Harris Fellman Live Life To Its Fullest

Bad Ass Woo Woo Shit

I've been sending this invite for the last couple days via email and a couple people asked me if this was some kind of "woo woo" stuff.

I prefer to call it AIRY FAIRY myself, but YES, this is some 'woo woo' stuff.

However, it's BAD ASS WOO WOO stuff.

Which is why I registered the domain:
http://badasswoowoo.com

Everybody in this IM marketplace has been selling "the magic button" - so much so that we all freakin' believe it. (yes, me too)

Anyway -- the real problem is that we are all STUCK. STUCK on our road to success. Forget IM for a minute, check out this bad ass webinar.

http://badasswoowoo.com

If you have any questions about it at all feel free to comment below.

The webinar alone will most likely get you UNSTUCK within a day like it did for me.

Peace,

Harris

Spleen Watch 2011

I have to admit — I never liked my spleen very much…

Dr Black rattled off a bunch of stuff yesterday — all I really remember was how proud of me he was for having discovered it on my own (well, noticing “something” and asking my general practitioner about it) and the diagnosis he gave — “just to get the PET scan”.

Dr Black is a hematologist (blood specialist) and oncologist (cancer).

I distinctly remember the feeling of walking into a clinic with “cancer center” plastered on the wall… but then the first thing Dr Black said when I sat down was pretty much “don’t worry, you’re not here because of cancer – you’re just here because of your low platelets.”

Long story short, I was first referred to him about a year ago because I have a somewhat low platelet count. At the time, after plenty of testing, he ruled everything out that it could be and gave me a “presumptive diagnose” of something called “Immune Thrombocytopenic Purpura” (ITP for short).

Basically, all the rest of my related indicators are fine so what it sounded like to me was “you have low platelets, we don’t know what’s causing it, so we’ll just go with ‘ITP’ for now”.

Alright, so fast forward to about a year later (3 weeks ago). I noticed a little bump or something on the left side of my abdomen while lying in bed. I’d been meaning to make an appointment for my routine yearly physical – and this was impetus enough.

So, short story made shorter – my general practitioner noticed that my spleen was potentially enlarged, I got a CT scan, found that it is indeed enlarged, and was referred back to Dr Black.

I met with Dr Black yesterday – and, as I said earlier, he rattled off a bunch of stuff — said if it’s ____, then we would probably remove your spleen… you’d need some vaccinations first because the spleen usually protects against blah blah blah … and if it’s _____, then there’s some other treatments…

Also, I remember him being either intrigued or perplexed or both by the fact that, once again, I have no other indicators really – I’m otherwise quite healthy. He seemed surprised that he didn’t notice the enlarged spleen a year ago (and I have to admit, I kinda remember him feeling around over there at one point last year – oh well).

So, let’s see… now the thinking is that the low platelets are because of the enlarged spleen and the spleen is enlarged due to something else (so, most likely *not* ITP anymore). And whatever it is — it’s obviously a “slow” growing disease.

Anyway, back to the diagnosis — “I’m just going to put down ‘Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma’ in order to get the PET and CT Scan” is what he said — so, he’s not actually saying “I think it’s Lymphoma” at this point — again, there’s no other symptoms, nothing in the blood & other tests I’ve done thus far — but a brothah still doesn’t like that shit being on his mind even if “just to get the PET & CT Scan”.

(And even if it IS some form of cancer, it’s obviously very slow growing and probably quite treatable, since I’ve had low platelets for at least 6 or 7 years that I know of.)

Honestly, I’m not too worried about it – like I said, I never liked my spleen very much anyway and it seems an easy way to drop a few pounds by having it removed. (No, we don’t know what it is at this point.) But as someone who likes to make people laugh – I’ve noticed that saying “spleen” makes people giggle almost as much as “Asberger” or “goiter” — it’s just a funny word.

In the end, I’m not too worried about this yet. I’m certainly not looking forward to getting a CT Scan again or a PET scan for that matter — as a bonus, I do get to take my pants off in the company of some lovely technicians. Oh, and I’m REALLY not looking forward to getting a bone marrow biopsy next Friday either – I’m wondering if the doctor can at least give me some Nitrous so I can laugh about it as he drills into my bone. Hoorah!

Interestingly, I’ve always wanted a full body scan — who knew all I had to do was inflate my spleen, eh? The way I look at it all is that they need to do all the tests they possible can to figure out what it is — and to RULE OUT what it’s not.

Wish me luck!

(Seriously, at this point, please don’t say shit to me like “I hope you feel better” or “get well” — I don’t “feel bad”, I’m not ill. and I’m perfectly healthily otherwise. Last week when I mentioned the spleen I got a lot of that sort of sentiment on Facebook. It made me nervous.

