Podcast Transcription

Donnie: This is how I should sit.

Melina: That’s exactly how you should sit and not this. Do you hear how much better you sound?

Donnie: Because sitting the way I was before looked very lazy.

Melina: Right. See, there you go

Donnie: You can say that again.

Melina: Welcome to “Flippin’ Off,” a purpose-driven podcast about flipping houses and making a difference. Well, hello everybody. Melina Boswell here, founder of New Wealth Advisors Club or also known as NWAC. Today in the studio with me I have a very special friend, a very special person. His name is Donnie Edison. Say hello to everybody, Donnie.

Donnie: Hello out there. I haven’t met you yet, but I probably love you.

Melina: Yes, you guys. So, for all you listeners out there, you know, one of the things that I’m probably the most passionate about is people. And I love people and I love their stories, I love their journey. And one of the things that I am the most grateful for in my organization is that I have the opportunity to come across people from all walks of life, all experiences of life. And I take it very seriously and I count it a privilege and an honor to have certain people that I get the pleasure to meet and learn their stories. And the more I get to know them, I believe that I live out the mission of the club. New Wealth Advisors Club is a group of people committed to empower and encourage all people to realize their core purpose in life. So that’s what today is. Today is me getting the opportunity to introduce you to Donnie, who is a club member. Came to the club earlier, let’s see, last year. And the more I got to know him, we just had this immediate bond, immediate connection because he’s a survivor. He is a guy who is strong and courageous and there is no victim in him. He is all victor, not victim, and those are the words and those are the descriptions and the type of people that really move me and that’s who I know Donnie to be. So, I’m just going to have a conversation with him today so you get to hear his story. So Donnie, why don’t you maybe start from the beginning, you know, when your life changed because you were a pretty average guy.

Donnie: Yeah. Well, I’ve always been pretty average. You know, I got Cs all through school. That was until the stroke. But let’s start back at 2006. Okay, up until 2006 through high school and through my 20s and halfway through my 30s, I had a girlfriend a lot. I often had a girlfriend and I met a young lady in 2006 and I wanted to make sure that she wasn’t just gonna be another girlfriend. So I was her friend for a year before we started dating and then I actually asked her to be my girlfriend like we did back in the ’80s.

Melina: In the good old days.

Donnie: We dated for a year and then we got married. A year after we got married, we bought a home. Wow, that was exciting. And August of 2008, we bought a house. August of 2009, sorry. One month later, I was building a fire pit in my backyard. So I had a pallet full of cinderblocks that I was building with, but after a while, I couldn’t carry them any longer. My left arm was really numb and useless. So I went inside to my wife and I said, we need to go to the doctor. There’s something wrong. So we go to urgent care at Kaiser. The doctor gives me a couple of tests. I have no use in my left hand. I couldn’t squeeze his hand. I was only 36 years old. What could this be? He says, “It’s brachial neuritis I think.” He sends me to x-ray. I come back, he says, “Yes, I was right. It’s brachial neuritis.” I later find out brachial neuritis cannot be detected on an x-ray, but that’s whatever, that doesn’t matter now. So I just said to him, “Can I have a sling for my left arm because I have to go to work tonight.” So while my arm is in the sling, I said, “Could this be a stroke? But at 36 years old, that’s not too common, I guess.” So he shoos me out of the office saying, “You’re too young, you’re too young.” The next day I woke up, walked out to the living room, fell on my face, got up, fell down three more times. My wife came out and said, “What are you doing?” “I don’t know.” So we got up and I said, “Just get the chair from the office that has wheels on it. Take me to the car.” So she did that. I came home six weeks later. Now I’m missing 95% of the right side of my brain from a stroke that I did have at 36. And where things changed, well, we could say that’s when things changed. But that happened. I couldn’t change that. So that first day when I was in the rehab hospital for physical therapy, because I’m missing half of my brain, there’s gonna be a lot of problems, I can remember complaining the entire day that by the end of the day I asked myself out loud, I was in a wheelchair and I said, “Donnie, do you feel any better tonight than you did this morning about the situation?” And I answered myself. I said, “No.” So then I made a decision at that moment that complaining and being negative about the situation wasn’t gonna get me anywhere and that I was going to have to be positive if I was going to get through this. I was going to have to work harder than I’d ever worked in my life for anything. But being a newlywed and just having a new home, I couldn’t just lie there and complain and give up, so this seemed like the obvious decision to make. So the next day when nurses would walk by me and say, “How are you doing?” “Oh, I’m excellent.” And then they’re responding, “They’re good.” And I’m thinking, “How are they good and I’m excellent?” Well, it’s in my mind. I have to play this role now. I have to put that in my mind because I’m not going to get through it any other way. Now we’re at 10 years later. On my 10 year anniversary from my stroke, I went down to Laguna Beach and I swam in the ocean and that was huge for me to be able to do something like that when I was once told I’d probably never walk again.

