Unwrap your Passion to Create the Life You Truly Want
Karen Putz is known as the passion mentor with a mission to help people unwrap their passions, at any age. She is an author, a sought-after motivational speaker, a wife, and a mom to three children who all lost hearing when they were very young. Her family is one of only four in the world that share a rare gene. In this episode, she shares her incredible and inspiring story about losing her hearing, facing her fears, and following her passion. Be sure to listen through to the end to learn simple steps you too can take to unwrap your passion!
Karen Putz
Ageless Passions
Unwrapping Your Passion
Instagram
Welcome to the unforgettable conversations podcast, where every week I introduce you to people from all walks of life, from experts in the fields to ordinary people who have had extraordinary lives. I'm your host, Sandi McKenna
Today's guest was born with normal hearing, but began to lose it while she was in elementary school. In fact, in the last four generations of her family, everyone was born with normal hearing and eventually they all lost their hearing in different ways. This is so extremely rare that there are only four families in the entire world that have this particular gene. Didn't stop her though. Fearless. She discovered barefoot water skiing as a teenager and began water-skiing every chance she got. Until one day, she took a really hard spill. She was 19 and instantly went from hard of hearing to deaf. What once was a passion that fueled her days, left her for decades with a void of sadness and despair. Until she saw a segment on the today show that altered the course of her future. Today. She is known as the passion mentor with a mission to help people unwrap their passions. At any age, she is an author, a sought after motivational speaker. A wife, a mom to three children who have all lost hearing when they were very young. And in today's unforgettable conversation my guest karen puts shares from incredible and inspiring story and tell us the simple steps you can take to unwrap your passion
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:hey Karen, how are ya? Oh, it's so good to see you too. I am so excited to talk to you today. You are the princess of passion, and I love that about you. You are always so passionate. You're always so excited. I love people like that. I want to see how you got to this point in your life. Let's start when you were young, your childhood and growing up
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I was born with normal hearing. And I grew up hard of hearing and I actually became deaf at the age of 19 while I was barefoot water skiing. So that's that's part of my story, that I'm deaf. Then I can see, I have hearing aids on here. Very colorful ones that represent water. So for me, growing up, I grew up being very ashamed of being hard of hearing, really struggling with that And then after I became deaf, it was sort of a pivotal point in my life because I could realize I could continue to struggle. Or I could embrace the journey and I chose to embrace it. And I met my husband. He is deaf we had three deaf kids, obviously genetic. Three of the kids were born with normal hearing and they all lost their hearing in different ways. So, well, that's part my story growing up. And then at the age of 44 I got back on water, again, thanks to a 66 year old woman that I saw on the Today show
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:And how did that change for you deciding to go back.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:It changed everything. It made me who I am today. You know, this whole passion journey started with that Today show segment sitting there and
I'm watching it and I see
audioKarenPutz12333974975:this 66 year old woman, barefoot water skiing, the big, huge smile on her face. And I'm looking at, and I'm going. I want that. Because you see before that I felt very old at 44, I felt, um, midlife has hit, my kids. don't need me as much. What am I going to do next? I know, like it was good. But it was missing passion. It was missing that, you know, that joy that we had within us. So I met this 66 year old woman flew down Florida. She introduced me to the world barefoot champion Keith St. Onge. He got me back on the water and the first try and that was 11 years ago.. And I'd been barefoot water skiing ever since.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now that's how you lost your hearing though you fell in the water and you thought it was water in your ear and you would be able to hear again. So that's really something to overcome. I mean, that was huge.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Yeah, I always, definitely a full circle moment. The very thing that brought me sadness was now bringing me happiness.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:that's awesome. That's really incredible. Do you still water-ski.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I do I do. I am actually doing what I call a passion quest and I'm barefoot water skiing in all 50 states. And I've done 22 of them so far
