Finding Hope After the Fall: How Faith and Resilience Rewrote Her Story with Tasha Schuh

In this episode of Hope Unlocked, host Kristin Kurtz welcomes inspirational speaker, author, and coach Tasha Schuh to share her powerful story of resilience, faith, and hope. At just 16, a tragic trapdoor fall left her a C5 quadriplegic—but through her relationship with Jesus, Tasha discovered strength, purpose, hope and joy despite life-changing circumstances. She shares her PATH framework (Purpose, Attitude, Team, Hope) and her powerful motto “Hold On, Pain Ends,” encouraging listeners to trust God’s faithfulness through every season. Tasha’s journey will ignite courage, inspire perseverance, and remind you that hope truly unlocks new possibilities. 

Tasha's Contact Info:

Website - TashaSchuh.com

Tasha's Book:

My Last Step Backward

My Next Move Forward

Tasha's Program:

The Power of PATH - Our nation is in the middle of a mental health crisis. Our curriculum gives teachers tools to have important conversations with their students about mental health. 

🎙️Hope Unlocked Listener Exclusive! Feeling stirred but not sure what to do next? Book a 45-minute Holy Spirit-led 1:1 coaching session w/ Hope Unlocked host Kristin Kurtz, founder of New Wings Coaching. This powerful conversation will help you move from stirred to activated—with peace, clarity, & a Spirit-led next step. Book your call HERE now–special pricing to listeners!

Chapters

• 0:16 Welcome and Guest Introduction
• 1:14 The Accident and Diagnosis
• 4:50 Survival, Coma, and Awakening Faith
• 9:14 Rehab, Loss, and Early Struggles
• 12:20 Finding Hope and a Personal Faith
• 17:24 Discovering a Calling to Speak
• 23:16 Building a Life: Degrees, Books, Marriage
• 28:06 Pivot to Schools After a Teen Suicide
• 29:59 Life on the Road and Accessibility Challenges
• 31:20 A New Season: Coaching and Deeper Impact
• 36:02 Client Story: Thriving with Chronic Pain
• 41:04 Adoption Plans and Trusting Change
• 46:09 PATH Framework and Future Projects
• 49:22 A Word for the Weary and Prayer
• 51:49 Connect with Tasha and Closing Blessing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:16

Welcome to the Hope Unlock Podcast. I'm your host, Kristen Kurtz, and I'm also the founder of New Wings Coaching. I help and empower wild-hearted and adventurous women of faith feeling caged and stuck, unlock their true purpose and potential, break free from limitations, and thrive with confidence, courage, and hope. If you're curious to learn more about coaching with me, head to newwinkscoaching.net and be sure to explore the show notes for ways to connect with me further. Get ready to dive in as we uncover empowering keys and insights in this episode. So tune in and let's unlock hope together. Welcome to the Hope Unlocked Podcast. I'm Kristen Kurtz, your host. I pray this episode is like a holy IV of hope for your soul. Please help me welcome Tasha Shu to the show. I am so excited to have her here today. We've just been chatting before we got started, and she's definitely a divine connection through our mutual friend Jennifer. So, Tasha, would you be open to just sharing a little bit about yourself before we get into your story?

