Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Tag: barefooting

  • Writer. Speaker. Barefoot Waterskier. Mom.

    “Writer, Speaker, Barefoot Waterskier, and Mom.”

    That’s basically me in a nutshell. The more expanded version is this:

    Due to family genetics and a hard fall while barefoot water skiing at age 19, my path in life drastically shifted direction. One beautiful summer day I turned to cross the wake and caught a toe. After I cart wheeled to a stop I realized that I could no longer hear anything. In an instant, I went from hard of hearing to deaf. After months of grieving, I finally dried the tears and embraced life as a deaf person. I graduated with a B.S. and M.A. in Counseling, helping others learn how to embrace new life paths of their own.

    Life handed me more challenges raising three deaf and hard of hearing children–and tackling a world that doesn’t embrace people who are hard of hearing or deaf. I provide support to families with Deaf/Hard of Hearing children at Hands & Voices, a parent-driven organization dedicated to providing non-biased support to families with deaf and hard of hearing children. I founded the Illinois chapter of Hands & Voices.

    In 2008, a simple visit to a local fast food joint turned into a viral rant heard around the world when a Steak and Shake denied service to myself and family because we were deaf. The incident was picked up by Fox and ABC news and several newspapers. Bloggers from around the world chimed in: Steak ‘n Shake, Looks Like This Touched a Nerve. The Consumerist landed over 200 comments as people discussed the situation. Deaf Life did a five-page spread on the story. Down in Australia, the topic was a large part of a presentation given at an RMIT Communicator of the Year Awards banquet. Diversity, Inc. did a story and a video interview with captioning. As a result of the Steak ‘n Shake incident, other food services and companies are now changing their policies and providing training programs to ensure access for deaf and hard of hearing customers.

    I previously worked as a Sales Manager for a videophone company and for the Chicago Tribune TribLocal.  Today, I write for Hearing Like Me and the Chicago Now Blog.

    Twenty five years after becoming deaf from barefoot water skiing, I embraced my passion and took up barefooting again. I manage the blog for the World Barefoot Center and train with the World Barefoot Champions, Keith St. Onge and David Small.

    I love helping others unwrap their passions. Shoot me an email at karen@ karenputz.com if you’d like to unwrap yours.

     

     

  • 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

     

     

     

  • 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

    .

  • 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!

     

  • Skiing in the 2012 Barefoot Nationals

    The 2012 Barefoot Nationals were held in the same place as last year at the Barefoot Ski Ranch in Waco, Texas. Even the heat was the same as last year, hitting 108 on one of the days.

    Since the doctor was adamant about waiting the full nine months after ACL surgery, I took it really easy over the summer and didn’t do anything new. I was pretty much happy to be able to stand up and make it down the lake.  I stood up a little too fast on my trick run, but the nice crew granted me a re-ride. My brace flew off, so we headed back to the dock to tape it. It didn’t matter– the darn thing flew off twice on both falls, leaving me with bruises on my left leg and a black eye.  Slalom wasn’t much better– the first run was okay, but I fell on the second run.

    Back to the drawing board to learn how to barefoot all over again for next year.

    But the best part of the tournaments is not the skiing, it’s the people. I’ve met so many people who inspire me and push me to new heights. They’re accomplishing amazing things with their lives.  I took a moment to grab a photo with Jim Boyette, the world’s oldest barefoot competitor:

    Jim is amazing– he’s been to every single Nationals since the first one in 1978. You can read more about him here:

    World’s Oldest Competitive Barefooter

    Jim Boyette, Still Competing

    Keith St. Onge and I were interviewed by KWTX TV Channel Ten and we had the chance to talk about his upcoming book, “Gliding Soles,” which will be released in September.  Keith and I spent the last two years writing this book together and we uncovered some amazing stories from his life journey and the lessons he learned along the way.

    The print version of the interview is here (the video portion was removed):

    Deaf Skier Overcomes Adversity

    A big thank you goes out to Phonak and HearingLikeMe, the company who made it possible to compete in tournaments. Another thank you goes out to Anytime Fitness Naperville, Badger Balm (they supplied the sunscreen and lip balm) and Tommie Copper.

