Experts use News Releases to Get Speaking Events
For more than a decade, the website LetterOfHardship.net been offering hardship letter templates for a range of difficult situations. "With the newest additions, there are now 321 letter templates, each free for personal use," said Kevin Savetz, the site's creator. "Users simply download a template and use the sample wording as a starting point for crafting a letter that meets their needs." The letters cover financial, academic, medical and other hardships, and most are designed to elicit compassion in in the recipient as well as lay out facts or mitigating factors that have led to the need for accommodations, leniency or patience. Hardship letters related to college admissions and financial aid have been popular at LetterOfHardship.net. There are new letters for students seeking revisions to grant packages, explaining errors on applications, and similar issues. There's also sample wording for testing accommodations, or for students seeking a single dorm room or to house an emotional support animal. A college health insurance waiver request has been added as well. There are also new medical letters covering: co-pay reduction, impacts of long Covid, telemedicine coverage and other cost-related hardships. Other new letters address disability access, roommate issues and leases as well as matters of mortgages, evictions and payment hardships. (Site users are advised to consult an attorney when needed.) Everything at LetterOfHardship.net is free for personal use and downloads instantly in DOC format for customizing in Microsoft Word or another compatible program. "Besides sample letters to guide people who are experiences hardships, LetterOfHardship.net also has articles with letter-writing tips," Savetz said. There are several letter-focused sites in the FreePrintable.net family of sites including: apology letters at ApologyLetters.net, resignation letters at ResignationLetters.biz, and recommendation letters at LettersOfRecommendation.net. There are more than 100 sites in the FreePrintable.net family of free printables sites created by Savetz Publishing, Inc., a company devoted to creating useful and informative web sites of interest to consumers and small businesses. Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Free-Hardship-Letter-Templates-for-Tough-Situations,2022266121.aspx
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I received a number of responses about my article, “Crap: Toy Fair is Cancelled.” One that spoke to me, and that I wanted to share with you came from Kurt Isensee. Kurt Isensee is not only a Copywriter, having worked at Wizards of the Coast (a division of Hasbro), but also an avid toy collector and industry observer. He is particularly interested in how toy manufacturing, packaging, and distribution, will adjust and evolve in a rapidly changing marketplace and social environment. In the article, I had commented on my concern that younger people, digital natives, will grow up to be leaders in our industry without having the Toy Fair experience. Below are Kurt’s thoughts: “They are digital natives who already discount physical contact. They will grow up to be leaders in our industry in which their seminal years were spent attending Zoom calls. Toy Fair will have far less emotional meaning for them.” This is a salient point that goes beyond Toy Fair and predates Covid. Siloed people, staring at screens all day, including those occasions when they do venture outside. The selling and buying of toys is a tactile experience, and the joy and wonder of hands on discovery, cannot be replicated digitally/virtually. I’ve worked SDCC and Gencon, and attended SDCC for 20 years (until Covid, of course). The energy in those convention halls simply cannot be replicated online. Not even close. As you noted, there are younger folks who may never know that experience, never have it “in their bones”, and that’s rather sad and dispiriting. Of course, safety is paramount, even if it means that the life you and I knew (ie, older folks) is gone forever. There is a whole generation that grew up online, and they won’t know what they’re missing, which is kind of tragic. There is no easy solution, but a life devoid of large gatherings, of real face-to-face interactions, of meeting new people, is not much of a life. Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/A-Readers-Response-to-Crap-Toy-Fair-is-Cancelled,2022266118.aspx Supreme Court rules on OSHA vaccine and testing ruleOn Jan. 13, the Supreme Court blocked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19 vaccine and testing. This rule required workers at businesses with more than 100 employees, including the Postal Service, to get vaccinated or comply with weekly testing. The rule, a push from the administration to get more people vaccinated, would have affected more than 80 million workers. The case reached the Supreme Court after 26 business groups and 27 Republican-led states sued to challenge the OSHA policy. On January 4, the Postal Service requested temporary variance from OSHA that would have delayed implementation of the OSHA ETS for 120 days. The Supreme Court’s ruling appears to have rendered that request moot. While the broader OSHA rule that would have affected millions of workers was blocked, the Supreme Court upheld a separate rule that requires healthcare workers at facilities that receive Medicaid and Medicare funds to get vaccinated. Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Supreme-Court-rules-on-OSHA-vaccine-and-testing-rule,2022266113.aspx Lauren Fix, The Car Coach®, is a nationally recognized automotive expert, sector analyst, journalist, author, keynote speaker and television host. A trusted car expert, Lauren provides an insider’s perspective on a wide range of automotive topics and aspects, energy, industry, consumer news and safety issues. Her analysis is honest and straightforward. Lauren is the CEO of Automotive Aspects and the Editor-in-Chief of Car Coach Reports, a global automotive news outlet. She is an automotive contributor to national and local television news shows including Fox News, Fox Business, CNN International, The Weather Channel, Inside Edition, Community Digital News, Local Now News, NewsMax and more. Lauren also co-hosts a regular show “His Turn - Her Turn” on ABC.com; “Total Car Score” podcast and hosts a weekly radio segment on GCN Radio. Lauren is honored to be inducted into the Women’s Transportation Hall of Fame and a Board Member of is the Buffalo Motorcar Museum and Juror / President for the North American Car, Utility & Truck of the Year Awards. Lauren is the author of three books and inherited her love of all things automotive from her father. She has been advising drivers for almost all her life. Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/2022-BMW-M240i-Car-Review-FAST-FUN,2022266092.aspx Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/AVaStar-Archive-Feed,2022266089.aspx
For Immediate Release:
Dateline: Virginia Beach, VA Episode 542 – Cathy Nesbitt [00:00:24] Hey everybody, it's Tom here with episode five hundred and forty two of Screw the Commute podcast. I'm here with Cathy Nesbitt, and I swear to you, you have never been on a podcast or heard a recording when someone on their website has the following statement. As a result of COVID, we cannot offer our normal guaranteed live worm delivery. I guarantee you've never heard that anywhere. Where do you hear all this stuff this lady's into? She is awesome. All right now, there's a whole series of ones, just episode 541 just came out with Angela Ohlfest. She is a voiceover artist that's done over 90 audio books and commercials and and learning things for big companies and just all kinds of stuff. So she talks about the voiceover business and audio books. I have a series 535, 536, 537 is my journey into the audio book arena and I finished my first one over the holidays and it's in Audible now for review and should be live in a few weeks. We hope so. Check out all those back episodes. Anytime you want to go to a back episode, you go to screwthecommute.com slash and then the episode number if you're interested in audiobooks. [00:01:51] 535, 536, 537 and 541 and on 536, I actually give you the intro and first two chapters of the one that I just sent up to Audible. So you get those for free. That was my practice session. All right. Grab a copy of our automation e-book at screwthecommute.com/automatefree. This book has helped me handle up to one hundred and fifty thousand subscribers and sixty five thousand customers without pulling my hair out. And you can get a copy for free where we charge twenty seven bucks on the website for it. You can get your copy at screwthecommute.com/automatefree and you will thank me because it'll save you tons and tons of time. And let you reach way more people than you can now with most of the stuff is either free or super cheap, so you know, that's the way I roll. Now, while you're at it, pick up a copy of our podcast app. It's screwthecommute.com/app, and you can put us on your cell phone and tablet and take us with you on the road. Now we're in the middle and still going strong with our pilot program to help persons with disabilities get scholarships to the internet and digital marketing school. My school. And we've got to go fund me campaign set up. And any little bit you can throw in there helps. So we're putting a lot of time into these folks and they're very inspirational. Two of them are blind and they're making videos. You can actually see their update videos on Go Fund Me, so go to IMTCVA.org/disabilities, and you can see the click on the Go Fund Me thing and you can see their progress. And I'm really proud of this program because once I proved that I can get them hired and and get their own business or both, then I'm going to. I took a grant writing course. I'm going to roll it out really big to corporations and foundations and help lots and lots of people. So that's something I'm really excited about. [00:03:59] All right, let's get to the main event. Cathy Nesbitt is a health and wellness advocate. Founder of Cathy's Crawly Composters around 2002, Cathy's Sprouters and Cathy's Laughter Club. She's a multi-award-winning environmental innovator who uses workshops and inspirational speaking to motivate people to live a more sustainable life. Cathy is a certified laughter yoga teacher. Cathy, are you ready to screw? The commute? [00:04:32] You know I am Tom. [00:04:35] Oh boy. Well, I don't know if you're the worm lady, the sprout lady. What do you have any nicknames? [00:04:41] Yeah, my working title is Cathy Crawly Laughing Bean Queen. [00:04:46] Laughing bean queen. Well, when I saw that laughter yoga, I was thinking, Oh, I could do that. I just go in and do any yoga class and everybody would start laughing, which is absolutely true. So, so you're making a living, doing all kinds of fun stuff that's good for the world, then. So tell us, tell us what you're into. [00:05:12] So, yes, it started actually with my worm gig was my main worm gig. [00:05:19] That's enough to make you laugh right there. [00:05:22] Well, yeah, this all of my things go together and you know, wait, [00:05:27] How long are these worms? [00:05:29] They're teeny worms. Actually, they're cute little worms. [00:05:32] So, so size doesn't matter in the worm world. [00:05:36] They're full of love. They have five hearts each. [00:05:39] Oh man, I saw you selling a half a pound for sixty five bucks and a pound for a hundred bucks of worm. I remember when I was a kid. See, I hate fish and I tried it one time and they were selling worms for like a nickel apiece. But these were big old worms to go fishing with. But that's that's that's my extent of experience with worms. You know, I'm kind of disappointed that you, you know, you can't deliver them live all the time. What do people do if they get a bunch of dead worms? [00:06:08] Actually, we don't ship. We don't ship to places where we can't ship them at this time, especially with winter. Yeah, winter and then supply chain management, [00:06:16] Wouldn't they still be good? You mean there's worms stuck out at the Port of Los Angeles just waiting to get get into the port? Wouldn't the worms still be good for the soil even if they were dead? [00:06:30] Well, they're the ones that convert the food scraps and paper, so they're actually, yeah, when you need them alive. Yeah, they're converting. It's done inside. So worms in the house, who doesn't want that? [00:06:42] Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I mean, I was thinking about that over Christmas, hoping somebody give me something, but nobody did. [00:06:48] Right? Well, Valentine's Day is coming up and they have five hearts each. [00:06:52] That's a great gift. [00:06:54] Just know the receiver. [00:06:56] So how did you get started with this? [00:06:58] So I believe it was why I was put on Earth. I grew up to sell worms. Ok, I know. Yeah, I know. You hear you don't hear that often. You know, [00:07:07] You don't write. I mean, you haven't met anybody else. Like, maybe no, no. So I was. I'm close to Toronto, the largest city in Canada, six million people. And in 2002, our landfill closed and we started exporting garbage to the U.S. [00:07:25] Where you were kind of used to that there were people sending us a bunch of garbage. [00:07:32] Yeah, I mean, it was just a business arrangement. No, we paid a lot of money for the privilege. Mm hmm. [00:07:39] Where did you say I went to Michigan? Oh, OK. Good. [00:07:43] All right. Michigan is the trash Capital. [00:07:45] Yeah, we only we only have trash in our Legislature. [00:07:50] So I think that's that's universal. But that's another show. [00:07:55] Ok, so so your landfill closed. [00:07:58] Our landfill closed and six million people in the Greater Toronto area half living in condos, townhouses without space to do outdoor composting. And so I was like, Oh my gosh, I have a solution. This is indoor composting with worms. It's ideal for people to live in apartments or if they don't have space. Yeah. So I was like, Oh my gosh, this will be so great. I'll just start a business in that and you know, everybody will be coming to me because they need worms. [00:08:25] So all composting these worms? [00:08:28] No, not all composting. But if you're doing it inside, the worms help speed up the process and keep it aerobic. And yeah, so [00:08:36] So when I bought this house, this is 20 years ago, way in the back. There's a big plastic black drum kind of looking thing. And it says something about compost on it. Yeah. So but I never knew what to do with it. [00:08:54] Ok, so there you can just put your your food scraps, your yard waste. [00:08:59] I bring rats and stuff. [00:09:01] Well, not if it's done properly. In fact, I saw this word on your website it said Verma, composting. And I'm thinking burma is short for vermin, which is rodents. So having to do with that, [00:09:16] No verme composting is the Latin word for worm. Oh, vermin is rat with with the end. Yes, that's true. Yeah. And that's a challenge, you know, that's the thing. Tom. And if people have a rats in the area and they are right, rats are opportunists, so they may be attracted to your outdoor composter. So this is a solution for places where there are rats or if you're in cottage country and there's bears or, you know, something some wildlife that you don't want to be attracting to your backyard, you know the the raccoon. You don't want raccoons either. So this is indoor. [00:09:54] So all indoor. Ok, so the bear comes in inside. [00:10:00] Keep indoor. Well, people will say to me, I don't want to have rats or mice or anything. It's like, Well, if you have those in your house, that's a problem. You need to look after that they're not going to attract them. Let's say that. Ok? Yeah. So it's your food scraps in your paper and the worms and in a container like a rubber made toad or something. And then you just add in your food scraps from the kitchen. The worms convert the food scraps and the paper into fertilizer, so you're creating black gold. I mean, I started my business as a waste management tool, you know, so I could stop exporting garbage to the U.S.. Yeah. Stop the madness. I mean, you know, it was really selfish. I mean, that's my tax dollars hard at work. Just shipping garbage, right? Right. Ridiculous. It's not an infinite pool, although