A CHAMPION'S JOURNEY Kevan "Flea" Hueftle

[00:00:00] Today on the AMPD UP211 Podcast, US Paralympic Athlete Rancher and Father Kevin Hifley. In 2005, Kevin, also known as Flea, was involved in a hunting accident which led to an amputation of his left leg below the knee. Consequently, Flea struggled with alcoholism due

[00:00:20] to the tragic loss of his limb and the constant pain he suffered as an amputee. Through perseverance and grit, Flea decided to defy the odds and would eventually compete on the US track and

[00:00:32] field teams and metal as an elite Paralympic athlete. Flea is a beacon of hope for anyone struggling with limb loss or addiction. It is our pleasure to introduce Kevin, Flea Hifley. Kevin is so good to see you. Welcome to the show.

[00:01:00] Hey, I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on. Oh, it's an absolute pleasure and of course, I have been following you and doing lots of show prep on your journey as an athlete and, you know, I have to say, you are the first

[00:01:18] amputee, not just via podcast but the first amputee I have met that lost a limb due to a hunting accident. Yep. So, yeah, that was a, that was a day and is this something that you hear? I mean,

[00:01:36] I've never been involved in hunting. It's not very common. It happens once in a while but you know, my mind was kind of a freak deal like anything else and just, you know, wasn't a gunstall, just had everything had a line up just perfect and I've seen the

[00:01:52] how it lined up that day and here I am now. So, yeah, I want to understand better what happened exactly. So, you're below the knee amputee and from what I remember reading, there was a series of surgeries that led to the amputation via the original accident but

[00:02:15] I think where I'm a little fuzzy is what happened like the day that you, let's just say at the day that you were shot. Yeah, so that day was a Sunday afternoon. Me and my father

[00:02:28] actually took an old women little part. We're going to make into a deer stands for that upcoming hunting season and I went to go scout for deer and top of this hill we have actually

[00:02:36] just a half mile south where I actually live now and got on top of this hill and I saw a coyote and I've grabbed my gun on a hammy, you know hundreds of times in my life and grabbed

[00:02:46] the gun into the passenger seat and went across the need to see a certain moment step was going to step out of the vehicle on the running board and somewhere between the swing here and the

[00:02:54] swing outside the gun actually goes went off on itself. When it went off it went in right like a bad at an inch above my ankle bone on my left foot and it never really actually came out.

[00:03:06] I had a hole on the inside of my foot the size of a fist on the inside of like the palm of my foot underneath it but technically the bullet never came out. It just kind of exploded

[00:03:17] and so I was by myself when it happened I was 20 years old. This is before the cell phone days that actually had good service so I didn't have a cell phone with me. We have on the ranch we had

[00:03:27] two-way radios business bands will be call them that we used for ranch and farming and they have like a 30 to a mile range usually a little more than that once in a while and so I don't know

[00:03:37] how long it took from point A to point B of me actually calling but I know the bullet the gumman off I nearly didn't fill pain the second I felt a throbbing and my ears were ringing from

[00:03:47] the gunshot and I looked down and I was wondering rope or lace up boots and I undid the top of my boot of the laces of my boot literally fell off my foot. Every seam in the boot I set for the top

[00:04:04] not had blown apart so my foot went from being normally this size to my foot was about that big. It literally blew every seam on the inside of my boot all the stitching was blown apart it was

[00:04:14] blowing all the way to the front of my boot. The insule was actually we found later like 20 feet away and blew that far out. I took my sock off shoved it in the whole I had on the inside of my foot

[00:04:26] and got on the two are the business man radios actually got a hold of my grandma who got a hold of my uncle who called my parents and they came and picked me up and the old pick up

[00:04:37] they called the obvious obviously they called 911 in between there somewhere and they were mean this is the four road signs too we didn't have so it was just you know people you just told them

[00:04:46] where you were at pretty much so dad came and picked me up with mom he threw me in the pick up took me on about a mile and a half down the highway where the EMT's actually meant me I went

[00:04:57] to be local hospital if it was at Nebraska which they were able to give me painkillers but until that point it was pretty unbearable. I remember the ride the EMT's were holding my foot and I was

[00:05:09] very vividly remember the sound on bone on bone because my foot was just doing this even though she was holding it it was just you could hear the grinding of everything on the inside of my foot and I've never

[00:05:20] they was top two or three pains I've had in my entire life and that was you know pretty insane but we got to close that where they actually gave me some more a finger which let me calm down they started

[00:05:31] doing some pictures of it. Topped at doctors here and there figured out that wasn't a whole lot place that would be able to accommodate what I had going off my foot ended up flying me in the helicopter

[00:05:41] to Omaha Nebraska to the medicine or Omaha. I think 10 days are around there in the hospital had like three or four surgeries right away just they actually wanted to amputate it that night

[00:05:53] well that night yeah that was the question that I was going to ask you was what was the well you know because when I think about what you're describing how do you salvage that situation

[00:06:06] and I would have thought okay it's got to go you know almost like a horrific trauma that someone might experience like an auto accidents or something of that nature and how many Surgery Subsequent Surgery did you have before amputation and you're saying initially they wanted to amputate was

[00:06:31] was there some feeling from family that no no no we oh me okay so you were like not at all yeah we're gonna figure this out we're gonna figure this out I was like no I was like hell no

[00:06:41] I was like there's not like I was running track and carnivore the time that you and K at a small college like I was running track I wasn't athlete like you couldn't have you couldn't have made

[00:06:49] you couldn't get me a million dollars that night to come my foot off you could have like I was very successful high school athlete I was only a sophomore at this point in time and in college like

[00:07:00] you couldn't have yeah you couldn't have paid me to a to have a cut off that night you know yeah you're running your ass off you're running your ass off you're running your ass off so you're like

[00:07:11] wait a minute this is not happening exactly someone needs to figure out how we're gonna fix this basically yep and what did they say to you what was what was the how was that received

[00:07:24] well they knew my situation they knew that was that running track and carnivore they knew all these little things about me and they actually didn't as well I'm very I mean I don't those 10

[00:07:35] days I almost don't remember anything other I was on so many drugs those those entire 10 days but what they've kind of told me is they said that's fine it's your foot not ours like we can always do

[00:07:43] that we can't always bring it back so the first time I had a surgery they permissioned to clean the whole wound out it wasn't like they were trying to fix anything the first actual about three

[00:07:52] surgeries was just they were literally laying my foot all the way open I like my x-rays my foot was a Christmas tree I had a strap no that went all the way to my pinky toe under my skin so

[00:08:03] they had to lay all that open to actually dig all the pieces of metal out and fold it back over and then they actually sewed it back shut but even when they sewed it back shut I didn't have

