Transcript
Speaker: Everyone dreams of living an uncommon life and the best asset you have to achieve your dreams is you. Welcome to the Uncommon Wealth Podcast.
Speaker: We're going to introduce you to people who are living uncommonly. We're also going to give you some tools and strategies for building wealth and for pursuing an uncommon path that is uniquely right for you.
Speaker: Today's Uncommon Wealth Podcast coming at you with another solo cast about something that I got to reflect on today, super excited to kind of talk about. And the whole premise is when you step out of your comfort zone and you go serve other people, sometimes you're the one who's impacted the most. So this whole story happened because I just connected with somebody today And it reminded me of this whole story. And I thought the lesson for me was unforgettable.
Speaker: And it's surprising that I haven't actually talked about this in the podcast before because i feel like as individuals, we go out, we step out of our comfort zone and even missions trips, people go on missions trips for their church or whatever. And my question when I ever hear somebody going on a missions trip is I ask them, do you feel like you were impacted the most or the people that you got to interact with? And the fascinating thing is nine times out of ten, people say that they were impacted the most.
Speaker: And so my challenge to you and this whole story kind of, I think, edifies that when you step out of your comfort zone, you are the one that is most impacted. That really does change the direction of your life, the trajectory, and your heart about how you serve other people. So... I hope this challenges you to one, step out of your comfort zone, but two, to see the impact that it has on your life. And maybe it isn't about other people, it's about us and maybe softening our heart or seeing people from a different perspective.
Speaker: So let's talk about the story. So I have a friend, his name's Mike Boone, and he was in charge of a thing called Iowa Adaptive Sports. And what this organization was, it was a nonprofit, and they used to, and still do, a do athletic things for adaptive athletes, which means paralyzed, or maybe they have just something that happened, or a disability that they had,
Speaker: earlier in their life or maybe they were born with it, but they have this organization called Adaptive Sports and it is a whole nother world. In fact, we have a couple of clients that are adaptive athletes.
Speaker: One of them is an amazing wheelchair tennis player, rock star. Shout out to you, Mike. Okay. But so, My story was, Mike Boone knew that I was a skier, a snow skier, and I just came back from a big trip out in Montana, Big Sky, Montana, which was my favorite place to ski. It's now my second favorite because they had an ownership change, not part of the podcast. But, so he knew I came back from this this big skiing trip with my friends, And he said, Philip, you have to do this thing called adaptive sports and help the skiing program every year. We have the Chicago organization come. They bring all these adaptive sleds. And then our athletes come. And then we get to help and then watch them ski and kind of participate. We get volunteer. It's the most amazing time of the year for me.
Speaker: And I'm like, i don't know man, like it's Boone, this place called Seven Oaks, you can look it up. They call it the Boone Bump. It's tiny, a lot of times it's icy, they groom it every night, they do manufactured snow.
Speaker: But for Iowa, it is skiing, so there's that. But he said this, and this is what got me. I bet you give me one day and you won't matter where you are at. You would rather be on the boom bump with these athletes than anywhere in the world. And I was like, all right, Mike, you've got me.
Speaker: I'll try it. So I took a day off from work. This is many years ago. And I go to this adaptive sports skiing program in Boone, Iowa.
Speaker: And I just show up, you know, I've got my stuff. And it's it's such a cool thing. And this organization, like I said, had all these sleds lined up. And I was like, whoa, there's a lot of different ways that people can ski. Sometimes they have... um like different vertebrae have gotten impacted which then affects your body. So some people can't use their legs, some people have cerebral palsy, some people can use their legs but they have something going on so maybe they can do a stand-up skiing, maybe they want to snowboard and they have all these different things. It's amazing.
Speaker: So i I started kind of getting excited right when I saw the sleds because I saw all the different adaptive ways that people can can ski. And so the morning, all I was was a volunteer for somebody from, i think, i think I actually just shadowed Mike and I was helping his adaptive athlete. So the way they paired this up was there was a kind of a main person that knew what they were doing.
Speaker: They were the ones who would call tether and they were behind the athlete as they had basically tethers or ropes attached to the sled and then they would go down this hill and the adapt or the the athlete could then lean and try to figure out how to ski. Now the the premise of all this is to try to get the athlete to feel so comfortable that they could go out on their own, let's say to Colorado, ah and they could ski by themselves.
Speaker: So you might have seen this in magazines or or maybe videos where there's someone sitting down and they have outriggers on their hands and they have like little skis that they can balance with and it's pretty amazing actually.
