When Life Extends Your Deadline, What Will You Do With It with Dwayne Morton

A bullet hit the truck. A doctor set a countdown. For years, Dwayne Morton lived like time was running out—until a seventh oncologist connected the dots and uncovered severe sleep apnea, not blood cancer. The whiplash between relief and regret reshaped everything: how he worked, who he trusted, and the way he shows up for himself and others.

We go deep into resilience without buzzwords. Dwayne shares how survivor’s guilt and PTSD forced him to slow down, listen to his body, and rebuild his identity from athlete to author, coach, and podcaster. He breaks down the habits that actually move the needle—gratitude to shift attention, daily movement to lift energy, self-care to protect capacity, and adaptability to meet change—and why presence beats mere attendance every time. As a mental performance expert, he maps the practical tools that helped him turn pain into a repeatable process.

Relationships and integrity take center stage. Dwayne draws a sharp line between iron-beam supporters who hold real weight and twigs who only cheer from the sidelines. We explore why trust outperforms tactics in business, how character shows up in small choices, and why alignment matters more than hustle. You’ll also hear the unglamorous truth about podcasting, the compounding value of community, and the origin of his Bounce Back Blueprint—a playbook for turning setbacks into momentum.

If you’ve ever felt pressed by time, sidelined by misdiagnosis, or stuck between gratitude and grief, this conversation offers clarity and a path forward. Subscribe, share this with someone who needs a reset, and leave a review with the one habit you’ll “show up” for this week.

Connect with Dwayne:

Website: https://dwaynemorton.com/

Website: https://showup2win.com/

Instagram: @showup2win

Facebook: Dwayne Morton

Chapters

• 0:06 Welcome And Purpose Of The Show
• 0:35 Meet Dwayne: Athlete To Resilience Coach
• 2:31 Cancer Timeline And Near‑Fatal Shooting
• 5:22 Purpose, PTSD, And Survivor’s Guilt
• 10:27 The 18‑Year Misdiagnosis Revealed
• 16:24 Identity Shifts And Hard Tradeoffs
• 20:46 Showing Up With Intention Over Attendance
• 24:27 Learning, Mentors, And Finding Worth
• 28:14 Comfort Zones, Podcasting, And Growth
• 33:22 True Support: Iron Beams Vs Twigs
• 37:54 Circles, Integrity, And Trust In Business
• 43:34 Life Before Diagnosis And Sleep Apnea
• 50:20 Alignment, Rest, And Letting Go Of Oars

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:06

Welcome back to the Against All Odds, the Less than One Percent Chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte, where we will hear stories of incredible people surviving against all odds. And my hope is that we can all see how life is always happening for us, even when we are the less than 1% chance.

SPEAKER_02: 0:23

Hey, hey, welcome back to Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Ponte. I am so excited. This is gonna be a great conversation today. I want to introduce you to Dwayne. He is a former international basketball player, but his biggest accomplishments happened away from the court. He is a published author, inspirational speaker, podcast host, resilience coach, and mental performance expert to elite athletes and business leaders. Dwayne Morton is dedicated to inspiring resilience, igniting purpose, and empowering others to rise above life setbacks by showing up fully, mentally, emotionally, intentionally, to win and overcome in every area of life. He learned through his challenging experiences dealing with an 18-year misdiagnosis of blood cancer and a bystander of a police shooting. Both challenges were not based on his decision, it, but he took responsibility and overcame. Welcome, Dwayne. I am so excited to have you.

SPEAKER_00: 1:35

Thank you. Thank you so much. And so I just want to say real quick, I want to say thank you to the listeners. I think it's so important just the fact that people give their time to people to listen to my story and to your podcast. I just love to sh first say thank you to the listeners. And then, of course, thank you to you for giving me a chance to share my story on your platform. And I'm looking forward to just having a great conversation today.

SPEAKER_02: 1:58

Yeah, I agree. I think that it's powerful when we can really look at our story in a way that is not just meant for us to keep inside and really let the world know that there's so much that we can go through and that even when we go through these things, there's a light on the other side, there's purpose behind it, you can impact the world with your stories. So give us a little bit of background. What was your against all odds story? Give us some information on that.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31

So against all odds, there's a few. First of all, the basketball part, I didn't play my last two years of high school basketball, and somehow I was able to go overseas and play internationally, and then on top of that, you know, come back, have a chance at possibly going pro over there. The other part, of course, the diagnosis. Like I was diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2006. I was originally given five years to live. And then it got moved later on to 15, but I still was like, What'd I do in my life? And then when you get like a timeline, especially for me from having a basketball background, I was thinking of the time running down, like the sand. And so I really didn't know what to do. And then as I was dealing with that, the police shooting, just a tragic accident, actually, not an accident, an incident. A criminal murdered a police officer and a shooting occurred, and just so happened I was driving by and a straight bullet hit the truck that I was driving.