[00:08:13] enough mass there left I was missing bones my heel as a size like a dime like it was tiny I had enough that they put too long like eight inch rods in my heel to hold that in and then I had the

[00:08:24] rickerset you know to hold inside of my foot in and then actually they I still had you could see straight through my whole foot when I left the hospital like you can see the bullet where it went through

[00:08:34] and where it exits because I didn't have enough mass to sew back shut but what I did have was a wound back and that's my figure out how amazing those damn machines are because holy crap um this was

[00:08:46] October 23rd 2005 by January 13 2006 I was walking on my foot already and I wasn't running or doing that's probably literally limping around in my foot that was almost 85 90% already healed probably my head was like one spot that was never actually going to heal I guess all the way

[00:09:03] it was kind of a really dead spot in there but the wound back itself was almost more pain than I actually had when I had my my accident because if you're a bit around to move back you know anything about

[00:09:14] yeah I've got some with uh wound backs with you know chronic care of wounds so when something's not healing they'll usually employ a wound back so my deal was I had a sponge that was about that

[00:09:27] long that went closer through my foot and I had the rip that out every single time that you know the skin was in the muscle is literally grown to every couple days and talk about that was

[00:09:36] the most ridiculous pain I've ever had like that was worse I think actually didn't accident just because I knew was coming I knew the second day showed up how bad it was gonna hurt but as far as the

[00:09:46] wound back wise like I healed really fast I had great blood flow I had everything down there I had no feeling from the ankle down and they had my foot fused so I was never going to be able to

[00:09:55] move my foot hardly I mean it literally even today my mind as phantom sensations and everything my foot I only could move about an inch and a half in my mind like which is crazy it's not I

[00:10:04] don't get the full range of motion anymore but I was on it it healed I did some honey non it still did honey non it like I was still being me and we have our local bulls sale my uncle and my grandpa had a

[00:10:16] bulls sale that was helped with and I had to go to help with the bulls so I tried to help with the bulls sale and it just wasn't happening um the pain was there but it wasn't like the pain was stopped

[00:10:27] me was just a mobility I was never gonna be a mobile person I was never gonna be a person that could do the things that I knew I wanted to do in this life and so I called up the doctor did my

[00:10:36] surgery I said hey what's the protocol for an application and she as well there's you know like 30 day waiting you kind of had to prep you in this and that make sure you don't change your mind

[00:10:44] so on March 30th 2006 is when I went in and got the old the old leg chopped off seven half inches from the ground yeah that's uh that is a part of the story I did not know was that you

[00:10:55] actually reached a point in your healing where you went back to some normal daily activities certainly not fully mobile no definitely not yeah definitely not running um no but yours through sheer will

[00:11:11] and let's you know let's call it what it is you know you kind of kind of kind of stubborn to say no yeah you're not doing this um what because I'm trying to picture in my mind obviously when something

[00:11:27] like that happens and there is a considerable amount of tissue loss okay where there's just you know tissue for lack of a better phrase it's just you know muscle and skin and you know all

[00:11:41] all of this stuff that makes up the organic matter that is human when that goes away it doesn't always come back it doesn't regenerate completely you sort of get a modified version

[00:11:54] of your foot I would think you know yep when you did heal um yeah so in your mind it was almost an exercise in would you say if anyone's gonna decide that this is going it's gonna be me

[00:12:13] for sure i mean i always said that i was glad that i'm the one that shot myself and i was glad that i'm the one that decided at that point in time to advocate like i couldn't imagine

[00:12:21] somebody else still in the guilt that their whole life of having an accident towards me and so i'm really glad that it was actually you know my own fault and i actually glad that i waited long enough

[00:12:30] to make a decision that i knew what it was never gonna be a foot that i that i wanted or never could you know do any of the things that i'm doing to this day with the foot i had so um yeah March 3 2006

[00:12:42] with me we cut it off and i was lucky enough to have my accident was so as below like where they amputated was above the wound for sure so i have the i had such a clean cut for an

[00:12:52] amputation like i have good stitching there's no you know it was that's the gods in that it's so my stump is very pressing i of course i went through stages of like stores and this and that

[00:13:03] obviously but like as far as the bob my stump and you know healing and fan and pain and fan sensation like i am very lucky when it comes to those guards i think that's a really good point

[00:13:13] because very often i will you know spend time with amputees that are a result of trauma and what i mean by that is there in an emergent situation very similar to yourself however

[00:13:26] you had the injury in your foot whereas they may have an injury in uh you know an upper part of that extremity and then the residual limb ends up uh being challenging in the prosthesis sense

[00:13:42] where you know it's it either needs a series of revision surgeries or you know people end up with you know extra skin they end up with you know sort of this this reformation process

[00:13:58] that occurs with residual limbs i am also very blessed in that regard that when i did have my amputation the surgeon said believe it or not you're lucky in the sense that we can do a very clean

[00:14:15] job on you and we can make sure that the limb that we leave you with has a very good chance of acclimating to a prosthesis and all let's face i mean you know i've seen video of you

[00:14:31] running um let's face it uh you do well with a prosthesis so that doesn't take it doesn't take a genesis ago it doesn't take a genesis ago damn that guy's fast you know yeah so it wasn't like that though

[00:14:48] it took years and years to bring to get to that point i am the last like seven and a half years but yeah i'm very i mean the legs i have now on more i'm at now i'm i'm i'm not even really an amputee to be honest

[00:14:59] like it's literally a foot like it just the fit i have so it's just yeah so it's i can't complain at all about i mean this the accident of course horribleness and that but what shaped my life to the things

[00:15:10] i'm gonna do now is one of the absolute best days of my entire life for sure yeah no i you know it's still a way either but no i i hear you and and i i'll echo that a bit because

[00:15:24] someone will say to me do you always know you're wearing it and and honestly um i do have entire days you know thank thankfully that i don't i don't realize i'm wearing it um mine isn't

[00:15:41] i've left mine on i think like 18 hours one and one day and didn't take it off of one like i literally it's part of me so mine more mostly is summertime in Nebraska humid 110 degrees i

[00:15:51] got to sweat out of it other not i really don't ever worry about it so right right and that i think comes from conditioning i think it comes from your focus level i think it comes from the various

[00:16:04] muscles that you develop around your residual limb so so much of of all those other working parts all those all those other moving parts are critical to our mobility as amputees i want to talk a little bit about your residual limb the version of your limb after amputation

[00:16:29] when you when you first let's let's say started becoming active again versus now and you said that was 2006 right yep okay and um you've been uh and you know i we are going to

[00:16:47] you know reverse back to some of the struggles you went through but you're saying over the last like six or seven years have probably been the most active for you correct yeah so i got