SPEAKER_01: 1:14

Yes, thank you so much, Kristen, for having me. This is such an honor to be here. Um, well, my story is uh quite lengthy, but my um I grew up in Ellsworth, Wisconsin. I was just a typical teenager involved in sports and music and theater. And my life changed dramatically when I was 16 years old. I was participating in my high school's musical production, The Wizard of Oz. And we were three nights away from our opening night, and things were extremely chaotic. Very, well, if you've ever been involved in a theater production, I have not, but I can imagine. It is it gets wild, it gets crazy when it comes down to crunch time, and you're trying to get everything figured out, and we just had a lot of things to work on, especially because Wizard of Oz is such um so many magical effects, so many uh theater stunts and things that need to be done in order for it to be like the Wizard of Oz. And I was standing on stage helping with the scene change when, and keep in mind that it was pitch black, we were uh rehearsing as if it was our opening night, and we were working on a scene change that had been giving us a lot of troubles. And the scene change, unbeknownst to me, required the trapdoor on stage to be opened for that scene. And uh the night before when we were rehearsing this, it's a super long story, super complicated, but the night before I had a different job. I wasn't on stage, and our director changed all of our jobs around so that we could get the scene changed done in a faster time. So I was standing on stage waiting for this bridge to move towards me, which my prop was sitting on that stage on that bridge, and they removed the cover off of the trapdoor directly behind me, and I had no idea, and it was just it all happened so fast. Someone told me to move out of the way because I was in between the bridge that was supposed to go over the open trapdoor, and to me, the most logic way to move was backwards, and I took one step backward, and my foot went through empty space. I immediately knew that something was very wrong. And seconds later, I landed 16 feet below where I was standing on a cement floor. My head is what hit the cement floor first, and my body came second, and the only thing in between my head and my body was my neck, and I actually heard the vertebrae snap in my neck. I had no idea what that meant, but I was, yeah, it was I never lost consciousness, so I remember everything. And I was soon to find out as I was brought to the local hospital and then airlifted to St. Mary's Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota, that I had broken my C5th vertebrae and had severely crushed my spinal cord. And what that meant was that I would now be a C5 quadriplegic. And I was 16 years old, one month away from turning 17. And I had so many dreams, I had so many goals. It's kind of the time of your life where you're starting to think of all the possibilities and all the excitement of what your future is going to look like. And it just honestly felt like the rug of life had been ripped out right from underneath me. And so I grew up going to church. I grew up believing in God, but it was just a Sunday morning thing. I I went to church and I left church and I never thought about God what He had, what his plans were. And um and it was just very, you know, it was just something my family did every week. It didn't really mean anything to me. And crazy enough, uh three days after the accident, I had a 16-hour neck surgery where they fused together the vertebrae and my neck. And as I came out of that, I got extremely sick. I was actually in a coma for eight days.

SPEAKER_03: 6:05

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 6:06

Uh yeah, I had developed a deadly blood infection called septic shock. My fever was 108 degrees. Yeah. Doctors told my family I would not live. They induced me into a coma and said, say goodbye. She will not be here tomorrow morning. But thankfully, my parents, and I I had no idea that this was happening. I was in a coma, so I had no idea I was in this battle for my life. And I honestly really didn't want to live. I mean, when they told me that I was gonna be in a wheelchair, I'm like, I don't want to do this. I have had 16 good years, I don't want to be here. It would be best if I died. And I almost got that wish, but thankfully my parents put me on every single church prayer chain known to man. Oh my god. Yeah, there were just thousands of people that were praying for me. And so for eight days I was in that coma, and then I woke up miraculously. I mean, it doctors could not understand how I was alive, especially with such a high fever, septic shock. I mean, I had infection through every part of my body. And um, but when I woke up and they told me what I'd been through, and that I wasn't supposed to be here, and I was, I knew deep down that there must be a reason, there must be a plan because I didn't want to live, you know, I didn't want to be here.

SPEAKER_00: 7:42

And that was prior to the surgery, you were you were really feeling that way.

SPEAKER_01: 7:45

Oh my goodness, yes. I was devastated, devastated. I mean, I just couldn't imagine my life in being in a in a wheelchair, and I didn't know anybody in a wheelchair. I just I I was a teenager that was very insecure, had very low self-worth, really did not love myself, and I thought, oh my goodness, like how could I ever do anything good with my life? And um, so I started rehab. I spent almost another five months in the hospital learning independence, learning how to live my life as a C5 quadriplegic. So I have I'm paralyzed from my chest down. So I have no movement or feeling from my chest down, and then I can move my, I can move my arms, I can move my wrists, my arms, my biceps, deltoid muscles, but my fingers are paralyzed. And so um, so learning how to live with like this was extremely challenging. My boyfriend broke up with me. My parents' marriage was falling apart. My parents had to build a new wheelchair accessible home because the home I grew up in was very old and had steps everywhere, and it was just such a challenging time. I came home from the hospital after almost six months of being in Rochester. I lived at the Raoul McDonald house for a month while they finished our new house. And I went back to high school and I just thought, okay, I'm gonna go back, I'm gonna find, you know, go back to life. And and it was soon where I was like, there is no going back. I have a brand new life that is nothing what I wanted it to be. Nothing, nothing that um I ever envisioned, and had many, many, many dark times, I'm sure, as anyone can imagine. It's it's it was I would not wish what I went through on my worst enemy. I mean, it was just so much depression, so much. I mean, just figuring out care, you know, I can't get it in and out of bed on my own. I can't um get dressed on my own. There's many things that I can't do, and it was so overwhelming by all the things that I had lost and that I would never be able to do again. Sports, skiing, piano, I mean, all the things that I love to do and singing. My doctor told me that I would never be able to sing again. Really? Yeah. Is that true? No, it's not true. I actually do sing today, and I close every time I speak, I close with a song singing over the singingness. Yep. Yes, somewhere over the rainbow is my favorite song because it's from The Wizard of Oz. And uh I really feel like that's my rainbow thing, no wonder. What did you say? Yes, the rainbow. That's what we were talking about. Yes, I love it. Um, and so um, but about a year, about a year, year and a half after the accident, I had really hit rock bottom. I people wouldn't know it looking at me, but internally I was struggling so much. Oh, I just felt so lonely. I felt like my life was over, and I just kept hearing thoughts like your life would be better if you were dead. You would your your life is over, you have no purpose, there's no plan for your life, God forgot about you. And um all day, like every day, all day, every day, just constant bombardment of just evil thoughts, and I thought they were me. I thought they were truth. Um, but I got invited to a play at my now church. Um, and in this play, really for the first time, I heard the gospel. I had, like I said, grow grown up going to church, but it was just something that you did. It wasn't it, I I thought that God was millions of miles away. He didn't care about me. I didn't think I could go to him with my struggles and my challenges. And I actually had started looking in before the accident in many other really dark places horoscopes, um, Ouija boards, just trying to find out why I was here. What am I supposed to do with my life? That was my biggest question.

