She's Brave Podcast - Kristina Driscoll
She's Brave Podcast - Kristina Driscoll
Healing From Traumatic Brain Injury to Millionaire Business Mogul: Debs Brockelsby's Inspirational Journey and Stoked NZ Success
In this emotionally charged episode of the She's Brave podcast, host Kristina Driscoll sits down with the indomitable Debs Brocklesby, founder and CEO of Stoked NZ.
Debs shares her incredible journey from suffering a traumatic brain injury to launching a seven-figure business that's transforming the lives of outdoor enthusiasts. Discover how Debs used her experience to fuel a passion for entrepreneurship rooted in freedom and ethical values.
This episode is a rollercoaster of emotion, from the depths of despair to triumphs that inspire. Tune in to hear how Debs is not only redefining what it means to be resilient but also using her business as a force for good, raising tens of thousands for causes like breast cancer awareness. Whether you're looking for inspiration, practical business advice, or a heartfelt story of overcoming adversity, this episode is a must-listen.
ABOUT DEBRA “DEBS” BROCKELSBY:
Debra “Debs” Brocklesby is the visionary founder and CEO of STOKEDNZ, a company born out of personal passion and transformative life experiences. In 2015, Debs experienced a life-altering brain injury that instilled a profound appreciation for the fragility of life. After two years of recovery, fueled by a blend of naivety, boundless enthusiasm, and relentless hard work, she launched STOKEDNZ. The company is dedicated to creating innovative, practical solutions for outdoor enthusiasts, inspired by the desire to enhance comfort and convenience during and after outdoor activities. Today, Debs continues to lead STOKEDNZ with the same passion and dedication that transformed a personal challenge into a thriving business, driven by a commitment to improving the outdoor experience for all.
Connect with Debra "Debs" Brockelsby:
Debs (@debs.brockelsby_) • Instagram photos and videos
Debs Brockelsby - Linkedin
Stoked NZ - Website
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This episode is sponsored by Dotted Avenue web design services.
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Hey everyone. It's Kristina Driscoll, host of the She's Brave podcast. Let's go. Today's guest lives my dream life. Yes, you heard it. She lives my dream life. She has created the life of her dreams. Don't we all want to do that? Yes. We all want to do that, right? Well, we're going to talk about that today.
We're going to talk about how to do that, how to create the life of your dreams. How did Debs do it? Her name is Debs Brocklesby. She's the visionary founder and CEO of Stoked NZ, as in New Zealand, a company born out of personal passion and transformative life experiences. In 2015, Debs experienced a life altering brain injury that instilled a profound appreciation for the fragility of life.
After two years of recovery, fueled by a blend of naivete, Boundless enthusiasm and relentless hard work, she launched StokedNZ, a seven figure business now. Wow, Debs! Welcome, Debs! Come on in. so much. I'm so stoked to be here. I love it. You're so stoked to be here. Okay, I'm going to talk a little bit more about your business.
Your company is dedicated to creating innovative, practical solutions for outdoor enthusiasts. Inspired by the desire to enhance comfort and convenience during and after outdoor activities. So, wow. I want to go back, and we're going to be talking about a lot of things. So, I already mentioned, we're going to be talking about how did Debs create this life of her dreams?
After a traumatic brain injury. We're going to talk about freedom because Debs is really big on that and I'm really big on that too. Living your freest life and living life on your own terms. I want to start out with what life was like right before your bicycle accident and, and what happened from there.
Yeah, cool. So it was in 2015 and I was working at my like dream job. I've got air quotes around that cause it's kind of something I'd always wanted to do. As a child, like it was in sport. I'd always loved sport. I love numbers. I'm a bit of a nerd. So I was a performance and technique analyst for our New Zealand Olympics cycling team.
And it was really cool. It was a job that took me all over the world to World Cups, World Champs. And yeah, I mostly loved it except for things outside of my control, but we won't talk about that. And then, yeah, one day I was like in my friend's backyard, just riding my bike. Who I could do all the time. And I just went over a drop like kind of one meter high and I just landed funny and I kind of went over the handlebars and down onto my left ear.
