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​Transcript
[0:03] And we are live on the pirate broadcasts and it's a wonderful day.
And it and we're getting close to wrapping up two thousand nineteen going into a new decade a new time and this is your opportunity to change adapt,
and overcome the odds and today we're going to be talking about Oleg and his story and how he ended up here.
Well he's not here because he's in Austin Texas and we're we're connected on LinkedIn.
And if you're watching this on YouTube or Facebook or Linked In leave some comments.
Love to engage with you and thank you all the gratitude in the world for you being here.
You know you can always follow us at the at Russ Johns and Oleg. Good morning.
Thank you so much for being here today.
How are you and what's happening today.

[0:55] Thank you so much. Thank you for having me on the show to begin with.
I'm doing well. Like I said before like you said before I'm in Austin Texas right now for a couple more hours before I depart to Orlando to go celebrate Christmas and all the other holidays with my family there.
But you know it's been a very phenomenal journey to get to this point so I love.
I love this opportunity to be able to dive more into it and be able to understand it from possibly a lens that I haven't seen it before and so I really appreciate platforms like yours that give us the opportunity and the space to do so.

[1:31] Well it's really interesting because I know a little bit about your story and we've talking or in the one thing that I want to really leave with the audience you know the whole point of the pilot broadcast is interviewing interesting people doing interesting things.
And you know we all have our challenges we all have some of the things that we need to work through and.

[1:54] You'll discover in our lives and you know part of our life is discovering who we are and what we need to be and what our gifts are to the rest of the world.
And I think that the individuals like yourself that have to go through trials and tribulations you know change and challenges.
It really helps define what you know and enjoy and what you want to move away from.
Or You're either moving to something or you're moving away from something.
And talk a little bit about those that don't know you how you have you moved away from something and where you're headed to.

[2:34] Mm hmm. It's a great point that you bring up as far as moving away and moving to something. So for those that are not familiar.
My story is that I was born in a foreign country as you might have been able to tell by my first name.
I was born in Russia and had lived there for my first twelve years of my life.

[2:54] It was during those twelve years that I had experienced a different set of events when it came when it came to really just being brought up in a family that I didn't really have a mother mother,
from my very own age and what I mean by that is my mom was an alcoholic.

[3:10] And so when you when you're faced with a.
Obstacle like that. What it forces what it forced me to do as a child was really figure out.
Well where do I get that carrying and everything that a mom provides.
Who else do I look up to. Where do I get those elements when I really needed the most.
As a young child and so the reason why I choose to share that story is exactly like you said it is to paint a picture of where I was.
But ultimately what I want to.
For anyone to take away from this particular episode is where I'm going and where they could go because like you said we've all experienced difficult circumstances within our within our lives.
But I think what's important to understand is that our past doesn't have to define our present and it doesn't have to define our future.
We do have a choice as far as when it comes to the direction that we take within our own lives and the choices that we make ultimately shape any of those plans. Any of those visions that we have.
So for me being adopted this is fast forward to when I was 12 years old,
and coming here to the States in 2005 not speaking any English or barely enough maybe knowing just a handful of words to communicate through and the rest was depend dependent on my ability to communicate through a paper dictionary.

[4:36] So there are a lot of challenges that I had to overcome.
But if there was anything that I've learned along this journey it is that if you truly set your mind to it you can achieve anything that you it is that you envision.
And I don't think my case is any different. I think that the choices that I made along the way in order to help me reframe and reshape the way that I view a lot of these events and choose to view them have really helped me tremendously as far as developing this mindset,
of an individual who believed in himself and who develop drive and persistence over time to get through whatever the obstacle may be in front of me.

[5:16] Well you know it's interesting because.
Yeah you know it's every day as a gift is the way I look at it.
And you have a choice when you get up in the day and you start moving around and you you you discover OK am I where I want to be and what changes can I take.
You know part of in my own direction how can I be responsible for my own actions today to make my future a little better than what I want or what I need or what I have.
You know and so it's really important for people understand that it's like you know.

[5:54] Yeah. It really was not a nurturing kind environment that you were in.

[6:01] And even though that was the truth and that was the circumstance at that point in time that did not define or limit who you're becoming in the future.
Now I just wanna make sure that people understand that if you're stuck if you're if you're in the middle of something where it's really difficult,
I just you know I want you to realize that just like Oleg there's there is a way and a method you can you can move forward.
It has to come from a mindset.
And then what was the mindset that you had to develop in and what have you what have you crafted in terms of you know habits or systems or thought processes that allow you to continue to grow and evolve.

