The No Options Mindset: Turning Adversity into Unstoppable Action with Ty Gibson

What if success wasn’t about having more options, but about fully committing to the path in front of you? In this episode of Morning Tea with Coach Kennedy, I sit down with entrepreneur, community leader, and resilience advocate Ty Gibson to explore the powerful concept of the No Options Mindset.

Ty shares his incredible journey through juvenile diabetes, kidney failure, dialysis, and a groundbreaking kidney-pancreas transplant, revealing how life’s toughest challenges became the foundation for his greatest victories. Together, they discuss how mindset, self-talk, humor, and small daily habits can transform adversity into growth.

https://www.instagram.com/tyfgibson/?hl=en

https://www.instagram.com/guidingpathways2025/?hl=en

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Good morning everybody. Today is Friday, August 7th, 2026. And this is your morning tea with Coach Kennedy. Last week, we learned how to go from survival mode to calm and confident with Catherine Chestnut. This week, we're going to learn about the no options mindset with Ty Gibson. Stay tuned.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Today's guest is Ty Gibson, who is an entrepreneur, community leader, and accomplished professional with a rich history of service and achievement. Everyone, let's give a nice welcome to Ty Gibson. Hi, Ty. How are you today?

SPEAKER_02 1:52

I am great. Thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.

SPEAKER_01 1:55

I'm glad that you could join me today.

SPEAKER_02 1:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:57

Would you like to tell us about yourself and how you found your path in life?

SPEAKER_02 2:02

Oh gosh. Well, that is a great question right out of the gate. I love that. Because I think it's so important, right? I mean, to find, to find our path, right? And it's uh, and I really, you know, to be real honest, uh, you know, I um with with young with girls growing up, I I I have had two daughters, and and you know, I it's always hard to kind of figure out what's a path and what are we gonna do and where are we going. And and I'll tell you, my my path, I didn't honestly I didn't find till later, but it was based off of my experiences in life. And and so really, you know, I I went to school as a graphic designer, but I but I I never knew what I wanted to do with that. And so all these experiences in life, with my medical experiences and my challenges, I I'll be honest, I uh I they all they all just develop through true life experiences. And I'll tell you, as a juvenile diabetic growing up in the in the early in the mid to late 70s and early 80s, with technology not being there, you know, as it is today, and then and then challenges that I had with that. I was one of the first to uh to uh wear the newer insulin pumps now, you know, that everybody wears now. And so I had a lot of adversity and a lot of things that just kept hitting me and why can't, why me kind of thing, right? Why was I the one with juvenile value? Why was I the one wearing this pound and a half, pound nine ounces, big box on my side when I was trying to be a normal kid, when I was trying to, you know, be a play sports and and and all these things. And so I think all of those type things, you know, Sarah, that has just really helped kind of carve what I want. And now, and now really my passion is to try to help people realize that no matter what that wall is in front of us, it's always worth the climb. And that's what I try to encourage people through it because I I've got multiple stories through that of how that wall sometimes looked taller than I could get over, but when I got over it, it was some amazing stuff.

SPEAKER_01 4:12

Yeah, absolutely. The wall can be so intimidating at first, but once you get that footing and you start climbing up that wall, it really it's amazing once you get to the other side.

SPEAKER_02 4:27

That's so true. So true.

SPEAKER_01 4:29

What what is the number one thing that led you on your path the most? What do you think had the biggest impact?