    Next up is Women’s Week at the World Barefoot Center, where I’m hoping to accomplish a back-to-front instead of a back-to-splat:

  • Solution for Knee Pain: Tommie Copper

    I woke up early one morning before a speaking gig a few weeks ago and I couldn’t get back to sleep.  For once, I didn’t feel like reading or writing, nor did I want to get out of bed.  So I turned on the TV.  Well, there’s not much on in the wee hours.  I came across Montel Williams talking about a Tommy Copper compression sleeve.  I was intrigued, because the owner/inventor, Tom Kallish, created this product after a devastating waterskiing accident left him in chronic pain.

    I had my ACL reconstructed last December and in the middle of the rehabilitation process, I developed a rubber-band string of pain over the knee. This pain only happened when going up and down the stairs or doing squats.  In physical torture therapy, the therapists felt it was a tracking issue and the solution was to tape my kneecap over to the side.  This took pressure off the tendon/ligament and provided a little relief.

    I needed another solution, and I couldn’t get the Tommie Copper thing out of my mind.  After a few tweets, the company sent me a knee sleeve to try out. I also wanted to test it on the water as well.

    After the first day, I didn’t notice much difference, but I welcomed the additional support that the sleeve gave me.   By the second day, there was an improvement.  I could go up the stairs without having to hang half of my weight on the banister.  By the third day, I was sold.  The compression sleeve was very comfortable to wear and I often forgot that I was wearing it.  As the days went on, I noticed a marked improvement in the pain when going up and down the stairs.

    Yesterday was a real test– I forgot to put the sleeve on and left the house.  By the end of the night, my knee was aching after hitting the stairs. The sleeve is back on this morning.

    A big thank you goes out to the Tommie Copper gang– thank you for a great product!  It’s a product I’m definitely recommending to folks who are experiencing aches and pains.

    Tommie Copper Knee Sleeve

    And last week, during a filming for the documentary, I’m Fine, Thanks, I wore the Tommie Copper knee sleeve buried under a humongous brace.  I crawled out on the boom for two barefoot runs for the camera– and I had no pain while bending the knee.

    Now, if Tommie Copper comes out with a tie dye or water design, I’ll be stylin this summer!

  • Deaf and Barefooting Worlds Collide

    Four years ago, Jodi Cutler and I connected in the blogosphere as parents of deaf/hard of hearing kids and bloggers.  Her blog,  An American Mom in Tuscany: Jordan’s Cochlear Implant Story chronicles her life in Italy with her son, Jordan.  After years of connecting via the written word, I gave her a call and we talked on the phone for the first time.  The ZVRS interpreter had amazing skills and the conversation flowed smoothly.  I was so excited to finally connect with Jodi via phone.

    After we ended our conversation, I quickly thanked the interpreter and was about to hang up.  “Wait, don’t hang up!” she signed.  “Are you a barefooter?”

    “Yup!” I said. I figured she must have read my story in the media in the past year.  She pointed to a picture that was propped up on a desk behind me.  “I recognized Keith St. Onge!” she said.  “He taught me ten years ago in a clinic in Ohio!”

    Deaf World.  Barefooting World.  Bam!

    Jess and I skyped one night and she shared her story.  Jess was in fourth grade when her father bought a Ski Nautique and he taught her to water ski. Her father grew up on the Ohio river and he loved hamming it up on the water.  “He could ski on a paddle!” Jess said.  A year later, they saw a guy barefooting and Jess was fascinated.  “I want to learn that!” she told her dad.  So he went over and asked the guy to teach her.  Gripping the boom outfitted in a long-sleeve wetsuit with a vest on top, Jess put her feet on the water and skied away.  “I thought it was the coolest thing!”

    And boy, was she hooked.  Her parents bought property on a private lake.  Jess wanted to learn more, so she taught herself.  In the mid-1990s, she pulled up video after video of Keith St. Onge on the Barefoot Central website and watched them over and over.  She learned the deep water start off the five-foot line through a lot of trial and error.  Jess became friends with another barefooter on the lake, Ron Kara, who trained with Keith in Florida.  “Ron taught me to barefoot backwards, I think in ninth grade,” said Jess. “I struggled with backwards– I couldn’t get my chest off the water.  I ended up bleeding and bruised, but I wouldn’t give up.”  It took Jess a year, but when she finally got up backwards on her feet, it was a sweet achievement.

