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Bill Burke: From the studios of the Optimism Institute, welcome to Blue Sky,
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Bill Burke: where we share stories and insights to remind us that there is always blue sky above.
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Bill Burke: Sometimes you just have to get your head above the clouds to see it.
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Bill Burke: I'm your host, Bill Burke.
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Bill Burke: This Blue Sky episode is a special one in many ways. Our guest,
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Bill Burke: as you'll soon learn, is as remarkable as they come, and his story is uniquely inspiring.
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Bill Burke: And for the first time ever, we'll be including a musical surprise courtesy
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Bill Burke: of our guest at the end of the show before we close.
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Bill Burke: How's that for a teaser?
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Bill Burke: Who is this guest, you ask? His name is Kevin Lowe.
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Bill Burke: And as we'll soon hear, he's someone who has endured some of life's toughest
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Bill Burke: challenges, the most extreme being losing his eyesight at the age of 17.
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Bill Burke: But he's managed to emerge with an optimistic and hopeful vision for his life
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Bill Burke: and is using various platforms from coaching to podcasting to public speaking
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Bill Burke: and more to spread his goodwill and infectious inspiration.
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Bill Burke: I hope you enjoy this Blue Sky conversation with Kevin Lowe as much as I did.
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Bill Burke: Kevin Lowe, welcome to the Blue Sky Podcast.
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Kevin Lowe: Oh man, thank you so much. I'm excited to be here.
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Bill Burke: It's great to have you on. You have a remarkable story. You're an incredible
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Bill Burke: inspiration and we will get to some of the ways you inspire people.
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Bill Burke: Well, let's start, if we could, with your early childhood.
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Bill Burke: Where'd you grow up? Big family, small family, two parents. What was your upbringing?
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, so I was blessed to grow up back in like the 80s and 90s in East Central Florida.
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Kevin Lowe: So I grew up in the town of Ormond Beach, right next to the more well-known
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Kevin Lowe: neighbor of Daytona Beach.
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Kevin Lowe: And so, you know, I say that now I realize how blessed I was to grow up in a
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Kevin Lowe: childhood where we didn't have cell phones and computers were not really a thing.
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Kevin Lowe: And, you know, and so childhood was really good.
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Kevin Lowe: It was growing up outside, always playing outside with, especially with my best
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Kevin Lowe: friend, which was my cousin, Josh, who he was five years older than me.
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Kevin Lowe: He was the same age as my sister.
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Kevin Lowe: And we were best friends. and I mean, we lived outside of the city and so we...
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Kevin Lowe: We're always on the back of dirt bikes and three-wheelers and playing war.
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Kevin Lowe: It was always me and Josh versus my sister Tiffany and Josh's sister Jessica,
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Kevin Lowe: Where we had tree forts built in the woods.
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Kevin Lowe: And so that was childhood.
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Kevin Lowe: A big part of my childhood was dirt bikes. That was something that I did with my dad.
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Kevin Lowe: And that was probably the one thing that kind of stayed consistent throughout
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Kevin Lowe: my childhood was dirt bikes through all the different seasons of wanting to
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Kevin Lowe: try different things, always came back to dirt bikes.
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Kevin Lowe: And so me and my dad, we rode dirt bikes.
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Kevin Lowe: We would go to a state park in Brooksville, Florida called Croom.
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Kevin Lowe: And literally, that was second home for us. It was like a 2,000-acre state park
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Kevin Lowe: for nothing but dirt bikes and four-wheelers.
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Bill Burke: Oh, my gosh. So, it was you and an older sister?
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Kevin Lowe: Yep, yep, me and my older sister. And then, you know, for the dirt bikes and
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Kevin Lowe: stuff, that was me and my dad. It was basically the four.
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Kevin Lowe: So, you know, my mom and dad, me and my older sister.
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Kevin Lowe: And grew up. Now, my parents, they got divorced when I think I was in second
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Kevin Lowe: grade. they would end up getting divorced.
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Kevin Lowe: And so, you know, life would kind of take a little different direction.
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Kevin Lowe: But still family, I mean, family was everything.
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Kevin Lowe: Families stayed everything for me into my adulthood, especially,
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Kevin Lowe: you know, around like my grandparents, my nana, especially my nana.
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Kevin Lowe: I mean, she would later in life literally go from being my grandmother to becoming
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Kevin Lowe: one of my best friends, which is just awesome.
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Bill Burke: So your life changed dramatically sort of mid-late teenage years.
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Bill Burke: You developed a tumor that needed to be removed. And can you just walk us through
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Bill Burke: what that was all about and then the really difficult, shocking,
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Bill Burke: some ways tragic outcome of that procedure.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah, definitely. So this was later in childhood. So I was in my junior year
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Kevin Lowe: of high school and had just turned 17 years old.
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Kevin Lowe: And we finally found out the cause of some of these health issues I was having.
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Kevin Lowe: And I'll put health issues in quotes because I don't know that we really thought of them as issues.
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Kevin Lowe: They were just things that were off that we, that my mom was never getting an answer on.
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Kevin Lowe: Kind of like, why was I not growing?
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Kevin Lowe: Why had I not gone through puberty? Why did I have migraine headaches every day of my life?
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Kevin Lowe: And the result to those questions would come with the result of an MRI.
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Kevin Lowe: And the MRI would come back and show that I had a plum-sized brain tumor,
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Kevin Lowe: basically right in the center of my head.
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Kevin Lowe: Thank goodness it was non-cancerous. But literally, they said that if this tumor
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Kevin Lowe: hadn't been found, they said I would have been dead in six months. Oh, wow.
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Kevin Lowe: And it literally was something that was probably with me from the very beginning,
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Kevin Lowe: constantly growing all through my childhood.
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Kevin Lowe: And so, yeah, so as traumatic as it sounds, though, you know,
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Kevin Lowe: luckily an hour away was, you know, Orlando, Florida.
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Kevin Lowe: We had the leading pediatric neurosurgeon, and he assured us everything was
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Kevin Lowe: going to be perfectly fine. He said, listen, we'll go in, we'll remove the tumor.
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Kevin Lowe: It was going to be a big surgery. They would have to literally cut,
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Kevin Lowe: basically kind of remove that front quadrant of the skull and go in and basically
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Kevin Lowe: lift up the brain and grab out this tumor.
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Kevin Lowe: Because the tumor was positioned, so it was right in the center of my head.
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Kevin Lowe: So it had completely encased my pituitary gland.
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Kevin Lowe: It was in the crosshairs of the optic nerve and was now pressing against the carotid artery.
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Kevin Lowe: Wow. Yeah. And, but again, everything was going to be cool.
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Kevin Lowe: You know, I mean, it sounded scary, but the doctor was like,
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Kevin Lowe: listen, he's like, it's no big deal. He's like, you'll be out of school for about three weeks.
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Kevin Lowe: The worst news to me was he said I had to stay off of my new four-wheeler that
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Kevin Lowe: I just got for my 17th birthday. He said I had to stay off of it for like six months.
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Kevin Lowe: And I remember thinking that was totally ridiculous.
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Kevin Lowe: But, you know, for me, man, it was like, hallelujah.
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Kevin Lowe: I was a junior in high school. I was in the middle of trigonometry, which sucked.
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Kevin Lowe: And I was like, man, I can remember going back to school and telling all my
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Kevin Lowe: buddies, like, hi, see you later, suckers. Like, I'm out of here.
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Kevin Lowe: And, like, I'll see you guys in about a month. And so that was the mindset going
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Kevin Lowe: into October 28th, 2003.
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Bill Burke: And that was a day you have the surgery, you're coming.
