Show Transcript

*Today's transcript was automatically generated, therefor it may contain errors. Should you have any questions please reach out to the podcast directly.

[00:02:12]

I am your host, Kevin Lowe. Welcome back to the show, friend. This is episode 131, and, man, I've been looking forward to bringing you this episode for a long time. Here on the podcast, I try to get ahead of the game, and so a lot of the interviews that I bring you, I've actually recorded a few months previously, and they just get kind of put in the catalog and wait for their release date. Well, selfishly, I hold on to this interview for maybe a little bit longer than it should have been, because it should have come up in the queue a few weeks ago.

[00:02:54]

But I held onto it for this week specifically because this week is a big moment for my life. And, well, kind of the life of this podcast is because here on a Friday, this week, October 28, 2022, will be the 19th anniversary of the day I became blind. Now, you could view that as something sad and think, wow, it's kind of weird that Kevin's so excited about this. But I've had enough time to go through these anniversaries to start to see the positive and in relation to this podcast and to you, the listener of this podcast. This podcast all came about because of what happened to me and because of what I went through and what I was able to overcome.

[00:03:46]

And so for that, I'm extremely grateful. Now, how that ties in with today's episode is because the guest who I have in the studio with me is kind of a mirror image of that same situation. She took something that should have been devastating and turned it into something beautiful. Her name is Angela Irwin, and Angela is completely deaf. But thanks to the power of technology, not only am I able to communicate in real time with her while I'm here in Florida and her in the south of France, but think about it.

[00:04:30]

A guy who is completely blind is able to communicate with a woman who is completely deaf. The power that lets us connect for the podcast, that some technical stuff. But what's really cool, though, is the technology that Angela has. And that is something you probably have heard of. A cochlear implant technology sometimes gets a bad rap.

[00:04:55]

Me, myself, I even complain about it sometimes, wishing we could just go back to simpler times in life. But the reality is that sometimes frustrating, annoying technology is also completely life changing. And that is indeed the case for today's guest. Me and Angela have a truly heartfelt conversation as we look at her life and where she's come from and what her journey has been like with experiencing a loss of hearing. She's doing amazing things in her life today.

[00:05:31]

Matter of fact, she's helping to ensure that other people all over the world can have access to cochlear implants just like her because she understands the kind of difference they can make in a person's life. I hope that you listen throughout the entire interview today and just listen to all aspects of Angela's story. It's truly remarkable. And I ultimately hope that you can see Angela the way that I did it's. What I love about this podcast is that it lets me show you people like Angela through my eyes, where we see her based on the words that she speaks, the sound of her voice and the stories that she tells.

[00:06:17]

And to be honest, I believe it paints a picture of an absolutely courageous, beautiful, amazing woman who's just doing amazing things in this world today. Now, today's episode is brought to you by our amazing sponsor, Naked Warrior Recovery. If you've never tried CBD products before, well, maybe this is your opportunity. Because Naked Warrior Recovery is there to help out both your physical and mental health with all different types of products. Head on over to Nwrecovery.com and use promo code Low.

[00:06:56]

That's all capital letters lo for a sweet 20% discount. Again, that's promo code low lo for 20% off. See what you can find. They got a little bit of something for everybody, including your dog. So get shopping today, of course, just scroll down, hit the little button to expand the episode description and check out the show notes where you can find the link for easy access.

[00:07:27]

With that said, it's time for me to introduce you to Angela Irwin as we catch up to speed on her life from where she started to where she is today.

[00:07:42]

Angela, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to be here with you. Oh, well, I'm just thrilled to have you here today on the show to share your story, your journey of where you've been, all that you've overcome and what has you at the point you're at today. And so I would love for us to start out if you wouldn't mind taking me back in time to childhood leading up to your loss of hearing.

[00:08:14]

And I'm just very anxious and curious to hear how this whole story unfolds. Absolutely. So that's kind of an interesting journey. It's a long way geographically because I am now living in Niece in the south of France. So childhood takes us all the way back to a very small farm community in northeast South Dakota, a town of about 1200 people.

[00:08:40]

Oh, wow. Yeah. And I was born with normal hearing. And I must say so appreciative to the hearing screening that was done every year at the school because in kindergarten my hearing was fine. But the next year to start a school in first grade when they tested my hearing, they detected a mild hearing loss.

[00:09:04]

And so I'm grateful for that because, I mean, who knows, it could have gone on a long time had it not been picked up then. But anyway, at that time my parents did take me to a professional ear, nose and throat professional. And they tested my hearing and they said, yes, she does have a mild hearing loss, but it shouldn't get any worse. Well, that was famous last words.

