Fighting Aids in Paradise
A while back I attended the “Rewriting Life Scripts Workshop” in Austin and met Dr. Stewart. Conversation flowed quickly as we learned our common love for the Caribbean. Then he mentioned to me all the work he has been doing as a healthcare provider as well as information facilitator. Since then I had wanted to interview him for I Have Something To Say Live. I was a long wait, but it finally happened this month.
I loved talking to him because being from the NW coast of Venezuela it feels like talking to an old friend, even though we met once, but make no mistake, I dedicated almost an hour to this interview because of the information value he delivered.
Did you know that if you are an AIDS infected mother-to-be, by getting treatment you would be giving your baby the chance to be born without HIV? Yup, I did not know that….
The interview is focused on Dr. Stewart’s Caribbean Wellness Advancement Project as the Caribbean ranks on second place for new cases in the world. But every piece of information he offered is applicable everywhere. Everyone should listen to what Dr. Stewart has to say!
Listen to the Live interview here: www.ihavesomethingtosaylive.com
Are You Fighting Stereotypes?
All of my life I have been fighting labels and stereotypes. The ones set from within my own family core, the ones within my Italian background, and all the other ones found within the culture of each country I have lived in. Add to all that the fact that I am an Immigrant woman and you can double the struggle. Yet, I chose to fight. I still don’t know why exactly, all I know is that labels infuriate me so much I make it a point to prove them not applicable to me. It is in my nature to fight them and so I do automatically, but I never gave a lot of thought to how those labels and stereotypes could hurt me by limiting my success and income until I was introduced to Fighting the Stereotype by Alexander R. Gibson.
I invited him to I Have Something to Say Live and our conversation inspired me so as well as the poem he shared. I realized that my fight against the labels and stereotypes that were being imposed to me was not just for my well being. My fight was opening the road for those who would come after me. But it doesn’t stop there. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that where I stand today and the person I became was a direct result of my battles against my own battle against the stereotypes applied to my persona. Yet, I am guilty of stereotyping. I can’t come up with an exact number of times I stereotyped others. I can’t remember who or why. But I am not able to avoid the shadow of guilt that over comes my soul.
I am grateful I had the opportunity to meet Alexander, an inspiring young man who knows firsthand few things about fighting stereotypes. He shared his experiences through his poetry on his book Fighting The Stereotype. He didn’t stop there. Alexander set himself to change the stereotypes as Founder/CEO of Help For the Helped.
I encourage everyone to listen to what Alexander has to say on I Have Something To Say Live!
For more information about Help For the Help visit www.my.fundraising.com/HelpfortheHelped
Do we trust or blame God?
I have always loved to listen to people stories; this is why I truly love interviewing my guests at I Have Something To Say Live. There is something about interviewing that allows me to make the guest open up and reveal themselves and their messages to my audience. From each interview I learn something new about different lives, different experiences, but once in a while a phrase out of hundred phrases jumps at me only to nag me every day until I re-visit it deeply within my heart. This was the case with my guest author Jackie Carpenter during our interview.
Answering to my question on how people’s faith gets affected by sudden tragedy differently she said:
“It’s very simple. At that moment you have to make a decision. Do you trust in God or do you blame Him for what it is happening to you?”
The interview kept going but her phrase was stuck in my brain. I’ve seen my parents’ struggle with their faith as survivors of WWII recovering from Post-traumatic stress, like all children who grew up in a war zone. But, I’ve seen my grandmothers who have seen as adults firsthand the horrors of war get closer to God through the years.
I couldn’t let it go; you see my own faith journey has known both choices. I had blamed God when my oldest child as a 7 weeks baby stopped breathing 4 times in my arms, and then trusted Him when I was able to revive her. I had trusted God to show me the way through a difficult decision, and then blamed Him when the results of my decision were catastrophic. But at no time I had seen that whether I trusted or blamed Him was my own decision to make.
Do I trust or blame God? What a powerful concept…what will I do on my next crisis? As I keep thinking about it, I realize that this question is within all of us. No matter of credo, language, age, culture. Even for atheists the question to trust or blame is also a choice for them to make when deciding to trust or blame themselves and others.
On all cases trusting when life flows freely harmoniously is so easy; we don’t even realize we make the decision to trust, or to blame our family, our peers, God every day. But when things go wrong and tragedy falls upon us, how we decide can haunt us filling our heart with regret, or it can hold us through…
Will we trust or blame God? We won’t know for sure until we face tragedy.
It was the worst kind of tragedy that answered that question for Jackie. I encourage you to listen to what she had to say on I Have Something to Say Live!
For more information about Jackie Carpenter, her books and the upcoming movie visit her at www.georgiajusticemovie.com
How Far Will You Go for Your Writing?
I have been writing since I was 12 years old, but it wasn’t until I discovered the rich story of my parents that I thought about sharing my writings with anyone other than myself. It wasn’t until I decided to publish that I truly realized how passionate I was about what I had to say.