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Bill Burke: And even when they say everything's going to be fine, I mean,
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Bill Burke: surgery can be traumatic. It's a big deal to get put under. And you come out of it.
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Bill Burke: And you have no eyesight.
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Kevin Lowe: Correct. Correct. So, basically, the surgeon comes out after very long surgery, tells my family.
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Kevin Lowe: And, I mean, I had my entire family there from both my mom's side of the family,
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Kevin Lowe: my dad's side of the family. Everyone was there.
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Kevin Lowe: I mean, we're talking probably somewhere around 30 people or so were there.
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Kevin Lowe: And the doctor came out to let them know that everything went great.
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Kevin Lowe: Surgery was a total success. Tumor was removed.
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Kevin Lowe: And that's what we thought, what they thought.
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Kevin Lowe: And then kind of, you know, fast forwarding, when I finally started waking up,
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Kevin Lowe: my mom was in the room with the nurse at the time.
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Kevin Lowe: And apparently I kept yanking off one of those little pulse ox machines that they put on your finger.
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Kevin Lowe: Well, apparently the nurse was trying to get my attention and trying to convince
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Kevin Lowe: me to stop pulling off the pulse ox and so he pointed to the pulse ox apparently
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Kevin Lowe: and he said, Kevin, do you see this?
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Kevin Lowe: Like, I need you to stop pulling this off. Do you see this red light?
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Kevin Lowe: And my mom said that I said, no, I don't see anything.
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Kevin Lowe: And it was at that moment that he looked at my mom and my mom looked at him
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Kevin Lowe: and he walked over and he turned the light switch on and off, on and off.
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Kevin Lowe: And he's like, Kevin, do you see this light? And my mom said,
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Kevin Lowe: I just kept saying, no, it's just, it's just dark. It's just gray. Okay.
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Kevin Lowe: And so, yeah, so I was left completely blind in both eyes.
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Kevin Lowe: So no light perception, no shape, shadows, nothing.
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Kevin Lowe: We would find that I also would lose my ability to smell.
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Kevin Lowe: I would end up having short-term memory loss for a good solid like six months.
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Kevin Lowe: And then also the brain tumor completely killed off my pituitary gland.
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Kevin Lowe: Which controls all of the body's hormones.
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Kevin Lowe: And so I can tell you today, all these many years later, that condition is honestly
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Kevin Lowe: more of a disability than even the blindness.
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Kevin Lowe: And that is because, you know, I have to try to control all the stuff that the
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Kevin Lowe: body should do naturally.
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Kevin Lowe: I have to do with medications, which I say, thank goodness we have them.
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Kevin Lowe: They keep me alive, but they are a very poor alternative to what the body should do naturally. 3rd.
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Bill Burke: Incredible.
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Bill Burke: It's hard to imagine what it would be like to experience what Kevin did following
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Bill Burke: the removal of his tumor.
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Bill Burke: His young life had certainly included some hardships, from his parents' divorce
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Bill Burke: when he was young, and the health challenges that led his mother to have him checked out.
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Bill Burke: But nothing could prepare him for coming out of surgery with complete loss of his sight.
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Bill Burke: Kevin would go on to experience some extreme sadness, depression,
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Bill Burke: and doubts before becoming the person he is today.
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Bill Burke: And for more on that, let's get back to our conversation.
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Bill Burke: You have such lightness in your voice and such positivity and enthusiasm,
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Bill Burke: but I'm sure that you didn't snap right to that after this awful thing happened to you.
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Bill Burke: Can you, I think all of us hearing your story would say, oh my God,
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Bill Burke: what the heck would I do if I'm 17 years old and I come out of surgery and all
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Bill Burke: these things have happened to me?
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Bill Burke: And I know it was not a, you know, a finger snap change for you. It took time.
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Bill Burke: How did you get from that awful situation and persevere into the person you are today?
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Kevin Lowe: You know, it was, it was exactly what you said. It was a process.
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Kevin Lowe: And there was a very long process of, of grieving,
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Kevin Lowe: of disbelief, although wrapped around, though, constantly moving forward.
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Kevin Lowe: Because I, um...
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Kevin Lowe: Well, it was extremely difficult. Going blind was and is,
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Kevin Lowe: to me, for me, what I've known in life so far, the closest thing to being trapped
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Kevin Lowe: in hell and not being able to sleep.
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Kevin Lowe: I always say that it's literally like being trapped in a nightmare and you can't wake up from it.
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Kevin Lowe: And every night I would go to bed begging, pleading with God just to let me wake up and see again.
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Kevin Lowe: I would literally just cry myself to sleep every single night just begging God.
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Kevin Lowe: And yet every morning I'd wake up and open my eyes and see the same thing that
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Kevin Lowe: I did when they were closed.
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Kevin Lowe: And it was horrible. It was absolutely horrible because of the simple fact everything
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Kevin Lowe: I ever knew, ever loved, was taken from me.
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Kevin Lowe: I had a truck. It was a big, beautiful forest green Ford F-150, big mud tires.
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Kevin Lowe: I got it when I turned 16. I loved that truck sitting in the driveway.
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Kevin Lowe: Four-wheeler I just got when I turned 17 the month before.
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Kevin Lowe: All of this, this entire life, this entire childhood was built around the ability for me to see.
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Kevin Lowe: And it was now all taken from me. The way that I got through was two things.
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Kevin Lowe: And it's still the two things that get me through life today.
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Kevin Lowe: And that is my faith and my family.
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Kevin Lowe: Um, and, and I say that there were so many nights, um,
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Kevin Lowe: in those early, early years when I would literally just pray that God would
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Kevin Lowe: give me the courage to kill myself because I knew if I could just go to heaven,
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Kevin Lowe: all the pain would be gone.
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Kevin Lowe: And you know what though? It never went further than that prayer sobbing into
00:14:48.321 --> 00:14:51.461
Kevin Lowe: my pillow because every time as I'd be praying,
00:14:51.701 --> 00:14:56.621
Kevin Lowe: I would think back to my family and I would think I can't do that to them.
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Kevin Lowe: And I say, so literally I am here today because of my faith in my family.
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Bill Burke: Amazing. And I'm sure for your family, I mean, I am a parent and when any parent
00:15:09.481 --> 00:15:12.721
Bill Burke: will tell you when your children struggle with anything and mine,
00:15:13.041 --> 00:15:15.821
Bill Burke: thankfully, have never gone through anything as severe as what you have.
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Bill Burke: It's really hard in some ways. Some people compare it to it's one thing to play
00:15:20.241 --> 00:15:22.721
Bill Burke: a sport. it's that much harder to watch your child do it.
00:15:24.701 --> 00:15:29.581
Bill Burke: So I can only imagine how hard this was for your parents, but somehow they hung
00:15:29.581 --> 00:15:31.841
Bill Burke: in there with you and your family hung in there with you.
00:15:32.481 --> 00:15:37.101
Bill Burke: When did you start thinking about, okay, this is the hand I've been dealt.
00:15:37.461 --> 00:15:40.061
Bill Burke: Here's how I'm going to play it. Here's what I'm going to do.
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Bill Burke: Here's how I'm going to contribute. When did that happen?
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Bill Burke: So I know you were into travel agency business for a while. Can you sort of
00:15:47.261 --> 00:15:50.601
Bill Burke: explain how you said, Okay, here's what I've got. Here's what I'm going to do.
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Kevin Lowe: Yeah. So that would come way later.
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Kevin Lowe: Honestly, it was probably the better part of about 10 years before I finally
00:16:00.521 --> 00:16:07.781
Kevin Lowe: came to a point where I was finally really ready to move on with life, even if I couldn't see.
