It wasn’t until recently that I truly began to feel at peace, and feel like I controlled my life or what happened to me. This is because I was stuck living in the past for so long, reliving every slight, every trauma, every roadblock. I felt like I was stuck in an Infinity loop that kept resetting, unaware of how to finally break the knot and be free.
This all began to change when I met two wonderful people, who I now consider dear friends and colleagues. I’ve always loved networking, and when I downloaded the networking app, Shapr, I wasn’t sure what to expect. Shapr is a networking app that is marketed as “tinder for businesses” and I wanted to meet like-minded individuals who could help me learn and grow on my journey toward finding my dream job. One issue I was facing, that was impacting my job interviews and career trajectory, was a childhood stutter that reappeared without warning after a disastrous time taking Singulair for my asthma. At the time, speech therapy was not working, and they say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results. I was frustrated, and was willing to try anything, so when I saw Keith Scott’s profile on Shapr advertising Public Speaking and Confidence coaching (along with his wife, Rebecca Klein Scott), I swiped right and haven’t looked back.
I remember the first message I sent them, stating that I loved the play on words with their name, TALLsmall (since Keith is 6’9″ and Rebecca is 5’2″), and they responded that they loved mine more. My name is Four Eleven Productions because it’s how tall I am, and it’s also the number that you dial to get information. At the time, I was interested in theatre, documentary, design and had goals to gain leadership skills. My stutter, and cognitive difficulties I was facing due to my health, were drastically impacting my work, my life, and I was not happy with where I was in life. I decided then and there to make a change, and working with Keith and Rebecca of TALLsmall Productions was the catalyst on a journey that is still ongoing, and has been more successful than I’d ever dreamed possible.
TALLsmall Productions helped me abolish the words “can’t” and “no” from my internal dialogue–in fact the only times they ever encourage using such words is when establishing boundaries. They were willing to work with me every step of the way, including setting up payment plans to make their much needed trainings more affordable, and they created a group of smaller, bite size trainings available for less than the cost of a Netflix subscription.
In July, I found myself unemployed, and was able to land a job with my dream company, Custom Ink, nine days after being laid off. In fact, I had my first interview, and then got a job offer to work in-store with Custom Ink three days later as a part-time sales rep. After furlough, I was brought on as a seasonal rep for the inbound sales team, and just accepted a full-time salaried positions with benefits. I would not have gotten this job without the tools and skillsets I learned from working with Keith and Rebecca, and they truly were the catalyst, the first domino of this journey and they deserve that recognition.
After working with them for about a year, I had a meeting with a doctor that left me angry, and I remembered how Keith and Rebecca encouraged me to never accept the word “can’t.” My neurologist told me that there was nothing else they could do for me, and I had another doctor tell me that I had to eat 4,000mg of sodium and drink a gallon of water a day just to maintain. In my head, I thought, “If I’m eating that much sodium, and drinking that much water, I damn well better be thriving at the end.” When I got home, I googled, “Alternative treatments for POTS” and there was an advertisement for a place called Mid-Atlantic Brain and Neurological Rehabilitation. They used the patients individual data, particularly eye movements and balance to track treatment and come up with a game plan.
At my first appointment with Dr. Daniel G. J. Lane, he said I was the worst patient he’d ever seen, but it wasn’t hopeless. We went in for diagnostics at 6, and an appointment at 7. He spent three hours explaining all of the data to me, and told me it was possible to feel better and even thrive, but it would require a lot of hard work on my part. The first, and most important piece of the puzzle, was to safely ween off all my anxiety meds and treat the inflammation and anxiety through a mixture of diet, exercise, and eye-movement retraining.
At the time of diagnostics, Dr. Lane told me that my data was so bad he was shocked I was even able to stand, drive a car, or walk. If I had not seen Dr. Lane, I would have had a wheelchair on my Christmas wish list this past year, because that was the path I was heading down. I wouldn’t have begun to challenge my status quo without the groundwork laid by Keith and Rebecca with their communication trainings. Their trainings go beyond basic communication, which is what truly sets them apart from their competition. When you learn to communicate effectively, without compromising, a cosmic shift begins to take place. You begin to feel more at peace, you begin to thrive, and once you fix one thing, you wonder what else you can fix.
Ever since that first in-person session with them in March of 2019, I’ve been on a journey of self-improvement. I’ve been able to successfully ween off of all five brain altering medications I was taking for my mental health, I was able to stop using my mobility aids, and was able to fix most of the health issues I thought I’d be stuck with forever. I thought chaos and uncertainty was something I was stuck with, but rather it was a by-product of following the status quo instead of carving my own path.
If you want to carve your own path, instead of living life by the status quo, contact Keith and Rebecca. They’d be honored to help you learn to thrive and find peace and calm in chaos. If I did it, you can, too.
Four Eleven Productions 