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Kevin Lowe: It goes without saying that I wish the bad things in life never had to happen.
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Kevin Lowe: I wish that no one had to experience loss or heartache. I just wish it didn't exist in this world.
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Kevin Lowe: But in fact, of course it does. And so I pose the question, though, just what if?
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Kevin Lowe: What if the hard times that you and me experience, they're not there meant to
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Kevin Lowe: break us, But rather, maybe they're meant to have us create something even more.
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Kevin Lowe: To pick up the pieces, not to rebuild what was, but to build something new.
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Kevin Lowe: Something bigger. Something more impactful.
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Kevin Lowe: Today, you're going to meet Andrew Berger. A guy who's experienced unimaginable loss.
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Kevin Lowe: From that of his mother and his sister, Jodi, to his wife's health.
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Kevin Lowe: But what's awesome about Andrew is instead of giving in or giving up,
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Kevin Lowe: he created Jodi's Climb for Hope.
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Kevin Lowe: And with over a million dollars raised for medical research,
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Kevin Lowe: Andrew proves to us all that even in the darkest of times, we can choose hope.
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Kevin Lowe: Today, you are about to hear a story that's going to make you laugh.
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Kevin Lowe: It's going to make you cry and ultimately leave you inspired by a conversation
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Kevin Lowe: that proves that hope isn't something that happens to you, but is rather something
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Kevin Lowe: we create. one step at a time.
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Kevin Lowe: This, my friend, is episode 364.
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Kevin Lowe: But before you dive in, I want you to know this.
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Kevin Lowe: If you have a dream, if you have big plans for your life, I want you to realize that they are valid.
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Kevin Lowe: Because if nobody's told you yet lately, I want you to know that I believe in you.
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Kevin Lowe: You, my friend, because you're here today, choosing to listen to this very podcast,
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Kevin Lowe: I know something about you. And that is you are made for greatness.
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Kevin Lowe: You have greatness inside of you. And maybe you've just needed a reminder,
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Kevin Lowe: Somebody to remind you that, you know what? He's right.
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Kevin Lowe: Kevin's right. I'm capable. I'm able. And I am deserving of having all that I want in this life.
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Kevin Lowe: That is the truth, my friend. And I hope that today you're reminded of that,
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Kevin Lowe: that no matter what dreams you have, no matter how big or far-fetched they may
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Kevin Lowe: seem, that they are all indeed possible.
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Kevin Lowe: I believe in you. So with that, my friend, gain the inspiration you need from
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Kevin Lowe: today's amazing conversation with today's amazing guest, Andrew Berger.
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Kevin Lowe: I welcome you to Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
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Kevin Lowe: Hey, I'm your host, Kevin Lowe, and you are listening to Grit,
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Kevin Lowe: Grace, and Inspiration.
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Kevin Lowe: Andy, man, it's a pleasure to have you here. Welcome to the podcast.
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Andrew Buerger: Good morning. Good morning. It's great to be here. Thanks for having me.
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Andrew Buerger: And I'm looking forward to our conversation.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, well, me too. Well, Andy, I figured the best place that I would love to
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Kevin Lowe: start is asking you to kind of take me back and giving me a kind of snapshot
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Kevin Lowe: overview into growing up and specifically relationship with your sister, Jody.
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Andrew Buerger: Yeah well we're going a few years back how much time do we have today kevin,
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Andrew Buerger: it's like my therapist all over again talking about my childhood a year after
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Andrew Buerger: i was born my mother died of a rare blood disease and so leaving behind my father
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Andrew Buerger: a widow at age 27 and my me and my sister two kids in diapers she was just a
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Andrew Buerger: year older than i was i was one she was two.
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Andrew Buerger: And, you know, just from that moment on, super close, you know,
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Andrew Buerger: where I couldn't go to a birthday party without her.
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Andrew Buerger: You know, we went to, you know, I stayed close in high school.
00:03:40.688 --> 00:03:44.308
Andrew Buerger: We had high school friends. We went to college near each other, not the same school.
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Andrew Buerger: But then, you know, if I lived in Vancouver and she lived somewhere else,
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Andrew Buerger: you know, we traveled to see each other quite often, just as close as a sibling could be.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. I mean, in speaking to a tragedy at such an early age in life, I can only imagine that,
00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:05.419
Kevin Lowe: That would probably draw you guys closer together with the loss of your mother.
00:04:05.619 --> 00:04:07.659
Kevin Lowe: I mean, at such an early age.
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Andrew Buerger: Yes, it would bring anybody closer together. And I was very fortunate.
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Andrew Buerger: She's just an awesome human being, kind, generous, thoughtful.
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Andrew Buerger: And so, of course, we fought, you know, as all siblings do. But it was easy
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Andrew Buerger: to be close to her. It wasn't a lot of drama between the two of us.
00:04:25.179 --> 00:04:29.679
Andrew Buerger: There wasn't a lot of, you know, sibling rivalry. so it made for a very healthy,
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Andrew Buerger: strong, long-lasting relationship.
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Andrew Buerger: You know, then, you know, when our father died, when I was 31,
00:04:35.499 --> 00:04:40.579
Andrew Buerger: she was 32, we kind of also just had to lean into each other just a little bit
00:04:40.579 --> 00:04:41.939
Andrew Buerger: more than we already had.
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Andrew Buerger: We turned it from a 10 to an 11 in terms of our relationship,
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Andrew Buerger: in terms of needing each other, being there for each other, and supporting each other.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Now, as you guys grew older, were you able to stay?
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Kevin Lowe: Did y'all still live near each other?
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Andrew Buerger: No, we never had that luxury after high school.
00:05:00.419 --> 00:05:06.439
Andrew Buerger: That new statistic I heard after the age of 18, I think you only spend basically
00:05:06.439 --> 00:05:09.519
Andrew Buerger: one more year with your kids after they turn 18.
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Andrew Buerger: We didn't have the luxury. So she remained in Boston. So I went to college in
00:05:14.559 --> 00:05:17.179
Andrew Buerger: Vermont three hours away and she went to college in Boston.
00:05:17.319 --> 00:05:21.159
Andrew Buerger: She stayed there. So I lived in a lot of different places, Vancouver,
00:05:21.159 --> 00:05:25.419
Andrew Buerger: Hoover, Aspen, Boulder, Detroit, and then we'd see each other.
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Andrew Buerger: We were never physically close, but then I moved to Baltimore.
00:05:29.119 --> 00:05:32.519
Andrew Buerger: So we'd see each other, but no, we were never in the same city.
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Kevin Lowe: Okay, okay. Well, I know, obviously, a big part of our conversation today really
00:05:39.279 --> 00:05:43.499
Kevin Lowe: revolves around your sister Jodi's diagnosis with cancer.
00:05:43.819 --> 00:05:49.779
Kevin Lowe: Would you kind of go ahead and talk to me about this whole kind of chapter of the story?
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Andrew Buerger: Yeah, sure. You got to get the back story in terms of our relationship where
00:05:54.359 --> 00:05:58.479
Andrew Buerger: we were there for each other, to support each other through good times and bad.
00:05:58.939 --> 00:06:02.659
Andrew Buerger: Dance at her wedding, you know, and we're there for, obviously,
00:06:02.879 --> 00:06:04.099
Andrew Buerger: the birth of her children.
00:06:04.319 --> 00:06:07.579
Andrew Buerger: So it wasn't just the challenging times. We had amazing times.
00:06:07.739 --> 00:06:09.339
Andrew Buerger: And as I said, I lived in Vancouver.
00:06:09.539 --> 00:06:12.439
Andrew Buerger: We had some amazing experiences there. and then
00:06:12.439 --> 00:06:15.919
Andrew Buerger: when i was basically 40 years old she was 41
00:06:15.919 --> 00:06:19.159
Andrew Buerger: she was diagnosed with stage four metastatic
00:06:19.159 --> 00:06:22.739
Andrew Buerger: breast cancer for which there's no cure unfortunately they
00:06:22.739 --> 00:06:27.639
Andrew Buerger: have not found a cure for that when it's stage four yet when it's involves various
00:06:27.639 --> 00:06:31.519
Andrew Buerger: parts of the body from the brain to the lungs and the liver and so i've been
00:06:31.519 --> 00:06:36.039
Andrew Buerger: given a gift in life which is like this filter my brain no bad news goes in
00:06:36.039 --> 00:06:39.899
Andrew Buerger: there so every time something i get this news i don't see the bad news i can
00:06:39.899 --> 00:06:40.819
Andrew Buerger: only see an opportunity.
