Ep. 33: Former Professional X Games Skier and Speaker, Jamie MoCrazy on Overcoming Adversity and Finding Your Alternative Peak

Feb 4

In this episode, Darren Reinke Chats with Jamie MoCrazy, former professional skier and keynote speaker. Jamie discusses the traumatic ski accident that almost killed her, how she continually overcame daily challenges associated with her recovery, how she and her foundation are helping others uncover their alternative peak post brain injury, and so much more.

Jamie MoCrazy is a keynote speaker and resilience advocate. She tells her unique stories to help the audience understand how to be resilient when encountering crises. She has delivered motivational keynotes to corporations, associations, entrepreneurs, and medical school/university groups. She also partners with Traumatic Brain Injury nonprofits to run campaigns and programs for caregivers and survivors.

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SHOW NOTES

How little Jamie got into skiing [1:12]
How Jamie went from recreational to competitive skiing [4:19]
Jamie’s reasons for juggling intense training in both gymnastics and skiing [6:33]
How the MoCrazy Method developed Jamie in both academics and sports [9:40]
Jamie’s path to becoming a professional skier [12:19]
Why learning to trust your preparation is critical for success [16:17]
Jamie’s life threatening ski accident [20:16]
Jamie’s struggle to find an alternative peak after coming out of a coma [25:25]
How Jamie continually overcame insurmountable challenges throughout her recovery [31:40]
How Jamie found her alternative peak and how others can too [40:41]
How MoCrazy Strong is helping others overcome traumatic brain injuries [45:58]

SHOW LINKS

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For additional leadership tips, be sure to check out Darren's book - The Savage Leader: 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader from the Inside Out.

PODCAST TRANSCRIPT

Former Professional X Games Skier and Speaker, Jamie MoCrazy on Overcoming Adversity and Finding Your Alternative Peak

[00:00:00] Darren Reinke: Welcome to The Savage Leader Podcast, where I interview leaders from all walks of life so that you can walk away with tips to apply to your life and your career. But this isn't your traditional leadership podcast because I believe that leadership tips come from successful entrepreneurs in business executives of.

[00:00:21] Darren Reinke: But they also come from unexpected places like from Navy SEALs, successful professional athletes, sports coaches, musicians, entertainers, and more. So let's dive right in to today's episode. My hope is: You walk away with something tangible that you can apply immediately to your life and your career.

[00:00:44] Darren Reinke: Today's guest on The Savage Leader Podcast is Jamie MoCrazy. Jamie's a former professional skier who competed in both slope style and the half pipe at the X Games. She was the first woman to land a double backflip during the X games in 2015, a horrific accident during a competition. When did her in a coma and half paralyzed? Jamie's inspiring story is one of perseverance in finding what she calls an alternative peak.

[00:01:07] Darren Reinke: Jamie, thanks for coming on today.

[00:01:09] Jamie MoCrazy: Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited.

[00:01:12] Darren Reinke: So take us back to little, Jamie, where did you grow up and how did he get into.

[00:01:16] Jamie MoCrazy: I grew up in Connecticut, actually. And I got into skiing because it's a lineage. It comes down through my family. My grandmother was actually world cup, downhill champion.

[00:01:29] Jamie MoCrazy: Back in the day, she lived in sun valley and was in some of the first Warren Miller's few movies. She was a pioneer for that. And her brother, my great uncle, actually went to the Olympics in skiing. And my great-grandmother, she actually made the first ever us team outfit, which is funny.

[00:01:51] Jamie MoCrazy: So skiing was always part of my family. So, I started skiing when I was one year old, obviously before I can remember, as soon as I could stand in bed. I was skiing. And as my mom said, when you take babies skiing, this is a good piece of advice for anyone who's trying to take their babies skiing.

[00:02:15] Jamie MoCrazy: It is not a full-day type of activity. You take your baby for an hour maximum on, like the magic carpet, the beginner slopes. And it's a form of playing with your baby outdoors. You give them snacks every single time they go up the little magic carpet, which is not very far, give them a snack at the top. Have them have fun and enjoy.

[00:02:35] Jamie MoCrazy: And you're not teaching them to be superstars when they're a year old, you're just having fun with your kids outdoors. And then that fosters a love for the environment and for the sport because it is beyond a sport like soccer, it's like a lifetime pursuit. You start skiing, and then you might have liked I did a career out of it.

[00:02:58] Jamie MoCrazy: All that kind of stuff in competing or filming, doing it professionally. But then, I'm gonna go skiing and snowboarding with my kids and just stay in the mountain environment for my whole life. And when you're 90 years old, you're not competing. You're just doing it for.

[00:03:15] Darren Reinke: Yeah, what great advice. I think so many people, probably myself included, had visions of going out there and having a full day on the mountain skiing or snowboarding with their kids, but great advice for sure.

[00:03:25] Darren Reinke: Just enjoying that environment and making it a fun activity.

[00:03:28] Jamie MoCrazy: One of the challenging things. My mom's actually a ski instructor at park city and the parents, if you're here for a trip, like if you come for a vacation, you want to go out for the whole day. So then you want your kids to be out for the whole day.

[00:03:42] Jamie MoCrazy: And most of the time, the younger kids don't want to be out for the whole day. So, it makes it a challenging dynamic. But if you live in a ski. Or even if you're visiting, I would, even if you're on vacation, I would recommend having a nanny watch your kids for half the day and then do like an afternoon session or something like that.

[00:04:03] Jamie MoCrazy: It will foster the love strong.

