- This and more coming up on "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

- In the '80s, they weren't familiar with autism.

I have a hard time reading people.

I can be a lot more forward than most people, and it turns people off.

- Well, MRKH has impacted every corner of my life, but it didn't have to be so difficult.

So if I can take these skills that I already have and at least help one girl, then it would be worth it.

- [Narrator] "The Whitney Reynolds Show" is supported by BMO.

Boldly grow the good and business in life.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Kevin Kelly, serving your real estate needs in Florida and Illinois at kevinkelly.realestate.

Together at Peace, a foundation with a mission to generate financial support for hospitals, schools, and many charities that provide compassionate bereavement care and foster spiritual resilience.

We are here to inspire tangible moments and share the light of loved ones who have passed away, always doing good in their honor.

And the Respiratory Health Association.

Healthy lungs and clean air for all.

Special thanks to Lifeway Kefir, Kid-Friendly Venues app, GIRLSTRONG Empowerment Apparel, Mike Dyer with Edward Jones, joeperillo.com, Hi-Five Sports Chicago, centerforbeautifulliving.com, Deluxe Cleaning Services, and by these sponsors.

(bright uplifting music) - Welcome to "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

Today we hear from people who refuse to be defined by labels.

Join us as we learn what they are doing to redefine what it is to be free.

Here we believe your story matters.

(crowd cheering) - I think the resilience started, like, when my family said, "This is really bad."

When you wake up you have to, like, keep going.

- I was that story, the one that needed a safe space.

- The key to success is taking risk.

- So we created it.

- Everybody fails, everybody takes that one big hit.

What's important is standing back up and keep going.

- You are watching "The Whitney Reynolds Show."

Be careful.

(crowd cheering) - So I was born with something called Mayer-Rokitansky-Kuster-Hauser syndrome.

So for short, it's MRKH, and it's a reproductive issue where you're born without a uterus and an underdeveloped or an absent vagina.

So you have ovaries, but you don't have the other parts.

- [Whitney] We sat down with Rima Zigaitis who refuses to be labeled by her condition.

Instead of hiding behind her diagnosis, she's working to break the stigma surrounding MRKH and help others cope with this condition.

- But I wasn't getting my period and by the time I was 16, that's enough to be curious about, to find out what was going on.

And we didn't expect anything to be wrong, but just to make sure.

- [Whitney] And there were no other signs prior to this that anything...

It was just the period.

- Right, so backstory with MRKH, you're developing, you get breasts, your shape changes.

All the other, what they call secondary sex characteristics are right on target, and people don't get their periods for a variety of reasons.

So we did go to the gynecologist, and they did an exam and initially he misdiagnosed me, and they thought it was what they call an imperforate hymen.

So they thought my hymen just didn't break through to let the period through.

You know, at that time without internet to do research or anything like that, it was really just following the doctor's guidance.

And so with the second opinion, they did the exam and thought, okay, I think they were starting to suspect something.

So they took me in for a laparoscopy, which is when you go under anesthesia and they put, like, a little needle into your abdomen and they look around and see what's going on.

And so they were able to identify that in fact there was no uterus and there was no cervix and there was no vaginal canal.

- And when you got the full scope, what did your little 16-year-old brain go to?

- There were some big decisions, right?

Because they, at the time, there are some treatment options you can have.

- At the age of 16, Rima underwent a laparoscopy to better understand her condition and to also wrap her mind around living with MRKH.

You've lived through this, and you're using it to empower people now.

What do you wish you could go back and tell yourself then?

- I think I would like to tell myself that it'll be fine, you know?

But you can, like, yeah, I still get tears that come up thinking about what I went through then, learning to have your emotions and deal with them instead of bearing them.

It's at every stage of your life.

Like, when you're dating or building a family or not building a family, deciding what to do, your friends having babies or your friends having grandchildren and menopause.

Like, all of it can be very triggering.

- When did you get to the point where you wanted to use this to help others?

- Sitting on a beach in California with a good friend of mine, and two things happened.

First, a man walked by, and he was really scarred on one side of his body.

