Taking Leaders and Teams to New Heights with Mandy Gill

Judd Shaw: [00:00:00] At 11 years old, I tried to commit suicide. Are some people just simply more resiliently born? Welcome to Behind the Armor, where we deep dive into the heart of what matters. I’m your host, Judd Shaw, adventurer, storyteller, agent of change, and speaker on authenticity and human connection. Join me as we explore the complexities of human connection, featuring theorists, Scientists and speakers, our mission is simple, to inspire you to reclaim your true self and create genuine connections with others.

Judd Shaw: Join me as we lay down our armor and live authentically. Hello you beautiful people and thanks for tuning in. Today I’m speaking with Mandy Gill. After building and scaling one of the world’s most effective behavior change apps, Healthy Habits, Mandy has one of the world’s largest data sets focused on creating sustainable habits, modifying behavior, and maximizing positive results.

Judd Shaw: As a [00:01:00] highly successful female entrepreneur, keynote speaker, Podcast host and ceo. Mandy is also a nationally known media personality Mandy’s commitment to leveling the playing field has been opening the doors for women across the globe Join us as we uncover what’s behind the armor with mandy, you know, I have found During the most difficult times of my life is when my resiliency seems to rise.

Judd Shaw: And I love how you say resiliency appears when your plan disappears. Mandy, welcome to the show.

Mandy Gill: Thank you so much for having me. It’s so fantastic to hear that from outside of my own head, , right? How do I, how do I share that properly? But yeah, thank you. And I’m glad to hear that that’s something that’s resonated with you as well.

Judd Shaw: Oh, and we’re gonna deep [00:02:00] dive on that because it so has, um, you know. I know that you’re coming out with a new book. It’s been like a two year endeavor. And before we get there, I’d love to learn along with the listeners had what really kicked off, right? Not the resume, but what really kicked off becoming a resilient and wellness expert.

Judd Shaw: How did that even start?

Mandy Gill: Oh, you know, um, I’m actually going to go back to the first kind of spot where, uh, I can honestly say that resilience kind of like initiated at my core. And that goes back to, I mean, we can all kind of conversate on where we remember our first memories growing up as children. And, uh, I grew up in an incredibly loving family and extremely loved, you know, And my parents had divorced when I was five and my sister was three.

Mandy Gill: And there was a [00:03:00] moment in time when my parents had separated. They, how would I word this? I felt in my world that nothing could be tougher than that experience. At the age of five, when I just didn’t really didn’t know, like, again, you kind of navigate the world according to your parents direction, and that is what I followed, and that is what, um, they, they did an incredible job with my sister and I, but I still remember that was my first place of feeling resilience was in those moments of recognizing things.

Mandy Gill: Can things get worse than this? If they do, how can I use this as my catalyst to get through some of the hardest points in my life? And that, you know, came through me at 17 that came through me in my twenties, my thirties. And here I am today. So happy to share what I get to because of something we would have looked at as an extreme setback, but really has been the foundation.

Mandy Gill: of where my resiliency originated. [00:04:00]

Judd Shaw: And you have faced some of the most challenging environments on the planet. But I wanted to ask you this as the expert, and I want to give you a little short summary. Let me paint a picture if I could. My parents divorced when I was one. My mother moves in the middle of the night and leaves my father from New Jersey to New Orleans, Louisiana, where then I lived with my My biological brother and my mother remarries and, um, there’s a terrible post divorce relationship between my bios, 10 year, you know, courtroom war to which at 11 years old, I tried to commit suicide and, uh, and then at 12, I had a major health issue in which I inhaled and aspirated a needle and punctured my lung.

Judd Shaw: And then. Uh, I went off and, uh, I told my mom I wanted to live with my father because my brother told me he [00:05:00] wanted to, and I was scared at 13 to lose my brother. So my mother packed up my bags, dropped me off at the airport, and wouldn’t speak to me again for decades. And so then I was like, Oh my God, what did I do?

Judd Shaw: Now I’m in New Jersey living with my father. My brother was too scared to even come because he saw how my mother reacted. And then by the time I get into college, by my first year, I fell in love. With something that made all of this okay, drugs up in from that quick narrative from one to 20. Am I resilient to have gotten through all of these things or by the grace of God?

Judd Shaw: Because I always thought I was the least resilient.

Mandy Gill: Interesting. How would you look at that perspective now?

Judd Shaw: I think I was incredibly resilient. And I love that you asked that question because for so long when things happened or went [00:06:00] wrong, I said, they’re happening to me. Why are they happening at me? Why can’t I be, why do I have a partner in a relationship who isn’t shaken by the same news that I am?

