Meredith_Ximines-Mullings

Maybe you’ve stepped in to help your parents navigate a later season in their lives, or perhaps you are nearing the age when Medicare is in your immediate future… Regardless of the circumstance, I don’t think anyone would argue with you about how complicated, confusing, and sometimes frustrating it can be when trying to understand how it works and what you need to do to stay on top of your – or their – health care needs.

Meredith worked as a nurse for years, first in the West Indies, then Canada, and the US. Eventually, she specialized in Emergency Nursing, then shifted to working as a Case Manager. It was at that point, as her focus was helping specific patients understand their conditions, navigate the health care system, and become informed, proactive participants in their own care plans that she really understood the intricacies of health care coverage.

“When patients don’t know what they don’t know, they don’t even know what questions to ask and that can make all the difference in the care they receive and how it impacts them financially,” she explains.

Her experiences in these various settings and roles gave her a firsthand perspective on how devastating it can be when people don’t understand their coverage, haven’t engaged in financial planning, and experience a significant health event. This awakening moved her to invest in training to become a health insurance advisor and she and her husband founded Advent Choice Insurance and Consulting.

Together, they are on a mission to change that experience, educating Medicare-eligible individuals and their families about all the intricacies and nuances of their coverage, medical terminology, and how to navigate the health care system.

Listen in and learn how your zip code may determine your coverage, the difference between being admitted for “inpatient care” versus “observation,” how experimental treatments are defined, and much more. When you’re finished with this episode, you’ll be wishing Meredith lived in your neighborhood!

Meredith’s Bio

Meredith’s love and devotion to others started on the beautiful island of Jamaica. She completed her basic nurse training at the University Hospital of the West Indies School of Nursing and later specialized in Emergency Room Nursing and Education. Meredith had the privilege of practicing nursing in Canada and several States in the US.

Meredith’s experience as an Emergency Department Nurse over the last 13 years gave her a firsthand view of the devastating impact poor insurance coverage and inadequate financial planning have on the lives of many individuals.

Meredith’s most recent role as an RN Case Manager propelled her to seek solutions for the issues plaguing healthcare delivery. She realized that in order to improve healthcare access and affordability, patients must be proactively engaged in understanding their health and available resources. She believes healthy families are more financially stable and are better able to support and care for each other.

Meredith and her husband are both crossed-trained as health insurance advisors and are the founders of Advent Choice Insurance and Consulting, which provides Medicare education, engagement, and enrollment services to individuals, businesses, and healthcare facilities.

Meredith has a passion for education and is committed to lifelong learning. She obtained her Master’s in Nursing Leadership and Management at Walden University and serves on the South Apopka Community Development Association, also volunteering with other local community outreach programs. Meredith enjoys spending time with her spouse, gardening, practicing photography, and running behind their three vivacious children!

Connect with Meredith here:

Advent Choice Insurance Consulting
Meredith on LinkedIn
Email Meredith

KristinPonzi_EssenceBodyWork (11 of 200)

She didn’t come to it on purpose; it was an add-on, so to speak, that touched her so deeply, she had to know more. And through that exploration, she entered a new phase in her life and added a whole new facet to the work she does in healing.

Kristin Ponzi is a Licensed Massage Therapist, with specialization in Myofascial Therapy. While attending a retreat with some of her colleagues, they experienced a private session with a guy who does sound healing using a variety of instruments and meditation. It was one of those supremely profound experiences that literally changes the course of your life.

Kristin shares the story of this experience, the visions and guides she encountered during her meditation, and the journey she’s been on to share that experience with the people she serves in her practice at Essence Body Work in Columbus, OH.

She uses Himalayan Bowls, which create specific sound waves – vibrational frequencies that influence the brain wave states her clients drop into while working with her. Essentially, her goal is to create deep relaxation and to restore equilibrium in the body. After all, “when you are 80% water, if you’re dehydrated, information doesn’t move through your body very well,” she explained to Laura during their conversation.

Their conversation takes a few turns, dipping into meditation, expectation, sound frequency and the vibrational impacts on everything around us, the difference between coaching and mentoring, and our responsibility when raising children! While these topics may seem disparate, the conversation is powerful and flows through them all with ease and connection.

Kristin’s Bio

Kristin Ponzi is a Licensed Massage Therapist, Certified Sound Therapy Practitioner, and the owner of Essence Body Work. She received her massage therapy license over 18 years ago, after switching paths from a corporate career to a profession where she could connect with and help others and has been happily touching people’s lives ever since! She specializes in the John F. Barnes Myofascial Release Approach and Vibrational Sound Therapy.

