Elevator Pitch

Flickr.com Steve Snodgrass

As I'm building my business, and talking to people about it, I feel uncomfortable. Advocacy is something I "do" much more than I talk about. I've been having a hard time finding the right words to describe what is always a very complicated and involved process.

Today I found the words that describe what I need: Elevator Pitch.  The idea is to describe your business in the time it takes to go from the first floor to the top. Here's my pitch; tell me how many floors we went!


Flickr.com Cory Doctorow

I am building my health advocacy business. I provide resources and management services to clients and their families who are experiencing complicated health and living issues; I also help prevent negative experiences with planning services. Unlike insurance and hospital advocate employees, I give 100% allegiance to my clients, who receive the best and most affordable resources, care and planning for various stages of medical and living circumstances.

How to Name Your Baby



Courtesy Flickr.com One Way Stock

I really need a name for my business and I can’t create a web site or new blog without one.  A name is so important!  When my father was in the hospital they kept mispronouncing our last name; how disrespectful to a man who was literally on his last breath!  Even The Bible makes a big deal about knowing the names of all who came before you. Look at the struggles we go through naming our children.



Courtesy Flickr.com Phantomswife

A name has to be just right. "Words are the voice of the Heart" 

What is just right for my business? The name must offer an answer to the need of the client. The name must convey a sense of being helped, listened to, rescued, relieved, comforted, and supported. My clients are in a quandary over money; bills that are too high when they shouldn’t be, bills that are unaffordable, bills that are confusing, and fear of losing estates and a lifetime of building inheritance and earnings. My clients are confused and at a lost to find resources, or even to know that they qualify for known resources. My clients are in emergent situations; they don’t have time, energy, or knowledge to deal with the medical system.

Trisha Torrey

I joined the Association of Professional Advocates, attended a call-in seminar, and bought a book. I’m half way through The Health Advocate’s Start & Grow Your Own Practice. The accompanying workbook, and its answers, are the beginnings of my business plan. I’m excited by my cash flow statement; I will only be $25,597 in debt by the end of month 13! I actually feel good about that. I never saw debt as a sign of growth.

 August 8 is the first class at UC Berkeley… having second thoughts about spending the money. I will figure it out. I projected six grand for my educational spending for the first year.

 


Free Showtime!

 

On other fronts, Showtime is free for 30 days on Hulu. I’m catching up on House of Lies, Shameless, and Ray Donovan. One of my tomato plants is not putting out new flowers! My zucchini and cucumbers are getting their first blooms. The weather is beautiful. My orchid has a brand new leaf!

 



Courtesy Flickr.com Walkn Boston

ANSWER THIS: What would you name my health advocate business? What words ring for you when I say,

“My advocacy provides financial and practical resources for you or your family members to help negotiate medical billing and auditing, doctor’s visits, hospital stays, insurance claims filing and appeals, diagnostic research, and estate and end of life planning. My allegiance is solely to you, not the hospital or insurance company. I find what you need in ongoing or emergency situations, with any health condition or status. I am your very own, personal advocate. I will fight for you.”?

Learn is a Four Letter Word

This morning I am looking into educational programs for health advocacy. I feel that a certification will give me credibility as well as teach me, among other important things, what I don’t know about the professional side. One thing I discovered is that there is now national or international standard of knowledge or skills for health advocacy. A certificate only means that I completed their courses. Would completion of courses give me credibility?



Courtesy Flickr.com David Armano

Credible: believable. If I have a certificate of completion does that make me believable? It seems to me, as a consumer, the person with experience is the one I believe. In order to gain experience I need to be credible; a catch-22. If I use my certification as a status, I must also state who certified me; is it better that UC Berkeley or Stanford certified me than the University of Wisconsin?

 



Courtesy Flickr.com Juhan Sonin

It is advised to consider where I plan to earn my income, when choosing an educational program.  Do I want to work for someone else or myself?  My answer is, “both.” I want to be involved as a contractor for professional organizations, and I want my own practice.  However, with respect to education and how I want to be employed, it is a matter of whose skill set I need to comply with.