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Oh, that's awesome. That's awesome. So where are you going next? Where are you going to water ski next?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Hawaii.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Oh, Oh that'll be fun.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Thanks to Southwest airlines, we're going to Hawaii.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Oh, that's awesome. I'm excited to watch that. You teach other people how to find their passion, how to unearth it. How does one unearth their passion?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Here's the thing. A lot of times we think that passion is something we find or something that we do, but it's much deeper than that. Passion is how you live. It's not necessarily that one thing that you find and you do find it's not that. Passion has 5 levels to it. And at the very bottom, basic level of passion is curiosity, Think about it. When you were a little kid, you were curious about things, and you asked questions why and wanting to know more and that's where passion was born. But
it gets squashed out of us by opinion,
audioKarenPutz12333974975:by adulthood, by things we should do things that were supposed to be. Not the very first level of curiosity. The second level is that learning stage, we identified something. Maybe you come to something that you're curious about
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Well doing a podcast. I was really curious about. It always wanted to do it since I was a little kid. And so that's how this came about. That was what I was curious about.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Okay. So think about this. You're curious, then you learn about it. Then you get to the excitement stage. The enthusiasm stage. I like this. This is cool. This is fun. And then the next
phase is acknowledgement. Oh, my gosh,
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I really want this in my life. And then the very, very top stage of passion, the recognition stage. Other people recognize your passion and they identify with you. So that's, that's what I call the clear path CLEAR. It just explains so much because here's the thing. A lot of people never get to the top. Why because the surprising meaning behind the word passion is the willingness to suffer. When things get hard, a barrier comes up we drop it we never get to that high amazing recognition state, because of the back out of fear, it's too much work. I won't succeed o
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:And you're really inspiring because it wasn't easy for you to go after your passion. I mean, I don't think so. I'm one who lives in fear of everything. I am afraid of everything. I mean, I could never imagine myself barefoot water skiing, I just couldn't. And you not being able to hear, so how do you communicate with the driver of the boat?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:You know it is hard when there's 5, 6, 7 people in the boat. It's frustrating because a lot of conversations going on and I'm left out. It is just
the fact of life. I've been
audioKarenPutz12333974975:so fortunate that the people that had barefoot water ski with are very accommodating, very kind people, they slow down. They repeat, my driver and I Keith St. Onge we have a great way of communicating. He would do different things, you know, like they say, were bang on the boom. If I needed to do something different, we had a communication going Now, He always made sure that I was looking at him. And the nice thing about it is that when you are going 42 miles an hour and the boat
engine is roaring I have an
audioKarenPutz12333974975:advantage because I can lip read, So he could tell me all these instructions for without screaming.So in some ways there's a deaf gain right there. I feel, you know, not as easily when I'm going backwards, everybody else can wear a helmet. And I can't, so there's gotta be an accommodation there, but I still think there's an advantage because I can't hear there's nothing distracting me.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now, what does it feel like to you when you're barefoot water skiing? What are you thinking about? I mean, it's gotta be freeing for one.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:They are don't fall. You're going 42 miles an hour, on your little feet one centimeter off and boom you're down. That is not a lot to think about. You have to concentrate so deeply so hard when you going that fast.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:What does it do to your feet? The soles of your feet?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:It cleans them really good. And that's for sure. Sometimes it gets like razorblades. If you're going a long time, your feet start to burn. It
becomes a challenge
audioKarenPutz12333974975:to stay up on the water for a long time.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Does it hurt them? I mean, physically hurt them.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Yeah, it's barefoot a long time. I mean, at 42 miles an hour that water's like friction..
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Oh, you're you're you're a tough cookie sister.
No, I think at our best,
audioKarenPutz12333974975:we have something that just grabs our attention and that's that passion. So people willing to go above and beyond the things that they are passionate about.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now, how do you align with your passions? How do you get in a good place so that you know, that your passion is in alignment with the rest of your life.
