April 7, 2024

Living the dream with author and speaker Win Charles

Show Notes
Transcript

Send us a text

Dive into an extraordinary journey of resilience and determination with Win Charles on the 'Living the Dream with Curveball' podcast. Despite being born with cerebral palsy, Win has conquered incredible feats, from authoring books to competing in triathlons. Her story is not just about overcoming physical challenges; it's a testament to the indomitable human spirit. Tune in to be inspired by her life's work, her relentless pursuit of awareness for cerebral palsy, and her unyielding belief in facing challenges head-on.

WEBVTT

00:00:00.560 --> 00:00:09.593
> Speaker A>Welcome, um, to the living the dream podcast with curveball. Um, if you believe you can achieve Chee Chee.

00:00:18.853 --> 00:00:38.530
> Speaker B>Welcome to the living the dream with Curveball podcast, a show where I interview guests that, uh, teach, motivate, and inspire. Today we're going to be talking about perseverance, and I'm going to be talking to someone who has let nothing stop her. It is win, Charles.

00:00:38.642 --> 00:01:02.781
> Speaker B>She is an author and a speaker when was born with cerebral palsy, but she has not let that stop her. She's released a book. She's a speaker. She travels all around the country, and she's also competed in a triathlon. So we're going to be talking to her about our story and cerebral palsy and everything that she's up to. So, win, thank you so much for joining me today.

00:01:02.878 --> 00:01:05.701
> Win Charles>Well, you are certainly welcome, Curtis.

00:01:05.837 --> 00:01:19.105
> Win Charles>And for those of you who have hung around me for a while now, you know that I have a podcast. You know that this is my life's work.

00:01:19.250 --> 00:02:11.014
> Win Charles>You know that, uh, raising awareness for cerebral pal palsy for is my wife's work. And for those of you who are new to me and new to my condition and new to my name, welcome, number one, and welcome to the wildlife of sailboat. And what sable palsy is, is it's a, um, lack of oxygen brain condition that I apply at birth. I was born in 87 at one pound 13oz, 27 weeks. You guys figure that one out. And I was supposed to be born in June, supposed to be born in September, was born in June.

00:02:11.484 --> 00:02:17.068
> Win Charles>And I had never, ever give me a challenge.

00:02:17.195 --> 00:02:37.144
> Win Charles>I face it. So give me a challenge of a triathlon and give me a challenge of writing a book. I take it head on and say, let's do it, because that's my belief. And so I'm taking away and asked me some long m questions.

00:02:37.973 --> 00:02:39.993
> Speaker B>Well, you've already answered one.

00:02:40.973 --> 00:02:48.633
> Speaker B>What is cerebral palsy? But talk about competing in that triathlon. Tell us about that and how that happened.

00:02:49.894 --> 00:03:24.377
> Win Charles>Well, that was a interesting little adventure, and I'm still on that little adventure. I just don't talk about it that much. But I was and am a triathlete now. How I did it back then is completely different than how I knew it now, because I did it with a totally different teammate and do it now with a totally different teammate.

00:03:24.506 --> 00:04:07.740
> Win Charles>I do b try for us now, instead of my own team, which was team, we win. And those of you who have been around me long enough, you know that team, we win. Dot de fact. And we, my cousin and I competed in the Kong, I man. And when my cousin approached me about doing the calling, I man, she said, well, number one, I have a surprise for you. Number two, I want you to do something with me.

00:04:07.771 --> 00:04:10.604
> Win Charles>And I'm like, just cut to the chase.

00:04:10.723 --> 00:04:53.303
> Win Charles>This was right after my mom. My mom passed away in 2010. So this was right after my mom, um, passed away. And I'm like, just cut to the chase. Don't say I have a spice for you unless it has something to do with your dying and you're coming out to move in with me and help me. But no, she goes, I have a spice for you. And she goes, I want you to, uh, triathlons with me. I think that would be fun. Well, when you think about it, to get to the cone I'm in, and I was.

