Transforming Memories into Art: The Life Map Experience with Ronnis Oher
In this heartfelt and joy-filled episode of Courageous Destiny: Build a Business & Life You Love, I sit down with the incredible Ronnis Oher, president of Life Maps, to explore the beauty of preserving our stories in the most creative and meaningful way.
Ronnis shares how her journey—from teacher to corporate leader to courageous entrepreneur—led her to create Life Maps, a service that transforms cherished memories into visually stunning works of art. These maps don’t just tell a story; they connect generations, strengthen families, and celebrate individuality in a way that’s unforgettable.
Together, we laugh, reflect, and celebrate the power of memories—how capturing them through Life Maps can become the most thoughtful gift, whether for a milestone, a loved one, or even honoring a business journey. This episode is a reminder that your life, your story, and your courageous journey are worth celebrating… beautifully, boldly, and forever.
Tune in and discover how you can honor your story and the stories of those you love with Life Maps.
🔗 Explore more at lifemaps.com
About Ronnis Oher:
Ronnis is an artist and the creator and owner of LifeMaps – The Story of a Lifetime, creating custom, hand-drawn maps that illustrate the life stories of individuals, couples and companies.
She has a BA in elementary education, was an elementary school teacher in Palatine, taught Transcendental Meditation, worked as a corporate trainer for the Federal Government and BMO Harris Bank (facilitating programs in Customer Service, Supervisory/Management training, Effective Meeting Management, Change Management, teambuilding) and had her own performance management consulting company, consulting on projects and/or doing training for such companies as: BMO Harris Bank, Navistar, Market Day, and Hewitt Associates.
She has given presentations for many organizations: The Buffalo Grove Lincolnshire Chamber, the Des Plaines Chamber, the Vernon Area Library, the Business Referral Networking group of the BGLCC and many presentations for SCORE at various locations
Transcript
Hello, everyone, and welcome to the courageous destiny build a business and life you love podcast.
Speaker A:I am your hostess, Kristen Crockett, and I am so honored and excited to have Raness Ohr on my podcast today.
Speaker A:And Raness is the president of Life Maps, the story of a lifetime.
Speaker A:Is that right?
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:That's right.
Speaker B:That's right.
Speaker B:You got it.
Speaker B:Good job.
Speaker A:I. I can't tell you how excited I am to have you on the podcast today, Raness.
Speaker A:We.
Speaker A:We've been working together, I don't know, about five months now, six months, something like that.
Speaker A:And every time we have a conversation and we're working on your business, this beautiful business that you have that helps people, People remember their favorite memories and then capture them and capture them and have them in a piece of art for, you know, them to reference for years to come.
Speaker A:I just think it's so special, and I. I can't help but leave every single call that we're on just on a high note, remembering all these really great things.
Speaker A:And it's like an extra super secret bonus that I have when we work together, and I love it.
Speaker A:So thank you for coming.
Speaker A:Thank you for coming.
Speaker B:Oh, thank you for inviting me.
Speaker B:I'm so happy to be here.
Speaker A:Yes, yes.
Speaker A:I would love how.
Speaker A:I would love for you to explain to the audience why Life maps and how you got into it.
Speaker B:And it's such an interesting story.
Speaker B:I've been doing maps for 45 years.
Speaker B:How did that happen?
Speaker B:45 years.
Speaker A:Oh, my gosh.
Speaker B:So I was an elementary school teacher way back when I was.
Speaker B:And there was a unit that we had on mapping, and I always loved using maps.
Speaker B:I used to get maps to use for teaching history, where you could write on the maps and they have an overlay where the top would show the division of the states and the capitals, and you could flip it up and it was just the topography, and you could show why businesses or industry started in a certain area because of hydroelectric power or how big the Louisiana Purchase was.
Speaker B:And so I used to love to use maps, and I had done a thesis in undergraduate on the development of map and globe skills at the elementary school level.
Speaker B:So I had this affinity for maps.
Speaker B:So the mapping unit was something that was rotated around the school district.
Speaker B:You had it for about six weeks, and then you sent it back, and they would send it to a different teacher at the same grade level.
Speaker B:I taught fifth grade.
Speaker B:Well, nobody was asking for it back, and we were having a great time, so I kept that thing forever.
Speaker B:No one ever asked for it.
Speaker B:And so I kept it till I actually finished everything in the unit and the variants who were teaching them.
Speaker B:You know, how do you.
Speaker B:How do you know that something is a lake, a river, a desert, a swamp?
Speaker B:What are the symbols that are used on maps and the colors that indicate all that?
Speaker B:The last exercise for them was draw an imaginary island so they could make up their own place.
Speaker B:So, of course, kids are very creative.
Speaker B:So they had Ice Cream cone island and Football Island.