[00:16:57] so over in 15 i've been an active since since pretty much January 1st of 17 i've been active ever since yep okay so the version of your limb let's say it you know in 15 16 versus now how much

[00:17:13] change have you seen in your residual limb between then and now so in 16 i was on a sprint what i got in 2006 it was the original cheetah literally in 2006 went to carnivorous i got it remade into a socket that actually fit me still didn't fit the greatest though

[00:17:36] when i first competed i was in eight ply socks um in competition in LA so it was a horrible fit for sprinting sprinting is all about direct contact you had everything tight and neat and it wasn't

[00:17:46] a fit when i flew out to LA so the first on arena at uh game is called the um the angel city games i got the i have a person um named Nick still well who's actually the owner with regus woods of the

[00:18:00] never say never foundation and may hooked me up with a brand new foot um a new sprint foot um which this is the part i'm getting up with my stump because this changed my life forever so they find

[00:18:11] me out they told me to go to see Greg Davidson in Seattle Washington um he's doing some amazing state of the art things and a lot of people are doing he goes we'll fly you fly yourself out there he

[00:18:21] has a guest house you can stay in he'll make you uh new legs for pretty much nothing like you literally get a flight out there it will take take the leg with you that you have the sprint like you

[00:18:30] have and you have potential to be very very fast i said awesome didn't know i was getting myself to into you know obviously i've been through legs how many years that takes weeks and months

[00:18:38] of being in the test sockets in this and that and blah blah blah they you know just can't fit right don't fit right and you're frustrated and everything and so i didn't have you know the times i was

[00:18:48] not caught some of it was because of pain i mean i never fit i would you know maybe where my leg got those point in times for ten minutes at a time i have to take it off for five minutes because i just

[00:18:56] you know sores and you know how bad legs just fit horrible horrible yep so i get to see I don't watch in tonight's show python a Sunday and i get there in my Monday morning like right

[00:19:05] nearly and this is no shit i wasn't a test soccer i think in his office for like seven and a half minutes like this is no joke like i was in a test socket for like ten minutes um he's a has a

[00:19:16] voice that it feels amazing he starts making me so Greg doesn't uh direct lamination and as the news and his career is no nuts he puts your sprint legs or your normal legs on the back of your

[00:19:26] socket just by just by carbon fiber yep okay so i have no notes nothing there so this is actually the original like a mini in seventeen still um so i was in a test socket of course and he does

[00:19:39] removable inner socket as well so there's a little more cushion there plus the gel liner i have you know and i was like very didn't trust anybody at this point in time i got it he made me three legs

[00:19:49] and four days he made me two sprint legs and in every day leg and four days from start to finish which is incredible like the guys literally changed my life forever he saw some potential me that

[00:20:00] actually put me into one of his prototype sprint legs that he developed to myself and let me try it out and this is a point i'm getting to my original limb from seventeen till now um i don't have any

[00:20:11] place socks on this is a leg you made me in seventeen so i have not so my leg literally from seventeen till now i'm probably the and in seventeen i was a little heavier um when i was not the

[00:20:22] hallca is almost almost 200 pounds and i cut a lot away to one six and i'm in my bulk back up non like 172 174 right now but my residual limb the most all were on this on hot 20 days i'll put

[00:20:34] one place sock on so i'm literally in a leg that fits like i mean it's like a glove like i couldn't answer anything better in mind and my spirit likes to be exactly the same way um they are

[00:20:44] just like part of me i just wanted to see it reasons i'm so successful is because it is a glove it is like putting a skin type glove on my stump and it just fits perfect so yeah and that very

[00:20:54] lissia you you know i appreciate you sharing that because so often folks will will ask me well you know i see these you know these paralympic guys these triathlon guys and you know

[00:21:10] how do i accomplish that and my answer is always the same which is a lot of it is about finding the recipe finding the secret sauce you know being willing to push yourself into those spaces

[00:21:27] network advocate for yourself to the point where you make the right connection um you know with someone that understands what your fitness goals are and i you know and i'm talking about like

[00:21:41] average walk-a-life people like myself because you know my uh my socket is actually very similar to yours it's a it's a single-struck design that's there there's you know there's no post it's

[00:21:56] you know my my my socket just kind of dangles there and um you know i had a custom foot made so me getting to do the things that i want to do which certainly aren't you know anywhere in the

[00:22:10] physicality lane that you're in but still wanting to reach my own personal fitness goals and do the activities that are so important to me i was wearing you know a lot of wrong

[00:22:25] likes for a while too oh yeah and it's frustrating i have a haul like yeah it is because when i was from i was i was in some oyster foot you know for seven years of my life i was literally breaking

[00:22:39] like shattering the heels and toes off every single month like the foot i have now it's just it's an actual it's a it's a sprint flicks it's like a cheetah just set up different with a heel on it

[00:22:49] i've never broken anything on it since in 2017 like it's literally the best it's an athletic foot made for everyday use which that's what people should be in the first place i can number one thing amputees you wrong they're entirely as if they don't hold their prosthesis accountable 100% they

[00:23:04] don't think it's supposed to fit right and i i truly believe that if you they think oh i they did all this work they put all this time and effort in it i have to just make it work as a

[00:23:15] hundred percent incorrect yeah if you're not fitting right if you're not if you're having pain and it's not you know if you go in there in your health so if you go in there with stores in this

[00:23:23] and that you gotta let stuff feel i understand that but if you go in there and you're a healthy stump or at least the healthiest you can get it and you're still like an extra not mobile

[00:23:32] something's wrong you have to change prostitists i mean this is your life like and that's part of the problem i had over the years i had a couple that legs that didn't fit right and i

[00:23:41] didn't say anything and so i have was dealing with all depression of knowing i could be a better person not being able to do things you want to do and drinking was white my escape was that was

[00:23:51] my escape was you know pain i was in pain i mean so when i say Greg saved my life i he literally like i got sober before that but he's kept me sober because i've had zero i mean it's been amazing

[00:24:03] and so i just think yeah we just got to keep you you know i always think that right young people that have the pro you don't have any application there was like what does it mean what what what

[00:24:12] do i need to know need to keep your process accountable that's what you need to know you need to know that it should fit right it's very it's very good advice um you know i i was with one of the larger

[00:24:25] you know clinics let's call it yeah um when i started my journey and i did get a lot of answers that didn't make sense it was well yeah that's just how it is or yeah absolutely you know

[00:24:39] well you're you're you're just going to be in pain sometimes or you know well kind of like you mentioned well you're only going to be able to wear it a certain amount of time you know per day

[00:24:52] i was crazy anxious to get back to work full time i live a very active lifestyle i love to travel it's a big thing for me all of those things seemed completely out of my orbit and