It looked like he had been in some sort of a burn.

And I thought to myself, "Oh, my God, he's so lucky.

All his scars are on the outside.

He doesn't have to hide them."

- Wow.

- And in that moment I realized that how much energy I'd been putting to hiding everything, hiding my feelings, hiding the condition, hiding the information.

But it didn't have to be so difficult.

So if I can take these skills that I already have and at least help one girl have, like, a smoother journey of it, then it would be worth it.

- I just wanna champion you to keep going.

- Well, thank you.

- Thank you so much for coming on.

- Thanks for the platform.

(bright gentle music) - Hey, everyone, it's Whit, and I am in Waco where so much of my journey began.

But today we're talking about a unique situation happening right here.

- How can you put these old hymns, very old hymns into a rock pop setting and immerse people into this sound that they've never heard before with these words?

- [Whitney] We are talking "Christmas in July," traditional holiday tunes turned rock and roll.

This is a production with a twist.

- Okay, rock and roll Christmas story.

Well- - Is that what you would call it?

- Maybe.

A rock opera.

- Oh, a rock opera.

- A concert telling of the nativity story is kind of what we've used to describe it in the past.

It's really hard to nail down.

- How did you bring your gift into this?

- I was brought into being executive producer of He Rules the World, because it resonated with me as a parent.

In these 20 plus years of law and accounting and being a compliance officer and all the organization that it takes, all of the interacting with, you know, bosses and colleagues and talking to boards, just all that goes into that.

Now I want you to still do what you're doing, but, like, now I want you to use your resources and your talents to, you know, help bring He Rules the World to other families.

- In 2018, I took my daughter to go see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, and they do a Christmas production every year, six weeks on the road with two different units crisscrossing the country.

And they've been doing 25 years- - Wow.

- At this point.

It is the longest running national tour in US history.

- And your little antenna went up when you took her.

You're like- - And I'm there, and I'm going, this is really cool.

They've got lights and lasers, LED pyrotechnics, big guitar solos, huge lifts that take the guitar players 150 feet over the audience.

I'm like, that's cool.

And musically I'm like, oh, these guys are really good.

They're very, very good.

And I'm like, well, I can do that.

And then later I'm seeing some of the production stuff, and I'm like, well, I can do that.

I know what they're doing.

And then later on it's like, well, why am I not doing this?

- Right.

- Absolutely love what they do.

But for me it was like, okay, well, what can I do that's in this space that uses my talents, uses my style of music a little bit more than what their style of music is?

'Cause I have to be true to, you know, my musical voice.

So it is different there.

And what can I do in that same kind of space that they're in to make this mine, but also do something that... And it just stood out to me that I just need to tell the story of Christmas.

- David Gaschen, known for his years as Phantom, is also singing a new tune, both in life and on the stage.

He explains how this unexpected encore has helped him find deeper purpose.

- After I've had done all those Phantoms- - How many did you do?

- Altogether I performed the role of Phantom about 1,500 times, so.

- (laughs) Say that again.

- 1,500.

- [Whitney] 1,500.

I know the words.

And in two languages.

I did it in German and in English, so.

- You gotta be kidding me.

- It's addictive.

I mean, I did it all those times.

And then I was in the ensemble on Broadway for thousands of shows again.

- [Whitney] That's incredible.

- Yeah, to have come from that.

And then I live in Frisco, Texas, just north of Dallas, run a voice studio, sing concerts across the country.

When I was asked to do this, I thought, "What an interesting thought."

Right?

What a thought.

How can you put these old hymns, very old hymns, into a rock pop setting and immerse people into this sound that they've never heard before with these words.

- Right.

- Right?

That's what got me the first.

And then I heard the music and I was sold.

Peter's music was written so brilliantly, and the story is totally connected together.

- Do you ever feel like you have to keep up with your last project?

- No, I don't feel like I have to.

I think what it was, it was a hard transition having done Phantom so long, right?

That to go into where you're not doing a show every night or doing two shows on Saturday and two shows on Sunday, and then to go to move back down to live in Frisco to where you weren't doing shows every night.