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Well, you know, and again, it kind of goes, I guess goes to different experiences, but my biggest impact was you know, when I was faced at the age of 30, I was I, you know, like I had kidney failure, being a diabetic kidney failure, a lot of this stuff kind of went hand in hand, out of control diabetes. But I was told I had kidney failure, and and and then I go in and the and and and was told, not only do I have kidney failure, but you need a transplant. Not only do you need a transplant, but you have such brittle diabetes that really you're not a good candidate for just a kidney. You really need a kidney and a pancreas. And there's a doctor out in Baltimore, Maryland, at the time that was doing this research surgery. And he said, But I I really so they sent me from Texas to to Baltimore to see if I was a candidate. And absolutely I was a candidate, but here was the problem, and this is where my kind of opened my eyes is the doctor says that you're absolutely a candidate, and we're we're we're super excited to for you to have this, but uh, there's only been four of them, and two of them weren't successful. And so, you know, I it was uh it will kind of open my eyes to wow, okay. I mean, I've got a six-year-old daughter at the time, and I'm going, okay, what does this mean? Uh, I could live the life on dialysis, and I didn't want to do that, right? I I mean I didn't want to live that lifestyle because I knew I wasn't able to be there for her and everything she wanted to do. But I also thought, man, if I could get through the surgery, then I can be live a normal life. And so that's kind of where part of this no option came in. And that's where, and that's where when you say the biggest impact, that's really where it opened my eyes of going, all right, I've got I've got a wall to climb, but it's worth the climb.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

You mentioned no option. What do you mean by no options?

SPEAKER_02 6:33

Well, and and so over this path of these challenges, I I've created this mindset. And and well, a lot of people would say, Ty, how'd you get through this? You know, and I and I so I over time I just, you know, I look back and I took pick snapshots of all these different things that went on in my life, and through medical, through health decisions, through business decisions. And really, my my choice, the way I go at it is as though I have no options but to win, right? In that case, I had no options but to have that surgery and be there for my daughter. And then later in life, I had no, when I opened a business, I left my corporate job and my wife's corporate job, but we both went in in 06 and opened up our own business. Well, guess what? In 2008, the financial crisis hit. But we didn't have no options. I mean, we did not look at that as the oh my, you know, we didn't look at it as having a plan B. Because I think a lot of times plan B just gives us an out. And so that's the way I look at things in like if we just go at it that we have to figure this out and we have to be successful at it, then that's what we do. But if we know we've got this out, then we go, we take the out. And there's a three steps, and if you don't mind, sir, I'm gonna jump through that. I'm just gonna go through that real quick. What and step one, in my no options mindset, is when I run into this, I look at it and say, when I run into adversity, step one is grow or die. Do I want to grow or do I want to die? And I don't mean death. I mean, are we gonna let that passion go? Are we gonna let that dream go? Are we gonna let this business opportunity go? Whatever it is, that's what we do. And then two is hope or despair. Are we gonna be a positive thinker or are we gonna be this poor victim, right? It's whereas, you know, why did I have diabetes? Why did I have kidney failure? Why am I the one? Why am I the one that has to, you know, why did I open a business and then a financial crisis hit? What, right? So on and so on. And then step three is humor and drama. And that's how we think, right? I mean, are we gonna be, we can be, I'm sorry, humor drama, and that's how we talk. But when I say talk, I mean talking to ourselves. Are we gonna encourage ourselves through this? Are we gonna be a name, you know, because when we do these three steps, it puts our mind into a positive thinking mindset. And it's easy to say, oh, be a positive thinker, but I'm gonna, I don't like that term because that's such a broad statement. And when you're in the gutter or when you're in these tough decisions, be a positive thinker is not what you want to hear. But I'll say this if you take these small little bites, it helps you be a positive thinker. And so that's where the no options mindset is, is is is not not to give yourself an out, basically.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

So when you are saying about humor or drama, what do you mean by that part of it? You said that that's the way that we talk to ourselves, but can you expand a little bit more on the different the difference between humor and drama?

