976 | Love Shines Through with Brent & Kyle Pease

0:00If you have ever listened to own your choices on your life, this is a moment that I do not take lightly. This podcast started with one voice, one mic and a phone, and the decision to share stories and help people to recognize that they were not alone in their own journeys. Now we are very close to celebrating 1,000 episodes with a live in-person podcast event. If this show has ever shifted your thinking, helped you find your voice, reminded you of what is possible. This room, this live event is for you. It is intimate, it is small, it is March 21st in Kitchener Waldo, Ontario. If you are nearby, we would love to have you there. I can't wait to celebrate with you. Welcome to the own your choices on your life podcast. I know you were here wanting

1:00to change and rewrite your story. You are desiring to step into the impact that you know you were here to create. I am here to guide you with the proven tools and strategies used by myself and our speakers to support you in taking radical responsibility in your life and learning how to own your choices to change your story. My name is Marsha van Winsburg. I am a storytelling business coach, master NLP trainer, speaker, podcaster, and seven times published author. My clients have found freedom and purpose from overcoming their shame stories and learning how to share them with the world. I am so grateful you are here. Let's get started. Welcome back to the show. Today we are speaking with Brent and Kyle Peace. Brent and Kyle are world

2:10renowned push assist duo disability advocates and co-founders of the Kyle Peace Foundation and nonprofit that champions inclusivity in sports and the workforce for individuals with disabilities. Their inspiring journey has captivated audiences worldwide, especially after they made history as the first brother team to compete the grueling Ironman world championship in Kona Hawaii as a push assist duo together Brent and Kyle continue to pave the way for inclusion in both sports and society through the Kyle Peace Foundation. They have championed hundreds of athletes and raised over $10 million providing adaptive equipment and opportunities that empower individuals with disabilities to realize their full potential. This is such a beautiful conversation and honestly I was so honored when I received their information because I've been following their story online for a very long time and it is such a beautiful beautiful episode.

3:17Welcome to the show today Brent and Kyle. I am thrilled to have you both here to have a conversation and share your story and your mission and what you're doing. So thank you both for being here. Thank you very much. Thanks for having us. My pleasure. My pleasure. So could you would you mind just starting with a little bit of your story who you are and then I want to dive into the work that you're book doing? Thank you. I'm so great in my older brother by two years. We grew up in a land in Georgia and we really grew up in our sports I was old and so I'm going up with the easy for me to have dealt with poverty with spastic water for a gig with me that all formed my ribs are involved with my TV but that did not stop me from pursuing my life and doing it to the best of my ability

4:29they would help my family they will be helped to elevate who I am it won't mind but I've wanted to talk about. That's beautiful. That's beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing. So when did you start like you said sharing and what you're doing? Where was the part where the work that you do together started? It started in 2011. Well, I would actually say it started before that like Connall and I have been doing we've been sharing experiences together as a family and as brothers for a really long time and it was in this Kyle said we grew up in a sports house like there was a lot of just energy around sports we loved watching baseball we loved you know going to football and like all of these things but Kyle was it fully immersed in the experience and so

5:29what Kyle was about to say it was that in 2011 is when we really started it but we started that because Kyle was experiencing endurance sports in a way that he had never truly experienced another sport in that he was fully involved and included in what we were doing and you know he credits me as a co-founder and I wear that with pride but really Kyle was the catalyst for all of that because when we did our very first triathlon together in April of 2011 he said we need other people to experience this and as the same thing my parents did when we were kids as Kyle's friends as we as brothers did we said yes and you know it was a room full of 20 some things that had very little business experience let alone nonprofit experience and we just all went all in on trying to do this thing to serve others and that was really when the work began you know and I think there was we could we can get into it but there was some really you know wonderful times or so challenging times but it was really about building a business together you know it was a nonprofit but it was

6:32still a business and we're very lucky through the hard work through the support of board members of friends that 15 years later we're sitting here with you and still sharing that story is still down working together that's beautiful and so 15 years later you also are you looking able to look at the reach you have now and I'll say wow like this became more than we ever thought it was going to be or did you always have the idea like this started as a race together in 2011 is that correct yeah so did you have where was the moment where you went I think this is supposed to be even more this isn't just about us I still don't know if we fully evolved to that are appreciated that what you just said what I would say is that I think at the beginning we wanted to race we were just we had fallen in love with something I mean we did everything we could we raced every month we practiced all the time and we just love what we were doing and so we really just wanted to include