SPEAKER_02: 3:26

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00: 3:26

If the bullet would have been an eighth of an inch to the left, it kills me. If the bullet was an eighth of an inch to the right, it hits my three-year-old niece who's in the back seat. So I was dealing with PTSD as survivor's guilt. So I would say any of those would be challenges where I had to overcome, correct? Yeah, it definitely was like instead of just getting a drop of the in the bucket, I got a whole bucket overflowing of challenges. But the thing was in the introduction, it was I chose how to respond. Once I realized that I was healthy, did I realize that I had everything that I needed, and I think that's super important. So I would say any of those challenges, we can pick those apart and we could talk about them. But there were different lessons that I learned through those. And through those, I was able to not just use them, I was able to utilize each one of those experiences to get through the next.

SPEAKER_02: 4:18

Yeah, absolutely. I think it makes you, I know it sounds very cliche, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. It literally is so much truth in that statement. I've had four cancer diagnoses in my life. The first coming at when I was 18 years old, and then at 19 and then at 32 twice. And so those moments when you are told this is what's happening, or I woke up from surgery one time and the doctor had to take a deep breath with a sigh of relief, and he was like, I almost lost you. And those things that you're just like, wait, what? It just brings you back to this like immense sense of gratitude. And okay, so I've survived this, I've gotten through this. What does that mean? So if my life is now extended, what can I do with whatever's left of it to make a greater impact?

SPEAKER_00: 5:20

Absolutely. No, no, no, absolutely. So I'll use this off of the shooting is when I saw the bullet on the truck, like that was one thing. I was looking low, I was like, Oh, it hit the bed. I wasn't thinking the picture I have is head high. It's the C pillar is where the bullet hit, so it's where the roof and the bed meet, and so it was head high. And the C pillar is that piece of metal that attaches that that part of the vehicle, yeah. And then thinking, oh, I was driving 45 miles an hour and all of these things, but the best optimal outcome happened, and I think that's the other part. But when that happened, I was like, Hold on, I was supposed to be dead a year ago with the blood cancer diagnosis. So it had me thinking, and so I tell people that's where the hamster will start thinking a little bit like, oh, hold on a second, why did this happen? There have to have some type of purpose. If for a while, I really was thinking it was because of my niece was in the backseat. That was the other part of that. And dealing with the PTSD, there was an officer who got tragically murdered. He had a wife and he had two kids. So there was that other aspect of the survivor's guilt. And then you add on the PTSD where I wasn't getting sleep. So there was a lot of stuff to overcome, but there was this also part of me having to sit still and be able to think, okay, what is my purpose? My purpose is not for me to just lay in bed and just think about oh, like and sit here and just wait to die. And so when I got that, when I got that the information that I was possibly misdiagnosed, that really just set everything off. And it was like, okay, let's figure this out and let's actually take life a lot more serious than what I had previously.

SPEAKER_02: 7:07

Yeah. So if for 18 years you're being told that you have a rare blood cancer. How did that happen? How did I just like at a loss? Like, oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00: 7:20

So it's a lot. So I was diagnosed with it's called polysithemia. And he was like, it's about to turn into polysithemia vera. That's the blood cancer part. So polysithemia is a little different, and they were like, We just don't think because my blood count was so elevated. And he was like, I don't want to say you have the Vera part at the very beginning. He was like, because he's like, that's not good. So we just waited, and I was very susceptible to the symptoms, so I was very tired. I was, excuse me, it was hard for me to catch my breath, those type of things. And it was probably like four years later, he was like, I just want to give you more time. He's like, I feel like you're going through these treatments well, but also like we're having to get these treatments early. And so the treatment is just phlebotomy. So that's another thing is by the grace of God, I like I didn't take pharmaceuticals for this. Like I took the pharmaceuticals for depression, anxiety, those type of things that were just symptoms of just like my life getting like thrown in a blender, right? And as someone who like yourself, you know how those diagnoses are. When you get those, those are life sentences, those aren't just like, hey, and I think that's the other part is when people who have been diagnosed with something, it's tough. It's like a jury just sentences you something that you and then it's hard for you because you get in that identity factor. So as we're going through this, about five years in, just so happened I had just four and a half years, maybe I had just liquidated my 401k on my savings because I knew I had five years, so I went and done bucket list stuff, I went and done things that were fun, right? So that was the thing, and so I ended up being pretty much just pissed poor broke because I thought it was the end of my life, and so why hold on to all these things that I can't take with me? And uh, it was like, hey, I think you're going to be able to have a little bit more time, maybe 15 years. And I was like, okay, well, that's great. So when I was going through that, I had some different challenges, but I do want to stress to people I was never suicidal, I was just always like, I don't get this, I don't understand it. It wasn't why me, it was like I don't get this. But I also thought maybe I was given this because I got to accomplish my dream early being a basketball player. So maybe that's the trade-off. I got to accomplish my dream, which not very many people get to do. So maybe that's the trade-off. And so what I did was every time I went to the doctor, I just focused on how I was showing up, not just for myself, but for others. Very polite, very make sure that other people were having a good day, those type of things. And so I'd have people say, Man, I like you're so young. I'm like, it's okay, I'm so young, but like, what can I do for you? How can I help you? Like, let's just try to like I would make the nurses and like those type of people. I mean, those people who were caring for me, I let them know that I cared enough about them throughout the whole process. So to answer your question, I know I went really long, but I wanted to make sure that like I just gave a lot because I know you've been through the situation. Yeah, my paperwork is about this full, and that's each one visit, right? So that's another thing. I was there a lot. So in 2024, I go into the doctor. I had already gone and seen six other oncologists. I see a seventh, and so my oncologist just moved, so a brand new person. I walk in. I actually was really pissed off at this guy, and I hadn't even met him yet. And he comes in and he says, This is gonna be really hard for me, and it's gonna be really hard for you. And I just was like, What are you talking about? How's this gonna be difficult for you? That's what I was thinking. Remember, I'm in a victim mentality, and I do want to explain to people, I was in a victim mentality at that point. And when he said that, I was like ready to just go off, and he was like, Hey man, he goes, I don't think you have this. He goes, I feel like you either have COPD or sleep apnea. And I was like, What? The thing is, was when you get a miracle, you would think you would say, Oh, hallelujah, and stuff like that. I didn't. My first thing was doubt. My first thing was, Are you sure? I've been doing this for 18 and a half years, I know what I need. And so he talked to me and he said, These things are very parallel. And he actually released me that day of his care. So I had to go back to my primary care and try to figure it out. And so I ended up getting a sleep apnea test, went in for a sleep center test, and ended up finding I had severe sleep apnea. And so, just to give you an idea, those things are very parallel for what I was having. I was having brain fog, I was getting major, major fatigue. At first, when I was diagnosed in 2006, they checked me for narcolepsy, so that was just to give you an idea. Like, so it's ironic that I was tested for sleep stuff, but they didn't test me for the most common thing.