00:06:41.119 --> 00:06:44.599
Andrew Buerger: And I didn't think she was going to die. I heard that she had cancer,
00:06:44.739 --> 00:06:50.279
Andrew Buerger: but I didn't think it would eventually kill her because that's just about where my brain goes.
00:06:50.419 --> 00:06:53.559
Andrew Buerger: And so something switched in my brain. I said, I've got to do something.
00:06:53.699 --> 00:06:57.699
Andrew Buerger: So we started raising money for a very promising treatment here that happens
00:06:57.699 --> 00:07:00.339
Andrew Buerger: to be in Baltimore. I look for where the best treatment was being done.
00:07:00.519 --> 00:07:04.299
Andrew Buerger: And it was a woman named Dr. Alicia Emmons here in Baltimore that was doing
00:07:04.299 --> 00:07:08.139
Andrew Buerger: really cool research where they would take a woman's tumor cell,
00:07:08.519 --> 00:07:11.759
Andrew Buerger: turn off the DNA, chop it up into a million pieces and then put it back into
00:07:11.759 --> 00:07:15.319
Andrew Buerger: the woman's body with a low dose of chemotherapy that woke up the immune system
00:07:15.319 --> 00:07:17.619
Andrew Buerger: to fight that. I'm like, wow, that is really cool.
00:07:18.019 --> 00:07:22.559
Andrew Buerger: And so what can I do to help you? She said, I need money. So we started a nonprofit.
00:07:22.919 --> 00:07:25.759
Andrew Buerger: At that time, we called it Climb for Hope to raise money for that.
00:07:25.959 --> 00:07:29.639
Andrew Buerger: And so we raised a lot of money and we advanced her research pretty quickly,
00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:33.179
Andrew Buerger: but we didn't do it in time, unfortunately, to save my sister's life.
00:07:33.599 --> 00:07:38.199
Andrew Buerger: She died at age 45, leaving behind three of the most gorgeous kids in the world.
00:07:38.199 --> 00:07:40.399
Andrew Buerger: And an amazing, loving husband.
00:07:41.387 --> 00:07:46.807
Andrew Buerger: You know, it was hard to go through that with her and lose, you know,
00:07:46.867 --> 00:07:51.367
Andrew Buerger: basically my best friend after having gone through that fight with her and tremendous loss.
00:07:51.627 --> 00:07:56.027
Andrew Buerger: But what remains is her memory and an organization that's raised over a million
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Andrew Buerger: dollars for breast cancer research at Johns Hopkins.
00:07:59.347 --> 00:08:09.927
Kevin Lowe: Wow. So just to recap what we just heard is you lost your mother when you were only a year old.
00:08:10.087 --> 00:08:13.187
Kevin Lowe: Right. You lost your father when I think you said you were 31.
00:08:13.767 --> 00:08:14.147
Andrew Buerger: Yes.
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Kevin Lowe: And now you just told us that you lost your sister.
00:08:17.827 --> 00:08:19.147
Andrew Buerger: Yes. Yes.
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Kevin Lowe: That seems for a man who doesn't take in the bad news and finds opportunity,
00:08:27.307 --> 00:08:32.107
Kevin Lowe: it seems like anybody would say, wow, that was a lot.
00:08:32.427 --> 00:08:35.327
Andrew Buerger: Yeah, I can see. I can see where you'd say that.
00:08:35.507 --> 00:08:41.087
Andrew Buerger: It's a lot. And, you know, there's an amazing quote from Marcus Aurelius,
00:08:41.207 --> 00:08:46.107
Andrew Buerger: who was the last of the great Roman emperors and a student of Stoic philosophy.
00:08:46.327 --> 00:08:49.927
Andrew Buerger: And he once said, it is fortunate that this happened to me.
00:08:50.047 --> 00:08:54.827
Andrew Buerger: It is fortunate that this happens to me. So I embrace that philosophy.
00:08:55.127 --> 00:08:59.307
Andrew Buerger: You know, when I get to the top of a mountain or I have a good event at work
00:08:59.307 --> 00:09:03.527
Andrew Buerger: or something positive happens in my life, it is fortunate that this happens to me.
00:09:03.527 --> 00:09:08.407
Andrew Buerger: And then when something negative happens in my life, I also say that it is fortunate
00:09:08.407 --> 00:09:13.067
Andrew Buerger: that this happens to me because I know that there's a silver lining on the other side of that tragedy.
00:09:13.407 --> 00:09:20.267
Andrew Buerger: And all those losses turned out to be a gift to me in that I know why I'm on this earth.
00:09:20.507 --> 00:09:26.087
Andrew Buerger: I'm here to use all my creativity and energy to help take a bite out of disease
00:09:26.087 --> 00:09:30.887
Andrew Buerger: so that other families can live more fulfilling lives. So my life for the past
00:09:30.887 --> 00:09:33.787
Andrew Buerger: 20 years has been in this area.
00:09:34.545 --> 00:09:38.265
Andrew Buerger: As I said, we started a nonprofit that we've renamed from Climb for Hope to
00:09:38.265 --> 00:09:40.985
Andrew Buerger: Jody's Climb for Hope. And we've made a difference.
00:09:41.265 --> 00:09:45.665
Andrew Buerger: We've sped up research on that vaccine, which now is not necessarily treating
00:09:45.665 --> 00:09:51.125
Andrew Buerger: breast cancer, but now you're seeing immunology working for other forms of cancer, like skin cancer.
00:09:51.625 --> 00:09:56.025
Andrew Buerger: So not that that was all of our doing, but we were a tiny cog in the wheel that
00:09:56.025 --> 00:09:57.725
Andrew Buerger: sped it up. It may have saved some lives.
00:09:57.945 --> 00:10:02.705
Andrew Buerger: We've given hope to thousands of others that we can continue to advance cancer research.
00:10:02.705 --> 00:10:07.465
Andrew Buerger: And we skipped over one small detail in that I married this beautiful woman,
00:10:07.805 --> 00:10:12.965
Andrew Buerger: Jennifer, and six months after we were married, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
00:10:13.205 --> 00:10:18.205
Andrew Buerger: And so we're now also raising money for multiple sclerosis research.
00:10:18.425 --> 00:10:22.205
Andrew Buerger: And so the money we raised goes to breast cancer research at Hopkins,
00:10:22.405 --> 00:10:27.045
Andrew Buerger: as well as their amazing multiple sclerosis research center.
00:10:27.045 --> 00:10:34.305
Andrew Buerger: And so, again, we're helping move the needle there to find the next viable treatment for MS.
00:10:34.885 --> 00:10:43.685
Kevin Lowe: Wow. I think that is one of the most amazing life's purposes I've ever heard.
00:10:43.845 --> 00:10:45.145
Andrew Buerger: Thanks. Thanks.
00:10:45.545 --> 00:10:50.405
Kevin Lowe: The name of Jodi's Climb for Hope. Talk to me about the name,
00:10:50.705 --> 00:10:53.285
Kevin Lowe: Climb for Hope. What is that in reference to?
00:10:53.285 --> 00:10:58.705
Andrew Buerger: You know, we started it when she was still alive, and we wanted to give her
00:10:58.705 --> 00:11:03.305
Andrew Buerger: hope to live one more day, one more week, one more month with her kids.
00:11:03.645 --> 00:11:09.345
Andrew Buerger: We want to hope that hopefully we could find a cure or treatment that would keep her alive longer.
00:11:09.945 --> 00:11:15.545
Andrew Buerger: As it turned out, you know, we give her hope, hopefully advanced her life a
00:11:15.545 --> 00:11:17.085
Andrew Buerger: little bit to be with her family.
00:11:17.085 --> 00:11:23.805
Andrew Buerger: But as it turns out, we've discovered this interesting byproduct of our organization
00:11:23.805 --> 00:11:25.945
Andrew Buerger: where we go mountain climbing.
00:11:26.125 --> 00:11:31.005
Andrew Buerger: So we started this, you know, most places we're doing 5Ks, 10Ks to raise money for $10.
00:11:31.332 --> 00:11:37.852
Andrew Buerger: For breast cancer, where we started, our first fundraiser was climbing a 19,400-foot
00:11:37.852 --> 00:11:41.592
Andrew Buerger: mountain in Ecuador. So we didn't start small.
00:11:41.852 --> 00:11:47.272
Andrew Buerger: And so what we discovered by accident is that both of us carrying a backpack,
00:11:47.632 --> 00:11:50.892
Andrew Buerger: a weighted pack up that mountain, we got altitude sickness.
00:11:51.192 --> 00:11:55.592
Andrew Buerger: Some of us were literally vomiting, headaches, pain, fatigue,
00:11:56.112 --> 00:12:00.532
Andrew Buerger: overwhelming exhaustion of climbing for 12, 13 hours.