7:37people and I don't think either of us was like you know what we need to be doing 15 years now we need to be raising $3 million a year we need to be serving nearly 200 athletes and we're going to impact people so far beyond the finish it's going to be this amazing experience I think we just were in love with what we were doing and we were in love with the idea of sharing that together that's actually what allowed it to evolve because it was just like Kyle is great like I took you're going to get it here tonight as we have this conversation like when he talks about it you hear the passion and that's what allowed it to grow you know now it's a business like now it really is it's a business there's 18 people that work here including eight individuals with disabilities we have an operations director who is you know trying to build out a full operational capacity to serve 200 people we have a fundraising department like it's so much more and that's where it's evolving to where you know Kyle I had an experience last year where we went and we're introducing ourselves

8:41to families and they were saying oh you're Kyle and that was such a refresher that you know 10 years ago 12 years ago it was like your Kyle take a pick you know they like they were there for themselves they were there for the mission they were there for you know Zach and Jillian and Morgan and these other individuals and Emmanuel like that's where it's evolved and that's a really nice thing to all of a sudden to not be at the front of everything but to be able to stand back and look at what's grown over the last 15 years beautiful thank you for sharing that I love the the piece of it where you say like of course it probably had no idea it would become when it becomes now um but when you first did that first race I'm curious if you could share was at you said challenges as well as you know the experience of it was it did you meet resistance when you said we want to do this race like I want to do this race with the two of us did you meet any resistance or was everybody

9:42open to it uh both um I mean you know a lot of races have a rule that says you have to finish under your own power that was an early you know path of resistance for us um but you know here's it like let me add this endurance sports are hard and that's what they're supposed to be and it really like I would become a better person through my experience is experiences and endurance sports because you learned a persevere and I've done it in a way with Kyle we're not going to be learning to persevere we learn to do it together I think that's certainly shown up in the business too about like but you know so those early challenges we were patient with them I mean I think one one time I remember a race director said you guys can't race or you can race but there's a 60 minute course cutoff I don't like I'll let you come but this is probably the only time you'll ever race and without bribing too hard like we smoked the 60 minute cutoff and in a moment of weakness I went by and I said did we make the cutoff you know uh

10:45literally what had done the same thing I was just going to say I bet you guys crushed that 60 minute cutoff finally the next year the next year there was 15 wheelchairs on the line and we had only brought three so he made his race inclusive right and so somebody who felt like they were resisting us was actually open to it he was just thinking about safety he was thinking like but we didn't hear that because we had been dealing with resistance so and we still see it a little bit but like with the London marathon for years used to not let people in they have a category now you know I so I think the changes are still there but it's also still evolving you know the race that we did this past weekend in Disney like Disney is a very inclusive organization but they put a big chunk of the wheelchairs like half not halfway about a third of the way back in the field it's like that's really hard as a wheelchair to push a wheelchair around people it's much easier for people to run around a wheelchair exactly like we're getting there like it's evolving so I I think that will continue to face roadblocks but you know our voice is becoming louder meaning

11:51the organization's voice and that'll continue to give us a place at the table to advocate for inclusion I love what playing cuts head you know everyone has a voice and it's going to be met with resistance because you don't know unless you left it behind a wheelchair so I'm like you know don't like it when they meet us with that resistance it's understandable but you have to advocate for yourself and we have to advocate for the organization and there's one that's that I really love doing personally and professionally that's so sad because by you advocating you're opening up so many more doors for the people right and again 15 years ago I mean it was probably more new right and people were like as you said the race structure is like okay I just as it say I don't know and it's and this is something they're learning I love hearing

12:54there's so much more available now so you talk about like inclusion in sports and that's why it's so important to you can you share what you mean specifically by inclusion in sports so people can understand because I don't know if everybody even understands a lot of the ways that maybe sports are not inclusive yeah I mean I think we're still that comfortable that everybody deserves a spot at the table and whether it's sport or whatever you prefer to do like everybody needs to be involved everybody has something to offer and in sports one of the things that I love about sports is it brings people together no matter what the difference is it brings people together in the night and I think that's a big overall key theme of what we do with the Kyle Bees foundation is we want everybody

