Episode 121 – Siri Lindley: How To Find Your Voice And Run With It

Casanova Brooks:

Siri, you want to go ahead and say what’s up to DreamNation?

Siri Lindley:

I want to say DreamNation. I am so thrilled to be here with the amazing Casanova, such an honor, such an honor to share my story, which I hope will convince everybody that we all can make our dreams come true. anything and everything is possible. So thank you for having me Casanova. It’s a joy to be here.

Casanova Brooks:

Oh, yeah, this is going to be a fun one. So I always like to make sure that we can give the proper introduction. And so for you, you’ve been in different publications, you spoke all around the world. You’ve inspired thousands and tens of thousands of people by your journey, by your resilience and by just your ability to overcome.

And so I’m inspired by it, but I always love to think of us as entrepreneurs just like superheroes. And what I mean by that is we’re constantly flying around the world and we’re putting on this cape and we’re trying to solve problems. And so before you became this world renowned problem-solver with one of the biggest problems in the world of belief, and courage, talk to us and take us back to when you were just a young girl, and tell us: Who is Siri Lindley?.

Siri Lindley:

Well, okay. So this is where it all started really. as a child and growing up, I had severe anxiety problems, a lot of fear. I struggled a lot with, I have an amazing mom. She’s the most inspiring mom in the whole wide world. I love her with all my heart. She went through a really horrible divorce when I was about 16 and I kind of put it on my shoulders as we all often do.

We think it’s all up to us to save this person and to bring joy and to make everything better. And, in putting that much pressure on myself, I became so overcome with, with anxiety and fear and worry. And in order to deal with that, I had developed this insane case of OCD. Like I’m talking about crazy stuff, like, you know, turning the lights on and off on and off on and off until I could have a good thought that would like release me.

I mean, it was like crazy stuff and, it was time to go off to college. I went to Brown University. I didn’t want to leave my mom. And let me as a little side note say Most of us, when we think that we need to save someone, probably the best thing you can do is, is let them feel like they can stand on their own feet so that they feel strong and powerful enough to know that they can get through this on their own.

Like, she didn’t ask this of me. I put this on myself. but I went off to Brown university. I was a three sport varsity athlete, like on the outside. You know, it looked like I had it made and I’m just this normal person. but on the inside, like I was slowly dying. I, I didn’t feel safe in my own skin.

And, this is where Tony Robbins came into my life. I read his book Unlimited Power one night and I was at like the lowest time. And this book just woke me up to the truth and that truth being that. Life is up to me like my experience of life. Is up to me, things aren’t just happening to me. It’s how I’m responding.

It’s how I’m reacting. And if you look at it this way at the time, all I was focusing was what was missing, what I was afraid of happening, what I had no control over. And that led me into this frenzy, you know, terrified state, really. If I just adjusted my focus to what I wanted to, what I had to, what I wanted to create and what I had all the control over, which was my own experience of life, I could change everything.

So it kind of was like, you know, wake up. Yeah. Like talk about superheroes. My life began by realizing that I had to be the superhero of my own life first. Before I tried to be a superhero in anything else. And, my journey really began then in finding out, you know, who am I, what do I want to create in this world?

how can I come to love myself and care for myself and feel safe in my own skin? And that’s where the journey to become my own superhero began.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. I love that. And I think that a lot of us, especially when you talk about, well, just finishing up high school and then going to college or transition in any part in life, I think that that’s the scariest time.

And so the fact that you were realistic with yourself, and you were honest with yourself to say that, Hey, I am dying in my own skin. Just like you said, like, I didn’t feel like I was coming alive. And so I felt like a lot of people can identify with that. For you, did you feel like you were not in a environment that was allowing you to come alive?

Like where do you feel like you were losing or lacking the most? What was the biggest thing for you to really cope with?

Siri Lindley:

I feel that I had spent my whole life to that point. Trying to be everything I thought I needed to be for everyone around me so that I could, you know, make sure that there was peace and people were happy and everybody was okay.

You know, I felt like it was all up to me. And in doing that, you know, being, I guess you could call it a pleaser or whatever it is. I lost myself completely. But again, it’s not that anybody put me in that space to where I couldn’t be me. It was that I chose, for some reason, I put the whole problem of the world on my shoulders and felt that I had to be the one to fix everything.