I had a helmet on, but like hard enough that it was like packed full of mud and then my bike came down and hit me in the back of my head as well. So my brain got like a real shake up kind of. Well, over the show. And at the time I thought, like, I felt really dizzy and I actually thought I'd broken a rib going into a pass.
Okay. So, and just for American listeners, I just want to say one meter is over three feet. Just so some, some people don't know. I mean, I'm like, okay, so you literally went one, like that sounds awful. Yeah. Sorry, I should have done the confusion. Yeah. So I just went over, but that is something I would ride all the time.
And for whatever reason, I just didn't land it this time, you know? Yeah. All right. So it's not like I was doing anything crazy or out of my normal. And then, yeah, the next day I went to the doctor, like just the general practitioner to just be like, I got taken there cause I couldn't, I didn't feel safe driving.
And she just kind of looked at me and she was like, Oh, go get a massage. You'll be right. Do you want some time off work? I'll write you a medical certificate. And I was like, my job, I don't want time off work, but I don't feel that great. Are you sure? Massage is all I need. And then it was, I think it was like three or four days after that, that my partner, Gary took me into work with our cycling team.
And I was just really lucky that the athlete doctor who had known me a long time took literally one look at me and was like, you are not okay. Oh wow. Yeah. As I'm very thankful for her. And she sent me off, she knew some people in the industry and she got me an appointment and then I had an MRI. Scan on my brain, but this was like, I think that was a week after I hit my head and that showed bruising.
So there may have been a small bleeding where you just like, didn't even know, like I didn't, I really didn't feel good, but the GP initially said I was fine. Right. So yeah. And in New Zealand, you can't just get an MRI overnight kind of thing. So yeah, that was that. And that just started a really long time, like a year in a.
Dark room, no screens, no reading, no kind of anything. And, so that was, that was to help your brain heal. Like where the doctor is telling you, this is what you need to do to get your brain to heal. Yeah, it was that. And also I was really dizzy. My balance was all thrown off. I don't want to go on the light, the full science.
Cause I don't know. That's okay. Yeah. In your ears, you have what's called the vestibular system. And if you get that messed up, it's responsible for your balance. So I was like all over the show and my depth perception was a mess as well. So I couldn't actually cross a road. Cause I didn't know if a car was like just there or like far down the road.
Yeah. I was just like a bit of a liability to be honest. That's probably good. So cool. And also I had the worst headaches of my life. Oh, wow. Wow. It was awful. The best way I can describe it is it felt like my head was literally in a vise and it was being heightened. It was, I've never had headaches like it again and I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
But however many months in, we got a new neurologist and I was just so lucky for her because she changed my pain medication and that helped manage my headaches a bit more and then that helped level out my emotions because I was able to. Lashing out like a three year old, like I was super happy. Then I was like really sad and I was angry and I'd be like knocking stuff, like off the table.
And months into my recovery, my occupational therapist got my partner, Gary, to bring home some Lego, you know, like the little kids Lego, like hand instructions. Yeah. Like put this piece here, put this piece here. And so I was building this. We. Monkey. My mum had literally just left and Gary was moments away from coming home.
Because it couldn't be left alone. And I was building my wee monkey and Gary opened the door and I was like hysterical. I was like crying. I was so distraught. It's funny now, it wasn't funny then. But I was so distraught because I saw Lego, who does this for a job, had messed up the amount of pieces that was meant to be for my monkey.
And I didn't know that little head injury Debs had used the wrong piece of the Lego in the wrong place, and that's why I couldn't make my monkey, but Gary came in, he fixed it, and it was literally like a switch had flicked. And I was like, happy as, just there making my Lego monkey. And there's so many examples.
Yeah. I mean, that's super, super intense. It just, even to hear you say. I couldn't be left alone. Like you've just kind of said it in passing, but I'm like, wow, like that basically says it all. Like how disabled you were. Yeah. And it's really interesting because it was a few days after the impact of it just got worse and worse and worse.
But yeah, like I had to write down and my writing was terrible looking back at it now, but I had to write down notes for the neurologist every day because if I saw her every week, I couldn't remember. How bad my headaches were, if I'd been able to go for a walk with Gary, was that five minutes or 10 minutes or whatever.