Melina: So wait, so you are a defier of odds. You are the guy who says, they said, “Oh, you’re gonna be in a wheelchair for the rest of your life.” Yeah? That was the prognosis.

Donnie: Yes. “You know, you’re probably never gonna walk again. You’re probably not going to have a normal life.” That’s scary when you’re 36 and you just got married.

Melina: Yeah, of course.

Donnie: But I didn’t want to see myself… I didn’t want anybody feeling sorry for me, feeling bad. “Oh, poor, Donnie.” You know? I didn’t want that so I just knew I was going to have to work really hard. And so I like to think that that’s what I’ve done up to this point.

Melina: So Donnie, I have a question. Who in your life taught you the power of your mind and the power of your thoughts?

Donnie: That’s a great question and I’m scouring my brain right now for the answer to that question and I landed on myself. My grandpa did a lot of the raising of me. He was a great man and I’ll talk about him a little later, I hope. But I’ve just always, I feel like I raised myself in some sense because my mom was a single mom and so I just kinda did what I wanted at home.

Melina: Well, that was…we were latchkey kids. That’s what we did.

Donnie: And so I survived that and so I’ve always had, you know, the ability to make decisions when I had to make decisions and try to make the right one. And so getting through this, it’s just part of life.

Melina: I think it’s just so interesting that you had the sense to say, “Whoa, if I don’t…” Like to ask yourself that question, you know, “Do I feel better about the situation tonight than I did this morning? And the answer is, no. So who has the power to change that? Me. So I’m going to change it.” That’s pretty remarkable. It makes me say and think to myself, you know, we talked about the mission statement and how we want people to realize their core purpose in life. Like what if your core purpose in life was this exact thing? Because if you somehow instinctively knew that the way you change your thoughts, the way you change your mind actually will change your physical body and then, therefore, change your life, that’s remarkable to me, like remarkable. Like nobody came in, and sat there, and had this conversation with you and said, “Now Donnie, you need to change your mindset. You need to blah, blah, blah,” and they started…you just asked yourself the question, answered the question, and then made a decision. That makes you so special and so extraordinary.

Donnie: Well, thank you. And what’s interesting, what I just heard you say right there, what would have been weird is if they would’ve sent a psychiatrist in the room and said that to me, I probably would’ve sent him out saying, “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” or something. I got through that by myself because I just knew I didn’t want to be miserable because I felt misery in my soul when I couldn’t move my left arm, when I couldn’t walk, barely holding on to a parallel bar. These are things, you know, how am I gonna get through this life? Somebody has to help me shower, or somebody has to help me do everything at this point. So it can be very miserable if I allow it to, and I didn’t want to be miserable. It’s that simple. It really is.

Melina: So okay. That’s true. Well, there’s nothing miserable about you.

Donnie: It’s like we have a choice and I didn’t…this is one thing, this is one statement I just have to get out. Let me get it out right now.

Melina: Please.

