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Six ‘Universal Truths’ for Being Happier, Living Peacefully

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Professor Michael Glauser gleans wisdom from spiritual leaders, philosophers, researchers.

Salsa Queen (Maharba) Zapata was in the United States illegally, had no education, didn’t speak English and grew up thinking she had no value. As author Michael Glauser tells her story: “After two divorces and seven children, she was in a complete state of despair and could see no way out of it. Then she met a friend named Jim, an incredible mentor to her, who said, ‘Well, what do you like to do? What are you good at?’ She said, ‘I know food. I know salsas.’ So they started making salsas.”

Today, Zapata’s salsas are in more than a thousand grocery stores nationwide and she’s the largest manufacturer of salsas in the Inner Mountain West. “She’s happy, confident, believes in herself and now is earning money to help others who are in the same place that she was. She’s doing marvelous things that she had the capacity to do all along but she had to find someone who helped her and believed in her. She changed her life by changing her self-perceptions and by taking small steps for success.”

Fresh and impactful stories about how individuals have changed their lives – like the Salsa Queen, a career criminal, and a Holocaust survivor – are masterfully woven through Glauser’s book, “One People One Planet: 6 Universal Truths for Being Happy Together,” in which he lays out a path for how to increase happiness and live peacefully on the planet.

To find these “truths,” the Utah State University School of Business professor sifted through teachings of the world’s largest religions and greatest philosophers, and studied cutting-edge research in the field of positive psychology.

“I’ve been concerned about what I call two epidemics in our country. One is the epidemic of despair. Anxiety, depression, suicide, thoughts of suicide and other emotional conditions have increased in just about every age group for some reason over the last decade,” he says. “We’re also experiencing an epidemic of incivility – just a lot of judging and hatred – amongst various groups and political parties. I wanted to see if there were some proven principles that would lead to greater joy and happiness personally and lead to greater civility in our communities.”

Glauser began his quest by reading early manuscripts from the founders of the four largest religions: Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. He also studied the teachings of the world’s greatest philosophers. Here are the six common threads of wisdom he’s captured from people like Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, Confucius, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle.

Give Up the Ego

“The way ego has been defined throughout history is it’s a composite of all of our self-perceptions. It’s everything that we believe about ourselves. The early Hindu and Buddhist writings say it’s a fabrication or an illusion. It’s been fed to us from parents and teachers and the media. So we grow up thinking we’re too tall or too short, too thick or too thin, or smart or not smart enough, athletic or not athletic enough – and these self-perceptions really limit what we do with our lives. So the first principle is to realize that these self-perceptions are fabricated. They are not really who we can become. We have tremendous potential as human beings and there is a way to overcome these and to grow into something different and better.”

Refrain From Judging

“Confucius believed we should constantly work on improving our own lives,” writes Glauser. “He felt that examining the foibles of others before considering our own weaknesses is a sign of arrogance and not worth our time or effort.”

The book offers practical ways to squelch our biases and become more open to understanding our differences. “As we refrain from judging other people, wonderful changes occur in our lives.”

Do Good Deeds Daily

The Hindu sages called this Karma. “Jesus not only taught the importance of performing good deeds; he was a great example of doing them for his followers,” writes Glauser.

Confucius used the concept of “Ren” to mean that we are all connected and we impact each other. “Ren is this whole idea of contributing to a community daily like carrying somebody’s groceries or giving up a seat on a bus or shoveling someone’s snow in the winter,” he says. “The research is so clear that that dramatically reduces stress, anxiety and depression. It gives us a sense of self-worth and self-value.”

Forgive One Another

Forgiveness may well be the most thoroughly researched principle on the path to happiness and civility, writes Glauser. “Harboring grudges and refusing to forgive others results in anger, hurt feelings and embedded anxiety – and it’s these negative emotions that do the damage to our mind, body and relationships.”

“One People One Planet” describes forgiveness as such hard work that the Hindu sages called it “heroic.” Glauser says the Greek philosophers simply said holding a grudge and being vindictive “is beneath the dignity of magnanimous individuals.”

Share Our Good Fortune

Glauser tells us that in the Islamic faith, Muhammad taught that everything we have in life is given to us by Allah; for Christians, everything comes from God. In essence, then, we are stewards of the things in our possession with a responsibility to manage them in a way that benefits the community.

Similarly, Glauser discusses the new “sharing economy” and the practice of sharing houses, rides and employees. “We’ve got to quit thinking about possessions and start thinking more about people and become people-oriented. We can’t all have everything, the world is growing too rapidly and we’re using up our resources. There are websites, formats and templates to share cars, houses, tools, toys, equipment and even personnel in organizations. The more that we develop this attitude of sharing, we just become part of a bigger community and that brings us a great deal of joy and happiness.”

Care for Our Needy

Aristotle, as noted in “One People One Planet,” believed caring for the poor made good political sense. “He felt that a strong middle class was the key to a well-functioning society,” Glauser says.

However, Glauser suggests that doing good deeds involves actively looking for opportunities to be kind and helpful. “If we all found one person to help lift up and it wasn’t just a one-time act – we’re going to be committed to coach, mentor and befriend this person – then we will see people go from where the Salsa Queen was when she was suicidal to where she is today and that benefits all of us and makes the society far better, far richer and much more enjoyable.”