unknown: 12:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 12:29

And um, but I got invited to this play where they shared the gospel, and it was the first time ever in my life that A, I saw myself as a sinner in need of a savior. And it was so life-changing at the end, they invited people to come up, and I went forward, and I was like, I think I'm becoming a Christian. I don't actually know what I don't know what I just did. Like, I know that God did something because my heart was changing and I was crying, and like I felt this peace that I had never felt ever in my life. But when I left that night, I didn't, I didn't really know what had happened. I was like, okay, God, like if you can do something with my life, if you have a plan, like I would, you know, I want to follow you, I want to know what you want me to do. And he slowly put the right people in my life. Things started to turn around, and he just began to reveal himself in such an amazing way that literally within the next year, my entire family became Christians. My mom, my dad, my sister, my brother, because they could just see what God was doing in my life. It was just so phenomenal in terms of just him healing my heart, him answering prayers, him opening doors. And of course, I didn't walk. Like for a long time I believed in miracles, and I still do, I'll forever believe in miracles, but I um I just really came to the point where I graduated high school, went to college at Winona State University, graduated from there, um, and began just to see that God really wanted me to share my story of what happened and what he had done. And so I started sharing my story at churches and um at Winona State in classrooms, and he just really revealed to me that he wanted me to speak, and I was like, Oh, speaking is you didn't like speaking? No, no, no, no, no. I was like, Are you kidding me? Like, I hate public speaking, this is the worst. And he said to me, but you have a story now, and I was like, Oh my gosh, you're right. Like, this life is worth living. Like, and I was seeing that day by day, year by year, I was seeing that A, I was stronger than I realized, and B, his strength is so amazing, and his joy and his peace does not have anything to do with our circumstances and our situation.

SPEAKER_00: 15:31

Like, when you had this like you know, revelation, how old were you?

SPEAKER_01: 16:13

Um, I was probably so I was 16 when I had my accident. This was probably between um like 18 to 22, was while I was going to school at Winona State. Yet it was, you know, it was not a one-day thing. It was this total journey of just him showing me his faithfulness, putting just amazing friends in my life and people that loved him and knew him, and just it is just really awesome to look back. I mean, it was very hard in the moment. But when you look back and you see how he orchestrated everything, I I I learned how to drive a minivan. I graduated college with my first bachelor's degree in four and a half years, which as a quadruplegic, it's like the average American is six years. So I was I was very girl. Yeah, it was pretty, pretty awesome. And um, and then I went on and got my second bachelor's degree in theology because I wanted to study his word. I wanted to know more about his word and and him, and and um, and then so I started speaking full-time in 2007 when I um finished both of my bachelor's degrees. Okay, and and I was like, okay, I'm gonna be an inspirational speaker, and everybody was like, aha ha, very funny.

SPEAKER_00: 17:51

Like, who's that was the response you got from people?

SPEAKER_01: 17:54

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Did you have anybody like affirm you in that? Not really. I mean, my family was encouraging, but I think everybody was leery. Like, what how are you? How is that gonna work? How are you gonna do that? Like, you're quadriplegic. And I I um, but I knew God's voice, I knew what he was telling me to do. So my pastor's wife helped me print out 250 flyers for schools and 250 flyers for churches. Oh my goodness. Yeah, and I had been speaking full time since I need to go back a little bit here.