[6:48] Mm hmm. Well I think one of the first things that has helped me and continues to help me is my belief in myself.
I firmly believe that I have whatever it takes at any given moment even at moments where I don't have the information available to me to make whatever possible decision.
I I've just believed in myself deep enough.
And I've also understood that the path to achieving whatever it is that I envision simply begins with a start I don't need to know the how I don't need to know all the steps I just need you know where to start.
Yeah. And most times it is a slightly different journey from what you envisioned in your mind as far as accomplishing whatever is always different.
It is always different. Exactly but as long as you understand that all you have to do is just start.
And then that you figure out the how is you go. And that's really what helped me as part of this journey of quote unquote overcoming odds is just understanding that you already have what it takes.
You have all the tools you have the inner belief within you that helped you get through whatever challenges.
And then the other part that I've learned that has had a huge impact on me as far as a habit is being able to take a step back and reflect upon some of the other challenges.

[8:12] And I'll continue to remind myself that I've experienced challenges before and yet I'm still here so I'm still here looking at the challenges in a historical way exactly like I am.

[8:27] This is another circumstance almost like that other circumstance I made it through that I can make it through this.

[8:34] Yeah. And just constantly reminding myself that there was a quote that I read a long time ago I don't remember exactly who said it but it said something along the lines of,
all of the obstacles and challenges are temporary and that there is always a rainbow at the end of the story.
And that's the one thing that always carries me is that there's always a rainbow at the end of every storm that you face.

[8:58] Well and I think I think more now than ever ever before in the history of human humanity is that we right now is temporary.
You know where wherever you are at this moment in time good bad or indifferent it's temporary.
And we have a responsibility to ourselves and those around us to continue to improve,
learn understand what we can do and accomplish with others and I you know I'm always in the positive kind of mood,
and you know moving things forward because.

[9:35] I don't know my life just seems to be a little better when I'm I'm in a positive mood rather than negative mood and always you know it seems to move easier things seems to flow easier.
Is that been your experience. I mean it's it's really difficult you know in life.
You know growing up especially as a young child and not having the nurturing caring and loving environment.
Is that something that you've adopted and learned now and are more positive person or how has that impacted you today.

[10:06] I definitely have adopted into that mindset and into that being.
Ultimately the thing that you mentioned which is very interesting and it is exactly how I operate within my daily life is that I firmly believe everything is based on energy.
So I will wake up and I'm just like any other human being.
I have I experienced all the emotions that all of us do and I'll wake up and for example some mornings the my dog Caleb.
He may not be behaving the way that I envision him to behave so I'll say Caleb go to your bed or go to your room.
But then I just I literally just begin to stop myself. Within the past year or so I'd tell myself that OK if I could if I start off with this energy I know that this energy is going to carry elsewhere.
So in that reaction that I may have with someone three hours later Yeah I may be giving off that energy so I stop and recognize that that's the energy that I'm communicating from and immediately try to flip it.
And so I'd complement that with positive things so Alex would bring the dog back out pet and give him a bone fill it up with peanut butter and you know just just show him caring and love and kindness because I understand that,
it is all about energy and so it is a choice to live in that. And I think oftentimes.

[11:33] Maybe five or six years ago I didn't really understand this concept. People would say Oh just be positive be positive and I said B.S.
I quote is What does that actually do.
You know the night I started to live it and embrace it and that's where I understood that being positive.
It actually plays a huge role in your life because it translates into everything every interaction you have.
And even the things that you do out another person it still impacts you how you view them and how you choose to go through your day and accomplish some of the tasks that you have.

[12:08] Well there's a ripple effect too. And one of the practices that I have every day is you know I just I type the word gratitude.
You know I just and I kind of think about OK what am I grateful for today. How can I.
How can I improve my day improve my outcome and who can I help and how can I help them.
And bringing value into the gratitude that you have for the day.
I mean it's like hey I woke up. Gratitude. Right.
I mean it is realistically you know we're here,
for a very short period in terms of humanity in the world and the planet and the universe and if we if we approach it in a more positive way just I don't know for me and this is just my experiences.
It's just my days just make my life so much easier. I mean it just flows things are easier.
It seems like I'm in a better mood you know and it's just just out of that decision when you wake up in the morning and decide to make it a good day.