Charting a Path to Peace and Happiness

For those who want to improve their state of mind and physical health, Glauser says these six truths have been proven to make a difference through 20 years of research.

“We all know these things, the question is are we doing them? My discovery is that most people don’t. We used to always think that success led to happiness, but now there’s so much evidence that happiness is the driver of success in our careers and in our organizations. Good leaders need to learn to manage happiness – their own and their team members’ happiness. As we become happier, we communicate more, we like people more, we make more friendships, we have more energy, we set more goals.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Michael Glauser is an entrepreneur and business consultant. He serves as executive director of the Center for Entrepreneurship in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at Utah State University. He’s also the director of the SEED self-sufficiency program, helping people around the world improve their standard of living and benefit their communities through entrepreneurship. His book, “One People One Planet: 6 Universal Truths for Being Happy Together,” is available on Amazon.

To watch the full interview with Michael Glauser, visit StarWorldwideNetworks.com/shows/Bonnie-Stevens.

Courtesy Photo: Glauser discusses the new “sharing economy” in his book, “One People One Planet.” He says, “The more that we develop this attitude of sharing, we just become part of bigger community and that brings us a great deal of joy and happiness.” 

Healing and Changing Your Mind for a More Joyful, Successful Life

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Hypnotherapist helps clients free themselves from fears, past hurts, negative thoughts.

Nancy is a healthy middle-aged woman with a loving family, satisfying career and as she describes it, “a great life,” at least while she’s awake. But when she closes her eyes, it’s been a different story. Nancy has been chased by nightmares every night for as long as she can remember. Besides her rest being regularly hijacked by terror, her screams would awaken her family. Exhausted and looking for help, she sought hypnotherapy with clinical hypnotherapist Rosemary Powell.

I met with Rosemary. After just one session, I no longer have nightmares,” she said. “And, according to my family, my screaming in my sleep has ceased. I feel like a 100% better person.”

Not surprisingly, Powell, has become the calming night light for many sleep-deprived, nightmare-weary clients of all ages, from elementary school children to seniors. She also has helped clients lose weight, build confidence, reduce anxiousness, improve athletic performance, and reach personal and professional goals.

“An AQHA [American Quarter Horse Association] World Champion wanted to increase her focus and calm during practice and competitive events,” said Powell. “We taught her how to focus by holding onto her reins as an anchor for her focus and motivation. She anchored concentration and calm to her reins, and after yet another win, she said, ‘Hypnosis helps me focus.’”

As Powell explains, hypnosis is not about mind control but rather achieving a state of deep relaxation where we can deal with the root cause of anxiety, fear or negativity and even capture and remove those dream-stealing monsters straight out of our subconscious minds forever.

“The conscious mind is this little tiny bit of our brains and it processes only like 4,000 bits of information a second; whereas, our subconscious mind processes billions of bits of energy a second. It is 95% of our functioning mind. All of our memories, emotions, beliefs and imagination are stored in our subconscious mind.”

Powell says much of our programming takes place when we are very young, up until about age 11. Information is gathered and stored in the subconscious mind and has a powerful effect on everything we do. “We were either loved and accepted, or some difficult, challenging things happened to us. We have absorbed memories, events, things we’ve learned, and belief systems from parents, pastors, teachers, coaches, or other authority figures. All the experiences that we’ve had are in our subconscious minds and affect, influence and trigger us today.”

As a facilitator in Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Rosemary uses NLP to assist clients to access and override destructive beliefs, thoughts and memories stored in the subconscious mind. “When the busy mind is relaxed, we can go back to the very first time we felt that difficult emotion. Then we can change the memory.”

One of the first steps in her guided hypnotherapy is getting the mind to relax. This sounds simple; however, early Buddhists understood the difficulty of this task. They came up with the idea of the monkey mind because it jumps around from thought to thought, like a monkey moving from tree to tree.

Powell says much of the time, our monkey minds are busy primarily with regrets, fear and dread. “We can calm our conscious mind by using relaxation breathing, and replace the fear and worry thoughts with positive affirmations. Pay attention to what you are saying because our subconscious mind is always listening.”

She teaches the power of self-affirmations. For example, she helped one client rephrase what she had been repeating to herself. Instead of “My life is just chaotic,” her self-affirmation became, “My life is busy and challenging and I’m up to it!”

Today, she is living her life’s purpose as a Board Certified Hypnotherapist, Certified Medical Support Hypnotherapist and facilitator in Neuro-Linguistic Programming with advanced training in trauma recovery, pediatrics, geriatrics, pain control, past life regression therapy, weight loss and smoking cessation. As a certified medical support hypnotherapist, she treats hypertension, irritable bowel syndrome, overactive bladder, anxiousness and depression, and many other conditions. In addition, Powell brings more than 40 years of experience as a Registered Nurse to her practice. She also was a hospice nurse for 30 years. This fall, she moved her Phoenix-area office, Joyful Life Hypnotherapy, to Tehachapi, California, where she provides sessions for many of her clients over Zoom, as well as in person.

One of the tools she uses is regression into past lives. She says these sessions help people understand where some of their false and limiting beliefs, destructive thoughts and old habits or patterns come from. In the case of Gloria from Fountain Hills, she guided her into the future.