Okay when passion is aligned
audioKarenPutz12333974975:with your heart, with what you want to do with your life there's flow. You are in a state of flow, and that is an amazing place to be because that's the intersection of your mind and your heart and your body and what you want and what you do all together. It's an amazing level of joy.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:I want to talk about midlife, because you said that's where really everything shifted for you and you were able to unlock your passion. So everybody finds themselves a lot of times in midlife, kind of at a crossroads, like, you know, the clock is ticking now, what, what am I going to do? So how, when you get to midlife, can you kind of pivot and find a different way, brings some joy into your life. When sometimes it's not, it's a lonely time for a lot of people.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I think midlife is the perfect
time to do a pivot. And here's
audioKarenPutz12333974975:why when you were younger and you growing up, you very influenced by a lot of things, you're still in the learning stage, the evolving stage of figuring out who you are, what you want to be, what you want to do. In mid-life you're
very, very aware of time that you
audioKarenPutz12333974975:may not be aware of when you're younger. When you're
younger, your whole life is stretched out ahead of you. In midlife
audioKarenPutz12333974975:it's like, Ooh, I can see the end and it changes everything. That plus wisdom, you know, yourself, you got 40, 50, 60 years of knowing yourself better, knowing
what you won't put up with any more, knowing
audioKarenPutz12333974975:what's in your heart and realizing,time is not on your side. You have to make decisions that it really worthy of who you are, what you want, where are you're going. And that's what happens. That's why so many people are having what I call midlife reinvention. They're reinventing themselves in ways that they never thought of before.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:You talk about people reclaiming their passion in bold ways. Do you have any stories you can share?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Oh, I do. I have lots of them, but I tell you one that pops in their head right now. I was in a board meeting 10 30 at night, and there were maybe a handful of board members left we were supposed to be in bed. And somebody said to me, what is this passion test thing that you do? And right then and there, I gave them the test passion test. The passion test is a very simple test that allows you to identify your top 5 passions
in life. So my coworker
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Stephanie did it. And she looked at her results and said, I'm so surprised by my results. Then I said, why? She said my number one was so simple. I
just want to ride my tandem
audioKarenPutz12333974975:bike with my h usband. She went home and she gave her husband the same test. His number one, same thing. Just wanted to ride the tandem bike
with his wife.. It's 4 years later they
audioKarenPutz12333974975:been riding their tandem bike every single month for 4 years. And they've traveled all over doing this. That is what passion does for you. When you identify it, you can live it.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now, how do you Identify passion? What's an easy way that somebody might find something if, you know, cause if I asked my husband what his passion was, he would probably say golf, but it's also his biggest detriment because it aggravates him what he's not doing it a hundred percent.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Again, it goes back to how you want to live. Not necessarily what you want to do, but how do you want to live? Some of it is identifying what you want to do
because that's where it comes out.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:But the example that there are three clues to your passion. The first clue is looking back in your past. What did you do when you were a little kid and didn't have a care in the world. And it can be something simple as playing games or, you know, horseback riding or whatever it is in your past.. The second thing is when you're standing in line at the DMV, where does your mind go? You're sitting in a boring meeting or an endless zoom meeting, and the mind is just not into it. That's where your mind goes when it's bored. You could be thinking about what you're doing on the weekend, or thinking about a vacation you want to take or something you want to do, the some day list. What's on a someday list? Someday, I'm going to go to Hawaii. Someday when the kids are grown and gone, I'm going to do this, Someday when I get more money, I'm going to do this, that this. Why are you putting it off? Those are your three clues that you can start with.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Oh, those are incredible. And they're so simple and anybody could do them, anybody. The other thing I want to ask you about is because so many people are still working. People that work because they have to work, but
they're not passionate
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:about what they're doing. So how does one become passionate about their job?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:There's two things with that one. The first one is you can bring passion into anything, any situation that you're currently in. And I'll give you an example. I spoke at a billion dollar company and there was a call center, one of the most boring, repetitive jobs You can imagine, but what they did this call center was they pulled out people's individual talents. One woman, her talent was baking cakes. She ended up baking cakes for everybody in the company. To the point where it's a side business for
her, she loved coming to
audioKarenPutz12333974975:work because we was able to feed his side passion with it. Just one
example, Another example is this.. You are
audioKarenPutz12333974975:not a tree. You can move, you can make different choices. If you seriously wanting to leave your job and get an RV or live in a tiny house and live below your means, it's possible. We have to make different choices. We have to be willing to make different choices because that willingness allows us to tap in to the thing that's in our heart. The joy.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:You're a talented speaker and an incredible author. How did that all come about for you?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Part of it is one of the clues in my past is when I was nine years old. I'd love to write. I always wanted to be a writer. I was sitting in the boat with
the world.barefoot champion
