- Major funding for the series I Am More Than was provided by Caring for Denver Foundation, additional support from this program was provided by the Colorado Health Foundation and DEMI FUND.

- I am Heidi Ganahl and I am more than a conservative politician, I am a mom, I love dogs, I love oh gosh, I love seeing little kids light up when you help them feel like they can conquer the world.

And so I am more than any of these labels, I am just Heidi.

♪ (Music playing) ♪ Part of the magic in a life is stitching it altogether, the good, the bad, the ups, the downs.

And creating this beautiful quilt or piece of art out of it.

I am Heidi Ganahl, and I am someone who just loves life ferociously.

I love doing big things and finding joy and finding contentment, having fun, making things playful but serious too.

Taking on big challenges.

If I had a job title it would be manager of chaos in all things.

- Tell me more.

- Well I've got four kids so a lot of chaos there at home I have twins that are 11, 14-year-old and a 28-year-old who's staying with us right now, and she has a two-year-old golden retriever puppy Poppy.

And then I have Henry who is a white lab, and two kitty cats, so it's a lot at home and then in the work world, I'm working on a big school choice project that I'm really excited about and having fun with.

Traveling all over the country and then running a couple of nonprofits that I have smaller nonprofits, and just trying to figure out where my next steps are in the world.

When I ran for office last year, I ran statewide so I got to visit every little town across Colorado and visit every little restaurant that has the best this or the best that, and meet amazing people with so many different perspectives and it just really opens your eyes to how much people are hurting and how much help they really need and support that they need that they are not getting right now and what a difference you can make if you just speak up for folks that are worrying about a particular issue and you can actually solve some things which is really exciting and meaningful especially around education and kids.

So I love that part of it, the daily grind was intense.

You are up some days at 5 AM and going until midnight.

Especially with kids it's really hard for moms to run for office, but I was a Regent elected statewide and served for six years.

It was an honor, it was really a wild time to be in higher education with Covid, all the cancel culture stuff going on and free-speech battles, so it was really interesting experience and a challenge, but I loved every minute of it.

Especially my last act as Regent at the University of Colorado was a vote to approve Deion Sanders as our coach so I was really excited about that and proud of it, it's so fun to see him turning things around at CU.

I had the highest of highs and lowest of lows.

But I've also had the highest of highs and lowest of lows and a lot of other ways in my life whether that was losing somebody so dear to me or finding love again, or having my kids.

It's been a crazy ride, I kid with people sometimes that my life is like I was made-for-TV movie not quite the big screen but it's been an adventure.

It's Lifetime.

I'm already making a mess.

- Well I'd say it's pretty impossible not to make a mess.

- I had a great childhood I was surrounded by so much love, my grandparents, aunts and uncles, my cousins, I just had so much love and joy in my life we did not have a lot of money but lots of fun experiences and then when we moved to Monument, Colorado when I was 12 it was going from like the big city in Orange County California to 3000 people, and I'm like what do you do for fun around here wearing my pink checkerboard Vans, with my California Valley girl accent and they were like okay well we hike and fish and ride our bikes, I'm like really?

Okay.

But it was awesome, and we had 90 kids in our graduating class, at [indiscernible] I'm still dear friends with many of them.

It's an amazing community to be a part of and to have grown up there.

- A really happy memory for me in my childhood was when I got my first dog.

I was probably three or four my parents surprised me and launched my love affair with dogs.

Dogs would be such a theme in my whole life, and Daisy and I went everywhere together we were best buddies and she lived to be 17 so she did not pass away until I was a freshman in college.

So she was there for the whole journey.

So when Bion and I had just met it was in my early 20s and I was loving life having a good time, and him and his friend asked us to dance and we both ended up marrying those guys from that one night it was crazy.

His theme for life was Carpe diem.

You could feel that every minute you are with him.

Jumping off of cliffs at lakes and all that crazy stuff which I was never like that, so he brought that out of me.

We were big dreamers always writing up crazy business ideas on the back of restaurant napkins over beer that was fun for us it was like a hobby.

One of those ideas that we rode up was the idea for a doggy daycare business and we thought of a name Camp Bow Wow, but we were young we were broke we did not have any money and student loan debt up to our eyeballs, and so we talked a lot about it but obviously we do not get a started are going.

We got married when I was 25 he was 23.