SPEAKER_04: 18:38

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 18:40

Okay, Tasha, Tasha doesn't really want to speak. Like, like, tell me a little bit more. Initially, you're like, I'm you know, thinking to yourself, like oh my gosh, kind of like me during the podcast. I'm like, Laura, like I think you got the wrong one. Tell me about can you tell us a little bit more about this process? Because I feel like a lot of the people who listen into this just inadvertently, because I I tend to love to help, you know, unlock voices and roars. Tell me a little bit more about like what like this process was for you in getting that you know confidence to step out and use your voice.

SPEAKER_01: 19:20

Yeah, it's really more there, right? Oh, yeah. It really started at Winona State when a pro a special ed professor asked me to speak to his class.

SPEAKER_03: 19:31

Okay.

SPEAKER_01: 19:31

And I thought, what am I gonna say? Like, what am I gonna like? Oh, this this is you know, this is gonna be so depressing. Like, I hadn't done all the things that I've done today in my journey, you know, that is so inspiring and so empowering. Like, I was like, I fell through a trapdoor and I broke my neck, and here I am. And and I talked for like a half an hour, and all these people stayed afterward and just said, I needed to hear that. Like, that was so inspirational, that was so great. I needed that encouragement, and I'm thinking to myself, what encouragement? Like, there's nothing, and you had no idea. Yeah, and they were so they were so moved by my story, and I loved that. That was what I've always wanted to help people, I have always wanted to make a difference. I didn't know how I could do it, but I be I in that one speaking time, I saw people that were moved by my story, and I thought that's what I want. This is and and it scared me. I mean, literally, the first oh my I still get nervous when I speak, like I still get you know, the butterflies, and because A, I want to do a good job, B, I want to help people, so I want to give my best. But it's something that after each engagement, I was there were lines, like lines of people who were saying, you know, I this happened to me, and this is what I needed to hear, and this is my story, and you helped me. And I mean, it's just and that's what it was about. Every time when I get up to speak, I get nervous, but I always remember the ending, I always remember the line of people at the end.

SPEAKER_00: 21:26

So that's what you put in your mind, kind of meet you there.

SPEAKER_01: 21:30

Yes, that's that's what started to build confidence in me was people need of the people. Yep, people need this message, and and it's that hope which made me so excited to be a part of the year.

SPEAKER_00: 21:45

I know there was something you said when I was like, Oh my gosh, do you want to share your story on Hope Unlocked? What was it? Do you remember what I said?

SPEAKER_01: 21:53

Yeah, well, we were we were um on Jennifer's call, and you said that you had a podcast titled Hope Unlocked, and I said, Hope is my favorite word. Yes, that's right. That's that's what yeah, because it is. It's hope is so powerful, and it's really what people need at every at every stage of life, yeah. And wherever we are, we need we need hope. And that was what really what my story represents, you know. It's I think a lot of people, including myself, thought that in order for me to be happy, I had to walk. And I I felt like that for a long time. Like I prayed for a miracle, and I, you know, found miracles in the Bible, and I was like, okay, God, let's do one of those. You know, I I I wanna I wanna walk because I wanna I want to be happy. And that was your tie to happy, exactly, absolutely. And when it was about 10 years after the accident, which was 2007, right when I started speaking, I began to realize I don't have to walk to be happy. Like I am, I am genuinely happy. Actually, I am happier now sitting in this wheelchair than when I was walking, because I have Jesus, I have true hope, and I have a faithful God that I don't have to do this life by myself, and that he'll help me and lead me and guide me and just give me his peace and joy. And so, so yes, trust me, when I started speaking, I was scared out of my ever-living mind. Like, what do you mean? Like, I think somebody else is better equipped for this.

SPEAKER_00: 23:45

Isn't that like one of the thoughts that comes for you? I mean, even would you even say still, does that come up for you sometimes? Every bet at this point now.

SPEAKER_01: 23:57

So we're kind of on a new journey, and I'll share a little bit more about that too, of kind of moving away from speaking, and that has all started over, like because I got so confident in speaking, okay, that um, yeah, I still got nervous, but I knew that lives would be impacted. I knew that um we were making a difference, and um, but a lot of shifts have happened in the last year, yeah, and I'm right back to where I how I'm feeling when I started with speaking. Like just really what did you say?

SPEAKER_00: 24:32

Tell us more about this show.

SPEAKER_01: 24:34

Yeah, so so um I should mention that um I got married in 2012 or 2013. Oh my goodness, my husband would laugh at me. I don't remember what year we got married. We met in 2012. We got married in 2013. Okay, and so we just celebrated our 12-year wedding anniversary and um just and oh god, it's just I've written two books, I built my own home. I mean, just amazing things, and I've traveled and spoke to hundreds of thousands of people. It's just such a tell us one thing here.