[00:04:07] Darren Reinke: Yeah, clearly. So, you grew up in a ski family with your mom. I know your sister also is a competitive skier, as well as your grandma being a decorated female skier, as well as, how did you progress from just being a casual skier on the mountain starting at one-year-old to actually getting into competition?

[00:04:23] Jamie MoCrazy: So I was just skiing where my family is as a child. But then by the time I was six, I was in a mighty mites program, which is like little kids who ripped them out in. And we started having some races and doing some freestyle events. And so, I just, by the time I was nine years old, I was a J five ski racer.

[00:04:45] Jamie MoCrazy: So I was going to competitions in ski racing and I just loved it. And I loved competing. I'm a very competitive person. And so, I just loved pushing myself and competing, and I was pretty good at it right away. So, I always would push myself to compete. So basically, my whole childhood, I just immediately started competing when I was nine years old.

[00:05:14] Jamie MoCrazy: I actually won state championships in gymnastics. And the same year I won state championships in skiing, ski racing. And I said, my dream was to do gymnastics on. And at the time there wasn't really an X games and girls couldn't compete in X games when it originally started. And so, it took some time for slope style skiing, which is multiple jumps and rails, and you're judging your overall impression, but for that to exist.

[00:05:47] Jamie MoCrazy: And when I realized it did, I was 16, and I was like, oh, this is like gymnastics on snow. And I started competing in my career that, that developed into my professional career really fast, but. Yeah, whack when I was nine, I wanted to do gymnastics on snow because I was a great ski racer, and I was a great gymnast.

[00:06:07] Darren Reinke: Yeah. What an interesting intersection. I was actually going to ask you, how did the gymnastics help you out in skiing but really how did you handle training for two really competitive sports? Those are two that I think of growing up in Northern California and your laptop. If people were competitive skiers, like the Johnny moseys that I grew up with, or if they're a gymnastics that was their sport, they weren't doing other sports.

[00:06:27] Darren Reinke: So how did you balance the training for two? I would say probably very different sports.

[00:06:32] Jamie MoCrazy: I just, I loved training and I love being active, so I was always a bundle of energy. So, that definitely helped with it. My gymnastics coach, she didn't really like it, that I was going skiing all the time. And she had a talk with my mom, and she was like, can she actually make it in this sport?

[00:06:50] Jamie MoCrazy: Because she could make it in gymnastics. And my mom said, yes. And so by the time I was 12, I had to stop competing in gymnastics because you can't continue competing. Progressing past like level seven in gymnastics when you're doing other sports. So, they do close it off, but like I said, I was just as a child, I would go into gymnastics like four days a week and I would go.

[00:07:18] Jamie MoCrazy: Ski training like five days a week. And so, there'd be days when I would go skiing. Like I do my schoolwork. I do school work in the morning from eight to 12, and then I'd go skiing from like 12 to two. And then I'd go to gymnastics from 3:30 to 5:30 and then come home and have dinner and go to bed.

[00:07:39] Jamie MoCrazy: And I loved it.

[00:07:41] Darren Reinke: What a busy schedule.

[00:07:43] Jamie MoCrazy: Yeah. And something that helped with that schedule was the fact that I was homeschooled my entire life. And so that allowed us the flexibility. So, my mom has a master's in childhood education, and so she does have some training. And back when I was homeschooled now in park city, half the kids do some sort of online school or alternative education pro program.

[00:08:09] Jamie MoCrazy: It's very popular. But when I was doing it, it wasn't that popular. And most, there are two groups of homeschool kids. There was the one group that their parents didn't want them to have anything to do with society. And they were like removed from society to homeschool to do strict religious ideas or because they were macrobiotic vegans, and they didn't want anything to do with the regular food.

[00:08:35] Jamie MoCrazy: And anyways, like extreme type things. Or there was some that were doing. So, they could pursue other activities and sports, but it was a smaller group of us. And my mom was never anti society. She never wanted to pull me out. I was always doing so many activities and had so many friends. I had a lot of friends in my whole.

[00:08:55] Jamie MoCrazy: So I was very involved in things. It just allowed us to do concentrate because if you do concentrated four hours of work as an eight-year-old, that's plenty for the day. You can get a lot of things done. You can do your math, you can do your reading. I went to college. I graduated from college. I got good grades in college.

[00:09:16] Jamie MoCrazy: So I learned things. I learned a lot of things as a child, but for us, homeschooling allowed us to have it be structured education and then do a lot of activities and sports.

[00:09:29] Darren Reinke: I think I read your mom talks about the Mo crazy methods. So tell me how that was, how she used that to develop you and your sister both academically, but as skiers.

[00:09:37] Jamie MoCrazy: Yeah, I'd love to, cause the most crazy methods started when we were kids. So one of the things with the most crazy method is to set attainable goals, to reach growth goals. And you can do that with lots of different things, but it started when we were kids, we would have focused attainable goals and structure.

[00:09:59] Jamie MoCrazy: So like we would do this lesson of math or. Less than a world history and have it be focused. And then that would allow us to have the privilege of being able to go skiing our, go to gymnastics. Because I always thought of those as privileges for me to be able to do, but it just was all about structuring because a lot of people it's interesting, they spend their whole childhood just going to school, you arrive.

[00:10:32] Jamie MoCrazy: Eight to nine in the morning, and then you're there until three to four to five in the afternoon. And everything's structured and laid out for you. And then if you want to do something as an adult, You're an entrepreneur and you want to start things or set things up. You have to structure your own life.

