Kelly Faladeau’s Inspiration Journey

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:01

Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:04

Hope Without Sight with your host Saylor Cooper, and

Tyler Evans: 00:00:09

this is your co host, Tyler Evans.

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:12

Yes for episode 39. We're almost episode 40 and

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:18

hopefully outside. On this episode, we have a very special

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:24

lady. I got to know her through speakers play house. And guess

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:31

what? We we work together this past Saturday to write and

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:37

publish a book together in one day. We attempted to publish but

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:42

we got behind but it's no big deal. We're going to finish it

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:45

up. But before I welcome her I want introduce Kelly Falardeau

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:53

is a burn survivor since the age of two on 75% of her body, she

Saylor Cooper: 00:00:58

found a way to go from near death to success to the ugly,

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:03

ugly scarred face go to that TEDx stage not once but twice. A

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:09

documentary about her life story. Still beautiful. Launched

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:14

on TV. The video launch has over 10 million views. She's a full

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:21

time award winning speaker and best selling author strategist

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:26

coaching people to become best selling authors. Thank you,

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:30

Kelly. Yet local TV announced Kelly is Kelly's one of the most

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:35

inspirational people of 2020. Please welcome my dear friend

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:41

Kelly Falardeau Kelly, how you doing today?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:01:45

Oh my gosh. You know, whenever I hear from you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:01:48

put out just a giant biometric or so thank you for having me on

Kelly Falardeau: 00:01:52

your show today.

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:53

That so I want to start from the very beginning.

Saylor Cooper: 00:01:57

So I know that at the age of two, it was a major incident,

Saylor Cooper: 00:02:01

you will in a fire. Tell us what that day was like, What? What

Saylor Cooper: 00:02:07

happened? How did it start? And just tell us from the start?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:12

Sure. So when I was two years old, we lived on a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:16

farm. And in spruce Grove, Alberta. And my cousins were

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:22

throwing shingles in the fire. They were nine and 11. And so

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:26

they do the shingles on the fire. And I wanted to be outside

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:31

with my cousins. And so my mom, let me go outside to be with

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:35

them. And not even I think it was like five or 10 minutes

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:39

later, my mom can hear us. I'm yelling and screaming and she

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:43

opened the door and saw me in flames. So what had happened was

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:49

that a spark had come out landed on my drafts and I exploded. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:54

so you know, they grabbed a bucket of water, they poured the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:02:57

water on me put the plans out and rushed me to the hospital.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:03:01

And I spent four months in the hospital there and every two

Kelly Falardeau: 00:03:06

days I would have to be in the operating room for surgeries.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:03:10

And then every two years until I was about 20 years old. I would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:03:15

have to spend a month of my summer holidays in the hospital

Kelly Falardeau: 00:03:18

having more reconstructive surgery.

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:21

That's why Yeah, I know you had a lot of

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:24

surgeries because you almost you almost didn't make it so so what

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:30

do you mean by shingles? Like were they messing around with

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:33

like firecrackers were throwing stuff in the fire like doing

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:36

dumb stuff? And, and also like, I imagine the dress you have on

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:41

like didn't have very flammable material or what? Yeah, so the

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:45

shingles are from the the roof of the house is like there was

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:51

old wooden barn shingles. And so that's what grandpa had told

Saylor Cooper: 00:03:56

them. Well, we got to burn the the the old shingles, right? He

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:00

said we have to go burn them all and get rid of them because we

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:03

lived on a farm. So we did a lot of burning thing that could be

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:06

burned. And so today, we're just throwing them in the fire. So

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:12

they weren't doing anything they shouldn't have been doing. They

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:15

just should have had an adult around when they make sense.

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:18

Because then

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:21

the dangerous part of me. Yeah, they should they should have

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:25

adult around because anytime you play with fire, it's very

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:29

dangerous.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:04:30

Yeah, absolutely. And then the dress

Kelly Falardeau: 00:04:32

that I was wearing had rayon. So it was a rayon dress, which is

Kelly Falardeau: 00:04:38

flammable. And so it's not something that you know, I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:04:42

should have been wearing, but that was back in 1968 when this

Kelly Falardeau: 00:04:46

happened. So it was a very, very long time ago.

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:51

And so, you were burned. So you I imagine you

Saylor Cooper: 00:04:56

were on fire for quite a while which is why 75 percent of your

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:00

body was burned, right?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:02

Well, what I think happened is that I think

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:05

the spark landed on me and then I just exploded. Wow. And so

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:12

they got me the fire out as quick as they could. And I think

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:17

it was just because I was so little, like as a two year old.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:20

Yeah, probably just barely two feet. So it wouldn't take very

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:26

much for, you know, for me to be burned.

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:29

Yeah. And had you been older, maybe you wouldn't

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:32

have been burned nearly as bad and you wouldn't have had as

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:35

many injuries. And so yeah, that makes sense.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:38

Yeah.

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:39

And so, yes, go to the hospital, you know, you

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:42

spent months and years in the hospital like you've had, I

Saylor Cooper: 00:05:47

think 40 surgeries, right.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:50

Yeah. So every two years, they would bring me

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:54

back into the hospital for more reconstructive surgery. So what

Kelly Falardeau: 00:05:58

happened is my doctor needed me to grow taller, so that I would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:02

have more skin to work with. So that was why they needed to wait

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:06

every two years. So then I would grow taller. And then I would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:12

have more skin.

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:14

I see.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:16

And so some of those surgeries was my arm

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:21

underneath my arm, or it became it my, my arm joined my body

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:26

down to my elbow. So it didn't work very well. So then they had

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:30

a slice, they open my arm away from my body. And then they put

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:35

me in a body cast. And I was in that body cast for about six

Kelly Falardeau: 00:06:39

months.

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:40

Yeah, that's yeah, I read on your on, I've

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:45

watched some of your TEDx and I read your website, you had to be

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:50

in a body cast, and the doctors had to do lots of skin grafts.

Saylor Cooper: 00:06:56

They had to take certain skin off of certain parts of your

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:01

body and just I guess, we graph it like,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:05

so what they would do is because my legs were

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:09

probably the only spot that I had natural skin. So they would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:13

take skin from my leg. And then they would put it like wherever

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:17

my body needed a skin graft. So it could be on my chest. It

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:22

could be on my arms underneath my arms, my face. One time, my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:29

chin, like my, my mouth wouldn't open and close properly, because

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:34

of the scarring on my chin and my face. And so they took this

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:38

piece of skin from my stomach. And they put that on my chin so

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:43

I can open and close my mouth. So I could smile.

