The Story of a Commitment to Impact 1 Billion Lives - Stephenie Rodriguez - Amazon Legends - Episode #215

The guest on today's episode is Stephenie Rodriguez. She is a Keynote speaker, serial entrepreneur, big data evangelist, Founder of WanderSafe, WSL Alumni, and mentor. Innovation is her driver, and she is on a mission to impact 1 billion lives by 2025 in support of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.  

After leading digital strategy and transformation projects for multinational, multibillion-dollar travel companies including SSP - the food travel experts and Club Med for the past 10 years, she has embarked on an entrepreneurial venture that combines her vast knowledge of the travel industry, the necessity of safety solutions for travelers and commuters and the enterprise opportunity that exists for tourism boards, airlines, and airports to capitalize on insights from big data related to the female travel decision maker. In today’s episode, she discusses the story of a commitment to impact 1 billion lives. 

Takeaways:

• Safety comes down to information, environmental awareness, and equipment.
• Domestic violence rose during the pandemic and now it is referred to as the shadow pandemic
• If you want to archive big things in life, set big goals.
• Whatever happens in life do not stop fighting for what you believe. 

Quote of the Show:The universe doesn’t work against you, it works with you, I stood up in Geneva at the UN in 2019 and declared that I was on a mission to impact 1 billion lives by 2025 and I kept on saying that throughout my recovery. 

Links:

• LinkedIn – Personal: http://www.linkedin.com/in/digitalgodess 
• LinkedIn – Wandersafe: https://www.linkedin.com/company/wandersafe/ 
• Facebook – Personal: https://www.facebook.com/DigitalGodess 
• Twitter – Personal: https://twitter.com/Digitalgodess 
• Instagram – Personal: https://www.instagram.com/digitalgodess/ 
• Pinterest – Personal: http://www.pinterest.com/DigitalGodess 
• Website – Wandersafe: https://www.wandersafe.com/ 

Ways to tune in:

• Apple Podcast
• iHeart Radio
• Spotify
• Google Podcast
• Stitcher
• YouTube

Amazon Legends is sponsored by Argometrix, the authority on, and a leading supplier of, competitive intelligence for online retail. To learn more, head over to https://argometrix.com/

Transcript

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Hello, everybody.

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Welcome to another episode of Amazon Legends.

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My next guest today is TED EX Speaker

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and a digital transformation expert

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specializing in travel industry.

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She works for several multinational companies

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and managed travel space airport and Duty-Free stores.

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She's currently the CEO and founder of Wonder Safe,

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which is a nonviolent personal safety device.

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It's actually an ecosystem

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that is for women and vulnerable people.

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When she's not working, she's passionate about fencing.

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Currently training for Paralympics as well as fencing.

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She likes to spend time with her teenage boy

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that is a recording artist and also her dog.

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So with that, everybody, meet my guest, Stephenie Rodriguez

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Welcome to the show. Stephenie 

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Thanks. Nick Delighted to be here.

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So you are joining us from Australia, right?

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Yes, I'm in Sydney.

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Wow. That's this is this is a first for me

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to have a guest all the way from Australia and that's where you reside.

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But your business is international, right?

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Yes. We're a U.S.

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Delaware corporation.

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But, you know, the irony is that, Nick, I'm in your future

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because we're ahead of you.

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So I can tell you the future is beautiful.

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Oh, I like.

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Yeah, I mean, it's it's it's definitely the,

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you know, the future is always beautiful.

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You know why?

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Because we don't know it yet.

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It's. Well, I know it.

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I'm I'm in the I'm in Wednesday.

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It's good.

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But yeah, you know, it's I went on a trip

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which, which had 16 hour time difference

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and it was so when I was messaging

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my friends, I would say, you know, I'm messaging you from your future.

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Exactly.

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I know. Exactly.

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So tell us, Stephanie, you have an incredible story.

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So for anybody listening, what you're going to hear in this episode

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is an incredible story of entrepreneurship.

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But most important, the

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the soul of an entrepreneur and how an entrepreneur operates.

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And I've never I've heard many stories

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and we all have our own and we have our challenges.

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But this one.

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So hold onto your seed.

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So with that, Stephanie.

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Share with us how you got to create your product.

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Thanks, Nick.

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Well, it started in 2015 when I was in an elevator in Geneva

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working on a digital transformation project for the airport.

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And I arrived very late.

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I booked my hotel online and the the elevator doors open.

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I'm on my way up to go for a walk in the morning.

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And this very large six five man

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gets in the elevator and he puts his hands on my shoulders.

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And he says in the very whiskey breath, you know, how much or do I take?

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And it took me seven floors

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for me to understand what he was saying to me.

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And when I got to the lobby, I wrestled from under his arms.

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I ran outside and I realized when I picked my head up

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that I was in the middle of the red light district of Geneva.

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And it annoyed me.

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It made me very angry that online,

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the type of information about safety was nowhere to be seen.

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So in all of the hotel booking engine sites and review sites,

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there was nothing to inform a vulnerable traveler

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such as myself as a female, that this was not a good place for me.

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And that was the genesis.

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I also had been to Kenya

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and seen young ladies with their head shaved, walking to school,

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and their parents dressed in like this so that they wouldn't be raped.

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Because if they got raped, they would.

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I'd probably get HIV and pregnant.

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So in needing to create safer tools for women

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and vulnerable people to navigate these two were the kind of the genesis.

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And in 2016, I pivoted from my consultancy and began to develop wander safe.

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So it

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it's first of all, somebody tries to assault you

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and and this was all because of the travel arrangement business.

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And then during your travel in Kenya, you see the women and then you decide,

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well, there has to be a way to protect, you know, somehow fix this.

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Yeah, that's that's the idea. Now,

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how did that become a business?

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What was it that finally because

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in working for multinational companies, especially with travel, you know,

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it's it's it's for a lot of people, it's a dream life.

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You're traveling around the world and then you are staying in hotels.

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But this is certainly is true.

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Better hotels and you are getting paid handsomely.

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And because also

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you are constantly on the road, you don't really get to spend your money so much.

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So you end up, I guess, saving. Exactly.

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How do you go from that to saying, okay, I'm now doing this?

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What was the catalyst?

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It was

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a promise I made to these young ladies in Kenya

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that I would develop a solution for them and having a background in digital

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transformation and me understanding how ecosystems work in a in a business.

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I spoke with a retired CIA safety expert named Thomas Pecora.

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He was in the CIA for 27 years.

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And I asked him, like, what are the CIA teach about safety?

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Because that's really the problem that my business is solving,

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is how to navigate safer and be better prepared.

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And Thomas said to me, steff safety as we teach in the CIA

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comes down to three things information, environmental awareness and equipment.

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And when he said equipment, I leant in and I said, Tell me about equipment.

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Is that like tasers and things? He said, no.

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Before we teach weapons training in the CIA,

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we first understand that bad things happen in the dark.

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So if you have a flashlight at the ready,

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then you are better prepared.

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If you can distract someone

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and make take their mind off of their intention, i.e.

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a strobe light, then you can buy yourself some time if you can call for help.

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So if there's a siren or a bell or alarm of some sort,

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you can attract attention or scare something off.

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But if you have a means to ask for help quickly, i.e.

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a Bluetooth button that works with an app, then

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you are 87% less likely

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that someone will put their hands on you and it was that information

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that became the basic premise for Wonder Safe My Business.

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Now we make a nonviolent personal safety device and an app that pairs with it.

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And between these two in the Internet of Things, we're able to create

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a safety ecosystem where people can one signal for help very quickly.

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They can distract someone from putting their hands on them.

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They can make a very loud noise,

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and their loved ones who need to know will know where they are within 10 minutes

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and be able to accurately locate them within three meters.

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Okay.

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So I will dig into this

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because I want people to understand how this works.

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And also you have

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some things that you planning on

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in order to launch in the U.S.

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and things like that.

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So we'll call out for some people we may want to collaborate with you

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and things like that.

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We'll get into those,

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but I want you to tell me so from the moment that you decided, okay,

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this is what the product is going to look like, this is these are the components.

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Tell me your story, because that I almost fell out of my chair

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when you told me the whole story about how everything you went through.

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And so

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I want to hear that that's the part that really inspired me.

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And I want everybody to hear it.

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Sure. Sure.

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Well, we started building our products

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after being in a Silicon Valley boot camp, if you would, for female founders.

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I raised about 1.5 million in venture

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funding for R&D to be able to develop a prototype.

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I got samples.

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I played around with electronics.

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I'm not an engineer, so I disclose I had no basic understanding

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of of electronics at all, but I knew what I wanted.

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And I drew this design and I went through this process.

