Holly Porter
[00:00:00] Holly: I feel like personally, God's my higher power. It was like, he had to pause me, put me still in a coma, put me in this position. I couldn't get out of bed for 70 days, except when they made me do physical therapy and it was horrible. But I would lay there and you had to learn how to walk and talk and everything again and breathe. First of all, I had to learn how to breathe. And to lose all five senses at one point.
[00:00:26] Aneta: We often hear people wishing us a long, happy, and healthy life, but what if the length isn't what matters most? What if instead, it's the breath depth and purpose of each day that matters most? Welcome to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My name is Aneta Ardelian Kuzma and join me weekly as I interview guests who made changes in their own lives to live more fully with intention, gratitude, and joy. Be prepared to be inspired by their stories of how they shifted their mindset, took courageous action, and designed the life that they always wanted to live.
Welcome back to the Live the Width of Your Life podcast. My guest today is Holly Porter, and she stands as a beacon of resilience. She is a 13-time bestselling author, a seasoned philanthropist, and a true survivor. Her incredible journey includes a 70-day battle with COVID-19, from which she emerged with unwavering determination.
She is so passionate about wellness. She leads a nonprofit dedicated to aiding the long COVID community. Her infectious joy embodies hope her wisdom uplifts others and proves that healing is possible after the toughest of battles, inspiring countless lives along the way.
Such an important conversation. There are so many people still suffering from long COVID symptoms. Holly talks about her journey and the challenges that she faced during her 70-day battle, how it's shaped her perspective on resilience, and also impacted her dedication to wellness.
She talks about some of the things that are important for us to maintain wellbeing, especially when we face adversity and she has a lot of great advice for people on their journey. It was such a powerful conversation and I think you'll enjoy it. Take a listen.
Holly, welcome to The Live The Width of Your Life podcast.
[00:02:16] Holly: Thank you so much for having me here today.
[00:02:18] Aneta: I'm so excited to have you here and your story is just miraculous. And I thought maybe we would just actually go in and dive in a little bit about something that happened to you. And with my audience lately, I've been talking about this notion of silver linings and talking about how things can happen that seem bad, and they can be, but it's our perspective and what we choose to learn and do with those experiences that matters.
So you got COVID during the pandemic. And as a result of that, you were able to have significant shifts and changes in your life. So do you mind just sharing a little bit about your experience and what that was and how it's impacted you since then?
[00:03:08] Holly: Yeah. Well, I know COVID affected everybody. I'm not so special in that fact. What is different about my story is that I had a 70-day hospital stay and I was intubated two times. I had a trach. I ended up with sepsis and a couple of other life-threatening things that happened. And that was a game changer because when I went in there, first of all, I never thought I'd get COVID.
I just was a healthy person and never really had health issues. I had some underlining things, which we can talk about later that kind of manifests with the long COVID stuff that a hundred thousand or a hundred million, by the way, documented cases now of long COVID people. So it's not going away.
There's a lot of residual stuff suffering along the way, but that was a game changer in my life because, before that, I had 11 startup companies. Two of those still count as fairly new ones that came out of the coma. So I've had lots of changes. We have eight children, we have 17 grandchildren.
So obviously there are a lot of moving parts all the time. And this was different because I never really could have told you before like, what's my calling? I never thought I'd live to be old. I never could see a vision more than five years in the future, which I always found kind of unsettling, and didn't stress over it.
I'm not, really a worrier. I was just like, things happen for a reason and we'll just keep moving. And we fly the plane as we go and we learn as we grow. And that's all, all that stuff. So when this happened, my family is why I want to be here and who I want to serve the most.
And that was cliche to me. That wasn't like, what's your big dream? What's this? I didn't even have that. So I feel like personally, God's my higher power. Looking back now, it's been about two and a half years since I got out of the hospital. It was like, he had to pause me, put me still in a coma, put me in this position.
I couldn't get out of bed for 70 days. I mean, except when they did make you do physical therapy and it was horrible. But I would lay there and you had to learn how to walk and talk and everything again and breathe. First of all, I had to learn how to breathe. And to lose all five senses at one point.
They tie your hands to the bed when you're on a ventilator so you can't touch or feel or pull your ventilator out, mostly, which I had no desire to do, by the way. And then the taste and smell were gone because of COVID. And let's see what's, my eyesight's already legally blind, so no contact glasses.