[00:09:29]

It did indeed. Over the course of the next 15 years, I slowly went completely deaf. Wow. So it was a long process of it gradually getting worse and worse. That's exactly right.

[00:09:44]

And in hindsight, as scary as that was, I'm actually grateful for that. I know that sounds a strange thing to say, but in my lifetime since and working with a lot of other people, I now have cochlear implants. So that's how we're actually I am clinically deaf to this day. But I hear with amazing technology that is the cochlear implant. And so I have met a lot of people, I continue to meet a lot of people who have sudden deafness, like the normal hearing.

[00:10:13]

And the next day, no joke, they wake up and they have no hearing. And that to me would be even more traumatic because at least as I look back, like I said, it was very scary because as a child, I was told by the time I got to about fifth grade, 6th grade, the professionals were telling my parents, well, she's not going to graduate from high school. Don't encourage her to go to college, because by then it will just be too much of a challenge for her to communicate. And so I was sort of carrying that on my back. My parents didn't know that I knew that they were told that's.

[00:10:52]

One of the things about living in a very small town, one of my classmates, his mom was a teacher at the school, he told me during recess, which I can still remember to this day, exactly where I was standing on the playground, but at least I had the ability to sort of adapt. During that 15 years, I taught myself to lip read. To this day, I'm an excellent lip reader. You just sort of make some adjustments along the way. You learn to anticipate what people might say, just all these other coping skills.

[00:11:26]

That breaks my heart when people have such a loss of hearing. Just like overnight, like that, and how you go one day to the next. Yes. Now, can you remember the day that it finally all went away? Very close to it.

[00:11:46]

So I was able to just through, I think, sure determination. I just somehow had this blind faith that everything was going to work out somehow. So I did graduate from high school with high honors or highest honors. I went to college and graduated in four years with my undergrad. I moved then to Colorado.

[00:12:09]

And who knew that elevation can impact hearing loss? Really? Yeah, so I didn't find that out. Much to my surprise, about a month after moving to Colorado, my hearing loss just took a tremendous dive. And it was at that point that I couldn't use the phone at all anymore.

[00:12:32]

If I couldn't read lips, I couldn't understand anything. So I really found myself isolating. I was working still full time. I was working in human resources, and I was terrified I was going to be fired, I was going to lose my job. Because part of being in human resources, you're doing the hiring and the interviewing, and I was supposed to be doing phone interviews, and I could no longer do that.

[00:12:58]

And I had this angel of a coworker who was just doing the phone interviews for me, but I was afraid both of us were going to get in trouble. Yes. And so I thought, what am I going to do? So this is before Internet and texting and email and all those wonderful other things that we have today. So it's like, what can you possibly do where you don't have to communicate, where you don't have to use the phone?

[00:13:26]

And so I remember applying for this job it was in Fort Collins, Colorado. I can still remember the name. I probably can't tell you what I did yesterday, but I can remember this. It was called Merry maids, and it was an overnight cleaning service for offices. And I was sort of stuck in the conundrum of, okay, if I tell them that I essentially deaf, they will probably hire someone else over me.

[00:13:53]

So I went the route of not telling them. And hindsight, that was not the route to go. But in a way, it was what propelled me to move forward towards the cochlear implant surgery, because I didn't end up getting the job, because they kept asking, why would somebody with a four year degree fresh out of college, why don't I take a pay cut and clean offices at night? And I came up with some at the time, seemed very clever, but I'm sure there it was ridiculous. Something along the lines.

[00:14:23]

Oh, well, I think it was something around, like, office politics and stress. And they must have just been like, what you talking about? Right. So they did not realize that you were deaf. Correct.

[00:14:39]

So at the time, was it because you had lost all your hearing? Was that all through reading lips that you could even communicate? Yes. So I'm sitting in front of someone, and I can hear. It really is similar to.

[00:14:56]

Like. I don't know if you know the Charlie Brown cartoons that when the teacher would go. Blah. Blah. Blah.

[00:15:01]

Blah. Blah. Or you sort of hear. Like. Glimpses of words.

[00:15:05]

And your brain tries to fill in. Which can be dangerous because when you're in question and you're like. Oh. This is what I think I heard. And you answer one way.

[00:15:14]

And you're like. Okay. I need to stop doing that. I need to just tell people I cannot hear what you said because who knows what I've agreed to, right?

[00:15:28]

You can see someone's reaction on their face, and I'm like, I absolutely did not answer that question correctly.