[00:10:50] Jamie MoCrazy: And that was a big portion of how we were raised with them. Most crazy method is like we had the opportunity to structure our lives, how we wanted to; however, we had to deliver the end results that were expected. So if we wanted to one day go for a hike and at the top of the mountain, get our work done.

[00:11:09] Jamie MoCrazy: And so do our work at the top of the mountain. And then come down, we could do that. However, the end of every week we had a certain amount of work that we had to get done. And like I had to read a biography book and I, I could have a fiction book if I wanted to. But I had to read a biography book.

[00:11:28] Jamie MoCrazy: I had to read a science book. So, I had these things that I had to do. And the more crazy method does a lot of teaching how to get done the end result of what you want to get done while you are creating.

[00:11:42] Darren Reinke: Does it challenge? Yeah, I think that's so important. Just what you talked about in terms of giving someone a goal and giving them that that leeway to figure out just how to schedule it, to achieve that goal, or just how to get there.

[00:11:53] Darren Reinke: I think that creates. Independence and freedom and creativity is going to be so important in people's later lives, whether they're a professional skier or a speaker or a, just to working in the workforce in general. Yeah, definitely. So, how did it evolve? So talk to me about your ski career.

[00:12:08] Darren Reinke: Obviously you made a decision at some point to turn professional, or maybe it was this little evolution. What was that path like for you in terms of just starting as a six-year-old, mighty. And then evolving into a professional skier.

[00:12:20] Jamie MoCrazy: Yeah, that path actually had a big turn because when I was 16, I actually, I just did all this talking about homeschooling, but I went to a private school for my first year in high school and I actually got really great grades and I got six excellent efforts.

[00:12:37] Jamie MoCrazy: And then there's only me and one other kid in the school who did, which is cool. But when I was at that school, I was a ski race. And there was a professional filmer slope style skier boy, who was a senior, and I was a freshman, and he was like, Jamie, you'd love it. He kept trying to convince me to do the trampolines, like for freestyle and try the water amps out, which is where you ski down plastic, and you flip into a pool and so you can learn tricks and stuff.

[00:13:06] Jamie MoCrazy: And so finally he convinced me to give it a shot and I went to the trampoline camp. And I loved it. And since I had been a gymnast, I could just, you change the access, the rotation a little bit for freestyle tricks, but I was learning so much so fast, and I just loved it. And then when I was there, I actually won a free water amp camp and the raffle type thing.

[00:13:32] Jamie MoCrazy: And. The head of the program actually said he rigged the competition. So, I would win that because I paid for myself to go to the trampoline camp and. At this time, my parents, especially my dad, were not really supportive of me all of a sudden making a career shift. Because I was doing for ski racing that summer, I had gone to Chile to do an international race.

[00:13:56] Jamie MoCrazy: And so it was like pretty good. Like it seemed like it was going pretty well. And then just starting freestyle was like, what are you doing? So, I went, but I got to go for each of the water amps. And then when I was there my first day, I learned how to do a front flip. And my third day I learned how to do a backflip into the water AMS.

[00:14:15] Jamie MoCrazy: And then my fifth day, I actually was recruited to join the U S aerial team because the coach came he watched my trampoline work. He saw. He just was very interested. So, I stayed living at the Olympic training center in lake Placid, New York. And I was like, okay, by school. And so, I just stayed living there.

[00:14:35] Jamie MoCrazy: And then my first aerial competition was in Canada, and it was annoyance or North American competition. And when I flew to Canada, I had actually never done a front and flip or a backflip on. And I was going to a North American competition like a norm competition and I arrived and I learned how to do front flips and backflips and made it through the competition and held my own for us.

[00:15:03] Jamie MoCrazy: And then I was hooked, and they just started taking off. But so, it was, it just transitioned very quickly. I've been skiing my whole life and doing gymnastics, and then I switched, and then I got really, I lived in Placid and then. I also. Like for the fall. And so, I learned all that on the water apps.

[00:15:24] Jamie MoCrazy: And then as soon as I started doing it, that first winter, I went to junior Olympics and I got second in aerials and second in slope style. And then the next year at junior level, I won the overall I won slope style. I won aerials and got there and half-pipe and made it to junior Olympics in New Zealand and got my first X games in my, so it was all within a couple of years, really fast when I made that transition to pursue this freestyle career.

[00:15:57] Darren Reinke: That's really interesting. Actually, something I'd love to, just to zero in on is a doing something for the first time, whether it's in business or in life, is always so scary. Take me through that experience of being able to do a flip, a backflip into a pool. And then you mentioned in competition doing it on snow for the first time without a safety net.

[00:16:15] Darren Reinke: What was it like? How did you get your mindset ready to do something like that for the first time?

[00:16:19] Jamie MoCrazy: Yeah. For me. For the backflip. I did so much preparation for it. So on the trampolines, I'd been able to do backflips for over a decade at that time, since I was like eight years. So, that was a very natural, the flip on the trampolines.

[00:16:39] Jamie MoCrazy: And then I would do it on the water amps. So going into the plastic, so the pool. So, I just had the confidence that I had done the repetition and built the habit to be able to succeed in that. And then actually I also was the first woman in the world to compete in a double backflip at the 2013 X games. And for that.

[00:17:05] Jamie MoCrazy: That was actually even more challenging to do the first because no women, no woman had ever done it. And so, there was a lot of people who are like women can't do that. It's just not, it's not going to happen. And it's interesting now because at this day, like the Olympics are coming up soon after we filmed this.