And I lost myself in trying to do that. So again, that book, You know, it also in knowing that I create my life and my happiness, my joy, or my pain and my suffering, I realized also that we all have that. And that kind of let me let go of trying to fix everyone else and help everyone else knowing that the only thing that’s going to fix or help anyone else is when they decide to take charge of their own lives and do that.

Casanova Brooks:

And you had said something earlier where you said life wasn’t happening to me, right? It was it’s, it’s essentially life’s happening for you and you have to embrace it because at the time, you know, we never like to go through the struggles. We never like to go through the failures, but if we do embrace it and understand that they are all a part of us building a character.

Then we understand that the experiences are what mattered the most. And we’re going to come out of that because this is something that I thought about probably a couple of days ago. And it was like, when you go to a restaurant and you have just the okay burger and somebody says, how was it? You’re like, it was okay.

It wasn’t bad, but I don’t necessarily know that I would drive across town to get it. But why is because there’s no flair. Right. There was nothing that really stood out about that, but what makes you stand out is you being unique and how do you become unique? You have to go through experiences that not everyone does.

And a lot of the times that experience comes in the face of adversity, which is something that you know a lot about. So let’s talk about the adversity, which you’ve already kind of touched on, but then how you began to turn this into becoming a world champion. If I’m correct.

Siri Lindley:

Yeah. So one of the things, once I kind of made this discovery that I’m the conductor of my own symphony of life, and I was going to create the music.

That felt good to me. I wanted to discover who I was. And so I’m trying all different things, you know, wondering if something’s going to click. And one of my discoveries was that I was gay and it’s like, great. This is all I need right now. And when I’ve got all this other stuff, I’m like, okay, you know, I’m finding out about me and that’s beautiful and that’s great.

I got a phone call a couple, maybe a year later, from my father and he was balling on the other end of the phone and I’m like, Oh my God, dad, you know, what’s wrong? Are you dying? Are you sick? And he said, somebody told me you’re gay.

Casanova Brooks:

So you didn’t come out right away and tell your parents.

Siri Lindley:

No, he found out and he said, “somebody told me you’re gay”.

“Please tell- I beg you. I beg you tell me this isn’t true. I couldn’t possibly have a daughter that’s gay”. And I said, “dad, I’m so sorry. I’m gay, but please can you love me anyway?” And he hung up the phone and I didn’t hear from him for the next two years. And that was devastating. You know, it made me feel I’d been highly accomplished regardless of what I’ve been going for.

You know, I went to a good school. I was getting good grades. Yeah. This made me feel like everything I had achieved up until that point in time meant absolutely nothing. Now that I was gay. So, but again, life happening, you know, for you not to you. I believe this happened because it put me on this mission, this mission to prove to myself most importantly, That even as a gay woman, I can do something that, that is special.

I can achieve something that’s special. I can inspire people. I can make a difference in this world. And I got on this mission to where I wanted to create something beautiful, where I could prove to myself most importantly, that I mattered. And that’s when I discovered the sport of triathlon. And, You know, I’m, I don’t know if you know the whole story, but basically I, fell in love, love for this sport at 23 years old, but I had no idea how to swim and triathlon is swimming, biking, and running.

And I was horrible. My first race I humiliated myself. I was dead last. It was like a joke, but I had never felt so alive in my entire life in that race. And when I finished the race, I proclaimed to myself and to my mother that. I was going to be the best in the world in this sport. And it was laughable like, like people, I just came in dead last.

I didn’t know how to swim, but what I had was this deep, emotional reason why I must make this happen. And that was to find that love for myself, that respect for myself and to feel, you know, proud and safe and strong in my own skin. So again, like you said earlier, you know, these struggles, these challenges, they can really hurt.

But they often will inspire you or propel your, kick you into motion onto that path. That is really meant to be your destiny.

Casanova Brooks:

Wow. I love that. Now, if we could take it back. When are your parents still together?

Siri Lindley:

They were divorced when I was four years old. So yeah, they’ve been, and my dad lives in Connecticut and there’s a happy ending to that story.

So remind me to share that because it’s a horrible story at that point. but no, they were divorced when I was four.

Casanova Brooks:

And the reason why I asked that is because a lot of the times when you have a household that’s together, and there’s such a strong belief, like the dad feels like now he wants to disown you, but then the mother’s still there.

