Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Category: Uncategorized

  • Gliding Soles: It’s Not About Barefooting, It’s About Life

    Gliding soles cover

    A first glance, you might think Gliding Soles, Lessons from a Life On Water is a book about barefoot water skiing. It certainly looks like that, with a cover shot of two-time World Barefoot Champion Keith St. Onge gliding on one foot. And two years ago, when I first started writing the book, I had a scary thought: “Who’s going to read a book about barefooting, except barefoot water skiers?”

    Gliding Soles turned out to be so much more.

    Do you know what it’s like to have a dream? To have a passion for something so deep it burns something fierce inside of you? To have a goal so big it seems impossible at times?

    Do you know what it’s like to stumble and fall? Yeah, we call that “faceplanting” in barefooting, but surely you’ve encountered times in life where nothing is going according to plan and you’re not sure if you’re even on the right plan in life. You’ve probably had times in your life when you’ve wondered if it was time to give up on your dreams and throw in the towel. Or maybe you’ve met with nothing but roadblocks on your life path.

    That’s what Gliding Soles is about. It’s about the lessons learned on the journey of life. To me, the most poignant lessons of life always come from the people you meet on your journey and in this book, there are many.  The most heart-touching is the story of Patrick Wehner, who gave Keith a quote card which changed his life and the lives of others in the book. I won’t give away any more– let’s just say you’ll need to pick up Gliding Soles to read the rest of the story.

    Dave Ramsey, Tom Ziglar, and Dan Miller have read the book and shared their enthusiasm for Gliding Soles:

     “I have been a barefoot water skier since age 16.  I never learned the right way to do things, so I got Keith St. Onge to spend a week with me, my son, and some guys to show us how it’s done and teach us some tricks. As my family and I spent time with Keith, getting to know him on and off the water, what really impressed me more than anything was this guy’s character, his integrity and his relentless determination to succeed. I learned a lot from him, and you will too. This book is must read for anyone who wants to win in life.”

     Dave Ramsey, New York Times best-selling author and nationally syndicated radio show host 

     

    “Too many people walk away from their passion with the negative belief that pursuing it would be unrealistic.  Keith skied right toward his passion and has a life of purpose and meaning as a result.  A great example for all doubters and small thinkers.”

    Dan Miller, Author and Life Coach (www.48Days.com)

     

    “Gliding Soles is a powerful book about life detailing the many steps, choices, and falls Keith St. Onge took on his way to becoming World Champion.  I highly recommend it for everyone.  Why?  Because Keith’s story is really your story.

    Life is tough and we all take some hard falls along the way.  The key is getting up, making a better choice, and getting back on your feet.  This book will encourage you to do just that no matter what your goals are in life.”

    Tom Ziglar, Proud son of Zig Ziglar, President of Ziglar Inc. 

    We were honored to have our first two reviews from Steve and Diane Brogan from Mom Pop Pow.  They had just moved into a new home and were still unpacking when they sat down to read Gliding Soles. Their wonderful words warmed my heart and made me cry.  Because you see, after two and half years of working on this book, we learned that writing a book is just 10% of the process, the other 90% is getting readers to crack open the book.

    So we wrote this book for everyone out there who has hopes, dreams and passions–no matter where you are on your life path. At the end of the book, we’ve included a piece in inspiration that we’d like you to include in your life and then pass it on to others. Grab a copy today (the PDF version is here), and let us know about the ripple of inspiration that begins with you– email us at: glidingsoles@gmail.com.

    The only shot we captured before I faceplanted

     

     

     

  • Signing the Holiday Songs

    If you saw me in the audience at Woodfield mall today, you’d spot my beaming smile from a mile away. I watched Steven and Lauren perform with the Traveling Hands Troupe from the International Center on Deafness and the Arts. The kids signed holiday songs in American Sign Language:

    Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), Frosty the Snowman, All I Want for Christmas is You, Jingle Bells, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and Let it Snow.

    ABC News grabbed a video of the first song:

    ICODA Performance at Woodfield Mall

    All I Want for Christmas is You

    This was Steven’s first time performing with the ICODA group and he really surprised the heck out of me. This was the kid who was so shy as a youngster–the one I could never imagine on stage– and there he was today, signing away with a smile.

    Lauren is in her fourth year with ICODA and she’s quite a joy to watch on stage. I’m in awe every time I watch her in a role or signing a song.