Donnie: I didn’t choose the stroke, just like many people don’t choose the bad things that happen to them. The good news is we get to choose how we respond to it. So my response was gonna be everything. I couldn’t change what had already happened, but I could change my path the way I went about getting through it. And that was totally up to me. And so that’s why I did what I did.

Melina: That is the message. That is it.

Donnie: It’s just that easy. Like I don’t know any other way to say it. I really don’t, you know.

Melina: Well, because there isn’t any other way because you know what? It’s simple but it’s not easy. Yeah?

Donnie: Exactly. And something that me and Melina have in common is that idea, you know, life is not easy, but it’s simple. We got to do it. If we have the idea, if we know what to do, just show me how. It doesn’t matter how hard it is. I got through college statistics with a half a brain, that wasn’t easy, but I went to the tutor three days a week to make sure that I got through it. So that’s what I mean. What do I have to do? It’s not going to be easy, but the process is in front of me. I know what to do. Just show me how and I’ll do it, whatever it takes.

Melina: So, Donnie, what is your inspiration every day? Do you wake up, do you have like a…you wake up every morning and do you have a thought process? Do you have a regimen? Do you have a routine, what you do? Like how do you…? Do you have just… Is it thoughts? Is it meditation? Is it prayer? What is it?

Donnie: It’s a multitude of things. I get up, I have to have a routine and that means I’m getting older, right? I’m 46 now and so it’s like every morning, the alarm goes off at 6:00. I don’t have a job right now besides the business that I just started. And so I get up at 6 a.m. every morning, have my breakfast, take my walk, walk, you know, one to three, four or five miles, however, I feel that morning and that’s all getting me ready for something much bigger.

Melina: Well, let’s talk about that then because it’s probably a perfect transition. So at some point within the last, because your 10-year anniversary was in 2019.

Donnie: September 18th,

Melina: September 18th, 2019. And I feel like I met you right before that. Is that correct? Right before.

Donnie: Yeah, because we spoke about me going down to the Laguna to swim and I was so excited.

Melina: I was like… I think that’s when I decided that you were my hero and when you said, “Oh, this is what I’m going to do on my 10th anniversary of my stroke.” Because the thing that’s interesting about you is if somebody didn’t know you had a stroke, you didn’t tell them, they wouldn’t know. You would not know that you had a stroke. Everything about you is, and I hate to use this word, normal, but you know, it’s not obvious that you had a stroke. So in the last 10 years, can you maybe just maybe highlight the most important things? I think a lot of people would want to know what happened with your marriage.

Donnie: I had a morning when I woke up and was trying to talk to my wife and she didn’t seem the same, like something was wrong. I see her every day so I can tell. Well, I went out to the living room and I kept asking myself, “What is wrong with her?” And I said to myself, it’s kind of funny now, “Don’t go back in there. She might tell you something you don’t want to hear.” Well, I didn’t listen to myself. I walked in there, I sat on the edge of the bed and I said, “What is the matter, Natalia?” She puts her arm around me and starts crying and says, “I can’t do this anymore.” That was a tough one. That was a tough one. So that’s been a blessing in a sense. I mean, because I’m not going to look back and say, “Well what if this,” well it didn’t, this is what happened so now I have to figure this out. So I wasn’t mad at her. I’m sad that we can’t be together because she’s such a wonderful person, but now as soon as we went separate directions, and I’m still in her family, I still spend all the holidays with her parents and all that stuff but I became a lot more independent, you know. I realized afterwards, I relied on her a lot to help me with certain things because things are difficult, but now I live on my own and I do my own thing. And I love it and I’m very grateful to her and thankful to her, but she’s living her dream now. And I went off to college, got my degree in communication studies and that was interesting. Well, it was interesting being in school, you know, almost 30 years later after high school and people don’t go to the library and look at books, they go to the library and get on the computer and find their information. I just thought that was so strange.

Melina: Yeah. So what did you do before the stroke? What was your line of work?

