To know if you’re achieving goals, improving, or declining, you need to track your metrics. This week I explore what that means and talk about some of the tools that can put a score on your performance as I explore the Quantified Self. Learn more at http://Strokecast.com/Quantified
I wasted an entire day of climbing stairs because I forgot to bring my Fitbit. Since I didn’t track it, it feels like it didn’t count. If it didn’t count, then why are my legs sore? Hmm. Strange.
The Quantified Self is the fancy new word for using technology to monitor our health and activity. The Fitbit, a small simple pedometer that tracks step and sleep quality, and the Wii Fit, a Nintendo that made exercise and balance a game, are some of the early modern examples of this.
This movement fed off the popular perception that we need to get 10,000 steps a day to be healthy. The reality is more nuanced than that, but it’s a nice round number that can inspire people to walk more.
I use my Fitbit to keep track of the steps I do and the amount of sleep I get to fuel my ongoing recovery.
Other stroke survivors can benefit, too. It’s important to monitor, track, and quantify our performance so we know if we are achieving our goals.
It’s also important to help prevent another stroke.
Regularly checking and recording our blood pressure at home is one important element. For most of us we want it under 120/80 consistently. We don’t know we’re doing that unless we track it and record it.
It can be the same way with weight. Or blood sugar. Or any of a number of different metrics our doctors may suggest we keep track of.
The key is the consistency over time. An individual reading is much less important than the pattern of the readings over time.
There are a lot of tools that can help us keep track of important metrics.
The Fitbit can keep track of steps and sleep.
Omron makes a wide array of inexpensive home blood pressure monitors. The also make the much more expensive Omron HeartGuide, a smart watch that will read your blood pressure.
Strokecast regular Dr. Nirav Shah has a startup company that tracks home blood pressure data and helps you share it with your medical team. He talked about Sentinel Healthcare in this episode.
And the other important tool can simply be a notebook and pen. You want to capture the data and look at it over time. The power is in the patterns.
Hack of the Week
I shredded a Costco chicken the other night so my girlfriend can make soup. I took Dan Oosterhaus’s advice and used my tone to do it.
In my left, affected fist, I threaded a fork up through my alternate fingers. Because my tone was strong that day, the fork was going nowhere.
I was able to use it to hold the chicken in place while I used another for in my unaffected right hand to pull the meat .
One of the important things to remember about post-stroke life is that we can come up with new and different ways to accomplish a task.
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Don’t get best…get better.
Strokecast is the stroke podcast where a Gen X stroke survivor explores rehab, recovery, the frontiers of neuroscience and one-handed banana peeling by helping stroke survivors, caregivers, medical providers and stroke industry affiliates connect and share their stories.
If you project confidence on stage your audience is more likely to believe you. If you are confident, you’ll feel less nervous getting up to speak.
Confidence doesn’t come for free, though. You have to earn it. And you earn it by doing to work — by planning, editing, revising, practicing and rehearsing. If you don’t do the work, you don’t deserve the confidence and probably should be nervous.
So if you find you lack confidence in your public speaking, ask yourself, “Did I do the work to deserve it?” If the answer is, “No,” okay. Now you know what you have to do in the future.
Building blocks with Cory Truax
Cory’s story is one of building. He didn’t become a speaker by jumping on the biggest stage he could. He assembled this life in pieces beginning in school. Then began volunteering to speak and chaining together event after event as people would see him speak and then invite him to speak.
That’s the journey we talk about today — about taking small steps forward that lead to bigger and bigger things — and doing a lot of work today.
Bio
Cory Truax’s day job is in Admissions at the University of South Carolina. He supplements that with secular and religious speaking gigs, and on air work at WLFJ radio in Greenville, SC.
Cory Truax fills a lot of roles – Host of the creatively-titled radio show & podcast, “The Cory Truax Show,” Teaching Pastor at Beechwood Church, uncle extraordinaire, and even has a day job.
Cory enjoys early-morning work-outs; all things football; basketball’s post-season; healthy political discussions; theology; learning new things; and discovering new voices. Cory is also an invited speaker at church, educational, and political events along with serving as the fill-in host for WLFJ Christian Talk 660’s morning show, “Christian Worldview Today.”
