CASE STUDY with Ryan Brady ”Life Lessons Learned While Recovering from a Traumatic Brain Injury: A Story of Hope, Opportunity and Inspiration”

“The best way to predict your future, is to create it!” Abraham Lincoln

Watch this inspiring interview on YouTube here https://youtu.be/aG_B3aLSLEc

Welcome back to The Neuroscience Meets Social and Emotional Learning Podcast where we bridge the gap between theory and practice, with strategies, tools and ideas we can all use immediately, applied to the most current brain research to heighten productivity in our schools, sports environments and modern workplaces. I’m Andrea Samadi and launched this podcast to share how important an understanding of our brain is for our everyday life and results. My vision is to bring the experts to you, share their research, books, ideas and resources to help you to implement their proven strategies, whether you are a teacher working in the classroom or in the corporate environment.

For today’s EPISODE #254, we’ll be speaking with Ryan Brady[i], an avid public speaker who has put into practice many of the concepts that we’ve covered on this podcast. Ryan went from having a traumatic brain injury when he was a teen, to re-learning how to walk and talk. What caught my eye with Ryan’s story is that as a young man, he was able to see the positive side of his brain injury, that occurred when his car went over an 80-foot cliff, flipped 6 times, breaking his neck, back, wrist and collar bone. This resulted in a Traumatic Brain Injury, that listeners to this podcast will understand the horrific impacts of this injury to his brain on learning, memory and his ability to function in the world.

But what he did while recovering is mind-blowing! He studied, learned, and then created a company, Digital Prodigee (that creates mobile apps for businesses) and took his company to 7 figures of revenue in 7 months. His story is a true story of resilience in the business world and you can hear it for yourself with his TED Talk[ii], that I think everyone on the planet should listen to.

I’m personally excited to speak with Ryan, as I began interviewing young entrepreneurs back in 2012, years before launching this podcast when I ran The Teen Performance Magazine, and hearing Ryan’s story took me back to many of the young leaders I interviewed when I was first launching this magazine, hoping to inspire our next generation of entrepreneurs with these interviews. This idea didn’t take off as well as I had hoped, but it was a valuable experience to learn from some of the youngest leaders and most brilliant minds I’ve ever come across, many who I’ve kept in touch with, or watched their results skyrocket over the years.

Let’s meet Ryan Brady, and see what we can learn from this entrepreneur about mindset, vision, and brain health, for a refreshing new perspective on life. Something I think we could all use today.

Welcome Ryan Brady, thank you for joining me on the podcast today. What part of the world are you in today?

Ryan, I’m always looking for new perspectives on this podcast, and hadn’t even listened to your TED Talk when I replied to your team that I wanted to speak with you as I saw something unique about your ability to help others start their own business…then I saw the whole TBI story, that took your story to a whole new level.

INTRO Q: Can you begin with what type of kid you were BEFORE your car flew off an 80 foot cliff?

I’m curious if your positive/forward-thinking mindset was there BEFORE the accident, or do you that the accident changed your perspective?

Q1: I couldn’t tell your story even close to how you tell it. Can you give us a quick synopsis, and I’ll put your TED Talk in the show notes for those who want to hear the whole story? What’s the short version of your accident and how it helped you to see things in a different light?

Q1B: Did you have a positive mindset BEFORE the accident, or do you think it came as a result of it?

Q2: Like I just said, I’m always looking for a unique story to share on this podcast, to help all of us to improve our mindset, with an understanding of our brain at the heart of this podcast. BEFORE your TBI, what did you know about your brain?

NOTE: After recording, Ryan let me know that he’s had many influencers that he’s learned from but he learned from AJ Osborne[iii] who 5 years ago was told he was paralyzed from the head down, and they said he would never walk again. He not only re-learned how to walk again, but his company now earns over 300M in Real Estate and he now teaches OTHERS how to achieve financial freedom.

He also learned from Memory and Executive coach Jim Kwik[iv], the author of the book, Limitless.

Q3: For me, this was the most impressive part of your TED Talk, probably the entrepreneur in me, who wants others to find their way, forging their own path with a very soft spot for young entrepreneurs. How did you create a NEW path, thinking with your heart, brain and pure gut instinct while you were recovering?

Q4: Having an idea, and then having your idea generate 7 figures, in 7 months, is mind-boggling. I’m not the best at math, and still have nightmares about it, but that’s $1M right? How did you do this?

Q5: I absolutely love your story, as I caught the entrepreneurial bug when I was in my late 20s, and have never looked back, but I learned a lot from working in the motivational speaking industry and I share a lot of this on the podcast.

Once our mind has been expanded to NEW opportunity, you can only keep moving forward, never backwards. But sometimes when we’ve been working in one place for a long time, it’s difficult to see the amount of opportunity out in the world, especially for young people (before kids take over their lives).

• sold real estate in Dubai, in the middle of the night before the big RE crash.

What advice would you give to a young person starting their career today?

Q6: What is Digital Prodigee? Who is it for?

Q7: I know your story will empower everyone who listens to this episode to think in a different way and provide hope at a time we could all use some. What message would you like to leave as we wrap this up?

For people out there, listening, perhaps in the business world, who want to learn more about your mobile app, is the best place for that your website? https://www.digitalprodigee.com/

Thank you for your time, ideas, and inspiration today, Ryan. I can’t wait to see where you end up in the next 10 years.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

Some final thoughts at the end of this episode, I’m sure you could see that I was inspired by Ryan and his vision as a young entrepreneur. I wish we all could see the vast amount of opportunity in the world, and not get bogged down with doubts and fears when working on something new, or while forging a new path where no one has gone before you. While there are times entrepreneurship, or even leadership can be lonely, Ryan gives many tips for how he found inspiration from those around him. If I was still running the Teen Performance Magazine today, I would have grabbed Ryan Brady for an interview, and although that business idea is long gone today, the soft spot I have in my heart for young people who take the difficult path in life, choosing challenge over fear, is what keeps me moving forward. If you know anyone looking at creating a mobile app, I do hope you look at his company DigitalProdigee as a solution.

 

Will see you next week as we continue to use Neuroscience to explore and take our results to new heights.

FOLLOW RYAN BRADY

LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-brady-14b451157/

Website https://www.digitalprodigee.com/

FOLLOW ANDREA SAMADI: 

YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/AndreaSamadi  

Website https://www.achieveit360.com/ 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samadi/ 

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Achieveit360com  

Neuroscience Meets SEL Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/2975814899101697  

Twitter: https://twitter.com/andreasamadi  

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreasamadi/ 

RESOURCES:

Tim Ferris The Four-Hour Work Week Published December 28, 2008 https://www.amazon.com/4-Hour-Workweek-Anywhere-Expanded-Updated/dp/B0031KN6T8

The Mindset Mentor Podcast with Rob Dial https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-mentor/id1033048640

 

REFERENCES:

[i] Digital Prodigy(Mobile App Company)  https://www.digitalprodigee.com/

[ii] How Traumatic Brain Injuries Can Reveal More Than They Remove with Ryan Brady Published on YouTube July 19, 2021  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDsZx8iqy1w

[iii] The Story of AJ Osborne https://www.instagram.com/p/CjGvKTjoDEG/?hl=en

[iv] Jim Kwik https://www.jimkwik.com/