Finding Strength in Adversity: Revisiting Our Past in a Past Episode
Episode 182: Show Notes
We're taking a break from #BBS to reflect and share with you where we've come from and to remind you that no matter what you have been through in life, you CAN accomplish great things. We're jumping back to an old episode, so have a glass of wine while you’re listening to us. Kick back in your PJ’s, just chill, and be with us for a second. We are getting super real today. Not that we are any less real any other day, but we are taking it way back.
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We hear so often that lives on Instagram look fancier than they are, and that Facebook portrays a certain façade. However, we are also really are in tune with being authentic for you guys and portraying our real selves as much as we can. We show our real selves as we are now, and I think sometimes we forget where people have come from and what they have gone through in order to get to be where they are today. So that is exactly what we are doing today.
We are going to share all the way back to when we were little wee babies and perhaps you can relate to some of the things that we bring up. Hopefully you can begin to understand that it’s not just sparkles, unicorns, and Starbucks over here all the time. So grab some tissues, your glass of wine, and let's get to know each other a bit.
Abbie’s Story; Growing Up Way Too Fast
When Abbie was very little, like very little, she had to grow up really fast. During the time that her mom was pregnant with her baby sister, they discovered she had a brain tumor. It started out as giant migraines and she did not know what was wrong. She went on to be the first woman at the local hospital to have an MRI while pregnant, and she was the first woman to have brain surgery while pregnant. Fortunately Abbie’s sister came perfectly and the brain tumor was removed, however the surgery left her mom permanently disabled. Abbie’s mom is now a fully functioning, loving, caring mother, but it changed the lives of her entire family forever.
Raised to Be Strong, Stronger Than Anyone Else
Abbie’s incredible and challenging childhood led her down a path of being raised to be strong, and even stronger than anybody else. She was raised to be different than anyone else. Because no one expects to have a golf ball sized tumor, let alone to live a normal life after that. She was stronger because I had to be. She was stronger because she needed to be. Looking back, now it feels like it was just a giant preparatory system, raising her up to be able to do this job because this job wasn’t made for a normal person. The things that Abbie’s been through have just prepared her for this mission that she is on now.
Think Creative Collective Allowed Her to Move in Grace
Recently, Abbie was in a serious car accident, which has left her in constant pain and discomfort. Since then, she has struggled with this deep depression. It has been incredibly hard because from the outside, it does not look like there is anything wrong. She looks normal, but yet she is in pain every single day. The fear of what that will do to her as a person can be consuming at times, however, this job has truly given her the grace she needed to move through it all. This job has literally allowed her the flexibility to go through this thing with gumption, hope, and prayer. Although it is still hard, Abbie now has thousands of people cheering her on. She can literally ask anyone in the TCC community for a pep talk and you guys come at her with the words of angels!
Emylee’s Story; Becoming Who She Imagined Herself to Be
For Emylee, her story is similar to many of those of you out there. Her parents divorced when she was just three years old, and by the age of six she was flying between states to spend time with her parents, living two separate lives. This made it incredibly hard to make friends, play on sports teams, or even just find a place to belong. On each flight, her imagination and creativity would come to life as she created stories of where she was flying to next. This became even more of a reality as she and her mom moved from mansion to mansion, preparing them for sale. She would imagine herself into whoever she wanted to be. She got to be someone new every time she didn’t want to be herself anymore.
Creating Life As A Reality Instead of A Fake Story
Continuing to create a life that portrayed something that she was not was always easy for Emylee. Walking away from grad school forced her to think outside of the box and try her talents elsewhere. She was finally able to try her identity out for size, to truly see what it was like to make this life a reality instead of this fake story that she would tell people. She had to rediscover how to remain true to who she was and attract the people who would accept her for her authentic self. It took a lot of learning in the beginning. Starting an online business made it easy to fall into old habits of creating a life that was not a reality. It wasn’t until Abagail came into her life that she knew she couldn’t keep it up any longer and had to create her reality instead.
The Value of Amazing Women Role Models
For both of us, despite all of the hard times and challenges that we faced growing up, there was one common denominator. We both had incredible moms telling us each and every day that we could be anything we wanted to be, always encouraging us to be better and do better than the life we were brought up in. If you didn’t have someone telling you how smart you are and how amazing you are, let us be that for you. Every single one of you are capable of big amazing incredible things. Every single one of you is meant to do something that is going to help impact, change, shape someone else’s life in some way
Quote This
If we just help one person a day, we’ve done our job.
Highlights
Hear Abbe’s story and how circumstances needed her to grow up way too fast. [0:02:26.5]
Find out how Abbie’s childhood raised her to be stronger than anyone else. [0:10:54.5]
Discover how TCC has allowed Abbie the flexibility and utter support to get through tough times. [0:13:22.5]
Hear Emylee’s story how by the age of six she was flying on her own, from city to city. [0:15:06.9]
How Emylee created her life as a reality instead of this fake story that she would tell people. [0:22:30.8]
Understand the strength and value of having incredible women role models in your life. [0:34:14.3]
#TalkStrategyToMe [0:41:26.3]
1. Listen to this episode on repeat until you believe it. Listen to the last 10 or 15 minutes until you believe it.
ON TODAY’S SHOW
Abagail & Emylee
The Strategy Hour Podcast
We help overwhelmed and creative entrepreneurs break down their Oprah-sized dreams to create a functioning command center to tame the chaos of their business. Basically, we think you’re totally bomb diggity, we’re about to uplevel the shiz out of your business.
KEY TOPICS
Becoming stronger through challenges, The flexibility of being your own boss, Childhood stories, Living an authentic, true life, The value of women role models
