We caught up with the brilliant and insightful James Durham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
James, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?
If you believe in yourself and share your story, it will help you and your business grow.
James, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Hello everyone, my name is James Durham and I am a life insurance advisor, public speaker, mentor, founder of the TBI One Love organization and a Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Survivor.
Today I am sharing a personal example of how if you believe in yourself and share your story, helps your business grow.
I would like you to go with me on a journey. This journey begins on September 2011 in San Antonio.
At the time I was in the real estate business. I had just taken a promotion to move to San Antonio from Dallas Tx, which is about a 7 hour drive. On the 22nd of September, I was on my way home from a team event and was involved in a very bad car vs motorcycle accident. like any motorcycle accident: a car always wins.
While going through an overpass I was T boned, and I flew into a light pole. Luckily that is what stopped me from flying off into oncoming traffic of the highway below.
My helmet flew off over 200 yards away, and the next thing I know I am laying in my grandfathers arms, who passed away when I was 6 over 25 years ago(at that time), we had a conversation and he carried me up into the sky. If you would like to talk more about that, I will be happy to share more of that journey. Please reach out. I passed away at the scene, life flight had to be called and they shocked my chest to get the heart beat to stay on. Which took a time or two.
My parents got a phone call from a team member, to rush to San Antonio. They tried to call on the way numerous times to learn more about what happened to me but because my my ID was still on my motorcycle I was checked in to hospital as: John Doe. But thankfully due to my tattoo’s, my mother was able to describe them in detail over the phone, and that was able to ID me.
When my parents arrived to UHSa: Dr. Parra told my parents my situation and how bad it really was: natural coma, broken leg, splenectomy, STBI, completely broken face, and they had performed all the 12 surgeries they could.
Dr. Parra stated: “its up to james and god right now, but james cant do it alone. All we can do now is pray.”
5 weeks later, thanks to God’s plan I started to wake up. By wake up it wasn’t immediately back to the same. Ex: seconds, minutes and hours per day would grow periodically. The prognostic was, I would be hospitalized permanently not able to function, remember anyone, when someone speaks to me like Portuguese etc.
But there was a different plan instore. I got transferred to TIRR Memorial Hermann to start the second stage of recovery. Which was learn how to communicate via hands, operate a wheelchair, and learn how to be: Disabled. But I mentally wanted to prove that I would be back to my old life(what I only knew of). Honestly this was some of the most frustrating times of my life.
But because of my determination to return to the old me, I forced them to teach my how to stand, hold my body weight, chew a chickfila crumble to prove I could eat to have them remove trace to show I can eat, understand how to process with only one eye etc.
Believing in myself, helped me get released early to get my skull put back in, and also return back to DFW to start the finally stage of rehabilitation. I continued to climb and motivate my self which helped me get through the final stage of rehabilitation in 6 months instead of the prediction of 5 years minimum.
Next I tried going back to school, and with the way my brain was “rewired” I did very well! I continued to enjoy the “new” opportunities to try even harder due to what I was told the outcome would be. And, the reward was: I got accepted into & finished at the same university at my parents: Florida State University, and it is also where I ended up meeting my wife. After graduation I decided to change my career choice to public speaking to share my story.
Which lead me the opportunity to speak nationwide to schools, businesses, rotary clubs, got me introduced to the Zig Ziglar Family to do some work and life insurance company owners to help inform others.
I want to thank Dr. Parra, Dr. Cynthia, Dr. Tastard, Centre for Neuro Skills and you all the audience for your time.
If I can do all this, you can! I know we covered a lot, but if I can leave you with anything allow me to leave you with one thought.
if want to start believing in something, start with yourself. Because what your mind believes and conceives it will achieve.
Thank you for your time
One love
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
The audience was build and continues to grow due to people being touched by a brain injury, wanting to learn key elements on how to build a better self, power of positive thinking, goal settings, power of relationships etc.
My advice: believe in yourself and have faith!
What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?
The best source of new clients for me, is honestly the referrals. People help out people everywhere by sharing information both personally and digitally.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.tbionelove.org/meet-james-the-founder
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/james.durham3/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jbdurham3
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/james-durham/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tbionelove
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JamesDurham/featured
Image Credits
n/a