Season 2025 Episode 3. Diagnosed with a pituitary disease, Risa decided to take an epic bike ride: what she learned along the way

Risa August is not your average human.  When faced with a devastating pituitary disease diagnosis, she pushed through to find herself again. One of the things she did was participate in a bike ride from Canada to Mexico!

She published her multi-award-winning memoir "The Road Unpaved - Border to Border with a Brain Tumor and a Bike" about this major life-altering diagnosis and personal life upheaval. She found that she experienced a change in her own perspective, and faced her own limiting beliefs. After being told she "shouldn't", she decided to ride her bike the 1,845 miles from Canada to Mexico.

Her ultimate goal was to save lives, and also to inspire and empower others.
By day,Risa is a Speaker, Gestalt Practitioner and patient advocate for rare Pituitary tumors. She offers inspirational coaching to those feeling stuck within their own limiting beliefs. In her personal time, you will find her living a robust life!

Risa has been interviewed on over 55 podcasts since my her book release in October, many more will air over the next several months. Here is a link where you can listen/view those podcasts: https://www.risaaugust.com/podcast-interviews.html

Learn more about Risa here: https://www.risaaugust.com/livin-unleashed.html and on her author page here: https://www.risaaugust.com/author-page.html

Music Note: NEW for 2025! Original music created for the podcast by the band "Rough Year," featuring Julian Calv on trimba (and including Dillion Spear and Brendan Talian). Thanks Guys!

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Original music "Saturday Sway" by Brendan Talian (for all interviews before 2025)

Transcript

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Risa, hello and welcome to the storied human today. My guest is Risa August. She recently published a multi award winning memoir called the road unpaved, border to border with a brain tumor and a bike. It's about a major life altering diagnosis and personal life upheaval. She shares about the change in her own perspective and how she faced her own limiting beliefs. After being told she shouldn't, she decided to ride her bike the 1845 miles from Canada to Mexico. I can't wait to hear about that. Reese's ultimate goal is to save lives and also to inspire and empower others. By day, she is a speaker, Gestalt practitioner and patient advocate for rare pituitary tumors. She offers inspirational coaching to those feeling stuck with their own limiting beliefs. So nice to meet you. Welcome. Risa, I am so grateful to be here. Lynne, thank you for having me wonderful. So it's so good that we finally got it to work our dates, our date. So we love to just let you start where you think would help us understand how you got to this point, how you were able to do these amazing things. Oh, gosh. Well, it was a complete life overhaul. It was in 2018 when I was diagnosed with a tumor at the base of my brain causing a rare and destructive disease. But I started noticing changes in my body about seven years prior to that, but doctors weren't listening, and I kept being dismissed. And it was, it was really frustrating, but I fast forward to 2018, and I I had such severe headaches I couldn't ignore them. I was barely sleeping two hours a night, and nothing was working, despite my doctor saying things like, well, you're probably dehydrated or over training, or, you know, not eating well and so and I would hear it time and time again, well, your blood work is fine, you're fine, you're active. I'm not worried and and typically, I'm not someone to really stress about things, because I I've always taken really good care of my body. I was an athlete for a very long time, very rigid in my eating. But this was undeniable. This was something was definitely off, and I asked for an MRI, and I was told no twice, and the third time I said, Okay, I'm not going to ask this time. I'm going to demand it and and that's what I did. And one week later, I had a email from my doctor saying, you have an enlarged pituitary. Go see an endocrinologist. I had no idea what that was. I had no idea what an enlarged pituitary was. I didn't know what an endocrinologist was. And so one week later, I'm sitting in the endocrinologist office, and I'm staring at my skull on the screen, and right between the eyeballs is this giant gray blob, and this extremely compassionate doctor is looking at me and pointing to this big gray blob, saying, This has got to come out and and there wasn't. She was different. It wasn't. It wasn't a matter of fact. You know, doctors tend to be more business like and she had more of this sense of urgency. And, and I picked up on it. And I was like, Okay, this is serious. Oh God. And and then after that, she said, Oh, and of 99% sure I know what you have. And I said, Wait a minute, what do you mean? What I have? What do I have? Like, I have a tumor. What do you mean? And she said, Well, this tumor causes a rare disease called acromegaly, and that explains everything you've been talking about over the past seven years. Oh my gosh, yeah. And why don't they believe women these doctor? I mean, you lost