Mandy Harvey: America's Got Talent 'Golden Buzzer' Winner, Singer, Songwriter, and Inspirational Speaker, Lost Her Residual Hearing at the Age of Nineteen

It’s hard to imagine living life without hearing, especially if you lost your hearing forever at the age of 18. But in the case of this week’s guest, Mandy Harvey drove her stake into the ground and pursued her endeavor to sing, write music, and “hear” with her feet – to the point that Simon Cowell was moved to press the Golden Buzzer after Mandy’s original song performance on America’s Got Talent. Since that time, Mandy has earned a degree in Vocal Music Education and has become an ambassador to No Barriers USA with a mission to encourage, inspire and assist others to break through their personal barriers.

 

In this episode you will hear:

 

• The mindset of abilities vs disabilities is just a lack of education because everyone has barriers they have to deal with.
• I didn’t overcome anything, it just took me a little bit of time to figure it out.
• The mother of all inventions is being innovative.
• I write a lot of music based on how it feels, instead of what I think it sounds like.
• I’ll write specific notes that tickle behind my eye or bother my face so that I know that I’m right.
• I’m feeling the floor, and then just opening my mouth and letting go.
• The most precious gift you can have is communication.
• I can’t seem to explain how joyful I am now vs how broken I was before.
• I’m living my life and this part of my story – part of who I am.
• I’m thrilled to be who I am.
• The phrase “some people struggle and some people don’t” - Everybody struggles. It just looks different.
• Not every single person gets the opportunity to understand joy, or feel love.
• Be compassionate to people – we have no idea what’s going on in their life.
• With every struggle you have, you have two choices – you can either let it beat you, or you can learn from it.
• I really don’t believe that there was one eureka moment that made me feel not depressed anymore. It was a collection of moments – a collection of people being there.
• I got up once. I’ll get up again. Let’s go…
• The "getting up and starting over" is the hardest part.
• This is a messy broken world, full of messy broken people. That’s just life.