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So after we launched it and sold some of our product to Booking.com,

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to Revlon and to Deloitte for their traveling staff,

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I decided that it was time to scale the business.

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So I went to Africa in September of 2019

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to speak at a conference and to launch wonders safe into Nigeria,

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where they have 10,000 women and girls a day that are sexually assaulted.

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So very big blue ocean, very much in need.

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And I did a week weekend in Lagos and that I flew to Delhi,

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I did a week in Delhi, meeting with the Booking.com satellite office.

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And then I flew back to Australia and then the next day

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I went to Boston for a meeting and I spent four days in Boston.

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But on the fourth day we were meant to fly back to Sydney and I was in the airport

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in the lounge and I had a seizure and I didn't wake up for two weeks

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and I was ambulance out of the hospital.

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And it took the staff of Massachusetts

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General 22 hours to diagnose that.

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I had been bitten by a mosquito in Africa

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that gave me the world's deadliest parasite.

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So at the time, because it was exactly two weeks

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from the day the parasite had multiplied in my bloodstream

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to where 8% of my blood volume was parasitic.

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And as a result of that, I had complete organ failure was like

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someone stuck a broom in a bicycle, spokes like everything's shut down.

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So I'm in a coma.

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My family are called to come and informed

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that I'm going to die like three times in this coma.

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Harvard doctors said her life is unviable.

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She will not live.

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And by a miracle,

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I came through after the third time and woke up.

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But when I woke up, I was completely paralyzed.

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I couldn't scratch my own nose

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and it would be the beginning.

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And this is October of 2019 of a three year journey

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that had me in the hospital for more than 440 days.

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I'm going on Saturday for my 40th operation

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and as a result of irreversible damage, I wound up losing both of my feet

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and becoming a bilateral osteo integrated amputee

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in February, March of 2021.

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So I've just about hit two years of on my bionic limbs,

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but I'm grateful to be here and whole

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and thriving despite an enormous curve.

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You know, when the world was going through the pandemic and suffering

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in that way, I was fighting my own battle in the hospital

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alone in a foreign country, dealing with the back

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end of cerebral malaria. So,

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first of all,

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after being bitten by this mosquito,

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you have no idea what just happened.

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And for two weeks, you're going

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full steam ahead, traveling around.

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I mean, I heard you mentioned you flew.

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Multiple 40,000 kilometers, 40,000 kilometers in two weeks.

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So I had jetlag.

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I thought I had jetlag.

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I just thought you know, airplane flew.

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And all this time this bacteria was multiplying.

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So making more of each other.

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And then finally in Boston, and then you fly to Boston.

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And in Boston, it takes a hit.

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And I had deteriorated to where I was.

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You know, I don't even remember the day.

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And I have a really good memory, but I don't even remember that.

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Sun So this was 2019?

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Yes, September 29th of 2019.

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So we went down.

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And that's when you went into coma all together?

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Yeah. Yeah.

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I had a seizure in the airport lounge and I was ambulance too, out unconscious.

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And I would not wake up for two weeks.

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Two weeks.

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So two weeks later you wake up.

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You are in the hospital in Boston still. Yep.

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And tell us about what's I mean, you are not sure what what was happening.

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Then you find yourself in bed and you are obviously

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you just lost everything and now you wake up two weeks later.

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So describe to us what was going on there.

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Well, when I woke up, i1i remember my business partner, Fiona,

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she had flown to Boston from Canberra, Australia.

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And I remember her voice in the coma, speaking to me,

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explaining that I had cerebral malaria.

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I was very sick, but I was surrounded by people who loved me

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and I was going to be okay. So I had heard that.

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But when I woke up, you know, and I couldn't move,

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I thought that someone had put a lead sheet over me

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because it didn't dawn on me that I was the one that was unable to move.

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I thought I was being restrained in some kind of way for whatever reason.

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So it was a very confusing time.

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But, you know, I was there like lying there going, okay, hands move.

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And my hands wouldn't move and my nose, it's

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because there was tape on it and I was so frustrated

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and I had a tube down my throat so I couldn't say anything.

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So, one, there's no buzzer to press to call the nurse.

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I can only move my eyes and no one knows I'm awake.

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So I sat there for almost 24 hours, the first 24 hours

00:15:32:18 - 00:15:36:07
watching the hands of the clock were around, unable to move.

00:15:36:19 - 00:15:38:23
I had a tube down my throat.

00:15:38:23 - 00:15:41:10
Well, you couldn't talk either. No.

00:15:42:01 - 00:15:45:23
So it was, you know, a very odd experience, if you would.

00:15:46:09 - 00:15:50:17
But, you know, in and waking up, my family were near my bed.

00:15:50:17 - 00:15:55:21
They all looked very surprised and sad, like there were a lot of tears.

00:15:56:11 - 00:16:00:24
And I would later learn that the tears were one of joy and gratitude

00:16:00:24 - 00:16:05:10
that I lived, but also incredible fear because no one knew

00:16:05:10 - 00:16:09:09
the extent of the damages or what that would mean for my life.

00:16:09:09 - 00:16:12:20
Moving forward, going from being an active CEO

00:16:12:20 - 00:16:16:12
and a single mom to a teenager and all of these things that I was,

00:16:17:09 - 00:16:20:21
you know, it was a grinding halt to my life just stopping.

00:16:21:14 - 00:16:24:13
And my family were like, I don't know how she's going to deal with this.

00:16:25:00 - 00:16:28:04
So I saw fear in their eyes as well as joy.

00:16:28:12 - 00:16:30:06
You know, when I woke up from the coma.

00:16:31:11 - 00:16:33:05
So so you

00:16:33:05 - 00:16:36:13
wake up two weeks later, you are out of coma,

00:16:37:21 - 00:16:39:18
except that you are paralyzed.

00:16:39:18 - 00:16:41:18
You can't talk, you can't do anything.

00:16:41:18 - 00:16:44:05
And you are in bed and you are in Boston.

00:16:44:05 - 00:16:48:10
And I'm in Boston and my feet were in bandages and my hand was bandaged.

00:16:48:21 - 00:16:52:03
So, you know, I had these and this incredible pain

00:16:52:17 - 00:16:55:17
and I didn't really know what had happened to my feet,

00:16:56:02 - 00:17:01:10
but my toes were turning purple and I had a huge pressure blister on my hand.

00:17:02:05 - 00:17:04:15
My fingertips were turning black.

00:17:04:15 - 00:17:08:09
And, you know, no one could really explain to me what had happened

00:17:09:22 - 00:17:13:03
and no one could tell me what was going to happen either.

00:17:13:14 - 00:17:16:18
So, you know, my feet are severely painful.

00:17:16:24 - 00:17:18:04
My toes are turning purple.

00:17:18:04 - 00:17:21:15
I can see them sticking out of bandages purple.

00:17:22:14 - 00:17:24:21
What that was, was necrosis,

00:17:24:21 - 00:17:29:13
because during the coma, when doctors told my family I had 5 minutes to live,

00:17:29:23 - 00:17:33:19
they said, we can give her these drugs called Vaso pressers, adrenaline, drugs.

00:17:34:05 - 00:17:38:11
And what those Vaso presses do is they send all your blood to your heart,

00:17:38:19 - 00:17:42:19
so they basically rub your extremities to give it to your vitals.

00:17:43:10 - 00:17:46:04
And they warned my family that once.

00:17:46:13 - 00:17:49:01
That's the only thing they could do at this time.

00:17:49:13 - 00:17:54:12
But if they did it, it would be highly likely I would have irreversible damage.

00:17:54:21 - 00:17:58:18
And my family just said, give her whatever you need to save her life.

00:17:58:18 - 00:18:00:01
She'll deal with it.

00:18:00:01 - 00:18:02:18
But waking up for me to see

00:18:03:00 - 00:18:07:02
that my feet had been robbed of blood in my fingertips, hence

00:18:07:02 - 00:18:11:12
the purple was the beginning of those appendages dying.

00:18:12:13 - 00:18:13:22
That would be a very much

00:18:13:22 - 00:18:17:18
a wait and see kind of experience on what was to happen next.

00:18:18:12 - 00:18:20:02
So how long did that last?

00:18:20:02 - 00:18:23:07
How long were you in that state in the hospital

00:18:23:14 - 00:18:26:08
not knowing what's going to happen?

00:18:26:08 - 00:18:28:18
Well, I stayed in Boston

00:18:28:18 - 00:18:31:24
for 45 days and my attending doctor, Greg,

00:18:32:11 - 00:18:35:05
said, you know, Stephanie,

00:18:35:05 - 00:18:41:01
cerebral malaria kills 97.7% of the people it infects.

