Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
[Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] good morning good afternoon good evening wherever you are in the world it’s dr janice hooker fortman with relationship matters i hope everyone is doing great well i thought i could get off of my soap box but unfortunately i can’t now what is my soapbox all about it is about the virus now what we are finding is that there is a new strain called omicron i think that’s the way you pronounce it and what the government is doing and doctors are doing is to urge everyone who has not received the vaccine or the booster to get it now i know they don’t know yet about uh you know um how virulent it is or how contagious it is but be on the safe side if you haven’t received your vaccine get it if you haven’t received your booster get it now i know as i’ve said before there are quite a few people that i know and people in my audience um that for some reason or other they don’t want the vaccine uh one person told me well i don’t know what’s in it and uh as i said to the person well you know when you were going to school um you had to get vaccinated you didn’t know what was in it and we don’t know what was what’s in a lot of stuff but if you think about it and if you’ve seen people uh with covet if you’ve had friends or family members with coleman you know you don’t want it so i’m going to keep on this soapbox until we’ve wiped it out or until at least maybe 80 of the population has taken the vaccine so that’s it um i’m gonna come off of my soapbox so now let’s talk about my magnificent guest that i have with us today her name is lynn mclaughlin let me tell you a little bit about her and then she’s going to expound on it lynn’s mission is to lead and empower people to make conscious and positive choices when faced with crisis and all of us i’m sure at one time or another or even right now have faced crisis she gives people the opportunity to share their own voices through her podcast which is called taking the helm and we’re going to talk about her podcast a little later she’s an author through her writing and she helps aspiring authors publish their own books she is a i should say she’s a best-selling and award-winning author she’s also an international speaker and she leads people in tackling barriers so that they can move forward to new and exciting possibilities now lynn we’re going to talk about this she was the superintendent of education before retiring in september of 2018 and she continues to teach future educational assistants at her local college so it says i am a retired educator i’m going to talk about that she is well versed in all areas of special ed and guess what lynn i was especially a teacher and school and board operations and although she would say it was a lifetime ago she retired as the executive officer of hmcs prevost after 13 years in the canadian forces naval reserve and she is also a brain tumor survivor i’m going to bring to you now lynn laughlin hi lynn
Lynn McLaughlin
hi that was quite an introduction dr fortman thank you very much well you know what it’s just some of the stuff you know i thought i’d be talking for another half hour if we went on to everything that you do but i thank you very much for being the guest uh this evening and i know that um we’re gonna have a good time and i know that you have some very valuable information from for my audience so you know what i want to start out with this did you start in education first was that your first career
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
my first full-time career yes like everyone else of course you know when you’re going through school and trying to find your own way it was my first full-time career absolutely the naval reserves was before that and that was part time yes yes oh okay so now before you were um a superintendent you taught so what did you teach
Lynn McLaughlin
oh my goodness okay wow i i’m a three-year girl that’s that’s the way i describe myself dr portman i get that i gotta try something new every three years so i’ve been rounded around and around i’ve worked through three different school boards in my career um i started out as a french teacher a core french teacher and and here in ontario what that means is back in the day starting from grade one children would get 20 minutes of instruction in french every single day and i had a cart and went from class to class and i had puppets and it was such fun and uh and eventually that got changed and it moved to grade four and then i went into special education i did program consultant moved in um and then there was an opportunity back in my hometown three hours away from where my husband my husband at that time and my children were all born up there and i applied for a vice principalship we both moved took our family back home my children got to know their grandparents much better their siblings and then that’s where i started through administration so vice principal principal and then uh superintendent for the last six years of my career so and even in my schools i think the longest school i was at was actually i closed one school well i the team closed one school i was the principal of one school that closed and i was the principal of one school that opened and combined they were eight years so yeah yeah love special education still do still do teach part-time as you said at the college uh with our future educational assistants there’s a two-year program here um that they work through and then they’re out in the field helping um children and adults with special needs so
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
oh okay so when you taught special education um what disabilities did you teach learning disabilities or
Lynn McLaughlin
wow okay so as a teacher because as a superintendent that was my entire portfolio every single diagnosis exceptionality was under my umbrella as managing that for the system of 35 000 students but as a teacher i was what we we call here a learning support teacher which means children are two or three times a week it was an elementary school for for us that means kindergarten to grade 8 age would come out for additional support with their program and their curriculum maybe reading maybe math a few times a week and i was coordinating their programs their services and their individual education plan uh that’s changed a lot since i did that job back in the 80s but that’s what it was back then
