Craig Andrews opens up about the most defining moment of his life—a six-week coma after a severe case of COVID-19. Doctors told his wife he wouldn’t survive. But he beat the odds. When he woke, he discovered that his team and community kept his business running. That, he says, is his proudest leadership moment.

In this solo episode, Craig reflects on the radical recovery process and the outrageous goals that powered his comeback. From being too weak to raise the blinds to showing up at a high-intensity workout in a wheelchair and on oxygen, Craig shares the mental framework that got him through it: map the path, no matter how outrageous, and execute.

He urges listeners to apply the same strategy for the new year. Set goals that scare you. Set goals that excite you. Then plan the path to make them real—physically, professionally, or personally.

This is a candid, high-impact episode about resilience, leadership, and growth through adversity.

Want to learn more about Craig Andrews' work? Check out their website at https://allies4me.com/.

Connect with Craig Andrews on LinkedIn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/craig-andrews/.

Key Points with Time Stamps

• [00:00] Craig shares his six-week coma story and the leadership legacy left behind while he was unconscious.

• [00:51] Why there are no guest episodes during the holidays and a personal message about goals.

• [01:22] Lessons from surviving near-death: bilateral vs unilateral relationships.

• [02:02] Rebuilding his body from scratch after total physical atrophy.

• [03:16] Radical goal-setting begins: regaining upper body strength with no access to occupational therapy.

• [04:17] The “dumbest idea yet”: returning to intense training while still in a wheelchair and on oxygen.

• [05:08] The support and customization received at Camp Gladiator.

• [06:20] Setting and crushing outrageous goals for six months straight—and the energy that came with it.

• [06:52] Call to action: set your own outrageous goals and map the path to achieve them.

• [07:40] Rebuilding community, maintaining fitness, and goal-setting for Q1.

• [08:29] How to be a guest, support the show, and keep up with Craig’s journey.

Transcript

00;00;05;20 - 00;00;30;20
Craig Andrews
I was in a coma for six weeks while the doctors told my wife I was going to die. When I woke up, she told me the most fantastic story. My team kept running the business without me. Freelancers reached out to my team and said, we will do whatever it takes. As long as Craig's in the hospital. I consider that the greatest accomplishment in my career.

00;00;30;23 - 00;00;51;13
Craig Andrews
My name is Craig Andrews and this is the Leaders and Legacies podcast where we talk to leaders creating an impact beyond themselves. At the end of today's interview, I'll tell you how you can be the next leader featured on this show.

00;00;51;15 - 00;00;54;26
Craig Andrews
Well, I wish everybody a Happy New Year and,

00;00;54;29 - 00;00;57;04
Craig Andrews
doing another solo episode.

00;00;57;07 - 00;01;05;16
Craig Andrews
We don't do episodes over the holidays with guests because we obviously want our guests to get maximum,

00;01;05;19 - 00;01;14;13
Craig Andrews
showing, but one that we caught. Kind of a message for you guys. And, you know, this time of year, we think about goals. You know, a lot of people think, when am I going to do in the next

00;01;14;16 - 00;01;15;14
Craig Andrews
year?

00;01;15;17 - 00;01;17;26
Craig Andrews
Last episode talked a little bit about,

00;01;17;29 - 00;01;22;06
Craig Andrews
prioritizing relationships and what I learned when I came out of the hospital.

00;01;22;06 - 00;01;42;20
Craig Andrews
You know, having narrowly escaped death. It really helped me figure out who were my friends. You know, who were the people that I was in bilateral relationships with versus unilateral? And the other thing that learned coming out of the hospital was it was a very exciting time for me.

00;01;42;21 - 00;02;02;15
Craig Andrews
Actually, I think it was the most exciting time in my life. And, you know, for those that don't know my story, I, you know, I went in the hospital August 10th, 2021 with Covid. Few days later, what, 12, 12 days later, they put me on the ventilator. I told my wife I was going to die because that's what happened.

00;02;02;15 - 00;02;21;29
Craig Andrews
If you went on the ventilator, you died. And I was the first one to come out of the ICU alive. And. But when you're in a coma and they put you in a coma when you're on the ventilator, so in coma for six weeks and your body completely atrophies. And so when you're coming out of the coma, you're having to rebuild from scratch.

00;02;22;02 - 00;02;29;19
Craig Andrews
You're rebuilding your entire body. And so that's kind of where I was,

00;02;29;22 - 00;02;43;08
Craig Andrews
four years ago. I got out of the hospital November 6th, 2021. And I really, you know, I basically I've had to rebuild everything. And there's still some deficits. I still have,

00;02;43;08 - 00;02;48;02
Craig Andrews
neuropathy in my feet, and my lungs are still nowhere near where they used to be.

00;02;48;04 - 00;03;16;16
Craig Andrews
Despite a lot of work to recover. But one of the things I realized as I was approaching the new year was I needed to do some radical things to rebuild my body. And, you know, I had home health, physical therapy come into the house, but physical therapy focuses on the waist down. We could not get somebody to come out for occupational therapy, which works on upper body.

00;03;16;19 - 00;03;31;17
Craig Andrews
And I know I needed to rebuild upper body strength. When I got out of the hospital, I was not strong enough to pull the blinds up. I was just extremely, extremely weak. And so, New Years morning. I'm having breakfast with my wife.

00;03;31;17 - 00;03;33;21
Craig Andrews
There's there's a couple lessons here.

00;03;33;24 - 00;03;39;19
Craig Andrews
One is you have to prepare people for the message you're getting ready to deliver.

00;03;39;21 - 00;03;56;22
Craig Andrews
And you know, my wife, was very, very protective of me at the time because, you know, she almost lost me in the, you know, in December. I told her my goal for the month was I was going to drive by the end of the month. And she was like, oh, no, you're not. And I ended up driving three days later.