Speaker B:And I'm walking around watching them and I'm thinking, I love to be alliterative.
Speaker B:So I said to them, why don't you name the things you're going to put on your map to go with your theme?
Speaker B:So if you have Football island, you could have the Forward Pass Prairie or the Gulf of Goal Posts, you know, and things like that.
Speaker B:And so they went, oh, good idea.
Speaker B:So they were all busy doing that.
Speaker B:I took a piece of paper and actually, if you go to my website, you can see this.
Speaker B:The very first map I ever drew, I used our room number as my island shape and I put all the kids on it.
Speaker B:So I had Lake Laura, Michael's Mountains, Talks Too Much Town.
Speaker B:And kind of the kid who was the class clown that year, I named an amusement park after him.
Speaker B:And when I hung it up, they were so excited to go see where am I?
Speaker B:Where am I on the map?
Speaker B:And I thought that was so interesting.
Speaker B:So after that, I just started doing them for my friends.
Speaker B:When I didn't know what to get them or I didn't have money to buy them a gift, I would just take all the little things I knew about them, and I would put it on a map, and then I would just put it in a little frame and give them that gift.
Speaker B:And I did that for years.
Speaker B:Then I left teaching and I moved to corporate training downtown.
Speaker B:And I did one for my boss for Christmas, a big one.
Speaker B:And then I did some for the secretaries.
Speaker B:And then when our administrative assistant retired, I did one for her.
Speaker B:So it was in our conference room and there was a party.
Speaker B:Everyone's coming and looking at all the gifts and everything.
Speaker B:And then all of a sudden, people started asking me to do them.
Speaker B:One of my colleagues said to me, you know, my dad's turning 70.
Speaker B:Could you do one of these for me for my dad?
Speaker B:And I was kind of like, I don't know.
Speaker B:It had never occurred to me to do them for other people.
Speaker B:And my boss's boss came to me and said, you know, the head of HR is retiring this year.
Speaker B:Could you do One of these for us to give him as a retirement gift.
Speaker B:And I said, well I'll try because I had no idea and of course I had no idea what I could charge for them or whatever.
Speaker B:And the one thing I remember out of the one for the head of hr, which was very funny is I worked at a bank and we always went by our three initials.
Speaker B:So I had his three initials and it was a big map, it was a poster size map.
Speaker B:And one of the things I'm always looking for quirky personality traits to capture on someone's map because I'm really trying to capture their personality, what makes them unique.
Speaker B:And one of the things they said to me was he's very controlling.
Speaker B:You cannot do anything until you get his approval.
Speaker B:So I thought that was an interesting one to do.
Speaker B:So in the water outside of the island shape, I drew a rock and I hand drew a seal balancing a beach ball on its nose and I labeled it the seal of approval.
Speaker B:So I thought he's probably not going to like it.
Speaker B:But he was not my customer, they were and they all thought it was hysterical.
Speaker B:So that was really fun.
Speaker B:And so then after that I really didn't consider it as a business until after 9 11.
Speaker B:I had started my own company in employee development.
Speaker B:So I was, I was in the training area when I worked in corporate.
Speaker B:So I started my own consulting company and I had several really huge clients and but after 911 everyone stopped doing training that was not absolutely necessary.
Speaker B:And I did more soft skills, management development, supervisory skills, meeting management, customer service, those kinds of things.
Speaker B:And companies were not spending their money on that.
Speaker B:And so I thought well what am I going to do now?
Speaker B:And so I thought well why don't I just do maps?
Speaker B: hen I actually began the like: Speaker A:Very neat, very neat.
Speaker A:And what are some of the favorite maps that you've done?
Speaker B:Well you know, I don't know whether the map, it's that map as a whole is the favorite.
Speaker B:It's the stories that are on.
Speaker A:Stories.
Speaker B:Yes, because every, what I always say is everyone, I always use a quote from anthropologist Margaret Mead who said always remember that you are absolutely unique just like everyone else.
Speaker B:And so my thing is all of us are absolutely unique.
Speaker B:We all have a unique story.
Speaker B:And I believe we all need to be celebrated just for being who we are.
Speaker B:And so when I work on a map for someone, usually it's not for themselves.
Speaker B:They usually are doing it.
Speaker B:They could do it for themselves.
Speaker B:But usually people are doing them as gifts for friends or family members.
Speaker B:And so I always want to find out all the interesting stories.
Speaker B:What are the little quirky personality traits?
Speaker B:What are funny things that people have done?
Speaker B:So one of my favorite stories is from a guy who was 98.
Speaker B:And I asked his daughter, as I do most people, does your father ever do anything funny?
Speaker B:And so she said, my father owned a gas station and he loved cars, especially convertibles.