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
oh okay i was asking because i taught special ed um i taught in elementary school and high school and uh when i started out well back then you know they had different terminology but uh i taught uh kids that had behavior problems and then i taught um elementary and high school kids with learning disabilities and so that’s that’s uh why i asked that and uh yes uh i still love uh special education and uh even though i taught you well you started teaching french french uh and i started teaching fine arts but in the end yeah ended up in um special education and then on to to administration so kind of have a a similar similar background absolutely and so now when you left uh well you left the naval reserve and then you uh went into education and so you retired from education then what did you do
Lynn McLaughlin
yeah so that was just three years ago but boy i’ll tell you time flaw time flies i can’t believe it’s been three it was three years ago september but the first i’m i’m one of these people that just has to do and go all the time and i know there’s a there’s a part of that that isn’t so healthy but and i’ve gotten much better in the last few years but i think it was three days after my official retirement date i was in front of a class at the college teaching so yeah and then i moved into this wonderful world of entrepreneurship and uh you know i had no idea all of this stuff was when you you know we’re working in education and you’re going in every day and you’re you’re doing what you can to improve the lives and and the futures of the students and even the communities that you’re working in and then there’s this whole of the world of people that are doing amazing things in these collaborative networks and i just jumped right in and started to learn and then um i published my second book in that first year i think that i was off yes no actually it was a year ago so it took me two years to get my second book out and watch my podcast we’re going into our third year in january so it’s been a it’s been a whirlwind but i’ll tell ya uh you know dr fortman and i i i think you would agree with me there are there are people covet i think has made people change their minds a little bit but there are people that are staying in their jobs and i’ll tell you there’s a whole new life out here that is less stressful you pick and choose what you want to do that you enjoy you i’m volunteering in our community as much as i possibly can and and the stress level has just come like and if i don’t want to do something i don’t want to do something right a friend of mine just retired and i just said welcome to the club
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
that’s right it’s a beautiful club it’s a wonderful club there’s it’s true what they used to say like how would you ever i don’t even know how i ever would have found time to work uh based on everything that i’m doing right now and this is such a such more so much more enjoyable and and uh and and gives me more of a sense of purpose and fulfillment um then and i’m not trying to say in any way shape or form that i didn’t think that um my work impacted many many children many many students over my career as yours did um but that’s what you’re doing every single single day and you very often as a teacher don’t see the impact as you as children get older in grade one you could sure see the impact if they can’t read in september and in june they’re leaving right right you can see the impact with special education most definitely but um i don’t i don’t know i just see a daily i i just feel invigorated now and and not pulled down and here dr fortman the politics very often make it very difficult to navigate through things um and towards the end of my year that became quite tiresome and and i quite frankly had enough of it
Lynn McLaughlin
you know is that just you know i thought that was just here but like you say the politics you know and it’s uh they’ll say children first but not always and and in the end that’s why i retired uh because the what i thought and not just me but um other people thought what was best to help kids you know because it was pot it was politics involved and the money issues and allocating the money to places that you know as a teacher uh and even sometimes as an administrator you felt you know no that’s not what we need but in the end like you say in the end you know that you have affected several children’s lives in a positive way so you know uh i love still love teachers and still love educating and actually you are still educating people so you are an educator at heart
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
i think it’s intrinsic in us i don’t think you ever stop right it’s just it’s i think we’ll both you know until our until our dying days will be educators it’s just in our blood
Lynn McLaughlin
exactly exactly and so when you decided to go into entrepreneurship did you have something in mind like you know you wanted to go into public speaking or or so what did you have in mind and you’re
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
wow you are very very intuitive that’s exactly what i had because in my previous role um although i had a lot of anxiety about it and i had to learn to manage that in that of that anxiety speaking in front of audiences and you know trying to change mindsets and get people to think outside of the box was something that i i did pretty frequently um and i learned how to roll with it and i learned how to you know do the deep breathing and everything before you know so nobody would even notice that i almost passed out in the chair before they called my name um but yeah i thought i was gonna do uh professional speaking and i actually took a course from a gentleman um named michael caruso from in michigan he’s right across the border i’m 45 minutes south of detroit down in the southern part of ontario and uh we did virtual courses but i went over and he’s a rotarian i spoke at his rotary club and and and ironically after it was about six months i think with a group of us as we were learning from him and he’s a recognized international speaker um he challenged