00:16:08.908 --> 00:16:13.788
Kevin Lowe: And there were building blocks all along that way that helped me get to that point.
00:16:14.188 --> 00:16:17.848
Kevin Lowe: One of the biggest that I would love to just mention is the fact that,
00:16:17.848 --> 00:16:23.228
Kevin Lowe: you know, this happened at the beginning of my junior year of high school.
00:16:23.708 --> 00:16:27.208
Kevin Lowe: I never returned to school the rest of my junior year.
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Kevin Lowe: Um i ended up having
00:16:30.208 --> 00:16:33.948
Kevin Lowe: a program called hospital homebound where we
00:16:33.948 --> 00:16:38.828
Kevin Lowe: had teachers would come to my house and i had a teacher who taught me school
00:16:38.828 --> 00:16:43.688
Kevin Lowe: subjects another teacher who started teaching me what i called blind stuff like
00:16:43.688 --> 00:16:50.788
Kevin Lowe: how to read braille and and and how to use a talking computer and stuff like that.
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Kevin Lowe: But it was funny, though, because I was a kid who hated school.
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Kevin Lowe: Like I said, the coolest thing about having a brain tumor was it meant I got
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Kevin Lowe: to get out of school for a bit.
00:17:04.448 --> 00:17:09.488
Kevin Lowe: But what was ironic then was the fact that from the very beginning,
00:17:09.488 --> 00:17:14.868
Kevin Lowe: I just kept saying that I had this goal that I just still want to be able to graduate with my class.
00:17:16.587 --> 00:17:22.567
Kevin Lowe: And it was something that secretly my family didn't think would probably happen.
00:17:23.467 --> 00:17:27.927
Kevin Lowe: But sure enough, I would catch up with my schoolwork.
00:17:28.207 --> 00:17:35.527
Kevin Lowe: I would heal enough physically that I made it back to school for the start of my senior year.
00:17:37.327 --> 00:17:40.887
Kevin Lowe: I went back just for one class a day.
00:17:41.487 --> 00:17:45.587
Kevin Lowe: We were on a block schedule, so we had four classes a day. I went back for one
00:17:45.587 --> 00:17:50.347
Kevin Lowe: class a day, and then I did the rest back at home with those same teachers.
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Kevin Lowe: And ultimately, I walked across the stage of my high school graduation.
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Bill Burke: The place must have gone bonkers, I imagine. That had to be a highlight of your
00:18:02.367 --> 00:18:05.047
Bill Burke: high school graduation. I've sat through some high school graduations.
00:18:05.187 --> 00:18:08.947
Bill Burke: Nothing quite that inspiring has happened at any to date. That's incredible.
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Kevin Lowe: It really was. And so that, at the time, I didn't realize it,
00:18:15.367 --> 00:18:20.807
Kevin Lowe: but I look back now and I realize that that moment was pivotal for a couple of reasons.
00:18:20.947 --> 00:18:26.507
Kevin Lowe: And one of the biggest reasons was I believe that it was God who instilled that
00:18:26.507 --> 00:18:32.607
Kevin Lowe: goal in me because God wanted to show me right off the bat that even in this
00:18:32.607 --> 00:18:35.807
Kevin Lowe: new life, you are still capable of achieving great things.
00:18:37.841 --> 00:18:44.941
Kevin Lowe: And that is what happened. And so after graduation, I dabbled in all kinds of
00:18:44.941 --> 00:18:48.661
Kevin Lowe: things from going to blind services,
00:18:48.941 --> 00:18:53.061
Kevin Lowe: from Division of Blind Services to the Center for the Visually Impaired.
00:18:53.261 --> 00:19:00.141
Kevin Lowe: Some amazing organizations that I am grateful that were literally right in the city where I live.
00:19:00.641 --> 00:19:04.781
Kevin Lowe: I mean, there's people who travel from all over the country to come here.
00:19:04.941 --> 00:19:07.421
Kevin Lowe: And I had it in my own backyard, didn't even know it.
00:19:07.841 --> 00:19:11.161
Kevin Lowe: And so I started working with them.
00:19:11.941 --> 00:19:18.501
Kevin Lowe: And as the years passed, I would end up getting into a program that would really
00:19:18.501 --> 00:19:24.901
Kevin Lowe: kind of be the catapult to launch me into a new chapter of life.
00:19:24.901 --> 00:19:32.061
Kevin Lowe: And that was a program that set me up with an internship at business of my choosing,
00:19:32.181 --> 00:19:39.601
Kevin Lowe: whatever I was interested in. And so two things that I was interested in Was travel and radio
00:19:40.605 --> 00:19:47.985
Kevin Lowe: And so I ended up doing a six-month internship at a local travel agency.
00:19:48.145 --> 00:19:54.685
Kevin Lowe: And then at the same time, I did a six-month internship at a local AM radio station.
00:19:56.285 --> 00:20:00.365
Kevin Lowe: And I absolutely loved the radio deal.
00:20:00.605 --> 00:20:03.925
Kevin Lowe: I mean, that was the coolest day in the world. I worked on the morning drive.
00:20:04.105 --> 00:20:09.745
Kevin Lowe: And so it was an AM talk radio. And so I literally would go Monday,
00:20:10.085 --> 00:20:12.965
Kevin Lowe: Wednesday, Friday, 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
00:20:13.185 --> 00:20:19.825
Kevin Lowe: And sat in the studio with the other hosts and our guests and got to participate
00:20:19.825 --> 00:20:22.365
Kevin Lowe: in that whole thing. And so that was amazing.
00:20:23.085 --> 00:20:25.965
Kevin Lowe: But that ended, and it didn't go anywhere.
00:20:26.645 --> 00:20:31.765
Kevin Lowe: And the travel agency thing that I was doing, interning at that travel agency,
00:20:32.065 --> 00:20:36.165
Kevin Lowe: amazing people, but again, internship ends, and it didn't go anywhere.
00:20:36.665 --> 00:20:44.405
Kevin Lowe: And so I was back to square one. And that's when I started my own business.
00:20:44.405 --> 00:20:50.425
Kevin Lowe: So I opened my own home-based travel agency that was called Better Days Travel.
00:20:51.085 --> 00:21:00.685
Kevin Lowe: And it was around this time in my life that the pivotal thing happened for me.
00:21:01.105 --> 00:21:08.665
Kevin Lowe: It was around that 10-year mark. and I was listening to an audio book and I
00:21:08.665 --> 00:21:12.445
Kevin Lowe: remember one specific thing at the very end of this audio book.
00:21:12.585 --> 00:21:18.765
Kevin Lowe: And it was actually an audio book about the blind adventure athlete, Eric Weinmayer.
00:21:19.085 --> 00:21:22.145
Kevin Lowe: And he's famous for, for somebody Mount Everest.
00:21:22.785 --> 00:21:26.985
Kevin Lowe: Well, this particular book was about him kayaking the Grand Canyon.
00:21:28.281 --> 00:21:36.261
Kevin Lowe: And at the end of the book, it was actually the guide who had guided him down the river.
00:21:37.621 --> 00:21:43.241
Kevin Lowe: There was a part of the book and this guide was waiting. Everybody was waiting
00:21:43.241 --> 00:21:45.461
Kevin Lowe: on him for them to pack up, to leave.
00:21:45.561 --> 00:21:49.281
Kevin Lowe: They'd been on this however long, week-long journey down the Grand Canyon.
00:21:49.941 --> 00:21:55.101
Kevin Lowe: And this guide, he had walked out into the water by himself.