[00:15:37]

That's hysterical. Oh, my goodness. So what happened then? You didn't get the job there? I didn't.

[00:15:47]

And that's what I call the revered to. I'm 22 years old, fresh out of my four year degree in sociology. Psychology should have been sort of all the future ahead. That's what I sort of referred to as my mad at the world face. Thankfully, it was pretty short lived, but I had heard about the cochlear implant technology for a number of years.

[00:16:11]

My mom would bring it up every once in a while, and I would just say, absolutely, like, shut down. Absolutely. No, never will do that. And the reason in my defense, I have a little bit of a defense. The reason was that so every year during that 15 years that I was losing my hearing, my parents would take me back once a year, take me once a year to have my hearing tested.

[00:16:33]

And every year that I would go. They took me to all different audiologists across four different states because they were actually trying to just figure out why this was happening. Because it's very, very unusual for this type of hearing loss to happen to a child. Usually you're born with hearing loss or you have a high fever or an illness at a young age. It was not common at all for just a small child to lose their hearing, much like an elderly person might.

[00:16:59]

So they took me everywhere and every time the audiologist would say, well, there's this new hearing aid technology. We really think this is going to be the thing to help you and so get my hopes up. I mean, I'll be honest, who wants to wear a hearing aid when you're in fourth grade? Nobody, probably. Yeah, but at the same time, it was like, well, I wanted to be able to hear better, but every time I would be disappointed.

[00:17:27]

So unfortunately, the hearing aid technology just could not help the type of hearing loss that I had. Again, very unique type of ski slope hearing loss. And it couldn't help in the areas of voice and speech understanding. It would make normal sounds like I would try them during the summer, sometimes for a month or six weeks at a time, and someone would turn the water on and I would, like, jump out of my chair because it was so loud and uncomfortable. But it really couldn't help in the speech understanding, which is really where I needed it.

[00:18:03]

And so every time the idea of the cochlear implant would come up, I was like, are you kidding me? I've tried all these hearing AIDS and they never helped. And now you're asking me to have a surgery on top of that? But that experience with not getting that job at Mary Maids, I mean, it was just back against the wall moment. And I remember my mom saying, well, fine, then that's fine.

[00:18:29]

You don't have to do that, but what are you going to do?

[00:18:38]

Good mom. Good one. Okay, so I did I went in with just the lowest expectations imaginable for the cochlear implant, and it was absolutely life changing. I just celebrated 25 years in May of having the cochlear implant, and I just can't believe it. So I've had it now more of my life than I've had without it in my life.

[00:19:02]

And it's just absolutely I can't say enough about it. Absolutely giving me a second chance at life. And also the interesting thing about a cochlear implant, people just don't necessarily know that much about it, but there's this external component. So, yes, there's a surgical component, but there's an external component, and it operates on batteries. And so I take the external part off at night or there's times during the day when I have to change the battery.

[00:19:31]

I am completely deaf. You could have a Mac truck come behind me and I would have no idea. And so we're sort of like cocoa and platinum recipients. We're straddling these two worlds. And in some ways, it's a little bit scary to be so dependent on technology.

[00:19:50]

But on the other hand, it's just absolutely mind boggling. I mean, here we are having this conversation with no issues, and I am clinically deaf. I mean, it blows my mind 25 years later. Yeah, absolutely. We can hate on technology all we want, but when it comes to things like this, you're reminded of the good that technology can do.

[00:20:21]

Now, I want to talk more about that, but I would love to go back a little bit to your story because you told us when you started with the hearing loss, especially once they realized that it wasn't, you know, just going to stop, it was going to continue to get worse. The doctors had told your parents to prepare them for you not graduating high school, not going on to college. You obviously defied all of that. Tell me about that. It's sort of interesting, and this has resurfaced a number of times and resurfaced very heavily.

[00:21:02]

About five years ago, six years ago, when I was going through my coaching certification program, the real answer, the full answer is we never talked about it. Okay. We never talked about it, and I certainly didn't want to talk about it. I think my coping mechanism, looking back, was, if I don't talk about it, it's not really happening. And I just need to keep moving forward.

[00:21:27]

And I mentioned a little bit earlier about just that blind faith of like, I don't know how, but this is going to work out. I'm just going to keep moving forward. And it was really the one day per year when we went to have my hearing tested that I would have to sort of admit. And I mean, I can remember riding home in the car, just willing myself not to cry until I got home into my bedroom and I could cry in privacy. And the other 364 days of the year, I know it sounds strange we didn't talk about it.