[00:17:27] Jamie MoCrazy: So right around when it's going to be released probably, or maybe you've already seen the Olympics, every girl who's going to be. Podium contention in a slope style run are doing multiple double flips, much harder than a double backflip. Off-axis, I've done the water amps. I've done it on the trampoline. I know I can do it.

[00:17:48] Jamie MoCrazy: I've even done it on snow before. So, the person who's really holding me back, who's getting in my way is myself because I sat the trick too hard, which is why I over-rotated it. And we do that all the time. We do the preparation, do the training, we get ready. And then we stand in our own ways in lots of things in business.

[00:18:07] Jamie MoCrazy: And the real challenge is just letting go and stepping back and taking some deep breaths and letting yourself before him and to execute, what you are capable of doing without you getting in your own way.

[00:18:19] Darren Reinke: I love that. And just the importance of the examples of business, as well as doing a double backflip for the first time as you've done the preparation, you're ready.

[00:18:27] Darren Reinke: Don't let yourself get in the way, do that, that deep breathing, that meditation, whatever it may be to actually allow you to perform and let that training, let your skill just let it shine.

[00:18:37] Jamie MoCrazy: And that's something I have to remind myself in business all the time now because we're doing a lot of background work for Moe, crazy strong or non-profit, and we can get to that, but I quite often have to remind myself and sometimes when I'm feeling overwhelmed and stressed about things, my fiancé actually.

[00:18:57] Jamie MoCrazy: He will say, oh, I'm a really good motivational speaker. I heard a way talking about looking at the view, looking at the view of your current life and that things that I talk about, or he'll be like setting attainable goals. It looks like you're accomplishing your attainable goals. So don't save so focused on your growth goals.

[00:19:15] Jamie MoCrazy: Isn't that what she says? And I'm always like yeah. But it actually works really well because a lot of the things that I do say, and I do strongly believe in, we have to remind ourselves and that's with anything. I believe anyone whose anything to do with motivation, no matter what you share out. And even if you fully believe it, you have to remind yourself, just keep reminding yourself about those principles.

[00:19:41] Darren Reinke: So Jamie, take me back to 2015 in the world to our finals in Wisconsin.

[00:19:46] Jamie MoCrazy: Yeah. So, I was actually competing in slope style and half pipe and that competition was actually the first world war finals, my little sister, Jeanie, who still competes in half by. It was the first time she had made it to compete in half-pipe.

[00:20:03] Jamie MoCrazy: And so she was up there with me, and we were so excited to be at the competition together and traveling together. And so for the slope style day, she was just watching. So, she was on the top of the course, and she gave me a hug. As I dropped in for my second run. My first run actually finished in fourth place.

[00:20:22] Jamie MoCrazy: Like I mentioned being competitive for the places, not on the podium and no one remembers the fourth place finisher. So, I have wanted to upgrade and get on the podium. So, I upgraded my off-axis backflip to an on fax, double back, flip in the run. So for my second run, I gave my little sister a hug. I dropped him for my run.

[00:20:42] Jamie MoCrazy: She saw my takeoff. She couldn't see the landing because of the mountain. She saw, I didn't hit the next job. She thought maybe I under rotated slightly, but she didn't think too much of it. And then she heard the radio, the ski patrol radio crackled to life saying we need all hands on deck and the helicopter on standby.

[00:21:03] Jamie MoCrazy: And

[00:21:03] Darren Reinke: then. She,

[00:21:05] Jamie MoCrazy: without a word, just put her skis on and ski down. And she saw me and I was convulsing, and I'm always spewing blood and my eyes were rolled back in my head. And that's a memory that will stick with her for the rest of her life. And. So then I had to get airlifted from that spot in the mountain to Whistler, and Jeanie had to figure out I was at the world ski and snowboard festival.

[00:21:33] Jamie MoCrazy: So they were very supportive of everything. And so, someone was driving her, but she had to go to. Care in Whistler. And all of a sudden, she went from being my little sister to having to figure out about the, how to pay for the flights. And she didn't have $5,000, and it was like almost $5,000 that I already had cost.

[00:21:58] Jamie MoCrazy: And she had to figure out how to talk to the parents and figure it all out. And then she had to drive down to the hospital because I was airlifted. Wasteland to Vancouver general hospital immediately because it was way too critical. And when I was airlifted to Vancouver general hospital, they actually wrote my fatality report.

[00:22:19] Jamie MoCrazy: So during this whole car ride, she just. I was waiting for the doctors to call and say that I had passed away. And the doctor actually did call to talk to my mom and wanting to share information. And Jeanie was sure that the information was that I was dead, and that didn't happen. So, she arrived at the hospital, and I was still there.

[00:22:43] Jamie MoCrazy: And I hadn't passed away. I was still alive, and they actually inserted an oxygen and pressure analyzing brain bowl into my head, and then became the first patient in North America to receive that procedure that they had learned about in Cambridge, England. And so, that was a decision that my family had to make right away, and all the rest of my family was flying in.

[00:23:08] Jamie MoCrazy: So Jeannie was the only one who was there immediately. And then the rest of my family was flying in from different areas of the US. And my mom was actually looking at schools with my youngest sibling and didn't have. Neither of them had their passports with them. So, they were in Connecticut. Visiting my dad when they heard what had happened to me.

[00:23:35] Jamie MoCrazy: And so my dad just took a direct flight to Vancouver, but they couldn't fly to Vancouver because they didn't have passports. So, they flew to LA and then actually we had somebody fly from park city to LA and bring the passports. And so, they could just go from LA to Vancouver because it would have taken like an extra full day to get all the way back to park city and then keep traveling.