audioKarenPutz12333974975:asking him, what do you want to do five years from now? And he said, I want to write a book. So I ended up writing his book. We have a book called
Gliding Soles and that's
audioKarenPutz12333974975:a result of that conversation. Speaking was almost by accident. I met Chad Hymas who is a very well known speaker who uses a wheelchair. And I met with him and I said, I want to be a speaker. And he gave me some advice on getting started. I've been speaking for 10 years now.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:And were you ever fearful of any of that?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Oh, yeah. Getting on stage thinking you're going to forget something. Oh yeah. The beginning very, very fearful. But the more you practice something in the way. It may still be there, but now you know how to deal with it. Now you have a skill behind you that you can so the only way around it smack dab through it, you got go through it.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now are there additional challenges with speaking on stage and not being able to hear?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Well, let me tell you something good is that if somebody says something bad or they heckle I can't hear them that's a good thing. Um, but yes, there's always challenges, but I always have my audience write down questions, raise their hand, lip read them.. There's always ways to around it.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now, when you were growing up, because you could hear as a young child, was that an advantage to once you lost your hearing or was that a detriment? I,
audioKarenPutz12333974975:remember being able to hear when I was really young, I
started losing it in elementary
audioKarenPutz12333974975:school. And I was not able to use the phone from that point. I could hear like voices and things like that, um, it was challenging. I was always trying to fill in
the blank,
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now when you were in school, did anybody else you know, couldn't hear or did you feel singled out and alone in that
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I was the only one so I always felt different. I always felt weird. Everybody could hear. So my only measurement with people who had normal hearing and I always came up short. So my self-esteem was not very good growing
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:How did you overcome that? Because, I mean, you have done more than
most people who can hear. You
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:have accomplished so many things. So I can't ever imagine you with low self-esteem or no confidence because I just think you're absolutely amazing. So how did you come through that?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:It goes back to that moment that I told you about after becoming deaf I struggled, I was suicidal. I considered ending life. So it was a very, very dark time in my life. And I talk about that because I've lost family members to suicide. So I'm very upfront. And I talk about that now, cause a lot of people hide it, but it was a very dark time in my life, but it wasn't for that decision that I made waking up and deciding that I was going to pick that choice instead of that choice. It changed everything for me, the moment I decided to embrace the journey, the good, the bad that's when it just changed.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:And would there people in your life at that time that helped you get to that point? Or was it just an inner journey?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:It was both. I mean, I had sign language teachers. I had a counselor, I had good people around me. You know, I met my husband shortly after making that decision. Um, I had some people who, you know, they would make fun of my signing and that hurt but I still kept going powering though it because I knew I wanted to be the best possible deaf person I could be. I ended up teaching sign language.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:And you're an advocate. You're an advocate for people who don't hear. What needs to change?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:That's a
tough one. More acceptance. More acknowledgement
audioKarenPutz12333974975:of differences, you know? More access. Like today I was denied service in the drive t hru at Taco Bell. Why is this happening? Why are you telling a deaf person that they need to come into the store and
order? And not order in
audioKarenPutz12333974975:the drive thru, like everybody else. you know, things like that need to change. I look forward to a day where all the differences are just embraced.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Yeah, that's, that's the ideal. And hopefully we get there soon. So, what is next for you? What is in your five-year plan?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I have four more books I want to write. More speaking that I want to do. I want to help more deaf and hard of hearing people and empower them, you know, to make these big, bold choices in living. Now that kind of thing. Right now I'm actually working at a horse farm. I want to continue with horses.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Now what can hearing people do to help empower someone who doesn't hear or
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I love it when somebody signs, it just makes things easier, you know, acknowledgement, tapping on the
shoulder, lip reading, facing people,
audioKarenPutz12333974975:hiring an
interpreter.Things like that.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:Um, taking the time to sit down and talk, you know, I'm introverted. So sometimes I don't initiate conversations with people. And they think, oh, well, she's stuck up. Or, you know, but I always appreciate people who reach out.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:I'm introvert too, so I can understand that. And I always feel like people think, oh, she doesn't like me, but a lot of times I just feel like, well, they don't want to bother with me. So I certainly understand that mindset. I love everybody. I wouldn't do what I'm doing if I didn't love people and love talking to people, but sometimes yeah, you're just an introvert and it's hard. So it's overcoming those things. And I think for me, my passion and fear of not getting to know somebody is much greater than how uncomfortable I am as an introvert.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:I totally get that. People look at me and they're you're so outgoing, there's no place I'd rather be then, you know, alone in my hot tub or writing, things like that.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Is there anything that we missed Where can people find you? Where can they find your books?
