JJ Virgin's 16-year-old son Grant was struck by a car and hospitalized in the ICU. She publicly asked her network for help, and the response was overwhelming. Her vulnerability led to her book debuting at number 3 and staying on the bestseller list for 23 weeks, generating about $6 million in sales.
Questions this video answers
Bryce was 15 and Grant was 16.
Number three.
23 weeks.
$6 million.
Chapters
Our next presenter is obviously, you can tell by just listening to her and looking at her that she actually walks the walk and talks the talk. But her name is J.J. virgin. Okay. She's a prominent fitness and nutrition expert. She's been on Picture, pbs, Access Hollywood, the Doctors Today Show. She's the author of the New York Times bestseller the Virgin Diet. Dropped seven foods lose seven pounds in just seven days. And she's awesome. So give it up for JJ Virgin.
And I'm actually not going to talk about health because I have my very favorite saying by Eleanor Roosevelt, which is do one thing a day that scares you. So I elected to talk about something that terrifies me because it's been the most impactful thing that has ever happened to me. And I think by sharing it with you that it may impact you as well. So about 11 months ago, almost to the day, I was just on top of the world. Do you ever have that feeling that everything is just lining up for you? I taped my PBS special. We were editing it. It was getting set up to be that lever for the book. By the way, if you haven't done PBS for a book launch, best thing ever. I'd sent the galleys for the Virgin Diet out to the media and they actually liked this one. I was getting booked. I was booked on Rachael Ray. I was booked on the Today Show. I've been working with Brendan Burchard. We had my whole book launch lined up. It was just set up to be so powerful. But I look back now and I had no idea how powerful this was all going to be. And really because of the question. So I'm coming home from Experts Academy literally thinking everything is perfect. And the next day I'm taping video. Now I'm a New York Times best selling author. I hate writing, hate it, I outsource it. But I love video. I've been doing TV for years. I was on Dr. Phil for a couple seasons during his weight loss challenge. I had nothing to do with his body. Disclaimer. TLC's freaky eaters. Anyone watch it ever? There's usually one, so no. That's why it's not here anymore. Thank you. Thank you. So I've done a lot of tv. I love video. Very comfortable. I've been doing video all day long and now I'm going to go home and be with my kids. I have two teenage boys and truthfully, over that past year I'd gotten really disconnected from them and I was trying to kind of write it off that they're teenagers. And it was sort of like, get out of my room, mom. Right? And I was like, they just, you know, they don't want to be mommy's boys. But in reality, my relationship with them wasn't where I wanted it to be. So I was happy. I was going home. I was actually going to cook dinner and spend some time with them. And the reality of it was, I get home and they were 15 and 16. My 15 year old Bryce, my 16 year old Grant. I get home and Grant is in a really pissed off mood because his dad had told him he couldn't go to a class that night because of something that went down to school. So he pounces on me because he thinks mom will cave. Because mom does. I always cave. But I didn't cave. And he kept working on me and working on me, and I just wasn't going to cave. I wasn't going to do it. So he stormed out of the house. It's amazing how an instant decision can just change everything. And I live in Palm Desert, and in Palm Desert we have this thing called the Starry Night ordinance. It's where we keep the street lights dim so you can see the stars. So it's now dark. I have an angry teenager wearing black, and I live a couple blocks away from a 40 mile an hour zone. And my son never saw the car that ran him down going 40 miles an hour and leaving him dead in the street. Now, I saw a bunch of you who said they were parents. So, you know, I never even want to hear stories like this. I just didn't want to ever imagine this. And so you hear your kids airlifted to a hospital, you know, it's bad. And sure enough, we get there and they say, there's nothing we can do for your son. He was in a coma, bones sticking out. And they said, there's nothing we can do. You got to let him go. But he was alive. And so I overrode them. And we had him airlifted to UCLA trauma center. And I'm there in the icu and it is that dark place. Remember what Ned said is never worry alone. It's that dark place, and I am completely powerless, out of control, and I have to do something. But, you know, my whole adult life I've done tv and I have perfect public Persona. You know, you have your professional Persona and that all is good. And then I always get my kids back here, my priority. And I didn't talk about things with my kids, and I didn't share that. But