[00:23:58] Jamie MoCrazy: And then. Oldest. One of my older sisters was living in Ashland, Oregon at the time. And yet, my other older sister is a doctor, and she was a doctor in New York, and she was going to her. She was just being a doctor and she just realized that she needed to go to Vancouver, to be with her little sister.

[00:24:20] Jamie MoCrazy: So she just walked out and left. And she got it covered. So, it was all good, but she says she just, so my whole immediate family was flying, and my parents were actually told to come to say goodbye because the expectations were so low for my recovery.

[00:24:37] Darren Reinke: I can't even imagine how stressful that would be.

[00:24:39] Darren Reinke: You're trying to get to your daughter who's in need, and you just can't even get there and be there with you. That's a man. That's I can imagine going through something like that. You talk about your peaks in life and lows, and finding an alternative Peking. What a high you're at.

[00:24:52] Darren Reinke: You're trying to figure out how to go from fourth on the podium to first. So, you pushed it a bit, trying to do that double back, flip off axis. Now you suddenly find yourself in a hospital bed trying to do the most basic of tasks. What was that like to come out of that coma? And just to start over again, if you will, and figure out what that, that new path for yourself.

[00:25:11] Jamie MoCrazy: It's interesting. Cause when I came out of the coma, I still had severe amnesia. So, when I was starting to wake up, it wasn't like it's quite often recovering from Tacoma for training and movies that they just wake up, and they're fully there. But for me, that didn't happen at all. So, when I was out of it, I was in the coma for 10 days.

[00:25:31] Jamie MoCrazy: And when I was out of the coma Still couldn't remember day-to-day I still couldn't articulate words. I could mumble. It was still a very far away path until it took six weeks for me to remember anything. So, even now, looking back at that portion of my life, I don't remember no memory from the day of the accident to six weeks after.

[00:25:59] Jamie MoCrazy: After my memory started to come back. It was very sporadic. So, I just have very small, vague memories for some months after. So, I was in the hospital for a period of time, like two and a half months. And then I went to left, and I did outpatient therapy and I did it five days a week in Salt Lake City.

[00:26:22] Jamie MoCrazy: And that was actually something fortunate. My mom and I are now board members of the Utah brain-injured council, which works with Utah health, with protocols and decisions for the workforce trauma centers, everything surrounding traumatic brain injuries. And I didn't actually know this existed until we were having a talk with a board about like restructuring for next year, like at the pro, like restructuring the whole.

[00:26:51] Jamie MoCrazy: And one of the things we have as a TBI fund in the state of Utah, and one of their protocols is to help brain injuries, TBI survivors who need more care in the immediacy, then their insurance will cover. And when we were talking about this moment, “Oh yeah, like I remember when Jamie and Jamie his case.”

[00:27:16] Jamie MoCrazy: They said, “Oh, we can have her do five days a week if you sign here.” And so, I signed there, she didn't really know that much about it. Just that I was going to get to go to outpatient therapy five days a week. And now, that I actually was a recipient of the TBI. Because my insurance would cover once a week, and they covered the rest of the time, my occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech therapy, and the outpatient, and how quick that was allowing me to progress because it was impactful.

[00:27:46] Jamie MoCrazy: And I needed all that therapy at that time. So, that was amazing. And we just found out that, so every car that's registered in the state of Utah, $1 of the registration B goes to the TBI fund and the TBI fund can help people like me and give us more outpatient therapy treatments. And that's just such a cool thing to have.

[00:28:08] Jamie MoCrazy: Because I definitely needed to go five days a week until I graduated from that portion. And I first graduated from physical therapy. My return, it might return into movement, was the easiest part of the whole recovery. And it was the most visible part. Everyone who is watching me, you would be able to see when I went from being in a wheelchair to, I went to walk, or I went to run a little bit, or I could do a jump.

[00:28:35] Jamie MoCrazy: You, you could see all that visible. And for me, having been an athlete my entire life, I understood how to push my body to accomplish things. It didn't know how to do and to set little attainable goals, to reach the growth goals. An example of that when I was in the hospital is I immediately wanted to go back to skiing.

[00:28:54] Jamie MoCrazy: Like as soon as my and memory came back, I wanted to go back to skiing. And at that time I couldn't. Stairs by myself. So, it was a pretty big gap. So, my attainable goals was not to think about going back to skiing, but to think about walking up the stairs. So, every day I would walk a little bit farther, and I'd walk a little bit faster.

[00:29:13] Jamie MoCrazy: And I started out walking with people, holding a gait belt, which is like a human. And supporting me. I couldn't do it by myself. And then by the time I left the hospital, I could run up 12 flights of stairs in three minutes and 26 seconds by myself. And I know that because I started tying myself as well, but those are little attainable goals.

[00:29:33] Jamie MoCrazy: Those are goals that you can set. And as soon as I started setting the goals about walking up the stairs, I was walking up the stairs. So even though at the beginning, it was walking up with the stairs with three people supporting me and like hardly able to lift my leg. If I kept practicing that day by day, I knew from my upbringing and my experience in life.

[00:29:54] Jamie MoCrazy: If you keep practicing that, that's how you read. Your growth goals. And that's how you create progress is just by sending these little goals, then you don't really see much difference day to day happening, but you keep the consistency of doing them, and you just keep going. Then you make the big changes that people can see.

[00:30:13] Jamie MoCrazy: So physically was actually very understandable. Recovering. The cognition took way longer. I took five years before. Inside my mind, my, my brain to recover and be able to articulate and think through things rationally and stuff like that. And I always thought I was farther along than I actually truly was.