Judd Shaw: Why am I so stressed and dysregulated? And she’s like, well, we’ll figure it out. You know, like, Where’s the difference? Is this is this learned or natural? Tell me what’s going on underneath that.

Mandy Gill: You know, it’s, uh, thank you so much. First of all, for sharing that there is, I know we jumped from one to 20. And there’s so many stories and self reflection and, um, uh, learning lessons, but also self doubt.

Mandy Gill: There’s, there’s so many layers to that. I look at it like an onion, right? We peel back the layers and I look at that example and I think this is a great message for future generations and those that are currently growing. It’s not necessarily, I don’t want to use the idea of playing victim, but I think you know what I mean in that where it’s not looking at it.

Mandy Gill: Right? Like, [00:07:00] why are these things happening to me? And then all of a sudden, why is this happening for me? And I know I could go backwards and say, you know, that was the hardest time in my life where, you know, growing up within that type of atmosphere where, where there was questions and there was, you know, the kids in the classroom and grade three, I remember, you know, someone’s like your parents divorced because of you and you know, they’re ridiculously silly things that you hold on to those,

Judd Shaw: right?

Mandy Gill: That happened for me. I would not be able to stand here and have this interview with you today if I hadn’t had those experiences and I’m standing here today with you and my husband and I just did an ultra marathon over the weekend and it’s one of those things where it’s like nothing ever is perfect and I think we have to remember that right and I know those are two big extremes to jump from but like You just gotta go out and you do these things.

Mandy Gill: Jumping on this interview with you today, would I love to be stretching, doing recovery? Yeah, but like, you find the joy in these [00:08:00] conversations. You find the joy in the moments, and I think it really comes down to gratitude as well, of just saying, we have these experiences because they’re happening for us.

Judd Shaw: We call traumas little T’s and big T’s and my mind just went to wonder if we can call these little R’s and big R’s. Like, if I had these big R’s, loss of connection with my biological parents, not feeling seen, suicide attempt, moving, all of these things, these are some little R’s and big R’s. Does that make me more resilient over time?

Mandy Gill: I think it does, depending on how you choose to react to it, right? Like we

Judd Shaw: were your, your perspective of it.

Mandy Gill: Exactly. And I look at it this way from, um, you know, respond versus react. And I think there’s a lot of instances where we can use that. We can also think of proactive versus reactive. [00:09:00] And so there’s really two paths in these opportunities.

Mandy Gill: And it’s to look at a moment in resiliency and say, Do I want to use this for my benefit or my detriment? So you kind of have two paths to choose from and it’s in your hands.

Speaker 4: Oh, my mind is exploding. I love

Judd Shaw: that. Because for so long, when I was playing victim, When I bought into the, I had lower resilience, I had a harder time to get through it.

Judd Shaw: But then like now when I’m like, this is my story, I own it. And in fact, it’s part of who I am today and what I’m doing in my world. And I, I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t have that. And then my resiliency got shot up.

Mandy Gill: And there’s a lot to say in that where you own it. Like something that you might have been shy to tell people in the past, five, 10, even six months ago, five, 10 years, [00:10:00] maybe even six months ago, the reality is, is that now it’s your story, right?

Mandy Gill: And, and you choose how you want that to play into your life.

Judd Shaw: So not only, not only is resiliency, from what I’m hearing, getting through a challenging or difficult moment, but it actually is like scar tissue or muscle building, it, it, it actually helps you meet the next challenge, you know, and difficulty.

Mandy Gill: Yes, 100%. And I often say it is like building a muscle. Realistically speaking, resiliency is like building a muscle. If you, if you hit one crossroad and you’re in a really challenging time, what you take from those experiences and those lessons learned and just to dive in even into, um, 2017, uh, a team along with myself, an incredible team who helped me execute this, uh, brought out to, The Healthy Habits app.

Mandy Gill: And we look at clients all over the world and we work with them through their moments [00:11:00] of resiliency. And there is a million health habits app, like haps out there, right? Like anybody can access those at your fingertip. But what it comes down to is what I was really interested in is the stories That people tell themselves as to why am I sitting in this?

Mandy Gill: Why am I not changing from these examples? Why am I constantly living the same pattern again and again? And for me, what I looked at from, from a studying standpoint and looking at research is we have those means to change those stories. Uh, one of the things I was told over this weekend while doing the alter race was a thought is a thought and you can change it.

Mandy Gill: And if you really hone into that. We all know it, but are we conscious enough to change it?

Judd Shaw: Right. Right.

Mandy Gill: That’s the question to ask yourself.