To get my message out became an urge, a necessity, and a priority. This necessity became stronger than my personality, than my lifestyle. I went from shy to outspoken, from homebound to out and about, from anti-social to social monster! My passion took control of me and hasn’t let go since. Since then I have not just gotten out of my comfort zone by speaking on the radio airwaves, hosting my own online radio, and on appearing on Book signings and speaking events, I was also reaching out to others for opportunities to spread my message and sell my books. Everything that I thought I would never be able to do, seemed not just possible but natural.
Still, I came across and author who did the one thing I have not done, but after hearing his story wished I had! Christopher Herz author of Pharmacology, his second and most recent book, started as a New York self-published author. He went from selling his books on the streets of New York by approaching strangers to offer his book, to have his first novel The Last Block in Harlem published and read worldwide! How? He it to the right person as he sold his book one person at a time out on the streets.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with him in I Have Something To Say Live. I encourage all of you writers out there to listen to what he has to say.
To Listen to his Live interview visit I Have Something To Say Live!
To learn more about Christopher Herz visit www.herzwords.com
What Ever Happened To Professional Courtesy ABC?
As a favor to an Italian TV network and a journalist friend of mine, I called the ABC network to a phone number that was given to me by my Italian journalist friend, and ex-co host of one of my online radio shows.
My mission was to help with the language barrier and get some information for them.
So this week I dialed the phone number and got ABC’s News assignment desk. I began explaining who I was, why I was calling, and who referred me to that number but the person who answered the phone went crazy!
“This is the news; we don’t care about documentaries, why are you calling this number? We are the news, THE NEWS!!”
“I was given this numb…” I tried to word out,
“I don’t know why you got this number. THIS IS THE NEWS!” And he hung up.
Really?
He didn’t even know who I was. I could have been calling for Robert De Niro, about a zillion dollars deal for ABC!
Now, I understand the speed the phone line moves on a newsroom. So why did this ABC representative (because whoever is answering the phone is representing the Company) just say:
“Sorry but you got the wrong number. Please visit our website for the correct information.”
Now, wouldn’t that be faster?
In all honesty, why do we allow others to treat us in such an unprofessional manner? I have been part of ABC’s audience for over 20 years, since I arrived in the US, contributing to their ratings which in turn make them more money. If I call them, no matter what for, the person who answers the phone, regardless of their position should at least have good manners!
Once again I take my blog to vent, and to ask ABC Network and all the other big Companies where their professional courtesy has gone. With all the money they are making off of us, the masses, couldn’t they dedicate some time and dollars to good manner classes for their employees?
As a retired business analyst I am baffled any company owner no matter how small or big will allow people like that answer a phone!
It is a shame that during a time where most times the phone is answered by a recording or an overseas outsourced call center, the one time I got an actual person who speaks my language, that person made me wish I had gotten a recording.
I remember once upon a time when professionalism and customer service was what gave a company the edge over their competitor. So why is it now days that the biggest companies have the worse professional courtesy and customer service?
Maybe it is because we, the masses keep doing business with them anyway. Well, not me. Not this time, not again. ABC will not be one of the channels I click on to listen to the news anymore…
I will not support any company that will not give me the courtesy and respect I deserve as a human being.
I invite you in the masses to take a stand and demand professional courtesy in exchange for your support.
A Long Lost Relative
This past weekend I spoke at the Italian Center in Sacramento California. I was very excited as I was going to present my story to people that most likely shared a similar story with me. It was a great weekend; I got to see old friends, and make new ones, but also was surprised to find a lost relative. As I promoted through Face-book, I was introduced to another cousin from the Sacramento area. So during the event, she came and we got to meet! She is actually married to my grandfather’s brother’s grandson. It can get confusing but it was so much fun meeting a relative of my fathers as I presented his story!
What humbled me at the event was not just discovering a relative from my father’s bloodline, but discovering many other relatives from the heart. I had never realized how many people around me could relate to my own journey as I tried to learn more about my parents’ stories. How many of them didn’t realize, just as I didn’t before, how important it is to record our family stories and our own…
I was truly inspired more than ever to keep my quest alive as I venture deeper in helping others tell their story through I Have Something To Say Press, and keep sharing my journey with my own family stories by publishing book two: Emerging From Rubble (coming out at the end of the year or beginning of 2013), as well as speaking aloud about my journey.
I am grateful to have met each one of the people that came to the event at the Italian Center in Sacramento, and am honored to have learned a little of their stories as they spoke with me, because as matter of fact we are all long lost relatives.
Susan Violante with her found cousin and her friend. Susan Violante the Italian Center Executive Director. We all have something to say, so why not say it aloud; say it live, or in written word. It doesn’t matter how, just say it! For more information on how I can help you to write you story visit www.ihavesomethingtosaypress.com
Businesses Gone Rogue!
For many years I lived a double life. On one hand I was working fulltime in Accounting and Business Analysis and on the other I was a freelance writer and illustrator. I did this from 1994 to 2009. I did this convinced that I was supposed to earn a living working on a big corporation and then satisfy my cravings and talents by doing what I loved as a hobby.