[00:22:01]

Yeah, wow.

[00:22:04]

But talk to me, though, because you defied the odds. You did graduate, you did go on to college. Tell me, how was that possible? How did you do it? How did you do what the quote unquote professionals said you wouldn't be able to do?

[00:22:25]

It's a great question. I look back and just throw even a funnier thing into the mix was I was actually a cheerleader in college for men's basketball and football. Oh, wow. So during basketball, in particular, during the timeouts, we would go out onto the floor in front of, like, this massive crowd, and the music would start and we would dance. I could not hear the music.

[00:22:54]

Yeah, wow, what was I even doing? I have to go back and I look at that girl sometime and I'm like, where is she like sometimes. Some days when you're just not, like, at the top of your game, you're like, Where is she? Let's bring her out for a minute to deal with this situation. But, I mean, I marvel at it sometimes.

[00:23:18]

I'm like, what was that even doing? Like, I had no business doing that, right? Yeah. But I think what I love about that so much is just I hope that anyone listening. It makes no logical sense at all.

[00:23:32]

Right? I had no business being there. I had no business. But what was the alternative? For me to shrink away and to hide and to not do something that I really wanted to do?

[00:23:45]

And I didn't let that stop me. So anyone listening? If there's something that is in your heart that makes no logical sense, the logic doesn't matter. Just pursue it. I think you just take it one day at a time, just one test at a time, one graduation at a time, whatever, that sort of thing.

[00:24:10]

But that's the best answer I can come up with. I don't know if that answers your question or not. No, it does. I love it, and we're all on our own journey. Coming from my perspective of somebody who I can relate to so much that you talk about mine was the loss of my eyesight.

[00:24:33]

Looking back. It was gradually happening all through childhood, every year it was, you know, glasses and having to change the prescription because my eyes were getting worse and worse, and we didn't realize what was the cause, and we trusted the professionals. And until then, I found out that I had the brain tumor and had it removed, and I woke up completely blind. And I can relate that to so much of what you talk about on those doctor visits. It's almost a reminder of what you've already known, you already know, and at the same point, you are going to a doctor.

[00:25:15]

So you kind of hold on to a little bit of hope and maybe they're going to know something, see something today that can change the circumstance. And yet the car ride home is absolute torture because it's not. Instead, it just brought everything back to the forefront. Exactly. Wow.

[00:25:35]

So switching back to where we left off before, I wanted to go back a little bit. Talking about the cochlear implants. Talk to me about what it was like when you got to hear again. The best way I can think to describe it is in the movie The Wizard of Oz, when Dorothy steps from the black and white and to detect the color, it was just so vivid, so complete and full. And again, because, like I said, you can totally relate to when you have a gradual loss, you don't notice it so much because it's just a little by little, little by little.

[00:26:19]

And so I definitely do want to clarify, though, with the cochlear implant technology, it does take time for the brain to adapt to hearing in this new way. Not everybody has as strong of an outcome as I have, but the majority of people that I have met all have better hearing after than they did before, so that's very positive, but it does take some time. But each day, this was the mind blowing part. Like, each day, I would hear new sounds that I had either never heard before or that had been years and years and years. Like, for example, that when you pour soda over ice, it makes I was like, oh, my gosh, I totally forgot this.

[00:27:04]

I totally forgot this house. But I'll never forget. So. Again. As I mentioned earlier.

[00:27:11]

I was working in human resources for a retail company. And so I was in the back office all the time. And shortly after getting the cochlear implant activated. I was at the coffee machine. And I'm at the coffee machine.

[00:27:24]

And all of a sudden. I hear this beeping sound. And I'm like. Well. First of all.

[00:27:27]

I was like. Well. That's annoying. I'm like, what the heck? What's happening?

[00:27:31]

And everyone's looking at me, and I'm like, looking around, going, what is that? And I look, and it says, copy you're out of paper. And I'm like, oh, my gosh. Blurted out like a crazy person. Oh, my gosh.

[00:27:43]

Did you guys know that the copier beats when it's out of paper? And then you're looking at me like, oh, my gosh. Where did you just land from? Because not everybody knew that. They didn't know, but I was just so, like, amazed.

[00:28:00]

I just blurted it out, and they're like, okay, like, slowly moving against the wall out the door. All right. I don't know what's happening here. Oh, my goodness. So each day was like that for a number of months, and it did take me a long time to work up the courage to get back on the phone or to try, because at the end, when I was losing her and it was so frustrating and traumatic, and I embarrassed the heck out of myself too many times.