SPEAKER_02 9:48

For sure. You know, so it's sometimes we've got to look at the, you know, look at our situations as, I mean, I'm not saying they're they're ever a light, but for instance, when I was going through dialysis and I had to go, I would go three days a week from 4 a.m. to nine, and then I would go into the office of my 45 employees who had no idea I was going through this, but I had to put this mask on for a minute, right? And sometimes I would use laughter uh with my wife and different people that knew, a few people that knew what was going on, and I would go, you know, things of, you know, uh let me be the one to talk about it, because I just got I I just went through, you know, I've had a nap for the last three hours. And I mean, you and I would tell myself, man, who, why would I let this slow me down? And so it was just encouraging, and I would laugh about, I had to make laughter sometimes of what I was going through just to help get through it. But if you be on the other side, if you're this drama, oh my god, I had to, you know, I've been in dialysis all day today, and I didn't want to, I, you know, I can't do this, then you're not gonna do it. So sometimes you got to take your situation and you gotta find a little bit of drama in it, laughter, whatever that looks like. Because it's sometimes it's very serious situations. In my case, it was a very situation, serious, serious situation because people are dying in Dallas. I mean, I had people come in there that I wouldn't find there the next day. But I had to kind of get through this by going, oh my gosh, you know, yes, this is serious, but you know what? I am I'm just glad I get to come in here every morning at 4:30 and do this. And and so you gotta find a little bit of humor in it. Because I tell, I would tell my, you know, I tell my wife and my daughters, I was like, the cool thing is I got between 4:30 and 9 30 to watch a lot of podcasts. And so, you know, and it was kind of a you know, we just made light of it, but but really just try to get through it, and that's that humor drama piece.

SPEAKER_01 11:55

Yeah, I can see, I can see how that would be very helpful to find the humor in anything that we might be going through. That's a challenge, definitely. Keep your spirits up rather than bringing them down further than they already are, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:12

For sure, for sure. Because I mean it's natural to be, you know, this distinct. I mean, the what do why me? And all, but you gotta find, I mean, we've gotta find a silver lining. And the way we talk too, so it's not always just it's not always the way we talk to other people, but it's what we're telling ourselves inside. And we're talking, we're talking all the time to ourselves, whether we know it or not. We're telling, we're telling ourselves things, we're talking to ourselves, we can get through this, or you know what, I'm fixing to lose it because this is poor people. I I don't have any help, I don't have this. No, we gotta be able to talk positive to ourselves because if we don't, we it will slowly take the dive down. And once we take the dive down, it's hard to get it back up.

SPEAKER_01 13:01

Absolutely. Especially if you don't have a very strong support system in place. If you have if you have very limited support system, family, friends, anybody around you, and you're only relying on yourself. Wow. Yeah, that's a challenge. Well what would you say is the most difficult part that when people are trying to change their mindset from going from a blase mindset or a poor me victim mentality to changing their mentality to this no option mindset?

SPEAKER_02 13:40

Well, first of all, nothing's gonna happen fast. And that's what we gotta realize, right? Because it we didn't get there overnight, and it's not gonna, it's gonna take time to get out of it, too. So the best way to say this is it's it's like it's like going to the gym. I mean, if we went to the gym one time, if I ran to the gym today and started working out and came back and goes, wow, that didn't do anything. You know, and it's the same thing with our mind, because our mind is just a muscle, right? And so we've gotta we've gotta think of it like the gym. If we go every day and keep doing it, then we're gonna see results. And it's the same thing with our mind, right? If we're we've got to take small steps with our mind, take find small things to think positive on. Just today, find a couple of things that you can slowly start thinking, find the silver lining, start thinking a positive. Or if you go a negative immediately, try to switch it back to a positive thinking. And then what happens is you're using that muscle more and more and more, and you will continually to see now you start looking at things immediately as a positive instead of a negative, and instead of having to find go immediately to the negative, our mind is a muscle, and if we continue to build it in the positive way, we'll start thinking positive. For instance, you know, I love this that 1% rule, right? You hear the 1% story all the time. If we can get 1% better today, just one, not 100, not 50, 1%. Think of one little thing today that we can do positive. You know, the story is of this the cycling coach, it's a national cycling coach, and he and a lot of people have heard this story, but he came on and took took the national, a national cycling team, and he wanted to change it. They never won the Tour de France, they never, but he's like, I'm not, we're not gonna come in today and change everything. But what he started doing, he did worked on the on different, you know, physical and things of that nature, but the little things that he said, the little things over here, he took the pillows that these guys were sleeping on and changed them so that they would get better night's sleep. Small little things. He took the uniforms that they wore that were a little bit more aerodynamic and a little bit more comfortable, little things, right? And kept making these little changes. But what happened was those little changes became bigger things. And the goal was to be it, to win the Tour de France in five years. He won it in three, and they've continued to win a lot of these. But my point being is he didn't come in and just change everything, he took little things, and over time it created a champion. And I and then that's how I say our mind changes, right? So we're not gonna change the world today, but we can take small things and start thinking positive, and then that's how we will go from a negative thinking to a positive thinking.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