00:12:00.992 --> 00:12:06.552
Andrew Buerger: You know something? My sister went through that every single day for five years.
00:12:06.752 --> 00:12:10.852
Andrew Buerger: We could push through that pain. We could vomit and keep moving on that mountain
00:12:10.852 --> 00:12:14.112
Andrew Buerger: for 12, 13 hours because then we got to go home and rest.
00:12:14.252 --> 00:12:17.452
Andrew Buerger: Where those undergoing breast cancer treatment don't get that luxury.
00:12:17.912 --> 00:12:22.392
Andrew Buerger: People with multiple sclerosis carry a heavy pack every single day.
00:12:22.832 --> 00:12:26.032
Andrew Buerger: It's difficult for my wife to walk around the block, walk the dog.
00:12:26.292 --> 00:12:30.372
Andrew Buerger: So we figured she'll be walking her shoes when we have these expeditions.
00:12:30.892 --> 00:12:35.952
Andrew Buerger: And so we're understanding what these people are going through and we're giving
00:12:35.952 --> 00:12:40.492
Andrew Buerger: hope to people back home that we can continue to raise money and continue to make a difference.
00:12:40.912 --> 00:12:44.872
Andrew Buerger: Another thing that we stumbled upon was that we discovered this doctor early
00:12:44.872 --> 00:12:48.792
Andrew Buerger: and we found some other doctors very early on and we were able to give them,
00:12:48.952 --> 00:12:51.992
Andrew Buerger: you know, 50, $150,000 very quickly.
00:12:52.252 --> 00:12:54.452
Andrew Buerger: Didn't have to write grants, didn't have to fill out paperwork,
00:12:54.672 --> 00:12:56.932
Andrew Buerger: didn't have to do a lot of red tape. Here's your check.
00:12:57.372 --> 00:13:00.512
Andrew Buerger: And so they were able to get proof of concept of their research.
00:13:00.852 --> 00:13:03.892
Andrew Buerger: And then once they raised money, like, stop giving me money.
00:13:04.152 --> 00:13:06.712
Andrew Buerger: Now the government's giving me millions, go give it to somebody else.
00:13:07.032 --> 00:13:12.312
Andrew Buerger: And so we've discovered that the Climb for Hope can be a sort of a VC,
00:13:12.532 --> 00:13:17.432
Andrew Buerger: an early funder for people doing promising research, because you can't get money
00:13:17.432 --> 00:13:20.292
Andrew Buerger: until you have some kind of proof of concept and we allow them to do that.
00:13:20.932 --> 00:13:26.832
Andrew Buerger: And so again, we're giving hope that we can find a unique approach to disease research.
00:13:27.461 --> 00:13:35.061
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Where did the whole concept even come from about the idea to even start
00:13:35.061 --> 00:13:40.941
Kevin Lowe: such an organization and then, though, to do it not like everybody else with a 5K,
00:13:41.121 --> 00:13:43.561
Kevin Lowe: but instead we're climbing mountains?
00:13:43.941 --> 00:13:47.181
Andrew Buerger: Yeah, I tend to swim upstream a little bit.
00:13:47.321 --> 00:13:51.641
Andrew Buerger: I've got a couple of gifts. One is that filter that we talked about where nothing
00:13:51.641 --> 00:13:54.081
Andrew Buerger: bad enters my brain, drives my wife crazy.
00:13:56.381 --> 00:13:59.161
Andrew Buerger: I think that other things i triangulate things you know
00:13:59.161 --> 00:14:02.021
Andrew Buerger: i see when three things kind of appear to
00:14:02.021 --> 00:14:05.301
Andrew Buerger: me i'm like oh that's something and so
00:14:05.301 --> 00:14:10.641
Andrew Buerger: you know my sister getting sick meeting that that doctor i happen to be climbing
00:14:10.641 --> 00:14:15.601
Andrew Buerger: with a buddy of mine on pico de orizaba which is the highest mountain in mexico
00:14:15.601 --> 00:14:21.121
Andrew Buerger: uh at about 18 400 feet and we were climbing that mountain and i'm a horrible
00:14:21.121 --> 00:14:22.661
Andrew Buerger: climber It's not like, oh,
00:14:23.061 --> 00:14:26.341
Andrew Buerger: I'm a world-class climber who does this. I'm a horrible climber.
00:14:26.521 --> 00:14:29.741
Andrew Buerger: But I'm like, wait a minute, Crony. What if, you know, we've got a bunch of
00:14:29.741 --> 00:14:33.021
Andrew Buerger: friends together and made them raise $5,000 to go climbing with us?
00:14:33.161 --> 00:14:38.261
Andrew Buerger: And so I happened to get, again, lucky that the guy who ran the local climbing
00:14:38.261 --> 00:14:40.581
Andrew Buerger: gym happens to be one of the foremost climbers in the world,
00:14:41.021 --> 00:14:43.841
Andrew Buerger: a guy named Chris Warner, who now became the second American climber.
00:14:44.421 --> 00:14:48.981
Andrew Buerger: Ever to climb all the 8,000 meter peaks. So he said, yeah, I'll take you.
00:14:49.141 --> 00:14:52.281
Andrew Buerger: I won't make any money on you. And let's go climb the world's highest active
00:14:52.281 --> 00:14:53.781
Andrew Buerger: volcano down in Ecuador.
00:14:54.081 --> 00:14:57.561
Andrew Buerger: And so off we went, you know, we just, I wanted to take a little different approach.
00:14:57.761 --> 00:14:59.581
Andrew Buerger: She needed the money and I like climbing.
00:14:59.821 --> 00:15:03.821
Andrew Buerger: And so we've got a bunch of my friends together and it turns out we raised like
00:15:03.821 --> 00:15:06.981
Andrew Buerger: $150,000 the first year. We're like, well, let's try that again.
00:15:07.461 --> 00:15:12.161
Andrew Buerger: Went to Kilimanjaro and raised another $150,000 and just kept going.
00:15:12.581 --> 00:15:18.501
Kevin Lowe: Wow. I think that's amazing. I love not only, I mean, the mission behind it,
00:15:18.561 --> 00:15:22.641
Kevin Lowe: of course, but I love the creativity and stepping outside of the box.
00:15:22.841 --> 00:15:23.121
Andrew Buerger: Thanks.
00:15:23.661 --> 00:15:29.321
Kevin Lowe: Thanks. Yeah, that's amazing. Well, talk to me more about your wife.
00:15:29.681 --> 00:15:32.821
Kevin Lowe: How did the two of you meet in the first place?
00:15:33.781 --> 00:15:35.201
Andrew Buerger: I hate this story.
00:15:38.321 --> 00:15:42.861
Andrew Buerger: I always i always ask people do you want the truth or the story that i like to tell,
00:15:44.181 --> 00:15:48.881
Andrew Buerger: my kids love it too so yeah i was getting out of a bad relationship we tell
00:15:48.881 --> 00:15:52.581
Andrew Buerger: people that we met at a coffee shop because we live very close to each other
00:15:52.581 --> 00:15:56.561
Andrew Buerger: and i used to like that story better but in truth i was getting about a relationship
00:15:56.561 --> 00:15:59.941
Andrew Buerger: i'm like oh i need what i gotta what am i gonna do now.
00:16:00.141 --> 00:16:04.761
Andrew Buerger: So I went on mats.com, looked up and, you know, I saw this beautiful woman who's
00:16:04.761 --> 00:16:08.621
Andrew Buerger: well-read, well-traveled, well-educated, a master's degree.
00:16:08.741 --> 00:16:11.221
Andrew Buerger: She worked in an orphanage. I'm like, oh my God, she's a saint.
00:16:11.401 --> 00:16:14.401
Andrew Buerger: And I'm like, well, I guess I got to join this stupid thing. And so I,
00:16:16.761 --> 00:16:20.541
Andrew Buerger: and then, you know, went on one date on mats.com and that was it.
00:16:20.981 --> 00:16:21.341
Kevin Lowe: Wow.
00:16:21.941 --> 00:16:22.261
Andrew Buerger: Yeah.
00:16:22.601 --> 00:16:23.781
Kevin Lowe: That's crazy. Awesome.