[00:28:30]

So just like anything else where you have sort of a not pleasant experience, I think I waited a good six months after having the cochlear implant activated to even try to use the phone again, because I was just so afraid, number one, if I didn't know for sure that hope was still out there. Yes. And so I thought, okay, I don't want to do I really want to know the answer to this or not? And I can remember. I was back at home in south Dakota, and it was some family event.

[00:29:04]

It could have been thanksgiving or something. But I remember being in the living room that I grew up in, and my grandma was there, and my uncle was calling from Dallas, Texas, and they said, do you want to try to talk to your uncle? And I'm like, okay? And I think in the moment, I just sort of forgot, but because I adored him, so I was like, yes, I want to talk to him. So I get the phone on, and we're having a conversation, and I'm not missing a beat.

[00:29:32]

And it wasn't until I looked at my grandma's face, who was just her mouth was on the floor, like, this incredulous disbelief that I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm having a conversation on the phone. I will never forget that. That was just incredible. Wow. You don't know how close I am to crying right now.

[00:29:56]

It's just because it's so amazing. And again, I can't help but I just relate it to my own situation, was like, losing my eyesight and then learning to use echolocation, where I learned to see again in a different way through sound, through echolocation. And I can remember the first day, and I remember the first day of training and my mom coming in and her hearing me telling her how I could see the walls of the apartment in the doorway. And it's such a beautiful thing, and I think it goes to a deeper kind of meaning behind this is the importance of just appreciating everything that we have in this life, even in our senses. I mean, you want to talk about taking things for granted, our senses.

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It's just something most of us you don't think about until they're gone, right? 100%. And so I listen to your story, and it's so beautiful. It's so incredible. I just think that's amazing.

[00:31:07]

Thank you. And I'm so honored to be here having this conversation with you. And it's such an interesting thing when our perspective or the way that we look at life is such a powerful thing and we have the power to look at things in a different way. And I know that you have done this, you are doing this. You're a living example of this, but sort of the idea of life doesn't happen to you.

[00:31:36]

It happens for you. Yeah. And when you look back at things and I mean, yes, I wouldn't wish this on anybody, but in a weird other way, this has brought me, like, through all these opportunities. I ended up working for the company, the main company in the world that manufactures cochlear implants. I ended up working for them for eight years.

[00:32:01]

It was an amazing opportunity. I know I've gotten to be personal friends with the engineer that created this technology. Wow. Like, mind blowing. So we have conversations, and he's just like, salt of beer's, amazing, smartest person.

[00:32:22]

His name is Jim Patrick, by the way, and he's in Australia. But we'll have conversations, and he gets very emotional because it's like when he's around cochlear implant recipients, because it's like, imagine your life work come to life, and you see them in a person when they're living their lives and going on. So that's just been amazing. And an. Amazing part of my life and being able to meet so many other cochlear implant recipients or help people that were going through the loss.

[00:32:54]

And we're thinking about getting a cochlear implant. So to be able to kind of step in and say, I totally understand, I've been there, I understand the fears. This is sort of the nuts and bolts around the process. And it's a complicated technology. It's a complicated process as well.

[00:33:12]

And I think, unfortunately, the technology is about 40 years old, and globally, less than 5% of people who could benefit from it actually had it. Why is that? Because there's so much misinformation there's. First of all, just general lack of knowledge. People haven't even heard of it even now.

[00:33:35]

I've had it for 25 years, and I'll be like, oh, I have cochlear implants. And you get the blank stare. They're like, I don't know what that is. And so you have to sort of launch into this because it's a complex technology, and then there's issues around access from a healthcare perspective, and people get stopped. I think the biggest reason is people were just like me.

[00:34:02]

They've had bad experiences with hearing AIDS, and they think, there is no way I'm having my head cut open and have this strange thing put in, and it's not going to work. I think that's what stops most people. And so that's just been an incredible thing. And also, I actually met my husband. He worked for the company as well, and we just celebrated 14 years of marriage.

[00:34:27]

And so it's like, wow, I got my hearing back. I had this incredible experience of being able to help other cochlear implant recipients, and I met my husband, so none of those things would have happened. Wow. Yeah. And suddenly it's gone full circle.

[00:34:46]

And now you're a cheerleader for cochlear implants. So we've gone right back to your cheerleading day. I love that. I never thought about it that way. I love that.