So I had to write it all down. And one day I wrote, and this was a journal, like just for me, it wasn't for anyone else, it was just me and the neurologist, but I just wrote down, it would be easier for my family if I wasn't here because I'm such a burden. And then the thing about a head injury is you can't see it.
So I literally felt like it was all in my head. But if you fall off your bike and you break your collarbone, the doctor will be like, Oh, six weeks or eight weeks, whatever it is, you'll be back on your bike. You'll be fine. Off you go. And everyone go, they can see you on a sling and they say, Oh, are you okay?
You broke your collarbone. When you hit your head, you look the same, but you saying horrible stuff. Like I said, horrible stuff to my sisters that I don't know what it was. I just know it was horrible because it's impacted my relationship with them. But I don't know what I said, I wasn't in control of what I said.
So you had a traumatic brain injury. Yeah. And I, yeah, I, that's the thing I really struggled with was that from the outside I looked the same, but I just really wasn't. And so it wasn't a suicide note. I wasn't trying to do that. That's just how I was feeling. I felt like all in my head and I was making it up and I felt like it would be easier if I wasn't there.
And so I hid that under my bed because it was just my journal and no one needed to see it. Yeah. Yeah. And I said to Gary, this was like, I don't know how far this was in, but enough months that I could cross the road by myself at this point. And he said, take your phone. And I was like, no. And I had it in the letterbox and I went for a walk only, only two blocks away.
I just needed to go sit in the park and not feel a burden to anyone and just cry really. And he found my phone in the letterbox when he was trying to call it and found my notes. And of course he'd just read what was on the paper and said this. Started with him driving around Cambridge, where we lived at the time, for a couple hours trying to find me, and it was awful, and I didn't mean to put him through that, but yeah, I don't know, head injuries are such a wild thing, and they're all so different, the doctor doesn't just look at you and say, oh, you'll be okay in a week, you'll be okay in a year, this might be three years, and you'll be okay again, because they're all so different, and it's not like a collarbone or a torn Achilles, you know, like it's just, your brain is Yeah.
Yeah. I don't know how to explain it. And like what you said, like it, you, you can't visually, another person looking at you can't tell that you have the injury. And then like also every brain injury is different and they cannot predict the outcome. They cannot predict whether you're going to fully recover.
All of that. Yeah. That's crazy how rough that was, but you obviously started seeing some progress and getting, and feeling better. Yeah, the new headache pills really changed it. Cause that helped my headaches and it helped level out the emotions. So I wasn't so like high and low, I guess. And then again, I can't remember how far through it was, but at one point.
I read, do you know, Richard Hammond, the guy from Top Gear, back in the UK. But anyway, it's like a car show and they, he's one of the presenters and they do like ridiculous, ridiculous things in cars for TV. But one thing they did do was build this car that had a like jet off an airplane as the engine and went down a runway and it was going way too fast.
It was like, I don't want to get this wrong. I don't know if it was 700 kilometers now or 700 miles, but either way, it was way too fast. Either way, it's way too fast. And he had this awful crash and you can find it on YouTube and the car like went end over end and I think it burst into flames. He shouldn't be alive from that.
Yeah. And he got a brain injury, but it was like only a matter of months later and he was back running again. And I'll never forget this, but there's one line in his book that said, I feel so bad for the people that. Stand up and hit the head on a doorway or just something, a crash. So inconsequential that have life changing effects.
Yeah. And I was like, Oh my goodness. Like my crush was so tiny for what I do. And it's really impacted my life. Like it just, I think it just goes to show that all brain injuries are so different. Like you shouldn't even be alive if you look at his crash. Yeah. And. Meanwhile, I'm can't cross the road and I'm building Lego Monkey.
So, was it like a couple years that you were feeling much, much better? Like, how long of a period was this? I think it was a year and a half that I started going back to work like part-time, so, okay. Mm-Hmm. , my job at the time was with the cycling team, but it's in a velodrome and so it's like super bright lights.
