Josh Perry, BMX

Former Professional BMX athlete, Josh Perry survived multiple brain tumors and surgeries during his competitive career as a pro BMX athlete. He eventually decided to become a public speaker and health to teach others about his experience and learnings. 

Name: Josh Perry
Hometown: Cap Cod, MA
Sport: BMX
Career Duration: 10 years
Retirement: 2016
Current Occupation: Speaker and Coach
Location: Durham

​How long were you competing as a professional BMX rider? 
I competed in freestyle BMX.  My first year professionally was 2007 and my last contest was the end of 2016.  About ten years.

Great. I’d love to learn a little bit more about how you got into BMX, how you got started?
I'd always been on a bike since the training wheels came off. At 11 or 12 years old I went to the skatepark & took my bike there.  I saw BMX on TV at the X Games and got introduced to that, then got my first real BMX bike when I was 13.  My sophomore year of high school I quit playing school sports all together and just focused 100% on riding and then just left everything behind for BMX.

So you realized that you loved it when you started with your first BMX bike?
Yeah, to me it was a sense of creativity, a way I could express myself.  I always excelled in sports, but there was something about BMX.  I liked the freedom of creativity and transportation just cruising around.  Also, working towards a trick, falling down and then landing it, there was gratification that came from that.  When I learned about competitions and being able to travel to compete, seeing the professionals I looked up to and creating videos, there's just so many elements, it just kind of consumed me.  As I got older, BMX was just something on my terms. I could take it where I wanted as far as I wanted and just it became like an outlet for life and I just put my energy into that and really enjoyed it.

​What was your support like as you were moving more into the professional arena?
So my parents were always super supportive, from buying me bike parts, to lugging my bike around in their car.  My mom would drive me around the country to compete at a young age at the amateur divisions.  As long as I put the effort into it, then they were down to support me the best they could.  I went to a Technical High School so it really set me up well to learn the discipline of working to support myself and to support my passion on the side. Then junior year, I turned pro.  I moved down to Greenville North Carolina to be with the best because I had an opportunity to train with Dave Mira and other professionals. I knew in order to be one of the best, I had to be with the best to train and my focus 100% there. I was 17 when I did that. I just knew my Mom & Dad and the rest of my family supported my decision and I was on my own. So I had to make it work and I did.  In 2008 I got some sponsors and more competitions that fueled my pursuit.  I decided to leave BMX in 2017 and I started my health coaching business.  For a little over a year, I've been pursuing the path as a professional speaker and sharing my message and my purpose. 

Congratulations! So what was your vision for your BMX career? Did you have a goal in mind or a legacy you wanted to leave behind?
So when I first started chasing the BMX dream it was just my goal to become a professional BMX athlete. I made that happen.  The goal was always to win, but also to work different set ups.  There was actually one contest, my first pro contest, which I actually won the best trick as well and that won me a Harley. I love to be able to compete!  

​So BMX was your passion.  I know that you were diagnosed with multiple brain tumors, at what point did that occur? You mentioned it took awhile for you to get a diagnosis.  How did that all unfold?
In April 2009 I won my first pro contest and the rest of the year I suffered from headaches and migraines on and off.  Throughout the year I had vision loss and vomiting from the pain. Several times I went in and asked for a scan of some sort. They always said, “You don't need a scan, you're in shape or healthy, we ran your blood work, everything looks fine.  Just take these pain pills and come back if you need more.”  And that was the routine, every time. It wasn't until March of 2010, almost a year after I won my first pro contest, that I had fallen one day trying a new trick and hit my head. I needed to get an MRI to see if there was a concussion or any kind of bleeding internally in the brain, and that's when they accidentally found a massive brain tumor on the left side of my brain, taking up the majority of the brain. It was because of that crash that they found it since for about a year and a half they kept denying me scans.  Looking back, I had classic brain tumor symptoms. 

