Episode Summary
Holly talks about finding her purpose to help other people navigate their mental health challenges. As a result of a close relative passing away, Holly experienced a “deep grief” experience that resulted in her being put in a straight jacket and committed to a psychiatric ward for a week. In the last 20 years, Holly has been striving to provide “alternative” resources for mental health and she talks about her upcoming book “Music in my head” and her new “Artificial Intelligence” platform called “Storyguide” The online platform will be launched in the “training” phase in the New year and she explains how it works by capturing the stories of those seeking assistance and matching them with the wide range of alternative therapies available.
About the Guest:
Holly was raised by her grandparents on Whidbey Island, who believed in rigorous music studies to combat the trauma of coming from parents that had mental illness. Though she didn’t become a concert pianist, she has directed short movies, documentaries, and now a web series called the Sounds of Freedom. She earned a B.A. in Film and Digital Media from the University of California, Santa Cruz and has studied fine art and digital media as far away as Italy and The Banff Centre in Alberta, Canada.
At the age of sixteen, Holly was a key member in a successful Internet start-up and went on to working for fine art and newspaper publishing companies in design and advertising, as well as in a darkroom developing crime scene photos.
Holly’s father, who suffered with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, was the inspiration for Sounds of Freedom. She is also working on a documentary featuring her mother, mental illness, and herself called Music in My Head based on her memoir coming out in 2022 of the same name.
Holly has recently found herself living in a log cabin in the Southern United States of Northern Georiga. She lives with her husband and two large dogs and enjoys kayaking, sail boating, playing piano, photography and off-roading adventures.
And you can follow her projects at the following links:
TikTok: @StoryGuide.ai
About the Host:
Julie Ann is the Founder of Influence Publishing Inc and a TEDx Speaker. In the last ten years, she has published over 300 authors and made over 80% of those International Best Sellers. She claims to be the world's only Dyslexic book publisher and her TEDx Talk on “The Gift of Dyslexia” has had almost 100,000 views. She has been featured on British and Canadian TV, The Daily Mail, International Radio, and Podcasts and conducted many inspirational speeches. She has won many awards including The Golden Gavel Speech contest, International Toastmasters, Woman of Worth Success and Soul, Unlimited Woman of Creativity, and The Canadian Business Excellence Awards, (Creative Book Publishing) in 2021.
She is the Best-Selling author of “Around the World in Seven Years – A Life Changing Journey” which catalogues her journey around the world from 1998-2005 by sailboat, train, bus, and plane. She is a member of the New York Circumnavigators club as the slowest circumnavigator, traveling from the UK to South Africa, Tanzania, Dar es Salem, Zanzibar, Kenya, Seychelles, Maldives, and the tiny remote archipelago of the uninhabited islands of Chagos (where she lived on a desert island for 3 months). She crossed the Indian Ocean by sailboat to Thailand and Malaysia where she created a backpacker's remote islands tour business for 2 years. She then traveled alone to Laos and Cambodia and then flew to Vancouver Canada, to join another boat and sail the Baja of Mexico, and the Sea of Cortez. Her circumnavigation was complete when she flew the final leg from Mexico City back to the UK. She presently lives in Puerto Vallarta where she met her Mexican Fiancé who was a Salsa and Latin dance instructor. She discovered unconditional love with him and lived life to the full, dancing Salsa, Cumbia, and the Cha Cha every week along with the live Cuban band in Bodeguita Cuban club in Puerto Vallarta. He recently passed and this inspired her to start this podcast show to inspire other people to live a life on purpose and in joy and with no regrets! The last 3 years in Puerto Vallarta have been the best years of her life, at a time when many where experiencing the opposite. She is a dual citizen of the UK and Canada.
Links:
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