Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another SLG meetup. It's a beautiful day to bring you another successful guest. And in this case, I'm getting chills just thinking about who we're gonna have today. Because her story is so fascinating.
I mean, from having a major accident to losing almost her life and being in coma, to transforming herself into this superhuman. So she's gonna tell you all about it. She's now an author, famous coach and speaker. She is the author for the book True Greet and Grace and also the podcast that became among the 1%.
She's also having a really successful summit coming up in Dallas. I'm just gonna tell us all about her story. So I can't wait to bring the definition of resilience. I'm really laggy.
What's happening down here? Well, I'm just kind of laughing, chuckling, because you're like superhuman. And of course, I had an accident. I've got stitches in my head and a black eye that I tried to cover up.
So I'm like, I don't know if I look too superhuman today, but I am resilient. Because I keep getting back up, even though I landed flat on my face, hit the coffee table. But I'm here and I'm excited to be talking with you. So thanks.
I'm excited about this. And thanks everybody for joining. Listen, every time I see what you're after, there's always something going on. But as you mentioned, you're the definition of resilience.
You're always getting back up. You're keeping on going. And you're really doing so many amazing things where a lot of people will have given up. So before we get started, I mean, just so that people understand a little bit who you are, tell us a little bit about the back-act story on how you became this famous author, coach, speaker.
Oh, well, thank you. You know, my life was totally different not that long ago. And everything changed in the blink of an eye. I mean, I was in the fitness industry for 26 years.
And sponsored by Nike, regularly contributing to shape and health magazine and articles and employed several other trainers. And I was on my motorcycle coming home from work. And an SUV shot out of a parking lot. He boned me.
I was thrown 30 feet. When I finally finished sliding across the asphalt, I looked down and my leg was completely just crumbled into pieces. And I didn't know at the time that my femoral artery was severed. And I really had a guardian angel that came and just he made a turnipet on my leg and really saved my life.
And rushed to the hospital and they put me in induced coma. And when I woke up from a coma, the first thing I learned was I had a 1% chance of saving my leg from amputation. And in that moment, all I thought of was this is my livelihood and working out and fitness and running was what brought me joy. And so I just hung on to that 1%.
That was my glimmer of hope. And I thought, well, if there's a 1% chance, then that means there's still a chance. And we need to find a doctor who's willing to take that chance with me. And we found a doctor and it took 34 surgeries and months in the hospital, but they saved my leg.
And the real road to recovery was when I was out of the hospital, went in for a visit and the doctor took one, looked at me, examined me and he said, oh my goodness, you've got something very serious. And I was like, yeah, I got hit by an SUV. And he said, no, you have a nerve disease. It's called complex regional pain syndrome and your life is never going to be the same.
He goes, you are going to be permanently disabled. You need to go back and get in your wheelchair. And I said, well, for how long? And he said forever, he goes, there's no, no, no cure for this disease.
You're going to, you're never work again and you'll never walk again. And I just felt like I was punched in the stomach. And I thought, you know, that can't be the light. There's got to be more to life than that for me.
And so it's taken a lot of grit and by the grace of God. And it took two years, but I not only walked again, but started to run again. I can't run the way I used to, but I completely re-endented my life. I got out of $2.9 million worth of medical expenses and decided that, you know what, we're not defined by our circumstances, but we're defined by our resilience.
And we can choose to have the courage to move forward and have a life of joy, even though things don't go as planned. And that's why I decided to write my book and became on this journey speaking. And so grateful that it's landed me here with you today and all your amazing friends. Oh my God, like I'm getting goosebumps, by the way, like what a story.
And I'm really grateful to hear this directly from you and that everybody else gets to experience what you've been going through. And it's just fascinating, right? A lot of people that could be on your shoes, they just give up, right? And we've seen this so many times.
So your story is an inspiration and it's empowering so many to take on whatever circumstances they're currently facing that don't even need to be as critical as yours and say, okay, well, I can have that grip and have that faith that everything is going to work out for the better. And it's just a matter of shifting that mindset. And the reason that I find it so interesting to have you here with us today is that we often interview a lot of people that are within the luxury space. But at the end of the day, the ultimate luxury is you're able to live your life, right?
And I want to have you here to just give that reminder of how important it is to work on your mind. So tell me a little bit about how you've been able to reinvent yourself. Thank you. That's such a great question because I really did have to shift my whole mindset because I have to say my whole identity was really caught up in my self-worth, was caught up in what I could provide for my family, how I could, you know, contribute to magazine.
And honestly, this sounds really shallow, but it also, my self-worth was about how I looked because I used to be a professional dancer and then a fitness model and then I'm deformed and scarred up from, you know, the hip down on my right side. And so I really went into a place of depression and there were times when it was dark and I wanted to give up. And I think something that really, really helped me. There were a couple of, well, a few things.
Number one, I remember there was one time I was sitting in the hospital and I was really spiraling down. My mind was like thinking about, oh my gosh, is tomorrow, are they going to amputate my leg? Is my husband going to love me? Am I going to be able to chase after my kids?