Speaker B:And on the few times we would do a major vacation, he would buy a new car.
Speaker B:So she said we were going to go from our home in Ohio to California.
Speaker B:He bought a brand new Cadillac convertible.
Speaker B:But the whole way he's complaining to my mom because his hair keeps slapping him in the face.
Speaker B:And my mom said, well, just do what I do.
Speaker B:Wear a hair net.
Speaker B:So he looked like if the.
Speaker B:For those of you old enough to remember Ruth Buzzy from laughing with a big knot here and pulled back and tied behind his head.
Speaker B:And she said he looked ridiculous, but he was happy because his hair wasn't in his face.
Speaker B:So she said, we're out west and we stopped to get gas.
Speaker B:And this is way back when everything was full serve.
Speaker B:So he pulls into the gas station, and while they're gassing up the car and checking his oil and cleaning his windshield, he goes into the gas station to talk to the owner because he's a gas station owner, too.
Speaker B:So he comes out a while later, gets in the car, turns to his family, and he shakes his head.
Speaker B:He said, that guy wasn't very friendly.
Speaker B:And they all burst out laughing, and they say to him, well, take a look in the mirror, because he's still wearing the hair net.
Speaker A:Well, I was thinking, I was like, isn't there a hat?
Speaker A:Like, what about a hat?
Speaker B:I don't know.
Speaker B:But so on his map, the way I illustrated that on his map was I did a little movie theater marquee, and the movie theater was called the Cadillac Convertible Cinema.
Speaker B:And the movie title was Hairnet Horror.
Speaker A:Oh, that's so fun.
Speaker B:So then I always know then when his kids see that, they go, oh, remember that trip when dad wore the hairnet?
Speaker B:And everybody gets a little chuckle out of the memory that comes.
Speaker B:So everything on someone's life map has a memory attached to it or something about their personality.
Speaker A:What I always like so much about the idea of your life maps and your life maps is it's so easy to look and fall into whatever busyness is going on in life and whatever the next thing to do or Even in families, to get wrapped up in the drama of families and what's going wrong.
Speaker A:But what I love so much about the life map is it gives such a cohesive structure for even families to be able to tune in and go, these are great memories.
Speaker A:You have like this simple structure.
Speaker A:And the next thing you know, you start remember.
Speaker A:It snowballs, right?
Speaker A:Remembering other memories.
Speaker A:And you start remembering other things that.
Speaker B:I always say it's like priming the pump.
Speaker B:You know, how you have to sometimes to get the water to come out.
Speaker B:Because I will start working with someone and I will get.
Speaker B:Gather all the information from them, and then a week later, they'll be emailing me.
Speaker B:Oh, I just thought of another great story.
Speaker B:You know, do we have room on the map to put this one or, you know, I was talking to my sister and we thought of something else.
Speaker B:And so actually it's a great experience for the person giving the gift as well as for the person receiving it.
Speaker B:So I had two sisters that did one for their dad, and I emailed them after I knew they had given it to them, just to ask them, how did your dad like his map?
Speaker B:And.
Speaker B:And she wrote back, and she said, I have to thank you for two things.
Speaker B:One, the map was great.
Speaker B:Everyone loves it.
Speaker B:He absolutely adores it.
Speaker B:But two, the process, because my sister and I had the best time sitting together and reminiscing about our dad and coming up with all of our best memories about him.
Speaker B:So the map, it becomes a treasure, not just for the person, but for the whole family.
Speaker B:And then they have that forever as a keepsake of that person's life story, even if someone has passed.
Speaker B:Because I will meet people and they'll say, oh, my mom would have loved this, but my mom passed.
Speaker B:I said, well, you do it for you, because it's your memories of your mom that you want to savor and hand down through the family.
Speaker B:Because even if a grandchild or great grandchild never met her, you can explain the stories on the map that really illustrate who she was.
Speaker B:And that's very different than just a plain genealogy chart.
Speaker A:Well, yeah, and it's like it brings to life this person that when you have little babies, right.
Speaker A:When that that person may have passed on.
Speaker A:You know, I think about my dad a lot when.
Speaker A:When we talk and.
Speaker A:And when I see your maps.
Speaker A:And he had so many different sayings and phrases.
Speaker A:Like he used to call menards finertners.
Speaker A:And the funny part was everybody knew what for nerdners was in your family.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:Everybody's like, well, it's funny because even my friends, they're like, you're just talking about menards.
Speaker A:I'm like, yeah, it's menards.
Speaker A:Because it would be in context, you know, get some light bulbs after Nerdners, you know, and we're like, exactly.
Speaker A:And I remember one time asking him, like, dad, why do you call for nurtners?
Speaker A:And he goes, I don't know.
Speaker A:He goes, I can't never remember the name, but I, I, I always remember, like, all those little things and to be able to capture those quirks.