    If you have a deaf or hard of hearing child in the Chicago area who would like to join the next production, contact ICODA at:

    info@icodaarts.org

     

  • Neutral is a Shade of Color, Not an Organization

    Hands & Voices gathering

    Eons and eons ago, Leeanne Seaver, the then Director of Hands & Voices issued me a challenge: start up the Illinois chapter of Hands & Voices.

    I hesitated. I had just completed four years with the team from West Suburban Association of the Deaf, growing it from a tiny deaf club with 44 members into a 501c3 non-profit– one of the few which still exist today.  I had three little kids two years apart in age and I worked part-time at the local community college. Did I really want to take on the challenge of starting another non-profit, this time from scratch?

    I didn’t hesitate for long, and here’s why: because every single day, I believe in the mission and the purpose of Hands & Voices:

    Hands & Voices is dedicated to supporting families with children who are Deaf or Hard of Hearing without a bias around communication modes or methodology. We’re a parent-driven, non-profit organization providing families with the resources, networks, and information they need to improve communication access and educational outcomes for their children. Our outreach activities, parent/professional collaboration, and advocacy efforts are focused on enabling Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing children to reach their highest potential.

    Starting up the non-profit organization sure wasn’t easy, but it sure was worth it– and it happened because a team of parents, professionals and deaf and hard of hearing adults believed in the mission as well. Today, Illinois Hands & Voices has expanded under the leadership of two more presidents and includes a state-wide Guide By Your Side program.

    As the years went on, Hands & Voices grew from four chapters and expanded worldwide. There clearly was a need for support without bias for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children on the parenting journey.  Every now and then, I will cross paths with someone who feels Hands & Voices is:

    • Not neutral
    • Not balanced enough
    • Not without bias
    • More “hands” than voices
    • More “voices” than hands

    Before I go any further, I invite you to read Hands & Voices, Supporting Families Without Bias by Leeanne Seaver. This document goes into great detail about the Hands & Voices approach to supporting families.

    In the early days of running the organization, I was often thrown into one camp or another based on someone’s judgment of my communication experience, my personal choices for my children or the communication methods used. To me, that judgement represented everything that Hands & Voices is not. When I look at the families, professionals and deaf/hard of hearing adults involved with Hands & Voices, I see caring individuals who have a heart for children and their futures and I feel really blessed to have crossed paths with so many of them.  At any given time, Hands & Voices is whoever is a part of the organization.  Families and individuals are not the sum of their communication experience and we don’t identify our Hands & Voices organization merely by those choices. We do our best to include everyone who wants to be a part of the movement of providing support without bias to families. Whenever we stumble along the process, we try harder yet again.

    The bottom line is to support families along the journey of raising deaf and hard of hearing children. We all have the same goal in mind: well-adjusted, successful kids.

    As for being “neutral,” to me, that’s a color, not an organization. What I love seeing instead is an organization that is passionate, vibrant and colorful– an organization which is made up of amazing, diverse families, professionals, and individuals who celebrate the many different ways there are of being Deaf/deaf and hard of hearing.

    Now that’s Hands & Voices. And I invite you to be a part of it.

    Hands & Voices who do you stand for

     

  • Steve Claridge, Software Engineer

    Tell me about your job, career, or calling. How did you get into this line of work?

    I’m a software engineer. I started out working for a company that built PC software for hospital radiology departments, then I worked for an academic publisher and then for the molecular imaging department of a corporate behemoth. After those jobs I wanted to get more into the Web and joined another academic publisher, which is where I am today, I build and maintain numerous websites and other systems.

    I got my first computer when I was about eight years old, it was a ZX Spectrum 48k. A few friends had a Spectrum too and we spent countless hours playing all of the great games that were released for the machine; classics like Horace Goes Skiing and Jet Set Willy had us glued for hours but look and play horribly when compared to today’s XBox and Playstation blockbusters.

    It was those games that got me into software development: I didn’t just want to play them I had to know how they worked too. I taught myself how to program the Spectrum so I could make my own games. I wanted to make games for a living, which I never quite did but my fascination with software took me into programming for businesses and website development.

    What is the best part of your job, career, or calling?

    Software development is constantly evolving and new ideas and ways to write programs are appearing all the time. I’ve been writing software professionally for 19 years and I’m still learning new things every day. That’s the most exciting thing. You have to stay on your toes, keep learning, finding new and better ways of creating. Software development is still a fairly young discipline and we’re all still really working out the best way to go about it! People are pushing it in all different directions and it is very interesting to watch and learn from.