Donnie: I was a bartender. I worked at TGI Fridays for 13 years and then a new bar opened up in town, the Tavaglione family, who is pretty well known here in Riverside. The children, the kids opened up a bar at the Riverside Plaza. What’s interesting about that is their parents opened up a bowling alley in Riverside back in the ’50s and my grandpa painted in wallpaper, the inside of the bowling alley, Tavaglione’s bowling alley, then 50 years later, I’m helping their kids put together the inside of the bar and I became the bar manager there.

Melina: Got it. Okay. So then you went to college. You got your degree in communications. Now you’re single. Yeah?

Donnie: I am single and not ready to mingle yet because I just have to get myself straight first.

Melina: Well, why don’t we talk about your grandfather. Tell us a little bit about your grandfather.

Donnie: Grandpa was awesome. Leroy Anderson. Tough, old farmer guy. He grew up in Bridgewater, South Dakota. I just recently looked, there’s the population of 500 in that town, but in 1980, he taught me a very valuable lesson that I still think about today. We were going to pick up my grandma, to pick up her…she just got her hair dyed blue. So we went to the hair salon to pick up my blue-haired grandma. And so we pull in and my grandpa pulls into this parking spot and I said, “Grandpa, the hair salon’s on the other side of the parking lot.” He said, “Well, that man right there needs our help.:. So we get out of the car and I can still remember it’s a baby blue Volkswagen bug. And there was a man with one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand on the window seal, he was pushing his car trying to jumpstart it. So my grandpa was pushing on the rear window while I was pushing on the rear bumper until the guy could pop his clutch and like the old days…

Melina: I remember popping a clutch.

Donnie: Yeah, and then so the guy started his car and we were walking back to the car and my grandpa put his arm around me and he said, “Donnie, I want you to remember this very important thing, being kind doesn’t cost a dime,” and it makes so much sense, right? I mean, little things like that, that didn’t cost us anything, but it was so valuable to that man who needed the help.

Melina: Absolutely.

Donnie: There’s no monetary value on it, but there’s value to us just being kind to everybody, to the people that we come across in our daily lives. Whether it’s opening a door, smiling, saying hello to somebody who looks like they have a sad look on their face, things like that. We’re all capable of that. It doesn’t matter if you have a job, if you’re a millionaire, none of that matters and that’s what I love about this whole concept.

Christian: Hi, this is Christian Rios. As many of you know, I have been a member of New Wealth Advisors Club for over seven years and got started when I was 17 years old with absolutely no real estate experience. One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned from being in the industry is the need for authentic relationships. If you’re looking for an actual team locally in Southern California with all the resources needed to close deals, register for one of our free workshops by visiting www.joinnwac.com. Thanks for listening to the “Flippin’ Off” podcast.

Melina: So you made a decision. You talked about, you said this new business that I’m starting. So your business is… Talk about it. Why don’t you share with everybody what that is?

Donnie: Yeah, I decided the world needs a little positivity, always, and right now we’re going through a tough time, it feels like at least. So I decided to start, you know, I often come up with these positive slogans if you will, sayings. I think, “Oh, that would be great on a shirt.” So I started writing them down and then I thought, well, you know, I would really like to start working again. So I looked out and so I started a t-shirt, an online t-shirt business, it’s Bright Side Slogans and it’s just positive messages on t-shirts. So the first shirt I created had to be, “Being kind doesn’t cost a dime,” right?

Melina: Yes.

Donnie: Oh, I love that, the whole idea behind that.

Melina: I do too. And so you’re wearing one right now that says, “I love people.”

Donnie: I love people. I love this shirt because when I’m just walking around in public with this shirt on, when people see it, how can you feel anything but joy?

Melina: Right, happy.