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:47

Wow, it's so um, I've heard I think your nose was

Saylor Cooper: 00:07:51

damaged like your nose was almost gone too.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:07:56

I know, my nose was fine. I mean, I do have some

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:00

scarring on my nose. It was my right ear. So my right ear is

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:05

really deformed. So you know you have that part of the your ear

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:09

that is all burned off on me on my one year. So it's a little

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:15

deformed ear so it doesn't work very Well.

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:20

Well, so simply put it like when was the are

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:22

you? Are you done with medical treatment yet? You know even if

Saylor Cooper: 00:08:27

you are like when was the last surgery you had?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:31

So yes, I'm pretty much done most of my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:35

major surgeries but done up until from two to 20 years old.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:40

And then when probably about I think, you know, about six or

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:46

seven years ago, I started doing some laser surgery. And so the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:51

latest I started Dre was really cool. Basically what the laser

Kelly Falardeau: 00:08:56

surgery what that does, is they drilled tiny little holes in the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:09:01

scars tissue and then that pulls out the old skin and it allows

Kelly Falardeau: 00:09:07

new skin to grow. So they did probably about I think it was

Kelly Falardeau: 00:09:13

about 30 laser surgeries on me also. But that was like in the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:09:19

last you know, six to eight years.

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:22

Wow. In the last six so that is incredible. You

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:25

had surgery from the time of the incident until 20 early 20s I

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:31

don't know. I've never heard of anybody that has gone through

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:36

that before. You know Kelly, you're such a hero I admire you

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:40

so much for that and you've overcome that and you're good

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:44

now it's just so awesome. And now that we talked about your

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:49

medical you know all that stuff medically. You had to go food to

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:53

recover. Let's talk about like growing up i Of course I know

Saylor Cooper: 00:09:58

you've had You have lots of scarring. And of course, that

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:02

that caused a lot of implications to such as

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:05

bullying. And I know, your times were very tough, but how did

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:11

you? How will you still resilient to get through these

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:15

times? And of course, if you have any stories to share your

Saylor Cooper: 00:10:19

take it away.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:22

Yeah, so resilience is a big thing,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:27

right? Like, how do we get through some of you know, being

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:30

teased and bullied. When I was in grade five, I remember

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:33

walking past my teacher's desk and someone had drawn a picture

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:37

of me, and it was a circle. And it had scribbles all over it.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:41

And it said, Scarface. And my teacher had already dealt with

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:46

it. But I was still devastated. Because of course, I knew that

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:49

picture was about me, because there was nobody else in my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:52

classroom that had scars on their face. And so I thought,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:10:56

What am I going to do about this? Like, how am I going to,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:00

you know, get through this because, of course, I was

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:01

devastated. I mean, I was praying and hoping my scars

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:06

would go away. I remember when I was about 15, I would pray to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:11

God and I would say, Dear God, please don't make me wake up in

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:15

the morning. But if I have to, can I at least be scarless, so I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:18

can be pretty like all the other girl, you know, thank you Amen.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:22

And of course, I woke up and of course, the scars were still

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:25

there. And I was devastated. Because I just wanted my scars

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:29

to be gone. I was I didn't want to be the ugly Scarface girl

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:34

anymore. But I always wanted to focus on the future. So I would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:39

always, you know, be daydreaming about what I wanted my life to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:44

look like. And, you know, being married and, and having a you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:48

know,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:50

I never dreamed about having kids. I never thought I would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:52

ever be a mom.

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:54

Exactly.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:55

Because I my scars

Saylor Cooper: 00:11:57

nobody would want you.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:11:59

Yeah, who would want me I didn't think anybody

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:01

would want me. And then the second thing was, I didn't think

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:05

I was physically able to have kids. I thought because of my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:08

scarring, the way it's so tight around my body, I didn't think

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:12

I'd be able to have kids. So I think for a lot of it, it was

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:17

just about not taking everything personally. And, you know, just

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:25

just pushing through it and just realising that I deserved a life

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:29

just as much as anybody dead. Right. Like I had people that

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:33

were saying to me, I can't imagine going out in public

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:36

looking like you. And I would like well, what am I supposed to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:12:41

do they home and do nothing?

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:43

Exactly. And you're, you're getting a message

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:47

of hope that you are you. I am me. Tyler, you are you and if

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:53

people don't want to accept us for who they are, that's on

Saylor Cooper: 00:12:57

them.

Tyler Evans: 00:12:58

That's right. You know, your story, Kelly. It

Tyler Evans: 00:13:03

really inspires us because we've been through maybe not the same

Tyler Evans: 00:13:08

situation, but similar ones where we were not expected to

Tyler Evans: 00:13:11

live. I mean, we were born, both of us three months premature.

Tyler Evans: 00:13:16

And yet, we still survived we our lungs collapsed as babies.

Tyler Evans: 00:13:23

And yet we were in the NICU. And we we made it through?

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:29

Yes, we did. We made it through.

Tyler Evans: 00:13:31

It was a few months later, but we did. And my twin

Tyler Evans: 00:13:34

brother, his eyes reversed on their underwear. He wasn't

Tyler Evans: 00:13:37

wanted anymore. And now he's fully sighted in everything.

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:40

And in fact, Kelly, we are writing a memoir

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:44

about this. And I know I was in the workshop with his Saturday,

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:49

I enjoyed it so much I question like whether, cuz I'm this book

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:54

I'm writing now, which is about stress and personality, by no

Saylor Cooper: 00:13:57

means not the only one. I'm going to write many, many more

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:01

like I just questioned like, which one I want to publish

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:05

first. And the reason why I chose to publish this book first

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:10

is one, it does relate to my topic, which is about overcoming

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:14

life's challenges, and also living a life of bliss. It gives

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:19

a lot of information on how to do that. And also, I got strong

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:23

I got started and work on that book first. But by no means

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:27

like, by all means I do have a manuscript. We entitled we have

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:32

manuscripts of a memoir. In fact, we went over it. This past

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:37

week, I stayed with him, we will never so what I'm gonna do is

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:41

I'm gonna start combining with chat GPT. And you know what, I

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:46

think this is a book that I want to publish next after I finish

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:51

this current one. How's that sound?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:14:53

That sounds fantastic. I love the idea.

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:56

Yeah.

Saylor Cooper: 00:14:56

And once you know how to do it, you'll be able to do as many

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:00

books as you want not the beautiful thing

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:02

about, you know, publishing a book on Amazon is they make it

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:05

so easy. And it's free to put your book up on Amazon. And so I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:11

just love it. Yeah. Because, of course, since I can't see

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:15

everything like, I'll just need help with each time I doing. I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:18

just need help with the visuals sections for formatting and the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:21

covers and all that, you know, to make sure it looks good. It

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:25

does well. And what and what's cool is we don't have to just

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:29

put our book on Amazon. We can even put it in stores everywhere

Kelly Falardeau: 00:15:33

as well. And paperback eventually. That's right.