Judd Shaw: Right. You are such an amazing human being. You really are. Really, [00:12:00] really. And, um, and so, you know, what helped me through my dark night and my most challenging moment was after I came out of that, I, Thought, could I re reengineer my healing?

Judd Shaw: Could I reverse reengineer it and understand how I got through the most bottom of the bottoms that I, you know, as many dark nights, there was a darker one coming until the cosmic bricks finally got me in line with the universe. But that being said. The connection cure cure standing for conscious awareness, understanding, renewing, and expanding.

Judd Shaw: And the first part of that is the conscious awareness, the understanding of how am I showing up in the world and where I live, work, love, and play. What mass may I be wearing? Why am I armored up? Why am I with somebody true, my real raw, but I can’t be like that with somebody else. Right. [00:13:00] And so that first part is that.

Judd Shaw: That conscious awareness. How can you help a problem that you’re not aware of? And yeah.

Mandy Gill: I was just going to say, and I appreciate you coming out with that, because that is something that I think, um, I always love, uh, back to my broadcasting days, the only way that I could ever remember somebody’s name that came into the studio, whoever we were interviewing at this time, it was the Top 40 Radio Morning Show, was by the first letter of their name, and I would attach it to like, Apple, if it was an A, or, you know, and, and little things like that, and with you using the ability to say, Cure, like, that is, For anybody that’s listening, hold on to that because our brain has so many thoughts going through our heads, you know, at any given second and to hold on to those simple four letters.

Mandy Gill: There’s so much that we can do to change our path as we’re talking about in this exact moment of resiliency and, you know, what we play victim to and what we recognize as an incredible opportunity for us to grow and using those four [00:14:00] letters to be able to navigate that path is really powerful. So I just wanted to segue quickly to say thank you for bringing that out.

Judd Shaw: And I appreciate that. And that’s the, that’s the you and the understanding is in saying, where is the root of this? Where is this coming from? Then renewing that connection first with yourself and then show up that way with others and then expand that connection because the ripple effect is real. So I’m wondering, my framework is built to help you reconnect with your most authentic self and then be, feel free to show that.

Judd Shaw: Real raw genuine version to the world in which you live in so you can thrive. How, how can you show people? Who think they may have low resilience, how to develop it.

Mandy Gill: Oh, great example. Um, I would say the, the first foundation of it is, is believing in yourself. And I think that actually comes down to something even before that, which is clearing out the noise.[00:15:00]

Mandy Gill: We have so much noise that is constantly around us in this world, and it’s not going to get any different. Really, I mean, and it’s not going to get any better. So it really comes down to, to recognizing, you know, where is the noise in our lives that is allowing us to get pulled off of our course from what we genuinely believe in.

Mandy Gill: At our core of what we’re capable of. And so if somebody feels like they have really low resilience, I challenge them to get in the line of what they know that they are most capable of doing. And maybe that they might not have the belief in themselves in this exact moment, because let’s be honest, there’s a lot of things that I do, you know, I’m like, okay, let’s try this, but I’m up for the challenge.

Mandy Gill: How else are we going to develop resiliency if we don’t put ourselves in those challenges?

Mandy Gill: Ah, that’s so good. Where I come

Mandy Gill: in, exactly, with the noise piece, is if you don’t have the awareness, and like you said, the conscious ability to recognize where that noise is. We can’t find that true [00:16:00] self, what we’re really wanting to honor within ourselves.

Mandy Gill: So I hope that helps to answer the question, but I mean, resiliency, it can be built from zero to a hundred in two minutes, but it’s just being aware enough to say, I’m ready to take on the challenge and take on the next step.

Judd Shaw: So you have this thing called the race pace framework, right? The, this is tied into, obviously you’re in ultra marathon run, I mean, extreme, uh, Is, is this where this developed and tell me more about that.

Mandy Gill: Yeah. You know, I, I have to say this is nothing. Uh, I have a lot of incredible mentors to thank for seeing this in me. I, if I could, you know, tell you, I woke up one day eating cereal before run and was like, I want to talk about race pace. I would have thought you were kind of crazy. And really it was those that were closest in my life that were seeing.

Mandy Gill: The preparation that I put into things, the accountability that I looked in for others, the ability to really, [00:17:00] uh, recognize that, that failure, I worded as the first attempt in living

Mandy Gill: and not

Mandy Gill: looking at it as something where we should be fearful of failure. And. It’s a wonderful opportunity that I get to work with so many people in the healthcare system.

Mandy Gill: Sorry, we have dogs in the house. Um, but, uh, I get to see what is these next generations and where we see the holes in the education system is kids are afraid to fail. And I look at that from the standpoint where if I can go out there and let’s say I’m DNF, which is did not finish on a race or whatever it might be.