Donnie: It’s like, so if you have the shirt on, you’re going to seem more approachable, people are gonna understand you as a kind person, and that’s kind of what I’m trying to get out into the world. If we can just start getting along with people instead of… And let me give one example of what this shirt means to me. Here’s an example, I don’t drive because of my vision. I’m blind in the left side of both eyes. So I take the city bus and so there’s one day I’m on the bus and this elderly lady gets on with the cane and she’s looking around for a seat and she doesn’t see one. So, I just remember this Hispanic man stands up, he’s got tattoos wrapped around his neck. He doesn’t look like your typical, you know, kind, like let me do, whatever. Just from living we would put that guy in a different box. Well, he stands up and he gives her a seat and to me, I just thought, wow, like that just describes the feeling for people that I have, you know, because we wouldn’t expect that maybe from that person. Now we shouldn’t think he’s not capable, but that just…to see those kinds of actions make me really understand that I do love people and that’s why I made the shirt.

Melina: I love that. I love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. So, yeah, because as soon as I saw you, you know, “I love people,” I just smiled. It brought me joy. So I agree. So you decided that you were going to, you’ve set this huge goal for yourself and you’re gonna do a walk. Yeah?

Donnie: Yes.

Melina: So would you be willing to share what your next goal is and what it’s gonna take to get you there? Because it’s an audacious goal, which, you know, I love people who have audacious goals. It makes me very proud and very, very happy and I want to support you in the audacity that you have to do this walk. So would you share about, first of all, what it is and then maybe why and where you got the idea?

Donnie: Well, May is stroke awareness month and so I thought, well grandpa gave me this great idea to make this shirt. So I have this shirt, “Being kind doesn’t cost a dime.” So it just came to me one day. I thought, you know, before the stroke I began training to run a marathon, and I thought, well, it doesn’t mean that I can’t do it now. So I thought, well, why don’t I walk to South Dakota where he grew up? I’ll walk from the house he built in Riverside…

Melina: California.

Donnie: …Riverside, California to the 500-population town he grew up in, Bridgewater, South Dakota. And on my route, I will connect with people in restaurants, just, you know, driving down the street and will talk to people. Well, I’ll be walking down the street.

Melina: So how many miles is this walk, Donnie?

Donnie: It’s 1500 miles. I looked up walking directions on Google and they are about 30 pages long because I have to walk through Nevada, Las Vegas, then I’ll be going through Colorado, Utah, Nebraska, Wyoming, and I’ll eventually get there. It’ll take me 60 days to walk if I walk 25 miles a day.

Melina: Wow. So you’re going to walk 25 miles a day and you’re starting, when is your start date?

Donnie: I don’t have a definite date yet, the planning is a big ordeal. So if you’re out there and you have, maybe you have a job that you do online and you can bring your laptop, my goal right now is to raise enough money through my shirts so that I need to rent an RV so that somebody can have water and food and I’ll have shelter at night in the RV.

Melina: So you want somebody to basically go ahead of you. So they’re going to travel with you and keep your…yeah, it’s for your shelter, food, water, shelter. Yeah. And so you need somebody to man the RV. And so are you looking for maybe people taking like turns? Like, so maybe somebody says, “Hey, Donnie, I can be with you for this date through this date,” and then somebody else comes and says, “I can do it from this date to this date.” Or are you just looking for somebody who says, “Hey, I can do it with you for 60 days for the entire trip?”

Donnie: Well, if somebody could do that, that would make it simpler…

Melina: It sure would.

Donnie: But it’s going to be a lot more difficult to find that person.

Melina: Right, right, right, right, who has 60 days to be able to give out.

Donnie: Yeah. That’s why I’m, you know, reaching like people that have a job where they’re mobile and they can do that.

Melina: Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, that’s really part of this. That’s really one of the main reasons that we wanted to get this podcast done is I wanted you to be able to share your story with people so that they could hear you. I know for me, I’m incredibly inspired by you. I’m incredibly inspired. I mean, I think somebody who had a stroke who should have never walked again has made a decision to walk 1500 miles for the sole purpose of spreading joy, and love, and kindness, and making an impact and making people aware that being kind doesn’t cost a dime is an amazing thing. And so I want to support you. That’s what this podcast is about. And I want other people to hear your story and I really believe that once it gets out, people are going to want to support you.