And then had been married a couple years after that, when he died in a plane crash.

I was sitting there it was a beautiful sunny day in May.

And my brother drives up in my mom's car, he pulls up he does not make eye contact with me, and then he gets out of the car and starts walking to me and I could tell he had been crying and I was like what's going on?

And he just said I'm so sorry, the plane crashed.

And I said what do you mean?

What you mean what happened?

He said he died.

It's one of those moments that you know is changing your entire life as it happens, but you have no way to process it and I remember the word like widow coming to my mind oh God no I'm only 27 I don't want that word, that word was just that word.

It just kept popping into my head and I was like this cannot be happening.

This is no, this is not my life.

I used therapy from like the minute it happened and I found a great counselor in Colorado Springs who was right by my side through the thick of that, and the lowest like I couldn't have done it without her, she was amazing and I don't know what would've happened if I did not have her, and I did a lot of like grief workshops, and I connected with other women who had gone through that specifically like younger women who were widowed at an early age.

And we created this bond a few of us, like obviously I was a mess, and really lost, overwhelmed by all the love and support but suffocated by it too.

So I decided to take my dogs up to [indiscernible] Colorado and rented a double wide with the yard and stayed up there for almost a year.

It helped me kind of get my head on straight, but also just you know one of the most painful times in my life too, like really digging in trying to figure out how I was going to get through this but my dogs helped me through.

I know that sounds kind of silly, but they just are so healing and full of unconditional love and they don't ask questions they don't want you to explain why you are feeling a certain way, and being up in the mountains in that area was so healing too.

It makes you feel like you are part of something bigger.

I got married to someone I had known since I was 12 who was so caring and loving to me at that moment, but had severe addiction issues and so it was a really unhealthy combination of his addiction issues, my grief but we had this amazing little girl out of the deal Tori who's my 28-year-old who brought me so much healing and so much love in my life, and really turn things around for me, and she was such a gift.

I am terrified of losing the people around me that I love so much and so I'm a little anxious as a mom, little more worried than I probably would've been if it had not happened of losing my husband now, and grief is terribly difficult and so hard, and so it changed me that way, it makes me a little anxious about things, but it also gave me this gift of living fearlessly, seize the day, it can be gone tomorrow, go out, don't be afraid of what they say about you on social media or about you on the ads on TV, if you're following your heart and passion and be true and authentic, and you have the right intentions, and you are honoring those intentions, it's all going to work itself out.

- I want to kinda portray coming out of the storm into the light, like the bright blue skies, sunshine, when five years after the crash I was really lost, and a single mom, and my little brother came to me and was like how do we get you back on track?

He's like you are so passionate, you love doing big things, take out that business plan that you and Bion wrote for the Camp Bow Wow thing see if we can get it started.

And that was the beginning of Camp Bow Wow.

It rose out of the ashes, it was our dream, and I always felt like he was there with me, building the business routing beyond there were so many times the business could have gone sideways, but we kind of kept persevering and having these opportunities that sparked the growth of the business.

I was a single mom for a long time about 10 years, and one of my friends was like you need to find love again, we have got to find love again and she set me up on a blind date with Jason my current husband and up in Boulder and we hit it off, little bit younger than me nine years younger than me and really wanted to have kids and I was like I have a teenager running this company, and I'm kind of older, I don't know if that's gonna work but I'm open to it.

And so we tried and got Holly out of the deal my 14-year-old now, and then we tried for another one and got twins.

So that's kind of how the whole family evolved, and I'm very young at heart, so I was like I'll be fine.

And now 11 years later I'm like I'm tired.

It's awesome.

It's chaotic but it's awesome.

Figuring out how to rescue as many dogs as possible too, that was one of my passions running Camp Bow Wow to get as many dogs homes as we possibly could so every franchisee we challenge them to rescue and fosters many dogs as they could and we ended up hitting the 10,000 mark and we got 10,000 dogs rehomed through the Camp Bow Wow system for the foundation and I'm way more proud of that and selling the business and doing the financial side, it's like making an impact like that, it makes your heart happy and makes you feel like you made a difference in the world.

Hopefully all these dogs are waiting for me when I go to the rainbow bridge as they call it in the dog world.

- What made you sell?

- I had the twins and a three-year-old and a teenager, and it was just a lot.

