Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to another episode of Couple of Nukes. As always, I'm your host, Mr. Whiskey, and today we are going to be talking about Resiliency in life. Life can just really be chaotic. It can be unexpected, and there can be a lot of things that happen that we just don't understand, that we don't expect, and that can really hinder our lives, whether that's from birth or everything else that follows afterward.
Today, we are here with someone who has Thrived, first survived, now thrives, and is empowering others to do the same. An author and a speaker, Ms. Michaela Cox. Would you please go ahead and introduce yourself for us, and tell us a little bit about it. Yeah, uh, thanks for letting me come on here. I'm glad to be here.
I am Mikayla Cox, an author and speaker. I've Had an interesting journey and there's a reason why we say in our society What doesn't kill you makes you stronger and the author version that is what doesn't kill you gives a lot to write about. So yeah Yeah, I've written a lot and have more to write about and lots to talk about so um My story started, um, when I was born, in what I call my 38 triple D, not what you think it is.
It's a journey of going from surviving to thriving, lifelong disability of legal blindness, which is the beginning of it. So it started from birth, and then I found myself divorced in 2005, and then not long after that I met, uh, what would be the love of my life, and we were together almost 12 years, including dating, until we lost him unexpectedly, suddenly, tragically.
Ahem, excuse me. In 2017, and I was 38 at the time. So then, after figuring out disability and what it was to put a life back together after divorce, I then found myself in a blink of an eye having to figure out grief and loss and widowhood and solo parenting, because my kids at the time were 6 and 3. Not the youngest, but pretty young in life to have a hit like that.
So, it's taught me a lot. So I write, I've written my whole life because I just felt compelled to write and called to it. And obviously what I write now is not what I wrote when I was a kid, or I hope not, or we're all in trouble. But, um, and I feel like as long as I have my voice and pen and paper, or at least electronically a computer.
And Google Docs, um, then I can share and share my story and my message and hopefully empower others along their own journey to figure out how to not just survive but thrive. Right. And, you know, let's just get straight into it because I know you're talking about using writing as an outlet. How did this play a role into you giving a TEDx talk?
Oh, I felt like I had a message that was worth sharing and I knew that TEDx, it's It's kind of like work smarter, not harder. And you know, one spot you have much more. I mean, a lot of things can be impactful and you know, helpful and that's great, but there's a few things in life in our modern day age where you have such an impact from just doing one thing, hopefully.
So I figured that that would be a good place to start. And so, yes, I did do my TEDx talk, uh, Fall of 23. So over a year ago. Yeah. Can you tell us about that experience? we're going to have the uh Link to your website, which has the the video of it in the description below for everyone to watch. But what was that like given it?
Were you nervous? How do you feel like it went? And you know, have people been reaching out to you from it saying that it's impacted their life? I know there's been a few. I think it was an amazing experience. It was something I definitely wanted to do. It was kind of like a, I guess in our modern day age of social media and people trying to have influence and writers and speakers, it's kind of a bucket list, you know, professionally and personally per se.
And so I can cross that off, but, um, It was different. It was not what I expected, but is life ever what you expect? And it was good. I was glad to do it and, um, it was a lot of work, but it was worth it. So, um, I was glad I did it and it's out there. So go check it out. Yeah, and you talked about speaking and writing being outlets, including your TEDx talk, and of course, you've got a couple books, but Before we delve further into the books, I want to get into the role faith has played in all of this.
Because I know you are a faith based author and speaker, so what role has faith played in all of this? It's played a major role. It's who I am. It's what I try and do, you know. It's, I was raised in a Christian household, and I've been a Christian for a long time. Christian longer than I've not in my life.
And so I became to my faith at early age, but even before that, um, it was always a part of my life and my story, because like I said, I was, I've been legally blind my whole life, but in reality. I was born totally blind and a bit of a medical fluke actually, but be that as that may, um, at seven months old, I was able to see when no one understood why I was born the way I was or how I became blind or then why all of a sudden when I was, I was seeing, although it be impaired.
And so, um, we believe, and I believe, meaning my family and I, that it was a miracle from God that granted me my sight to actually see, even though it is. Um, and it's an interesting cocktail of really screwed up, but at least I see, and it's more than what I had to begin with. So, yeah, um, so that's always played a huge part of my life and my story, but more importantly, I really don't think that I'd be able to have these comments say, well, I don't want to say more importantly, but equal or for the same amount of place of significance in my life, I should say.
I don't think I'd be able to have these conversations and have the story and the message and Be able to put it out there in the world and keep doing what I do Despite everything that you know that I've had in my life if it wasn't for my faith So pretty important to me right and as you've continued speaking in writing and living life I mean How did the events, you know, your divorce and then the death of your beloved husband later on at 38, did those shake your faith at all?