the government treats it like it's infinite. [00:10:50] Now, when I was researching it a little bit and putting the I put the word composting in and I ran into product on Amazon, it was something that it was around almost like a crock pot size thing that supposedly was a compost. Or is that is that ridiculous or is that too small to actually do anything? [00:11:12] I think it's too small to to do any good. I mean, it's cute and makes you feel like you're doing something. [00:11:18] It makes you feel like you're doing something. There's there's also electric compost. There's that, you know, says that they'll give you compost in 24 hours like Bulbul. Come on. Right? I mean, it's a process. It's nature. It's you need the microbes. That's it's probably a dehydrator more than a compost, but we'll just take the moisture. [00:11:38] Yeah, OK, now something else you're into that I got all excited about and then got totally baffled, and that is sprouting. So I bought this big jar with a lid that had a screen on it, and I bought this stand so that the jar would stay on an angle or something. And and I bought some seeds, and then I was like, I have no idea what to do with this. [00:12:08] Yeah, so the challenge with doing sprouting in jars is there's a limited amount of space, so if you're not mindful about how many seeds you put and then they start growing and they start jamming in there, they don't have enough oxygen. They start to rot. Or if there's moisture in there, it left in the bottom of the jar, which is why you have that stand. So it you know it does on an angle. [00:12:32] Yeah, well, how should you do it? [00:12:35] Well, I have a super simple spray and this, you know, it's I think my life is just this magic carpet ride. It's amazing the things that happen to me or for me or whatever I was exhibiting with my worms. And like, it's the 20th anniversary [00:12:49] Exhibiting your worms like like the Big AKC dog contest they have. You take your worms around and show them to the judges or what [00:13:02] I was saying that I was thinking of them on [00:13:04] The catwalk. Yeah, exactly. [00:13:08] No, I would have a display, you know, a table. I would be a vendor at at different show [00:13:14] Kind of show. Would you be a vendor at? I go to gun shows and I see all kinds of stuff, but I never saw any worm display. [00:13:22] No more like ICO shows like Farm Shows, Farmers Markets, Trade shows, home home shows. [00:13:29] Have you ever done any in the United States? [00:13:32] I have come to the there's actually a worm composting conference in North Carolina. [00:13:38] Wow. Yeah, they're really getting hard up for things to do. But but there's a gun show in Hampton, Virginia, next weekend. You should come down and try it. [00:13:50] Really, you got a lot of people that outdoorsy types, you never know. You see all kinds of stuff there. [00:13:57] So, yeah, now something that I've ragged on my whole life, my whole adult life is multilevel marketing. And I understand that you have something to do with like an orgasm company or something, what was that all about? [00:14:15] I mean, both the level that you know that could go, I could I could go, that could. [00:14:21] As you said, I was like, that's what the company should be called. [00:14:25] Isn't that it or gizmo or something? [00:14:27] It's organo. It's actually coffee. It's a coffee company. [00:14:31] Oh, gee, well, that lets me down there. [00:14:35] Yeah, it's racially infused coffee, [00:14:38] Rice infused coffee [00:14:40] Reishi Mushroom. [00:14:41] Oh, okay. Yeah. [00:14:43] Yes. [00:14:44] No. All these things. [00:14:46] No. Yes. [00:14:48] So how's that going? Because like, I hate multilevel [00:14:51] Marketing, but [00:14:52] I'm not really doing the business. I really like the product. Yeah, I'm really. [00:14:56] No. Okay. I guess that's good. [00:14:57] Yeah, I just really like it. Yeah. [00:14:59] All right. So now tell us about the yoga laughter. You won some kind of big award for this. I believe you're the laughter ambassador to somewhere. I'm not sure to what country, Nepal or something, [00:15:14] But yeah, so laughter. Yoga was started in India by a medical doctor, Dr. Madan Kataria, and his goal is world peace through laughter. So it's not actually doing, you know, poses or or traditional yoga. It's laughter exercises. The yoga part is the practice, the deep diaphragmatic breathing. And yeah, so there's little games to inspire the laughter. You know, children don't need the the priming, but adults do. So there's kind of clapping and chanting and it's ridiculous. [00:15:45] I tell jokes. [00:15:47] No, there's no jokes or comedy, which is kind of nice because laughter is a universal language, but jokes can become, you know, off color to people going into a bar or whatever somebody at the bar of that joke. Not funny for them, [00:16:02] But [00:16:02] Like the Barbie divorce doll, you mean, right? It comes with everything Ken had. [00:16:10] Thank you. That's funny. [00:16:15] Yeah. So it's really a beautiful thing. You know, before before. I mean, we have a mental health tsunami, so laughter is a beautiful thing and laughter yoga is now. We've converted like everybody online and there's laughter clubs around the world. You know, North America is a late adopter for stuff, so yoga is just arriving. Laughter, laughter. Yoga is still in the ocean somewhere. But yeah, before COVID, I was going into long term care laughing with folks with dementia because it's not about, oh, so beautiful and working. You know, I love that you do work with persons with disabilities and special needs because that's where my heart lies. My heart. When I heard that on your podcast, I was like, Oh this, I love this guy. This is so beautiful again. Before COVID, I was working with folks with special needs. And you know, my name is Cathy. I'm chatty Cathy. It's my parents fault. [00:17:16] I can't even imagine. I really can't imagine what it's like to be nonverbal and having people tell you your whole life. Do this? Do that? Go here. You'll like this. Try this, you know, it's like f off already. [00:17:29] Yeah, right, right, right. [00:17:30] No wonder. Behaviors and frustration. So laughter has really helped people like parents and their children and, you know, just different like people were with with these special needs able to communicate better to help relieve their own frustration and their stress. And yeah, since COVID, I'm doing this wonderful project every Friday. I think it's April or since April or May of last year. Every Friday we meet, there's 20 or 25 of us various, you know, autism Down Syndrome, a whole, a whole host of special needs qualities or whatever. I don't know what you want to say. I don't want to offend anybody. But you know, Tom, I'm really divinely guided. And I was walking in the forest one day and I got a note, a whole movie about what's coming for me. [00:18:25] Let me, let me let me predict what it was. I'm going to be on Screw the Commute podcast. It came from the heavens, didn't it? Yeah, I knew it. [00:18:39] I wish I said that it was that. And again, not to be offensive to anybody using the wrong terms, but I was. I saw myself training. I'm a laughter yoga teacher, so I train laughter, leaders, people to lead classes, and I saw myself training folks with Down Syndrome like special needs, specifically downs to be laughter leaders so they could lead laughter in their own demographic and get paid. To have a little laughter business, how fun? [00:19:08] Oh, wow, yeah. And, you know, laughter was a big turning point in my life. I mean, I've always been a jokester, but I ended up losing a big business a long time ago and was my Achilles tendon was torn. I couldn't walk and I was living in a vacant house on a mattress. And I was surrounded myself with humor books, and that's where I got the idea to start an entertainment company that got me worldwide publicity and got me into the speaking business eventually. So. So, yeah, I'm a big, big proponent. But I did mention before we got started, I did get in deep trouble one time for humor. So, so I'm doing a speech, and when I first started speaking since I come out of entertainment, I was doing