 As an independent advocate I need advocacy skills and business skills. I guess I already knew that; 3 weeks ago I started looking for a business coach.  I feel very good about my ability to look at the medical system from the patient perspective. But I already know there is a gap in my knowledge about efficiently getting desired results from the medical system. I found a list of master skills/services; this will help me find my advocacy gap. When it comes to business I completely lack confidence; this is the area I need to learn about most.



Courtesy Flickr.com Deslizate Naranja!

Accessibility is also an issue to consider. I love the motivation of being in a classroom, not to mention the networking opportunities that come with it. However, the “right” program with physical presence can be a challenge for me. If I had to move, what would happen to my home, my son, my pets, and how could I afford it? Additionally, if I choose the convenience and affordability of an online education, does that influence credibility?

 



Courtesy Flickr.com Soon Koon

One of the links I found led me to a book on starting an advocacy business.  Doh! Amazon!  One search and I found several books. If I buy the book through The APHA (Alliance of Professional Health Advocates), I can get a free month of membership. Their membership is only 50.00 per year and they have the best resources I’ve found so far. They have a series of four books and 2 are available on Amazon.  



Courtesy Flickr.com WalknBoston

I should wait to be sure before I start spending money; am I strong enough to self-govern or do I need the structure and accountability of a program? It comes, as usual, full circle back to “know thyself.”

 
Answer this: How do you like to learn? Self-taught with books and other media? Structured classroom? Online classroom?

ADOS...Attention Deficit OH SHINY!



Courtesy Flickr Cambodia4Kids

Today I am looking at the “job” of advocacy: what words are used to describe advocacy jobs, what are the qualifications, and what are the requirements.  In the process of looking at the gazillions (actually I got to page 5 of the job listings before being inspired to write) of available jobs in advocacy, I found that there are many organizations that provide advocacy for their own causes. Among these causes for advocacy there is a concentration on young people, homeless people, and voters.  There is a severe lack in my discovery today, in the area of providing resources and advocacy for individuals who do not fit a singular category.  The people I want to advocate for always fall into multiple categories.



Courtesey Flickr OEA-OAS 

People I have advocated for need whole-life-spectrum resources. The breast cancer patient who needs to know how to pay for medical care, also needs to know how to structure their finances to optimize their best position for financial support. The Alzheimer’s patient who needs to be protected from wandering, also needs support from the constant physical presence of multiple care givers; the caregivers also need support. The mental health patient who needs to protect their own rights in a crisis, also needs to protect the rights of their family members’ to participate in their medical and financial care.

Courtesy Flickr.com Wesley Fryer

Sure there is NAMI, and there are many associations concerned with Alzheimer’s and breast cancer. But I have yet to find an organization that is concerned with whole-life-advocacy, other than departments of social services which connect several different resources.  However, their system is complicated and often always, my clients need advocacy to negotiate that system. But I don’t want to be a social worker in the system of county social services and welfare; I want to make that system user friendly for my clients.

As I continue to look at advocacy from the perspective of educational requirements I see three avenues: law, sociology/medical licenses, and experience. I don’t want to do what is being done; I want to do what is not yet being done. I need to find a balance between understanding and supplying what others expect and what I want them to see.

I get to create my own requirements and I get to decide which education will be most supportive for my work.  However, I need to continue this avenue of research from the perspective of credibility.

 

ADOS (Attention Deficit OH SHINY!) ALERT

 

 

 

OMG, look what I found!

 

http://www.healthadvocateprograms.com/masterlist.htm. 

 

And look what else I found! http://www.aphadvocates.org/ 

 

And look what ELSE I found!  http://extension.berkeley.edu/spos/healthadvocacy.html

 

NOW I’m really excited!  UC Berkeley is my alma mater. The aphadvocates.org helps with business planning and supplies and financing! The masterlist includes educational programs, events, organizations, and more, more, more!  WOOOOOT!

What are you Hungry for?

I want to create a curriculum for youth and teens through Hungry For Change Mastery Program. I want to use crowd sourcing to fund the curriculum. I want to go to schools, I want to train teachers, I want to create a research study for the effectiveness, I want to see and address obstacles to changing habits and mindset for these age groups.

Awakened at 4:30 a.m., for the 3rd or 4th time tonight, I decided to stay up. I tuned into Netflix and among the choices recommended specifically for me was yet another "food" movie; "Oh well." I decided to numb myself with yet another documentary. So glad I did!

