The Last Twelve Months - A Journey on Steroids - My Life

Wow!! It's almost March 2018 and the last twelve months has been almost a blur but really it was a journey on steroids.  Why the last twelve months you ask?  Well it was was at the end of February 2017, when I first found out a friend was diagnosed with stage 4 colon cancer and had just gotten a clean bill of health earlier in that same month.  Everything you know you begin to question as you know the inevitable is coming. That was the beginning of a journey I had never had expected I would have to travel.  This purpose behind this article/disclosure is to catch you up and to share the behind the scenes of my life during this time frame.  

I need to purge and share as we are entering a new era of more change, transformation, and growth. I normally keep everything personal under wraps and hidden from the surface, because as a business person, most people don't care why you can't do things or the limitations you have so you learn to compartmentalize the bad things and focus on doing and getting things done.  As an artist who is both left and right brained, this couldn't be more true. I'm not the only one that has experienced this so for the benefit of entrepreneurs, wanna-be-entrepreneurs, artists in film, fashion, arts, music, and entertainment, business professionals, anyone in school or out of school, learning as you go, or learning on the job, the reality of life never leaves and is always there.  The job is how do you manage it all, life, work, family, friends, tragedies, successes, wins, losses, good and bad. This will be the reveal of how I managed to survive the last 12 months.  I hope you'll learn something along the way that will be beneficial or at least cause you to pause and reflect on and understand maybe not for me, but for yourself or others you may know.

The next phase was immediately after my friend passed away exactly six weeks from diagnosis, the second week in April 2017, I had an awful pain one evening while working and then knew I couldn't ignore it and the next morning was more evidence that something wasn't quite right.  I went to the doctor and then began the series of tests that did not end until October of 2017.  What I learned is that there is always a reason why something happens even if at the time it can't be explained.  My life is not about coincidences, it is about a plan that was written and my calling to follow it.  So when something is perceived to go wrong or not be right, I have always come to find out that it is for a reason and discovery is all part of it. 

During this same time, the launch of the Worldwide Women's Film Festival (WWFF) was fully underway.  We started planning the WWFF in 2016 February and one year later we were ready to launch the opening for submissions to start in May 2017.  We blasted the news the launch was coming at the Phoenix Film Festival Industry Night, so all of this is happening simultaneously.  From the original tests I had done in late April to early May, another discovery was found and it was not related to the first medical issue at all.  Interestingly enough, the original issue I had ended up not being anything that could be diagnosed, but due to this ancillary finding, I ended up having to see another specialist and have more tests.  This is all happening in May now, right up until the opening of Submissions for WWFF May 20, 2017.

Not a big deal right, just a few more tests, just the opening of a film festival and we'll all be good to go with life, right.  NOOOOOOOO...that was not the case at all. That next Monday, I was feeling horrible and sick, but still trudged along, not understanding what was happening.  Many don't know that I'm an energy worker and work with individuals in helping with processing, manifesting, healing, creating energy, clearing blocks, helping people find their passion, find the ways to take their life next level, etc.  I bring this up because in this particular area of my life, I'm an empath as well, so not only do I feel an individual's pain or emotion, I also can feel this at a community and larger level.   So that Monday was significant for many reasons as I felt someone else's pain and those around them. The next day is when I found out another friend had passed tragically and by their own hand.  Why does this matter?  Because I had just contacted them over the weekend to discuss the WWFF as they were a big supporter and fan as well as I of them.  They were are largely known in the community and she widely supported artists everywhere.  In the film and music community and entertainment, there would have been few that didn't know her.  

Immediately, myself and three other friends came together as community representatives to step into a role that we had no idea where it would take us.  We resolved to bring the community together for healing and to process the death of this very important and significant person in our lives.  During this same time, my journey of health took a downward spiral as I experience pain like I've never felt before.  I suffer from chronic pain due to sciatica as a result of a back injury from a car accident back in 1997 and the proceeding surgery and two major muscle spasms that caused me not to walk for 15 weeks of my adult life.  I can state my pain is similar to those that suffer from fibromyalgia.  I experienced level 9 and 10 pain for approximately 35 weeks of my adult life so I can say I'm familiar with high pain and have a high tolerance.  However in June two weeks before the memorial we had planned for our friend who passed in May, I experience pain that felt like I had been superhero punched through my midsection with a huge giant whole through my stomach and my back. So we had launched the festival, a friend had passed, I have this huge pain, I still don't have the results from my second round of testing, I now have another new horrific pain, and we have the memorial coming...