13:59to be included and we want everybody to find their voice in for their hope in and then we could do that for every person that we serve that we have done our job you've done you've done an incredible job an incredible job and I think that just speaks it speaks absolute volumes I'm curious like so you started with trathlons right how long did you do trathlons before you decided to embark on a longer race well the longer race was always the goal like the iron man was always the goal but just like with the business we wanted to learn we didn't want to just jump in an iron man or marathon or anything like that so like we did 5k and 10k and within Olympic this is trathlons and then eventually we did two half iron man so like it just took us two years to get to where we wanted to be to do that and that was like super intentional like even now you know we never sat down and like we said and said this is what we're going to be in 10 years as a business but we did on sporting side

15:04you know we did say like we're going to do an iron man but we've got to do a half first and we're going to do Kona but we've got to get iron man to you know to recognize the achievements first so it just was this like methodical process and like I shared earlier we were so in love with it just it didn't matter we loved all of the things that we're doing because we were doing it together you know think I still think about this bike ride we did in Georgia in the summer where it was so hot and humid and we were out there all day together and different people would come and spend time with us and like somebody brought us lunch you know it was just like all day we were just laughing and it was a miserable day in Georgia and like what we were doing was so difficult but I don't remember the day that way you know because we were sharing the experiences together so like that's the way I think about it is that the decision was always there to do something hard but the decision was there to do something hard together. Beautiful and so what was it like crossing the finish line at your first iron man?

16:05Was your first iron man where was the first one and was your last year with Carlton in 2013 okay and how was it to cross that line and we don't want the best date at the end of three and it will be tough to die when I forget for the rest of my life and beautiful I can I worked with somebody who trained for iron man consistently and they had a team that would train a number of years ago and the level of training that's involved is just it's a job when you're doing iron man it's a job 100 percent yeah and so when you have hard moments in a race how do you pull yourself through? It's an evolving process you know I mean I think one of the skills we have as a team is because of Kyle that he's had much more adversity in his life than

17:06many do I mean from a early age right not a lot of five year old sitting a stroller and watch kids run circles around them not a lot of 10 year old sit on the side of the field and watch their brothers play well what they can you know so that resiliency to remain positive in the face of all that plays out on the race course the disadvantage is that it's two humans it's you know 360 pounds of human and steel on a bicycle things like that so it's it constantly changes I think what I would tell you is that we've had there was two things outside we've had moments of intensity where there's like you know it's almost like Kyle's a jockey cracking a whip he's screaming and yelling he's pushing me as hard as he can because he believes that's going to get the most out of me but last year 2024 there was an issue in Hawaii where there was a moment of tension where Kyle felt like I was kind of mentally slipping like I wasn't fully present in the moment and I was worrying about the future and so Kyle kind of snapped and yelled at me and I didn't speak

18:08for a while the race got harder and then eventually I said you know look I just needed you to know what I was going through it was really difficult and I just wanted you to know so that you could figure out how to help but I'm here and I'll do whatever and Kyle was got quiet for a minute and then he said okay I love you and I respond I said well I'm so thankful for you and so for the next like 40-ish miles that's always said to each other right and I think about that a lot now because I think that the last 34 miles in particular of this and that was just the bike ride we saw it around a marathon there's still a marathon after that the last 34 miles might have been some of the hardest bike riding we've ever done on an Iron Man course it was hot it was a crosswind like it was just hard and nothing about that ride felt hard just like that day in Georgia because all of a sudden we focused on like why we were there which was just each other instead of like this intensity and competition where he's going to scream and yell and fire me up or instead of me being like the the laser focus athlete who when all his friends are waving at him

19:13and cheering from the sidelines I scream at him that I need more anti-chafing product because my body hurts and it's like just have fun and just enjoy because like this is it this is your moment so it evolves it changes there's not like a set way that we do it but I would say if there wasn't no greater or less than that we've learned in the last 15 years it was that you know love shines through oh okay that's beautiful I can just like I hear you know teamwork communication taking yourself through it being human like it's I mean an Iron Man's hard period and so you know you're also working through those pieces but I love that love shines through amazing amazing isn't that just a message that could really land for a lot of people right now yeah um Kyle what do you want people to know about um instrument palsy what do you want them to know oh um I want people to know it's hard I'm there right now already but it's not always easy for you

