Hello, I'm Michael Kithcart. Welcome to the Champions of RISK Podcast, where we examine the many aspects of risks so that we can all face uncertainty with more strength and courage together. What happens when you start telling your friends and family that you're communicating with the afterlife, and you're being told to create in ways that you've never done before? Today, my guests are going to share their stories about a different kind of calling, and the courage that it takes to do things that can't always be fully explained to everyone. Ris Severson Kasmirski is an author, mystic and the founder of RightPath Careers, an executive career and life coaching firm. Before founding her company she worked in the corporate world in executive sales, marketing and training. Anne Pryor is the creator of Lovitude, and a Soul Painter, recently featured on the Hallmark Channel. She is also an internationally recognized LinkedIn expert, career coach, and a former executive with LifeTouch Carlson, and Knott's Camp Snoopy at the Mall of America. These two friends and business partners share the story When Paradise Speaks, and the birth of Lovitude and Soul Paintings to audiences globally, Ris and Anne, welcome.

Thank you. We're so excited to be here. Thank you for the invitation.

I wanted to just start in Ris, have you share with us a little bit of just like a brief overview of When Paradise Speaks because I think that will help our audience understand the conversation that we have today.

So When Paradise Speaks is a story that was just recently published, a book that was recently published, that tells the story of three way communication between our friend, and my friend who died a few years ago, and shortly after she died, came back to us in different ways and dreams and channeled messages and so on. The story is really about trusting the information that we were giving and acting on it.

I think that is a great message in general, right? You know, because we all receive messages in different ways. There are things, those gnawing thoughts that we have, and the decision of whether or not to pay attention to them can really be the differentiator, I would love to hear about your friend Irene, like, tell us how each of you met her and became friends.

So I've known Irene for 20 years, we were coworkers, Anne and I are co workers in our businesses, we were we worked in career transition, and did that kind of coaching. So I've known Irene for 20 years, a good friend, we traveled internationally together, we did things with our adult daughters together, we spent lots of time talking about politics and movies and current events. And it was very devastating when she passed away because she was healthy and vibrant one day, and then diagnosed with stage four cancer the next day. So she literally from diagnosis to when she passed was three weeks. So and and I worked with her and knew her well. And so in the process of her passing and being hospitalized and being in hospice, we were with her almost every day checking in and Anne might want to add something here about-

So I met Irene, when I lost my job at Carlson Companies. She was my career coach. And Irene inspired me to be a career coach. So that's what shifted me. So she was significant in my life during that transitional shift. And I knew there was something very special about her, and her selfless way of being inclusive and encouraging during that really vulnerable time. So she became a dear friend to me for the last eight years.

And then maybe you want to say something about what you asked her? In hospice?

Oh, okay. Well, um, if we want to move then into that when Irene was at the little hospice house for a few days, we visited her every day. And I've been always curious about after death, communications and spirit and what happens to spirits. So as she's laying there, I said, Irene, could you please come back and tell me what it's like on the other side, I want to know the colors. I want to know what you're doing. I just want to know. And she said, gee, Anne I just really I'm not into that. I don't believe in that. And I asked her two more times. And she didn't respond. Well, then the story unfolded. So that's how I began by asking, I know she wouldn't just leave, I knew she was going to be somewhere. And I wanted to know what was going on.

So then, when she passed, I was delivering one of her eulogies. And of course, it's a traumatic time. And when I got up and started talking about her and all the wonderful attributes and our friendship, in my mind's eye, I guess you describe it that way. I saw her sitting in the synagogue, I saw her streaming red hair, and being reflected in the lights above. And she was looking over the audience smiling. So then I thought, Oh, man, I'm not handling this well, right. And this can't be. But within the next three months, I can only describe it as she was all around me. I could feel her presence, I'd be driving in my car, and I could feel the heat along my arm, as though she was sitting in the driver's seat. But for three months, she never spoke to me, she just her presence was there she would be, I would see her in a crowd. So for me, when I tap into insights from her, I physically see her, right I see her the essence of her. And after three months event, she started coming in lucid dreams. So if you know what a lucid dream is, you will never forget when you have one of those dreams, because everything is so real, you're looking into the eyes of the person you're talking to, you can feel them if you hug them. And so she came in that way. Simultaneously, I was working that year with a spiritual leadership coach, who taught me how to go deep into meditation, and record everything that I was seeing and experiencing. So that coincided even more with this. And in the first year, I filled six journals with messages that I was receiving through meditation, and through speaking with her, so she came in the dream. And, you know, six months into it, all of a sudden, I'm journaling and she's talking to me as a journalist. And I woke in the middle of the night took her communicating and shut my eyes.