Her goals, through myofascial release and vibrational sound therapy are to help people to return to their active, healthy lives, and to help them cultivate a deeper relationship with the essence of who they are!

Resources discussed and connect with Kristin here:

www.EssenceBodyWork.com
www.Facebook.com/EssenceBodyWork
Glenfiddich Ad – Watch Sound Vibrations!

Previous Podcasts Referred to:

Dr. Paul R. Scheele
Sharry Edwards
Louise Elliott

dave-and-michelle-dean

Over the course of his adulthood, Dave Dean has owned, built, been involved with, bought, sold, or closed 37 businesses; ~11 of them are still in his care today. It all started when as a young man, Dave bought the company his dad started but lost through receivership when it failed. He ‘arrogantly’ (by his own measure!) thought he could do it better. The experience was the beginning of a lifelong pursuit of learning, exploring, discovering, building, and releasing numerous businesses.

Fueled by his strengths (Laura is certain he has Input, Learner, Futuristic, Strategic, Connectedness, and Relator in his top 10!), he thinks of himself as a “business butterfly,” preferring the idea of being a ‘business explorer – builder’ to the term ‘entrepreneur.’ When he becomes intrigued by an idea, he dives in and becomes immersed until his curiosity is satisfied. Often, what that means is his giftedness is in seeing opportunity, crafting a vision, designing the big picture concept of how something can be, and then handing off the daily operations and detail work to someone more interested and gifted in handling those aspects of the process.

He says he was blessed when he met the man who would become an invaluable business partner while dropping off and picking up his young twin sons at school 20+ years ago! Darren’s skills and interests complement Dave’s nicely and together they are supremely more productive and effective.

It’s a perspective and process they share with clients in the Mastermind groups they facilitate, teaching other business owners how to think bigger, explore new ideas, expand their reach, and build satisfying work. Having experienced mentors has been another key to Dave’s success over the years; one has to be aware of those who are achieving the success you desire and be willing to learn from their experience, adapting it to your own needs and situations along the way.

Today’s conversation covers a broad range of ideas and topics associated with business including using style and strengths assessments (DiSC, StrengthsFinder, Gallup Builder Profile) within your team, the difference between having a business idea and actually being able to bring it to life (understanding the strengths of the team you need to bring along with you), and how to create real freedom in your life.

Nearing the end, Dave shares a story of a current endeavor – working closely with an artisanal chocolatier who is brilliant within his craft, but not as aware of or skilled with the numerous daily tasks and responsibilities of running a growing business.

When I asked Dave for his Bio, here’s what he shared with me…

“What the hell have you done?” my wife was a little suspicious as I handed her the bunch of flowers…

As it turns out her suspicions were correct, I’d just quit my job as a systems analyst and borrowed £13,000 to buy my father’s failed print finishing business from the liquidators. If I’m honest, that may well have been the first nail in the coffin of my first marriage.

That was the start of my entrepreneurial journey, now fast forward to today…

As a visionary and strategist, I enjoy starting and working with others to start new ventures from the ground up and then handing them over to my management teams to run day-to-day because they’re usually better than me at doing that!

I’ve started, developed and grown over 30 small businesses in many different sectors! Fact is, I love doing what I do and was once described as a “serial entrepreneur”… though I’m not sure whether that was a compliment or not?

One of my mentors, John Maxwell, says “Sometimes you win and sometimes you learn!”

Well, that’s certainly been the case for me. I’ve had several failures in business – some of them catastrophic, but every one of them provided valuable lessons and helped me grow and develop. This development led me to realize I had experiences valuable to others in similar situations, but I didn’t know how I could help them.

The solution presented itself in 2011, when I joined LEAD Wales and experienced coaching for the first time. My coaching journey progressed and led to my earning ICF accreditation then Certification by the US-based, John Maxwell Team.

The result: My team and I have launched an exclusive co-working space and business club for entrepreneurs who want to develop themselves so they can, in turn, develop their staff and their businesses.

Come visit us in Llantrisant (UK) and see what all the fuss is about – contact me to arrange a visit.

Resources discussed and connect with Dave here:

Dave on Facebook
Dave on LinkedIn
729 Renegades Mastermind Groups
Priority VA
Culture Wins