Mandy Gill: For me, it’s not a stopping stone, right? This is. The next path to go forward. What could I have done differently? How can I prepare differently for next time? And I look at that from a corporate standpoint, being in some of the biggest challenging situations within the corporate world. And it’s the same thing.

Mandy Gill: How do we best prepare ourselves? Who can hold us accountable? How do we avoid burnout? How do we make sure we instill work life balance? And [00:18:00] that comes into the race pay system.

Judd Shaw: I love that, you know, and as parents or caregivers, we need to allow our children to fail forward, you know, to fail safely to, yeah,

Mandy Gill: yeah, definitely.

Judd Shaw: You know, what is, what is the healthy habits app that you created? Um, and, and how does it help?

Mandy Gill: Wonderful. So, uh, the Healthy Habits app, uh, to give you a good laugh actually on it, uh, from my days of doing Top 40 Radio Morning Show co hosting in 2010, I will even go back to, there was an incredible amount of listeners that were always tuning in to hear the next ridiculous athletic adventure that I was up to.

Mandy Gill: Whether it be, you know, leaving the studio to go out and do a 380 pound deadlift or deciding that I wanted to go run up the side of a mountain and do it in this amount of time. And so there was always this genuine interest from listeners. And again, something that I didn’t necessarily notice, but it was engraved in my [00:19:00] core.

Mandy Gill: And so from that, I started to do television segments. For one of the national TV shows out here in Canada. And um, I did 52 every year. So one every single week for six years, uh, came up with them all myself. And within that, you can imagine that viewers and listeners were like, how can this woman help me?

Mandy Gill: And I said, I can’t , I have no idea what you’re talking about. And they’re like, well, if you’re doing these things for yourself, how can you help me? And so I actually started in a Google spreadsheet. And that is what I would do with anybody who was wanting me to help them work towards their goals with healthier habits in their lifestyle.

Mandy Gill: So here’s me sitting at my computer, you know, middle of the night, right before the morning show, I went put 3 a. m. and I’m, you know, putting these goal, um, I will say like paths and steps for people to achieve their goals. And then it came to me in 2014 and I thought this needs to be an

Mandy Gill: app. [00:20:00]

Mandy Gill: And so I developed the app.

Mandy Gill: It came out in 2017 and we work with clients all over the world now, no matter what it be that they’re working to achieve from, you know, healthier lifestyle choices to better nutrition, to fueling themselves to go up the side of Mount Fuji, to recognizing that maybe they’re actually not on a good course and they’ve got 200 plus pounds that they are wanting to finally say goodbye to.

Mandy Gill: Maybe they need better sleep, less screen time, I could go on and on. I always tell people we’ve seen it all and we really have so it comes down to whatever somebody is looking in their core to achieve, we’re there to bring out those healthier habits.

Judd Shaw: You know, Mandy, you have tapped into all of your energy.

Judd Shaw: You are wholehearted girl.

Mandy Gill: I think my mom would say that since the day I was born. She was like, you are just this old wise spirit, but you just go do it all.

Judd Shaw: As an [00:21:00] elite athlete, tell me like, what is the most like insane, like Challenge that you put yourself to like, what’s give me a story.

Mandy Gill: Oh gosh. There’s far too many of them.

Mandy Gill: I, I will ask how much time you have, but I’ll give you one. Um, I would truthfully have to say, uh, my husband and I decided to go to Nepal in 2022 and we decided to climb. The, the most challenging summit in all of the Himalayas. And we always know Everest to be the biggest mountain in the world. And it is, there’s, there’s no doubt about it.

Mandy Gill: But the one that, that is the most challenging technicality wise to climb is called Ama Dablam. And I will also give you a good story behind that. I went to an event and before I even tried to tackle this mountain, I kept walking in and talking to people who are incredible mountaineers. And I was like, yeah, I’m going to climb.

Mandy Gill: I’m a de blam and so quickly, [00:22:00] were they like, what mountain are you climbing? And I’m like, you know, the one it’s, you know, 6, 900 meters high. And they’re like, I’m a de blam. So let’s just say I got put in my place real quickly. I won’t say that one wrong again, but my husband and I had flown out. And, uh, I live at sea level in Vancouver, Canada, and I a, I’m able to, you know, do all the running that I want to from 50 to a hundred kilometer races and, you know, upwards of 6, 000 meters of elevation gain and descent all in one go.

Mandy Gill: I had never worked so hard to climb that level of elevation at a consistent basis. That I got my butt absolutely handed to me. And so that’s why I come to this story is because [00:23:00] it took three weeks to hike in to, um, a Dublin base camp, which sat at about, uh, 5, 000 meters. And over the course of hiking into that, I, I experienced, um, extreme altitude sickness, which is.