SPEAKER_00: 25:13

I I want to make sure I capture this. You've written two books, and you said that you're you're unable to use your fingers.

SPEAKER_01: 25:21

Correct, yes. So I use more about this. So I use a voice activated program that writes for me. So I just talk into it and it types out what I say. And um, so yeah, so I've written two books. My first my first book is My Last Step Backward. Oh, definitely referencing my accident and also just what I learned in moving forward after my accident. And then my second book is all about my husband and I and our dating marriage relationship, and that's titled My Next Move Forward. And so very um symbolic of the accident and moving on in life, and and so yes, so those are my two books, and I mean that's that's another thing. I I felt like God wanted me to write a book, and I'm like, how? Like, I'm not a writer. I love to I love to talk, I love to speak, but I am not a writer. And so, but he made it happen. He put the right people in my life to help me, and and um incredible, seriously.

SPEAKER_00: 26:36

Like, there's no excuses to people, and I'm I'm I'm looking at myself in the mirror right now. Well, we all have to do that, right? I'm a vertical processor, so I've often said, like, oh, there's no way I could write a book because I talk.

SPEAKER_01: 26:52

But people need your story, yeah. People need people need your story. That's why I wrote it because wrote my books because I knew that not everybody was going to be able to get to a speaking engagement. And so, and and you can share so much more. Like I got 45 minutes to speak, tell my story, give you know what I've learned, where a book, you know, you can share so much more, and and um, and there's so much more to my story than I could ever speak and and and and share. So um, so yeah, so we um so my husband and I um in the last year, about a year ago, God so I should say we we speak mostly. Um oh, I'm so sorry if I'm getting ahead of myself, but it's okay. I'm following what did you say? I'm following. I'm trying. Okay, good, good, good, good. Um so I started speaking in 2007, stayed busy, loved it, it was awesome. But in 2014, my best friend from high school lost her 14-year-old son to suicide. And it was just, oh my gosh, I still get choked up because it's just it's so hard. And I saw the pain that they went through, and I saw this amazing, beautiful boy that would never fill the live out his days to know his full potential, and I know what that feels like. I know what it feels like to feel hopeless, I know what it feels like to want to give up and quit. And so God really put on our hearts to start speaking at schools, and we were like, okay, we're gonna speak at schools, and we just thought all the doors would open, we would just the phones would ring, and it was crickets, and we're like, Oh God, I thought you wanted us to speak at schools, but again, he put the right people in our lives. Um just oh, it's so amazing. That was in 2014. We started speaking in schools full-time between 2015 and 2016, and since 2017, we've spoken to over a hundred thousand students and educators, and it's it's it's it's unbelievable. It's amazing, yeah. And and so about a year ago, um, and we but we travel a lot. Okay, and about a year ago, my husband um had been just sharing that traveling was getting harder for him, and because he does he does all the driving. We drive everywhere we go. I can fly in my wheelchair, and we have, but in recent years, they they do not handle my wheelchair well, and we would get places and it would be broken.

SPEAKER_00: 29:54

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_01: 29:55

Yeah, it's it's horrendous. Like, wow, and it's just not it's really hard to find transportation once you land. Like just lining all of that up, it's very challenging. And so we just decided we were gonna drive everywhere. So we're in the car a lot. We do on average, we do 50 to 70 engagements a year, so we're very busy. And he just had started expressing that he was feeling tired, wanted to slow down speaking, and that was right when God really put on my heart that change was coming, and I did not know what that looked like or what he meant, but I was like, okay. I mean, I honestly have he has been so faithful to me. So faithful. And I I just whenever he speaks to me, I do my best to just be like, okay, let's do it. Like you've never led me astray. And I would never even have this moment where I'm like, God, are you sure? Like, what are you doing? And he's like, really, Tasha?

SPEAKER_00: 31:04

Isn't that really the question like we ask sometimes that I know he's like he's like, I'm just asking you to trust me.

