Hello from Tucson!

We’ve had an eventful week on the road (including a detour to miss the big storm that hit the South last week), but we continue to have an incredible time and are connecting with the most fantastic people!

One wonderful woman who I met early in this journey is Frankie Picasso, founder and host of the Good Radio Network. She interviewed me back in February and I was immediately drawn to her energy. We’ve become fast friends.

Frankie has an incredibly inspiring story of reinvention, and lots of insights and lessons about her own heroine’s journey, which she generously agreed to share with you.

It’s a meaty interview with so many good nuggets, so I’ve split it into two parts. Here’s part one of our conversation:

1) Where are you on your heroine’s journey?

Age would dictate that I should be somewhere close to medium well done, but in life we are always growing, changing and creating. I feel like I am at the 5km mark of a full marathon (again)!

Have I been here before? Yes. I have restarted many times. A lot of life is rinse and repeat—but not like Groundhog Day, where every day is the same, but more like the seasons. We begin new phases, learn what we must, and move on to start over again.

Twelve years ago was a period of major upheaval, loss and TOTAL reinvention. Nothing of my old life remained, except being a mom to my children.

I had been in a serious motorcycle crash that landed me in the hospital for 6 months. With 2 broken femurs, hip, pelvis, and more, I was going nowhere fast. While they were months of intense healing for both my body and my mind, it was also a time of grieving. I grieved the life I had known and was now gone.

During the first month I was in the hospital, I lost my job to “reorganization,” divorced my husband and was heartbroken when my blues band picked up their gear from my basement and found themselves a new drummer. On the day of my  accident, I was 8 days away from leaving for Shanghai with my Canadian Masters Dragonboat Team, to an event I had been training hard for, for months.

Three days after my release from the hospital, my dog died. I thought to myself, “Is this the straw that breaks the camel’s back?”

Those 6 months were also a period of intense personal and spiritual enlightenment and transformation.

I learned that we are not who we think we are. We are not the things we have, the jobs we do. I was stripped bare and had to figure out who I was and who I wanted to become. I often wondered, “How much can I take?” Turns out, I can take a LOT!

Since then, I have had several iterations of Frankie—but last year when I pushed the restart button, it was for a new vision that I had reflected on for 2 years.

I literally stopped everything I was doing to “find myself” again. I had lost purpose, passion and I desperately wanted it back. When you are able to tune into your body and trust it, you KNOW when you hear the truth from Spirit. I was afraid that I wouldn’t feel passion again, but I was wrong. The Call finally came and I answered it.

2) What does that work look like for you right now?

I am in my favorite place right now. The time I took to really “hear” what the Universe wanted me to do was so worth it. I know now what my purpose is and how it will manifest. I have always wanted to change the world, right wrongs and be a FREEDOM fighter. Today, I am now reaching millions with my words, and the words of those whose stories I feel will offer continuous learning for others.

I felt a real need to balance the crazy negativity out in the world with positive stories and deeds.

I told myself that I would go out and find those organizations and individuals in the world who had asked themselves, “What can I DO to change the world, even if I am one person?” I would put the spotlight on them, allow them to tell their stories, offer to help them in the way they needed it, either through donations, strategic relationships and more. I would become the Philanthropist of the Airwaves! Right now I am still in training.

I birthed my “baby” The Good Radio Network, a socially conscious radio platform that goes beyond TALK RADIO into RADIO that does good things for the world, and I am watching her grow into a sweet toddler.

I am also about to write a new book—a biography about my dad’s life. And while I have written two self help books, I have never written a biography of someone else. My father is 91 and has so much to offer so many people, and this will be a real challenge and labor of love.

3) How do you make space for your inner journey?

I love to get up early so I have time to connect with my intuition, guides and the Universe. I often grab a deck of Gypsy cards, or Angel cards or Runes to start the conversation.

I am not great at the ‘traditional meditation, sitting quietly and just breathing, but I have learned through the years that this is not the only way to meditate. As a hypnotherapist, I learned that when we drive we are also in the same trance state, so I will often drive without the radio when I need to hear my own thoughts or those of Source.

Journaling is also a way of tapping in that works for so many. While I was in the hospital, I faithfully wrote in my journal daily. My handwriting is atrocious and believe it or not, I really can’t read my own writing so I will often journal on the computer. The stream of consciousness type of writing everyone talks about now flows through my fingers without worrying about spelling or anything else.

Tune in next week for part two of the interview!