20:22uh but through through my cerebral palsy my message my message is still there the message is there you see the message is that I hope it the message that everybody it they could it my positive attitude it gives me raw hope and I thought there was no easy than anything possible and it's possible and I wish more people would be able to shift that mindset a little bit I know I've heard you speak you both speak in the sense about beliefs and the thoughts that we're having and how we do have more control over what we think than what we realize and those thoughts are driving everything you know when so the race story

21:22that I just shared and thank you for that like I I totally agree um in that moment like con I had a choice like the race was getting hard we'd been at it for seven six and a half seven hours and on on our best day we had eight more to go like that's what that's a full day for most people not even half point right so just to give a sorry to give a picture like we're not even at half point and so yeah and we had a choice like in that moment and like we've been there before you know like Kyle is extremely positive but he's human and he's yelled at me and he snapped and I'm at a supportive brother who's willing to do these things with him and I've yelled at him and I've been you know rude and short and all sorts of things but in that moment like after doing this so many times we do that we get to choose what we wanted to be on that day and we just wanted to be brothers and so that's where the love came out in our statements those

22:24affirmations for you might be something else but like you can choose you really like it is it is so powerful to choose to say I believe it is so powerful to choose to say I love like and like I'm telling you got like maybe at what I should tell you is like the last time we did that race which was in Hawaii how unbelievably difficult it was where like we were both begging for mercy and not speaking to each other and to just say like we didn't say more than three different words to each other or four you know I'm grateful for you or I love you like there was not a lot needed so choose where you want to be and then just go forward that's it sounds so simple but it's not it is hard it is and I acknowledge that but we've practiced over and over and over again to put ourselves in those positions to be successful in that way I think every day that we wake up we get accused and it's a gift today it's a gift to wake up and we get the

23:28cues that and we get the cues to be whatever we hang out with and the people that we love so like I choose to hang out with but like we get to do this we don't have to do this today I am doing it or crazy but I love it because I get to be with somebody that I love I love that we do get we do get to choose and and you set every day when we wake up there's a reason this podcast is called on your choices when you're like because it's I really do believe that even in those hard moments like when you keep step by step choosing what you want now because you can change your life so I love what you're both doing so when did it start to evolve from the point of your continuing to do the racist all of a sudden it's like wow I think this is I know what you shared where you are now where when did it start to evolve that you thought you know what

24:28I think this is like this is even bigger than we thought it could be um probably during COVID actually we have a fundraiser we do uh it's now in the spring we used to do it in the summer it was our sugar barbecue but it was like the we're bringing you in we're going to ask you for big dollars we're going to ask you for real money um because you're the individuals that are helping really fuel the growth financially and during COVID we shut that fundraiser down and so we tie on eye the board we decided we got to do it virtually everybody else is doing it and and we raised more money that night than we'd ever raised like I I was so amped after the event like I couldn't sleep because I realized that um in fact um a football coach for the Atlanta Falcons we had invited him and he popped onto the zoom he said you guys are um bad blank I don't know I don't think you have an explicit rating on this podcast so you're not you could say whatever

25:31you want he will he popped on he goes you boys are bad asses I think what you're doing is amazing I'm in for five thousand dollars have a great night and he hung up yeah yeah and it was like but but him doing that was like this movement is so much more than what Brent and Kyle are doing the belief of what's happening here tonight is not to be like hey are you guys going to Hawaii are you doing an iron man it was what you're doing for others and what you're doing with others to include them I'm in I'm interested and I'm invested in that and here's some more money so I think that was the moment and over the last five years since then is when we've seen the real incredible growth happen here yeah I would say I thought like the okay that will we get will we recruit the athlete those are always that's always the beginning wait we want to invest in that and get to know them um with our staff then uh let's wait and I guess it gets the race he gets awesome and we love it it will continue to do that because that's