Mandy Gill: Headache. You can hear your heartbeat in your ears was my biggest thing. I wasn’t super nauseous, but I did get super nauseous eventually. And so we had gone out there to, you know, really accomplish this goal of climbing Ama Dablam. And I had done the first peak, which was Labuche at 6200 meters high and had come down feeling really, really sick, but was ready to continue onwards to Ama Dablam.

Mandy Gill: Um, and my hardest thing was when we got to the first camp at. Um, and I just knew I couldn’t go on anymore. My resting heart rate when I was sleeping in the tent with 118 beats per minute while I was sleeping. And that right there was like, I looked at my husband and I said, you have to go. And we had agreed that 1 of us wouldn’t go without the other.

Mandy Gill: But I said, you have to [00:24:00] do this. Like, I’m living vicariously through you at this point. I just know I can’t continue. And so, to say goodbye to him going up. And if you look up Ama Dablam, there’s what’s called a surak. And it is a sheet of ice and snow that’s accumulated. And Camp 3 is right under that.

Mandy Gill: sheet of ice and I knew he’d be sleeping at camp three and why I bring this up is because you just have to trust the process and to know he’s got the safety. I love him with all my heart and he’s doing what he loves and I will go back down to base camp and probably sit there and watch his little headlamp go up the rest of the way and he did it.

Mandy Gill: He’s here back safe, um, but nonetheless it was it was one of my biggest challenges both physically and emotionally.

Judd Shaw: Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow. What what’s driven behind the adventure?

Mandy Gill: Oh, life. There’s so much to see. There’s so much [00:25:00] that we don’t get to see when we just, you know, have our blinders on and we’re scrolling on phones or we’re, you know, Constantly distracted.

Mandy Gill: Like, there is a whole world out there. The race that I use as an example to tell you that we ran over on the weekend on Saturday, uh, we ran through forest fire terrain where the fires had ripped through there years ago in southern Okanagan here in Canada. And you could still smell the smell of the fire in the earth.

Mandy Gill: Like, there’s no other way to explain that than going and doing it yourself. So that for me is the love of adventure. There’s nothing that compares.

Judd Shaw: There’s still the fact that as much as I identify as an adventure, I always say adventure, storyteller, an agent of change. And as an adventure, there are still things.

Judd Shaw: That I wouldn’t put myself through because I don’t see that as [00:26:00] an adventure that I’d want to sign up for, for pain and suffering

Judd Shaw: are some people just simply more resiliently born naturally resilient than others. Do you think it’s, there’s a nature component to it?

Mandy Gill: At my core, I’m going to say no. And the reason I say no is because I came from being unable to do a single pushup from my knees. a background of anorexia in my late teens.

Mandy Gill: I was the least, I mean, I played t ball as a five year old in softball, but there was nothing about my environment. My parents are not extreme adventurists. There was not a school that I went to that was full of these opportunities. It was truthfully just the love [00:27:00] of recognizing that there was so much more out there to experience.

Judd Shaw: That is so helpful. And I want to ask a follow up to that because it’s wow, mind blowing right now. I always thought that the David Goggins, the use just were incredibly resilient, which meant I wasn’t because I can’t do a hundred K you know, what I’m walking like, I, I like a four mile nature walk and it feels great, but what I had, what I had compared

Mandy Gill: was

Judd Shaw: that’s resilient.

Judd Shaw: I am not. This Navy seal is resilient. I am not. The Mount Everest climber is resilient. I am not. Right? And so these, these abilities to seek some adventures that may be extreme. I [00:28:00] always had also meant or thought that that meant they were innately just built with resilience to do it. And now hearing you firsthand, I realized that that’s not resiliency.

Judd Shaw: That’s part of what you get off on the drive and the passion and the purpose of it. And like, just like an artist with a canvas, you’re just climbing up, uh, you know, a crazy mountain, but that same artist. And you can both have resiliency, which has nothing to do with the activity itself, but it’s the ability to work through the challenge.

Mandy Gill: You couldn’t have said it better. And thank you for bringing that to context, because I challenge you to recognize the next time that comes up. And I often say comparison steals joy.

Mandy Gill: So if

Mandy Gill: we look at somebody who is incredibly resilient and we’re like, Oh, but that couldn’t be me. That immediately right in that gap, and I learned those from the days of really working [00:29:00] towards CrossFit Games as an individual athlete and on a team.

