Barbara Majeski
Appearances
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
So much crazy goes on from this because at the end of the day, six months later, after getting that award, I got diagnosed with stage three colon cancer.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Absolutely. And at the time, the company had no real alignment with charitable giving, believe it or not. People did their individual thing, but they hadn't collectively come together. And it was still a growing... I mean, now that was to 2007, 2008, 2009. I could probably look at the award and read the date, but...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
that was almost 20 years ago a long time ago god's a long time ago and really the culture of this generation is very philanthropic so i had kind of come in at the right time and was willing to champion this
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
um this cause and bring people together and i think people are very drawn to um humanitarian work and giving back and this alignment without being too like inconvenienced or put out and i think it be i made it a lot of fun that was another thing like i read my audience i knew who i was catering to and i was like listen let's do some softball games some volleyball games a fundraiser you know bowling
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
um pool nights whatever it just became like who can put together the most fun fundraiser and team night or whatever um pizza night so it just was injunction because it was a young young company um with there was a lot there was a lot of there was a lot of dollar for dollar here this wasn't like people stroking checks for 100 grand i mean you were you were grinding it out I was grinding it out.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
It was like make a little money off a lot of people kind of thing. And yeah, instead of people writing checks, really integrating philanthropy into their business instead of like, just check this box and give a dollar, but really talk about the philanthropy, the work that they do, why we're choosing this one. And I think just I was on, I was in the...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
My newsfeed is hysterical right now with the memes and the, you know, it's all good. But at least it's done, you know.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I was I think I was on message with this right generation and they really took the ball and ran with it. But I was very passionate. And then like the nuances of figuring out administratively how to organize this took a little that got a little hairy. Yeah. Where do you send the money? And like, how does this all go? But again, like you reverse engineer and you figure it out.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And that is the blessing of growing up Schwartz is you and growing up with a special needs brother and a bit of a chaotic home.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
100%. And not only that, it's like, figure the F out, like, make it work. You've got to figure things out. Like, you can't just walk away like with a special needs sibling. You've got to figure things out on the spot, you have to be resilient, you have to be creative, and you have to have that, I'm going to make this happen, I'm going to make it work. And that kind of fortitude, resilience,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I'm just curious. 19, 20, and 13.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Well, you need to know it's on the heels of my marriage falling apart. So I... Oh, so bonus.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
It's funny because I'm like, you know, oh my goodness, like I need to... Let's back into that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Somewhere in between. It was definitely like out of an old soap opera and I didn't see it coming. It was more on his, his end. And it was, it just ended in a, like a dumpster fire blaze of glory that I was very blindsided by of like, Oh, not plan for this. And as I'm kind of, you know, recalibrating for my new normal, I get this, this,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
cancer diagnosis and i can remember the doctor telling me and i'm like in such denial i'm like i really don't have the bandwidth for this diagnosis right now not a good time but it's not a good time for this not a good time for this um my my husband at the time was um very good through it we were in marriage therapy i was in chemotherapy i mean i did um all the things and it was and my kids were young i mean two out of my three kids still believed in the tooth fairy and santa claus
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
um that's young to be diagnosed and um were the doctors telling you like get your stuff in order i mean was it that kind of that kind of diagnosis it was like we're going to see where we're at or they're saying you're going to beat this like where was your head based on the information you're getting stage three is a dicey one but it's better than stage four um they were they i have had very strong odds for sure but there's
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I had great odds. I think, you know, anything that's not stage four, I think I had great, great her odds of survivorship. Um, so it was more of like, don't get, you just get, get down to the work. Like I was like, I don't want to do chemo. And they're like, you know, that's, it's like a non negotiable. You got to have surgery, you got to have six months of chemo.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And you're I was young, I just finished the New York City marathon like the year before. I mean, I was not. I just wasn't really I was like, I did all the right things like this is very rude. And but the universe is always conspiring in your favor. When you can get through something there's in your favor. I like that. In a very serendipitous way.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
It's true. I mean, you've got to find what, you know, what speaks to you and pick your team, like get your jersey on, get in the game. But, you know, some people are indifferent. They're not really affected by the ebbs and flows of politics. So I can understand there have been elections in my youth that I was very meh about. So this one was a little deeper for sure.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I think I needed to, you grow through what you go through. I needed that in my life and the timing was crazy and it wasn't easy or fun, but it really allows you to take a good hard look at