00:16:24.581 --> 00:16:29.581
Andrew Buerger: Yeah, so we met in February, and then I decided to start the nonprofit in April,
00:16:29.641 --> 00:16:32.821
Andrew Buerger: and I had that meeting with Dr. Emmons, who's this amazing,
00:16:33.412 --> 00:16:36.292
Andrew Buerger: researcher and uh chris warner again who
00:16:36.292 --> 00:16:39.232
Andrew Buerger: i said is one of the foremost climbers in the world and we
00:16:39.232 --> 00:16:42.172
Andrew Buerger: had this meeting and we had like uh 20 people show
00:16:42.172 --> 00:16:45.192
Andrew Buerger: up and every one of the 20 people
00:16:45.192 --> 00:16:48.392
Andrew Buerger: signed up and one of those people and jennifer and
00:16:48.392 --> 00:16:52.072
Andrew Buerger: mckay you know we just started dating two months make you mind coming this meeting
00:16:52.072 --> 00:16:56.332
Andrew Buerger: with me and so she after the meeting she tells all my friends you're gonna have
00:16:56.332 --> 00:17:00.612
Andrew Buerger: to tell annie that his next girlfriend that his ex-girlfriend is coming on this
00:17:00.612 --> 00:17:06.572
Andrew Buerger: trip because you didn't know we'd be married or be still dating come January when the trip went off.
00:17:06.832 --> 00:17:09.932
Andrew Buerger: And so it was a big mountain and it was really challenging.
00:17:10.212 --> 00:17:13.452
Andrew Buerger: And it's hard and the altitude.
00:17:13.832 --> 00:17:19.892
Andrew Buerger: And so I don't remember this, but she said that if I got to the summit, we would get engaged.
00:17:23.652 --> 00:17:28.392
Andrew Buerger: So she made it up there. We did not get engaged up there, but she made it somehow.
00:17:28.712 --> 00:17:30.612
Andrew Buerger: And then we got engaged three months later.
00:17:30.832 --> 00:17:35.592
Kevin Lowe: Wow, that is absolutely amazing. I think that's an awesome story.
00:17:37.092 --> 00:17:46.132
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Now, did after that climb, did she continue to share that love of yours of climbing?
00:17:46.512 --> 00:17:50.572
Andrew Buerger: This interview reminds me of my interview for my life insurance.
00:17:50.952 --> 00:17:55.832
Andrew Buerger: It's like, tell me about your biological mother. Well, she died at 25.
00:17:56.092 --> 00:17:59.432
Andrew Buerger: Well, how about your father? He died of heart disease. How about your sister?
00:17:59.432 --> 00:18:01.392
Andrew Buerger: I'm like, do you really want to ask me these questions?
00:18:02.052 --> 00:18:07.912
Andrew Buerger: So I married this gorgeous woman. So we climbed a Cotopaxi in January of 2007,
00:18:08.252 --> 00:18:09.832
Andrew Buerger: you know, this 19,000 foot peak.
00:18:09.972 --> 00:18:12.692
Andrew Buerger: And we wanted to climb this other mountain because my buddy of mine,
00:18:13.152 --> 00:18:17.572
Andrew Buerger: John Guth, he signed up and wound up breaking his leg doing something stupid
00:18:17.572 --> 00:18:20.472
Andrew Buerger: that he shouldn't have never done. So I said, dude, I'll take you climbing.
00:18:21.061 --> 00:18:25.601
Andrew Buerger: In June on this mountain called Mount Shasta. So I got Jennifer,
00:18:25.841 --> 00:18:29.101
Andrew Buerger: who was then my fiancee, Gunnar, and then this other woman, Julie,
00:18:29.341 --> 00:18:30.801
Andrew Buerger: to go climb Mount Shasta.
00:18:30.981 --> 00:18:35.021
Andrew Buerger: And Jennifer loved it. It was this hippie town in Northern California, gorgeous.
00:18:35.481 --> 00:18:40.081
Andrew Buerger: You do this nice, tough hike up to base camp. And she was loving every second.
00:18:40.161 --> 00:18:42.141
Andrew Buerger: And she loved the town. She loved everything about it.
00:18:42.301 --> 00:18:45.081
Andrew Buerger: And she gets to camp and she's like, I don't feel a hundred percent.
00:18:45.201 --> 00:18:48.461
Andrew Buerger: I'm really cold and I can't regulate my body and i'm just
00:18:48.461 --> 00:18:51.481
Andrew Buerger: freezing and i'm just you mind if i don't go to the summit i'm
00:18:51.481 --> 00:18:54.461
Andrew Buerger: like hey you know we're not here to
00:18:54.461 --> 00:18:57.961
Andrew Buerger: go to the summit we're here for the experience so she really wasn't feeling
00:18:57.961 --> 00:19:03.041
Andrew Buerger: well we went up summited and came back down and so that was june and then we
00:19:03.041 --> 00:19:09.761
Andrew Buerger: got married in september of 2007 and then uh you know we decided to climb kilimanjaro
00:19:09.761 --> 00:19:13.041
Andrew Buerger: the following year That's what she chose.
00:19:13.761 --> 00:19:14.021
Kevin Lowe: Wow.
00:19:14.421 --> 00:19:19.401
Andrew Buerger: And then February, she wasn't feeling well. So we went to the doctor and we
00:19:19.401 --> 00:19:24.841
Andrew Buerger: knew because we had seen some MRIs and February 26, 2008,
00:19:25.701 --> 00:19:31.081
Andrew Buerger: six months, less than six months after our wedding date, we knew that the doctor
00:19:31.081 --> 00:19:32.641
Andrew Buerger: was going to give us bad news that day.
00:19:32.901 --> 00:19:37.321
Andrew Buerger: We knew because we saw a couple of lesions on her spine by this point that the
00:19:37.321 --> 00:19:41.281
Andrew Buerger: doctor was going to tell us she had multiple sclerosis. So we sat in that waiting
00:19:41.281 --> 00:19:43.621
Andrew Buerger: room, waiting for the doctor to call us in.
00:19:44.041 --> 00:19:50.361
Andrew Buerger: And I had the early BlackBerry back then. And sitting there, I couldn't focus.
00:19:50.581 --> 00:19:53.301
Andrew Buerger: So I was checking emails. And I got this email, congratulations,
00:19:53.701 --> 00:19:55.981
Andrew Buerger: Mr. Berger, your puppy has been born.
00:19:56.201 --> 00:20:02.821
Andrew Buerger: And we had put in paperwork to get a bull mastiff, the 140-pound dog that we'd bring home.
00:20:03.101 --> 00:20:06.921
Andrew Buerger: And so as soon as I got that email, the nurse said, the doctor will see you now.
00:20:07.181 --> 00:20:12.581
Andrew Buerger: Of course, he confirmed our diagnosis. that Jennifer had MS and that she'd never climb again.
00:20:12.881 --> 00:20:21.421
Andrew Buerger: So we went home, we cried our eyes out, and we woke up the next day and we named the dog Mount Shasta.
00:20:22.042 --> 00:20:24.642
Andrew Buerger: Mount Zest was the last mountain that Jennifer's been able to climb.
00:20:24.882 --> 00:20:29.742
Andrew Buerger: And his initials were MS. Because goddamn, MS was going to be something positive in our lives.
00:20:30.282 --> 00:20:38.242
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Wow. Talk to me about the effects of MS on somebody. What does this disease do?
00:20:38.642 --> 00:20:41.842
Andrew Buerger: It's unlike cancer where you can kind of, I don't want to say predict it,
00:20:42.122 --> 00:20:46.122
Andrew Buerger: but, you know, everyone has very similar journeys with cancer.
00:20:46.362 --> 00:20:50.562
Andrew Buerger: With MS, multiple sclerosis is multiple sclerosis or lesions.
00:20:50.562 --> 00:20:54.862
Andrew Buerger: You're getting lesions on your myelin sheath, which is the protective coating
00:20:54.862 --> 00:20:57.062
Andrew Buerger: on your spinal cord in your brain.
00:20:57.402 --> 00:21:01.962
Andrew Buerger: And so some people get them more in your brain. You get cognitive challenges.
00:21:01.962 --> 00:21:05.082
Andrew Buerger: Some people get them more on their spine, which correlates to,
00:21:05.202 --> 00:21:06.662
Andrew Buerger: you know, it's kind of like a computer cord.
00:21:06.762 --> 00:21:09.222
Andrew Buerger: If you're cutting up that plastic, you know, that outer coating,
00:21:09.442 --> 00:21:13.242
Andrew Buerger: you're going to get your computers in your haywire because the cords can be cut.
00:21:13.502 --> 00:21:19.382
Andrew Buerger: So people get weakness, fatigue, pain, difficulty walking, difficult using your
00:21:19.382 --> 00:21:23.782
Andrew Buerger: hands, losing feeling in your fingers, a lot of mobility issues.
00:21:24.122 --> 00:21:25.622
Andrew Buerger: Some people wind up in a wheelchair.
00:21:25.962 --> 00:21:28.222
Andrew Buerger: Again, it's very dependent on the individual.