So tell us after that Ris, how did the book really come to be, because you were writing and journaling, but what made it become a book?

That's a great question. I after one year, I thought maybe I was going crazy. Maybe I imagined it all. And I said to myself, how, you know, maybe this should be a book. But what if I made it all up. And so I decided to seek some guidance from a medium. And a medium is just an intermediary person who helps in communications with the afterlife. And from the second, I got on this call the medium talked the entire time with Irene. So we were all there. Irene told me write the book, say everything you know, I would say because we know each other so well. And she gave many pieces of proof that it was Irene. She described her. She described her mannerisms. And so after that one hour meeting, I was charged up ready to write the book. And of course, because Anne and I are great friends, I called her immediately and said, this woman told me that Irene was here. And this is what I need to do. And Anne said, oh, I think I'll call that same medium and see if I can connect with my aunt Carol. So three weeks later, Anne called. And I'll turn it to her.

So I went to the same medium and she said, Gosh, this is kind of unusual. There's a woman with red hair that's coming through. And she came through a couple of weeks ago with someone else and it was Irene and Irene said to me, You need to share Lovitude with the world. Now Lovitude means lo e and gratitude inspired by sp rit. It came to me in 2005 wh n I was writing my master's th sis in holistic health and we l being in the desert of Palm Sp ings, it was a symbol of L fo love, and G for gratitude an dot for the Spirit. And I ha created jewelry years ago an sold those pieces of je elry. And then I stopped. We l, I really knew about those pi ces of jewelry and said, Now it s time to bring love back in o the world. And she said yo 're going to do it by dr pping ink on plastic and blow wi h your breath. And those are th words she actually used. And sh said they will be peacock co ors. And of course I thought sh was nuts because I've never ta en an art class and I'm not a tr ined artist. And so I just le that sit. I went and talked to Ris. I do future mind ma ping when I take notes. So I l id everything out in this f

So back in Costa Rica Anne talked me rmat so I could see pattern. S I sat with a pattern, Ris I t en went to Costa Rica. And tha 's where I'm going to tur into going to a gentle yoga retreat at the Omega Institute. And when we were there, and before we went there in journaling, Irene told me look for me down by the ocean, I am coming in, others may be coming too. And so on the fifth day, I walked alone through the jungle down to the ocean. And as I was like walking, and thinking about Irene, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a long row of what looked like hosta plants, and one leaf, and one of the plants was sticking straight up in the air spinning one way, and then quickly spinning the other way. And so I, of course, ran down to the beach, told Anne about it, she said, get that in your journal. And then on the last day of the retreat, we again went to the ocean to do gentle yoga, on the beach. And I decided, you know, I think I'm going to walk alone down the beach for a while. And when I was walking along, I went by four palm trees that were lined up and out of the corner of my eye, I saw one leaf stamp straight up and in one way and spin the other.

That's a lot, right. And now by the time you're doing your retreat, I love the term gentle yoga, by the way.

We're terrible at it. But we have fun.

It's okay, I used to get kicked out of yoga class with a friend of mine, because we get the giggles, I understand. But by now by the time you go to the retreat, both of you have been in communication with Irene for a period of time, it's starting to maybe feel more, you know, consistent and normal. To you. I want to ask before Irene passed away, how did you feel about after life? And you mentioned that you were interested in after death experiences? But was was this a part of your lives? Before Irene passed?

No, not for me, although over my lifetime, mostly as an adult, from time to time, I have sensed like my father has come to me and communicated with me. But again, I think I make it all up. You know, so never have I had this type of experience with constant communication.

For me, I believe I'm being guided by God, as a little girl, I was raised Catholic, and we always pray to the saints and angels, and our dead relatives to help. So this wasn't an unusual situation for me. In addition, as a child, I would be clairvoyant, if you will, and maybe clairaudient. In other words, I could hear and I could see things, I would find things in the street, and I would immediately know who they were for, and I would take them to them. When I was in the sixth grade, I had premonitions of certain things. And then I actually asked God to turn them off, because it scared me. And when I was 27, I was awakened again to really understanding spirit and how spirit moves in me and became in earnest my personal development and spiritual journey. So it wasn't foreign to me. I'm very curious. And I want to know what is happening on that side that I can help with on this side.