Gloria is a terminally ill cancer patient who came to Powell because she is afraid of dying and also is in a lot of pain. “With the power of our subconscious mind, we can reduce and, at times, eliminate pain,” said Powell. “When guided into trance, Gloria learned and could see that as she died and crossed over, her death was going to be a pleasant, joyous experience. She was no longer afraid of dying.”

“She treated me with hypnosis and I feel wonderful,” said Gloria. “I want to be her best friend. That’s how wonderful she is.”

Powell says she loves doing hypnotherapy because of how profoundly it helps people and how rapidly it helps clear negative thoughts and experiences. “I am living my life purpose, which is to bring joy and to help other people improve their lives.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

To find out more, visit JoyfulLifeHypnotherapy.com or call Rosemary Powell at 661-238-9154.

For a guided meditation and to hear more from Powell, watch Zonie Living at StarWorldWideNetworks.com/shows/bonnie-stevens.

Courtesy Photo: Hypnotherapist Rosemary Powell helps people live their best lives by getting self-defeating thoughts out of the way. 

Earth Angels Protecting, Healing, Saving Abused and Neglected Children

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Operation Baby Lift heroes and Hollywood starlets continue to be champions for children.

Beneath the beautifully stylish exterior of interior designer and entrepreneur Jill Babb, founder of Changes, is a fierce warrior for children. For nearly two decades, she, her husband, Bill, founder of Babb Financial Group, and a small army of volunteers have hosted some of the Northland’s most lavish galas, called on celebrities and signed up business leaders to amplify the voices of children suffering around the world and in our neighborhoods. This month, Jill, a national board member for Childhelp, along with its founders, actresses Sara O’Meara and Yvonne Fedderson, are preparing for the non-profit’s largest fundraising event in Arizona.

The Babbs were made aware of the horrific realities many children face when they met their Flagstaff neighbors O’Meara and Fedderson. “When I first found out about Childhelp, it just broke my heart,” said Jill. “When you talk to the ladies one on one, you hear stories that go way beyond what you can read about in details and everything. And, I thought, ‘I have to do something because I had such a wonderful childhood. I have to give back.’”

O’Meara and Fedderson’s Story

O’Meara and Fedderson met on the television set of “The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet,” where they were working in the 1950s. “Yvonne and I kept running into each other and then ended up rooming together in an apartment and also we were Sunday school teachers at the same church,” said O’Meara. “And then we were chosen to go on this trip that changed our lives forever.”

The two were chosen out of hundreds of applicants to entertain U.S. troops through the USO (United Service Organizations) and were sent overseas to Southeast Asia. “The soldiers were wonderful. They were so respectful and so nice,” said O’Meara. “The general who met with us after we were chosen said, ‘Now girls, I want you to know the reason we’ve chosen you is not because you’re such great actresses or because you’re so beautiful, but it’s because you’re the girl-next-door type. We want them [the soldiers] to know what American girls are really like, waiting for them to get back home.”

Eleven Orphans

Finding themselves holed up for days in their Tokyo hotel room during a typhoon in 1959, the women decided to venture into town. “We were not supposed to go out, but Yvonne and I were so bored, so we decided to sneak out through the basement steps.”

The young women came across 11 children, ages 2 to 10, huddled together. “They were hugging under a fallen awning and their knuckles were cracked and bleeding from the cold. They didn’t have shoes and they tried to get under our big coats because we had great big camel hair coats. We tried to ask them where they belonged,” said O’Meara.

“Where’s your mamasan, where’s your papasan? That’s about as much as we could say,” said Fedderson. “And, they kept saying, ‘No mamsans, no papasans.’ And we thought, ‘Why are they here? Something must have happened to their parents.’”

“So we snuck up back to our hotel room through those basement steps and gave them a hot bath and fed them,” continued O’Meara. “A colonel was assigned to us to travel to Korea, Okanagan and Japan and we told him we had these children in our room. And he had a fit.”

The colonel gave the women a list of orphanages, but the facilities were already overcrowded because the typhoon had left many children without parents. “They had to make room for those children and they turned out half-American/half-Japanese children, which these ended up being,” said O’Meara. “We didn’t know they were known as ‘throwaways’ that nobody wanted. These were children without a country. They did not have a birth certificate.”

The women snuck them back to their hotel and started their pursuit for a home for them again the next day. “Because we learned they were half-American/half-Japanese, it gave us the fortitude to reapproach the colonel and say, ‘We still have these children. These are our children. We’re not going to turn them out. You have to help us in some way.”

The colonel sent them to the director of Tokyo Gospel Missions, who was also half- American/half-Japanese. “He said, ‘Nobody has ever stopped to take care of these children, but I’m going to give you the name of a woman that will take them in, that has a hut.’”

O’Meara and Fedderson learned “Mama Kin,” was already caring for 10 children. “We talked her into taking our 11, promising her we would take care of all 21 children if she would take them because we had a show to do that night and we had to leave them some place,” said O’Meara.

“We didn’t know what we were going to do with them,” said Fedderson.