Donnie: Can I share that link?

Melina: Sure you can. It is covered. Donnie, would you please share the link?

Donnie: What’s so funny is I currently don’t have a regular domain for it. My shop is through Shopify, so when I save the link it just sounds kind of weird because it’s a little longer than your typical one. So the link to my online store of Bright Side Slogans is bright, B-R-I-G-H-T, dash side, S-I-D-E, dash slogans, S-L-O-G-A-N-S.myshopify.com. (bright-side-slogans.myshopify.com)

Melina: There you go. And we’ll make sure that we have that in the description of the podcast, okay, so that people can know to go and donate and to buy your shirts and to wear them proudly and to remember Leroy Anderson who taught you that.

Donnie: I thought the goal was to sell 5,000 shirts then I would take my trip. That was the goal because that would be enough money to be able to fund this. It’s gonna cost me a lot of money to do this walk.

Melina: How much money is that going to cost you?

Donnie: Probably about $30,000.

Melina: Okay, got it. Okay. So we need to do whatever we can to raise as much money as we possibly can along the way. Yeah?

Donnie: Yes. That’s the goal.

Melina: That is the goal. Well, I believe that you are going to meet that goal. I, 1,000% believe that you are going to meet that goal, Donnie. What?

Donnie: I want to scream right now just because I’m so happy. I just love people so much. Like it’s so strange, like to feel a certain way. I just love people. Like it brings me to tears sometimes when I’m simply sitting on a bus and I see two people interacting that didn’t know each other and to see them getting along, it’s just like, wow. Thank you.

Melina: So I want to thank you, Donnie, for coming in today. I want to thank you for taking a…it was a risk and it took a lot of courage for you to come in here. It was just kinda my idea, “Hey, I’d like to have a conversation with you.” I want to thank you for the stand that you’re taking for all people because you really are. You’re taking a stand for us for your belief in human beings, for your belief in the goodness of people, for your belief in love, and kindness, and positivity, and unification, and all the things that are yummy and delicious inside of our world and that make being a member of this human race an amazing honor. So I am personally very, very grateful for you. And whatever we can do as a club, we are going to support you 100%. So we’ll see whatever that looks like. So I hope you guys out there are inspired. I think my message for you out there listening is this, don’t be afraid. Don’t be afraid to do whatever the thing is that you know you’re supposed to do. Let Donnie be a living example, and encouragement, and inspiration for you that no matter what craziness and things that life throws at you, whatever hand you’re dealt, play that hand and play it well. And I believe that’s what you’ve done, Donnie, you’ve played the hand that you were dealt so incredibly well. So thank you so much, friend.

Donnie: Thank you. Let me say one more. I created a shirt years ago and it was when I was playing a lot of poker at the time. And poker, when you’re sitting at a poker table, you can’t ask anybody at the table what decisions you should make. So the shirt I made says, “Life, unlike poker, you’re allowed more than one player per hand.” And what that means is when you’re in a situation like I was in, like we all find ourselves in situations, there’s people in this world that we can reach out to and just ask them and look for advice. We can get help from people just like we can help others. It’s a beautiful thing about life. We just have to work together and we can get through this, period.

Melina: Period. So we’re Melina and Donnie and we are flipping out.

Melina: I’m Melina Boswell, your host of the “Flippin’ Off” podcast. I really hope you enjoyed it. If you did, we’d love for you to subscribe. Give us a five-star rating and tell your friends all about us. You can find more episodes of the “Flippin’ Off” podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, or wherever else you like to listen to awesome podcasts like this. If you like what you’ve heard, we’d really appreciate it if you’d follow us on Facebook and Instagram and tell us the stories that you’d like to hear.

Tim Jackson is our senior producer. Luke Jackson is our editor. Brothers. Josh Mauldin is our producer. Sound design by Frequency Factory. Our executive producer is Mind & Mill. This was all created by Dave Boswell for New Wealth Advisors Club.