00:21:28.782 --> 00:21:33.202
Andrew Buerger: And so, you know, there's a lot of great medications now that will stop the
00:21:33.202 --> 00:21:35.822
Andrew Buerger: progression. So if you've got several lesions, you get diagnosed,
00:21:35.862 --> 00:21:39.182
Andrew Buerger: you go on a medication, then that'll hopefully stop the progression.
00:21:39.362 --> 00:21:44.242
Andrew Buerger: And so we're fortunate that she was diagnosed, you know, now we're no less 15,
00:21:44.522 --> 00:21:49.002
Andrew Buerger: 18 years that medications have stopped it, But it still presents challenges every day.
00:21:49.202 --> 00:21:53.182
Andrew Buerger: And I think the worst symptom that she got was when we sat down.
00:21:53.282 --> 00:21:55.522
Andrew Buerger: The doctor says, woo, this is kind of aggressive.
00:21:55.962 --> 00:21:59.222
Andrew Buerger: So I need to put you on this drug and hopefully keep you out of a wheelchair.
00:21:59.482 --> 00:22:00.842
Andrew Buerger: But it means you can't have kids.
00:22:02.662 --> 00:22:06.902
Andrew Buerger: So I know my mission to help take about a disease. Jen's known her mission since
00:22:06.902 --> 00:22:12.982
Andrew Buerger: she was five years old, which is to be a mother to create healthy kids, mentally healthy kids.
00:22:13.342 --> 00:22:17.182
Andrew Buerger: She's a psychotherapist. and now the doctor's telling us five months after we're
00:22:17.182 --> 00:22:18.962
Andrew Buerger: married that we can't have kids.
00:22:19.262 --> 00:22:24.742
Andrew Buerger: That was the worst of the symptoms. It is fortunate that this happened to me.
00:22:25.122 --> 00:22:29.482
Andrew Buerger: It is fortunate this happened to me because what we decided to do was to go
00:22:29.482 --> 00:22:33.702
Andrew Buerger: to Ethiopia, one of the poorest parts of the world, and adopt two of the most
00:22:33.702 --> 00:22:35.722
Andrew Buerger: gorgeous kids on the face of this earth.
00:22:36.322 --> 00:22:42.262
Andrew Buerger: So now she lives her life mission every single day to raise these healthy kids.
00:22:42.362 --> 00:22:44.662
Andrew Buerger: I'm a motivational speaker.
00:22:44.822 --> 00:22:49.502
Andrew Buerger: So it's perfect. I get to travel and she gets to, I don't have any bad effects on the kids.
00:22:49.642 --> 00:22:51.962
Andrew Buerger: She does a great job of raising these two kids. They're now,
00:22:52.122 --> 00:22:56.622
Andrew Buerger: now 14, but it's, you know, life's challenging in terms of physically for her
00:22:56.622 --> 00:22:59.942
Andrew Buerger: mobility, pain, fatigue on a daily basis.
00:23:01.342 --> 00:23:04.822
Kevin Lowe: Wow. What a story. You're, you're kids.
00:23:05.622 --> 00:23:09.802
Kevin Lowe: I, I heard something, I think it was in one of the talks you did and I would
00:23:09.802 --> 00:23:15.802
Kevin Lowe: love for you to tell me the story that you you wrote their names on water bottles that you carried
00:23:17.416 --> 00:23:17.756
Andrew Buerger: Yeah.
00:23:18.156 --> 00:23:19.036
Kevin Lowe: What is that story?
00:23:19.256 --> 00:23:23.396
Andrew Buerger: That story, we were climbing Mount Whitney, which is the highest point in the
00:23:23.396 --> 00:23:26.016
Andrew Buerger: lower 48, at 14,500 feet.
00:23:26.276 --> 00:23:32.236
Andrew Buerger: And that point, you know, our kids were little and I had this startup going
00:23:32.236 --> 00:23:35.196
Andrew Buerger: and Jennifer obviously could no longer hike with me.
00:23:35.416 --> 00:23:38.016
Andrew Buerger: So training became an issue. I was getting a little older.
00:23:38.756 --> 00:23:41.396
Andrew Buerger: And so it was a challenging climb. We had to carry heavy packs,
00:23:41.556 --> 00:23:44.416
Andrew Buerger: not just to one camp, but to the second camp too.
00:23:44.636 --> 00:23:48.276
Andrew Buerger: And so I don't sleep well in a tent. So I had two nights of little sleep,
00:23:48.376 --> 00:23:51.876
Andrew Buerger: was sleep deprived, carrying a heavy pack of this mountain, altitude challenges.
00:23:52.156 --> 00:23:56.456
Andrew Buerger: And so I spent all my gas getting to the summit, which is a mistake because
00:23:56.456 --> 00:23:58.796
Andrew Buerger: 80% of the accidents happen on the way down.
00:23:59.236 --> 00:24:04.116
Andrew Buerger: You need more than 50% of your gas tank left to get back down. I didn't do that.
00:24:04.356 --> 00:24:07.836
Andrew Buerger: So I was having a real tough time climbing back down.
00:24:07.976 --> 00:24:12.436
Andrew Buerger: And so, you know, my buddies, I'm like, guys, I'm having a tough time.
00:24:12.556 --> 00:24:16.396
Andrew Buerger: Like, oh, base camp is just around the corner to the right. I'm like, okay, thanks.
00:24:17.016 --> 00:24:22.456
Andrew Buerger: And I get, you know, sum up all my energy. I go around that corner and it's not there.
00:24:23.516 --> 00:24:27.776
Andrew Buerger: And Danny's like, no, no, it's down a little bit around the corner to the left. I'm like, okay.
00:24:28.356 --> 00:24:31.076
Andrew Buerger: Put one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of the other.
00:24:31.236 --> 00:24:33.316
Andrew Buerger: And this camp still wasn't there.
00:24:34.056 --> 00:24:36.536
Andrew Buerger: I found out they were lying to me. We still had hours to go.
00:24:37.636 --> 00:24:41.196
Andrew Buerger: And I just wanted to lay down in the snow. But laying down in the snow and dying
00:24:41.196 --> 00:24:45.416
Andrew Buerger: just wasn't an option. because I had two water bottles, two Nalgene bottles.
00:24:45.536 --> 00:24:49.156
Andrew Buerger: I had written my son's name on one water bottle and my daughter's name on the
00:24:49.156 --> 00:24:51.296
Andrew Buerger: other water bottle to know why I was climbing.
00:24:51.516 --> 00:24:55.336
Andrew Buerger: It was to get back down safely to them and not just get to the summit,
00:24:55.336 --> 00:24:57.456
Andrew Buerger: but get back safely to see my kids again.
00:24:57.716 --> 00:25:00.416
Andrew Buerger: And every time I took a sip of water, I saw their names.
00:25:00.796 --> 00:25:04.456
Andrew Buerger: And I knew at that point how far my mind could push my body.
00:25:04.556 --> 00:25:07.396
Andrew Buerger: And I just kept putting one foot in front of the other, one foot in front of
00:25:07.396 --> 00:25:08.576
Andrew Buerger: the other until I was back at camp.
00:25:09.036 --> 00:25:13.596
Kevin Lowe: Wow. You know, you spoke about your life's purpose and...
00:25:14.301 --> 00:25:20.741
Kevin Lowe: I look at this as, you know, giving even purpose to that single climb of your
00:25:20.741 --> 00:25:24.081
Kevin Lowe: children's names, of giving that reason why,
00:25:24.241 --> 00:25:27.901
Kevin Lowe: like you said, why you couldn't give up, why you had to get down that mountain.
00:25:28.301 --> 00:25:29.681
Kevin Lowe: I think that's pretty powerful.
00:25:30.421 --> 00:25:37.281
Andrew Buerger: Yeah. Yeah. I learned the power of purpose when we were climbing Kilimanjaro
00:25:37.281 --> 00:25:42.701
Andrew Buerger: when, you know, we had gotten all of our climbers to the summit and then safely
00:25:42.701 --> 00:25:44.161
Andrew Buerger: back down over eight days.
00:25:44.301 --> 00:25:48.401
Andrew Buerger: It was a brutal, tough, cold, challenging expedition.
00:25:48.841 --> 00:25:54.581
Andrew Buerger: And we had seen this one other group on the mountain and I talked to them.
00:25:54.761 --> 00:25:58.001
Andrew Buerger: Finally, we got back down to the bottom. We celebrated reaching the highest
00:25:58.001 --> 00:26:01.261
Andrew Buerger: point of Africa. and raising $150,000.
00:26:01.741 --> 00:26:05.441
Andrew Buerger: And I was chatting with them. Only half their team made it. I'm like, what happened?