Like, no, that’s my child. That’s our child. She still has a heart. It doesn’t matter what the outside is saying. Like, you have to know that we raised her to be a great person. And so what do you feel like your mom was feeling at that point? Obviously she had a little bit less resistance because they weren’t in the same household.

But did you go to your mom to confide at times like that? Or did you say, did you tell your mom that this is how it all went down and how does she respond?

Siri Lindley:

Yeah, my mom was amazing when I told her that I was gay. She was, she was afraid for me. And here’s the thing for anybody, that is coming out to their family.

Like we have to remember, it took me years to come to terms with the fact that I was gay and to be okay with it and to process through it yet when I shared it with my mom, you know, I expected her to be okay with it, like in two seconds. And it’s like, why? Like she needs that time to process as well. And she was so incredibly supportive, but she just said, I just, I just don’t want to see you.

Be discriminated against or to, you know, find it hard to do the job that you love or, or she didn’t want to see it hurt me in life, but over time, once she had time to process, she was just so supportive and, and incredible. but we need to respect the fact that whenever we drop the bomb on the people that we love at truth bomb, you know, let’s be okay if they need a little bit of time to be as okay with it as we are.

Casanova Brooks:

I think that there’s something that resonated me and it gave me the thought is a lot of the time people always think that they know what’s best for us. And they often project their fears onto us in the form of protection. And that was kinda what it sounds like your mom was doing.

Not that she wanted to disown you or make you feel bad or make you feel like you were anything less than perfect, but we all have these fears. And when we project them, especially on our own seeds, that could be something that could be so detrimental. To our children. Right. And it could be in the form of don’t go out and be an entrepreneur where you’re, you’re trying to be artists or an actor.

Like they don’t make any money or you want to be a painter. And so it’s kudos to you. But talk to me about, as you go through the most trying time of your life, and now your biggest supporter is not right there with you in the beginning. How do you then keep your mindset to say, listen, this still is who I am.

I still got to keep going rather than just saying, listen, if my mom doesn’t even believe in me at this very moment, maybe I got to change myself. I got to fix myself. How, what was your mindset like?

Siri Lindley:

Yeah. And because of the nature of the time I was going through anyway, you know, I knew that. I thought about it this way.

Like we have to live with ourselves, the person that is always with you every second, every minute, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, every decade is you and you better love yourself. You better be your own biggest supporter. You better feel safe with yourself and trust yourself. And one day I just realized that.

And that’s when I decided like, no matter what. I have to be my own champion every single day. I have to believe if I’m feeling something like, yes, this is me, I’m gay. And you know what I am going to prove too. And, and there’s a lot of like, I need to prove, I need to prove. And, and that’s okay. But I w I needed to prove that, like, I am just great this way.

This is not going to hold me back, but there’s a little bit of proving yourself too, you know, to kind of, Yeah, you definitely want to prove that to yourself as well. So my mom got on board really quickly. my dad was a different story, but it’s so very important when you feel in your heart and soul, when you know, in your heart and soul, that something matters so much to you.

You’ve got to back yourself. You can’t back away. Like you said, because of someone else’s fears being projected on you, you’ve got to be true to you because that’s when the incredible stuff happens. And as we blossom and as we become what we dream of becoming, we then give those naysayers hope that it’s really not that bad.

And you really can do these amazing things. And it’s not that scary. yeah, I hope that answered that question.

Casanova Brooks:

It definitely did. And you answered it beautifully. The thing that, that strikes me is you’ve done a lot, but I haven’t heard you say much about having someone who was a mentor or coach to you yet.

And so my question is, as you’re going through these transitions in life, as you’re learning how to swim as you’re. You know, embracing, coming alive and finding the things that mattered you. Was there someone that you felt, okay, this person I can learn from them and now I can become a part of their tribe until I blossom.

Or did you have to do, do a lot on your own? And then you want it to be the advocate since it was something that you didn’t have.

Siri Lindley:

I had the most amazing mentor in high school. she was a field hockey lacrosse coach, her name, Renee Spellman. and I’ll never forget I was playing softball and she said, Siri, you need to come play Lacrosse. You’d be a great lacrosse player.

And I wanted to play lacrosse desperately but my sister was like, The star of the team. So I thought, Oh, I don’t belong. You know, like I’ll just keep playing softball and I’ll never forget. She said Siri, but if you want to play lacrosse, you can be great at this. And I said, I’ve never done it before.