00:21:55.101 --> 00:22:01.561
Kevin Lowe: And he stood in the middle of the water and he faced upstream and he had his
00:22:01.561 --> 00:22:05.981
Kevin Lowe: arms outstretched and his fingers splayed and he let the current,
00:22:06.141 --> 00:22:07.961
Kevin Lowe: the water was just running through his fingers.
00:22:08.941 --> 00:22:12.721
Kevin Lowe: And he said something that completely changed my life.
00:22:13.281 --> 00:22:20.461
Kevin Lowe: In the book, he said, I'll come back someday, but for now I got more life to live.
00:22:22.381 --> 00:22:29.161
Kevin Lowe: For me, I heard that and I remember rewinding it, listening to it again,
00:22:29.181 --> 00:22:36.661
Kevin Lowe: because I realized right then that I didn't have to give up on my dream of seeing again.
00:22:37.381 --> 00:22:39.721
Kevin Lowe: But right now I got more life to live.
00:22:42.381 --> 00:22:48.821
Kevin Lowe: And I would come to finally get to a point where I realized that I'm probably
00:22:48.821 --> 00:22:54.521
Kevin Lowe: not going to see again, not until I'm in heaven, but that's okay because I got more life to live.
00:22:56.621 --> 00:23:06.201
Kevin Lowe: And that was one of the most pivotal moments mindset-wise that really helped me tremendously.
00:23:12.248 --> 00:23:16.808
Bill Burke: It's refreshing and instructive to hear Kevin speak so honestly about how he
00:23:16.808 --> 00:23:18.988
Bill Burke: felt in those first days after losing his sight.
00:23:19.468 --> 00:23:26.028
Bill Burke: He begged God to let him see again and later even prayed for the strength to take his own life.
00:23:26.368 --> 00:23:30.188
Bill Burke: But in the end, he decided he couldn't do that to his family.
00:23:30.928 --> 00:23:35.668
Bill Burke: His early and ambitious goal to graduate with his classmates was key.
00:23:35.668 --> 00:23:39.188
Bill Burke: And in the spirit of Fred Rogers' look for the helper's encouragement,
00:23:39.448 --> 00:23:43.908
Bill Burke: let's hear it for the hospital homebound program and the teachers who worked
00:23:43.908 --> 00:23:46.668
Bill Burke: with Kevin to keep him up to speed with his peers.
00:23:47.268 --> 00:23:51.328
Bill Burke: What an inspiring graduation ceremony that must have been.
00:23:52.328 --> 00:23:58.748
Bill Burke: Also inspiring to Kevin was the example of Eric Weinmeier's guide who said in
00:23:58.748 --> 00:24:04.888
Bill Burke: the audio book, I'll come back someday, but for now, I got more life to live.
00:24:05.728 --> 00:24:09.728
Bill Burke: Now, back to my blue sky conversation with Kevin Lowe.
00:24:11.465 --> 00:24:14.665
Bill Burke: You lost your sight in 2003, if I have it right.
00:24:14.905 --> 00:24:19.325
Bill Burke: And so the world's changed quite a bit in that period of time in terms of technology.
00:24:19.325 --> 00:24:20.885
Bill Burke: And you mentioned audio books.
00:24:21.065 --> 00:24:25.205
Bill Burke: And now you are and we found each other through this crazy world of podcasting.
00:24:25.505 --> 00:24:31.525
Bill Burke: So when did you, because I believe your first podcast was related to your travel
00:24:31.525 --> 00:24:33.485
Bill Burke: business. Is that right? Or related to travel?
00:24:33.825 --> 00:24:40.645
Kevin Lowe: Yes, it was. It was. So I started, I entered the world of podcasting in 2020,
00:24:40.645 --> 00:24:45.305
Kevin Lowe: When I say everybody and their dear Aunt Sally started a podcast.
00:24:47.065 --> 00:24:52.445
Kevin Lowe: And so I say the only difference between me and them is the fact that I'm still podcasting.
00:24:52.885 --> 00:24:56.025
Bill Burke: Yes, right. It's harder than it looks.
00:24:56.525 --> 00:25:00.825
Kevin Lowe: Exactly. And so, yes, you are right. So like you said, so I have been a travel
00:25:00.825 --> 00:25:05.245
Kevin Lowe: agent. I had my own travel agency for seven years coming up into 2020.
00:25:05.785 --> 00:25:09.865
Kevin Lowe: And, you know, wouldn't you know, that was going to be my best year ever.
00:25:10.965 --> 00:25:16.365
Kevin Lowe: And I mean, I even had a group cruise lined up.
00:25:16.485 --> 00:25:25.205
Kevin Lowe: There was nearly 50 of us going on a cruise that October to celebrate the 17th
00:25:25.205 --> 00:25:27.705
Kevin Lowe: anniversary of when I went blind.
00:25:29.164 --> 00:25:33.624
Kevin Lowe: Because here was the big thing was, you know, me, I mean, I'm always looking
00:25:33.624 --> 00:25:34.684
Kevin Lowe: for a reason to celebrate.
00:25:34.944 --> 00:25:38.584
Kevin Lowe: And so I was like, guys, I'm like, this is monumental.
00:25:38.784 --> 00:25:45.504
Kevin Lowe: I'm like, this anniversary in particular is big. I said, because it's happening in the year 2020.
00:25:45.784 --> 00:25:49.584
Kevin Lowe: A number, of course, synonymous with vision.
00:25:50.284 --> 00:25:56.404
Kevin Lowe: I said, and the fact is, is that at that moment, I would have been blind for
00:25:56.404 --> 00:25:58.184
Kevin Lowe: as long as I had been able to see.
00:25:58.184 --> 00:25:59.804
Bill Burke: 17 and 17.
00:26:00.184 --> 00:26:05.764
Kevin Lowe: Yep. Wow. And so I had planned out, I had this huge group cruise for all of
00:26:05.764 --> 00:26:09.184
Kevin Lowe: us, you know, along with all these other trips on the books.
00:26:09.184 --> 00:26:14.124
Kevin Lowe: And then, of course, we all know inside of a month, come March 2020, it all disappeared.
00:26:16.504 --> 00:26:22.504
Kevin Lowe: And so that leads into the podcast. And so while we were all stuck in quarantine
00:26:22.504 --> 00:26:27.644
Kevin Lowe: and looking for things to do, I had decided it was finally time for me to start
00:26:27.644 --> 00:26:29.924
Kevin Lowe: the YouTube channel I had been thinking about.
00:26:30.184 --> 00:26:33.924
Kevin Lowe: And so I went on Amazon and I started ordering all my equipment.
00:26:34.684 --> 00:26:40.644
Kevin Lowe: And then the realization hit me. Was, Kev, what are you doing?
00:26:41.204 --> 00:26:43.764
Kevin Lowe: You've ordered all this video stuff.
00:26:45.124 --> 00:26:47.924
Kevin Lowe: And you are the last person who
00:26:47.924 --> 00:26:51.344
Kevin Lowe: needs to be doing video you you're too
00:26:51.344 --> 00:26:54.964
Kevin Lowe: subconscious about whether or not you're looking directly at the camera you
00:26:54.964 --> 00:26:58.764
Kevin Lowe: don't know if the lighting is right and so i was just like this isn't gonna
00:26:58.764 --> 00:27:04.724
Kevin Lowe: work and at that moment i'm like my youtube dreams are dashed and then my sister
00:27:04.724 --> 00:27:09.484
Kevin Lowe: says why don't you do a podcast i said
00:27:12.042 --> 00:27:15.882
Kevin Lowe: I, of course, responded to Tiffany and said, what the heck is a podcast?