Speaker: um And that's what they're trying to do but because they some people have never skied before, they would they would have these outriggers on these sleds. So picture a sled on the ground or like close to the ground, you're sitting on it, has like a ski underneath you, and then these outriggers are attached to the sled so people can't fall over, which is awesome.
Speaker: So that morning, I get to go with Mike and then our athlete, and we get to go up the hill, we get to go down it, we get to practice with them, they get to balance, they get to lean back and forth, they get to turn, it's pretty amazing.
Speaker: yeah And at the end of that, he was like, oh, and i was i was honestly having the time of my life at the boom bump, which is super small. But it was fun to see these athletes like get a glimpse of doing something they'd never have done before.
Speaker: So that that afternoon kind of comes and goes, or or that morning comes and goes, and Mike comes up to me kind of in the interim, because it's it's broken up into morning and then afternoon.
Speaker: And he said, hey, we have a lot of athletes registered for this afternoon. We need you to be able to tether this afternoon. And this was towards the tail end of our morning session.
Speaker: And I'm like, Mike, I don't know if I'm ready for this. And I'm a decent skier, but... Seeing how technical this was and how this is a different type of skiing and to see the risk at play meaning Once you're a tether you're basically their brakes because they have outriggers I think somebody from Chicago even coaches like if this goes south and something gets disconnected These athletes are missiles going down this hill because they can't stop um Kind of kind of a deal right and so i remember saying like Mike I don't know man I don't know if I'm ready and so he's like how tell you what how about you go down and you be the one tethering I'll be the volunteer for the next one or two rounds or or ah runs that we do and okay and I remember our athlete was fairly light and
Speaker: She was just younger and so she was lighter and so, okay, I had a great time. We tethered her she could kind of turn and I could help her kind of break and and it was awesome. It's really like ah two people are skiing.
Speaker: It's kind of fun. So, okay, Mike, I guess if you think I'm ready, like let's let's do this. and And so we get lunch and then these new Athletes are coming in, coming into the to the room and and Mike's like, hey, Phillip. And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, I want you to meet Damien.
Speaker: This is a real story. I don't know if I can use a name, but I'm doing it. I want you meet Damien. And I'm like, all right. like, I'll meet Damien. I'll meet anybody, right? You know me. So walk up to Damien. He's like, he's going to be your athlete. And immediately I'm like, okay.
Speaker: This is not as easy as the one in the morning. And I don't know why I'm with Damien. I'm nervous and I'm like, oh, okay, Mike, like, hey, Damien, nice to meet you.
Speaker: Damien goes, number one rule, And Damien had cerebral palsy. And so that was kind of a different thing because the girl that we had this morning had, she had mobility in her arms and Damien didn't have that.
Speaker: In fact, he he had his arms were kind of kind of locked in a position that were just close to his chest. And so he he couldn't really do a lot with balancing or Damien couldn't. And so I'm like, oh, like I have Damien.
Speaker: And immediately I'm like, this is different. Like he weighs more and this is going lot more complicated. And then his number one rule, do not drop me in the snow. That was his number one rule.
Speaker: Okay, I'm like, that's fair. And so the next kind of, I would say 30 minutes, then you have to help the athlete get clothed. And they have all the stuff there. They have winter coats, they have winter pants, they have helmets, they have goggles, they have gloves, they have everything that you would ever need. Really the athlete just shows up and then we help them do the rest. And so I now for the next half an hour, try to clothe Damien, which is fascinating in and of itself.
Speaker: And I am dripping with sweat at this point and super nervous because I got to go help Damien ski. Never really done this with this kind of athlete. I mean, I did it maybe twice before, but let's be honest, my experience level is in that high.
Speaker: And then Damien, it was like, you know, like when the room gets quiet, Damien goes, how long you been doing this, Philip? and i Like, well, Damien, what time is it, man? And everybody just kind of laughed and I didn't have to answer it because everyone kind of laughed and moved on. So Mike comes over to me. He's like, hey, I've been trying to get Damien to come to this thing for years and he's so scared he's never done it.
Speaker: And this year he came and I'm like, why am i the guy paired up with Damien? Like, don't do this to But anyway, there we are. So we get Damien all clothed up. Again, I'm dripping sweat. We walk out or we we get out to our skis. He gets in he gets fitted with his sled. i push him out over to the...
Speaker: chairlift and Seven Oaks in Boone is amazing. Like they had the workers there, they would slow down the chairlift so you can kind of get their sled up and onto this, the chairlift and they just did an amazing job. They still do. They're a great, great crew.
