Dear Friends,

This is such a great time of year for me. Events planned months ago are happening now, centered on women’s health week, nurses’ week, and lots of health and appreciation-focused activities. It’s a treat to get all of the feedback from them. Speakers are reporting to me about how well-organized the events are and they’re noticing alignment with the health message in the other aspects of the events — like healthy meals to go along with the healthy message. Yes!  I’m hearing from very happy (ecstatic, even) clients. It feels like I’m being immersed in a nice, warm bath in a deep, deep tub with mountains of bubbles. (I hope that’s what it feels like for the meeting planners whenever they get to put their feet up, as well!) Ahhhh . . .

May is Stroke Awareness Month and as any stroke survivor who lives and is able to talk and tell her story knows, life can go from normal to extraordinarily abnormal in minutes. Our speaker, Julia Fox Garrison, best selling author of Don’t Leave Me This Way (Or When I Get Back On My Feet, You’ll Be Sorry), knows this story intimately. She lived to tell about it — realistically and enthusiastically — as she has overcome a debilitating stroke she suffered July 17, 1997 – a day that started out like any other day.

Julia Fox Garrison

Don’t Leave Me This Way

She was driving to work, just like any other weekday, pondering the day ahead, thanking God for her husband and son, friends and family, her job, the idea of having another baby that she and her husband, Jim, had recently discussed, and the fact that she had lost some weight. It was the usual stuff she thought about and gave thanks for as she was commuting the hour drive to work down route 128 in Massachusetts.

It didn’t occur to her to thank God for the ability to stand, walk, drive, take a shower by herself or dress herself, or even wipe her bottom. Had she even thought of these things, she would have been grateful. There were other things on her mind, however, as she had a big responsibility coming up at work, and that’s where her thoughts drifted.

That was before noon, before life as she had known it took a drastic turn, when severe, volcanic head pain caused her to ask a co-worker to drive her to the hospital. With that headache, everything changed. She suffered a massive brain hemorrhage and paralyzing stroke at age 37. In a blink of an eye, Julia’s life was forever altered. Up till then Julia had been a multitasking working mother of a toddler; now, she was as dependent on others as a toddler. Before, she was climbing the corporate ladder; now she had to relearn how to climb stairs.

She was told she would probably die. Although she had some kind and compassionate interactions with nurses, aids and therapists, she was often treated dismissively by other caregivers who regarded her as an object rather than a person. Medical professionals frequently talked about her within hearing distance as if she wasn’t there. Despite staff attitudes ranging from arrogance to apathy, she survived the dismissive ones, whom she nicknamed Dr. Jerk, Dr. Panic, and Nurse Doom. And on the other hand, she was heard and acknowledged by one person, the kind, gifted Dr. Neuro, who promised her that he would treat her mind as well as her body.

Or, at least what was left of her body. She was completely paralyzed on the left side. She could not sit up on her own, feed herself, or go to the bathroom alone. The entire left side of her body was flaccid and numb. The left side of her body no longer existed in her mind. The left side of her face drooped like a melted candle. Her left eye remained open and emotionless along with her half shaved, surgery-scarred head.  And her useless left arm would dangle out of the socket. One side not working put her whole body out of kilter — lopsided is an understatement; being still was as much of a challenge as moving.

On top of that, Dr. Jerk insisted on treating her for an extremely rare disease that Julia felt instinctively that she did not have. While that doctor was adamant about treating her for this disease that had no cure and would require lifetime treatment, ongoing testing was inconclusive.  Julia knew that she knew her body better than any doctor. “I tell audiences,” she said, “not to give their power away to people with degrees. We’ve been in our bodies 24/7, and that is a degree — in on-the-job training. I do know what’s going on in my body, and if a doctor sits down and spends enough time with me, she will know, too.”

Although Julia was a patient who listened to her body’s signals, and wasn’t afraid to speak up, her opinions — and in particular her determination to recover, believe it or not — were routinely ignored or misinterpreted. “I was repeatedly told I was in denial,” she said about the responses to her determination to recover, “but there’s a fine line between denial and determination. I was determined to get better despite what the medical ‘experts’ were telling me, and so I pushed back with a vengeance.”  She also had the steadfast support of her husband, Jim, who knew what a determined person she is, plus family, and friends, and she was driven further by a fiery love for her son, Rory, who was only 3 years old when the stroke occurred.

Irony Works

But that wasn’t all: she came into all this with an edgy sense of irony, and she threw that into the struggle as well, developing the hospital equivalent of battlefield humor that helped keep her going and sharp. As she soldiered on in a quest to heal and get out of the hospital, she also took on the cause of awakening her caregivers to the need to treat her as a human being, not as a routine piece of their jobs.

Listening to Julia speak, you’ll hear her indomitable spirit and irrepressible sense of humor shining through:  If a doctor said you were going to die, would you look him straight in the eye and deadpan, “Oh, and you’re not?” Would you throw a party to pay homage to your hemorrhage? Ever thought about needing two hands to give the finger? Is half a brain truly better than none?

The serious questions that haunted her, even as she faced the world bravely turned into stand-up comedy — like so much of our comedy, it was rooted in tragedy.

She kept up that determination and that wit through many, long months of hospitalization and rehab until — with the help of family, friends and her determination — Julia not only got herself into a wheelchair, she got back out of it, and eventually, she got back home where she faced many more challenges.

Today she stands proudly, taking the stage as a catalyst for the movement to integrate humanity into medicine. Her message is timely and effective. Partially as a result of persuasive reports like hers, medical schools are starting to recognize the importance of the doctor/patient relationship. Patient-centered care and user-driven healthcare, once convenient catch phrases, are now in the forefront thanks to the efforts of champions like Julia who demand acknowledgement that there is a human being inside every patient.

She has often carried this message to medical conferences, where she has enlightened survivors, caregivers, and professionals. Her story of personal triumph against overwhelming odds is a promising match for any association, business or community group looking for an inspirational, motivational speaker with a vivid and important message for their medical staffs and members as well as for the general public.

Julia’s presentations do not focus on stroke nor how stroke manifests; but how her stroke educated her in the fundamental life lessons of being empowered and overcoming when the intruder, called adversity, knocks at your door. Julia delivers those lessons with gut-wrenching honesty, peppered with samples of that life-saving irreverent humor.

Although she can offer CEU/CME credits for professionals, what she has to say applies to anyone facing a life challenge: people with health issues, people with stress in their lives, people who are depressed or overwhelmed or faced with difficulties. In other words, to all of us.

Dr. Oz said of her book, “A stroke (literally) of luck helped Julia define the essence of her life. Her inspirational story can help us find ours.”

What I find profound and especially interesting about Julia’s story is that it resonates so much with what I’m hearing like a new song from many sources — about how patients (human beings), must stand up for ourselves, listen to our intuition, stick to it, and engage in a two-way conversation with our healthcare professionals — not just blindly follow a doctor’s orders.

Julia is feisty, and I admire that in a person. Your audiences will too. Her humor and her grit will bring them to their feet applauding while inspiring them to emulate her. No one will be untouched. To learn more about bringing her in to spark your community event or conference, give me a call at 503-699-5031 or email me barbara@speakwellbeing.com

May is Stroke Awareness Month

Stroke is an emergency. It’s important to learn stroke warning signs and how to respond to them. The FDA has approved clot-buster medication that, if given within three hours of the first symptom, may reduce long-term disability for the most common type of stroke.

Use the acronym, FAST, to remember the warning signs of stroke:

FACE: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?

ARMS: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?

SPEECH: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is their speech slurred or strange?

TIME: If you observe any of these signs, call 9-1-1 immediately.

There’s even a brand new App for that – free – from the American Heart Association. Look up “Stop A Stroke Fast” in Apps and get it on your android or iPhone.

Lost in the Woods – Well, Almost Lost

Have you ever started on one path, unintentionally taken a wrong turn, and, even though your instincts were telling you otherwise, kept going — in the wrong direction?  I hope I’m a little wiser for the experience my husband and I had two weekends ago while hiking in the Cascade Mountains. The 4-hour excursion we had planned turned into a scary (we thought we might possibly be lost) and physically challenging (very steep hills) outing.

Our lunchtime view of the Gorge from Aldrich Butte (The white spot in the middle is Bonneville Dam)

It all started with a new trail guidebook for the Columbia River Gorge, one of our favorite places to hike. One of the features of this book is that it has a lot of hikes beyond the popular trails that are easily accessible from Portland. So for the second hike of this season, we headed for the top of Aldrich Butte on the Washington side of the river. The book described a 4-mile loop (1,100 feet elevation gain), up and then around the mountain — instead of out and back. We got up to the butte, ate our lunch while enjoying the spectacular view of the Columbia and Bonneville Dam below us, and then confidently headed down, taking, as directed, the turnoff .3 mile from the top, for the loop route back.  Down, down, down we went.