I couldn't see who anyone was unless they were about eight inches in front of my face. And they all had the hats and the masks on. So all I could see were eyes, which eyes do speak by the way. So many people looked all the same. And so that was challenging. And then for some reason, I don't think this happens to most people, but the ventilator took 90 percent of my hearing away.
So it sounded like the Charlie Brown school teacher, and you hear her do that, that's what people sounded like. So I was like, they mostly induced me in a coma and I was grateful because it was miserable. I had to point at letters just to spell out anything I wanted to say. And so that communication, it lost so many lessons and so many things still keep coming up that I think of and the experiences I had.
So just a quick overview for people who like, the spiritual stuff of things. I didn't know, I didn't listen to anyone else's story for way over a year after I got out of the hospital, which I'm also grateful about because the COVID fog is real. Your thoughts are all over the place. I knew what I had experienced, but I wasn't tainted by anyone else's stories, which I was grateful for as well.
So there are three things. There are out-of-body experiences, there are near-death experiences, and there are spiritual transformational experiences. I had no idea there were three different things to that. Maybe there are more things that I haven't come to an awareness of, but I did learn that when I joined IANDS, which is the International Association of Near-Death Studies.
So it's all these people that are fascinated by near death, but it also includes all these others. Well, when I started realizing it, I thought I had two near-deaths, but I had a spiritual transformation and a near-death. I had tons of outbody.
I always went back in time about 165 years, which was in a pioneer town because I'm in Utah. Perwin, Utah. And my great, great, great grandfather had a home there and that's where I was. And it wasn't always a good experience. I witnessed stuff that I would never want to re-see, but it was interesting how these things were portrayed, I can't tell you why all these things happen because fast forward, so we're in the summer of 2024.
So December of 2023, I asked a friend of mine, and he trained me in hypnosis. And I asked him if he would do a hypnosis session on my near death specifically on that, because those were the pieces that were missing. And I'm writing a book and I wanted to make sure out of integrity and I hit the right spots, but I felt like there were some gaps.
That was the biggest eye-opener. I was so grateful that intuitively I knew to do that because he took me to places that I didn't remember in the near-death. And I saw two things specifically in that hypnosis session that was such a confirmation. So, backing up before, pause me there.
I'm going to come back to that. So remind me. I was told in my coma to start, remember, I'd already had nine startup companies. I had just started a concept of a software company. So the day I found out I had COVID, I pitched to this company and was going to partner with them. And I knew they'd want the idea because it's an amazing idea. And then when I was in my coma, I was told not to partner with them.
That wasn't in the highest and best use of my time, my energy, my efforts, but it would take me longer. So that is that. So remember that as we talk further. And then I was also told to start a nonprofit called Adventure Bucket Wish. And I was even gifted the name and it's for long COVID.
And I never in a million years would have ever wanted a nonprofit for a long COVID. First of all, it's not fun. Nobody cares. And I wouldn't even let the word COVID be printed in a magazine that I had at the time. My writers would come back if there was a story. And I mean, that was the headline. They had to use a different word.
I wouldn't even give it energy. And then there ends up being a platform for a nonprofit. So just crazy stuff like that.
[00:09:50] Aneta: That's so interesting. So there's so much that I want to go back to. So take me back to Did you start to feel sick? How did you end up in the hospital? And from the time that you were in the hospital, when did you go into the coma? What did that look like? Because 70 days is a long time.
[00:10:08] Holly: Long time. So all of my experiences, I have got my records and looked at things and the timeline was all of those experiences happened in the first three weeks because that's when I was really bad. So I got COVID at a conference. I went to Dallas. I just didn't live in fear. I don't, I wasn't stupid. I just was above it, I just didn't think I'd get it. But I came back I got sick Saturday night and I flew home Sunday. So I knew I was feeling ill. I came back and we were living in a fifth wall at the time, behind my dad's house, which is like a spa.
But we weren't roughing it too bad, but we were living there waiting for our house to close at which we had to lose because they didn't know if I was going to even live and die and I couldn't sign anything. So we ended up not being able to get that. This is a side note. But we laid in there, both of us, I brought it home.
Two days later, my husband came down with it, but it was the Delta version the worst. And we were in there for a week. My sisters, some of our kids, and my parents would just put food on the step. We wouldn't even open the door for anyone. I was like, I can't even possibly imagine giving this to anyone.