Mandy Gill: Immediately in those moments when I looked at those examples, comparison stole joy. And, It’s interesting to hear you explain that and I’ll give you context going to this Saturday and I’m so grateful that we’re having a chat today where I can bring up these examples, but, you know, David Goggins is a very common name in households and everybody recognizes the 40 percent rule and, you know, when you think you’re at the end, you’re really only at 40 percent and I have never had an issue stomach wise when it comes to ultra racing.

Mandy Gill: This past Saturday. When I hit 35 kilometers, I had waited 10 minutes too long to eat. That’s how precise when we talk about preparation, when it comes to athleticism and adventure, you have to be really dialed in. I won’t scoot my way around that. There’s a lot of safety to it. There’s a lot of preparation.

Mandy Gill: I’d waited 10 minutes too long of a window and I felt nauseous beyond belief. So where I come from in that is. [00:30:00] My husband and I are doing the Tour de Mont Blanc coming up in June and this is part of our honeymoon. It’s 170 kilometers and it’s through, uh, Switzerland, Italy, and yes, you’re not surprised, and France.

Mandy Gill: And so it’s over 12, 000 meters of elevation and this is my dream as a honeymoon. So thank you for understanding.

Judd Shaw: So wonderful. So wonderful.

Mandy Gill: Forget the umbrella

Speaker 4: drink. I’m going to do this.

Mandy Gill: I should probably just send you a couple of videos along the way when we’re really suffering.

Speaker 4: Definitely. Thousands of them.

Speaker 4: Please.

Mandy Gill: But what I can tell you is it was a huge wake up call for me this past Saturday where I said to myself, Mandy, when you thought that 10 minute window was something that you didn’t need to honor, to have a gel or to have a bit of fuel, like that was actually a detriment for me for the next 60 minutes.

Mandy Gill: My husband, Connor, was in front of me and pacing me towards the end of the finish line, and I was grumpy [00:31:00] beyond belief. And this doesn’t happen often. As you say, I’m, you know, in my core, and I’m doing what I love, and genuinely altar running is what I love, and I was grumpy for the first time. And he videoed it, and it is ridiculous because he’s pretending to be David Goggin.

Mandy Gill: And his comedy is coming out to a tee, and he’s like, We’re out here, and we ate runners for breakfast, like running shoes for breakfast, and he’s trying so hard to make me laugh, and that’s where it comes down to those moments of, I could have gone over to the side and been sick to my stomach type of deal, but we look at those moments as, In my mind, I could say the race sucked, but no, it was a moment of resiliency.

Mandy Gill: There was an epic teaching in it. There was comedy that came out of it. There was connection because I was trying not to laugh because I was feeling so sick, but I was laughing so hard because it’s ridiculous. Like there’s just these underlying little silver clues where we can say. We can choose what path we want to use those towards

Judd Shaw: some of those darkest times [00:32:00] were in our loneliest moments But how much easier?

Judd Shaw: helpful supportive etc etc is Resiliency to have or to show up when you also have human connection

Mandy Gill: people forget that Others want to see you succeed And I’ll repeat that again. People want to see you succeed. If you came to me with a goal, I want to see you succeed. Those are the people you want to surround yourself with, surround yourself with the people who are going to allow you to develop that resiliency and strength

Mandy Gill: to build

Mandy Gill: that muscle to say, Hey, you know what?

Mandy Gill: I know you don’t really want me to check in with you today, but how’s that goal going? I know you don’t like it today, but But this, we need to talk about this, even if it’s just 30 seconds, have those people in your network, choose those people, tell them how frequently you want them to check in with you.

Mandy Gill: There is so much [00:33:00] of resilience that lies in connection.

Judd Shaw: I want the young. Adults and younger generations to hear that message so loud and clear to find your rat pack, find your rats, find the people that will lift you up. Because when you are around people who want to sincerely lift you up, your resiliency will rise with it.

Mandy Gill: There’s no question. It’s inevitable. You’ve got your people behind you. You will see success. I, I don’t want to jump the gun too much because this is something I’m hoping to include in my book. And it’s, it’s a very last minute ad, but I saw it this past Saturday. There was a gentleman who was with an adaptive team.

Mandy Gill: He is, um, from what I understand, fully quadriplegic and he had seven people that pushed him to Through 52 kilometers and 1800 meters of [00:34:00] elevation gain and 1900 meters of descent in the less than eight and a half hours this past Saturday, he had his people around him. He became resilient, even in those moments.

Mandy Gill: And not only did he, so did his team. They probably never thought that they could push someone through that, let alone one person carried him. One person pushed him and they all alternated. Some of them rolled ankles. Some of them, you know, had extreme headaches, but none of that mattered when he got across the finish line with all seven of them holding onto his adaptable wheelchair.

