Jennifer Maxwell

Transcript

I am a four-time medalist two-time gold medal Dragon Boat champion of a mixed local community team in the BBS my fascination with dragon boning began more than 25 years ago after watching a friend compete the Synergy the cohesion the muscle but I never actually thought I could do it so I took myself out of the race before ever got into a boat fast forward 20 years pizza lunch I meet fellow Mom Jane and World Championship Dragon boater I was enamored I hung on every word listening to every single story and I told her all about my dragon B dreams from all those years ago she

looked me straight in the eye and she said Jen you could totally do this it's a team sport would you like to put together a community team yes and within 10 minutes we had an entire boat full our first practice at the end of April a mly crew of 20 inexperienced paddlers hit the dock winter clothes full rain gear yellow dish gloves for our water hand the weather toggling between rain and wet snow this was not the Dragon Boat dream I had imagined drenched but not down coach Jane gave us our our very first pep talk she said there are no high scorers no solo

winners home Runners MVPs we all win or none of us win and then she placed us in a boat in a position that would serve our strengths and the team she put me in the second row a Pacer I was responsible for Synergy on the entire right side of the boat then we have the engine room that's where the power is in the middle and the finishers the last six you need to be both strong and flexible back there because the water moves faster our first Rota just six weeks later also in the pouring rain cold and wet we left with nothing that's right back

of the pack out paddled by a crew of all women 20 years are senior and a high school team weirdly we were undeterred and we all came back the next year decided that we were going to double down get better with our rehearsals practice more come together and we were really getting somewhere and then it happened I got called up to the front seat right beside Top Dog oh this is my chance to really be something paddler one was away and as I squeezed into a much smaller seat hips against the gunnel and Top Dog I knew I was in trouble because the boat goes

up in the front wait a second there's no peripheral vision how are we get to time the stroke hey what too late paddles up take it away oh my God we're going to go in circles gratefully we didn't and I humbly returned back to my seat just two feet back with a whole lot of insight appreciation and respect that every position is critical perspective is everything and I also had a whole lot of perspective for my position because from where I sat I held periphery from Top Dog I wasn't just following the person in front of me I decided I was going to be the

start of synergy for the entire boat and I took it on like it was my job it's race day starting line the 500 meter exhausted after three previous races The Gun fires we lunge forward lifting the boat out of the water building massive momentum the caller the drummer calling the hit Pace pace Pace the engine room the the Pacers the the final six all of us together one Unstoppable epic machine and for nearly two minutes every paddler brought the best of themselves until finally coach yells finish it now and we finished it right to the podium and that day I learned even though we're all

in the same boat literally in the circumstance that every single person contributes their skills and talents to the whole if a world championship Dragon boater could see something in me a 45-year-old mom that I deserve to be in that boat how much more could we see in each other or in ourselves for that matter in life as in Dragon boating epic human connection means every person is critical because nobody wins unless everybody

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Transcript

she was quite tall for her age solid for a five-year-old and had a bowel movement to match when she decided belonged in her underwear instead of the toilet i was the lucky daycare teacher to draw the short straw that day and as every ounce of my 112 pound frame struggled to lift her decidedly uncooperative dead weight posture onto the change table i had to come to jesus moment how did i get here 28 recently single living alone in a basement apartment and clearly in a very crappy job i will never forget that moment clear as day i knew that if i stayed there it would

be doing this for the rest of my life or i could take a risk i could quit my job and follow my dream now before you're all like ooh quit that job let me just tell you my dream was to become an actor like my dad but even my dad was like honey no please just get a stable job oh that's how i got here but i couldn't ignore the moment i was standing in so i took the risk i quit my job and i said goodbye to poopy paychecks and hello to center stage and let me tell you i would love to be able

to say that the next 10 years were full of red carpets and fancy caviar it was nothing like that at all it was more like audition after audition peppered with some bookings mostly commercials a whole lot of working for exposure and a ton of rejection like the time i decided to audition for the open casting call of the lion king i mean it said no experience necessary in the ad but let me tell you i knew i was in trouble when i showed up and saw a dancer with her leg stretched up against the wall but before i could back out i swear leroy brown

from fame showed up put us in lines and gave us our dance instructions one to show run to shop for the bait and go needless to say i did not land that gig but i did land the gargantuan hands for boston pizza and i got to spend half a day in the special effects department there was also scotiabank the rest tim hortons woman number one and the ics career training you know the online school where you can earn a degree in online dentistry or rocket science that was me but perhaps my favorite was shelly who gets stumped at the bar for being too old apparently