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
at your life and what you want and who you are and how are you going to live your very best life like you're the master of your own destiny this is like you're in charge and it did i mean being confronted with your own mortality does give you this all right How do I live out the next best? If I get another shot and I survive cancer, what am I doing with it?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
How am I living at the highest expression of myself? Chemo and me, we were no bueno. I did not do well in chemo. I got violently ill. And there was a moment where I was like, what if I don't make it? Like in the beginning, I'm like, I've got this. And I looked up the statistics and I'm like, if she survived this, I can survive that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And then about on my eighth or ninth round of chemo, I was like, I need to take stock of this situation and get real with myself because this really does suck. And I had a funny revelation in that I was like, if I don't make this, what do I want my kids to remember about me? And I started reflecting on all these things. The Humanitarian Award is one of them. I put myself through college.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I started a business. I was part of a startup that ultimately scaled, did very well with that. I wanted them to know certain things. And I thought through that, I was like, oh, everything that I'm proud of that I want my kids to remember, I wanted to quit. Like putting myself through college was brutal, horrible. The startup I was part of, I went door to door selling telecommunications.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I mean, it was really hard and we scaled it from there, but I always wanted to quit. And whenever I wanted to quit, I thought if I quit, I can't take care of Steven. Even when I was doing the fundraising for the humanitarian work, I was like, this is really hard. It wasn't going as quickly and expeditiously as I had envisioned. There was the nuance that I talked about earlier.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And with administration, I was like, oh, this is a beast. I hadn't really calculated for, but anytime I wanted to quit, I was like, what about Steven? You got to make it work. So in that moment, I realized, wow, I'm so fortunate to have Steven to take care of because otherwise I would have quit all these great things.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And it was at that same moment, I was like, it was never really me taking care of Steven as much as it was Steven who was taking care of me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I never. When that post went up... I'm still shook over that one. I got to be honest. That one does not math for me. The math is not math. No.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Amen.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Well, like you said, you test high on resiliency. So your perception of maybe what you've tried, you've had to overcome, figure out, transverse is probably minimized in your own perception because you're like, I just have to, I've got to get, I'm getting through this. I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to make it happen. So there's that, that makes sense to me that you're saying that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I'm like,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Absolutely. Absolutely. So I, you know, I'm really coming to grips with my own mortality as I'm like getting through the end of chemo and recognizing that I was given like this great gift, like the gift of purpose. I was given no backdoor, no quit, figure it out, make it work. Because if you don't, your brother is going to be institutionalized.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
If I don't figure out how to make personal wealth and I don't figure out how to do well for myself and I don't make this, my brother's going to be an award of the state. Get your head out of your rear end and figure it out. Recognizing that I had been gifted such a
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
you know an immeasurable gift really i said to myself i'm like if i survive cancer i will never play small again i will forever use my voice to speak for those who can't speak for themselves i that is what i was meant to do it wasn't just a vow to stephen that i would speak for him but i'm supposed to use and amplify my voice to give a voice to others and
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
When I got to the other side of cancer, I remember thinking, I was like, okay. And I was sitting in this very seat. I'm like, all right, Babs. Babs is my badass bitch self, B-A-B-S. I'm like, all right, Babs.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
What are you going to do with your badass self? And I'm like, I think I want to go on television. I literally was like, you know, I think I need, I need a bigger platform. I need more exposure. I need, I need to get back out there again and do something. And mind you, I'd never done television. And I was like, okay, I'll go on TV. Okay. So like you're doing your vision board. I wrote it down.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I was like, I want to be on the today show. Life is so funny. I wrote down, I want to be on the Today Show. This is a girl with a degree in community health education who was a door-to-door sales girl who scaled sales teams and randomly decided to run a fundraiser and do fundraising. Nowhere in this resume of Barbara Majewski does it read television personality.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
But I'm like, I'm 43 now and now I would like to be a television personality.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
You would think so. But see, I just reframed all of it and I was like, I don't know unless you go. Like I have a very great way to kind of
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