SPEAKER_02: 12:12

Yeah. Oh my gosh. That's crazy because it is so common. And just to connect with that story in a way that I can understand the moment that you're like, wait, what? So I did all of this and it was for quote unquote nothing. So the fourth time that I had that I was diagnosed with cervical cancer, I was told it was like October 15th. I remember exactly the day. I remember everything I did that day. It was like one of those moments that your brain just locks in and doesn't forget any detail. So I had surgery back in June to remove some of my cervix. And the so this was my follow-up visit. And I go back and the doctor's like, so it's come back. This is the fourth time now you've dealt with this. I was 32 years old. My recommendation would be a full hysterectomy because I don't think I could even save your ovaries. And I'm like, oh. So I'm gonna be 32 years old as a single mom of three kids, going through full menopause, post-menopause, which is 20 years prior to what I'm supposed to be experiencing this. And so I was like, I don't know what I want to do. And he was like, we could do the surgery that we already did in June, however, just no, it just keeps coming back. And I'm like, oh, okay. So in that moment, I was like, I need to come back because after the surgery in June, I had I went through this like roller coaster of depression and so forth. I was the heaviest I had ever been. It shook me to the point of like, you gotta do something because you have three little kids that need you. And so I started to work out, eat right, started listening to like personal development, and I made a whole lifestyle change. And that was at the end of August. So by October, it was like a month and a half into my health journey. And when I sit down, the doctor tells me this, and I'm like, I don't know what I want to do. I need some time to really process this because post-menopausal doesn't just mean that I'm gonna have hot flashes. There's a concern for my bones and mood swings that I don't know how I will be able, like I don't have the hormones to deal with everything that I'm about to have a teenage child that has already been diagnosed with a mental health disorder. We're already having a stressful enough time. This is gonna be crazy. And so I remember just like I took a week, I went on a business trip, I sat at the beach during my business trip, and I was just like, I watched the sunrise, and I was like, I need to continue to be able to watch sunrises. This has got to be a metaphor for what I need to continue to see in my days, and so I called him, scheduled the hysterectomy. My surgery was in December, so we're in October, I have about a month and a half. So I had the surgery a week after my surgery, which was also the day of my birthday. The doctor sits me down, I go for my follow-up after post surgery, and the doctor sits me down, he's like, Maria, all the pathology reports came back that there was no signs of cancer. And I was like, What? And so I went through those two moments of like, oh my god, thank God there's a miracle, blah, blah, blah. So excited. And also, like, I just went through one of like the craziest surgeries that I could think of as a 32-year-old woman. I will never be able to have kids again. It impacts so much of my life, and it shifts your identity because I am no longer childbearing, like it's just it changes so much of the identity aspect of it. And I was like, oh my gosh, like I don't know whether to be excited or upset. I don't know. This is such a weird jolt. And I feel like finding out that 18 years of this thought process that you have this cancer, and then that it could have just been diagnosed sleep apnea from the get-go.