00:18:41:11 - 00:18:46:11
So we don't have data on what the recovery journey is going to look like for you

00:18:47:03 - 00:18:51:02
because there isn't any that 2% of the population

00:18:51:10 - 00:18:55:15
that survives such a trauma is not recorded or correlated.

00:18:55:15 - 00:18:58:19
And this was the first case of cerebral malaria

00:18:59:01 - 00:19:01:17
that Massachusetts General Hospital ever had.

00:19:02:08 - 00:19:05:02
So there was no premise

00:19:05:02 - 00:19:07:19
for for what the next steps would look like.

00:19:08:04 - 00:19:11:07
So they couldn't tell me what it's going to take.

00:19:11:07 - 00:19:13:23
A month, three months, four years, you know, nothing.

00:19:14:11 - 00:19:17:01
So it was a question of

00:19:17:01 - 00:19:20:08
would my how much of my body was damaged,

00:19:20:08 - 00:19:23:09
how irreversible it was, what would grow back, what wouldn't?

00:19:24:09 - 00:19:26:11
But my travel insurance company

00:19:26:20 - 00:19:30:20
demanded that I be repatriated back to Australia here.

00:19:31:04 - 00:19:35:17
So they were trying to get me out of Massachusetts General and back to Sydney

00:19:36:01 - 00:19:40:14
so that the medical teams here would pick up on that care and look after me.

00:19:40:21 - 00:19:43:22
So we we came back to Australia

00:19:44:08 - 00:19:48:15
about the 5th of November and then I went straight into the hospital.

00:19:49:01 - 00:19:52:24
So it was just the beginning of a, of a long journey.

00:19:54:09 - 00:19:58:11
My toes were so damaged that they were irreversible

00:19:58:11 - 00:20:01:04
and what the body does, Nick It's really interesting.

00:20:01:04 - 00:20:05:08
It demarcates so it separates the dead thing from the large thing.

00:20:05:17 - 00:20:09:11
So you could see how the tips of my fingers were

00:20:09:19 - 00:20:13:21
that the dead bits were separating and coming away from the healthy tissue.

00:20:14:09 - 00:20:19:09
But we waited to do any medical intervention like surgery

00:20:19:19 - 00:20:22:15
until the 15th of February of 2020.

00:20:23:05 - 00:20:28:09
So that was the beginning of my surgical journey was 2020 in February.

00:20:28:16 - 00:20:31:12
But I spent from February

00:20:31:12 - 00:20:35:05
15th to July 4th in the hospital.

00:20:36:09 - 00:20:37:03
So complete

00:20:37:03 - 00:20:40:24
isolation during lockdowns and the pandemic by myself.

00:20:41:14 - 00:20:44:19
And that was incredibly trying just as much as I was

00:20:44:19 - 00:20:47:21
in physical pain, the isolation was really challenging.

00:20:48:15 - 00:20:51:06
So, I mean, that's what I was just about to say.

00:20:51:13 - 00:20:54:17
It's all this is happening.

00:20:54:17 - 00:20:58:12
And you know, back home in Australia you are in hospital

00:20:58:24 - 00:21:04:03
February 2020 and COVID is just starting to come out

00:21:04:03 - 00:21:09:07
like it's hitting the whole world in a way that that nobody has seen for

00:21:09:07 - 00:21:13:20
God knows, you know, since the Spanish flu and nobody knows what the cure is.

00:21:13:20 - 00:21:15:07
People are dying.

00:21:15:07 - 00:21:17:17
Then everything that we saw in the movies is happening.

00:21:17:21 - 00:21:21:07
And here you are in the hospital, you're fighting for your life

00:21:21:18 - 00:21:24:01
and you see your body, you know,

00:21:25:02 - 00:21:26:14
transforming.

00:21:26:14 - 00:21:31:06
It's I mean, I cannot even imagine how it must have been feeling.

00:21:31:10 - 00:21:34:18
This is incredible.

00:21:34:18 - 00:21:38:04
Yeah, I, I look back

00:21:38:04 - 00:21:42:06
at that experience, and a very wise friend of me said,

00:21:42:19 - 00:21:46:09
you know, Steph, the universe doesn't work against you.

00:21:46:09 - 00:21:47:23
It works with you.

00:21:47:23 - 00:21:50:06
And I had stood up in Geneva

00:21:50:14 - 00:21:54:03
at the UN in 2019 and declared

00:21:54:13 - 00:21:58:10
that I was on a mission to impact a billion lives by 2025.

00:21:59:02 - 00:22:04:03
And I kept on saying that through 2019 I would open any presentation

00:22:04:03 - 00:22:07:14
with that mission leading at the core of the conversation

00:22:08:02 - 00:22:12:21
and this wise person, she said, You know, the universe has recalibrated

00:22:12:23 - 00:22:15:23
to give you the means to deliver on that mission.

00:22:16:15 - 00:22:18:19
So be it as a bridge.

00:22:19:06 - 00:22:22:18
And when you get across the bridge, you'll know that you've come out the other side

00:22:23:08 - 00:22:26:06
and it'll take you to where you're supposed to be.

00:22:26:17 - 00:22:28:08
So, you know, often people say,

00:22:28:08 - 00:22:31:20
I'm so sorry when they when they ask me what happened or they hear about it,

00:22:32:04 - 00:22:36:07
but I'm actually not sorry because the growth that I experienced

00:22:36:13 - 00:22:39:24
through adversity was definitely a teacher for me.

00:22:40:16 - 00:22:42:21
And to learn how strong I was

00:22:43:05 - 00:22:46:02
and to learn patience in a new way

00:22:46:16 - 00:22:51:22
and to focus on things outside of my own bubble of pain

00:22:52:06 - 00:22:54:17
were really quintessential

00:22:55:05 - 00:22:57:07
themes throughout this entire journey.

00:22:57:22 - 00:23:03:07
And I can say that I grew as a person, as a mother, as an entrepreneur,

00:23:03:20 - 00:23:07:01
you know, having to go through such a very difficult time.

00:23:10:08 - 00:23:12:13
And then your

00:23:12:19 - 00:23:15:07
your your story as far as

00:23:16:09 - 00:23:19:04
what you went through, we're going to get to

00:23:19:18 - 00:23:22:19
how you come out the other end in a minute.

00:23:22:19 - 00:23:26:22
But what I am dying to know is

00:23:27:07 - 00:23:30:01
so you have you

00:23:30:01 - 00:23:33:11
from February to July, you go through the surgery

00:23:33:11 - 00:23:37:05
and you lose your your feet in the process.

00:23:37:12 - 00:23:40:11
No. First I lost my toes and my heels.

00:23:41:00 - 00:23:44:15
So they they they were very conservative to take only

00:23:44:15 - 00:23:48:14
what was dead and demarcating meaning separating from the body.

00:23:48:21 - 00:23:53:04
So I lost all ten of my toes and the caps of my heels to the bone.

00:23:53:18 - 00:23:55:20
So there was parts of the foot left over.

00:23:55:22 - 00:23:58:24
They weren't they were unrecognizable, but

00:23:58:24 - 00:24:01:15
there were still things at the bottom of my legs.

00:24:02:01 - 00:24:04:21
But we did skin grafts,

00:24:04:21 - 00:24:08:11
we did stem cells, we did hyperbaric treatments,

00:24:08:24 - 00:24:12:07
and my heals just would not grow back.

00:24:12:13 - 00:24:14:12
The skin wouldn't cover it.

00:24:14:12 - 00:24:18:13
And we had worked on this for so many operations

00:24:18:13 - 00:24:21:14
after I was having surgery almost every ten days.

00:24:22:15 - 00:24:23:19
So we,

00:24:23:19 - 00:24:26:20
you know, it's like, keep at it, try, try, try our hardest.

00:24:26:23 - 00:24:30:04
Trying to recover from one surgery and now you're going into another.

00:24:30:20 - 00:24:31:06
Yeah.

00:24:31:06 - 00:24:35:08
And that's why they kept me in the hospital for for so long was to,

00:24:35:20 - 00:24:39:04
to be able to make sure that I was,

00:24:39:08 - 00:24:41:19
you know, not at risk for an infection

00:24:42:04 - 00:24:45:10
or going to do something on them that I shouldn't.

00:24:45:20 - 00:24:49:14
So that's kind of the reason for the extreme hospitalization.

00:24:50:02 - 00:24:52:19
But as I said, you know, more than 440

00:24:52:19 - 00:24:55:11
nights, that's extreme hospitalization.

00:24:56:03 - 00:24:58:11
You know, more than a year. Yeah.

00:24:58:11 - 00:24:59:14
So in July.