[13:19] Yeah. And that's and that's I think it's important for me as well because one of the things that I've learned so not to disclose my age but I think I have to at this point I'm 26 I'm 26 years old,
and what I've learned is that as I might've heard the days literally fly by.
And the older you grow the faster they go. Oh trust it appears in my mind so the other day I remember I woke up and I went through my routine of getting things accomplished and talking to people and next thing I know I look at my phone and it's five thirty,
to my So where did the past nine hours just go.
And so as part of that realization when it made me also realize is that,
if that's how fast the days go then I might as well,
be positive and be grateful for the opportunity to do the things that I do because we also have to realize this,
that when it comes to gratitude I remember when I first started this journey of writing thank you notes to at least one person in my life that has had an impact on me.

[14:28] At first it was relatively easy because I could pinpoint five or six things that I was grateful for.
Then it became a lot more challenging. It was almost as if I was running out of things to be grateful for and then I started to look at the small things in life ability to breathe walk talk listen to a conversation,
and immediately it was almost immediately when I began to think of those thoughts.
I remember I got back I think it was on LinkedIn and one of the first posts I saw was a person who didn't have any legs,
and it was he was sharing his story and then I was like boom it's it's all of these things that I quote unquote took for granted because I'm so familiar with them.
You know we go through the daily routine. I mean even the ability to get out of bed on your own in the morning.
Yeah is something to be grateful for because not only he had by the way. Yeah.
Yeah. Never. Not everyone has the ability to do and so just taken a step back and.
Accepting that those are the things to be grateful for. It plays a huge role within my life.

[15:40] It's a huge it's a huge opportunity to actually live a full life and it's not so much about the destination is about the journey.
And I think it's really important for us to to enjoy the journey.
You know let's let's understand and appreciate if something happens that is not always a positive experience.
What's the lesson we can learn from that and how could we adjust our our perspective and our intent in going on in the future. I want to shift gears a little bit here and you know I want to thank you so much.
Vicky's here. Wendy Lewis Angie Jeff Sherry Carol.
All of these individuals are joining in. And thank you. You your mindset. JEFF YANG I guess some of the confidence from my great network. Thank you Jeff. Appreciate. Love you man and all.
Angie you are awesome amazing individual.
Oleg is amazing Wendy hula thank you so much for being here.
Vikki O'Neil. Biden said his number one priority having support and keep her mindset positive for focused is a close number two.

[17:01] You know I think that it's really important for us to understand that we can't change we can't be responsible for what we do on an actions were taken.
And I know that Angie and I have had this conversation in the past is sometimes our own beliefs are the ones that are limiting us compared to other outside of our our goals.
So there's two sides you know people perceive us differently than we perceive ourselves. And.
Has that been an impact on you as is building confidence and practicing confidence and knowing that you're OK.
You you have achieved great things and there are more things that you can achieve.
You frame that in your mind and in your mindset going forward.

[17:48] You know I'm sure it has. As far as the impact that you mentioned and I love that the phrase that you also mentioned of practicing confidence that's what it is.
I didn't practice. Yeah I think we're born with an element of it.
It's almost like a toy to play with. And then from there you have to reshape it into a car or whatever it is that you want.

[18:08] So for me it definitely has impacted my mindset.
But what I've also learned is this when it comes to perception obviously you have a different perception of who you are,
and the people around you have a different perception of who you are and that the cool and the interesting part about it is that every single person has a different perception.
So you ask two people about what do you think of myself.
They're all gonna give you different answers based on what they choose to see within you. It's based on their experience of where you are. Exactly.
Exactly. And so I think for me what I've began to learn and understand is really choosing to embrace myself for who I am and that is a learning to get comfortable within my skin.
Learning to be comfortable with my decisions and not I guess one of the things that I'm.

[19:00] Working on more so is really choosing to embrace decisions for decisions not choosing to look at decisions as far as good and bad but rather just telling myself that it just is.
I made this decision and I'm learning to live with the consequences of it because I'm being responsible.
Exactly. In the past when I looked at it from good or bad I also noticed the impact that it has on everything your self-image your self-esteem.
When you tell it when I tell myself I made a bad decision it impacts everything.
Not to mention it impacts a similar situation where I have to make a similar decision down the road.

[19:40] I don't end up making it because I'm not confident in myself.
I'm confident in the fact that it's going to turn out into a quote unquote bad decision over again.
So really just choosing to embrace myself for who I am and as part of that journey understanding that those that are meant to be in your life will stay in your life and those there you are meant to attract you will attract you.

[20:05] That is such a great point is that when you can remove,
everything from your ego the shame the guilt all those emotions that provide no value and you do it to yourself,
you'll attract the people that enjoy who you are and what you're doing and why you're doing it.
I mean it's just natural. I want to shift gears here and I want to talk about what you're doing with.
Your.