SPEAKER_00: 17:06

Yeah, it could have it could have been over a month, probably. Yeah, so there were some things also like I was able to do stuff selfishly. That's what I was gonna tell you, is I was able to make things, make choices without having someone else to ask. I had my parents, had my little brother, but I was dating someone at the time, and they decided, hey, they couldn't handle it, which actually helped me at that moment, no, not at all. But later on in the journey, yes, it absolutely helped me not have someone else to have to listen to and to be able to like hear their concerns. And so I decided very early, I was like, I'm not gonna get married, and I'm not gonna have kids because I'm not gonna be here to see them develop. And I felt like that was the best part was watching that journey, and so that was the kick in the stomach was like wow, I was like, all these people that I could have dated and those type of things. So there was definitely that law of polarity, there was that up and there was that down, there was that up of that miracle, but then there was that downside of like, oh, all that time I missed, and all these things, and so and another thing with being sick that a lot of people don't talk about is us disappointing other people. I miss weddings, I missed like really big events for people that were really close to me. Some people forgave me, some people didn't, and they just didn't understand like what I was going through is like if I hopped on a plane, it could possibly end my life. Like, there's not a lot of things that I want to do, but just to hop on a plane and see somebody get married, like I don't feel like not a risk that I feel like is worth it, or to get in a car and drive for 12 hours and not know like there was just these things that I was just like, look, this is but these were learning lessons, and that's the other part. I feel like that part was preparation, so it wasn't just all of these miserable things. I learned so much about myself, I learned what I could handle, what I wasn't also learned about myself, about the things that like was important to me. So there's just these things of like that part, because I get asked all the time, like, would you take the red pill and go back or the blue pill and change things? And I'm like, honestly, uh, right now is actually pretty pretty good for what I would have. And then also the other thing is, could I have gotten to this spot being a published author and being a podcast host and getting to meet great people like you? Probably not, even if I would have been healthy that whole timeline. And so that's the thing is sometimes we just have to go through stuff, and it sucks as we're going through it because we don't know that. That's the other part of this whole journey is like I call this my healing journey, but a friend of mine has really been on you're healed, you're healed. Quit trying to make this a more healing, you don't right. You don't need to make this like into to this step by step. We can just choose to go and skip all those steps to the very end, and you're healed, and now you're just learning how to be a great person. And so that was the part, and so that's the part that kind of felt like I can't really I could complain all I want, but really, like, who's gonna listen?

SPEAKER_02: 20:12

And then at the same time, and what good is it gonna do you?

SPEAKER_00: 20:15

That was the other part, is what good is it? And so that was the thing, is when I felt like I was healthy, I was like, I got my health back, I feel like I have everything I need, definitely did not have financial flexibility, those things, but like I was growing and I was learning things throughout all the stuff, but I was meeting great people. So, just to give you an idea, Maria, one of my mentors was mentored by Jim Rohn personally. Oh my gosh, and he mentored Jim Rohn in public speaking. So that's part that's my pedigree is like I get those people came to me. I have mentors that are some of the top quantum healers in the world. I've got some people who are great inspirational speakers. I probably wouldn't have been able to meet those people unless I went through this challenge, and and also my value and my worth went up the whole time. Yeah, I learned my value and my worth, and I'm still learning that too. I feel like that's something every day we just learn, right?

SPEAKER_02: 21:11

That's an everyday choice of going in and saying, I am definitely worth it, and I am valuable to others and to myself, and I bring value to the world. And I think that I resonate so much with that. And I agree, I feel like if I wouldn't have gone through the things that I went through, I wouldn't be the person that I am today because it literally took the pressure, just like a diamond, right? It builds under pressure, and it took that pressure to to be this absolute purposeful person. I came out a purposeful person. I came out and I want to bring my purple energy into the world, and I want to give the best of me not only to myself, but to everyone that I can touch because I feel like that story, like we talked about earlier, that story isn't just for me. That story is meant to make a difference because if I've been able to overcome things, the things that I've been able to overcome, if I'm still here, there's a purpose for it, and I feel like this is part of me getting out there. And I feel like that's what you weren't, you wouldn't have been necessarily the same person if you wouldn't have gone through the things that you have gone through.

SPEAKER_00: 22:36

I'll tell you this. I was told at 20 years old that I was a great speaker. Like, hey, you're a great speaker, you should speak. And my response was no, I'm a basketball player, I uh want to study sports psychology, I do not want to speak at all. And look at this full circle moment of me being a speaker, and I think that's important is we realize that there's gifts and talents that we just don't realize because we don't want to see them. And that was the thing. Also, like when I was eight years old, when I was reading books all the time, I always wanted to be an author. Like I always wanted to have a book, and then we set these dreams aside or these aspirations aside as a kid because we hear, hey, you're not worthy of this, or you're definitely not author, Dwayne. If we talked to my English teacher in high school, she would be like, There's no way this dude would write a book. I I I ended up running into one of my teachers, and she was like, I'm so proud of you. She was like, I would not have guessed you doing all these things, and I was like, Okay, thank you. Like, but also it let me know where the level that they thought I was at, but also where other people put their ceilings, yeah. Other people put my ceiling, like it wasn't me, but guess what? I read into it, I read into like, oh, his potential is here, and so with basketball, I didn't play my last two years in high school. Like, how do you go from that and just get better? You want stuff, but you have to put the work in. I think that's the other part, and that's really what my show up to win brand is about is showing up with that intention, but also being present through it. I think so many people, and I'm not crashing on public education, but sometimes they just tell you to attend, and you could show up to whatever, and you're not gonna get it. Now, maybe you get some of it, but you're not gonna get what's presented to you. It's always whenever I was I would show up to things, I would definitely show up in a presence, but whenever I was in attendance, I had to make sure that I came out with an intention of like coming out with something from it. And so I think if we would make that small change, I think that would help and make a better world. And that's one of my biggest things is I want to make a better world, and so I believe you do that by creating a better community, and those communities run around, and then that's how you make a better world.