What role did faith play in those, and what role did those play in your faith? I think the divorce was really hard, not the hardest, but it made me question a lot of things. Like, you see things a certain way in part of your life, and then, like, something happens, like a crisis or a divorce or a situation that you weren't expecting, and it makes you think, oh.
The world's not the way I thought it was, or it opens up new questions. And so it kind of expanded my knowledge and my understanding, and it did ask, it forced me to ask some questions that I hadn't thought of before. And it taught me new things. As far as the loss of my husband and the grief and loss, that's been more challenging, obviously, and still is sometimes and in some ways.
But I won't say I lost my faith or that I doubted. It was more of, I was struggling to understand, and it caused me to question. Question, not my faith and not who God is and who Christ is and my Lord and Savior, but more of how does this fit with what I've always believed. Does that make sense? Yeah, of course.
I think that's how a lot of people feel. I've definitely had situations in my life where my faith was being questioned or, you know, there were questions being brought up that You know, I had never asked, and now that I'm asking them, it's like, where does this fit in, and I'm the same way with you, with a lot of the, you know, guests I've had on my show, where it's a difficult feeling, it's a torn feeling of, we would have loved for our lives to have been perfect, or to be better than they were.
But at the same time, we wouldn't be the podcast guest or host, the speaker, the author, or creator that we are if we didn't go through that and we look at how many people's lives we've changed through our work, uh, whether they heard one of our talks or read one of our books and it's like it would be a trade, you know, taking away their life for ours to be better and at the end of the day, like you said, our lives could be worse, , but we're making do with what we have and we're, we're doing well.
And we're helping other people. So I think it's the best middle ground. And just talking about that, because it's on topic, I want to get into your books. Now you've got a whole list of books. Uh, really impressive, honestly. And I want to encourage everyone to check them out in the description below. But let's start, we're not going to go over all of them.
We'll go over, you know, a couple of them. Starting with your newest release. I had one this summer that came out. It was ripple effect. Which is the second book in my, faith based series. I mean, there's influence on my faith in all of them, but I mean, like, specifically that deals with faith in Christianity and spirituality.
But that's the whole theme of it. It's based off of Romans 12, 1 through 2, and I just thought it was I think I got the idea when I was sitting in church. That's the thing about creativity. When you get ideas and inspiration, it can come from anywhere. You could see something on a street corner or be on a vacation or, you know, sitting in church.
It's kind of interesting how that works and how the brain latches on to things and then Based off of one thought goes into this whole other thing. I've always found it fascinating. But, um, so he was preaching on Romans 12, one through two. And I thought, you know, if we did our best to live the way we're supposed to, then what ripple effect, then I like, Oh my gosh, ripple effect.
Okay, here we go. Time to start an outline. Yeah. Um, so we talk about deep dive into Romans 12. Um, one through two, um, if anyone knows that verse about being, not being conformed and transformed and renewed and all the things and I talk about that and various different aspects of how I think that would work and what we should think about in trying to live that way and how we could cause a ripple effect and then I brought up examples from scripture that I think had a ripple effect going forward and then I did not intend for this to happen when I set out and made this outline but then In retrospect, it was kind of like there was a section in there was kind of a stroll down memory lane of church history and like, Oh, I didn't really set out to write a book on church history, but hey, there you go.
Because it was more of the people that have come before us in the past generations that did what they did that because they did what they did led to another thing that led to another thing, the ripple effect to illustrate that is exactly what it is. It ripples out and impacts others and then changes things and.
Then we end up with where we're at. And then who's to say that whatever we do now that hopefully might have a ripple effect for those around us or ones that come after us and continue it on. So there's that 1 and then. Earlier this year, I did Finding Grace Through Grief, which kind of walks people through, under the context of grief and loss, the five things that I've used really my whole life, although I didn't know to call it that at the time when I was a kid, through every major aspect of the 38 Triple D, disability, divorce, and death, what's helped me be able to deal with it.
Thank you. And so I wanted to walk people through that, especially people who are struggling in their journey of grief and loss. Yeah. As someone who has published a few books myself and has interviewed other authors, uh, I've always been fascinated too, by the, the train of thoughts. I mean, humans just in general, just in day to day thinking, but authors, especially you look inside their minds and it's like, it doesn't necessarily make sense to anyone or to ourselves.
You know, because I remember some of my first fiction book ideas came from, you know, just random things I had heard in science class in, uh, high school or from history class or I'll just be thinking somewhere and I see something and then you start thinking and, uh, it's a ripple effect, so to speak, uh, you know, and, um, I agree with faith being a ripple effect as well.