“Mama Kin turned out to be the most fabulous, wonderful Christian woman,” said O’Meara. “We stopped the show that night and we said, ‘Some of these children might be yours and you have to help us. And we’re going to pass the hat. And we need you to come with lumber and build on the front door and window panes and expand this little two-room hut. And they showed up en masse the next day with stolen army blankets and lumber and doors and windows.”

“They were fabulous,” added Fedderson.

Word spread and more orphans showed up at Mama Kin’s door. “We had over 100 children entrusted in our care before we ever came back home and that’s when we began International Orphans Incorporated,” said O’Meara.

“We got our friends together to help to fundraise so that we could raise the money to build more buildings for the children,” said Fedderson. When the women returned to Tokyo, they built four new orphanages.

During the ‘60s, O’Meara and Fedderson were honored by Congress for what they had done in Japan. At the same time, they were asked to go to Vietnam and work with the Third Marine Amphibious Force to build orphanages, like they had done in Japan for the half-American children. “So we did go into Vietnam. We built five orphanages, a hospital and a school,” said O’Meara.

Operation Baby Lift
But in 1975, they received what they felt was a death notice for the children. General Lewis William Walt, who worked with them and had been a frequent guest at their fundraising events in the U.S., took the women aside at one of their galas and said, ‘Ladies, don’t send any more money over. The President’s going to say any day for me to pull out our troops and the money will land in the Vietcong’s hands. And the children probably will be killed,’” said O’Meara. “We called the next day and said, ‘You have asked us to go in and save these children and now they’re all going to be slaughtered. You have to help us get airplanes in there to get these children out.’ And that was the beginning of Operation Baby Lift.”

Seats were removed from the planes to make room for boxes to carry some of the children who were just infants. The women brought thousands and thousands of children to the United States, despite the tragic crash of the very first Operation Baby Lift plane that took off from Vietnam. “Speaking so well of the Americans who opened their hearts, every single child was adopted by the time they reached our soil,” said O’Meara.

“Hundreds of volunteers were helping us take the babies from the planes,” said Fedderson. “It was so emotional. It was really, I think, the most emotional thing that we ever went through. But it was very exciting to have these children here and safe and then to be adopted.”

Operation Baby Lift ignited a movement of compassion across the U.S. The ladies were asked to speak at events. At one such event in Los Angeles, they shared the stage with the new California governor, Ronald Reagan, and his wife, Nancy. Nancy stopped the women as they were going to their seats and said, “‘You’re just the two to do it,’” recalled O’Meara. “And we said, ‘Do what?’ and she said, ‘Child abuse in this country. The laws are protecting the perpetrator, not the child. You must do something about it and you two are the ones who can because you have dealt with an unpopular war and have succeeded. You have dealt with unpopular issues and succeeded. And this is a very unpopular issue and we would like for you to begin the main thrust of letting people know what’s happening to the children right here in our country.’ And we thought she was crazy because nobody had any idea about child abuse.”

CREATING CHILDHELP
The women said they would have to do a feasibility study before taking on such a campaign, which would require funding. “Nancy looked at Ronny and she said, ‘I think they can get that money, don’t you, Ronny?’ And she winked. And the next day she had a check delivered from them for us to start a feasibility study. We had a lot of research to do before we went to Washington, D.C. to help change the laws, which, we were successful.”

That effort became Childhelp and the Reagans continued to support the non-profit organization from that point on.

O’Meara and Fedderson created a television special, “A Time for Love,” which raised awareness and more funds and demonstrated ways to rehabilitate abused children. They built the first residential treatment facility for abused children in California 45 years ago.

Today, Childhelp has A Children’s Village U.S.A. in California and Virginia, and A Childhelp Children’s Center in Tennessee. O’Meara and Fedderson say the need continues as child abuse increased during the pandemic. Calls to the Childhelp hotline rose by 43%. That hotline number is 1-800-4-A-CHILD or 1-800-422-4453.

Next month, Childhelp will host a gala on Saturday, Feb. 18, to raise money to help children around the world. Information can be found at Childhelp.org.

“You cannot dispute that we all need to raise funds to help children,” said Jill Babb. “They are the future of our world and when they are damaged and hurt, they just carry that with them until we can help them.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

To see and hear Bonnie Stevens’ full interview with Sara O’Meara, Yvonne Fedderson and Jill Babb, go to Zonie Living at StarWorldwideNetworks.com

Courtesy Photo: Jill Babb, Sara O’Meara, Yvonne Fedderson and Bill Babb share success stories at Childhelp galas like this one in Phoenix.

Leading a Life of Impact and Legacy

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Author promotes developing ‘Holy Habits’ for living our best life.

Motivational speaker Rabbi Daniel Cohen believes no encounter is random, but rather an opportunity to make an impact. In his book, “What Will They Say About You When You Are Gone? Creating a Life of Legacy,” he offers strategies to help us become more mindful in how we think and act, and become the best version of ourselves. Sprinkling in Jewish mysticism, he suggests developing what he calls “Holy Habits,” that put into play the “Momentum Factor.”

Rabbi Cohen says daily decisions lead to Holy Habits. “Life is not made up of major moral decisions, but it’s made up of small moments when I choose to be either a giver or a taker. Do I choose to be honest or maybe to cut a corner? The philosophy behind this is that we’ll never have the strength to make the choices that are the right choices in the bigger moments unless we recognize that we need to get in the habit of making good choices that reflect our values and principles all the time. And here’s where I talk about Holy Habits. Because when we’re in what I call, ‘the groove,’ we are attuned to really making sure that we’re making choices based upon our value system. If somebody doesn’t have a value system, then every moral choice becomes up for negotiation.”