00:24:59:14 - 00:25:03:14
So what happened in July is that from February to July.

00:25:04:13 - 00:25:08:08
They let me come home because they wanted to, you know, give me time.

00:25:08:08 - 00:25:10:14
So I would have a nurse come in to see me every day.

00:25:10:24 - 00:25:14:20
But then I went back in in August and back in in September and back again.

00:25:15:04 - 00:25:19:15
But that period of February to

00:25:20:20 - 00:25:24:01
two July was one chunk of solid time.

00:25:24:09 - 00:25:28:15
But then there were more two weeks here, three weeks here, go home for two weeks,

00:25:28:15 - 00:25:30:17
come back. And it was a little less

00:25:32:04 - 00:25:36:04
segregated in the treatment, but ultimately, you know, as

00:25:36:04 - 00:25:40:06
we got through but we when we got to February of 2021,

00:25:40:15 - 00:25:43:06
so been a year since I lost my toes, my heels.

00:25:43:15 - 00:25:45:15
I was in a wheelchair for two years.

00:25:46:04 - 00:25:50:04
So we got to this point in treatment that there were just was no hope.

00:25:51:01 - 00:25:55:03
So but the option was to do a huge

00:25:56:02 - 00:26:00:07
grafts of my side and put that on my heels

00:26:00:19 - 00:26:04:03
and re vascularized that and I would lie in bed for three more months

00:26:04:08 - 00:26:08:04
and not move and hopes that that would cover and grow on my heels

00:26:08:17 - 00:26:11:20
or the other, which was amputations.

00:26:12:16 - 00:26:16:04
And I met my surgeon at TED.

00:26:16:15 - 00:26:18:06
You know, the idea is worth spreading.

00:26:18:06 - 00:26:23:23
TED talks in 2015 and so there's a doctor who specializes in robotic surgery

00:26:24:06 - 00:26:28:00
and I miraculously met him before I ever knew I needed him.

00:26:28:24 - 00:26:29:18
But when we get to

00:26:29:18 - 00:26:32:17
this point of no return with my heels,

00:26:33:13 - 00:26:35:19
I go and see him and he says, Look,

00:26:37:01 - 00:26:38:23
if you give me those sweets,

00:26:38:23 - 00:26:41:23
I'll have you walking within two weeks.

00:26:41:23 - 00:26:45:11
So it took me three weeks to think that through

00:26:45:20 - 00:26:48:17
because amputations are a very permanent decision.

00:26:48:17 - 00:26:51:01
There's no coming back for months.

00:26:51:13 - 00:26:54:19
So, you know, you wanted me to to make sure that I had thought about it,

00:26:54:19 - 00:26:59:03
but I was in so much pain and all I wanted was my mobility back

00:26:59:03 - 00:27:01:13
and to get back on my feet, no pun intended.

00:27:01:24 - 00:27:06:01
So it didn't take me a very long time to make that decision

00:27:06:12 - 00:27:09:19
that I would have my feet amputated and

00:27:10:09 - 00:27:13:05
and take bionic surgery as my option to

00:27:13:08 - 00:27:16:11
to mobility again.

00:27:16:11 - 00:27:20:10
So from really the the whole incident happened

00:27:20:10 - 00:27:24:22
in September of 2019, all the way up to February 2021.

00:27:25:06 - 00:27:28:24
It's the whole time of and while COVID

00:27:28:24 - 00:27:32:09
is running rampant and doing all kinds of damage,

00:27:32:24 - 00:27:36:04
you've gone through this slowly,

00:27:36:04 - 00:27:39:10
your toes, your heels heals.

00:27:40:03 - 00:27:43:15
And and then finally, in February 2021,

00:27:43:23 - 00:27:46:19
you make a decision to have your feet amputated.

00:27:47:13 - 00:27:51:00
Yeah, that was the only choice because it wasn't healing.

00:27:51:11 - 00:27:53:23
So I really I had run out of options at that point.

00:27:54:16 - 00:27:58:10
And you know, not being able to swim or take take a bath.

00:27:58:18 - 00:28:01:10
So I couldn't immerse my wounds in anything.

00:28:01:16 - 00:28:03:17
I love the ocean. I'm Puerto Rican.

00:28:03:17 - 00:28:07:21
So I really wanted to get parts of my life back that I could.

00:28:09:09 - 00:28:10:03
So you make the

00:28:10:03 - 00:28:13:14
decision to have this, you buy it.

00:28:14:05 - 00:28:16:09
So you become a bionic woman?

00:28:16:09 - 00:28:19:00
I have and I have.

00:28:19:00 - 00:28:21:17
Well, I've never had a bionic woman as my guess.

00:28:21:17 - 00:28:23:07
So this is another story.

00:28:23:07 - 00:28:27:18
So the joking aside, so how long did that take?

00:28:28:09 - 00:28:30:08
Did they really get you on your feet?

00:28:30:08 - 00:28:33:02
In two weeks? Yes.

00:28:33:02 - 00:28:37:15
And if you look at my Instagram, which is Digital Goddess on Instagram,

00:28:38:02 - 00:28:42:07
I document the journey, but you can see me in a hoist,

00:28:42:19 - 00:28:46:09
standing on parallel bars, standing and putting weight

00:28:46:09 - 00:28:50:17
through my stoma, which are poles that go to my knee.

00:28:51:02 - 00:28:54:10
And then, you know, my first steps walking

00:28:54:18 - 00:28:57:01
it took eight weeks of medical rehab

00:28:57:14 - 00:29:00:10
to get me fit and strong enough

00:29:00:10 - 00:29:03:10
to stand because I'd been in a wheelchair

00:29:03:10 - 00:29:07:15
and not upstanding for two years, so the muscles kind of deteriorate.

00:29:07:24 - 00:29:09:14
But he was correct.

00:29:09:14 - 00:29:13:20
I was upstanding and putting weight to my my stoma

00:29:13:24 - 00:29:18:15
and I got my first pair of prosthetics not very long after.

00:29:20:05 - 00:29:24:04
So when is it that you

00:29:24:07 - 00:29:29:09
finally recovered as much as you could from something like this, where you are

00:29:29:09 - 00:29:35:01
functioning daily, attending to your needs and thinking business?

00:29:35:01 - 00:29:36:22
So when was that?

00:29:36:22 - 00:29:39:24
Well, we're still we're always going to be a work in progress.

00:29:40:15 - 00:29:44:14
Like, as I said, I'm having my 40th surgery on Saturday.

00:29:44:14 - 00:29:48:07
I needed a full hip replacement in August of last year

00:29:48:07 - 00:29:51:03
and I'll get the other one done this year.

00:29:51:12 - 00:29:56:05
So the the cerebral malaria, you know, surviving it is one feat.

00:29:56:05 - 00:30:02:06
But, you know, reversing the damage that it created has been a challenge.

00:30:02:06 - 00:30:03:21
And that's just something that

00:30:03:21 - 00:30:07:22
I'll deal with for as long as I'm lucky enough to breathe oxygen.

00:30:08:06 - 00:30:11:14
So, you know, there are various stages of better

00:30:12:04 - 00:30:15:07
and good, but we'll never be recovered from.

00:30:15:07 - 00:30:17:11
That will always be kind of a work in progress.

00:30:17:22 - 00:30:23:02
But it was last year that I could start thinking about the future

00:30:23:02 - 00:30:26:07
because when I was in treatment for for the first two years,

00:30:26:20 - 00:30:29:14
the only thing I could think of was getting through the end of the day,

00:30:30:05 - 00:30:33:21
like, God just helped me get to the end of today.

00:30:34:06 - 00:30:36:00
I couldn't think about next week.

00:30:36:00 - 00:30:37:01
There was no future.

00:30:37:01 - 00:30:40:09
It was like just spend minute by minute by minute

00:30:40:09 - 00:30:43:22
and hang on because the pain was excruciating.

00:30:43:22 - 00:30:48:19
The discomfort, the inconvenience, being in a wheelchair, it was pretty miserable.

00:30:49:07 - 00:30:53:17
But I returned back to Africa in March of last year

00:30:54:01 - 00:30:56:23
and gave a TED talk in South Africa,

00:30:57:13 - 00:31:00:01
which I was very pleased to be able to

00:31:00:01 - 00:31:03:01
do, resumed some of my travel.

00:31:03:10 - 00:31:05:01
I've been speaking at conferences

00:31:05:01 - 00:31:07:21
and things about wonder safe and about resilience.

00:31:08:05 - 00:31:13:16
So I think 2022 was probably

00:31:13:16 - 00:31:17:21
where we started to turn the corner on stability.

00:31:18:10 - 00:31:18:19
Yeah.

