdom about life that I hope you do put it into action in your life.

And of course, like I like to end every episode, is I hope today's episode maybe made today a little bit better than yesterday and makes tomorrow a little bit better than today.

I'm Kevin Lowe, and this is another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.