so much time, you know? Yeah, kind of drives me. Crazy, right? And, and, you know, these tumors tend to be slow growing and, but so it it's quite possible that this tumor has been doing damage to my body for decades, but it was about seven years out when I finally noticed changes and symptoms in my body. What really propelled me toward the work I do today is I went home that day trying to research, okay, what is this? What is acromegaly? What are pituitary tumors? I want to understand this. How can I fix it? How can I get through it all the questions, and there wasn't a lot of information out there, and that really was It was frustrating for someone like me, wanting to understand, okay, what are the treatments? How can I move forward? But I wasn't given options. I was told brain surgery and radiation treatment, and then you'll most likely have to be on medication. And so I fought against that a little bit in the beginning and again, struggled to find other options. So following brain surgery and radiation treatment, I started connecting with specialists and other people organizations who knew more about these tumors and this disease. And what I did learn is that although they call them, they call it rare. It's believed to not be so rare. It's it's believed that many people are walking around with these tumors, but they're really difficult to diagnose. And that was this repetitive story I kept hearing like mine. It took five years to diagnose, seven years, 10 years to diagnose. I've probably been walking around with it for decades. My very good friend has had his for 30 years before they diagnosed. It so and by then, it's done extensive damage. If these tumors are caught early enough, you could go on to live a relatively normal life. But again, they're difficult to diagnose because my symptoms were fatigue, joint pain, headaches, could be a lot of stuff. Yeah, anything hormone based, anything hormone related. You know, hormones control everything in our body, everything so any skin changes, hair changes, you know, my my teeth were moving all kinds of things that you would never even think of. You wouldn't connect it, yeah, and, and so. So I decided after about eight months post brain surgery, radiation treatments on a medication that wasn't working. I was sitting on my couch again for another day exhausted. Barely could get off the couch. I've been sitting in these tattered gray sweatpants for what seemed like years, and I just I remember thinking, This is no way to live. This can't be it. I'm i This can't be it. And that was the day I decided I was going to ride my bike from Canada to Mexico. That's not the conclusion most of us would think of, but I do love that. Yeah, so you heard about it and just said, Yeah, I'm going to do that. Do that. Yes. Well, you know, I had this life altering change and circumstance, and, of course, I became very reflective on my life, like, am I living the life I always wanted. What happened to that list of all the things I've always wanted to do? A lot of people call it a bucket list, you know? And I knew I needed something to work toward. I knew I needed something to live for. As dramatic as that may sound, that's what it felt like for me in that moment, and so I knew I would never do another Iron Man race, or be as competitive in sports or the athlete I used to be. It was really painful to walk. And, and the fatigue was just incredible. I'd never experienced anything like it, and, but I thought, okay, I bet I could still ride my bike. I bet that's amazing to me. Yeah, that's amazing to me that now who told you you shouldn't? Well, during this time, you know, I began educating myself more. So I started going to endocrinology conferences, getting more involved with organizations like pituitary organizations, and learning as much as I could out what was out there connecting with pharmaceutical companies. What kind of medications do they have? What treatments are possible, meeting other doctors that specialize in pituitaries, and which are very few. Most endocrinologists focus on thyroid and diabetes. And so I just started, you know, taking money out of my own pocket and traveling to events and learning as much as I could, and I went to this endocrinology conference, and I talked about this in my book, and I remember meeting this neuro endocrinologist who specializes in acromegaly, they're such a cool cat, just really cool guy, and not your typical doctor. And he we were sitting in a session and with a group of maybe 60 people, and I had flyers. I passed out flyers to people attending the conference, saying, Hey, I'm doing this bike ride from Canada to Mexico to bring awareness to this disease. And so this guy in the audience is holding up this flyer, and he's like, What do you think about this girl doing this bike ride? And this doctor said, if I was her practicing physician, I would tell her not to. I would tell her it's not a good idea that she shouldn't do that. And that was another moment where I said, challenge accepted. That's where I realized, wait a minute, I love that I get to choose how I move forward, right? Not a doctor, not anyone else. I get to make that decision and and from that out, that was like, rocket fuel for me. I was