Normally, I wouldn't ask anyone to feel sorry for me, but I will tell you, I did feel like death at this time all the while I had to still continue on.  I'm interjecting at this point now the fact that "stress kills" because this is a true statement and really is supported by the medical community at all levels.  If you internalize pain and stress, it can cause you to be in an endless cycle of more pain and stress that continues to grow.  So we get the results and they have found I have a small ulcer, something going on with my esophagus, a hiatal hernia, and possibly something going on with my gall bladder still to be confirmed.   So now on to the third specialist.  So we make it to the Memorial on June 24, 2017 and then as soon as we are done, I get a message from another good friend that her husband passed away that day.  So the third friend in a trilogy of death that occurred in my close circle from April to June.  With all of these occurrences in my life happening at the same time, most people would crash and burn. So as a business person and all the other stuff I mentioned I do, how do you keep going you might ask?  You just do...this is what most people have to do. We don't get the option to check-out and heal or to check-out and recoup, because we are running businesses and affect other people and the connections we have count on us close and far away.  

From a health perspective, there is so much I've focused on since I had my first surgery related to cancer back in 2003, which most people don't know about to the back surgery, to where I am today.  I don't treat my health lightly at all.  I'm actually a little freaky about it, so if you think I could have changed all that happened to my health during that time, you might be right, but you also might be wrong because sometimes things happen for a reason and lead you to discovery.  I didn't get to the specialist until end of July and then of course there were more tests. Everything I mentioned before was confirmed and by August it was determined I need to have my gallbladder removed.  In the mean time they were treating my small ulcer.  So you think this is now settled no big deal there is a plan to treatment and next steps.  Well, in my life, there is no such thing as unplanned activities or events I can just change the schedule to something different as most of them are planned a year in advance or on a regular recurring annual basis. So there were numerous fashion events, film festivals and networking and the WWFF submission still underway.

What most people don't know is that I was operating at under 50% of my normal capacity all the while I was still going to work full-time which is technically 200% of my time with two major companies and managing all the events, while being sick.  By September, my blood pressure was being affected, my liver was being compromised, by whole dietary and GI system was taking a tremendous hit and impact due to the significant inflammation my body was going through.   So the level 9 and 10 pain I went through for the 35 weeks previously, I couldn't even put a number on this pain I had been experiencing since June.  No one knew because I couldn't talk about it at that level.  I could hardly talk at all since May to anyone because of everything I had been through.  I'm the type of person who doesn't want to burden others, so imagine going day to day in a cocoon sheltering yourself from the world. It's what I did to survive.  I couldn't face even the pain I was dealing with and honestly I didn't even realize how bad it was until it was gone.

Remember in August, they said I needed to have the gallbladder removed. I was waiting on a referral, but it didn't happen.  I kept following up, following up, and nothing.  I ended up having to schedule an appointment to go back in and fortunately the right doctor at the right time saw my need and took action, like I take action.  She got me set-up with the right surgeon and then everything began to flow.  Magically enough both the specialist and the surgeon ended up being energy workers as well and healers so I couldn't have asked for a better medical team of people to look after me.  However that doesn't mean it was easy. September and October took a huge toll on my body and it was pretty close to shutting down and not operating which was scary but I couldn't talk about it still because I didn't want to face the facts.   