[00:34:58]

So talk to me about and I don't know what happened first, and then I don't really know if it even matters in terms of your story, but I know you made a big career transition. But then I also know you started a foundation talking about the cochlear implants, helping others be able to get this technology. So would you mind kind of diving into one or the other? Like I said, I'm not sure which happened first. Yeah, sure.

[00:35:28]

So I was working in the corporate arena, so eight years for the cochlear implant company, and then I went on and worked for a different medical device company, and that's how we ended up in France. They moved us for a work opportunity in 2010. And so I was working in clinical education and marketing, and about five years later, my position was made redundant, or I was laid off. And we loved living in France, and I just thought there had been some sort of a you know, you hear people who refer to it as a calling, as a whisper, as something inside your intuition, whatever it might be. And for a couple of years prior to that, I just kept getting this message.

[00:36:15]

However you want to have it delivered, there's something else you're supposed to be doing. But again, so sort of on that theme of things don't happen to you, they happen for you. I would have never quit that job. I would have never just been like, right, I'm just going to go investigate what this is. And at the time, it was heartbreaking because my identity was so tied up in that job or a job that that was something I ended up having to work through.

[00:36:46]

I did take some time off and just thought, okay, what is it that this is supposed to be? Long story short, I ended up finding my way to life coaching, and I signed up for a year long certification program about not even four months into it. I was in depression for the first time in my life, and I didn't know that that's what it was. I just knew I couldn't recognize myself. It was tough to get up in the morning.

[00:37:16]

I wasn't focused. I couldn't get myself to do all that sort of type A. When you think of the corporate world of just go, go, I couldn't get myself to do it. It was so just discombobulating. I'm like, I don't know what's happening here.

[00:37:31]

What it ended up being was you're in this life coaching certification, how to set up an online business. And so my mentor was all about, you need to be visible. You need to set up these social media accounts. And what ended up happening was all those undoubted feelings of all of those at this point in the early 40s. So from going back to age of seven, when I first lost my hearing, all those undeveloped, with, never talked about feelings just came, you know, came up at a vengeance.

[00:38:06]

And it honestly felt like I couldn't move. I felt I'd wake up in the morning and my whole body was just tingling, like I couldn't move. It was just a surreal experience. And it was because she's pushing me to be visible. And that brought up what I had learned, because as you lose your hearing, you also lose your speech.

[00:38:29]

Yes. And so when I would meet new people, the first thing they would say is, why do you talk funny? Okay, so you learn really quick, keep your mouth shut, stay behind the scenes, and everything will be okay. And so here she was all these decades, literally decades later, telling me I needed to be visible. And that's just the body remembering, as I have since learned.

[00:38:56]

Like, the body remembers, the cells remember emotion and things like that. So it put me into complete shutdown. So fortunately, I got some wonderful professional help with a therapist and some other coaches, and I ended up pivoting my coaching focus to being more on confidence coaching, because I didn't even realize that we could change the way that we feel about ourselves. What do you mean? What do you mean we can do that?

[00:39:27]

What? And so by the time I went through that whole experience and work through my own limiting beliefs and understood the shame and embarrassment and I mean, it doesn't ever go away fully, but it's definitely transformed. And I was like, okay, this is it. This is why I've gone through all this. This is what it's been about.

[00:39:50]

Because I don't want anyone to feel as badly about themselves as I did about myself. You know, year after year hearing these professionals saying, we have no idea why this is happening. We've never seen this before. Well, what does a child take on? A child?

[00:40:09]

I know what I took on. You are so flawed and broken that none of these people can tell, you know, what to do with you. That's what I carried up until that point where my mentor saying, okay, you need to be visible and put yourself out there. That was the core belief that I had about myself. And so working through that, I'm like, okay, I want to help other people improve the way that they feel about themselves.

[00:40:38]

And so that's what I thought was, like, the full purpose. Yes. And then COVID happened. And I remember thinking early on, oh, my gosh. So, like I mentioned earlier, that external component of the cochlear implant, it requires batteries.

[00:40:56]

It requires a whole system. There's multiple parts to it. I liken it, too. Like a cell phone, you know, a smartphone technology. It's going to need to be repaired, replaced, upgraded across a person's lifetime.

[00:41:09]

Yes. Well, in the US. Not all insurance companies will cover that. And the strange thing about that is that the majority of insurance companies and Medicaid and Medicare will cover the surgery and the initial external device, but many of them will not cover any repair replacement upkeep, which are like, yes. And so living in France, I felt extremely grateful because my devices are anything that I need.

[00:41:46]

If I need new batteries, which are 250 Europe, the external component is about $10,000. If you need the whole thing, like, if you're going to get an upgrade, it's about $10,000. And living in France, I get that 100% reimbursed. Wow. But I knew that that wasn't the case in the US.