[00:25:09] it all boiled down to the same thing which you're mentioning and i appreciate your transparency in saying if you don't demand the best you don't get the best it's just how it is and you and you

[00:25:22] you have to push to get the things that you need and i went through you know all of the skin breakdown i went through wound care i went through you know all kinds of you know abscess this and

[00:25:37] sore that and yes i kept asking questions making calls researching and um i'm in a similar situation i i found the right prostitist his name's David Rodder and he has yeah most most

[00:25:58] athletes do yeah we know i've met him i like talk i went to i went to a camp in Texas okay and uh his name was brought up a lot down there was that see usually see i was um 30 years old

[00:26:12] I got sober so i went down there as people you know used to do the sprinting younger and they would do the triathons later while i was starting to sprint at 30 years old and they're talking about

[00:26:20] you're doing things a little backwards i said yeah i'm been that way my whole entire life so his name is brought up and people about the leg i was on so yep for sure yeah so um i want to talk a

[00:26:31] little bit more about that period in your life fortunately for for our purposes today and i think for others to find inspiration you know through your story um you went through you know a dark

[00:26:47] period of your life and yep you you've you know been very beautiful and allowing people to understand you know your battles with alcohol and you know how that you know affected your life

[00:27:04] and i you know i i appreciate that because very often people in those situations and i know a few they're looking for that beacon of hope they're looking for you know something to give them

[00:27:19] an idea of how to navigate those difficulties in their life so walk me through for the audience walk me through how all of that sort of started um yeah where were you i mean were you someone

[00:27:38] that had any kind of struggle with alcohol before your amputation or was this something that just sort of arrived due to your circumstance so i mean before i drink in college and i partied

[00:27:52] and it was more of a fun thing more than an necessity and obviously as soon as i amputation i thought i was going to be better i thought i was going to be there's going to be a six all you know it's

[00:28:00] going to fix my whole life because i had the issue that's going to be better and that wasn't the case you know i had legs i didn't fit and wounds i didn't heal and you know my life wasn't perfect the

[00:28:10] second i got the imputation and so mentally i was not in a great place the entire time and when you're in pain a lot of time look for any ally you can to be not in pain and not being your own head and that was

[00:28:21] alcohol to me like i had i had i had prescription padded my in my foot i could have got percussed and oxypone ever i wanted to and i just and i did abuse in months and a while but now call was

[00:28:30] what i was what i what i like i craved like it started out just partying even more more i went to a big party school at u and k's we were to say you can't spell drunk or flunk without

[00:28:39] u and k like you know that was part of it and uh and uh then it just kind of progressed to i went to transfer to a two year eye college partying down there i was really good at partying i was very

[00:28:51] good at drinking um like i had a very high tolerance and then you know even then it's like my alcohol or my just in college like you know there's you know because there's plenty of people

[00:29:00] I know now that did that in college at our now call it's now graduated from college and i got home and never really stopped i wasn't like the drop down drunk but i was the guy that could drink

[00:29:09] 30 beers the entire day just because i had to just sustain myself just to be um a live i guess just to you know deal with the pain and deal with the anxiety like i still say to this a day like

[00:29:21] i would rather get up and front and i still the same way i would rather get up and front a thousand people and tell my story and tell people about how i've screwed up doing this

[00:29:30] this and this and how i've messed up and how i was a horrible person this point in time then i would maybe sometimes call it the tire shop that gives me anxiety but doing this does not

[00:29:39] and so i looked that was bad that was me back then everything gave me anxiety and i was depressed 24 seven so i looking for any escape i could and i started the and then it started at

[00:29:48] the point where it was just routine you get up you have two beers just because it made you you know two beers was a perfect amount that you weren't drunk you weren't whatever you just felt great

[00:29:58] and then every hour you have two more beers every hour if i was gonna go to a tonic i'd drink three beers and three miles i was gonna be around people for next hour and i couldn't drink like

[00:30:05] i just knew my was more just necessity to keep myself alive i felt like you know i still obviously went out and had way too much fun sometimes and i got you know black this and that but most of

[00:30:15] mine was just maintenance is what mine was yeah and i was doing you consider yourself would you say or consider yourself at that time you were a functioning alcoholic oh yeah yep for sure functioning alcoholic yes but like i said i i still made horrible decisions

[00:30:33] even though i wasn't maybe drunk all time i probably i got a DUI and i believe almost almost three times over the legal limit i was the only reason i i didn't pass the test was because

[00:30:44] my eyes were twitching back like i couldn't pass the i test like i almost passed the sprite test as an amputee obviously one leg it is perfect for me so i could stay on that for forever

[00:30:52] and i didn't even flunk the walking test like so my choice i'm trying to test yes my whole entire life yes and so i knew this thing i got pulled over i was going to go to jail but you

[00:31:04] know but yeah i love one of the lowest points in my life i've wrecked a vehicle another point you know and when you start looking back at the times where i was an idiot i was the time

[00:31:15] is that i had my kids with me or my son has never actually seen me drinking drop now called my entire life i'm very proud of that my daughter did so times you know i've drive around checking

[00:31:25] cows drinking you know casually with people is not and i had been drinking the entire time before that how much fun idiot i was you know anything could have happened you know something could have

[00:31:33] happened to her i would ever forget myself so yeah you know those things you look back on that you get emotional because you know i was an idiot there's no two ways of matter like i was a

[00:31:41] dumbass for everything he meant that that was a good decision you know and as a man you know you don't talk about your feelings you don't talk about the problems you had so you bought everything up inside when you

[00:31:51] you know depression anxiety pain all those things stacked on top each other i had to do something and that alcohol was the point that the medicine that i chose um and it was the you know there's

[00:32:03] a bad choice what i'm not gonna you know i'm not gonna mince words and say uh yeah you know Kevin you know you're a fuck up you're this you're that it's when you go through

[00:32:17] something like what you've been through when when we deal with the loss of a limb you're in the prime of your life your full of dreams you're you're an athlete okay

[00:32:32] your uh your body is is this temple and you treated as such and you perform and you were lie you know on those legs and the ability to push through you know those competitive boundaries

[00:32:49] and suddenly all of it seems to have been ripped away from you someone basically yeah it's like something just shows up when dances oh by the way all of that is over yeah it's over you know

[00:33:07] because when i was in high school like i didn't drink in high school hardly at all like i was all about sports i mean i was football basketball track like i was the guy that go to parties and hang out

[00:33:16] but i did not hardly drink in high school so for me to go from that to where i was at now it was un- unheard of for me to be doing that person be to person i was um and i truly believe in my my if i