Now, two things. First, I think it takes getting used to someone else’s directions — especially when the trails are unmarked, and they’re directing you to take unmarked trails. You have to learn how to interpret the author’s way of giving directions.  Second, things just look different in the woods than they do on paper.  (I mean, c’mon, do you really think a large stump is a good landmark in the woods?) Without going into detail about how we mis-read directions, I’ll just say we missed the next turn for the loop trail.

Our Own Private Waterfall

It was new territory so it all looked vague and beautiful. We just kept walking — you know, discovering — despite this little voice in my head that was telling me we were headed in the wrong direction.  Eventually, we could hear and see a major waterfall in the distance, and although my mouth was saying, “Don’t you think he would have mentioned that in the guidebook?”, our bodies kept walking and took the steep downhill trail that led to the bottom of the falls — thinking surely that it would lead us out. Well, the 70-foot waterfall was gorgeous, and when I found it on the internet the next day, I learned it is indeed remote — not many people have visited it. The trail down was, however, a dead end, and realizing that we were going to have to retrace our steps back up all of the steep downhills we had just descended, I was an unhappy camper — too preoccupied with what was ahead, to enjoy the pristine beauty.

We started trudging straight back up that steep ridgeback, but on the way we took two more wrong turns (downhill-uphill), and that was when we realized that daylight was waning, that we could possibly be lost, and that our emergency supplies were inadequate. There was nothing to do but keep going. One more backtrack and we found our way back to recognizable territory, and eventually came upon the place where we had missed the turn. The rest of the hike would have been pleasant if it had been shorter or level – and if we weren’t so tired we could barely get one foot in front of the other. Even 4-legged Bella, our beagle, was tuckered out. By the time we spotted our car we had walked uphill-downhill-uphill almost 8 hours, and I have never been so happy to sit down on the back hatch of my Subaru and take off my boots. Oh, my aching body.

It took days to recover. I skipped yoga Monday morning, and on Wednesday, still aching, told my yoga class that I had a hiking hangover. I’m promising myself that next time I’ll pay more attention to my instincts than to my commitment to the path, and we’ll definitely go better prepared. In any case, it’s a hike that will not soon be forgotten!

Until next time, take care of yourself for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

I was in Chicago last month for the Marketing to Women – Health and Wellness (M2W-HW) conference, where I picked up some great information and ideas that I’ll be sharing with you over the next few issues. In fact, I came away with a new perspective. So, instead of my usual speaker stories, I’m going to divert today and talk a little about shopping.

Shopping?  Yes, shopping. If you’re anything like me, the thought of going to a conference brings on the closet deficit syndrome, commonly known as, “I don’t have a thing to wear” — magnified when the season is changing.  So, the weekend before I left, I headed out to the stores.  Being budget conscious and lured by the promise of a deal, I headed for Nordstrom Rack, Ross Dress for Less, Kohl’s, and Marshall’s. I never got to TJ Max, but I did also go out on a couple of weeknights and venture into Chico’s, Coldwater Creek, Macy’s and JC Penney at the mall. I was on a mission, as you can see. Now, I did score a few deals, but, holy cow, was it ever time consuming and exhausting. Ugh. I can think of so many other things I would prefer to do with my time — like hiking.

Now for me the clothing thing isn’t so much about being stylish as it is about feeling confident and comfortable, so unless I left the tags on, I doubt anyone at the conference guessed I’d been on a shopping frenzy. Anyhow, when I actually got to Chicago, it was so cold and wet that my hot new sandals and other spring things ended up staying in the suitcase. So much for wardrobe planning . . .

Fast forward to the conference:  The Spirit of Women team of Tanya Abreu, President and Chief Vision Officer, and Guy McClurkan, Executive Vice President, presented their 2013 marketing theme, “The New Elegance of Women’s Health –  Like a Little Black Dress.”  NOTE:  I feature Spirit of Women news here every so often, but in case you’re new or unfamiliar with the organization, Spirit of Women is dedicated solely to the business and cause of women’s health. They provide hospitals, physicians and the healthcare industry with powerful strategies, content and programming to drive targeted business growth — while motivating women and their families to better health.

In their program, Tanya and Guy described how marketing to women is simple, efficient and remarkable, like the classic little black dress.  And while they related these concepts to transforming healthcare in a changing marketplace, I suddenly realized that those words, simple, efficient and remarkable, are the perfect description for the service I offer in helping event planners like you find the perfect speakers for your women’s and healthcare events. Which brings us back to shopping . . .

Simple, Efficient, Remarkable

SHOPPING FOR ELEGANCE – THE RIGHT FIT

My Aha! moment was realizing that the service I offer is so much more than a speakers bureau (mall or department store in this analogy). Event planners preparing for their next conference, may face a similar feeling — that they haven’t any speakers in mind who will thrill their audience – a ‘speaker deficit disorder.’ And they face a time-consuming search among friends, board members, and on the internet for suggestions that may produce uncertain results. Aha! I act very much like a personal shopper — for professional speakers. And if I’d had the good sense to work with a wardrobe personal shopper who knew my sizes, preferences, style and budget, I could have saved myself a lot of time, money and grief — which are the same benefits that I offer clients.

While I take a great deal of time and effort to select speakers for our website roster, you are never limited to that list. I am constantly monitoring the marketplace, just like any good fashion buyer, looking for what’s hot, as well as keeping tabs on celebrities and up and coming speakers. I often shop “off the rack” for clients in a particular budget range or geographical area. In fact, just this week, I got a big thank you from a client in Pennsylvania who found my website last year.  I connected them with KJ Reimensnyder-Wagner,  who lives right in their backyard. At the time, I had heard about her (from a client) but had not yet added her to my roster.  They had never heard of her either — the perfect speaker in their budget range who was right in their neighborhood and unknown to them. The results, in their words:

“Thank you for setting us up with just the right person for our Purposeful Seminar, ‘Living in Color.’ KJ created such a positive atmosphere, and my ladies have told me repeatedly how much they loved listening to her, laughing with her, singing with her, and getting to hear her story.  She helped them to feel comfortable to express their passions     and encouraged them to follow that passion. She lit up the room for the ladies at the  seminar. Her joy was contagious, and we caught it! KJ was exactly what we needed, and your connection made that happen. Thank you very much, Barbara.”

SIMPLE

I realize that finding a speaker for your event is just one item on your multi-faceted to-do list.  I can simplify this task, making it really easy — and pleasant — for you.

You don’t have to spend hours searching the internet, going from site to site, and wondering about descriptions of speakers you never heard of, and if they’ll live up to their promises.  You select from among pre-qualified choices made from my hand-picked roster of speakers specifically for women’s events. I take the time and effort to find out who you are and what you like, so you don’t have to pick through “racks” of speakers who don’t fit — and I’ll find speakers for you who I know are inspiring and reliable. Let me be your buyer. Be assured I will always respect your budget.  Also, using my service not only doesn’t cost you any additional fee (I am compensated by the speaker), I have inside knowledge about fee flexibility and availability.

CASE:  A client I’ve worked with for many years is now part of a larger healthcare system. She called me last fall on behalf of their region, and we came up with one speaker, Kelly Swanson, they agreed on for all of their 2013 women’s events.  Because this created a multiple booking for the speaker, each hospital got a reduced fee for their event.  One event has been held, and having heard about its big success, the others are eagerly anticipating their own.  Simple for everyone and successful.

EFFICIENT

We save you time, money and grief. Instead of spending your precious time shopping around and searching for names, you can come to one source and try on lots of options that you would never know about, speakers you may not have heard of yet. We also handle all of the negotiations, provide the contract details, and most important of all: respect your budget.

CASE: A hospital we started working with last year was surprised and delighted that the candidates I recommended for their breast cancer celebration event were not only fresh, but their fees were much more reasonable than what the bureau they’d been working with for several years had been quoting. The search and process were efficient and the event was a huge success. They loved the speaker they selected and are back again this year.

REMARKABLE

Ah, yes, remarkable  - remarkable and memorable.  Our speakers will make you and your organization shine. I personally choose them for their talent at connecting with your audiences on the topics that you designate. We want to work with you year after year and we do that by helping you create remarkable events year after year so your audiences can’t wait to return.

CASE:  Clients like the Women’s Health Conference (Fargo and Bismarck, North Dakota), the MCVI Women’s Health Initiative in Saginaw, Michigan, and the George Bray Cancer Center in New Britain, Connecticut, are happy, happy clients who come back again and again bringing me the challenge, “How do we top this? Again!” And each year we manage to do it because I get them remarkable speakers, so that they develop a reputation as exciting and rewarding events.