    What are some of the challenges?

    Most offices these days are open-plan, which isn’t great for someone with a hearing problem. There’s a lot of noise coming from all directions and hearing is a challenge. I am constantly surprised by how well, and how far, other people can hear across the open-plan desks – I’ll be having a conversation with someone next to me and another person from several desks down will chip into the conversation, how can they hear from way down there?! I have to constantly remind myself that others can, and will be, listening into the conversation I’m having at my desk. If we ever shuffle seats then I try and get a seat with a wall at my back so that the directions that voices are coming from is reduced a little bit.

    The telephone is of course a major problem. I’m generally not great with phones but the office is worst of all, the background noise makes it impossible to hear, especially if its a call involving more than two people, its really hard to follow multiple voices. And meetings where people are using desk-phones are the bane of my life! I use instant messaging system like Skype as much as I can instead of phoning but often people want the human element of a phone call, where I can I book a meting room for myself and use a phone on loud speaker, not having the handset pressed to my ear works better for me.

    Medium to large meetings are often difficult, especially when multiple people are talking. It’s not just difficult to hear in large rooms but it is very hard for me to localize the voice – I can often hear what someone aid but am not sure who said it! If I’m booking a meeting myself then I always make sure I book a small meeting room in a quiet part of the building and I always get a good seat with a wall behind me and everyone facing me – a little preparation goes a long way.

    What was it like growing up deaf/hard of hearing?

    I was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss when I was five. My parents got me a pair of behind-the-ear aids from the NHS, which I wore some of the time, mostly at school. I hated them. I think I wore aids at school until I was about eleven and was moving up to secondary-school – from then on, until I left school I didn’t wear them much at all. I knew I was missing some stuff but I was still getting by OK with close-by conversations and, to be honest, missing some stuff and muddling by seemed far better than wearing hearing aids to 13-year-old me. People were largely OK with my aids and I don’t remember getting teased about them at all, my reasons for not wearing them were all in my own head. By the time I was 13-15 my hearing was getting a bit worse and hearing teachers was probably the hardest part of school. Would I have done better in school if I’d worn my hearing aids? Absolutely. My grades were OK but they could have been much better had I heard what was going on!

    I stupidly thought I was getting away with hiding my hearing loss, but of course I wasn’t. People knew, probably everyone knew but no-one really mentioned it, only on occasions friends with jibe a little about it but nothing nasty – it was those times that I got a bit of a wake up call and realized how much I was missing.

    What advice would you give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a job, career or calling like yours?

    I don’t think a hearing problem should negatively affect your ability to work in software development. More and more companies are using remote teams and communicate mostly using Skype and email, which would be idea for some with hearing loss – these companies tend to be startups or smaller businesses.

    For larger companies, open-plan offices are very popular, if you get the choice of where to sit then think about the best place for you to hear; try and sit with your back to a wall, a corner seat would be the best as you minimize the sounds around you.

    I have always, always, told potential employers about my hearing loss at interviews. If you try and hide it then you are setting yourself up for big problems down the line. If I enter an interview and I can hear everyone OK then I don’t mention it straight away, I leave it to the end so that I’ve hopefully already shown them I can communicate OK it certain circumstances. But always mention it and be honest about it.

    For anyone wanting to get into software development a portfolio is a must. That would be an obvious thing for an artist or a graphic designer but most programmers don’t create one. If you have a strong body of work to show then you are already ahead of most people.

    Steve’s site: Hearing Aid Know

     

  • I’m Fine, Thanks — Are You Really?

    I'm Fine Thanks Live Your DreamEarlier this year, I had the opportunity to share my story of unwrapping my passion for barefoot water skiing after abandoning it for two decades. It was for a movie, I’m Fine, Thanks.

    Heck, I didn’t know Grant Peelle, the director, or Adam Baker, the guy behind Man vs. Debt when this opportunity first presented itself, but my intuition said, “Say yes.”  The movie would include interviews with Pat Flynn, Chris Guillebeau and Jonathan Fields–guys who were well known in the social media/blogging arena. So the crew was set to come to Chicago in early April.

    But there was one problem: I had ACL reconstruction surgery in December and I wasn’t cleared to ski. The doc said, “No way. Absolutely not.” My custom-made brace wasn’t ready.

