The Story Behind Her Success Candy O'Terry

As a 6-year-old, I remember deciding I’m not going to be fearful; I’m going to be furious. -Jodi Tolman



When your childhood is fractured by emotional abuse and the threat of violence, it’s easy to lack confidence and lose your way as an adult.  For Jodi Tolman, there have been plenty of mistakes and regrets, but there have also been incredible triumphs in her life.   Her secret weapon?  resiliency!  Born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Jodi adored her mother and feared her father, who she describes as “an angry man who would reach for his belt.” The youngest of three children, she recalls making herself small and invisible so that she could hide beneath the dining room buffet cabinet when things got loud and scary at her house.  Says Jodi:   “I thought my mother could save me.  My safety was in her arms. “ An unstoppable force of nature,  Jodi has experienced 27 different career iterations.  Looking back, she regrets her decision to drop out of college one month before graduation at the University of Ohio, but Jodi wanted to be a singer, just like her mother.   In this interview, she shares her experiences as a singing waitress at the Improv in Los Angeles and New York, where she worked alongside Jay Leno and Robin Williams.   A seasoned voice-over talent, business-to-business pro, and sales consultant,  Jodi also spent 15 years working with senior citizens as they transitioned from their homes to senior living communities.  Married three times, Jodi is the proud mother of three children:  one born naturally, one by adoption, and one by a donor egg.   These days, she talks to parents in the throws of infertility, answering their questions and sharing her story.  Say Jodi:  “Parenting comes from the doing, not from the pregnancy”  Her memoir One from Each Column is planned for release in 2025.  A sought-after public speaker, Jodi’s keynote address, “Triumph Over Trauma: Inspiring Belief That Life-Long Dreams Can Still Come True, “ includes her radical theory about childhood abuse.   #childhoodtrauma #resilience #fertility #adoption  

A concussion is a broken brain. And it doesn’t have to be just a hit to the head. It is an impact on your body that moves up to your brain. -Lynne Becker



Welcome to part 2 of a concussion story every mom, dad, coach, caregiver, and healthcare professional needs to hear. The single mother of two, Lynne Becker’s daughters were both athletes, but when her daughter Natalie was hit at point-blank range with a soccer ball, she got the phone call no parent wants to receive. Natalie was knocked unconscious. The athletic trainer reported that she couldn’t speak or remember her name. This jarring hit to the 17-year-old’s head would unfold in a journey that lasted over 4 years and included 26 brain bleeds, changes to her personality, and the need for homeschooling. In this interview, Lynne shares that her expertise as a biostatistician and an epidemiologist was a secret weapon that would lead to unlocking the many mysteries of how traumatic brain injuries or TBIs are reported and observed. While caring for Natalie full-time, Lynne lost her job but was soon recruited by the Department of Defense and tasked with building a real-world, brain injury database for Special Operations teams. As she began compiling data on Seals and Green Berets, she asked herself: “What is the common denominator? What makes the injury of a 30-year-old Green Beret in a bomb blast similar to a 17-year-old girl injured by a hit to the side of the head with a soccer ball?” Thanks to Lynne’s work with the DOD, she learned about the use of bio-neuro-feedback for the treatment of TBI, and in just 5 sessions, Natalie stopped napping every day and was even able to complete her college degree. Born and raised in a little “whistle-stop” town in upstate New York, Lynne is the founder of powerofpatients.com, where she is devoted to helping those with brain injuries actively engage in their health and well-being. #concussion #TBI #thestorybehindhersuccess

Listen to me. My daughter walks into walls. She sleeps 20 hours a day. -Lynne Becker



Back in the day, if 2 athletes smashed into one another, coaches would keep them in the game. Not anymore. Traumatic brain injuries, known as TBI, are serious business, and if you doubt this fact, just listen to this interview with Lynne Becker. A biostatistician and epidemiologist with an MS in public health, Lynne has spent her entire career analyzing charts and graphs, looking for clues that lead to better medical outcomes for patients. The single mother of two girls, she got a phone call from her younger daughter’s boarding school hours after Natalie was hit in the head intentionally with a soccer ball by a male student at point-blank range. The force of the blow knocked the 17-year-old unconscious. The athletic trainer told Lynne: “Your daughter can’t talk. She doesn’t know her name or what day it is.” It was at this moment that Lynne’s momma bear instincts, combined with a lifetime of amassing medical information, came into play. Lynne takes us through her constant frustration with her daughter’s school administrators, the school nurse, multiple hospitals, interns, doctors, and neurologists who missed 28 brain bleeds. “Concussion is a broken brain says Lynne, and the patient is never the same.” In fact, it took nearly 4+ years for her daughter to reclaim any normalcy in her young life. Fueled by the power of mother love, Lynne began gathering vital research so that patients and doctors could understand more about concussions. As the creator of powerofpatients.com, this unstoppable mother is a champion for patients, caregivers, and providers with the first patient-led brain injury data warehouse. For a dose of powerful storytelling and vital information on #concussion, just hit that download button.

