Surviving something isn’t the same as building something from it.
In 2018, alcohol addiction and end-stage liver failure nearly ended my life. A liver transplant gave me a second chance—but what I eventually learned was that a second chance doesn’t automatically create a meaningful life. That part has to be built.
Since then, I’ve rebuilt my life around recovery, service, leadership, and doing difficult things on purpose. I’ve completed ultramarathons of up to 300 miles, helped build a nonprofit supporting transplant families and people in recovery, facilitated recovery meetings, and spent years asking a question that applies far beyond addiction or transplantation:
What are you going to build with the life you have now?
This keynote explores what happens after the crisis, failure, loss, diagnosis, career change, or moment that divides life into “before” and “after.” Through storytelling, humor, vulnerability, and practical lessons, I challenge audiences to stop waiting for their past to become different and start taking ownership of what comes next.
Audiences will leave with a new way to think about resilience, identity, purpose, and the choices that turn a second chance into a third chapter.