I’m always up for it.  I love getting the creative juices flowing.

THE RESULT: ELEGANCE AND THE PERFECT FIT

In presenting their 2013 marketing theme, “The New Elegance of Women’s Health –  Like a Little Black Dress.”, Tanya and Guy referred to the Wikipedia definition for “elegant” —  a synonym for beauty that has come to acquire the additional connotations of unusual effectiveness and simplicity.

Tanya explained how marketing elegant health with effectiveness and simplicity to women is a pre-set stage for successful healthcare reform:  “Women have always wanted a transformational and “elegant”solution to their own health improvement,” she said. “Women want convenient and immediate service. We want to feel better – not ‘fixed,’ and we seek and reward authenticity from organizations providing value.”  Lastly, she said that women demand meaningful communication, motivation and inspiration.

Agreed!  If the dress fits, wear it!

If Spirit of Women’s idea of the new elegance in women’s health is intriguing to you, I urge you to find out what it’s all about by contacting Dana Smith at 561-544-0755, x2034 or by email at dsmith@spiritofwomen.com/.

And if you’re planning a women’s event let me be your personal shopper, and you may find better speakers with less effort than you could on your own. Let me show you how to save time, save money, improve your program and thrill your audience. Spend your extra time keeping things simple — and being efficient and remarkable yourself. Visit our website at http://www.speakwellbeing.com or give me a call anytime at 503-699-5031.

Meantime, take care of yourself for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

M2W-HW photo credits:  BillMorganMedia.com for PME events

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

We’re just back from spring break, and visiting grandkids — girls, ages 2 and 5 — in Berkeley, California. What fun!  More about that later. First, I want to share a great story with you – about surviving cancer, a sister discovered, and skinny jeans.

It’s spring, and that means planning for the many fall women’s health and breast cancer events. As you know, I’m always seeking new speakers for you, but I’m also very excited when a speaker brings me a new twist.  That’s the case with Heidi Marble’s new program, Skin Tight Genes. This is an amazing story, and I’ve been hearing and reading a lot about using great stories in marketing.  Here’s a special one for you.  Enjoy!

Heidi and Jen

SKIN TIGHT GENES

An Unlikely Story of Sisterhood

You may already be familiar with Heidi Marble, either because you’ve been fortunate enough to book her for your breast cancer survivor event or you’ve read about her here and here.  Heidi is a 12-year survivor of inflammatory breast cancer – a virulent form of breast cancer that is fast growing and has a tendency to spread early and quickly. At the age of 34, she was considered too young to be diagnosed with this form of breast cancer. In fact she had to be very persistent to get a diagnosis. In her book, Waiting for Wings, A Woman’s Metamorphosis Through Cancer, she weaves together intimate anecdotes with humor, grace, and a sense of genuine dedication to helping others. You have to claim hope, she states straight out, as a means to pull through — not just to survive, but to heal and become whole. This is also exactly what she does in her speaking programs.

And, this, dear readers, is the rest of the story.

In 1999, Heidi sought her birth family because she wanted to learn about her health history. What she did not anticipate is that she would find first a birth mother (who later would develop breast cancer) and second, a total surprise – a sister named Jen, born 13 months after her. Their bond was instant, and they both fully embraced this amazing surprise. Heidi writes “…when my sister knocked on the hotel room door [and I opened it], … I opened (literally and figuratively) a new chapter in my life. There she stood a near mirror image of me!  Our resemblance was so strong it stunned us both. All we could do was scream! As it turns out, she is taller and sassier than me.”

Their bond was reinforced when five years after Heidi’s life was drastically altered by her breast cancer diagnosis, her sister was on the phone telling Heidi that she too had been diagnosed with breast cancer.

“My heart crumbled,” Heidi said. “The news accelerated as we learned that we carry the BRCA2 Breast Cancer Gene which puts us and possibly our children at greater risk.”

“Thirteen years have passed since we have been blessed with sisterhood. Our relationship deepened through my cancer, her cancer, finding out we have the breast cancer gene, finding out we wear the same perfume, own the same cookbooks, sit the same way and finish each others sentences. She is bold and not involved with worry, she rides a Harley and drives a red car. Life for her is lived in the moment with passion. She is a fierce mother who protects her two beautiful children. She speaks her mind and has some very well placed tattoos.

“I on the other hand, worry full time, have only used stick-on tattoos, have a dusty gray car and scream every time I ride a motorcycle. I continually try to plan the past, present and future. I have mastered pouting and perfected the art of giving the ‘silent treatment.’ She lives on the East Coast and I live on the West Coast and when we collide the whole world stops and we are very simply sisters.

“We love to get together so telling our stories together is the next logical step in the evolution of our relationship. Our presentation is natural and fluid because it comes straight from the heart of our relationship. The audience will need to prepare for a wild ride of emotions as we laugh, cry and celebrate life. Our presentation is woven together with video, photos, props and our well tested theories, not to mention our matching skin tight jeans!  As our story develops on stage you will see us just like we were the girls next door. There will not be a ‘canned’ solution to surviving, but a glimpse into what is possible. We don’t believe in a one-size fits all approach to adversity.

“As diverse as we are as women, Jen and I agree that: There is no right or wrong answer, no formula, no vitamin as powerful as intuition. If we listen to the quiet whisper in our hearts or the screams of our souls, we will find our way through challenges. You can heal and not survive or you can survive and not heal. What matters most is that we keep our hearts soft or learn how to soften them again, that we keep an ear to the ground when our ‘knowing’ rumbles, and that we don’t allow our wounds to define us, we define them — all the while rockin’ our skin tight jeans/genes.”

These quotations are from the draft outline of Heidi’s next book with a working title of Taking Flight.  I think she says it better than I ever could. I think you’ll love the book. While you’re waiting for it to come out, check out her original book, Waiting for Wings. Now is your chance to give your audience a taste of what’s to come.

Booking Heidi and Jen for your special event, whether your focus is on cancer survivor or women’s health, guarantees that you will have a lively and educational event. Laughing and crying in the same segment, your audience will probably do what the audience in her video, which you can view here, do at the end of their presentation: rise as one and give them a standing ovation. For more information, give me a call at 503-699-5031 or email me at barbara@speakwellbeing.com

California Play Time

What a great trip. We took our time getting there — the coastal route, which requires a leisurely approach. I had not been south of Reedsport, Oregon. Once we had crossed over from the inland valley to Coos Bay, we drove along the California coast to Gualala, California, where we visited my friend and speaker Holly Stiel and husband Bill. There we got to walk through Holly’s fairy path which I wrote about last year. This was the second time for me, and the first – definitely a First — for my husband, who is a very good sport. Actually, I believe he enjoyed it.  It was after all, an enchanting walk through a forest of both old and young coastal redwoods.

Then on to Berkeley and those adorable grandchildren.  Armed with sidewalk chalk, belly button tattoos, fairy dust, and armloads of storybooks, I was prepared for a good time — which we had.

The first afternoon there, we snuggled into a big chair for a story, and I got to read to the kids my friend, Linda Viviane Lester’s brand new book, Blossom, A Flower’s Journey, which she both wrote and illustrated.  Having coached Linda (or at least been a listening ear) through the writing and publishing process, I felt very special that night: holding this very special children’s book and two very special children on my lap, and reading it aloud. Those of you who are grandmothers know something of how I felt.

Wishing you special moments with the ones you love.  Take care of yourself for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

You’ve heard of rebooting your computer?  So, what about rebooting your body?  Keynote motivational speaker, Dr. Jo® (Joanne Lichten, PhD, RD), has zeroed in on the energy gap — the gap, that is, between how you feel and how you want to feel. And, most importantly, how to reboot your body with knowledge — knowledge is power, I always say — and easy to implement lifestyle adjustments.

When she visited Oregon last month, all the way from Orlando, Florida, I got to do one of my favorite things: go see her in person.  I learned some important things for my own enlightenment and re-charging.  Read on . . .

Dr. Jo:

Reboot to Power Up

Your Energy, Focus and Productivity

“According to a 2008 overview article published in the American Family Physician, 20% of patients attending a family medicine practice say they have fatigue,” Dr. Jo told us. Quite frankly, as far as I’m concerned, if I’m the one feeling it, that statistic might as well be 100%. Do you agree?

“It’s not just about feeling tired,” Dr. Jo said, “Fatigue also includes impaired alertness, attentiveness, mental and physical performance. Fatigue is estimated to cost companies an extra $101 billion in lost productivity.”