You know, that's, I always encourage people who are struggling with their faith to try to get around other people. who are faith based and kind of resonate with them because Uh, they can help build us up ultimately you should you know have faith on your own But if you are struggling, I highly encourage You know, whether it's reading a faith based book whether it's watching a faith based speaker or pastor or just talking to your local community Hearing those stories of success and failure of other faith based individuals can really help, you know, boost you when you need it.
And that goes with anything that you're working on. To surround yourself with other people who have gone through the same thing, or are going through it, or will, you know, y'all can kind of relate and help advise each other and encourage one another. And so I think that's always important to remember.
And definitely a ripple effect both in the faith based world and not. And then, Ms. Cox, for the future, do you have more books in you? Because like we said, you've already written quite a few. Uh, do you plan to continue writing? Yes, I do. I have six series I'm building out right now, and there probably eventually will be eight.
Each series, I'm working on building out those series, so there's several titles to come in each series. Um, it's the holidays, so we're wrapping up the year, and so it's kind of a busy time of year, so I don't really Right. December, but hopefully, and I haven't decided what I'm doing in 2025 yet. There may not be any launches till 2026, but I will be writing all of 2025 to get ready for whatever next launches out.
Um, I have new books that I want to release in the now I see series. I have two more in the finding grace series, um, motherhood series, faith series, and weird, oddly enough, um, we, the people series, especially with America coming up on their 250th. Um, birthday, um, in 2026, which as a history person and political science, I'm really excited about.
Um, the series that I wrote, it's not a children's book, but to my children, I have books coming out in that one. And then I eventually want to add, um, maybe some devotions. That's going to be, you have to wait a little bit because as you can see, I have a lot on my plate. Um, but also I want to do a teen student edition of the Facebook series because I remember Some of that stuff was important.
And I think if we could relate it to kids, you know, like students, either high school or middle school or college, that can be really helpful. And I hope to get to that one in the next year or two as well. And then with finding grace through grief, I really want to build out a program. To help people actually going to that journey.
I mean, books are great. Don't get me wrong, but kind of to your point about community, I think you can take it a step further and have more impact if there have something tangible and a resource that can actually give them ideas of what it's really like to walk in in real life and from someone that's done it and be in that community setting.
Because We were not created to be islands or isolated creatures, we were created for socialization and community and I think that's part of the benefit of the church body, like you were saying, to be connected with because that really can help in a lot of ways and so can having community when you are going through grief and loss.
So I'm trying to figure out how to create maybe a program or something with that as well to maybe grow how that might have a ripple effect and impact as well. I completely agree. I think when It, it's kind of like, uh, you know, everyone's different and when going through a grieving period, some people want isolation and that's good for them, uh, and some people want community and that's good for them, so, like you said, the books are a great outlet and option for people who are grieving and want advice and information and to feel connected, but for those of us who need a step further to have that community, I definitely agree with you on that part, and I've seen a lot more people trying to build those, and I think it's great.
It's one of the awesome things about technology and the ways we connect nowadays, so I definitely agree. Now I'm not sure if you can be a repeat TEDx speaker because I'm not too educated on that field But is there a future TEDx talk in you? There might be I've thought about that You can you're just you can do the TEDx stage again But what you can't do is use the same talk you would have to create.
Yeah A totally different talk, which I've been thinking about that. I know what I want to do if I was to do another one. So I will probably maybe tinker with that maybe as well, but yeah, you have to do a completely different idea and a completely different talk if you want to have a second TEDx talk, that's the thing about that.
Yeah, for sure. And the bar set a little higher for you now because you've already given one. So. It's like you got to give one that's equally as good or better, you know? Yeah, definitely some some pressure there, but you've gotten since since you gave that TEDx talk I know you've guested on a number of shows and spoken quite a bit So I I definitely look forward to that and we'll probably have you on the show again Shortly after you deliver that to cover your new books because there'll be a couple new books and your new talk But before we close things off here If you could give the listeners one piece of advice to take away from this whole conversation and what you've been through, what would that be?
I think we have to realize that life is short, and there's no guarantees, and there's no promises of tomorrow, and so, I think in life, you need to choose well, so that you can live your best life, and in living your best life, you can not just survive, but thrive. I completely agree, yeah. Surviving versus thriving.
We definitely want to be thriving, and it's possible to do that. If you survive, then you're able to thrive. So, I highly encourage everyone who wants more information on that, more advice, and more community to check out your website and all your information that we'll have in the description below. But, Ms.
Cox, thank you so much for coming on the show. I appreciate having you. Well, thank you for having me. I hope it added a value to your listeners and that they can have some takeaways.
