Amanda Starr with Arise Safety and CPR takes about her comeback story.
Here is the transcript:
Ryan: All right, so Next up, I’d like to introduce our five-minute speaker of this evening, Amanda Starr, who is the founder of Arise Safety and CPR, and Arise has a special significance to it because it does not just explain the name of her business, but also explains her story as well.
Ryan: So, everyone, let’s give a big hand to Amanda Starr.
Ryan: Let’s see. There you go. You’re live.
Amanda: Can you hear me?
Ryan: Try again.
Amanda: Can you hear me? Sorry. Can you hear me?
Amanda: Alright, I don’t have a PowerPoint, but Melanie is passing out some brochures for you guys to look at. But, first of all, I just want to say it’s a really, it’s an honor to be here. When Ryan called and asked me to be here, I thought he called the wrong person. And that’s because I, there was a time when I was an active addiction and something like this would be completely out of the question then.
Amanda: My addiction story started the same as most peoples’. I experimented with friends out on the weekends and eventually it became a daily thing for me. One of the most terrifying days of my life was when I woke up and realized that I couldn’t stop. And there wasn’t a single day that I woke up and I wanted to do this. It was just something that I couldn’t stop. Everything in my life started to disappear.
Amanda: If I’m honest, I barely noticed it first, but then I started having that deep inner pain. It was like those demons inside of me started taking control and there was nothing that I could do about it. The only thing that I could do to relieve that pain was to get high and that only lasted for a few minutes, and then it came back.
Amanda: One day, something inside of me broke. You can call it a spiritual experience. You can call it a breakthrough. Call it whatever you want.
Amanda: I call it a gift. It was a gift of desperation. And what that meant, that I was finally able to receive help. I was willing to accept because I had nothing left inside of me. I was nothing but a shell of a person on the brink of death.
Amanda: Getting sober is not easy. It’s literally the hardest thing I’ve ever done, and I’m a small business owner.
Amanda: So, with 30 days sober, I got a job, I got called to be a CPR Instructor, which was absolutely crazy because I failed public speaking in high school and in college. But there was something about standing in front of a group of people and teaching them life saving skills that gave me a purpose.
Amanda: It gave me hope. It gave me everything that I was missing in active addiction. I was finally able to learn how to connect with other people and I did that through CPR training.
Amanda: And so, I started off with, I had this 2003 Mitsubishi Galant literally held together by duct tape and prayers, I promise you. I had a Bluetooth speaker that was literally duct taped to my dashboard that was connected to my phone. So, I had radio, and a phone, and GPS.
Amanda: Every time I used the air conditioner in that, water would just seep through the bottom of it.
Amanda: So, I had to make sure that my CPR mannequins and my supplies didn’t touch the floor. It was like playing Tetris every time I put stuff in my car, but I learned a lot about myself in those rides. I listen to a lot of speakers about other people in recovery.
Amanda: I worked my way up as far as I could in the company that I was in, and when I got there, I realized I wasn’t done growing and I wanted more.
Amanda: I have the tendency to be a bit obsessive. It’s part of the addiction, because enough is never enough for me. So, I had been putting feelers out to my friends about starting my own business, and I even came up with the name Arise because that’s how I felt, like I arised. But the advice to me was unanimous. They told me not to do it.
Amanda: I also tend to be a bit impulsive and somewhat of a risk taker, so I put my two weeks notice in and I filed for an LLC, and by the time my two weeks notice came up, I had my first two contracts and I hit the ground running.
Amanda: I’ve listened to a Ted talk once that said run your business like an addict. And I thought that I can do and that’s what I do today.
Amanda: We run monthly classes that are open to the public in 13 cities across central Indiana. We help companies all over central Indiana stay OSHA compliant. We also do other trainings such as Bloodborne Pathogens and Pet First Aid and CPR.
Amanda: I regularly speak to colleges about addiction and Narcan and where to get help.
Amanda: There are many gifts that my past has given me. For one, I’m fearless. I’m not scared to say it here. No, I’m not scared to fail, because I have faced death and I have survived. And for me, waking up every day is enough to say I haven’t failed yet.
Amanda: So, every day before I get out of bed, I have to be reminded that I’m an addict. I’m living on borrowed time. My recovery program comes first and foremost and I take what I learned in that program and I put it, I put those principles and skills and I apply them to my business.
Amanda: I have to, because that’s how I stay sober today and I cannot tell you enough what an honor it is to be here today because most people who go through what I go through, they don’t survive to see a sober day, and here I am with you.
Amanda: So, thank you so much for allowing me to share my story with you.