Tyler Evans: 00:15:38

Yeah, two hundred people can pick it up and read

Tyler Evans: 00:15:40

it in mainstream stores that way. It's not just on Amazon,

Tyler Evans: 00:15:44

you know, and I believe that they will come. I mean, I think

Tyler Evans: 00:15:47

first Amazon, yeah. See how it goes. And then in the future,

Tyler Evans: 00:15:52

expand, and then include audible, audible as well. So,

Saylor Cooper: 00:15:56

exactly. And you know, and you know what? Yeah,

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:01

that day, definitely will come and so yeah, totally. And it

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:04

will. Like, what else do you have to share? Like, the I also,

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:10

I remember, I did see your TEDx about you give me a message.

Saylor Cooper: 00:16:16

About a looking in the mirror? That one no.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:19

So what happened was, I knew that I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:21

wanted to do a TEDx talk. I just didn't know what I wanted it to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:25

be about. So this one, this one TEDx event, the theme was

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:32

unprovable or unsolvable problem. And I thought, You know

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:36

what?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:38

Ugly is could be made into an acronym. It's only four letters.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:43

And I thought, why don't I make ugly into an acronym and make it

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:47

into a beautiful word? Ya know, nobody thinks that the word ugly

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:51

is beautiful. And so. And I've been called ugly so many times,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:16:57

and I've called myself ugly. You know, I think sometimes we are

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:00

our worst or our harshest critic, because ourselves. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:05

so I thought, you know, what, I want to change just I want, I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:07

want to make this better. And I thought to myself, why when new

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:11

people learn that the mirror talks, okay? So, and I thought,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:18

You know what, here's what it is when people watch No, wait, when

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:22

little girls and little boys watched no way that 23456 years

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:27

old, they see the Evil Queen talking to the mirror. And she

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:31

asked the mirror question, and the mirror talks back. And I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:35

thought, oh, my gosh, we learn at such a young age that the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:41

mirror talks to us.

Saylor Cooper: 00:17:42

Yes.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:43

And it's our voice. It's our own voice that

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:45

we're hearing. But still, we think that the mayor is talking

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:49

to us. And so I thought that's fascinating. I you know, because

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:54

I wanted to know, how do people know that? And I know that when

Kelly Falardeau: 00:17:57

I would look in the mirror, and I would say Yuk, who's gonna

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:00

love that, like, I'm covered on scars, who's gonna love someone

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:04

that looks ugly like me. And you know, of course, I was being

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:09

very hard on my style. So anyways, so I thought, okay,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:13

ugly, What can it mean? And I came up with all kinds of words.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:17

And so the U stands for unique, every single one of us is unique

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:22

in our own special way. The G stands for gorgeous, or if

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:27

you're a guy, then for good looking. And we're all gorgeous

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:33

or good looking. And we what we have to do is stop comparing

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:37

ourselves to other people. And I know that when I stopped

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:40

comparing myself and worrying what everybody else was thinking

Kelly Falardeau: 00:18:43

about, I started to realise that I am beautiful, I am gorgeous.

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:51

I then will I've compared myself to other people,

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:55

because I haven't felt like I haven't been good enough. And

Saylor Cooper: 00:18:58

that is not healthy.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:01

No, absolutely. Because you're comparing

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:03

yourself to other people. And yet, you might have skills and

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:07

talents and other qualities about you that make you an

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:11

amazing person, even more so than the other person. Right? So

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:16

we're comparing ourselves to people. And every time we do

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:19

that, we diminish ourselves.

Saylor Cooper: 00:19:21

Yes, we do.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:22

The L stands for love of all we are all

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:25

lovable. The problem is sometimes that we don't always

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:29

hear it, or we don't always feel it. And when we don't hear it or

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:33

feel it, then we think nobody loves us. And that's not true.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:38

Everybody. People do love the peppermint. We need to now you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:43

know share it with the world more. We need to reach out to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:46

people more and tell them that we love them. I would do this

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:50

little exercise. It would be like a Sunday morning and I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:53

would just text like randomly 10-20 people and say, Hey, has

Kelly Falardeau: 00:19:58

anybody told you how special you are? And, people would text me

Kelly Falardeau: 00:20:03

back. And they would say, thank you. You don't know how much I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:20:07

needed to hear that today.

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:08

Oh, that's so cool, because we all need to

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:11

hear that

Tyler Evans: 00:20:11

That is amazing.

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:13

And we should maybe implement this in our hero

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:17

system that we have in that text like this go out to our members

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:23

at certain time, which will, we'll talk about hero in a

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:26

little bit.

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:27

But yeah, L What does? If you have nothing else for the L What

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:32

is the y stand for

Kelly Falardeau: 00:20:33

The Y stands for you. So the unique,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:20:36

gorgeous, lovable you is Darrell beautiful, and not the basis of

Kelly Falardeau: 00:20:40

my TEDx talk?

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:42

Yeah, Kelly, you have made fine, because I'm

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:48

still understanding myself. Because I've experienced that

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:52

with certain people who have not accepted me for who I am.

Saylor Cooper: 00:20:57

Because, I mean, I know they don't mean to, they just don't

Saylor Cooper: 00:21:00

quite understand. And this, me being on this journey, has

Saylor Cooper: 00:21:08

taught me so much about myself, especially since embarking on it

Saylor Cooper: 00:21:11

last year, I, I've gotten to interview so many great people

Saylor Cooper: 00:21:16

who have unique talents and skills and stories, just like

Saylor Cooper: 00:21:20

you, Kelly, and you're teaching me so much. And I'm grateful for

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:24

Thank you. I am, I am grateful for you guys.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:24

you.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:28

And I love the work you do. Because

Tyler Evans: 00:21:31

Thank you.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:32

I know that there's other like burn

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:34

survivors out there, for example, who, who see their

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:39

their tragedy as a tragedy, and it holds them back in life. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:43

they think their life is over. And they think they can have a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:46

great life. And then you'll see other burn survivors like myself

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:50

or Spencer B. Or John, you know, there's so many other burn

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:56

survivors out there that are like, Yeah, this happened to me,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:21:59

but what am I going to do about it? And how am I going to help

Kelly Falardeau: 00:22:02

other people. And so that's why I love what you guys are doing

Kelly Falardeau: 00:22:06

is because you're not letting you know, your disability hold

Kelly Falardeau: 00:22:11

you back in life. You guys are using your disability to help

Kelly Falardeau: 00:22:14

other people. And that's, the more out is we need to show

Kelly Falardeau: 00:22:19

people that we are lovable, we are acceptable. We deserve to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:22:26

have a great life. And don't let you know a tragedy. hold you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:22:31

back.