Yeah, really. The smallest steps do really make the biggest changes. Even when it's not even just about small changes in your mindset, it could be like small changes in building a business and creating a new hobby, whatever you want to do. Because, you know, the other popular saying that I know everyone has heard is Rome wasn't built in a day.

SPEAKER_02 17:15

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

So imagine if Rome was built in a day, it would be impossible.

SPEAKER_02 17:21

Well, it just I mean, it and again, it makes sense though, from you know, anything, anything take and have where our habits are what creates our success. And so we got to get into the habit of thinking positive. And and and again, it's not gonna happen overnight. Right, you say I'm a positive thinker. You don't just put this hat on that word positive. I mean, start on the little things, you know. I I love I love it. You know, I was talking to a guy and he's like, Man, I I'm going to the gym every day. I'm not doing a whole lot, but I'm getting up and I'm going to the gym a lot. And he said, I'm I'm I'm doing some exercise, but I'm not doing enough to really change anything. But what he did, he started a habit of getting up every day and going to the gym. And that's the first step, right? So find something that just starts creating these habits of being more of a positive thing.

SPEAKER_01 18:15

Yeah, absolutely. What is one small habit that you would start with if you were to wanting to shift your mindset from negative to positive?

SPEAKER_02 18:27

You know, I mean, it kind of goes back again to what we were talking about. Find that small thing. What I what I always encourage people, and and I do this, sometimes I just go look in the mirror and realize it's up to me. I talk to myself a lot, and I'll be honest. I mean, it's a meditation, whatever it is that works for you. But a lot of times I will look myself in the mirror and say, it is up to me, not to anybody else, that I'm gonna make these changes, right? And and a lot of times it's just it's just that little thing of encouraging myself that I can do it. Because I don't want to rely on anybody else. I don't want, I don't want it to be depend on anybody else of my mindset, right? Of how I'm gonna, because I can tell you, and there's a lot of studies out there, that our mind is the most powerful tool we have. And it's up to us, and so we have a choice every single day. I know people have heard this, it's our choice, but I literally would I encourage people to go look in the mirror and really think about that. Think about that hard because it truly is up to us what we do each day. We have a choice of what we eat, we have a choice of where we go, we have a choice of who we hang, who we who surround ourselves with. And believe it or not, all those things make a big difference of how our mind works.

SPEAKER_01 19:58

Yeah, it truly does because the people that we hang around, the things that we do, the routes that we take on our walks or whatever, and then we're gonna encounter other people on those routes, and then it will those imprints are go on to our mind, and then that's what we start believing and adapting as our own thoughts and beliefs.

SPEAKER_02 20:22

And you know, you know, and and and I and um another thing, and I didn't mean to interrupt, but I start, and this is something I do, and I when I first really got into this, I wanted to, I wanted to find ways. There's so many times I think about man, that was that waitress was very nice, or or that was a very nice move, you know, something that someone did. You know, but instead of just thinking it, now I tell them, I verbalize it. Find something, find something in your friends, find something in family members, or someone that you hang out with, or or places you go that people are serving, and find the positive that people are doing and let them know. Say thank you. Hey, that was awesome. You know what? That was the best Uber driver. You're you are an amazing Uber driver, and I just want to thank you for that. You know, but encourage the people that are doing the right things because in return, I think it makes us realize that we want to do those things too. So I think it's a habit that we want. I I do that. I try to, I try to say, you know, I guess, you know, really show thanks to the people that are doing the right things. In return, it helps me make me want to do the right things as well. So I think that's something you ask, you know, it's a question that you asked me that was kind of something that I do. And that is, I think that's something to help others as well.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