    The next day, I posted a request on Facebook to borrow a brace. The flurry of responses I received were not pleasant. My dearest friends had decided I lost my mind. I was not cleared to ski, the graft was at its weakest point, and I was planning to borrow a brace that wasn’t even made for me.  I received some texts, emails and messages basically telling me how stupid I was for even thinking about barefooting on a newly-reconstructed-still-healing ACL.

    I told the film crew about the situation and thought we’d have to drop it. But something deep down kept gnawing at me. My intuition was still telling me, “Do this.”

    So I prayed for a sign. I needed the reassurance I was doing the right thing. The gut feeling was so strong, I could not ignore it.

    Sure enough, I found my sign. Moments later, I opened the door to the garage and saw my hip-to-the-ankle hospital brace lying there. I had placed the brace on the garbage heap several times but my husband and kids had never hauled it out to the curb on garbage day. It sat in the garage for two solid months.

    That’s my sign!

    Adam gets ready for the interview

    So that’s how five guys landed on my doorstep on Tuesday morning on the last leg of their U.S and Canada trip covering nearly 15,000 miles of terrain.  Besides Grant and Adam, the crew included  Bryan Olinger (cameraman), John Cropper (cameraman) and Dustin Koester (production assistant).

    Kevin O’Connell (boat driver), John and Grant

    It was a blast working with the Crank Tank crew–five great guys! They filmed the interview in my living room and the next day, we took off for the Fox River in St. Charles and met up with my footin’ buddies, Kevin O’Connell and Tom Hart. I slapped on the huge brace, crawled out on the boom and did two runs down the river. It was a beautiful, cold spring day. The crew also captured Tom and Kevin on the water, but that footage didn’t make it in the movie.

    Both Grant and Bryan did some barefooting for the first time. Oh wait, let me say this: Grant did some spectacular faceplanting that day.The poor guy was sore for days afterwards.

    Bryan barefooting for the first time
    This is gonna hurt!

    Adam wrote about their journey here:

    The Making of I’m Fine Thanks, Part One

    The Making of I’m Fine, Thanks, Part Two

    Well, the day is finally here– the movie is out!  You can order the DVD or download the digital version (yes, it is captioned) here:

    I’m Fine, Thanks –The Movie

    I’ve watched the movie twice so far and plan to watch it again and again.  If you’re living a life of mediocrity and complacency, the movie is a great wake-up call. Shape your life so the next time someone asks how you are, you can say, “I’m more than fine, I’m $%&* awesome!

    Grant sums up the movie so perfectly at the end:

    “If I learned one thing on this road trip is that there is no script. Life isn’t about which job you take– it’s about chasing your passions and holding on to them through the ups and downs.”

    I’m giving away a DVD of the movie randomly to one person who leaves a comment by midnight, November 12, 2012. Tell me what kind of answer you’d give if someone asked about your life today.

    The crew gets ready to film.
    Tom gives Grant a barefooting lesson

     

     

     

  • Even Champions Cry

    Karen Putz and Keith St. Onge

    Last year, I sat in the boat unloading my feelings of frustration on two young barefoot water skiers. I was struggling on the water trying to learn a new trick and it just wasn’t happening.  My first barefoot tournament was  a month away and I didn’t feel ready at all. I didn’t have a trick run put together.  Slaloming behind the boat was a hit or miss affair and I had no confidence in my skills.  It was like a domino effect: the lack of confidence translated to a poor performance on the water.  To top it off, Coach Swampy made me cry on the very first day of that week.  Nothing was working well for me.

    So when I unloaded on the two youngsters who were training me, I learned about their own struggles on the way to becoming experts in the sport.  I  learned they both also had moments when they, too, broke down in tears.  (And just for the record, both occasions occurred with Coach Swampy. Just saying.  Bahahahaha!)

    Not too long ago I received a message from a friend who said to me, “You make the barefooting look so easy.”  Then another message from a friend who said, “Wow, writing comes naturally for you.”  Yet another expressed surprise when I shared I was having a really down day. “You’re always so upbeat on your Facebook and Twitter page.”

    The thing is, I have my struggles.  We all do. They don’t call it a journey for nothing. And the other thing is, people often see the end results of success but are unaware of the hard stuff that comes before the outcome.

    Two and half years ago, I started writing a book with Keith St. Onge, the two-time World Barefoot Champion. When we started this book, we literally did not know each other at all. I had taken two half-day lessons from him at the World Barefoot Center in Florida. When we took on this project together it was a crazy gamble. I had no idea if his story was even worthy of a book. He had no clue if I could write.  I had not  published a book of my own.   Keith called his mother for advice; she was confident he should go ahead with the project.  Deep down, something propelled both of us to take a leap of faith and start writing together.