me he said you’re gonna you’re gonna be the host and and i’m your guest on on a podcast show because he has his own podcast platform and i went okay okay and it was so awkward if you go back and listen and watch that first um that first episode because um because of my my craniotomy and i think it’s part of it is growing older and things like that too i was so caught up on my memory that i wasn’t even listening to what he was saying because i had to think about what the next question was going to be and back then i thought i have to look at the camera i have to look at the camera it’s just expected i have to look at the camera so i got myself all worked up anyway long story short i still loved it and i thought this is really great what a wait what a wonderful way to to give people a platform and give people a voice i just have to learn how to do it properly um so i did i did a big trajectory turn there and thought yeah this is the way to go and i was working on my second book and all of that at the time uh and then uh i was about four months later that i actually launched uh taking the helm and uh oh boy we’ve come up we’ve come a long way you you know dr fortman as you do it and you learn new things and new strategies and you know how to reach your audience and what are the key messages you just you just learn as you go um but i do wish i do wish that i had gotten a coach right right right from the beginning instead of grappling to figure things out myself um i have a network of people now um a part of a podcasting networking club and it’s pretty awesome and we learn from and which with each other which is where i met you at the podcast collaborative so there you go
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
right and you’re right about a coach uh and i did the same thing struggled and uh finally uh someone told me you know i had heard you should get a coach i get a coach where i can learn myself you know but finally i did get a coach and uh and i ended up with like two or three because different coaches do different things but everyone who wants to really be successful because you don’t know everything uh really does need a coach for where wherever they are lacking now you keep talking about your second book so we skipped over your first book
Lynn McLaughlin
yes yes wow that was in well there’s a little story behind there and it actually links exactly with to what you just said because um i i was in the role of a superintendent at the time and i just finished my first year and uh i was having these oh extreme headaches for probably the six months before i did so anyway i would say i actually had symptoms for about two years and they and they built and they changed and they built in the change but when you wake up in the morning on a regular basis with a massive headache almost like a migraine and i never had migraines i never had that history and it’s not because you had too much to drink the night before and it becomes something regular that’s a that’s a real red flag and so i had tinnitus i had some dizzy spells i had nausea um i had some uh different things that were happening and i went and saw a an ear nose throat specialist and okay they weren’t concerned all of these things were happening but i never actually sat down and thought are they connected i don’t remember ever doing that when they were all connected to well let me get to it um my family doctor finally said you’re going for an mri and i sat up from the machine and they sent me right to emergency and you know right away something’s well you’re not getting great news when you get sent immediately from the mri bed down the hallway to the emergency room and my husband was at work he was a police officer uh no actually he was sleeping he worked the night’s lift shift and they told me i had a brain tumor like i was in this curtained room and i write about this in the book you know an emergency room where there’s a curtain there’s a curtain there’s people over there there’s people all over and they said that i basically was a walking um uh i used the word death trap in my book uh i i could have fallen into a stroke or a coma at any time i could have killed someone on the highway and yeah it was it was it was so bad that my brain had actually shifted one full centimeter to the right because of the edema because of the swelling so uh for everyone who’s listening ignoring the symptoms put my life at risk and it it caused a great deal of trauma for my own family because things happened very very quickly after that i i was thrown on steroids to shrink the swelling and boom boom boom boom and all of these intervention things and three weeks later i had a craniotomy and and so stop in the superintendent role you’re off work for a while and when you’re gonna go back if you’re gonna go back you’ll be a totally totally different person so that’s that book came about uh probably about a year later and i’m gonna go on another tangent right now um because i really felt my family and i and this is a book written by myself and my family would help people going through any type of like life crisis to grapple with those larger questions why did it happen why me what’s my purpose and all those kinds of things but when i launched that first book jumping to what you said earlier i did it all on my own with a consulting company but then they handed it over to me when it was finished and i ended up two years later doing a second edition to do it right because i didn’t hire a coach so i just jumped from the horrible awful experience to the coach thing which probably wasn’t a good thing to do but call me squirrel squirrel this girl [Laughter] oh my goodness
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
yeah so how long did it take you you know to i guess i i trying to think of the words but but to really convalescent and you know get back to your normal regular life
Lynn McLaughlin