00:27:17.562 --> 00:27:24.482
Kevin Lowe: And that would be my entrance into the world of audio, which I said once I realized,
00:27:24.722 --> 00:27:28.802
Kevin Lowe: I said, oh, my gosh, I was designed for podcasting.
00:27:30.282 --> 00:27:34.042
Bill Burke: Amazing. Well, and you also have that radio experience is basically the same thing.
00:27:35.002 --> 00:27:39.482
Kevin Lowe: Exactly. Exactly. So it all kind of comes back full circle. And so, yes, you are right.
00:27:40.122 --> 00:27:45.742
Kevin Lowe: It started off about travel because I laugh and I say that God hadn't really
00:27:45.742 --> 00:27:47.362
Kevin Lowe: cued me in on his plans yet.
00:27:47.682 --> 00:27:52.402
Kevin Lowe: I thought I was still going to be a travel agent. So I was talking all about
00:27:52.402 --> 00:27:58.382
Kevin Lowe: travel. And then the podcast took over my life and led me in a totally different direction.
00:27:58.602 --> 00:28:03.462
Bill Burke: So it's had a few iterations. The title today is Grit, Grace, and Inspiration.
00:28:03.522 --> 00:28:06.862
Bill Burke: And you embody all three. You've been described, by the way,
00:28:06.922 --> 00:28:10.702
Bill Burke: as having contagious optimism and genuine positivity.
00:28:10.982 --> 00:28:14.502
Bill Burke: And I think at this point of the conversation that has already come through.
00:28:14.722 --> 00:28:20.182
Bill Burke: But tell us how you settled on that as your as your format and what kind of
00:28:20.182 --> 00:28:22.722
Bill Burke: guests do you have? How do you tell us about the podcast?
00:28:23.082 --> 00:28:26.602
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. So the podcast is literally what the name says.
00:28:26.602 --> 00:28:32.842
Kevin Lowe: It's all about sharing the stories of those overcoming life's challenges,
00:28:32.842 --> 00:28:39.002
Kevin Lowe: all with this hope and desire to inspire others to do the same.
00:28:40.042 --> 00:28:45.022
Kevin Lowe: I always say that my mission, whether I'm recording a solo episode or I'm recording
00:28:45.022 --> 00:28:49.902
Kevin Lowe: an interview with a guest, my whole goal is that there's somebody on the other
00:28:49.902 --> 00:28:53.962
Kevin Lowe: side of the world who I'll never meet, I'll never even hear from.
00:28:53.962 --> 00:28:56.702
Kevin Lowe: I'll never even know that they've ever listened to my podcast.
00:28:56.982 --> 00:29:04.142
Kevin Lowe: And yet they hear something I say or my guest says, and it gives them that inspiration
00:29:04.142 --> 00:29:06.942
Kevin Lowe: to keep going just one more day.
00:29:07.782 --> 00:29:11.902
Kevin Lowe: Just like that one line in that audio book did for me.
00:29:13.284 --> 00:29:18.164
Kevin Lowe: And, um, and so that, that is the podcast. I mean, gosh, I've been going now
00:29:18.164 --> 00:29:22.344
Kevin Lowe: for what over, over five years or coming up on six years.
00:29:22.744 --> 00:29:27.684
Kevin Lowe: And, um, and, and I love it. I love it. I love the, the opportunity to get to,
00:29:27.764 --> 00:29:33.484
Kevin Lowe: to meet people, um, for the fact of inspiring me, um, while getting to share
00:29:33.484 --> 00:29:37.504
Kevin Lowe: their story with the world, um, is just been truly amazing.
00:29:37.504 --> 00:29:42.044
Bill Burke: Incredible. And your tagline is turning setbacks into stages.
00:29:42.664 --> 00:29:46.364
Bill Burke: We all know what a setback is. What do you mean when you say to stages?
00:29:46.364 --> 00:29:50.364
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. So I got into the world of public speaking.
00:29:50.664 --> 00:29:56.884
Kevin Lowe: And so through the podcast, again, the podcast has led me down a road.
00:29:57.024 --> 00:30:00.064
Kevin Lowe: I entered the world of coaching. I did coaching for a while,
00:30:00.284 --> 00:30:08.344
Kevin Lowe: which I still do on occasion. But I really was like, I really love just inspiring and motivating people.
00:30:08.544 --> 00:30:11.844
Kevin Lowe: And so it led me into the world of public speaking.
00:30:11.844 --> 00:30:16.824
Kevin Lowe: And so that is turning setbacks into stages. Exactly that, turning,
00:30:17.424 --> 00:30:24.204
Kevin Lowe: using what I've been through, which, you know, what happened to me was horrible.
00:30:24.384 --> 00:30:28.104
Kevin Lowe: And I wouldn't wish what happened to me on my worst enemy.
00:30:28.104 --> 00:30:34.344
Kevin Lowe: And yet at the same time, I have to be so grateful that God chose me to be the
00:30:34.344 --> 00:30:42.684
Kevin Lowe: one to go through this for the simple fact of if me having gone through what I did,
00:30:43.164 --> 00:30:48.564
Kevin Lowe: being able to share my insights that I've gained, if it can help somebody else,
00:30:48.784 --> 00:30:52.084
Kevin Lowe: then for me, it makes all of it worth it.
00:30:52.984 --> 00:30:58.624
Kevin Lowe: Because at the end of the day, that's all I want out of my life anymore is I
00:30:58.624 --> 00:31:02.184
Kevin Lowe: just want to be able to help somebody else who's struggling,
00:31:02.184 --> 00:31:08.204
Kevin Lowe: who needs somebody to remind them that tomorrow's a new day and to not give
00:31:08.204 --> 00:31:15.084
Kevin Lowe: up on the hope and to not give up on what might lie ahead when that sun rises tomorrow morning.
00:31:15.704 --> 00:31:20.124
Bill Burke: Amazing. And I think such an important part of your story is you do make it
00:31:20.124 --> 00:31:23.484
Bill Burke: clear that this was not an easy thing for you to pull out of.
00:31:23.564 --> 00:31:27.364
Bill Burke: And I imagine you still have those nights when you, I don't know if you cry
00:31:27.364 --> 00:31:30.284
Bill Burke: into the pillow, but you still, I imagine, have those.
00:31:30.424 --> 00:31:34.424
Bill Burke: It's not all this linear progression towards everything's great.
00:31:34.424 --> 00:31:39.784
Bill Burke: And I'm sure that's part of what inspires people who are going through similar challenges.
00:31:40.384 --> 00:31:47.704
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, 100%. Yeah, it's a loss. It's a loss that I still deal with. It's a grief. Yeah. Yep.
00:31:54.224 --> 00:31:58.204
Bill Burke: Just as Kevin Lowe was developing his new interest in the travel business and
00:31:58.204 --> 00:32:03.544
Bill Burke: planning to mark the 17th anniversary of losing his sight, perhaps the worst
00:32:03.544 --> 00:32:06.764
Bill Burke: thing that could ever happen to his chosen business occurred.
00:32:07.344 --> 00:32:09.124
Bill Burke: A global pandemic.
00:32:10.184 --> 00:32:16.164
Bill Burke: Fortunately, he had tried his hand at radio and his sister gave him the idea of starting a podcast.
00:32:16.904 --> 00:32:21.804
Bill Burke: This has been a perfect outlet for Kevin to work to inspire others through audio
00:32:21.804 --> 00:32:28.344
Bill Burke: and public speaking, just as he was inspired by that book he listened to many years prior.
00:32:29.224 --> 00:32:33.184
Bill Burke: Speaking of audio, don't forget that musical surprise I mentioned earlier.
00:32:33.564 --> 00:32:38.264
Bill Burke: It's coming soon after this final section of our conversation.