    We spent hours on the phone with an interpreter translating everything while I took notes.  We once spent nearly an entire day on the phone and my hands became numb from the typing. Many mornings, I woke up at five a.m. to write before beginning my sales job. There were evenings when Keith would come in from an eight-hour day of pulling students and we tackled the book.  We spent several hours at a time at the local Crispers restaurant where I once fell asleep on top of the laptop.  Our spouses began to grumble about the “other guy/other woman” who was taking so much time away.

    For two and half years, we wrote and we wrote until we ended up with a book that was nearly 400 pages long and had to cut it back. What unfolded was an incredible story of passion, goals, and dreams; and the ups and downs it took to succeed. And I learned, yes, even champions cry. In his book, Gliding Soles, Lessons from a Life on Water, Keith opens his soul and shares every lesson of triumph and failure.

    So after two and half years, Gliding Soles isnow a reality. Keith and I are thankful we had no idea what we were getting into  for had we known, we might have given up before we even began.   The long hours and toil were well worth it as Dave Ramsey, Dan Miller, Tom Ziglar and Glen Plake are some of the folks who’ve endorsed the book.

    While glancing through my notes recently, I came across a few paragraphs which we didn’t include in the book but the topic fits this blog post so well I had to share:

    “Passion can burn deep down inside. I remember falling while I was training on the water as a teen. I began to cry. I tried to stop myself from crying before the boat crew came back to pick me up but they asked why I was crying. I could not answer. I just knew the passion deep down inside of me was like a ball of fire. I had failed to do the trick and paid the price in a fall, but I would not give up until I mastered it.

    Passion is when you cry from failure and have no idea why, but you will do anything to figure it out and succeed. “

     

    Yes, even champions cry.

     

    Keith St. Onge

    .

  • In Praise of Meditation

    20121012-112108.jpg

    Every day, I spend some time meditating in quiet thought. I start with some gratitude, for I find it gets me in a good frame of mind. Then I spend some time “sitting for ideas,” a process I learned from Debra Poneman.

    I love finding new places to meditate surrounded by nature. This morning, I went out to a dock in Winter Haven surrounded by reeds. It was the perfect place to be alone in thought.

    I had been feeling so weighed down for a while, the result of going in too many different directions. It’s that lovely “ADD” aspect of me. I try hard to control it, but sometimes I let it get the best of me.

    After the go-go-go of the last several weeks, the stillness of the morning took over. I sat there for a long time. A hawk flew overhead. I thought of my friendMary Clark who passed away recently and I began to cry.

    A good, cleansing cry. I needed it.

    As I stood up to walk back, a bird flew out from the reeds. It was a red-winged blackbird.

    My dad.

    /missin-dad-one-year-later/

  • Elise Whitworth, Entrepreneur and Web Developer

    Tell me about your job, career, or calling. How did you get into this line of work?

    It’s a long story!  I’ll try to tell it as simply as I can…

    I first started my career in mass communications and design industry in 1997 when I served as News Editor, then as Business Manager, and finally as Managing Editor of the student paper at Gallaudet University. During my time at the newspaper and as a student, I learned design software and became an avid user of the internet, critical skills that I later used at my jobs as Production Manager and Content Manager at dot com startups, then as a web development contractor.

    During those years, I loved hosting the occasional party, big unforgettable bashes, always complete with entertainment, drinks, and food.  I also enjoyed doing occasional part time work for a variety of event planning companies doing event deco, set up, catering, serving, and clean up.

    Out of all my work, I loved event work the most, so I attended University of California, San Diego for an extended studies course in event planning and earned a certificate.

    I launched my first website, EyeOnEvents.com, in January of 2003 – an events and news calendar site for the deaf and hard of hearing community.  I had to shut down the site while I was ill from my second pregnancy. A friend liked what I did and later asked me to build a website for him, he’d pay me. I was surprised, said OK and built his website. He referred me to someone, then that person referred me, and so on. Before long, I found herself doing web development almost full time while taking care of two young children at home.  But I always wanted to get back to the event industry.

    Two years ago I decided to bring back EyeOnEvents.com, rebranded as Eventida.com, an event promotion site where one can post events for any community, specifying which language is spoken or interpreted at the event; ASL, ENG, or SPA.  Eventida.com allows me to combine my skills, experience, and love for both web development and events.