This program, Reboot – Power Up Your Energy, Focus, and Productivity, which is also the title of her upcoming book, is Dr. Jo’s most popular keynote. She uses the formula of CTRL, ALT, DEL for re-booting your computer as a model for re-booting your energy:

CTRL – Control Sleep Cycle

ALT – Alternate Food Patterns

DEL – Delete Stressful Thinking

She starts by leading her audience into the unknown – to most of us – our sleep cycles. It was one of the things I found most interesting. She showed us how our sleep is cyclical — going from REM to deep sleep (non-REM sleep or NREM) — usually in 90 minute increments. It would be easy to ignore this; it’s just scientific information. But it hit me personally, and others appeared to be equally interested judging by their attentiveness and questions.

It hit me because lately I’ve noticed myself waking up periodically during the night – and once she shared this, I paid absolute attention – and I even noticed that I was right on the clock she described, waking up at 90 minutes intervals. So what to do? She advised that if you get up when you’re at the light end of the (REM) cycle, it’s a lot easier than rousing yourself from a deep sleep at the other end of the cycle. If you wake up easily in that light sleep phase, you’re less tired.  For example if you’re going to bed at midnight and have to be awake by 6:30 a.m., you would, if you’re like me, normally assume that setting your alarm for 6:30 and getting six and a half hours sleep would give you the most rest. It’s actually more restful, in fact, to get up at 6:00, when you’re at the light end of the 90 minute cycle. Hmmm.

There’s even an app for that, where you can check it out.  Look up the Sleep Cycle alarm clock (pictured) and you can record your own sleep cycles. The app is just 99 cents. I’m looking forward to trying it out.

Also, Dr. Jo cited a study about the effectiveness of naps (brief sleeps) for restoring alertness — and that also got everyone’s attention. I can relate to it too, as I quite often get the mid-afternoon sleepies. But I feel too guilty to succumb. With this information, I think I’ll give it a try. The study showed that naps can reduce sleepiness and improve cognitive functioning. The benefits of brief (5-15 min) naps are almost immediate after the nap and last a limited period (1-3h). Longer naps (> 30 min) can produce impairment from sleep inertia for a short period after waking but then produce improved cognitive performance for a longer period (up to many hours).

Dr. Jo is excellent at offering scientifically-based recommendations that people can easily adapt to their lifestyle, along with the resources to apply them. Her whole program continued to captivate us with similarly intriguing suggestions for making dietary adjustments and managing stress. She was as engaged with her audience as they were with her, as she easily fielded questions, and the hour and a half program flew by.

She offers another popular topic for women’s events with the fun program, What Every Woman Wants – Great Legs, More Energy, and Peace of Mind. For heart health events, she can turn the focus toward a more serious side, What Every Woman Wants — Great Legs, More Energy and A Healthy Heart.  Dr. Jo has two secrets that make her delivery effective. Instead of promoting a complete overhaul (who has the energy for that?), she offers her audiences just a few small lifestyle changes in the way they eat, move, and think that will hugely impact their health and happiness. And she delivers them with the empathy that helps women laugh at themselves and their own foibles.

To learn more about Dr. Jo’s programs and view her video, go to her profile on our website, or give me a call at 503-699-5031 or email barbara@speakwellbeing.com

Seriously Delicious

INSANELY GOOD (Gluten Free)

Chocolate Brownies

When I wrote about Rebecca Katz’s new book, The Longevity Kitchen, a couple of issues ago, I was intrigued by her recipe for Insanely Good Chocolate Brownies, particularly because they’re gluten-free. But I had not yet had the chance to make a batch for myself.  Well, now I have, and I’m here to tell you these are SERIOUSLY DELICIOUS “Insanely Good Chocolate Brownies.” Wow! They are heavenly all by themselves, as I now know. I made them as dessert for a little dinner party, so I spruced each serving up a bit with a couple of tablespoons of colorful mixed berries (frozen raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, defrosted/warmed in the microwave) and a dollop of whipped cream. Pretty and yummy. You should have heard the yummmm’s!

And you don’t even have to buy the cookbook to get the recipe (though I highly recommend it). Just click here and get it free as a gift from Rebecca.

Now go out there and enjoy your day, rebooting as necessary. Take care of yourself for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

Every year in early March, the Oregon and Southwest affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, presents a Breast Cancer Issues Conference here in Portland. Originally it was created for survivors, but it has evolved to include topics of interest to survivors, co-survivors and health professionals (CEI credits are available).  The event brings together local experts presenting the latest research and resources in a day-long conference, along with a keynote speaker.  This year we had the pleasure of hearing from Dr. Kimberly Allison, associate professor at Stanford University, and a pathologist who specializes in breast cancer diagnosis.  She brought that unique perspective to her unexpected experience as a breast cancer patient. And, perhaps more importantly, she now brings what she learned as a patient, to her role as a doctor.  With her talent for communicating about the combination, she moved her audience, and she moved me to introduce her here.

Kimberly Allison, MD

Cancer from Both Sides

Dr. Kimberly Allison diagnoses breast cancer for a living. She has a national reputation as one of the best in the U.S. So as a 33-year-old healthy new mother, she never expected to find herself looking at her own malignant cells under the microscope.

She had just taken over as director of breast pathology at the University of Washington Medical Center, and her husband had just opened a new restaurant. With a 7-month-old son and a 4-year old daughter, they had their hands full. Kimberly was still nursing her second child, when an abnormality in her breast caught her attention. She says it was more like a shelf than a lump, and although she thought it was probably related to the breast feeding, she got it checked.  It turned out to be Stage 3, aggressive, and with lymph node involvement. She had six months of chemotherapy, surgery for bilateral mastectomies, followed by radiation, and a year of antibody therapy. She is nearing her five-year survivor anniversary as I write this.

That’s the medical side.  What was great about listening to Kimberly, was hearing her describe how, while she knew the medical side intimately, she was driven to do other things for herself — practice yoga, guided imagery, even see a shaman.  It was like listening to the girl (woman) next door. “I think I tried everything,” she said. “It’s not something I expected, and now it’s something I tell other doctors to expect.”

She ended up writing a book about her experience, titled Red Sunshine — which is what she renamed the chemotherapy drug, commonly called the “Red Devil.”  It was the spiritual work she did that led her to embrace the treatment rather than endure it.

“When I was first diagnosed with cancer I had a burning desire to know more.” she said. “I surfed the internet, cruised the book stores and made phone calls looking for answers to my questions. As a pathologist who diagnoses and studies breast cancer, I already knew a lot about what tests I would get, what sorts of treatments were available, and what the survival statistics were. And there were plenty of nice references available on cancer and advice books on how to deal with it.

“But what I really wanted to know was what it would be like to go through cancer treatment. How would it really feel the first time I was hooked up to chemotherapy or lay still for radiation? What was it like to be wheeled into the operating room and how much pain would I be in when I woke up? How would I deal with continuing to raise my two young kids? How will I not hit bottom and what will it be like when I inevitably do? Not just will I survive, but how will I survive?”

“I wanted to hear from survivors. I wanted to know their stories and feel their experiences and look for hidden clues to what my future held. It was the story of a survivor, not all the medical statistics and research trials, which held the most value to me. Despite the MD behind my name, my book is not meant to offer medical advice or recommendations. It is only intended to share with you what it was like for me to go through this experience. Everyone’s experience with cancer is completely unique and there is no right or wrong way to go through it. But our stories connect us to a common core and can give us comfort that at least we are not alone in the experience.

In her talk, “Surviving Breast Cancer: A Pathologist and Patient Perspective,” she recounted her journey, from the emotional impact starting on the day of her diagnosis, which she called “a bad day at the office,” to the emergence of hope as a healer: “You are NOT a statistic,” her doctors advised her. She described how she had discovered the importance of connecting with other survivors — exactly what was occurring at the conference itself.  And ultimately she had great advice for making peace with the inescapable guilt that a cancer diagnosis implies. “I didn’t make a mistake,” she said,  “I didn’t do too much of this, or not enough of that . . . my cells made mistakes.”  As for the “new normal?” For Dr. Allison, it’s learning to embrace imperfections, and making peace with uncertainty.  Her message to cancer survivors is to stay positive and look toward better times ahead. That’s advice anyone can benefit from.

I’m never quite sure what to expect when I go to see a speaker whose primary role is as a physician.  What I saw and heard from Dr. Allison, was a young woman I might meet on a playground with her kids, or in the grocery store — a woman, speaking from her heart, about her fears, her struggles, her hopes, her survival — the kind of story she wanted to hear from other survivors when she was newly diagnosed.  Told as vividly as she tells it, it’s the kind of story that will attract audiences everywhere. She’s a speaker I’m happy to recommend for anyone looking for that result, as well.