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker A:Things that, yeah, we can see what somebody's accomplishments are.
Speaker B:Right?
Speaker B:And that's included.
Speaker B:That's included on their map.
Speaker B:It, it's their accomplishments.
Speaker B:It's.
Speaker B:It's their personality quirks.
Speaker B:It's funny things they've done.
Speaker B:It's funny things that have happened.
Speaker B:It's family traditions.
Speaker B:I did one for family, and I thought, this was lovely.
Speaker B:On Christmas Eve, they baked some kind of little wafer, and they would break it up into little pieces and they would pass it to somebody else with a compliment and a wish for the new year for them.
Speaker B:And that was their Christmas Eve traditional thing to do.
Speaker B:So I love to uncover family traditions.
Speaker B:This is what we always do for birthdays.
Speaker B:Maybe they always go to the same restaurant to celebrate or they go to the same place to vacation as a whole family.
Speaker B:And now that there's grandkids, they all go, you know, because it's become the place for the family to gather.
Speaker B:So I love that.
Speaker B:And like, what you were saying, sayings, things that people say all the time.
Speaker B:There are people that have funny things they say all the time and like that.
Speaker B:You know, I actually am working on my book, and one section of the book is things people say all the time.
Speaker B:And then an explanation of what supposedly it means, because it might not be obvious to other people.
Speaker B:Like, in my family, whenever somebody, we'd be sitting at the dinner table and we would drop something on our, in our lap or on our clothing, my mother would always say, hello, Eileen.
Speaker B:And the first time it happened, I'm looking at her going, what?
Speaker B:And she said, well, you know, my friend Eileen, she had these girlfriends that she had from either grammar school and through high school, some of them.
Speaker B:And she told me, her friend Eileen, who I knew, she said they came from a very poor family.
Speaker B:She said Eileen owned one white blouse, and so every night she would wash that blouse and starch it and iron it.
Speaker B:And every day she would come to school with this beautiful, crisp white blouse.
Speaker B:And every day she would spill something on it every day, something would wind up on her blouse, and then she'd have to go home and get the stain out and clean it and get it ready for the next day.
Speaker B:So in my family, anybody that spilled something on themselves, you'd say, hello, Eileen.
Speaker B:And so I was out with friends.
Speaker B:It was either college or after.
Speaker B:And we were out for lunch, and somebody.
Speaker B:And without thinking, I said, hello, Eileen.
Speaker B:And they all looked at me like, what?
Speaker B:I said, I'm sorry.
Speaker B:That's a family in joke, you know, And a lot of families have those.
Speaker B:You know, some.
Speaker A:You know what my mom's name is?
Speaker B:She smell.
Speaker B:Actually, there was another woman I did a map for, and they always teased her because she had a very ample bosom, and so all her food would wind up on her chest.
Speaker A:Yeah, we call it our shelf, you know?
Speaker B:Exactly.
Speaker B:So everything would be on her shelf, you know.
Speaker B:So I had something about that in her map, but everybody's.
Speaker B:And the other thing I always want to know is, what's someone well known for?
Speaker B:Okay, sometimes they love it about themselves, but sometimes other people just notice it.
Speaker B:So it could be they're a great baker, they're a great gardener, they're famous for their chocolate chip cookies, they're a woodworker, whatever it is.
Speaker B:And so I had one woman, and I said to her, is your mom well known for anything?
Speaker B:She said, my mom always wears bright red lipstick.
Speaker B:She said, all the coffee cups have red lipstick on them, and if she kisses you, she leaves a big red mark on your face.
Speaker B:And we always say to people, you've been Lois, because her name was Lois.
Speaker B:So I thought that was really cute.
Speaker B:So I go online, and I look for a picture of a white coffee cup with a red lipstick on it, and I find it, and I paste it in her map.
Speaker B:And next to it, in quotes, I wrote, you've been lowest.
Speaker B:Okay, so the next summer, I'm in an art fair, and this woman comes into my tent, and she looks around and she says to me, oh, my daughter gave me one of your maps.
Speaker B:I said, really?
Speaker B:What's your name?
Speaker B:She said, lois.
Speaker B:So I look, red lipstick.
Speaker B:So I go, I know who you are.
Speaker B:I said, ah, lipstick Lois.
Speaker B:And this was her reaction.
Speaker B:She went, you remembered?
Speaker B:Because she loves being known for her red lipstick.
Speaker B:So I'm trying to celebrate, you know, what it is about that person that makes them who they are.
Speaker B:Sometimes it's what they love about themselves.
Speaker B:Sometimes it's just what other people love about them.
Speaker B:And that, I think, is one of the greatest things is we don't always see ourselves clearly.