So for a whole week, we were that way. I don't even remember that week. I remember my husband saying, yeah, you were puking. I was way worse than him. Finally, after a week, about 4:30 in the morning, I remember. I couldn't breathe. I woke up and I said, and we didn't know back then what to do.
I remember somebody brought me the ivermectin paste. I remember sucking on that, but by then it was way too late. Anyway, we let it go too far. So I just said, get me to the hospital. And when I got there, he dropped me off in the front. I don't know how he got us there because he was so sick, but we didn't give it to an ambulance driver.
And, it was just like, just intuitively, you just do what you have to do immediately. He drops me off in the front. By the time he got there, I was already on my way to the ICU. And you know how slow they are. My oxygen was 63. I was in an ICU room and had already had the three levels of oxygen up to the 10 highest flow within 30 minutes, it was nuts.
And they wouldn't let him come up because he had COVID. So they sent him home. It was horrible. I didn't see him for three and a half weeks. And that was when I had all these experiences without him.
[00:12:16] Aneta: So you got in and the three and a half weeks that you said, so did they induce you in a coma right away?
[00:12:23] Holly: So I didn't get intubated for four days, and they knew how I felt about it. My sisters were making all the decisions, they're twins, just younger than me. And they allowed one person at that time, one person every 24 hours. And for some reason, early on, they knew intuitively.
That I needed him there. Like I never suffered from really depression anxiety, or PTSD. Believe me when you're in that situation, anybody, you get all of that. And that my anxiety was out the roof. And I remember that nurse saying, are you sure she wasn't on anxiety medicine and she's really bad, and I thought about it later and I thought, well, let me take your oxygen away, and let's see how you react.
[00:13:03] Aneta: yeah, exactly. You can't breathe. You're life's course.
[00:13:07] Holly: Breath means a whole new thing to me nowadays, but it's four days in I remember listening later. I remember crying for myself listening to this recording of my sister with my husband on the other line trying to decide about the intubation because I knew how I felt about it and back then we knew that if you go on there you probably aren't coming off.
[00:13:26] Aneta: You're probably not coming off. Yeah.
[00:13:28] Holly: And I remember neither of them wanted to make the decision. And I remember saying, all I know is I can't breathe. And my organs and everything were starting to shut down. And I just thought I got to take my chances. And I remember saying that, and it was like super emotional listening to it because I think it just like, I made the decision.
I think they just took me off too soon because I was only off like a day and then they had to turn around and revamp me, which back then I was like, sure, 29,000 dollars per ventilation. That's probably all the moneymaker for you guys. What do you care if one more person dies from COVID? That was a snottiness but you think of all those things.
[00:14:04] Aneta: So they intubate you and then do they put you in the induced coma right away or how did that happen?
[00:14:13] Holly: Sometimes it's induced where you're, I don't know if I ever went in on my own or not.
[00:14:18] Aneta: Okay.
[00:14:19] Holly: I know sometimes it's induced in there and then sometimes it's paralyzed and when they paralyze you, I'll tell you a quick story about that. They keep you on super-high drugs, right? I had everything put through my body. It's still recovering. And I guess one day my daughter was in there, it was her 24-hour shift and she's pretty sure she saved my life that day because they were giving me oxycodone and fentanyl.
But I was semi-conscious because she said, all of a sudden your eyes went back to your head. And your heart rate went to like 168, I think that's what she said and she's intuitive and she's like, you were dying. And all I could think of was to yell at the nurse that was in there. Whatever you're doing, stop, you're killing her.
And he's scared. She goes, I'll never forget the look in his eyes. He was so scared and he stopped whatever he did, stopped it and I was okay, but what happened, I'm a natural redhead, and if you don't know, redheads react differently to everything.
Anesthesia, dental, everything's different with us, medication. And they were giving me fentanyl and oxycodone, and the fentanyl was every hour, and my body was metabolizing, going through every 20 minutes. So she says, technically, they were overdosing you and withdrawing you at the same time.
[00:15:33] Aneta: That's so crazy. Thank God that you had, like, this is a story too of having people who are there and advocating for you and who knew you so well and were so intuitive and paying attention. And of course, your faith, as you said, you believe in a higher power. You believe that God is there watching over you.
So when you are in this state and your hands are tied down, which I think sounds terrifying. Are you aware and conscious of what is happening? Did you feel restrained? Did you feel like you were somewhat paralyzed and did you have like at least a little bit of a knowing of what was happening?