00:04:53.884 --> 00:05:08.387
> Win Charles>I still am. I have cerebral palsy, so I'm like, oh, this is great. You want me to do what? Racing one of the top triathletes.

00:05:08.555 --> 00:05:11.459
> Win Charles>Triathlons in the world.

00:05:11.612 --> 00:05:30.434
> Win Charles>Thank you very much. They call it one of the top triathletes. Them in the world. I mean, big time pro triathletes compete at Kona. So there's little me working out like a mad woman. And we did.

00:05:30.593 --> 00:05:34.653
> Win Charles>We, my cousin and I did that for a year.

00:05:35.514 --> 00:06:22.639
> Win Charles>Finally, it turned into such a. I won't use the word I'm, uh, thinking of, but the word begins with an s and ends with the t, so let's just leave it at that. The reason why it became the word that begins with an s and ends with a t and has the second letter of the h. Um, you guys know what I'm talking about. The reason why it became such a shit show is because of, um, my teammate wanted to compete at Kona and not raise awareness for sabotage.

00:06:22.831 --> 00:06:39.723
> Win Charles>I, on the other hand, also wanted to compete at Kona, win the dagger thing, and raise awareness for cerebral palsy. So we had two different values going in, and it just turned into a disaster.

00:06:40.103 --> 00:07:03.675
> Win Charles>And then I decided to take a step back, continue working on my books, and continue, um, doing what I was doing along with the podcast at, uh, that time. Ah, started after I got home from coma, believe it or not.

00:07:03.819 --> 00:07:28.040
> Win Charles>And then, um. And then I hooked up with another team, be tri for us, uh, out of Sarasota, Florida. And who remembered me from my Kona iron man triathlete days. And they would have St. Anthony's.

00:07:28.151 --> 00:07:33.759
> Win Charles>St. Anthony's was a, uh, triathlon that weeded.

00:07:33.911 --> 00:07:39.512
> Win Charles>And they did, um, to raise money for St.

00:07:39.567 --> 00:07:41.204
> Win Charles>Anthony's hospital.

00:07:41.863 --> 00:08:24.509
> Win Charles>So what be Tri frost, uh, does. And me. I was so fascinated by us. They were so fascinated by. My story is they put disabled in kayaks. They put the disabled on the back of a bike, and they run with the disabled. So they. We was. I was so fascinated by that, that they put average disabled people on backup bikes in kayaks, in an enclus them that I wanted to know more.

00:08:24.661 --> 00:08:44.114
> Win Charles>And so, of course, the director follows me on Instagram, knows that I, uh, moved and says, and I had a dream of doing. People had asked me once I came home from kona, will you ever do that again?

00:08:44.413 --> 00:09:11.956
> Win Charles>I said, yes, I will do a triathlete triathlon again, but it will have to be with a total infantine, and so be tr for us. Uh, approach me triads in triathlon. Tri. And so they approached me knowing that, um, I wanted to do a, uh, triathlon.

00:09:12.139 --> 00:09:44.610
> Win Charles>They had a new board member at the time who also wanted to do triathlon, long distance triathlons. Most of the kids that they work with can only do the strength to sit up and do short distance or marathons, uh, or what have you. I'm the only one that has the strengths to do of, um, long distance triathlons.

00:09:44.721 --> 00:10:13.443
> Win Charles>So, in December of 2023, I flew down from Phoenix, Arizona, to, uh, Daytona, and did the Daytona crash. We're still working on me going back with b trife. Lost two, uh, Cona. Yes. But first, I need to have back surgery.

00:10:13.563 --> 00:11:03.283
> Win Charles>Now, the back surgery, I opposite it to, because 16 years ago, I had a scoliosis fusion that did not heal correctly. And so they're going in on April 23 to fix that and make me all better. And then as soon as I recover from that, I will go back on the road to, um, train for Conan. I am. And then try to do that again and win the dancing thing this side, and then be completely retired from doing triathlons and, uh, just continue motivational speaking.