humor in the workplace, which was a big topic in the early 90s. And so this this thing is going great. Everybody's having a great time. I'm talking about all the kinds of things you can do to stay upbeat while you're at work and everything. And so. So I walked over to this lady and I said, Wouldn't it be great to have pictures of your grandchildren all over your cubicle and everything? And she looked at me with daggers in her eyes, and then the every everything went to a halt where it's been laughing like crazy. And I was like, Oh my God, so so I got finished. And then I went over to the meeting planner and I said, in my mind, I'm thinking, Oh my God, the kids got hurt with, you know, or died in a car crash or something. You're still there, right? Still here, yeah, OK, yeah, so you're you you read lined on this on the on the screen here, I thought, Oh, she died. [00:20:55] Oh no, no. [00:20:58] So so anyway, we got done and I went over to the meeting planner and I said, Hey, what? What happened when I talked to that lady? I mean, there her kids, grandchildren die or something? She said, No, she's only thirty five. [00:21:13] My god. Yeah. Oh no. I didn't see that one coming. [00:21:20] Oh my God. Oh, it wasn't at the time. I'm sure she's still mad about it, but but kind of reminds me of this famous guy, Dave Barry, the writer that said about pregnant females. He says, You never say a thing about it unless you actually see the baby coming out [00:21:42] Or they mention it [00:21:43] First. Right? [00:21:46] So, oh my gosh. But it does bring up a point in those days. You get away with murder today. You've got to be extremely careful, you know, with your humor because people get offended so easily. I was doing a speech one time I got a load of money. People were swinging from the chandeliers and one person was from Nigeria. I had made a joke that was about water, and he says water is not funny in our country. And he started complaining to everybody I want, [00:22:15] Oh my gosh, I could do you know? So you just have to be careful, but you know you can't. Somebody's going to get mad at you one or the other. So I couldn't sacrifice three hundred people for one person, you know? So and I didn't know it till it's over with, you know, so who? Who laughs about water or who gets mad about water jokes? Maybe Michigan people, you know, because of the trouble they've had with water. But so, so. What do you what's the what's a typical day look like for you? [00:22:46] Oh, a typical day, well, I play with my worms for a little bit. [00:22:50] You train them and stuff. Do they take them for a walk? [00:22:54] You know, I used to play meditative music and then I was like, Oh, they don't like vibration. I bet they hate [00:22:59] This like mood music, so they would breed more. But no, I was like, Nah, they probably hate this. [00:23:06] Yeah, you can try different types. You can put some rap or something, and then I'll put some sprouts in and rinse my sprouts. And, you know, every day, every day, every [00:23:17] Day you make sprouts every day. I even do it once I eat sprouts every day, for sure. Let me tell you about how I met the guy that with this Broder. Okay. So yeah, it was my very first event that I was exhibiting in two thousand two with my worms. I had a table, you know, I mean, with all my worm stuff to go see, I can picture, you know, some of the people at the gun show sell like chocolate and stuff and they give you samples. Think how that would work with you? [00:23:48] And there was there was a man there selling the sprout grower that looks like a spaceship. It's about the size of a dinner plate plastic. It's got a steel mesh and it was flying off the shelf. I mean, how tall was it? It's like a little dome, so it's like a little hydroponic greenhouse. [00:24:05] I thought you said that you couldn't do very well with something that little, you know, with the jar. So the jar, you know, the jar that has the small mouth and this is the size of a dish like a no. [00:24:16] But I ask you about the Oh, this is sprouting. This is the sprouting. Okay, I was thinking of the composting. [00:24:22] Oh, yeah, sorry about that. Yeah, no new topic. [00:24:25] Okay, yeah, yeah. [00:24:28] So this man was selling the sprout and he was 72 ballroom dancer and I was like, What is that thing? And he told me it was a spray odor and you know how to do it and what it was for. And and I had never sprouted. I didn't, you know, I. Anyway, so I said, Oh, OK, so sprouts are hydrating, alkaline and regenerative biogenic and contain up to 100 times more digestive enzymes. Wow. So super healthy. They're really good for us. And so this guy was 72 professional ballroom dancer and I was like 70 to still doing these shows that he looked vibrant, healthy, and I don't need to know why something works. I'm just like, Oh, look at you, you look really healthy. I want to. I want to have your, you know, whatever you call it, like your strength or whatever. 72 your vitamin figure. Thank you. Yeah. So anyway, so I was like, OK, I'm in. [00:25:21] So here Vermaelen figure, right? [00:25:27] And so I said, OK, I'm in. So he said, if you're going to do this, start your day with two tablespoons of the sprouted mung beans every day for the enzymes. So I did for 10 years, and I would see him every morning for 10 years, and then I would see him at shows and say, Oh, you should get one of those. It's really great. And finally, in 2012, he said to me, You should sell this with your, you know, with your word business. And I was like, Oh my gosh, why didn't I think about it? That's a great idea. And yeah, 2012 I started selling it. So I've been selling it now for 10 years. [00:25:56] So it's a sprout. Yeah. And now can you dip sprouts and in blue cheese dressing? [00:26:09] So, of course, you can eat these things. [00:26:12] Well, the mung beans are, you know, the bean sprouts from Chinese food, the white beans, the white long. They're kind of long. [00:26:19] I don't know. I probably something in my face, but I didn't know the noodles. They kind of look like noodles. Ok. [00:26:27] Oh, OK. [00:26:28] Yeah. So those are those are beans. Those are mung beans. We grow. Those are the ones that we grow, that we eat every day and they'll germinate in about twenty four to forty eight hours. So they're really fast, super fast. [00:26:41] So in this gave you your vim and vigour, but you got like 50 years to go, you had to be 72. [00:26:49] So oh wow, I'm 59, so I'm getting close. Yeah, but I, you know, Tom, I'm fifty nine. High energy have no health issues, no prescription drugs, no multivitamin. Like, I consider these mung beans, my multivitamin and people say to me, Don't you get sick of the mung beans? It's like, would you get sick of feeling great and having tons of energy? I mean, maybe. [00:27:12] Yeah, I guess you could. But. So I love this story. No, I haven't had any mung beans that I know of lately, but I'm going to be sixty seven and I'm not on any anything, either. So lucky. So if I had it taken. They can sprouts all these times. I could join that orgasmic company. [00:27:33] You know, I am no MLM. [00:27:38] Yeah, go up to somebody in a bar. Yes. Yeah, I'm in the MLM orgasmic company. So. So what's the best part and worst part about being in the worm business? [00:27:52] Oh, the best part is the feel good factor like, you know, I mean, what I'm doing is such a beautiful thing. A pound of worms and the descendants can transform a ton of organic waste in a year. So if everybody and the average Canadian American family produces a ton of organic waste in a year, so if everybody had every family had a pound of worms? Imagine the impact that would have on that reduced amount of garbage going to landfill and then converting that that kind of garbage into black gold for like its nutrient rich soil. So we're not only just reducing landfill space or making more space in the landfill by reducing the garbage, but we're actually fixing the soil. The worms are amending the soil, you know, with all our mono cropping and the soil is deplete. So practically right, we've got to keep adding it. [00:28:48] How do you grow these worms? I wanted to get like a couple of chickens and