00:32:39.562 --> 00:32:44.422
Bill Burke: Here you and I are, you know, a thousand miles apart, talking to each other
00:32:44.422 --> 00:32:47.862
Bill Burke: through this amazing technology. I mentioned before that these terrible things
00:32:47.862 --> 00:32:50.322
Bill Burke: happened to you more than 20 years ago.
00:32:50.962 --> 00:32:55.042
Bill Burke: Can you share with us, because I do think it can be inspiring to folks to realize
00:32:55.042 --> 00:32:56.822
Bill Burke: how far technology has come.
00:32:56.942 --> 00:33:00.702
Bill Burke: Are there technological advancements that have made your life at least a little
00:33:00.702 --> 00:33:03.522
Bill Burke: bit easier since the time you lost your sight?
00:33:05.042 --> 00:33:09.722
Kevin Lowe: Maybe like a whole, whole, whole lot easier. Yeah. Um,
00:33:12.422 --> 00:33:16.922
Kevin Lowe: the, the biggest thing was the invention of the iPhone,
00:33:17.562 --> 00:33:23.702
Kevin Lowe: especially, especially when it came out with the iPhone 3GS was the first iPhone
00:33:23.702 --> 00:33:27.482
Kevin Lowe: to introduce voiceover, a built-in screen reader.
00:33:27.922 --> 00:33:36.862
Kevin Lowe: And so the iPhone is not only completely a hundred percent accessible to somebody
00:33:36.862 --> 00:33:38.262
Kevin Lowe: like me who's completely blind,
00:33:38.522 --> 00:33:43.802
Kevin Lowe: but it has different apps that I download onto my iPhone,
00:33:44.082 --> 00:33:51.622
Kevin Lowe: like an app called Be My Eyes, which allows me to open up the app.
00:33:51.922 --> 00:33:57.822
Kevin Lowe: I can then literally just take a picture and it instantly describes whatever is in front of me.
00:33:58.242 --> 00:34:04.222
Kevin Lowe: Or I can hit the option to connect with the volunteer and literally they have
00:34:04.222 --> 00:34:10.402
Kevin Lowe: a, it works on like a network, almost like a social media type community of
00:34:10.402 --> 00:34:12.442
Kevin Lowe: people who've signed up as helpers.
00:34:12.602 --> 00:34:17.082
Kevin Lowe: And so literally 365 days out of the year,
00:34:17.903 --> 00:34:23.243
Kevin Lowe: 24 hours a day, I can be in live video feed with something almost like FaceTime
00:34:23.243 --> 00:34:27.403
Kevin Lowe: with somebody through that app within like 30 seconds.
00:34:28.243 --> 00:34:28.483
Bill Burke: Really?
00:34:28.783 --> 00:34:38.343
Kevin Lowe: It's absolutely incredible. And so that is one example of just technology that has been incredible.
00:34:38.663 --> 00:34:42.363
Kevin Lowe: I also have the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses.
00:34:42.683 --> 00:34:43.703
Bill Burke: Really? Okay.
00:34:44.003 --> 00:34:49.483
Kevin Lowe: They work the same way. Um, literally I can, you know, ask it,
00:34:49.643 --> 00:34:56.783
Kevin Lowe: you know, to describe whatever's in front of me or to tell me what is on this menu at a restaurant.
00:34:57.443 --> 00:35:03.543
Kevin Lowe: Um, it's, it's fascinating. Technology is, is absolutely incredible.
00:35:03.543 --> 00:35:09.243
Kevin Lowe: Um, and, and to see the advancements in technology, even just over the time
00:35:09.243 --> 00:35:11.983
Kevin Lowe: period, since I went blind is remarkable.
00:35:11.983 --> 00:35:18.483
Bill Burke: So, Kevin, speaking of technology and the way you've been able to somehow,
00:35:18.843 --> 00:35:22.983
Bill Burke: somewhat see again, can we talk about echolocation? Describe that to us?
00:35:23.323 --> 00:35:29.423
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, absolutely. So this is probably the coolest thing, and it doesn't involve tech at all.
00:35:29.683 --> 00:35:34.343
Kevin Lowe: There's no iPhone or apps involved. It's literally just the power of the human brain.
00:35:34.343 --> 00:35:45.883
Kevin Lowe: And so I, back in 2017, had the opportunity to learn that humans can see just
00:35:45.883 --> 00:35:49.123
Kevin Lowe: like bats or dolphins do using echolocation.
00:35:50.050 --> 00:35:56.390
Kevin Lowe: Um, and so there was a guy, um, a friend of mine had shared a YouTube video
00:35:56.390 --> 00:36:02.350
Kevin Lowe: of this guy named Brian Bushway, who was riding a bicycle and doing all these
00:36:02.350 --> 00:36:04.870
Kevin Lowe: things by making this clicking noise.
00:36:05.490 --> 00:36:11.410
Kevin Lowe: And so I remember she had sent me the YouTube video and I had watched the video.
00:36:11.670 --> 00:36:16.010
Kevin Lowe: Now I remember, I remember honestly getting super sad because all I remember
00:36:16.010 --> 00:36:19.770
Kevin Lowe: thinking was, God, why, why won't you give me that ability?
00:36:20.610 --> 00:36:26.370
Kevin Lowe: Well, lo and behold, at the time, he worked with an organization where they
00:36:26.370 --> 00:36:31.950
Kevin Lowe: literally traveled around the world teaching blind people how to see with echolocation.
00:36:32.310 --> 00:36:38.610
Kevin Lowe: And so I ended up going out to his home in Los Angeles, California.
00:36:39.410 --> 00:36:43.190
Kevin Lowe: I went out there with my mom and sister. And my mom and sister,
00:36:43.370 --> 00:36:45.790
Kevin Lowe: they would drop me off at his house every morning.
00:36:45.810 --> 00:36:49.470
Kevin Lowe: They would go off and do tourist stuff. And I
00:36:49.470 --> 00:36:53.790
Kevin Lowe: would train with Brian Who ironically is
00:36:53.790 --> 00:36:57.570
Kevin Lowe: right around my same age He went blind kind
00:36:57.570 --> 00:37:04.750
Kevin Lowe: of around the same point He was I think about 14 when he went blind And he had
00:37:04.750 --> 00:37:11.810
Kevin Lowe: learned this skill by somebody else And so literally he taught me how to retrain
00:37:11.810 --> 00:37:16.350
Kevin Lowe: the brain's visual cortex To see through sound rather than sight
00:37:17.453 --> 00:37:22.073
Kevin Lowe: And so by literally making a clicking noise with just my tongue against the
00:37:22.073 --> 00:37:29.133
Kevin Lowe: roof of my mouth, I threw time, and it took exactly three days for my brain
00:37:29.133 --> 00:37:31.413
Kevin Lowe: to finally, it all to click together.
00:37:32.173 --> 00:37:37.773
Kevin Lowe: And we were literally training inside of the apartment we had rented through Airbnb.
00:37:39.333 --> 00:37:43.273
Kevin Lowe: And he was teaching me how to identify corners of a room.
00:37:43.853 --> 00:37:48.753
Kevin Lowe: And so I would stand face-to-face at the corner, and I'd make this little click
00:37:48.753 --> 00:37:51.753
Kevin Lowe: with my tongue, and nothing's happening.
00:37:51.993 --> 00:37:55.573
Kevin Lowe: And then I'd take a step back, and I'd make the click.
00:37:56.253 --> 00:38:01.513
Kevin Lowe: Nothing happens. And then all of a sudden, it was like somebody turned on a light switch.