[00:33:28] was a sober 15 i'm probably not here right now i'm probably i'm probably dead i'm probably escalated something else because i was escalating from beer to vodka to you know to i mean i was escalating

[00:33:38] from beer to hard liquor as i you know i progressed and sure um so there's not a doubt my mind that you know i would i know i would be i'd be divorced for sure and i probably would be dead at this point in time

[00:33:49] what what do you uh what would you cite specifically or what what set of circumstances do you feel was the turning point what when did that when did that become the uh this needs to

[00:34:02] this needs to change or you know what what happened you know you know did i before i was at a cattle pinning and used this at our county fair and we won i was supposed to be sober at this

[00:34:12] point in time but i was hiding drinking from my family um i drank um didn't have any plans to stop i didn't have any we had to go to a wedding in Kansas City the next day and i didn't have anything

[00:34:24] uh hit or anything but there are anything for the ride down there didn't i was out like i drink everything night before so we drove the can of the city didn't drink that on the way down there get down there and

[00:34:33] hang it out the pool there was people out and i didn't drink that day and it's like i went the first day and i don't know how long and years with that a drink and i'm like huh well i can do at least one day

[00:34:44] and then the next day was a way and we just it snowballed like there was no there was no like in my mind i'm gonna be sober to rest of my life like i wasn't thinking that far ahead it was like i took this day

[00:34:54] and then it was this day and next thing i know i was a month sober and then i was a two months sober and then i was three months and then i was half a year that i had my years of variety i've never been any

[00:35:04] AA meetings i've never did anything like that the first year i didn't even start working out the first year hardly it was just me understanding that i can be sober like i can do this without alcohol in my life

[00:35:17] and i truly truly believe that i was so tired of all of the lies all of the figure not if i'm using a credit card today or cash or this dead in cards like you so there's not three

[00:35:29] days in a row backed up of me buying alcohol i was just it's a job to be in alcohol you have to be it's a job it's a full-time job to figure all the lies out and how to do everything and like it was

[00:35:39] exhausting to be in alcohol it and like i just couldn't do it anymore like i wasn't to point out one to even be pot or be a speaker at this point in time or be a name or

[00:35:49] absolutely like i just wanted to be sober and like the first like i said it was the first year and a pretty much it just me being sober my August 7th, 2015 is when i got sober um and then

[00:36:03] i started training December 30th 31st 2016 the first of my reign in over 10 years is when i went to the current Nebraska got my leg a new my old leg redone my reign for the first

[00:36:14] time in 10 years so so your your ex-osted you're like i'm i'm just sick and tired of this i'm i'm just done with this whole thing this parade yeah this parade multiple things yeah

[00:36:30] yeah and and i'm an athlete and i'm not doing the things that you know i should be doing and now you begin to think okay i i need to compete again i need to feel what that's like

[00:36:45] and what challenges did you face in let's call it now we've turned the page that come back the comeback begins yep so first what does it look like yeah so first challenge was an old leg

[00:37:01] that was it's like i was driving i was supposed to be in a race car i was like a Toyota Camry like the start with like i was in an outdated leg that really short of a carola

[00:37:11] well let's yeah there you go so i was already in a leg that's you know let's 10 years out dated you know a 10 year old leg 2006 and i'm trying to compete in that um i'm training

[00:37:20] on my own pretty much i when i head out the LA i get like 8 and 600 to 100 years in nation like my time is working great i've actually placed four from the four hundred so what are like there's

[00:37:31] only five people in it no i placed thirty to four hundred actually got home with a metal at national's that year um and was it in great shape you have a skinny but i wasn't strong

[00:37:40] i uh well got the new legs from Greg that's when i'm kind of everything kind of amped up i got the better connections of people like third you know Jared Wallace who is an

[00:37:49] amazing athlete um world record holder in the hundred who now is long jumping like crazy he reached out kind of became became friends and i didn't know how fast i was going to be until you know

[00:37:59] six eight months later but it turned out that i wanted something that i've been sitting on a bar stool talking about for my entire life like collection of pair limits going oh i could do that

[00:38:08] or i could you know i can do those things or i could have been that person and i'm sitting in there and i've all this regret build up inside of me and there's one of the feelings that if you

[00:38:16] want fuel for yourself it's thing about the past and how in my prime of my athletic days you know 20 to 30 years old i was drunk the entire time so now i'm starting this at 30 years old trying

[00:38:27] to compete with these 20 year olds and there's no marks excuses inside of me anymore like i don't have an excuse left in me if i don't do some it's my own fault from their hair on out it's

[00:38:35] not like oh you didn't or some age treated me wrong or this have that or i didn't do it it's if i don't put the work in and i don't put the time in i'm not going to make it my first

[00:38:44] dream we just making t-nus say i just wanted to wear that red white and blue and proved to myself that i could do this for all the years that i was an idiot and i was an asshole so training

[00:38:55] nons i mean i'm talking just farm stupid farm things as well like right put salt mineral mineral with 50 pound bags and i would park 50 feet away and i would carry them on both

[00:39:05] shoulders just to walk over there and back you know i would do things that would make that gave me the edge over just lifting weights and running you know in my head like i was going to have no

[00:39:14] excuses this entire time and two thousand so i trained from from seventeen to nineteen i trained nonstop and two thousand nineteen is when the the turn i got another new prosthetics from Greg and my times just are drop in plummeting like it was like the first couple

[00:39:33] years i didn't have a whole lot of times i weren't getting faster like i would you know how to i was a four i had a hundred and high school on college i'm out of springer i had to learn

[00:39:40] how to do the hundred two hundred i didn't use blocks my entire life until two thousand seventeen so now you're talking to the guy that was a middle distance runner has to learn how to sprint now

[00:39:49] and so that whole thing was i still know how to sprint i'm still learning to this day had to be a sprinter like to be honest and so well twenty nineteen twenty nineteen definitely you weren't didn't seem to be uh with someone that didn't know how to sprint

[00:40:05] well that's that's what i found learned how to sprint like i was i was decent twenty nineteen like this is the funny part is like i went to i got the work hard enough to for team USA to be

[00:40:14] on my radar um and qualifying times i put in for like tracks i went back and ran track at u and k not on the team but as as an unantathed athlete all their track me to let me run it all of them

[00:40:26] i ran some pretty damn fast times um at u and k and one of the worst track meets was one of the best track means i didn't understand how this to get sanctioned man i didn't know what that

[00:40:38] man i thought you could turn times and after and then get it sanctioned come to find out i ran a twenty two nine seven two thousand nineteen and it didn't count because i didn't have it sanctioned that would have been a standard b time

[00:40:49] back then i would have arp jas nineteen sorry and i would have been on team USA in jasn eighteen for a full year for actually made it because i did not have it in count so i knew i was capable