I don’t know how to play. And she said, trust me, if you want it bad enough, you can make it happen. And she got me on the lacrosse team and it ended up becoming my passion And later on in college, she ended up dying of cancer when she was 40, which was devastating to me.

but right beforehand, she came out to me. She had A lifetime partner up until that point. And in that moment, cause I already kind of knew that, that I thought that I was gay. And she just said, you believe in you be all that you are and live your life authentically.

And you’re going to have an amazing life. And she was just such a powerful mentor for such a short period of time. But, not a day goes by where I don’t think of her and thank her for her influence on my life.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it. And I say that because right now we all, I have some type of uncertainty in life.

Right. And connection is the biggest way that we still go through it, it’s kinda like, you know, someone came onto the show and they talked about, you know, life is like a spiral staircase, right. A lot of the times it’s going to feel like you’re doing the same thing over and over again, but you really have to look at it and see, are you elevating?

Or are you de-elevating, right? Are you going up? Because if you continuously, every single day, take that step up, it might look like the same thing, but you know that, I’m better than where I was. And a lot of the times that comes from that person that can be a mentor. And I love the fact that you had that and the fact that she, so before.

Did you come out to her first and say, here’s what I think. And then she said, Hey, let me tell you it’s okay, because I’m gay as well. Or did she come out and say, listen, I’m gay. And you’re like, listen, I’ve been thinking that for the last, but now I know that I can, I can be that because you’ve been all of that for me. What was that? Like?

Siri Lindley:

She came out to me because she was really sick and, and introduced me to her partner and, And I was just so happy for her. I was so happy that she had someone by her side, I at the time, because I wasn’t sure I didn’t have the courage and I wish I did, but even after she passed, like I know that she knew all along and I felt her presence even after she passed in every hard moment, you know, where I. Stepped forward and made the choice to live this life.

And to tell my mom and to deal with my father. You know, when my father called me, I could have said, Oh, that’s not true. It’s a lie. But, you know, I felt her in that moment when I said, yes, I am gay. so it is so powerful to have someone like that.

And I think we all, you know, We all are mentors and examples, even if we don’t see speak to someone, people are watching us. They’re seeing how we respond in life and how we carry ourselves and how we do things. And we forget that. We think that to mentor someone else has to have to stand face to face and, you know, teach them lessons about things.

We all have to remember that every day of our lives, just living, people are watching and people are learning from us and we are examples and she was that example for me. And I feel so blessed to have had her in my life.

I love it. I love it. Well, I’m, I’m honored that you came on and shared that story.

And I’m grateful for her as well, because of course that’s been an ingredient in your cake at the end of the day, and you can see that it’s made you such a better person.

Casanova Brooks:

And let’s transition this though, to talk about you not only started to have the belief and the courage for yourself, but you took on something that a lot of people fear and that’s going out and trying to empower others.

Because a lot of people, they fear, okay. It’s enough for me to go out and live my dream, but me trying to go out there and tell someone else how to do it. The number one thing I think a lot of people get is that imposter syndrome, have I done enough? Is my story powerful enough. And you’re constantly comparing yourself to someone else.

Right? And so for you walk me through, when you decided I’m going to start coaching other people, because that’s another thing that a lot of people have, they, they want to do, they want to speak, they want to tell their message and they want to empower other women. They want to empower other people who are just like them.

How did you. Gain the authority in your own mindset to feel like you could do that?

Siri Lindley:

That’s such an incredible question, Casanova. I love it because you’re you’re so right. first of all, let me just say that comparison is the thief of joy. And as an athlete, I discovered that any time I was focused on like, how much better someone else was than me or how, you know, they were a better runner, whatever.

It just, it took away all my joy and it did not lead to me performing my best and as a triathlete, you know, I failed over and over and over again. I got disappointed over and over again, but that’s how I learned so much. That’s how I grew so much. That’s. How I became a world champion and I discovered everything not to do on that journey.

And then I found that recipe that worked and that led to me winning. So when I retired and I retired at number one in the world, which was the greatest blessing in the world, I was ready to retire because I thought I need to share this. Like, there are so many athletes out there. That have these dreams, but they don’t have the confidence in themselves or they’re afraid and that paralyzes them.