Mandy Gill: I have chills because there was over 400 of us in tears, bawling like little kids for happiness. And that’s where I come back to. Don’t shy away from sharing these big goals and these big challenges you want to put yourself through. Somebody could have looked at him two years ago and said, You have no arms or legs.

Mandy Gill: How will you run this?

Judd Shaw: You know, there goes on that ripple effect. [00:35:00] Yeah. That, that resiliency builds the team to be stronger too. All of those people who completed that race with him were stronger and more resilient because of, because of him.

Mandy Gill: They were, and they were probably the ones with the biggest, well, you know, welled eyes full of tears.

Mandy Gill: I actually read that one of them, and I can’t wait to interview him. He’s never run more than five kilometers. He’s a mountain biker. The only reason he knew the trail, but he just loved the trail. The idea of this, this gentleman’s spirit and speaking about finding comedy in those moments, the gentleman who was being wheeled around like through the entire course and got to experience this, he couldn’t wait to get to the aid stations to have snacks.

Mandy Gill: He said he was doing so much work. He couldn’t wait to get to those aid stations and eat all of the Lay’s chips and drink all the Coca Cola because he was working so hard.

Speaker 4: So [00:36:00]

Mandy Gill: there you go.

Speaker 4: Yes, yes, he’s, he’s the coxswain,

Mandy Gill: he brought everyone together.

Speaker 4: So, you know, uh, tell me about the book. I mean, you’ve been working on it for two years.

Speaker 4: It’s let’s see, you know, you may, you may get this one little thing in, but tell me about the rest of it.

Mandy Gill: Oh, it is fantastic. I, uh, can honestly tell you I have been since last late last night handed over the final review of the manuscript on what is now my third pass. And I had no idea going into this. I have two really close girlfriends in the keynote speaking world.

Mandy Gill: And I remember coming to them at the beginning of 2023 and saying, I can’t wait to put a book out this fall. And they said, Who are you publishing with? I said, I haven’t chosen yet. And they were like, Oh, that won’t come out in just eight to 10

Mandy Gill: months.

Judd Shaw: It’ll

Mandy Gill: come out early 2025. And here we are. Tell me

Judd Shaw: when you get your pub date.

Mandy Gill: Whoa, let’s talk about [00:37:00] resilience. Um, I had to stay that course. I tell ya. And it has been me living what I am teaching in every one of these chapters. And where I come from in it is that. Using the catalyst of perseverance and not being willing to give up on your goal once you really decide it is what you want and having the steps when setbacks arise to be able to conquer through those and to continue on the path forward.

Mandy Gill: And it might even be a better path than you ever imagined. Now, what it comes down to is that. I have continuously told myself I’m not a great writer. And that has been one of my biggest lessons in this experience. And my mom and my dad and my whole family and my husband are like, you’re a good writer.

Mandy Gill: I’m like, yeah, but what if I could have a ghost writer? And I never went the route. I decided it was just going to be all me. And I’ve got an incredible editor, Kendra, who’s been by my side in every part of this process. And. I can’t wait to bring it out into the world [00:38:00] and to see what people are capable of achieving because I so believe in every single one of you who are listening in achieving way more than you ever thought possible.

Judd Shaw: I am so excited. I’m so, I’m so proud in the, like the most respectful, because I, You know, I’ve been working on the book called The Connection Cure, and so I’m there with you. I know that feeling. I know that joy. I even have a children’s picture book series. Some of them have been published called Sterling the Night.

Judd Shaw: Um, yeah, there, there’s Sterling the Night in Nugget the Dragon, Sterling the Night in the Sloan Fall Tournament, and now Sterling Night in The Magic Connection. Yeah, children’s picture books. Okay, I need to get my hands on these tattoos. Thank you. It was all, you know, about my inner child, I think. And so, but it’s developed to help, uh, children socially and emotionally develop.

Judd Shaw: First books about empathy, second books about fairness, and third books about connection. And I always say that the adults and [00:39:00] caregivers that read the books to the children will get the same, if not as much benefit as the kids do, because we adults need to learn those lessons again sometimes, right? Oh,

Mandy Gill: that’s incredible.

Mandy Gill: And where are you in the Connection Cure? This is me trying the tables here, but I am interested.

Judd Shaw: Um, so the book. The, the book is going to be complete in about three weeks. Yeah. I’m, I’m on like the final tweaking and just moving a couple of things around and, and, and then I’ll be looking for, uh, you know, publishing and things of that nature, you know, cause I have this children’s picture book, I don’t know how it fits with this, but I, I’ll have a book and, uh, you know, it really is real and raw Judd.