00:31:20:02 - 00:31:24:16
So you had, you had raised

00:31:24:22 - 00:31:29:14
capital to start the business before this thing happened, right? Yes.

00:31:30:03 - 00:31:32:23
So that that all came to

00:31:32:23 - 00:31:35:16
a standstill, I assume, when this thing happened.

00:31:35:23 - 00:31:38:19
So you had this I want you to

00:31:38:19 - 00:31:43:06
because this to me is the real story

00:31:43:06 - 00:31:45:13
in terms of the soul

00:31:46:07 - 00:31:49:03
that that that you put to work, so to speak.

00:31:49:21 - 00:31:53:02
How do you go from

00:31:53:17 - 00:31:56:24
having so many surgeries and almost losing your life?

00:31:57:09 - 00:32:01:05
And, you know, this is doesn't matter how strong you are.

00:32:01:05 - 00:32:02:15
We are human beings.

00:32:02:15 - 00:32:03:09
It affects us.

00:32:03:09 - 00:32:08:12
So how do you go from that to the fight in to get into this fighting mode,

00:32:08:17 - 00:32:12:23
to build the bit, to build the business, pick it back up again

00:32:13:05 - 00:32:15:03
and then start building it.

00:32:15:03 - 00:32:20:01
Did you have a team or tell us about that transformation

00:32:20:01 - 00:32:24:00
from saying, okay, now I'm going to do it?

00:32:24:04 - 00:32:26:07
What how did that feel?

00:32:26:07 - 00:32:28:03
What did you go through?

00:32:28:03 - 00:32:28:16
Sure.

00:32:28:16 - 00:32:33:04
Well, my co-founder, who is my technical co-founder, his name is Paolo.

00:32:33:13 - 00:32:35:01
And Paolo,

00:32:36:03 - 00:32:38:10
you know, stood by and

00:32:38:10 - 00:32:41:15
updated our software every time the phones would update,

00:32:41:20 - 00:32:43:09
you know, because we make an app,

00:32:43:09 - 00:32:46:14
we have to update our technology in the app, etc..

00:32:46:14 - 00:32:50:13
So we pulled our stock out of duty free right before the pandemic.

00:32:50:15 - 00:32:53:05
So we we got all of our AR beacons back

00:32:53:13 - 00:32:55:19
and put them in our warehouse when I got sick.

00:32:56:13 - 00:33:00:19
My investors, for the most part, have been very patient

00:33:00:19 - 00:33:03:18
because truth be told, I was injured on the job.

00:33:04:12 - 00:33:08:09
So, you know, being being a startup with no worker's comp,

00:33:08:19 - 00:33:12:01
you know, directors, insurance, there was no one to sue.

00:33:12:14 - 00:33:14:03
You can't sue a mosquito.

00:33:14:03 - 00:33:19:07
So in bearing the brunt of this work related injury, the investors

00:33:19:07 - 00:33:24:10
pretty much had to give me grace, if you would, to recover in my own time.

00:33:24:10 - 00:33:29:08
But we were also uncertain as to whether or not I would physically be able

00:33:29:08 - 00:33:34:00
to resume the role as CEO and and lead the vision of the company.

00:33:35:17 - 00:33:36:07
In the

00:33:36:07 - 00:33:39:04
interim of me getting better, my co-founder

00:33:39:19 - 00:33:44:03
developed palate cancer and he underwent treatment

00:33:44:03 - 00:33:49:12
for palate cancer at the end of 2021, beginning of 2022.

00:33:49:21 - 00:33:54:16
So it's kind of we both had our moments of grace with each other

00:33:55:05 - 00:33:59:15
to be patient and to give each other time to to do what needs to be done.

00:34:00:07 - 00:34:05:04
But as far as re reentering back in to the ring, if you would,

00:34:05:16 - 00:34:10:10
I believe that my life was spared for a reason and I have to do all I can

00:34:10:23 - 00:34:16:06
to deliver on that promise of a billion lives impacted by 2025.

00:34:16:21 - 00:34:22:00
In gratitude for my life being spared.

00:34:22:00 - 00:34:24:17
Well, I mean, that promise you made.

00:34:25:10 - 00:34:25:20
Yeah.

00:34:25:24 - 00:34:28:23
Is sounds like that's what kept you going.

00:34:29:15 - 00:34:31:14
It is. It is indeed.

00:34:31:14 - 00:34:36:00
You know, I mean, it's such a miracle I don't have any tattoos

00:34:36:00 - 00:34:38:16
and I make this joke all the time, but if I were to get one,

00:34:39:01 - 00:34:42:03
it would be the number two and the percent sign.

00:34:42:16 - 00:34:47:11
Because I remember every day in gratitude how lucky I am that I'm

00:34:47:11 - 00:34:53:02
one of the 2% that's actually survives to cerebro malaria and live to tell that story.

00:34:54:04 - 00:34:55:07
And, you know,

00:34:55:07 - 00:34:59:02
the world didn't get any better with in relationship

00:34:59:02 - 00:35:02:12
to domestic sexual violence during the pandemic.

00:35:02:23 - 00:35:05:12
In fact, domestic violence numbers rose

00:35:05:20 - 00:35:10:10
significantly to what is now referred to as the shadow pandemic.

00:35:10:10 - 00:35:17:03
So in looking at how much worse a social problem got exacerbated

00:35:17:03 - 00:35:18:10
because people were locked up

00:35:18:10 - 00:35:21:11
with their oppressor, there was additional stress on their homes

00:35:21:19 - 00:35:24:12
for lack of money and opportunity

00:35:25:02 - 00:35:27:19
and, you know, the increased workload of women.

00:35:28:05 - 00:35:30:23
So it's now more than ever

00:35:30:23 - 00:35:33:09
is what we do necessary and important.

00:35:34:05 - 00:35:36:24
And I just think if I'm blessed enough to still be here,

00:35:37:15 - 00:35:40:18
I have to keep going.

00:35:40:18 - 00:35:44:18
Well, I mean, there is there is nothing other than respect

00:35:44:22 - 00:35:47:23
that that that anybody can have for you.

00:35:48:07 - 00:35:49:17
The respect for your

00:35:50:18 - 00:35:51:23
commitment to it.

00:35:51:23 - 00:35:53:14
And and doing this

00:35:53:14 - 00:35:57:09
and obviously in the process, as you promised, touching people's lives.

00:35:57:09 - 00:36:00:13
So, yeah, let's talk about the business end of this.

00:36:00:13 - 00:36:02:14
So you come up with this product.

00:36:03:11 - 00:36:06:10
Tell us about your strategy for distribution.

00:36:06:10 - 00:36:10:03
So how did you because a lot of the times that's part of the challenge.

00:36:10:03 - 00:36:11:01
People don't know.

00:36:11:01 - 00:36:12:05
They have a great idea.

00:36:12:05 - 00:36:14:16
It's a product, but they don't know really how to sell.

00:36:14:22 - 00:36:17:18
So give us your thoughts about

00:36:17:18 - 00:36:19:24
how you decided to distribute your product.

00:36:20:21 - 00:36:23:15
Well, I had an advantage,

00:36:23:24 - 00:36:29:04
having consulted two duty free companies as a digital transformation expert.

00:36:29:09 - 00:36:33:18
So not developing any products of my own, but advising them.

00:36:34:24 - 00:36:37:24
It was just an obvious to launch our product

00:36:38:10 - 00:36:41:20
where we knew the market and a lot about them.

00:36:42:07 - 00:36:45:20
And duty free is a great place if you're making any kind of travel

00:36:45:20 - 00:36:51:10
related products to to present yourself because you're going to get some feedback

00:36:51:10 - 00:36:54:19
very quickly on whether or not there's a product market fit.

00:36:55:06 - 00:36:58:07
So we launched our product at the duty free trade show

00:36:58:18 - 00:37:01:01
in Cannes in 2018,

00:37:01:10 - 00:37:04:11
and we received our first order on the day

00:37:04:22 - 00:37:08:05
to be sold in-flight on Etihad Airways.

00:37:08:17 - 00:37:11:04
So, you know, when you get on the plane and you've got the catalog

00:37:11:04 - 00:37:14:01
and you can pick what you want, the very analog, but

00:37:14:09 - 00:37:16:16
it was certainly a great proving ground for us.

00:37:17:01 - 00:37:19:19
So we went down that route of launching and duty

00:37:19:19 - 00:37:23:11
free first and seeing how the market behaved.

00:37:24:20 - 00:37:25:14
We, we

00:37:25:14 - 00:37:29:18
distribute our product to some stores in brick and mortar in airports.

00:37:29:18 - 00:37:32:02
But then, as I said, we took our product out.