Mm-Hmm. . So I would just have to wear sunglasses to work. Oh. And less hours and things like that. So my occupational therapist was like super helpful with just like wear sunglasses and we can do things a bit differently, but I think for your mental health as well, they're really. Need to try and get you back into work and normality, kind of, as soon as you're feeling up to it, even if it's two hours a day, and then, like, you can try four hours a day.
So, yeah, I think it was like a year and a half. Yeah. And then, During that time, I started making some, we call them towelies, but I'll, yeah. So explain what a towelie is. So during this time I lost a lot of my independence, right? And I love lake swims, river swims. I mountain bike a lot and a towelie or a towel poncho, it's just like a big oversized hooded towel that you can put on and then get changed inside of it.
And I already used one before and after mountain biking because often I'd be the only girl and we'd go mountain biking like out in the back country and there's not facilities to get changed. So I already had one and I was like, it was a bit rubbish. And I was like, Oh, surely we can make some better. And I'd also just like come through this like big accident.
And I was just like, life is so short. If I don't get it tomorrow, am I like truly living the life I want to be living now? And I was like, I mostly love my job, but I didn't really want to go back for other reasons. And I was like, if it, I'm just going to make some towelings. Like I haven't sewn since school.
I don't know how to sew and I've found rubbish, but I love Turkish cotton. Mum got me a towel like 10 years earlier. And I use that on my travels. Cause we're always going between like. Columbia, Los Angeles, wherever, going to World Cups and I loved that it would drive really fast and I could put it back in my suitcase.
Yeah. And so, yeah, so I was like, I'll just make some towel ponchos. Easy. Easy. Uh huh. And then, it wasn't easy cause I was rubbish at it. I read to my grandma's friends and she helped me sew all the first towel ponchos and I like dyed them myself as well. Again, I had no experience with that and might've left handprints all over our house from the time.
But. You know what, you can't win them all. So then I spent, yeah, out like weeks researching manufacturers in Turkey because I wanted Turkish cotton and yeah, made some tau ponchos. Chatted to them, made some tau ponchos. And I want to say that launched again in quotation marks because I launched on Facebook to my hundred Facebook friends.
And you love this though. This is fascinating. You launched on Facebook to your a hundred friends. That's an important part of this story. That's like, wow, you got to start somewhere. You've got to start somewhere. And I was in Columbia at the time, actually, at a World Cup. And I was like, you know what, I'll just put it up because it's end of November.
People want it for Christmas gifts. Also, they've told me, you know, like when you start something and people like, and you never know if it's actually going to eventuate. But this did, people bought them and it blew my mind. And then I spent the summer going to like, local markets in the weekends. Mm hmm.
Selling my towelies. And then I think it was like six months in, I got a wholesale order for a thousand pieces. Wow. And I'm like, wow, I've been, I'm like, you know, spent, I was like, wow, what are we going to do? So I flew to Turkey by myself. I should know how old I was. I think I was like 25, 24, 25. And Gary couldn't come actually, because he had used up all his leave recovering while I was recovering.
So yeah, he couldn't come. It's so long for my 24, 25 year old. Deb's from New Zealand with my duffel bag on, going to Turkey, which is a very different culture. And there was a few scary moments, but you know what, mostly it worked out fine. And two of the families that we still work with today, and we've since started working with a third factory over there.
So it's very cool. That is really, really cool. Yeah. Yeah. So it kind of just grew from there. Tell us about your van because there's some really cool articles out there on the internet about you and Gary buying this van and he's an engineer and him like totally like redoing it and how you guys travel all over New Zealand and that's kind of part of your business too.
Yeah. I love that. So again, my biggest why after hitting my head was freedom. So, I wanted to start something where what I put in is what I got out and that, you know, I was responsible for how well it went and I also wanted freedom for Gary and I or one for Gary to come into the business firstly, so we could work on our terms.
So I think he came in two or three years in and he's been in ever since. So that's cool. And then, yeah, all of our other staff are mums, so they work around school hours and things, so the whole thing is freedom, but yeah, for Gary and I, that means freedom to work, like we had two months in the South Island, riding our bikes and working, or we've just had two months in Australia, working, some time in a tropical island, like, we really wanted a set.