Leadership and Public Speaking
One of the key lessons in this conversation is the link between leadership roles and public speaking. If you become a leader in an organization, no matter how small, you have the opportunity to speak. The more people see you speaking, the more likely they are to think you are a leader. And the whole thing can loop from there.
For kids there are opportunities to lead and or speak in school projects, clubs, teams, and church. Pursuing those opportunities early open up future opportunities for success.
Adults aren’t shut out though. There’s a reason Toastmasters isn’t just about speaking, but also about leadership. There are opportunities in churches and PTAs. There are committees and cross-functional teams at work. There are condo and home owner associations.
To grow as a speaker, try being a leader. To grow as a leader, try being a speaker.
Question Your Assumptions
On a recent episode of the Real RX, a podcast hosted by doctors, they talked about aging in women. The official guidelines say that generally women do not need to get pap smears after age 65. The standard is in place because of two assumptions:
Women over 65 do not have sex.
If they do have sex, it’s with a long-term partner.
The problem is that often, both those assumptions are false. Relying on those false assumptions can lead to higher risk of cancer.
Another example that I’ve shared before is this. When I taught people to sell laptops, I talked about how I liked selling laptops instead of desktops because I didn’t have to lift a heavy monitor with the sale.
In the late nineties, that got a laugh. By 2005, new audiences no longer laughed. Why?
Because light weight flat panel monitors had replaced heavy CRTs in the market. The joke no longer made sense.
Neurofatigue describes the condition of profound tiredness common to stroke survivors, TBI survivors, and others with brain injuries or neurological conditions. It is significantly different from the levels of exhaustion other people experience due to lack of sleep or overwork.
The brain does much of its repair work while we sleep. It’s like shutting down a freeway overnight for construction. It’s not because the freeway is lazy. It’s because that work can be done only when there are no cars on it. It’s the same with the brain.
That’s why it’s normal — and healthy — for stroke survivors to sleep 8, 12, or even 18 hours a day. Especially in the early months.
Neurofatigue can continue to strike months and years down the road. When we’re sick, inebriated, overworked, acquiring (or re-acquiring) skills, or just not getting another sleep, it can strike.
This week, I explore neurofatigue, why it happens, and my own relationship with my favorite frenemy — sleep.
Hack of the Week
Jan Douglas shared her strategy for getting up the stairs to someone’s house, especially when they lack railings — use a chair. A dining room or folding chair will do fine. Put it on a step, sit down, rotate your legs onto the step and stand up. Then you can move the chair up to the next step and do it again.
How do you deal with neurofatigue? Let me know in the comments below, message me on Instagram, or send an email to Bill@Strokecast.com Check out the stroke community on Instagram by following #Stroke.
Strokecast is the stroke podcast where a Gen X stroke survivor explores rehab, recovery, the frontiers of neuroscience and one-handed banana peeling by helping stroke survivors, caregivers, medical providers and stroke industry affiliates connect and share their stories.
A lot of stroke survivors I talk with describe themselves as "Lucky." I don't want to minimize the trauma or struggles that many survivors face. There are real challenges, and I don't recommend anyone go out and acquire a stroke, but luck is still a common theme.
In my experience, I say I'm lucky because I have a great partner who has stuck with me. I got great care at the hospital. My stroke left me with physical disabilities, but no significant cognitive or language issues. And it opened my eyes to this whole fascinating world and community.
I've talked with other folks who feel lucky because they have some cognitive challenges but no physical deficits.
In episode 65, Joe Borges described his stroke as a blessing because of the way it rebooted his life.
Jan started her career working in OT in her native England. She would go on traveling the world with the World Health Organization, meet her future husband, become a Director at the Rehab Institute of Chicago, transition the world of corporate HR consulting, and in September of 2002, have a massive stroke.
I find the pats people take to be fascinating. It seems completely random to go from OT into consulting at first glance. Take a deeper look, though, and it makes sense. Jan tells us in this interview how the transition was really just another type of OT, just on a larger scale.
Bio
Jan Douglas trained as an occupational therapist in her native England in the 1960s. The patients she least enjoyed working with were those who had suffered strokes. She found them slow, lacking in motivation and emotionally unstable. She specialized in the treatment of hand injuries, working at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital in London and then served with the World Health Organization in its Africa and Southeast Asia regions. While working in Thailand, she met her American husband, an oral surgeon.