talk myself into stuff of like you don't know unless you go and unless you try things so and ever like I'm sure that went through my head like who do I think I am and like all that like you're in your 40s nobody wants like everybody wants everyone in their 20s but I was like listen I don't know that I have to I'd rather take a no than an I don't know and I just love that Right.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Like I'd rather just be told you're too old as opposed to me assuming that or you're not a match for us. And it's been unbelievable. So here's the serendipity. Again, I write down that I want to be on the Today Show. I go and I'm like, well, I guess how do you be on TV? You have to go back to school and learn how to be in television or you go hire a media trainer.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
So I end up on Instagram and I find this media trainer. And so I DM her and I'm like, you don't even know what to say to people. Or no, I didn't. I picked up the phone and I called her. But let me just tell you, I wrote her name down for a good month before I could find the chops to be like, hey, like, yeah, I don't know. I was a little nervous.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yes. You have to come up with your word. So we're on the phone. I'm on the phone with our assistant. She goes, I like the sound of your voice. And she goes, what's your name? I said, Barbara Majewski. She enters my name into the computer and a Google search comes up. And at this time, I'm not Google searchable except for one thing. I want a humanitarian word where I spoke on stage.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
That's the only thing that got me in the door. So Amy Rosenblum grabs the phone from her assistant. She goes, you do public speaking? I'm like, yeah, I'll speak. I don't care. I'll do whatever. She goes, I want you in here this week. I'd love to meet you. I go in to meet her. She's the former executive producer of the Today Show.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
My very first booking after going through training was the Today Show. And if you Google, you see I've been on there several, several times. That's awesome. But the message in this is like, then recently I read the Go-Giver and it's such a good book. I didn't do that humanitarian work so that I could get access to the Today Show. I did it because it was the right thing to do.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yes. So it looks like you've done your your homework. So I appreciate that. That's great. And yes, I grew up in New Jersey. And I'm one of two sets of twins. My my I have a twin brother, I have younger twin brothers. So we're one of two sets and my mom's a triplet. So it runs in the family now. God gives you, you can handle. And God made sure I just had three separate ones.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And if sometimes when you're lost and escaping the drift, I think this is super important. Live a life of service, live a life of giving back. And when you're lost in the sauce, Can you go to that space of how can I use my experiences to help others and get out of my own way and start getting more clarity and more gratitude?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Because that humanitarian award not only led me to the Today Show in a very funny way, I had gotten that award with Johnson & Johnson. They were the corporate humanitarian award. When I was diagnosed with cancer, The CEO, Alex Gorski, his assistant, Danielle, saw because I'd posted on Facebook that I had cancer.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And she called me and said, Alex Gorski, the CEO of Johnson & Johnson, thank you, was like, whatever you need, Johnson & Johnson is right there. Wow. I was like, well, now I can't die because I got Johnson & Johnson.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I couldn't even like, I was like, oh, this is, I mean, so again, like you're, you know, escaping the drift and understanding like, you know, we all go adrift and we all get lost in the sauce. Sometimes we just have to go back to how can I live a life of service? How can I give back and serve those people
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
at a space that resonates for me because we all have certain experiences and maybe it is getting tasered in the eye where you learn how to serve and help others through that. It's it, it, there's so many layers to it. So, um, yeah. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
100%, the more you give, the more you get, which is so cliche, but it is so karmically real. And I remember hearing about this group of kids in like a very urban area, very poor area, and they were always taking handouts. And this teacher came in and was like, we're gonna go ahead and help others in the community.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
and so they reversed it and it ended up really empowering them and it was just a game changer for the trajectory of their life so always remember you do have gifts and you are you are we're meant to live a life of service we're meant to use our gifts to serve and help others and i think that's what's always really rerouted me um at all times of like i gotta get back to um i gotta get back to what i'm gonna most feel my legacy is about
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
So I do not have twins.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
just i i identify with what you're talking about so much because i do feel that you know you can't change what's going on that crying falling apart have your moment have your moment and then proceed you know it's not going to change anything what's the great quote um You can't control the waves, but you can learn how to surf.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And just being able to understand, like taking inventory of what you have control over and you don't have control over. You have control over your attitude, your work ethic, and your intention of what you're working towards. Focus on those things and the rest will fall into place. And I do feel, I read J.D. Vance's book. This is where my- Amazing.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I read it early on. Did you read it when it first came out?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
It's incredible. Amazing. And the takeaway, and I'm sure this will align with you, resonate with you, my takeaway now i read it when it first came out i don't know when that was um but the takeaway is what he figured out in living growing up in appalachia is that there was a systemic mindset that it was never their fault so if they got fired from a
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
