Ageless Passions by Karen Putz

Tag: speaker

  • The Speaker Journey

    karen putz speaking rotary 2

    A year ago, I embarked on a journey of becoming a speaker. In reality, I had been speaking for years and years, but I shifted my focus to specific topics and audiences. I especially wanted to target the areas of parenting, overcoming adversity, and passion.  It’s been a year of travel, learning, and lots of fun in the process. The best reward of all always comes in the form of feedback– smiles, laughter, or tears.  I especially love it when teachers share their amazement at having their students captivated and engaged, because that’s a tough audience to entertain!

    I’ve been doing a lot of speaking at schools with deaf and hard of hearing students as well as parents, due to two books geared to those audiences, The Parenting Journey, Raising Deaf and Hard of Hearing Children and The Passionate Lives of Deaf and Hard of Hearing People.   I also have a presentation designed for all students called “The Gift of a Different Ability.”

    More and more, I’m getting requests to do a two-hour “Unwrapping Your Passion” workshop. This is a fun, interactive session geared toward discovering your top five passions and creating a life around what you really want most. As a certified Passion Test Facilitator and Passion Coach, I especially enjoy this topic!

    If your school, organization, or business would like a speaker who walks on water (yeah, my other passion is barefoot water skiing!), contact me at karen@karenputz.com or 630-405-6262.

  • 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.