00:26:06.121 --> 00:26:10.561
Andrew Buerger: 12 of them, the 24 of them, well, Billy's feet got cold. So Tracy took them
00:26:10.561 --> 00:26:13.441
Andrew Buerger: down and Eric got tired. So Stacy took him down.
00:26:14.221 --> 00:26:19.701
Andrew Buerger: My sister was still alive. I had a flag that said, stay strong, JB, Jody Berger.
00:26:20.081 --> 00:26:26.001
Andrew Buerger: I wanted to give her hope, as we talked about. We had people's names that were undergoing treatment.
00:26:26.321 --> 00:26:29.861
Andrew Buerger: We promised we'd get their names to the summit. We had names of people who lost
00:26:29.861 --> 00:26:34.121
Andrew Buerger: their loved ones, we promised we'd get their names to the highest point in Tanzania.
00:26:34.421 --> 00:26:38.521
Andrew Buerger: We weren't going to turn around when our feet got cold and when someone was
00:26:38.521 --> 00:26:39.961
Andrew Buerger: vomiting from altitude sickness.
00:26:40.461 --> 00:26:46.001
Andrew Buerger: We had a mission to get those flags to the summit. And that's when I realized the value of purpose.
00:26:46.421 --> 00:26:49.021
Andrew Buerger: In my own life and in my business life,
00:26:49.608 --> 00:26:53.988
Andrew Buerger: purpose helps you climb your figurative Mount Everest.
00:26:54.268 --> 00:26:57.648
Andrew Buerger: One of my favorite books is Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl,
00:26:57.768 --> 00:26:59.848
Andrew Buerger: who's a psychiatrist who survived
00:26:59.848 --> 00:27:02.908
Andrew Buerger: the Holocaust, one of the worst things ever in history of humanity.
00:27:03.168 --> 00:27:07.988
Andrew Buerger: And there's a quote from Nietzsche, he who has a why to live can overcome anyhow.
00:27:08.488 --> 00:27:12.008
Andrew Buerger: And so we can all climb our figurative Mount Everest if we have that mission.
00:27:12.248 --> 00:27:16.808
Andrew Buerger: And so, you know, my mission is to help take a bite of disease so other families
00:27:16.808 --> 00:27:17.948
Andrew Buerger: can live of fulfilling lives.
00:27:18.128 --> 00:27:22.368
Andrew Buerger: But it doesn't mean that an expedition, a day, something else,
00:27:22.388 --> 00:27:25.828
Andrew Buerger: you can't put your mission, a different mission statement on your water bottle.
00:27:26.048 --> 00:27:28.908
Andrew Buerger: You may carry that flag around with you of your life's mission,
00:27:29.068 --> 00:27:32.788
Andrew Buerger: but you know something, when you're on an expedition, what's the purpose of this mission?
00:27:32.928 --> 00:27:35.768
Andrew Buerger: Not to get to the summit, but to get back down safely to see my family.
00:27:35.888 --> 00:27:39.488
Andrew Buerger: And I wrote my mission of that journey on my water bottles that day.
00:27:40.908 --> 00:27:47.388
Kevin Lowe: Wow. What a valuable lesson for us all. I absolutely love that.
00:27:47.668 --> 00:27:53.188
Kevin Lowe: Your organization, Jody's Climb for Hope, at what point did you also expand
00:27:53.188 --> 00:27:58.028
Kevin Lowe: it to help with raising money for MS in support of your wife?
00:27:58.228 --> 00:28:03.028
Andrew Buerger: So we think our first expedition was in January of 2007, and she was diagnosed
00:28:03.028 --> 00:28:05.428
Andrew Buerger: a year later in February of 08.
00:28:05.588 --> 00:28:08.488
Andrew Buerger: And so within a year, I looked at Janice,
00:28:08.548 --> 00:28:11.508
Andrew Buerger: I guess we're raising money for MS now too so we do both
00:28:11.508 --> 00:28:15.228
Andrew Buerger: and we tend to you know basically split our you know if you raise a hundred
00:28:15.228 --> 00:28:19.428
Andrew Buerger: thousand we'll get 50 to each researcher on each side so it's a bit weird to
00:28:19.428 --> 00:28:22.708
Andrew Buerger: lump the two together we're raising money for breast cancer and ms but people
00:28:22.708 --> 00:28:26.528
Andrew Buerger: appreciate it people understand it and people embrace it but yeah we've been
00:28:26.528 --> 00:28:28.588
Andrew Buerger: doing it both of them for a while yeah.
00:28:28.588 --> 00:28:35.588
Kevin Lowe: That's absolutely amazing now kind of shifting gears i'm i'm very curious to learn how
00:28:36.069 --> 00:28:41.849
Kevin Lowe: You also had some type of discovery, I guess, while while hiking in Iceland
00:28:41.849 --> 00:28:45.589
Kevin Lowe: that led to you inventing some type of drink.
00:28:46.409 --> 00:28:49.889
Andrew Buerger: Right. So we talked about my triangulation. Right. So, again,
00:28:49.989 --> 00:28:53.169
Andrew Buerger: I've been very fortunate that I I'm like that kid's sixth sense.
00:28:53.289 --> 00:28:59.389
Andrew Buerger: I see things that are, you know, so when I triangulate things,
00:28:59.529 --> 00:29:02.169
Andrew Buerger: I'm able to see, you know, things that aren't there. And so,
00:29:02.549 --> 00:29:07.349
Andrew Buerger: you know, I had been a health nut for a long time and I couldn't find a convenient source of protein.
00:29:07.829 --> 00:29:13.249
Andrew Buerger: And this is, you know, going way back to late 90s that I tried to consume a
00:29:13.249 --> 00:29:15.389
Andrew Buerger: lot of protein without any sugar.
00:29:15.749 --> 00:29:19.469
Andrew Buerger: And obviously good fat, not bad fat. So I've been eating this lifestyle for
00:29:19.469 --> 00:29:22.089
Andrew Buerger: a long time, but I couldn't find a convenient source of protein.
00:29:22.269 --> 00:29:25.849
Andrew Buerger: So we're on this mountain and Jen was actually able to come to base camp.
00:29:25.969 --> 00:29:27.729
Andrew Buerger: And this could be just, you know, it was just car camping.
00:29:28.649 --> 00:29:32.269
Andrew Buerger: So we were climbing the highest mountain in Iceland. and they serve this,
00:29:32.289 --> 00:29:34.009
Andrew Buerger: this like yogurt thing for breakfast.
00:29:34.169 --> 00:29:37.429
Andrew Buerger: And I'm like, oh, I'm lactose intolerant. This is not going to be pretty,
00:29:37.589 --> 00:29:41.489
Andrew Buerger: you know, but we're going to consume like 6,000 calories that day.
00:29:41.669 --> 00:29:46.269
Andrew Buerger: So, you know, I ate it and I was fine. And I ate some more the next day and I was still fine.
00:29:46.809 --> 00:29:50.709
Andrew Buerger: And I said to the guy, Ivar, what is this stuff? He said, it's not yogurt, it's skier.
00:29:51.049 --> 00:29:55.509
Andrew Buerger: It's technically a form of cheese and all the lactose gets consumed by their probiotics.
00:29:55.809 --> 00:29:59.189
Andrew Buerger: It's basically, it's very similar to Greek yogurt. And so it's super high in
00:29:59.189 --> 00:30:01.549
Andrew Buerger: protein and tastes delicious without sugar.
00:30:02.129 --> 00:30:05.049
Andrew Buerger: So I looked at Jen and said, this is what I want to do the rest of my life.
00:30:05.785 --> 00:30:09.745
Andrew Buerger: Because, you know, as we talked about, my mission is to help take a bite out of disease.
00:30:10.005 --> 00:30:12.745
Andrew Buerger: And so I wanted to create a super healthy product that was convenient,
00:30:12.945 --> 00:30:14.845
Andrew Buerger: that, you know, you can go to a store.
00:30:15.025 --> 00:30:18.625
Andrew Buerger: It's obviously a lot different here in 2024. But this is back in,
00:30:18.665 --> 00:30:25.525
Andrew Buerger: you know, 2009, where, you know, all you got was like pork rinds at places for
00:30:25.525 --> 00:30:27.165
Andrew Buerger: a kind of a grab and go protein source.
00:30:27.325 --> 00:30:30.685
Andrew Buerger: And so I looked at Janet. This is what I want to do the rest of my life.
00:30:30.865 --> 00:30:34.045
Andrew Buerger: So I came home, quit my day job.