So they don’t do anything thing. I need to share this because I am living proof that literally the impossible dream can come true. So I felt this responsability, and it’s not like I thought, Oh, I’m this wealth of knowledge. And everybody should hear from me. But I knew that my experience was so powerful for me and led me from like one of the darkest places in my life to feeling like a true champion to myself.

And I felt like I really wanted to share that with people that could, you know, have that same mindset or that same dream or that same desire. So it’s not like I felt I had the authority, but I had my experience and we all underestimate, you know, how powerful our experience is when we share it. And what I think is so important when we do share our experience is being vulnerable.

You know, nobody wants to hear, “Oh, it’s easy. You know, I never failed. And I just made it now suddenly I’m this amazing podcaster”. And you know, like you have been through so much Casanova that has made you the incredible man that you are today. And we need to share that because. You know, if somebody told me, Oh, to make it in triathlon, everything’s going to be perfect.

And you’re going to rise to the top with no problems. You’re never going to fail the first time I failed. I’d probably we give up thinking that, Oh, I’m not supposed to fail. It’s supposed to be easy.

Casanova Brooks:

Right.

Siri Lindley:

So i think being vulnerable with your story and really sharing. Every aspect of it, how afraid you were, but you found the courage anyway to do it and you fell down, but you’ve dusted yourself off and you got back up again, like those vulnerable stories are what have the biggest impact.

And I think once I started coaching and saw. You know, the effect I was having on people, it felt so good to know that I was just facilitating in some way their journey and hopefully minimizing what they had to go through to reach that high level. but I guess if you focus on. Not am I going to fail?

Am I good enough? Is somebody better than me? Like, it’s not about YOU. It’s about what you can give to the people around you. And that’s always been my focus. I’m not thinking about, am I good enough to do this? Like you actually kind of got in my head in that moment. Oh my God. Am I good enough to it’s like, cause I don’t think that way.

It’s more, what can I give to this person? How can I serve this person? How can I be a gift or a blessing in these people’s lives? And when the focus is on the others, all those other worries just disappear.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it and why I think that that’s so powerful and what I try to tell him, people, whenever people come to me and they say, you know what?

I want to do coaching. I want to empower other women. I want to empower other men is a lot of the times we’re so focused on, on delivering that we don’t listen. And if you just listen to it, you ask people what they are struggling with. They will tell you. And now it’s a lot, it takes a lot of the pressure and the burden off of you, rather than trying to assume.

And now you’re trying to come up with all of these different scenarios that if you just listened to that person and they say “here is where I’m struggling” now, you only have one problem to solve. And the more that you serve other people, just like you said, and you solve the problems that they already have that are concrete in their mind.

The more that you’ll know that you’re giving value to this world. And so I think that. I I’m just assuming, but I think that that’s one of the reasons why you’ve been one of the best coaches for women. And I’m sure even for men around the world is because do you have an ability to just listen and at the same time, show empathy to other people to let them know that regardless of anything else, I care.

And I think that that’s something that that’s so missed in life because so many things quickly become a race and becomes about I did it better than so. And so, which is what you said in the beginning, you cannot compare yourself to other people.

And so for you, where did you start to really change? To elevate, to become a top coach rather than just being a top athlete.

Siri Lindley:

So when I retired as an athlete, I knew right away the way I want it to go into coaching. So I started doing that immediately. And that’s the part that fascinated me was how unique every athlete was.

Everybody was so different, you know, the way I. Train them was so different. The way I spoke to them was so different because you have to take that unique individual into account and you’re trying to satisfy their needs to get the most out of them. so I’d been, I had a lot of success with my coaching of the athletes.

We had like 11 world championship crowns and two Olympic medals. And that was amazing. And I didn’t know that I was going to take this into any other area in my life except coaching and. I’ll tell you a little story. One year I was with my four time world champion was going into the world championship race in Kona, Hawaii.

It’s a Hawaii Iron Man. And this woman approached me and said, Oh, we’d love to get Rinny is her name, my athlete on Tony Robbins podcast. And I thought, Oh my God, I’m thinking to myself, this guy has been like my greatest mentor, my whole life. Of course, we’re going to get her to do it. So I begged my athlete.