[00:30:38] Jamie MoCrazy: So that was a big challenge. And then emotionally was the hardest, I had huge triggers, big emotional outbursts, swinging. And that took years to heal as well. And everyone would look at me and be like, oh, Jamie is fine. And I still had the cognition and the physical, and that has no visibility. You can't see that at all.

[00:30:59] Jamie MoCrazy: And so those were the big challenges of recovering for me.

[00:31:03] Darren Reinke: Yeah. It sounds fast as you describe it from the physical perspective and obviously five years, not fast at all from the internal mental perspective, but how did you continue to just get up every day? And just face what could have been perceived by you as an insurmountable challenge to get back up and to walk and to talk and to fill a think the way you adopt before and even to ski, like how did you just get your mind straight to be able to do that each and every day,

[00:31:29] Jamie MoCrazy: like I mentioned, at the beginning, the physical stuff was easier for me to do because it did feel faster and that was very visible.

[00:31:38] Jamie MoCrazy: And so then one of the things. And that helped me a lot. My mom helped me out tremendously, and she did a lot of, so I would joke that I went to outpatient therapy five days a week for three hours. And then I did my mom's therapy seven days a week for seven hours. And the rest of the time I was asleep.

[00:31:59] Jamie MoCrazy: But my mom's therapy was even doing things like going hiking, and I couldn't hike by myself. I couldn't do anything by myself. So taking me hiking. And then when we started, I used to take a break every five minutes. And so, that was really humiliating and depressing. And maybe. Really bad about myself, that I couldn't hide for more than five minutes.

[00:32:21] Jamie MoCrazy: And so she told me to change my articulation when I'm saying about it, instead of I need to take a break every five minutes, tell the people I was with let's look at the view. And every five minutes in park city, there was an amazing view. And so I'd always. Hey guys, let's stop and look at the view, and then I'd get what I wanted.

[00:32:40] Jamie MoCrazy: I'd stop and rest my body. And we would look at the view. And so, it feels way different than say, let's look at the view instead of taking a break, even though they're the same thing. And so, that became a metaphor and is part of the most crazy method, but has stayed with us forever is to when things get overwhelming, and you feel like you're tired, and you need a break.

[00:33:00] Jamie MoCrazy: So let's stop and look at the view and look at the view of your current life. What is currently positive about what's happening because everybody has positive things in their life. Even if you feel super overwhelmed, there's going to be something good. There's been, that's been a big thing with COVID is that there's been a lot of positive things that have come from COVID.

[00:33:20] Jamie MoCrazy: There are also a lot of challenges. Lots of struggles. As a professional speaker. I can tell you that it's really hard to all of a sudden have a lot of. Gone and it's challenging, but then you can focus on, okay I got a dog during COVID, my little puppy Luna. We adopted her from the pound, and she's terrified of the world when we adopted her.

[00:33:42] Jamie MoCrazy: And now she's so cute and happy and wags her tail. She, I don't think she'd ever whacked her tail before we adopted her. It's anyways, just look at the positive, some opportunities that you can have of challenging situations, which is that same concept of stop and look at this.

[00:33:57] Darren Reinke: Yeah. I love that in so many ways.

[00:33:59] Darren Reinke: I think it's, you faced a challenge, you pause, which is always powerful. You're almost saying acknowledge where you are, the progress you have made the fact that you can hike five minutes and think about the positives. Yeah, there were positives for me from COVID, for sure. I think all of us had some hopeful silver lining, despite some of the obstacles and challenges that we all faced, but such a powerful lesson in terms of just enjoying the view as you take that, pause that, take that.

[00:34:26] Jamie MoCrazy: Yeah. And there were so many times in my recovery for some years that I didn't really want to get up. There was one day that was my first year and I were, I remember lying in bed and my mom was off ski instructing, and Jeannie was off training, and I was like, no one would notice if I didn't get up, no one would care.

[00:34:51] Jamie MoCrazy: But then I realized the person who would care was myself. If I just lied in bed all day, I, for everything I did, I would care if I did it or not. So, I decided to get up and get on with my life and do things. And then one of the things that really helped with that was I went back to college. I went to a Westminster in salt lake and I went to college.

[00:35:16] Jamie MoCrazy: And I think that's really powerful. Even if, I was 22 when I crashed. So, when I went back to college, I was 23. So, I was around college age, even if you're in your fifties, and you don't want to go back to college, find a book club or take a couple of classes, just do something that gives you struggle.

[00:35:38] Jamie MoCrazy: It gives you a reason, all of a sudden, instead of no one would care. If I wake up in the morning, my teacher would care. Like I have to go to class. So, I find something outside of you. They can force you to commit to like once a week going to a class or going to a book club, reading the book or going to music doing something that you have to commit to doing once a week, and you have to perform, and it allows you.

[00:36:05] Jamie MoCrazy: Have more structure and accountability than just yourself for setting these goals because you'll have a teacher or a coach. And that's actually something that we've started. We do with mole. Crazy strong is my mom actually has been a coach for 30. She did the remote work before it was popular with COVID, and she had a federal grant from the government chief self-esteem in Connecticut.

[00:36:34] Jamie MoCrazy: And as you do that, some of it remotely, but some of it in person with different higher education programs. So, she's been doing psychology. For 30 years and she does coaching on your psychology. And so then with Mo crazy strong, we do it specifically for brain injury survivors and family caregivers. And we actually get approached every week.

[00:36:59] Jamie MoCrazy: Sometimes multiple times a week. People will find us reach out to us, and they want guidance and instruction and education. And just to be around. People who had a successful recovery and learning steps like going. I went to a hyperbaric chamber and I did back when I was in the coma, I would have cranial sacral massage.

