Today's guest, Rosemarie Rossetti, is an international speaker, consultant, writer, and publisher who walks her talk. She’s also the most adaptable person I have ever met. We have an inspiring conversation about overcoming adversity and living with conviction, and why she built the Universal Design Living Laboratory.

Rosemarie's life was transformed on June 13, 1998. There was no wind, no rain, no clouds. It was a beautiful Saturday, and she was celebrating her third wedding anniversary with a couple’s bike ride. Then, suddenly, there was a loud noise and she was engulfed by a three-and-a-half ton tree.

She was paralyzed from the waist down with a spinal cord injury, but Rosemarie looked deep into herself and found new strength and resolve. She had invested too much into her life to give up.

In her keynote speeches, Rosemarie shares the lessons she has learned since that fateful day, and demonstrates how to rise above adversity and live life with conviction.

1. Do something new every day.
2. Focus on a hopeful future instead of your self-pity.
3. Believe the impossible just might be possible.
4. Allow more time to get things done, and be patient with yourself.
5. To lower your stress, lower your expectations of other people.

This moment also changed her career path. In addition to motivational speaking, Rosemarie speaks and consults with a focus on universal design housing, or making homes that are both livable for a lifetime and sustainable.

Rosemarie and her husband want to start a discussion about the home of the future, which will marry universal design, green building, a healthy home, and technology.

They built a national demonstration home and garden in Columbus, Ohio: the Universal Design Living Laboratory. It is the highest-rated universal design home in North America, earning three national certifications. They have 217 sponsors that contribute products and services necessary to build the home, either at no cost or reduced cost.

You can take a virtual tour of their house on UDLL.com (bonus points if you can spot their cat).

You can also pick up the first chapter of Rosemarie’s upcoming book, The Universal Design Toolkit, for free. It's a listing of the universal design features, room by room, in the house.

Resources:

• RosemarieSpeaks.com
• Take a virtual tour of the Universal Design Living Laboratory
• Take Your Life Back! by Rosemarie Rossetti
• Calculate your Disability Insurance needs at LifeHappens.org
• Man’s Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl

Disability insurance saved Rosemarie’s life. She recommends everyone in the audience purchase their own policy.

• If you are employed by another company, you need to talk with your HR people and learn if disability insurance is part of your current benefits, and what it covers.
• If you are self-employed, start contacting your financial planners and financial representatives that sell disability insurance, and get an individual policy. LifeHappens.org has a disability insurance calculator that will help you estimate the income you need to maintain to your current standard of living, which will help you in purchasing a policy.

Production & Development for Improv Is No Joke by Podcast Masters

 

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