like, I'll show you. Challenge accepted. I love that. Did he say, why? Like, did he say it would be too much, or would stress you, or you would get worse, or, I mean, was there a specific reason? Um, I mean, there were various reasons because of some of the complications I had with my surgery. And, you know, my body doesn't process sodium the way, oh, okay, it does for normally, for a healthy pituitary. And so dehydration or over hydration, can be life threatening for anybody but someone with my condition. It's even more risky and but also putting any kind of excessive impact. On the joints for someone with acromegaly can really speed up the deterioration process, and and so. So those are the two that come to mind right away. I kind of tuned him out at that point, because I was like, well, whatever, you know, and and so, so those are real things that I had to take into account. But it just made me more determined to show him or anybody that I get to make that decision on what I get to do and what I maybe shouldn't do. That's my choice. That's amazing to me, that that that was your response, and I admire that. Did you do this alone? This particular ride, I signed up with a tour company, and it's called a semi supported tour. So me, along with nine other cyclists, low dollar camping gear, everything we have into a van, and the van transports our gear to the next site to. Next campground sounds reasonable, yeah, yeah, which is anywhere from 55 to 75 miles away. So and, and it's up to us to figure out how to get there. You know, we we have our own maps, and we have to take all our own food and any repair kits, anything like that. I thought it would be a safer way to go. This was my first again. I didn't just get right out on my bike. I took 14 months to train following following that day where I decided to do this, and I wasn't sure how my body would respond. So this felt like a safer way to go. Yeah, it started off as being a more annoying way to go, but, but I felt like it would I would have backup if I needed it. Yeah, and I'm thinking, you maybe didn't go as fast as you might have gone in the past. Was that an issue? Like, did other people go faster, or did was there a variety of speeds? There was a variety of speeds. A couple people were very fast. I was middle of the pack. I was good. Actually felt very strong in my cycling, and it felt like I came back very strong and so good. Yeah. And there were other people that took their time and rode slower. I think partly by choice, they wanted to take their time. And yeah, for a little bit, and, but, man, on those rainy, cold days, I probably pedaled faster. I can't imagine, yeah, I do imagine that there, you know, people who were athletes when they were younger, they have, like, a base, like a good base of fitness and muscle, and, you know, you're trained, and that doesn't go away. So it's kind of cool that you were able to, you know, bring it back and be in the middle. That's pretty impressive. Oh, everything you went through, right? Yes, I definitely, you know, might agree with that. But and also mindset. Mindset is extremely important. I mean, that's one of our can be one of our strongest muscles to get us through some of the hardest things in life. So so that that grit, that determination, that on some days, I had to really dig deep for I owe that to my, my mindset and my, my brain strength, that's so impressive, and it's so true. It makes the difference. It's so powerful. Yeah, it helps everything that we do. So yeah, you were, oh my gosh. How did this How long did this take you? So this trip took 41 days. I had four rest days, and I had to figure out how to get my medication. I had very complicated medication to and I had to get it shipped to like urgent care hospitals and find a practitioner that knew how to administer and handle this medication. It's not as simple as sticking me with a needle. It has to be reconstituted just right and and it can't be left out too long or too short, and it's it's a little bit complex, and the first one was completely a mess, and, yeah, and it's a very expensive mistake. The medication is about $5,000 a shot and a very expensive error. So, so there were challenges like that and weather and bike crashes, and, you know, dealing with 10 personalities, and there were all kinds of things that I didn't expect, but there was also a lot of beautiful outcomes and unfolded in unforeseen ways, which was really wonderful. What an experience, and what did it feel like when you actually got to the end, to be honest, it felt a little anticlimactic. I I was going, I had a lot of purse. Things going on in my life. I was facing divorce from an 18 year marriage. I was exploring a new identity and and then also in this body that no longer functioned the same way it and it wasn't just my it's not just my body that's impacted my cognition, memory. A lot of brain stuff was happening as well. And so I was now facing that I was I had, now had to go back to what, what is my life going to look like now? Oh, that's hard. Yeah, yeah. You were, like, sort of captivated by all the things that were happening on the journey. And you didn't have to think about your real life, you know, and then you have to go back and say, Who