[20:37] Against all odds. Mm hmm mm hmm. You know it's a foundation it's a nonprofit that I understand. Mm hmm.
Dig into that. So people who have an understanding of who you're helping and how that process works.
I want to make sure that we we capture that for you before we wrap up the show today and people walk away and say oh that was great conversation.

[20:59] What does he do. I've Yeah.

[21:02] No need so people could find you and discover who you are.

[21:06] I appreciate that opportunity to share on what we do.
The organization is called overcoming odds and what it is is essentially a space for people to be able to share their stories and embrace their own journeys along whatever chapter path there are within their lives.
And so part of our work what we do is we actually we have an online space where people are able to share their experiences of going through the different challenges or those that are currently working through them.

[21:35] What I've learned is that based on my own experience of having this having lived this life is that there are very few instances in life where I am able to truly express what I might be going through,
when I think of the daily encounters that I have and go into a grocery store or Starbucks and everything is so fast paced I will always make a joke where I walk into a Starbucks and when I place to order and almost immediately,
order for all.
It's as if I was gonna come in at a particular minute of the day and order that latte.
So you know for me what I've learned is that the spaces like these are absolutely necessary because there are many other opportunities maybe besides your family.
That you can really talk about like what are you going through and how are you working through and how are you thinking through it.
So we started to create this space and as part of it we'll vote.
We've also learned is that it's it's great to have this online space where people can share their stories and embrace their own experiences.
We've also learned that there's an element of human connection that needs to happen.

[22:47] Until we started to do is we actually started to host these in-person events around the country and we started to recently just opened up zoom conversations where people can join in.
It's free of charge and each week we have a topic that we focus on.
So last week the topic that we had was called The Art of Listening,
really understanding what it means to be an active listener and not just say things for the sake of sake seeing them as a response but rather listening for meaning and identifying,
what it means to you and how it's applicable to your life or the way that you choose to see the world.
And so that's really what the work is about. And for anyone that's interested.
Please go ahead and either connect with me through LinkedIn or any of the platforms or you could find us through overcoming odds not today where you would be able to see the different ways you can get engaged and connected to this community and this mission to begin with.

[23:42] It's overcoming odds dot today correct. Mm hmm.
It is the ticker below you can see that I understand that that's that's where you can connect with on it also on LinkedIn,
in is here and he's um it's not there's I mean,
I know people know Oleg and this is.

[24:08] This is a new adventure a new understanding and I love the idea of listening because I,
know too many people listen to respond and not to understand you when you listen to understand.

[24:27] You know the connection that we all have is much stronger much more influential. It's much deeper.
It's really important for people to understand that and and really connect with individuals.
I mean just on linked in life just the you know the pirate broadcast and some of the connections that I've made around the world as a result of being on Linked In.
It's incredibly powerful and I know that if I visit different cities and countries I have connections there and then when you start thinking about the magnitude of how that can change lives.
It's very important for us to understand that you know we're not alone.
This experience we're having somebody else has had this experience in some way shape or form. Mm hmm.
And the more that we communicate with each other and we listen to other stories and we understand how we can respond to react and feel about things.
Is that when it goes back to what you were saying when you're when you're responsible for your actions and you take control of your life and decide what you want to do be or feel.

[25:42] Your life is you know you have control over your life.
You have control over what you're doing and what's taken place.
And I think that's important for people to understand that they have the ability to do that because a lot of rolling a lot of people do not feel that they have the authority or the ability or the opportunity to feel different than them where they are right now. Mm hmm.

[26:02] And I think the other thing that you mentioned that's interesting to point out is that all of our stories are truly unique.
And I think there is a time where some of us have.
Lost that we didn't we didn't. We started to look at all of our journeys as if it's just I'm just an electrician just like anyone else or a plumber or whoever it is but really think about it.
The path that you took within this life and the path that you continue to continuing to pay for yourself is completely different from any other individual on this planet.
And so embracing your own uniqueness in the things that you are most proud of about yourself that's what makes you human.
Connecting to who you really are and in turn what you're doing is you're also creating a space for me to connect to who I really am and that's where I think when we talk about these meaningful connections and relationships.
That's where they happen because then it becomes all heart to heart connection and not just us connecting based on the job title or different things that we have although they may be expressions of who we are.
Some of us truly do love what we do. But at the same time what I want people to understand is that the things that you may be doing it's just one element of it.
It's not the ultimate thing that defines who you are as an individual.