To learn more about bringing Dr. Allison to your conference or special event for breast cancer survivors, contact me at 503-699-5031 or email barbara@speakwellbeing.com. Or – just click through to her page on my web site.

Hope Springs Eternal

For those of you still dealing with snow, let me share some good news — my three signs of spring. One, the first daffodil bloomed weeks ago, but now they’re blooming in profusion. The icing on the cake now is that the trees full of pink blossoms are showing off, right along side big white magnolia blossoms. Two, much to my surprise and delight, the tent for Parsons Farm, my neighborhood fruit stand, went up last week.  As you may recall, I was very sad last fall when I thought it was closing forever. Well, we have a reprieve. The sale and building on the land have been stalled, and the fruit stand is back — at least temporarily. Woo-Hoo!  And three, the robins are back building a nest again, right over the sliding glass door to the deck. I wonder if these are the parents returning or these are last year’s baby robins grown-up now and coming home? It makes me wonder where they’ve been all year . . .

So go out and take a look around for a sign of spring — if nothing else, it’s getting lighter every day — and take care of yourself for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

When I first met Rebecca Katz and was introduced to her first two books, The Cancer-Fighting Kitchen and One Bite at a Time, I was smitten. As I wrote then , I’d never really sat down and read a cookbook before. These books, though, were engaging, and fun, as well as full of enticing, healthy, yummy recipes.

Well, she’s done it again, with her newest book:  The Longevity Kitchen: Satisfying BIG-FLAVOR RECIPES Featuring the Top 16 Age-Busting Power Foods. The writing pulls you right into her kitchen, and from there it will lure you into your own.

Cooking healthy with whole foods has never sounded or looked this good — the pictures are mouth-watering. Aromas almost waft off the pages, as Rebecca’s enthusiasm for healthy, yummy food oozes through the descriptions and stories that accompany every recipe.

The book was released last week, and I just got my copy. So I haven’t tried any recipes yet, but I’m preparing my shopping list for this weekend! I can’t wait to dive into the kitchen.

More YUM from Rebecca Katz in –

The Longevity Kitchen

Based on her two previous books, I’ve arranged for Rebecca to speak at several events for cancer audiences, and the feedback has always been gratifying and enthusiastic. (You can see what I mean if you click here and watch the second video down, which shows her cooking and speaking at the same time.) So she and I are both excited that the topic of this new book opens up the field for all types of audiences craving yummy food that supports their health. After all, who doesn’t want to live a long, happy and delicious life?

Rebecca’s emphasis on putting the “power of yum” into her cooking started when she returned from a sojourn to Italy — which is where and how she got inspired about making delicious, healthy food accessible. It stemmed from the wisdom of the elders — the nonnas who mentored her in the kitchen and on daily trips to the market.  As she experienced their wisdom about the connections between food and longevity, she also realized the responsibility for not only nourishing oneself, but for also sharing this culinary expertise and traditions with one’s family and community.

When she first started cooking seriously, many of her fellow cooks and other colleagues in the field of wellness had the notion that great-tasting food exploding with nutrients could also act as medicine – something they believed based on their own upbringing and the way so many cultures use food for healing — i.e. chicken soup! Even though that wasn’t long ago, they didn’t have much science to back up their beliefs.

That’s changed.  Since the 1980’s, the number of nutritional studies published in peer-reviewed science journals has doubled each decade. In all, serious researchers at the top academic medical centers in the United States and around the world have published nearly 250,000 nutritional studies, including more than 100,000 since the turn of the millennia.

“From my stove-front viewpoint,” Rebecca says, “this means that I can point to almost any food and know that someone with a long string of credentials has studied how that food affects health and specific body systems, from head to toe, inside and out.”

And herein lies the connection to the theme for this book — longevity. “The fact that I’m now able to write about the links between food and longevity, relying not on speculation but on thousands of published scientific studies, gives me so much confidence that I’m practically bursting at the seams,” she continues. “It’s as though scientists all over the world have confirmed what Grandma instinctively knew when she said, “Eat this. It’s good for you.”

“I often conduct workshops teaching people how to reconnect with healthy foods,” she said. “It thrills me to know that while I’m grabbing them by the taste buds and watching their hands create foods that make their voices sigh with pleasure, I can fill their minds with example after example of how specific foods can nourish all of their cells, organs, tissues, and other physiological systems that keep their bodies purring with contentment.”

You have to love Rebecca’s philosophy as she eases the most reluctant cook under her wing. “Learning to eat for longevity, and moving toward cooking healthfully (and deliciously), is a gradual process, and it benefits from positive reinforcement,” she says. “It happens almost on a subconscious level. It can be really helpful to start with foods you already enjoy, like the Super Sixteen [revealed in the book]. It’s easier to try a new ingredient, say an herb or spice, when it’s combined with a food you naturally crave.”

It’s not just about recipes. She has also written an entire section about how foods affect the body, based on how the body works and how it metabolizes food. And another whole section about the healing power of food, including her culinary pharmacy — a list of many of the recipe ingredients along with their health benefits based on research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals.  Her wide range of expertise qualifies Rebecca to speak to many different types of audiences, in depth, and yet delivered with her fresh, upbeat, and fun approach.

A nationally-recognized culinary translator and expert on the role of food in supporting optimal health, Rebecca has a Masters of Science degree in Health and Nutrition Education, and received her culinary training from New York’s Natural Gourmet Institute for Health and Culinary Arts. She is the founder and director of the Healing Kitchens Institute at Commonweal, which is dedicated to transforming lives through nutritional science and culinary alchemy.

Best of all, you can bring Rebecca’s culinary enthusiasm and expertise to your community and attract your best audience of the year, by calling me at 503-699-5031.  Find out more about her credentials and background on our website.

Sample it Yourself

As a teaser, here are a couple of my top two picks from the book that I’m anxious to try:  Brownies and Asparagus.  Oh, woops, no, that’s not one recipe. Those are two recipes. Chocolate lover that I am, and newly gluten-free, I’m especially looking forward to trying the brownies. And asparagus is just starting to come into season.  Here’s the intro to each with a link to the recipe.

As described by Rebecca in the book:

Insanely Good Chocolate Brownies

“Jumbo shrimp. Airline food. Boneless ribs. Fuzzy logic. Some words just don’t seem to belong together. I’m betting you’d say healthy brownie falls into that category. Au contraire! How do I know that isn’t the case? Because there was a lot of “yumming” in my kitchen as a gaggle of brownie aficionados devoured these. Refined white sugar out; Grade B maple syrup in. See ya white flour; hello almond flour and brown rice flour. Fare-thee-well butter; come-on-down olive oil! Add dark chocolate, walnuts, and cinnamon, and the result is a decadent culinary oxymoron for the ages. Makes 16 brownies.”

To get the recipe direct from her web site, click here.

We’re just starting to get asparagus in the stores, at a little over $2 a pound (instead of $4). I absolutely LOVE asparagus, and it will be regular on my table until the last stalk disappears from the fruit stand in July.  I can’t wait to try this recipe. Arugula (another favorite) and hazelnuts (an Oregon crop!) are on this weekend’s grocery list.

Roasted asparagus Salad with arugula and hazelnuts

“You can learn a lot sitting on the tailgate of a pickup truck. That’s where my buddy Chris, from Zuckerman’s Farm, used to sit me down and teach me about all things asparagus. Chris worked hard—awfully hard—as a farmer. He was true salt of the earth, and as generous as they come. Normally, there’s an invisible line: farmers behind their wares and buyers on the other side, but Chris always insisted I ‘step into his parlor.’

“Both of us were always so excited when the first asparagus of the season showed up. He’d put aside a bunch for me, and then we’d both hop up on that tailgate and talk—about recipes, how amazingly nutritious asparagus is, and, a lot of the time, about life and family. Chris passed away not long ago, and I felt the best way I could honor him was to create a recipe featuring his favorite veggie. I think he would have enjoyed this, and I hope you will too. Makes 4 servings.”

To get the recipe for yourself, click here.

You can get the book at any major or independent bookseller.  Booksellers are listed on Rebecca’s own website. She can also provide books to sell and autograph at your event.

Now take care of yourself and your loved ones with some yummy, healthy food. I hope you’ll join me in trying a healthy new recipe for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

Many of our speakers have exciting new books coming out this spring, but I wanted to let you know about one of them months in advance because it comes with a fantastic opportunity to include your community in the book tour.  Instead of a traditional book tour to bookstores around the country, Dr. Lissa Rankin wants to get in front of medical audiences of patients, doctors, nurses, and healthcare providers. So she has offered to present the message in her new book, Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself,  (Hay House, 2013), which debuts May 7, to conferences, hospitals, and cancer centers this summer at a nominal cost.