After moving to the United States, Douglas became Director of Occupational Therapy Education at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago and pursued a master’s degree in public health. After graduating, she worked at Grant Hospital of Chicago, first as Director of Occupational Therapy and then as the leader of a hospital- based occupational health program, providing services to industry, local government and universities. From there she joined the world’s largest human resources and risk management consulting firm. As a global business leader, she worked with public and private employers, government agencies and healthcare systems, to improve their human capital management. She currently provides human resources support to a refugee resettlement agency.
Survivor Gift Shops
Are you or do you know a Stroke survivor with an Etsy or similar online gift shop? Let me know. As we get closer to the Christmas season, I'm planning to feature survivor shops on a future episode so folks can buy gifts and support the community.
I'll search the hashtag at the beginning of November and pick one winner at random.
Good luck talking about luck!
Hack of the week
If your doctor says you can drink wine, then YAY! Now you have to open the bottle.
Jan discovered that a wine bottle fits in the garbage disposal in her sink securely. Now she puts a bottle in there and can use a corkscrew one handed to open the bottle.
We often talk about the importance of authenticity as a speaker. Another way to think about it, though, is vulnerability.
The benefit of vulnerability as a speaker is that the audience can feel where you are coming from. It’s easier for them to connect with you.
And if they feel that stronger sense of connection, they are more likely to pursue the action you are calling them to pursue.
Post Tip Discussion: Meet Charles White
When I put together an episode, I don’t always know what it’s about. I do my core edit of the conversation where I listen to the whole thing, cut some stuff , and clean up the audio Wile I take notes.
Then I look over my notes. Sometimes I sit with it for a day. It’s only then that I realize what my guest and I talked about. Then I can write up my intro and outro comments and start work on the show notes for an episode. That’s my process.
And that’s how I came to realize that this week’s episode is all about process. Charles focuses on process in his life. Process can be quite freeing. Once you have a structure and a way of doing things, suddenly those tasks get a whole lot quicker.
Often when we talk about public speaking we don’t think about the process. We think about standing in front of the crowd with some slides.
But 90% of the success of a talk is determined before you ever open your mouth. It’s in your preparation and planning. And when your preparation becomes repeatable and duplicatable, you have a process.
It’s not as sexy as the roar of the crowd, but the right process can make your life so much easier.
Bio
Charles helps business owners who need their operations to run more efficiently. As businesses get more clients, more work orders, and hire more people the processes they built become stressed. Charles is there when you are looking to find that new tool, improve your old process, and increase your workforce’s output.
He provide a full service solution to improving your daily, weekly and monthly workload. Together he helps you identify areas of your business that can most benefit from immediate intervention. Then he provides a solution through new software implementation and personalized training documentation, videos and in person classes.
Marsha Schmid is a stroke survivor and she's this year's Ms. Wheelchair USA. In other news, there's a growing Ms. Wheelchair USA pageant.
Marsha's had quite a journey to get there. She excelled in school, became the top salesperson in her company and she was a nationally ranked body builder. All that was before the fateful day she went to her chiropractor. The chiropractor manipulated her neck, caused a vertebral artery dissection, and that led to her massive stroke. This week Marsha share her story of recovery, the pageant, and the future she now has. She lives theme of Never Give Up.
Bio
Marsha Schmid competed as Ms. Wheelchair Georgia USA and lives in Fayetteville, Georgia. She has a Bachelor’s in English with concentrations in Political Science and Japanese. She served as an intern to Congressman Bob Barr when he was in office, and hopes to become an international motivational speaker.
At the time of her massive brainstem stroke in 2011, Marsha was on top of the world. She was the number 1 in medical salesperson for her company. She was also a nationally ranked fitness/figure competitor about to turn pro, newly wed to Georgia's Strongest Man( Masters Division), mom to a five year old son, and recently rebaptized.
Marsha wasn't supposed to live through the night of her stroke. She did, and was paralyzed from the neck down, could not speak for a year, couldn't swallow, could not breathe on her own, and was unable to open her eyes.
Marsha took my very first completely independent step a few weeks ago, 8 years after the stroke that changed her life. In September of 2019, Marsha became Ms. Wheelchair USA. She aspires to become a motivational speaker to continue spreading the message of, "Never Give Up.".
What is a Vertebral Artery Dissection?