[00:41:00] got an email and i call from um team USA instead hey you've been selected to go to run the parapama american games and lemma paru um now this is how an athlete's mind is screwed up because

[00:41:11] at my in my mind i hadn't earned it yet i had to understand your qualifying time officially enough it unofficially i did but i wasn't on team USA yet but i had to get kind of put that aside

[00:41:22] because my gold been made three years of training nonstop hard you know hours and hours the brasko winners time away from my family like all of it finally come together and uh the funniest part ever

[00:41:36] and there's a reason that it happened to us i got the big suitcase comes in a huge box all your team USA year oh wow it showed up on august seven two thousand nineteen which is my sober date

[00:41:46] it literally shows up on my sober date four years later um the ups man guy drops it off and we I literally ball with him like he'd known my story he'd see me out there running an gravel and

[00:41:57] stupid weather and you know my shorty shorts and all the things stupid things that i do to give myself confidence and he's like what is it i'm like oh my god i know exactly what this is i

[00:42:05] had to open up and then i had to seal it back up my parent my kids weren't there my wife wasn't there to see it yet so i had to put it back in this box so they didn't even know that i'd opened it yet

[00:42:15] and that was an amazing amazing day um it because i i mean at that point in time and it got worse but i sacrificed so much at that point in time the train i did you know not people had no idea who it was

[00:42:28] we'll talk about things uh things becoming you know like that full circle kind of situation where you you had you know pulled yourself out of the grips of addiction you committed yourself to training again competing dreaming you know of representing your country in the parallel

[00:42:52] um and you made it happen you wielded it to happen so yeah to have that moment even that private moment before you shared it with your family to go oh my gosh i can't believe this is happening

[00:43:05] this is kism it this is my destiny that i am i am doing things that you know it's because it's all come full circle this is my moment and now i'm you know i'm i'm i'm gonna metal in

[00:43:21] 2019 you know yep and then so to be that person to know what i came from and to know that you know my daughter's looking up to me now before she came like look up to me she's on the track with

[00:43:34] me helping me run like she's you know four years old she's on the track running with me on you know just to compete with me and she's having a blast doing it and having her see your dad

[00:43:43] probably succeed in knowing that my wife stuck with me the entire time i was in alcoholics i've been my wife in 17 and our 7 jz and 7 sorry my that's when i primary started being not

[00:43:52] holocaust who i've been said it so she never met me sober so she never really seemed me i mean that was you know obviously i hit it and it wasn't a party stage but like to have somebody

[00:43:59] that you love so much stay stay with you even though through all it ups and downs and marriages that you have without alcohol is a problem let alone having that come in between us was you know there's

[00:44:09] no reason she should probably should stay with me um to have all those things finally just be at your feet and know you open that huge blue suitcase up and you have all that red light blue gear on

[00:44:17] there and you get a you know get your passport and you get a flight out into Lima Peru and compete and you know i get down there um never traveled like this my life before so i'm very much a virgin when

[00:44:27] it comes with the traveling bug and i don't know what i'm doing and i'm just glad the time change wasn't too bad so i was pretty easy to so contact with people and still be in touch

[00:44:35] when i was missing my family crazy but i ended up um getting second place in the 200 meter dash which is actually my better race i didn't run a very good race down there and then the 100 meter

[00:44:45] dash which isn't my best race i ended up winning from start to finish and uh come home with the gold and you know to work so hard for something and actually be to know you earn something and

[00:44:57] that was cool but the cool part when you're standing on the stage and you're with three people and they're all from team to say and you're in the middle of them and you're the reason why the

[00:45:05] national anthem is being played oh yeah it's one of the coolest moments of my entire life i don't know if i ever can that feeling um that's out of mind right i was trying on team f for sure

[00:45:15] you just you don't even feel like you're it's so surreal that you did something so amazing that they're playing a national anthem not for anybody else they're playing it just for you and their

[00:45:24] whole country's behind you as a sporting you is it's an unreal feeling unreal yeah you're you're you're you're probably levitating at that point you know one of the things that that i really

[00:45:33] admire about your story um and you're you're very humble in this regard and i appreciate it you've talked extensively about your family and your support system and i meet i meet so many

[00:45:52] brand new baby bird ampetties all the time people will reach out to me you know audience members will reach out to me and they will always you know ask me you know what's what do you consider to be

[00:46:09] one of the most important components of navigating the loss of a limb and my answer is always the same which is yeah what is your support system like because without a very solid support system

[00:46:26] you're gonna struggle i don't care yeah how determined you are i don't care what your fitness level is whether you're you're really active or you're really sedentary as long as you have people around you

[00:46:41] that will guide support cheer you on when you're struggling cheer you on when you're winning you have to have that in place because none of this works without other people and and um you seem

[00:47:00] to be one of those uh people that i recognize and admire because you're you're you're very quick to point out um that so much of that has played a role you know in your success your success not only

[00:47:16] as an athlete but also as a father or as a husband you know all of it and you know i'll let you talk i mean i i very much appreciate that because you know so often people get kind of focused on

[00:47:30] themselves a little bit oh yeah you know like i would i did and it's you're you're very quick to be like hey i needed all these people yeah and i'm not easy to live with to start with let alone an

[00:47:41] amputee and it's uh alcoholic and then now trying to go for team you know say like you know it wasn't always easy for my wife family to support me because i was all over the place like that's beyond it's like

[00:47:50] i am a lot like i understand that i am not just a normal person either so for them to stick with me and it wasn't always you know roses and rainbows you know there is dark times of what we've had were

[00:48:02] you know i was pushing this so hard i kind of lost lost track of other things in my life at one point in time like it's all like hair about for a while and things other things did suffer and looking

[00:48:12] back now i mean i would i would obviously change things how i did a little things back then but knowing my wife and kids and now they support me now we got over those hums and over those little hills we

[00:48:22] had to get over of them there are mostly mountains i guess more the hills but you know vayna's nowhere i'm at now and i would never never be here without that support system like my dad who was

[00:48:33] 65 at the time um he had a pretty much come out of retirement a little bit and started doing more work around around the ranch for me to train two hours a day you know things that i was

[00:48:42] normally doing for you know for the last couple years with him i said well i can't do i'm doing everything now but i need you to pick up some slack on some of these things so he picked the slack

[00:48:51] up which is amazing let me you know train in the middle like i would always train the brask of the middle of the heat because all our track needs seem like there is wind in there in Arizona or

[00:48:59] California or wherever they're at like you'd run during the heat so i'd always train them when i clock in the brask was 110 degrees in the summer time so you know i had to miss a couple