SPEAKER_01: 31:12

Like, I know what I'm doing, I know what your future is. And I'm like, okay. So again, he put the right people in my life, and we started um just praying and seeing what God wanted us to do. And I was connected with Jennifer Reyes that we were talking about in the earlier part of this. And she was like, you could do coaching, you could do resilience coaching, which resilience is really another word that I'm just really passionate about because I I believe that that's how I got here, was just really persevering, refusing to quit, and knowing that better days were ahead. Yeah, which is also hope. I believe that resilience and hope go hand in hand. Yes, absolutely. So we um we just started like putting out feelers and putting things on social media, and um, and I already have clients that I'm working with and I just love it. I love, love, love this because a we're able to be home more and and um I feel like I really get to see transformation. You know, when you speak to a group of 600 kids, you they all come up and give you hugs, and they're like, I love it, it was amazing, my life has changed. And then they leave, you know, and you're like, did I make an impact? And you know you do. Yeah, you know, I mean, I get messages every day on social media from people that have heard me speak and how they're live, they still remember, you know, what I spoke about and what um what my message was, but I'm seeing real transformation with that one-on-one with coaching. And so it's been really wonderful just serving women who are feeling burnt out, feeling overwhelmed, and just really wanting to know how to thrive despite their circumstances. And that's the one thing that I've learned in my journey as a quadriplegic is that your circumstances do not have to be the reason for holding you back from thriving. And I always thought that like life will be good as long as everything is going the way I want it to. But right? I mean, that's never happened. Never, ever, ever. And it's just like I've actually learned in my journey how to embrace these difficulties and these challenges. And people look at me, I mean, it's so interesting. People are like, I'm so jealous of you. And I'm like, I'm a quadriplegic. You're jealous of me? Like, how can you be jealous of me? And they're like, your peace, your joy, your happiness. And I'm like, it is it is just learning how to thrive despite all of those challenges. I have so many challenges, I have so many, you know, medical things and financial things and and relationship issues, not with my husband, but family, you know, all of that, you know, just like everybody else in life. Yes, and um, and yeah, I've learned how to thrive, and that is my passion to share that with others. Yeah, so I'm really excited for continuing this um new new stage. Yes.

SPEAKER_00: 34:52

Well, I would love to hear, you know, I'm uh as a coach as well, like I am totally with you on just that one-on-one aspect where you can dig in with people, and I'm sure you're similar with me, where you can literally dig in and you know, kind of mine out the gold and help people, you know, be set free from those things that are holding them back, right? Yes. And I would love to hear, you know, I'm sure you're similar to me, we're very confidential, yeah. But um, is there an example that you could share of, you know, maybe somebody that you've worked with recently without disclosing names of of what they've been able to experience in working with you? Because I think sometimes, and I don't know if you've experienced this as well. Um, I actually did a podcast episode about the difference between like a consultant coach and a counselor. Sometimes people are like, Well, I don't really know what a coach is. So, like, I would love for you to share an example of you know something that you've um been able to walk alongside a woman.

SPEAKER_01: 35:52

And yeah, thanks so much for asking. I'm I'm trying to think, I would probably pick um this one woman that I started working with a couple months ago, and she has fibromyalgia, okay, which is a debilitating chronic pain disease. And um, and she just said, I just I loved how she put this. She says, I lost my girl. And she said, I was always a fighter, I was always someone that persevered, and I've just lost that. And I want to know how to be positive, despite my circumstances. She's just a really strong believer in God and just was really praying for someone to come alongside her to help her because she had tried to do it for so long herself and just couldn't get there, which I think is so awesome about coaching because it's just having someone alongside you that sees things that like you want to see, but you can't. And and so um, so we've worked together. I've helped her with you know her attitude. That was the biggest thing she wanted to work on. I want to know how you have a positive attitude, how you can live every day with so much joy. And so that's what we've worked on. We've worked on, and it's just been so phenomenal. And plus, just like tackling these things of how to handle chronic pain, how to handle um those really hard days when you want to do good, like you want to get out of bed, you want to go to work, you want to uh still accomplish your tasks that you need to, but the pain is so excruciating. And so just working with her on to on tools, you know, that I've used in my past with pain and and uh giving her those strategies to help her, and it's just been so transformational. I'm getting all choked up because it's just so I just she's you know, she says it herself. I'm a new person, and it's something that brings me so much joy to know that I'm seeing firsthand the impact of how she now, when she has a an a day or an episode of pain, she knows exactly what to do, how to handle that, how to work through it, get through it quicker, and um how to live life with with more joy, despite these circumstances that she has.

SPEAKER_00: 38:39

Huge. Yeah, and it's not just impacting her. I'm imagining that there's a huge ripple effect from from that as well.

SPEAKER_01: 38:48

Oh my goodness, yes, her spouse, her kids. I mean, just everything and even my life. Like, I know I look forward to meeting with her. I love her. Like, I am just like, I love this person. Like, I love seeing the transformation. I love seeing what um she's learning and what new things she's trying. And she's like, Taja, this worked, this helped me so much. Look at what I did, and I just love celebrating with her the big wins and the little wins, and that's just been so so so rewarding.