So I decided that it needed someone else to take it to the next level, and so I moved on and that's when I ran for Regent at the University of Colorado and started getting involved in education and politics and all the crazy stuff.

So I went from dogs to politics which how that occurred... Yeah.

It's bizarre.

My whole life is bizarre.

♪ (Music playing) ♪ - A lot of people asked me why I ran for governor, it's a crazy thing to do in the world right now because politics is hard, but I am so stinking committed to making this world a better place for kids, for my family my future grandkids and I know that sounds contrite, but it's how I roll, it's like I'm a problem solver and I want to fix things and I see so many problems right now in Colorado that drive me nuts.

Whether it's crime or homelessness or kids not getting a good education these are solvable things, like why are people just spinning their wheels and doing the same things over and over again, me as an entrepreneur I'm like no no no we need to just turn the table over, knock it over, start from scratch, get people having tough conversations about how to solve these problems, and it's really frustrating to watch people say they are leaders and not do [bleep] thing to help our kids live a better life.

Our kids are dying of Fentanyl poisoning, committing suicide, not getting the education they need, and it just ticks me off that those problems are not getting solved.

So I was taught, I was raised when you see something, it's not getting fixed you jump in and you fix it, you do the work, you do the hard work to make it better.

And it was really that simple, like okay, I think I can do this, I think I'm the right person to solve some of these problems.

I've got some big bold ideas about how to take our state forward so I'm gonna throw my hat in the ring.

When you run for office you know that half the people are really going to like what you say and half are probably not going to like what you say.

And so the challenge is to figure out how you can bring people together right?

And say I know we don't agree on everything, but what if we just agreed on this or worked on this together, that's what I learned early on in the Regent Board which is really feisty board, there's nine regents, and there was a lot of disagreement, but 80% of the time we found agreement and what was best for the University of Colorado and our students in the state and that's when the best stuff happens in politics, but it's not happening enough right now.

- What was it like personally to run?

- You have to stiffen your spine man, the attacks are so intense, and I mean when your kids walk into the kitchen and say mom you're on TV again and they are seeing really mean things about you, it's like yeah that's part of the process.

I don't think the media or the ads the millions of dollars of ads represented who I was at all, they get to see my heart and who I am really, so that was sad for me.

It's really hard for me to be a woman in politics and play that line right?

I gotta be firm, fight back, and push hard but also a mom and soft and I love people and community, so trying to find that balance right?

You get attacked either way, you get told you have got to be tougher, you got to attack more, and then you get told you are a [bleep] and doing things in a mean way, gotta be softer.

So use this one to do the sand.

I understand why they think certain things about me, I'm a Christian I have strong faith, I love America my dad was a cop there are certain things that automatically put a label on me.

And it makes people think a certain thing about me, but at the end of the day it's like who would I be as a leader, and I am just darned and determined to bring people back together and to heal these divides, and it hurt my heart that I couldn't figure out how to do that as a candidate, it can be our children I think that's what's gonna bring us together is our common hope and focus on helping make this a great place for our kids to live and grow up and our grandbabies too.

The night of the election when I went up and did my speech to concede it was a wide-open saloon, lots of friends and family around, tears coming down my face and my 11-year-old Jenna comes up and grabs me and start sobbing.

I look out and she had this little group of friends that were there that always came to the camp rallies with her mom and dad and they are all sobbing and it was the most heartbreaking moment for me that I had let them down, that I cannot pull through for them, and that was like the hardest part because I got to be a voice for so many of the kids and mental health and all the issues facing them right now, no matter if they're Democrat Republican whatever, I really really wanted to go after these issues as governor and I was not going to have the opportunity.

And that hurt me, that made me so angry, and upset.

The thing that haunts me the most was seeing those kids and the tears in their eyes and just thinking about all the kids that I met on the campaign trail that had tried suicide or lost a friend to Fentanyl.

And I still wanted to be there voice so that's what I'm trying to keep going.

And that's my focus now, and why I am going to visit nonprofits and stay on top of issues so that I can still continue to be a voice.

And I'm finding my footing, figuring out how to do that, it has not been easy to figure that out over the last year, but I'm figuring it out.

I got diagnosed with a brain tumor three years ago, and it was not cancerous but it was really affecting me like my balance coordination I was about to jump into the governor's race when I found out.