[00:16:13] Holly: When I was not in a coma, I had a knowing I had one nurse that was kind of nice. She knew I was right-handed, and she would loosen that one so I didn't feel so trapped, but they said I was so worried about my phone. Where's my phone? It's something else. I can't remember just like the weird stuff that happens.
I know some crazy dreams happened too, but I know without a shadow of a doubt, all these other experiences, I mean, I could tell you funny stuff that would just have you rolling and get that happened too. It was just like some crazy thing, but the interesting thing about all of my experiences I can remember was that I took my bed with me.
So one of my chapters of the book is called Me in My Bed because I think intuitively I knew if I left my bed, my body, I lost it. Like I wouldn't get it back. Maybe I die. I don't know. There was that fear, even knowing, it's funny how you can be in that kind of state of, you're physical, but spiritually you know. And so everywhere I'd go, I have my bed. Even my near-death experience, I left in my bed, but I was out of it.
[00:17:16] Aneta: Wow. So let's talk about each of those things. So you had, you said it's a near-death experience and then you had a spiritual transformation and what was the third one
[00:17:27] Holly: So, out of body is the body is the third.
[00:17:29] Aneta: Okay. So tell me about it, because you have these experiences, but you maybe didn't have the words for it. But then you said a year later, you were reading about, other things that others maybe have gone through. So tell me which one happened first or is it hard to have a timeline to understand?
[00:17:47] Holly: The out-of-body was a lot. Like I had so many of those. Those were the time-traveling ones where I never went in the future. I always went in the past. So those were just funny experiences. I'm not funny. There were some crazy ones too, but the one that was significant and that's easy to tell in a shorter period was the spiritual transformational experience.
So I have a cousin who's kind of like a sister, and she wrote a text to my sisters and said, I normally wouldn't share this kind of experience in a text, but I know Holly's not doing well right now, and I want you to read it to her. And so she's a filler. I'm more visual and she's more of a filler.
And so she had been praying and having this experience with spirits basically that came to her when she was praying for me and my husband for NR wellness. And she's kind of nosy. So she asked, may I know who's here with me? And one by nine, she was gifted those names. So she said all this in the text and that they're all they're supporting me.
I must've been put back in a coma within a very short time after that. And I remember being super angry. I remember my prayers were, I was mad. I was like, this sucks. And at that particular time I was mad because I was suffering and why did she get that and not me? Just not the snotty side kind of.
At that time, my mom came to me and she was on my right side. I have a painting by the way, that's a six-foot by four-foot painting I had done of this vision. It took eight months to do it just to figure out I can only have 26 people in there and there was way more, but it's an interesting vision, and it's for me, it wouldn't mean anything to anybody but me, but it's pretty powerful.
And she came to my side and she just said, it's not your time to be here and you need to fight. And it's interesting because I don't care for the word fight. I just never liked that word. So she said that and then, all these people in white that I knew had passed on. I mean, my grandparents, my favorite aunt, my brother, my sister-in-law, and a grandbaby had just died six months before.
But she was an adult, even though she was a baby when she died. I knew it was her. Like, intuitively, you knew everything. And they all appeared to me and started chanting Fight! And then they'd say fight again, and here comes, everyone that's living, my husband, my friends, my siblings, my kids, and they all keep coming every time they're trying to fight.
It went back as far as I could see, like if you were looking in a mirror to eternity, it went forever. And I realize now that people that I didn't recognize, Were probably all those prayer lists that I was on all the people that they had asked for prayers for me. And it was that time when I knew I was going to live because my prayer was this sucks. And if I'm not going to get better, get me out of here.
It was clear, and that's just how I am. It's like, do this, or do that, please. And then this happened, and it was like, Okay, got it, that's all I needed to know. I'm ready to fight now.
[00:20:54] Aneta: I have goosebumps all over my body as you're talking about this. What did fight mean to you? Because you're tied down, you've got drugs pumping through you. So was it like, a decision, like I'm not dying? What does that look like when you hear a fight and you're in the condition that you're in?
[00:21:15] Holly: I think it was more that was an answer to my prayer, and so, God's not going to tell me that if I'm going to die. So it's not that I'm going to take advantage of it, I'm going to give it all I got. Because I think at that point I had given up. I was done. I was just like, I don't want to do this anymore. Let's get this over with.
