Chief Change Officer
#107 Athena Brownson: Rebuilding Life and Mindset After an 8-Year Lyme Disease Journey — Part One
Mon, 16 Dec 2024
Part One. At the height of her real estate career, Athena Brownson’s life was derailed by Lyme disease. For eight years, she’s faced chronic pain and intensive treatments, reshaping every part of her world. As Athena puts it, “If life didn’t give us adversity and challenges…” In this episode, she recounts the early days of her diagnosis, the fight to survive, and the harsh realities of living with this poorly understood condition. Tomorrow, in Part 2, Athena will reveal how she turned survival into thriving and rebuilt her career on her own terms. Key Highlights of Our Interview: The Hidden Threat of Lyme Disease “I had no idea what Lyme disease was before I was diagnosed with it. It’s the fastest growing epidemic in the United States, and it can turn life upside down.” From Athlete to Survivor “My life has made a complete 180 from being a professional athlete to just trying to get through each day. It’s a nightmare I wouldn’t wish on anyone.” When Life Becomes a Series of Challenges “It’s hard not to get stuck in the mud when you’re dealing with something so challenging and constant… chronic pain, chronic fatigue, enough to make anyone want to stay in bed and not do anything.” Creating a Toolkit for Every Day “How do we pivot our mentality? How do we create our toolkit of things to get us through each day, even when we don’t want to? Sometimes it’s as simple as blasting favorite music or making a great cup of coffee.” Becoming Your Own Biggest Advocate “With Lyme, I’ve learned that you have to be your own biggest advocate. It’s about mental resilience, surrounding yourself with the right people, and finding those anchors to push forward.” Connect with us: Host: Vince Chan | Guest: Athena Brownson ______________________ --Chief Change Officer-- Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself. Open a World of Deep Human Intelligence for Growth Progressives, Visionary Underdogs, Transformation Gurus & Bold Hearts. 6 Million+ All-Time Downloads. Reaching 80+ Countries Daily. Global Top 3% Podcast. Top 10 US Business. Top 1 US Careers. >>>100,000+ subscribers are outgrowing. Act Today.<<< --Chief Change Officer--Change Ambitiously. Outgrow Yourself.Open a World of Expansive Human Intelligencefor Transformation Gurus, Black Sheep,Unsung Visionaries & Bold Hearts.EdTech Leadership Awards 2025 Finalist.18 Million+ All-Time Downloads.80+ Countries Reached Daily.Global Top 1.5% Podcast.Top 10 US Business.Top 1 US Careers.>>>170,000+ are outgrowing. Act Today.<<<
Chapter 1: What is Athena Brownson's journey with Lyme disease?
Hi, everyone. Welcome to our show, Chief Change Officer. I'm Vince Chan, your ambitious human host. Our show is a modernist community for change progressives in organizational and human transformation from around the world. Today, I'm talking to Athena Bronson, a real estate agent from Denver, Colorado. No, we are not talking about real estate.
Instead, we dive into her extraordinary journey of resilience. At the peak of her real estate career, Feeling invincible and unstoppable, Athena's life took unexpected turn. Strange health issues appeared, and she was eventually diagnosed with Lyme disease, a condition that would change everything. For the past seven years,
Athena has lived in chronic pain, relying on plasma transfusions four days each month just to keep going. Her life has revolved around battling this disease, something she never imagined facing. As she says, if life didn't give us adversity and challenges. This story is too powerful and real for just one episode.
Today, in Part 1, Asena shares her experience with Lyme disease, a condition that remains poorly understood but has profoundly impacted her health. She'll talk about how she caught it, what she's endured, and the fight to survive. Tomorrow in part two, Asina will share how she not only survived, but found ways to thrive, rebuild her support system, and grow her career once again.
Chapter 2: How did Lyme disease change Athena's life?
Athena, welcome to our show. Welcome to Chief Change Officer. I know you're in Denver. Good afternoon to you.
Good afternoon or good morning to you, I should say. Thank you so much for having me. It is a cold, snowy night. It is election night here in Denver, so I am very happy to be here with you.
Chapter 3: What challenges did Athena face as a professional athlete?
I hope this turns out to be an enjoyable conversation that takes your mind off the stress of what's arguably the biggest event in the world right now. So Asena, let's start with your story.
Chapter 4: How did Athena transition from skiing to real estate?
As you mentioned, I am in Denver, Colorado. I was born and raised here in Colorado. I was actually raised in a small mountain town called Breckenridge. For those of you who are skiers or snowboarders, you've probably heard of Breckenridge at some point. Knowing this piece of information, it will set you up for how really my life unfolded because I learned I could walk.
So I believe I was two years old. My dad was a professional skier, and I like to say I didn't even have a chance. He had me on skis from the time I could walk, and at age 15, I ended up going professional at skiing. So at a very young age, I was basically traveling the world skiing about 300 days a year with some of the top coaches in the entire world.
And I always say that skiing is the best business school that I ever could have asked for or could have gone to because skiing truly set the stage for my success in business, which I'll get into a little bit later. And after becoming a professional skier, after I think nine knee surgeries, I decided it was time for me to hang up the skis and go into another field.
I ended up going into the field that I never in a million years thought I would end up in, and that is real estate. Now, I say I never thought I would end up in real estate because, A, I don't think anyone grows up saying, oh, I'm going to be a real estate agent when I grow up. That's just not something you hear very often. But more in the small town that I was raised in, Breckenridge,
There were more real estate offices than t-shirt shops. I grew up thinking real estate was, I had the preconceived notion that it was a little bit corny and there were the kind of used car salesman mentality, even though my dad is a home builder. So I grew up on job sites. I Followed him.