Saylor Cooper: 00:22:32

No,

Tyler Evans: 00:22:34

that's right.

Saylor Cooper: 00:22:34

And you haven't and because I know like you'd

Saylor Cooper: 00:22:36

never thought you would have kids. And you did. And so I'm

Saylor Cooper: 00:22:40

I'm sure like, either even grind this message within your kids.

Saylor Cooper: 00:22:44

And I know I also read in your bio that unfortunately, you had

Saylor Cooper: 00:22:49

to divorce. And I mean, we get that that happens. I mean, what

Saylor Cooper: 00:22:55

what led you to do that if you know if you wanted to get if you

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:00

want to get married,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:23:02

what happened was, we were together for 24

Kelly Falardeau: 00:23:04

years. And I met him when I was like 20 years old. And I just

Kelly Falardeau: 00:23:09

wasn't in love with him anymore. And it was a really toxic

Kelly Falardeau: 00:23:13

marriage.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:23:14

You know, I remember it was my 24th

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:14

Yeah.

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:17

anniversary with him. And I remember that little voice and

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:22

it was our anniversary, I was really upset. I didn't even buy

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:25

my anniversary gift. I I hate buying gifts. But I didn't even

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:30

like to buy him anything. And I didn't. And he was really upset

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:33

with me. I didn't buy him anything. And so I remember, you

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:37

know, went to bed and I'm, I hear him snoring. So I know

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:41

you're sleeping and and I went to the bathroom and I just

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:44

started crying. And that little voice said to me, you've done 24

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:50

years like this, you're only 44 years old. Can you do another

Saylor Cooper: 00:23:55

24? And I said, No, I can't do another 24 years. And I said,

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:01

okay, and I said Help me, get me out of this. And so that's what

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:07

I did that I stopped crying and I went to bed and all of a

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:11

sudden the universe started making things happen. And it was

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:15

just, I just really felt like I needed to be let go out of that

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:21

marriage. I just felt like, you know, my husband, it seemed like

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:25

he felt like the life was full of doom and gloom. Like we were

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:29

almost bankrupt. And my business was just costing us too much

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:33

money at the time. And I just couldn't, couldn't make it. And

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:37

then I saw the world is full of possibilities. I was learning to

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:41

be a speaker. I was writing my book. And so I saw the world is

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:45

full of possibilities. He saw the world as full of doom and

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:48

gloom. And I just couldn't make it work.

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:51

You're on the same page. And so like, I

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:54

imagine like you asked you, you've prepared yourself you

Saylor Cooper: 00:24:59

asked for a divorce. Wilson, you know, he agreed and, you know,

Saylor Cooper: 00:25:02

off it went like that, right?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:04

Well, here's what happened is we had a, you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:07

know, a talk about it. And he said to me, are you saying that

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:13

we need to split up? And I said, Yeah, I think we do. And he

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:18

said, Well, you can only leave if you give me the house and the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:21

kids. And I was like, Oh my gosh, my mother is never

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:27

supposed to leave her kids. And I said, Okay, I will leave, I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:33

will give you the house and the kidsSo I didn't want the house

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:37

because I couldn't afford the house. And what we did with the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:40

kids is I still saw them every day. He had to go to work every

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:44

morning at 530 in the morning. So I would come to the house

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:48

every day at 530 in the morning, I would get the kids off to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:51

school, and I'd be there when they came home from school. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:54

then every two days they would come home with me. So I still,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:25:59

you know, completely active with the kids live. Yeah. But yeah,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:03

it was devastating for me, but but I knew it was what I had to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:07

do.

Unknown: 00:26:09

Wow. And you and your kids have imagined grown like,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:15

yeah, my my daughter is 23. And my twin boys

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:20

are 20 years old.

Saylor Cooper: 00:26:22

Wow. And it was hard. But you, you persevere.

Saylor Cooper: 00:26:27

You push through. And now your business. It's on fire.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:32

Yeah, that's right. Things are going really

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:34

well. Now that I'm coaching people to become bestselling

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:38

authors and get their books out. Yeah, that day, and then now

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:44

with chat GPT that's really been exciting. And so now I'm

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:49

coaching people how to read their books using CAT GPT. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:26:53

that's been really cool, too. So

Tyler Evans: 00:26:55

yeah, I just I just wanted to say something about

Tyler Evans: 00:26:57

that. Chat GPT I was joking with Saylor earlier on a text, I sent

Tyler Evans: 00:27:02

him a text about my mom, a poem about her that I wrote from Chad

Tyler Evans: 00:27:07

GPT. I told him Look, this app knows everything lol because I

Tyler Evans: 00:27:12

basically told it. Hey, how do you make something in the some

Tyler Evans: 00:27:16

simple? It told me exactly how to do it. How do you cook this?

Tyler Evans: 00:27:20

How do you do this? How do you do this? How do you do that? And

Tyler Evans: 00:27:23

it knows it. To know this. And what's cool is I'm just using my

Tyler Evans: 00:27:32

phone, I went to the chat.open@ai.com. and all that

Tyler Evans: 00:27:38

with my Google account, whatever. And I just typed it in

Tyler Evans: 00:27:41

boom. just spits out stuff. Yeah, like really anything. You

Tyler Evans: 00:27:47

can do research on anything.

Saylor Cooper: 00:27:48

You can. It's it's an A since it launched in

Saylor Cooper: 00:27:51

November. I'm just impressed of how far it's come along in such

Saylor Cooper: 00:27:56

a short time. And I can't wait to see how much further it comes

Saylor Cooper: 00:27:59

along.

Tyler Evans: 00:28:00

The only thing I wish I wish it had current

Tyler Evans: 00:28:03

knowledge of like 2023 and 2022. But it only goes up to 2021

Tyler Evans: 00:28:08

right now.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:10

Yeah, it's all it's all coming. You know, it'd

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:13

be another there's gonna be more versions coming out. I know that

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:18

I do like cat GPT for a little bit better. So it gives you a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:22

little bit more in depth information. So yeah, but we're

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:27

just gonna keep working at it. And it's okay. Because the thing

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:31

is really chat GPT is to me, I use it as a foundational piece.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:36

I use it as a brainstorming tool, an idea generator, and

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:41

then I put my own personality and my own content into it.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:44

Yeah, that's what I do, too. Yeah. Yeah. And my own stories

Kelly Falardeau: 00:28:49

and that sort of thing. So yeah,

Tyler Evans: 00:28:51

and it knows it knows grammar too. Like let's

Tyler Evans: 00:28:53

say you're like, hey, correct. The following sentence is

Tyler Evans: 00:28:57

grammatically colon and type, just whatever you put, and then

Tyler Evans: 00:29:01

just hit submit. Boom.