am I now? That sounds so one of those things would be hard. No, yes. Yes. And the journey, you know, it was, it was a really powerful experience in the sense that it forced me to be present. I had to really focus on okay, even then the point when it was pouring rain and cold, I had to get out of my tent, pack up my gear, dripping wet, make sure I'm dressed warm enough, make sure I get, you know, breakfast, and get on my bike for yet another day and potentially ride in the cold rain wind, knowing that I'm not going to be dry at the next destination or warm necessarily, and, and when I'm out on the road for 75 miles facing another hill, or, let's say curve in the road, I I really had to focus on just one pedal at a time. And and that forced me to be really present. And I gained so much confidence in myself from that entire experience, I can't imagine that's like, major stuff, yeah, and you weren't your regular self. I mean, you had to really push yourself. And that's where that mindset comes in. You know, I had cancer in 2018 I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It seems to be a I don't know, 2018 was tough, and they caught it really early, and I was really lucky, but I did go through radiation. I was exhausted, and I remember what you just said reminded me of how I got through it, because I'm a worrier and I think ahead and I worry about things that haven't happened yet, and I'm like crazy that way, but the way I got through it was I just said, we're just going to worry about the next step in the road. We're going to go to the next doctor's appointment. We're not going to worry about all that stuff in the future. We're just going to get through Wednesday and then we'll do the next thing. And that seems so simplistic, but somehow I was ready at that time in my life to do it that way, and it was such a gift to myself. And I felt so, I mean, it was almost eerie how calm I was like when she, you know, when she told me I had cancer, she was shocked that I was so but, but, I mean, I knew that, I probably did, you know, we had all these extra tests and biopsies. And I just, you know, I knew that's the point, right of having all these biopsies and mammograms, it's to find it early. And I just think, I think that's so wonderful, what you just said that you just were present, because it's a great way to remember how to be in our regular lives, absolutely, and I love what you said about it sounds simplistic, but, but that, but it is, you know, it's, you know, I went on to create a mantra. But like, I started asking myself, well, what can I do? I stopped focusing on what I could no longer do, and I started focusing on okay, what can I do? And I took the word can, and I made a mantra out of it, using each letter, C, A, N, capable, able. Now. What am I capable and able to do now in this moment? And so, like you said, it was just okay. All I have to do is get to the next moment. And yeah, some days that meant I can get up and brush my teeth, yeah, or I can get up and get out of my pajamas today. And then other days it was like I can get out and ride my bike or go have dinner with friends and, you know, and eventually it turned into 1800 miles. And I'm not saying that other people have to go out and do 1800 miles, but you know what? What can you do to get you to the next thing? And sometimes it's all that matters, you know, it's like, okay, what can I do in this moment? Mm. I think that's so beautiful. And I also think what I what I heard before, like, I think we fear when things happen to us and we're in this different state, we're really tired, or we're like, kind of, you know, decimated by an illness. We feel like, part of us feel like it's always going to be that way, and it's, it's really good to focus on the now and getting through those little things, and to realize that we won't always be that way, that it will get better. It's hard to realize that when you're ill, absolutely, absolutely and you know, I think, you know, one of my think it's important to stay flexible. You know, one of my dear friends, on my 40th birthday, gave me a little bendable Gumby. You know the little green character, Gumby and and you can bend this little character. And I'm just like, Okay, why did you give me this little Gumby? And she said, to remind you to stay flexible. And so I strapped gummy to the front of my bike, and I've taken that with me every like, everywhere I go, in the like, even just in my mindset, because, you know, my body continues to kind of deconstruct, like I'm it's becoming more and more challenging to do things. But instead of fighting it, I'm flexing with it like so I'm starting to pick up new hobbies and other things that I've always wanted to try that I never could. And I I took, um, I did a bike ride across northern Spain earlier this year, and it was it challenged me, physically, emotionally and mentally beyond anything I could have imagined. And I and I started asking myself those questions, well, what can I do now? And and what I realized is I may not be that hardcore far distance cyclists anymore, but it doesn't mean I can't still bike, and it doesn't mean I can't take the improv class I've always wanted to take go out dancing. Yeah, so, so I'm just starting. I'm