00:38:02.873 --> 00:38:07.953
Kevin Lowe: All of a sudden, the wall in front of me, I could see it.
00:38:08.493 --> 00:38:11.693
Kevin Lowe: Literally, all of a sudden, the wall turned to a fuzzy gray.
00:38:11.853 --> 00:38:12.533
Bill Burke: Oh, my gosh.
00:38:12.533 --> 00:38:18.433
Kevin Lowe: And I could literally, from across the room, I could walk up to the wall and
00:38:18.433 --> 00:38:21.853
Kevin Lowe: stop without ever hitting it, without ever touching it.
00:38:22.053 --> 00:38:26.233
Kevin Lowe: And then I can remember walking down alongside the wall, following the wall.
00:38:26.813 --> 00:38:33.073
Kevin Lowe: And all of a sudden though, it went from this fuzzy gray to like a deep, dark, like cavern.
00:38:33.473 --> 00:38:35.673
Kevin Lowe: Well, it was the doorway into the kitchen.
00:38:36.433 --> 00:38:37.493
Bill Burke: Whoa. Yeah.
00:38:38.491 --> 00:38:43.971
Bill Burke: That's amazing. So you use that today. If you walked into a strange room, you could click and.
00:38:44.231 --> 00:38:48.951
Kevin Lowe: So I use that all the time, everywhere, anywhere.
00:38:49.571 --> 00:38:56.131
Kevin Lowe: And what's amazing is, is it's just like a muscle. So the more you use it, the stronger it gets.
00:38:56.331 --> 00:39:01.691
Kevin Lowe: And so now there are times when I'm not even actively trying to use it,
00:39:01.831 --> 00:39:06.171
Kevin Lowe: but maybe I'm standing in the kitchen, cooking in the kitchen with my mom and
00:39:06.171 --> 00:39:09.071
Kevin Lowe: my sister, it may be something with the faucet.
00:39:09.151 --> 00:39:13.871
Kevin Lowe: The water hits a dish a certain way, and it's like a light switch turns on.
00:39:14.011 --> 00:39:18.511
Kevin Lowe: And I can look over, and I can see the figure of my mom standing there.
00:39:18.631 --> 00:39:22.271
Bill Burke: So you don't have, you're not always having to put out a sound like the clicking.
00:39:22.911 --> 00:39:28.271
Kevin Lowe: Correct, correct. Wow. I mean, that is the most precise way.
00:39:28.411 --> 00:39:32.831
Kevin Lowe: And like when I'm, you know, the biggest obstacle typically is you go into a
00:39:32.831 --> 00:39:34.631
Kevin Lowe: public restroom trying to find your way.
00:39:34.631 --> 00:39:42.251
Kevin Lowe: Well, now I go in a couple of clicks and I'll get a, I call it a ping off of
00:39:42.251 --> 00:39:44.231
Kevin Lowe: maybe like the metal faucet of the sink.
00:39:45.171 --> 00:39:52.151
Kevin Lowe: And I tried to describe it as like, think of a commercial for glassware.
00:39:52.331 --> 00:39:57.271
Kevin Lowe: And you know how they'll show the visible spark coming off to show that it's
00:39:57.271 --> 00:39:59.171
Kevin Lowe: super sparkly and clean?
00:39:59.171 --> 00:40:02.011
Kevin Lowe: That's how it will ping off of the
00:40:02.011 --> 00:40:04.791
Kevin Lowe: metal faucet When I make that little click with my
00:40:04.791 --> 00:40:08.511
Kevin Lowe: tongue That's incredible It completely and
00:40:08.511 --> 00:40:16.471
Kevin Lowe: utterly changed my entire world For the simple fact that No longer can I only
00:40:16.471 --> 00:40:22.711
Kevin Lowe: see what I can touch But now I can preview my world around me The world literally
00:40:22.711 --> 00:40:28.031
Kevin Lowe: now has shaped And I tell everybody No, it's not like I used to see
00:40:28.850 --> 00:40:35.910
Kevin Lowe: But it's another tool that I now have that has literally been the biggest life-changing
00:40:35.910 --> 00:40:38.610
Kevin Lowe: thing, not technology-related.
00:40:38.690 --> 00:40:44.370
Kevin Lowe: It was just tapping into something that our brain is capable of that I had no idea about.
00:40:44.930 --> 00:40:52.210
Bill Burke: Fascinating. Okay. So, and I wonder too, if you've been born blind versus losing
00:40:52.210 --> 00:40:57.870
Bill Burke: your sight when you did, if because you had almost 17 years of sight,
00:40:58.050 --> 00:41:02.730
Bill Burke: if that helps you sort of fill in the blanks when the iPhone is describing a scene?
00:41:03.390 --> 00:41:06.290
Kevin Lowe: Yeah, 100%. Okay. Yeah.
00:41:06.510 --> 00:41:12.410
Kevin Lowe: I think, well, you know, we, the biggest joke in that regard is, is regarding color.
00:41:12.850 --> 00:41:17.170
Kevin Lowe: Now I've heard some people say that, that when you go blind,
00:41:17.430 --> 00:41:19.790
Kevin Lowe: you, you forget what color is.
00:41:20.550 --> 00:41:25.290
Kevin Lowe: That didn't happen for me. So I remember color, um, which, which my family,
00:41:25.490 --> 00:41:29.690
Kevin Lowe: like my mom and sister can tell you it makes, that means that I'm the pickiest
00:41:29.690 --> 00:41:31.310
Kevin Lowe: damn blind person you've ever met.
00:41:33.710 --> 00:41:37.050
Kevin Lowe: So when, when, when, when shopping and they tell me, oh yeah,
00:41:37.190 --> 00:41:40.810
Kevin Lowe: like this shirt's, you know, a nice blue, I'm like, okay, well what shade of blue?
00:41:41.724 --> 00:41:44.144
Kevin Lowe: Okay. No, I, no, I don't like that shade.
00:41:46.164 --> 00:41:53.704
Kevin Lowe: That's funny. But, um, but yeah, no, I, I mean, I think the whole idea of somebody
00:41:53.704 --> 00:41:59.284
Kevin Lowe: who's never seen before versus somebody in my perspective, it's a totally different way.
00:41:59.444 --> 00:42:05.684
Kevin Lowe: I would imagine of the way in which you, you interpret the world.
00:42:06.444 --> 00:42:13.784
Kevin Lowe: Um, and, And I am extremely grateful for the fact that I did have 17 years of
00:42:13.784 --> 00:42:19.204
Kevin Lowe: sight to be able to understand better what things look like.
00:42:19.444 --> 00:42:23.164
Bill Burke: It's amazing. Yeah. And all these years later, Kevin, it's amazing to hear you
00:42:23.164 --> 00:42:27.604
Bill Burke: say that you're grateful for that because you have so much that many of us just
00:42:27.604 --> 00:42:30.584
Bill Burke: would feel down about and pity ourselves.
00:42:30.584 --> 00:42:39.264
Bill Burke: So if people want to engage with you as public speaking, tell us about the different ways. So there's,
00:42:40.239 --> 00:42:43.879
Bill Burke: There's your podcast, there's your public speaking and your coaching.
00:42:43.879 --> 00:42:49.399
Bill Burke: Is this all available in sort of one place where people can find this and you?
00:42:49.759 --> 00:42:52.899
Kevin Lowe: Yes, absolutely. So it's all right there on my website.
00:42:53.099 --> 00:42:58.459
Kevin Lowe: So they can easily go to gritgraceinspiration.com.
00:42:59.019 --> 00:43:04.319
Kevin Lowe: If for any reason that's too hard to remember, you can also just go to kevinspeaks.org.
