Angela Gargano

Angela Gargano is a keynote speaker, six-time American Ninja Warrior, Miss Fitness America, three-time Covergirl, and biochemist-turned-coach.  She’s also the founder of a global movement that’s helped thousands of women accomplish what once felt impossible – starting with their first pull-up.  After a major life setback, Angela didn’t just recover, she redefined herself and now encourages others to stop waiting for clarity and start creating it.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey everyone, and welcome to Voices of Hope. I'm Ross Wilsie. And I'm Mike Wade. Each episode, we sit down to talk about what it means to live well, physically, emotionally, spiritually, and beyond. Through real stories and honest conversations, we'll explore what hope looks like and how it grows, right here in the New River Valley. Thanks for joining us. This is Voices of Hope. Angela Gargano is a keynote speaker, six-time American Ninja Warrior, Mits Fitness America, three-time cover girl, and biochemist turn coach. She's also the founder of a global movement that's helped thousands of women accomplish what once felt impossible, starting with their first pull-up. After a major life setback, Angela didn't just recover, she redefined herself, and now encourages others to stop waiting for clarity and start creating it. Well, Angela, we wanted to welcome you to the Voices of Hope podcast and thank you for coming on. We're very excited to have you coming into town for our annual Agent of Hope Awards on May 7th, where you'll be serving as our keynote speaker. Could you give a quick preview of what you'll be talking about that night?

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I what we're going to be talking about is a little bit about my journey on American Ninja Warrior and also the in-between moments that you have when you have a setback, which I wound up having a massive setback from American Ninja Warrior, and how to navigate those in-between moments so that you can thrive, so that you'd have the courage to do things for the first time, so that you can commit to something, go all in on it. So we're going to go through a lot of navigating those in-between moments to show you that, first of all, that is normal. And second of all, exactly what you need to do in order to get through that. And I will use my story from American Ninja Warrior to make it fun.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Awesome.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

Yeah, can't wait for that. So we've been promoting your upcoming appearance and highlighting the fact that you're a six-time competitor on the American Ninja Warrior television show. Um, we're definitely going to come back to that experience a little later in the conversation. But before we do, can you tell our audience a little more about yourself, your background, and some of your other accomplishments to date?

SPEAKER_00 2:20

Yeah, absolutely. So I have a very diverse background, I feel like. So I actually started off not in the American Ninja Warrior space. I actually started off as a biochemist. So I was a biochemist for a good amount of years. Um, and then once I started doing that and started realizing that I was having this kind of itch to do something more athletic, I went up kind of falling into literally into American Ninja Warrior and competing on there. Uh at one point I owned my own gym. I also have uh an online program now that helps thousands of women get their very first pull-up, which is a very niche thing that I do on here. So I have a very diverse and mixed background when it comes to science, athletics, and also things that I do on stage, which is like keynote speaking and things along those lines. But I think all of it has like one common theme, which is trying to help better people and really helping people redefine what is possible or make the impossible possible.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Very cool. Can I ask what, if any, what sports you know you you played growing up or yeah, so so growing up, I was uh a gymnast.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Um so but I think it's really interesting to know I wasn't able, I always had this like dream of being like some kind of Olympic gymnast or something along those lines. But in order to do that, you have to be on a really strict schedule. And gymnastics isn't a sport that's in wasn't in my school, right? So it's not like it was free or anything like that. So it was very expensive to try and get the training for five days a week in order to be an Olympic gymnast. My parents just could not do it. So I wound up doing this like three-day-a-week program that I could do. And I had a really awesome coach, luckily, and then he was able to help me get onto a college gymnastics team uh in Rhode Island, which was really nice. So it wasn't a division one school, it was a division three school, but at least I was able to do something with that and use some of the abilities that I had um with with doing that sport.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

Very cool. Well, with that, and then with being a biochemist and then switching over to a more fitness-related career path, it seems like your career path has taken some unexpected and maybe rewarding, I would assume, turns. Um there seems to be a lot of pressure on young people these days, though, um, to have it all figured out really early in life. What has helped guide you through some of the curveballs that you've encountered along your own journey?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