00;03;56;22 - 00;04;17;10
Craig Andrews
But I learned my lesson. And so we're sitting around the table New Year's morning, and I tell her, I said, Karen, I have a plan that I want to share with you. And she said, okay. And said, Karen, you're not going to like this plan. Well, okay. So, Karen, you're actually going to hate this plan.

00;04;17;16 - 00;04;23;19
Craig Andrews
Okay. And so, Karen, you wouldn't think this is my dumbest idea yet.

00;04;23;21 - 00;04;49;14
Craig Andrews
And she's like, okay, what is it? And I said, two weeks from now, I'm going to camp Gladiator. And she pursed her lips and kind of shook her head. And that was the end of the conversation, which I considered success and, you know, and part of it that may not sound like much as you're listening to this, but you have to picture the scene I was sitting.

00;04;49;15 - 00;05;00;02
Craig Andrews
We were sitting around the breakfast table. I was sitting in a wheelchair. That's kind of how I got around back then. I could walk short distances on heavy oxygen.

00;05;00;05 - 00;05;08;27
Craig Andrews
You know, my oxygen tank was nearby. At that point in my recovery, if I was sitting, I was off oxygen. If I was standing, I was on oxygen and pretty heavy oxygen.

00;05;08;29 - 00;05;10;02
Craig Andrews
And,

00;05;10;05 - 00;05;31;26
Craig Andrews
so she just thought this was crazy. And sure enough, two weeks later, I went out to camp Gladiator and met for the first time, a lady named mignon. And she was just amazing. She looked at me and she said, okay, here's what you're doing. And she looked at everybody else, said, here's what you don't you're doing.

00;05;31;29 - 00;05;52;00
Craig Andrews
She simultaneously ran two separate workouts, one workout for me and one workout for the rest. And I was working these little rubber bands, doing a lot of work with rubber bands. But again, it was a lot of the upper body strength working on that. And that was almost four years ago. I started that and

00;05;52;03 - 00;05;55;01
Craig Andrews
and I've been with Camp Gladiator ever since.

00;05;55;02 - 00;06;00;17
Craig Andrews
It's a outdoor high intensity interval training workout.

00;06;00;20 - 00;06;06;08
Craig Andrews
The only thing is I recently moved, and there's not a camp Gladiator in my area, so I'm doing online.

00;06;06;11 - 00;06;20;00
Craig Andrews
But I really miss in the being working out with other folks. They they've kind of encouraged me in my journey. It's been a a community. But that's just one of the things I did.

00;06;20;00 - 00;06;49;10
Craig Andrews
And for six months coming out of the hospital, I would set outrageous goals and I would quickly accomplish them. And it was energizing. It was absolutely, absolutely energizing. So my question for you, as you're looking at the New Year, what are some outrageous goals you could set for yourself? Maybe some are personal, maybe some are work related, some are physical, some are dietary, and some are,

00;06;49;13 - 00;06;52;01
Craig Andrews
accomplishments and work.

00;06;52;04 - 00;07;11;04
Craig Andrews
But what are some outrageous goals that you can set for yourself? Then map out what's the path to get there? And maybe the path looks outrageous. Maybe it says outrageous as showing up in a wheelchair on oxygen to participate in something called Camp Gladiator.

00;07;11;07 - 00;07;19;20
Craig Andrews
But what is it? What's the path that's going to get you there? Map it out and make it happen.

00;07;19;22 - 00;07;40;05
Craig Andrews
It was the most exciting time of my life. And I'll be honest, I'm trying to recapture some of that. This. This message. I'm delivering to you. I'm delivering it to me. I'm speaking to myself. Even as I talk. I'm thinking, what are some goals that I need to set for first quarter of this year, for my business, for myself personally?

00;07;40;08 - 00;07;43;28
Craig Andrews
You know, I just lost a community where I worked out regularly.

00;07;44;01 - 00;07;47;05
Craig Andrews
My wife says I'm in the best shape that she's ever known. Me.

00;07;47;08 - 00;07;51;20
Craig Andrews
I'm kind of at my college weight. And,

00;07;51;23 - 00;07;54;00
Craig Andrews
if I don't keep working out,

00;07;54;05 - 00;07;59;02
Craig Andrews
that that will slip. That will slip quickly. So that's kind of a physical angle.

00;07;59;04 - 00;08;01;09
Craig Andrews
Business.

00;08;01;11 - 00;08;29;22
Craig Andrews
You know, I need to do this and sit down and say, all right, what do I want to accomplish by the end of Q1? And then to achieve it? What do I need to do, no matter how outrageous? What is that I need to do to achieve that goal? So I encourage you to do the same. And Happy New Year as you launch into a new year.

00;08;29;24 - 00;08;51;14
Craig Andrews
This is Craig Andrews. I want to thank you for listening to the Leaders and Legacies podcast. We're looking for leaders to share how they're making the impact beyond themselves. If that's you, please go to Ally's for me.com/guest. And sign up there. If you got something out of this interview, we would love you to share this

00;08;51;14 - 00;08;53;09
Craig Andrews
episode on social media.

00;08;53;11 - 00;09;16;23
Craig Andrews
Just do a quick screenshot with your phone and text it to a friend, or post it on the socials. If you know someone who would be a great guest. Tag them on social media and let them know about the show, including the hashtag leaders and legacies. I love seeing your posts and suggestions. We are regularly putting out new episodes and content to make sure you don't miss anything.

00;09;16;25 - 00;09;35;13
Craig Andrews
Please go ahead and subscribe. Your thumbs up. Ratings and reviews go a long way to help promote the show. It means a lot to me. It means a lot to my team. If you want to know more, please go to Ally's for me.com. Or follow me on LinkedIn. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time.