One way to develop habits that reflect our value system is to practice them. In his book, the rabbi suggests that rather than donating one sum of money to a charitable organization, get into the habit of giving every day. For example, if you choose to give $100 for the year, instead, give $1 a day for 100 days, developing what he calls, “the Momentum Factor.”

Acknowledging the challenges and chaos in the world, Rabbi Cohen says the uncertainty can create a sense of paralysis and anxiety. “One of the choices that we have is to just lament the situation in which we’re in. Jewish mysticism teaches us that our role is not to lament the darkness but to increase the light. If I meet someone or pass by someone and our faces meet, a possibility emerges for a soul connection and a moment of eternal impact. Even if I cannot change the world, I can change the world of one person. That little bit of light that I create, that act of kindness, that smile will have an impact that will then transform potentially that person’s life and slowly one by one, the universe begins to change from that. So, to me, that’s a very empowering message.”

He also promotes meditation to connect with the wisdom of our higher selves. “Sometimes there’s so much noise, that we don’t have an opportunity to listen to our inner voice. Whether that’s walking, sitting in the park, saying a prayer, fly fishing, whatever it is, the important thing is to turn off the outside noise to listen to our inner voices. I’m a strong believer that leading a life of legacy is not about imposing something from outside of us, but about unlocking what is inside of us that sometimes we fail to listen to. That’s where meditation is so important on a consistent basis, because it gives us the space and time and bandwidth to tap into the highest aspirations we have for ourself.”

To create a life of legacy, Rabbi Cohen recommends reverse engineering our lives by taking a look at the end product, deconstructing it and rebuilding it. “I’ll ask people to do an exercise: If we have five words that we want to be remembered by, what would they be; if we had 24 hours to live, what would we do and why? Identify what is that life you want to lead. Keep that front and center. One of the principles in the book is called, ‘Living Inspired.’ Living inspired means that we recognize that every day is a gift and that the real value of life is not in days passing but in moments and memories that we create. In many ways, that’s the way that we reverse-engineer our life. Too often, life goes by and we say, ‘Wait a second, where did the past year go?’ But if we can be fully present in each moment that we experience, create a memory of a lifetime, reach out and do acts of kindness. Those are ways that we cannot stop time, but we can slow down time to make the most of the gift of every day.”

Here are five ways Rabbi Cohen offers to live a life of impact and legacy:

Reflect. “Set aside time to reflect on the best version of yourself. Take 30 minutes a week to think about how you want to be remembered.”

Practice gratitude. “Create a gratitude journal. Make it a habit every day to write down one thing you’re thankful for. Do this once in the morning and once at night.”

Reach out to somebody. “Whether it’s a phone call or a text, let someone know how much they mean to you. Thank people in your lives who made a difference in your life.”

Create an “Elijah Moment.” Elijah was a prophet who encouraged others. “Make it a habit every day just to smile and ask somebody how they’re doing. Small acts of kindness really make a difference in somebody’s life.”

Pray. “I believe that none of us can get anything done with only our own efforts, but there’s a higher power. I’m here as God’s ambassador to maximize my potential and to share God’s light with the world.”

“What Will They Say About You When You Are Gone? Creating a Life of Legacy,” is available on Amazon. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

To hear more, visit Zonie Living: Developing Holy Habits for Living our Best Life with Rabbi Daniel Cohen at StarWorldWideNetworks.com

Inventor’s HeetShield May Soon Protect Space Deliveries and Firefighters

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Steve Miller is testing his high-tech thermal insulation material in NACET labs.

Whatever NASA wants to deliver to a planet or a moon from space – whether it is medicine, robots, experiments or humans – HeetShield founder and CEO Steve Miller is engineering a protective thermal insulation product that can wrap around it. He is testing his science technologies material now in Moonshot at NACET’s laboratory on McMillan Mesa in Flagstaff.

His patent-pending material has the attention of the Forest Service as well. This month, as wildfires rage across the West, the entrepreneurial innovator is developing a better fire shelter, one he hopes can withstand high heat 20% longer than those being used on the fire lines today.

“We have two materials that are more efficient than what’s currently available,” said Miller. “They are both in the neighborhood of half a millimeter thick. We can make them thicker if we need to, but no one makes thermal insulation of that thickness that is as efficient as ours are.”

Thinner than a matchbook cover, Miller’s HeetShield material can withstand temperatures of at least 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit to survive the descent from space through Earth’s atmosphere. It also blocks radiation.

“Let’s say you’ve got your payload in a one-gallon paint can and you need to get it to the surface of a planet,” he said. “NASA has this concept of a Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) that might be deployed from the International Space Station or a rocket lab. This HIAD is an inflatable vehicle. The bottom part looks like half a sphere. You put your paint can in the bottom of the sphere, which then surfs through the atmosphere, and the payload is recovered on the ground. The HIAD is protected by our material.”

Like many products designed for space, Miller believes his HeetShield technology has valuable applications on the ground.