00:37:32:14 - 00:37:35:08
We thought about going on Amazon.

00:37:35:08 - 00:37:38:03
We attempted to go onto the Amazon platform.

00:37:38:18 - 00:37:40:22
But we, we had some friction

00:37:41:11 - 00:37:44:16
because I'm physically based in Australia

00:37:44:24 - 00:37:47:11
and our company is based in the United States

00:37:47:21 - 00:37:51:01
and the IP address that I would log into

00:37:51:16 - 00:37:54:02
had trouble with getting listed on Amazon

00:37:54:02 - 00:37:57:19
because of the know your customer in the validation process.

00:37:58:05 - 00:38:01:07
So at that point it became too hard

00:38:01:18 - 00:38:05:23
and we just began to only sell our product on our website.

00:38:05:23 - 00:38:09:10
But again, in the three years of my recovery,

00:38:09:18 - 00:38:15:03
we didn't want to overpromise and under-deliver any more than we could.

00:38:15:03 - 00:38:19:07
So we were very conservative and kind of held back

00:38:19:15 - 00:38:22:15
from updating our product or releasing anything new.

00:38:23:01 - 00:38:25:18
Whilst I was pretty much in recovery.

00:38:26:08 - 00:38:29:18
But we went and started in duty free, but we won awards.

00:38:29:18 - 00:38:33:15
We won best new travel accessory of 2019

00:38:33:15 - 00:38:37:14
in the industry based on the opinions of 5000 shoppers.

00:38:37:23 - 00:38:40:20
So we know our product does something really great.

00:38:41:06 - 00:38:43:07
People love it. We have great reviews

00:38:44:12 - 00:38:46:23
and now it's just time for us to think about

00:38:47:11 - 00:38:49:14
how we improve that product moving forward.

00:38:51:07 - 00:38:54:23
So let's now talk about the product itself

00:38:55:03 - 00:38:58:03
because it's a it's a

00:38:58:03 - 00:38:59:14
it's a significant item.

00:38:59:14 - 00:39:04:18
It's not like something that somebody came up with an idea to use

00:39:04:18 - 00:39:09:10
and at home or in the kitchen or whatever this is, it impacts people's lives.

00:39:09:10 - 00:39:13:09
So, yeah, based on your conversation with the CIA

00:39:13:09 - 00:39:17:05
a former CIA person, is strobe light

00:39:17:05 - 00:39:20:16
is something that deters somebody.

00:39:21:00 - 00:39:23:09
And so your product has

00:39:23:18 - 00:39:26:01
a strobe light right in it, built in.

00:39:26:17 - 00:39:29:10
As a flashlight, a strobe light,

00:39:30:08 - 00:39:33:04
140 decibels siren,

00:39:33:04 - 00:39:37:02
which is very loud and a silent Bluetooth button

00:39:37:14 - 00:39:40:09
that if someone presses the Bluetooth button

00:39:40:09 - 00:39:45:20
three times S.O.S., it opens up the app from a locked screen

00:39:46:08 - 00:39:49:06
and start sending text messages through the app

00:39:49:16 - 00:39:53:10
to who you, the user, put in the app that you'd like to know.

00:39:53:20 - 00:39:56:24
So it could be your parents, it could be your partner, it could be

00:39:56:24 - 00:39:59:22
your boss, could be your boyfriend, it could be anybody.

00:40:00:07 - 00:40:03:08
So, you know, looking at who would use our product

00:40:03:08 - 00:40:06:18
and who it could be for could be for remote workers.

00:40:07:06 - 00:40:12:12
So Redmond bought our product for its traveling training hairdresser

00:40:12:12 - 00:40:17:05
hours in Latin America, who would go in after hours and teach color,

00:40:17:18 - 00:40:21:05
you know, in a strip mall, if you would, which could potentially be unsafe.

00:40:21:15 - 00:40:25:15
So employers looking at duty of care would purchase our product.

00:40:26:20 - 00:40:28:03
And, you know,

00:40:28:03 - 00:40:32:12
senior citizens who want to live independently, not in a nursing home,

00:40:32:12 - 00:40:35:15
but if they have a problem, they want to signal their kids.

00:40:36:00 - 00:40:40:02
You know, mature kids want to tend to take care of their parents.

00:40:40:11 - 00:40:42:21
We have parents buying it for their students.

00:40:43:09 - 00:40:47:08
There's they're college age students, especially study abroad.

00:40:47:17 - 00:40:51:10
So we see different pockets of use cases based on

00:40:52:06 - 00:40:54:13
how the product would be used.

00:40:54:13 - 00:40:57:12
And I've seen it with great success

00:40:57:20 - 00:41:00:16
meeting these people's needs.

00:41:00:16 - 00:41:02:07
Well, I mean, this also.

00:41:02:07 - 00:41:06:22
So when you activate this, all three go off at the same time to say,

00:41:06:23 - 00:41:09:16
no, you can't choose this.

00:41:10:02 - 00:41:12:22
So you might put a light on it and it scares someone away.

00:41:13:18 - 00:41:16:10
Or you may because you're really feeling fearful.

00:41:16:18 - 00:41:21:07
Just give it a tug and set the alarm off because that activates

00:41:21:07 - 00:41:22:19
the light and strobe.

00:41:22:19 - 00:41:26:02
So you might just go straight for the for the loud alarm.

00:41:26:14 - 00:41:29:24
And that typically will scare someone off most of these

00:41:29:24 - 00:41:32:02
petty crimes like bag snatch.

00:41:32:02 - 00:41:35:08
And they're not petty, but they're crimes of opportunity.

00:41:36:16 - 00:41:39:08
So rape is a crime of opportunity.

00:41:40:10 - 00:41:43:04
Somebody was in the wrong place at the wrong time and

00:41:43:10 - 00:41:45:18
looks like they could be a potential target.

00:41:46:06 - 00:41:47:23
So in equipping

00:41:47:23 - 00:41:52:03
someone with these tools at the ready, they understand how they work.

00:41:52:03 - 00:41:56:04
They work with gross motor skills, but it does create a success mindset.

00:41:57:19 - 00:42:01:12
Well, I mean, so as far as the

00:42:03:05 - 00:42:04:02
messaging.

00:42:04:02 - 00:42:08:14
So I'm assuming that yeah, I heard you mentioned you have an app,

00:42:08:14 - 00:42:11:09
so you have an app that you will download, install,

00:42:11:14 - 00:42:14:14
and I'm assuming there is a configuration of it.

00:42:14:14 - 00:42:18:21
So you decide who your contacts are that you want to message to

00:42:18:21 - 00:42:19:20
and things like that,

00:42:19:20 - 00:42:23:15
so that as soon as you activate it, bang, those people get the message.

00:42:23:24 - 00:42:26:22
So this actually is, you know, one of the things

00:42:27:14 - 00:42:30:19
in 21st century is people are living longer

00:42:31:09 - 00:42:33:18
and a lot of those people are living longer.

00:42:34:00 - 00:42:36:20
They're living longer, but they are alone.

00:42:36:20 - 00:42:39:11
The divorced single, whatever the case may be.

00:42:39:11 - 00:42:43:09
So of course, at some point as you get older,

00:42:43:19 - 00:42:46:22
living alone, you know, anything can happen.

00:42:48:10 - 00:42:49:12
And those

00:42:49:12 - 00:42:53:09
should never be married, don't have kids and anybody.

00:42:53:17 - 00:42:57:19
So not necessarily there is an attack situation,

00:42:58:03 - 00:43:00:16
but there's just somebody living alone.

00:43:00:16 - 00:43:02:20
They can easily also use this.

00:43:02:20 - 00:43:04:04
That's a whole different market.

00:43:04:04 - 00:43:06:23
I just I just thought about that.

00:43:06:23 - 00:43:09:21
I thought, you know, so there are many ways to apply.

00:43:10:21 - 00:43:13:15
Well, I mean, it's it's obviously

00:43:13:19 - 00:43:17:14
there are products out there that, you know, I see on TV.

00:43:17:14 - 00:43:20:18
And I, I fell I can't get up

00:43:20:18 - 00:43:23:21
leads up to those.

00:43:23:21 - 00:43:27:10
In fact, one of those companies is someone that I

00:43:28:06 - 00:43:30:17
that I know that runs you know, I'm in New York City

00:43:30:17 - 00:43:36:00
and we see infomercials and it's a friend who started that company. Wow.

00:43:36:11 - 00:43:37:24
We help seniors.

00:43:37:24 - 00:43:41:17
And so this is this is a it's a great product.

00:43:42:04 - 00:43:44:03
So one more thing that I want to ask.