[27:28] You know what you do is not who you are. And I think it's important for because there is a lot of people especially of my vintage,
that worked a long time in a company an organization and it becomes almost their identity.
And when that thing ends they lose their identity.
They lose a piece of their identity and I think we have to start thinking about life as experiences you know a lot of lot of experiences that we have.
We are the accumulation of our experience. And like you said you know every individual has a unique experience in their journey through life.
And that's why it's so important for me to connect with individuals like you share these stories on pirate broadcasts.
Understand that you know there are art. Everyone has an interesting story.
Everyone is an interesting individual. If you take the time like you said active listening and learning about something that they're doing that is unique and individual that's that can help someone else.
I mean the connection to a reality that you may not necessarily see in in other platforms.

[28:43] So and and everyone has when we spoke earlier about.
The whole journey and not really focusing on destination. I firmly believe that there is no destination.
I think the the journey is the destination the journey.
It's being able to experience day to day and so as part of it.
Just recognizing that for myself what I'm also understanding is that everything can be shaped with a similar mindset.
When we think about success there's no place there's not time that you're going to wake up and you're going to tell yourself This is it.
Yeah it's over time that I think you can make conscious choices to tell yourself.
Today I choose to be successful because A I woke up I made my bed and made myself breakfast and I fed my dog.
Yeah those are some of the thing. Those are the only things that I accomplished prior to this particular interview.
But for me for me that's that's what it is is that you have a choice in how you choose to live your life and how you choose to view yourself along the journey.
So thinking that there's gonna be that one magical moment or that one day I think yeah we just reframe it and tell yourself that that day is today that moment is now.

[29:55] The only moment that we have is right now. I think it's really important for us to understand that you know happiness is not a destination it's it's just it's who we decide we want to be today. Right now.
Yeah I don't want to think Cathy aka Lori.
Good morning Vicky everyone that's joined in Sherry.
Angie. Jeff all of all of the individuals that are here. Vicki Lewis.
All the gratitude in the world. I love that you're here and I thank you for the opportunity to share Oleg story with you.
Some of the thoughts that we're having in the conversations that take place on the pyre broadcast as you know I'm always open to conversation.
And I love engaging with individuals that are doing something powerful.
Connect with Oleg at overcoming odds today.
Now do you have any other events coming up only in the near future after the first of the year.

[30:58] We will we'll have a full schedule released for 2020.
We're going to do four to six events in four to six different cities some of the cities will include like Atlanta Georgia East Lansing Michigan Austin Texas San Diego.
What's unique about each one of the events is that they focus on different themes and elements of our story.
So for example we've had events that in the past that focused on resilience or developing courage or embracing your own individual identity.
So it's it's the cool thing for me as we go into all of this is that these are all the elements that we already have where we have it within us.

[31:40] We already have elements of courage a light switch that we have to we have to understand how to turn it on.
Right. Yes activated.
How do we activate confidence. Well we practice it in practice.
You get to do more of that. You could do something you know then you have enough feedback where you can actually gain some more confidence right.

[32:02] Right. Action is everything in the one last thing that I've learned among many other things throughout life is that this phrase knowledge is power.
But I firmly believe is knowledge with action is power.
Yes knowing something but not being able to apply it to your own life and how you think about it.
Almost has no impact on how you choose to view the world but by knowing it and then choosing a set of actions that you can take with it and choices is everything.
I mean that's all what ultimately defines us and helps us become the beings that we are when we look back at all the accomplishments and things that we have within our lives is understanding that we had this information within our hand and we all do.
And so to summarize all of this is that we all have the ability to change.
We all have the ability to adapt.
And the reason why is because we are doing it already on a daily basis.

[33:03] Well I thank you so much Oleg for being here sharing your story introducing us to overcoming odds today.
And I just really want to thank everyone that joined in the live.
If you're watching the replay or you've watched this later on. Thank you all the gratitude in the world.
Type in replay please follow the pirate broadcasts on linked in the hashtag pirate broadcast connect with the blog post the pop the podcast the transcription unrest Johns,
dot com slash pirate broadcast all the social media Like share comment all of that good stuff I just really appreciate the fact that we can do this we're in a place and in,
the time we are right now and I just applaud you for your efforts Oh Logan thank you so much for being here today and,
any last words or any profound thoughts you want to leave with us today,
well the one thing that I would like to leave you with us is that never say you can't do something in life there's always a way as long as there is a will.

[34:14] So whatever the obstacle it is that you're experiencing whatever the challenge may be.
Know that you have what it takes to overcome it so no matter how difficult they may seem whatever the event may be you've done it before through other events through other experiences.
So now you have what it takes and continue to remind yourself that you can achieve whatever it is that you envision.

[34:37] Absolutely. Thank you. Kindness is cool. Smiles are free and you enjoy the day.
Thank you. Thank you.