I am not sure how this conviction came to be, maybe a combination of upbringing and opportunity? Who knows, but the truth of the matter is that I knew I was not happy limiting myself to take the opportunities that came my way instead of creating my own opportunities. So I took a leap right after I was diagnosed with Rheumatic Arthritis, and retired from my profession of 20 years with the publication of Innocent War in 2009.
Now, just because I leaped, doesn’t mean that I was reckless. I did my homework to determine whether or not it was something possible to do. I admit that being diagnosed with a chronic illness gave a sense of urgency to leap, but I have also been analyzing businesses for 20 years so I knew how dangerous it is to put romance on top of reality when making a decision.
In the end, I did have to compromise if I wanted to go rouge. I let go of my beautiful huge dream house (which wasn’t that difficult to do as I knew that the stairs would be a problem eventually), budgeted a little and reduced expenses and found a part-time position within the publishing industry, so that I could learn the business while making some income. I never looked back.
My life has changed in more ways than I expected. But more importantly, I changed. I had to take a hard look within and make some adjustments as my lifestyle was changing. Some changes were difficult and some were easier. In the end I was determined to get my goal to dare to go rouge, and so I pressed on.
A few weeks ago I attended what I thought to be a small business workshop happy to escape from computer, hoping to get some business wisdom out of it, and afraid of finding a bunch of aggressive business people that would not relate with me.
Meeting Bob Olmstead in his Small Business Strategist workshop came at the right time for me as he not only was none of the above on my list of what I did not want but expected, he actually was exactly what I needed to get myself to the next level. I was reassured that I was on the right track, but it also made me see things within myself that needed to be let go in order to move forward.
In the days that followed his workshop, I accomplished more than what I had accomplished in the weeks preceding the workshop. I invited Bob to I Have Something To Say Life to share some of his wisdom. If you are thinking to go rogue or you did but feel stuck I invite you to listen to what he has to say. For live interview visit I Have Something To Say Live.
For more information about what Bob can do for you visit him at: www.rogue-sage.com
Our Legacy, what do our successors really need?
Most of us don’t start thinking about our legacy we become parents. Yet, we were children first! What is our parent’s legacy to us? Will we pass it down or did we lose it. There are many things we think of when speaking about family legacy. Most of them though are material, tangible things like money, a house, jewelry, an education, a business. As a child, those things never interested me. I always wanted, I needed their stories.
And so, when I became a parent I set out to create the type of legacy I craved and collected my parents’ lives on tape so that I could write their stories for our successors to read. Like everyone else, I was thinking that by doing so I could leave memories for when they are gone. I was wrong.
Harvesting my parents’ stories actually gave me a present and future with them, while creating a present and future with my own kids. It was not just about reading their memoirs and remembering them after they would be gone. It was about understanding who they were by learning what challenges they had to face. This understanding healed any past wounds I had as a child, and made me a better parent that what I thought I could ever be, because it taught me to show who I am to my own kids as they grow up. This is why it has been my goal to help people say what they have to say, to share their stories and life lessons as my legacy. I know that if we do, a new understanding of ourselves will make a difference in this world. However, I thought that I was alone on this quest. Then I met Lindsay Patterson.
Lindsay is the founder of Reflect & Record through which she helps people to record and preserve their stories in an innovative way. I decided to share what she has to say by inviting her to the show. I encourage everyone to listen to her Live interview at I Have Something To Sat Live.
Below is a peak to Lindsay’s world. For more information you can visit her at www.reflectandrecord.com
Life Scripts
I believe it is possible so I started this year cleaning house to eliminate the clutter…inside-out. I organized my closet, my home office, and my schedule. I created time for everything, work, family, dogs, knitting or reading, and even meditation. Getting rid of the clutter as helped me to take inventory of myself and my life in general. Meditating has allowed me to take the time to self-exploration to identify areas about myself that I am not happy with, as well as habits that I have that might contribute to it.
It is a long process and I am new to this, but I am already seeing small results. To learn more about Rewriting Life Scripts I invited Psychologist and author Irene Watson to I Have Something to Say Live to explain what Life Scripts are and how can we re-write them.
Check out the book!
To listen to Live interview visit I Have Something To Say Live!
Relatives Who Are Chosen Friends.
It is true that friends are chosen family, but sometimes we find relatives who are chosen friends. This is what the Camillo’s have been to me and my family. Since I grew up in Venezuela while they were in the US the contact between them and us was limited to once every few years, and yet a beautiful friendship developed and not only survived the test of time and distance to this day, but it extended to our spouses and children. This is why I was humbled again by life when I got introduced to Nick Camillo’s music and discovered that I not only connected with it but totally love it.
This week, I decided to interview him at I Have Something To Say Live. Now, I’ve always known Nick as the sweet son of my cousins ‘till now. During the interview I discovered that in spite of remaining sweetness he has become a grounded, smart, inspiring young adult…oh and for you young girls out there, did I mention handsome?
No, really this past couple of years I have been very fortunate to come across insanely inspiring people. Today I am insanely thankful to discover one of the most inspiring young musicians today within my own family. Check out his website at www.nickcamillo.com, and be one of the thousands who have gotten a free CD download!