well i would i never got back to that life uh after brain surgery you’re not going to be the same person that you were you have to find your new your new you and and i go back to i couldn’t get out of bed after the after that craniotomy i my memory my short-term memory my long-term memory my use of vocabulary thank goodness i had my speech and i had my mobility but i had to build all of that back up so uh i write in the book is called steering through it i have a navigational theme to what i do is taking the helm steering through it you know um and it does take you through that whole process i went through a period of extreme mania there was one diagnosis of psychosis and it was all about reactions to medication and what my body was going through so flash forward um eight months later i wanted to go back to work this is part of my not thinking so clear i was ready to go back to work i was ready to go back to work for pete’s sakes i couldn’t even think clearly so eight months later um through the brilliance of a man named dr strang a neuropsychologist here in my area we i went back to work in that role um on a graduated return return and job shadowing the amazing lady vicky who was in there for me an amazing leader so for i think i went back in april three days a week and then by the beginning of june it was four days a week and then the summer holidays and september in september i took back my role totally but i had to use digital uh tools uh dr fortman because i couldn’t recall things so we created a system where my secretary and other people in my department we would all put a note that would be shared i could read it i could remember if i was calling back a parent i would read the history things first i would double check and i just created a routine um using reminders and all of those kinds of things and despite the majority of people thinking i could never go back to that job i did it was not smooth sailing it was a rough three four months and probably very much so for the people who are working with me thinking what is this all about but they were wonderful and kind and caring and held my hand and dragged me along and and uh and and i did it for five more years five more years so so it is about and i’m it is about i i want i want to say you know we take for granted baby steps and you can take this into any context mental health anything life-threatening illness whatever it is that first step of me just putting my legs over the bed the next day my nurse was taking one of my nurses was taking me to the to the shower and i kicked him out the next day i was walking across my room and back the next day i was walking down to the lounge so what you might think oh wow i pushed myself up in bed today or i i felt good enough that i could go out and have a cup of tea that’s a step and when you take all those little things and add them up you can go so far and then you look back and go i like five days later when i was on my way home oh my gosh i could i couldn’t even put my legs over the bed five days ago and so for me that whole recovery was what’s the next step what’s the next step and i never ever thought six months down the road because it was just i thought it was impossible but baby steps next step next step and then you get to celebrate celebrate a lot because there’s a lot to celebrate no matter how baby that step is
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
wow wow a question uh came in um and the question is what advice would you give someone who has had a similar experience as you in order to get through it
Lynn McLaughlin
well i so for me writing was a very big part for me i mean my my children were teenagers at that time my daughter was just turning 16 years old my son was 14 about to turn 15. so i mean this was a and my siblings i mean i have a i’m very very blessed to have a close family three siblings here in ontario two in michigan my dad happened to be there in the summertime he’s actually is a florida resident a u.s citizen and was visiting at the time and stayed um i i guess you have to find a way because you’re human we’re all human and you are going to go through whatever it is those doubts those questions the what ifs and if it’s something where you have to make a treatment decision you’re grappling with that with all of the information that’s before you this will work this won’t work and i for me was writing i started journaling again the day i was diagnosed and because i was on steroids dr fortman i was you know through the night everybody was sleeping i was researching i was writing and i was putting my fears out there in a way that i felt was safe because i wasn’t scaring my children or my husband and i felt i needed to do that in that time i think i maybe open up i don’t know i wouldn’t but for me getting it out being human um i i i said i i pushed people away who were negative in my life i really did i just didn’t have any i just couldn’t let them in because i couldn’t be pulled down because your mind and your body are absolutely connected and if you’re going to be negative you’re going to feel that negative if you don’t think you have a chance your chances of getting up and putting your legs over the bed the very next day are a lot less because you don’t believe you can yeah you know how we push ourselves right we push ourselves to do so to me it’s about getting into the right mindset and i don’t mean be nasty and mean and get out of my life but you can you can find a way to separate yourself from the negativity and focus on what you can control that was so tough for me because i’m a control freak i’m a control freak i couldn’t control what happened at work i had to just turn it over and say done i couldn’t control the only thing i really i couldn’t control what was going to happen on that surgical table i couldn’t control the way whether or not i was going to wake up with speech or mobility i couldn’t control any of that all i could say is i’m going to get myself as healthy as i possibly can i’m going to take my medications as i can i’m going to get out as much and i will make arrangements in case i don’t pull through even though i’m not going to believe in that it’s still a part of your reality so i guess my biggest thing is what do you have control over and focus on that and your treatment choice is your decision you do have control over that and and part of what i write about in the book is and i ask i ask people questions if you don’t agree with a loved one’s treatment choice don’t put the pressure on them to say i don’t agree with you you should be doing this as opposed to supporting them in that decision because that’s what people need they need that support not the questioning not that i think you should do this it just puts more pressure on people that are already in a terrible place to begin with