- Right.

- That was hard.

The joy of being able to still be asked to perform, because as you get older, you start to realize, I don't have this brightness that you'll see in these younger kids that are on the, you know... Not kids.

I call 'em kids.

They're my students.

Yeah.

- I watched you though.

I watched you and you still have that sparkle, that showmanship, that stage presence.

- That's what I love the most.

It's the rush of being able to give that energy to the audience, right?

And then see their faces come back at you with that same energy.

It lifts you up.

Right?

But it's been a hard year this last year for me.

I was diagnosed with cancer.

So lymphoma.

Everything changes when you get diagnosed.

- Going to that diagnosis, was that something that being in this project that is faith-based helped you get through?

- 100%.

- Really?

- 100%.

The love, the greatest love in the world is there for me and is always there for me no matter what happens.

Once I realized that life has seasons, right, everything has its season, right?

Everything will come and go.

And change is the only regular in this world.

- Right.

- Right?

It's the only regular in this world.

And the world is changing as we speak.

Every second, the world is changing.

Good or bad, it's changing.

And to have the opportunity to try to change the world for good and use your gift that God gave you, how can you turn that down?

- That's powerful.

And that's a wrap.

From Waco.

(bright gentle music) Today we're talking about breaking the stereotypes.

And Jennifer, you're one that has done that since you were a kiddo.

Tell us about your journey.

- So when I was very young, I did not respond like normal children.

In the '80s, they weren't familiar with autism.

And so my parents had concerns and thought maybe I was just delayed.

No big deal.

It was my pediatrician that had expressed to my parents that this isn't normal.

- And what was it that they were saying isn't normal?

- I cried when I was held.

I crawled into dark spaces.

I didn't like to be around people.

The early intervention is what saved my life.

I was diagnosed as mentally retarded at 18 months old and told that I would never live a normal life.

There are so many different versions of autism and so many different behaviors because of autism.

OCD, epilepsy, things that are accumulated with someone with autism.

And autism is never curable in the sense of the way we in society look at it.

But there are preventative ways to help someone cope and work within society the best way they know how.

- You said something before we started taping, and you said sometimes you're misunderstood.

What are people misunderstanding?

- I have a hard time reading people, and I can be a lot more forward than most people, and it turns people off.

- [Whitney] Could it also be your secret to success?

- It has been in a lot of ways, but it hasn't come without pain.

I've been very successful in so many ways in my life that people would say, "I wish I had that."

But I'm lonely.

I feel that people get frustrated with me a lot easier than they do somebody else.

And the people that I work with who know me, know my intentions are good.

And I've been blessed with a business partner who has worked with me for six to seven years and sees through all the crap that happens.

I work so hard to help other people grow, because I know what it's like to not grow and to feel like I'm behind growth.

- When did you develop your dream of being an actress?

- At a very young age.

Maybe three, four.

I idolized a lot of characters and shows that I would watch.

Back then, I would mimic behaviors of individuals that I wanted to be like.

It was a spark inside of me that I wanted to have that life or I wanted to have that experience, or I wanted to be a part of that.

Like, I would find someone who might have skills that I wish I had, or had friends that I wish I had.

What was happening is I was losing a sense of identity, and at the same time I was carrying them.

What I can tell you is that I tell people if there is something I'm doing that is a boundary that, you know, I'm communicating a little bit too aggressively or I'm too excited and my excitement is overwhelming, tell me and I'll scale it back.

Some people just don't wanna communicate.

They'd rather talk behind my back than to me.

Or they'll tell me to my face when they've already gotten to the point of, "I'm done," and then I'm left wanting to fix it.

Or people say, "You?

How are you autistic?

You don't look like you have autism."

I don't know what that means, because I don't know what someone with autism is supposed to look like.

- And you're also doing it for other people with autism.

You're also making a way for people that are coming after you.

- I love what I do and I finally found a place that allows me to tailor my passion and channel it through filmmaking and through the production company that I started, giving opportunities to interns, to other crew that have never worked in the industry.