But let me first tell you a little about the book itself and how it came about, and then more about the opportunity to have Dr. Rankin bring this message to your community.

Lissa Rankin, MD

MIND OVER MEDICINE

Mind over medicine. Hmmm, you may say you’ve heard that before. You’re right. Mind-body medicine pioneers and leaders in the New Age movement have been claiming for decades that the mind can heal the body.

As a skeptical, science-minded physician, Dr. Lissa Rankin had her doubts. But she was intrigued too, She decided to dive into the medical literature to see if she could settle the issue and to be satisfied only if she could prove, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the mind can heal the body. Seeking to move the notion of self-healing from the realm of the magical or even metaphysical, she searched for evidence of clear physiological mechanisms that explain if and how positive thoughts and emotions might translate into a cure for the physical body.

“What I discovered,” she reported, “blew my mind, shifted my paradigm about modern health care, and became the groundwork for my book, Mind Over Medicine: Scientific Proof You Can Heal Yourself.”.

“Loads of data proves that the mind can believe itself well. In clinical trials, we call it ‘the placebo effect.’ Patients treated with placebos don’t just feel better. It’s not just ‘in their heads.’ They’ve actually had warts disappear, bronchi dilate, colons become less inflamed, hair growth on the heads of bald men, ulcers heal, and other measurable physiological phenomena.  We also know that the opposite is true, and the mind can think itself sick, which researchers call ‘the nocebo effect.’ When patients are given injections with saline and told it is chemotherapy, they vomit and lose their hair.” 

You can hear Lissa talk about the nocebo in her 2nd TEDx video, which is available on her profile page on our website. How do such things happen physiologically? In the book and her appearances, she describes discovering the science behind it: how a thought or emotion in the mind, translates into spontaneous repair in the body.

“As it turns out, the body has built in self-repair mechanisms that fix damaged proteins, repair DNA, correct hormonal imbalances, and gobble up cancer cells, infectious agents, and foreign bodies that our bodies are exposed to everyday,” she continues.

“These mechanisms explain the spontaneous remissions that are reported in the medical literature from seemingly ‘incurable’ diseases like Stage 4 cancer, HIV, hypothyroidism, diabetes, and even an untreated gunshot wound to the head. Yet patients often feel powerless to harness these natural self-repair mechanisms.

“Not anymore. In this book, I teach a scientifically-founded six step process you can follow to optimize the body’s capacity to flip on its natural self-repair mechanisms when the body becomes ill. I’ll also be teaching tools for using the power of the mind as preventative medicine, to increase the chance that you will one day die of ‘old age,’ rather than dying too young as the result of disabling of the body’s ability to repair itself.”

What disables the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms? We all know that stress is bad for the body. But do you understand how this works? Loads of data prove that stress comes in different forms – the stress of feeling lonely, work stress, financial stress, marital stress, family stress, the stress of feeling creatively blocked or spiritually disconnected.  Regardless of what triggers it, stress flips on a series of physiological cascades associated with the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis and the “fight or flight” response of the sympathetic nervous system. In other words, whether you’re stressed about money, your marriage, or your job, your body can’t tell the difference between a perceived threat, such as impending bankruptcy, and a real threat, such as getting chased by a lion.

“But here’s the kicker,” Lissa says: 

“The body can only repair itself when the body is in a state of physiological rest. Whenever the body thinks it’s time to run away from the lion (or whatever chronic, repetitive perceived threat it believes itself to be under), it shuts down self-repair. After all, who cares about long term maintenance like killing unwanted cancer cells if you’re about to be eaten by a lion? In this book, I share not just the scientific proof that you can heal yourself, but also tips for using the power of the mind to optimize the body’s natural self-repair mechanisms, so disease prevention and spontaneous remissions aren’t just something that happens randomly, but something you might be able to experience for yourself.”

Now this topic is bound to stir up a buzz — and lots of questions.  In fact, some disturbing questions come up right away, and Lissa has answered them in a four-part blog series, “Is it your fault you can’t heal yourself?”

Part 1: Is it your fault if you get sick and can’t heal yourself? Is it unfair to even suggest that you can heal yourself?

Part 2: If the mind has the power to heal the body – at least sometimes – what does it mean if you’re trying to make your mind healthy – but you’re still sick?

Part 3: What if you’ve done everything and you’re still sick? What does that mean? Have you done something wrong? Is it your fault that you haven’t healed yourself? 

Part 4: One final key point – what’s the difference between healing and curing?

Her message resonates with patients  — they want to be partners in their healing, they want validation of their inner wisdom, they’re looking for the medical establishment to validate what they believe

Her work earned her an invitation recently to present at a Hay House “I Can Do It!” Ignite conference in New York City. Afterward Lissa said,“The best part of sharing my message about mind-body healing at the conference this weekend was that almost everyone who came up afterward to thank me was a doctor, nurse, or other conventional or alternative healthcare provider. That bodes well for healing healthcare.” 

Physicians, nurses, and other healthcare providers will benefit from hearing this message by deepening their relationships with patients, by reaffirming their sense of meaning and purpose in medicine, by reclaiming their roles not just as body technicians, but as true healers, and even by expanding their definition of health to include not just diet, exercise, and regular checkups, but also healthy relationships, a healthy professional life, a healthy spiritual life, and more. Those profound shifts in role and self-definition offer hospitals and their staffs improved outcomes as well as savings in time and money and even potential reductions in procedures and associated risks.

Organizations that sponsor Dr. Rankin’s message will benefit by offering community service, improving community relations, attracting new patients and keeping existing ones loyal. They will also benefit from the free marketing Dr. Rankin’s event will bring them through the extensive online and multi-media promotion that will accompany her book tour One example: she’s being interviewed for the June issues of “O” and SHAPE magazines, and plans are in the works for major media exposure.

Program includes lecture and Q & A. Arrangements will be made for books to be for sale, and Lissa’s publicity arm will provide local tie-in publicity opportunities.

Cost is $1,500 INCLUDING travel (Lissa lives in northern California). If you can provide one or two nights hotel accommodations, that would be appreciated.

First come, first served on event dates. This special fee is only available for dates in June and July, 2013.

Dr. Rankin is committed to bringing this message of hope and healing to patients and healthcare providers as widely as she can. Contact me at 503-699-5031 if you’d like to get on board. Please forward this information to any organization you know of that might benefit.

A DAY AT THE BEACH

I got my day at the beach last weekend. In fact, it was an extra day.

The sun was shining brightly when I returned from yoga Friday morning, and we knew that rain was forecast for Saturday. My husband and I looked at each other, checked our schedules and email, and without a second glance, hopped in the car and headed for the Coast.

We went to one of our favorite places, a tiny town called Oceanside, nestled in a cove, with kind of a small town New England vibe to it — at least in my mind.  Beyond the beach in front of town, there’s a narrow, rocky tunnel through the basalt headland to the north, and at low tide you can walk through to a hidden beach studded with rocky outcroppings, where very few people (or dogs) go. I like to go to this semi-private place and let Bella off leash for a run.

The temperature reached 61 degrees Friday, and it was sunny all day long.  I even bared my legs to get some Vitamin D!  On the way home, we bought fresh oysters from a seafood stand in Netarts Bay, and back in Portland we barbecued them on the grill (in the shell) for dinner. Heavenly!  It must have been because they were so fresh. All in all, a wonderful mental health day. I highly recommend it, especially in the middle of winter!

Take care of yourself with a day off for your mind, body and spirit — for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

Ten years ago, the American Heart Association took a stand to fight heart disease in women with the Go Red for Women initiative. I have to admit that when I first heard the “Go Red” slogan, it felt a bit “sports-ey” to me.

Now, however, having seen how it has caught on, and witnessed the power of crowds of women wearing red at Go Red luncheons, I have to admit it’s a strong theme that has garnered momentum — and the red dresses make it very feminine.

At the very first Go Red for Women luncheon that I attended here in Portland, Oregon, the president (at the time) of the AHA Portland Metro Board of Directors, Sandra Lewis, MD, shared a revealing retrospective with the audience. We learned that the first women’s heart health event in the country was held in 1964 here in Portland. Ten thousand women attended, and news reports warned of a huge traffic jam surrounding the venue. The speaker was Dr. Paul Dudley White, the renowned “father of cardiology.”

What drew enough women to tie up city traffic for miles around in 1964? The topic was “Hearts and Husbands” and it covered the role of the wife in her husband’s heart health. Have we come a long way, baby, or what?!?

Of course it’s all well and good to be concerned about the health of other members of our families, but women have put themselves behind others for far too long.  The Go Red campaign has been successful in many areas — raising awareness and empowering women to take action  — to know their numbers, recognize the symptoms of heart attack and make healthy lifestyle changes — as well as raising money for research.  Still, there’s more to be done, as heart disease remains the number 1 killer of women.