I think definitely when I was younger, I did feel like I needed to have it all figured out at first. You know, when I told my parents when I went to college, of course, the first thing that you go when you go to college, right, is your parents ask you, like, what do you want to be and what do you want to do? Right. I had said kind of some crazier things because I was like, I would love to be in the Olympics or I'd love to be uh in the circus or something crazy like that. And my parents were like, that's not gonna be a real career. You're not going to be able to do that, right? So I feel like I kind of was just figuring out what I kind of liked. And I knew that I had a really great science teacher. I thought it was really interesting. So I kind of went all in on that. And I honestly thought that that was gonna be the thing. Like I thought I was gonna be a biochemist forever after that. I thought that I would know everything right away. I think what's really important when you think about trying to figure it out to not put the pressure on yourself to feel like you have to have it all figured out right now, but then also not be scared to make the wrong decision on what path you go towards, right? Because even though I'm not a biochemist anymore, all those skills that I learned are transferable to what I'm doing now. So your skills will always be transferable and me with you. So if you have this pressure of, I don't know, like maybe I need to do that or this, I say pick a path. Doesn't matter what path that you're going to pick, you're going to learn something. You're either going to learn that you love it or you're going to learn that you hate it. And but no matter what, you're going to take those learnings with you for whatever is that is next. Um, some of the things that I'm doing now, I never expected in a million years could be an actual career that I could actually, you know, have a business with it, had no idea. You just don't know what you don't know. So you just have to dive in and just give it a shot. And again, having that courage is going to be really important to just take the first step, dive in and just see what happens. I think is one of the most important things that you can do.

SPEAKER_02 6:26

Yeah, I love that. That's great. Great advice. So let's go back to Ninja Warrior. Um, tell us how you first got involved with the show, uh, what kept you coming back, and how that experience has changed your life.

SPEAKER_00 6:40

So I always tell people I got on the show accidentally. I don't really watch a lot of TV. I didn't even know what the TV show was, but a mentor of mine, she was actually somebody who had actually helped me get that biological chemistry job that I had. She was going to try out for it. And in order to try out, you have to make a submission video. And it's on your athletic ability. It's a little bit about your personality because at the end of the day, it's a TV show. It's a reality TV show, right? So I was helping her put together a video. And then while I was doing that, the videographer he looked at me and said, You were a gymnast. Like you should try out for this too. And I was very hesitant to do that because this was my mentor's thing. I didn't want to step on my mentor's toes and do something that she decided that she was going to put her foot into. But he convinced me, he pushed me. I went out putting in a video. And then I a couple months later got a call getting on the show. So I had no idea. Like I didn't know about a ninja, I didn't know what it was, what I was getting myself into, or anything along the finds. Um, and then when I went, I I honestly fell in love with it. I fell in love with the sport, I fell in love with the community. I'm sure for you all in here, like the commute community is such a huge piece of anything that you get into, right? And it just, I loved how even though we were competing against each other, everyone was trying to help each other out. And it was people from all different walks of life, all different ages, all different abilities, all different professions. These are not people who are like all professional athletes. These are all regular people who got on this show, which I thought was really nice. So uh I really stuck with it. I think not only because I loved it and I thought it was really fun, but I really loved the people and I loved the community.

SPEAKER_02 8:16

Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 8:17

Yeah. I have a uh an 11-year-old son who's uh who's into gymnastics and like I gotta I haven't showed him yet any videos of you, but I have to because he he would love to see that. So so there's physical wellness, which it seems like you do a great job of. Um so including that, but also other types of wellness, mental, spiritual, whatever you you want to talk about. How do you maintain your own personal wellness when you're not training for a nationally televised competition?