Speaker B:We don't always appreciate things about ourselves that other people do see and appreciate.
Speaker B:And when someone gets one of my life maps, I say they get to see themselves through the eyes of the people who love them and maybe gain a new appreciation of how great they are that they have not recognized well.
Speaker A:And I love that you said the word celebrate themselves, you know, celebrate your loved ones, celebrate yourself, celebrate, you know, all these different milestones in life.
Speaker A:Because certainly these are great for milestones, but.
Speaker A:But, like, even in our conversations, you know, they can be vision boards.
Speaker A:They can be a new way to be really grateful.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:And add gratitude back in your life.
Speaker A:I mean, there's so many different things that you could do.
Speaker A:Now, I know that.
Speaker A:One of the things that I think is really inspiring that you do and a great area of growth is that you also provide these life maps to businesses.
Speaker B:Correct.
Speaker B:I love to do business histories because most businesses, whatever it is, I mean, I'll do it for one of their milestones.
Speaker B:25th, 20th.
Speaker B:25th anniversary, 50th hundredth.
Speaker B:Okay, so the math that's behind me at the moment is one.
Speaker B:I did that one.
Speaker B:Cool.
Speaker B:Harley Davidson for their 110th anniversary.
Speaker B:And so there's some.
Speaker B:I just did a lot of research into Harley history, and it's very interesting.
Speaker B:I think you can look up at the top where you see those little colored dots kind of to one side up on this side.
Speaker A:Yes, yes.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:That was when they started painting the.
Speaker B:Doing the motorcycles in different colors, because when Harley first came out with them, they had a contract with the government, and they were all like Jeep green.
Speaker B:That was the.
Speaker B:All the Harleys were that green color.
Speaker B:And during the Depression, people couldn't afford necessarily to do much, but they could maybe afford paint.
Speaker B:And so they started offering other colors so people could color their.
Speaker B:Their motorcycles in a different way.
Speaker B:So that was cool.
Speaker B:The area over here where there's, like, the.
Speaker B:The yellow, the desert, and has all those little heads and things, that's a little funny representation of the names that they give the engines, which maybe even Harley owners don't always know.
Speaker B:So there's Knucklehead, Fat head, Shovel head, Flathead.
Speaker B:What was the other one?
Speaker B:I can't remember, but they're just really funny.
Speaker B:So I just decided to illustrate them in just a really funny way.
Speaker B:And there's some great stories.
Speaker B:Maybe people don't know why Harleys are called hogs.
Speaker B:They're referred to as hogs.
Speaker B: And that's because in the: Speaker B:They used to race motorcycles and when they would win, they would pick up a pig and they would carry the pig with them on a victory lap.
Speaker B:And so that's when Harley started to become known as hogs, just from those farm boys doing that.
Speaker B:So that was interesting.
Speaker A:That is so interesting.
Speaker A:You know, and I, I think about too, like, just being part.
Speaker A:I was part of a company that when I started, we were a, you know, I don't know, under $10 million company.
Speaker A:And by the time I left, we were 72 million.
Speaker A:Like, we.
Speaker A:We had quite a bit of growth during the year that, you know, during the years that I was there.
Speaker A:And because I'm a really good salesperson, everybody, everybody contributed, of course, but.
Speaker A:But it was such an exciting place to work, particularly in the days when we were really advancing at a quick rate.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And like, I remembered we had just this office where everybody was in one room, like with no walls and so.
Speaker A:And I'm pretty loud salesperson, you know, now I'm doing podcasts.
Speaker A:I know.
Speaker A:I was like.
Speaker A:So I don't always surprise.
Speaker A:I. I can't even imagine these poor people that had to like, share this, this space with me and.
Speaker A:But it was funny, you know, it was super funny that, that, like those, those little details, you know, that, that we were all shoved in.
Speaker A:Like I could see something funny there and then I could see you do.
Speaker A:Doing something funny.
Speaker A:When, when we did finally expand and we all had offices and the president of the company was no longer meeting outside in this vehicle.
Speaker A:You know, that actually would be a.
Speaker B:Funny illustration of the car and an agenda meeting, you know, just to show.
Speaker B:So it really does show how a company started, who the founders were, who are the most important people for some organizations, the first president or the first CEO.
Speaker B:What were the different products and services that have been developed over time?
Speaker B:Maybe who were some of the biggest clients that they had?
Speaker B:I did one for a.
Speaker B:It was kind of a combination of a anniversary of a company and the retirement of one of the co founders.
Speaker B:And so they were an HR consulting company and they had done projects for a ton of huge companies.
Speaker B:So I had the logos from all those different companies and what kind of projects they had worked on.
Speaker B:And so it's really fun.
Speaker B:And even just those little quirky, you know, office stories are funny.