Something I've been thinking about recently is, you know, we know that if we look through a microscope, we can see small little cells and things. But with our human eyes, we don't see those. We also know that there's Outer Space planets and all these things out there, but we can't see it with our eyes. And so it is with the spirit world. It's like going on into venture further and further out there energetically to see more and more in terms of how people in organizations use this kind of information to create is the thought that you think that you're coming up with creative ideas in your mind. But the essence of creativity comes from a much deeper place, a soulful place.

I'm curious, especially so Anne, you grew up more with that kind of that acceptance and that understanding. And Risa this was a little bit newer for you. And you had quite a bit of conversation and communication with Irene out of this. So how did you get more comfortable with that? Because you mentioned earlier like at one point you're kind of wondering like, Am I just making this stuff up when other family members may be visited you. But how did you get more comfortable in accepting?

Through the process of really learning how to meditate and get quiet and go Within, instead of being distracted by the outer world, I don't I would not be able to do those communications. Like all the sudden right now start talking about communicating with her, I need to be in a quiet centered place, just like this is a little side story. But Anne and I were at an intervention, intervention, innovation innovation, not an intervention. An innovation conference, we were talking to innovation leaders. And we asked them the question, how do you create? And every one of them said, when they're really stuck in need to create something, they go out in nature, they go for a walk, they go to the ocean.

It's so true. I when anyone is, you know,

I'm, I'm going to just share with you, there's asking questions and noticing that they're asking you them others in, and we're all coaches and career coaches, executive coach, sometimes people come to us and they want to know the answers, right? And in the even in coaching, it's like, no, it's to help you with your own discovery. And that too, also requires people to get quiet, to identify that they're actually listening to themselves and not the shoulds and woulds and the coulds and, and other people's voices. So how do you discern because that that's both ver common in the business that yo have together, how do you star recognizing that this is not m voice, this is actually th voice of someone who's trying t communicate with me, from different level really only two thoughts. There's fear and love. And so if you take your hands right now, and you put them up either side of your ear, so if everybody could do that, I would like you to tell me which side you hear the thought that said I should do this. I could do I could have done this. I'm not good enough. I'm not smart enough. What side is that? Okay, mine is my left side that I hear that, okay, that's ego, and that's fear. But if I hear I got your back, you can do this, we can make this happen, let it go. I'm with you. Don't worry about the outcome. That's the side that I listened to. So as easy as that. You're got, you've got your ego, which is fear. And you've got love, which is soul spirit, and essence. So I'm now very clear on which voice is talking to me. And I follow the love voice. So that would be just a little trick that you can do when you hear those thoughts. And then immediately shift those thoughts into a Love thought or a Can thought or a Help thought

very helpful.

Well, if I could go back to the story a minute, after a year, we went to Costa Rica, and Anne had gotten this message to start painting large paintings with peacock colors, breathing with her breath. And, but she didn't do anything with it for several months, because because she didn't trust the message like what could that possibly mean? She's not an artist. So for three months, she didn't do anything with it. And then one day, we were working together and she said, look at what's on my cell phone for March 30. She said, between seven and eight o'clock, it says New Life Opportunity. But I did not put that on my cell phone. I'm gonna erase it. And the next morning, it was on her cell phone again, March 30, her client load which is huge. People started canceling for March 30. Then about a week before March 30. She found people that use those kind of paints. And so on March 30, she begin to paint Lovitude Soul Paintings. And if you watch her work, she can create masterpieces in three to five minutes. They're stunning pieces of art. And they're inspired through soul.