    Meanwhile, I’ve continued to provide web development services to clients for income, working with my husband and business partner, who is a web developer too.

    If you think about it – newspapers, websites, and events are all really about the same thing; the user experience.  That is what I specialize in; creating user experiences.

    What is the best part of your job, career, or calling?

    The best part is the ability to apply my creative thinking skills, and getting positive feedback from the users who enjoy what I produce, be it an event or website.  With website work, I’ve always enjoyed learning about different industries, such as filmmaking or manufacturing.

    It’s also wonderful to be able to use technology to bring me to a level playing field when it comes to being deaf in a hearing world, with email and IM allowing me to communicate.

    I also love being my own boss and ability to set my own hours so that I can be there for my family when needed.

    What are some of the challenges?

    Some of the best parts are also the biggest challenges: the fact that there are so many different industries usually means different requirements that sometimes the clients don’t think to tell me about; I do find that some hearing people are really “phone people” relying a lot on verbal tones, and that puts me at a disadvantage when I’m not able to voice directly to them in my tone; and when there’s a big deadline and I’m working insane hours, it takes me away from my family.

    I also find myself dealing with assumptions and mis-interpretations; there are people who think I’m just lazing around at home, putting in the occasional hour or two of work, when I actually work more hours than most people at a 9 to 5 job.   Or a simple, brief email that I quickly pop off is interpreted as me being curt and cranky and it goes downhill from there.

    Client management is hard.  You have to communicate, communicate, communicate.  For creative people like me, I usually just want to focus on producing.  I’m just not “on” as a communicator all the time, and have to be “in the mood” to talk. That’s always been one of my biggest challenges.  I’m typically “on” when it comes to writing, designing, coding, promoting, planning task lists, doing project breakdowns – I love to produce tangible results.

    There are no benefits when you’re self employed – you have to pay health insurance, taxes, and when you go on vacation, the income stops – unless you have a turnkey product or website that sells itself 24/7.  

    What was it like growing up deaf/hard of hearing?

    Honestly, that’s a hard question to answer since I’ve been deaf my whole life.  How can I compare it to not being deaf?   I can say that, growing up, I’ve felt glad to be deaf.  Instead of living a boring life growing up in the same neighborhood and knowing the same people all my life, I’ve met people from all over the state, and later during college, people from all over the world.  Being deaf has given me a unique experience and perspective on life that I appreciate having.  I’ve always valued uniqueness – one of my favorite sayings is “variety is the spice of life.”

    I can read lips and speak really well, so that probably contributed to me not minding so much being deaf while growing up – I didn’t experience the same level of frustrations that some of my peers have.  I enjoyed music, had the occasional hearing friend, grew up in an area that was densely populated with deaf people (southern California).

    However, I do find myself appreciating being deaf less and less as I get older, and the challenges become bigger.  When you’re a kid, what responsibilities do you have?  Not much!  The more responsibility I have, the more I feel the barriers that I have to overcome.

    Having hearing children has made me feel more deaf than I ever have in my life – if I can’t understand what someone is saying to me, then I can brush it off and move on – I have people I can communicate with in sign language, I’m satisfied.  But now, when there is some stranger is talking to my kids, or we need to talk to my kids’ teacher or scout leader, and we can’t understand – then it’s hard, I can’t just brush it off because I care about my kids more than anything else.

    Also, as a professional, as I’ve found it challenging to successfully grow my business, network – I am certainly feeling the “glass ceiling” more and more.  Thoughts such as “if I weren’t deaf, maybe…” now pop into my head, that I almost never had growing up.

    Even in the deaf community, where one may think I’d have an easier time, it’s tougher – there are a lot of biases in the deaf community against one another.  I’m not going to say anything more about that issue right now, that could be a whole other article, or book!

    What advice would you give a deaf/HH person who is looking for a job, career or calling like yours?

    Most of the advice I have is for contractors / self employed.  There’s a whole other set of advice for someone running a business with employees or building a Software As A Service product.  I’ll save that for yet another article, another day.

    1. Don’t accept just any client or project – be selective, set up ways to “filter” potential clients.  A bad client can consume your attention, kill your motivation, and worst of all, say bad things about you to other people who may be potential clients.