just be staying flexible and flexing with this disease I live with and and that makes it so much easier to go through life than to be fighting it. You said a mouthful. I think that's so wonderful. Yes, I also think no, but I mean that, that black and white thinking that we tend to get into. It's like, oh, I can't cycle now, and I can't, you know, it's just that's not true, right? That's not true. We could do things differently. We could do different things. Definitely. That's so great, and your mindset is so great. Your friend sounds amazing. I love the Gumby gift, yes. So what, what do these days look like? Are you? Are you feeling well? Are you, you know, are you kind of plateauing, or where are you in your disease? Um, it's hard, because you seem so healthy. Uh, yeah, so healthy. You sound so healthy, yes. And I get that a lot, and I do, I do believe that's because of my mindset. I agree. And so my body's definitely struggling, and I'm in a place of, like, I know there's something off, you know, like I have low iron levels, which could attribute, be attributed to the medications I'm on, or maybe not the right diet, or there's so many variables involved. So a lot of times it's exploration. It's trying something new. I'm on my fifth or sixth medication. Sometimes I go back and try medications again, but maybe a little adjust the dose or how I take it, so I'm still we're figuring it out. It's it's been about six years now since my initial diagnosis, and I haven't hit a place of just cruising along with it. Unfortunately, most people do, which is great. Unfortunately, nothing seems to be working for me yet, yet, but, and that's that you keep trying. I know medication can drive you nuts, but you have to keep trying exactly and and it doesn't mean something won't work down the road, right? Good for you. I'm not wondering, because you look so healthy and sound so healthy, it must be hard. Sometimes when people who don't know you, they think you're fine, right? That's tough. Yeah, it's it's very tough. Thank you for acknowledging that. My mother had a terrible, painful disease, and she looked as healthy as could be until the day she died. It's very difficult. It's very hard. People don't doctors don't believe you when you look that well, she was so pink. And, you know, like they just don't, yeah, so yeah, I just, I know that's part of it, yeah. And it's, and you rarely do you run into someone who truly wants to sit and take the time to listen and understand what you're going through. And, you know, and I don't, I don't blame people. You know, we're all busy. We have lives, and we're doing our own thing. So I try to share an abbreviated form, but I quickly learned that it was really hard to describe this to people, and that's why I went on to write my book, because I love the power of story, and so I wanted to tell it through a good story, my story and and people started listening because I told it differently than Yeah. So do you know I did a little research before I started this podcast about I was very drawn to the idea of the stories, but I wanted to do a little research on story. And I mean, I am an English major, so I naturally love stories, and I'm a writer, but I wanted to know more about, like, the structure of story, and how long have we told stories, and when do we start telling stories? And blah, blah, blah, and you seem to intuitively understand human beings learn from story. That's how they learn the best. And I thought that was so fascinating. I actually read this little example. It said, you know, we've been telling stories for millennia. Like they said, you know, even fairy tales are, like, hundreds of years old, you know, anything that comes like Aesop's Fables, we still tell those, you know. And those are, like, really old, but they said they have a funny feeling, like even back in the Neolithic times, or, you know, the they said the caveman times, if there was a tiger around the the bend, you don't just say, Don't go over there, or don't go over there, there's a tiger. You say, Don't go over there. And my cousin got attacked by a tiger yesterday morning, like you give a story, and so that hits people's brain and they understand. So you just seem to know that intuitively. Yes, thank you. And I, I've been because this is part of the work I've been trying to do. I've been reaching out to medical schools, saying, Hey, can I come tell my story? Because if you ask a medical student, hey, do you know what acromegaly is, they'll say, I don't think so. Or I might have, we might have read a paragraph about it in our endocrinology class, but we didn't really discuss it or but I guarantee if I went in there and told my story and said, oh, and I rode my bike 1800 miles. In spite of it, they're going to remember the girl with acromegaly who rode her bike really far. So human, yeah, to connect that way with story good for you. Now you do work. You, you work on this, right? You, you help educate, and you tell, tell us a little more about what you do to make people aware. Yeah, so I started this was by accident, actually, I because I wasn't finding much much information out there about pituitary tumors, because they they cause all kinds of diseases, not just acromegaly. You