I could worry that all these documentaries I watch continue to inspire me, but in a precarious direction toward too many interests and not enough focus and even less action. Wow, did I just say that? I just defined, literally, what keeps me from feeling satisfied in life: the sense of too much, while craving abundance, and feeling overwhelmed to the point where NOTHING happens. But there is a difference these days; I'm focused on recognizing my feelings...I'm finally looking at myself with the same ease of sight that I have with other people.

AJ Matharu

With others I am empathic; it's almost funny how that thought comes up A LOT in the last few days. With the last paragraph, I now realize that I can be empathic with myself! And THAT is the point of the very end of Hungry for Change: You have to love yourself. So cliche, right? As a matter of fact, so much of this movie is seemingly cliche, but as with all truths in life, they are cliche until they are finally seen as truthful and real. My immediate thought after that realization is, "How much of this did I already know, for how long did I know it, and how different my life could have been if I'd accepted it back then!?!" Then of course, I think of my son and need him to see it now, to avoid the "not knowing" of it, and the lessons that lead us to acceptance of the cliche.

So, my blocks to taking the lessons of Hungry for Change into life's reality, revolve around abundance. I don't have enough money to buy whole foods and vegetables, I don't have a juicer, I don't have enough knowledge to make it work, I don't want to give up carbs like bread, pasta, and cookies, I don't have the discipline, I don't really have the mind set I need if I'm thinking that it takes discipline.

RobotRoom.com

One of the biggest aha moments of the movie, with the deepest meaning, is that the body's response to life is inflammation and protection through the creation of mucus and fat. Another aha moment was the discussion that when we change our mindset of adding to our diet instead of taking away, things occur naturally. Another aha...visualization is the way we communicate with our brain, not with words of language. To sum it up, this movie tells you what you already know, in a way that helps you accept it and desire to implement it because it motivates you to stop doing the damage to yourself, your psyche and ego, that results in more self loathing and more symptoms of it. You ARE your worst critic and enemy, but it doesn't have to be difficult or painful to flip that switch to "forward".

Abundant Goddess Event

So moving forward, I want to feel safe, I want to love myself, I want to feel like there is enough, I want to feel "Plentiful", I want to feel "Abundant", I want to feel "Activated". I think I'll talk to my friend from Real Raw and Rowdy, Amy Elias, about foods and how to keep the carbohydrate foods in a healthy way. I'm also going onto Free Cycle to request a juicer. I'm also going to start a wish list for this spring's garden. I'm also going to do a mind map for my curriculum idea. And, finally, I'm going to see if an idea I have for my website will work.

Today is Sunday, people! Love yourself, as you love your God...you ARE God! Oh, so you want proof? Here it is....

Eskimo Nebula, Universe Today

Yesterday I thought randomly of my friend Jo; I've never met Jo in person but there is a spiritual connection between us that has continued online for about 3 or 4 years. This morning I watched Hungry for Change to immense effect. As soon as I'm done writing about it in this blog, Jo PMs me (it's only 6:30 and the Sun still isn't up). Jo and I talk about her grand daughter, I talked about Hungry for Change as a suggestion for some relief for her grand daughter, and she introduces me to a friend of her's, Linda the HealthAngel weight coach, and would I be interested in checking out a free seminar/program online that her friend is starting today that is all around health and disease resistance/correction through nutrition. How GODLIKE is that?!

So Hum (I am)

In my last entry I said I had too much pride to undersell my work, and I showed you this necklace. Well I gave up the pride, and offered this necklace for auction ... I guess pride isn't what keeps it from selling. I wonder what does.

Today I think I'll quickly catch you up on what's going on in my life. In November I lost my job, and 10 days later my friend had a stroke. Two months after her stroke, with much care from many people, she's doing amazingly well, and I am once again in a place to wonder what is next for me.

Christmas has come and gone, and now, so has my only vehicle. I'm presently trying to figure out how to get a new car, and with the help of my very dear friends Matt and Karen, I have a temporary solution; and with the help of the Universe and others I will soon see a permanent solution.

I've discovered a new selling venue called TopHatter which is a cool live auction site. I've sold a set of beads at a dollar a bead (stolen!) and had no success with my necklace starting at $40 (this is obviously not a place to sell high"er" ticket items.)

