377 | Amy Purdy | How to Rebuild Your Life When Everything Changes Overnight

The Greatness Machine

Darius Mirshahzadeh

Entrepreneurship, Education, Business

5.0 • 135 Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2025

⏱️ 70 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

How do you keep moving forward when life changes in an instant? Joining us on The Greatness Machine, Amy Purdy shares how she’s faced more than her share of challenges, losing both legs at 19, battling a life-threatening infection, and navigating the emotional aftermath. But instead of letting adversity define her, Amy used it as fuel to dream bigger. From becoming a Paralympic medalist and “Dancing with the Stars” finalist to inspiring millions as a speaker and author, she reveals the mindset shifts, resilience tools, and moments of grace that helped her create an extraordinary life on her own terms. In this episode, Darius and Amy will discuss: (00:00) Introduction and Background (02:59) Amy's Life-Altering Experience (05:49) Finding Resilience and Grit (08:32) The Journey of Recovery and Acceptance (11:20) Surrendering to the Moment (14:14) The Near-Death Experience (17:00) The Decision to Live (19:47) Setting Goals After Amputation (22:32) Snowboarding Again (25:12) Creating Adaptive Equipment (28:16) Building a Community (31:04) The Road to the Paralympics (33:56) Dancing with the Stars Experience (36:49) Lessons Learned from Challenges (39:31) Future Aspirations and Projects Amy Purdy is a Paralympic snowboarder, bestselling author, and motivational speaker who has inspired millions with her story of resilience. After losing both legs to bacterial meningitis at 19, she returned to snowboarding just seven months later, ultimately earning a bronze medal at the 2014 Sochi Paralympics and a silver at the 2018 PyeongChang Games. Co-founder of Adaptive Action Sports and runner-up on “Dancing with the Stars,” Amy empowers audiences worldwide to embrace challenges and live without limits. Sponsored by: Brevo: Head over to brevo.com/greatness and use the code greatness to get 50% off Starter and Business Plans for the first 3 months of an annual subscription. Indeed: Get a $75 sponsored job credit to boost your job's visibility at Indeed.com/darius. Shopify: Start your $1/month trial at Shopify.com/greatness. Connect with Amy: Website: https://amypurdy.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amypurdygurl/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AmyPurdyGurl/ Connect with Darius: Website: https://therealdarius.com/ Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dariusmirshahzadeh/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/imthedarius/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@Thegreatnessmachine Book: The Core Value Equation https://www.amazon.com/Core-Value-Equation-Framework-Limitless/dp/1544506708 Write a review for The Greatness Machine using this link: https://ratethispodcast.com/spreadinggreatness. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Love gang. Welcome to The Greatness Machine. I'm your host Darius from Shazday. I'm so pumped to have you here with me.
0:04.4	Now listen, the greatness machine were about two things. Number one, people were living their passions. And number two, those who are creating greatness in the world and doing both of these things despite the odds against them. Each episode, we're going to feature interviews with game changers, business leaders, telling us their origin stories. What made them tick?
0:21.1	What got them to where they are now?
0:22.9	Why?
0:23.4	So can help you step into your
0:24.8	greatness within your life, your business, and your career. Occasionally, you might hear a few
0:29.2	solo episodes for myself, as I say, as I leverage my 20 years of entrepreneurship as a CEO
0:34.2	and founder to help you grow and level up in your journey to scale your life and your business. So come be a fly on the wall, enjoy the conversation, and I'm stoked to have you here with me. Guys, welcome to his episode of The Greatness Machine. I'm we host Darius Meshazza and boy, do we have special guests. Amy Purdy is in the house. What's up, Amy? What's up? Hello. I'm excited to be here.
0:54.8	Oh, my gosh. I'm so fired up.
0:58.0	I took the whole summer off, and this is my first show back, and Amy's here.
1:02.2	Like, things are good in the world. So thank you for coming.
1:04.7	It's great, because I took the whole summer off, too. So on the same page.
1:09.9	We got it in common.
1:12.0	So audience members, you guys know how this goes.
1:15.4	I want to give you guys a little bit of background.
1:17.4	I first became aware of Amy and her work, uh, 2021 on the platform called Clubhouse.
1:23.6	You guys have heard me talk about this.
1:24.8	There was this like brief moment in time.
1:27.0	It was like seven or eight weeks for like everyone in the world was on this platform.
1:31.1	And I was on stage and I said on one, they called it being on stages. And Amy was on there. And I'm like, who's this person? And I like looked at her background. I'm like, oh, my God, this person is amazing. And I just it was like this show was a live stream, though.
1:46.0	And then I launched it as a podcast.
1:47.3	Actually, I launched it on a podcast.
	...

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