One way or another, decide which way I'm going because this is not where I want to be. And again, it was the first three weeks of me being in the hospital and I can't tell you exactly when it happened, but that was when I knew. So I would have had a lot of out-of-body before that, including after that.
And then I would have had my near-death experience before that as well. So you know how you just try to figure out where everything went, not that I have to figure it out, but it's interesting to think, okay, well this day, and then look on my records, this happened or, yeah,
[00:22:07] Aneta: Well, and also, I mean, if we believe in the quantum space, there is no time, then it doesn't matter because you were trying to place like a linear timeline to something that you can't, but I guess my question is, you had people in the room with you 24 hours a day. Did any of them notice anything while you were in your coma? Were they able to notice that something was happening, maybe that was happening within you and your thoughts or what you're experiencing like looking from the outside in?
[00:22:41] Holly: Well, interesting. They were so good to me. Just by the way, I had a spa and salon for 20 years. And so I've trained my daughters to be hairdressers and I had my nose done in there, my toes done in it, they even waxed my eyebrows. I mean, just funny because they knew that stuff would bug me.
Now the pictures of my hair are yet to be seen. They're scary. I mean, I don't want anyone to see them, but you have tubes everywhere. But they were super busy with the two twin sisters that helped me. We all do real estate and they're slammed and they had so much going on, one was in the middle of buying a house and there was just a lot happening.
So I don't know if their awareness was there for that. I know they played spiritual music all the time they did a lot. I remember my daughter bringing some spray because she's buying one that's intuitive, more of an energy healer type.
And I remember it felt like somebody was chopping at my throat. Like the scent, even though it was oil. And even still, I have a really hard time with certainty, but I remember it just like right here. And she felt so bad when she realized that was a fact, I mean, I don't remember how I communicated that to her because I remember I was so sick from her spraying that even though now I've smelled it and it's fine.
But I think different things like, she had some experiences I think that she hasn't shared with me. I think it traumatized her as well. But I remember when I came out of my near death, I felt kidnapped because this is a crazy story. I'll tell you about that.
So my sister Jill happened to be there that day and she was having me point to the letters on an alphabet to spell it out. And I spelled kid and she's like, you need something with your kids, one of your kids. And I'm like, no, that's not it. She goes, when you started when I finally figured out, it was pretty easy to figure out, N A P, kidnap.
She's like, I panicked. My gut was like, she goes, I wanted to throw up. She says I was like, what is happening? Where's she going with this? She hasn't left this room. And I told them I went everywhere. They're like, you never left this room. Your surgeries were in this room. I'm like, oh, I went everywhere. You trust me, I did.
And I remember her being so fearful, and she said, what happened? Right after that, the doctor comes in the door and he says, we're going to exacerbate her. So this was, must've been the first intubation. And so she says, as soon as they took that out, you couldn't talk very well, but she says, you had a lot to say.
But she said there was that fear because I think I felt kidnapped. After all, they took me and they weren't supposed to. This is what I think, jokingly, because there were a lot of funny things that happened throughout all this. We all have to train. No matter what, even if we're an angel, you have to figure out how to do that.
I don't think you just get it. I think you have to be shown the way and there are always leaders and followers. And I think whoever my guide was, which I never did see, but whoever that was, I think they were in training and they took me a little sooner and I was supposed to go.
So I came back. I remember seeing spirits in my room. And I remember having her check like she was opening the door. And I remember I couldn't see very well because I didn't have contact glasses. So I could see what she was doing, but I couldn't see anything clear.
And she'd open, no, no one's here. I promise. And we're the only ones here. And I'm like, for real. And there were people there, there were people there a lot, including my mom who had passed on.
[00:25:57] Aneta: Wow. Was that comforting for you?
[00:26:01] Holly: Yeah, it wasn't at that time because again. I felt kidnap. I was like, I think they were going to take me again. And,
[00:26:08] Aneta: Yeah.
[00:26:08] Holly: I didn't remember all of the near-death experiences. The COVID fog was so challenging for my memory.
[00:26:15] Aneta: So you were in the hospital for 70 days. So you were released at some point. So what did the healing or the recovery look like? And then at what point did you, after you came out of the coma, I'm assuming, what was that process like? Did they, take the intubation out again and how long were you still in the hospital recovering before you were able to go home?