Everybody kept saying gallbladder surgery is easy and actually when I went in and came out, it was not bad. However the discovery that was revealed three weeks later was enormous and actually explained a lot once the surgeon told me what they found.  The gallbladder is only supposed to be about 4 centimeters in diameter, the picture they gave me of mine, it looked like a baby cocoon, which explain why I looked pregnant by October because the gallbladder had grown in size from April to October  (7 months gestation if I had been pregnant).  Originally the doctor before surgery had said they were not going to send it off for pathology; however, it was clearly obvious by the picture that they did the exact opposite.  Guess what, they didn't tell me they were doing that.  So I only knew I had an abnormally large gallbladder and it was inflamed and that's what was removed.  My healing process and the support system of friends I had during this entire time was more than fabulous, so many stepped up and into my life to be part of it to check-in on me and make sure I was okay and my healing process was so much better than I expected.  I'm forever grateful for this system of my people that exists in my life.  So three weeks go by from surgery on November 1, I go to the doctor to follow up, and what they tell me, shocks me however also brings me great relief. The reason they sent my gallbladder to pathology is because it was not normal at all. The size concerned them and in their study of it, they found I had a tumor inside that was the entire size of the gallbladder.  They didn't event know it was there until after the surgery.  Fortunately it was benign so no cancer.  They didn't tell me so my healing process would not be stressed by the idea that a tumor had existed which makes sense but at the same time was crazy.  It explains everything though about the growth and how I ended up where I was by the time the surgery happened and how all the stress I had and the weird medical issues I had which led me from one doctor to the next doctor or specialist and to all the scans I had from April to August.

Through all this I made it through Jerome Film Festival, all the Phoenix Fashion Week events, Laughlin International Film Festival, the first anniversary of Arizona Apparel Foundation and the WWFF submission process.  The last two months of the year were spent healing, still operating at not 100% at still between 60 to 75% with this huge festival coming in February of 2018.  And all this time, I'm working and going through life and still dealing with all the responsibilities that an individual has including all the others that are around.  I know there were a lot of people I missed events for, I didn't get to spend time with, I didn't have the chance to explain everything that happened.  As you can see, this is not even the half of it.  Its only a small portion of what really happened entirely.  

My team and I made it through the review and submission for the film festival.   We worked our asses off in January and February and then magic happened  the weekend of February 9 - 11, 2018 as a dream became realized with the launch of the inaugural first Worldwide Women's Film Festival, which ended two weeks ago.  The last three months was about healing and the last two weeks have been about recovering from what just happened which was a tremendously good thing.  I'm forever grateful for the journey I've been on, I cannot describe the range of emotions that I've gone through.  But as I look back on the last twelve months, it was important for me to document and share this as most don't get to see behind the scenes of what happens in our lives as we go through this journey called life.  We share tid bits of our reality in a post, in chat, in a message, or a call, but unless your in our life fully, you'll never really know.  

I share this because I want people to have hope that you can overcome the burdens you face. You can find people that will be there to support you in times of need.  You don't have to be afraid to ask for help.  We all have lives that are much more than what you see printed or in social media. That life exists beyond this world of electronics.  That there is sadness and pain you will never understand or be able to resolve, but know that there are others that can be there to just hold your hand or to listen and to be there for you even if the problems can't be solved sometimes it's just the solidarity of not being alone but with a community of people that might understand you just a little bit.  I have a number of resources I share and am growing constantly to have available for when people are in need.  I'm surrounded by helpers and people in the community that want to make a difference.  We are here for you and even though we have lives that happen beyond the surface, it doesn't mean we still won't strive to be there for you. 

I only ask that you don't judge others if they don't get back to you right away, or they go silent for awhile, or you don't see them at the events they always go to or they miss birthdays, celebrations or get together.  As you can see, life happens all the time 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and you'll never see it all unless you are in other peoples lives that closely. If you think something is amiss or wrong, pick up the phone and call them or be direct and ask.  That type of connection is appreciated, even if they can't always talk about what's happening.

I definitely know this is not the traditional post, but I had to share so you would know what can happen behind the scenes. This next year of 2018 and beyond is on fire, my new motto for this year. So we are coming back with fire in our eyes and our belly and we are ready to take the world by storm. Stay connected and be ready for more...

Peace and love always ~ Eva 

Health and Wellness Transformations - Part One - Livin' Lighter

Health and wellness transformations may appear to be a trend; however, your health and wellness should never just be a trend.  It’s easy to take for granted all the things you and other family members can do, until one day, you’re in a car accident, you experience a stroke, a loved one has a heart attack, someone gets diagnosed with diabetes or cancer, you can’t walk due to an injury, you can’t eat normal because you experience digestive or other processing issues.  This is the not so pleasant reality that each of us faces.  No one really wants to discuss the “what if” scenarios, but when you are affected by any one of these health challenges or others, you shouldn't avoid them.