There are four arteries that bring blood to the brain. Two are the carotid arteries and 2 are the vertebral arteries. The left and the right side of the body have one of each.
The carotid arteries are towards the fronts of the neck. When you see someone check a pulse by putting 2 fingers on the neck, they are feeling for the pulse in the carotid artery.
The vertebral arteries are towards the back. In fact, they travel through the bones of the spinal column to get to the brain. The go through the vertebrae, hence the name vertebral.
Our arteries aren't a solid piece of artery tissue; they're made of layers of muscle, connective tissue, and other materials, kind of like the tire of a car that has hard outer rubber, and interior steel belt, and other materials holding it together so it works.
In a vertebral artery dissection, the inner lining of an artery -- the part the blood actual touches, tears a bit. The artery itself holds together. And it can hold together for months or years. But now you have high pressure blood surging past that torn or disrupted surface. That area is no longer smooth.
In that rough area, where blood flow is disrupted, bits and pieces can get stopped. When that happens, they can turn into clots. When that clot breaks free from the dissected area, it flows on into the brain until the blood vessels are too narrow for it to go any further and it stops. When it stops and blocks blood from getting past it, you have an ischemic stroke.
It's not the clot itself that damages tissue in a stroke, it's that the clot blocks blood from getting past it and tissue downstream suffocates and dies.
So how does the dissection happen? Often it's because of trauma. A sudden movement of the head beyond its normal range of motion puts stress on those arteries, and that stress can cause the internal surfaces to tear.
This happens more often to the vertebral arteries than the carotids because the carotids go through soft tissue in the neck. There's more room for them to move and shift and dissipate stress.
The vertebrals on the other hand are restricted by the bones they go through. The don't have as much flexibility to deal with stress and are more likely to tear.
That trauma can be anything that injures the neck or head. It's certainly possible in a car accident. One survivor I talked to was boogie boarding and hit the beach hard in a way that injured his neck and caused his stroke.
And I've talked with others, like Marsha, who received their vertebral artery dissection at the hands of a chiropractor doing a neck adjustment.
So don't let folks snap, pop, or twist your neck. It's just not worth it.
The Ms. Wheelchair USA program has been in existence for more than 22 years. It began as a state program, selecting winners in the state of Ohio to do a national service platform. As the program grew in popularity and was televised live, potential candidates began coming from all over the country asking to compete in the outstanding program. The program became a national competition 14 years ago and has been going and growing strong!
Contestants in the Ms. Wheelchair USA program must be 18 years of age with no maximum age! Contestants must have a mobility issue, but may have use of their legs. Our program does not discourage ability, but instead celebrates the individuality of the women in the program. State and regional representatives are selected based on a judged, application process. The national titleholder is crowned following a week of activities, programs, learning sessions, press appearances, and three nights of live stage competitions. Contestants compete in private interview, round-robin interviews, evening wear, on-stage interview, platform presentation, and marketing statement competitions. The winners spend their year on a state, regional and national level representing The Dane Foundation, Ms. Wheelchair USA, and their own platform issue or activity.
The Ms. Wheelchair USA organization promotes glamour, self-confidence, and community service; celebrating the accomplishments of women with disabilities!
Hilary Billings on 2-Minute Talk Tips
Interestingly enough, Marsha is not the first pageant winner I've interviewed. I talked with Miss Nevada, Hilary Billings on my other show, 2-Minute Talk Tips. Hilary entered her first pageant after a fireworks injury. You can hear that interview at http://2MinuteTalkTips.com/hilary.
One of the things both Marsha and Hilary talked about is how the pageants are empowering and are about so much more than just beauty.
Heart and Stroke Walk
I am Participating in Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk on October 12.
If you'd like to support my efforts and donate to the American Heart Association, please do. This will help the American Heart Association continue its work to help reduce stroke through research and medical standards on the white coat side and through helping folks reduce their blood pressure on the general population side.
If you'd like to contribute $10 or more, just visit http://Strokecast.com/Donate/AHA. That will take you right to the donation page on the AHA website. None of it goes to my pocket.
Hack of the Week
You can put in contact lenses with one hand.
Put the lens on your middle finger.
Raise your eyelid with your index finger.
Place the lens close to the corner of your eye to maximize the odds of it going in as it should.
This may take a bit of practice, but it can be done. The first time you learned to put in contact lenses probably wasn't easy either.