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
okay wow and and you are a true testament to to overcoming something so serious when you talk about overcoming barriers and and looking at the possibilities oh my goodness but i lynn i got to go to a quick commercial and then we’re going to come right back because there’s some other things i want to ask you about especially with this uh you ran a marathon i really want to know i really want to know about that so we’ll be right back [Music] [Music] do [Music] do [Music] do [Music] we are back and we have with us lynn mickey second book about the second book now i know that um the i think it was called a half marathon but i’m interested in what the difference is
Lynn McLaughlin
i’ve lost you dr fortman [Music] i can’t do anything it’s because you’re using your husband’s computer [Laughter] i think i’m live right you know and i know we were both having internet kind of issues uh and then the other day i was watching someone’s program and they just completely went blank and so i don’t know what’s going on but anyway anyway tell us about this marathon that you read
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
oh it was so exciting it was pre-coveted it was uh oh i trained so hard so it’s a it’s the international marathon so we go from did we so uh if we can just envision the detroit river goes so ontario has this boot that goes underneath michigan if you could just imagine that and windsor’s at the top of the boot and detroit is actually north of windsor michigan is north of ontario and so we have a tunnel and we have a bridge and uh annually it hasn’t happened for two years uh in uh oh i want to say it was the beginning of november it is it is oh my gosh i can’t even describe what it felt like we you show up at 5 30 6 o’clock in the morning you all meet in detroit and you get lined up you’re in letter m b m n o p whoop off you go and uh it was 13 kilometers which i think is is that 21 no 13 miles which is 21 kilometers sorry in in my terminology and so we go along the streets of michigan over the bridge and they have one lane of traffic closed back then so we’re all scooting across the bridge and some people are running they’re doing a full marathon and some people are walking a full marathon then you go across the bridge and all the way through windsor and there’s water stations and people cheering along the way and and then you come around to the tunnel and the tunnel is totally closed because you know exhaust and all those kinds of things and we go back through the tunnel all the way around detroit again and come across this great big stadium with finish lines and and uh and the big the big joke was it wasn’t a joke because i was really worried it was going to happen is don’t get picked up by the truck that comes to pick up the stragglers there was a name for it i can’t remember what it was but i actually did it in three hours and uh 20 23 hours and 30 minutes um and we had four hours to get it done i can’t tell you what it felt like to come across that finish line i mean i balled it was just there’s just so much adrenaline pumping because that last little while you got nothing left you really i had nothing left but i was really proud of myself i was how old was i at the time 55 56 and um and we started with a team and we all said we’re just gonna each do our own we don’t want to hold anybody up or keep any let’s just all do our own and we all made it uh one person on our team uh came across just after four hours and but i tell you it was wonderful i i could never do it again right now my body has just deteriorated in the last two years but uh yeah and they’ve done the marathon in michigan and in ontario and we do it we’ve done it virtually where people just go and do it wherever they are but we haven’t come back together as an international marathon since since that time that was the last date but it’s really really truly something to push yourself to to your limit i trained for six months six months at least that’s exciting yeah yeah yeah i’m blessed to be on a the railway tracks across the street across the street from a park have been torn out and we have a trail a walkway that goes the entire county um an hour from one side to the other which is fantastic for training we don’t have the inclines that you know some places in the world do um but yeah we are i was it was pretty driven and and you know i was just i was just one person doing a walking half marathon there were people there that were 20 there was a there was a man on the bridge dr fortman who was 80 years old and he passed me on the bridge running with his daughter and everybody knew who he was because we did some media coverage on him and it was go go go it was amazing but to see oh i was just so inspired i thought wow if he can do it i can walk
Lynn McLaughlin
so what made you what made you want to do it
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
it was just a friend of mine who um she she’s uh i don’t know what you call the person uh she’s a dragon boat she’s the one who does the chant oh she’s the leader on the dragon boat anyway she just said hey a couple of us are gonna do this do you want in and i’m like why not why not i’m retired i can do it i’ve got the time and and uh yeah but i’ll tell you at the end of that day i oh wow i i basically couldn’t move for three days i was so it was in such rough shape it’s not in a hot tub afterwards just to try to give the muscles a little bit of break but i just went right to bed when i got home and slept for hours
Lynn McLaughlin
wow that that that’s wonderful i i really admire you for that i don’t even think i maybe i could have maybe 30 years 40 years 50 years ago
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
oh that’s what i mean the gentleman who was 80 years old i just like wow and he had run i don’t remember what his numbers was but he numbers were but he probably ran three or four marathons everything every single year for his adult life you know i wish i could remember his name okay yeah so because i guess if you’re used to running marathons running in marathons so you can do it for everybody look you know they say well i know for a fact you got to keep moving if you can you know so the fact that you know the truck will come and pick you up if you don’t yeah right there’s trucker pick you up right so tell tell us about your podcast taking the helm