[00:26:38] Holly: Yeah. So they reintubated me and then it's a good sign when they put you on a track because you're still vented, but it goes from being down your throat now in your throat.
[00:26:50] Aneta: Yeah.
[00:26:51] Holly: And it's safer on your organs. I mean, some people live on a trach all their lives if they have to. And I had that, and then once that happened, basically they're like, you're good enough to get out of here, but to another hospital, like another level of a hospital. So I went to the other hospital, I was there for five weeks. And then I went to the second hospital. And I was there for four. Two weeks I was in their level of ICU and then two weeks of med surg is what they call it.
And that's where they're making you do the physical therapy. But that's the hospital where I got sepsis in their ICU. And I don't think I had it very long, anyway, it's just scary stuff. It was always up and down. But when I got released, I was on oxygen for about three months. I was on a walker because I could walk, but only on a walker. Then I went to a cane.
They wanted to send me to a third hospital and I begged them not to. I couldn't go in the fifth wheel because I didn't even have energy. I couldn't have picked up my tank to even get up the step. I couldn't even get up the steps at that time. And so my son had just built a home that was on one level and it was, Cedar City, Utah and I was up in northern Utah, but it was interesting because when I left my oxygen was at level three that they would let me go on and within 24 hours I needed a six but my concentrator only went to a five.
So I was back in the ER in Cedar City and that was my 70th day. So I count that because I was there, but I begged him not to keep me. And they ended up letting me go. I was very specific. I said all I need is a 10 concentrator. If I need six, just give me a 10 concentrator. I'll do exactly what you tell me to do.
You're so done with being in the hospital. It was like, yeah, get me out of here. And I remember the nurse giving me a little clue. She goes, let's see on the oxygen if you can keep it up here to a 10 or a hundred percent. Most people are in the nineties. Well, she showed me to put it in my mouth and just leave it in there breathing and it stayed at a hundred for a long time.
That's why I didn't keep me. I thought that was nice of her to give me that little tip. They came in. I just did it up on my nose, yeah, I walked out. I walked in on no drugs. I walked out on 12 and I'm holistic. So that was tough. I got off all those pretty quickly.
I mean, they're there for a purpose. They serve this purpose. Like, let's get off. But yeah. then all the diagnoses from the lung COVID started coming in. And within like, I think about six weeks later I was diagnosed with a lot of stuff and that's what's been challenging. So I'm still recovering, but I'm getting better all the time.
[00:29:22] Aneta: That's amazing. And I'm so glad that you are continuing to be on your healing journey. What has this taught you overall? I'm sure there are so many lessons, but what would you say are the top things that you've learned during this long experience? This has to be one of the most monumental things that has happened.
[00:29:40] Holly: Yeah. And I've been through a lot. Trust me. I mean, we all have. I always had the gift of knowing before. People that have that, just know things and people say, how do you know that? You just know, I don't know. It's a gift.
And I feel like that got a lot stronger. I think knowing to listen, that your intuition, everybody has it and I think that for me it was like, listen to this intuition you're being guided. You're being told. Do you remember me telling you about the hypnosis?
I come back, I'll tell you. Okay. This is a game changer to what you asked me. And I'm going to tell you quickly. Okay. Two things that I saw, when I was creating my software company about three months after I got out of the hospital and I was still really sick, but I knew what I was supposed to do and I was going to do it and we incorporated both companies.
The software company is for retreats, like booking, hosting, and education, kind of like an Airbnb, but for retreats and more. And so when we were doing the branding, I said that the logo needed to have a tree in it. I didn't know why I just knew it had to have a tree in it. So they created it and it came back and it had 11 leaves and 11 roots on it. And I was like, one, one, one, one. Ironically, by the way, my birthday is one, one, and it kept showing up and I was like, don't change one thing. That is it. So there was that and then. In my near-death hypnosis session, the second thing I saw basically in this session, I was at this place that was called the in-between.
It wasn't dark and it wasn't light. Dark was on the right. The light was on the left. Right in front of me was a tree. And it was like, I remember feeling this, just this release of like, I created that logo. for that company that I was supposed to do that for not even remembering that that was in the near-death experience that was like so powerful for me because trees have so many meanings and they're so powerful.
And so the second thing is the non-profit when I got over so it kept creating in the in between all of this matter came and it but it would create hearts and the hearts would all go towards the light, of course, all this want to be in the light and when I got to the light eventually, after all, this happened I got over there, the hearts that it was creating were like the pink colored rose court type hearts.