Good vision is important for more than watching Netflix. Depending on your stroke, sharp vision can impact sensory processing, balance, and safety.
One contributing factor to delirium in the hospital is patients not having their glasses or contacts available.
Of course, before returning to contacts, be sure to check with your optometrist, ophthalmologist, or neuro-ophthalmologist.
Check out Marsha's journey as Ms. Wheelchair USA by following her on social media or reaching out to the Ms. Wheelchair USA program. You can find all those links above.
Share this episode with someone you know -- survivor, caregiver, or medical professional by giving them the link http://Strokecast.com/MsWheelchairUSA
While it’s helpful to have lots of stories at your disposal, there are three types that will help you in speeches, job interviews and client interactions. They are Underdog, Authority, and Fixer.
The Underdog story is the story of where you came from. It’s the obstacles life put in your path and how you got over, around, under, or through them to get where you are today.
The Authority is the story about your expertise. How do you know what you know? Why should people listen to you? What makes you different from other folks they could be listening to right now?
The Fixer story is about what you do to help others. How can you help this audience? What will you do or what will you enable them to do?
With those three stories in your pocket you can are better prepared for any audience.
When we talk about pathos, ethos, and logos as being crucial to persuasive success, these three stories support the often neglected ethos side of the pyramid.
Post Tip Discussion: Meet Zack Hudson
I and my guests talk a lot about Storytelling in public speaking. And I talk about it more with Zack today. One thing that makes today’s conversation a little different is that we get a little bit deeper into the process of finding your stories. Because that is what Zack does with his clients — he helps them find and tell their stories.
The fact is everyone has stories to tell, even if we don’t realize it.
Bio
Today Zack not only speaks and consults with organizations. He also live the corporate executive life with more than 500 people in his organization across the southern US.
I grew up in Louisiana and never saw a swamp until I was a teenager. I loved my town and the dream was to never leave and become mayor. That plan was dramatically altered when I met a certain redhead. She captured my heart and after getting married, we moved off to start our own adventure.
We relocated all over the South and started a family along the way. During the journey, I had a hunger to grow as a leader and discovered there were many others out there that had that same fire.
Since then, I’ve developed many leaders to become more than what they thought they could be. Many have gotten the job they’ve always wanted or ended up at their dream locations. One of my greatest joys is seeing others hit their personal goals.
Today, I lead about 500 employees across six states and spend much of my time developing them to be the leaders that they are called to be. I also help others across the globe reach their potential through the Passing the Baton Leadership Podcast and it’s resources.
What you may not know:
I’ve made it to 38 of the 50 states so far.
I minored in jazz bass in college.
I’ve chest-bumped a whale shark.
My daughter lived in 5 cities by the time she was 5.
Sharon and I love Disney more than just about anything.
I jumped out of a plane…with my mom.
I served in the military.
Pies are my weakness.
I’ve survived running with the bulls and hang gliding.
I’ve been in movies and TV shows.
5 Tips for Finding you Story
Do some free writing while you think about incidents from the past couple of weeks
Use a text app or speak into a voice recorder if writing is not your thing
Focus on authentic personal stories; don’t try to fake it.
Prepare your story before you tell it. Practice it; don’t improvise it.
Get feedback from friends and colleagues before delivering it in front of a “real” audience
Heart and Stroke Walk 2019
Regular listeners may know that I had a stroke on June 3, 2017. I looked for stroke related podcasts at the time to learn more. When I didn’t find enough existing shows, I started my own. You can learn more about that show at http://Strokecast.com
This year I am once again participating the Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk here in Seattle in October 2019. Please donate to the American Heart Association to help promote their work to reduce stroke through research and medical standards on the white coat side and through help folks reduce their blood pressure on the general population side.
If you’d like to contribute $10 or more, just visit http://2MinuteTalkTips.com/HeartWalk. That will take you right to the donation page on the AHA website. None of it goes to my pocket.
If you are interested in hiring me to speak at your event, we can have that conversation, too. Just reach out to me at bill@2minuteTalkTips.com
Check out Zack’s podcast and all his social accounts at the links above
Pass the Baton yourself to a friend, colleague, or relative by giving them the link http://2MinuteTalkTips.com/PassTheBaton. Then ask their thoughts on the episode.