And I love communicating and giving them the opportunity to experience what I so long wanted to have a part of.

I want people to feel welcome, because I know what it's like to feel like the door shuts on your face over and over and over again, and it's the most painful feeling.

And sometimes I wonder what's the point in waking up, because they're just not gonna want me there.

- How do you conquer that feeling?

- Sometimes it's me being in bed all day.

Other times it's reaching out to those who I know are in my corner, and thank God they are, to remind me that there are a lot of things about me that are worth, you know, the life worth living.

My family.

- Anybody watching, we all have these tough seasons.

And you keep pushing on and believing in yourself that you'll get there.

What would you say to them?

- I would say your son or daughter is feeling the same pain that you are.

And they too wanna be successful.

And just remember, you're not alone in the pain.

They need you.

They need your love.

They need your reminder, your reassurance that it's going to be okay and they're gonna succeed, because having people believe in you does so much for that marathon.

(bright gentle music) - Our next guest is choosing not to be defined by a low point in his life, and whose passion is fulfilling his dreams and serving those around him.

Let's take a look.

- With your permission, I'm gonna offer you a suggestion.

A suggestion that's gonna create more happiness in your life.

- [Whitney] Glenn is a celebrity hypnotherapist who began his career at a desk job.

After a moment of high anxiety, he left his corporate position and found hypnotherapy.

Now he lives out his passion for helping others around the world, providing that it's never too late to make a change.

- I have clients I work with all over this planet.

I have subscribers to my Hypno Vault products all over the world.

Now I'm doing seminars, now I'm getting to share this cool stuff with people like you.

- To the person at home, because your story is twofold.

There's one moving past the anxiety.

What would you say to them?

- Yeah, when we are in depression and when we are filled with anxiety, it is always 'cause we are not connected to a purpose.

And that's when we feel lost.

And that's when, and when we're going through fear.

You know, the first thing is fear.

Oh, my gosh, I was always brought up to believe that, you know, paycheck to paycheck is how you live your life.

The security of a check, a boss, a company to help you.

They give you your benefits.

- I also wanna go to the person that's watching that has to take that leap, because so many of our stories do require a leap.

What would you say to them?

- I would say we need to remember, what's the best thing that can happen?

I don't believe in being haphazard.

Be strategic, right?

So that means, all right, I'm gonna leave this job in three months.

I'm not gonna go out to dinner.

I'm gonna tell my friends I'm taking it.

You know, save every penny, read a book or two on strategy, then make a strategic choice to change your life.

That's what I do when I coach people.

You don't have to do this crazy, you know, "I quit my job.

I have no money.

I'm gonna believe.

I'm going to..." You know?

Yes, I believe in manifesting and attracting, but I don't believe in being foolish, you know?

- So have a plan.

- Have a plan.

And when you have a plan, guess what happens?

A plan equals purpose.

- And there it goes full circle again.

Glenn, thank you so much for coming on.

(bright energetic music) Next we turn to Willie Robertson from a familiar show, "Duck Dynasty."

His newest movie highlights a major turning point in his family's history, and serves as a reminder that the past label you might have does not define you.

- I could track it down to two people, you know, two people in southern Arkansas, you know, who changed their life and, you know, got ahold of this faith and then live completely different lives.

And so it's so important.

So I just wanted to write that.

And a lot of the stories that I have, you know, that I've talked to someone, it may change their life, you know, forever just by being positive.

And like what you talk about, it's just giving hope, you know?

Because I think when we get down and we just, especially in the world now, it's just, you start looking around and everything seems so hopeless, and everybody's angry and mad.

And so I felt like we needed that you know?

Even "Duck Dynasty," when it came out, it was kinda like a breath of fresh air.

Like, okay, we can laugh and, you know, we're not talking about all the things that are going.

I get it.

There's a lot of stuff going in the world.

But there can be hope and happiness, you know, and love and you know, peace and forgiveness, you know, all these things.

- [Whitney] We chatted with Willie, whose family rose to fame when they opened up their lives to the camera on "Duck Dynasty," a reality show.