Speaker: so now it's my turn, Damien's turn, and my volunteer's turn to try to get Damien up the hill on the chairlift. And i will never forget this.
Speaker: So we get Damien situated. Here comes the chair behind us. And i'd go to lift up his his chair. i hope Damien can listen to this because this is going to be fascinating from my perspective. He doesn't know any of this has happened.
Speaker: I lift him up and and it's not going on the chair, but it's like maybe a tenth on the chair. So much so that if this chair lift or the chair lift keeps going up, he's gonna not only be in the snow, which is number one rule, don't drop me in the snow, he is going to face plant in the snow.
Speaker: And the chair lift is getting higher and higher. And i remember praying like, lord you've got to help me in this because like this is this is a last ditch effort. Like the chair was getting so high that I couldn't get any more leverage on it. And I yanked as hard as I could and praise the Lord, we get Damien on this chair chair lift and on the chair and I go to lock him in because there's a special way and process that you have to make sure they're safe.
Speaker: And again, I'm sweating profusely and we finally got him on the chair and I'm like exhausted. And Damien, as we get higher and higher in the air, goes, what the hell am I doing? And I wanted to be like, Damien, what the hell are we doing?
Speaker: but So we we get to the top of the hill, we unhook him, we get him off chairlift. That was uneventful. That was a success. We get him going, we put his little outriggers on, and we go down this hill. And I'm telling you the joy that Damien had And the, I'd say, joy that I had, I'm pretty nervous at this time, it was incredible. And we go down, i mean, we spent that whole day going up and down this hill without any events. And number one rule, never was broken. He never landed in the snow.
Speaker: And I will never forget that time. And the impact that it made on me was far greater than Damien. Damien probably doesn't even remember doing it, let's be honest. But I remember...
Speaker: I'll just never forget it. I'll never forget the joy that I had to be able to serve somebody else that maybe didn't have the ability that I had to maybe give them a glimpse of what an able-bodied person would be able to do. And to me, that's the power of serving other people. That's the power of Uncommon Wealth Partners. That's the power of this podcast is to unlock some people and their stories of being uncommon to inspire other people to go out and impact other people. But let's be honest that when you do that, maybe you're the one who that gets impacted the most.
Speaker: So that's my podcast today. If you haven't served anybody or you're in a ah slump or you're depressed or you're frustrated or whatever, I'd say stop everything and go serve somebody. Go serve somebody that doesn't have as many things as you have.
Speaker: Just go serve people and see what happens to to your heart. And a lot of times I feel like in myself, I so i get isolated, i get frustrated, and I forget that it's not about myself.
Speaker: So the more that you can impact other people and see that it's not about yourself, I think the happier you're going to be. I'll leave you with this. So I just got to be able to do a training with a company. This was maybe a week ago. And the training went amazing. And real true story, I got to do it with my sister. And my sister is unbelievable. She rocked this whole day training for this company. It's a design and build company. So there's a lot of components to this company. And our whole I think our whole focus was unity.
Speaker: and to try to have the the design side appreciate the build side and the build side appreciate the design side because they're very different and they're all one company. And how do you do this all in a way that everyone feels like part of a team? So that was the whole training.
Speaker: I get to the end of this and I always want to make sure that people rate the meeting from zero to I'd rather get a root canal, that's zero, to 10 saying this was the best day of my life.
Speaker: which is probably not gonna happen. But I i just wanted him to go around the room and rate it. And the ratings were amazing until we got to this one guy and he rated it a six out of 10, which he was like, I'm just be honest, I think it's a six out of 10. He was on the construction side and he said, i just don't feel like this impacted the way that I do things. Like I didn't learn anything.
Speaker: And my response, and I'm pretty honest, so you're going laugh at this. I was like, you thought you were going to a team building exercise and figure out how to swing a hammer better? Like, I was fascinated by this response, but I actually appreciated his feedback. his kind of number.
Speaker: and And what I took out of that is like when we try to focus on how we can glean or how we can learn more in something that might not be about yourself, how disappointed you actually could be. So I guess that kind of goes along with my go serve other people. It's not about you.
Speaker: It's not being uncommon in this all too common world. And I'll leave it with So there's my podcast. Until next time, go serve somebody and see how it impacts you. Thanks for listening.
Speaker: That's all for this episode brought to you by Uncommon Wealth Partners. Be sure to visit UncommonWealth.com to learn more about our services. Don't miss an episode as we introduce you to inspiring people who are actively pursuing an uncommon life.