Speaker B:I did something about a manager at one place and they said she owned.
Speaker B:I had never heard of these, these keys hound dogs, which I had never heard of before, but she had Three dogs and, and loved her dogs.
Speaker B:But what she would do is on her office door, if she were having a difficult day, you would tell how difficult by the number of pictures of dogs that she hung on her office door.
Speaker B:So the more pictures, the more stressed she was that day.
Speaker B:So I think on her map, I had a picture of a door with three, three photos on it and it said, enter at your own risk.
Speaker B:It's a three dog day.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:The more dog pictures, the more irritated she was that day and you didn't want to deal with her.
Speaker B:So there's all kinds of interesting, quirky things that go on in companies.
Speaker B:So it would be their success stories, their biggest customers, maybe all the locations that they have, you know, some of the major initiatives.
Speaker B:Depending on what kind of company, sometimes it might just be a bunch of products, you know, engineering kind of special things, things they might have invented a certain process or a certain particular kind of a part.
Speaker B:And so it celebrates all of that, chronicles that for the company.
Speaker B:So it's a great way for a company to celebrate its rich history.
Speaker A:I love that.
Speaker A:And I, I love to adding in the, you know, like the values of a company.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:You know, and to bring in the culture of the company.
Speaker A:That's such a huge thing right now.
Speaker A:And I just have to believe if there's somebody who has a small business or, or you're listening and you're like, wow, I think my company should do this.
Speaker A:I would really love them to reach out to you because this would be such a great thing to even.
Speaker A:I remember we used to give tours of our office and what a nice place to stop would be in front of a map to show the growth and to show the values of the company and something that's customer, you know, customer visible.
Speaker B:I try if there is, to include their mission statement and if they have a statement of values, you know, what our company values, I'll illustrate that as well.
Speaker B:And so.
Speaker B:And companies do put it in a prominent spot.
Speaker B:I did a map.
Speaker B:The Buffalo Grove Park District hired me to do a map for the Illinois association of park districts for their 90th anniversary and so framed it beautifully.
Speaker B:And it's hanging in one of their conference rooms in Springfield.
Speaker B:And I was at a networking event and I was sitting at a table with like nine other people and we're talking about, we do.
Speaker B:And I happened to mention that I had done this one for the Illinois Associate Park Districts.
Speaker B:And a woman there said, oh, I work for the Mount Prospect Park District.
Speaker B:I've been to Springfield.
Speaker B:I Saw it.
Speaker B:I saw your map in the conference room.
Speaker B:It was very cool.
Speaker B:So it's just nice to be able to highlight the history, the vision, the values.
Speaker B:And also, one of the other things that I wanted to do for companies, because I'd love to do little quirky illustrations, is to illustrate your vision so that people respond, those of us that are visual respond well to a picture.
Speaker B:It helps us to remember things.
Speaker B:So rather than.
Speaker B:I mean, some companies do hang their vision statement or their mission statement on the wall, but after a while, who pays attention to what the mission is?
Speaker B:But if there was a little illustration that illustrated what it is, that would be memorable for employees and even for customers.
Speaker B:To see the illustration, like, we remember logos that are good and illustrate things about companies that we will remember, we'd remember a picture that illustrates what that company stands for.
Speaker A:I think it's great, and I think it's a great way for.
Speaker A:For, you know, to develop company pride and people to look at something and.
Speaker A:And have.
Speaker A:And stir, you know, a certain amount of emotion and camaraderie.
Speaker A:I mean, I think it's such a great way.
Speaker A:I know that.
Speaker A:And that's what it does for people, too, you know.
Speaker A:So when I know that a lot of times what you run into, just us working together so much, is like, you've got.
Speaker A:They want to hire you, right?
Speaker A:And they want a math.
Speaker A:But the 90th birthday isn't until next year, right?
Speaker A:Or the company anniversary isn't until, you know, eight months from now.
Speaker A:So what do you.
Speaker A:What do you.
Speaker A:I guess I want to ask you.
Speaker A:I would.
Speaker A:I would like people to know.
Speaker A:Put it in your calendar.
Speaker A:It's really great.
Speaker B:That's true, that's true.
Speaker B:I mean, I'll say.
Speaker B:I'll say to people, you know, don't wait till the last minute to do it.
Speaker B:I say to people, if you're doing a 50th anniversary, even six months before it, you could do it.
Speaker B:I say, what's going to happen in six months that's going to outweigh what happened in the last 50 years?
Speaker B:Probably nothing is going to be so major that, oh, my God, it's terrible that we left that out.
Speaker B:So just do it.
Speaker B:Because people get stressed near a big event and because I get people all the time that'll say, oh, this would be a great gift for my parents for Christmas.
Speaker B:I say, well, then you can't wait until November to do it.