Wow! At risk of asking you the obvious question, what would you say you noticed in terms of your perspective shift?
Nothing else mattered at that time besides figuring out how to preserve my life.  Being 21, I was still basically a child!  The fear I was experiencing, started to shift when I was like “Man, I'm still alive! Surgery is an option.  Other people come out of surgeries. My mom had a journey of battling colon cancer and she's alive and well today.”  Seeing what she went through instilled strength in me. Then learning Lance Armstrong’s story, another cyclist of different kind, but went through brain lung and testicular cancer and came back to do his thing, at that level.  So both of those things shifted my perspective away from fear to fuel. I treated it like an injury.  I was like, “Let's focus on getting it done and then focus on life after.”  I started thinking about what happens when I wake up, rather than what happens if I don't.

So the biggest perspective shift was just gratitude, to have a chance to make tomorrow better that's something I tell myself every day. No matter what I'm going through.  April 2020 will be 10 years since brain surgery #1. It put me on the path of sharing that health is internal, because the doctor judged me by my cover and that almost killed me.  Also learning that our reality is built from our choices and the things we think and the actions we take.  If I had chosen to sit in a victim mentality, that fearful state, that “why me?” I don't think that I would have gotten back on my bike and I don't think I would have recovered as well. It's not so black and white, but it is something that I've learned and I continue to share.

Yes, I love that! I've also found that to be so true. What you decide, in your mind, is so powerful in terms of what you see in your results. You decided, okay, I'm going to get through this and I have a goal on the other side.  Was your goal to get back into competing? 
Yeah. That's all I focused on. I was focused on what happens when I wake up.  What am I gonna do? How am I gonna do it? Who am I going to become?  I was back on my bike in five weeks after the surgery and an additional eight weeks after that I was competing in England. I made the top ten at my first contest back.   It took me like a year to a year and a half to gain full confidence in my riding abilities and to not always fear hitting my head.  The goal was to get back to riding and doing the thing I loved and worked so hard for.

Got it.  So did they determine in the surgery, if the brain tumor was cancerous or did you know that before you had surgery?
So the tumor was non cancerous but once they were in there, there were several complications because the type of tumors I live with are called meningioma tumors. So they grow from a layer of the skull, that puts into perspective how severe this was. The tumor didn't develop in the brain it developed in the thin layer of the skull but it was so large. It was pushing down and putting so much pressure on my brain, that all the symptoms I was experiencing made sense. Once they were in there, they found it was wrapped around an artery and my optic nerve, which is why I was having the vision issues. So I came out with seventy-five staples in my head, sixteen stitches and four titanium screws in my skull.  Because of the complications (from the location of the tumor) they couldn't get all the cells because I could have gone blind or had a stroke or could have bled out and died. The two areas of original tumor grew back throughout the next two years.  They used Gamma Knife radiotherapy, to basically zap the areas that grew back and because of Gamma Knife radiotherapy those tumors shrunk for four years and have been stable ever since. I also cleaned up my diet quite a bit.  The second diagnosis was just regrowth from the complications from the artery and optic nerve.

​Wow that's pretty incredible. So you were back to competing only weeks after the first surgery? 
So 5 weeks after surgery I started riding and the end of July was the competition.  So yeah about 12 or 13 total weeks after surgery I was competing again. Which is insane. Because I developed the perspective from BMX, you fall down you have to try again & injuries are part of the job. I treated it like an injury. I was just like “Alright, what's next?” 

Wow that's pretty incredible! So the athlete mindset is what helped?
Yeah, part of the job.  You gotta accept that there will be trials and obstacles and failures.  I think (that’s) one of the biggest learning lessons of this entire journey.  When I thought I was giving everything I could, I had more. That's why I think I've been able to get back to what I was doing and to be where I am today.  Looking at things as positively as I can. People say, “How are you always so positive?” I'm not, I just try to be.  What it's taught me is, we all have more than we ever fathom.  It just takes those lessons to teach us.