SPEAKER_00: 39:25

Yes, and it's it's just so amazing that you know. I I think I don't know about you, but like I I didn't have my first coach until gosh, was it I started coaching about eight years ago, and then I think I had my first coach maybe about 10 years ago. And it really wouldn't you say like it accelerates? Oh there's an acceleration that happens. Yep, partly because you have somebody, um, even if and and and I don't know about you, but like I've made friends with my clients because I don't know how to not be friends with like I just love people, um be able to um have somebody in your corner that is neutral, that isn't living with you, right? Like can be that person who's on you puck.

SPEAKER_01: 40:15

Yeah, 100%. I believe, and I tell my clients that I'm like, I believe in coaching so much that I have a coach. Like I believe in this so much because I've seen it, I've seen it in my life when working with a coach, and that's why I want to be a coach because and why I am doing coaching, because there that's really where you see transformation, where you see this, you see what they've what they're going through, yeah, and you've been there, yeah, and you know how to get them there faster. You know how to help them to not go through all the things that you went through. I mean, I I look back and I'm like, oh my goodness, it took me so it took me 10 years to really get to a point where I said I love my life, where I said, and I'm and I mean it. You know, I'm not just saying that to be inspirational, I mean it. I love my life with every fiber of my being, and I would not trade my life with anyone, but it took me 10 years to get there, and I think, man, I can help people get there faster. And that love it.

SPEAKER_00: 41:26

Yeah, it's beautiful, and it's even as you were talking, I was like, oh my gosh, like you're an I love my life coach. Yes, that is like people love their life. I yes, and that I love my life coach.

SPEAKER_01: 41:39

Oh, I love it. Oh my gosh, that is so awesome. I little words, I am kind of I and you are so beautiful with words every time I hear you. I oh my goodness, that is so awesome. That's exactly it, because I just don't think a lot of people can say that. And I want to help people get to where they can say that also.

SPEAKER_00: 42:01

It's seriously so beautiful. I am so thankful that he like shifted you into this, not to say that like you know, there's a there's different seasons in our journey, not to say that he's speaking again, but it might look different because do you have something like new coming?

SPEAKER_01: 42:20

So we do. Um we actually, my husband and I are actually planning on adopting.

unknown: 42:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 42:27

So that was kind of the whole shift, like the catalyst to get us really off the road because we're wanting to adopt an older child uh between five and twelve years old. And that will we're we're working through the Wisconsin public adoption where um where these children have been removed and had their parental rights terminated. So they have been in trauma and they cannot travel with us. You know, I mean, it's just this per this child needs stability, needs um, needs just a home, you know, they're not gonna be able to pack up and travel with us, if that makes sense. Yes, right. And so it was just and when God told us that he wanted us to adopt, we were like, well, how would that work? Like we travel, like we're we speak, like that wouldn't work. And that's when he was just slowly starting to say, change is coming, this is and this is good, like you can trust me, you can trust me, and and I don't know the timing of everything um of how that's going to work, and we've just continued praying about it, and just how um when that will happen, we're not sure, but we do know and feel that this is where God is leading us, and so and we're excited, we're so excited. Um, I can still have children, and when I got married, when we got married, I was like, do you want to have kids? And he was like, No, and like me neither. I really get my fill of speaking, of speaking to kids, and I feel like I was very fulfilled from that. And but almost two years ago, I read the book Kisses from Katie.

SPEAKER_00: 44:36

Yes, yes, have you have you read that book? Oh, yeah, she was like very young when she did her her life mission come to her.

SPEAKER_01: 44:46

It was just like God opened a door and said, You are going to do this, you are going to adopt, you're not moving to Uganda, you're not moving to Africa. But I have a child that needs a home, and I get choked up because it's just such an honor, you know, because we get we see lives impacted through speaking, but to have a human life, you know, in our own home, God has just really softened our hearts too. Because we both for years we're like, nope, yeah, no kids, we're happy. We're happy, and um, and we really he made it, he has made it very clear that this is where we're headed. So this is another reason for this transition, another reason for this change, and we're very, very excited.

SPEAKER_00: 45:36

Oh my goodness. Well, and I just love like everything you've shared here. There's there's so many different seasons of your life that have come to this point, you know, full circle. And I know there's more. There's more to come. Like, do you feel like there's anything else that he's like stretching you into in the next year at all?