This peak into their daily chronicles showed the world of a family that prayed together, hunted ducks, and did good old family dinners.

His newest project is keeping it real, but opening up the world to the rock bottom moment that created the foundation everything else has been built on.

- I think it was hard for them to go back basically at the worst season of their life and kinda memorializing that with the movie was tough.

And so, but they were willing to do that to help other people.

They were like, "If this can help other marriages and other people that have gotten their lives in a mess, this can help them."

And so that's how we kind of talked Dad into doing it and saying, "We think we should."

You know, 'cause we didn't see ourselves doing this movie right outta the gate.

But it's such a great story.

And so we kind of felt like if you watch "Duck Dynasty" and you appreciated that, then you gotta go back and see this, because almost none of it happened, you know?

It almost was all, you know, split up and was over before it ever started.

♪ Holy man ♪ - You can do just about anything you set your mind to, Phil Robertson.

- I mean, you're own your story.

Either you're gonna tell it or someone else is gonna tell it about you.

So I think the fact that we can, you know, run from it or hide from it.

And I think in society, I think we all would like that.

And we all have to deal with, you know, things that we've done and mistakes we've made, you know?

Some giant, some small, you know, but we have to deal with those.

And certainly if you're married, you have to deal with that.

Certainly if you have children, you have to deal with that.

You know, like, being able to do that, learn from that, grow from that and not, you know, and not just throw everyone away and cancel everybody.

And we're not, you know, 'cause eventually I guess we'll all get canceled, you know?

(laughs) Because it's, like, we've all done and said stuff and done dumb things.

And so, you know, just being able to open up and share that.

'Cause once it's out, you know, like in any counseling session or anything, you know, once you release that, it's out.

You know, and then you're like, oh, okay, now I can move on.

I think even this movie, even though I think for mom and dad, especially for dad, you know, as embarrassed as he was and as awful as he was, he was able to say, "It's out there."

You know, "That's me, that's who I was."

And hopefully now you've seen a different person since then.

- In a world where labels are placed on most things, we heard from people today who rebelled against what society thinks they should be.

An inspiration that forging our own path is not only possible but rewarding too.

Remember, your story matters.

(bright gentle music) - [Narrator] "The Whitney Reynolds Show" is supported by BMO, boldly grow the good in business and life.

Kevin O'Connor Law Firm.

When it comes to your injuries, we take it personally.

Kevin Kelly, serving your real estate needs in Florida and Illinois at kevinkelly.realestate.

Together at Peace, a foundation with a mission to generate financial support for hospitals, schools, and many charities that provide compassionate bereavement care and foster spiritual resilience.

We are here to inspire tangible moments and share the light of loved ones who have passed away, always doing good in their honor.

And the Respiratory Health Association.

Healthy lungs and clean air for all.

Special thanks to Lifeway Kefir, Kid-Friendly Venues app, GIRLSTRONG Empowerment Apparel, Mike Dyer with Edward Jones, joeperillo.com, Hi-Five Sports Chicago, centerforbeautifulliving.com, Deluxe Cleaning Services, and by these sponsors.

(bright gentle music) - [Whitney] This is coming up on our season eight finale.

- The disaster in Joplin, you know, the costliest tornado in US history.

161 of our friends and neighbors were killed in 32 minutes.

I was a school superintendent at the time.

We had seven students and a staff member killed.

You know, I had a near death experience myself.

And big tree limbs that were laying on the ground, that were being pulled across the ground from my left in front of me- - Wow.

- To the right.

And then the wind immediately shifted directions again, and that's when the debris hit me and hit the car.

- You know, as time went on, my father became very possessive with my mother.

They were going through a divorce.

And, you know, one day decided that it was time for it all to end.

And he took his life and my mother's life.

When I was 14, I really wanted a change of life.

We grew up very poor and wanted to have something greater than what I was surrounded with.

- [Narrator] Want to stay connected to all things Whitney Reynolds?

Well, follow us on social media, and you'll get exclusive content and updates from the show.

All episodes are available for streaming anytime.

- [Children] Hi, Mommy.

(giggling) (bright gentle music)