It was like two, two days before the biggest race for life. But I was like, look, I’ve never asked you for anything. Please just do this for me. So she did this blog with them. It was an online blog. And a few months later, I got an email and they said, we want to get you on our podcast. And I wrote back and I said, Oh, you I’m just the coach.

Like, which athlete are you looking for? Are you looking for Rinny? Are you looking? You know, I listed all my athletes and they wrote back and they said, no, we want you on the podcast. And I’m like, me and I couldn’t believe it. And so I did this podcast with Tony and. somehow it ended up being like, cause most downloaded podcasts ever like millions of downloads.

And we had this incredible talk and I got to thank him for his influence on my life. But, I received so many messages and letters and emails from people, saying how it had impacted them and how it influenced them or it made them think about something differently. Or, and, and I was. Shocked at the fact that I had that kind of That I had made that difference for them. And that’s when it kinda clicked with me that, Hey, I’m just being me and I can really help people. So yeah, if I can get out there and again, not make it about me, but make it about what can I do offer here. And it all began there, but it was totally unexpected. how I got into speaking and now, you know, I’m speaking at his events, it’s crazy.

Like, like I don’t, I can’t believe that I get up on stage in front of 15,000 people and I share this story and, and, you know, people say, aren’t, you just. So terrified that you freeze. And I said, I’m just not thinking about me and whether I’m going to fail or whether I’m going to be a success. I’m just thinking about, my God, I so want to give something special to these people.

Casanova Brooks:

I love that story and I love the fact that you said I just went through my motions.

I was trying to serve someone else and that’s so powerful because. I always say when hard work meets opportunity, it looks a lot like luck. And that was purely, you were working hard for it or your athletes. You were trying to give them the empowerment and what happened? An opportunity game. And you’re like, wait, no, me? And we’ve seen that in the movies and the TV shows and things like that.

And then it’s like, yeah. Now look at where you’ve been able to take this all because you had that servant mindset. And so for a lot of people, they’re trying to make something out of nothing, which is admirable. But just find some other people that you can serve, find some other people that you can empower and those opportunities will fall into your lap.

They always do.

Siri Lindley:

Yes, totally. And, and basically a great way or an easy way of thinking about that is whatever it is you’re doing, that you love, that you’re trying to create and you’re and whatever your job is, think about how it can positively influence the people around you. And once you even just start thinking about how, what you’re doing doing is going to bring something good into someone else’s life that automatically shifts it and makes it that much more powerful.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it. Talk to me about what does having a dream and execute on that dream mean to you?

Siri Lindley:

Everything, everything, you know, had I not taken a chance on myself with that dream back when I was 23 years old, you know, I don’t know where I would be now. And. To be honest, I didn’t even think it was possible to become a world champion when I was that terrible in that sport.

But even taking a chance on myself gave me the confidence to follow through. And, you know, I was training six to eight hours a day. It was like the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life, but I was building up a respect for myself and a belief that at least I know I can do hard things and I know that I can fail, but that I’ll grow through it.

And I’ll become that much better because so it’s, you know, so many people are afraid to fail, but I believe that. If you’re not willing to fail, you’re actually not willing to succeed because you’re gonna fail on your way to success. And you’ve got to take that chance. You’ve got, you’ve got to fall down in order to reach the top.

And so I’m just so proud of myself for never giving up on that dream. And I used to say, I used to laugh to my family and say, I don’t care if I’m 80 years old, I am going to become a world champion. And thank God it took eight years and not 80. but having that dream is what keeps. Keeps the momentum in our lives.

You know, it keeps us wanting to grow and keeps us wanting to become better than me were the day before. So I think dreams are so important and, you know, they, they fuel your heart. They fuel your soul, they inspire others. they get you, you know, off the couch and onto your feet and being willing to take risks and that’s everything in life.

That’s what makes life. So beautiful.

Casanova Brooks:

You’re absolutely absolutely right. I absolutely love the fact that you said that.

There’s somebody out there right now that is listening to this. That’s super inspired by you. They want to blaze a path similar to what you’ve done, but they have that little voice in their head.

And that little voice says that they’re not strong enough. They’re not smart enough. Or maybe they just don’t have enough resources. What’s the one thing that you would say to that person to get them to just take action.

Siri Lindley:

That you’ll never know unless you try. And, and that I am living proof that we are all so much more powerful than we could ever imagine.