SPEAKER_01: 45:54

Oh my gosh, there's so many things. Just I think just you know, I want to create a course that people can sign up. So when I speak, I share my message's path, which is an acronym for purpose, attitude, team, and hope. And those are really the four things that helped me be resilient after my accident that helped me get to where I am today. And people are like, How did you get here? I'm like, it's path, it's path. This is these are the four things. And so I'm creating a course for that. I want to write another book. I I feel like there's so much in store. And I get so excited, and then I also get scared, like, oh my gosh, how is this gonna work? And right, that's like one day at a time, Tasha. Just one day at a time. I got you. I mean, I've heard him say, I got you, probably a hundred times in the last six months, and I'm like, okay, okay, okay. It's like I'm notorious for getting ahead of him.

SPEAKER_00: 46:58

Put me in coach.

SPEAKER_01: 46:59

Oh, I it's just like notorious of like, I gotta do this and I gotta do that. And he's like, Tasha, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, okay, yeah, all right, okay, but I gotta do this and that. And he's like, Tasha, just rest, like just like okay, okay. So I'm excited about all of it, like it's an excitement, yeah. And that's but he's just like, slow down. Like, I know I told you to do this, but like it's coming, it's coming. Yes, you have to trust. And so I just hope this is encouraging for anybody listening today because it's okay. I'm I'm sure that there are people listening that are going through a similar season in some maybe a similar way or a different way, but I just know that God is faithful, and he's been so faithful to me, and I know that he will be faithful to you. Just trust him, rest in his goodness and his purpose and his plans that he has for you, and choose hope. Hope is so powerful, and I just love I when I speak, I share this acronym for hope, and it's this it's hold on pain ends. And it's really it spells hope. Yeah, hold on, pain ends. And a woman shared with this with me probably five or six years ago, and it was just so life-changing in terms of I've always wanted to share hope. I always talk about hope, but I never had a good way to share it. And I'm like, finally, this is it. Hold on, pain ends, like things will get better. It doesn't mean that our problems go away, it just means that God will use them and turn the turn it for good, as He's done in my life. I know those are His promises, and He is so faithful, so faithful, girl.

SPEAKER_00: 48:58

You you've you're amazing. I'm so thankful. And I at the end of every show, I always ask the guests to speak a word over our listeners, but you already did. Yay! Oh my god. If anything else is coming for you, like I often ask people to kind of get, you know, just think of a picture of somebody listening in today. Um, is there anything else that you would say to this person who's listening in? And then would you pray us out today?

SPEAKER_01: 49:23

I would love that. Um, I'm just thinking of somebody that is burnt out, overwhelmed. I I know that feeling it's so easy to pick it up in terms of again, like what I was just sharing. Like, I've got to do this and I've got to do that, and I've got to carry it all. And we've got like just boulders and boulders and boulders on top of our shoulders, and it weighs us down, it steals our joy, it impacts our relationships. It just it's there's no good in that. And and and God has called us again. This scripture, this always in the last six months. My yoke is easy, my burden is light. My yoke is easy. I just gotta say it again my burden is light, and I just really feel like somebody needs to hear that today, and really just needs to just surrender, let go of everything that you're holding on to, and hand it over to him because he is so capable, he is so good in taking our cares and dealing with them. He says, Give me all your cares for I care about you, give me all your worries for I care about you, and so let's pray. Heavenly Father, I just thank you for every person listening today. I just pray that this is an encouragement. I pray, Lord, that you have been glorified in this time, and I just pray that you use this message to help people impact their lives, transform their lives, and help them to thrive no matter what their circumstances are. And we just take all of our cares and we give them to you and we trust you, we love you, and we thank you for this time in Jesus' name. Amen.

SPEAKER_00: 51:31

Amen. Well, Tasha, I would love for you to share like best ways that people can contact you, and then I'll be sure to add that into the show notes as well.

SPEAKER_01: 51:41

Awesome, awesome. So I'm I'm working on my website right now. Um, but my speaking website is Tashashoe.com, and at the bottom of that website is a contact form. You could just fill that out if you want to learn more about my coaching um or you're interested for speaking. We are still doing some speaking, so um, but that would be great. Otherwise, I'm on so I'm on every social media except for Twitter. So I'm on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Snapchat, YouTube, TikTok. Love it. Oh, I would love for you to watch my videos. I would love for you to reach out if you need any help or support.

SPEAKER_00: 52:23

Okay. Well, like I said, I'll be sure to have everything in the show notes so people can easily contact you. And thank you so much for being a brave voice who's setting so many free. I'm gonna close with Hope Unlocked Anchoring Verse, which is May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. I am stressing abound in hope. That's Romans 15, 13. So thank you again for being on today. I'll probably have to have you on another time in the future. I would love that. Thank you. So thank you again, Tasha. I'll be back with another episode next week. Bye, listeners.