Lynn McLaughlin
yeah oh my gosh i’m inspired just as you are i’m sure dr fortman it’s um so you you said it in the intro uh my mission is to help people make conscious choices right because we get so caught up in all of this bull crap if i could say that word i didn’t swear around us that sometimes we just get pulled in so many directions we need to refocus and there’s so many people that are floundering or or can’t take that first step or don’t know how to take the first step with whatever their struggle was and um and so i started it two years ago like i said in january and every week every wednesday i have a new guest and it’s someone who has experienced some type of a crisis in their life or business but they actually think of that crisis as happening happening for a reason because they’re in a much better place because of it and i will say my brain tumor was my wake-up call because i wasn’t in a good place i i really wasn’t i wish the universe had been kinder to me than than that but i but i wasn’t in a good place so these people are remarkable and and the and and when i hear a listener coming back to me and saying thank you so much i reached out to this guest and now i’m in a better place or i’ve taken my first step um i had one guest who publicly came out on my podcast as being an alcoholic publicly did it uh five siblings all had passed away for something related to that alcoholism she’s the only one still with us and i was so proud of her and my goodness is she making a difference to people today that’s what keeps me going i actually was thinking about going by bi-weekly but every time every time i’m i’m interviewing someone i just can’t there’s just too many stories to tell there’s too many people that that have trouble finding their voice but when they do they gotta have a platform to share it and then it just spirals right that person who just took their first step starts to build confidence and then they start speaking publicly about things we should be destigmatized i just i’m really really loving everything about it forget about the tech and all those kinds of things that you know sometimes i scream at my computer and um yeah but it’s called taking the helm because in steering ourselves in the right direction again that’s my analogy um and that and that’s what my guests are doing and that’s what i’m hoping uh people are taking uh taking from that so yeah i love it
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
so i know you told me about the alcoholic but uh this question just just came in uh can you share with us someone you think was impacted the most from your efforts
Lynn McLaughlin
oh that’s interesting oh the most i don’t i don’t know that i can answer that question but i can tell you uh that i do get feedback from listeners they don’t put it in ratings and reviews publicly and i i understand why and i don’t want them to but by um this this lady and i’ll say her name publicly michelle friesen she’s actually an equestrian an equine healing person helps people with horses she’s the woman i’m talking about uh she she called me and said within days she had 20 phone calls some people reaching out to her from her past and other people are saying i needed to hear this how can you help me so those people i haven’t i don’t have a direct contact with them but i do through michelle but i’ll tell you another little story and this is another one a local woman she i found out that she had just been diagnosed with breast cancer and we she just sent me something and i oh my gosh i just interviewed jen schmers she was diagnosed in stage four she’s doing amazing things and i connected the two of them and then i see them chatting with each other so the lady locally now has a support network from someone else who is on the podcast there’s so many different stories like this and and there’s i’m sure that i hope there’s a lot of other things happening behind the scenes that i don’t know about but boy it would be great to have more of that feedback those are yeah yeah so those are just two examples but the most i uh right now i would say i’m michelle michelle did i say frieza i meant stein michelle friesen i don’t know where that name came from anyway michelle stein yeah
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
and you said she’s an equine healer
Lynn McLaughlin
yes so she does support horses no she uses horses to help people connect with themselves it’s called equine therapy yeah you can look her up she’s got a business here and a farm and she does um she does um summer sessions with students oh yes equine therapy it’s it’s another way that people are finding peace and and a way forward it’s it’s quite incredible
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
well that is very interesting very interesting so now your second book and your second book the title is jackson and i’m gonna see if i could find it let’s see but while i’m looking for it tell us about that particular book
Lynn McLaughlin
so that book came that was just released actually a year ago um i’m very very proud of it although it’s fictional it’s based on the real life experiences of of really two people a woman a mother by the name of june and a young man 25 year old man named jackson and jackson is experiencing debilitating it starts with anxiety and to the point um where where it’s affecting his everyday life he moves to external validation drinking drugs very very common and it takes so you follow the path of two characters this young man who’s who doesn’t understand why things are happening this way who can’t understand i call it demons in desperation that what’s happening and and isn’t able to to differentiate what’s happening up here with his reality and gets pulled in which is a very very common thing so the book goes through his journey it does end there is a suicide attempt i have to say because that is a really very a very real part of mental illness but it does end with hope and it does end with love but and i and i would say 40 of the character of jackson was my daughter actually who went through a very difficult two years of life who’s doing very very well i have to say today and june is 60 me