I'm in this icu. And my son's got a line out of his head. He had brain bleeds. And so they're monitoring the pressure in his head. And he's got a central line. He has a torn aorta that's going to rupture at any moment if they don't do surgery. He's got bones sticking out. And I'm hearing that he's on a ventilator. He's on life support. The alarms are going to. It's as bad as it gets. And I thought, I gotta do something. I mean, I've gotta do something, right? I'm not just gonna stand here. And I said I wasn't a writer, but this letter wrote itself. I mean, I don't even know how I did it. And I decided to send this everywhere. My entire list. Facebook, social media, get it out there. And I remember saying, I don't want your sympathy. Here's what's happened, but I need your support. You know, we all talk about getting real and being authentic and real in our marketing. And I will tell you, and you saw it today with Renee. There's getting real and then there's getting vulnerable. And when you take that chance to be vulnerable, it is unbelievable what happens. I mean, literally within minutes, my phone starts going off. Texts and emails and phone calls. Dr. Daniel Amen shows up at the hospital. Hilah Kass makes me organic chicken soup. We eat so many whole foods baskets. They're like, who are you? All these doctors and healers coming in. The top brain researchers from all over the country are emailing me what they did so that I have the protocols. Incredible stuff. So he's still in a coma. He survived the surgery. I'm with him, talking to him, because I know he can hear me telling him he's going to be 110%. I'm looking at my son, and I know that I'm going to do whatever it takes to make sure he's 110%. But the reality of it is I have a book being published in a matter of weeks, and I am the sole support of. Of my family. And this is going to take. You know, you can pray all you want, but you need some money to pay for all of this. So I knew what I'd lined up for my book launch wasn't going to be enough, that I had to way blow past that. But I'm in the ICU 15 hours a day. So I did an SOS and I sent it out to all my friends, affiliates. I remember I had one Gal who I'd never met, who now was one of my top JV partners. She said, we've got this. You do what you need to do. We will take care of this. Affiliates, calling other people, everyone marching in. The book debuts number three. It's been on the list 23 weeks, $6 million so far, because I took a chance. Now the story is really a story about getting totally vulnerable. Right? You heard the incredible story that Renee told you. You heard Mike Koenig share a little bit of his. What does it do for you when you hear someone share this piece of them? It makes them approachable, it makes them relatable. You start to identify with them. You want to be a part of it. I go places now, and the first thing people want to know is, how is Grant? And then they share what's happened to them because of my work, because I allowed them in, they became a part of me, a part of my community. And I shared with them, and they felt like family. It's really incredible. It's also incredibly scary. But, you know, once you start to do it, your comfort zone expands and it becomes just the way that you live. And you get so much more from doing it. So what I'm going to encourage all of you to do is I hope you don't ever have the extreme vulnerability that I have. But we all have something and we can all start sharing that some. And it makes such a massive difference, not just in your life, but when you give like this, it. It's incredible what it does for other people. We talked about it earlier, how it gives them the permission. And again, it's not a matter of just being real anymore, just being authentic. It is a matter of sharing the struggle and sharing the pain, because people will see you and they think you've got it perfect. They think everything is great. We all have that, right? We all have that struggle. We all have that pain. So I look back now, and it's amazing how you can look at any event, and it's all how you frame it. For me, this past 11 months has been the most amazing, best time of my entire life. It's been the best time for my family. We're connected again. And what's been so incredible, you know, you look at coming from a place of total vulnerability and asking those questions and finding out that it's actually, actually the most empowering thing that could ever happen to you. And so last week, and this, to me, is the most amazing result of all, of asking that question, of asking for help, because I had brain researchers that helped me to get to this result. Last week I was in Key west and I was paddling in a canal. I was paddle boarding. And next to me is my younger son, Bryce, and he's paddle boarding. And next to me over here, well ahead of me actually, because he was beating us, was my son Grant, kayaking. Sanjay Gupta is doing a story on Grant because he's a miracle. It.