Speaking of Heart Health

Family history, eating habits and sleep patterns are just a few of the factors that raise a woman’s risk for heart disease. But the good news is that 80 percent of heart attacks and strokes can be treated, prevented and even avoided when women learn what increases risk and take action to lower it. That’s all about awareness, education, and motivation, and that’s what hospital and other health-oriented organizations spread with their special events and other promotional and screening activities.

In fact, many of our speakers are out in communities across the nation educating women about heart health during February, known as heart month, originally, I believe, because of the Valentine’s heart connotation. Over the years I have worked with Go Red luncheon organizers, cardiology foundations, women’s service line directors and hospital marketing departments, and I have noticed that the one thing they have in common is that every one of them is different. While some focus on heart disease survivors, others focus on lifestyle changes and prevention with topics like nutrition and fitness. Still others might choose to create an event featuring one of their own doctors to cover the nitty-gritty and add on the entertainment value of a humorist to bring some levity to the topic – and attract a larger audience.

On the Speak Well Being website, you can search for the speakers we recommend for heart health programs in two different ways. The first begins on our home page, when you find and click on the box in the Upper Right corner labeled REQUEST SPEAKER INFORMATION. The Speaker Directory opens and down the right side you will see a blue box containing soft, pull-down menus. Click on the line for TOPICS and scroll up to  HEART HEALTH, and you’ll get a selection (in random order – it comes up different every time) of all of our heart health speakers, whether it’s the physical muscle or some other aspect such as nutrition or the mind-body connection.

Speakers such as Eliz Greene (pictured above), Ginger Zimmerman, Rudy Wilson Galdonik, Joe Piscatella and Donna Hartley are survivors of heart conditions who have chosen to become professional speakers (and authors). They combine their personal stories with carefully researched information to advocate effectively for heart health, healthy lifestyles and prevention. As professional speakers, they know how to bring the message forth in an entertaining and informative way that lets the message in so women will not only hear it, but act on it.

Nutrition and lifestyle expert Zonya Foco, has created a program specifically for heart health events, called, Be Good To Your Sweet Heart, and some clients, having fun with the double entendre, have even had the good sense to present it right on Valentine’s Day.

The second option on our website, is to search in that same blue box on the SPEAKER DIRECTORY page, under EVENTS, scroll up to HEART HEALTH EVENTS, and all of our speakers who are appropriate for heart health events will pop up – again in random order, different every time. You get more choices under EVENTS because the horizon is wider and includes inspirational and humorous speakers as well as survivors and doctors.  For the meeting planner who is using her own doctors or experts to cover the informational part, and who wants more of a motivational speaker to lighten things up, this option offers more choices.

And if you’d like to save time and take advantage of my expertise, just email or call me. Once I hear your specific criteria and budget, I can access a wide range of choices that you may not have realized were out there or appropriate or available in your price range. Knowing the speakers across a broad range of topics, talents, and fees, and even locations, I can often suggest speakers you haven’t heard of but who I know have moved audiences to laughter or tears somewhere else.  Best of all, I cut your time investment drastically so you can be doing other things. Heart health isn’t just for February, any more than breast cancer isn’t important only in October.  We’re here for you all year ‘round.

It’s a Date

I was just complaining to my husband that I didn’t have anything interesting or fun to write about to end this issue.  He paused a minute, and then turned to me and invited me on a date to the Coast on the Saturday after Valentine’s Day — as a Valentine’s celebration. Bingo! I love to go to the coast, eat some oysters, and walk on the beach any time of year. It’ll be good for my heart in more ways than one.  Look for my report, next time!

Take care of yourself, and especially be good to your sweet heart, for your well being and those you love.

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

Women love to laugh. I knew that. You knew that. Last year, Zonya Foco, RD, CSP, health and nutrition speaker, was surprised to find herself billed as a comedian in our client’s marketing materials for their women’s heart health event. She’s always brought her bright sense of humor and knack for demonstrating the craziness of some of our eating habits, to the stage, but she’d never thought of herself as a comedian. When we asked the client about it, they replied that from her videos, they thought she was a comedian and that that would draw a crowd.  It did. The event sold out.

So the lesson is obvious: If you’re looking for a way to draw a crowd to your women’s event, hire a speaker who will bring out the hoots and hollers. But don’t stop there; let them know in all of your marketing that they’re going to have a good time.  Women are hungry for entertainment that speaks to them, makes them feel understood, and inspires them to feel good about themselves.

I’m always on the lookout for really funny women speakers, especially for Girl’s Night Out events, where sponsors primarily want the audience to have a good time.  Last year I was sifting through some disappointing videos looking for female comedians for a client that I’ve worked with year after year, when a bright light showed up – Kat Simmons. She was different. She was more than a one-night stand or a quick round of clever jokes. Her humor had depth and touched me as woman — and she was hilarious.

The proof is in the pudding.  When I booked her the first time for a Girl’s Night Out, this was the response I received from the meeting planner:

“We are receiving nothing but rave reviews and I can personally vouch for the fact that she was HYSTERICAL!! The audience loved her – and she had so much energy!”

Kat Simmons

I Love to Laugh

“I love to laugh — that is how I got into comedy,” Kat told me.

“When I was a little girl, I provided the comedic relief in my home — a place that was filled with dysfunction and anger. I learned that people could not yell while they are laughing. I was fascinated by the power and feeling of having had a good laugh.”

“I was also attracted to the stage, although I was too scared to try out for anything; I was in high school, and I thought that was for all those other people. Newly married right out of college, I moved to a ranch in the middle of nowhere to help make my husband’s dreams a reality. In the second year of our marriage, I finally got up the nerve to mention auditioning  for a play. My husband’s response was, ‘Do you really think that would be good for our marriage?’  It wasn’t funny when I conceded, and I ended up feeling controlled and stuck. The next year I got a divorce, which, was not good for our marriage either.

“I got the lead in the very next play, and that was my entry into the arts.

“I found I loved the stage — the smell of the wood floors, the lights, the creak of the curtains, the relationship with the audience — everything about it. I felt at home when I was onstage, and for the first time in my life, I felt like I was in my own skin.”

A few years later, while watching a one act play in Las Vegas, Kat had a spiritual experience after which, palms sweating, heart pounding, and with tears in her eyes, she turned to her friend and said, ‘This is not just a hobby for me, this is what I am supposed to do.’”

And although she had not yet discovered stand-up comedy, she noticed that she always got the funny parts in the plays she tried out for. On a dare, she entered a stand-up comedy contest at Lake Tahoe two months after that profound experience.  She had not planned on doing stand-up but found that she was a natural, and she loved it.

After her performance at the comedy competition, a couple who were seasoned in the business called her over and asked her how long she had been doing stand-up comedy. She replied, “about ten minuets.” They told her, “Don’t ever stop. You could be the next Carol Burnett,” which really reached her, since she had been raised on a steady diet of the Carol Burnett Show. They gave her a list of contact numbers to call with their recommendation and blessing.

With that list in her purse and $300 in her pocket, she made a gutsy move to L.A., where she spent the next six years, building her career. Then after a second marriage in 1990, when motherhood called her, she went back to a small town outside of Lake Tahoe where she could live in an environmentally friendly place and raise her family.

Since stand-up comedy was no longer a viable ambition there, she built another career producing shows. All the while, she felt the tug of her true calling: changing lives through laughter. She knew there had to be a way to do what she loved in a place she loved as well. She also began teaching comedy and public speaking workshops, and loved empowering people by helping them find their authentic voices.

“At the beginning of my career, I had studied Norman Cousins and his work, and I had developed tremendous wonder and respect for the healing power of laughter.  It became clear to me early on, that I would do more than club comedy. I knew when I was ten years old, that I was going to do something that made a difference.  I was not sure exactly what, but I saw myself helping other people feel good about themselves.  Performing, producing and teaching comedy allowed me to stay home with my kids, but I knew there was deeper work to do.

“I could see there was more to this business than empty laughter. I wanted people to have the fullness of the experience. I wanted to inspire, motivate and laugh people into feeling better about themselves, their relationships, and the world in general.  I wanted to lift people up, and take them to places that other comics could not. I did not want them to laugh from dark places, but from the light, while harming no one in the process.

“So, I began to see myself as an “inspirational humorist,” otherwise known in medical terms as a Psychoneuroimmunologist. I like that.

What an honor to be able to literally change people’s chemistry by just being myself and being authentic. I started 26 years ago, and I know the best is yet to come.”