“The current fire shelter uses a layer of silica cloth with foil on the outside to reflect the heat of the fire away and then on the inside there’s another layer of foil and fiberglass cloth. We’re proposing to add a very thin layer of our material in between the two layers,” he said. “Today’s fire shelters offer protection 92% of the time. We’d like to improve that.”

Miller’s interest in thermal insulation material began when he was a teenager growing up in Los Angeles. “I used to enjoy escaping the big city and going to the mountains and I wasn’t convinced that the clothing and sleeping bags sold at the time were as good as they could be. So, I began working on new materials that I thought would work better.”

Later, he presented his ideas for clothing insulation at a conference. A participant suggested he talk to his colleagues at NASA who developed insulation for the space shuttle. “Over the years since then, I’ve had access to some incredibly smart people and amazing test facilities.”

Miller has been developing his HeetShield material for more than a decade, but during the pandemic, it has taken off. He founded the company in September 2020, hired five part-time employees, including recent Northern Arizona University graduates, and applied successfully for grants though NASA’s Small Business Innovative Research program.

In April, HeetShield was invited to move into the labs at NACET, Flagstaff’s business incubator and accelerator. “The facilities are beautiful,” said Miller. “They have very talented mentors. Through the people at NACET, I’ve been connected with people to help with patents, I’ve connected with people at ECoNA, I’ve connected with people at the Arizona Commerce Authority. Last month, they helped us install our quality management system so we can move our technology out of the lab and into production. We have to be able to produce materials very consistently and reliably, so that’s been a major milestone for us. It’s been just a wonderful collaboration even in this short time.”

“Having HeetShield on campus benefits the Moonshot at NACET program and the City of Flagstaff,” said Executive Director Diana White. “The advancements Steve and his team are making will positively impact science, and protect and save lives. We are so proud to be a small part of HeetShield’s journey.”

Miller has been in Flagstaff for 27 years. Since he was 10 years old, riding the train through Flagstaff on a school trip to the Grand Canyon, he knew he’d want to live there one day. “I love the mountains. I love being close to NAU. I feel a real sense of community here.”

Miller is on schedule to test HeetShield’s science technologies material aboard Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin in 2023. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Meet Steve Miller and learn more about HeetShield on Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership. Go to https://starworldwidenetworks.com/episodes/flagstaff-inventors-heetshield-may-soon-protect-space-deliveries-and-firefighters-video

Making a Great Commotion

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We can thank Mother Road Brewing Company for digging up this gold nugget about Miss Anna and naming a brew in her honor.

Miss Anna Durkee made history when, acting on a tip, she purchased gold mining property near Oatman in 1914. Two years later, the Wichita Daily Eagle reported that it was for “an insignificant sum.” The headline read, “Tip Gave Her a Fortune.”

Miss Anna, who had become one of the world’s foremost women mine owners, was not flattered by the attention. In fact, she seemed annoyed. “I can’t see why a woman cannot run a gold mine just as well as a man,” she told the reporter. “If a man were successful in his investments as I have been, nothing would be thought of it, but because I am a woman there is a great commotion over it.”

That’s right, Miss Anna! Some of us will continue to make a great commotion over your success because, for one reason, the right for women to own property in the United States was an evolving process that continued even into the 20th Century!

We can thank Mother Road Brewing Company for digging up this gold nugget about Miss Anna and naming a brew in her honor. Mother Road’s Director of Arizona Craft Beer Stephanie Henderson says every year since 2015, “the Women’s Collaboration Brew showcases the amazing women who work in Arizona’s craft beer industry while supporting community organizations.”

Staying true to Mother Road’s pioneering theme, the folks at the brewery featured Miss Anna and her story with the Women’s Collaboration craft beer called “Great Commotion” in 2021. Proceeds from Great Commotion benefited women’s shelters across the state, including Prescott Area Women’s Shelter and Northland Family Help Center. And that’s a legacy worth touting, Miss Anna!

I’ve been thinking about the character of this gold-mining pioneer woman while reading “What Will They Say About You When You are Gone?” Author Rabbi Daniel Cohen encourages readers to live inspired, celebrate the gift of every moment and make courageous choices that reflect core values.

“The word ‘courage’ derives from the Latin root cor, which means ‘heart,’” he writes. “A courageous choice is based on inner principles and not external pressure. A courageous choice emerges from a steadfast commitment to our values.”

I’m guessing Miss Anna was courageous, full of heart and too busy with the challenges of running mines to wonder what anyone else was thinking about her, especially not a newspaper a great distance away or one operating more than a century later. But that’s the thing about having the courage to take actions rooted in our hearts, in our inner principles. We should be intentional with our choices, because others might be noticing and talking about us when we’re gone, maybe even 100 years from now!

As Rabbi Cohen points out, “Oftentimes the route to building character and influence hinges on our choices – both large and small – that we make every day.”

Cheers to Miss Anna for making courageous choices, to the Wichita Daily Eagle for recognizing her work and to Mother Road Brewing Company for honoring and building on her success. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Visit Zonie Living to hear more about Mother Road Brewing Company’s impactful actions from Stephanie Henderson and tips for reverse engineering your life from Rabbi Daniel Cohen. Find Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership at www.starworldwidenetworks.com

Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.