00:30:34.045 --> 00:30:36.985
Andrew Buerger: Again you know i'm not real bright but i'm i see things
00:30:36.985 --> 00:30:39.825
Andrew Buerger: and so i went to the university of vermont undergrad and we've
00:30:39.825 --> 00:30:42.525
Andrew Buerger: got a really good dairy science program there so i called up a dairy
00:30:42.525 --> 00:30:45.345
Andrew Buerger: scientist and he helped me came up with the recipe and we
00:30:45.345 --> 00:30:48.805
Andrew Buerger: created the first organic protein drink with
00:30:48.805 --> 00:30:51.905
Andrew Buerger: no added sugar you know stevia had just come to the markets we were basically
00:30:51.905 --> 00:30:57.885
Andrew Buerger: the first drink the market that used stevia and so we're able to create a drink
00:30:57.885 --> 00:31:02.345
Andrew Buerger: that a 30 grams of protein you know we mix it up with frozen fruit at home and
00:31:02.345 --> 00:31:04.765
Andrew Buerger: like wait a minute you know what if we did this commercially.
00:31:04.885 --> 00:31:06.325
Andrew Buerger: So we found someplace commercially to do it.
00:31:06.545 --> 00:31:11.465
Andrew Buerger: And we just took our skier that we made and mixed it up with fruit and put it in the bottle.
00:31:11.585 --> 00:31:15.665
Andrew Buerger: And next thing you know, we were in 40 states and largest supermarket chains,
00:31:15.805 --> 00:31:19.165
Andrew Buerger: Publix, Kroger, Whole Foods, Wegmans, all over the country.
00:31:19.665 --> 00:31:22.865
Kevin Lowe: Wow. Now, what is the brand name of the product?
00:31:23.305 --> 00:31:28.705
Andrew Buerger: Be More Organic. B apostrophe M-R-E. So in Baltimore, we call this town Be More.
00:31:29.225 --> 00:31:33.505
Andrew Buerger: So I called a product called Be More Organic. It's kind of a play on words.
00:31:33.865 --> 00:31:37.585
Andrew Buerger: We had to close that during COVID. But for, you know, for 10 years,
00:31:38.065 --> 00:31:41.405
Andrew Buerger: we had what I thought was one of the healthiest products on the market,
00:31:41.705 --> 00:31:45.985
Andrew Buerger: all organic, so no hormones or pesticides, high in protein and no added sugar.
00:31:46.265 --> 00:31:49.265
Andrew Buerger: So that was my life mission to help take about a disease.
00:31:49.725 --> 00:31:54.725
Andrew Buerger: And then we gave 1% of our sales to the nonprofit called Jody's Client.
00:31:55.165 --> 00:31:59.785
Andrew Buerger: So every day I was excited to go to work because, you know, I was living my
00:31:59.785 --> 00:32:01.605
Andrew Buerger: life's mission every single day.
00:32:02.125 --> 00:32:08.585
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. Wow. That is, that is awesome, man. And I, I have never heard of that
00:32:08.585 --> 00:32:11.445
Kevin Lowe: product before. And I, that sounds amazing.
00:32:11.585 --> 00:32:14.065
Andrew Buerger: Well, unfortunately, yeah, we had to, we had to discontinue it,
00:32:14.145 --> 00:32:15.785
Andrew Buerger: but it was great for a long time.
00:32:16.245 --> 00:32:19.785
Kevin Lowe: Okay. Okay. Interesting. Wow. Well,
00:32:20.145 --> 00:32:28.805
Kevin Lowe: I guess the thing that I would love to ask you is how have you found a way to
00:32:28.805 --> 00:32:35.965
Kevin Lowe: kind of balance it all from the emotional stress of life to running a nonprofit,
00:32:35.985 --> 00:32:40.305
Kevin Lowe: to living out loud, hiking, to becoming a father.
00:32:40.725 --> 00:32:43.465
Kevin Lowe: How does one manage all of that?
00:32:44.180 --> 00:32:46.560
Andrew Buerger: My wife or kids would probably say I don't manage it well.
00:32:51.220 --> 00:32:56.100
Andrew Buerger: It's a lot of work, time consuming. When I had my for-profit business,
00:32:56.260 --> 00:32:59.900
Andrew Buerger: which was the protein drink and the non-profit, it was just love.
00:33:00.120 --> 00:33:03.040
Andrew Buerger: You know what I mean? It's like when you're a parent, it's the hardest job you
00:33:03.040 --> 00:33:05.080
Andrew Buerger: ever love. And it's the same thing.
00:33:05.300 --> 00:33:07.560
Andrew Buerger: You love what you're doing. You're passionate about it.
00:33:07.800 --> 00:33:11.840
Andrew Buerger: It didn't feel like work. You know, as I said, I got excited to get out of bed
00:33:11.840 --> 00:33:14.840
Andrew Buerger: every single day because I got to live my life mission.
00:33:15.080 --> 00:33:20.500
Andrew Buerger: You know, I have I'm also, you know, it's a big believer in as a leader and having a great team.
00:33:20.760 --> 00:33:25.000
Andrew Buerger: So I've got amazing volunteers at Joey's Climb for Hope who helped me organize
00:33:25.000 --> 00:33:27.760
Andrew Buerger: all the missions. And then, you know, when I run a business,
00:33:28.040 --> 00:33:31.140
Andrew Buerger: there's an amazing team that always also supports me with that.
00:33:31.440 --> 00:33:35.520
Andrew Buerger: And then at home, you know, my team here is amazing. My wife is an amazing life
00:33:35.520 --> 00:33:37.800
Andrew Buerger: partner who does all the heavy lifting here.
00:33:38.260 --> 00:33:40.440
Andrew Buerger: So I'd say just, you know, a lot of great support.
00:33:41.040 --> 00:33:44.700
Andrew Buerger: One of the things I learned, you know, was when I told you I'm not a very good
00:33:44.700 --> 00:33:48.920
Andrew Buerger: climber. And so I always have a guide, you know, to keep me out of the crevasse.
00:33:49.040 --> 00:33:53.560
Andrew Buerger: They keep me on that when it's dark and I don't want to get lost on Mount Rainier in the cold.
00:33:54.000 --> 00:33:57.920
Andrew Buerger: We have a guide to help us. You know, I had my for-profit. We made the first
00:33:57.920 --> 00:33:59.600
Andrew Buerger: organic protein drink with no added sugar.
00:33:59.840 --> 00:34:03.740
Andrew Buerger: I called a guy named Seth Goldman, who created the first organic tea drink with
00:34:03.740 --> 00:34:07.580
Andrew Buerger: no added sugar. And so he was very generous with his time and mentored me.
00:34:07.880 --> 00:34:13.720
Andrew Buerger: And so I always had a guide in my for-profit business as well that guided me.
00:34:14.180 --> 00:34:20.000
Andrew Buerger: And so I realized that asking you for help is a sign of strength, not a sign of peace.
00:34:20.520 --> 00:34:23.500
Andrew Buerger: You know, when I do my motivational talks, I always ask the audience,
00:34:23.600 --> 00:34:27.060
Andrew Buerger: I said, who here likes asking for help?
00:34:27.400 --> 00:34:32.480
Andrew Buerger: You know, we have an audience of 300 people, maybe one, two people were raised.
00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:35.200
Andrew Buerger: And nobody actually like, oh, my God, I'm bothering somebody.
00:34:35.320 --> 00:34:37.620
Andrew Buerger: I'm going to bother Kevin. I don't want to do that.
00:34:38.455 --> 00:34:43.095
Andrew Buerger: And then I say, hey, raise your hand if you like helping people.
00:34:44.155 --> 00:34:47.875
Andrew Buerger: And all 300 hands go up, of course, because we all like helping people,
00:34:48.295 --> 00:34:49.455
Andrew Buerger: right? It makes us feel good.
00:34:50.155 --> 00:34:55.335
Andrew Buerger: Well, guess what? I made Seth Goldman feel good because, hey, dude, can you help me?
00:34:55.775 --> 00:34:59.795
Andrew Buerger: When I was having trouble raising my black son because I wasn't a very good
00:34:59.795 --> 00:35:03.455
Andrew Buerger: black father, you know, I didn't have a black father myself.
00:35:03.515 --> 00:35:08.215
Andrew Buerger: And so I knew the Baltimore Ravens because our smoothies were in their locker room.
00:35:08.455 --> 00:35:13.075
Andrew Buerger: And I called this 6'8", African-American man by name, Carl Davis,
00:35:13.175 --> 00:35:15.015
Andrew Buerger: who plays for the Dallas Cowboys now.
00:35:15.195 --> 00:35:20.575
Andrew Buerger: He played for the Ravens at 350 pounds. I said, Carl, can you help me mentor my black son?