And if you just take a chance on you, take a chance on you and take that first step. You’re going to find a, you know, things didn’t happen overnight for me. I had to work so hard and I fell down, like I said so many times, but take a chance on you and believe that you are so much more powerful than you think that you are.

And just take a chance because everything amazing I believe is on the other side of your comfort zone, really, you know, you sit in your comfort zone, you can be safe and you can be, you know, Happy or satisfied, but just have the courage to step out of your comfort zone. And like I said, take a chance on you and you’ll start, the more you start realizing that different things are possible, that builds up your confidence and then your dreams become bigger and bigger.

But just take that first step and have your own back.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it. The last thing that I want to ask and I’m sure, and this is impromptu, but I know because you have so much wisdom that I really wanted to ask this question. It’s not something that I’d normally. Yes, but What’s the greatest quote that you’ve ever heard…

And you definitely try to make sure that you live by?

Siri Lindley:

That’s I have a favorite quote and it’s by Michelangelo and he wrote, “I saw the angel in the marble and I carved until I set her free”. I’ll tell you why this is so powerful to me. in every aspect of my life, starting from the beginning, when I wanted to find myself, it’s like, I had to believe that there was an angel inside of me and by angel, it meant someone that I could love.

Someone that I could trust, someone that I could feel safe with. So what I did is I started chipping away at the marble by taking on things like triathlon and trying to discover myself and building up confidence and doing things. I didn’t think I could. And then into my coaching, you know, when I would take on an athlete, I would look at it like, okay, that angel is their potential let’s chip away at the marble and work hard on getting them fit or getting them healthier, teaching them how to swim and let’s reveal that potential.

and then I also look upon it probably in the deepest and most profound way. Being that, you know, sometimes when you’re going through a hard time, like my, going through leukemia over the past six months, you know, I always had this belief that I am going to survive and that was the angel in the middle, but I needed to chip away at the marble, get through everything.

Do the grind, do the learning, do the healing, do the treatments, do everything to get to that place where I could reveal life again. And I just find that such a powerful quote. And it’s a reminder to all of us that there’s a gift in every struggle. There’s a potential in all of us. and that we all have an angel inside of us.

It just takes work and commitment and dedication to chipping away at the marble to reveal it.

Casanova Brooks:

I love it. And I know I can speak for everyone when we say that we are truly inspired by your journey and your courage to every day. Not only keep putting one foot in for the other, but also empowering other people along your journey.

When you have one of the. You know, biggest fights that you could ever have. And I am so proud of you, so honored to have you on the show. And this has been such a pleasure for people who want to stay connected with you, who want to stay, get an inspiration from you and your journey working. They find you.

Siri Lindley:

I would love to have you follow me on Instagram or Facebook. It’s @SiriLindley. my wife and I run a horse rescue. We rescue horses from slaughter and, we run a beautiful ranch here in Longmont, Colorado. These horses end up. Moving on and, and being equine therapy, horses for people with depression, PTSD, addiction, they’re incredible healers.

our rescue is called “Believe Ranch & Rescue”, and we’re on Instagram @believeranchandrescue Facebook, follow us there. but yeah, I would love to share my journey with all of you and get to know all of you a little bit better.

Casanova Brooks:

Absolutely. And we’ll make sure that we put all of those links in the show notes, but I just I’m so grateful I’m so, so that you came onto the show.

I am so honored. I know that this is again, a meaningful time in your life right now. And just as you’ve always been able to overcome, I have no doubt that you’ll overcome this as well.

Siri Lindley:

I’m cancer free. I found out two weeks ago that I cancer free. So I’ve got to share that before we end the show

Casanova Brooks:

Absolutely! Congratulations!

Siri Lindley:

Thank you. You understand Casanova? You’ve been there. There’s no greater moment in your life than knowing that you get to live. And, it’s been a miracle and I’m so deeply grateful. So again, this being on here with you is just such a joy and I’m so grateful for you having me here. So thank you.

Casanova Brooks:

Thank you. I always say joy wouldn’t feel so good if it was wasn’t for pain. And obviously you’re a walking testimonial of that and yeah. Congratulations. We’re all proud of you. And we look forward to watching how you come out, even better this time around and to watching your inspiration over the next one, three, five 30 years.

it’s going to be phenomenal to watch. So thank you again, and we will look forward to having you back on the show again, so you can share the next chapter of your success.

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