SPEAKER_02: 24:58

Yeah, and it spreads, it keeps it keeps going from there, and everybody has their part in it, and I think that again, which is what is so beautiful about having these conversations and speaking up about overcoming things that when you hear about it, you're like, no way, how did someone even survive this? And and you have to look back, and there were moments in time that I was like, How did I even survive this? I don't know. I feel like I show up differently because I continuously ask myself that like how did I survive this? I was meant to overcome this and get through it and learn the things that I learned and and really learn who I was as a person. And from there, like who am I to make a podcast? And little me over here, who am I to make a podcast? And I'm three seasons in now. It blows my mind.

SPEAKER_00: 26:07

Like it was an empowering moment, though. That's the other part. It's like it empowers you, and then you're like, okay, I'm gonna do this. I went through this, so therefore, like I believe there's that comfort zone that we stay in, right? And then they talk about being uncomfortable. I believe that there's this part around called the learning zone, and as we learn that, our comfort zone grows. So when you're now you've you're three seasons in a podcast, yeah, you don't get nervous probably as much.

SPEAKER_02: 26:36

No, right? I could talk and I love hearing stories. I think that yeah, it just yeah, definitely not nervous anymore.

SPEAKER_00: 26:46

Yeah, and I definitely want to invite you on my podcast too. And the reason that I did my podcast was probably the same way reason I was intrigued by other people. Yeah, I was like, so it was my way of being able to spotlight others and be able to say, Wow, you're such an incredible person, and empower them and support them. I think here's the analogy I always I like to talk about, and I don't know if I've ever heard it from anywhere else. When we build a bridge, there's these iron beams, right? But we have people who say they support us, and there's like a twig. It's like put the twig against an iron bridge. Like, yeah, man, I'm supporting you. They don't like your content, they don't share your content for sure, right? But trust me, if I became Joe Rogan overnight, everybody would write, hey, I've been supporting you since you were a kid, right? That you would get those type of things, but that's the difference between support. We have those people who are iron beams, and they're very far and few between. And so that's one of the things that I challenge myself to be an iron beam for as many people as possible, to be able to support someone else's goals and aspirations that they might not have somebody who's an iron beam, but I know I'm an iron beam, I'm not a wooden twig. And so I think that's really important is when we realize and we find great people like yourself, is to be able to support them and be able to actually say, Hey, like I want to watch your content, I want to get to know more. But also, like for me, I would love to invite you on my podcast. So that's the beautiful thing about when you find those right people, but we all have gone through something that gives us that part where we're able to support each other.

SPEAKER_02: 28:26

Yeah, yeah, I agree. I feel like that as this journey has continued, I keep finding the people that that are supposed to be in my life. I wouldn't have known them any other way, but they were meant to be instrumental in my life. And so I've learned to recognize that and really, I don't know, really appreciate when you do find those type of people. Because they you're right, they're not they're few and far between.

SPEAKER_00: 28:59

It's just one of those things where you just learn throughout this process about like really who's for a friend, who's an acquaintance, and then who just is a hanger on. And I tell that to everybody, especially whenever I work with kids, middle school to high school. I still think high school are kids at this point.

SPEAKER_02: 29:16

Yeah, they are.

SPEAKER_00: 29:17

I tell them all the time, I was like, think about your closest circle of people. I was like, most of them will not be here, and it's not because they didn't care about you, it's because you have grown apart. Yeah, and so I always tell them.

SPEAKER_02: 29:33

Yeah, I always say to them, there's people are in your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime, and those lifetime people you're gonna you really have to cherish however, those are not everybody. And I have my kids now are 21, 20, and 17. So the youngest one, I I always have to like remind her, hey. Just know that not everybody in that circle is gonna always be the same, or they're not always gonna be your ride or dies. You have to learn how to find those people and not just think that everyone is that for you.

SPEAKER_00: 30:18

The other part of it is is it really gets you to your ride or dies. The rider dies that say they are and then they break off are actually just to let you know, hey, this is not what is aligned for you.

SPEAKER_02: 30:30

Yeah, it's opening space. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 30:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_02: 30:33

Yeah. I've had a lot of people open the space that for example, when I was diagnosed the third time, I had a friend, she would take care of my kids, we would see each other all the time and talk about all the things and best friend, and she was moving and got upset with me for not showing up for her during this time period this summer, and I had just had surgery, I was busy with my job, a career, and so forth, traveling, and and I was just like, but I'm dealing with a lot on my own. And it just opened my eyes to like, oh man, sometimes it's okay to let people go because they're opening space for the people that are need that need to be there.

SPEAKER_00: 31:29

Absolutely. And at the same time, there was a lesson that either for you or for her throughout this whole process, and that's the other part is when I started looking at it, everything's a lesson. What am I learning today from this? And it could be something very simple, but simple doesn't mean it's easy either. But it could just mean just getting information for later on. So that's the other thing is I actually take inventory at night and I'm like, what did I learn today? And every day I challenge myself to learn something new that I hadn't I didn't know the day before.

