As most of my readers know I met up with Christian McQueen, Goldmund and Tanner Guzy for the Man in Demand conference in Las Vegas back in September of this year. The one condition I had for doing this talk was that every man in attendance would have his privacy protected above all other considerations. That meant no video, no photos (of the attendees) and publicity kept to a minimum.
However, just after I’d announced my appearance and how the platform would go for it I had requests for the audio of it to be made available for those who couldn’t make it. I honestly had no idea how I would go about doing a recording of the talk beyond setting up a cell phone to record it, so I was honored to have Sam Botta make the trip out from Los Angeles and bring his live recording gear to do a very professional live recording.
From the beginning of The Rational Male Sam has been my most ardent supporter and evangelists for what I write. Sam has been a professional voice talent for his long career and originally took on the role of being the narrator of the soon to be released Audible audio book version of The Rational Male book of his own accord. In early 2014 he sent me some narration samples of my book from his YouTube profile and I was floored. I immediately wanted him to do the book reading and he was ready to do it pro bono.
I should also add that Sam took it upon himself to do some red carpet interviews of various Hollywood celebrities and casually insert my book and writing into his conversations with them.
I’m constantly asked about the status of the audio book, it being now over a year and a half since we started the process of recording Sam’s narration. Sadly that process took a tragic setback as Sam Botta was the victim of a hit and run car crash in late 2014. I’ve asked Sam to put it in his own words since I wanted him to be the one to describe what he’s been through over the past year.
At the height of my career and in the best shape of my life, the last thing I expected was a quick and drastic change that meant a wheelchair, a walker, a cane.
It meant paralysis of my arm, hand, leg and foot.
It meant vision loss and loss of normal balance.
It meant the slowing of sensory processing in speech, cognitive, associative and memory dysfunction.
It meant some facial palsy.
It meant delayed reaction times when responding to questions and delayed movements.
It meant that my ability to do the voice work that I love (which I began doing before I could drive) was on hold until further notice.
It meant a year of live-in inpatient care and 24/7 care.
It meant many hospital stays.
It meant having to take medicines that most people have never heard of.
It meant burning through my resources in order to stay alive and enjoy the benefits constant improvement in a world where the best health insurance PPO plan says no and car insurance says no despite the clarity of things.
It meant seeing drastic improvements in the restoration of functions as long as I worked harder at it than anyone else. It meant feeling alone each time new complications presented themselves. Each was a direct result of the brain injury and strokes caused by the hit and run accident.
Recently, I was admitted to Cedars-Sinai (hospital) for five days. They thought I’d had another stroke. The injuries to my brain caused by the hit and run driver meant, among other conditions, narcolepsy. This has been tragic as it has kept me from being able to drive, and it has caused the need for a “service animal” to assist me. Without the service animal, I have fallen at least 30 times, usually at night, and I usually hit my head. This can cause more strokes, and each fall has been a set back. I still need a service animal to make sure I am not falling at night, and also to keep me awake so that I can drive. A dog trained for my specific needs would cost about $25,000.
So, the latest fall, we thought, caused a stroke which caused complete numbness of the other side of my body. The truth is that there is another more serious complication caused by the hit and run accident. It is insane to have the new diagnosis since my heart is completely free of plaque or clots or any issues. It is because of how the hit and run accident caused my brain and thyroid and other parts of me to not function properly. Though I am in excellent physical condition, back down to below 12% body fat (I had become morbidly obese in inpatient care), now I have been diagnosed with congestive heart failure. The logical solution is to get my thyroid, which had no issues at all before the hit and run accident.
Between the medicines, the treatments, the doctors and therapies that are not covered by health insurance or car insurance that has refused to pay what it owes, I have had to depend on resources I worked for in order to survive, stay alive and continue to improve.
Those resources have run out, and now I do not know what to do. As I type, there are nine medicines that I am out of and two others that are in limited supply. I do not know what else to do. So I have completed editing the seminar and the audiobook is almost ready to be published and available to you, but for the moment, every hour of every day is a real struggle. Paralysis and numbness has become real again…
The work that I do is a struggle, but I improve every day.
I love the work that I do, and I want to again be the best in the world at influencing in the most positive ways with my voice – it is rewarding to spread the word about the work of Rollo Tomassi and others through my talent and mastery of skills and I want to go on tour speaking about these experiences as well.
But right now, unable to cover the cost of the medicines, treatments, therapies etc, I am stuck and afraid, barely able to stay awake or move though I want to do more to bring the messages of Rollo Tomassi and others to you and to the whole world in need.
No one expects the seven figure recovery process or the consistent new diagnoses that come as the result of an unexpected hit and run accident. When you’ve invested in your brands and in your talents and mastery of skills, you just don’t expect that the worst will happen. I had no way of fathoming such an event. Though I have reached the end of the resources I’ve still got the ultimate hope and I see the vision clearly, but at this moment, I am exhausted though still in superb physical shape, but out of breath yet excited about seeing the audiobook change the course of world events.
After the holidays I’ll be setting up a GoFundMe account for Sam, however, the good news is that the Man in Demand conferences talks are now available for download. Half the proceeds from these downloads will go directly to Sam to help with his medical and living expenses as he’s still recovering.
About the Talk
The audio files are now (reliably) available on my Digiramp shop.
Sam and I enlisted Peter Rafelson to do the sound mastering and edits for the talk audio. Part of Sam’s long career includes working with top shelf pros like Peter and he’s done an amazing job of cleaning up the live audio that Sam recorded himself in Vegas. Peter’s credits include Lady Gaga, Pink, Beyonce, Jason Mraz, Stevie Nicks and Erika Jayne.
I’ve had the talk audio split up into 3 section. Part one contains the first half of the talk (when you listen you’ll know why we split it here) and part two the second. Part three contains the Q&A session I did at the end. Each audio file is individually purchasable for $10 or you can buy the whole talk in one large file for $25. All are MP3 format.
Sam does the introduction voiceovers in the talk audio.
I’ll admit I was a bit hesitant about producing the audio of this lecture. I consulted with Christian and the guys about doing this at the conference and while they were enthusiastic about it my concern then was wanting the men in attendance to feel that they came for exclusive access to us. However, in light of Sam’s situation I went forward with this project and I hope the discussion and talk will benefit those who were unable to attend this year.
I’ll let Sam speak for himself in the comments here, but he’s let me know that focusing on doing the book narration during his recovery has kept him focused and helped him heal. Other than my Greyhound donations page I’ve never done a charity post, but for Sam I’m willing to reach out.
I understand that with any audio the files get copied and redistributed so I realize the profits will be diminishing as time goes on, but if you’re interested in the talk I gave at the Man in Demand conference (it’s about an hour and a half total) I think it’s well worth the small investment.
UPDATE:
It appears Digiramp has really stepped up and addressed the issues with the complete audio download now. They’ve also assured me that they’ve sent new download links to all who had issues so I’m now making the shop link live here. Thanks for your patience and please let me know if you have any further problems or you still haven’t received the new link email.
I thank you and Sam does too.
Filed under: Foundations