What am I going to do for work? Am I going to be able to train my clients? And in that moment, I thought I need to stop thinking about all the things that I can't do and start thinking about what I can do and what I do have and what helped me with that is just thinking of what I was grateful for. And I had this little notepad that somebody brought me in the hospital and I started writing down all the nurses names that came in and were helping me, taking care of me, my doctors, all the clients that came in and were bringing me flowers or food or just visiting.
And I noticed how it made me feel when I was grateful. I wasn't into self-pity or sad. I felt joy and I think that you can have pain and joy. It can coexist and it's up to us to really build upon the joy.
And gratitude is a great way to help you do that. And it's something that I practice every single day. And I know it seems simple, but I have a gratitude practice and accountability. Ladies, I call ourselves the God's Wadd and we write 10 things that we're grateful for every single day and we practice doing that.
And it's one thing that when you are grateful and you feel it, one thing when you write it down, but when you share that with somebody, you see what they're grateful for, it really shifts your perspective. And it really, when you focus on what you're grateful for, it's alchemy. It turns what you don't have into what you do have and what you can't do into what you can do. So when you're going through difficulties, like the ones that you have been facing, you start seeing the colors of the people in your life.
Those that don't longer believe in the thing that you can accomplish that no longer are there for you versus the other ones that actually stand up. I want to be there for you. So how it's been the journey for you when it comes to building your network? Like, what is it exactly that you focus on?
How do you go into it? And what is something that you will recommend people to start building? That's strong. It's so important.
I'm so glad that you're talking about this because there's always going to be naysayers out there. And in fact, I mean, in personal life, in your family, in your healing journey, no matter what you're going through. And in fact, I was just talking to a friend about this yesterday. And just when I first was diagnosed with complex regional pain syndrome, I was in a lot of support groups.
And I found that in the support groups, it was a lot of victim and a lot of wanting to just talk about the how horrible things were and the pain. And that's all they were focused on. And it was when I was on the doctor's TV. And I started talking about mindset.
And on the doctor's TV, the headline for it was, lady overcomes pain with her mindset. Well, that's not all I do. I focus on my health surrounding myself with the right people and mindset. But that was the headline.
And I noticed in this support group, the haters came out of the woodwork. I mean, they were attacking me saying, you can't possibly have this nerve disease. There's no way you can get through this pain with your mindset. And I thought, you know what, these aren't my people.
And so I got out of that support group. I think it's really important to pay attention to everything that we consume, what people are saying, even on social media. Tell us quickly about this. I wish you could come.
Come, Miami is not that far away. Come. So yeah, it's a successful success summit. It's in Dallas April 19th and 20th.
And I'm super excited about it because I have phenomenal speakers. I've got John Gordon, Ben Newman, Rudy Rick Steins, Rachel Luna, Henry Amar. And I also have some of my mastermind members that are taking the stage. So I have a mastermind.
And I don't I not only teach them how to become a speaker and get on stages, I then give them a platform to speak on stage. And so it's for entrepreneurs that want to get clarity and confidence to move forward, to level up their careers, to really, you know, increase their influence so they can make a bigger income. And it's not just some raw, raw kind of motivational summit. It's intimate on purpose.
So there are only 100 people there. So you have time to really make those meaningful connections. We talked about the importance of connections and community. So I really want people to have a chance to make those connections because I think that success is built on relationship.
Ask me all the time. How are you doing on all these stages? And it's because I get in the room and no matter if I'm speaking on a stage or I have a friend that's doing an event, I get in the room and I make those connections. And you never know just how investing in yourself and getting in the room can just change your career, level up your career, level up your life.
And so I'm super excited about this. Look, that's one last question because I always ask these two all of our guests. And the answers are so different, right? Well, what is really luxury to me is honestly my health feeling good and being able to do the things that I love with the people that I love, having the freedom to do those things.
So luxury to me doesn't necessarily mean I'm flying in a private jet, although that would be nice. But to me, health is really well felt. And if I feel good and I can do the things that I love, and that means even if I get to go soak up some sun in the neighborhood or play around with my daughter, hopefully next time I won't be playing around and get face planted into the coffee table. But yeah, luxury to me is really about feeling good and the freedom to do the things that you love with the people that you love.
Well, I meant to that. So wow, thank you again, Amber. It's a great conversation. And I'm so inspired by your story.
And definitely, I'm sure so many more that we're watching and that are going to be tuning into this later on. They're going to find it so fascinating. So thanks again. I don't know if there's anything else that we would like to ask.
Thank you. No, I just want to say thank you. I'm so excited that I finally finally got to talk with you after all these years of following you and seeing all your amazing posts. And I just appreciate you.
And I appreciate everybody for tuning in. And I think connection is really important. So please reach out to me on Instagram and you can also find the links to I have free resources. So if you're interested in, you know, becoming a speaker or writing a book or doing a podcast, I've got a free video series and I've got the information for my summit in the link in my bio.
Thank you so much. Have a great day. And I wish you a quick recovery. Thank you so much.
And I hope to see you in person soon. And thanks again for everybody tuning in today. We hope you enjoyed it. I remember embrace it's beautiful success in life.
My name is Alvaro and I'll see you next time.