three years i'm the older and i'm the oldest of the twin set which is very important in twin world and um the younger set is three years younger the interesting part is that both pregnancies they told my mother she was having one and two came out
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
job even though they were always late or they never showed up on time or they didn't they were no call no show when they ultimately got fired everyone had the same narrative like the it was their fault and you know who do they think they are and like and everybody fed into this narrative and for whatever reason jd vance was able to look at that because he was able to say well you you
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
you kind of sucked as an employee and you got fired and i remember this like i like i read it yesterday thinking wow that is like so profound and being able to say you know what i'm the master of my own destiny if i constantly blame everyone else i'm never going to solve the i'm never going to solve problems
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
It is such a great message to really start saying, I'm like, where, what could you have done better? You know, where can you take accountability? And I think this next generation is definitely struggling with that because there's very much like this oppressor and victim and the oppressed. And like, you've got to fall in that paradigm. You can, you know, which is not serving this generation at all.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Like you gotta, everybody's gotta be a victim. Otherwise they're the oppressor. These are your options. Well, I don't want to be an oppressor.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
i know you have this i know you have this 14 day 14 day accountability plan people can get talk to me about that i'm just curious yeah no i oh i love doing it there three w's the water walking and writing it's just a great i do resets for people of like all right let's get organized like when you're you're drifting out to see where are the best places to start well for me it's always grab the pen
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Grab the notebook and let's start getting organized. And I think when you do things with a team, it makes it that much more accountable. It's like, all right, we're going to do this together. I need to see your post and your steps. And it's just these three W's that really do get you to a better place. There's nothing like walking. Walking is...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Hands down the best exercise that anybody on earth can do. 10,000 steps a day easily. And when you start getting like conscientious, right?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
You're going to hit it because now it's, you know.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yeah. I think all of us do drift and I'm like, all right, let's do a reset. I want you to do in 10,000 steps a day, you're going to drink water, you're going to walk and you're going to write for 14 straight days. And each day I go live and I talk about different things in personal development and help them help organize thoughts. So it's great. It's easy. It's manageable.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
It's not like a, you know, 75 hard, I think is amazing, but so many people don't complete it. And it just validates these storylines in ourselves of like, I'm a failure. I don't finish what I start. Whereas I'm like, this is something you're going to start and you're going to finish and you're probably going to do it again.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Um, so I'm really big on helping people take, take those steps, those incremental steps to optimizing themselves.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yeah, so twins run in our family as well as a condition known as fragile X, which is a lot like Down syndrome. It's a genetically inherited form of neurological impairment. And I always like refer to my childhood as growing up Schwartz because it was just so like chaotic and funny. But it was also during a time which special needs was more of like, you were kind of an outcast. You were shunned.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
um but yeah it's just about having a routine that works for you so is the more life collective is the 14 day account is like the first step of getting into that or let's talk about that what is more like yes you know i have these um accountability challenges in the more life collective and it was just something i started to help other people i felt like i was getting the same questions over and over again of like i am just lost in the sauce i don't know what i want i don't know where i'm going i don't know who i am
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I'm bordering on depression. I've gained weight. I'm not optimized. I'm not living my best life and I don't even know where to start. And I think a lot of people get, we get by the Stairmaster or by the gym membership or by the supplement and you're sold the outcomes, and there's this gap between building the habits, building the patterns, the neuromuscular pathways of automating good habits.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And I realized that I'm like, like my mother used to buy like Weight Watchers memberships and gym memberships. And then they would just, her goals would never materialize because there's a gap between making the purchase and getting the results and it's the doing.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
So I really wanted to focus on that middle ground, that the doing part and not have people invest in another Peloton or Stairmaster or weight loss supplement or fitness, blah, blah, blah. I wanted to teach people that how not just the why, you know, your why you want to look good, you want to be fit all the time. I want to give you the how I like that was my jam.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