SPEAKER_02: 32:05

Yeah. Yeah, I have been working at a company, it's a hospice company, and I had no clinical background whatsoever. I'm more behind the scenes quality control, if you will. But every day I feel like I'm enjoying the fact that every day I get to learn something new. And every day I get to learn like how a medication can affect a person's weakness and that and then can cause falls and all these things. And I'm just like, oh, I'm like eating this up because it's not something that I was ever like privy to or understood. And then just to be able to sit in meetings and be like, yeah, we have to find the root cause of what happened to this little person that died, and then they look at their medications and they're like, oh, this could have lowered their blood pressure. And I'm like, whoa, it's like a constant, I want to learn more. And I feel like I've taken that from every aspect. I used to be in the travel industry and same thing. Like, I wanted to learn how to, I would listen to the people that were negotiating these like crazy contracts. And and so I did it then my way, and I learned my way to do things. And I brought my ray of sunshine into negotiations. And I remember at one point I had a boss and he was like, Oh, Maria, you're too nice. I don't think that you can handle going in there to a GM of a hotel and negotiating a contract or a director of revenue to a hotel and negotiating a million-dollar contract. And I'm like, Okay, do you want to come on a business trip with me? Because I can show you what I do and you can tell me, like, I'm here to learn. And if I'm not doing something right, please tell me. And in that business trip, it's like people putting that ceiling for you. And that business trip, I had our week packed of meetings, packed with the correct people that to talk to. And we ended up leaving. I also know my destination. So I had South Florida, and so South Florida is very like relationship driven. And so 50 minutes of my hour meeting with these people were how are your kids? How is life? How's everything going? Blah, blah, blah. Okay, this is what I need was the last 10 minutes. And I got what I wanted. And when he came back to the office and we were in a meeting, he was like, No one's got relationships like Maria does. And I'm like, Yep, that's right. It's so crazy to like be doubted, and you're like inside, you're like, no, but watch me. It's like it's there. I know what I give, and it's been me building that confidence. But when people just put that ceiling, it's I don't know, maybe it's me.

SPEAKER_00: 35:16

I'm just like, no, I think it's important to know like what you feel your season ceiling is, not what's other people. And I think we also from a business side, people don't realize how much relationships really are, especially the higher tier you go. Relationships are the key. It's not about what you can do or what they can do for you. It's really more who can I trust? Am I able to really trust this person? They always tell people, especially guys, like if you're or girls, but also like it's just the executive part, go play golf. If they cheat at golf, they're probably gonna cheat you at business.

SPEAKER_02: 35:53

That's a good call.

SPEAKER_00: 35:55

Yeah, so that's the reason why you see all these people go play golf, and that's why golf clubs like are the amount they are, is because they can be that place. It's a great place to to have a meeting, but most importantly is if they'll cheat at golf, then you know that they'll cheat at something else. Yeah. I was reading the I was reading an article, same thing about with people with affairs, same thing. It's like there was something I read, and there was like a big company found out that like these people were cheating, and he fired them. He's like, but the fact that you cheated allowed me to know that like I couldn't trust you.

SPEAKER_02: 36:30

I watched that now that you say that, I feel like I watched a that's so crazy. I watched a video. One of my favorite podcasters is Diary of a CEO. Love him. He interviewed a executive that she said that if she finds that if anyone in her company is cheating, that she terminates them. And he's like, but that's their personal life. And she's like, No, because if that's the integrity that they're bringing into my company, then that's not somebody with integrity. And I was like, Oh, that's so true. And it's just like what you're saying right now.

SPEAKER_00: 37:12

No, it's it's just very, it's very true, but also the other aspect, who would you rather run with integrity wise? Someone who really watches their integrity or somebody who just doesn't care and like, well, it's my personal business, I can do what I want. Yeah, that's the other thing is I want someone who is very integrity focused. I'm very integrity focused. Yeah, so therefore, if I was in any business deal, if they're not integrity focused, it get it's a red flag for me. And I'm glad to hear that other people are like that too. And so I think that's it's really important. It doesn't mean that it's for everyone, it doesn't have to be for everyone, it's for me.

SPEAKER_02: 37:45

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. I love that. So, what was your life like 24 hours before your diagnosis?

SPEAKER_00: 37:54

I love that question. I was actually curious. I actually asked some of these questions this 24 hours. So, my 24 hours before, I ran two miles and I played basketball for three and a half hours. So I had no clue any of this stuff was happening. Like I had no idea the next day I wouldn't be able to get up three flights of stairs. I was very much in shape. I was at the point where I wasn't in playing shape, like for a team or anything else, but I was in shape. I was always doing something athletically. I was playing basketball as much as my knees would allow me. And so I tell people all the time, but my mindset, it wasn't in a good place, but it was better than a lot of other people. And I like when I say that, this isn't more from a comparison, it was just like I knew about visualization mindset stuff. I knew about like the things that I knew that were I would teach to someone in sports psychology that would help people in whatever they wanted, like in leadership or business or or mostly sports. But I wasn't really applying all that stuff. Like I was utilizing it when I felt like it was important, but I wasn't utilizing it to get me ahead because I didn't know what I wanted. I was stuck in a place and I was like, What do I want? Like, do I want to live here? Do I want to so there's all these questions of just like those type of things. So I really wasn't in a great place, but I was very much in shape, I was athletic. Physically, I was pushing my body way, way too much because the people that I listened to were like, don't worry about sleep, sleep, sleeps for losers. And I'll go ahead and tell you right now, if someone tells you that there's another experience with people who are high level and they can get eight hours of sleep. It's just one of those type things, it just is what works for you. And I listened to someone, and I worked the job I had previously, I was working between 80 and 90 hours because they allowed us to do it, and I was like, hey, I'm trying to make money and I'm trying to do all these projects. Like, yes, please. I was learning this part that wasn't healthy to my body, and so I pushed my body, and unfortunately, that's how I got the the sleep apnea part. I wasn't resting. So yeah, so I would say that 24 hours, I would say it I was a pretty selfish person. I was very much I still did things for others, but it wasn't like the way I do now.