00:43:44:03 - 00:43:45:13
This is universal, right?

00:43:45:13 - 00:43:48:04
So you buy it anywhere.

00:43:48:04 - 00:43:51:23
In addition to sending messages, it also shows your location where you are

00:43:51:23 - 00:43:53:02
so they can find you.

00:43:53:02 - 00:43:55:02
So talk to us about that.

00:43:55:02 - 00:43:58:23
Talk to us about the technology behind that, how it can be universal.

00:43:59:20 - 00:44:00:07
Sure.

00:44:00:07 - 00:44:04:18
Well, we have users in 57 countries and how it works.

00:44:04:18 - 00:44:07:10
We have an API and I don't want to get too geeky on this,

00:44:07:10 - 00:44:12:17
but we have a plug in that gives a three word location

00:44:13:15 - 00:44:17:00
that is given to first responders because if you've ever

00:44:17:00 - 00:44:20:09
seen longitude and latitude, the numbers are like that long.

00:44:20:09 - 00:44:22:12
It's 0.047.

00:44:23:09 - 00:44:27:16
Well, no one can remember that, but the app will give you

00:44:27:16 - 00:44:33:11
and also the person you're signaling three words like run apple light.

00:44:34:00 - 00:44:37:00
And that would mean the three meters square that you're in.

00:44:37:14 - 00:44:40:21
But let's say, you know, I'm sending it to my dad.

00:44:41:08 - 00:44:43:12
He's Puerto Rican. He only speaks Spanish.

00:44:43:21 - 00:44:47:24
So instead of it being in English, going to get the three words in Spanish

00:44:48:12 - 00:44:52:12
so he can tell local authorities, my daughter is that run

00:44:52:23 - 00:44:57:10
traffic lights and they will know exactly where I am on a map.

00:44:58:14 - 00:44:59:02
So the

00:44:59:02 - 00:45:02:21
ability to accurately locate someone within three meters uses

00:45:02:21 - 00:45:07:09
an integration of some technology called, what, three words?

00:45:07:09 - 00:45:09:16
And tell us about that.

00:45:09:16 - 00:45:11:04
It's not something you develop.

00:45:11:04 - 00:45:13:24
This is universally available for companies. Yes.

00:45:14:06 - 00:45:14:13
Right.

00:45:14:13 - 00:45:15:11
So, yes,

00:45:15:11 - 00:45:19:11
tell us tell us about that technology, because I did and I'm a technology person.

00:45:19:11 - 00:45:22:14
I'm supposed to be here and I need to know I learned from you.

00:45:22:14 - 00:45:24:17
So share that information with us.

00:45:24:22 - 00:45:27:13
Well, it's just, what, three words? That's what it's called.

00:45:27:13 - 00:45:31:06
And it was developed by a UK company and we use a plug in of that.

00:45:31:15 - 00:45:36:06
But it literally they've mapped the world in three meter squares

00:45:36:20 - 00:45:40:04
and anywhere in the world and they've been able to transpose

00:45:40:04 - 00:45:42:02
that into any language.

00:45:42:02 - 00:45:45:07
So, you know, Google, what, three words and you will be able

00:45:45:07 - 00:45:47:09
to see how that technology works.

00:45:47:09 - 00:45:49:21
That's just one integration into our platform.

00:45:50:08 - 00:45:54:19
Other parts of our platform allow you to search a destination to know

00:45:54:19 - 00:45:57:17
before you go so you could go in in the search bar

00:45:57:17 - 00:46:02:08
and look up San Francisco and see where any users have left any breadcrumbs

00:46:02:15 - 00:46:06:03
around a potential threat or homeless people

00:46:06:03 - 00:46:10:01
or prostitutes or drug use or a deserted lot or poor lighting.

00:46:10:15 - 00:46:12:20
So before you run an Airbnb,

00:46:13:00 - 00:46:15:22
this would be a really wise thing to do, would be to look up the neighborhood.

00:46:16:19 - 00:46:20:14
So, you know, our goal is to create dynamic safety ratings in real time,

00:46:21:16 - 00:46:24:05
which no one's ever managed to. Do.

00:46:24:05 - 00:46:26:05
Yeah, yeah.

00:46:26:05 - 00:46:29:05
Well, this is this is a hell of a story.

00:46:29:05 - 00:46:32:20
I mean, I cannot I cannot imagine

00:46:33:12 - 00:46:37:24
what you've gone through and and where you brought the company to.

00:46:38:05 - 00:46:42:14
So what what what is your next business

00:46:43:15 - 00:46:44:24
milestone, so to speak?

00:46:44:24 - 00:46:47:00
What what are you trying to accomplish next?

00:46:47:19 - 00:46:50:23
Well, one, we'd love to get on Amazon and be able to sell our product

00:46:50:23 - 00:46:54:06
effectively because it's such a great marketplace.

00:46:54:06 - 00:46:58:12
But also, we are in discussions with one of our existing clients.

00:46:58:12 - 00:47:03:09
We built a backend system that allows for ahead of security

00:47:03:16 - 00:47:07:00
if they have human assets around the world

00:47:07:12 - 00:47:11:06
like Revlon or like Deloitte or like bookings to be able to

00:47:11:06 - 00:47:16:21
if one of their employees activates that S.O.S., to be able to take that call

00:47:17:06 - 00:47:21:16
and assist that person being able to see on a map where they are

00:47:21:22 - 00:47:25:07
and guide them through and to help them navigate where they are.

00:47:25:18 - 00:47:29:01
So we built this back end platform and we're piloting that

00:47:29:09 - 00:47:32:01
with one of our enterprise customers.

00:47:32:01 - 00:47:36:04
So moving into that software as a service space, in addition

00:47:36:04 - 00:47:39:04
to our commercial sales and consumer

00:47:39:04 - 00:47:42:10
sales of our beacons.

00:47:42:10 - 00:47:46:12
Well, anybody listening to the show, I'm sure

00:47:47:19 - 00:47:49:01
they would want to reach out.

00:47:49:01 - 00:47:52:18
And then maybe there are opportunities used for collaboration.

00:47:53:06 - 00:47:55:12
So anybody listening

00:47:55:20 - 00:47:58:21
will have Stephanie's contact information.

00:47:58:21 - 00:48:02:03
So reach out for sure.

00:48:02:03 - 00:48:08:04
So I want to go back to your promise you made to effect 1

00:48:08:04 - 00:48:12:05
billion lines by 2025.

00:48:12:05 - 00:48:14:19
Tell us, where did that come from?

00:48:14:19 - 00:48:17:05
What was the reason? Is it

00:48:17:05 - 00:48:21:20
is it one thing that suddenly said to you this is what I must do?

00:48:21:20 - 00:48:25:18
Or is it a combination of things kind of coming together?

00:48:26:18 - 00:48:29:20
Well, I mean, I believe in setting big goals,

00:48:30:03 - 00:48:34:00
you know, if you set small goals, you're going to achieve small things.

00:48:34:09 - 00:48:39:10
So in looking at impact and looking and basing things on impact,

00:48:39:22 - 00:48:42:21
it's not that I want a billion downloads of my app.

00:48:42:21 - 00:48:46:01
No, when we talk about lives impacted,

00:48:46:03 - 00:48:49:09
for every person that goes to work,

00:48:49:12 - 00:48:53:00
school, worship, sport unhindered,

00:48:53:22 - 00:48:57:02
there's a positive impact in a community.

00:48:57:13 - 00:49:02:08
The same way that if someone is assaulted, there's the cost to the community,

00:49:02:08 - 00:49:06:00
to the taxpayer for the rehabilitation of that person.

00:49:06:08 - 00:49:11:01
Lost wages at work to prosecute the offender, you know, all of these things.

00:49:11:01 - 00:49:13:12
So these incidents aren't free.

00:49:14:02 - 00:49:17:02
And in fact the UN Sustainable Development Goals

00:49:17:11 - 00:49:20:14
underpin the means of ending gender based violence.

00:49:21:01 - 00:49:24:05
So if we're going to promote access to education,

00:49:24:13 - 00:49:28:14
you know, fair work for people and creating a more livable planet,

00:49:28:19 - 00:49:32:20
you know, as part of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, if we don't address

00:49:32:20 - 00:49:36:13
the safety problem, then we're not going to achieve these things.

00:49:36:23 - 00:49:42:11
And of the 17 SDGs, the one about ending gender

00:49:42:11 - 00:49:45:19
based violence is the one that requires no infrastructure.

00:49:46:10 - 00:49:48:15
It's a zero cost to the population

00:49:49:00 - 00:49:53:13
to decide that enough is enough.

00:49:53:13 - 00:49:55:08
Yeah, I mean, it's true.