Speaker B:And they say to me, oh, you must be really busy.
Speaker B:Then I say, no, I've only done two Christmas gifts in the 20 some years that I've been doing it as a business, I said, I'm not too busy.
Speaker B:You are.
Speaker B:Because as soon as you get near the holidays, you go, oh, my God, I haven't got time to think about what I put on that.
Speaker B:And it's actually not difficult.
Speaker B:Doing a life map is a very, very easy process.
Speaker B:So it doesn't take a lot of effort.
Speaker B:And I guide you through exactly what information I want from you.
Speaker B:Sometimes people will say to me, oh, I wanted to do it, but I couldn't think of enough things.
Speaker B:I say, well, then obviously you didn't call me because usually we have too many things, we have to cut things out.
Speaker B:So I would say, don't wait.
Speaker B:If you've got an event coming up, definitely.
Speaker B:I like your suggestion.
Speaker B:Put it on your calendar to give me a call.
Speaker B:Or if you tell me when it is, I'll send you a reminder.
Speaker B:So if people say to me, I've got this coming up and my mom's birthday is next November, I go, okay, then in August, I'm going to.
Speaker B:If I don't hear from you in August, I'm going to contact you next August to remind you and see if you'd still like to do a map for your mom's birthday.
Speaker B:So that makes it easy, you know.
Speaker B:And then people usually say, oh, thank you so much for reminding me.
Speaker B:Or I say, well, thank you, get on my list for my newsletter because maybe once a month I'll send a little something.
Speaker B:And people go, oh, I was so happy to get that because it just reminded me, oh, yes, I could do one of those.
Speaker B:I just needed to, yeah, plan when.
Speaker A:You'Re thinking about it, not when you're up on the, on the actual day.
Speaker A:Yeah, I know so many people want to have this, like, amazing experience for their loved one.
Speaker A:But, you know, don't wait, don't wait.
Speaker A:Exactly.
Speaker A:And because then you run out of time and it's like.
Speaker B:You can always do one for yourself.
Speaker B:Sometimes people say, I like that too.
Speaker B:I love a map of all I've traveled a lot.
Speaker B:I love a map that chronicled all my travels.
Speaker B:I say, fine, I'm happy to help you do that.
Speaker B:Or I had a very interesting thing.
Speaker B:One time, a woman contacted me to do a map for her friend who was turning 30.
Speaker B:30.
Speaker B:And I said on my contact sheet it says, how did you hear about life maps?
Speaker B:And she wrote, my friend met you at an art fair.
Speaker B:So this woman that I was dealing with was in Atlanta.
Speaker B:So I'm Talking to her.
Speaker B:And she said, my friend met you at an art fair in Chicago.
Speaker B:She lives in Chicago.
Speaker B:She's turning 30.
Speaker B:She wants a map, and she's going to pay for it, but she doesn't want to know what's on it until she gets it, as if other people did it for her, because she wants the view of how other people see her.
Speaker B:So she said, she put me in charge of the project.
Speaker B:I have to go to all her friends and get all the stories and memories from her friends, and then she'll pay for the map.
Speaker B:But she wants it to be a surprise, which is what I think is great.
Speaker B:I don't talk to the person I'm doing the map for.
Speaker B:I talk to their family and their friends.
Speaker A:Oh, that's so great.
Speaker A:That's so great.
Speaker A:And I got to tell you, I got.
Speaker A:I'm going to declare this, and then I've got to ask you two questions that I ask everybody who's on my podcast, because we could talk for.
Speaker B:Oh, for sure.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:I just think you're so amazing.
Speaker B:So.
Speaker A:So here was my download that I got as we were talking.
Speaker A:I'm like, I'm launching the program in January, one year to your courageous destiny.
Speaker B:Yeah.
Speaker A:Wouldn't it be cool to have the map to help them the whole way?
Speaker A:And we could collaborate on what questions and milestones I want them to achieve, and then at the end, they get this beautiful map.
Speaker A:Commemor destiny.
Speaker B:It's a great idea.
Speaker B:I always say I'd love to work with coaches and actually even therapists, because I can map where people started and where they're wanting to go and what's been on their journey of how they're changing.
Speaker B:And so then they have that map that has their journey mapped out for them so they can see how far they've come.
Speaker A:Oh, that's so good.
Speaker A:That's so good.
Speaker A:Okay, I have two questions for you, and they're going to be awesome.
Speaker A:Okay, one.
Speaker A:What was the most courageous thing you've ever done?
Speaker B:Actually started my own business.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker B:I was never a risk taker, and I always used to ask my mom for advice.
Speaker B:I would never do anything unless I asked my mom.
Speaker B:And then my mom died, and I didn't have anybody to ask because my dad was not a person that I would ever go to for advice.