The only reason I’m writing this is to get my thoughts out of my head and onto ‘paper’ so to speak — and the only reason I’m posting it is to easily update people that care about me as to what’s going on. So humor, inappropriate jokes, and ”good luck with your tests” is all I’m looking for right now.

Oh, and you can ask questions if ya want to as well… I realize this is just a quick summary – long story short – I have an enlarged spleen & I’m getting more tests to figure out why.)

Quick update – July 1, 2011 – PET scan found some low level activity in the spleen — but only in the spleen. Basically, we’re still looking at “remove the spleen, remove the problem”. Spleen is non-vital, Liver does what spleen does. Had bone marrow biopsy today (discovered a new kind of pain). Will get those results in a couple weeks, then most likely move forward w/ splenectomy.

Quick update – July 21, 2011 – Bone Marrow came back *normal*. So, we still don’t know exactly what the ‘low level activity’ in the spleen is — but the doctor thinks it’s most likely something called “Marginal Zone Lymphoma”. Relax. It’s not as bad as it sounds. It’s a low-grade lymphoma… and thus far the treatment is simply “remove the spleen”. So, we’re getting that set up.

The main risk in being spleen-less is that you’re at a higher for some serious infections. So, what you do is get some vaccines and you’re mostly covered. I had those 3 vaccines yesterday. I also found out that the surgeon I was referred to can not meet with me until Sept 6th. So, I’ll double check with the hematologist – but most likely, that means that I just wait until September. Which, I’m guessing is no big deal since I’ve had this condition for 6 or 7 years – another month or two ain’t gonna make a difference.

Aug 19th Update – Home From Surgery

Alright – I had my spleen removed. I’m home recovering right now. It was about the size of a football… Larger than our largest organ, the liver… VERY BIG. Surgery went as well as can be expected. Recovery is going as well as can be expected. I’m walking up and down stairs, to the store, etc. I’ll spare you the details – but the funny thing is my wife and I will have a matching scar. (my incision is the exact same size as her c-section LOL)

Anyway, at this point, I’d like to pass on a bit of wisdom and move along. So, Here is the big LESSON LEARNED:

Pay attention to your body, do a little research, and push harder with your doctors.

I’ve had low platelets for years. I’ve also had a difficult time taking deep breaths for years.

When diagnosed with low platelets, my doctor felt around and didn’t notice the enlarged spleen (a year ago). When I told my doctor about the deep breath thing, she said it might just be anatomical – and didn’t even check for anything putting pressure on it.

Now that the football sized spleen is out – both problems are fixed.

The enlarged spleen was only discovered after *I* noticed a fist sized lump in my abdomen (turned out to be the tip of a football sized iceberg / spleenberg??)

Why did my spleen get so big? We still don’t know. We’ll know this week for sure. We’ve ruled a number of things out. Could be something as simple as an infection years ago that caused it to start malfunctioning or something. Visibly it does not look malignant, although the PET scan indicated otherwise.

Anyway – moral of the story — PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR BODY and PUSH FOR ANSWERS.

My Goodbye to Bill Nagengast

I wanted to share with you all what I’ve said at my father-in-law’s memorial service. He passed away last week due to a motorcycle accident on his way home from visiting us. Here it is:

I’ve never really been compelled to speak at anyone’s memorial service until now. Heck, I haven’t even been compelled to *listen* to anyone speak at a memorial service until now.

I kind of look at life like a big book with a lot of chapters.

My personal chapter with Bill tarted in the summer of 2000 when I had been dating Andrea for just a few months. To say my first impression on him was a lasting one woud be an understatement — I ended up passed out on the bottom of his boat thanks to some really bad long island ice teas at a little bar on the lake.

But, what most people don’t realize, is that Bill actually made a huge impression ON ME. Now remember — I’m a city boy… born Jewish… wierd sense of humor … and as Bill said, I was wearing “short pants” on the boat… I don’t think he’d ever met anyone like me – But, he deidn’t care about any of that. If I was good enough for Andrea – I was good enough for him.

Just from hanging out with him for those first few hours – we played games, we bought some pull tabs (whatever that means), we had some drinks, we went out on the boat, we had some great bar-b-que, we played some more games at the cabin… this man knew how to have fun!

Beofore the drinks were being poured at that little bar though — I distinctly remember having a conversation with Bill … one that I think laid out his motto for life. I don’t remember all the details… but one simple line stayed with me all this time. Like it was yesterday, I remember Bill saying “I think ya just goota do what makes you happy.”

Over the years, Andrea and I … and eventually our children … always had a good time with him whenever we visited. Whether it was at the cabin or in his home. There was always plenty of games, food, and fun.

Fast forward to just a couple weeks ago… As you all know, Bill got on his Harley that he loved so much… and rode that hog all the way from Minnesota to California, having the time of his life. HIs goal was to “ride the old route 66″ all the way — stopping at all the little touristy things that he could … taking nothing more than pictures and leaving nothing more than that contagious smile of his. (Ironically, he told us that the best “Route 66 State” was Oklahoma.)