might have heard of Cushing's before and so. And I was like, Why isn't there more information? So I started saying, Okay, I maybe I'll start trying to bring awareness. And so I started asking people like, Hey, will you post my story on your website. And then I thought, Okay, I'll buy myself a jersey that has like, something on it, you know? And and then I contacted the same specialist that said I shouldn't do this bike ride. And he but he found it fascinating. He found it really cool and fascinating that I was doing this, and he put me in touch with some other organizations, and suddenly I'm contracting with pharmaceutical companies, and they're helping me spread the word and and I started traveling to speak on stages and share my story and so good sponsored through the bike ride and passing out buttons and all kinds of things, just kind of grew organically. Those are the best kinds of things where you just make a couple of contacts before you know it. It just grows. That's wonderful. Good for you. It must feel so good to help spread. That word and to and to make sure that people aren't where you were, where you just couldn't find enough info that makes me feel good that you're doing that. Thank you. I feel emotional over that, that when you say that you know if, if I can, just, if I can save some lives, like, if I can save people from my same trajectory or my same prognosis just by getting them diagnosed earlier. Oh my gosh, that that's my goal. That's what I want, like that's what I want more than anything. I love that that's so good. It's such a nice response to the troubles you've had. And that's what I love about storied human is people learn from your story. They get inspired from your story. They probably, if it applies to them, right, go get testing, or go to another doctor, or they know what to say. Now, because of you, you just never know who's listening. And that's what I love, is like we don't, we don't always know everything, and we have to hear a lot of different people, and we learn, I always say you don't have to go through something, either to learn from someone you know, you don't have to, you don't have to mess up yourself or go through something. You can always learn from somebody else's experience, if you pay attention. And there's a lot to learn here, not just about pituitary tumors, but about mindset and about not giving up, and about, you know, shifting and being, you know, shifting your perspective and being flexible. And that's always good advice, right? That's, that's just, we always need to hear that a lot of us get stuck in our, you know, our everyday routines, right, right? It's so true and, and I have to say, like, I know we probably hear this a lot from people, but I, you know, it really changed me for the better it, and that's, that's the gift in it for me, is I'm truly a better human being, and I strive to be better every day, just a better person on the planet that and everyone I interact With. You know, can I be just better in relationships and, you know, just a better human and different. It changed you. You let it change you. I think that also, there's that lovely gift of compassion that comes from going through these things. I feel like, I mean, I lost my mother, you know, a long time ago, but the grief was so deep, and I've, I've still, I'm still exploring it, you know, years later, because I had little kids when she died, and so I just kept going on with my life, but it's made me much more compassionate, you know, like the sometimes these bad things that happen to us really do leave us with a gift, because we're all human. We're all going to go through stuff, yeah, and it's lovely that you found yourself on the other side with some gifts. Yes. You know what's better than that? Yeah? And so I imagine that changed your relationship with your own kids, yeah, mother, yeah. It was, it was really sad for a while because they were so little, and I was like, Oh, they don't get to be with her, but I took myself to a therapist because I was really not getting better, and she just taught me the most beautiful lesson about getting through feelings, and I'll just never, ever forget it. And one of the things I got out of it was, I don't remember how I related that. She just said, There's no way to to stuff your feelings down, or get rid of your feeling. You have to walk through them. She said you could avoid it for years, but they don't go away. And I had stuff down a lot, because that's what, you know, nice girls do. I can. And I remember saying to her, you know, I'm so sad that I'm afraid if I start crying, I will never stop, and I think that's really what people feel sometimes in grief. And the funny thing is, we all lose someone, so we need to just share that. It's not a negative thing at all. It's a let's share that and be compassionate and help people through it. But the most lovely thing happened was, after I went through the therapy, I came home and my kids were, like, three and five, and I had had heard at the same time, I had heard, don't break the hug with a little child, let them break the hug. It was such a simple thing. And I hugged my daughter that day, and I just didn't stop. And I noticed this was so profound for me. She held