Episode 179: Laughing at Parkinson’s, with Vikki Claflin

Vikki Claflin is an international best-selling author, humor blogger, and inspirational public speaker. She lives in Hood River, OR, where she writes the award-winning humor blog Laugh Lines: Humorous Thoughts and Advice on How to Live Young When You’re…well…Not, where she doles out irreverent advice on marriage, offers humorous how-to lists galore, and shares her most embarrassing midlife moments. Vikki is the author of four humor books. Her most recent is titled “I Think My Guardian Angel Drinks,” where she explores the hilarious side of aging in a society that worships youth. She also speaks to groups & organizations around the U.S. about the funny side of living with Parkinson’s Disease. Vikki has been featured on the Michael J. Fox Foundation website, Erma Bombeck’s Writer’s Workshop, The Huffington Post, Scary Mommy, Midlife Boulevard, Better After 50, and Funny Times Magazine. She received a BlogHer14 “Voices of the Year” Humor award, and has been a featured guest on over 40 radio programs throughout the US and Canada. What you’ll learn about in this episode: Vikki’s book: “Shake, Rattle & Roll With It: Living and Laughing with Parkinson’s” Her personal battle and family history with Parkinson’s Why she tried (and succeeded) to find humor in the disease and how that turned into the book The impact the book has had on readers (including Mitch’s wife) and the stories she’s heard from those readers about how their lives have been profoundly changed for the better because of it Vikki’s “pole dancing” story that is by the far the most popular story from the book Learning to let go and laugh at yourself as a person with Parkinson’s What is actually known about the causes of Parkinson’s Why the lessons in Vikki’s book are applicable for so many problems — not just Parkinson’s Working around Parkinson’s and learning to live with joy in your life Why being diagnosed with Parkinson’s doesn’t necessarily mean you can’t do what you love Why you’ll never run out of material you when you learn to laugh at yourself Resources: REInvestorSummit.com/Claflin REInvestorSummit.com/live REInvestorSummit.com/noteservicing REInvestorSummit.com/aof REInvestorSummit.com/100