00:11:04.344 --> 00:11:13.884
> Speaker B>Okay, well, tell everybody about your podcast and your book and what we can expect when we listen to you.

00:11:13.990 --> 00:11:53.461
> Win Charles>Um, my podcast is a CEO of, um, a disability. And it could be found all over the place, you guys. Whether you listen to, um, podcasts, including those smart speakers we all have, and then including the Amazon smart speakers, Google, it can be found all over the place. And my books could be found, um, on my website, on Amazon.com dot. If you guys look up, I w I n iwin.

00:11:53.648 --> 00:12:32.333
> Win Charles>That's the original book that kicked this all off. And since then, I have lost both. My parents. Had to move to Phoenix, Arizona, by my choice. All this has been my choice. No one said you needed to move to Phoenix, Arizona. But I decided to move to Phoenix, Arizona for a better quality life. So, unbeknownst, um, to me, my job fell on the down here, and I've been doing content ever since 2010.

00:12:33.274 --> 00:12:41.913
> Speaker B>Okay. Well, I know in your bio, you talked about how you face different types of abuse as a woman with a disability.

00:12:42.033 --> 00:12:43.833
> Speaker B>Do you want to talk about that? With the list?

00:12:43.874 --> 00:12:59.894
> Win Charles>Yeah, I will talk about that. That story is public. I got emotionally and physically abused on June 23, 2019. Glenn and I had just lost my dad in May.

00:13:01.073 --> 00:13:43.803
> Win Charles>My abuser was a female. She happened to be my godmother. She happened to be my mom's sister. So godmother abused me and godmother. I don't think godmother realized that she was abusing a, ah, mandatory partner, what they call a mandatory reporter, because I had a job at one point that was teaching, and when you become a teacher, one of the things you learn is how to mandatory report.

00:13:44.344 --> 00:15:58.288
> Win Charles>And so mandatory reporter, when you get that, um, certificate or get, um, in your teaching background, you, uh, have to report it for the kids. And so I don't think she realized that she was abusing a mandatory reporter. And the mandatory reporter, me. And just to let you guys know, teachers can do it, police can do it, um, social workers can do it, depending, uh, on case, and then counselors all across the 50 states, well, they have to do it. Mandatory reporters. And so, basically what a mandatory reporter does is call adult protective services on, um, kids case. Child protective services. And so, basically what a mandatory reporter is, when a child comes to them with, let's say, bruises all the body, and that's abnormal for kids to have, um, and let's say they say, mommy hit me, and they tell the teacher that, and then the teacher's supposed to call child protective services. Well, in my case, I don't think my aunt realized that she abused a, uh, mandatory reporter. So now I'm like, well, what do I do as a manager reporter? Do I call adult, uh, protective services and say, I'm a beat and say, I just got abused, I'm, um, disabled, or do I have another mandatory reporter do it? In my case, I had a counselor, uh, I don't know what tip fell off to this day, I don't know what tip this count fell off.

00:15:58.416 --> 00:16:11.735
> Win Charles>But she asked me, do you feel safe at home knowing that I was disabled and knowing that the disabled have a high risk of abuse?

00:16:11.919 --> 00:16:40.149
> Win Charles>85% of women who are disabled get abused because we can't move and get abused because the abuser likes to abuse. And so I tipped the counselor off. Uh, I said, yes, but this is what happened. She calls adult services, which I was going to anyway.

00:16:40.302 --> 00:17:07.564
> Win Charles>I was just waiting till the right time. I was going call to protective services on, um, myself, and I was going, get the number, but the counselor tips it off already. And so the next week when I went to counseling, I did not know that the counselor called adult protection services.

00:17:08.023 --> 00:17:12.923
> Win Charles>I go out to go. It's the end of my counseling session.

00:17:13.753 --> 00:17:24.814
> Win Charles>I go out to find my aide, and now my aide has, uh, my aides were known to drop me off at appointments, go to the.