Our lives up to be out of work from anywhere. Where are you right now? I didn't even ask you that. I am actually at home right now. Oh, you're at home right now. Boring. Now I'm just sleeping. I'm only just at home. Oh, okay. We just have two months away and around Australia and then Rarotonga, which is cool.
But yeah, we're here right now, but we're just deciding because all of our stuff is made in Turkey, we're like, well, should we just buy a van and build a van? And go around Europe for like four months next year. And then we can go back and forth to Turkey to talk to our factories. But we're also tossing up like, but Gareth, let's just buy a caravan secondhand and go around Australia and do a lap.
But of course, Gareth is an engineer, so we come home and he's already like drawn out a caravan that we'll build from scratch apparently. So yeah, that's definitely an adventure. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah. I'm going to actually just quote you. It's basically a summary of what you've just been talking about, this concept of freedom.
And it's because it's just so beautiful. My why is freedom. Freedom to work anywhere in the world, ideally my van, whilst riding my bike or snowboarding in Japan. I just love that. It's like all these things. Freedom to work on my own terms. Freedom for our staff to work on schedules that suit them and their families.
And freedom to do business in amazing parts of the world. I have never met anyone like you, Debs. You are so freakin awesome! Aww, thank you! Yeah, I mean, just those statements, it's amazing. You had this traumatic brain injury and you overcame it. And look where you are now. I mean, it's incredible. And it shows like sometimes even just the most small basic.
Steps of putting something together and then flying to Turkey, I'm sure it was terrifying. And then I really am fascinated also with how you run your business. So I read an article and I loved it and for small business owners, and it was about Christmas orders, because, okay, so for some people forget this, but New Zealand, they have opposite seasons.
So when it's cold and snowy here in the Northern hemisphere, In December, it's summer in New Zealand. So there were a lot of orders coming up for Christmas. And I'm going to let you tell the story because you share a lot of lessons about being a really good business owner. Yeah, I love that. Like I was saying to you, Ophir, before that I was just listening to your podcast about persistence.
And I think the story that I'm about to tell that is like the overarching theme, right? Life can be. So hard, but I think it's like, you get given lemons and you can choose to make lemonade or whatever. Yeah. So it was a aftermath of COVID when in New Zealand, I think most places around the world, there was a massive shopping boom during COVID, right.
Which then left a logistical nightmare because it was like, Literally unprecedented, the amount of cargo and things being moved. So we are quite seasonal. We sell towels all around the world, but predominantly in New Zealand and Australia, which is opposite season to you guys. And none of our containers, not like one or two, literally none of our containers arrived for Christmas.
And this was, Like we make 80 percent of our revenue in summer or something. We have staff we need to pay, manufacturers we need to pay, and we're really big on ethically made. So we have seen the factories. We know our makers. We know that they're in epic working conditions. We pay our staff fairly. Yeah.
So we have all these settings and we have no tallies and. It was so hard and I was like, man, what are we going to do? But I'm just so lucky that I've built our business on my values and being really heart led that our customers were mostly so understanding. So what we did do is we wrote these little cards or a campaign.
It was called the reindeers are running late. And it was like, it was a little picture of a tally with a little Rudolph head on it. And it was a note written. Like an IOU from Santa, basically saying, I'm so sorry. Our reindeers have let us down and we're like so close to getting to you, but we're going to be a few weeks late.
So that was an IOU to put under the tree with a wet bag, which we. Mac, from our leftover fabric, put a water resistant liner, because we're big on no waste. So, it had a wet bag, some chocolates from us, and Santa's I. O. U. I love this idea of the Santa's I. O. U. Nothing in that way, that way the person gets the gift, like, they're not getting nothing.
It's like, yeah. It wasn't, because we like to be like, Oh, whatever, you just forgot about me. It was actually have under the tree. So, when you. Yeah, you gift it to someone and it wasn't an IOU from you. It was from Santa. Like it was, I love, well, Santa is a bit late. And so this obviously cost a lot. Like it was two lots of shipping.
It was the wet bag, the, like all the things. And we could have not done that, but we love our customers. We wanted them to have something under the tree. And we knew that by this point they were sitting off the wall, uh, like just off New Zealand, so it wasn't far away. But the response to that was unreal.