Guinness World Record Holder Encourages Kids to Jump Up

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The Arizona Rangers are a special brand of highly trained law enforcement volunteers who got their start in the early 1900s.

Demonstrating how quick the legendary Arizona Rangers are on their feet, jump-roping Guinness World Record Holder Mark Rothstein provided an inspirational program and demonstration to Winslow youth through a J.U.M.P event (Jump Up for our Military and Police), June 19, at the Route 66 Plaza.

Rothstein claimed the world record by jumping rope for 36 hours. He delivers messages around the state about keeping fit, showing integrity and reminding children that police officers and military personnel are their friends.

The Arizona Rangers are a special brand of highly trained law enforcement volunteers who got their start in the early 1900s. They were called in to rid the West of outlaws, bandits and gangs of bad guys who made travel dangerous for those crossing the Arizona Territory. Many of the original Arizona Rangers had fought alongside Theodore Roosevelt as members of his famous Rough Riders – the first U.S. volunteer Cavalry.

Today, Arizona Rangers continue the tradition of answering the call when they are needed – visible at parades, festivals, air shows and in schools – to help keep the order and back up law enforcement. QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Meet two members of the Arizona High Country Ranger Company on Zonie Living. Visit starworldwidenetworks.com.

Arizona Rangers Keeping Order, Continuing Western Tradition

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Arizona Rangers answer the call.

ARIZONA HERITAGE! Feared by bad guys and respected by all, the highly skilled Arizona Rangers continue their Arizona Territory tradition of answering the call when they are needed. You’ll see them at parades, festivals, air shows and in schools – to keep the order and back up law enforcement. Meet two of these brave and dedicated volunteer public servants from Arizona High Country Ranger Company on Zonie Living! Watch now at https://starworldwidenetworks.com/…/arizona-rangers…

Pilot Fish May Help You Make the Big Catch

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“They’re opinion leaders, the ones that others look up to.”

Experiencing the gentle, colorful tropical world under the sea off Maui’s scenic Honoapi’ilani Highway feels like you’re in a Disney mermaid movie, unless you’re snorkeling with someone who delights in taking you to places to see some really interesting creatures.

Hawaii’s Sandra Romer is one such snorkeler. She can free dive to depths way beyond normal human ear pressure tolerance, doesn’t get cold or wrinkly in the ocean and can hold her breath for, like, half an hour.

If you’re going to put on your flippers and be in the ocean anyway, Sandra figures, why not get close to something weird? So, after swimming past the happy clown fish, the beautiful humuhumunukunukuapua’a and the sleepy sea turtles, Romer delights in finding a pale green cauliflower-like frog fish that hop-walks on its fins, spotted eels that go on forever in their snaky, snarly way and a wall of fish the size of an IMAX screen.

And sure, just when you’re getting comfortable with that massive amount of fish doing that synchronized swimming thing, you notice something bigger. . .maybe three feet long with a hefty dark presence swimming slowly, stealthily along the ocean floor with a couple of suspicious-looking buddies almost as big.

Sandra called them “jackfish” and found them fascinating with their shadowy predacious essence. But I got the feeling the silvery fish in the giant school nearby were keeping an eye on them, too, especially when they slid in real close, changed up their direction and darted straight into the perfectly conforming fish. “Whoa!” I garbled loudly underwater – and then discovered how fast I could swim.

I’m guessing author Kelly McDonald had the same underwater discovery, because she writes about “pilot fish” in her leadership book, “How to Work With and Lead People Not Like You.”

Turns out pilot fish are a type of jackfish that would hang around sea going vessels in the olden days. Sailors thought they would lead them to shore. In my case, they more accurately inspired me to lead the way to shore.

In any case, McDonald says leaders need to get to know the workplace pilot fish because they are highly influential. “They’re opinion leaders, the ones that others look up to. They are informal ‘leaders’ because others follow them and often confide in them. They might not even know they are pilot fish, but what they say or do influences others in their sphere,” she writes.

Here’s the deal about pilot fish in the workplace. They can be valuable thought leaders and may be able to clue leadership in about what others are thinking, not in a sneaky sort of way, but in a diversity-of-thought sort of way that may not be reflected at the highest levels of the organization where important decisions are made.

Here’s a great example McDonald offers in her book. Do you know about Skinnygirl? If you haven’t heard of it, perhaps check in with your female pilot fish. Skinnygirl is a brand created by entrepreneur extraordinaire and “The Real Housewives of New York City” star Bethany Frankel that produces low-calorie alcoholic drinks, including wine, vodkas, margaritas and ready-to-serve cocktails.

According to McDonald, Frankel pitched her idea to all the major liquor companies. “Every one of them dismissed her product. That turned out to be a bad decision. She forged ahead on her own, developed the brand, and sold more than 2 million bottles in her first year in business. Two years later, Beam, the makers of bourbon and other liquors, acquired the product and brand for an estimated $100 million! Skinnygirl sales continued to skyrocket: in its first year as a Beam product, Skinnygirl posted a whopping 486% in net sales growth.”

How did the major liquor companies miss this? McDonald says they were all run by men at the time. “I’m betting they passed on Skinnygirl because they didn’t see the need for it.” She calls this a “failure of perspective” and notes that diversity in the workplace does not only include things like skin color and sexual orientation, it also includes diversity of thought.