I figured I couldn't handle it. [00:28:54] How do you do thousands of worms? [00:28:58] So it's really just creating the right environment, you know, just the right carbon nitrogen. They are living creatures. So there are different [00:29:05] Breeds like dogs. [00:29:06] Absolutely. There's thousands of types of worms for that have been identified for vermin composting. [00:29:13] What now, if they do, they cross breed and then weird like dogs that are their faces are smashed in, they can hardly breathe. [00:29:22] No, they don't actually to breathe, breathe, they can enter. They can live together. But they don't. They don't mess around. [00:29:32] Do they cuddle? [00:29:37] So how do you? I mean, so can people grow their own? Absolutely. It's just better to buy him by the pound. [00:29:46] Well, once you get worms, you know, once you get worms, yeah, they reproduce more than rabbits. [00:29:51] So you only need to buy a pound and then you're done. Or what? [00:29:54] Pretty much as long as you look after them, you know, again, they are living creatures, [00:29:59] So you got to keep them warm, take them to the vet, you know, get their shots, get the get the the microchip so that nobody steals. [00:30:17] Oh, my gosh. [00:30:19] Yeah, I mean, you have to have right, it's aerobic process, meaning with oxygen, so you need to have holes in the bin that you have. You have to make sure you remember to feed them because they eat half their weight per day. So they're eating quite a bit. Yeah. You know, they're 90 percent moisture, so they have to have a moist environment. Yeah. So they do need some care. But yeah, it's a how many worms are in a pound? [00:30:41] Eight hundred to a thousand worms in a pound. So they're really not they're not ideal for fishing. [00:30:48] All right. So how many worms do you own currently? [00:30:53] Oh, my gosh, they don't come out for head count, so I would say Hazard a guess and say how many pounds I would have 50 to 100 pounds of arms out at any time. [00:31:05] Oh man. [00:31:06] Yeah. What if they, you know, they call the animal control? Then she she's a hoarder like the crazy worm lady crazy cat lady. Do you have any permits or anything to hold that many worms? [00:31:21] Don't ask. I know. I don't know. [00:31:22] Don't ask. Don't tell, right? Right. [00:31:24] And what if they got loose, you know? You know, sometimes actually, [00:31:28] You know, Tom, when I started my business, I was so naive. Somebody said, you should go to the town and see if you can run that business from your house. So I said, so I did. And the town planner wasn't in that day. So I just left a note like, you know, left a message for them to call me the next day that he called me and he said, Oh, you can't run that business from your host? And I was like, Oh, why not? And there was a really limited list of businesses. You could, you know, it was ridiculous, you know, a bylaw written in the seventies. So I was like, So can you have a, you know, can you breed cats and dogs? And he said, yes, as long as nobody complains. So I said, Have you ever heard of for me, composting, like, I can't believe I came up with that question. And the guy said, no, he was like, no. And so in my mind, I'm like, So how would you know if I did it? [00:32:18] Yeah, right? [00:32:19] You know, and I went ahead. I was like, Well, he won't even know. How will they know? [00:32:23] Yeah. So I mean, it doesn't take a lot of space, right? [00:32:26] It does not. [00:32:26] No, no. Do you do it in your house or do you have an outside shed or something? [00:32:31] Yeah, I have. I have space now outside, but you can absolutely do quite a bit in your house. [00:32:37] But it gets cold up there, so they have to stay in a certain temperature range. [00:32:42] It needs to be climate controlled, for sure. Yes. [00:32:44] What temperature do they thrive in? [00:32:47] 60 to 80 is optimum. Like it's really burn temperature. Yeah, Fahrenheit. Yes, right? I'm bilingual. It was so funny. I started to do school workshops and at the beginning I'd say sixteen to twenty eight Celsius in the sea, or I would say 60 to 80. And I see the kids like what the who keeps what they're burning up, right? Sixteen to twenty eight is the Celsius, I'm like. And it was one day like three years in when a teacher said, That's Celsius, right? And I was like, Oh my or Fahrenheit? And I was like, Oh my gosh, all those years I messed up all those kids. [00:33:22] Yeah, but we in the United States, we always say, Well, you should have the courtesy to put things in in Fahrenheit that you ever hear of the comedian Kathleen Madigan. Yes, I love her. She was talking about Canada. She said she was doing a tour up in Canada, and she said Canada is kind of like the attic to the United States. You know, you forget it's up there, but there's a lot of cool things off. [00:33:51] Well, that's pretty good. Better than the pit. I guess so. [00:33:58] So you're selling these Tom posters? Excuse me, you're selling. You sell com posters or just the worms? [00:34:06] Oh, I have a super cute system. Oh my god. It's called yeah, it's called the living composter. And it actually is a functional piece of furniture. It's a stool. [00:34:16] Ship them to the U.S? [00:34:18] Yeah, I can. I can't ship the worms or I don't ship the worms. You have lots of red Wikler growers up there. [00:34:24] But yeah, I knew that. I knew that. [00:34:26] Yeah, I can ship. Yeah, the composter is super cute, though. It comes in four colors and it's a stool, so you know, it doesn't take up extra space if somebody has a small like, think of a New York or a little apartment or something, right? Pretty small, yeah. [00:34:42] Ok, and then where would they go to get some red Winkler's the gentlemen's club or where do you find red? Where do you go to find red wingless? [00:34:55] Oh, just put in your search engine, red wiggle or supplier? [00:34:58] Hear me red brick [00:35:00] Right near red buglers near me and they [00:35:03] Say, Go out in your backyard, dummy. Can you find any of these just in the in the ground and the soil? [00:35:11] They're not soil dwellers, but you can find them in in manure piles or rotting stuff like this all the time. [00:35:18] Yeah. You know, if somebody wanted to go rooting around, they could. You could find them. I did get my first worms in my outdoor compost, or so they are. They are kind of out there. [00:35:26] Ok, so to get started, though, you, you know, to to come up with a pound on your own would be pretty hard, right? Correct. Yes. So it's better to buy. Find somebody crazy like you down here, right? [00:35:39] Absolutely. Yes, I would say crazy worm lady. [00:35:43] So, OK, so that's composting. And you called it vermin vermin composting, right? [00:35:49] Vermin composting, [00:35:50] Ok? And then further sprouting. What do you have for sprouts besides this sprout machine this guy has? [00:35:57] Oh yeah, I have this the spaceship. And then I have a whole whack of certified organic beans and seeds because you can sprout everything. Yeah, we can ship all of that. Yeah. [00:36:09] And what about the tell us about the yoga certification, the people come come to you to do that or can you do it remotely? [00:36:16] Yeah, we're doing it online right now. I do. I have a free club on Tuesdays, nine 30 in the Morning Eastern. Yeah, it's on Zoom and it's beautiful 30 minute self-care. I've got maybe a 20 or 25 people that come from around the world [00:36:32] To this is for their certification or just to participate. [00:36:37] Oh, that's no. That's for my laughter club. I have a training coming up. Yeah, people want it to to be trained as laughter leaders, but [00:36:44] That has to be in person. [00:36:46] No, it's online. Ok? All right. Yeah. So people can come from wherever. That's February, the beginning of February, but we're doing that quarterly so they can look at my website for that. [00:36:56] Ok, so how do people find you? [00:36:59] I'm going to give you my worm website. [00:37:03] I've never been said on this show before. [00:37:08] It's cathyscomposters.com. [00:37:13] And does that lead to all the other stuff? [00:37:15] Everything is there. Yes. [00:37:16] Ok, well, boy, this