audioKarenPutz12333974975:They can find
me Karen Putz dot com. And my book
audioKarenPutz12333974975:is Unwrapping Your Passion. You could find it on Amazon. Your story is in Unwrapping Your Passion.. We met years ago when you were doing the Midlife Road Road Trip.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Yeah. Yeah. And it's funny. It's like constant re-invention. That was over a decade ago. And that was a reinvention from what I had been doing before. And now I'm like, because of the pandemic for two years, couldn't travel, you know, couldn't get out to restaurants. So really I was kind of dead in the water about literally about doing anything. I always wanted to talk to people. I wanted a radio show when I was young, I thought I was going to be Lois lane, you know, working at the daily planet and then newspapers kind of went away. And then I always thought, you know, I'd love to be on the radio radio would be great. Well, how can I do that? What podcasting is basically the radio. So during the pandemic, I said, I'm going to figure this out. I am going to figure out how I can talk to people, what I can talk about. And so my goal was to talk to people that inspired me just brilliant people. It's kind of like my college education. My master's degree in life is talking to all these amazing people of which you are one. In closing, What three tips could you give somebody? Three tips just off the top of your head that say these things you can do today. Tip number one. What would you do if you were ageless? If you didn't know the number of candles on the cake, what would you do? Number two, passion is a gift. You have to unwrap your gift. Don't let it sit on a shelf. And number three, if it hasn't been done before, maybe you are the one, t o blaze the way. And I think in closing Recognize that you have gifts Special skills, special talents. Everything that makes up you! And no matter where you are in life, you can pivot at any time. Brilliant. Brilliant. Karen, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me today. I so appreciate it. And thank you for an unforgettable conversation.
audioKarenPutz12333974975:This was fun. Thank you. for having me.
audioSandiMckenna-22333974975:Thank you.
Karen certainly is an inspiration. These last couple of years have really old, but drained me of any passion I once had you see before the pandemic, my business partner, when I traveled around the world for more than a decade. Documenting these incredible adventures, eating unbelievable meals and meeting extraordinary people. We built a business around our passion but sometimes life throws you curve balls or pandemics for that matter. Karen is a Testament to it's what you do with the curve ball that matters. Our conversation today has reignited that flame of passion in me once again, and I'm excited in this new chapter of my journey to unwrap my passion and see what gifts unfold. I completely forgot that my business partner, Rick Griffin and I talked about our passions in Karen's book. So I opened it back up to pages one 10 through one 12. And. Read about what I said about passion. And I said, passion means dreaming big, following your heart, going after it, not letting up. Not giving up, not letting disappointment, beat you or stop you from doing what you love in finding fulfillment. That's what passion means to me, Sandy McKenna. I really needed a dose of my own advice to get moving again, get my creative juices flowing and dare to dream big again. As Karen says, where you tap into the energy of passion, doors, start opening for you. People come into your life who vibrate. That same passionate energy. I don't know about you but i have just flung my door wide open excited to see who and what comes in.
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