The penultimate step is the second to last step prior to takeoff, particularly in the long jump event. It sets the jumper up for the correct trajectory and is critical in launching the athlete into the jump with purpose and conviction. As in sports, without having the preparation and focus in the penultimate step, a person cannot channel forward movement into a successful launch in life.

Raised in rural Montana, Vanessa Bucklin graduated from UNLV and began her business career in Las Vegas. She married her college sweetheart, moved back to Montana to start a family, and was a bank vice president by the time she was 25. She was successful, but she wasn't fulfilled. Despite numerous obstacles, she decided to open an insurance agency from scratch. Her thriving business has become a cornerstone of her small community, generating jobs, creating partnerships and alliances, serving neighbors, and giving back.

In addition to her professional path, she shares stories about her youth, her core values, her mentors, and her family—some with great humor, others heartbreaking. She pays tribute to her parents, who gave her a solid foundation, and to her brother, who died way too young. She talks about how she took up running as a way to heal following a tragedy (a competitive runner, she has completed eleven marathons and three ultramarathons). She honors those who have inspired and supported her.

Bucklin believes that your opportunities shape and unfold by how you perceive them, and the only limits you have are those you impose on yourself. In both running and business, she had to learn to get comfortable with being uncomfortable. She followed the simple but fundamental rule that you have to crawl before you walk, and walk before you run. She shares the many lessons she learned as she sought her truth: I am a simple girl raised as a farmer's daughter in rural Montana. I am not rich, famous, or extraordinary in any way, but I have worked hard, been brave and determined.