That's been my jam of like, let me give you that. Let me help you just stop buying things to get the things you got to do the things to get the things. So I start that more like collectivist do the things to get the things you can't just buy it. So there's nothing in my program to really buy except the 14 day accountability. I sometimes I do them live. They are some of them are automated.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I haven't done one in a while. I really wanted to get through this election.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I need to do Christmas and like the holidays.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Some of the meltdowns I like. Some of the meltdowns are disruptive. But I was like, okay.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Um, 100%. And in my programs, what I do every once in a while, if I do like a 90 day or whatever, I incorporate, I encourage people to do like coffee walks. Like instead of meeting your friend for coffee, grab a coffee and go for a walk. And there is no bad weather. There's only bad clothing. So don't tell me it rained. I don't care. I walked in chemo in the rain. Cause that was my vice of like,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
i can't work out because the nausea but i can walk and walking help the nausea but um it's so true you've got to make it work for you and this is why i do love 75 hard for all those that need just a massive reset and discipline and to get you know get themselves what reorganize and that's their jam but my my big problem is it kind of sets up a lot of people for failure because it's just so not sustainable
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
People were like, oh, I'm so sorry. The schools weren't...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
you can't that's just not very i mean i don't know who else i don't i don't want to work out twice a day i need showering twice a day i'm like if i i can't even like now but um i like to set things up like you um that are sustainable realistic enjoyable um and i almost like tricked myself in to do it and the best thing is for people who just can't get out of their own way and they're like
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
very efficient with how to handle it they didn't even know what to do like now it's just light and day they from the get-go you're really taught a trade as opposed to back in the 80s the 70s 80s it was just like he was doing it was just not that great they had a special ed class but it wasn't as what it is today um but i would also think that that time of growing up when things were a little less when people were a little less empathetic especially kids younger kids
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I agreed. And finding out what that is. And they've got some great, who is it? Brian, who I'm forgetting his name right in this moment. But he gives us a great piece of advice, like write 10 things down and then circle the one that most sticks out for you that you want to accomplish over the next six months, over the year, whatever that might be. And then focus all your energy towards it.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Again, reverse engineering of like, what you want. And, um, it's amazing what you can get done and what you can accomplish when you start putting your mind towards something, but it does, it starts getting, it starts with getting clear on, you know, what does this life look like to you? And, um, you know, for anybody that's listening, that just is like, I had no idea.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
One thing that I always love telling people to do, I don't know if I have something good over here to show, but, um,
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
i'll have people like okay do that this is my one activity i'm like go to the bookstore go to the magazine section and go buy five magazines whether it's travel or homes or diy or i don't know what is your let the magazines come to you get lost in the magazine section buy five or six whatever you want take them home start cutting out pictures start getting those visuals like i don't know this is
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Like, look, I don't know. Maybe you want to be a size zero. I don't know. Maybe you want to go hiking, you know, go hike in the Himalayas and start creating this like vision board for yourself. Maybe it's a house. Maybe it's vacations. You know, life was meant to be lived. There's nothing you can't have if you're willing to do the work.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yeah, I think. And there's nothing wrong. Things were meant to be experienced. I think we try to put things, oh, well, that's materialistic. I'm like, we were meant to enjoy the fruits of life, the big things in life. And my dad is crazy. Again, growing up, Schwartz would take us to Ferrari dealerships.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
we were live we had a van and we were living at my uncle's house in california and he would take us to newport beach to go look at ferraris and his i know i know i know the dealership yeah like can you imagine we'd park our little you know dank van around the corner that had no seats in it and go with my special needs brother and go look at ferraris and my dad would say because i was like we don't even have a place to live right now and we're driving around a van but yet
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Here we are looking at Testa Rosas, but okay. His philosophy was someone has to buy these. You just have to figure out what they did to get what they have and do those things. That's it. He's like, it wasn't like they're just gifted or they must be nice or who do they think? My dad had a very clear way of making a very simple, Someone's got to buy it. Someone figured it out.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I can imagine. Yeah.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
You just have to do what they did to get what they have. And because he never put it on like they inherited or they were lucky, it was that nothing to do. It had everything to do with do the things to get the things. do the things to get the things. And that's where, why I ended up in entrepreneurship and building and scaling a business and why I do the things and then get, you wanna be on TV?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Do the things that are gonna get you on TV. Don't wait for television to come to you. Don't wait, the Porsche isn't coming to you. Do the things to get the things.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yes. So, I mean, I could have taken that wedding ring and done a lot of things. It was a pretty nice ring, but I took my, sold my wedding ring. You did your due diligence and yes, sold my wedding ring. And I put that towards me, me, like a media trainer. And I was, have been like all in on how do I, what is, what does it mean for me, Barbara Majewski to live her best life?