[00:37:22] Jamie MoCrazy: And we did a huge combination of Eastern Western medicine. My older sister was a doctor, became my primary care physician. And when I was in the hospital and Vancouver, so she would make the rounds with the doctors, and she would really be in tune to the Western. Ideology. And then my other older sister and my mom would do a lot of the Eastern and my mom's actually a PhD candidate for mind, body wellness.

[00:37:47] Jamie MoCrazy: And so she's structuring all the practices that she did in my recovery for that because honestly, the reason why we're having an interview right now, and we can talk, and I can wait my hand, this is my right side. So, I can just talk like this without even thinking. It’s because of the work that she did and the complimentary facets.

[00:38:10] Jamie MoCrazy: So instead of saying like its alternative medicine, no, for us, it was not alternative. We never said no to the Western medicine that they wanted to provide me. We just would add in and complimented by different Eastern medicine. So, it started back when I was in the hospital, and they would. Some fish oil in my feeding tube.

[00:38:31] Jamie MoCrazy: So when I was in my feeding tube, they asked the doctors, can we add fish oil to it? And the doctor said, yes. And so, they would add fish oil, which is good for your brain. It's been scientifically proven that it's good for your brain. However, in every situation. Get all into healthcare, but they're not going to provide you with the fish oil.

[00:38:49] Jamie MoCrazy: The doctors don't provide the fish oil unless you buy it, and you give it to them in the bottle, and then they can put it in. But so, that's complimentary type things. And then we also would do. All sorts of supplements. And so from my whole recovery process, I've been for years, I still take some brain medicine now like some supplements now that are powerful for your brain and keeping you going so complimentary Eastern Western different techniques and going above and beyond.

[00:39:24] Jamie MoCrazy: What was prescribed to me like doing things like there have been studies that show like the whole point of hyperbaric chambers for people who are diving is when they're coming out and the oxygen in their body that they've been undergrad, like so deep in the water, and they don't have the oxygen.

[00:39:40] Jamie MoCrazy: So they go into a hyperbaric chamber, and they're learning scientifically. What causes a lot of the brain damage is not having the correct amount of oxygen at the initial stages of the recovery, which is one of the things that the brain bolt was testing out in my case. But my whole, for years after, I had to mark on increasing my oxygen.

[00:40:03] Darren Reinke: You talk about your alternative peak, and I'm just curious during your recovery, was there a point where you said, competitive skiing, that's no longer my primary focus. I'm going to shift to this alternative peak. Can you talk to me about what that process was like for you and just how you made that switch?

[00:40:18] Darren Reinke: I think it's so hard for people just if they didn't achieve what they set out to, where things change, where there's a startup, that didn't work out, whether it was a relationship, whether it was something else in business or in life and how they make that transition. Can you talk to me about your experience in terms of finding that alternative peak, and then also how you help other people find theirs.

[00:40:38] Jamie MoCrazy: Yeah. I'd love to talk with you about that. I did decide on my own that I was not going to go back to competitive skiing and that I had to relearn every trick and I would have to fall. And it was not, I didn't want to put all my support at risk and I decided not to. And it was hard. I'm not going to say when you are climbing like a peak, and you get caught in a metaphorical avalanche that slows you down to the bottom.

[00:41:05] Jamie MoCrazy: Company that you've just dedicated the last five years. All of a sudden, one bankrupt or your relationship is failing. I'm not going to tell you it's not hard because it is. I started going in psychology psychotherapy. So, that's what we usually think of when we say therapy for your mind because I was so depressed, and I was having so many emotional triggers for three years.

[00:41:28] Jamie MoCrazy: I went to psych with him. And it was one of the best things I did. But it's challenging for me to have that. And to come to grasp with it. And one of the things that really helped me continue going is two things. One, you just have to keep taking steps no matter what, how many times do you want to give up?

[00:41:52] Jamie MoCrazy: You just have to keep going and doing different things that have nothing to do with. What you're stepping away from. So, like for me, I went that first winter. We thought it was a great idea for me to go to my little sister's competitions and I would just solve the whole time. And it was not a good idea at all.

[00:42:12] Jamie MoCrazy: So I had to step away. I didn't go to any competitions. I didn't have anything to do with competing. And I would try to find other things that I enjoyed doing. Going back to college. Like I mentioned, having other people to be accountable to was important and making sure that I did some yoga and things that would make my body feel good about things and just keep going.

[00:42:37] Jamie MoCrazy: That's the real thing is you're going to have days when you don't feel like it. And that's okay. That's one of the big things I learned in therapy was that if you're feeling. Sad. It's okay to feel sad. It's okay to have a bad day, let it all out, and then start to climb an alternative peak. So don't stay stuck at the bottom forever, but let yourself be like, okay, for the next or like the rest of the day.

[00:43:05] Jamie MoCrazy: I'm just going to be sad and watch a movie that makes you cry or watch a show, read a book. Do something and then figure out how to start getting yourself out, doing something for fun. Like maybe making a meal. I love to cook. So making food or doing yoga or doing something that will help you bridge to start to climb just for fun.

[00:43:30] Jamie MoCrazy: Just that something that will make you smile and be happy, like genuinely be happy and then start thinking once you're feeling better, think about it rationally and be like, okay, isn't working. How can we transition? How could we switch if that didn't work? Do we want to try something else? And so think of things in the future to do.