going through that with her the other character you see is this mother who uh is hell bent in saving her son she will do anything with her in her means like most parents will right but gets to the point where she can’t even function herself she creeps on the phone she sends messages hoping to get a response she can’t she can’t sleep at night she’s not eating it’s just become debilitating because she doesn’t know what to do and so she goes through a journey of reaching out for help learning what the boundaries have to be getting to the point which is the hardest hardest thing for anyone who is a caregiver child parent sister brother niece nephew to come to the realization that even with love and hope and being there on a dime people are still going to make their own decisions so those two characters hand in hand through the book and you see this back and forth but each one of them come to a conclusion at the end that has that has taken them to a new a really new and good place it doesn’t end uh it doesn’t end with oh there’s been a magic cure because but it does end with there’s a reality here that this will be with jackson for his whole life but how do we cope with this going on knowing what’s happening inside me and how does the mother cope uh knowing that this is part of his future with all of the highs and lows so that’s that’s kind of it in a nutshell um it’s really driving con my whole purpose in this is to drive conversations and get people talking about this because we shouldn’t be waiting to be reactive when people are on the ledge or close to the ledge we need to be back here in a proactive state when they’re very very young we should be talking to our teenagers dr fortman in my opinion not a clinician i’m not a clinician about suicide we should be and you’ve got a lady in uh in the united states her name is uh jackie simmons who did a tedx talk and i’d be really interested in hearing what people’s feedback is on this with four questions we should be starting to talk to our teenagers about in those four questions will tell you where your child is in terms of approaching crisis or not approaching crisis and once we can start talking about this it becomes a natural thing and not a taboo topic when we can talk about our own mental health i say like we like we do having a headache every day then it just becomes more natural and then we can do more proactive things i think much sooner much much sooner than than we have been
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
and you know that’s something that’s a subject matter or something that um all of us have been confronted with in one way or another either either as far as mental health and and trying to do something about the mental health problems that people have you know uh at one point in time you couldn’t talk about it you know uh but now it’s it’s so important and especially i think now during this covet crisis because so many people really need some kind of help in order to to cope with what’s going on so uh anyone who works in mental health i really applaud them and anyone who seeks help because a lot of times you people don’t you don’t want to tell people that uh if you feel like you you need a therapist you don’t want to ask people or tell people that you need a therapist because they see that as a weakness and it and it really isn’t so i i imagine now the book jackson and both books how can we how can my audience purchase
Lynn McLaughlin
oh it’s on amazon actually i like the expression anywhere books are sold but that’s not true because because the first book you know i did it i did it pretty much myself but they’re on amazon uh barnes and noble uh uh you know in the uk in canada i think they’re in china uh in the united states um goodreads is another way where you can where you can find books and the links on my website everything is on my website i’ve got it’s called a shop but you don’t actually shop with me it takes you to the links of where you can purchase the books and um indigo’s chapters you can order it uh from from them as well so i’m i’m i’m pretty happy about that
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
so do you use uh either one of your books uh now do you i know you have a podcast but do you coach people
Lynn McLaughlin
i well i i’ve been kind of backing away with that a little bit but but i do have um i’m coach i’m helping people as a coach to publishing so what i’m when i really i’m not an editor i’m not an editor in any way shape or form i can give people names for editing but i want to help people through the uh what do i have to consider what are the pros of traditional publishing what are the pros of independent publishing what are the pros of hybrid publishing and the cons so when people make that decision they know where to go and then there’s lots of tricks and tools to the trade about how to do a cover design how to do your interior design that we can do at a reasonable cost but we have to do it right or we do it we do an injustice really to our fellow fellow independent publishers it is so overwhelming dr fortman when you if you if you just start googling how do i promote my book oh my gosh it’s absolutely crazy and there’s too many scams out there as well so i have a free consultation where people will give me a call i will defer them or send them to people if you want to do an amazon ad here’s the man that you need to be following um and if they want me for a session then i will help with this session specifically to what they want to do i don’t give people a webinar i don’t send you off to a youtube we’re going to be together for one hour at a time but i have cut back on that i’m doing one session a week right now just because my podcast is just uh it’s really kind of um it’s taking more time and that’s okay because it’s all right okay
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
yes so this other question came in um and they asked what does your future look like
Lynn McLaughlin