26:36at the core of what we do but I want to build that community and that's at the family and that's why I truly love each day about the child 18 and that through all hard work we have built a family I see I think that is such a beautiful piece because they say now we are like the most connected disconnected society ever like we're connected but we're disconnected and people are craving community like they're all craving community and being honest do you see that article on the Atlantic mm-hmm I forget the title of it now but I think if you googled Atlantic alone together you would see it but it was about what you just said about how connected we are and about how distant we are and there was a really point line there that stuck with me and it just said we've never been more alone together yeah and I think that's actually like when you think about like what you're saying and what Kyle was talking about or what we were talking about with the growth like we were all alone together that night but the power of this organization has been the community and the family

27:39that Kyle just talked about like so being at these races together and sharing these experiences and looking at like when you see our group if you're a bystander who has no connection to the disability community that has never experienced that in any way you look at that and go wow that must be hard but if you stand in the middle of our circle you're gonna feel nothing but like your heart is gonna just thunk with just delight and gratitude so you know it's really important to us we're sitting in our office tonight we have eight employees with disabilities that work here and we had we used to all just work from oh no we got an office more for them and and really to show them like it's not about how much more work we can get done in the office it's about how less work we can do like the number of times Kyle just zips by my office and then just pulls in and starts talking he went by my office before this call and I was like I can't do this Kyle and and that he actually zipped right by me to go talk to Zach he didn't want to talk to me and I was like for Zach's been interrupted 15 times today but who cares because that's what this is really

28:43all about like that's so like stand in the middle you know when you see something that looks hard go stand in the middle because you'll feel what's really happening in there oh I love that I absolutely love that because it's I mean you're right if you're standing from a distance sometimes and people might have a feel like it that's really hard I look at your presence your social media things that I see and videos that I've watched and I don't know I guess I feel like I'm in the middle of it even though I'm like in Ontario here I have felt heart like I feel heart I see it it's like I just love what you're doing and I think that it's just continuing to open up so much more possibly for the people to be part of to be part of the experience thank you thank you so your I mean as your business has grown and your community has grown you support athletes who are going to do races what it tell us about what your organization does so yeah so the core

29:46of what we do is the sporting piece so inclusion sports the and beyond pieces what it's really evolved into we have a Kyle piece kids program now so a youth focused program that is both athletes and volunteers so really teaching the next generation of volunteers in philanthropists what it means to be in service to others to an organization as well as the young athletes I mean being a parent of a young child with a disability it's a lot there's a lot to manage a lot to do being able to show them like to come in and see Kyle like a young man with a college degree and a job like there is hope there is possibility we have the employment program which I just touched on so we have we have been growing that to support individuals with disabilities in the workforce we actually met with a potential partner today and we talked a lot about workforce development which we're building out a mentorship program so we're building on a mentorship program to pilot with our athlete I'm choosing with our employees first but then to be able to expand that to the athletes of the copies on the issue to show them what inclusion looks like in life not

30:47just in sports so it what it really is is inclusion in sports and beyond right but the and beyond piece was really important for Kyle because the sports were just a catalyst for that growth to show people what the possible started to look like and I mean Kyle's using is like you using your voice as you've already mentioned a few times now like just become such an advocate to share and the importance of this for everyone yeah absolutely because we do have after we did our community that they are not available but they have a voice they have theories that you can tell by their eyes how much they love wasting with us and that's that's so important and it is for me who has a voice and they can articulate but you can you can ever come thinking with every athlete through their eyes or through their

31:54their verbal tears and all that so I yeah amazing I'm gonna ask you for each other what what's one of the biggest things you've learned from each other in this process I'm a hero for I haven't learned a thing from Kyle like that I would love for him to actually teach me something I mean I think that the greatest lesson that I've always learned from Kyle is about love and positivity you know Kyle has chosen to be positive you know to to to love and we we actually shared this earlier today I learned that through just our relationship that I thought I was trying to help Kyle you know because I would do things as a kid I would I would I mean everybody knew family did I would help Kyle with bathroom eating with going to bed whatever you know hanging out but Kyle was helping me because he saw that I was struggling trying to understand what he was going through while the same time just being this like super positive

32:59happy I remember sending with Kyle as a kid as with our whole family in Kyle's lips would turn purple because he would get so cold but he never wanted to get out the water until he was like shaky because how cold he was and I think about that a lot because that's how Kyle is now he's like I'm gonna say as positive as I can until I need to take a break or give myself some alone time because I don't want to get out and I don't want to stop having fun right here in the middle I love for break every day I learned um but in my other brother and then he had made me a better man but but it has shown me what create he thought about it what kid what didn't have to do what to and he had that we to go from fake you know he and and we don't get it right all the time