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:02

Yeah.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:29:03

Yeah. And that's something else that I've

Kelly Falardeau: 00:29:06

been teaching people how to do in the workshop is how to take a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:29:09

piece of content and edit it using CHAT GPT. And it's just so

Kelly Falardeau: 00:29:13

cool.

Tyler Evans: 00:29:14

Oh my gosh, you can even do with text, you can do

Tyler Evans: 00:29:16

anything.

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:17

And I look forward to using it so much more

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:21

better. Yeah. So on that note, all businesses really sparking,

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:26

right. We as we have some great surprises. I mean, it's all not

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:31

just of course, you Kelly now you help you. You're a part of

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:34

this, but it's all thanks to Michelle Abraham, She's

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:38

incredible. We would not be where we are without her. And

Tyler Evans: 00:29:44

we also can't we also can't forget your friends

Tyler Evans: 00:29:47

Scott Irwin and Kevin Kirk.

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:49

Of course, they've helped us financially I

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:51

mean, we haven't made we haven't made any revenue yet. But I

Saylor Cooper: 00:29:57

Kelly I'm sure you know, it's coming really soon?

Tyler Evans: 00:30:00

Oh, yeah, it'll be here. Yeah.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:30:04

Yeah. And you know, and another thing you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:30:06

could do is you could take your podcast episodes and make them

Kelly Falardeau: 00:30:09

into a book.

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:11

Yeah, I'm gonna do that too,

Tyler Evans: 00:30:13

that would be a wonderful thing. Absolutely.

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:16

That's another project I'm gonna work on as

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:18

well.

Tyler Evans: 00:30:20

It's like limitless, what you can do with

Tyler Evans: 00:30:22

a business. It really is. It's like, an entrepreneur is

Tyler Evans: 00:30:25

freedom. It equals freedom. You can like, do what you want, and

Tyler Evans: 00:30:28

not be tied down to a boss, ya know, and all the baggage that

Tyler Evans: 00:30:33

might entail, you know, no offence on people who are

Tyler Evans: 00:30:35

employed. Don't get me wrong, there are lots of unemployed

Tyler Evans: 00:30:38

people. But

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:39

so yeah, um, Kelly, I know, you have so much

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:41

time that so I don't want to take up too much of that. So I

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:44

just want to get to a few more things. So of course, she you've

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:47

written five books, right? You're on your sixth one.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:30:50

Actually, I think I've written six, and I'm

Kelly Falardeau: 00:30:52

on my seventh.

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:54

And so if you can show us if you show to us, like

Saylor Cooper: 00:30:57

what your books are about where people can get them, and also

Saylor Cooper: 00:31:00

tell us more about like, the speaking gigs, because I'm

Saylor Cooper: 00:31:04

getting into paid speaking to I'm sure your flight king. He

Saylor Cooper: 00:31:09

and I were working together until my speaking career needs

Saylor Cooper: 00:31:13

to, to be where it needs to be, or until we die trying, as we

Saylor Cooper: 00:31:17

say, so I'm with you there girl about all that.

Saylor Cooper: 00:31:21

I love it. I love that you get in your message out there

Tyler Evans: 00:31:25

Because Oh, yeah.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:26

People People need to hear your guys's

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:28

messages. And absolutely, our messages, inspire people to have

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:33

hope. And that's what it's all about. We want to give people

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:37

hope that they too, can have a great life. And you know, I'll

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:41

never forget one day I was in Florida. And I was I was at a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:46

burn survivor conference. And they were the 1000 burn

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:49

survivors there. And I was like, oh my god, this is crazy. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:53

this was the very beginning of my speaking career. So I didn't

Kelly Falardeau: 00:31:56

have a lot of confidence in myself. And I, I remember

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:00

listening to this guy speaking, he was a burn survivor. And he

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:04

had no hands like his his fingers were all burned off. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:09

he was showing us how he is a drummer. And it made me dan

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:13

Cara. And he showed us what he did. And he talked for an hour

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:18

with no handouts or nothing. And I would like just totally

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:22

shocked. And here I am. I'm in tears and, and I'm texting my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:27

best friend at the time. And I said, Oh my gosh, I don't know

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:29

how I'm gonna do this. Like, I don't even know why they want me

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:34

to speak because I didn't. I didn't see value in my story at

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:39

that time. And so I'm walking in, I'm walking, and I'm talking

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:44

to him and I'm crying. And I said, I don't know how I can

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:48

help these people. And I came to the end of the sidewalk. And I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:53

looked up and I saw this street sign. And it said hope

Kelly Falardeau: 00:32:57

Boulevard. And I was like, Oh my God. I guess I can just give

Kelly Falardeau: 00:33:03

them hope.

Saylor Cooper: 00:33:04

Yes.

Tyler Evans: 00:33:06

That's right.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:33:07

That is what you know we are meant to do is

Kelly Falardeau: 00:33:10

just to give people hope that no matter who you are, or what you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:33:14

look like or what you've been through, you're meant to live

Kelly Falardeau: 00:33:18

through there so that you can teach other people how to have a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:33:21

great life.

Saylor Cooper: 00:33:22

That's right. Amen. We're doing just that.

Saylor Cooper: 00:33:26

Tyler, right.

Tyler Evans: 00:33:27

Yeah. You know, something? I, I am so thankful

Tyler Evans: 00:33:33

to live. I'm so grateful that I was born here in America. I

Tyler Evans: 00:33:38

really am. Damn going to be biassed, because you're from

Tyler Evans: 00:33:40

Canada.