[00:43:51] Jamie MoCrazy: And another big part of calming alternative peaks is you never know. The ultimate destination of where your peaks going to go up to whereas a, when you're climbing, it might be at the base, and it might be, you might run into some dead ends, and you might have to keep trying different things and just keep going and just keep climbing.

[00:44:15] Jamie MoCrazy: And then you'll co go out on some beautiful views, and you'll feel successful. And then you'll just keep climbing again. And so, it's just a continuous process of. Taking steps along the path of life.

[00:44:27] Darren Reinke: Yeah. I think there's so much wisdom in what you said. One thing I think about a friend of mine who recently lost his job unexpectedly and, he said, I just want to sit here on the couch for today.

[00:44:38] Darren Reinke: And I said, you know what, that's fine. Just be there, grieve, live with it. I would say something you mentioned too is just like it's okay to cry and watch a movie and be safe. I said, there's going to be people that immediately activate and start looking for jobs and polishing their resume. I said, they're going to eventually come back to where you are.

[00:44:56] Darren Reinke: So you might as well just accept where you are, live with it a little bit grieve. And then also learned about just taking steps, climbing up the mountain, taking progress. You don't exactly know what that destination is going to be, but by taking forward steps, new opportunities are going to present themselves.

[00:45:11] Darren Reinke: That new alternative peak is going to hopefully come in front of you. So tell me about some of the things that you're working on. With people in terms of helping them persevere, overcome traumatic brain injuries, like what are the things that Moe crazy strong is involved with?

[00:45:24] Jamie MoCrazy: Great. So, we're involved in a couple of different things.

[00:45:27] Jamie MoCrazy: So the nonprofit, that portion is teaching brain injury survivors and family caregivers, as well as the medical community, educating them, giving them opportunities, linking things together. To help them create a version of life, 2.0 that they love about themselves and that they can accomplish things with.

[00:45:51] Jamie MoCrazy: And then. Also, to be able to fund all of that. We are holding a Namaste ski, which is a luxury ski, yoga retreat women focus. And it's March 24th to 27th. So, you arrive on Thursday night. You just have to take Friday off work. And then Saturday and Sunday, and we'll be having some skiing with ski instructors, all different levels are invited.

[00:46:21] Jamie MoCrazy: So beginners, intermediate, and advanced there'll be different groups. And so, you can definitely fit right in. And so, it's going to be a luxury retreat and the housing. The lodging is included at the canyons resort in park city and foods, including massage. We're going to be making some jewelry with Kendra Scott.

[00:46:45] Jamie MoCrazy: So it's going to be a really fun event. It also doubles as being a fundraiser for more crazy strong. So, you'll get this luxury experience and then the profits that more crazy strong makes off of what we're delivering. We'll be tax-deductible for you and will be used so that we can continue to do one-on-one coaching or events for family caregivers.

[00:47:14] Jamie MoCrazy: TBI survivors because as my friend said, who's been giving us some nonprofit consulting is we have the carriage is a little bit in front of the horse right now because we have been re we get people who reach out to us. Maybe someone who hears here's this. I'll say, oh, I know this family who had this unexpected, traumatic brain injury, and they might need some advice and ways to overcome it.

[00:47:41] Jamie MoCrazy: And so they'll reach out, and then they'll contact us, and then we'll provide help to give whatever is best for that situation, which is wonderful. And as it is right now, we need the funds to be able to continue doing that. And so, this event is one of the ways we're doing it. We also have. It right now@mocrazystrong.com.

[00:48:00] Jamie MoCrazy: That's our website. And you can donate on the page right there. And so, the concept of MoCrazy strong was actually started within 24 hours after my accident because my little sister Jeanie, my nickname, had been more crazy, and she wanted me to be strong again. So, she started the hashtag Mo crazy strong to link all my supporters together.

[00:48:21] Jamie MoCrazy: Cause in the little world of skiing, I was a well-known figure. So, I had international support and link it all together and the videos and everything, social media style. So, that's when the hashtag crazy strong started. And then since then we've been approached by different TA survivors and family caregivers.

[00:48:40] Jamie MoCrazy: And we talk with the doctor at Vancouver general hospital. He opened it up to refer people to us. So, we made sure that's definitely legal and clear in the medical world for him to do that. So, he's been doing that. We've been helping. Other families for a good six years now. And this is now, we've just this year, turned it into an official nonprofit and Jeannie and I, this is our full-time career.

[00:49:08] Jamie MoCrazy: We're working on it and doing so many things behind the scenes all day, every day. So, any support we can have to. Allow for the funding and raising awareness about traumatic brain injury and education to it. Do you have any passion for that? Any of our funding, any donations, is greatly appreciated.

[00:49:28] Darren Reinke: Fantastic. Jamie, I really appreciate you sharing your inspiring story. It also, but telling about the really important work that you're doing through MoCrazy Strong. So, thanks for coming on today. I appreciate it. Yeah.

[00:49:38] Jamie MoCrazy: Thank you so much for having me. I hope that the listeners all take something away from this.

[00:49:44] Jamie MoCrazy: Maybe sending attainable goals, maybe looking at the view, just take something away and add it into your life.

[00:49:50] Darren Reinke: Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Savage leader podcast. My hope is: You're walking away with tactics that you can apply to become a better leader in your life and in your career. If you're looking for additional insight into. Be sure to check out my book titled, The Savage Leader, 13 Principles to Become a Better Leader From The Inside Out. Also be sure to subscribe to the podcast and I would truly appreciate it. If you left a review and also rate the podcast. Thanks and see you all on the next episode.

Overcoming Adversity

Darren Reinke