And I think it just made our customers love us so much more because we were so transparent about the whole thing. Like by the time they got these IOUs, no one was surprised. We'd been talking about the fact that our containers were all AWOL and we were hoping to get them. So yeah, that is a cool example, I think.
Yeah. I love that. Lead with the heart. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I love your advice that you give for small business owners. I'm quoting you now, that want to build an epic community with the way you phrase things. It's so cute. Um, I'm going to quote you and then we'll just have a little discussion about this whole topic.
So this is you. If I had any advice for other small business owners wanting to build an epic community, it would be to lead from the heart. And be unapologetically transparent. Take your customers on the journey with you and show them behind the scenes. Our customers get to connect through our marketing and social media with our Towelie makers and our staff.
This means when our customers come into our retail store or see us at events, they're greeted by the same humans and treated to the same experience. Customer loyalty is one of the best things you can have in a business. And one of the hardest to put a price on, but if you love your customers, they'll love your brand back in spades.
Oh my gosh. This is why I had to have you on She's Brave. Like there's so many angles to your story because it's about recovering from being ill, you know, and brain injury. And then it's about building a business and then it's about running the business and everything about you is just. Incredible. Like how you live your life.
Really. You're so kind. I, thank you. I feel so honored to be here. Can I just give one more example of what we're doing right now? But it's, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I have my head and one of my very, very good friends, her name is Di and she had cancer and then she was in remission. And then she got breast cancer and she was given 365 days to live.
This was 14 years ago. She's still here and it's wild. And so through her breast cancer journey, she had a mastectomy, but just one. So she has one breast and she was really subconscious about swimming in public. And she hadn't swum in like seven or eight years. And then we met through a business mentor and then we've just become like besties.
We talk every day. I love her. And I gave her a tally and now she can change inside, even in New Zealand. Why? It's the same industry in America. You often go into the chain sheds and it's just kind of one row. And she'd have that little kid kind of staring and it's just kind of an awkward conversation if it's not your child and you can't explain that.
So anyway, with a tally, she can get changed on the side of a river, wherever now. And she's back swimming and it changed my world. Oh, I love that story. That is so good. Yeah. So on, on that, we started a campaign called Show Us Your Tits. And we've got our customers who have all had breast cancer, not all customers have had breast cancer, but a bunch of customers have, and they're terrific birbs and we've covered a tally and towels with their birbs and we're giving a hundred percent of profits to Breast Cancer New Zealand, and we've raised 33, 000 from now on our point of view.
Yeah. I have to send one. Yeah. Coming into winter, but I'll send you one. Oh yeah. No, you totally need to send me one. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's an amazing story. That is so amazing. It's the things we don't think about, right? But it's, I think my whole thing is just like, you can use, it's probably the most humbling and coolest thing I've done in business.
Like, we have the power to use business for good and create awareness and I love it. I love it. Yeah. Yeah. And I've read also that you always give a percentage of your sales to charities. And I'm just like so impressed with that and you have raised tens of thousands of dollars for charities. Well, maybe it's down the hundreds of thousands with this breast cancer charity thing that you're doing.
I mean, that's incredible. And that's what I love about women in business. I feel like we're so good at. Making the world better while running our business. I agree. I love, you know, Sarah Blakely, who started Skanks and she's all about empowering women and like collaboration over competition, right? Like we rise by lifting others.
If we're all just help each other. I don't know that men always think like that, you know? Yeah. Where's the stat? I can't remember what it is, but women founded businesses typically outperform. Male founded businesses, because we're, um, driven by different things, I think. Well, I definitely think we're more collaborative, and I think men are more competitive.
Yeah. I think that's actually a big piece of it. And so, when you're collaborative, you win. The more, when you're collaborative, you're building each other up. Everybody wins, right? Yeah, for sure. Yeah, I want to quote you on one other thing. I just love all the things that you say. And it's this, my biggest piece of advice for you and why I started Stoked NZ is life is short, do cool shit, which is the motto I live by after recovering from a life altering brain injury, which is partly why the company is called Stoked New Zealand.