And that’s why top flight executives need to get to know their pilot fish, because even if they may seem like a fish out of water to the leadership team with their ideas, that diverse opinion may be floating around among the smaller fish and not reflected in the circle of big fish.

The lesson here, there could be a whopper of a business opportunity lurking in the shadows that a homogenous-in-thought leadership team might miss if it’s not paying attention to the pilot fish. Don’t let your Skinnygirl opportunity be the one that got away! QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens

Hear more from author Kelly McDonald on Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership at StarWorldwideNetworks.com.

Bonnie Stevens is a public relations consultant. She can be reached at bonnie.stevens@gmail.com.

Colleen Biggs Bets on Women to Lead

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Entrepreneurial business coach has helped launch hundreds of small businesses.

Colleen Biggs grew up like a lot of little girls, imagining the life she thought she was supposed to live, including a prince, a big Disney-esque wedding and a happily ever after. But with her parents’ divorce, she watched her mom’s world fall apart.

For 12-year-old Colleen and her mom, life was a struggle. They survived on food stamps in rural Chandler in the 1970s. “It was interesting because it was a horse town then. People would ride their horses to grocery stores. You would smell manure all day.”

She began to realize that her little-girl dream didn’t exist. Instead, life felt, looked and smelled bad to her. She decided this was not her destiny.

“The whole motivation behind being who we were born to be comes from really leaning into your voice, into who you are and what makes you stand out,” she said. “We know who we are in the first four years of our life. We spend the rest of our lives trying to dig ourselves out of what others have labeled us to be.”

At 35 years old, she had an epiphany. “I remember the day I made the decision that I was not going to be what everyone else labeled me to be. I was not going to be where others believed Colleen should fit.”

She was working her way up to an executive position in Corporate America. But inside, she was breaking down, unhappy with trying to fit others’ opinions about who she was at work, as a mother or even around town. “Labels were flying at me, but it only takes one kind or generous label to wash all the others away.”

The company where she worked was selling raffle tickets for prizes, with proceeds benefiting a charitable organization. Employees would drop a ticket in the basket of the prize they wanted to win. Biggs wanted only one prize – lunch once a month with the CEO for a year. She desperately wanted to be mentored by this person that she so admired. She bought 100 tickets and put them all in his basket.

“I didn’t win. I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “But, my CEO came over to me and said, ‘Listen, I watched you and I know how bad you wanted those lunches and I know you’re devastated. I’m so impressed that you put all your tickets in my basket. You bet on me. Now I’m going to bet on you.’”

As promised, the CEO met with her and coached her. “I learned how to be a very successful human. I learned how to believe in myself and found my uniqueness. It was the standing-out part that he was teaching me. He was preparing me for entrepreneurship. We spent a couple of years together. He still supports me as the person I am today.”

As a result, she broke up with her boyfriend, bought herself a house, met her husband and combined families. “It’s been 15 years, seven kids, 12 grandchildren and the most amazing life I could ever imagine, all because I decided just to free myself of the chains that everyone else put on me. Now, life isn’t happening to me, it’s happening for me.”

That “amazing” life is highly focused on improving other women’s lives as well. Biggs has been a business coach for 22 years, is the founder and CEO of The Leap Community, an organization that offers summits, workshops and retreats designed to empower women to lead, and has helped launch 340 businesses. She is an international speaker, has co-authored “The Anatomy of Accomplishment: Your Guide to Bigger, Better, Bolder Business Results,” was a contributing author to “Stop Waiting: Start Living,” and has published her own book, “Step Into the Spotlight to Expand Your Influence and Attract the Right Clients.” She also has written two journals and created a year-long mastermind program for high-achieving women to focus on their businesses and increase their visibility, capacity and wealth.

“Every single person I’ve coached is different. You need the ability to get into the map of their world to understand them first – who they are, what they need, what they are looking for – to assist and empower them for greatness.”

Biggs tells the story of “Jennifer” (not her real name): “She came to me after being an entrepreneur for 20 years. She was a confident, very intuitive person who works through spirit to speak with people. But the pandemic freaked her out and she developed a scarcity mindset. She lost all her confidence, all her clients and all her money. She felt like she didn’t have her legs underneath her. When I met her, she was making $1,500 a month. In the second month we worked together, she made $10,000. Around the fourth month, she made $30,000, her highest month ever. She started a school for women who have these psychic gifts and don’t know what to do with them. We helped her set up the school and found a way to scale the business.”

Biggs and Jennifer worked together for about six months. “It comes down to the belief we have in ourselves. When you have a thought and you believe it so much to be true, every single thing you see is telling you what you believe is true. We lose this as we get older. We almost become numb to what we are conditioned to be. It takes extraordinary effort for us to become extraordinary.”

Today, Biggs carries around casino chips, which she hands out to women. “You need to bet on you,” she tells them, with a nod to her former mentor. “Be around me. I will bet on you and I will be there to empower you to bet on you, too.” QCBN

By Bonnie Stevens, QCBN

Find Biggs at https://colleenbiggs.net and meet her on Zonie Living: Business, Adventure and Leadership at Dave Pratt’s Star Worldwide Networks, https://starworldwidenetworks.com.