I've got too many beads and before I make any new ones, I am determined to sell what I have. So, I've been making jewelry. Below are three necklaces and a pair of earrings I've made this week. I will be listing them soon in my etsy shop, so if you are interested in any of these pieces, or something custom, let me know.

Another website I've discovered is Pinterest. It is like a bulletin board, and I post pictures of things I like. Go check it out! I've made A LOT of new friends there, not to mention a few recipes (Chubby Hubby Bars and Snickers that are so real!)

I have also become part of Dr. Oz's Transformation Nation. There are 7 steps to complete and I've done 6. All I need to do by April is lose 24 pounds. If I complete all the steps I will become eligible to win $1,000,000! In the interest of becoming healthier I've recorded a video diary and will be posting my entries on the Internet soon. I've been to the doctor and discovered I have such good cholesterol numbers (almost TOO low!) I'm more interested in becoming physically fit than I am in losing weight, so I've decided to look for physical fun, starting with geocaching and Zumba. Geocaching is like a treasure hunt, where one looks for, as well as leaves, hidden treasure at published geographic (lat & longitude) locations.

Til next time, I will follow this advice I now give: No dream is too little, no wall is too high.

 

A Lesson in Anatomy

I have noticed many friends having trouble with their health. I've also been exploring, yet again, the possibilities that losing a job has presented in my life. I think I'm being called as a physician of the Universe; was it Socrates who said "physician heal thyself"? I think I've been steered to ways to do that, heal myself. The evidence speaks to me through the documentaries I've recently watched and the friends I've recently seen in pain. I've been successful with everything except smoking (despite my recent increased distaste for, and discomfort with it)...why is that.

Kidney location and pain

A very young, good friend recently started Chantix to quit smoking. What a fabulous drug! Effective for my friend, a pack a day smoker, in the first week. Too bad she had an allergic reaction that almost killed her. Chantix resulted in a heart attack and severe kidney infection. Ironic that taking the thing that will stop you from killing yourself slowly, can actually kill you quickly. 3 out of 4 people I know who have tried Chantix had an experience that made it not worth taking; experience worth dying slowly for.

Left Brain Stroke

Another person I care about very much, only 7 years older than me, had a stroke yesterday. She's very scared and I'm scared for her, but I know she will be okay. Her right side brain functions were effected; paralysis in the right arm and leg and partial in the motor speech skills. She's very active, and self motivated, and this will serve her well in her difficult and lengthy recovery. I've invited her to stay with me because she should not be alone and her place has too many stairs. Maybe she'll motivate me. I know she'll break records in her recovery. She's not a smoker, no bigger a drinker than I, not overweight, walks every morning, rain or shine. It can happen to anyone; is there a point to trying to be healthy?

Osteoporosis doesn't happen "naturally"

Notice the woman is gray haired? Do you think it only happens when you get old? If you are a woman? Do you think it happens no matter what? If you say "yes" to any of those questions, you are wrong. How does a 24 year old girl have osteoporosis?! Depoprevara for more than one year; that is all it took. She hasn't had children yet; how the HELL is she going to bear children eventually?! Just because a woman can only rely on herself to control her body, and her future, by delaying pregnancy until she's ready, is it worth taking birth control, is it worth being with a man who doesn't even consider this possibility? It tears me up in so many ways that this beautiful young woman must deal with an "old" woman's disease. Boys, grow up, take responsibility for your own sexual commitments, and wear condoms or get a vasectomy (they ARE reversible); better yet, don't have intercourse until you are ready to have a baby. Stop making women carry the weight of the world on our shoulders... it is quite literally breaking our backs.

Can you guess what this is?
Loneliness. But it looks like depression. Notice the posture, especially how the knees are drawn close to the chest. If you google images for "loneliness", the posture is overwhelmingly the same. Loneliness... all of my friends suffer more from that word than anything else. It is more damaging than their kidney infections, osteoporosis, and even more damaging than their strokes. The interesting thing I observe about the "posture" of loneliness is that it guards the chest, the heart, and all the chakras are wrapped up, like an egg. A protective shell on the outside, yet still fragile and crackable; the skin as the albumen, the protein, the builder of muscle; the deepest interior and most vital organ, the muscle we call the heart. The manner in which we protect our heart, is the same manner that gives us loneliness...we block. We block our heart with our knees bent a barrier to our our chest, our heart, and with our heels pulled into our sexual organs, another block, I think to our soul. Yet we expose our skin, a contradiction and invitation at the same time. We invite people to break the skin, but refuse to lower our protective hard bones, heels and knees. We hope that a brave soul will negotiate their way to our heart, with careful and kind manipulation, despite our guarded self protection. Ironic, this same description is applicable to conception. Loneliness is the biggest killer, yet the easiest to cure. Open up!