As I'm stoked, I'm still here after the freak accident. Yeah. I mean, it's like you had this realization that you can't take any day for granted. And then you said, okay. Gotta start living my dreams, living my dreams of like building that van and traveling all over and then traveling the world and creating a company and giving back to charity and you've done it all.
What advice do you have for my listeners out there? Who are all females, by the way, pretty much, well, there's probably a couple of guys out there. Two things. One thing I always say is if you don't get a tomorrow. Can you honestly say like, what you're doing now, does it set your soul on fire? And if it doesn't, what can you do to change it?
Because we don't know when our tomorrows aren't going to keep coming, you know? And the other thing, this might sound really weird, but I was in this meeting with this company that wanted to buy a huge share of our company and scale us a lot faster than Gary and I are able to do it, doing it by ourselves and they're like, we've got spreadsheets and there's like multi millions and all this stuff.
And, you know, it all sounds like super exciting, but I said to him, so, okay, this sounds cool money. But I care more about what kind of person you are. So say we're at your funeral tomorrow, what are your staff and all your friends saying about you? Because that tells me if you're a kind of person I want to like do business with or do life with or whatever, like I care more about who you are as a person than how many Lamborghinis you have in your.
Do you know what I mean? Oh yeah, I'm the same way. I'm exactly the same way. Yeah. So yeah, but the main one, if you didn't get a tomorrow, are you doing something today that sets your soul on fire? And if you're not, how could you do it? Oh my gosh, that is so freaking good. Okay. I guess I just want to unpack a little bit more.
Like the traumatic brain injury sounded so. Scary, because it was so unknown, that journey was like a hundred percent unknown. It's not like, oh, you broke your collarbone, it takes three weeks to mend, blah, blah, blah. So, I mean, what, what were your coping mechanisms? Oh, I just even don't know if I had any at that point.
It was literally just Maybe it was your partner. Gary and your mom and like the people in your life. Yeah. It's an incident like that. You really find out who your people are and who people aren't as well, because. Not everyone has time and space to be in your corner. Like I really needed it and not everyone had something to give.
But so yeah, I was definitely super reliant on my people, my people, my small crew, and then I think it was just taking the wins when they came. I remember when I crossed a road again and I was like, you f ing killin it. I don't got this, watch out. And then when I rode my bike, Again, it was just on the footpath.
My occupational therapist was right beside me. She was ready to catch me if anything happened. And like fear, it's so cliche, but like literally, I had a helmet on, obviously, but like feeling the wind on my face and I was back riding my bike and it was just like, Oh, it'll all be okay because the unknown is really scary, right?
We also can't control a little bit. So just like, what can we control? And then owning those moments. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't learn this before I hit my head, but afterwards I had a mentor who shared a psychology background and one thing I've done ever since, and I wish I knew it when I hit my head, but it was like literally get a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle and on one side have what I can control and the other what I can't and all that stuff on the, what I can't control.
It doesn't matter cause it's just taking up space in your brain, but you can't change it. So not who cares cause you need to be aware of it, but like those containers when they didn't arrive. There's no point calling the company every day, no one knows where they are. They'll arrive when they arrive. Debs from New Zealand calling them isn't going to impact it, you know?
But what I can control is making an epic IOU from Santa and ensuring that our customers have a great Christmas with a cool gift with that other one still to come. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Such great advice. Yeah, your whole life is just a beautiful piece of advice and a beautiful adventure. Thank you so much, Debs, for being willing to come on my show and be so vulnerable and share your story.
All parts of it because it's such a beautiful journey. It's incredible. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. And I will absolutely get one of those boobs tallies on the courier point. I can't wait. Yeah. Yeah. And I got to make my way over to visit you in New Zealand. My listeners don't know, but I've been to New Zealand and I love New Zealand.
So we got to stay in touch. Yes. I would love that. Well, cool. All right. Well, thanks Debs. See ya! Thank you for joining us on the she's brave podcast with Christina Driscoll. I hope today's episode inspired you to embrace your courage and step boldly into your own journey. If you enjoy the show, we'd love to hear from you.
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