oh wow well i’m not going to have a recurrence i don’t know why that first you know why that first came to my mind because i had a conversation about that some with someone earlier because i have a 17 chance of recurrence and i was and i said i don’t dwell on it but i also i go back to the people who who can financially retire and are still staying there because they’re afraid of something you know don’t wait till the brick hits you in the head to say wait a minute what am i having if i’m walking out the door every morning and i’m tired or i’m not invigorated or i’m really not looking forward to going to work then why do we continue to do that when we have an option to find something else that’s joyous in our life so anyway i will not become sick i’ve got health i’m going to keep walking um i’m going to keep my health and my family as a priority i have all three of my adult children together for about 12 hours this christmas they’re all coming and going i’m gonna focus on my family travel i can’t wait to travel again dr fortman and i’m gonna keep going with my podcast and uh and i’ve got a children’s book series coming out with my niece very very soon and it’s about it’s about helping children with their emotions and giving them choices so and she’s a social worker so you know there’s some brilliance there what’s my future it’s kind of like me it’s he it’s squirrel maybe someday i can i can bring it more in focus but i i don’t know it’s kind of i guess i can’t multitask the way i used to but i do enjoy doing different things so
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
okay so now if people want to join your podcast or just learn more about you um tell us you have that lovely scrolling uh i have to learn how to do that
Lynn McLaughlin
yeah it’s all at lynnmclaughlin.com you can find the podcast on any podcast app and just this week we uh we expanded to i heart and actually if you go onto amazon you’ll find my my at my um podcast ad because um it because i’m on amazon music and audible and both of my books are in audiobook as well which i think is very important because i i find more and more people are doing that walking listening to podcasts listening to books and yeah so just go to the mclaughlin.com it’s it’s all there but uh tune in and i would really appreciate it and i just started doing this i don’t know janice dr fortman if you can do this i feel very awkward asking people to write reviews or to subscribe it’s it’s i just feel awkward doing it but someone has coached me to start doing that because to keep the podcast going we do need supporters so i’ve started to do that now as awkward as i feel
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
and since you said that then i would love for you to review tonight i would appreciate and you yeah you’re right you know i thought about that the other day with all of the different guests that i have had i haven’t asked one guest to write a review a testimony or anything you know i’m glad you said that
Lynn McLaughlin
well you know the question you asked earlier about or one of the one of the viewers asked earlier you if you listen to a podcast and it means something to any podcast write write a comment write a review now it’s very hard on some uh apple makes it very very easy but some of them it’s almost impossible or send an email to the host because you know sometimes that’s just so awesome to hear in it you know we have bad days too keeps us going thank you
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
yes we do thank you so much for uh lynn for uh being a guest i mean i uh you have given us very valuable information and i want people to definitely go to your website and definitely go to amazon and find your books it has been a pleasure i am so happy i met you and we have to definitely keep in contact
Lynn McLaughlin
i agree wholeheartedly wholeheartedly thank you very much i’ve been honored
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
oh it’s for me it has been an honor so i want you to have a beautiful blessed rest of your day and well merry christmas happy new year and all that good stuff
Lynn McLaughlin
absolutely you as well it’s eight o’clock in the evening here actually it’s almost nine o’clock in the evening yeah i will stay here so thank you so much all the best to you
Dr. Janice Hooker Fortman
thank you so much everyone thanks for watching listening wow that was amazing uh that that was really amazing to have her on and uh one of our viewers sandy said i love your positive energy lynn so i know she meant that for lynn and yes same here same here well it’s almost that time for me to end the show but of two things well one thing major thing my birthday is oh i think sunday december 5th i will be celebrating my birthday i am celebrating the whole month of december and this is not to brag but this is just to let people know yes you retire and then you do things that you want to do that you are passionate about and you just keep on moving forward because i don’t know who’s on here uh because i can’t see the names but i what i would like you to do uh if you’re looking on the relationship matters tv page or even my personal page to let me know that um you how you really uh enjoyed the show this evening and then and and what you kind of what you’ve got out of it but the second thing is i will be and i know people don’t believe it and i’m blessed because of this and i owe it to hereditary uh right because it’s not me but i just been blessed to be in a family uh that has longevity and look young so i will be 80 years old on sunday december 5th and um i’m going to party like i’m 50 for the rest of the month so just thought i’d let you all know that and this is something i want you to that i’m involved in it’s called out with a bang we are going out of 2021 with a bang there is a 15-day weight loss challenge and you have to register on eventbrite um and i’m in that 15 day weight loss because i ate like i don’t know what for thanksgiving and some my neighbor brought me a rum cake and i think i’ve eaten almost half so but anyway so so you go to eventbrite look for out with a bang 15 day weight loss or gain challenge and register so i want to thank everyone again for coming in on the show and listening to lynne uh with all of her valuable information and be sure and go get her book see you next week oh next week we have someone talking about relationships so ladies who have been asking me over and over again about how to find a man uh how to get rid of toxic relationships how to be in a good relationship tune in next thursday 7 p.m central time 8 p.m eastern time 1am uk time 5 p.m pst see you next week bye [Music] do [Music] you