Be true to yourself. Know who you are as a person because people will try to break you. If you have a strong sense of self-esteem, you will be successful. -Megan McShane



In the spotlight: Megan McShane. She spent 13 years working for global coaching sensation Tony Robbins and years later, developed the concept for Your Best Life Now www.yblnow.com with two business partners. Designed to bring together four key parts of a person’s life, Your Best Life Now is a results-driven, membership-based mastermind community focused on what Megan calls “the wheel of life”: faith, family, fitness, and finance for entrepreneurs. While most coaching models are based on the individual, Your Best Life Now is focused on inclusivity. Says Megan: “You want to grow with the people around you, and if you are not growing together, it causes strain in a relationship. With our coaching, it’s all about the whole.” Members of Your Best Life Now receive a year’s worth of business coaching and personal coaching, plus 3 empowering live events per year. Born and raised near the Canadian border in the small town of Ogdensburg, New York, Megan is the daughter of a legendary NCAA hockey coach and a labor & delivery nurse. When her Dad’s coaching gig took the family from St. Lawrence University to Providence College, the family moved to Providence, Rhode Island, with Megan playing sports year-round, including girl’s ice hockey. Also a certified yoga instructor, Megan is a true believer in the power of positive thinking. “It’s really easy to see the negative, but it is just as easy to see the good. Mindset is everything. We live in a world that’s go, go, go, but it is in the quiet moments that creativity comes to life.” For a 20 minute glimpse into living your best life now, just hit that download button. #mindset #empowerment #coaching #thestorybehindhersuccess

As a child, I tried to sign up for Little League, and they said, “No” you’re a girl.  And I remember thinking:  That’s not right. It hurt me in my heart.   -Digit Murphy



Margaret Pearl “Digit” Degidio Murphy admits that as a child, she cried when she couldn’t play baseball or ice hockey just because she was a girl.   As she skated alone around local ponds in her hometown of Cranston, Rhode Island, Digit knew she could be a champion.  A scrappy kid from the wrong side of the tracks, she decided to never give up trying and, in the wake of crucial changes thanks to #title9,  continued to break down barriers for women and girls in sports. A student athlete at Cornell, Digit was named Ivy League Player of the Year, finishing her college career with 123 goals and 90 assists.  Digit loved the sport so much, she coached at Brown University for 23 seasons and holds the record as the winningest ice hockey coach in NCAA Division 1 history.  But as she climbed the ladder in sports, Digit experienced pay inequality herself and fought for Olympic ice hockey athletes to be paid for the very first time.  She would go on to coach on the pro level in the US, Canada, and China, with a philosophy focused on leading, guiding, and directing athletes.  Says Digit:  “You are like a conductor creating energy. You give your athletes a roadmap and the keys to the car, and then you let them drive.”  In this interview, Digit takes us for a wild ride through a career in ice hockey that stands alone when it comes to creating opportunities for females:  “Half a loaf is not enough. We cannot lose what we fought so hard to have. You have to have gritty, intestinal fortitude in order to continue to push boundaries, and I’d like to see all women doing that in all areas of sport.”  For 25 minutes of true grit, just hit that download button.  digitmurphy.com. @digitmurphy @usahockey

The doctor said, “You are going blind, and there is no cure.” My mom burst into tears, and I remember thinking, “This can’t be happening to me.” -Eavan O’Neill



When she was only 13 years old, Eavan O’Neill started having trouble seeing the blackboard at school. A gifted athlete, she began missing the ball while playing lacrosse and soccer. One of her coaches suggested that she have her eyes checked. Unfortunately, glasses didn’t do much to solve the problem. Throughout her teens, Eavan’s eyesight continued to deteriorate, and in this interview, she admits that wishful thinking set in until one day, she mistook the moon for a street light and it was obvious something was very wrong. Diagnosed at 20 by Rachel Huckfeldt, MD, PhD, an opthalmologist in the Inherited Retinal Disorders Service at Mass Eye And Ear, with a rare and incurable condition called Stargardt disease, Eavan is now legally blind. In this interview, she recalls returning to St. Lawrence University after her diagnosis in January 2020, only to go home two months later to her family in Yarmouth, Maine, due to the pandemic. Distraught and uncertain about her future, she accepted an invitation from her neighbor to go for a run and discovered that running flipped a switch inside of her. Says Eavan: “Running has made me feel strong, happy, and capable again.” An experienced marathoner who can only see 4 feet in front of her, Eavan runs to raise awareness and funds for a cure for Stargardt disease. Now a Development Officer at Mass General Brigham, Eavan is determined to be a voice for anyone struggling with this rare disease: “I felt so isolated when I was first diagnosed. It was like diving off of a cliff into no-man’s land. It’s hard to find hope. That’s what I want to be for people. Hope.” Although she still has “bad blind girl days,” Eavan looks on the bright side with her Instagram handle @bright.side_group. For 22 minutes of inspiration, just hit that download button. #blindness #stargardtdisease