To see how good she is, go to my site and look at her first video. You will see the women in her audience laughing so hard they can barely stand to cheer her. Finally, they seem to be saying, someone recognizes me, knows what it’s really like – and deeply appreciates it. To bring Kat’s bright light to your event, learn more about her on our website, or give me a call at 503-699-5031 to check her availability.

Until next time, make sure you get some hearty laughs in every day — it’s good for your health. Actually, I’ve got a DVD here of a whole Kat Simmons show, and I think I’ll just go watch that and grab some laughs for myself. Take care of yourself for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.

Dear Friends,

There aren’t many speaking events this time of year, but there are certainly plenty of parties — those you may be putting them on, as well as those you’re attending. An abundance of rich (and sweet) foods that you may not usually include in your diet are plentiful and alluring. Just a bite of this, a bit of that, one little cookie. Unfortunately, it all adds up. I’m speaking for myself here while knowing the importance of being mindful — or paying later.

I asked one of our star speakers, Polly Pitchford, for some reminders and tips to help me (and you) through the holiday season, and her reply is here for us all to share. She’s all about food, fitness and fun, and making those a part of life every day, including the holidays.

And, something to brag about — One of our other star speakers, Patricia San Pedro, recently won an Emmy for her documentary, The Cancer Dancer. Congratulations, Pat!!! Read about it below.

Polly’s Holiday Health Tips for Celebrating with Food, Fitness and Fun

Do you approach the holiday season with joy laced with a little fear? If it’s fear of losing self-control and packing on unwanted pounds, you are not alone. “Even as a speaker on healthy lifestyles I, too, can fall into the traps of delicious temptations that are offered endlessly at this time of year,” Polly says. “I have discovered a handful of strategies, however, that help me stay on a healthful track while still allowing plenty of enjoyment of the treats that are woven into our traditions of celebrating this holiday season. I invite you to keep these eight ideas in mind as you move through your holiday celebrations one bite and one step at a time.”

Plan each day – What you’re going to eat and How you’re going to get or keep some movement in your daily schedule, especially if that schedule is different than your normal routine.

Start new, healthier holiday traditions – Provide a basket of seasonal fruits instead of (or next to) a plate of cookies. Replace a bowl of hard candy with a bowl of nuts in the shell. Provide one baked fruit dessert instead of two varieties of pie.

Plan for treats – Ask yourself: “Will this food be available year round or is this the only time it’s available?” If it’s always available, pass on it. If it’s only made once a year, enjoy 2 servings max!

Follow These Party Tips – Eat light but balanced meals throughout the day. Don’t go to a party hungry, eat a salad or bowl of non-creamy soup before you go. Alternate one alcoholic beverage with one non-alcoholic beverage. Instead of avoiding foods, just go for smaller portions. Look over the buffet table first and decide on 1 or 2 high calorie choices only – no seconds! Bring a dish that you know is healthy so you know there will be something there that you really like that is good for you.

If you are hosting a potluck party, ask people to bring fresh fruit salads, vegetable salads and soups.

Move, move, move! Go out dancing, walk around the block or mall, work on outdoor winter sports or hit a treadmill at the gym. You will feel better about yourself and be inspired to continue healthy habits.

Aim for maintaining your current weight, not gaining or losing.

Enhance the celebration of the holidays with a reverence for your health.

About Polly Pitchford:

Optimum Health is all about Food, Fitness and Fun

Polly Pitchford is a cookbook author, natural foods chef and healthy cooking television show hostess. She is passionately committed to the healthy lifestyle that she’s developed for herself over 30 years.

Polly’s unshakable commitment to optimum health stems from firsthand experience of the adverse effects of a long-term debilitating illness on a family — her family. As an adolescent she watched her beloved father suffer for 20 years after a cerebral hemorrhage. She witnessed the physical and emotional toll the disease took on everyone in her family – especially her mother. When she received a timely invitation to a vegetarian cooking class, she suddenly felt in her bones what would make her a healthy person. From then on she decided that for the rest of her life she would do everything in her power to be that person.

That decision grew into a passionate life purpose — to learn about all the facets of healthy living, and to share that information with as many people as possible. She noticed early on that making it fun makes the medicine go down a whole lot easier. As a result you’ll find her programs pulsating with her vibrant energy and joyous approach to food and fitness.

Her commitment led her to write two books, Starting Over: Learning to Cook with Natural Foods, and Cookin’ Healthy with One Foot Out the Door. As a certified group fitness instructor and personal trainer, she has produced several accredited fitness videos and is also a popular presenter at fitness industry gatherings.

As a speaker, Polly will not only give your audience members concrete, easy-to-do food and fitness tips that they can start using immediately, but she will show them, in her funny, high-energy way, how to bridge the gap between wanting to be healthy and actually doing what it takes! By the time they leave, they will have caught her unbridled enthusiasm and passion for luscious, colorful, healthy, life-giving food as well as for fun, easy, strength-building and heart-supporting fitness. And they will have boatloads of fun in the process

To learn more about Polly’s energetic programs, give me a call at 500-699-5031 or email me at barbara@speakwellbeing.com

The Cancer Dancer Wins Suncoast Emmy® Award

Patricia San Pedro‘s documentary The Cancer Dancer was awarded a Suncoast Emmy® Award in the documentary category at the 36th Annual Awards ceremony in Miami on December 1.

This Emmy was not her first, of course. A few years ago Pat, already a star in the broadcasting industry at WTVJ NBC in Miami, created an environmental awareness campaign called “A Matter of Pride,” which earned her three Emmy Awards. This time the award was for the quality of her personal video and her courage in making it.

Pat dedicated it to the support group she created in 2010 called The Link of Hope Sistas. These are courageous women who’ve heard the words, “You have cancer” and have chosen to dance their way through it in joy. You can see a nine-minute highlight reel of Pat’s documentary on her speaking profile page here.

“This is reality TV on steroids! Well, actually . . . on chemo,” laughs Pat. “I’m proud of all my Emmys but this one means the most since it represents my own breast cancer healing journey and my desire to be of service.

Four hours after hearing the words, ‘You have cancer,’ I started videotaping because I intuitively felt that I was meant to help others through my own dance with cancer. I was patient, talent, director, camerawoman and producer . . . all wrapped up into one. Through my double mastectomy, seventeen sessions of chemotherapy and several reconstruction procedures, the camera never stopped rolling.”

(I wrote about her story in a previous issue of For Your Well Being, which you can read here.)

To bring Pat and her inspiring story to your event, call me at 503-699-5031 or email me at barbara@speakwellbeing.com

Holiday Happiness

Well, at our house these days, the Christmas tree, not to mention various surfaces, nooks and crannies, are decorated. Living in a Christmas tree growing Mecca, we always go out early to a special, nearby farm run by a jolly old elf-like man and cut our own. We have a graceful Noble fir again this year. A Noble is a fine, long-lasting species. It has space between the branches that allows room to show off my collection of angels, harps, and other treasures given to me over the years. It’s satisfying to view tree, ornaments and decorations in place early and with little fuss this year.

I haven’t baked a cookie yet or bought a present — all in good time. My husband and I are anticipating the arrival of daughter, Sudi, and grandchildren, Gigi and Hope, on the 21st. We’ll pack lots of love and activities into the few days they’re here.

I’ve never had the girls here to decorate Christmas cookies before, so I’m excited to get all my preparations — sprinkles, frosting, paint brushes, tweezers, etc. – lined up beforehand for them to work with, and I look forward to seeing what they come up with. They did do Valentine’s cookies with me a few years ago, so I know they have an inkling about decorating cookies with Granma B – and they liked it. Now they’re older and ready to go for the extra creativity of Christmas. So that heads the agenda, followed by with skating at Lloyd Center Mall, Zoo Lights, and probably some shopping and maybe even singing in our local sing-along-Messiah at the Lutheran Church across town. Loving it all . . .

I trust that all of your holiday plans are developing to bring out the best in your family, for your well being and those you love.

Yours truly,

Barbara

For Your Well Being is published bi-weekly. We bring you insider speaker reports, exclusive stories about special events around the country, meeting planner tips, and fun stuff from the worlds of health and well being. Be well and be in the know!

The Speak Well Being Group is a specialized speakers bureau, focusing on speakers for hospital-sponsored community events, healthcare organizations, conferences and women’s groups. Our speakers are hand-selected. They are not only experts in their fields, they know how to connect with women and give them life-changing information served on a silver platter of joy, camaraderie, with a side of sauce (spicy, of course).

Finding the perfect keynote speaker for your special event or conference is my personal passion, not just once, but year after year. It brings me endless joy to know that your audience was delighted and moved by the speaker we selected together. I’m committed to making the process easy, pleasant and fun.