SPEAKER_00 8:47

I actually think that's been the hardest part of this transition that I'm in right now, which was what we're gonna talk about on stage is that in-between moment, right? Because my whole identity had been on doing American Ninja Warrior and doing the show, my athletic abilities. Like that's what I was training for. And I had this like adrenaline towards it and it was super exciting. So when I decided that I was going to, I guess I'll call it retire, quote unquote retire, it felt kind of weird. And it felt I didn't really honestly know what to do with myself because when you don't have a goal of like doing a race or doing something, I didn't honestly know how to have just a regular, like a regular workout routine. It just felt kind of weird. So I think what's really important is figuring out some foundational pieces for you and trying to make it fun. For me, I went back to okay, cool. What do I know will be really good for my body so that I can now look at my career, which is keynote speaking and going around as a sport because I need to be healthy, right? So now I'm like, cool, how can I like reframe that this is now my sport and the things I'm doing now are actually going to help me so that I can continue to show up energized, right, to everybody on these stages and things like that. So for me, it was figuring out kind of like a base. I found a great also community here in Austin. I live in Austin, Texas. And so I will always make sure I go to like a couple of classes, these strike training classes, three times a week. It's just great to like be around people, especially when you're like not really feeling it or you're like, oh, why am I doing this? I'm not training for anything. Um, and then really staying on top of the mental game, I think is even more important because once you don't have that sport or that next thing, and you know, some people in your audience might find that when they either like if they if you leave high school and you don't have that sport, or if you leave college and you don't have that sport or their thing anymore, you don't kind of don't know what to do. So I had to really map out what things were gonna really help me get centered and get re-present again. So I have a pretty not a strict routine, but like small little things I do every single day in like a chef box that have just really helped me to stay centered so that I can show up to myself, to my job fully and things like that. But definitely that in-between moment was very hard. Um most people don't talk about that part of it.

SPEAKER_02 10:56

Right. Um, I would imagine that scheduling is very important for you, like daily routines and schedules and having blocks of time where you dedicate your your energy and space to certain tasks or activities or training or whatever that may be. I would assume that's a big part of your your routine.

SPEAKER_00 11:16

Oh, absolutely. And I think what you just said there too, when it came to energy. I think before I thought it was all about time management, but it's actually when you get to a certain point, it's about your it is about energy management.

SPEAKER_02 11:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:26

More than time. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 11:28

Yeah. Especially once you reach a certain age.

SPEAKER_00 11:31

Oh my goodness. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah. So like learning like the, I think that's really important. Also understanding how it's going to shift, like you said, when you age, right? Because I feel like when even even I would say probably like a couple years ago, I would feel like I could, I did all this stuff like crazy stuff, five in the morning. Like I was up, up, up, up, up. Now I'm like, okay, my body needs a little bit less of that in the morning. And I need a lot more deep work and time to myself in the morning. And then I take my calls in the afternoon. So I really shifted it to actually work with me so that again, at the end of the day, I could show up better for the things that I am working towards. Um, so I always like to tell people like, it everything, look at everything as an experiment, especially with your schedule. Like, just try something, schedule it out, see if it works. What works for one person may not work for you. So it's about trying to really integrate it and set it into your life in a way that feels good for you. So, where are your calls? Where are you putting your movement routines? Where are you doing certain things that you know that are important? Again, obviously, when you have other responsibilities and kids and stuff like that, you might have to really finagle where that is, how that is going to work for you or look for you.

SPEAKER_02 12:38

Right. Yeah. You had mentioned the pull-up challenge that you do earlier. Can you can you tell us a little bit more about that?

SPEAKER_00 12:46

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, so when I was on American Ninja Warrior, and again, we'll in the keynote, we'll talk about my injury and what might have been happening on there. But I actually was posting transparently, more for me, not for anything else. This is like way before Instagram was cool, by the way. Like nobody knew what Instagram was going to become. And as I was coming back from my injury, I was trying to make myself feel better because I was not feeling great. And I had just had this horrible moment happen. Um, so I was posting myself like hanging from a bar with my big brace on, with my crutches in my hand and doing all this fun stuff. And then women kept messaging me and saying, Angela, oh my goodness, you're inspiring me. But then they also kept saying, Oh man, I've always wanted to be able to do one pull-up. So I kept hearing that over and over and over again. And since I was also then a trainer at that time, because this is the point where I went up quitting biochemistry and opening a gym. I remember all the women coming in having that goal. So I started training them. I went online, I looked for everything that I could find to help women get pull-ups. And there was really nothing written that was not written by a male and wasn't intimidating. And I'm like, there's something missing here. Like I just knew there was something missing in order to help them get it. So I dedicated all of my time to figuring out what that was, working with women in person, then working with them online. And I nailed down a whole methodology that actually helps women get their pull up faster. But more importantly, it helps them to, it helps them with life, which I think is more important. Um, so I'm helping them get their pull because it's a thing they've always wanted. But once they keep showing up and working on this hard thing, it truly redefines what's possible for them. They start to feel more confident, they start to realize, hey, if I can do this hard thing I never thought was possible, like what else can be possible? So it's really kind of trinkled into this global movement. And it's wild because like I came up with the methodology, I created all the program, I did all this stuff, and now I have coaches who are obsessed, like people who did it who are now coaches, they're obsessed with it. Now they're helping people. So it's turned into this whole movement of women getting their first pull-up. So hopefully we can change the statistic at one point and make the number higher for women.

