HemoLife Podcast

“Unfiltered: My Truth About the Bleeding Disorders Industry”

• L.A. Aguayo

Share episode

Send us a text

LA Aguayo shares his transformative journey from rock bottom to becoming a leader in the bleeding disorders community. His personal story reveals how asking himself "Who would I fight for?" changed everything when he felt worthless after battling hemophilia complications and hepatitis C.

• Reflecting on the Texas Bleeding Disorder Conference and connections made with forward-thinking community leaders
• Sharing the painful journey through hemophilia, hepatitis C treatment, and contemplating his purpose
• Creating a new vision for himself by questioning what his ideal self would look like, sound like, and do daily
• Addressing industry challenges, including competition between service providers instead of collaboration
• Announcing his new workbook on Amazon that shares his blueprint from "victim to victor"
• Explaining how small daily actions, not drastic changes, led to competing in international bodybuilding competitions

Visit Amazon to get LA's new workbook that provides the blueprint he used to transform from a struggling hemophiliac to competing with elite athletes worldwide.

Thanks for tuning into the HemoLife Podcast. Be sure to subscribe, leave a review, and share this episode with someone who needs a spark of hope or encouragement. Follow us on Instagram @HemoLife_Podcast and YouTube for updates, guest highlights, and behind-the-scenes content. New episodes drop regularly—your story matters, and this is just the beginning.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Hemolife podcast your gateway to transformation and empowerment. Hosted by Elia Aguayo, we're diving deep into the world of rare disorders, unlocking the full spectrum of your potential. Each episode, join us as we connect with pioneers, wellness experts and true survivors. They're here to share powerful stories and invaluable insights, from mental resilience to physical health, community news to life-altering strategies. At Hemolife, we provide the tools you need to excel and inspire, prepare to elevate your life, learn, laugh and grow with us. Let's embark on this journey together.

Speaker 2:

Hey guys, it's LA. Welcome back to the Hemo Life Podcast. I just got back from the Texas Bleeding Disorder Conference in Plano, texas, and I had an amazing time and met some really cool people. First of all, it's crazy how fast this podcast is growing and how many people it's been reaching. As soon as I pulled into the hotel, I had people talking about it. One of the really cool people that I met was the event coordinator, tara. She and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk about the podcast, my new workbook and the evolution of the community.

Speaker 2:

It was a pleasure speaking to a forward thinker, someone else who can see that our community needs a shift, and to be so open-minded to try new things was just really cool. We're in an entirely new era and, just like any industry, it's adapt or die. The needs are not the same, the desires are not the same, the interests are not the same, the technology is not the same, and so forth. I'm a guy who keeps a circle extremely small, because for over a decade, god gave me a vision on how he wanted to use my life, how he wanted me to contribute to the world, how he was going to use a broken man to help others, I sacrifice more than people will ever know, from relationships, health, opportunities to finances. So when I'm talking to people, if my radar says you sound fake, then I will not give you any of my time. Sarah was my kind of people authentic, passionate, forward thinking and a leader, someone who can execute and after our conversation we came up with a few ideas to collaborate in the near future, and I'm looking forward to that. It's been such a long journey to get to where I am today and that's what this episode is going to be all about. I want to talk about my journey, my reason why, the reason I started in the first place and what I've seen from my perspective.

Speaker 2:

This episode might be somewhat controversial, but I'm pretty used to that. I've given over a decade of my life advocating for the people of our community. I quickly realized along the way that we are not all in this. For the same reason, I spent my entire life lost, confused in pain, struggling mentally, not having anyone to talk to, not having anyone I could look up, to, not having a mentor in my life that could promise me that I would get through it, someone that could say I've been there, I put a plan together and I achieve my goals, so you can too.

Speaker 2:

I spent more than half my life suffering and seeing nothing but setback after setback. My body was stronger than my mind. No matter how bad I wanted something in life, it was always taken away by my disorder. Then, when I thought it couldn't get any worse, I got hepatitis C from contaminated factor. My liver was on the final stage of cirrhosis. Then I just wanted to have a normal life. I wanted to have my own family. I wanted to have kids.

Speaker 2:

Then I realized I couldn't hold a job because I didn't know how to communicate properly. Number one, number two no matter how hard I pushed myself, I would get bleeds that would have me off work for days. I didn't know how to advocate for myself. I was too embarrassed to tell others. I didn't know how to articulate my thoughts. No one had my back and I was all alone. What about my dreams? What about living a fulfilling life? What about being the man that I always wanted to be? This just seemed like it wasn't in my cards.

Speaker 2:

Then I hit rock bottom. I went through a three-month treatment plan to get rid of hepatitis C. The treatment plan was weekly injections of interferon and it made me extremely sick for weeks at a time. By the end of the three months, I remember looking at myself in the mirror and I was pale, overweight, hair was a mess, depressed and feeling worthless to myself, my family and my community. I felt like I might as well be dead because I don't offer the world anything. Then, in the dark, dark moments, my uneducated self asked myself maybe the most important question I've ever asked myself. If I choose to continue this fight, who would it be for? Because I don't care about myself anymore. But what if I can overcome this and later on help others overcome this? Maybe life will be worth living for someone else.