that hug so much longer than I would have, because I was like, Oh, I gotta go do the dishes, and I gotta go clean this. And I got, she held that hug so long because they don't have those pressing issues when they're little. And okay, so the you know, the upshot is, I got all that, you know. What do they call it? That oxytocin? I got all that oxytocin hormone from the hug. But what a beautiful thing, and how much more secure children are when you let them call, call the hug, you know. So there's like gifts from all these I really feel like. What you said is so powerful, and I thank you so much for sharing it. Now, did we miss anything? Is there anything you'd like to share or add? I don't think so. Thank you for sharing that, though I and, yeah, beautiful story. Thank you. You brought that out in me. I don't know. You're just really reminding me of things, and in your heart, I just, I'm really appreciative of you. Thank you for coming on now tell us how we can get in touch with you. I have a website, Risa, august.com, so I'd like to say it not just put it in the show notes. Some people don't read the show notes, yeah, and they can get on there and they can learn where to get your book. There's a nice page on there about your book, and I'm going to read your book because I love your story. Is there anything else that we do people? Can people get to you in any other way? I noticed there was a contact tab on your website. Yes. August.com, has it all, and that's Rissa with 1s R, I S? Would I call you the wrong name? No, no. But a lot of people spell it with two s's because the way it's pronounced. So I was just saying 1s and with 1s and August, just like the month.com and that has everything I I want to convey, you know, I'm there people are so layered, and there's so many things and so on my website, you can find all the different fun things I'm doing and into. And you say, you do an amazing amount of thing. You make me want to have sparkly hair. You do those beautiful we call them talking sticks, but you call them voice and voice and art, or nice and story art, yeah, voice and story art. Talk a little bit about that, because they looked wonderful. Oh my gosh, yes, that that also happened by accident. I was finishing up my certification English and Gestalt coaching, and I, I was trying to, I couldn't. I was still in those tattered gray sweat pants, but I got off the couch. I couldn't get on my bike yet, but I needed something, so I started painting. And I don't consider myself an artist, I but I was trying to think of something to gift the other people I would be graduating with in a month from this program. And I thought, oh my gosh, when they hold i like i I'm so drawn to native cultures. And so I I researched all about the Native Americans, talking stick and learning all about it and and I decided that was what I was going to gift each person. And so I began painting those sticks and really getting into details and adornments. And after I gifted those, they were like, these are amazing. You need to be selling these. And I said, No, no, no, no, no, no, I'm not an artist. Well, before I knew it, I started selling them all around the world, and beautiful. Yeah, they were really, it was really, though, my healing process. It wasn't it. I never meant to turn it into a business or anything. I it was a healing process for me to get myself off the couch and eventually get myself back on my bike, and I started painting. That's so cool. That's such a nice response, though, to not being able to do much. I mean, I don't know if a lot of people would say, I think I'll paint. That's pretty cool. Yeah. And then how about the sparkly hair? Is that the is that little, um, like, little threads that you add that are sparkly. They are so they're made of silk. They're really high quality product. And I ran into a gal in Oregon who was they she was at a large artist event, and she was a vendor at an artist event, and she was putting these silky, sparkly strands into people's hair. And I mean, right away I was drawn to it. I started seeing all the women, not just children, but all the women, some men that were walking away from this booth with these sparkles in their hair, just beaming. And I remember thinking I was beaming, because they were beaming. And I loved looking at these sparkles in their hair, and I thought it looked amazing. And then I wanted them. And so I ended up becoming friends with the gal who started this company called Lucky locks.co and she and I became a mobile partner for her. And so I started doing it simply to spread joy. It just lights up a room. I do a lot of women's conferences and retreats, lot of women's groups, and it just lights up the the room. It just learned like that, you know. And. Have a friend who, who has her I'm not sure where she goes, but she shows up with those. She calls them fairy hair, that she gets fairy hair, and it's, it's hard not to smile when you see that. I so I was very excited when I saw that. You do that too. So you are multifaceted, for sure. Thank you, and I can't thank you enough for coming on. It was great. I love talking to you. I'm so grateful. Thank you so much, Lynne, for having me on your show was really good. Take care. You too. Bye.