has been a pretty wild show. You don't see this every day, but yeah, I'm very interested in the sprouting, especially because I only got five years till I'm seventy two, so I want to get get it with the mung beans on my side and say, [00:37:36] Oh, you look great. Tom what is your secret? What are you doing then? [00:37:40] I just got good genes from my dad, you know, basically. And then and then one one thing that a lot of people don't understand is if you keep overweight, it smooths out your wrinkles. [00:37:53] Well, yeah. [00:37:54] So you don't have to worry about getting all wrinkly. [00:37:58] And he made me choke. [00:38:03] I knew there had to be perks. [00:38:04] Well, absolutely. Yeah. So when see, people say, Oh yeah, I'll lose some weight. No. But you know, when they do, ask me about, you know, how much weight I want to lose, I tell them, I just want to get down to a B cup. [00:38:17] That's all. [00:38:21] Oh my gosh, Tom, you should go on the road. [00:38:24] No, no. [00:38:25] I've been on the road. I'm happy to sit home. I haven't been on an airplane in two years. You know, you get on an airplane now you're guaranteed somebody's going to start fighting you and they'll drag you off and the FBI will take you away and you'll never be seen. That's all I see on TV every day at the airports nowadays, because all the flights are being cancelled, everybody's on edge. It's it's really tough. They need some laughter. They need you in the in the lobbies of airports. There you go. There's a whole new world for you. Cathy's airport laughter. [00:38:56] Yeah, right. I know it's that's why this laughter really fits everywhere. It's, you know, the children are are struggling now in Canada. Our our schools are closed again. It's like, Oh my gosh, come on. You know, like, nobody's talking about this mental health part that's, you know, I don't know. I don't think [00:39:19] It's going to affect us because we've been laughing for a long time [00:39:22] And [00:39:23] A lot more to come. Absolutely. Well, thanks so much, Cathy, for coming on. [00:39:28] Tom, I appreciate it so much. Thank you. All right, [00:39:30] Everybody go to Kathy's with a see, by the way. See at his com posters. And that'll lead you to all the cool stuff she has. And this has been a crazy, wonderful episode of how you can make money doing things you love and doing good for the world. So catch you on the next episode. See you later. Join my distance learning school: https://www.IMTCVA.org Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/542-Worms-and-Laughter-and-Yoga-Oh-My-Tom-interviews-Cathy-Nesbitt,2022266087.aspx Our guest this week is a blackjack player from Europe named Stefan. We talk about his experiences playing in European casinos, and his first trip to Las Vegas. Show Notes [00:00] Introduction of blackjack player, Stefan [00:49] Stefan’s blackjack experience [01:59] Are blackjack books translated into Greek? [03:57] Playing blackjack in Greece [06:07] Playing in illegal casinos [07:44] Cheating by casinos [16:42] Dangerous situations [17:33] Altering penetration and shuffling methods [21:03] Shuffles in Las Vegas [24:24] Stefan’s first trip to the United States [26:53] South Point Casino January Promotions – Spin to Win, MLK Hot Seat [28:00] http://BlackjackApprenticeship.com – card counting training site and advantage play community with software and tracking tools [28:42] http://VideoPoker.com/gwae – Gold Membership offers correction on most games, free Pro Membership trial for GWAE listeners [29:48[ Playing loss rebates [30:34] Playing in other countries, currency restrictions, and danger [39:43] Some of Stefan’s bad experiences [40:46] Getting backed off in Europe and other blackjack variations [47:29] Advice for card counters [50:03] Startup on Netflix, Kanopy,.com, Hair, Together Together Sponsored Links: http://BlackjackApprenticeship.com Books Referenced: Professional Blackjack by Stanford Wong https://amzn.to/34SO2nb Million Dollar Blackjack by Ken Uston https://amzn.to/3nkmc9y Playing Blackjack as a Business by Lawerence Revere https://amzn.to/3fncH5a Recommended: http://Netflix.com/title/80154285 . About Huntington Press Huntington Press is a specialty publisher of Las Vegasand gambling-related books and periodicals, including the award-winning consumer newsletter, Anthony Curtis’ Las Huntington Press Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Podcast-European-card-counter-Stefan,2022266084.aspx
For Immediate Release:
Dateline: Los Angeles, CA The Celebrity Source is thrilled to announce our new partnership with www.GolfStatus.org, the leading event management platform for golf fundraisers, to help connect charity golf tournament organizers with celebrities, athletes, influencers, and other public figures. The partnership provides event organizers planning charity golf outings and golf fundraisers with event management software to streamline the event from start to finish, while also attaching celebrity participation to help gain more visibility and funds raised for the event. What follows is a conversation between GolfStatus and The Celebrity Source President, Rita Tateel, about the value celebs can add to a golf event and cause. Why A Celebrity Can Level Up Your Golf Tournament Fundraiser Q: First off, what exactly do you mean when you say “celebrity”? A: Really, who is deemed a “celebrity” is defined by the audience. It’s not necessarily an actor or sports figure; it’s anyone in the public eye within their field or discipline. So it’s a very broad definition—anyone from a famous scientist, writer, or astronaut to a reality television star, football player, YouTube star, performer, or movie actor. Q: What does having a celebrity at a golf fundraiser bring to the event? A: Everyone, whether they admit it or not, gets excited about meeting someone famous. There’s an excitement that a celebrity brings to an event that simply can’t be duplicated. Celebrities raise visibility, not only for the event itself, but for the cause it’s connected to. There’s also the credibility factor—people see that if a celebrity is participating, they assume the tournament must be worthwhile. You’re likely to see more press interested in covering the tournament (and you should definitely alert the media about the event) because a celebrity is attending, which means even more exposure for the sponsor, benefiting organization and/or cause. What’s more, a celebrity presence opens the door to new, lucrative sponsorships as well as attracting more teams with the option of charging a higher registration package price. Q: What should an event organizer consider when determining whether or not to pursue having a celebrity participate in their golf fundraiser? A: There are a number of questions organizers should ask themselves before going down this road. First and foremost, what do I hope to accomplish by having the celebrity there—media coverage? Credibility? Increased awareness? Higher income potential? Next, can I cover the standard expenses (or do I have a sponsor I know will cover the costs)? Third, what do I want a celebrity to do at my golf event and what are the highest priorities? Determining the “why” will help organizers decide if it’s something worthwhile to pursue. Budget is perhaps the main consideration. If an event is hoping to secure a celebrity, expenses need to be covered, even if the celebrity isn’t being paid to attend. At a minimum, they’ll need to cover two first-class airfares, ground transportation to and from the airport to the event, first-class hotel accommodations, and a per diem to cover meals. Oftentimes these costs can be covered by a sponsor. Q: How can organizers make the most out of having a celebrity attend their golf fundraiser? A: Really think broadly about all of the ways a celebrity might be involved. It could be anything from a meet and greet on a specific hole of the golf course, emceeing or performing at the after party, or golfing with a specific sponsor’s foursome. It’s also key to have someone in charge of PR to get the most exposure possible for the celebrity’s participation and, in turn, for the nonprofit or charity. Organizers can solicit a volunteer or volunteers, pay a PR firm (or request pro bono services as part of a sponsorship or donation), or even reach out to PR students at a nearby college or university. And when marketing the event, include the celebrity’s participation everywhere possible—on the event website, promotional emails, social media posts, flyers, postcards, and the organization’s website. Q: How do you help nonprofits find the right celebrity for a fundraising event like a golf tournament? A: The Celebrity Source looks at a variety of factors that will get a celebrity to say “yes” to an event. For example, a personal association with a particular cause or the location of the event (e.g. near their hometown or favorite city), what perks/gifts are being offered for the celebrity’s participation, how passionate is the celebrity about golf and any obvious connections to the event. Being a golfer is usually a key factor, but keep in mind that there are different roles the celeb can play at the event so they don’t have to play golf to still be a good match. The audience’s demographic also needs to be taken into account—both who it is trying to attract to play in the event as well as sponsor it. Our process takes all these factors into account to find the best match. Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/The-Celebrity-Source-has-partnered-with-GolfStatusorg,2022266082.aspx Name: Valerie VanBooven RN BSN Title: Founder, Co-Owner Group: Approved Senior Network Dateline: Saint Charles, MO United States Direct Phone: 888-404-1513 Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/Home-Care-Leads-More-Home-Care-Clients-in-2022-Webinar-Replay,2022266081.aspx
Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: This is Valerie Vanbooven with the Senior Care Industry Netcast, where leaders with three or more years of experience in the senior care market share their advice. So let’s get to it. In a few sentences, tell us who you are and what you do. Kimberly Hegwood: So my name is Kim Hegwood and we help families plan for the future, protect their loved ones and guide them through the unexpected. And so that covers a lot of our practice areas. And so it really embodies how we approach taking care of clients. So most people say, “Okay, well what areas do you practice”? So I’ll elaborate. And so we do a lot of elder law. We do estate planning. We do probate guardianship and special needs. And most of those are very interrelated when it comes to taking care of families. And so we want to make sure that we cover as much of the things that truly, that a family needs in a time of crisis and just in the time of non-crisis and just planning ahead. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: Don’t we wish everyone would plan ahead. Kimberly Hegwood: Yeah. We find that estate planning is the number one procrastinated thing people do. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: Absolutely. It is. It’s tough to think about all this stuff. It’s hard to ask these questions. It’s hard to have these conversations. And so oftentimes it happens in a crisis. My question to you would be, if you could talk to anybody, the public out there, and you would say, “Here are the things that you need to think about before there’s a crisis”. What would be your best advice there? Kimberly Hegwood: Getting your documents in place, getting your legal documents in place. Absolutely. Your basics or your will packages, your wills, your medical power of attorney, your statutory durable power of attorney, your directed to physician, your HIPAA authorization. Your core basic documents at a minimum. Depending on your family dynamics, depending on age, depending on assets, depends on how much more advanced planning you do. And so it really makes a difference in having an opportunity to really advise somebody, “Hey, here’s the best way for you to plan”. We find that a lot of attorneys don’t give really good legal advice when it comes to planning, especially for families that are blended. His and her kids have a lot of clients that have his, hers and ours. So you really have to plan carefully and will based planning doesn’t do that. Kimberly Hegwood: It doesn’t plan well for blended families. It’s not the best way to plan for minor children. It’s not the best way to plan for children with disabilities or adults with disabilities. It’s not the best way to plan for long term care when you don’t have long term care insurance. So having good documents in place and sitting down with somebody that can really walk you through the process and make sure that you get a very good education. Because, to me, I think education is most important. We have a ton of workshops on our website. They’re free to watch. You can watch as many as you want. But to me, education is the most important thing. And I learned that the hard way taking care of my grandparents, how important it was because their longtime attorney took care of them and all they had were wills. Kimberly Hegwood: And because George didn’t do anything else, they didn’t think they needed anything else. And that was back in the day, it’s been a while. But it’s really important to make sure that you find an attorney that truly cares about what happens to your family and gives you some good advice. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: I think that people are under the misconception that a will takes care of it all. And I know, you know, the reality is that is a nice set of instructions, but that’s where it ends. And it really takes a long time to go through probate depending on the situation. Like for instance, my mother is married to her husband who is not my father. So that would be a blended family. His kids get his stuff, I get my mom’s stuff and they have everything set up in trusts. So the directions are there, all the legalities are taken care of pretty much. And when one of them passes away, we know exactly what’s supposed to happen. It’s all there and it’s all taken care of. Is that what you recommend? Kimberly Hegwood: Absolutely. So your parents got some, or your mom and stepdad got some really good advice because well based planning is the best way to disinherit children. And so you want to make sure that you do get that good advice, that somebody’s willing to walk you through the realities. And here in Texas, probate’s fairly easy. It’s gotten a lot more expensive this year, because the fees have gone up astronomical. But the reality is, is while probate is very easy here in Texas, the only thing that passes through probate these days is your real estate, oil and gas, mineral rights, everything else you have in life passes through beneficiary designation. So you want to make sure that your beneficiary designations are done correctly and once you give them to someone they’re theirs, you can’t get it back, you can’t change it to someone else. Kimberly Hegwood: And I’ve had even clients that had minor children, that named their minor children as beneficiaries or named the guardian, which is even worse, is the beneficiary on life insurance policies. You’re like they don’t have to raise your kids and they get to keep the money. And so you always want to make sure that you do all those things and part of what we do in my law practice, because we do do a lot of trust planning, is we help clients fund their trust. And that sets us apart from just about everybody out there. So we help clients with their beneficiary designations. We make sure they’re done correctly. We have them bring us back copies of them so we know they’re done correctly. Have a full time funding coordinator. That’s all she does is help clients make sure that their stuff is done well. Because it makes a huge difference in planning because most people don’t think about those beneficiary designated assets and how they affect your plan when not done correctly. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: Sure. And things change over the years. Kimberly Hegwood: Oh, absolutely. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: Marriage, and kids grow up and so lots of things change over the years. So it’s always good also to check in once in a while and make sure that things are still the same, that nothing has changed. And how old is everybody now, if they were minors then. What do you want to change today? There’s so many things that you could be doing to make it easier on the kids when you are faced with a devastating illness and you’re in a place where you can’t speak. Those powers of attorney, those things. They say everybody puts it off because it’s a hard conversation to have, but it’s so important. So let me ask you this. What is the best thing about serving aging adults and their families? Kimberly Hegwood: I tell everybody, I miss my grandparents, getting to hang out with somebody else’s grandparents is the best part of my day. You truly have to, for me, I love seniors. They’re so knowledgeable and we have just some of the nicest clients. And so they’re just good people. And it just seems to be, and I don’t know if it’s the generation for specifically, or I’m just blessed with having a bunch of great clients, which could be true too. It’s so good to be able to help them through the process because I had to learn through it with my grandparents. I had to learn on the job. And so, for me, it’s like, I don’t want someone else to have to go through all the heartache and hassle that I went through. Kimberly Hegwood: So it’s better if I can catch them early, get them on the right path. It lessens the issues with the children, because you put a plan in place and then I had to explain to a child I see a child but it’s a grown, man, “Look, this is the plan that your parents put together. And this is what you have to do to implement this plan. Now that you’ve got a parent that’s declining, you can do X, Y, and Z, but please don’t do this because that’s going to mess up the plan”. So really advising them to make sure that the plan that mom and dad put together will work when they need it, now that it’s coming into play of having what do we need to do? Being able to walk them through the process and making sure that everything gets done well, that the parents are getting taken care of the way they want to, because that’s important. Kimberly Hegwood: I’m a huge, huge fan of quality of life and having as much dignity as possible and being able to make your own decisions and good, bad or ugly, we want you to be able to make them. And so a lot of kids have problems with that. You walk them through the process of, “Hey, if your parents are competent, they’re grownups, they get to make those decisions, regardless they get to make those decisions”. And so for us, it’s just a matter of helping them through that. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: Sure. It’s funny how a whole lot of dysfunction starts rising to the top when a parent gets sick and, or passes away and having the directions in place and everything already done is so much easier on all the kids. The decisions are already made and that lessens the amount of insanity they have to all deal with when it’s over with. And maybe for you too. Kimberly Hegwood: Most definitely. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: Okay, so I’m going to switch gears just a little bit. There are lots of senior care providers out there, home care agencies, nursing homes, assisted living facilities, care managers. I’m sure you’ve dealt with all ranges of senior care providers. If you could talk to those senior care providers, what piece of advice would you give them? What would you like them to tell their clients? Kimberly Hegwood: I would want them to tell their clients to make sure that they see a very good elder law attorney, to make sure their documents are in place, to make sure that they have that plan because a lot of people are caught unprepared. Something happens, they end up in the hospital and they’re going from the hospital to the nursing home for rehabilitation, but they’re probably not going to leave after that. And when in a crisis there’s usually one option. In pre-planning, there’s lots of options and you want clients to have as many options as possible. And so the better you plan, the more options you have. And so, and I think that’s really important. And we try to get that out. Independent living, when people are at their best, “Hey guys, y’all need to really plan well so you have some good options, otherwise in a crisis it’s ugly, you get one option and it may not be the one you like, but it’s the one you’re stuck with”. Kimberly Hegwood: And I think people like having options. I think they want to be able to make good decisions. A lot of people are afraid of talking about death and dying. And I laugh and tell all my clients, “We discuss that stuff at the kitchen table”. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: I understand that. Kimberly Hegwood: And it’s in my family, it’s just been the running joke for years of how we were all going to be taken care of when we’re old and where we’re going to be buried and all kind of fun stuff. So it doesn’t really bother me to talk about it. I’m less bothered about it because my faith is strong. And so which helps immensely, I think, in the overall scheme of things. But I think that, and I told this to a client one time, and I think it resonates. It’s such a truth. If you have somebody you love, you plan. If you don’t have anybody you love, or if you don’t like any of your family, do nothing. It’s the last knife you can stick in their back. Because it’s painful for those kids to come into my office going, “I can’t believe mom and dad didn’t plan, I can’t believe they left us this mess that we’re having to take care of”. So if you have somebody you love, you plan because it’s so much easier on them. And they will appreciate it immensely. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: They will thank you. Yes, it is. And because most of the time, we’re in a moment of devastation and heartache and you’re having to make all these decisions that you weren’t prepared for because who’s ever prepared for that. So it’s a rough time when you have to pile on all the things that come up because no planning had been done. So I agree with you and we appreciate what you do. Last question I have for you, this is supposed to be a fun one. When you have a win in life or in business, a birthday or something fun’s going on, how do you like to celebrate? Kimberly Hegwood: Well, I’ve reached the age where I have gift days. And so we don’t have birthdays. We have gift days. And so, I think a celebration in my world has everything to do with the family. I’ve got awesome grandkids. I tell all my clients too that grandkids are a reward from not killing our children as teenagers. And if we could have them first, we’d had never had the children. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: That’s right. Kimberly Hegwood: But the grandkids are so much fun. And so I spend a lot of time with them. I travel, hope to do more of it this year. I’m a very novice photographer, but I usually find that I have one picture that I take when I go on vacation and they’re now starting to appear on my wall in my office. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: That’s awesome. Kimberly Hegwood: And then I have the clients that gave me a beautiful picture for Christmas and it’s hanging in the wall right before you go into my conference rooms. And so it’s just truly really having some fun. Spending time with family is probably what I enjoy more so than anything. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: That’s great. And great answer. We’ve had answers all over the map. It’s hard for us as caregivers of others or as helpers of others to take that time. It sounds like you’ve got a good handle. And I like the gift days instead of birthdays. That sounds good to me too. Kimberly Hegwood: My mother is up to about a gift week now, so she expects to be spoiled a little bit longer than just one day. So it’s a lot of fun. Valerie VanBooven RN BSN: All right. Well, thank you so much for doing this, for being on the show. We’ll make sure all of your contact information is with this video and we appreciate it. So thank you very much. Kimberly Hegwood: Thank you very much. It’s nice talking to you, Valerie. Via http://www.expertclick.com/NewsRelease/EP-149-SCI-Netcast-Kimberly-Hegwood-Elder-Law-and-Estate-Planning,2022266065.aspx |