Tyler Evans: 00:33:41

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, by no means. But I'm telling

Tyler Evans: 00:33:45

you,

Tyler Evans: 00:33:46

when we think about what these people did, from our founding

Tyler Evans: 00:33:52

fathers, to just all these people who bled and died for us

Tyler Evans: 00:33:56

so that we could live in freedom and liberty, like that gives us

Tyler Evans: 00:33:59

hope to the fact that we were not in this alone. You know, we

Tyler Evans: 00:34:06

can live and freedom and liberty and pursue our dreams. Because

Tyler Evans: 00:34:11

that gives people hope, knowing that you don't have to be

Tyler Evans: 00:34:14

subjected to a king or a queen or whatever. You know, that can

Tyler Evans: 00:34:20

give us hope. Freedom is hope. And also, you know, I'm a, you

Tyler Evans: 00:34:25

know, I'm a Christian. And I believe ultimately, God gives us

Tyler Evans: 00:34:29

hope through Jesus Christ. That's what I believe to see

Kelly Falardeau: 00:34:33

you guys ever get asked, I know I get asked

Kelly Falardeau: 00:34:36

this question every once in a while and people ask me. Do you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:34:40

wish that this never happened to you

Tyler Evans: 00:34:42

being blind? Oh, yeah.

Tyler Evans: 00:34:43

Oh, yeah. Yes, absolutely.

Tyler Evans: 00:34:46

I've had Tom probably about that.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:34:47

What do you say about that question? And bless?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:34:50

I'm fine.

Tyler Evans: 00:34:53

Oh, yeah. Well, I would say when I was younger,

Tyler Evans: 00:34:57

you know, I used to be jealous of sighted people because I

Tyler Evans: 00:34:59

wanted to do arrive I wanted to do stuff. And I thought, oh

Tyler Evans: 00:35:02

being blind, oh, you can't do this. You can't do that. But in

Tyler Evans: 00:35:06

reality, yes, you can. You can do anything. You may not be able

Tyler Evans: 00:35:10

to drive yet, but they're working on it. Who knows? Maybe

Tyler Evans: 00:35:13

in my lifetime? I'll see it. I don't know.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:35:15

Well with the cars that drive by themselves.

Tyler Evans: 00:35:20

Yeah. But then you got to think, you know,

Tyler Evans: 00:35:22

malfunctions. And what if this happens? What if that happened?

Tyler Evans: 00:35:25

You know, that's thing, but they're also making a car where

Tyler Evans: 00:35:27

the blind person is in full control to, it isn't just a self

Tyler Evans: 00:35:30

driving car, they're in full control of the car.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:35:32

Wow.

Tyler Evans: 00:35:33

Yeah. It's kind of like when you use an iPhone,

Tyler Evans: 00:35:36

exactly. It's optimised to where you can use it sighted or blind.

Tyler Evans: 00:35:40

And there might even be a feature in a car in the future

Tyler Evans: 00:35:42

where you turn off this feature, and it reverts back to a sighted

Tyler Evans: 00:35:46

person driving. And then you can turn the little feature on it

Tyler Evans: 00:35:49

makes it where a blind person can draft kind of like

Tyler Evans: 00:35:50

voiceover. Yeah, on the FM or talkback on an Android. But

Tyler Evans: 00:35:55

yeah, me, personally, you know, I'm blessed as well, like the

Tyler Evans: 00:36:00

fact that I don't have to see, I don't have to see to see the

Tyler Evans: 00:36:03

future. In fact, yesterday, I was at church. And our pastor,

Tyler Evans: 00:36:07

he was talking about how we, you know, don't have to, you know,

Tyler Evans: 00:36:15

like, we can see, we need to see the whole picture, basically.

Tyler Evans: 00:36:21

And he was talking about how the first thing I'm gonna see, he

Tyler Evans: 00:36:23

mentioned me by name, he said, the first thing you're gonna see

Tyler Evans: 00:36:25

when you get to heaven, is Jesus. And that's going to be

Tyler Evans: 00:36:29

the greatest image you'll ever see. Yeah, never. So yeah.

Saylor Cooper: 00:36:34

And I'm so blessed to be who I am to the

Saylor Cooper: 00:36:36

fact that I was born three months premature, almost not

Saylor Cooper: 00:36:39

expected to survive. Not the same situation, but kind of like

Saylor Cooper: 00:36:44

with what you went through Kelly, they I'm here. And I have

Saylor Cooper: 00:36:47

unique gifts. I'm blessed. Apps Absolutely. Same with me. You

Saylor Cooper: 00:36:51

know, I was three months premature as well. And I wasn't

Saylor Cooper: 00:36:53

supposed to live. But I did love it.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:36:56

I love it. I know. When people asked me that

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:00

question, you know, do you wish it never happened to you? I say

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:05

if you were to ask me that when I was a teenager, I probably

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:08

would have said, Yes. I wish it wouldn't have happened to me.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:12

But when you ask me that, as an adult, I say, I am happy that it

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:17

happened to me because Because of this, all these other amazing

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:22

things have happened to me. And I wouldn't be able to teach

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:26

people, you know how to love who they are, or to accept who they

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:31

are. If I hadn't been through this, right?

Tyler Evans: 00:37:35

Well, I would, I would say the same. I would say

Tyler Evans: 00:37:37

the same thing to because when I was younger, yeah, went through

Tyler Evans: 00:37:40

phases. I wanted to see I wanted to drive. But now I'm actually

Tyler Evans: 00:37:45

cool. Being blind actually like it.

Saylor Cooper: 00:37:47

Yeah. I'm sure. I'm sure like you were at rock

Saylor Cooper: 00:37:52

bottom thinking you just want to give up and just be done with

Saylor Cooper: 00:37:56

this, right?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:37:57

Yeah, yeah, as a child, I didn't want to be

Kelly Falardeau: 00:38:00

burned. I wanted to be pretty, I wanted to be beautiful. I wanted

Kelly Falardeau: 00:38:03

to have a boyfriend and, you know, be like my girlfriends.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:38:08

But as an adult, I mean, I see the gift and what I what I'd

Kelly Falardeau: 00:38:12

have and what I do. And so that to me is more important.

Tyler Evans: 00:38:17

Oh, yeah. And you know, me being blind, I can

Tyler Evans: 00:38:21

teach other people skills such as Braille and iPhone and the

Tyler Evans: 00:38:27

Braille No, you know, all these things. And a lot of people

Tyler Evans: 00:38:30

don't, you know, they don't. They may have heard of Braille.

Tyler Evans: 00:38:36

But they don't quite grasp the fact. Like, some of them are

Tyler Evans: 00:38:41

like, how do you use that phone? How do you use this? How do you

Tyler Evans: 00:38:44

use that? How do you write and read and all this? Well, I can

Tyler Evans: 00:38:47

show you where your screen readers, we use a regular

Tyler Evans: 00:38:50

computer like everybody else, we can print documents, we can boss

Tyler Evans: 00:38:53

them, which is brilliant. And with a braille printer, we can

Tyler Evans: 00:38:55

do all these things. It's just blindness is one of those things

Tyler Evans: 00:39:00

that you know, people just need to be educated on. And luckily,

Tyler Evans: 00:39:06

there's been a lot of education on it. And there's been a lot of

Tyler Evans: 00:39:09

improvements. For instance, when you go vote, you can vote via

Tyler Evans: 00:39:13

Braille and a wheel on an on a machine with headphones. And

Tyler Evans: 00:39:18

it's pretty amazing.