    2. Keep up with industry trends and maintain skills – attend workshops, conferences regularly.

    3. Make sure you always set aside time to keep up with marketing efforts.  It’s easy to fall into the pattern of working on client projects full time and when it’s over, have to drum up more business, and possibly run the risk of accepting a bad client or project just because you need the revenue.   It’s a hard pattern to break once you’re in it.

    4. Commit to always providing the highest quality, being consistent and dependable.

    5. Don’t undervalue yourself.  Being affordable and inexpensive may allow you to get more clients quickly, but then you will be less able to provide true quality, hire help, and will eventually burn yourself out.  The more expensive you are, the more careful clients will be with your time, and naturally respectful, the happier you will be.  Closing the sale will be harder, but worth it.

    And most importantly: know yourself.  This applies to all of the above; if you’re highly creative but mercurial, not the most dependable person, make sure your client knows that beforehand – don’t commit to deadlines – or get a partner who doesn’t mind dealing with the client and delays because you produce awesome stuff.  If you have a hard time turning down projects or filtering clients (ie., you trust people easily), make sure you’re not the person responsible for client sales.  Or, if you’re not that creative, get a creative partner and focus more on logistics, client management, etc.  Maybe you want to work from home, but then reality shows that no, you need to be around people to stay focused on tasks.

    The more you know yourself (and be honest with yourself), the more you can adjust your working practices, find the right partners / employees to complement you… in the end, achieving success.  Be warned: it will probably take years.  But persist and you’ll get there.  You won’t, if you blame everybody but yourself for your failures and setbacks.

    BACKGROUND INFO

    Elise was born deaf, the youngest child of six, and raised in Orange County, California. After graduating from California School for the Deaf, Riverside, in 1992, she attended community college for one year before enrolling at Gallaudet University. She majored in English with a concentration in Journalism and minored in Business Management.

    Loving her life in Hurricane, Utah with husband Lee and two boys, 8 and 10, Elise spends her spare time with her family, reading books, and traveling.

    Pitch in for the development and expansion of Eventida: Fundable, Eventida




  • More Praise for Tommie Copper

    tommie copper logo

    Early this morning, while flipping through the cable channels at a hotel, I came across the Tommie Copper segment and thought back to the first time I came across the company in the early spring:

    Discovering Tommie Copper

    To have my knee pain disappear completely after all those weeks of taping my knee over in therapy– priceless!

    I had another opportunity to experience the miracle of these copper sleeves over the summer.  During one of my slalom practices while barefooting, I pulled a muscle in my forearm.  I had trouble gripping the handle for three weeks and the pain just would not go away.  I skied the Regionals and the Nationals and kept icing the same spot.

    It was time to test out a Tommie Copper arm sleeve to see if I could get the same relief I received from their knee sleeve.  The company sent me an arm sleeve to try.

    Sure enough, within 48 hours of wearing the copper-infused compression sleeve, the pain was cut in half.  After two weeks of wearing it, the pain had disappeared completely.  So now that I’ve experienced two of their products and gained relief with both, I’m even more of a fan of this company.  I’ve been recommending the products to everyone I know who has experienced pain of any kind.

    Tommie Copper Arm Sleeve

    Next week, I’ll be heading out to the World Barefoot Center for a week of barefooting.  As always, by the third day, my body will start screaming.  I think if I order every single Tommie Copper product, I would be covered from neck to toe.  That should work!

     

  • New Book: The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children

    It’s here, a brand-new book for parents of deaf and hard of hearing children:

    The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children (Kindle and paperback).

    I actually started writing this book three years ago, but I didn’t get more than a few pages completed here and there. Thanks to my kick-in-the-pants neighbor and business coach, Jean Kuhn and Dan Miller’s two words of advice at his Coaching with Excellence workshop (Take action!), I finally applied some gazelle intense focus over the summer and completed the project.

    The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children captures the lessons I’ve learned on the journey of raising three deaf and hard of hearing kids who are now teens. I also share my insights from the professional perspective of working in early intervention and as a person who is deaf.

    Yesterday, it captured a top spot for the hearing category on Amazon:

    And Lee Woodruff kindly gave it a tweet:

    Speaking of Lee, she has a new book out: Those We Love The Most. Lee is an amazing writer. On Friday night, I shared an excerpt from her other book, Perfectly Imperfect, at the Iowa Symposium on Hearing Loss. Lee has a chapter titled, “A Different Ability,” where she shares her journey as a mom of a deaf daughter.

    Grab a copy of The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and discover the two questions that every deaf and hard of hearing kid wants the answers to.