They are stunning. And I have to say even seeing them on on a screen not even live and in person, you feel something. Which is an amazing gift to to get people to feel something in any art form

The the piece about that which I'm grateful for. So the first thing is I asked and then finally I allowed the message to come through. And the next thing I accepted the message that I am an artist, I am a soul painter. And one thing that I do is I never judged the piece because it is blown through God through spirit, through divine energy through source through love. So who am I to judge? Therefore the risk is gone when I completely trust. So I'm asking, you know those listeners, are you trusting the messages that you're receiving? Are you knowing they're coming from love? are you allowing them to take place. After I began to paint that's March 30- In July, one of my clients said, Anne, I saw your paintings, I brought her some cards. She said, Why don't you host a gallery show? This is in four months, a gallery show here. And I said, I will, and I'll donate all the proceeds to your cause. And Ris and I went to set up at this big warehouse in North Minneapolis, I had 100 pieces framed on the walls. And I mean, who does this right? I can't believe this. And I thought to myself, What am I doing here, I'm not an artist, this this art. I don't know, if anybody's gonna care but I said, Irene, give me a darn sign. And my sign from her is peacock. So this boy named Zack is helping me set up and putting these pieces on the wall. And he said to me, and these paintings are so interesting, they have such beautiful peacock colors. So what 17 year old kid is going to use the word peacock. And I said, Thank you, Irene, will move forward. Right? So when you maybe don't trust or, maybe you're thinking what am I doing? Ask for a sign? Right?

Yes, and recognize it in that moment. And, you know, I want to tie this in, because both of you had very have had very successful corporate careers. Right. And so there's been lots of talk for decades, you know, about the, you know, incorporating soft skills. And so people know you from your own business, the RightPath Careers, and they also know you from your, your different corporate positions. So when you start sharing that you are writing the book When Paradise Speaks, and you're creating Lovitude paintings, what what were some of the initial responses from I'm just gonna air quote, you know, the corporate side?

We were talking about this earlier, and we think that there's an evolution going on in people's openness, we have found in the coaching work we do that we easily and comfortably ask people, you know, what do you believe you're here to do? And most people in in a, in a confidential private place will divulge that information. Just like if we ask a crowd of people, when have you received signs from a loved one who's past, the crowd will go silent, and then one person speaks up, and then another and then another. So um, you know, I, I just tell this quick story that when I was writing the book, I, I talked to plenty of my friends to see who would like instantly Believe me, and who would give me that look, you know, and so one of the people I talked to a lot was my 91 year old mother, she's always been a huge supporter in my life. And I always sensed from her that she sort of believed it, and she trusted me. But she wasn't quite sure. I was talking to her just last week when the book came out. And she said, You know what, I always wondered about what you were telling me. But my brother who passed away earlier this year, she said, the night he passed away, he came to her in a dream. And he was a little boy and a little white suit smiling at her. And the next night, he came again, as an adult in a white suit smiling at her. And because she had that experience, she's forever changed. So it is with our audience to be thinking about, you know, those experiences you've had that have shifted you. And once you shift, you can never you don't go backwards.

Which is really not unlike any kind of experience. You know, when you continue to evolve and grow in your career path. Once you reach that next level, you don't go back. You have a higher level of understanding. And and so I see its similarities in that. I'm curious about what you feel, maybe you wrist in sharing your experiences with different audiences who still might not be able to grasp everything that that you're sharing.

This is only our experience. We can only live our own experience. And so we just opened up the possibility for others to share their experience, whatever it happens to be. And I think that when you're in your authentic place of knowingness, and leveraging your own wisdom, people will listen or they will walk away. And once again, it's for me not to fear what's going to happen and to know that I'm protected and grounded. And this is my experience and knowledge, which is wisdom, that I am here to help bring soul to work and allow people to be inspired by whatever inspires them. And so when I hold that energy in happiness and joy, then people are attracted to that resonation. So once again, I release the fear.

A key word for all of us is, how willing are we to be transparent, to show up in the world who we are, rather than looking at that as vulnerable? I'm afraid to share my idea with you. How about it, it's about transparency, Authenticity, and the invitation for another to tap into their creativity and authenticity.

One thing I will say is, it's easier with two. So Ris and I are collaborating together on this, which I think is kind of unusual and very interesting. So it's important for you to have a support system that is going to lift you up, and you're going to lose friends that are not interested and, and I've seen that they've just moved away or not interested in the messages. But different people then come into your life. And I allow that give and take and flow.

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Also, because, on two points there of first, you as you continue, as we again, continue to grow and evolve. There are people that and things and beliefs that we have to let go of, in order to be there. But it also does open the door, then for new to come in. And then the other piece that I'm really taking away from this is you create the container, the space. And by sharing your story, you help other people who maybe thought they had a an experience with a deceased loved one. But weren't sure like you're helping also kind of normalize it. And and that is a great gift. I'm curious to see to hear how the two of you because you're both getting kind of messages from Irene, how did you really like collaborate together on the book, because recently you did the writing and and you provided the visuals. What did that look like?