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And I've, I've just, and we all have different iterations of our lives.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
what we have that what we want at any given time so it's just it's been fun to be part of the journey of like now i'm looking at getting a realtor's license going back to law school like to me nothing is off the table i just don't i don't care how old i am i just feel like not if i want to do it and if i'm willing to do the work there's nothing i can't do
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
i just have to do the work and i did take a flight lesson to learn how to become a pilot and i wanted to sleep the second i got into the air and i was like piloting is not for me but dude i love that my business partner and my wife is so funny
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Well, there's just this crazy incident that happened when I was six. So I'm six. My twin brother and I are six. The younger set is three. And I'm giving the younger set a bath. Why a six-year-old is giving three-year-old twins a bath? This is the 1970s, everybody. So this is okay back then.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Barbara Majewski.com or Instagram at Barbara Majewski. I think it's the same for TikTok. And yeah, those are the best places to find me. I'm a little more sassy on Twitter. So don't look me up there.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And I was like the mother's helper. And I felt like these were my little baby dolls and you only put the water six inches high, whatever. And I'm playing patty cake with Michael. And I, you know, I always preferred playing with Michael patty cake. Cause Steven is motor skills. Weren't there. Believe it or not. I can remember that.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
But I turned to play patty cake with Steven and he was just laying on the side of the bathtub. And I didn't understand what was going on. I was like, Steven, let's play patty cake. And he was not responding. So I called downstairs and my mother came up, my father came up. It ended up being a big scene. What my brother had was a seizure.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
So I took him out of the bath and ran him to Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I didn't see him again for almost two months. He ended up stop eating, he slipped into a coma, and I was just six years old waiting for somebody to bring home one of my baby dolls. The twins were mine. They were in my life. They belonged to me.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And before Stephen came home, my mother sat my twin brother and I down and she said, the good news is Stephen's coming home, but you have to be kind to him. He moves slower. And it was at that time they had realized that he had had neurological deficits. They realized in the 90s it was a genetic disorder, but until that point, they had felt that his delayed development was...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
like due to incidents or we they didn't really know but the fragile x wasn't uncovered until the 90s so my mother says stephen will likely never be able to speak um and i remember saying and this is the serendipity of it i said i said i don't i'll speak for him i said he'll never need to speak i got it i got it like just bring him home
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
and i'll take care of him and you know as as crazy as that is it has definitely been um my my moral compass my okay i gotta redirect you know how do i get myself aligned with my purpose my calling and there's just been time and time again when i'm lost in the sauce and i'm very reflective of
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
giving a voice to Stephen, giving a voice to those who can't speak for themselves, using my gifts in service of others. So I think it very much shaped the decisions that I ultimately made, if that makes any sense.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
You know, that's such a good question. And because it all does hinge on the fact that, you know, I knew, like, so I had gone on a...