And I had to have brain surgery, and it was one of the scariest times in my life, obviously but I remember back any time I think things are bad or I'm annoyed with things that are going on in my life, I think back to this moment where it was during Covid so I walked up to the park, to get out of the house and I had to make videos for each of my kids in case the surgery did not go well.

I just had to sit on the bench and just make a heartfelt video for each one, I did not tell them I was doing it I put it on a hard drive and in envelope in case something happened.

I can put myself back in that one moment right then or when I found out that my husband passed away there's moments in my life that I can go back to and it just makes everything that puts it into perspective, so getting this not beat out of me by a TV ad or political component, or having a rough day because traffic is bad you think back to those moments and it grounds you instantly.

It just reminds you that you know we are not here to play, this is real, this is life and you get one shot at this, you better go hard.

Grace is my word for this year, Grace, giving myself grace and time to heal over the craziness of the last couple years and giving myself grace to figure out like what my next steps are, slowing my system down a little bit and slowly my reactions down a little bit, and just living in the moment finding happiness enjoying the moment or anger and sadness whatever you're feeling just feeling more deeply, connecting more to God and my faith, and just asking for help and grace.

You know when I think about how I got through the moments in my life there were like the lowest of lows, how did I care for myself, how did I navigate it, honestly it's a hard thing to answer because you have grit right?

You tough it out sometimes, and you just keep a focus on the future and plowing through it.

That's not the healthy way to do it, and it does not go away when you do that, like you have to figure out how to get quiet and journal and be alone with the pain.

You know Colorado is such a beautiful place, even going out on a walk and watching the sunset is amazing here.

Or walking my dog, I mean Henry and I are good buddies so we hang out a lot just being with him is really calming.

And being with my kids they are fun and silly and playful and they make me laugh.

It takes the stress off of things that we are like the loud family so we do things big whatever we are doing, even if it's just hanging a chilling at home I love Saturdays, they can some good food and watching the college football team, hanging out with my husband and kids.

That's how I like to chill out.

If I had to pick a couple of words to sum up my growth over my life, one is I would say fearless, like I've learned and grown to be fearless throughout all these experiences.

The other one, is just heart.

Heidi at 57 is just fearless.

Not afraid of much anymore.

And loves fearlessly.

♪ (Music playing) ♪ This has been such a fun day, it's been an adventure, kind of therapy, but also camaraderie and fun, and really taking some quiet time to think through the journey I've been on.

Haven't done that in a while.

It was very therapeutic painting and representing it on canvas, starting with a blank canvas and trying to put what was in my head on here with paint.

So it's been a wonderful experience.

♪ (Music playing) ♪ - Woolah!

The whole process was really neat, it was fun, it was nerve-racking a little bit, I like having a sherpa around me to help figure out technique and there were definitely points where I was like this is not looking so good.

But it kind of came together it's a little abstract but I love the colors and the feel.

I like the way it represents the storms that I've been through.

I have this really dark part of me right now this cloud hanging over me that I want to express here, what does that look like?

It's dark colors, storms, it's confusion, frustration, I mean you can feel the tension when you're painting that.

And then as you start to push towards the lighter side, like what the future holds, you can feel yourself kind of lighten up, and the colors you pick lighten up, and the strokes lighten up, and it becomes much more whimsical and playful.

Being able to see the sun is shining on the other side in the rays coming through, and just the pure blue of the sky, like hope, and you know resilience, fearlessness, all the feelings that I have about my journey, so I think it came out well, and I love the colors in it, they represent me really well.

I'm really grateful that you guys had me be part of this project, because I think it was a turning point for me, a, to start trusting and talk about my story again and my life and why I have been through what I been there, but to be able to use our and kinda bring that out in me, and to work with a very forgiving team that knows that that's not my forte, but was patient with me and taught me the tactical parts I can bring the emotional part to it was a really beautiful thing.

I am really excited to get my painting back and I know it's not by any means a piece of art, to me it means a lot and I'm going to hang it proudly so a lot of people can see it and I can be reminded of that turning point for me where I started to see more of the sunshine rather than the storms.

I want to thank you for the process it was really beautiful, and I really enjoyed getting to know everyone on the team and getting through the process it's been a process.

I'm super grateful.

♪ (Music playing) ♪