SPEAKER_02: 40:19

Yeah, yeah. I feel like I heard this from a mentor that I've followed for years. When there's dis-ease in the body, it creates disease. And I don't know about you, but for me, that's that was so much of what was happening internally for me that I didn't see that Mac truck moment of like getting hit.

SPEAKER_00: 40:47

Yeah. So what happened was I was grieving. My grandfather passed away. I want to say like maybe two years prior before I moved. So I was really just like, he is my best friend. He was one of the person that like, just to kind of give you an idea, in high school, most people were worried about what they were going to do on Friday and Saturday night. I was probably at my grandparents sitting at the kitchen table playing cards, playing cribbage with him, and just talking about things that he experienced. So there was that part where I was just grieving. I didn't really know what I wanted. I had also my basketball career got ended prematurely because of an injury, and so I was getting ready to sign a contract, ship out. I ended up playing some pickup basketball, hurt my knee. Did find out that like the surgery doesn't go as well as it could go better, but she was like, if you keep doing this, we're gonna have to do a knee replacement. So I'm like, no, I'm like, I'm good, I'll figure this out. So there were these things where I would do these things, and then I would get rerouted. And I at that time I didn't know what rerouted was. I thought the word was just against me. Like, okay, I got into this school, what happened? And there were these things where later on I learned about alignment, learned about being adaptable. So now these days, just to get people the first four things that I really, really do every day, I make sure I do, is to be grateful, self-care, movement, you always gotta move. And then to be adaptable, and it's those four things. But I wasn't doing that, I wasn't applying those things, and so those were things that I had to learn through the diagnosis, was just those type of things, and so before that there was days I didn't move off the couch. I was playing video games with my friend, I was playing 2K or Call of Duty or whatever with some people, and so that's the thing is like I just wasn't floating, I was floating with oars. I don't know if you've heard this analogy, but like when you drop the oars and you just allow the current to take you that get you to your destination a lot quicker. And so this time when I got healthy, I was like, hey, I'm just gonna drop the oars and just let things happen and not push for them. And there's times in this, like this, what we call my rebirth, where sometimes I will grab the oars and I'll have something to happen and it realigns me back to allow. And so one of the things that was going on with me was I had a kidney stone issue where I had to go to ER. I hadn't been in ER ever, except when I was like going through the other stuff. So I thought those days were done. Hey, you have to go to ER. And so it was a wake-up call. And so that wasn't something that I was doing now as I was healthy, it was a consequence for what I was doing and putting in my body for. I don't drink soda anymore, I drink water, as you can tell. And so that's the other aspect is we have to realize we have to take consequences from stuff we had done in the past. I realized that these things happen all the time to get us to slow the hell down. And in the past, I would be like, Why is this happened to me? Why is this like why is it telling me to stop? I need to show up for this, or my boss is waiting for this report. And these things happen because it's just telling us to slow down. That's it. Our body is telling us to slow down.

SPEAKER_02: 44:07

Yeah, I can attest to that big time. I even with this podcast, I was starting a new job, career last year, and it got so overwhelming to push myself to be on the computer all day at work and then get home and edit and do all the behind the scenes that it takes to like the conversations. I can have that all day long. Then it's all the behind the scenes. I do my own editing, I do all the clips and I do all of the other stuff. And so that's not something that is very like people don't realize that that it takes more than just doing a video. And I had to like take time to readjust my life. And the moment that I felt back that I was like aligned with this, I was like, all right, let's go. Season three. I'm all for it. And I've felt this like reinvigorated feeling of like, all right, let's go. Yes. But for a little bit, it just felt like it wasn't what I needed to be doing in that moment.

SPEAKER_00: 45:24

Yep. It's just all about alignment, it's all about maybe the guest, it's all about you, it's also about being prepared, but then it's also about the what you said we're talking about, the editing, how much work it takes to get the podcast out. A lot of people didn't realize that. That was another aspect is when I did this podcast journey in the first of January. I started with a clean slate, never done a podcast. I'd recorded some in the past, but it was just between friends, we were just goofing off. And so I was like, hey, I want to do this, but also like I want to be a guest first, so I can be a host. So I know how a guest feels, so I know how to be a better host. Yeah, and the other aspect is there's a lot of work that a lot of people don't understand. There's emails, you gotta find the right guest, you gotta also find guests that are aligned to you, and uh there's it's a lot of work, but it's a lot of really interesting things that happen, a lot of great conversation. Yeah, and so I've had really great guests. I've had people who came on with over a million social media followers on different platforms, and this is at the very beginning when I hosted my podcast, so like it was three three up, I think was I had just recorded three, and I maybe had released one, and someone who I wouldn't I actually asked her to come on for like down the road. I just wanted to know what the process was, and she was like, How about we record in like two and a half weeks? And I was like, Oh wow, like that's amazing. I was like, I just dropped my book, so that was another aspect, but it was like a couple weeks after I dropped my book, like so.