34:00but just you know he does he has my back here and I have his back I made the water different every day it really does speak to how we all have the ability to learn from each other and it can just continue to make us even better humans and then collectively what we can do with that and how we can help so many more people in the process so what's next what's next like what's the I mean we talked about like where you're now and what's happening what else do you see coming in the horizon for you guys we used to always think about that in terms of racing like we're gonna do this race next I think the way we look at it now is that we're truly evolving what includes you can look like um and and learning and growing um we had another issue today that's quite frankly it's just it's probably one of the biggest business mistakes we've we've made that we have to deal with um and we have to learn and grow from but I think that's you know steaming

35:03deepening choose me our resolve to get even better at this because the real impact isn't the finish line and so it's happening once they get past that first finish line or the 50th finish line so that's what it feels like is next for us to continue to evolve with this organization does what occlusion looks like um because as you were asking earlier like you know it's evolved beyond us so the what's next like it's not a race it's not an event it's it's a movement of inclusion you know what's everybody called to keep the anniversary that year week is a milestone in itself by the um one idea it's gonna be year two so we know it so I want to go that it goes in the gloomy like I want to do a race and I'll tell you uh either it's calling as hell how many different lines though not not January yeah yeah but you know just take it take on messy get a good again to other parts of the country there are other parts of the world to

36:10take care of what is really possible um well you have to promise me please if you come this way I would love to be able to come and cheer on I'm not gonna run with you though but I will absolutely that's awesome um I do want to ask you um for the audience like who is listening right now and now listening to what is what is something that you hope your story lands for them today maybe it inspires them maybe it moves them maybe it causes them to you know do the thing that I often say I wish we could just get out of our heads and just go do the thing like go start but I would love to know what is a message that you would love to leave with listeners today that you never know your ipad on other people that you are

37:12and then maybe such such a small thing I can pick you up your phone it call it by your day I'm like you I can't run you all right I pray I run you like it doesn't have to see you we got I am it you can see it's simple to get that and that's why I want people to know that everyone matters that everybody deserves to feel it that they loved well that hit me in the heart thank you thank you you are is there anything else you would like to leave um Brent with the I think we should lead it with just like I think you should just go ahead and you don't just stop recording good I mean I certainly do but like I think I think I'm actually hyperweir sometimes like when we're both talking like like sometimes it's just okay like we don't have to always be at the finish line together like when we first started doing motivational speaking it was

38:14like we had to learn at cadence where it was like how you always have to close the speech oh we have to stop doing that like the other week like I forget what I did but Kyle kind of I like looked at Kyle like okay take him home and he was like now we're done like you just you did it like you did a great job so it was just such a like pointy way to say that like I think there's nothing more that I have no notes I have no notes that's okay it was beautiful it did it me I I have a fantastic editor so she she picks and she just had that old blottering out but I just I just fell like cut it out it's awesome I do I do want to ask two questions so like first off where like where can people follow learn more contribute to be a part of what the work that you do Kyle peace down to ashi.org has everything you can follow social we've got some amazing videos on youtube we did a series with Hyundai motorcorp a few years ago it's nearly 70 minutes of content that is unbelievable it tells

39:15the family story the the brother story and then the foundation story like all of the pieces that we talked about today is right there and it's beautifully well done so it highly encouraged that but you can engage every channel sign up for the newsletter you can donate if you're in the area or if we're racing in your area you can sign up to volunteer all of it is right there on our website would would greatly appreciate if you guys would click through and check it out absolutely I'll make sure everything is there this has been an absolute honor for me to have this conversation with you and I'm so grateful that our paths crossed I always like to ask this question at the end and you can both decide who answers it what you want to say but my question is always what lesson in life are you most grateful for that we have each other that we have a award for community I would just add that you know the the most powerful step is the next one

40:16and if you're willing to take it and see what's next you you may not realize what's there waiting for on beautiful I love it thank you both so much thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of own your choices on your life if you love this episode I invite you to tag me on social media with your takeaways or share it with a friend please if you feel called take 30 seconds to leave a five star review and I will be forever grateful until next time remember when you on your choices you truly own your life