Several areas of health and wellness are often seen as and considered frivolous, narcissistic and cosmetic.  So you’re asking yourself about now, what does this have to do with health and wellness?  It’s about choices and how you are affected by them.  Once you experience an injury or have been diagnosed with certain ailments or diseases or experience things due to heredity, there are choices that must be made to determine how you address, treat, manage, and become healthy again or survive what you are experiencing.

Society will often judge individuals for making choices about their health related to their looks or what is perceived to be superficial or based on other perceptions.  And then there is the factor of the cost related to health and wellness, whether its nutrition related, spa treatments, reductions of all sorts, enlargements of other sorts, workouts, gyms, memberships, MLM (multilevel marketing products/services), therapies, and on and on.  

I've had the opportunity to meet with a company that has a strong philosophy related to helping others.  They believe that if that you can educate individuals on the benefits and the impacts of certain health treatments and then generate progress reports that reflect the changes and provide relevant information over a period of treatments and time, that individuals can experience improvements.  With information, the individuals can then empower themselves to manage their health based on facts - facts that are generated through innovative integrated technologies part of the treatment process.

Livin’ Lighter, located at 14891 N Northsight, Suite #121, Scottsdale, AZ 85260, owned and operated by Karl Bode and Nancy Fromm, is focusing on providing non-invasive fat reduction through the use of latest LED Light technology, LIVIN’ LIGHTER^TM.  Their magical buzz words are “No Pain – No Surgery – No Downtime”.  It would be easy to copy and paste and take the touted research that is published and use that to explain what’s happening with the technology and why Livin’ Lighter is focusing on this line of treatments and why they are viewed as being part of an economic development boom for health and wellness services.  In my short but in-depth discussion with one of the co-owners, Karl Bode, I discovered much more to the why behind their choices of how they want to serve their clients.

Suffice it to say, my coverage is being separated into a three-part series covering, the business, the customer experience, and the technology innovation for Livin’ Lighter. 

The Business of Med Spas – Livin’ Lighter – Part One

The business of Med Spas is big (expected to reach over $3B in 2016 for the US) especially in what are designated as travel destination cities where individuals travel to the city for the experience.  I’m no stranger to Med Spas and have had the opportunity to experience not only locally, but also nationwide some very specific destination locations that cater to spa experiences.  From Orlando to Miami and Tampa, to Houston, out west to La Jolla and West Hollywood, to local spots in Chandler, Phoenix, and Scottsdale, I’ve had the chance to experience just what the Med Spa experience is about.  Coming from a background that included customer service, spas are perceived that they should have an impeccable level of treatment of the customer.  This treatment or session includes from the moment an individual should walk in the doors, to the greeting, welcome and sign-in, the services explanation for the treatment, the set-up and readiness, to the wait time for treatment, and then to the actual treatment, the environment and office aesthetics, the after-care, review of treatment outcomes, and then follow-up.

Unlike other spas, Livin’ Lighter has a primary focus from a business perspective on body contouring.  They define this to be loss of inches (fat loss) on the waist, hips, thighs, arms, and anywhere the LED Light technology can be applied.   

 The impact is also focused on fat reduction in such a way that a client would not experience downtime.  They offer their clients treatment packages from Bronze to Gold levels that vary based on the number of sessions and the number of weeks the sessions will be distributed over.

Livin’ Lighter is working to crush the perception that these services are only available to the celebrity lifestyle or exclusive limited clientele.  Through their branding and their own personal experience with the technology and services, they have established a business model that while new, they are definitely looking to over time evolve and to grow.  The demand for services is there and Livin’ Lighter knows they have what the populous is looking for.

While the perception that this business is about luxury nice to have’s, fat reduction is extremely important in an overall persons health management.  Anyone that is fighting diabetes or even back injury, weight plays a huge impact to the recovery and management of.  Fat is something that in small quantities is helpful for some brain function, however as part of the American diet, it could definitely use some trimming.  Body Fat Percentage measurements are used by most physical trainers and doctors who are helping clients with weight-loss.  The business of Livin’ Lighter is working to help fight and reduce fat.  What more could you ask for?

In Part II of the article series, we will talk about the full customer service and client experience for Med Spas including personal experience with Livin’ Lighter.  To learn more about Livin’ Lighter, visit their website:  https://www.livinlighter.com or call for your own appointment to find out and experience yourself – phone: (480) 757-2639.