[00:42:06]

And because I had had this opportunity, like I said, working for the company for eight years, I knew so many cochlear implant recipients. I would have been completely oblivious about this, but I knew that it was a challenge. I have friends. When I've upgraded in the past, I would send my old it's called a processor, sound processor. I would send that to my friend so that she could have an upgrade.

[00:42:31]

So I knew this was an issue, but having been outside of the US. At this point for about twelve years, I was thinking, oh, surely it's probably not a problem anymore. There's probably organizations that are helping people. And so I started doing the due diligence around late April of 2020, and I quickly found out that it's a significant issue even for people who have insurance. The copay can be 4000, $5,000, and your average person just doesn't have that.

[00:43:10]

I was like, oh my gosh. So I knew nothing about nonprofit organizations. I had no desire to ever be involved in a nonprofit organization. Yet that same nudge knowing was just like, you have to do this, you have to do this. And so many people, when I told them, this is what I'm doing, they were like, you don't even live in the US.

[00:43:35]

Like, what are you doing?

[00:43:39]

Things like, what are you doing? Like, this makes no sense. What are you doing? But all I could think of was, I have to try. I have to try to do this.

[00:43:46]

And so we went sort of lightning speed. So those first due diligence calls were around April of 2020. I had my first board meeting in July of 2020, and we're getting the website. I did my website myself. I mean, we did all this stuff.

[00:44:04]

We applied for 501 C, three from the IRS, and we officially launched October 1 of 2020. So we went fast. Wow. And so now I feel like, okay, where I thought the life coaching was sort of that last step, this is really like the whole purpose has come. And so I'm also doing so what we're doing is helping people that have no other option.

[00:44:35]

We do require the nonprofit is the Joyful Life Cochlear Implant Fund, and we do require that people have exhausted all their other options, from state programs to their insurance to whatever it might be, before coming to us. And we've been able to help not huge numbers that we've distributed over, we're probably getting close to $60,000 worth of product that we've been able to help. And I'm doing the confidence coaching for cochlear implant recipients as well, which has been really interesting because it's helping them sort of develop skills, coping, and just different build their confidence around hearing in this new way. It's a life altering event, really. And so, yeah, so I'm doing both the confidence coaching and we're helping people on the product side be able to remain with their hearing.

[00:45:31]

So it's been quite a journey, to say the least. Yeah. Angela, your story is so just mesmerizing, and I sit there and I listen to your story, and it just reminds me of this mindset we were kind of talking about earlier. Even though we don't want bad things to happen in our lives, and as much as we wish we could erase all the bad, there is a reason for it all, and it all fits into this beautiful puzzle of life. And I'm a firm believer that things are only bad if we can't figure out a way to make good out of them.

[00:46:12]

I love that. And I look at your story and I look at you and I think, way to go, Angela. You have totally taken this and turned it into not just good for yourself, but good for giving back to the community that you're part of, you know, and that's just absolutely amazing. How can we learn more and help support your nonprofit? Well, first of all, thank you so much for that.

[00:46:42]

And you're doing the exact same thing. I mean, you're living that every day and you've taken what's happened with your vision and you're not letting that stop you. And so you're so inspiring, and it's just been so awesome to spend some time with you today. So, as I mentioned, the nonprofit is called the Joyful life Cochlear Implant Fund, and the website is Jlcif.org. You can visit the website to learn more about what we're doing.

[00:47:18]

You can visit the website to make a donation. If you know anybody, perhaps we're looking for corporate partners as well because the technology is expensive. Like I said, our numbers are small. The people that we've been able to help in the last less than two years, but the impact is so tremendous. This young lady, she's 22, came to us before the holidays last year, and she's had cochlear implants since she was two years old.

[00:47:52]

And she's now aged out of her parents insurance and Medicaid, so out of the state programs as well. Because once you hit 22, I believe it is in most states, you're not covered under those programs. And she was working in food service as a manager and an establishment, and her sound processors were intermittent, so it was like the sound cuts in and cuts out. It cuts in and cuts out. Imagine.

[00:48:19]

I'm pretty sure I cried multiple times because all I could think of was the fear that she had was exactly what I felt when this angel co worker that I used to have was covering my butt, taking those pre interview calls, and that fear of I'm going to be found out or I'm going to be fired, and then what? That's exactly what she was going through. And so we were able to help raise some funds to get her cochlear implant stable. And so the people that we're helping, it really makes it's the difference between being able to live a normal life and be active in the hearing world and go to school and interact with your family and your friends. So I would be very grateful for anybody that wants to share that information or could make a donation.