00:49:55:08 - 00:49:59:09
Without safety and security, nothing else matters, right?

00:49:59:09 - 00:50:04:01
I mean, that's that's the anything that you want to do in your life,

00:50:04:13 - 00:50:08:16
the first thing is to feel safe and have the safety

00:50:08:16 - 00:50:10:06
and security of the environment.

00:50:10:06 - 00:50:14:13
That's why you have the the equal protection under the laws

00:50:14:13 - 00:50:15:08
and things like that.

00:50:15:08 - 00:50:18:01
It's all about feeling that

00:50:19:08 - 00:50:23:02
stability. So

00:50:23:24 - 00:50:25:03
I wanted to get

00:50:25:03 - 00:50:28:03
a little bit more in terms of setting big goals.

00:50:28:03 - 00:50:32:19
Why why do you feel that you need to set big goals?

00:50:32:19 - 00:50:35:11
Because it's not that everybody does that, you know.

00:50:35:11 - 00:50:38:09
Where do you think that came from?

00:50:38:09 - 00:50:40:24
I don't know, to be quite honest.

00:50:40:24 - 00:50:47:06
I've just been an overachiever and one to, you know, not be afraid to take risks

00:50:47:06 - 00:50:52:03
and to attack big problems and it's just in my DNA.

00:50:52:03 - 00:50:53:14
It's how I'm wired.

00:50:53:14 - 00:50:55:23
But in deciding

00:50:56:09 - 00:51:01:06
that, you know, in order to make an impact and I there's an interview of me online

00:51:01:14 - 00:51:06:22
and I said to the to the TV host, I was on TV, you know, my two things I wanted.

00:51:06:22 - 00:51:11:05
One was to give a TEDTalk, and the other one was to win

00:51:11:05 - 00:51:15:07
a Nobel Peace Prize for addressing the problem of violence against women

00:51:15:21 - 00:51:18:07
and bringing a solution forward for that.

00:51:18:07 - 00:51:20:02
And that's what I was working.

00:51:20:02 - 00:51:24:15
So I articulated these things to manifest them

00:51:25:02 - 00:51:29:00
because even if it's 5 million or 20 million or 500

00:51:29:00 - 00:51:32:22
million, it's still a good number for everyone that we impact.

00:51:32:23 - 00:51:34:04
You know, there's no failure in that.

00:51:34:04 - 00:51:36:16
One person is enough already

00:51:38:02 - 00:51:40:00
and you're going for 1 billion.

00:51:40:00 - 00:51:42:16
I mean, that said, that's it.

00:51:42:22 - 00:51:47:05
So is everybody in your family overachiever like this growing up?

00:51:47:05 - 00:51:49:01
Do you have any siblings?

00:51:49:01 - 00:51:51:07
I have half brothers and sisters,

00:51:52:13 - 00:51:55:12
but no, I think I'm very unique in my DNA.

00:51:56:11 - 00:51:58:02
I'm the only one of my kind.

00:51:58:02 - 00:52:01:09
So I'm a love child from the sixties.

00:52:01:24 - 00:52:03:03
So yeah, I am.

00:52:03:03 - 00:52:05:12
I'm the only one of my kind.

00:52:05:12 - 00:52:08:08
But I think I don't know.

00:52:08:14 - 00:52:11:08
I think it just what I was meant to do.

00:52:11:08 - 00:52:14:20
So growing up, probably some things you see

00:52:14:21 - 00:52:19:06
and experience growing up pushed you that way.

00:52:19:06 - 00:52:23:20
Well, I mean, I grew up in a in a home environment that wasn't very safe.

00:52:24:10 - 00:52:28:09
And a lot of the work that I do in understanding my

00:52:28:09 - 00:52:33:03
why is a direct reflection of wanting to right some of the wrongs

00:52:33:03 - 00:52:36:16
that I experienced in my own childhood and subsequently in life.

00:52:37:17 - 00:52:40:03
Okay, so now not now we're talking.

00:52:40:13 - 00:52:44:02
Oh, I can see because I had a guest,

00:52:44:02 - 00:52:48:08
Stephanie, this this is a gentleman who's an Amazon seller.

00:52:48:08 - 00:52:51:17
But I always you know, at the end of every episode, I always like

00:52:51:17 - 00:52:55:24
to get to know the person because it's what drives us is what makes it right.

00:52:56:18 - 00:53:02:15
So that's if anybody listening, if they can figure out what is driving

00:53:02:15 - 00:53:07:15
them, in the end, they can figure out where it will drive them to.

00:53:07:15 - 00:53:09:05
So. Sure.

00:53:09:05 - 00:53:12:13
So he he said he's an eight figure Amazon seller.

00:53:12:13 - 00:53:14:14
He sells not only

00:53:14:20 - 00:53:16:22
all over a different

00:53:17:23 - 00:53:21:03
and he said that growing up

00:53:22:18 - 00:53:24:04
he was always told

00:53:24:04 - 00:53:27:07
he was not good for anything

00:53:27:07 - 00:53:29:14
and his his his father

00:53:29:14 - 00:53:32:08
always discouraged and so

00:53:32:20 - 00:53:37:08
but he was naturally good at things so he would succeed.

00:53:37:08 - 00:53:40:16
So he said, as he says, that this is actually

00:53:41:23 - 00:53:43:09
in the episode,

00:53:43:09 - 00:53:46:17
he purposely bankrupted this company

00:53:47:05 - 00:53:49:21
just to prove this, just to prove

00:53:50:00 - 00:53:53:14
that he was not good at it.

00:53:53:14 - 00:53:59:02
Once he ended up in debt, he realized, oh, now that said, I'm done.

00:53:59:08 - 00:54:02:14
I hit the bottom and I need to do it.

00:54:02:14 - 00:54:07:11
So now he's very successful, but it's all about, you know, the upbringing.

00:54:07:19 - 00:54:11:14
And so what I'm hearing from you is your focus on safety

00:54:11:14 - 00:54:14:21
is, is coming from those which only makes sense.

00:54:15:14 - 00:54:16:18
So this was great.

00:54:16:18 - 00:54:20:15
Stephanie I am I mean, I can't find the right words

00:54:20:15 - 00:54:24:00
to describe what you went through nor I can't even imagine.

00:54:24:00 - 00:54:26:16
So it's a hell of a story

00:54:27:02 - 00:54:29:17
and my hat is off to you for everything.

00:54:29:17 - 00:54:31:03
You've done that from business.

00:54:31:03 - 00:54:36:15
But from personal standpoint and share your contact information with us.

00:54:36:21 - 00:54:41:06
We'll put that on the episode with the the whole episode information.

00:54:41:06 - 00:54:43:12
But share with us how can people reach you.

00:54:44:17 - 00:54:45:07
If they are

00:54:45:07 - 00:54:48:16
interested in wander safe they can go to 

00:54:49:03 - 00:54:51:16
www.wandersafe like to get lost

00:54:51:16 - 00:54:55:04
to wander not wander wandersafe.com

00:54:55:14 - 00:54:58:21
But my personal Instagram and Twitter

00:54:58:21 - 00:55:01:21
and everything is @digitalgodess 

00:55:02:11 - 00:55:06:01
So I'm available and I post about my journey.

00:55:06:10 - 00:55:09:08
As you mentioned earlier, I'm training for the Paralympics

00:55:09:08 - 00:55:12:08
2024 in wheelchair fencing.

00:55:12:08 - 00:55:16:06
So I'm now a para athlete in training and that's quite

00:55:16:06 - 00:55:20:10
a lot of fun to witness as we move forward.

00:55:20:10 - 00:55:24:07
And I'm on LinkedIn at Digital Goddess again, so

00:55:26:05 - 00:55:27:22
I welcome collaboration.

00:55:27:22 - 00:55:32:06
I'm grateful, Nick, for the chance to talk with you today and share my story.

00:55:32:22 - 00:55:35:13
Oh, it's it's my privilege.

00:55:35:13 - 00:55:40:20
And I love the conversation, and I'm sure you will hear from people.

00:55:40:20 - 00:55:43:10
Stephanie, thank you for being here.

00:55:44:19 - 00:55:46:09
Thank you.

00:55:46:09 - 00:55:50:08
And this brings us to the end of another episode and I'll see on the next one.

00:55:54:02 - 00:55:56:15
Thank you for tuning in to today’s episode

00:55:57:02 - 00:55:59:19
Be sure and subscribe, rate and review our show

00:55:59:24 - 00:56:02:02
And be sure and share an episode with a friend

00:56:02:11 - 00:56:04:23
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00:56:04:23 - 00:56:08:06
We’ll see you next week here on Amazon Legends