    Jess joined the Sea World ski show in Ohio when she was sixteen.  Barefooting in a ski show was a whole other form of barefooting– Jess had to get used to skiing in all kinds of water and weather conditions.  Ron brought Keith to Ohio, and he worked with Jess to improve her skills.

    One day, after Sea World practice, Jess was sitting on a bench waiting for her father to pick her up.  She noticed a girl sitting next to her and began to make conversation.  The girl pointed to her ear and shook her head.  “I realized she was deaf, so I remembered some sign language that I learned in second grade and signed to her,” said Jess.  Hi, my name is Jess, she signed and fingerspelled.

    That encounter unwrapped another passion for Jess.  She wanted to learn American Sign Language so she signed up for a class.  After high school, she went to the University of Pittsburg and then transferred to McDaniel in Maryland.  She graduated with a degree in Deaf Education, with minors in education, deaf studies and art history.  “I’m an overachiever,” Jess chuckled.  After teaching in a public school, Jess realized that she wanted to work in a one-on-one setting, so she decided to pursue a Masters in counseling at Gallaudet University, where classes are taught in American Sign Language. She now has her own private practice: Counseling for Children and Young Adults.

    “I stopped barefooting in college, but that summer, I wanted to get back into it,” said Jess.   Her father did some research and located Dave Miller, a competitive barefooter near the D.C./Virginia area.  Jess got back on the water in 2005 and continued to improve her skills.

    I was so thrilled to connect with Jess and invited her to ski at the World Barefoot Center Women’s Barefoot week next year.  An interpreter who barefoots– wow, that’s a path connected by a higher power!  After we ended our skype conversation, I was thankful for one thing:  my procrastination, project-to-project jumping, and disorganization. My nickname may be Skippy because of that, but if I had nailed that picture on another wall like I intended to do weeks ago, I would have hung up on that phone call without two worlds colliding.

  • EntreLeadership: A Playbook for Life

    When Dave Ramsey’s signed copy of EntreLeadership arrived in the mail, I settled down for the night and figured I would read a few pages.  Two hours later, it was one a.m. when I turned out the light.  Yup, the book captivated me right from the start.  Bill Kybels, a senior pastor from Willow Creek Church, summed up my feelings about the book:

    “I love this book! One minute Dave sounds like a Harvard prof, and the next minute he is coming at you like an alley fighter!  Either way you will wind up being a better leader.”

    You cannot lead without passion,  Dave writes.   How true this is.  The most successful leaders are driven by passion, and it is this passion that sustains them year after year.  After reading the chapter on passion, I immediately thought of Hands & Voices. When I first joined this parent-driven organization, there were just three chapters. I agreed to start the fourth chapter– only because I saw the passion that burned in the eyes of Leeanne Seaver and Janet DesGeorges.  Their passion mirrored my own, and I knew I found a home in this organization.  If there’s a testimonial to the power of passion that leads, then Hands & Voices embodies it.  In less than ten years, we went from a handful of chapters to world wide.

    But back to the book.  At first glance, one might simply think this is a business book about leadership, nothing more.  At first, I wondered what I might get out of it– after all, I’m a mom, a writer, an early intervention provider and a board member.  But then I remembered that I’m also a Send Out Cards distributor, and hello… that’s a business.  And since I’m at the beginning of it all, I’m where Dave was back when he set up a card table in his living room.  Dave calls this his playbook, in fact, he calls this a “championship playbook for business.”  But I find that definition to be too narrow.  When I turned the last page of this book, I realized it was so much more than just about leadership in business. It was in fact, a playbook for life.

    Throughout the whole book, I found myself underlining bits of wisdom that I could apply to every day life.  One of my favorites: “You are never too old. You are never the wrong color. You are never too disabled. You are never the wrong political party. There is never a big enough obstacle to keep a person with passion operating in a higher calling from winning. ”  Good stuff.  And it applies to anything in life.

