Welcome to EP 055 of the CVD Podcast!!

Birthdays are usually a time to celebrate. For Barbie Garcia, her 27th birthday will be one she never forgets because it changed her life FOREVER.

Barbie was on a boat off the coast of Mexico celebrating her birthday with her friends. Sounds pretty amazing, right!? It was... until the accident.

Barbie told the captain her and a friend wanted to go for a swim. A few minutes later, she jumped into the water and got sucked under the boat while it was still in drive! Her friends lost sight of her and feared for the worst. Barbie was trapped under the boat and the propeller was cutting through her legs!

Somehow, Barbie resurfaced and a friend jumped her to save her. Back on the boat, Barbie was fighting for her life. A panic brought out. Barbie could hear all her friends screaming, but didn't know exactly what was happening. Her life was changed forever!

Six years later, Barbie is thriving! She is proud owner of two businesses and is on Mexico's National Para Surfing team!

In this episode, Barbie gives you an all access pass to that tragic accident and how she's bounced back. Topics she covers:

• Her life before the accident
  • Where she grew up and what she was pursuing
  • How and when she fell in love with surfing
• The TRAGIC accident that changed her life forever
  • How a beautiful and fun party turned into a nightmare
  • The miscommunication with the captain that caused the accident
  • All the GRAPHIC details of the accident itself
    • Being trapped under the boat
    • Resurfacing and seeing blood everywhere
    • An unlikely hero jumping in to grab her and applying a tourniquet
    • Hearing the screams of her friends once back on the boat
    • The process of getting from that boat to the hospital
    • Being in shock and the confusion of losing her leg
• Immediately after the accident
  • Trying to come to terms with the fact that she lost her legs
  • Conversations with her family and the doctors
• Being depressed and not knowing how to move forward
  • ALL the questions that were constantly circling in her brain
  • The fear and anxiety about not living a normal life or doing things she loved to do
  • The stigma of being an amputee in Mexico and how she dealt with that
• How she bounced back
  • How a friend bringing her to beach started to change everything
  • Finding "adaptive surfing" and falling in love with it
  • How she became part of the National Para Surfing Team of Mexico

Where you can find and follow Barbie online:

• Website: https://lapetitepoulainblog.wordpress.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/barbie_garcia_ritchie/
• Her Community: https://nas.io/the-big-wave-with-barbie-garcia

Please consider leaving a review if you enjoyed this episode! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We'd love to hear what you think and really appreciate your support ❤️

Welcome to EP 054 of the CVD Podcast!!

Have you ever heard of a professional best friend? Neither had I... until I met Cassie Heller!

She's built a brand called My Friend Cassie in which she is a professional best friend and a life and wellness coach helping creators, entrepreneurs, and young professionals reach their HOTTEST potential without burning out or giving up. Wow!

"Behind the scenes, I'm just a punny little lady with big dreams and a tall personality."

Cassie is beaming full of amazing energy, positive, and puns! What's so interesting about her journey is that she totally rejected the idea of a life coach. After securing her dream job right out of college, she realized just two years in that this was NOT for her. She started making videos online because she loved listening and helping others. She did NOT want to be "that person" spewing a bunch of life advice when in her early 20s.

So, she started the brand My Friend Cassie and then pursued other jobs.

Two jobs, one drug dealer boyfriend, two to three years of addiction, an emergency surgery, and one shaved head later... Cassie found herself coming BACK to her brand. It was calling her. Pulling her in. She decided to REALLY go after it... and she's never turned back.

In this episode, Cassie talks about:

• Securing her dream job right our of college
  • What is was and how excited she was for the opportunity
  • How she quickly learned this was NOT what she was expecting
• Creating My Friend Cassie on YouTube
  • Why she started the channel and what she wanted to accomplish
• Rejecting the idea of becoming a "life coach"
  • Why that term was so cringy and why she wanted to avoid it
• How a stint in property management and an emergency spine surgery helped her understand what was important in life
  • How her employer put her in a really tight situation during her recovery
• Why she decided to go all in with coaching
  • How she opened her mind to what "life coach" could actually be for her
  • The moment she realized SHE was her own golden ticket
• How to unblock yourself and where to start

Where you can find and follow Cassie online:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/myfriendcassie
• Instagram: @myfriendcassie
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cassieheller/

Please consider leaving a review if you enjoyed this episode! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We'd love to hear what you think and really appreciate your support ❤️

Welcome to EP 053 of the CVD Podcast!!

I know you might be thinking, "how does someone get involved in human trafficking THREE times!? Let alone once! She must have been putting herself in those situations."

Now... our brains do this. We jump to conclusions with partial information. And this is wonderful in many circumstances. Other times, we need to push that judgement or conclusion to the side so we can be open to the full story... this is one of those times.

Amanda Blackwood is an absolutely amazing person who has a story unlike any I have ever heard before. Yes, she's survived human trafficking three different times, and you'll learn that every single time was completely different. The most incredible thing about Amanda and her story, is that she's taken everything she's experienced to help others. She has a podcast called Survivors - Stories of Hope Live On, she is a speaker, and she has created multiple trauma workbooks to empower others on their healing journey.

In this open, honest, transparent conversation, Amanda doesn't hold anything back when detailing her experiences. They are very graphic, so please pause the episode if you need to.

In this episode, Amanda talks about:

• What human trafficking ACTUALLY is (and what it isn't)
  • How this compares to what we see in movies and shows
  • Some alarming statistics about human trafficking
• Her three experiences surviving human trafficking
  • How a trip to Las Vegas at 18 turned into a nightmare
    • The moment she realized she had to make a decision to survive
  • What "we'll take you in until you're back on your feet" really meant
    • How a couple took advantage of Amanda when she was at her lowest
  • A 7-year relationship ending in absolute disaster
    • How the idea of a dream wedding led to being trapped in a foreign country
• How she pieced her life back together after escaping from Scotland
  • How the trafficker from Scotland continued to control her life
  • The moment she decided to speak out about her story
• How she's healed from your trauma and the work she's doing to help others
  • The process in which she gained back control of her life
  • The trauma books, speaking, and podcasting empowering others to heal through their own trauma
    
    

Where you can find Amanda and her work online:

• Podcasts:
  • Survivors - Stories of Hope Live On
  • Growth from Darkness
• Websites:
  • Deatiled Pieces (personal) | Growth from Darkness (business)
• Social Media:
  • Facebook | Instagram | LinkedIn | Twitter | TikTok

Please consider leaving a review if you enjoyed this episode! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We'd love to hear what you think and really appreciate your support ❤️