My loneliness looks like this. Facing the sun, rising or setting, walking toward the strength and longevity of the centuries old oak, in the distance that is only half as far as I've been and half way to where I'm going. A strong point of light, just at the tips of my fingers. Am I catching the light? Am I emitting the light? Both! There are days that I am human, and then days where I'm strong enough to practice being supra human. I feel strangely calm...somewhat melancholy. Namaste my loves, my friends, my childrens' hope.

Starting from Seed...

Hi there, it has been a while!! I've been away with a job that I loved, but now I've lost. Rather than looking at something as "lost", I've decided to see what I've gained...

Thank you Terry O'Dell

2 be creative, play with beads, make jewelry, analyze my blog and etsy website, watch important documentaries, be inspired by other art and artists, and grow, GROW, GROW......Hence, the name of this blog entry.




I've already started exploring my newly found time, and already I'm seeing the answer to the "why" that I ask in response to the sudden changes in my life. I think it came to me when I saw Food Inc., King Corn, and The Future of Food. (Click the links to watch, online, now!)

Hungry For Change? official Food Inc Website

I started to go into detail about where I've been, and what got me to where I am today, but I thought it might be easier to illustrate my train of thought.


I started two months before her arrival, to clean house and plant pretty flowers for the deck. We were ready for Grandma Uta!

 

My mom arrived safely, loved what she saw, and cooked a lot of great food. She hosted a lovely party to catch up with new friends she made on her last visit. I hosted a bunco party and got the worst case of flu ever (lasted more than 8 days!). Mom took a trip to visit friends down south, and I had the house to myself. I caught up on the documentaries I'd saved in my NetFlix cue....



I'm eating WHAT?!














Okay, for me it is not about the poor animals; for me it is about my poor body! I can't believe, as educated as I am, that I never thought about "grain fed" as an unnatural way for animals to eat. Cows don't eat corn! Corn kills them as a matter of fact. Chickens don't live in the dark. In order for Americans to afford to eat, we buy cheaper goods. Cheaper goods are made cheaper at the expense of something...always!

But I had a job at the time of this epiphany, so I decided to pay more to eat better. No more corn syrup, no more feed lot beef and chicken. I'm gonna find a friend to split a steer and pig with me, from a local farmer who grass and range feeds his animals. In the mean time I'll pay twice as much for milk just to get it from a dairy cow that is fed properly. I'm going to grow veggies and herbs that I can can and eat year round; but how will I find REAL seed, or plants grown from non genetically engineered seed?!

It all starts with the seed. I read all the labels, I asked the butcher where the pig came from (he didn't know), and I will ask where the veggies and fruits come from (did you know that Genetic Engineering is forbidden in Mexico?)

But, now I've lost my job. Woe is me, but not alas nor alac. I'm still going to grow veggies and herbs, and I'm still going to read labels and find resources for REAL food. In the mean time, I recommend you all inform yourself about what we eat now, what we can do about it, and what farmers should do (I say, let Monsanto sue everyone...who says you have to actually pay them? What would they do if farmers stopped farming? I actually think that is a good solution; we should put a fund together to support farmers who farm in wholesome, diversified, non corporate ways).

It is very scary to think our world is going to end, the downfall of our civilization, will be because one corporation stole our ability to grow healthy food. It isn't going to literally hail brimstone and fire; we are all going to starve in the end.

In the other mean time, I will be pumping up the volume on my creativity, making jewelry, loving art and fashion, maybe knitting and sewing, diversifying my medium types, and putting to use what I learned at my job to pump up the volume of my brand through social media monitoring.

Stay tuned for more random ramblings and sharing of visions, artistic, holistic, and lots of other "ic"s!