I have very fond but funny memories of going to job sites with him in the freezing cold, watching his projects unfold and develop, and watching the impact that he had on this town. And it was pretty incredible, but it was something that my dad did. Because of that, as a young person, I wanted to make my own path.
I went into interior design after graduating from college, and I was working in the interior design industry, both in Denver and Breckenridge, designing hotels, high-end residences, but I didn't feel that I was being fulfilled. To me, it was a nine-to-five job that I was counting down the hours to get through. I had a dear girlfriend at the time, still one of my best friends.
And she is one of the most successful real estate agents in the country. She is top 1%. Thank you, Charlotte. And I was having dinner with her one evening and she said, Athena, you love people. You love homes. You love design. Why are you not a real estate agent? And I scratched my head. And to be honest, I had never even thought about it. This was 10 years ago that this conversation happened.
And she said, just meet with the owner of my company. I really think that you two would hit it off. You have very similar, like how you do business and how you view people. You're very relational. I really think that you two would hit it off. So I met with the owner of her company actually two days later. And this was a small real estate brokerage in Denver.
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Chapter 5: What are the key lessons Athena learned during her illness?
All of a sudden, I started getting very strange illnesses for a young, healthy person. And I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. And Lyme disease, unfortunately for me, took out my immune system and caused multiple autoimmune diseases. So the last seven years of my life have been, first of all, I don't even remember what it's like to feel okay. I live in constant chronic pain.
I get plasma transfusions four days every month. My world pretty much revolves around trying to stay alive and trying to fight this really horrific disease that never in a million years I thought I would get. And I like to say that if life did not give us adversity and challenges, we would never have the opportunity for growth. But man, I would not wish this way of growing on anyone.
But that's where I am. I run a successful team at Compass here in Denver. I still love real estate as much as I did on day one, if not more. love the people i work with and through this journey i have learned so many incredible things that i'm excited to share with you but it has come through adversity and through fighting every single day to keep going because there are most days i don't want to
And to be able to have a career for me, real estate, that is something I'm so passionate about and is my why. I work with people that I love, that I built lifelong relationships with and helping them to really buy and sell a home is the biggest transaction you do in your life. And to be a part of people's lives in that way and a part of
each chapter through home, that's my why and it keeps me getting out of bed even when I don't want to. So it's really been an evolution of understanding what my why is and building my toolkit for continuing forward even when I don't want to.
That's so much. We can dive into here. Athena, can you share with us how old were you when you were first diagnosed?
So I was 25 years old and that's when I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. I am not actually sure when I was bit. So the way you get Lyme disease is a tick bite. I personally have never even seen a tick. We don't have a ton of ticks in Colorado, but as a professional skier, I was traveling globally and I was in heavily wooded areas. So at some point, I was bit by a tick.
That tick was carrying Lyme disease along with two other co-infections that I am also fighting. And... Lyme is interesting as it lays dormant in your system until something weakens your immune system and it can come out and take over. For me, I ended up having neck surgery. I broke my neck skiing and my immune system took a hit from having neck surgery.
It was weekend, and that's when all of my symptoms started to act up with Lyme disease. And I was really fortunate that a doctor knew a lot about Lyme disease. It's something that is a little bit new in the medical field. There's not a ton of doctors that are very Lyme literate, I like to say. And I was very fortunate to be diagnosed immediately.
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Chapter 6: What is the importance of advocacy in dealing with Lyme disease?
You mentioned that this disease is rare and you were fortunate to find a doctor who understood it well. But for most of my listeners in the U.S. as well as internationally, this condition isn't widely known, meaning there's a lack of awareness, which could be risky. Could you enlighten us a bit more? What exactly is this disease and what should people know about it?
I would love nothing more. And I was in the same boat. I had no idea what Lyme disease was before I was diagnosed with it. In fact, when my doctor suggested that we do testing for it, I laughed because I was so unaware of Lyme disease. And I also was very naive to how significant it is. So Lyme disease is interesting because it affects everyone differently.
So depending on what you're genetically predisposed to, whatever your genetic weaknesses are, Lyme attacks that. So for some people that can be myalgia or rheumatoid arthritis, a multitude of autoimmune diseases like I have. I have an autoimmune disease where my body attacks my nerves. So that's why I'm in pain all the time because my own body is attacking my nerves.
It can look like psychiatric issues for some people. It can range from such a variety of symptoms that that's what makes it difficult to diagnose. However, Lyme is the fastest growing epidemic in the United States right now. So the number of people that are contracting Lyme from a tick, like I said, You get it from being bit by a tick.
And if you are aware that you're bit by a tick immediately, you should go to the doctor. You'll usually see a red ring around the bite if it is carrying a disease. But I would say if you get bit by a tick, just go to the doctor because they can give you a short cycle of antibiotics and you'll never deal with it again.
It's cases like mine where you don't know that you were bit, so it lays dormant in your system. And then when you least expect it, no one ever expects all of a sudden to start having the horrific symptoms. My life has made a complete 180 from being a professional athlete to trying to get myself through each day. It's a nightmare I wouldn't wish on anyone.
Now it's taught me more in life than I think anything ever could, but... People should be very aware that if you're in a heavily wooded area and there are ticks present, you should be aware of protecting yourself with long sleeves. They make tick repellent sprays.
And if you do get bit, to go to the doctor because chronic Lyme disease, which is what stays for a long time, is a very difficult disease. disease to navigate. So if you know that you got bit and you can take a couple weeks of antibiotics, then you'll never deal with it again. But unfortunately, that's usually not the case.
Most people, I believe 70% of people with Lyme disease have no idea when or where they were bit.
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