Tyler Evans: 00:39:20

So there's a lie. That is there's a lot that has gone into

Tyler Evans: 00:39:24

improving accessibility for blind people. And also it goes

Tyler Evans: 00:39:28

back to our theme of hope without sight because in the

Tyler Evans: 00:39:31

end, you don't have to see visually, to even have hope.

Tyler Evans: 00:39:36

Exactly. And ultimately what what it boils down to help with

Tyler Evans: 00:39:40

outsiders. Hope without a way in other words, even though you may

Tyler Evans: 00:39:45

not see a way there's hope in the darkness.

Saylor Cooper: 00:39:50

And on that note, I want to share I want to get to

Saylor Cooper: 00:39:55

close close with marks because I do want to be respectful of your

Saylor Cooper: 00:39:59

time. I don't know how much time you have. I know Kelly, your

Saylor Cooper: 00:40:04

your you are on Hilo FM, which is great. And guess what we are

Saylor Cooper: 00:40:09

too good to have our viewers, if you text bless to this number

Saylor Cooper: 00:40:16

that will get you started on living a more happy life. I know

Saylor Cooper: 00:40:20

Kela you are there, Clearly, but to all these viewers who are

Saylor Cooper: 00:40:24

watching now on Facebook, text, this text BLISS to this number.

Saylor Cooper: 00:40:30

I hope that everybody can see in the chat, because I put this in

Saylor Cooper: 00:40:34

the chat.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:40:35

What about what about on Facebook? Did you put

Kelly Falardeau: 00:40:37

anything on there? Yeah, I did. Yes. If you text bliss to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:40:44

832-481-6806, you will start your journey to a more

Kelly Falardeau: 00:40:50

fulfilling life. So please do that. And we have some, we have

Kelly Falardeau: 00:40:55

some great surprises for you once you opt in.

Tyler Evans: 00:40:58

So absolutely. Just be on the lookout for a text.

Tyler Evans: 00:41:02

And updates will be made available on there as well as on

Tyler Evans: 00:41:06

our social networks.

Saylor Cooper: 00:41:07

Exactly. And so on that note, let's go are

Saylor Cooper: 00:41:12

closing remarks. And I want to read something very special to

Saylor Cooper: 00:41:16

you on the podcast. Kelly. So Tyler, do you want to ask the

Saylor Cooper: 00:41:22

our customary ending question to Kelly?

Tyler Evans: 00:41:25

Yeah. So what do you say to people who feel like

Tyler Evans: 00:41:28

there's not a way out that they just want to give it up? Throw

Tyler Evans: 00:41:31

in the towel and just give up on life?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:41:35

Oh, boy, that's an excellent question. You know,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:41:40

um, I would say just to reach out to one person.

Tyler Evans: 00:41:46

Yeah,

Saylor Cooper: 00:41:47

yes.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:41:47

All about reaching out to someone who

Kelly Falardeau: 00:41:49

loves and supports you. And just ask them for help. There was a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:41:56

time when I wanted to end my life. There was a time.

Tyler Evans: 00:42:01

Oh, man.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:01

And I remember sitting at the, you know, on the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:04

floor, with my iPad googling how to end my life.

Saylor Cooper: 00:42:09

Oh, no.

Tyler Evans: 00:42:10

oh Man,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:11

and but I have three conditions. One is my kids

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:15

couldn't be the one to find me. It had to be final. And it had

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:19

to be painless.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:22

And I started thinking about my family. And I started thinking

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:26

about my kids. My kids would blame themselves. If I ended my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:30

life. They would think it was their fault. They would think

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:33

they were bad kids. And if they were if they would have been

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:36

good kids. I wouldn't have ended my life. I started thinking

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:40

about my mom. My mom would have been devastated. My mom would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:44

have been like, oh my gosh, maybe I should have been a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:47

better mom to Kelly. My My sister would have said, Oh my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:51

gosh, I can't believe this happened. If Kelly needed money.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:54

Why didn't she come to me? Because we have money, we would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:42:57

have given her all the money she needed. You know, and I started

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:02

thinking about all those people. And I thought, how horrible

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:05

would that be my ex husband even would have said, I wish I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:09

wouldn't have had that fight with Kalin to would be living.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:13

You know, and I thought this is just horrible. And I thought

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:17

what can I do? What is one step that I can take to you know, get

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:22

myself out of this. And basically, it was just, you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:26

know, talking to people who I love and support who support me,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:30

you know, my best friend. If, you know, if I were to come to

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:34

her and say, You know what, I want to end my life, she would

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:36

be like cow, what do we need to do to help you? Right? So it's

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:41

all about just reaching out to people that love and support

Kelly Falardeau: 00:43:44

you. They want to help you

Saylor Cooper: 00:43:47

and people that understand you too, because

Saylor Cooper: 00:43:50

everybody can try to help but not everybody will understand

Saylor Cooper: 00:43:54

what you've gone through because they have different

Saylor Cooper: 00:43:56

perspectives. And I've experienced that myself.

Saylor Cooper: 00:44:00

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Tyler Evans: 00:44:01

Absolutely. Yeah.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:03

Yeah. Anybody who thinks that they know the

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:05

solution to your life?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:09

You know, and they don't, people don't always know. Oh, no, no.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:14

And

Tyler Evans: 00:44:16

people, you know, always say, you know, if there's

Tyler Evans: 00:44:18

one thing you do not say to someone who's grieving. Get over

Tyler Evans: 00:44:22

it. You don't say that? Yeah, just don't say that. You say,

Tyler Evans: 00:44:26

Look, I can't I don't know. I don't fully understand what

Tyler Evans: 00:44:30

you're going through. But in a sense, I kind of do but at the

Tyler Evans: 00:44:32

same time, all I can do is just be there and try to help. And

Tyler Evans: 00:44:36

grieving doesn't have to be just over a loved one dying or

Tyler Evans: 00:44:38

anything like that. It could be just over a conditioner.

Saylor Cooper: 00:44:40

Yeah.