Have you faced your own mortality?

Originally published on http://bit.ly/1MfOWn6

This question has been bouncing around in my head for the last two weeks as I reflect on life and the end game of goals and planning for the future.  This question was asked by an individual that was in the process of interviewing a patient that was probably facing the likelihood they could be dying from a fatal disease.  It was part of the story being told about a pastoral caregiver, Dr. Will Alexander, working within the medical community presenting the idea behind whole caregiving and transforming a generation of new healthcare servants and caregivers in the hospital system of Loma Linda University Health Center.

The documentary, "A Certain Kind of Light", was shown most recently at the Laughlin International Film Festival, on October 17, 2015 and has forever changed the way I will think about this question.  You might be wondering why this question and why does it matter.  Two reasons, this particular weekend I was attending this event specifically so that I could be part of a memorial / celebration that was going to be about remembering a very close friend that passed last December 2014 and I had a personal dedication I was doing on behalf of another friend that just past a way in September unexpectedly.  When considering the grand scheme of life and what you do daily to survive, operate day to day, make an income, and even possibly make a difference in others lives, the idea of mortality does not often cross your mind.  However, due to the closeness of death, that question, when asked by Dr. Will Alexander in the documentary, seemed to resonate loud and clear; that no matter your current situation and position in life, you should ask and consider this as you never know when your time may come.

This story of Dr. Will as they called him, showed how important it was in patient care, to not just diagnose and treat the symptoms, illness, or disease, but how it was of the most critical importance to include the patient in their own approach and decisions of the care they would be given or receive based on their own story of why they were in the current health situation they faced and/or the other circumstances of their life affecting them.  The key critical piece mentioned here is the story.  It is the story of the patient's life in their own words and the audience of the caregivers and the medical professionals who were listening to that story.  It's about their ability to really HEAR what the patient was saying and then allowing them that time to release and express what in most cases no one ever heard before or got from them in all the prior doctor visits or appointments or treatments they attended.  Loma Linda University Health embraces this philosophy / methodology of transforming lives through whole person care and has seen much growing success with this being integrated and taught to their health / medical professionals.

You may be wondering what this has to do with PR, marketing, or business.  It is the story and the idea of really listening. As I live and breath with my clients, if I did not know their story, I would not be able to be effective in presenting who they are to the world and their demographics or audience.  This requires the essential skill of listening and interpreting what their needs are and really helping them with their needs.  Often times a client just needs to be heard and given the opportunity to speak and share and then you take from them and recolor, reorganize, reaffirm, and recreate that story so that others can also hear and grasp their message.  It's easy to want to tell people what to and how to do it, but to engage them in their own telling of their story and sharing it in a meaningful way can make all the difference.  

I've seen businesses come and go and individuals in businesses reach a pinnacle and then fall.  Many of these occurrences have happened because they could not share their story in a way that others could get connected and so their dream, their business, the life they thought they wanted, essentially died.  This is the mortality that applies the same way.  If you cannot connect others to your dreams or your ideas and there are no audiences or clients or other business partners around to hear your story, the chances of survival are slim.  In this business of marketing, PR, promotions and advertising, this is our job to help others get their message out, their story told, and then to help with those connections so collaboratively or through business development or sales, these businesses can continue to live and survive.  As a marketing professional, if you can understand and hear your client's story then you can serve them or help them get to where they need to be faster.  On the flip side of that, if you have clients that don't have a story or anything that can be held on to meaningfully, then you can also make smarter decisions on long-term or short-term engagements as these clients may not be mature enough for you to even help. With the client's story known, this can help you decide that too.

On a personal level, this question of mortality was and is still a very big question.  It is something that I will continue to think about every day.  As it relates to my clients and those who need their story told in business, the focus will be on really hearing the clients and working with them to tell their story and message it on their behalf to create those meaningful connections to help the businesses achieve their goals and last.  Lessons learned everyday.  I hope that in your business journey you will consider these ideas and apply them whole-heartedly as you approach doing better business for those you serve.

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This article is written and shared by Eva Louis who is a writer, marketing professional, and works to serve others and make a difference everyday.  You can find other articles of her's at www.filmfashionfutures.blogspot.com and find her business information at www.chronicbehavior.com