I love that! That is super powerful! I believe that is true. So obviously, your back was up against the wall and it sounds like you made a conscious choice to move forward, focusing on what's on the other side and not being consumed by the fear, like you said earlier?
Yeah for sure! One of my main objectives when speaking or creating content, is to get people to see the potential that we all have, without having something as catastrophic, as being told you're going to die, to see that.  Start a business or pursue something new, don't wait until things get tough to see what you're capable of.  Just step into it and see how it goes and have the belief in yourself that it's possible. I'm just an ordinary kid, from Cape Cod that had a dream and somehow made it happen and all the other things that happened!  If this insecure emotionally broken kid can do these things, what are we capable of doing when we set our minds to it? ​

​Yes! So let’s get into that. What are you doing now?
Along the journey, I got into nutrition and fitness, mindset and all these things. I have a genetic disorder that can create spinal cord tumors and brain tumors.  When I'm on stage I share this, “Thankfully I just have brain tumors because things could always be worse. If I had spinal cord tumors, I’d probably be in a lot of pain and have other complications.”  The reality is, I don't have spinal cord tumors and the tumors are not cancerous.  Either way in February 2017, I went all-in on my purpose.  I've been learning more about the ketogenic diet for brain health performance but also body composition, inflammation and different things. And how important exercise is, whether you're an athlete, a weekend warrior, a student,  an elderly person, it doesn't matter.  Moving your body and what that can do for you. 
Learning about mindset was the last piece.  This is one of my favorite things to talk about but with all these pieces being put together.   The first diagnosis (was initially) victim mentality, fear for my life.  I thought I was dead.  The second time, it started that way and then (I thought),  “well I already did this once. I can do it again.”  I no longer look at outside influences. I did it (once), so I can do it again. The third time, it was just, what can I do to help myself, to help my goal, to help other people?  So that's when I decided to take a step away from BMX and went all in on supporting people to become empowered to live as healthy, happy and successful as possible. 
Now, I'm able to do things that I never thought I'd be able to do, like speak onstage to thousands of people.  It’s mind boggling to me what we are all capable of doing with a purpose that's beyond  ourselves.  A friend of mine shared that his boss asked him, “Hey are you on purpose or you on self?”  So this phrase of “off self, on purpose” (I used during) the third brain tumor diagnosis and it's what fueled me to leave my (BMX) dream and to help people.  I still ride the same level because I love it, but it’s my purpose to help people.  I gotta do something more than compete and I need to get this message out.  So I started a health coaching business after I went through training at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, to be a certified health coach. 
For about a year now (I’ve been) a professional speaker and a ketogenic health coach.  Another piece about the ketogenic aspect of my life that I'm passionate about is, once you scratch that surface and you look deeper into the brain health and performance benefits of it, it does so many different things!  In my case, the tumor is benign and I’ve lowered my glucose & insulin levels.  I was reminded by a Ketogenic MD  that there is a lot of research on keto and cancer.  He asked what I was doing.  I was low-carb before I was keto.  About three years before that, I was 3 years low carb, high fat.  He said “You were reducing your insulin levels so much. When you have chronic high levels of insulin and glucose your cells are turning over that much quicker and they're dividing and spreading and replicating more and more. So you took its fuel source away.”
I believe that we'll see a decrease in (the tumor) growth over the years because this third diagnosis, we didn't treat! No medication, no surgery and it's been two years & they haven't moved since we found them.  For almost three years I’ve been really serious about the ketogenic diet.  That's that's why I'm so passionate about it and brain health and performance just because of what it's doing for the body and the brain.

​The whole nutrition piece so that the body can function as it's meant to function.  It's so powerful.  Can you tell me more about your work as a coach?
I read a book called the Go Giver.  It gave me ideas for creating different curriculums and videos, training and doing group coaching with lower rates.  I mostly work with executives which is awesome and I want to work with more people that want this information & want the support.  Reading that book opened my mind to ways I can do things like that. I took some time off to focus on speaking and partnerships. Now I’m getting back into coaching & I'm trying to balance everything.  