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
results for operation smile which fixes cleft lips and cleft palates yeah children in parts of the world that won't have access to it and i had gone on a humanitarian mission there's so much to this story but i'll try i'm just going to keep it right here um so i went on we're not in a hurry to be we're not in a hurry to be anywhere
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
The funny part of this story, because it's in alignment with the election, total sidebar. So I had gotten a postcard in the mail for Operation Smile, and it was to meet the founders. And I was like, oh, my God, meet the founders of Operation Smile. I would love to. So I show up. I knock on this door. It's the dead of winter. And Donald Trump Jr. opens the door.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And I'm like, and it's in the middle of The Apprentice. And I'm like, oh, where did I just go? Because this is supposed to be my friend's house. Like, I don't understand.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
This has to be 2007 or 8. All right.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Well, now I do.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yeah. I'm in the mix of apprentice season. So I know. That's so funny. See all roads. And anyway, so. I ended up going to this, um, aberration smile at home meeting, learned more about it. I went on a mission after that. And when I came back from the mission on the flight back, I was like, I can do more. And I'll tell you, there were three rooms on this mission site.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
And at the end of like evaluation, parents were brought into one of these three rooms, um, room one and two they find out about pre-surgery post-surgery and that their kid is qualified for the surgery and remember these are life-changing surgeries here in the united states yeah it's a game changer and room three, something didn't, the dots didn't line up and they don't qualify for the surgery.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
They have to come back the next time. And you would see these parents leave the room and it was awful. And I asked our host on the flight back, I said, what happens to room three? What happens to the families? And she said, as long as we keep sponsoring these missions, we'll go back and we'll take care of them the next time around.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Because these kids could get the kibosh even if they have like a 99 degree fever. Like they take no risks.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Yeah. So I'm like, okay. I'm like, well, I would like to, how do you sponsor a mission? Because Colgate had sponsored ours for $150,000. And I was like, well, I'll raise $150,000. I'd never done that before. But I was like, well, I'll just figure it out.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
you kind of reverse engineer and i've learned that through different iterations of my life of like all right where do you want to go what do you want get clear on your destination and then you got to reverse engineer i'm like all right well how do people do it so i kind of was like i'm doing it i'm all in and um the the thought in the back of my mind that you'll appreciate is that what if that was stephen
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
what if my brother needed a sister it didn't have one what if steven it was like the stevens of the world were kind of saying hey you've got a really big mouth you've got great connections i had um i'd been part of a um sales company that had scaled and i had epic amounts of connections and i was one of the startups so i knew everyone and i was like i think i can leverage my previous
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
work experience and my connections to raise this money. So it ended up just kind of going from there of, all right, I'll figure it out. And I'll, you know, it's just like that quote, quote and frozen, like just do the next right thing, like take the next right step.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
So ultimately I, you know, I've raised the first $150,000 and this is where like the go-giver book is so good and everybody needs to read it. I really did that mission out of the goodness of my heart. I was like, I need to take care of the Stevens of the world. I need to use my voice for those who can't speak for themselves. And
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
the serendipity of it is soon as we qualified for that next mission, five of my, my friends that helped me raise the money went on the mission. They come back. They're like, we didn't raise enough money. They start hosting fundraisers. The thing starts taking off. Um, like, like it was called an adopt a smile campaign.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
Next thing you know, I'm raising hundreds of thousands of dollars and they call me and they're like, you've, you deserve our humanitarian of the year award. Yeah. So much crazy goes on from this because at the end of the day, six months later, after getting that award, I got diagnosed with stage three colon cancer.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
That's the thing is that you schedule things far enough in advance, whether it's a trip, a humanitarian mission, a goal, you put a deadline on it, you'll start working around it. It's never easy. It's never convenient. There's oftentimes better things that you can be doing with your time in your mind. You're like, oh my God, this is going to be, I'm going to work
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
for free, but it was something that was something I really had said that I was gonna do in this lifetime. That was something I kind of said, you know, I wonder, I need to kind of get out of my own echo chambers, my own, you know, recirculated air and really see how, you know, see a third world country.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
So it's never easy, but if it's on your list of things to do and you write it down and you schedule it, you will work around it. But it's got to be on your list. I talk so much. I have it sitting actually right here. Like I talk so much about journaling and writing things down. And you just talked about Jesse Itzler.
Escaping the Drift with John Gafford
Finding Purpose Amidst Life's Challenges with Barbara Majeski
I can't begin to tell you the things that have come to fruition for me, probably my whole life. Just like the subconscious mind has no sense of humor. So what you put in there will start working towards it. So that, yeah, it's never easy. It's never convenient.