So, of course, we're great friends, and we talk almost every day. So always we've been in collaboration. But early on, when I first met with the medium, the medium, and through Irene, described what the book should be like. And the book was to include artwork, which at the time, we didn't even know what I didn't even know what that meant. And it was to be in a narrative and a story. And I'll never forget, the day Irene gave me a message that this is not about the book. This is not about the art, it is about inviting people to open up to what's possible in their lives, what risks they can take. And we find when when we come from that place when talking to audiences, it's like a release in the room and people begin talking.

You know, the other thing is how we collaborated, Ris would meditate a lot. And I meditate every morning at seven o'clock AM. And when Ris would meditate, she would get messages from Irene. And then she'd say, she'd email them to me and she'd say Anne, Irene said, paint, and, use gold, and sign your name in gold. Well, what was interesting is I was signing my name and silver for the first three months, until that message came and now every piece is gold. So when you look at my pieces, you can see the original pieces from the next pieces. And then Ris would say no, she said paint in more blue because we have to allow men into the conversation. And they like more blue and blue is the color of communication and connection to spirit. And it activates that particular energy. So it's a trust that we have that I'm allowing what is being said and then I'm activating it through my breath. So it's in a flow.

The flow is again another you know, transitional word that we can use in lots of different ways. Right now with it being the beginning of the year, right people we're asking people what's your word of the year and you know, mine is ease I want ease and a lot of other people have said flow I want you know, just things to just go about with not a lot of you know, hiccups. So I hear so many messages in what you are sharing today. I'm curious to know what you want people to get from reading when paradise speaks, what do you hope that they gain from it?

Well, one of the things that we're doing is introducing tools. So in one of my meditations, I received the five A's, from spirit, the five A's. Number one, ask, so you have to be willing to ask, right, these unseen helpers, God, your angels, saints, or friends that have gone before us, ask for what it is that either you desire, or just ask for their help. And the next piece the next A is allow that message to come in, in whatever form it comes in. Mine came in, in a text message and from a medium. Ris came through, you know, meditation, and then accept the message as it is, and then meditate and think about that message. So when I finally accepted the message, I then began to paint and realize I can continue to do this. And maybe I'll share it with the world and see what happens. And then appreciate it. So we're joyful today. I mean, you allowed us to come on your show. We're grateful to God, spirit, Buddha, whomever. We're grateful to Irene, for visiting with us here. And then act. And that's a piece that many people don't do. Number one is ask and number two is act. And so that's what we keep ourselves accountable towards. What are you doing today Ris? What am I doing? How can we help each other? Who can we communicate with, so those five days are a helpful resource.

And as the author of the book, you know, one of the things I might desire in writing this is that everybody know that it is our birthright, to connect with helpers on the other side, that they're there to help us. I want people to feel inspired about that. And hopefully have a few laughs and aha moments as they're reading this book, which is for me a passion project to get this story told and out to the world.

I want to make sure you are able to share here. How can people purchase When Paradise Speaks?

When Paradise Speaks is on Amazon, and you can get to it either by going to Amazon and typing in When Paradise Speaks. Or you can visit Lovitude.com and Lovitude is L-o-v-i-t-u-d-e.com. Go to the books page, watch our little video, and then purchase the book there. In addition, there is resources there. You can also follow the Lovitude Facebook page, and we post and talk there and then connect with both Ris Severson Kasmirski and Anne Pryor on our LinkedIn profiles.

That is great. I thank you both for taking time to share the story, the journey that you both have been on to create your new book, and also all the the really great messages that you shared today, both throughout your journey and what the book represents. Because as we are all entering this new year, in particular, when it tends to end it's winter, right. So there's a little bit of more like reflection in inter-flection, I think if that's a word. It's it's really great to be able to get those five A's in particular to just kind of guide us are the five A's available anywhere Anne?

They are in the book. And they are on my website, Lovitude.com as well.

Okay, fantastic. Thank you both Anne, Ris. It's been a pleasure talking with you.

Thank you so much, Micha

Thanks and thanks for listening to the Champions of RISK podcast.