[00:49:11]

No amount is too small. So thank you for that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, before I let you go, I do have to draw attention to one thing that you talked about, is this idea that just literally brought you to your knees, of getting visible, of putting yourself out there. And I look at you and I think, wow, not only is she doing podcasts and all that, but you did an absolutely incredible TEDx Talk.

[00:49:44]

And so, like, talk about putting yourself out there on stage to the world. How was that experience? Absolutely terrifying. I literally woke up, I don't know if anyone is Bernard Brown fan, but she's absolutely amazing. But she talks about, you know, first of all, I would have never done a TEDx without having watched her two TEDx's.

[00:50:15]

But she talks about a vulnerability hangover after the first one. And that it totally happened for me because it was on the one side, I do choose to take the positive on the one side, it was so therapeutic to sort of work through those feelings and process those. But I guess I had decided to share these things with the world for the first time ever from the TEDx stage. Baby, start. No, we're going to go all in, I kid you not.

[00:50:54]

My right leg was shaking the entire time and I somehow made it through, came off upstage. One of my dearest friends in the world had driven 8 hours from my hometown, had driven 8 hours to come and be there with me. And so we stayed up talking late, late, late. But I woke up at three in the morning, sitting up straight in bed thinking, please, no, I did not, I did not just share all of that personal information with everybody, but yes, indeed I had. So it really was therapeutic and honestly, if it can help anybody, if it can help one person, just sort of I think my takeaway and what I had learned through this process is we're so conditioned at a young age to fit in.

[00:51:54]

I mean, I do think it's changing now, thankfully, but it was all about fit in, fit in, fit in, don't be any different. And so when so many of us, that was never meant to be the case, that was never meant we're individual for a reason. We're not coming off an assembly line. And I think if people can understand that and really embrace that, that's when the magic can happen, right? That's when they're like, okay, I'm going to stop wasting all this energy and effort trying to, quote, unquote, fit in and be like other people and just be like, this is me, these are my gifts, this is what I can contribute to the world.

[00:52:37]

I mean, what an amazing place and how much better we would feel about ourselves if we weren't focused on, I feel differently about myself or I am different or I am great. Now, how can you use that for good in the world? So, yeah, that was an interesting experience, to say the least. Yeah, well, no, again, applaud you for simply stepping outside of your comfort zone, putting yourself out there to the world for, as you said, the benefit of even just one person. And that's just so powerful.

[00:53:14]

Angela, I will be positive that all of these links to your TEDx Talk, to the nonprofit, all of your information will be left in the episode. Show notes for anyone interested in learning more. But from the bottom of my heart, Angela, thank you for being a guest here on the podcast. It has been an absolute gift to get to hear your story, to talk to you, and I just really appreciate it. Well, thank you so much, Kevin, and I just write back at you.

[00:53:45]

I am grateful to have a platform like what you created here, which is just so wonderful to be able to have people share their powerful stories with the world and it just has a ripple effect, for sure. So thank you so much for the opportunity to be here. Absolutely. Well, thank you. And for you listening today, I can only imagine that you've been impacted by this absolutely beautiful woman the way that I have.

[00:54:14]

And that's the point here on the podcast is to bring you people who are overcoming challenges, are living out their lives to the fullest, all with this underlying principle to inspire you to do the same. Because I always say this life is meant to be lived, and this podcast is meant to inspire you to live it.

[00:54:38]

Hey, real quick, before you go, I have one last thought to leave you with. I, of course, hope that you've enjoyed today's episode. But more importantly, I want to remind you that I never want you to listen to an episode of this podcast to hear something that I have to say or that my guest has to share and think, wow, I wish I could be like them. I wish I could overcome my own challenges and do the great things that they are doing, but I just can't. Well, friend, that's where you're wrong.

[00:55:11]

You are capable. You are able, and you darn sure are deserving of having all that you can imagine in this life. There's nothing special about me or any guests I have on this podcast. We are all just normal people trying to make it in this life. And so I encourage you to take a look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that, you know what?

[00:55:36]

I can do it too. Now, of course, if you would like help along that way, reach out to me. Whether that says a listener of this podcast, a friend, or if you'd like to work with me as a coach, my contact information is inside of every episode show notes just like this one. So go down, check out my contact information and reach out to me today. With that said, I encourage you to take on the day every day with Grit, Grace and Inspiration.