Great then I know that you've mentioned a couple of times that speaking is your main focus right now and it sounds like you've also designed your coaching so that you can serve more people. What's your vision for putting your message out there in the world?
(With) speaking and sharing my message my main objective, is to change people's perspectives of how they see the life that they live.  And growing the coaching, especially the group coaching.  I’m working on an online video course and a book about my story and things I've learned along the way.  (Also) to travel around & do more talks.  The way I see it is, the more talks I do, the better I get at it, just like BMX.  It's like the more you compete and you practice, the better you get.  I look up to a guy named Tony Hoffman, who is a former pro BMX racer and he's a public speaker.  He's been speaking like 10 years.  He went through heroin addiction and being homeless and in prison.  (Since then he) started a nonprofit and started speaking.  His dream was to go to the Olympics.  He became a professional racer but he got an injury (and didn’t make it.)  In 2016 two of the female athletes that he was coaching, went to the Rio games.  So he made it (to the) Olympics as a coach.  He shares his story, he's always doing speaking tours for schools and things like that. So from Tony, (some) hip-hop artists and comedians, I got inspired to do my own thing.

Throughout your journey what would you say are the most important lessons that you've learned. 
So the three most important lessons I've learned throughout the last decade of my life, I'd say is that number one, your perspective is essential to life!  You know, you can have a reality based on how you see things...The glass half-full glass, half-empty analogy is great.  Also one of my favorite quotes from Jim Carrey is “life doesn't happen to us, it happens for us” but it takes a choice to see that perspective.  Number two is health is internal.  It's not just what's on the outside. My (outside) almost killed me, so I love sharing that health is internal and it's also mind and body. It's not just one or the other you know, because you can eat the healthiest foods that you want but if your environment externally and internally in your mind is negative and you're stressed and you're anxious and you're worried, you're gonna create a disaster.  It doesn't matter how much organic, non-gmo food you consume.  The third thing is, our reality it's a manifestation of our choices. That's something I've learned quite a bit about and I am getting into Dr. Joe Dispenza’s work.  One of my favorite quotes from him is, “Your personality creates your personal reality” and so it goes back to things you think, (what) you do, (how) you feel and how long you choose to feel a certain way.  

So do you think that helped with your identity development and what defines it?
I think that something that was a challenge, was recreating my identity.  You know starting fresh, in a sense and leaving behind my title of professional BMX athlete, which was a dream of mine.  What helps me is that I live with the purpose to help other people.  To share my message and things I've learned, so others don't have to suffer the way I did.  It was a long process of accepting I'm no longer that person.  Dr. Joe talks about change. It is a genetic psychological, neurological, hormonal and physical death of the old self.   It made so much sense and it helped to understand change and why it's difficult.   Especially the subconscious fear to protect us from the unknown.  Over half my life, I identified as one thing and that person and really understanding it's a “death” (of sorts) that's difficult to accept.  (Getting) clear on my purpose, which is what gets me out of bed every day, allows me to move past self-doubt, unworthy thoughts or things like, “Who am I to do these things?”  I'm learning more about why things are the way they are, how we operate and the fear that comes from the unknown and what that can do to paralyze your efforts moving forward.  That's why I try to be grateful everyday. I'm still pushing forward, no matter how insecure I may feel about something.  I may doubt myself but I'm still trying and that's the only way that it's going to become easier. So it's definitely that understanding that helps to navigate moving forward.

Yes, and that’s a practice right? 
Yes, (Dr Joe) says it too! He says “I spend every day getting over myself.” The biggest challenge is us getting over ourselves.  One of my favorite hip-hop artists, Russ, just came out with a book called “It's all in your head! Get out of your way” and that's my title of the blog yesterday. He talks about all the things that have been the keys to his success and his mentality the whole time and having faith in what he was doing even when people told him he sucked.  (Just like)  Dr. Joe’s work, it's all about what we program into our minds no matter what the reality may look like.  Really what my reality is, is built on my internal being.  It doesn't matter that my external reality is not what I want to be (yet). I gotta stay true to the person I want to become and have the reality that person would have.  

This has been great. I appreciate your willingness to share and openness and I look forward to watching you flourish in your speaking career and promoting your purpose and your mission. I know that you're going to be touching tons of people with your message so that's so cool!
Thanks for having me and for the love and support. It means the world to me to have people interested in what I'm doing and why I'm doing it, so it (can) help in one way or another. 

Interview and Article written by Erika Fay.