Tyler Evans: 00:44:41

Be a job you lost. It can be whatever.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:45

Yeah. And then the other thing that I did

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:47

because you know, sometimes you don't want to talk, right? I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:51

would just go to YouTube and I would look up motivational

Kelly Falardeau: 00:44:55

speakers. And then I would just watch videos and and that really

Kelly Falardeau: 00:45:01

helped me too because a lot of times I don't feel like talking

Kelly Falardeau: 00:45:04

to people, I'm very introverted. And sometimes I don't want to. I

Kelly Falardeau: 00:45:08

don't want to I don't want to talk.

Tyler Evans: 00:45:10

Yeah. Well,

Kelly Falardeau: 00:45:11

motivational videos really helped me too.

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:14

So your message is anybody who's struggling in

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:17

life just get help. If, if one person doesn't get it, find

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:23

someone who does, right.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:45:25

Exactly.

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:27

Because I hear you. Suicide is terrible,

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:30

because you think if I end my life, I won't be in a more pain.

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:36

And we've heard it times, if you do commit suicide, you don't go

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:40

to heaven, which I actually intentionally intentionally kill

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:45

yourself just for attention. You may not but if you if you really

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:48

suffering God, like understands it, you have at the same time,

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:54

you know, if I do this, I'm gonna leave a big hole behind

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:58

what my family

Tyler Evans: 00:45:59

Oh, yeah,

Saylor Cooper: 00:45:59

Kelly, I'm proud of that you were strong and you

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:02

did not. He did not act. And I want to promote the National

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:07

Suicide Prevention Lifeline, if you are having thoughts of

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:10

suicide, please. I don't know if Canada if it's available, but in

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:15

the US. It's called 988. That's the mental health emergency.

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:20

That's the equivalent to 911 for mental health emergencies. And

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:25

even if you're not trying to commit suicide, if you just need

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:28

to talk to someone, there's someone there who will listen,

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:32

they're not like licenced counsellors. If anything,

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:36

they'll just help get you started to like, help you

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:39

connect with research resources, such as a therapy. And of course

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:43

they won't. They won't. They won't act, that they won't allow

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:49

authorities or anything, unless they do believe you are going to

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:53

act and commit suicide and you have a plan. So if you even if

Saylor Cooper: 00:46:57

you're not going to commit suicide, if you just want to

Saylor Cooper: 00:47:00

talk call Nine, eight, and they can help you.

Tyler Evans: 00:47:03

And there's also another number, it's 802 73825.

Saylor Cooper: 00:47:09

That's the same. That's the same, that's the same

Saylor Cooper: 00:47:12

number. And now that it's so much shorter 988 It's so much

Saylor Cooper: 00:47:16

shorter to remember. It's, it's so much easier for people to

Saylor Cooper: 00:47:20

call.

Tyler Evans: 00:47:21

Yeah, absolutely.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:24

So you guys, I would love to extend an

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:27

invitation to you guys to be on my podcast. Yeah, we talked

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:31

about it. Yeah. Yeah, I would love for you guys. Because my

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:35

next book is called Grit, guts and courage. And basically what

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:38

it is, is it's stories of people who have overcome something. And

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:44

so I would love to interview both of you guys. And so what

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:48

we're doing is we're taking those interviews, and it's a

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:50

podcast, and it's also a book. So I'll just put the number here

Kelly Falardeau: 00:47:55

in the chat, because I've got the hero app also. So So you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:48:01

just use that text, the word grip. And it 202-866-2844

Tyler Evans: 00:48:12

That's

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:14

it already. I listened to all your podcasts. I

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:16

did.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:48:17

Yeah, you did. I know. You're on it.

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:20

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, it I love to be on it. So yeah.

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:25

Before we close out, I'm gonna leave this to you, Kelly.

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:28

Because you know what?

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:30

You're just not entrepreneurial, friend. You have personal fun to

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:34

us. And if you don't mind, especially, you know, finances

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:40

are tight right now. Of course, because I'm not making money

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:44

yet. I hope it's gonna be very soon of what I'm doing. But if

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:48

you don't mind, I would love to get on an aeroplane and come see

Saylor Cooper: 00:48:53

you in Edmonton.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:48:54

Oh, that would be cool. Yeah. Where do you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:48:59

where do you guys live?

Kelly Falardeau: 00:49:00

I'm in Houston, Texas. He Tyler. He's four hours east of me.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:49:05

Oh, cool.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:49:08

Well, I was in a year ago. So I'll keep that in mind that you

Kelly Falardeau: 00:49:12

guys are in Texas. So then next time I'm in Texas, we can get

Kelly Falardeau: 00:49:16

together. Exactly. And so

Kelly Falardeau: 00:49:21

yeah, that would be

Saylor Cooper: 00:49:24

so Kelly's inspirational life. Kelly's

Saylor Cooper: 00:49:29

integration with journey.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:49:31

Thank you so much.

Saylor Cooper: 00:49:34

Thank you when in the depths of despair, when the

Saylor Cooper: 00:49:39

flames took hold of her Holy Spirit refused to break even

Saylor Cooper: 00:49:44

when the world seemed to forsake course. Kelly Falardeau your

Saylor Cooper: 00:49:50

shining light. Your strength and courage are such a sight. You've

Saylor Cooper: 00:49:56

improved fire and image so strong. You inspire us all with

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:02

your beautiful song. Verse two, and I try and sing this actually

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:08

battling through surgeries and pain Luvable in in the shame.

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:14

Kelly rose above it all. And her spirit too strong the fall.

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:19

boastfully no bridge, from tragedy to triumph. Kelly's

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:25

journey shows us all that no matter what happens, we can all

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:30

rise up and stand tall. In the course, Kelly for Lago, your

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:36

shining light, your strength and courage are such a sight. You

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:42

then feel a file and emerge so strong. You inspire us all with

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:48

a beautiful song. Verse Lee, now an entrepreneur, speaker and

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:54

coach, a best selling author. Kelly's approach is the teacher

Saylor Cooper: 00:50:59

saw that we all enough. Perfect is we are strong and tough.

Saylor Cooper: 00:51:05

Outro Kelly, you are loved by all your light shines bright and

Saylor Cooper: 00:51:11

tall. Your journey inspires us to be strong, courageous, and free.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:51:19

Yeah, yeah. So awesome. Thank you. Yeah.

Tyler Evans: 00:51:25

Oh, yeah. We really appreciate you being on here

Tyler Evans: 00:51:31

today.

Kelly Falardeau: 00:51:31

Yeah, it's such an honour to be on your show

Kelly Falardeau: 00:51:34

with you guys. Thank you so much for having me

Saylor Cooper: 00:51:36

and I can't be on your show. Well, give it up for

Saylor Cooper: 00:51:41

Kelly Falardeau Everybody on the Hope without Sight episode