And that was the same moment. I was like, because when I did my nonprofit, I had our first gala and I made these wood ornaments because it was in November that said hope on them, and in every bag I put, I knew it needed a rose core heart. I put a heart in every one of those, not even second-guessing, same with the tree.
And I was like, okay, the two things I was told to do in my coma was to start this nonprofit and to do the other software company on my own and not partner with this company. And I did it. And I did all those things, not even remembering that was part of my near-death experience and I was just like it just kind of gave me some power to keep going.
It was like you're on the right track because there's been a lot of hard days the last two and a half years
[00:32:53] Aneta: I love how all those things tie in together because they always do if we pay attention. And I love the idea that you're sharing that we have to trust. Tap into that intuition. The answers are within. You know what those are and allow yourself to trust that. So tell us a little bit more about your nonprofit and all the other things that you're currently up to.
[00:33:13] Holly: Yeah, so the nonprofit is again called adventurebucketwish.org if you want to go check it out, that'd be great. It's struggling. We have a podcast. I mean, we want to create awareness, help, and support, and I need more help because it's been challenging, not just with my health, but with some family issues that happened the last couple of years and doing two businesses at the same time, while all this other is going on.
So we're always looking for volunteers. I'm always looking for guests. The podcast guests are people with the stories with long COVID and their caretakers, medical holistic. So we've got that going on. You can also reach me there. If there's a contact form with, at adventurebucketwish.org.
And the software company, definitely going slower than I'd like. I love to go at fire speed. We are in a raise right now for more investors. We've gone through the money we had originally of my own and investors, and we do have a working site. It's called retreatrnr.com. And that is a booking hosting education site for retreat leaders and it's going to be amazing. Nothing exists like it.
I just have this wishlist that's a mile long. Phase two, it's in phase one. But phase two, phase three coming, it'll be amazing. And I know I'm on the right path. I have the end in mind already. Just all the little details along the way were always adding and changing. And so that's really what my focus has been mostly on.
[00:34:48] Aneta: Wow. That's amazing. And how do you feel about your health right now? Do you feel like you're making the progress that you'd hope to see?
[00:34:56] Holly: No, because I want everything fast.
[00:34:58] Aneta: Yeah.
[00:34:59] Holly: I say better is better. I do a lot of things and then I'll do a little things and it's hard to track what's helping and what's not because I'm just like, better is better. I don't care. I take tons of supplements. I am drug-free still.
The last thing was to work on the hormones because of people that have had COVID, by the way, if you're having some issues, a lot of it is long COVID but hormones get wrecked when COVID plays a part in that. So that's been better. And I've seen people I'm interviewing on my podcast, they are getting better, especially the people that got it in the beginning.
I didn't have all that help. I'm seeing a hundred percent recovery. I'm probably 80 and I've got some autoimmune, that happened because of that. And I've got. pulmonary fibrosis. And, that's kind of a death sentence, but they don't know because it's COVID and nobody had any experience before. So I'm their statistic. I'm their test subject, I guess.
[00:35:53] Aneta: Yeah. Wow. Well, I wish you continued health and a full recovery as you stated. And folks do want to volunteer or they want to learn more. What is the easiest way that they can get in contact with you?
[00:36:05] Holly: Yeah. Well, my email is holly@hollyporter.com. Or if you go to retreatrnr.com and go to the contact form or adventurebucketwish.org, it's a 501c3. So if you need any tax write-offs, we would love some support and help on that as well. But yeah, you can reach out to any of those places and all social media.
[00:36:26] Aneta: Awesome. Thank you, Holly. We'll include all the links and thank you for sharing your story. I think it's so important for people to hear that it doesn't have to be a death wish or death sentence, it's not a wish. These things happen and you have shown that through resilience, through connection, through the powers of advocacy from family.
It did take a lot to see you at this point right now. And you used it to build these two amazing companies and continue to share and help others as well. So thank you for doing all the work that you're doing in the world. Thanks for joining me today. And I hope that we continue talking soon.
Thank you for listening to today's episode. If today's conversation inspired you to dream again, break out of your comfort zones, or reflect on what it means to you to live more fully, then please follow this podcast because every week you'll hear more stories from people just like you who took imperfect action towards their goals, created more joy and are living the life that they always dreamt of living.