Speaker B:So it became my choice.
Speaker B:And so I left my teaching job.
Speaker B:Well, actually, my mom was still here when I did left my teaching job.
Speaker B:But I think when I started my own business and my consulting business, I just Made that decision to leave my guaranteed corporate job and go out on my own and then to just start this business.
Speaker B:So just taking that risk to run a business, to do a business.
Speaker A:You know, I can't wait to see your life map one day because your life map, you are.
Speaker B:I have my childhood.
Speaker B:I have my childhood map.
Speaker B:I did a map because I wanted to show people you don't have to do someone's whole story.
Speaker B:You can just.
Speaker A:Yeah, you could do the highlights of a particular part, like for your little kids.
Speaker B:Oh, absolutely.
Speaker B:You know, people will say, I'll meet people and they'll say, oh, I would love to do one for my daughter, but she's only 8, she hasn't had enough of a life.
Speaker B:And I said, you know what?
Speaker B:I could do a map for a four year old because basic things on a map are interests, personality and relationships.
Speaker B:And even a four year old has that.
Speaker B:So anything.
Speaker B:You can do a map for anybody.
Speaker B:But yeah, it's, it's just, it's great, it's great fun for me because I get to hear all these fantastic stories and the good ones I never forget.
Speaker B:So I'm always quoting all the, all the best stories.
Speaker A:Yes, yes.
Speaker A:Well, I.
Speaker A:Okay, I've got one more question.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:The other question is, what is the most courageous thing you have left on your bucket list?
Speaker B:My most courageous thing in terms of my business or just in general?
Speaker A:Oh, it could be in general.
Speaker B:Okay.
Speaker B:But I think my most courageous thing is what I'm starting to do now, ideas that I've had that I've never followed through on.
Speaker B:So I want more business from companies.
Speaker B:And so I actually like five, six years ago, researched.
Speaker B:I went to the library and I researched companies having a 50th anniversary or 100th anniversary within the next two years there were over 5,000 of them in Illinois.
Speaker B:And so I had the list but never contacted anybody.
Speaker B:And so now my courage is I just sent letters to some people based on articles I saw in the newspaper of a company having its hundredth anniversary and a couple somebody where.
Speaker B:So memorial maps are great too.
Speaker B:So I've been loath to contact people who in particular people that have some public notoriety, like the owner of a particular business.
Speaker B:If somebody dies, a life map would be great for their family to preserve their history.
Speaker B:I've been loath to contact people that have lost somebody, but I'm starting to figure out a way to do that in a very sensitive way and send them a letter and explain what I do and suggest that they might want to capture that person's life, to save it for the family as a.
Speaker B:As a legacy map.
Speaker B:So that's my new thing, is just trying to do some of that stuff I thought of years ago and just never followed through and tried it.
Speaker A:That's so awesome.
Speaker A:That's so awesome.
Speaker A:Well, you know, I'm a huge cheerleader and I'm a huge fan.
Speaker B:I know you are.
Speaker A:And we.
Speaker A:We are.
Speaker A:We do need to wrap up today's podcast, but do you have any final words that you'd like to leave the listeners today?
Speaker B:I just say, you know, a life map is a great gift for anybody, and especially if you have somebody in your family.
Speaker B:Like, I had a dad who never was happy with anything I gave him.
Speaker B:You know, I would kill myself trying to find something that my dad would appreciate, and he always had a complaint.
Speaker B:So sometimes there's those people in your life that are difficult to get a gift for, or, you know, people that are older, and you go, my uncle's 90.
Speaker B:He has money.
Speaker B:He doesn't need a lot of stuff.
Speaker B:And anything he needs, he can afford to buy it for himself.
Speaker B:So what do I get him?
Speaker B:You know, those people that you.
Speaker B:It's hard to find a gift for.
Speaker B:You give them their life.
Speaker B:You give them their life story and let them revel in all those great memories, and you're creating a legacy for the rest of the family to have to celebrate their life even after they're gone.
Speaker B:So I think about that.
Speaker B:Those people.
Speaker A:Oh, that's great.
Speaker A:That's great.
Speaker A:Well, thank you, everybody, for tuning in.
Speaker A:You can find rawness@lifemaps.com.
Speaker B:No, it's LifeMaps Biz Biz.
Speaker A:Well, that's why we said.
Speaker A:And most importantly, don't go by what I say.
Speaker A:Go by the link that's actually going to be in the show notes for you to download and reach out to Radis.
Speaker A:So thank you so much for coming on my show.
Speaker B:Thank you.
Speaker B:Great.
Speaker B:It's always great to talk to you.
Speaker A:Yes, I. I love talking to you, too.
Speaker A:All right, everybody, until next time, live courageously.