SPEAKER_02: 47:00

I had these two big high moments, but it was just something that like I feel like podcasting opens up a different door than what people just don't understand, but it's a lot of work and it's also a lot of it's a lot of headache, and then sometimes things happen like how with me and you that one time we were supposed to basically we were supposed to record two weeks ago, I believe it was like two weeks ago, and he had to reschedule because he was dealing with a kidney stone.

SPEAKER_00: 47:26

Yes, no, it was like I was in bad, I was in very bad pain too, and that was the other part, but I just wanted to let people understand the other part of this podcasting, it's not all just glitz and glamour and like getting sponsors and those type of things. For me, Maria, I was actually sponsored. I had a brand deal before I recorded my third podcast.

SPEAKER_02: 47:47

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00: 47:49

Exactly. So that's the other thing that let me know that this was in alignment for me to do, yeah. Because that was the other aspect of it. It was like I just called someone and I was like, hey, I'm like, I'm getting ready to do a podcast, and and they were like, Oh, hey, how can I support you? Like, hey, what kind of equipment would you like? Those type of things. It just tells you that look when people really struggle with when we struggle with something, it's could be because it's not in alignment, but it could just mean the timing isn't right. Just like you were talking about getting your podcast getting going. It's just those type of things I feel like we just don't know. And to talk about the book real fast, yeah, absolutely. I was writing two books in April. My hard drive goes out, I lose the two books that I was writing. Yes. So the book that I released is actually a book that came up through a conversation of mine. I met an old high school buddy at the grocery store, and me and him were just talking, and he was like telling me all the things that he was going through, and I was like helping him, and I was like, hey, I was like, I was like, that would be a damn good book. And so that was the reason that I because I kept on saying, Yeah, I did this when I was going through this, I did this when I was going through this. I was giving him all these healing modalities, and so that's what the book's about. The book is called the Bounce Back Blueprint, become bulletproof. And I wanted people to have some type of thing, some guide. But I always tell people that you can have the greatest guide in the world. It's like a recipe. If you don't follow the recipe, you're not going to get what's in there. And so that's what I tell people all the time about the book. If you're baking a cake and you put three eggs instead of two, you might not be getting the same cake as you would be getting if you just follow directions.

SPEAKER_02: 49:31

Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I'm so excited for I will download the book and all the things because that I really love to support as well. I just had a guest a few weeks ago that his book was launching, and I had he's like, Can you do an Amazon review when you're done? I was like, I finished it in like two days, and I cried and I laughed, and it was awesome. Like, this is so great. And I love learning, and I love the fact that this is bringing me to people that are continuously working on that same thing on learning and giving what they learn. So I'm really excited to definitely get your book. Anything else that you would like to tell our listeners or talk to our listeners about?

SPEAKER_00: 50:23

Yeah, the things I like to just like tell that I've got is course I have my podcast, Show Up to Win, with the number two, but also have where I'm building a community called Show Up to Win. What it's gonna be is gonna be where we get on a Zoom, you tell me about what you're going through, and I coach you through it. But we're doing it through building a community in a group, and through that, I feel like it allows me to grow through the process with the people, they get to see that, but also I get to see the process of them growing. I get the front row seat. But I wanted to do a group thing. Of course, I do one-on-one stuff with people all the time, but really I wanted to do something that was affordable to more people, yeah. Also give them another aspect of me where they actually get to see me just coach and see different aspects of my coaching. But ultimately, I just want to give as much and support as I can to people because I know the program that I'm building was the program that I was looking for when I was going through my stuff, and that was the most important thing for me was if I could go back and if I could hire a coach at that time or knew about hired a coach at that time, like who would I have wanted? What would I have wanted? And so that's the thing is that's what I'm able to give to the people. The book that's on Amazon.com. It really is just a it's about the journey of the things that I was going through, but also it's not a memoir, it's not what I was intentionally putting at first, but it felt like it was the book that people needed to understand my teaching, but also understand okay, I did this in the diagnosis, I did this during the shooting, I did this in this process. So allow them to be able to heal before they actually get that whole introduction to me. But yeah, anyway I can help and support someone, I would love to be able to do that. And then, of course, like Maria, I want to have you on my podcast. I think it's very important to get that story out, and also for me to get to learn more about it. But really, I'm just I'm learning and growing each day. I push the pedal to the floor every day and have a better day than the day before. And like I mentioned, like I didn't say, hey, I was gonna do podcasting and like have a goal of doing a hundred podcasts. It's really close to 100 right now. And that's awesome. I think that's I think that's really important, is just to realize that, like, oh, I didn't have this number in mind, but now I'm so close, like I might as well go ahead and make that a go.

SPEAKER_02: 52:50

Yeah, absolutely. That's awesome. I love it. So I will put all of your information in the show notes so that they could people can connect with you. Listeners, I hope you got as much out of today's conversation as I did. Dwayne, thank you so very much. I so so appreciate it. And you guys, you know where to find me next time. Peace out, love your life. Bye.