Judd Shaw: It’s all me. All where it came from, from A to Z and, uh, complete vulnerability and lay it out and hopefully really my intent is that anybody [00:40:00] reading it understands. I’m not coming from a professional, I don’t have a PhD in any of this. I, I have a life experience and my story, uh, if it resonates and my connection cure helps you get unstuck, get authentic.

Judd Shaw: Get connected. Then I’m, I’m happy. I’m, I’m, I’m only here to help.

Mandy Gill: That is. And just from even coming from that space, that’s where, you know, change will be ignited is it’s truthfully lived experience. And I’m really excited to hear that. And a huge congratulations because I know what it’s like to be that close.

Mandy Gill: And I, I have such gratitude for you doing this interview with being that close because for me, my blinders are on and you know, I’m in the bedroom and I’m like, can you bring me some food? Can you take the dogs for a walk? You know, I’m, I’m kind of shutting out the outside world when I’m in that zone. So the fact that you’re here, thank you.

Judd Shaw: Do you have a pub date?

Mandy Gill: Yeah. So we are, we’re looking at, uh, the week potentially of [00:41:00] January 8th and that is, yeah, that’s kind of what we’re working through and it really coincides nicely with the beginning of the year.

Judd Shaw: Do we have a title that we can share yet or no title to share or no title

Mandy Gill: yet? That is going to be in the month of June.

Mandy Gill: We go into title and subtitle.

Judd Shaw: All right. You got to let me know. I want to keep the listeners updated on how to get in, you know, pre order and, and get more about the information. So you’ll have to share it so I can pay it forward.

Mandy Gill: Absolutely. I will. And I would be happy to. Thank you.

Judd Shaw: You know, I, I want to, I want to ask you one last question.

Judd Shaw: And I really, I dive in on all my guests and I asked the very same question and it’s because my guests are like you, wonderful, incredible, you know, impactful people, keynote speakers and book authors and elite runners and doing, and doing [00:42:00] so much for others, really just doing so much for everyone else.

Judd Shaw: How does Mandy? Most authentically connect with herself.

Mandy Gill: I will say the first thing that comes to mind, and for me, it’s through movement in nature. There’s something that happens in those moments for me that is incredibly magical, and it’s not anything that can be planned. I had a girlfriend say to me the other day, she had a, you know, a 10, 000 run and I was like, sorry, what does that mean?

Mandy Gill: And she’s like, I came up with this idea and it generated 10, 000 in my run. And I was like, I can’t say I’ve ever had a 10, 000 run, but, but that is really inspiring. But I know that the things that come to me in those moments are my biggest generators. And I really strongly believe that motion brings emotion.[00:43:00]

Mandy Gill: Oh, I love that.

Mandy Gill: And for me, that is, it can be a really darn good day and I just need to burn off a little bit of energy or I’m like the dog going around the, you know, the dining room table or it’s been a really tough day. And I decide that I’m going to go out and I’m going to move my body because that’s how I need to process these emotions or really tough conversation.

Mandy Gill: Anything along those lines for me, movement, Motion brings emotion and it’s my healing process.

Judd Shaw: You know, for me, I agree. Either I need to get my wiggles out or I need to get grounded. And, and, and, and movement helps actually both.

Mandy Gill: Yeah, you don’t have to do a ton of movement. It can come out either way.

Judd Shaw: You are incredible.

Judd Shaw: I I’ve said it. I really mean it because you are purely you. You are genuine. And, uh, and I can’t thank you enough [00:44:00] with what you have going on with so close to a book that we’re all going to find out about in six months and read, uh, and, and between all your, you know, ultra marathons and challenges, you found.

Judd Shaw: A snippet of your most valuable resource and gave it to me and our listeners today. And on behalf of them and myself, I am so grateful and so thankful for you to come on the show.

Mandy Gill: The feeling goes both ways. And thank you for welcoming me and for holding this space for able to have this conversation.

Mandy Gill: And there’s something so beautiful in connection as you’re very well aware of and exactly why you’re doing this podcast. So thank you for bringing me on.

Judd Shaw: Thanks so much, Mandy. I want to extend my deepest gratitude to you. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please follow us on your favorite platform or share this episode with a friend.

Judd Shaw: You can also follow me on Instagram [00:45:00] at Judge Shaw Official. A special thank you to personal injury law firm, Judge Shaw Injury Law. For their support in helping us bring this podcast to life. Remember friends, authenticity isn’t about being perfect. It’s about being real. It’s about embracing our vulnerabilities, celebrating our strengths and owning our stories.

Judd Shaw: Until next time.