you can do that on autotrader.ca come meet your match these were super fun days but my dad was right i actually could not pay the bills despite how many bookings i had which led me to more flexible jobs like catering or becoming a personal assistant and for a short time i got to be a script reader with sharon glass from queersfolk or cagney and lacey if you want to go back a little farther and from time to time we would go down to ruth's chris steakhouse and enjoy an incredible meal while we ran her lines but let's be honest steak never landed on my plate

too often it was usually mac and cheese i had roommates to help pay the bills i certainly couldn't afford the most current movies so i had to go to two dollar tuesdays and get the cheapies and i was driving a car without any heat and air conditioning and i have to say these were some of the most difficult trying days of my life but they were also the most exhilarating and i wouldn't change any of it none of it would have happened if i hadn't had that pivotal poopy moment now it's been more than two decades since that day and while i'm no longer acting

i learned how to show up boldly communicate confidently but most importantly i learned how to listen to those quiet whispers urging me to take the risk because the very thing i seek joy beauty excitement whatever it is also seeks me but it's only available when i step onto the stage of life the risk of the unknown is scary in fact it's terrifying but it's also exciting and here's the truth it doesn't matter which direction you take there's always going to be crap in life but the crap that comes from following your dream is always better than a pile of regret from the things you didn't

do there is no dress rehearsal this is it so be bold take the risk it's always the right time to step out from the shadows and into the spotlight of your life

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for more than ten years I had one of the most exciting jobs in the world I was a professional wedding planner not like in the movies it was way better sleek black dress perfect for serving in the shadows like a ninja bat belt full of all the required accoutrements at a moment's notice double-sided tape breast strips tissue and mini scissors always the mini scissors of course I also have my binder full of all the important wedding timelines and checklists and things to make sure that nothing went wrong on the day I was responsible for creating masterfully orchestrated perfectly timed spontaneously romantic moments I loved being

the maestro of all the details places everyone spontaneous magic is about to happen here I was really really good at the details so good in fact at logistics that other planners began to call me the queen of systems and they actually began to buy my wedding planning systems throughout Canada the US and Mexico life was good business was booming and before you know it I decided that it was things you know were going really really well until people started stealing my work little things at first you know it was calling my content and you know magically working it into their own messages one other planner

began calling herself the queen of systems and finally I think the final note was someone copied my website word for word even my about page to be fair she did change the names and photos to protect the not so innocent but I had a choice to make this wasn't fun anymore I either had to go all-in or I just had to let it go and being the ninja that I am I was all-in I decided I was going to build the world's best online wedding planning system now decided this was a two-year system that was going to take place and it took almost a year

to find the right person for the job but like magic he showed up at the right price at the right time and began the work the work was rolling in and the money was rolling out and the timelines in checklist and all the connecting dots it was just amazing it was a logistical dream come true when desmond neared launch date i began pressing for those files and that's when i learned there was nothing there no back-end no code no wedding planning system for all the work i had seen all the click and drags there was just nothing it was just a show I don't know

how could this be I saw the work I tested it myself oh my god I'm always so trusting how could you be so stupid and on and on the self-loathing went saying things to myself I would never say to another person two years lost revenue all my investment gone all I was left with was some beautiful and expensive branding for a product that didn't exist and a bouquet of self-loathing and shame and in that shame I hid away and in that hiding how could I be so stupid one day I was sitting with my head in my hands at my desk trying to make some

sense of this massive failure and recover some sort of lost revenue I didn't know what I was gonna do and my husband stopped by my desk and said to me honey even flowers have to push their way through the manure to bloom later that same day I saw a friend at the schoolyard and she hugged me and she handed me an envelope and I opened it up and inside there was a beautiful necklace with a lotus flower on it and the card said be like the Lotus push your way through the mud rise above with clarity of heart and mind and as I sat in

that mud and the filth it was a circumstance I'd gotten myself into I did gain clarity of heart and mind I think that's where you find it it's always at the lowest point and I learned that what seemed like a massive failure was actually a much needed pruning in order to wait to clear away all the brambles so that those tiny little buds could push their way through toward the light and in fact my new work helps me now help other people in the art of human connection push their way through the light into clarity of heart and mind I'd like to leave you with

a deeply profound statement from the lego movie the prophecy is made up but it's also true your belief my belief is made up and it's also true you see I believe that the universe conspires for me it always does and your belief is just a perception it's just a choice you get to choose whatever it is that you want to believe and your belief has the power to seek evidence positive or negative to prove your right every time your belief has the power to change everything change a belief and you can change your life

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.