[00:49:08] hours of the day for for lifting and for running so without the support of you know my my father my because we have a family ranch so i got the support of that and my mom and my my wife and a colon

[00:49:18] then the kids like it's amazing still this data seed them coming to gym was me and see the passionate my kids have for sports now because of you know they know if you work hard as

[00:49:28] something that you can achieve it you know and i'm very much living proof of that that you know no matter what your situation is if you throw out the excuses throughout uh you know i wish is or

[00:49:38] that's not my problem or we just had to decide this conversation my daughter just like the other day about i told her what excuses are like and she goes what i said they're all like but holes and they all

[00:49:48] stink and we had to go over this thing about how you know if you want something in this life you have to go for it like and it doesn't matter what other people are going to say about it or it doesn't

[00:49:58] matter what they're doing like you can control what you can control and everything else is just noise so we've locked up the noise and just you know live for that moment as well too which i'm getting

[00:50:07] better at as well as living each day even though my goals are so big still enjoying every single day of those goals to make it there but i think that that's very representative of what i would

[00:50:18] consider to be your legacy as a person someone who let's say is human is not perfect but is uh someone that has achieved great things and has never allowed any of those limitations or

[00:50:35] any of those mistakes because that's how you characterize them again which i feel is very is very humble um you still have overcome you know those things and continue to reflect on those moments in your

[00:50:50] life as hey i'm not i wouldn't be who i am or i wouldn't be where i am had i not gone through what i went through yeah you know and i i always say you know i'm at this particular moment

[00:51:08] and i'm in this particular space as of as a human being because of everything that's happened before this um what what would you uh what would you say is your back your next goal if that's what

[00:51:23] you want to call it how would you describe it yeah so i've got a few um because i'm gonna look at the person i am right now and a couple years not even recognize that person again because i'm gonna

[00:51:31] grow so much for them because i just have yeah so the main goal again is a few months ago i've been hitting the weight room ever since well so let's we got back of a little bit in

[00:51:42] 2019 i ran a leaving Peru then i went to the world championships and to buy it did pretty well there i placed fourth overall on the 100 and 200 meter dash in the world um missed third place by

[00:51:52] 0.03 seconds um it was i remember being too yeah pretty hard we're getting to lose by you know faster than a blink of an eye um so then i had nothing but training you know at this point in time

[00:52:06] you know i turned the i'm 35 i'm already older than most of their competitors but i'm still doing pretty well of course covid hits in 2020 i was in the best shape of my life the best springy shape of my life

[00:52:19] the best workout shape of my life 2020 so i had a full year of training with nothing no meets nothing you know July 2021 trials for the pair Olympics in Tokyo Japan what the new goal after my team

[00:52:33] to say was was to make Tokyo Japan and not just make Tokyo Japan when i was going into the trials i was rolling in practices i was smoking the standard times i was literally like

[00:52:46] i've so i've never been more confident in my entire life i wasn't just gonna make team to say that 200 meter dash but i was gonna go to Tokyo i was gonna make waves in Tokyo like i was gonna

[00:52:55] come home from a town of 400 people this small town red-handed farm was gonna go to the pair of Olympics he was gonna make noise like he was gonna come home with a medal and i had every

[00:53:03] intention i i worked so hard there was no excuses in the last year my life i went through some injuries i got over them things were i mean i was coming into those trials a Minnesota top top shape

[00:53:14] the most confidence i'd ever have get the trials um on monday flew up there and then Tuesday morning i'm doing just regular block starts i did a thousand times in my life i'm 35 40 meters out and i'll

[00:53:25] sudden some of my ankle my my good don't ankle i have my good ankle decides it's done and we didn't know at the point in time what it was exactly was the long story short what to the trainers

[00:53:37] we end up spending that entire night forming a insole out of plastic to try to get myself to support my ankle um what had happened was i ended up tearing my posterior tribunal tendon and

[00:53:50] spring legament shattered both of them they're completely torn and two pieces um you can't run on a foot like that you can't do anything you can't walk on a foot like that so this was Tuesday after noon

[00:54:02] i was non-weight bearing until Friday and Saturday when my 100 meter dash to 200 meter dash was and the trainer that i went to see she knows me very very well um d is her name and we did it wasn't

[00:54:16] even the question if i was in a try to compete on Friday and Saturday i had trained for four and a half years for one track meet my entire life none of the other track meet from now i would have

[00:54:23] given lemma to buy whatever i'd throw them all back i was here for one track meet from trials to make the parallel on pigs and my ankle is not going to sound like i'm doing that

[00:54:34] but i say my ankle wouldn't even work you could hold my ankle up and you could it would drop i couldn't even i physically could not move my ankle so we did what we did best you take me up

[00:54:43] permuch made it stiff and solid and i ran the 100 meter dash on Friday afternoon crushed into the track meet stretched did like 125 meter stride i couldn't even hardly the pain was unbearable um it couldn't even didn't work i was limp you like crazy

[00:54:58] go to the starting blocks i ended up placing 50 entire nation uh with no ankle and i actually ran faster than i ran and when i won lemma peru i ran faster and trials with no ankle i found

[00:55:10] much my train has progressed up until this time 200 meter dash comes along and i had no doubt my mind wasn't going to make the team but i still this is my race and i had more confidence that i

[00:55:20] could just you know compete and be alright um i didn't even get to do a strider warm up for this one i hurt so bad i didn't my stretching i get in the blocks and of course the commentators don't

[00:55:32] know that i'm hurt so they're talking about how i didn't make it in 100 meter dash i'm not going to make Tokyo unless i do something here and there's a video of me taking like a block start

[00:55:40] and i'm taking four or five steps out and my ankle doesn't even i almost fall it hurts so bad like on life on tv uh nobody of acumen who i was hurt as if my family like coach i didn't tell anybody about it

[00:55:51] i competed i finished the i got done and i literally kissed a track because i thought that was last time i was ever given out of my entire life like i thought i was done um i knew the ankle was just

[00:56:01] shot it was i didn't know how bad it was at the time but it was i knew it was really bad so in a pebbin surgery in august at 2021 um but they had to remove the whole tendon replaced with

[00:56:13] a different ones so my spring leg went back up they had to arch my foot with a cadaver bone and cutting my heel all the way off moving over with a full centimeter screwed it back in underneath

[00:56:22] so my ankle was pretty much it was all reconstructing i mean it was completely read on ankle i have was a horrible nothing left in it and she told me she made me a rancher's

[00:56:33] ankle but not a sprinter's ankle and for the first year and a half i kind of believe that i wasn't gonna really blow it up i didn't only want her to begin and this and that and then about six