Yeah, absolutely. When you allow or when you verbalize the good things that people do, not only does it encourage ourselves saying that to do those things, but it reminds them that they're people care about the things that they do, and they'll keep doing that, those good things that they're being recognized for, and it will in turn just keep snowballing, and the world eventually will become a better place. We might not see it, but it will get there eventually.

SPEAKER_02 22:24

Right. So true. You know, we we can only do what we can. We gotta we can control what we can control, right? And I think that's important.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yes. So do you have clients that you teach this mindset to?

SPEAKER_02 22:39

I do, I do, and I love uh you know, I I uh I try. My goal really is just to help others. I mean, when I was just recently able to uh sell my company a couple of years back, I I had some time free up and I, you know, and I asked my my wife, I was like, what am I gonna do with some of my free time? And she's like, I know what you ought to do. And and so that's why this is where this really started, because I just I used to not really tell anybody. I mean, I grew up, I said I grew up in Southeast Texas where my dad said, you know, dust it all, boy, you'll be okay. Nobody wants to hear your problems. And that's kind of the way I was raised. So forever, I never shared my story. And so now I I really I realize when we share stories and we share things that we've been through, it helps others. And so absolutely, I I do uh open this up for anyone that's going through anything and that I can help change mindset, that I can just encourage them through whatever they're going through, whether it's a business, whether it's a sales group, whether it's just an individual that just needs someone to help them, encourage them through it. That absolutely that's what I do.

SPEAKER_01 23:51

And what is the name of your business that you have created in order to help people with their mindset?

SPEAKER_02 23:58

It's just it's called Ty Gibson No Options. And you can go to Ty Gibson.com. That's where all my information is. But all my information is again, it's it's this is the no options mindset with Ty Gibson. But uh, through that is where you can contact me for all any any needs or anything that we can do.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

Perfect.

SPEAKER_02 24:19

And I'll tell you this: this is and but that phone number that's on there is my cell number. I encourage people to pick up phone and call me. I'm I'm I'm really my mission is to help people.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

I I really enjoy that because that's what people need most in this world is caring people that are just wanting to help. Because there's so many limited options nowadays. Mostly it's just counseling and therapists, but there needs to be more options because counselors and therapists they don't necessarily cover everything or or know the tools that people like us can help with.

SPEAKER_02 25:03

Yeah, and I'm not, you know, and I'm and again, I'm not a therapist or I'm not a I'm uh what I would say is if if I've been through it, you know, if I've if I've experienced and I can and things I can help, I just want to be a friend.

SPEAKER_01 25:16

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 25:16

I don't want to be a therapist. I want to be a friend.

SPEAKER_01 25:18

Yeah, no, I didn't I wasn't insinuating that you were a therapist, but yeah, yeah, no, I just wanted to make sure because I gotta make sure you realize I'm not right. Well, there you have it, people. If you want to work with Ty Gibson and learn the no options mindset, feel free to check him out at Tygibson.com. That's T-Y-G-I-P-S-O-N.com.

SPEAKER_02 25:46

That's perfect.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Okay, thank you so much for your time today, Ty. I've enjoyed hearing about the no options mindset, and I hope that you continue to do wonderful things and have a great day.

SPEAKER_02 25:59

Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_01 26:00

Okay, take care.

SPEAKER_02 26:03

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 26:05

Okay, there you have it, folks, and for more coaching tips and tricks and to work with me one on one, feel free to reach out to me at Guiding Pathways on Facebook or Instagram. Until next time, everybody, this has been your morning tea with Coach Kennedy.