SPEAKER_02 14:54

Yeah, that is fantastic. That's great awesome.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

It's pretty crazy, it's pretty niche and different.

SPEAKER_01 14:59

So, I mean, it sounds like you have you have a lot of things put together. You've kind of got your schedule and your routine. And uh, I I feel you're on the mornings too. Like mornings for me are just, you know, nobody's awake, and I can just like have some me time. And yeah, definitely, it definitely sounds like you've got you've got some things figured out. But I assume you have bad days, just like the rest of us, right? If so, how do you navigate your way through those times and through your hard, hard days?

SPEAKER_00 15:28

Absolutely. There's so many hard days, and I think that, you know, if you're on Instagram and stuff like that, it always glamorizes that everyone has their stuff together perfect every single day. I think the majority of your time is either ordinary or it's you're having like this up or down day and you're trying to navigate it. Um, I think when I think of having a not so great day, like whether it be like energy levels or whether it be like I saw, I mean, being online, you see stuff online randomly and it gets in your head or whatever it might be. I think the most important thing that I have learned is to actually not push through it and to take a moment to pause. So that might be me going outside and like going for a walk with my dog. That might be me just kind of taking a moment and stepping away from it. I think that pause for a second really allows you to collect your thoughts so you can think a lot more clearly. Because when you're having these bad days, it's very easy to spiral. And I think sometimes when we spiral, we we wind up getting stuck in it for a little bit longer than we should because we're trying to like kind of think our way through it or whatever it might be. When actually just the pause, even if it's like five minutes or whatever it can be, to just okay, cool. I'm feeling overwhelmed right now. That was really tough. Like shaking it out, actually feeling it, and then coming back to it will allow you to think more clearly and kind of get back to it. But there's absolutely the highs and the lows of this entire journey. I mean, being entrepreneur, I mean, yeah, like nobody, nobody uh told me what that was gonna be like. Um, so it's like a whole, it's a whole journey of going up and down. But I think those not so great days pausing, I think is really important. Um, if you can, instead of just like nailing through and being like, I need to be strong and do that. So it's like, no, that's a normal part. This is like this, you're human.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

Yeah, yeah. That's great advice.

SPEAKER_02 17:11

Well, you've mentioned social media a couple of times, and I know that it's been uh a very effective way for you to build your community and to gain an audience and to stay connected with your fans and followers. Um, and obviously there are a lot of great things about social media, but I'm curious to hear your thoughts on the the downside, the negative side of social media and just what you've encountered and your experiences with people you've uh engaged with who are maybe impacted by social media in not such a great way.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

Oh, absolutely. I think the issue with social media is obviously social media was built for you to be addicted to it. It just wants you to just keep scrolling and not living in reality. So I think that is a big piece of it. And I I'm I'm it happens to be all the time. I wind up getting in this like, why am I scrolling? What am I looking at? And then you start to look at everybody else's life and what everyone else is doing, and you start to think that you're not adequate enough and that you're not good enough. And again, the thoughts start to spiral in your head. Or another side of it, you know, there's so much going on in the world right now, obviously. You just keep seeing more and more of that, and then you can kind of get fixated on that, and you're not again back here and back to being present. So I think what's really important, social media can be a very positive thing, like I said, it could also definitely go down the other way. So having your boundaries around it is going to be really important, which might mean you're muting people, which might mean that you are setting intentional time that you're actually going to be on the app. I have a thing on an app on my phone called Opal. I don't know if I've ever heard if you heard of it, but it blocks it. So like it blocks the app, it only allows me to use it during certain time frames. And then in order to get into it, I have to play a game. So it gives me like a little pause on it, which I think is a really helpful. It just kind of like kind of separates it so you're not like getting stuck in the scroll and stuff like that. Um, but I think it could be really good. But if you feel like it's affecting you in a negative way, take a step back from it, especially if it's not your job, also, by the way. Like if it's not your job, like I've told like clients that I've had, I made them do something called a dopamine detox, which is because that's what it's giving. It was giving you hit such dopamine and it's getting you really excited. And a dopamine detox is pretty much me sitting with them and being like, You're gonna delete it from your phone, you're gonna log out of it on your computer, and you're gonna give yourself seven days without it and just see that like nothing has changed, everything's fine, and you actually are thinking more clearly and better. So setting your boundaries around it, I think is really going to be important. And if you are scrolling on it, mute the people that are not making you feel good. Like you can curate your feed, you don't have to block them or do be weird about unfollowing people. You can literally curate your feed to whatever it is that you want.