[00:56:43] eight months ago i was just working out for fun i started getting a really really strong like this whole entire time when i have my ankle surgery i was lifting i was bulky i got the 194 i got i got really

[00:56:54] really strong and then i cut back down to kind of like 180s and i was still really really strong and i kind of just talked to my my old coach and i said hey can you sort of make some

[00:57:02] just tracks you know workout weightlifting workouts he's like sure whatever couple months of doing those and i was doing my deadlift workout and something got an it's gotten to me and i i deadlifted 500 pounds i mean i was like holy shit like i just

[00:57:17] deadlifted 500 pounds at 174 pounds i'm like this is insane i'm like i wonder what would happen if i started a few workouts in the track so i started doing a few workouts here and there

[00:57:28] has of January 12 i'm full blown training again for the pair of lipics and it pairs so it's gonna be a short turnaround but yeah i'm sprinting three or four times a week right now

[00:57:39] i'm lifting five times a week right now like i am full blown you know into training mode right now so my that's my goal is the pair is 2024 again but my ultimate ultimate goal that's the goal but

[00:57:53] i'm so much in the speaking right now and sharing my story and traveling around and talking to high school's colleges whoever will listen to me that's my i like thing my main focus is

[00:58:03] that but it's not it kind of got turned a little bit to the working out part of it right now because i have just that i have a short turnaround to July but i would give all the work

[00:58:12] the running away if i knew i could do something he used to speak inside of it but i was giving speeches and i was talking about going off to your dreams i feel like a bit of a hypocrite on stage talking

[00:58:22] about going off to your dreams i'm out of what and you know talking about you know don't like anything stop in this entire world knowing that was not training for the pair of lipics

[00:58:30] and knowing that was this close to making it and i didn't get it i was like kind of a piffy on stage like even if i don't i have even if i do not so i'm 38 right now i'm well past my prime of running

[00:58:43] i'm in the best shape of my life though i'm the strongest i've ever been i'm still definitely definitely dead lifting 500 pounds i just box squad 400 pounds the other day for reps

[00:58:51] i have never been stronger my entire life i'm not fast yet again i'm told to heavy i got to cut down a little bit but all the technique is still there i don't have to peek and

[00:59:01] tell July like i know we have a plane with my coach exactly what you know to get there and so i know that i want to capable of but it doesn't the in-result doesn't matter for me for

[00:59:12] Paris if i work my tail off i know that i gave it everything i have i'm okay with not making it's not fast enough but i'm not okay with not making because i got injured i'm not okay with that

[00:59:21] mindset of knowing that i could should have what i could have i if i get there to trials my get blown out of the water that is perfectly fine with me i'm still putting everything into it

[00:59:30] it's gonna be one more hell of a story to me to tell on stage to kids and to tell i'm not you know go off to your dreams because i'm living proof like i don't want to throw it that you

[00:59:40] you can do everything you want this life you just had it takes time and work and quidics you know no more excuses like and the speaking thing needs so much to me because i know when i had

[00:59:49] that you know speakers in high school or that would come to your that talk over you and they didn't i didn't learn anything from them you know my story is a little dark in places i'm very honest with

[00:59:58] me everybody about how um i was this not great person where i am that now and how much a hard work it takes and i'm not sure could code any of that but i can actually see their eyes

[01:00:09] lied up and when i'm talking about you know because i was bullied in high school and you know when elementary for having red hair and gap teeth and big glasses and so i know that side but then

[01:00:18] but i get the high school when i was a jock and i was on you know always um sports teams and i turned into a bully part of the time like i've seen both sides of it so i know what it feels like to

[01:00:27] be both sides of that person and if i can help you know i still what's the best way to get a hold of you for uh speaking engagements how do you how do you put people reach out so um instagram on

[01:00:38] that fleetspeaks fl e a sp a ks my here on the shirt um right now i'm working on my EPK my electronic uh kit right now and my website are being built as we speak but if you want

[01:00:49] to reach out there on instagram or at fleetspeaks at gmail.com is my email as well that's that's where i'm at right now and i'm i will say this i'm very raw when it comes to my speaking

[01:01:02] but i always tell people that i will never be this cheap as i am right now for speaking because in a few years i have very big plans i will never be this cheap ever again just so people knows

[01:01:11] so basically i'm out of pairs oh yes that's the see you know how it works so um i've got programs i'm doing and so the the speaking thing kind of had to run the back burner a little but

[01:01:22] i'm still traveling as much i can and doing that because i love that more than training to be honest i love walking out of a high school the high i have knowing that i helped at a 500 people of

[01:01:34] 20 of them if i'm one of them got something out of it then it was my whole life has been worth it to help other people for sure and so if i can help them through the things that they've

[01:01:43] been through in their lives and i can you know deal with it and i i've dealt with it and i can be honest about it and i can change their lives as well like and i have a lot to learn about speaking i

[01:01:52] talk really really fast i know all these things about me is that i know i have to work on to be a better speaker and then for the first time i'm being honest with you honestly if you're honest with

[01:01:59] yourself about these things and know you're not perfect it's so much easier to change and it is to be oh i'm just i'm good like i'm not good at these things yet but i'm going to be that's why i said

[01:02:07] i'll never be this cheap ever again so i think your uh i think your energy is infectious i think that's a big part of europeal especially as a speaker and i can move around and i work the entire

[01:02:21] floor of a gym usually when i'm when i'm the third speaker you do um so here's the thing we're all going to be watching um parent paris twenty twenty four everyone's got their eye you know on you

[01:02:36] i know there's going to be great things regardless of that outcome because yeah that seems to be how you're programmed as a person please reach out to Kevin if you're looking for um you know

[01:02:51] a bargain phase of his of his speaking engagements um i so appreciate your story it's incredibly inspirational and i'll be honest Kevin i i feel like so so much of you know who you are and where

[01:03:09] things are going like this is only the beginning and i'm looking forward to to following you as i have thus far uh you know and i will i i will reach out and and you know once once you get into those

[01:03:25] those higher tiers of you know uh one of those world renown speaking engagement people hopefully you'll still take my call for sure but you know um thank you you know Kevin Hifley

[01:03:43] we will be watching and excited about what's to come i so appreciate you being here today and sharing everything about your story i kind of feel like we only scratched the surface but um yeah

[01:03:56] isn't that crazy yeah it is and and i appreciate you i appreciate your energy and and what you brought to the show and i i think it's going to help a lot of people um in so many different aspects whether

[01:04:09] that be coming back from addiction um you know acclimating to uh becoming an amputee reaching their goals pursuing their dreams Kevin Hifley thank you my name is Rick Bancowski this is the

[01:04:23] Amped up to 11 podcast i want to wish everyone health and happiness and we will see you next time