He stayed with us for five or six days … of course played games with the kids (McKenna said her favorite card game he taught her is “golf”), found some boards in my garage and made a little racing ramp with Hudson’s toy cars, saw his karate class, doin’ everything a fun grandpa could do…

I personally feel incredibly blessed that our family got to share that last bit of time with him. On his next to last day, he got on his bike and rode to the Santa Monica pier because Andrea told him that there’s an “END OF ROUTE 66″ sign there and he just had to get a picture of it. His trip was complete.

Now.. I had another conversation with him where his personal life’s motto – or whatever you want to call it – came out again. We were talking about him riding the Harley across the country… motorcycle safety versus the freedom of the open rode… and ?at one point in the conversation, I turned to him and said,

“Well, I guess if that’s the way you go… ya figure at least you’ll go happy.”

“Yup” … “I just love the freedom of it all … it just makes me happy.”

So, from the first day I met him — to the last day I saw him, his life was about doing what made him, and others around him, happy.”

I’ve told Andrea this a number of times and I’ll sahre it with you… I’d rather go doing something I love rather than doing nothing with my life. I believe in living life to it’s fullest every day – and it’s clear that Bill did, too.

He genuinely cared about people… he loved to have a good time… and he had a huge sense of adventure. Andrea and I didn’t just lose a father and father-in-law… just like many of you, we lost a kindred spirit.

So, I hope you’ll honor Bill for the rest of your life. Live it to its fullest. And always remember Bill’s words, “Ya just gotta do what makes you happy.”

How to win an Online Contest

I figured since I bugged the heck out of all my friends, customers, subscribers, wife’s friends, and followers… you to vote for me for a Travel Contest, I should at least share with you what I learned from it and also give you a chance to get some really valuable information about Facebook as well…

Maybe it’ll help you, too.

Long story short – we didn’t win. Voting is over.

In the process of trying to win, I did a little bit of googling on the girl who was in first place for a large majority of the contest.

There are some very good marketing lessons in here.

Alright, so, if you’re ever in a contest like this, here’s some of the key components I saw from the winner:

1. Get Others Involved Early
   I see strong evidence that her immediate family and many of her friends were helping out quite a bit from the onset. I think you’ll get more people to take action if someone else is asking for the favor: 

   “Help my daughter win this contest” vs ”Help me win this contest”

2. Do it for a ‘good cause’
   The winner said she was going to help poor people in India and clean up the beaches near the Great Barrier Reef (uh, okay). Still, more reason people will take action, right? 

   “Help my daughter win this contest so she can do good”

3. Create a Facebook Group
   You can invite ALL of your friends to a FB group and they’re automatically in it. Once they’re in it, they can also invite their friends as well. A few days of that and next thing you know you’ve got a FB Group with 5000 people in it. 

   The cool thing about a FB Group is that anytime you update the group’s page — *everyone* in the group gets a little update. This was probably good for 1000 or more votes per day for the winner.

4. Get Strangers w/ lots of Followers to Tweet or Share
   The “others” from step 1, in this case, managed to get none other than Justin Bieber to tweet a single shout out. He would’ve never done this if he didn’t either *know* the person or it was for a good cause.
   UPDATE: CORRECTION — Justin Bieber did *NOT* actually tweet for her. I misread a page in my research.
   (I think a “reason of some sort” works — it doesn’t have to be total “do gooder” stuff, but it helps.)
5. I have no idea if they knew Bieber or not. But they still needed the “do it for a good cause” angle for him to be okay tweeting it I bet. They did not know Bieber… they tried 20 or more times to get him to Tweet and he did not.

   That’s pretty much *it* … the 80/20 rule anyway.

If you can do the first 3 things and get lucky with the 4th – you’ll most likely win the contest.

If, like my wife and I, you have a decent network of people that’ll vote for you – *and* you do the above steps – I think you’ll DEFINITELY win.

“So, why didn’t ya win, Harris?”

Is that what you’re thinking???

Honestly, I heard about the contest pretty late… I didn’t make a plan… and I thought I would just ‘see what happens’.

The *one thing* I could’ve done that probably would’ve put me over the top though … and  that I SHOULD’VE KNOWN: The Facebook Group.

By the time I realized that I should’ve done that, it was too late. And that’s what the info that I’m about to give you is all about actually:

Go Here to Get “Facebook Machine” – Social Strategy for Today’s Marketplace

It’s all about how to properly use Facebook in your business. You can get your hands on a very valuable social strategy right now.

All you have to do is click & connect.

Hope you found this as valuable as I did.

And if you’re one of the hundreds of people who voted in the contest — THANK YOU! Ain’t no shame in 5th place (just ain’t no prizes either LOL).

Peace

Harris