00:17:25.193 --> 00:17:59.788
> Win Charles>I thought my aide, I don't see my aide. I thought my aide was in the bathroom or in the car making a phone call or in a car reading a book. So I if she wasn't in the bathroom, I was going to go down, um, the elevator and wait for her and call her once I'm down in the lobby. But a perfectly strange person to me said, are, ah, you looking for your aid? And I go, yeah.

00:17:59.955 --> 00:18:16.296
> Win Charles>And she goes, he goes, your aid is an adult protective services. Well, adult. When my counselor was an adult protective services, they would have shared a wall, not careful.

00:18:16.400 --> 00:18:51.074
> Win Charles>Adult protective services was 2ft away from me. And so I'm thinking, uh oh, here we go. Here we go. My counselor did what I was going to do in the long run, and then I had to go to adults protective services. They had to do what they had to do. And turns out that, uh, the picken county cops called the. And cops call abusers in all 50 states.

00:18:51.574 --> 00:20:10.354
> Win Charles>And Pickham county was asking Colorado for you guys just to give you a reference. Turns out adult progressive services and the pick and can, the cops called my abuser. My abuser thought she didn't do anything wrong, number one. And she put me in the cell against my will and then, um, laid me back on a bed naked. And I won't tell. I won't tell you what tipped me off because it's too glass. I won't tell you what tip me off to report her. But something did tip me off to report her. Number one, you're not supposed to touch another person's body without them knowing. And number two, you're not supposed to do this thing that she did. So I have had no contact with my abuser since 2019, and I have had contact on and off with her, uh, accomplishment with, um, her, uh, the person that she was with at field supplier. They.

00:20:10.513 --> 00:20:29.238
> Win Charles>Adult protective services said, yes, you can have, uh, communications with the person that was with your abuser. She's okay, but your abuser not. And I would not have conversation with my abuser anywhere.

00:20:29.405 --> 00:20:48.314
> Win Charles>So that was that. And that was right after I lost my dad, too. And so that's why I semi moved to Arizona. Uh, and I semi moved to Arizona for financial reasons, too, and a better quality of life.

00:20:49.253 --> 00:20:59.445
> Speaker B>Well, I'm definitely sorry that situation, uh, happened to you. Tell the listeners about any upcoming projects that you're working on that we need to be aware of.

00:20:59.549 --> 00:21:14.342
> Win Charles>I'm working on my 12th, my 13th, my 14th book. And so I will still continue my podcast, and that can be found on every platform on knowing, demand.

00:21:14.438 --> 00:21:20.124
> Speaker B>And, uh, yeah, so at your website as well, so we can keep up with everything you.

00:21:21.463 --> 00:21:43.250
> Win Charles>So if you guys want to keep up with me, my website is acowithedisability dot webulleez.com. Or better yet, just google my name. Just use those screen readers to type into google win w I n charles chailas.

00:21:43.281 --> 00:21:48.521
> Win Charles>And google has my name. And they have. Yeah.

00:21:48.698 --> 00:21:58.453
> Win Charles>And so, um, go to my website, follow my projects, follow my podcast, google my name, and then you guys will be all set.

00:21:59.114 --> 00:22:04.374
> Speaker B>All right, ladies and gentlemen, follow rate review. Share this episode to as many people as possible.

00:22:04.713 --> 00:22:25.753
> Speaker B>Keep it. Keep up with everything that win charles is up to. She's definitely an inspiration. I have a lot of respect for her, and I'm glad I finally got to get her on the show. If you have any guest or suggestion topics, see Jackson 102. Net is the place to send them. As always, thank you for listening and supporting the show. And win, thank you so much for coming on.

00:22:26.054 --> 00:22:27.594
> Win Charles>Thank you, Curtis.

00:22:28.213 --> 00:22:36.142
> Speaker A>For more information on the living the Dream podcast, visit www.djcurvefall.com.

00:22:36.317 --> 00:22:40.811
> Speaker A>Until next time, stay focused on living the dream.

00:22:40.867 --> 00:22:41.124
> Speaker B>Dream.