Speaker 2:

Then I said if I just threw out my entire life story and became the author of a new story, what would this guy look like? What would this guy sound like? What skills would this guy have? How would this guy walk? What kind of presence would he have? What daily actions would he take? Who would he hang out with? I had to answer all of these questions to my new vision that God gave me. It took extreme levels of discipline, but the fire inside of me was one that I consider a gift from God. This fire has been burning for so long and, no matter what has come my way, that fire has got me through everything.

Speaker 2:

All this being said, I can't expect everyone else in the bleeding disorders industry to understand me or to be like me. They just aren't me. They haven't walked a day in my shoes. They haven't been dealt my hand of cards. So for over 10 years I have documented my journey on social media, telling my real, raw, honest, transparent story. I'm talking the good, the bad and the ugly. I allowed the community to see everything about my life. Here's the thing If my story didn't resonate with you, that means my message, it just wasn't for you. My message has always been for the people, not the president of the Hemophilia Federation, not for the OctoPharma reps or any other manufacturer reps, not for the local chapters, their board of directors. It was always for the people I met that are fighting my same fight. I never cared about being politically correct.

Speaker 2:

My mission when I first started was to use my adversity to change lives. Then I created a platform that reached hundreds of people. I gave every single one of these people my time and attention. The people who messaged me inspired me to continue to do more and to be more to push my boundaries of what was possible and to chase my dreams. How can I be a leader if I can't prove that I can accomplish my own dream? It's like a father telling his son that he can become anything he wants when he gets older, but he himself has never made his dreams come true. I know there are a ton of people who don't like me and who will talk trash on me, but I always told myself this stay in your own lane, keep your head down, keep getting back up and, most importantly, actions speak louder than words. As long as I stayed true to my journey and my growth and eventually I would be able to accomplish my mission of helping others overcome their adversity.

Speaker 2:

When I was about five years into telling my story on social media, I started getting opportunities from specialty pharmacies asking if I wanted to work for them. I had no idea what I was getting myself into, but for someone like myself who, during this time, was getting fired from every job because I physically couldn't keep up, this new opportunity seemed like a blessing, I told myself. I now get the opportunity to travel to events and meet others like myself and make an even bigger impact. Well, let's just say it wasn't that easy. I now found myself in an industry where everyone seemed to really be focused on making money. I saw all these cliques and groups. I felt like I was in high school again and trying to figure out where I belonged. I quickly realized not everyone has the same mission that I have. I also saw that now that I work in the community, I was being treated differently from everyone. People started calling me their competition and we were now enemies. I mean for crying out loud. I heard that this weekend at the Texas event, I walked by a booth and someone made a comment of how, after the event, we can be friends, but right now, you're my competition.

Speaker 2:

Quite frankly, I'm sick of this type of energy. This isn't what our community needs. We need to be collaborating, to be more concerned about how to provide the highest level of care and value. We need to focus on how we can evolve as a community and get back to the grassroots efforts of being kind, caring and compassionate to everyone. As I've matured working in the community, I told myself I just want to work for a company with my same values, someone who allow me to be the most authentic version of myself, a company that will give me resources to help others, a company that will invest in my growth. And then, aside from that, I need to focus on what value I personally bring to someone that I'm helping. Look at my social media. We're talking over 10 years of weekly, consistent content creation, storytelling, sharing of resources and now creating a podcast, writing a book, a workbook that goes along with it.

Speaker 2:

And I'm not done. I'm not trying to toot my own horn here. I'm just saying we all don't have the same intentions. Stop talking about which company is better and how everyone is competition. We're patients, not prizes. If a patient wants to use your medication or your services, it's because you offer the most value to them. If they leave you, it's because they found more value somewhere else. So stop crying. Wake up every day and ask yourself how can I provide so much value that I'll maintain these relationships forever and gain new ones? That is how our community wins.

Speaker 2:

To finish up, I want to say my workbook is now on Amazon. This workbook is my blueprint of how I went from being a victim to a victor, how I became the author of my own story, how I took God's vision and brought it to life. This journey was not easy and I suffered a lot to get this far. In this workbook, you'll find the answers I went searching for. You'll find the questions I had to ask myself to level up in life. Throughout my time working in the community, the number one thing I heard was that our men are out here depressed, feeling lost, feeling like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I learned that most of us thought it would take some huge, drastic change to find this light, but the secret is that it's actually very small daily actions. It's all about gaining clarity and coming up with a plan. This book will no doubt set you on a new path to discover the best version of yourself.

Speaker 2:

I use these skills to go from a beat-up hemophiliac to competing with the best athletes and bodybuilders in the nation. I've competed in over 15 bodybuilding shows against elite competition, winning some and even coming in second place at the Arnold, a show that has athletes from all over the world. We're talking China, brazil, mexico, canada. I'm nobody special, I'm not the smartest guy in the room, but I'm a guy that God wanted to use to help others and I'm good with that. Thanks for tuning into this episode, guys. I just got back from Texas. Like I said, we have a bunch of amazing guests coming up and I just hope that I can keep on helping you guys out, providing you with good information, amazing, real, raw, inspirational stories to help you level up.

Speaker 1:

Thank you for tuning into the Hemo Life podcast. Today's episode hopefully inspired you and provided valuable insights to enhance your journey. Join us again to hear more incredible stories and expert advice from our community. Make sure to subscribe and stay connected with a group of extraordinary achievers and pioneers. On behalf of LA Aguayo and the entire Hemo Life team keep pushing forward, strive for excellence and remember you are the architect of your own destiny. Until next time, stay strong, stay inspired and continue on your path to an elite life.