00:35:20.895 --> 00:35:24.095
Andrew Buerger: So now I ask for help in all aspects of my life.
00:35:24.395 --> 00:35:27.335
Andrew Buerger: I have people helping me, mentoring me in business.
00:35:27.615 --> 00:35:34.135
Andrew Buerger: People who mentor me with raising kids. I have my friend who helps me with my diet and nutrition.
00:35:34.495 --> 00:35:38.775
Andrew Buerger: I ask, it's like a board of directors that I ask for help. because I feel it's
00:35:38.775 --> 00:35:40.155
Andrew Buerger: a sign of strength and not a sign of weakness.
00:35:40.295 --> 00:35:43.055
Andrew Buerger: And I make those people feel good because they get to help me.
00:35:43.255 --> 00:35:47.475
Andrew Buerger: So that's a long answer to a short question of how I get through it. I ask for a lot of help.
00:35:49.135 --> 00:35:56.695
Kevin Lowe: Wow. And I personally think that's the most amazing answer I could have expected
00:35:57.155 --> 00:36:01.955
Kevin Lowe: for the simple fact that there's so much power in that. There's so much love in that.
00:36:02.716 --> 00:36:09.876
Kevin Lowe: And this idea of what you illustrated is we hate to ask for help,
00:36:10.016 --> 00:36:11.616
Kevin Lowe: but we love to help. Yeah.
00:36:12.036 --> 00:36:19.196
Kevin Lowe: You know, I mean, it's such an ironic kind of predicament of this situation. Yeah.
00:36:19.416 --> 00:36:22.636
Andrew Buerger: Yeah. And I'm sure somebody like you probably struggles with it,
00:36:22.636 --> 00:36:25.196
Andrew Buerger: too. I don't want to ask for help. I don't need help. Right.
00:36:25.596 --> 00:36:28.816
Andrew Buerger: You know, you feel like it might put some sort of stigma on if you ask for help.
00:36:28.896 --> 00:36:30.316
Andrew Buerger: But, you know, people want to help.
00:36:30.656 --> 00:36:37.976
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. Well, today, I know that you mentioned you do motivational speaking.
00:36:38.336 --> 00:36:38.496
Andrew Buerger: Yes.
00:36:38.656 --> 00:36:41.596
Kevin Lowe: If I'm not mistaken, you also have a book as well, correct?
00:36:41.696 --> 00:36:47.636
Andrew Buerger: I do. It's out there somewhere. Yes. It's called Carrying a Flag from Pain to Passion.
00:36:47.936 --> 00:36:50.536
Andrew Buerger: It's kind of about how we get that flag to the summit.
00:36:50.876 --> 00:36:55.716
Andrew Buerger: That flag can help you overcome a lot of obstacles if you carry it in your pack every day.
00:36:56.096 --> 00:36:59.456
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. I love it. Well, listen,
00:37:00.056 --> 00:37:05.536
Kevin Lowe: Andy, for somebody who would love to learn more about you, to stay plugged in
00:37:05.536 --> 00:37:10.576
Kevin Lowe: with your world, maybe to find your book or to look at hiring you as a motivational
00:37:10.576 --> 00:37:12.976
Kevin Lowe: speaker, where's the best place for us to send them?
00:37:13.256 --> 00:37:17.996
Andrew Buerger: I have a website, andrewberger.com. Andrew, as in my first name,
00:37:18.036 --> 00:37:20.836
Andrew Buerger: and then Berger, B-U-E-R-G-E-R.com.
00:37:20.836 --> 00:37:28.436
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, well, well, listen, I guess my last question for you is when I when I
00:37:28.436 --> 00:37:32.296
Kevin Lowe: listen to you talk about this kind of life story,
00:37:32.296 --> 00:37:39.776
Kevin Lowe: it's a story that it seems so amazing at your level of of giving back.
00:37:40.016 --> 00:37:44.796
Kevin Lowe: What do you hope at the end of the day when all is said and done?
00:37:45.096 --> 00:37:48.696
Kevin Lowe: What do you hope that that your your kids remember you for?
00:37:49.416 --> 00:37:52.676
Andrew Buerger: Jeez. You had to give the doozy at the end.
00:37:55.196 --> 00:37:56.776
Andrew Buerger: Oh, we're out of time. Look at that.
00:37:57.416 --> 00:37:58.016
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:38:01.536 --> 00:38:04.276
Andrew Buerger: You know, it's funny because, you know, when I was a kid, you know,
00:38:04.296 --> 00:38:07.356
Andrew Buerger: my dad used to put me in the car. I used to drive around town collecting money
00:38:07.356 --> 00:38:08.236
Andrew Buerger: for the community chest.
00:38:08.436 --> 00:38:12.476
Andrew Buerger: And I used to watch him, you know, go raise money for people less fortunate.
00:38:12.896 --> 00:38:14.376
Andrew Buerger: And now I'm on my computer.
00:38:14.836 --> 00:38:19.336
Andrew Buerger: I'm like, dad's on his computer again. But, you know, I'm sending out emails raising money.
00:38:19.516 --> 00:38:25.536
Andrew Buerger: I'm sending out doing work for logistics on the computer to do stuff for the climb.
00:38:25.656 --> 00:38:27.936
Andrew Buerger: You know, I'm not on the phone talking to people. Hey, guys,
00:38:28.016 --> 00:38:31.876
Andrew Buerger: here's what's going on. So they don't hear me and they don't see me doing it besides the computer.
00:38:32.136 --> 00:38:34.796
Andrew Buerger: So it's a real challenge for me. My kids know what I'm doing.
00:38:35.176 --> 00:38:38.476
Andrew Buerger: I was very fortunate the other day that my daughter opened the mail and there
00:38:38.476 --> 00:38:40.956
Andrew Buerger: was a $20,000 check in there.
00:38:41.376 --> 00:38:44.336
Andrew Buerger: And so she was able to see. Oh, OK.
00:38:45.636 --> 00:38:49.716
Andrew Buerger: That's part of it why dad is on the computer and I you can't see it but there's
00:38:49.716 --> 00:38:54.196
Andrew Buerger: a she put this little note finally on my wall said you're the reason that Client
00:38:54.196 --> 00:38:57.876
Andrew Buerger: for Hope is the way it is because of all of your hard work.
00:38:58.720 --> 00:38:59.240
Kevin Lowe: Hmm.
00:38:59.680 --> 00:39:05.440
Andrew Buerger: So I hope that they're able to see that I'm using my my brain and my all my
00:39:05.440 --> 00:39:09.700
Andrew Buerger: effort and my creativity to help take a bite of disease so other people can
00:39:09.700 --> 00:39:10.800
Andrew Buerger: live more fulfilling lives.
00:39:11.360 --> 00:39:16.460
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, I love it. Andy, man, it's been a real pleasure having you today.
00:39:16.720 --> 00:39:22.660
Kevin Lowe: I have really enjoyed getting to to hear your story and your perspective on
00:39:22.660 --> 00:39:23.960
Kevin Lowe: the way in which you look at life.
00:39:23.960 --> 00:39:30.140
Kevin Lowe: And I believe it's something that we can all listen to your story,
00:39:30.360 --> 00:39:34.940
Kevin Lowe: listen to your perspective and take at least something you've said today and
00:39:34.940 --> 00:39:36.500
Kevin Lowe: put it into action in our own life.
00:39:36.700 --> 00:39:39.700
Kevin Lowe: So I thank you in the most sincere way possible.
00:39:39.940 --> 00:39:43.320
Andrew Buerger: I appreciate you giving the opportunity to share my story and hopefully,
00:39:43.600 --> 00:39:46.640
Andrew Buerger: as you said, somebody will learn for it and just learn to take,
00:39:46.840 --> 00:39:49.020
Andrew Buerger: put one foot in front of the other to make it through the day.
00:39:49.520 --> 00:39:55.360
Kevin Lowe: Absolutely. For you listening today, My hope is always is that like me,
00:39:55.560 --> 00:40:00.200
Kevin Lowe: you've come away feeling a little bit better than when we started.
00:40:00.520 --> 00:40:07.440
Kevin Lowe: You're left with so much words of wisdom about life that I hope you do put it
00:40:07.440 --> 00:40:08.800
Kevin Lowe: into action in your life.
00:40:09.080 --> 00:40:15.540
Kevin Lowe: And of course, like I like to end every episode is I hope today's episode maybe
00:40:15.540 --> 00:40:21.080
Kevin Lowe: made today a little bit better than yesterday and makes tomorrow a little bit better than today.
00:40:21.080 --> 00:40:25.960
Kevin Lowe: I'm Kevin Lowe, and this is another episode of Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
00:40:25.840 --> 00:40:46.089