00:43:04.919 --> 00:43:08.419
Kevin Lowe: Both of those will take you to the same place. Um, like you said,
00:43:08.499 --> 00:43:12.559
Kevin Lowe: my website's basically the central hub. I'm not real big on social media.
00:43:12.839 --> 00:43:17.199
Kevin Lowe: And so it's basically through the podcast and, uh, they're on the website that
00:43:17.199 --> 00:43:18.319
Kevin Lowe: you can get in touch with me.
00:43:18.439 --> 00:43:24.159
Bill Burke: So if, if there's somebody listening today who's had a setback recently or has
00:43:24.159 --> 00:43:28.379
Bill Burke: a loved one who has, and they're just, they're having those thoughts that you had,
00:43:28.799 --> 00:43:32.419
Bill Burke: what, what sort of, what are the simplest words of encouragement you could offer
00:43:32.419 --> 00:43:35.639
Bill Burke: people in addition to going to your podcast and your website?
00:43:35.639 --> 00:43:38.919
Bill Burke: But if someone's been having a tough stretch based on something like that,
00:43:39.059 --> 00:43:43.599
Bill Burke: what are the words of encouragement that you could provide as our time's running out?
00:43:43.839 --> 00:43:47.559
Kevin Lowe: Yeah. The biggest thing is to give yourself grace.
00:43:49.139 --> 00:43:54.379
Kevin Lowe: What you've been through, what you're going through, whether it's you personally
00:43:54.379 --> 00:43:58.579
Kevin Lowe: or somebody you love or a friend, just give yourself a break.
00:43:59.039 --> 00:44:03.199
Kevin Lowe: There's going to be so many people who are going to voice their opinions about
00:44:03.199 --> 00:44:04.259
Kevin Lowe: what you should be doing.
00:44:05.796 --> 00:44:13.496
Kevin Lowe: Don't listen. I can tell you that's about the worst thing you could possibly do because,
00:44:14.076 --> 00:44:21.436
Kevin Lowe: yes, seek advice from those who you trust, who you know, know you and know what's right for you.
00:44:22.316 --> 00:44:27.336
Kevin Lowe: But the biggest thing is just to listen to yourself, to give yourself the grace
00:44:27.336 --> 00:44:31.116
Kevin Lowe: to understand that it's okay to not be okay.
00:44:32.316 --> 00:44:36.636
Kevin Lowe: And at some point, though, you're going to reach the time when you're going
00:44:36.636 --> 00:44:39.096
Kevin Lowe: to finally be ready to move forward.
00:44:39.456 --> 00:44:43.356
Kevin Lowe: That might be in a month. It might be in 10 years.
00:44:44.956 --> 00:44:48.756
Kevin Lowe: In the big picture, it's just a little time period of life.
00:44:49.116 --> 00:44:52.356
Kevin Lowe: Just realize that it's going to get easier. It's going to get better.
00:44:52.516 --> 00:44:55.396
Kevin Lowe: But in the meantime, just give yourself grace.
00:44:55.976 --> 00:45:00.856
Bill Burke: Well, on that note, Kevin, I am going to thank you for this time.
00:45:00.856 --> 00:45:05.896
Bill Burke: And thank you just for all the positivity and optimism and grit and resilience
00:45:05.896 --> 00:45:06.976
Bill Burke: that you're putting out in the world.
00:45:07.136 --> 00:45:11.036
Bill Burke: You are a true inspiration. That's an overused term, but in your case, it really fits.
00:45:11.196 --> 00:45:15.156
Bill Burke: And I really appreciate you coming on the show and everything that you do.
00:45:15.696 --> 00:45:20.296
Kevin Lowe: Oh, man, well, I appreciate it so much. And it's been an honor getting to be here. So thank you.
00:45:20.576 --> 00:45:21.016
Bill Burke: Take care.
00:45:27.933 --> 00:45:32.133
Bill Burke: I'm glad I asked Kevin to talk about how technological advancements might have
00:45:32.133 --> 00:45:33.133
Bill Burke: helped him on his journey.
00:45:33.673 --> 00:45:39.013
Bill Burke: I was not aware of Apple's Be My Eyes app or any of the other advances he described.
00:45:39.553 --> 00:45:41.413
Bill Burke: And how about echolocation?
00:45:42.153 --> 00:45:44.893
Bill Burke: That's something else I didn't realize was possible for humans,
00:45:45.433 --> 00:45:48.753
Bill Burke: and it was pretty inspiring to learn more about it from Kevin.
00:45:49.493 --> 00:45:53.233
Bill Burke: And to learn more about Kevin and his many product offerings,
00:45:53.433 --> 00:45:57.633
Bill Burke: do check out the website, gritgraceinspiration.com.
00:45:57.933 --> 00:46:02.453
Bill Burke: When you go there, you'll learn about something Kevin has branched into that
00:46:02.453 --> 00:46:03.833
Bill Burke: we didn't discuss on our show.
00:46:04.713 --> 00:46:10.753
Bill Burke: K-Lowe Music is a new venture he's launched where you can have a one-on-one conversation with Kevin.
00:46:11.153 --> 00:46:18.073
Bill Burke: And from there, he'll produce a professional quality song or even an album based on you.
00:46:18.953 --> 00:46:25.793
Bill Burke: As Kevin says on his site, this isn't just music. This is your life set to sound.
00:46:26.873 --> 00:46:31.493
Bill Burke: I learned about all of this shortly after our interview when Kevin sent me a
00:46:31.493 --> 00:46:34.773
Bill Burke: new song he produced for me as a thank you gift.
00:46:35.413 --> 00:46:38.133
Bill Burke: I clicked on the file and was blown away.
00:46:38.813 --> 00:46:44.193
Bill Burke: The title of the song is Blue Sky Above, and it's terrific.
00:46:45.073 --> 00:46:50.073
Bill Burke: This is the musical payoff I've promised, and right now you will be among the
00:46:50.073 --> 00:46:56.113
Bill Burke: first to hear this brand new song courtesy of Kevin Lowe and K-Lowe Music.
00:46:56.913 --> 00:46:59.373
Bill Burke: Here's Blue Sky Above.
00:50:09.262 --> 00:50:13.782
Bill Burke: How about that? My huge thanks to Kevin for putting this together.
00:50:14.082 --> 00:50:18.482
Bill Burke: Not only the catchy tune, but also the lyrics that are so consistent with the
00:50:18.482 --> 00:50:24.062
Bill Burke: work we're doing here at the Optimism Institute and the Blue Sky Podcast. Just amazing.
00:50:25.022 --> 00:50:30.462
Bill Burke: I hope you enjoyed this Blue Sky conversation with and new Blue Sky Above song
00:50:30.462 --> 00:50:37.302
Bill Burke: from Kevin Love. My thanks also go out to SoundOnSoundOff for their amazing
00:50:37.302 --> 00:50:39.502
Bill Burke: help putting this special episode together.
00:50:39.882 --> 00:50:44.642
Bill Burke: Check out more of their incredible work at SoundOnSoundOff.com.
00:50:45.662 --> 00:50:51.122
Bill Burke: And to Crush Graphics, creator of all graphics and cover art at Blue Sky and
00:50:51.122 --> 00:50:52.202
Bill Burke: the Optimism Institute.
00:50:52.782 --> 00:50:59.562
Bill Burke: Find more of their terrific work at CrushGraphics.com. Remember to spell crush with a K.
00:51:00.502 --> 00:51:04.902
Bill Burke: Until next time, I'm the founder of the Optimism Institute and host of Blue
00:51:04.902 --> 00:51:08.682
Bill Burke: Sky, Bill Burke, and I thank you for listening.