SPEAKER_02 19:44

Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:45

Yeah, very good advice. So we are this is the Voices of Hope podcast. And we do talk a lot about um the word hope, and we just like to hear from our guests what that word means to them because it's it's usually different for everybody. So, what does the word hope mean to you?

SPEAKER_00 20:02

Yeah, that's a great question. I feel like hope just when I think about hope, I really just think about anything being possible. I think about the like the idea of our brain always kind of thinking that maybe certain things aren't possible, or not going to be able to do that, and all the negative pieces of it. And I think hope is like that feeling of no, like this could absolutely be possible for you. Yeah. And I think it's a it really is a word that I think a lot of people need. They're feeling like the opposite, which is hopeless, right? So I think that word hope just really brings that sense of positivity that there's a lot of good and great things that can happen in the world.

SPEAKER_02 20:44

Yeah, yeah. I love that. Um, so tell us what's on the horizon for you and where folks can follow you and find out more about you, Angela.

SPEAKER_00 20:52

Yeah, I mean, there's obviously lots on the horizon. I'm speaking a lot, which is really exciting. I'm really enjoying it. Um, I actually just got a book deal. Yay! So excited. So that'll be out in September 2027. So I'm writing my book, which is going to be really great. Um, and then we are continuing to do stuff with the pull-up program. Again, that we have a great, amazing community there as well. But to find me, you can follow me on Instagram at Angela underscore gargano. Um, and then you can also go to my website ever, everything's on there, angela-gargano.com. We have everything from the keynotes to uh I have a podcast as well called What If It All Goes Right on There. So lots of resources to help as well, which I think is really important. The fact that I have been able to be a public figure and people are looking up to me, if I can give them some sense of, like you said, hope or whatever I can do to help them feel like they can be better. I think that that I have like a responsibility and I want to make sure I can give everybody at least a little something that can help them.

SPEAKER_02 21:52

And if you're listening to this on May 7th, you can come listen to Angela live and in living color. That's right.

SPEAKER_00 21:59

It's gonna be so.

SPEAKER_01 22:00

Yeah. We're so excited to have you. So I guess before we let you go, do you have any final words of wisdom you'd want to share with our listeners?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Any final words of wisdom? I guess my final words of wisdom would be, and I know this kind of goes with with the line with my podcast, but really asking yourself, like, what if what if it all goes right, truly? Like what if it goes right? And also what if whatever you're going through right now, even if it doesn't feel right, it's actually going right for you. I found that very many times with me in my life. I thought it was going wrong. It's not what I wanted. I didn't want that. I wanted this and I wanted it now. And then I realized there was something so much better and so much greater on the other side. So uh continue to have hope and continue to ask yourself what if it all goes right and maybe it already is.

SPEAKER_02 22:43

Yeah. Awesome. You can't wrap it up any better than that. Definitely. That's awesome. Angela, you've been uh incredibly generous with your time. We're so grateful to you and are so excited to have you join us in the New River Valley here in a couple weeks.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

I cannot wait to meet you guys.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

Yeah, yeah, same here. Thanks again.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

Thanks for listening to Voices of Hope. If you enjoyed today's conversation, we'd love for you to rate and review the podcast and help us spread the word. Voices of Hope is a production of New River Valley Community Services. To learn more or listen to past episodes, visit nrvcs.org slash podcast. And remember, hope grows when we share it. So keep the conversation going, and we'll talk to you next time on Voices of Hope.