    You know what else I liked about this book? Dave opens up wide about the mistakes he made along the way and shows how he evolved as a leader.  How many times have we placed someone on a pedestal and thought to ourselves, “I’m not like them, they’re so successful, so good at what they do, I could never get to where they are.”  So we don’t even bother to try. We don’t push ourselves and test our limits, because we’re measuring ourselves against someone who has paid the price to get where they are today.

    Not only is Dave a great leader, but he happens to be a barefoot water skier as well.  Deep into the book, in a chapter about recognizing others, he shares a tidbit about Keith St. Onge, the two-time World Barefoot Champion:

    “Because of our success and the media I do, I have been blessed to meet many famous and world-class people.  A few years ago I met and became friends with the world champion in a particular sport.  I was a little worried that he would be arrogant and instead he was gentle, kind, polite, and an amazing athlete.  As we talked late one night at my kitchen table he told me of the untold hours and sacrifice his father had gone through to help him train through his teenage years.  He humbly attributed his world champion status to his dad’s encouragement and sacrifice.”

    Without Keith knowing, Dave sent a two-page letter to his parents, Claude and Jackie, sharing what he observed from working with Keith and thanking them for being great parents.  “I was totally emotional reading it,” said Claude. “Having Dave compliment our son and us– well, I had tears of joy. I read it more than once.”

    “When I got that letter, I felt so proud,” said Jackie.  “For a long time, I didn’t feel that I had anything to do with his success. I was grateful that Dave took the time to share what he thought about Keith, that he expressed his feelings in a letter to us.”

    The ripple of that letter goes on.  When I first read a copy of Dave’s letter to Keith’s parents a year ago, I started to become more aware of how I could recognize and honor others in my life.  I sent out cards, letters and emails and took more time to acknowledge the impact of those I’ve crossed paths with. And that’s what EntreLeadership will do for you– it’s not just a playbook for businesses, it’s a playbook for life.  Dave ends the book saying, “Go make a difference in the way business is conducted.”  But you won’t change just the way you conduct business, you’ll change the way you journey through life.

     

     

  • Giving Away a Signed Copy of ‘Aspire’ by Kevin Hall

    One of my treasured books is Aspire, Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words, by Kevin Hall.  Kevin and I connected last summer when he reached out on Facebook and we struck up a conversation about barefoot water skiing.  I read his book last August and Aspire instantly became one of several books that I recommended to just about anyone I talked to.

    Aspire, Are You Living Your Life’s Purpose?

    “Dive in with all your heart, follow your bliss, and people will appear to help you with what you want most,” Kevin wrote in an email.  And that’s exactly what I did in the year after I read Aspire.  And just as Kevin said, people began appearing to help me achieve new things.  For instance, I wanted to barefoot every month of 2011.  A crazy idea, actually. I certainly wasn’t sure how that was going to happen, especially since I’m from Chicago– where the lakes are frozen a couple months out of the year.  But as of this month, I have barefoot water skied 11 months out of the year.  Just last Saturday, I barefooted in Wisconsin for the Freeze4Life fundraiser. I only missed one month, in April.  You can read more here:  Following Your Bliss (printed in the Chicago Tribune TribLocal, June 2011.)

    Kevin kindly sent me several copies of his book for family members and one copy for me to give away to my readers. Winner will be randomly chosen.  To enter, leave a comment (comments will be closed Friday, December 9 at midnight CST) that shares your thoughts on the following paragraph from Aspire:

    “The first thing I do when I’m coaching someone who aspires to stretch, grow and go higher in life is to have that person select the one word that best describes him or her.”

    Artist. Wordsmith. Communicator. Peacekeeper. Perfectionist. Manager. Organizer. Leader. Connecter. Director. Musician.

    “There are no restrictions other than it must be only one word, and the ultimate decision is up to you,” he writes.

    What is your word?

    Leave a comment and share your word, and you may soon hold a copy of Aspire in your hands.

     

    Update:  The new owner of a signed copy of Aspire is Angela Botz from Illinois who was number 13 in the comments!